Yesterday I commented on the fact that leadership is dependent on both context and culture to be effective.

In a review of The Leadership Illusion at Leading Blog Michael McKinney says,

This gets to the heart of the leadership illusion: seeing leaders and leadership in one dimension. We ignore the context. When we evaluate the causes of the success or failure of leaders, we tend to “focus predominantly on the individual (sometimes the context), but very rarely both at the same time. The need to see someone as “fabulously successful or woefully inadequate” is strong. … Leadership is not a solo performance.

The importance of context is especially timely because of the upcoming election.

Consider Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina, two in a long list of business executives who will tell you that if they can lead successfully in the corporate world they can lead in government.

For the sake of this article we’ll accept their claim to successful corporate leadership.

Now comes the real question: how transferable is that success in the context of government service?

Whitman is running for the CEO slot in California, AKA governor.

When you are a corporate CEO you need a great vision and Whitman had that, but you also need a management structure that supports that vision and works to make it happen—not just a strong senior staff, but the whole management team.

What it really comes down to is support the CEO’s vision or find a new company.

But there is no such power structure available for a governor dealing with the legislature. The governor has little to no say in who is hired, they aren’t likely to leave if they don’t like the vision; they certainly can’t be laid off or fired, their reviews are only done every four years and not by the executive team.

Given that context how many corporate CEOs would succeed?

For an interesting look at a darker context read Dan Gillmor’s article in Salon.

And if you really want to get depressed take a look at this opinion piece on the “Rise of the Richies.”

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Almost every day I read at least one article or blog post to the effect that people should consciously start the day by deciding to lead, whether at the office, at home or in one of their varied activities.

And every time I clench my teeth and mutter to myself about the idiocy of the attitude.

Of course, it’s just my opinion, but here is why I think that way.

First, it is the court of public opinion that designates a person a leader, not the individual’s announcement that she is one, and the designation comes whether the leadership is lauded or lampooned.

In fact, talk of leadership is technically future or past tense—what should be done and what was done as opposed to what is being done in real-time.

Second is context. I have always found that discussions ignoring context seem nonsensical to me.

For example, the multiplicity of articles in the early 2000s that compared a company’s stock price and growth at that time to it’s high before the crash.

Even worse is the comparison of CEOs’ skill during that recession to their predecessors, or their own performance, during the expansion of the nineties.

Moreover, leaders are a product of their culture; drop them into a non-synergistic culture and watch them fail—often spectacularly and often taking the company down with them—think Bob Nardelli’s move from GE to Home Depot.

While culture is a company’s internal context, what is usually referred to as context is the external world situation and both affect leadership outcome.

So I have a suggestion for all those who jump out of bed promising themselves that today they will lead with no consideration of context.

Instead, try jumping out of bed each morning with the promise that you will show initiative within whatever context you face.

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Another month, another Leadership Carnival—the first of summer.

At least I hope it’s summer where you are, it’s not in the great Pacific Northwest. We’re having cool temperatures and lots of rain—the rain we didn’t get this winter. According to the meteorologists it is happening because the El Nino (no rain) of this winter flipped and immediately turned into La Nina (lots of rain).

But whether it’s summer in your neck of the woods, still spring or even winter, here are 34 great reads for the beach, swimming pool or curled up by a warm fire.

Miki Saxon presents brilliantly-powerful thought regarding the “real alpha male”, who to trust, and who to follow.

Stephen Warrilow presents How To Manage Change – Putting It All Together posted at Change Management – Practical Strategies For Success, saying that in the current economic climate, all organisations are experiencing the impacts of change and many could now benefit from the practical knowledge of how to lead and manage change.

Eric Klen presents The problem with being positive posted at Dharma Consulting.

Dan McCarthy presents A View from Inside the Leadership Pipeline posted at Great Leadership where he provides a summary of research from CCL and his recommendations on how to manage high potentials.

Gilda Bonanno presents Dress Rehearsal for Your Presentation posted at Gilda Bonanno’s blog. Gilda thinks that public speaking is an essential success skill for leadership development yet many aspiring leaders still struggle with it. This post explains how to conduct a dress rehearsal of your presentation so you can avoid preventable glitches and prepare for potential obstacles.

David Zinger presents Zinger’s 5-Item Employee Engagement APGAR Pulse Assessment posted at David Zinger Employee Engagement.

