Humility and Leadership

In his book, Good to Great, Jim Collins lays out strong evidence that effective leaders possess a paradoxical mix of humility and professional will. While driven to achieve, he says, successful leaders downplay their personal contributions and attribute their ultimate success to a combination of good luck and the invaluable support and great talents of the people around them.

As important as humility is to effective leadership, most of us don’t identify it as a leadership quality and it is often neglected as a topic in leadership development programs. In our culture where self-confidence and self-promotion are highly valued, we often mistake humility as being non-assertive, indecisive, and weak.

The humility Jim Collins talks about is none of that. Instead, it is a balanced way of seeing ourselves that recognizes both our talents and our limitations and exaggerates neither. In leadership, the competitive advantage it brings is the ability to view things realistically, stay open to new ideas, enlist the help of people with complementary skills, and recognize and reward the contributions of others. It is a magnetic human quality.

Humility can’t be faked (for long), so how do we nurture it in ourselves? There is no test for humility and no 5-step program to develop it. However, understanding its link to how and why we perceive ourselves the way we do is an important key.

A number of studies have shown that we have a natural tendency to bolster our sense of self-worth by seeing ourselves in a flattering light. We see this most obviously in young people, who often possess a sense of invincibility and a certainty that they have it all figured out. As they grow older, they begin to realize just how much they don’t know and can’t do. The more skilled and knowledgeable they became at anything in life – professionally, personally, and even recreationally – the more realistic and humble they became about their limitations in those areas.

This experience is normal and there’s a name for it – the Dunning Kruger effect. Basically, it means that the more competent and knowledgeable we become, the more realistic we are about two things: 1) what it takes to achieve mastery, and 2) where we stand on the continuum.

Since humility grows with knowledge, experience, and training, the implications for leadership development are simple: to reach our full potential as leaders, we must make leadership development an on-going, lifelong endeavor. To nurture a more humble self, we must always be working on something.

There is no guarantee that being humble will ensure your success as a leader. We just know – as Jim Collins has documented well – that it is present in the best of them.

Three Apps for Peak Performance in 2014

Welcome to 2014! I thought I’d kick off the new year by telling you about a couple of apps that can help make 2014 your best year ever.

#1: Productivity Wizard
Here’s what we know for sure: People who set goals achieve more than those who don’t. Setting goals works -- it’s just not easy to stick with them after the first few weeks of January.

The Productivity Wizard app is designed to help you with that. It guides you through a pretty good process for creating goals, choosing the two or three that are most important (the fewer goals, the more likely you are to achieve them), setting action plans, and getting into weekly and daily routines.

I especially like the Morning Routine tool, which helps me focus on the three or four things I can do each day to inch me closer to my targets. I’m a big believer in the principle of incremental gains -- taking small steps every day to achieve satisfying long-term results.

#2: Breath Pacer
Life moves at a hectic pace for most of us. When you feel wound up and stressed out, try adding 10 minutes of Breath Pacer to your coffee break. This app is a simple guided breathing exercise that will help bring you back mentally and physically to a place where you can perform at your best. Ask any elite athlete and he or she will tell you that breathing right is critical to peak performance. Breath Pacer makes it easy.

#3: Simply Being
The new hot topic in business literature is mindfulness and it's relationship to peak performance. What the heck is mindfulness?　Simply put, it’s the mental ability to stay focused and in the moment. There’s a bunch of new research that indicate it’s another key factor in peak performance. Mindfulness is the opposite of feeling distracted or mentally overloaded, something we all experience as a by-product of busy schedules and constantly interacting with people and electronic devices. The Simply Being app is a guided meditation that builds the capacity for mindfulness. I recommend 10 minutes before you go to sleep at night not only for a more restful sleep but for achieving a Zen-like edge at work.

There you go...three daily, 10-minutes activities that will definitely up your game. Best wishes for a productive, healthy, and happy 2014!

How Much Does an Entrepreneurial Mindset Matter to Your Organization's Performance?

There is mounting evidence that an entrepreneurial mindset makes a big difference in corporate performance. A recent survey by Deloitte polled 652 senior executives at mid-sized U.S. companies about how, or if, being entrepreneurial had an impact on their company’s operations. The study found that companies that saw themselves as entrepreneurial — creative, unique, different, innovative and taking risks with the acceptance of failure — out-performed peer organizations in growth, productivity, and profitability during the previous 12 months.

