The key to making long-term strategic goals immediate is to make them present and immediate. How do you do that? You make it personal.
Good leaders do this by appealing to the hearts and minds of their constituents. To connect you make the case for your argument by making it personal. So when it comes to issues such as global warming, nuclear disarmament or any other issue with far reaching consequences you communicate on a level that people can understand.
Every successful leader is at one level a master salesperson. You cannot rise to the top of any organization, or be elected to high office, without the ability to persuade others to your point of view. Such persuasion requires salesmanship, the ability to imbue your ideas with an immediacy that makes them easy to understand and ultimately easy to accept. Here are four ways to do this:
Appeal to the mind. Good arguments begin with solid facts. If you are expecting people to change their minds, and ultimately that is what all issues of consequence involve, you better have your facts straight. For example, one of the reasons that Bono has achieved success with his One campaign to address AIDS and poverty is that he can speak to government officials not merely as a celebrity but as one who has mastered the data points of his argument.
Appeal to common sense. Make numbers real.Too often leaders who fail to persuade others to their point of view are guilty of speaking in impersonal terms (statistics) when they need to connect their ideas to individuals (one person at a time). So if something costs a billion dollars, translate that expenditure per family, e.g. every American family paying $100 a year or $2 per week.
Appeal to the heart. Facts set the foundation for rational argument but when you are seeking to change minds, you need to connect with people on a personal level. For example, failure to ensure nuclear security means that terrorists get weapons that turn the scenarios that drive the plots of the hit TV show, 24, into nightmarish reality. That's an easy argument to make. The challenge is to do it honestly. Talk about the policies that must be adopted, the costs that will be incurred, and the safety of people that will result.
Appeal to our better nature. People like to be part of something larger than themselves, even when it involves sacrifice. This is the secret behind why people volunteer time and effort to community activities. When we seek true and lasting change, it does require sacrifice, but if you are going to ask people to sacrifice you need to make certain that what you are asking is worth it. Global warming becomes not simply a matter for governments; it becomes the duty of citizens to make responsible personal choices in how they use fossil fuels in homes, cars, and in household products.
Each of these appeals has their place and they do work, however, these very same techniques can be applied by those seeking to manipulate a point of view. Politicians on both sides of the aisle are adept at using facts, or opinions disguised as facts, to steer voters to their side. It is effective certainly, but it is one reason why so many people are turned off by politicians as well as political pundits. These folks do not seek to illuminate a point of view; they seek to manipulate it.
Accountability is the differentiator between manipulators and leaders. The former avoid it, the latter embrace it. And so leaders who persuade are those who know their facts, speak from the heart and ask us to make sacrifices for the good of all, not the benefit of a few.
One of the chief reasons that so many people are uncomfortable with change is because it happens to them not for them. This point was made to me in an interview with personal branding expert, William Arruda. It was in reference to a company that had relocated its offices from one city to another. Many employees were quite discomfited by the move.
Employees of course have two choices when faced with significant changes -- a move, a reorganization, or even a denial of promotion. They can leave and find work elsewhere, or they can remain and seek to make the best of it. Simple choice yes but unless employees take ownership of their decision they will easily revert to victimhood.
Taking ownership shifts the onus from something being done to you to something over which you have control. Asserting control over one’s destiny is critical if ownership is to survive. Such advice is particularly important during times of personal disruption. How you assert yourself is critical to your ability to survive but also thrive. So here are three questions to ask yourself when faced with disruptive change.
What do I do now? Understand you have a choice. You can opt out and not accept the change. Of course we may feel for financial reasons (or to maintain health benefits) we cannot do so, but do understand that, unless you have been sentenced to jail, you can decide what to do. Making the decision to stay for whatever reason means that you have made a decision. Likewise if you decide to leave, that is a decision.
What do I do next? Make your boss aware of what you have decided to do. If you are staying in, you want to make certain your boss knows that you are still part of the team. If your disappointment is evident, as it might be with a loss of a promotion, acknowledge it but do not dwell on the negativity. Reassure the boss that you are still in the game and want to be considered as a contributor. Such behavior will mark you as one who has a strong sense of self and can deal with disappointment.
How can I make this work for me? Look for ways to turn the “sow’s ear into a silk purse.” Avoid the “coulda, woulda, shoulda” self-talk; that’s self-defeating. Look for ways to turn the change into new opportunities. For example, a corporate reorganization may have put a rival into another spot. Now is your opportunity to show what you can do. Find ways to assert your can-do spirit. Be proactive. Look for ways to make a positive difference.
These questions are very simple to articulate and but the answers they provoke are not necessarily easy to execute. As Harvard professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter has taught us: we only change when it hurts too much not to change. A corporate reorganization, a transfer, or failure to win promotion are changes that may be perceived as a loss of something: position, location or opportunity. None of us is comfortable losing anything, particularly our pride. So it’s okay to feel down or sorry for yourself for a day or so. But then you must come to terms with the change. You need to make a decision about what you will do.
Change is part of the human condition; it is an organic process. And within an organization of human beings it is a dynamic that alters the status quo. How you deal with the change says much about your ability to cope as well as your ability to navigate circumstances that may not be the most favorable to you. Owning the change, and making it work for you, is critical to your ability to demonstrate resilience as well as an ability to move forward. It is very definitely a mark of leadership.
Leadership Presence: How to Assert Your Authority to Lead
Sunday, April 25, 2010, 12:02 PM
What Is Leadership Presence Leadership presence is the outward manifestation of a leader’s authenticity. It is rooted in the leader’s character and demonstrated through a leader’s ability to influence and execute. Consider leadership presence as “earned authority.”
