Kairology

Last month I left you with some thoughts about the common lies around leadership, and how they impact on people and business. As promised, here is the other side of the coin – the truths that underpin good leadership.

The 7 Truths of Liberating Leadership by Ian A. Williams

This article was published in NZ Business Magazine Jan/Feb 2010

In business and life, we are always on the lookout for key information to help us with leadership. I believe is keeping this simple rather than looking for over-complex solutions to relatively simple issues. My passion for good leadership often leads me to observe and reflect on what happens in the workplace for individuals and teams. I listen out for success, quality and enjoyment, and have collected some common threads of successful leadership, which I have summarised as the seven truths of liberating leadership.

1. The focus of leadership comes from the heart

While management comes primarily from intellect and thinking, leadership is governed from the heart – using the head of course! Leadership is driven from values and spiritual core, and from real self. Emotional intelligence is also more akin to leadership, while IQ more akin with management thinking. You carry in your heart what drives your head, and carry in your head what drives the heart. Both are important and need exercise. Using both demonstrates balance.

2. The drive for results is often the wrong focus

While results and outcomes are essential, the route to reaching them can often be misunderstood. Task focus will keep minds on the goal, but without ‘people-thinking’ a dead horse is being flogged! What really gets results is focus on the individuals and team; people are the route to achieving anything. It seems obvious, so why do so many leaders and managers overlook it constantly. John Adair’s action-centred leadership model demands the need for balance between task, team and individual. This provides the integrity for success.

3. Leadership is a journey, not simply a skill set for the individual and the team

The word leadership is derived from an ancient word associated with taking a journey. Ancient people used this work in connection with planning a route over land, or a course across the seas. This implies heading for what was unknown territory, with a mysterious adventure to be had. That required huge vision, imagination and faith. That’s the excitement and terror that leadership can produce.

4. Calm, humble, servant leadership is king

When you really think hard about the best leaders you’ve ever known or heard of, who did good things for the planet, a nation, a cause, or just a damn good job, you will find they are all likely to have one thing in common. That is a sense of humility and calm in their leadership. The best leadership role models are likely to be those serving others, and serving their cause. That’s how they get people on board, and that’s how they become loved and respected. It’s a key part of what we now call engagement.  Calmness of spirit in a leader promotes trust and confidence in followers. They make leadership look so natural that they create leaders from their followers. Being calm is not always being quiet; good communication is always key but calm leaders are often inspirational in a way that followers think they thought of an idea themselves. The humility of the leader lets them carry on thinking they did!

5. Leadership needs to be simple and common

As one of the most sought after qualities in humanity, leadership is a big subject. The Google statistics for leadership, and aspect of it, are vast. It’s so big a subject that people are often baffled by it, and fearful of aspiring to leadership. The good news is that leadership can be very simple, and is for everyone. Many who aspire to leadership forget that they are already leading themselves, and those closest to them. And if they are not, they should be! Leading yourself is the only safe place to practice, and practice makes perfect! Let’s get out of denial, and out of limiting ourselves. Lead yourself as if you were leading someone else – with respect and tolerance. Everyone leading themselves and others (if only by example) makes leadership a very common activity – and so it should be!

6. What people carry with them from childhood and teens is always with them, and surfaces in crisis and pressure

Adults are just children who grew up – some more than others. And while we think we left our happy and sad memories and experiences behind, we carry them with us constantly and unconsciously, in who we are, what we do, and how we respond. The best thing we can do with all that stuff is to let go what needs letting go, and face up to what has to stay. And whether it’s happy or sad, or whatever emotion it raises, let’s use it positively in our leadership now. Let’s also recognise that everyone else is carrying stuff too, so give them some room. If you want to be an exceptional leader, and a great human being, take no interest in who people are, and especially if you’d like them to follow you.

7. The heart of one person determines a whole culture

This is the responsibility that comes with leadership. Whether a leader of a huge organisation, a few dozen people, your family, or even just yourself, recognise that the heart that drives the blood through your body is the heart that drives your spirit. How you lead your thinking, your responses and your outcomes has a ripple effect on everyone else. So do it all with care. Everyone in an organisation or family has an impact on culture, but the one person at the top – on whom everyone else is focused – will have the biggest stone and make the biggest ripple. The ripple response in responsibility!

These seven aspects of leadership are contagious. If you lead an organisation or team, or even yourself, with these characteristics being evident, congratulate yourself for being exceptional, and go all out for continuous improvement. If this doesn’t sound like your experience, start work on these aspects now, and look forward to reaping the benefits. Happy people make happy and productive teams.

