It is said, “Cut off the head, and the body will wither.” During World War II, the Germans made every effort to kill off enemy officers, assuming that without their leadership Allied troops would crumble. But a funny thing happened: Every time a leader was put out of commission, someone else stepped up and assumed the role—whether or not he held rank.
The impromptu replacements didn’t think about it, discuss it, or worry about whether they could successfully do it; in the chaos of battle, they took the initiative, did what was necessary, and became “leaders in the instance.”
Leaders aren’t born, nor are they promoted, appointed, or anointed. Leaders develop by doing; they develop with assistance from their managers and company, without it, and, sometimes, in spite of it.
Once in a management role, they have no choice, because today’s workplace requires an enlightened, demanding, and independent workforce that has no problem voting with its feet when unhappy.
Decades ago, a major disservice was done to business when the idea that managers and leaders were separate and that leaders were “better” than managers was introduced. Sadly, that attitude is still in force today, but look carefully at these distinctions, from Warren Bennis’s On Becoming a Leader, and ask yourself how well any manager or leader can perform in the twenty-first-century workplace without both sets of skills.
The manager maintains; the leader develops.
The manager focuses on systems and structure; the leader focuses on people.
The manager relies on control; the leader inspires trust.
The manager accepts reality; the leader investigates it.
The manager does things right; the leader does the right thing.
The difference between being labeled a good, mediocre, or bad manager is often the difference between how many of the so-called leadership traits the manager embraces. Leaders are said to have vision and the ability to communicate it to their people, but that is exactly what every manager, even the lowest-level team leader, must do, within the scope of their role, if they want their people to be productive and innovative.
It is good to remember that people do not join companies because of the CEO or a few top executives—they join for the culture and the people, specifically their team and manager.
These two areas are tightly interwoven; there is an overall company culture and a subculture perpetrated by the manager to whom they report, no matter how junior. And each subculture is influenced more by the person directly above than by the person in the corner office.
Therefore, disseminating these skills throughout the organization requires a concerted effort that starts with the CEO and extends across the executive ranks, because it is on the rocky shores of culture that this effort usually sinks.
To lead means to show initiative, which means taking risks and braving the possibility of failure.
In a culture where failure is cause for anything from private sarcasm to public belittling and even dismissal, who in their right mind will show initiative? If the messenger is killed, who will speak up when the news is bad?
In short, senior managers have no choice but to push leadership down through the ranks—just as responsibility was pushed down forty years ago, as organizations flattened and companies stripped away management levels.
Life and work are always about choices, and promoting leadership throughout your part of the organization is a matter of choice, whether or not those above you make the same choice.
This article was first published in the October 2009issue of The Conference Board magazine.
Poking through 11+ years of posts I find information that’s as useful now as when it was written.
Golden Oldies is a collection of the most relevant and timeless posts during that time.
I’ve always found all the talk about how to learn to be a leader amusing. That’s because all the book learnin’ doesn’t mean squat unless it accurately translates to actions. Even studying real life leaders only takes you so far, since they approach situations based on who they are and their life experiences and you aren’t them and never will be.
That’s why no matter the expert or their success you still need to at least tweak their solutions to fit your situation and your MAP.
And be sure to read the comment’s at both Steve’s site and mine.
Today Steve Roesler wrote a terrific post briefly recapping a Peter Drucker article in the Harvard Business Review called “Managing Oneself” (Steve included a link to the full article).
A part of that article is The Act of Noticing and it really resonated with me.
“While everyone is blogging, Twittering or tweeting, linking in, booking their faces, and coming up with other digital ways to “connect”, it would be good to ask: “Am I too busy to notice?”
I bookmarked an article last week that included solid research about the bulk of the population preferring to buy goods and services through face-to-face contact. Now I can’t find it because I was so darned connected online I didn’t actually pay attention to the title or where I filed it.
This leads into the video below. I was reminded of Emotional Intelligence pioneer Daniel Goleman’s TED talk a couple of years ago. If you want to know the connectedness between emotions, business, and “noticing”, this will be time very well spent. Close your door. Now. Tell you’re boss you are doing professional development. You are.”
I recently wrote that“No one is expecting you to solve the problems, but you can reach out and touch just one life. If everyone over 21 did that we would be well on the way to change.”
All I can add is that we better start noticing before all the lights are turned off for good.
Now go see your friends and tell them; have a ‘noticing’ contest together with a ‘doing’ contest.
Poking through 11+ years of posts I find information that’s as useful now as when it was written.
Golden Oldies is a collection of the most relevant and timeless posts during that time.
I came across these two posts several weeks apart. The ideas they presented seemed to logically follow each other. This is strange only because the first one shown was written in 2013 and the following post in 2009.
Regarding the actual content, it’s still valid, only more so.
People have longed for an all-knowing leader who they can mindlessly follow and abdicate their decision-making, since time began.
Some seek this all-knowing leader in religion; others look to politics, while still others believe that business is a better source.
Their time would be better spent accepting the reality that no such thing exists anywhere in any walk of life.
Then there are the people who aspire to be that all-knowing leader.