 

In the same survey, 81 percent of respondents said any business – large or small – can act in entrepreneurial ways. They cited risk aversion and being shackled by what’s worked in the past as the biggest obstacles to an entrepreneurial culture.

 

As with all qualities that contribute to professional success, entrepreneurship can be nurtured and developed. Current literature all points to five key qualities as being characteristic of successful entrepreneurs:

     1) persuasiveness,
     2) drive,
     3) resilience,
     4) goal-orientation, and
     5) attentiveness to what’s happening around you.

Building a more entrepreneurial organization begins with you. Your employees will not feel comfortable being any more entrepreneurial than you are (and highly entrepreneurial individuals without a way to express themselves will simply move on). You set the tone, so find the balance that you believe is right for your organization and become it.

 

We’ve put together a quick test to measure how strong you are in each of these five areas. If you’d like to see where your entrepreneurial strengths lie and where you might need shoring up, click here.

Pinning Down The Elusive Quality of Leadership Presence

When I talk about leadership “presence,” I am referring to a personal manner or style that commands respect and influences thinking, decision-making, and action. Over the past 19 years, I’ve worked with thousands of leaders (and followers) who have helped me define what leadership presence is. I’ve boiled it down to the following three broad characteristics:

Character  You know when someone has it. It’s a sense of rock-solidness; of being grounded no matter what happens. It’s a rare mix of competence and humility, fearlessness and caution, and wisdom and a genuine curiosity about different points of view. It is not boastful, imposing, or anxious. Instead, it’s a state of being that appeals to others, draws them in like a magnet, and leaves them eager to know what you will do and say next.

Insight  In his book, A Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of Anxiety, Edwin Friedman says that “in any situation, the person who can most accurately describe reality without laying blame will emerge as the leader, whether designated or not.” There are two important leadership skills embedded in Friedman’s description. The first one is the courage and ability to speak the truth as most people see it. The second is to do it in a way that neither judges or blames others. Stated another way, it’s the ability to define a problem without creating the kind of emotional tension that might get in the way of solving it.

Optimism  What the optimistic leader provides is a strong vision and belief in a different and better future. The optimism comes from an internal belief in the possibilities and the confidence that comes with a personal track record of achieving previous goals. It’s a can-do attitude that trusts the power of the team, organization, or community to do something big together.

We are noticing more and more that the organizations we work with want to hire people with leadership presence into all levels of their organizations – that personal leadership is no longer a professional quality reserved for the executive suite. The questions I would challenge you with are these: “How deep is the leadership presence in your organization?” “What difference would it make if personal leadership was the most obvious quality in your workforce?”

Consistency, Change, and Leadership

I heard a fascinating story on the radio a few days ago. It was a discussion with three academic researchers about why people seek consistency, how we regard inconsistency in others, and the implications for political leadership.

Here’s the gist of the story. According to David Linden, a professor of neuroscience at Johns Hopkins, our brains are hard-wired to like consistency. Consistency helps us understand the world so we can make good predictions about what will happen next. For example, if we burn our fingers every time we touch a flame, we learn to keep them away from fire – a good thing. We are so hard-wired for consistency that our brains reward us with a dose of feel-good chemicals whenever we make a correct prediction.

We especially like consistency in others. We like it so much that if someone is inconsistent on something important to us, we react strongly – we feel betrayed by that person. That’s why politicians often try to cast their opponents as flip-floppers. They’re hoping to capitalize on that sense of betrayal.

Our need for consistency, however, is at odds with reality. Change is constant. Not only is the world around us in a constant state of flux, so are we. We go to school, build families, get jobs, change jobs, move, travel, succeed at some things and fail at others, etc., all of which can change the way we think about ourselves and the world. We are shaped by our experiences. Interestingly, some people will see our change as growth, while others will see it as a betrayal of the person they used to know. The researchers point out that how people perceive inconsistency in others is not based on the facts of the situation but on whether or not they consider themselves a part of the other person's “tribe.”

The story reinforces some important things we know related to leadership. Needless to say, organizational change creates some level of tension in the people who work there. Whether or not employees see the change as growth or betrayal will depend largely on whether they feel an allegiance to leadership before the change is initiated. The implication here is that leaders need to always work on strengthening their connection to followers if they hope to minimize the tension that occurs inevitably with change and have it seen as growth.

