A Blog about Leadership

Formula for Successful Leadership

I want to share an idea that I have been dwelling on. It’s a simple formula or model for effective and successful leadership.

Successful Leadership = (Effective Communication + Articulate Vision + Influence + Action) (Ethics)

Effective Communication

3 Dynamics of Leadership

Articulate Vision

The Leaders Vision

Influence

Dr. Myles Monroe on Leadership and Influence

Action

Leadership and Action
Influence and Action

Ethics

Ethics is the multiplier for a very critical reason – anything multiplied by zero equals zero. Without ethics, nothing else amounts to much of anything.

The Relationship of Ethics and Leadership

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John Quincy Adams 

The former US President, John Quincy Adams, who was also the son of the US’s second President, was a man who lived an amazing life and was able to influence several of America’s defining government policies like the Monroe Doctrine, Adams-Onís Treaty, Treaty of Ghent, and, even, Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. The son of John and Abigail Adams, born on July 11, 1767, was a diplomat with international accomplishments, a Senator, a Secretary of State, a President, and then served seventeen years in the US House of Representatives until his death in 1848.

Quote from John Quincy Adams about Leadership:
“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”

Learning

Learning is a primary attribute of a leader. To be successful and to be a leader, adopt a lifetime of learning. But, as John Q. Adams’s quote reminds us, leaders beget leaders. So as you mentor and develop leaders, encourage them to adopt a lifetime of learning.

Action

Without a vision and purpose, there is no action, but merely having a vision is not sufficient. Your actions and the actions of others should move the group or organization in the direction of your vision. As the notable, former Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger puts it, “The task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been.”

Accomplishment

Your actions as a leader and the actions of those you lead should produce a product, service, or effect that accomplishes your vision. While the goals may change along the journey, the path should be marked with evidence of your leadership and tributes to the success of your team.

Lead

As a leader “…inspire others… (to be) …more…” by being more yourself and dream, learn, do, and become.

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Defining Leadership

Quote about leadership from Dr. Myles Monroe:
“Leadership is the capacity to influence others through inspiration motivated by passion, generated by vision, produced by a conviction, ignited by a purpose.”

Influence

Leadership is about influencing a group or team of people. It is not about power and coercion, although you may influence others to move in a direction that is contrary to their own actions. Influence is creating the want and desire in others to do what you want and desire them to do.

Passion

Passion is contagious and a leader is most effective when he or she is passionate about the team, organization, and the work thereof. Passion is a characteristic that cannot be faked. It has to genuine and portrayed.

Vision

Leadership is action. The vision is the articulation of the action to get to where the group needs to go. The vision should be well defined and effectively communicated.

Conviction

Leaders believe that what they do is important and purposeful. The belief is the conviction that drives the leader’s actions and passion. The conviction is communicated in the vision and nearly every statement of the leader.

Purpose

Leaders have purpose for their actions and what they influence. Leaders seek what is best for the group and not what is best for the individual. Leaders are inherently selfless and hardworking. They are driven by their conviction and purpose and resonates the passion in their vision statements.

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Michael E. Gerber 

Michael E. Gerber wrote the groundbreaking book, The E-Myth, as a discussion about the obstacles that entrepreneurs encounter in starting a business. One part of the book discusses three different roles in an organization – the technician, the manager, and the entrepreneur. Gerber assigns a definition to each of these roles with a focus on time.

Technician = Present

The technician is the one who is focused on the present – what needs to be now and what needs to be done next.

Manager = Past

The manager is the one who is focused on the past – what was done, how it was done, and how to improve how it was done.

Entrepreneur = Future

The entrepreneur is the one who is focused on the future – what can be done and what can be accomplished.

The Leader

There are leadership traits in each of these three roles, but one attribute about the leader is the encompassing of all three traits.

The Leader = Present

The leader builds on the ability of the technician to look at what needs to be done as an ability to get things done.

The Leader = Past

The leader also builds on the refined practice of the manager to learn from what was done to improve how things can be done.

The Leader = Future

The leader most closely relates to the entrepreneur in looking toward the future – where is the market going, what is happening in the economy, how will this affect the organization, and how should the organization prepare for the future.

The Leader’s Experience

Experience is the strongest attribute of the leader. The leader has experience as the technician working in the organization and has mastered the primary focus on determining what to do and getting it done. The leader is also experienced in management and possesses the ability to assess strengths and weaknesses of practices and procedures. And the leader is continually aware of what is happening for the future and is able to steer the organization on the best path for long-term success.

 You can get Michael E. Gerber’s The E-Myth here.

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Building Trust 

Building trust is a make-or-break point for some leaders, but there are merely two steps to successfully build trust.

The first step is the obvious.

1) Have a trustworthy character.

This is so obvious that you are probably wondering why I am writing this. Well, frankly, it is important to continually reiterate that honesty and responsibility still matter – especially in business. There seems to be a misnomer in most college business curriculums with a course like “business ethics.” This is not an oxymoron, but an inappropriate use of an adjective. There are not a set of ethics for business that are different than the ethics for church, family, friends, politics, or any-and-every other facet of life. There are just ethics. Either you are ethical or you are making poor, short-sided, non-leader decisions.

Of course, nobody is perfect. We make mistakes and sometimes it requires another to notice and call us on our mistakes. When this happens, the leader’s response is to admit the wrong, correct it, and move on.

The second step gets a little more into the message of this post.

