Hunting For The Equation Of A Tribal Leader

Hunting for the equation of a Tribal Leader

Michael Fuhrman

Sr. Software Developer

Hunting for the equation of a Tribal Leader by looking at existing and past tribes, to see how / where organizations are falling off the path, and getting lost.  Terence McKenna, says, "If the truth can be told so as to be understood, it will be believed."  Dave Logan's book on Tribal Leadership mixes many equations together. Two equations that I am looking at lately are:  1) Business - to solve a personal or business problem  2) Leadership - is guiding intent with integrity  An old day Tribe Leader was charged with taking care of his or her group: collecting resources, studying the problems, preparing, solving arguments and so forth. Whole cultures are built around this annual life cycle - Spring, Summer, Winter, Fall. Planting, cultivating, reaping, and resting.  Today's organizations, still follow the same cycle and still deal with the same humanistic life issues. We see product life cycles follow the same life cycle. We see people who go to school. We see farmers cultivating crops during the summer. We see young being born. We see elderly retiring, resting, and passing away.  Leadership is a hot topic because Dr. Deming clearly destroyed the old model of top down leadership that many US companies preferred. When asked to rebuild Japan, Dr. Deming demonstrated that self directed groups, tasked with a looking at a particular problem, could improve the production quality of any system. Expand these groups throughout the whole business, which P&G did, and suddenly it becomes a trade secret.  Right now in America, there is a fight being waged between the worker and the titled, "Leaders", of businesses. These leaders don't like letting go of their wealth, which for them translates into power. But in Japan, a CEO of an airline is being paid less than his pilots and decries what US CEO's are doing as bad business. What problem for a tribe does this cause when the Tribal Leader believes he is more important than his tribe, and therefore all the resources should belong to him?

What should you talk about with a Leader?

When you think about the question, "What should I talk about with my leader?", how do you plan the time you've arranged with them? Do you talk about stuff they already know? Do you provide them with information about what they don't know? Do you ask them to fill in information gaps?

Is Leadership Genetic?

In the Linked In, Leadership Think Tank, group several questions were asked about whether or not leadership is an inborn, innate, or genetic trait.  Or, if leadership could be learned.

Using the definition of Leadership, "Guiding Intent with Integrity", and Behavior Theory, I will answer your questions.

- How can we determine that someone has inborn leadership traits? Leadership is not an inborn trait. Leadership is a learned behavior. Some people are able to express the behaviors intuitively at an early age, which is what makes it appear that leadership is inborn.

- At what age we can see inborn leadership traits: 5, 10, 15, 20, 25...? Leadership can be expressed at any age. The place that you will see it initially expressed is in the sand box. Watch how children group and who is leading the activity and watch the ripple effect.

- Are those who have inborn leadership traits superior from those who do not have inborn leadership traits? Superiority is an ego issue. While our society prefers charismatic leaders to introverted leaders, individuals who express leadership traits early one and are unaware of how this can become a drug for them, will feel superior to others. This problem can be exacerbated when individuals misunderstand leadership with supervisory roles. The power to manipulate and control people to do what you will, vs guiding people toward a larger goal.

- Is gaining leadership inborn traits genetic or accidentally? Leadership behaviors are not genetic, they are learned. Learning how to guide people either intuitively or through formal training. Integrity is the product of the social contract that leaders have with their followers, non-followers, outsiders and observers. As leaders maintain this contract with their followers, they will gain further influence.

- Can we easily distinguish leaders in practice: Those who have inborn leadership traits from those without them? Leaders who started early vs leaders who needed a master degree to become leaders should be indistinguishable, if both have mastered the process of leadership. This is the same with individuals who are born enlightened vs those who achieved enlightenment through many decades of sitting on a matt and cushion. However, the distinguishing features will be the skill level to which the leader can express their guidance.

- Are all individuals who have inborn leadership traits become leaders? If not, why? While leadership is a learned behavior, some children can be burned early on and while having the intuitive knowledge about leadership choose not to use it. This emotional response is seen in children that are attacked by dogs. From that point forward they will avoid dogs until the trauma is resolved.