To that end they amass thousands of friends and followers, network their way well beyond what’s needed to be a LinkedIn Lion and work ceaselessly to raise their Klout score.
Finally, there are those who know without doubt that all-knowing leaders are in the same category as the tooth fairy, Easter Bunny and Santa Clause.
Which are you?
Follow Yourself; Partner With Others
I have a great idea to make the world a better place.
Everybody who aspires to the cult of all-knowing leader stops.
Everybody who longs for an all-knowing leader embraces the reality that no such thing exists.
Replacing these, everybody would
learn leadership skills;
apply them constantly to themselves; and
occasionally in the outside world as circumstances dictated;
take responsibility for their own actions and decisions; and
partner with others as equals, whether one was in front or behind at any given time.
Not that I think there’s a chance in hell that this will happen, but it’s a nice thought on a beautiful summer Friday.
Jim Stroup (@jimstroup) used to write a blog called Managing Leadership; the blog is gone, but his book of the same name is still available.
Jim understood the myth of leadership.
“…the cult of the superlative individual leader as the cure for our current difficulties,” but Jim also pointed out that those same cult members caused many of the problems.
“We will take the position here at the outset, then, that the family of definitions of leadership that we are discussing is that which incorporates the idea of ineffably sensed forward motion – profound vision, unfathomable wisdom or judgment, courageous decisiveness, a charismatic ability to attract followers, and the like.
After all, it is this type of leadership that we are being told we must place our faith in, so that its exemplars can grasp the reins firmly in their hands, and with reassuring sure-footedness steer we poor, benighted masses out of our barely perceived and dimly comprehended peril. Into which, let it be said again, those exalted exemplars’ predecessors led us.”
Wally Bock has often pointed out that leadership, in common with the emperor, has no clothes and that leadership “wisdom” fails dismally to live up to its name.
Today’s post is short, because it is linked to an important article that KG recently sent as a result of our comparing notes on the subject.
It’s important, because it takes a different, more realistic, look at leadership, as opposed to the traditional view as espoused by the leadership industry. (Yes, “leadership” is an entire industry as is accounting and law.)
Yesterday I shared a post from Wally Bock about the importance of trust — and its fragility. At the end Wally said, “Trust is one of the most valuable things you have as a leader.”
Obviously, trust is crucial in any kind of relationship, in or out of the workplace, but today I want to focus on the last word on that sentence — leader.
I’m asked all the time how to become a leader.
Degrees — MBA, PhD, MD, LLB, etc.— won’t make you a leader.
There is an entire industry — classes, coaches, books, pundits of all kinds — expounding on how to become a leader.
Many people think leadership is defined by a person’s position; after all, you hear all the time that someone was “promoted (elected/assigned) to a position of leadership.”
According to the late Bill Campbell, who established a reputation as the “coach” of Silicon Valley, only one thing determines whether or not you’re a leader: the opinions of those you’re supposed to be leading.
Even having your team do what you tell them doesn’t make you a leader.
Intuit CEO Brad Smith, one of many who learned that from Campbell, says it best.
“Basically, how you make that happen is if you believe that leadership is not about putting greatness into people, leadership is about recognizing that there’s a greatness in everyone and your job is to create an environment where that greatness can emerge.”
So go ahead, term yourself a leader and even brag about your leadership skills, but at the end of the day it’s what your people say about you to their family/friends/colleagues that will confirm you as a leader — or not.
This week’s events have been shocking and heartbreaking for many. As I currently write this post, 58 people have been killed in the Vegas shootings and over 500 others have been injured.
An event that was meant to be an evening of fun turned into a nightmare. I cannot begin to fathom the pain people are going through and my heart is with them.
These posts will never become overtly political and I am not well versed enough in policy debates to chime in. One thing I do understand though is the value of life.
As a father I cherish my girls and wife. As a former Marine I have experienced immense loss as comrades have fallen in combat. I have seen the best and worst of humanity and at times struggle to understand it.
In this case we have had a tragic event that seems to have no apparent reason as of yet. As business people and fellow humans how can we respond?
It can be cliché to say we should treat every moment as our last, but there is some truth to that. In addition though we can look at ways to add value to people’s lives daily.
In sales we are taught to always generate value. Understand a client’s problem and seek to find a solution.
Just today I spoke with someone who is evaluating a complex software solution. After speaking for a bit it became apparent that he needed more information, so I sent him a relevant white paper and followed up to ensure it helped on his quest.
There are also times where we can generate massive value in a short period of time.
One survivor of the Vegas shootings found a truck with the keys still in it. He decided to take it and made three trips to the hospital delivering roughly 30 people who needed care. This person adapted to the situation, identified a need, and acted.
Tomorrow when you’re at work what will you identify as a need?
We always have a choice to lament the problem and not act.
It’s amazing to me, but looking back over more than a decade of writing I find posts that still impress, with information that is as useful now as when it was written.
Golden Oldies is a collection of what I consider some of the best posts during that time.