In addition, this research reminds us of another important leadership axiom. In one of the most influential business books of our era, Built to Last, Collins and Porras describe the most successful companies as having the ability to preserve the core and change everything else. These successful companies capitalized on something important by carefully choosing and promoting the non-negotiables at work – the things employees could expect to remain consistent, no matter what. It appears these non-negotiables satisfied the human need for consistency yet allowed the companies to grow and change as the times required.

The paradox is that we seek both consistency and change. Great leaders understand this. They know the non-negotiables that define who they are as leaders while staying open to changing everything else, and they bring the same clarity to the organizations they lead.

Tips for Setting Goals in 2012

Just as Microsoft does with Windows, each year I attempt to upgrade myself. And, like Windows, some versions of my new self are better than others. I just finished programming Rabiner 2012 by setting my annual goals, and I thought I’d share the most important things I’ve learned over the years about this process.

1. Believe in the power of incremental gains.
Most people can't achieve everything they want overnight or even in one year. Progress takes time. If you set goals today, ten years from now you'll look back and see you've made incremental gains. You may not have accomplished everything you set out to do, but you will be a whole lot closer to your big dreams than if you had not set goals. Without goals, growth is random. Believe in the power of incremental gains.

2. Focus on what you want.
Henry David Thoreau said, "In the long run, you only get what you aim for." This is the part of the process where you ask yourself, "What do I really want to achieve or become?"
 
3. Boil it down to two or three measurable goals for 2012.
Let's say, for example, that your dream for yourself is to live long and prosper. Your annual goals, then, might include one or two goals related to health and fitness and one or two goals related to professional achievement.  When crafting them, make your goals measurable and keep them doable. A measurable health-related goal might look like this: Lose 10 pounds by December 31st. There's an important adage in business that says, "What gets measured gets done." The same is true for achieving personal goals.

4. Work back from there.
Now ask yourself, "What will I have to accomplish by the end of the third quarter, second quarter, and first quarter so I'm likely to meet my year-end goals?" To lose 10 pounds by December 31st, for example, your quarterly goals might be: Lose 8 pounds by September 30th, lose 6 pounds by June 30th, and lose 3 pounds by March 31st. You now have a simple plan to follow: a measurable, doable goal with benchmark accomplishments throughout the year.

5. Stay focused.
Here’s the most important step in the goal-setting process. On the bottom of your annual plan, write this statement, "To achieve my goals this quarter, this is what I will do today." Print your plan, place it on your desk or some other place so you will see it every morning, and read it as you start your day.

This simple goal-setting process will keep you focused on what’s most important and will yield surprising results. Your 2012 version of yourself may not turn out perfect, but it will be an improvement over 2011. If you follow this process every year you will, through the power of incremental gains, get what you aim for in the long run.

Best wishes for a healthy and prosperous new year, and please keep me posted on your progress during 2012.

Leadership Development: How Fearless Are You?

How important is fearlessness to leadership? Well, very. Think for a minute about our American history. Consider the colonization of the new world, the American Revolution, the end of slavery, women’s suffrage, space exploration, and the civil rights movement. These critical turning points in our history wouldn’t have happened without the leadership of people who were fearless in their thinking and in their actions.

Certainly, their ideas and visions for the future were not mainstream. Their dreams were dismissed as ridiculous or impossible and were often shared in whispers for fear of retaliation and repression. The individuals who held these ideas and visions, though, could not hold back. They were driven by some internal need to explore new frontiers, and they had an uncommon courage to follow that drive.

How fearless are you? How important is fearlessness to your leadership? Few of us will ever need the type of courage our American pioneers had. But, as leaders at work, at home, in our schools, in our communities, we need a level of fearlessness that will enable us to speak up, to assert our preferences and choices, to give voice to our visions or causes, and to take action when it may not be a popular thing to do. We need a level of fearlessness that will allow us to be vulnerable, to tell the truth about ourselves, to set boundaries, to hold others accountable, and in other ways define our character.

Fearlessness is not for everyone, but it is an important element of leadership. Real leaders are able to put themselves out there by having uncomfortable conversations, making tough decisions, or taking a dreaded course of action. They know they will likely meet resistance and they have a pretty high tolerance for rejection and failure.

If you are feeling stuck in your leadership role, ask yourself if you are acting with enough courage. If you are feeling overly concerned with safety, peace keeping, what others think, and attending to the needs of those most resistant to change, then it might be time take a more fearless approach.