The Truth About Leadership - Part 3

The Truth About Leadership - Part 3

Credibility is the Foundation of Leadership

Credibility is NOT the foundation of Leadership, this is a lie. The lie is supported further by the supposition that “You have to believe in yourself” to be a leader. (page 15). In looking at the definition of leadership, “Guiding Intent with Integrity”, there is no need for belief. It is a scientific formula. As you learn to guide people, depending on your intent and integrity, they will either follow you or they won’t. And eventually you will understand when people will following you or won’t. Either you won’t have the right guidance, won’t have the right intent, or won’t have the right integrity based on what they are looking for.

No, credibility is not the foundation of leadership; it is a part of leadership, but not the foundation. Another name for credibility is integrity. And as the definition suggests, leadership cannot stand on integrity alone. It requires providing guidance towards a goal. And it requires a reason for providing that guidance - intent. Without these three points, leadership does not exist.

Mind you, you can misguide people on purpose for their own good. Or you can guide them toward decisions that they would otherwise not make and still thank you for your help. While your intentions mislead them, because you wanted someone to take their place, they may still feel you have integrity. Guiding, Intent and Integrity are both positive and negative terms. The skill of their use depends on how well they are mastered, as the historical French Courts attest to.

Page 16 supports this conclusion that credibility cannot be the foundation of leadership, as they point out, “It turns out that the believability of the leader determines whether people will give more other time, talent, energy, experience, intelligence, creativity, and support.” The observation from an outside observer’s perspective is that time and attention increase as follower’s belief in the leader increases. They have completely forgotten that the followers and the leaders have to have a common goal in mind. For example a foot ball coach cannot conduct an orchestra using football training programs. Nor can a conductor lead a football team. The guidance would be all wrong. The intent may be positive and the integrity may be positive, but nothing good will be achieved.

On Page 17, the book does a bate and switch from Integrity to Intentions to demonstrate how Credibility is important by listing characteristics of leaders people hold most dear: Honesty, forward thinking, inspiring, competent, intelligent, broad minded, dependable, supportive, fair minded, straight forward, determined, ambitious, courageous, caring, loyal, imaginative, mature, self controlled, and independent. The problem with this switch is that their understanding of Integrity and Intentions are completely wrong.

These characteristics are about intentions. And while most people will categorize intentions as an onion, that would be incorrect as well. Intentions are like strands of wave stretching, ballooning rising and falling in a lava lamp. No one intention is at the top or bottom, left or right. Some times they are layered and shift. They are forever mixing and matching as the moment requires.

On Page 19, the assumption is made, that “Before anyone is going to be willing to follow you, you have to be honest, forward thinking, inspiring and competent”. This seems simple enough, until you look at the couple who asked the waitress for her opinion about how to prepare a steak. What was their intention about asking that question? Do they really want to know? Or are they seeing how competent she is? Who is really leading who at that moment? The goal may be to get the best steak possible – forward thinking – but whose route will be there the fastest and produce the desired results. Does the garbage man have to be inspiring to give directions to the local CVS Pharmacy? And what about yourself, do you have to be competent to know that the method you’re using needs to change in order to achieve the results you want?

Page 22 identifies that this idea that credibility is the foundation of leadership comes from marketing and communication. In general people reviewing news determine its believability based on the source of the communication. So, referring back to the definition of leadership, we can ask: “Is the article believable because of the information (guidance) provided?”, “What is the intent of the author?”, and “What is the integrity of the author?”

Page 25 uses credibility incorrectly again to look at the question of referrals. “When people say their immediate manager exhibits credibility, they are significantly more likely to tell others they are part of the organization”. “Ultimate Question” (2011) by Fred Reichheld, ISBN 978-4-1-4221-7335-0, examines the question, “Would you refer this [Individual, Product, or Service] on a scale of 0 to 10? Why or Why Not?” Why do people become attached to a product or service? Is it because of Leadership? Or is it that the product or service is filling a need? Or in other words, the guidance provided, the intent it’s presented with, and the integrity it has fills the needs of the followers, so much so that they are willing to refer it to their friends who may benefit from this guidance as well.

On Page 26, an MBA student, James Stout, “realized that leadership was a reciprocal relationship”. When was providing guidance towards a goal not a reciprocal relationship? Those seeking guidance have to ask you. And those providing guidance have to give it. If those two groups of people don’t meet then leadership doesn’t exist. Nor is the relationship reciprocal.

Page 27 offers a major misunderstanding of leadership, “Leadership means being absolutely honest and helping others to do as I do, not simply to do what I say.” WRONG! Guiding, Intent with Integrity says nothing about that at all. At no time does anyone ever have to be honest about why they are seeking or providing guidance. In fact every single sale is based on the premise, “The Buyer Beware!” Don’t buy into this stupidity.