©Kairos Development Ltd. 2009 - All rights reserved

This month, I’m looking at the common lies around leadership, and how they impact on people and business. Next month I’ll be publishing the related truths of good leadership.

The 7 Lies of Limiting Leadership by Ian A Williams

This article was published in NZ Business Magazine Jan/Feb 2010

Too many people fall short of their potential in the leadership game, and also fail to enable or enhance the leadership of others. Ian Williams provides an interesting insight into some of the barriers to great leadership. In this issue, Ian shares with us his belief about some of the common lies about leadership, and in the next issue we follow this up with his account of the seven truths.

My passion for good leadership often leads me to observe and reflect on what happens in the workplace for individuals and teams. I listen out for comments and frustrations, and have concluded that there are some common misunderstandings about leadership issues, which I have summarised as the seven lies of leadership.

1. I’m not a leader

Marianne Williamson’s famous quotation (from A Return to Love) goes like this:

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, ‘who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?‘ Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

I can understand why they have been mistakenly attributed to Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King – you could almost hear them saying this! I love these inspirational words because they apply to everyone in every situation. What stands out is the encouragement they bring, in a tough world everyone needs encouragement to use their inner and material resources to create abundant life for themselves and others. These words are an important part of my inspiration for developing leaders, and for the tools and approaches I create and use.

No great leader ever achieved great things by playing small. We all need to extend and enhance our game if we expect to make progress, as any athlete will confirm. Leadership itself, though, is huge topic. Google the word and you get 159 million possibilities! The approaches and teachings on leadership from past and present are mind-boggling, and they continue to develop and multiply. A huge industry revolves around the need for leadership skills and development, and that’s hardly surprising for two main reasons.

First, there is such a need for good leadership, and in all areas of life it seems to be shrinking in application and growing in rhetoric. Many talk the talk but fewer live out leadership in a way that does what it’s supposed to – simply take people on a journey for a purpose. And there’s a huge amount packed into that statement. How many friends, family and colleagues do you have who suffer under a ‘leader’ who treats people badly, and has a poor sense of direction and purpose? I meet them everywhere I go. It’s a tragic scene that is easily overcome with a little thought and care. We are desperate for leaders in every area of life, but rarely find them. When an outstanding business, social or political leader emerges, they are very conspicuous. The rest are in a questionable crowd.

Secondly, leadership is such a complex idea to the world. There are so many aspects and facets to it, and so many academics, authors and speakers bring their own principles, approach and checklist. So in dabbling in this area myself, and being a simple soul, I needed a model of leadership that is pure and simple, something I can carry around in my head. The best for that in my book (literally) is Professor John Adair and the Action-centred Leadership Model. I can now be an effective leader by just understand something about the balance between 3 things – Task, Team and Individual. What could be as simple and profound? The problem with making it any more complex is that leaders always feel there’s so much more to learn, and feel constantly defeated by that challenge. They are constantly caught in the blinding headlights of what they are perhaps not doing, rather than bringing simple focus to a task with the right people.

So what has this to do with Kairology? The word Kairos means the right time for intervention or change. So I have simply used the playing cards framework to create 52 simple tools and approaches that I feel are important for good leadership. That doesn’t mean using all 52 cards at once – otherwise it wouldn’t be simple. It means looking at the cards and selecting what you need to work on in order to improve your personal leadership. It means being selective and purposeful, guided by your own instincts and by feedback from others. I also encourage people to select cards at random, and see what happens when they work through it.

The Kairology Cards are intended to challenge, guide and inspire – rather than be yet another text book or checklist. I believe there is no checklist for leadership. There is you, there is a job to do, and there are people to help you. That’s it! So I have attempted to provide a framework for thinking to help leaders do just that. The simple challenge is to play your cards right – to select and use them creatively for your own development and growth.

Have a ball with this, but also take it seriously. Your achievements and the people around you depend on it. Find your passion for people and challenges that bring diamond results. It may be cards-based but you don’t need to gamble with your leadership skills. However, leadership does involve courage and risk-taking, and building a deck that will stand or fall based on a heap of variables. Get yourself a good deal, a good partner or team for the game, clear strategies and tactics, and go for the win. Leadership is not a game of chance, but a game of skill in which you bring the courage to shine your light powerfully.

Order the Kairology Leadership bundle today.

