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Moving Leadership Forward

Posted by Joseph Riggio on Thursday, October 12, 2006

Beyond simple platitudes and easy “step-by-step” formulas - true leadership takes a sound philosophy and a design orientation that takes the entire system where leaders operate into account ... well beyond the personal needs and/or desires of the individual leaders themselves ... if we ever expect to see ourselves as species get beyond the raping and pillaging of the miraculous world and its people that we’ve been gifted.

Good Evening (Early Morning really ...),

I flew into the UK this morning (that means I left NJ two nights ago now ... funny thing this "time travel stuff). However it happened between NJ and the UK I came down with some kind of bug ... meaning my nosed was both stuffed and runny (terrible combination) ... I was feverish and achy ... and I was generally not feeling my oats so to speak.

So here I am ... I land in the UK at 7:00 AM UK time and I have to be in a room to present a training program at 11:00 AM. I haven't sleep well (or at all ...), I'm getting worst not better as the day progress - and a room full of people are waiting for me to show up to deliver a program they've made arrangements to be at and flown in for themselves. All this not to mention I co-presesnting on this particular program with another trainer and friend who also expects me to show up ready to go (although he'd have covered for me if I'd have asked him to ...).

So you get the picture, yes? Now the question I want to pose goes like this:

Are the people in the room who have paid to be there, made arrangements to get there themselves, organized their schedule to make this happen in their lives and have now been waiting for me to arrive expected to understand that this has not been my best day?

Further do I have any right to ask them to understand my situation?

Or do these folks have the right to expect that I'll show up and perform as though it has been my best day ever?

Some of you may already see where I'm going with this ... we are most often expected to perform at our best regardless of how our personal lives are going at the moment ... and in this situation specifically I'd even argue that these folks had the right to expect me to show and deliver ... as promised.

So I'm a pro and I do ... I get to the room and put my personal situation on hold while I hold the space I've contracted and agreed to as though it has been just like any other day ... my best day in fact.

Now this does not strike me as particularly unusual. In the crowds I move in, at the level I play at, folks just show up and perform ... regardless of what may or may not be going on for them outside the room. This trainer and friend who I'm co-presenting with in fact has a personal history with me where he has definitely had some things going on outside the room that anyone would have understood had he asked them to ... but he didn't ... he delivered ... then he when and took care of himself and what was going on in his personal life.

Now anyone who has followed what I've been writing about for years may be reading this particular posting and saying, "How can Joseph be saying this stuff?" It sounds like he may be suggesting that we put on a different face for our professional roles and our personal roles. However, I can assure you it only sounds like that.

What I'm actually saying would be better put that it doesn't matter what kind of day you're having ... or not ... from my point of view living with integrity - what I might call displaying - "personal leadership" - means showing up and doing what must be done ... what you have in fact committed to do.

Let me take a slight turn with you here for a moment. One of the folks I'm regularly interacting with has been at me for a year or more now to continue to become ever more clear about who I'm writing these entries for and to. I've recently made a very specific move not only to take a significant step in aiming my writing here to a more narrow and specific audience, but I've also decided ... and I've begun ... shifting my entire business model around to reflect this as well.

I think I'm writing to folks about leadership ... I think I'm writing to leaders and "would be" leaders.

And - I intend to move the concept and definition of what I think leadership must be forward ... beyond the Plablum and feel good bullshit that has been offered to date about leadership in the popular press and as presented by many on the popular author's and speaker's circuit.

First of all, (in terms of this intention) and where I'll leave this particular posting let me say this ...

If leadership, and leaders, are to be taken seriously they must become as valid and consistent as any profession/professional endeavor ... this first and foremost requires a valid and consistent philosophy of leadership for leaders that moves well beyond the latest fad training protocol or marketing slogan.

While I know I'm not like to make many friends in the leadership training/consulting business or amongst leadership coaches I also know that if I do what I intend to do with any kind of integrity for myself I must put this stake in the ground and stand by it regardless of the cost to me personally or what other people may or may not think about it. Often the only praise that can be expected comes after the fact ... and most importantly in seeing the results being manifest in and by others.