2) Build value.

Peter Drucker quote:
“It’s much easier to sell the Brooklyn Bridge than to give it away. Nobody trusts you if you offer something for free.”

Build value through:

• Actively participating – listening and communicating are elementary skills for leaders. Leaders need to listen to those around them and communicate ideas, objections, suggestions, and decisions.

• Demonstrating knowledge – you have to demonstrate your knowledge as it applies in an organization. If you don’t have the knowledge necessary to lead, then you will never garner the trust to lead.

• Portraying confidence – if there is one attribute that is contagious, it is confidence. Every effect leader portrays confidence in themselves as leaders, in the organization, and in the environment that is where the organization is operating and to where leadership is driving.

See the correlation of ethics and leadership for more.

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When you think about great leaders who have changed the world, there are many names that top the list, but one name is nearly synonymous with “nonviolent protest” – Mahatma Gandhi.

Leadership quote from Mahatma Gandhi:
“We must be the change we wish to see in the world.”

Take a moment to read this Wikipedia introduction about Mahatma Gandhi.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (October 2, 1869 – January 30, 1948) was a major political and spiritual leader of India and the Indian independence movement. He was the pioneer of Satyagraha—the resistance of tyranny through mass civil disobedience, firmly founded upon ahimsa or total non-violence—which was one of the strongest driving philosophies of the Indian independence movement and inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. Gandhi is commonly known in India and across the world as Mahatma Gandhi and as Bapu (bāpu – “Father”). In India, he is officially accorded the honour of Father of the Nation and October 2nd, his birthday, is commemorated each year as Gandhi Jayanti, a national holiday. On 15 June 2007, the United Nations General Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution declaring October 2 to be the “International Day of Non-Violence.”

As a British-educated lawyer, Gandhi first employed his ideas of peaceful civil disobedience in the Indian community’s struggle for civil rights in South Africa. Upon his return to India, he organized poor farmers and labourers to protest against oppressive taxation and widespread discrimination. Assuming leadership of the Indian National Congress, Gandhi led nationwide campaigns for the alleviation of poverty, for the liberation of women, for brotherhood amongst differing religions and ethnicities, for an end to untouchability and caste discrimination, and for the economic self-sufficiency of the nation, but above all for Swaraj—the independence of India from foreign domination. Gandhi famously led Indians in the disobedience of the salt tax on the 400 kilometre (248 miles) Dandi Salt March in 1930, and in an open call for the British to Quit India in 1942. He was imprisoned for many years on numerous occasions in both South Africa and India.

Throughout his life, Gandhi remained committed to non-violence and truth even in the most extreme situations. A student of Hindu philosophy, he lived simply, organizing an ashram that was self-sufficient in its needs. Making his own clothes—the traditional Indian dhoti and shawl woven with a charkha—he lived on a simple vegetarian diet. He used rigorous fasts, for long periods, for both self-purification and protest.

For more on change, see: 5 Points for Leaders on Change

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The new weekly series that I started on Monday is: How to Create a Foundation for Developing Leadership Potential. John C. Maxwell writes prolifically about leadership and one point he continually emphasizes is that to be a leader it takes time, a lot of time, years and decades of time. While I agree, I also know as John does that to develop as a leader for tomorrow, you have to learn to be a leader today.

Leadership quote from Anthony Jay:
“The only real training for leadership is leadership.”

You can learn everything there is to know about leadership, you can read and memorize great quotes from leaders, you can study examples of leadership in practice, and you can codify your own leadership philosophy. At the end of it all, you will not develop as a leader until you “do” leadership.

It takes practice. Practice, as with anything, makes perfect. Leadership is an art, but it is a more complicated art than most recognize. There is no such thing as a scientific perfect in leadership, but rather an independent perfect that is unique to each and every individual leader.

To become a leader, start by being a leader and then practice, develop, improve, and mature over time, a lot of time, years and decades of time.

To start, you can follow my 7 Steps to Lead without Inherent Talent.

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You cannot purport leadership; you have to be a leader.

Leadership Quote from Harold Geneen:
“Leadership is practiced not so much in words as in attitude and in actions.”

To Be

Not only will everything you say be held against you, but everything that you do will be held against you as well.  That is why leadership requires content of character.  Leadership has to stem from the very fiber of your being, from the depths of who you are.  You cannot merely give lip service and call that leadership.  You have to back up what you say with what you do. 

To Develop

To be a leader, you have to develop your leadership potential.  Your leadership potential is the ability that you possess to be a leader at the moments when your leadership is required.  If leadership is through a statement of confidence when times are tough, your statement will mean very little if those who hear it either do not believe you as a question of integrity or do not trust you as a suspicion of competence.

To Think

Once of the simplest ways to develop your leadership potential is to learn to think as a leader.  Allow your thoughts to guide you in the correct actions and correct words.  To improve your thoughts of leadership, I recommend learning a few quotes from notable leaders.  A good quote contains a nugget of the theories and concepts of leadership and that nugget may be all that your conscious needs to feed to your unconscious to develop your leadership responses.

To Lead

Being a leader means practicing leadership and, that, of course, is the only way to lead.  You cannot wait for the right moment or wait until you have developed your responses.  Every moment contains an opportunity.  As you develop your leadership potential than you will develop your ability to perceive the best responses at every moment.  Don’t let a moment pass by without projecting your leadership.

You cannot purport leadership; you have to be a leader.

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