Wally Bock presents The Perfect Leadership Book for You posted at Three Star Leadership Blog saying that you’ll search the stores and online sites in vain for the perfect leadership book. But don’t despair.

Nissim Ziv presents Teamwork Motivation: How to Motivate a Team? posted at Job Interview & Career Guide, saying that as it can be hard to motivate yourself, motivating others can be even harder. How would you inspire people to work together for a certain goal?

Utpal Vaishnav presents Contribute Beyond Your Title With Assumed Responsibility And Take The Right Decision! posted at Utpal Writes where he shares a great story about a leader beyond his title who chose the road less traveled by assuming responsibility and making a difference.

Heather Stagl presents 3 Traps that Keep Change Agents from Getting the Support They Need posted at Enclaria: Change Starts Here.

Steve Roesler presents Managing: You’re Still In It Together posted at All Things Workplace where Steve has a reminder for managers about how to be a successful.

Richard Cummings presents Project Management: Creating Self-Managed Employees posted at Richard Cummings where he talks about how to create self-managed employees and motivate them to get the job done by having the employees tell you what they are going to get done.

Matthew Alberto presents How to Have the Self-Confidence to Change the World – Social Business Tips posted at Matthew Alberto .com. Matthew suggests that building self-confidence is so significant if you’re wanting to create and build your social business. And it is significant if you want to be changing the world.

David Burkus presents The Hawthorne Studies posted at LeaderLab where David explains the Hawthorne studies and how they changed management/leadership thinking.

Jane Perdue presents Tea Stains, Blind Spots and Simple Pleasures posted at Get Your Leadership BIG On!.

Michael Lee Stallard presents Summer: A Season to Connect posted at Michael Lee Stallard.

Bret Simmons presents Want Your People To Care More? Help Them Perform Better posted at Bret L. Simmons – Positive Organizational Behavior.

Nick McCormick presents What?s on Your Plate? posted at Joe and Wanda on Management. In this ten minute Management Tips Podcast, Nance Guilmarten, author of the Power of Pause, offers up her work prioritization technique.

Tanmay Vora presents Building a Culture to Promote Differential Thinking posted at QAspire Blog by Tanmay Vora. Tanmay feels that the ability to think differently and bring out alternative perspectives is one of the most important leadership skills. This post offers some very practical ideas to build the culture of differential thinking. A useful post for leaders at all levels

Jason Seiden presents Seiden’s 16 Rules for Giving Feedback posted at Fail Spectacularly!. Jason feels that most advice out there about giving feedback is, frankly, wrong and he’s got the real deal skinny.

Mike Henry Sr. presents Impossibly Good posted at Lead Change Group – Helping Leaders Grow Leaders where he says that self-leadership is the first step in maximizing influence and possibilities.

Bill Matthies presents Problem Assessment posted at Business Wisdom: Words to Manage By where he points out that you can’t solve problems if you don’t understand what they are.

Charles Chua C K presents 10 Instant Productive Working Habits posted at All About Living with Life.

Lisa Rosendahl presents Employment Law and Leaders posted at Lisa Rosendahl.

Eric Pennington presents Situational Mentoring posted at Epic Living – Leadership Development Career Management Training Executive Life Coaching Author where he illustrates the importance of finding the right type of mentor for your specific need and how to avoid the perils of engaging in the wrong type of mentoring relationship.

Alice Snell presents Develop, Engage, and Retain posted at Taleo Blog – Talent Management Solutions.

Sharlyn Lauby presents I Don’t Know About That posted at HR Bartender where she reminds us that part of being a leader is not turning a blind eye to questionable behavior.

Benjamin McCall presents The Problem With 2 Ears… posted at ReThink HR.

Mark Bennett presents It can happen to you? posted at TalentedApps where he shares the story of how Dreamworks found talent in a surprising place.

Elyse Nielsen presents Creating Performing Teams is Key posted at Anticlue suggesting that in order to be a successful manager, you have got to be able to create performing teams. You can have a list of initials after your name detailing certifications, accreditations, or titles but without an understanding of how to establish an environment where collaboration and self-motivation are a part of the team’s culture – you have just met the Peter Principle.

Mark Stelzner presents Twitter 101 for HR posted at Inflexion Advisors.

