Getting Off Stage!

Getting Off Stage!

Expanding on your point - Reflection.

A similar example uses the perspective of a stage. The leader needed to be: part of the play, part of the audience, and the director. While the leader is taking action steps within the play, he also needs to step out into the audience to see how things look. Who is coming on stage, who is leaving, what parts are they playing, ... and How is the story being told, what is adding to the story, what is distracting from the story.

One problem that can occur with leadership, is that while a leader trumpets the message of his followers, he becomes the message. Eventually people they network with become jaded against the messenger, "Oh, it's Joe. All he ever speaks about is 'Saving the Rain Forest' ! " Leaders need to avoid this delema by networking with with liked minded peers to build a chorus for the message.

Another point leaders can reflect on by watching as a director / audience (observer's) perspective, is how the antagonist and protagonist are using the actors to motivate people. How is drama being created? How are characters being moved around the stage.? How are are characters being brought together? How are characters being separated? How are characters being attacked? Which story is more interesting, the story about Alice falling down the rabbit hole, or the story about the Rabbit creating holes?

While there are many other questions concerning this perspective that could be addressed, I'll leave the audience here with one last thought. All the actors on stage, while a chorus, are singing the same song eventually, in their own unique way. How does the song change as the story proceeds? Does it change? And when does it change?

One of the greatest triumphs a leader has is finding a way to bring two diverse groups together through a common cause, problem, or solution. Sometimes this is call innovative, sometimes it's considered just a logical progression of how technology should have progressed. When the chorus refuses to change their minds about how the song could be sung, or their stance on an issue, makes the leader's job of finding like minded peers to network with.

An interesting play on this theme is, "You're not a true Christian!". 200 Christians are placed on stage with Jesus.  The antagonist starts by differentiating himself from Jesus.  And, the process continues as eventually all 200 Christians are all claiming that they are a True Christian, while stating that everyone else is not.  As a space alien cartoon portrayed, "They are all fighting over which religion is the most peaceful!"

What denotes a Negative Leader?

This is in response to:

Avoiding negative leadership practices

If leadership is guiding intent with integrity towards a goal, then negative leadership is one style of leadership among seven (7) styles : Great, Positive, Good, General, Bad, Negative, and Dark. While leaders also interact with five (5) other groups: peers, followers, non-followers, outsiders and observers.

The qualities of a negative leader listed in the article were: - tendencies to control everything, - interfere and dictate how the job should be done, - their goal is to hijack the glory of the good results, and - to absolutely refrain from any delegation.

Other qualities of negative leaders to consider are: - their type of guidance provided? - their intentions? - how they view the social contract? - what are their goals? - responses in decision making areas?

A leader's guidance can motivate their subordinates? Or, place them under greater stress to complete the project? Does the guidance imbue the subordinate to take initiative? How are subordinates separated from each other? What words does the leader use?

What are the leader's intentions? For himself, for his subordinates, his career, and so on. Does the leader intend to share success or keep it to himself? Is this just part of a larger project? How close is the leader keep their intentions? Why did the leader join this project?

How does the leader view the social contract between him and his subordinates? Is the contract a mutual one, or is there a 75/25 split? How often is the leader trying to break the contract? What methods does the leader use to break the contract? When and how are people removed from the group?

What goals has the leader may expressed? Are there other goals in mind. Many people usually see an opportunity as a stepping stone to another, what does this leader see this goal as?

Decision making is usually situation. Here are several categories that a leader will make decisions in. They are: communications, rules, roles, problem solving, issue identification and raising, reputation, human condition, integrity, intent, guidance, promotion, individualism, group membership, group management, task management, strategies, expressions, influence, security, networking, offensive actions, defensive actions, resource allocation and distribution, governance, observation.

Then there are the other people that they interact with, the: peers, non-followers, out-siders, and observers.

How does a negative leader interact with fellow peers? How does he talk about his subordinates? How does he talk about his projects? What issues does he raise and address surrounding his goals?

Non-Followers are those that dislike the leader usually. The message that the leader trumpets usually grates against them in various ways. Either through violations of integrity, or a knowledge or distrust of their true intentions. Or it could be that the guidance is so poorly worded that the non-follower recognizes the harness of the negative leaders speech and tries to stay clear.

Out-Siders are usually unaffected by the leaders actions, discussions, goals, or day to day interactions. However, if this group has something that a leader wants / needs, they may become a target for a larger strategy to acquire that resource.

And finally, there are the observers. These individuals live in all camps. They are peers, followers, non-followers, and out-siders, who watch the leader and take in his decisions and actions from a distance. They calculate his next possible move, and contemplate what his overall objective is and how likely he is to make it. In the end, observers play a vital role for keeping leaders in check, in either reminding them about how in-effective they are, to how effective they are being, or how over reaching they are.

So, as you can see, the discussion of a negative leader is much larger than originally described. I look forward to reading more about your thoughts and findings on the subject.

Question

Do you have a personal story about a leader who has inspired your creative juices to break through a wall when they asked you a simple question?

Leaders Represent Followers to Non-Followers and Observers

One of the problems in leadership is the ability to represent their followers without being marginalized. In a corporate environment, this would look like, a leader representing his group as he reports to his superior. If the leader looses focus of the issues be dealt with - either through distraction, promotion, scope creep, or seduction - then the leaders ability to move both his superior and his followers lessons. Until the leader has no power what so ever because he is considered incapable by both his superior and his followers.

In essence, the leader has to remain independent of the issues in order to achieve the goals. And, the leader has to ask the followers the hard question, "What do WE need to change in order for us to get what we need?"

The problem is that the followers want everyone else to change, so that they can avoid the hardship of change. This however is unrealistic. In every piece of facilitation I perform, there is a point where the group has to acknowledge that: - they want something new, - they are getting something through their actions, and - they have to give up something to get what they want

Yes there is the emotional attachment to the familiar, but change requires leaders to think about new and creative ways to help people move from their current behavioral mind set to a new mindset, through a series of easy to follow steps.

For example, Steve Jobs held a belief that technology should help people do their work as a natural extension to their existing life. The iPhone was a natural extension to merging the Phone, PDA, iPod, Camera, and many other devices. Google Glass unfortunately was not a natural extension of a daily activity, and in fact got in the way of many people's ability to carry out their daily lives. However, while Google Glass may not have practical applications for the sited, it may hold many benefits for the blind.

This is how the issue remains center stage, while the leader represents the group of followers to the non-followers and observers to insure that their voice is heard, while holding the delicate balance of not becoming the issue.

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.

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?