This month I have selected three articles which have a theme around personal style in relation to others. If as leaders we want to get the best from people, we have to value them. That means ensuring they feel included, that their confidence and skills are being built, and that we lead others as we would like to be led ourselves. Leadership comes from position, knowledge and character, and we should be prepared as leaders to demonstrate all three. That includes being attractive and likeable – I know firsthand that people leave leaders, not organisations. Don’t be shy of wanting to be liked! Why else would people want to be around you?

Keep watching Kairology.com for a range of articles on these personal values and leadership styles.

Ian Williams caught up with Shelley Holmes at www.align-lead-inspire.com.

Whether you want to accelerate your personal development, improve working relationships, develop your team or improve the culture of your organization you’ve just tapped into materials that have the power to ignite you, your people, fast-track your career and still get home at a decent hour!

The website is really worth a look - and to give you a taste of what they offer, you can listen to Ian William’s interview online at kairology.com. In this interview Ian discusses the philosophy behind his new book as well as taking control of your life and your workplace.

Download Align-Lead-Inspire Interview (mp3 19m / approx 4m download) [alternate download]

By Ian A Williams

The current challenging economic climate is a great time to test the strength of your leadership in business.  It really does sort out the capable and resilient from those who simply give up or hide in their shell.  Where are you today? Are you in your shell or out there fighting for your future?

Leadership is defined as a journey, a course that is set – and every journey has its challenges. By nature, leadership involves everyone. While those who own, run and manage organisations are the ones who are called or appointed to be in a leadership position, everyone in an organisation has a leadership role to play, simply in leading themselves in doing their best in the team, and in enabling others to do their job well too. Just being efficient and effective in your own role means you are part of leading – if only leading by example! Recent UK research suggests that leadership has two distinct aspects:  developing recognised leaders as individuals, and developing leadership as culture and practice in the whole organisation.

So when the times get tough it’s a great opportunity for you as the owner to get all the help you can from those around you in leading your business to continuing success. When the pressure is on, your choice is to visualise and lead growth, or to survive and tread water. That choice will be very apparent to those around you. A downturn is the time for vision and growth in bringing all the creative skills of your team together to plan for the future. So let’s look at some key leadership characteristics as defined by John Adair.  Sometimes these qualities don’t sound very businesslike, but they are really the heart of your business and your leadership if you want to achieve to achieve success:

1.     Enthusiasm - passion and zest

2.     Integrity - the bedrock of good leadership

3.     Toughness and fairness – demanding, but no favourites

4.     Warmth - cold fish do not make good leaders

5.     Moral courage - to face and confront unpleasant situations

6.     Resilience - the ability to bounce back after setbacks

7.     Humility - lack of arrogance, being on the same level as others

How do you measure up? Ask those you trust. In his action-centred leadership model, John Adair defines leadership into three simple key elements which distinguish task, team and individual needs.

Task needs

Task relates to the purpose of your business. It’s not just about what you do, it’s about why you’re in business and what you want to achieve. A downturn may be a great time to review this, getting clear on what industry you’re in, what you want to provide for whom, and what results you’re aiming at. In getting this clear you will need to get ideas from people in your business about a more efficient ways of working, new initiatives, and a renewed enthusiasm for what you do.  After all, as the old saying goes, if you do what you always do you’ll get what you always got.

Team needs

Meeting the needs of people around you is essential to achieving what you need to achieve. It sounds obvious but this gets amazingly low priority in most businesses. Having the right mix of people with the right skills, having their roles clear, maintaining good communication, confidence, integrity and humour is invaluable. We are social beings and we need to work effectively with other people.

Individual needs

People need to feel valued, not only by you as the leader, but by the whole team. They need to feel that their time, energy, skills, talents and resources are being well used in the team and adding value to the task in hand. From you as the leader, this requires tact, fairness, compassion, consistency, honesty and humility.

The three circle model of action-centred leadership is about keeping these three needs in balance, and of equal priority. Sometimes of course one of these aspects may require more of your time attention and energy, but the important thing is to keep them all maintained.

The seven key leadership characteristics need to be role-modelled by you as the leader personally, and also be part of the leadership culture that permeates everyone in the organisation. That’s the kind of culture that will get you through any downturn, maintain productivity, encourage people to bring in their ideas and energy, and ensure that you have a really engaged workforce, enjoying what they do and the people they do it with. After all, as the old Japanese proverb says, ‘No man will find the best way to do a thing unless he loves to do that thing.’

John Adair is the author of action-centred leadership, and the world’s first professor of leadership. More information at www.johnadair.co.uk

© Kairos Development Ltd 2009 – All Rights Reserved