Mary Jo Asmus presents Ten Things That Will Foster Safe Conversations posted at Aspire Collaborative Services.

Jennifer Miller presents Redemption posted at The People Equation.

Working Girl presents Diversity and good management posted at Working Girl.

Kathy C presents Four Similarities Between Dog Training and Employee Management posted at The Thriving Small Business where she illustrates the similarities between managing employees and concepts used in training dogs.

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Becky Robinson at LeaderTalk presents other bloggers with a monthly theme, posts their submittals, and I pass them on to you; I hope you enjoy them.

This month’s theme was A Leader Allocates Decision Making and Senses Social Realities and Becky says she is continuing that theme in June.

The first post comes from Miki Saxon. It’s a fun look at the way managers delegate tasks to others. Read the post and ask yourself Miki’s question: “Do You Pass the Nanny Test?”

Wally Bock gives practical advice about decision making in his post “Tips for Better Decision Making.”

This post from Utpal Vaishnav tells the story of a leader beyond his title who dares to make a tough decision.

Mike Henry, Sr. tackles the topic of sensing social realities in his post, “Miracles.”

Steve Roesler offers a great model for decision making in his post “Decision Making: Remember Z.”

This guest post on leaders and decision making at Dan McCarthy’s blog gets to the heart of why good leaders sometimes make bad decisions.

Sometimes a decision seems to be between a perfect and “good enough” solutions. Scott Eblin gives some questions to consider when making those decisions in his recent post “Perfect or Good Enough.”

Lisa Rosendahl says that knowing when NOT to make a decision may be a very important skill for leaders. Read her post for perspective about when to wait on a decision.

Here’s a post from Siddharta Herdegen about “The Number One Reason Leaders Fail.”

This last post is one I wrote last year about empowering leaders in organizations. “Empowering Leaders: Hand Over Your Keys” focuses on the importance of developing leaders by letting go of control in order to help people develop competence.

And please join me Monday for a look at the latest and greatest from the Leadership Development Carnival.

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The more I read/hear about leadership the less I understand.

Every day there are stories talking about someone’s good leadership or bad leadership—the adjective determined by whether the author agrees or disagrees with the vision/words/actions.

The stories cross the spectrum—politics, sports, business, religion, civic, non-profit, parenting [whatever].

I think the stories about “bad” leadership annoy me most.

Is a leader bad just because the author disagrees with the vision/words/actions?

If person A aspires to a specific positional leadership role is it enough to disagree with the vision/words/actions of the person currently in that role or does it behoove person A to present a cogent alternative?

Armchair leadership has the same value as Monday morning quarterbacking.

It is far to easier lash out, bash and tear something down, than it is to offer well thought out alternatives.

Emotions are more easily manipulated than minds—especially since ideology has replaced so much of independent thought.

Ideology isn’t just conservative vs. liberal; greed is an ideology, as is me-centric.

I think good leadership requires a more balanced approach, including the ability to say, “I was wrong,” rather than a dogmatic clinging to the vision/words/actions that are steering the ship straight onto the rocks.

What do you think?

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I’ve never watched American Idol, Survivor or Oprah, but I love the CSIs (not Miami), NCIS (both) and especially Bones. The main character is a forensic anthropologist and one of her lines really resonated with me.

Anthropology tells us that the Alpha male is the one with the crown, the most shiny baubles, the fanciest plumage, but I learned that the real alpha male is often in the shadows because he is busy shining the light on others.

I think that applies to leaders, whether male or female.

It does not apply to those who lurk in the shadows manipulating others to do their bidding.

So when you are deciding whom to follow, who’s vision to trust, skip the shiny baubles and silken words and look to see who keeps turning the spotlight on others.

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Do you run a small or medium business (SMB)? If so, do you have a senior staff?

“Senior staff” doesn’t necessarily mean a bunch of vice presidents (for convenience I’m using that title), but it does mean the top people in your company who manage different functions (with or without staff). They are the people you rely on

• as a sounding board;
• for both tactical and strategic intelligence;
• to tell it like it is—even when you don’t want to hear it
• to see and understand the big picture;
• to lead the effort in employee acquisition, motivation, and retention;
• to support and strengthen the culture she envisioned;
• to not sabotage another group or start a turf war, and
• to help stamp out politics whenever and wherever it rears its ugly head.

And more, but you get the idea.