I’m not a fan of the leadership industry; I think it has corrupted the whole notion of leadership. Anybody/everybody can be leaders at a given moment. Life changes and Jim Stroup, who wrote Managing Leadership, one of the best blogs on that subject stopped writing a couple of years ago. But all his wonderful posts are at the link and he also wrote an excellent book on the subject.
During a conversation about positional leadership Richard Barrett said, “Reminds me of a Seinfeld joke. He pointed to professional sports teams and asked about team loyalty. The players change, the coaches change, and sometimes even the stadium changes. So, the people are really loyal to the logos on the team uniforms, just a pile of laundry. Maybe positional leadership is just laundry leadership?”
I like that—laundry leadership. Great term.
So what’s available instead of laundry leadership, especially these days when so much of the laundry is dirty?
Why not organizational leadership? Leadership that percolates from every nook and cranny of the enterprise driving innovation and productivity far beyond the norm.
Following this to its natural conclusion makes leadership a corporate asset and one that needs to be managed for it to have the highest possible impact.
Of all the leadership books, Managing Leadership is the first book I’ve seen that breaks with the accepted idea of the larger-than-life leader whose visions people embrace and follow almost blindly.
Stroup says today’s corporations are far too complex for one person to know everything; that, given a chance, leadership will come naturally and unstoppably from all parts and levels of the organization making it a characteristic of the organization, rather than one person’s crown.
Sadly, fear makes the idea that leadership comes from all people at all levels and should be managed to make the most of it anathema to many senior managers; they consider leadership a perk of seniority and prefer squashing it when the source doesn’t occupy the ‘correct’ position.
I highly recommend Jim’s book. Even if the management above you doesn’t embrace this paradigm, you can within your own group. Encourage your people to take the initiative, guide them as needed, then get out of the way and watch them fly.
In case you didn’t see this in BuzzFeed, a group of techs got together and made a pledge.
A group of nearly 60 employees at major tech companies have signed a pledge refusing to help build a Muslim registry. The pledge states that signatories will advocate within their companies to minimize collection and retention of data that could enable ethnic or religious targeting under the Trump administration, to fight any unethical or illegal misuse of data, and to resign from their positions rather than comply.
Not luminaries, but people like you.
As of 10:30 pm Pacific Wednesday there were 1215 signatures.
The full text is at the pledge link (above) as are the instructions on how you can sign. There are also links if you want to be a more active participant or just want more information.
Why should you do it?
The words of Martin Niemöller, a prominent Protestant pastor and rabid anti-Nazi, who spent seven years in a concentration camp explain it best.
First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
Actively or passively; loudly or quietly you need to speak out over the next two years.
And in two years it will be up to you to help take back Congress.
It’s amazing to me, but looking back over nearly a Decade of writing I find posts that still impress, with information that is as useful now as when it was written. Golden Oldies is a collection of what I consider some of the best posts during that time.
I wrote this six years ago, but it could have been 60 or 160 or longer. There isn’t now, nor has there ever been, a good substitute for initiative — and I doubt there ever will be in the future. Read other Golden Oldies here.
Monday I wrote that so-called leadership skills are actually the skills everyone needs to live a satisfying life and to that end they are well worth developing.
I also said I would share the most important trait of leadership—and life.
It’s Initiative.
Initiative is the number one key leadership ingredient.
More so than vision or influence, it’s initiative that puts you in the forefront of any action, large of small.
Initiative is what
separates the doers from the observers;
stokes creativity and innovation;
drives entrepreneurial activity at all levels; and
makes the world a better place.
Initiative isn’t about schooling, although education can enhance it; it’s not about birth or clothes or cool. It’s not about networking or connections or followers on Twitter.
It’s about awareness; about noticing what needs to be done and doing it whether or not anybody is around to notice; doing it whether or not there is credit and kudos.
Initiative doesn’t wait for someone else to lead the way, nor does it play Monday morning quarterback to initiative taken by others, instead it actively contributes to that initiative.
Initiative doesn’t wait to occupy a certain position before becoming active, preferring to constantly seek ways in which it can contribute.
I believe that initiative is latent in every person, but it’s up to each individual to make it active.
Now take a look at the companies with the potential to unseat, or at least rattle, Zynga’s social gaming crown.
Many people died last year, some famous, but many just everyday people. They were important in their own world and their stories make fascinating reading. I especially liked the story of Keith W. Tantlinger; few have heard of him, but he profoundly changed our lives.
Are you familiar with the Pogie Awards? They “celebrate the best ideas of the year: ingenious features that somehow made it out of committee and into real-world products, even if the resulting products aren’t that great.”
I get really sick of all the lousy ads, especially those for drugs. Ugh! That said, I do enjoy good ads, such as 2011’s top ten ads based on analysis by Zeta Interactive.
Finally, here are enough 2011 trivia questions to make your get togethers interesting for at least three or four months.
Entrepreneurs face difficulties that are hard for most people to imagine, let alone understand. You can find anonymous help and connections that do understand at 7 cups of tea.
Crises never end.
$10 really does make a difference and you’ll never miss it,
Jim Stroup (
It’s the time for Best and Worst lists, so here are links to some I found interesting.