Seven Ways to (Really) Engage People

This article is in response to:

http://bnetworking.info/?p=2369

Interesting article on Seven (7) Engagement Motivators. Question: What brought this group together in the first place? It's a generic question, but usually points to the issue that people are passionate about working on and trying to solve. The more that people care about the problem they are trying to solve, the more energy, effort and fighting spirit that they will put into the project. As you pointed out, a project that has personal meaning and SMART goals remains tangible to the whole group. Relationships are formed as people discuss various aspects of the problem, ways towards the solution, and fight over the best course of action. Commitment becomes a self motivator that prevents apathy from setting in. Belief is a tricky issue though, yes I would want people to believe in my abilities, but I think belief goes much deeper than that. I suggest that you take more time to delve into how belief affects individual members, the group as a whole, observers, peers no in the group, and people who don't care about this issue. I think there is a lot that will affect the human psyche from each of these perspectives. Freedom arrives as, you mentioned, managers learn to stop micro managing the process, and rely on subordinates to follow the ISO documents that describe the step by step process. However, as long as managers are tasked with gathering metrics against the ISO documents, their ability to provide freedom may not be permissible. And, subordinates may have to rely on other venues to provide feedback into the system. As described through "The Toyota Way." Work Ethic and Integrity. The Social Contract. Whether written or verbal is an agreement and understanding about the quality of the work that needs to be performed, what each person is responsible for, and why they are there - usually their expertise. These points, in turn, point back to each individuals intentions for being part of the project. Only 10 percent of the each persons intentions will ever be exposed to the group. As a leader, following the definition of leadership, "Guiding Intent with Integrity" towards a goal, these categories plus the additional 600+ out there, need to be thoroughly understood to properly master leadership. I look forward to reading your thoughts on how the rest affect leadership, followers, non-followers, outsiders, and observers. For example, a topic you touched on, and could discuss further is, how facilitation affects a leaders ability to build stronger relationships with everyone.

Do you agree?

A strong, positive leadership style is crucial because destructive criticism and bullying does little to motivate people; in fact, it often causes people to shut down and stop trying.

Why do Supervisors Plans Fail?

This is in response to Chris Swains article on "Why Supervisor's Plans Fail!" (http://bnetworking.info/?p=1652)

Chris, the article provides an interesting perspective, but the perspective is too narrow. It should also account for the global calendar and leadership.  Organizations could have a global calendar from which all departmental calendars are synchronized to. In addition, the organizational calendar could be synchronized with events outside the organization, such as trade shows and economic events, like Christmas, tax season, and major holidays. The unfortunate part for most organizations is that there is no physical global calendar for organization members to refer to. Thus the global calendar is cerebral.  While organizations and teams have their own calendars, individuals have their own personal calendars. Personal events may or may not interfere with the organizations calendar, and the teams calendar. What is not conveyed to the calendar though are intentions, otherwise known as "Hidden Agendas". These intentions, for example, don't provide time to adjust the project plan and account for success.  Which brings me to my next point in the perspective. Leadership is "Guiding Intent with Integrity" towards a goal. The article was written from the perspective of a Supervisor relying on their project plan / time table to drive results. The problem with this perspective is that it suggests that the motivational methods for driving the project are based on reminding employees that there is a dead line.  The goal should be the motivational drive here, not the time table. Individual employees should see how their enthusiasm for this work builds commitment to this part of the project and helps drive other team members through external motivation. It's also known as "Motivation From Without." And is often written about in health magazines, as people use other people to motivate them to go to the gym and keep going.  The piece that most supervisors fail to realize and understand, that team leaders study, is now to motivate people through many different methods. As mentioned, one source of motivation is from within, an employee's personal drive to solve a particular humanistic problem. And, motivation from without, where employees are motivated by seeing someone else's dedication to solving this problem.  This is what really distinguishes a organization at Stage 2 & 3 vs an organization at Stage 4 or 5.

Chris Swain (https://www.linkedin.com/groups?viewMemberFeed=&gid=2355813&memberID=227104845)