How to build your senior staff

The first item on your agenda is to determine what parts of your business/company beyond the standard finance, development, marketing, sales should report directly to you for peak performance. You don’t want a function that is absolutely critical to your success reporting through or responsible to someone else (agendas do get in the way).

It may be customer service (or whatever it’s called); it could be IT; if you are large enough to have someone handling HR it should definitely report directly to you.

Support functions, such as HR, are often left to report to someone else, which can prevent you from knowing what is really going on.

Where does one find talented VPs? Now and then you’ll be lucky enough to actually hire someone complete with all the bells and whistles that you want, but it’s more likely that you will find someone with the right potential.

Be aware that the main thing that separates good senior staff apart from other managers is a strong strategic ability, which means they see the entire team and understand how their department or area fits into the whole.

I’ve known many C-level executives who never grasp this, as well as director level and lower managers who get it.

All your staff needs a real understanding of business, including financials, and it’s your responsibility to make sure that they get whatever training and information is needed to do their job as a member of your senior staff.

Further, if you want the most powerful senior staff possible cross train them in each other’s functions and challenges.

Think of the phenomenal value of a finance person who understands the intricacies of manufacturing as more than a set of numbers; a head of product development who understands financials, customer service and inventory turns; an HR head who understands what actually happens in the different departments, etc.

Think of the power inherent in a senior staff that understands what it takes to turn an idea into a product and a product into revenue.

Think of what a difference it will make to your ability to do your own job, not to mention the overall success of your company.

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Last week I wrote about HBS’ effort to legitimize leadership as a multi-faceted function worthy of scholarly pursuit as opposed to anecdotal advice.

Back in 1994 Joel Kurtzmen coined the term “thought leader” and defined it as follows,

“Thought leader is a buzzword or article of jargon used to describe a futurist or person who is recognized among their peers and mentors for innovative ideas and demonstrates the confidence to promote or share those ideas as actionable distilled insights (thinklets).”

Back then it may have had meaning, but 16 years later its frequent use in conjunction with the leadership flavor-of-the-month has reduced it almost to meaninglessness.

“Innovative ideas” doesn’t mean restating old stuff in new ways or recycling ideas the way the fashion industry recycles styles.

More importantly, truly innovative thinking is not tied or constrained by ideologies or past actions.

A great number of leadership fundamentals were first stated 2500 years ago in China by Lao Tzu and others of his ilk.

It is good to restate them in language current to the time and place, but presenting them as original or innovative and then claiming, or accepting, the mantle of thought leader is not.

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Eleven thousand business books are published every year. Amazon currently lists more than 60 thousand books on leadership alone. There are also magazines, web sites, e-books, audiobooks, podcasts, and blogs. They all offer ideas on what to do. (Thanks to Wally Bock for the great stats.)

Much of what is written is anecdotal.

Much of what is written is more for self-aggrandizement as pointed out in this post by Jim Stroup.

And too much is garbage, pure and simple.

What it all has in common is the idea that if you do what the author did, or says to do, then you will become a leader whatever the situation, circumstances or your experience.

Obviously, this is poppycock. Nobody would even think of suggesting this kind of ‘do it my way and succeed’ approach to an athlete or entertainer, so why think that leadership, or managing, for the matter, is any different?

Little of what’s out there involves the rigorous kind of research that forms the basis of most subjects.

That lack is starting to be addressed by Harvard Business School.

According to professor Rakesh Khurana “If we look at the leading research universities and at the business schools within them, the topic of leadership has been actually given fairly short shrift. … What we tried to incorporate in the Handbook of Leadership Theory and Practice is how each different perspective illuminates key elements such as similarities and differences in leadership across task, culture, and identity.

Khurana also says that “Leadership just wasn’t tractable by large databases.” No surprise there, much of what involves human MAP isn’t.

But it was this comment that resonated loudest with me.

“There is no single “best” style of leadership nor one set of attributes in all situations.”

In conjunction with the effort to increase serious research, HBR is running a blog for just six weeks called Imagining the Future of Leadership. The articles are, in general, excellent and the comments interesting. Check it out and add your own thoughts.

I don’t believe that Harvard is the last word, but it is encouraging that a serious and respected institution agrees that the subject is complex, doesn’t fit neatly into a specific field and sees the need for much more than is currently available.

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