The result of what leadership has been defined to date to be includes such giants of industry as Steven Jobs, Richard Branson and John Mackey ... folks I think "get it." However it also has produced folks like Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling of Enron, as well as Bernard Ebbers and Scott Sullivan of WorldCom and their crews. This points to how ill-defined in some cases what we expect ... AND what we'll allow from our leaders as the ply their leadership roles.

Of course I haven't even mentioned the political sectors or the social sectors ... where the lack of leadership runs rampant ... and some superstars emerge anyway despite the general lack of leadership as I've beginning to redefine it (at least for myself). What I have found to most be missing resides at the core of what I think leadership could be ... true leadership design. While this term may be mostly meaningless to you as you read this it has become for me central to my thinking on and about leadership and leaders.

Leadership Design moves leadership beyond management and leaders beyond managers - even when leaders are acting as managers! It moves leadership beyond the content that managers find themselves address to produce the outcomes they are charged with to addressing most significantly the context that they are building.

The leaders I am speaking to are cognizant of the impact they have on the system at large ... and willingly assume the responsibilities and obligations that go alone with being in such a role. They transcend reporting to the board or simply carrying out the directives they are given if they perceive that they are not in the best interests of the entire system. They are willing to take the risks of retaining their personal positions and their integrity despite the cost to them when they know something needs to be done ... or something must not be done as well!

If what you think leadership should be all about or what leaders should be doing has to do with getting the best results than this blog and my writing probably won't be for you for long. However, if instead you think that what leadership should be all about, and what leaders should be doing, has to do with establishing a legacy position that transcends them and their personal goals ... in favor of the system they are charged to lead ... then you may find that we share a common interest.

For those of you for whom this fits I look forward to sharing my thoughts with you ... and hearing about them or some of your own from you as well.

Joseph Riggio, Ph.D.
Surrey, England

PS - The October edition of the Unconventional Advice Audio Newsletter focuses on the Trajectory of INTENT model ... and ... you can still subscribe to my Uncoventional Advice Audio Newsletter RISK FREE for 90 DAYS! for a few days more.

Go to the Uncoventional Advice overview page, read the complete description and take me up on my 90 DAY - RISK FREE SUBSCRIPTION. Even if you choose to take advantage of my NO QUESTIONS ASKED GUARANTEE - YOU GET TO KEEP THE THREE MONTHS OF CDs YOU WILL HAVE RECEIVED ... ABSOLUTELY FREE!

(3) Comments • (1) Trackbacks • Permalink

>> if you think that what leadership should be all about, and what leaders should be doing, has to do with establishing a legacy position that transcends them and their personal goals ... in favor of the system they are charged to lead ... then you may find that we share a common interest.
<<

Yes—but I wonder what you mean by the word
“legacy”.

I’m not keen on leaders who try to establish things
so that it will continue to be “as if they were there”
when they no longer are.
For ever and ever amen.

Would you agree with me that part of their
leadership should be to accept that there
will be another leader after them, who may
have a different vision?

Mike

Mike Gray on Friday, October 13, 2006

Last week, I experienced severe back spasms and was unable to walk due to severe pain and extreme weekness in both legs.

This week....although I am still recovering....I went to see patients I had to call last week to cancel....when I was unable to do my job.

All the patients told me about the same thing......since I was unable to be there.....they remembered what I said that it was important to take responsibility for who they are....and get better by knowing they are already there.

Every patient made great gains in that one week I was not there because they told themselves it was up to them.

I also heard from some of the patients how inspired they felt from my story of perserverance.

I heard the same by co-workers.

I guess it’s living by example.

Be Well....
JJ

JJ on Friday, October 13, 2006

Joseph,

Sometimes it can be easy to find oneself seemingly surrounded by dissenting voices and, as a result, easy to begin to question some of their own hard-earned learnings.  Then someone else comes along and, although they may have taken a different path to arrive there, begins to hold forth the same kind of learnings.

Joseph, thanks so much for not only arriving at certain conclusions but having the courage to walk away from the familiar in order to hold forth your new distinctions to the world.  And there are some of us who thank you for making the space that we’ve been occupying just a little less solitary!

Be Well,

Michael Perez

Michael A. Perez on Sunday, October 15, 2006

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