Measuring Performance

There are many ways to measure performance.  It can be on the task performed or the goal to be reached. How quickly and easily it was reached.  The other measure that could be applied is how quickly customer improvements are applied.  But the best measure is whether or not everyone ... customers, employees, and associates ... would recommend Yahoo on a scale of 1 to 10 and then why.  One provides the quantitative value, while the 2nd question provides a qualitative value which may contain additional information to further improvements.

But let's get back to Goals and Objectives.  What drives these?  A CEO's vision of a better future, or a customers feedback?  Or both?  How do you measure these?  

One of the biggest mistakes that most people make is that they create rules at the 50 yard line.  50% you win, 50% you loose.  But what's at the 100% yard line.  If there was a rule that stated what the best possible outcome could be, wouldn't you prefer to strive for that? 

This objective, the 100 yard line, is more than a fantasy.  It's actually a statistically proven psychological fact.  Two hockey coaches each trained a team. One told his team what not to do. Another told his team what to do.  Each team did exactly what their coach told them to do.  Exactly .. but here's the catch.  The team that was told NOT to do something, did it what they were told not to do.  The team that was told to do something did exactly what they were told to do.

So you can set goals at the 50 yard line or the 100 yard line.  What type of Goals and Objectives would you prefer to set and have set for yourself?

6 Tips on How to “Partner” with a Corporation

Below are steps to consider, with suggested reading material, concerning building partnerships with corporations.  There are many more factors involved than are described here, which present themselves through the suggested reading material.  And for transparency, this post was influenced by another post ...

Safeway Foundation: 6 Tips on How to “Partner” with a Corporation

http://thirdsectortoday.com/2013/09/09/partner-safeway/#comment-19

Step 1 - Marketing - identifying your suspects, making your target audience aware of your organization's goals, through initial / personal contact letters. Those looking to understand in greater depth what suspects, prospects should read: - "Crossing the Chasm" (1946), Geoffrey A Moore, ISBN 0-88730-717-5. - "Little Black Book of Connections" (2006), Jeffrey Gitmoer, ISBN 1-885167-66-0. - "Online Marketing Research" (2001), Joshua Grossnickle and Oliver Raskin, ISBN 0-07-136114-6 - "Strategies for e-Business" (2005), Tawfik Jelassi and Albrecht Enders, ISBN 0-273-68840-5

Step 2 - Breaking the Ice - connecting with your prospect in person, and engaging in a discussion about what motivates / drives them. When where why and how do they choose to engage in an alliance, supporter role, sponsorship or a partnership with another organization. And most importantly, how can your organization help them with their fund raising and marketing efforts? - "The Art of Mingling" (1992), Jeanne Martinet, ISBN 0-312-08316-5 - "Questions that Sell" (2006), Paul Cherry, ISBN 978-0-8144-7339-9 - "Power Questions" (2012), Andrew Sobel and Jerold Panas, ISBN 978-1-118-11963-1

Step 3 - ReUse, Rinse, and Repeat Step 2 again, and again in successive meetings. This builds familiarity and confidence in both organizations. "I can trust you can be there, you can trust that I will be there." Sales people loose patients. Marketers know that it takes 7 different meeting points before a suspect will become a prospect. Also, during this time you can "Qualify" your suspect - "Make sure they are a fit for partnership with your organization." You may find that they have a dirty little secret that could damage your organization.

Step 4 - Small proposals - Using information gleaned in Step 3, write a strong proposal for your prospect. Proposals describe the prospects current situation, desired results and benefits that will receive when they complete the project. Each proposals is tailored uniquely for a particular prospect. No two proposals are identical, since each client has their own set of hot button issues and evaluation criteria. Propose a small project to test how well both of you can work together. Can "YOU" co-coordinate a project? - "Writing Winning Business Proposals" (1995), Richard C. Freed et.al., ISBN 0-07-021924-9 Step 5 - The First commitment – To prepare, start by reviewing books on fund raising, project management, motivating followers and leadership. John C. Maxwell makes a good point in his book, "When you can lead a group of people who have no reason to follow you, you are a leader" - "The Everything Fund Raising Book" (2003), Rich Mintzer, ISBN 1-58062-953-9 - "PMBOK" (2004), Global Standard, ISBN978-1-930399-45-8 - "Organizational Behavior" (2007), Stephen P. Robbins & Timothy A Judge, ISBN 0-13-189095-6 - "Motivating & Rewarding Employees" (1999), Alexander Hiam, ISBN 1-58062-130-9 - "1001 Ways to Reward Employees" (2005), Bob Nelson, ISBN 0-7611-3681-9 - "Leadership 101" (2002), John C. Maxwell, ISBN 0-7852-6419-1,