A phenomenon sweeping college campuses is the teaching of courses in leadership. Once confined to business programs, the teaching of leadership as an academic subject is now being offered to students in all disciplines.
One institution that is ahead of curve, and from what I observed on a recent visit to deliver a keynote address , is the University of Central Oklahoma . Each year some 400 students receive leadership scholarships in recognition of their having demonstrated leadership in high school not just in academics but also in athletics, band, drama or community service.
Under the direction of President Roger Webb , UCO is providing leadership development opportunities that combine study with service. The leadership discipline at UCO is founded on three core principles that have relevance for leaders in all walks of life, and so let me share them with you.
Character. This is the foundation upon which leadership rests except there is no “rest” in leadership. Leaders are actively pushing their initiatives by working together with others, using their example to make good things happen. For the rest of us, it means we live character by treating others fairly, our organization respectfully, and our vendors honestly.
Civility. There is an old-fashioned sound to civility. It stems from the Greek and Roman respect for law as fundamental to creating a functional society. Without civility there is lawlessness. In the private sector, civility comes down to respect for colleagues. Disagree with individuals but resist the urge to impugn character. And today when our so much of our media celebrates bad behavior, civility gets short shrift and so implementing it is no easy task.
Community. Developing a better tomorrow is what community at UCO means. The university is partnering with five community colleges in a leadership studies consortium so that more students can participate. Many corporations that I know make community a priority, not simply in employee service programs to benefit social service agencies but also by seeking to hire from the community and also offering internships to worthy students. Community is not just giving back; it is about creating a better future.
What is most impressive to me about what is happening at UCO is the vibrancy that leadership studies program generates. This is a school that does not just talk values; it puts them into practice. Students are encouraged to take leadership positions in team activities and serve as role models to peers. They are also encouraged to take leadership positions in on and off-campus organizations.
Furthermore, students are expected to engage in community service projects. For example, freshmen students in leadership must do a service project and make a video record of their effort. Their grade depends on their involvement.
UCO also benefits from the guidance of Roger Webb. A veteran of law enforcement and one-time head of the Commissioner of Public Safety, Webb has been president of UCO since 1997. Like a good cop who walks the beat, Webb is everywhere. Walking along side President Webb is akin to walking with a four-year old child who is distracted by everything around him. Only Webb’s not distracted; he’s chatting with students or staff, and engaging them in conversation.
Webb’s up close and personal manner translates well to the classroom where he helps teach the some of the classes in leadership. [Imagine: the president of the university teaching freshman!] In teaching Webb is able to transmit his passion for leadership as well as his challenge to the next generation of emerging leaders.
That’s the visible side of Webb’s leadership; as an administrator, Webb pushes UCO to create opportunities for students to hone their skills and talents to become productive citizens. Tall order, certainly, but UCO is finding ways to make leadership matter and in the process setting an example for other academic institutions to follow.
Accountability is a cornerstone of organizational cohesiveness. A sense of accountability holds people responsible for performance and for results. Accountability lies at the root of leadership authenticity. A leader who does not hold himself accountable will find it difficult to lead others.
Leadership provides a foundation for effective management: the operational rigor - processes, policies, and people - that ensure the running of an organization. Accountability underscores management because it is how employees get things done right and done on time. A manager who is sloppy in his administration can hold people accountable for their results but we should not be surprised if those results are not forthcoming. That is, when management is loose, results will be sketchy, too.
While management is administrative, leadership is aspirational. It focuses on what must be done to ensure that the organizational and its people succeed. Accountability is essential because such leadership calls for the leader to make hard and tough decisions. A leader who is not accountable to the organization will act self-interestedly (or for a select few) rather than doing what the organization needs him or her do: stand up for what is right even when it is hard to do.
Ironically when those in authority are seeking to protect their organization by failing to acknowledge responsibility, they merely look weak. We saw this problem unfold in many corporate scandals. All too often senior leaders adopted the "dumb guy" defense when speaking about their role in financial wrong doing. When held accountable by the justice systems, once-proud executives act as if they were the dupes; they feign innocence and blame others for their travails. In reality it was the senior executives who betrayed the trust of employees and shareholders. And fortunately most courts, including that of public opinion, held them accountable and sent them to jail.
Executives who fail to hold themselves accountable also harm the credibility of their organizations. In the financial meltdown of 2008, senior leaders who claimed no responsibility brought their companies to the brink of disaster. Reputation for fiscal sanity went out the window. Executives who flunk the accountability test betray the stakeholders who pay them.
As much as accountability is considered essential to leadership, curiously we see avoidance of responsibility as the norm. So much so that when a leader stands up and says that the buck stops here, we laud the person for his accepting blame. That's fine, but it's what leaders should be doing every day. So celebrating a leader for admitting a mistake should not strike us as unusual. It should be the norm.
Let's be honest. Leaders are not superhuman; they are subject to the temptations that face all mortals. They will make mistakes. But when they do, they would do themselves and their organizations a huge favor by admitting it rather than seeking to cover it up. There are few things as spineless as those pretending to be what they are not. Hypocrisy does not become hubris.
That does not mean leaders need to confess all personal failings in public. They only need to come clean about things that affect the health and performance of the organization as a whole. In short, they should heed the words of Socrates who said: "The way to gain a good reputation is to endeavor to be what you desire to be."
Accountability matters. Not simply to the leaders but more so to the people in the organization. If there is a good that comes from organization betrayal it is this. Members of the organization learn to fend for themselves. Organizations that succeed and many do, find that people in the middle rise up and assume new levels of responsibility. These people become the ones that lead the organization and in the process make the organization whole again.
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