Step 6 - Joint rights and responsibilities - Who is responsible for what when where and how? Many of the books above will prepare you for who needs to do what, this is part of Project Management. One point here is that of Cross Marketing. The organization you are partnering with is helping you to raise awareness and/or funding for you, and you are raising awareness of how they are helping you, which will bolster their bottom line ... In other words, if you help them sell more product, you help them pay you more money. It's a simple reciprocal equation. - "Contracts" (2010), Richard Stim, ISBN 978-1-4133-1281-2

Step 7 - Meeting Regularly & Mixing It Up! - No one likes change, and no one likes repetition - it becomes stale, dull and boring. This is similar to Step 3 - ReUse, Rinse, and Repeat. Each organization's situation changes, and it is important to stay on top of these changes and how they will affect both organizations. You will need to continue using Step 3's wisdom to insure that Step 4's proposals are relevant.

Can Leadership be Taught?

Leadership is not an innate trait built into genetic code, nor is leadership provided through the "Divine Right of Gaud".  No instead it is a natural phenomena that can be nurtured and taught.  There are many reasons why some people seem to become great leaders and others don't become leaders at all.  But that is for another article, in this article I'd like to discuss the topic of teaching individuals how to become leaders.

Leadership is guiding intent with integrity. These three qualitative values "Guiding", "Intent", and "Integrity" work together to help people choose a style of leadership that works for them personally as well as works for the group they are guiding.  The first step in teaching someone to be a leader is to help them see the vast range of methods used to guide.

Guiding someone is not an art.  Someone asks a question, you give an answer.  You point them in a direction.  You provide them with feedback on what has happened.  You console them.  The guidance provided though is based on your intent.

Your partner asks you if this looks good, how do you respond and why do you respond in that manner?  Do you tell them that they look good even when they don't?  Do you tell them that they don't look good in that outfit?  Is the outfit appropriate for the environment you are going to attend?  Or do you find another way to help them towards their goal?

Intent isn't just about your intent, it's also about their intent.  What is it that they intended for themselves.  If your partner wants to look good, then the language you use will help guide them to a better choice.  Or the language you use will trigger an emotional episode.  Is your intent to make them emotionally dependent on you, or emotionally dependent?

Finally there is integrity.  Integrity has many different synonyms that mean roughly the same thing:  accountability, ethics, morality, virtue, sound, honest, chaste, and so on.  In the sense that we will use integrity here, it is in relation to the social contract.

The social contract is the written or verbal agreement made between the leader and the follower.  The accountability determines whether or not the leader and the follower are following this social contract, and if not how are they correcting each others deviation from the contract?  Are they demanding that the contract be adhered to, are they  penalizing each other for not holding to the contract, are they talking about the contract as malleable  or are they looking at the social contract as the target they want to reach?

There are many different things that the social contract can become.  It can become a beacon of hope, or a weapon to beat each other up with.  It depends on how the contract is designed and what it is designed to do.  As this is an agreement between two people, the contract can always be re-evaluated and adjusted as needed.  But, in order for that to occur, both parties need to be willing to examine how the contract is affecting themselves and see how the contract is affecting others.

A good question to determine if the social contract or integrity of the people involved is in line, is to ask, "What is the goal?"  Many people use rules that determine a persons integrity.  Above 50% and you're good, below 50% and you're bad.  However, in many games there is the goal at end of the field.  In order to reach that goal all parties have to work together to reach it. So, if the social contract is written at the 50 yard line, then the parties involved are constantly battling over who is in integrity.  But if the social contract is written with a focus on the goal, then every play that helps everyone move towards the 100 yard becomes a positive reinforcing step in the right direction.

While the short answer is that leadership can be taught, there is a lot to learn about what affects leadership.  While looking at Guiding, Intent, Integrity, and the Goal we also learned that language and the social contract play an important role in the guidance given. We can make people dependent on us or independent on us. We can celebrate the small victories or fight over the small upsets, the question is what is used to measure progress, and where is the goal marker?

Staying Motivated?

In Max Muscles February 2014 issue, David Calhoun, describes how he stays motivated and determined.

Set a goal and don't give up Pushing for better Making the right choice from one decision to the next Remember you're being watched Remind yourself every day why you're on this journey Find reasons to keep going on the journey Be proud of the progress Don't be satisfied with status quo Remind yourself that there is another level to reach Make yourself better than you were yesterday You influence people around you by just being present Maintain a positive mental attitude And ... Enter a contest.

Apparently money is a motivational factor. =)

So, how do you stay motivated, excited, determined, and inspired? Do you enter contests?

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