February Leadership Development Carnival
Filed under: Career, Fresh Voices, Innovation, Leadership, Leadership Carnivals, Leadership Skills, Leading Change, Management Education, Your Professional Development "To Do" List
Thanks to Mark Bennett and the great people at Talented Apps for hosting the February, 2010 Leadership Development Carnival. Take a stroll through the Carnevale di Venezia Edition (you’ll have to click over to understand the creative tie-in to the Carnival in Venice) and check out some truly intriguing, inspiring and compelling posts from bloggers old and new. OK, instead of old, perhaps I should say familiar!
I’m honored to be a part of the Carnival and grateful to Mark and team for all of their effort in bringing us this outstanding content from some of today’s most exciting leadership thinkers and writers.
Enjoy!
The January Leadership Development Carnival-Best of 2009
Filed under: Fresh Voices, Leadership, Leadership Carnivals, Leadership Skills, Leading Change, Life and Business, Management Education, Performance, Professional Growth, Your Professional Development "To Do" List
Dan McCarthy, the proprietor of the well-named and always excellent Great Leadership Blog, is out with The January Leadership Development Carnival-The Best of 2009 Edition. I am honored to be in some great company with Dan and many, many of my absolute favorite thinkers and writers, and I encourage you to click over and spend some quality time soaking up the energy and great ideas.
Thanks Dan for the inclusion and for your hard work in pulling this great feature together!
Two Voices-Humility and the Effective Leader
Filed under: Career, Fresh Voices, Leadership, Leadership Skills, Life and Business, Management Education, Professional Growth, Talent Management, Values, Your Professional Development "To Do" List
Note 
from Art: One of the true joys of my blogging experience comes from meeting and collaborating with some remarkable people. Mary Jo Asmus is one of those remarkable people. She writes an outstanding leadership blog offering powerful and relationship-focused perspectives on all things leadership. I don’t miss a post of hers and encourage you to check out her site and make certain to subscribe. We collaborated a few months ago for Two Voices on: The Words of a Leader, and enjoyed the experience and the reactions so much that we vowed to do it again.
Well, we’re back. Mary Jo reached out to me a few weeks ago and raised the topic of “Humility and the Leader,” and we were both so interested in exploring this issue that we went off to our separate corners and the output is reflected in the two posts below. While the posts don’t necessarily reflect a point-counterpoint perspective, they do bring two unique perspectives to what turned out to be a challenging issue. My gut indicates that we might even elicit some interesting feedback from the many thoughtful readers that frequent our respective blogs.
OK, enough of my blathering and time to get to the posts. Thanks, Mary Jo for your inspiration!
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Humility and the Effective Leader-Mary Jo’s Thoughts
So often, when we think of leadership, we think in terms of the charismatic leader, or the bold leader. We think of leaders as bigger than life, exuding confidence and perhaps, arrogance.
For most, “humility” isn’t a word that comes to mind when considering the leaders we think we know. This is unfortunate, because the best leaders I know have been able to stay self confident without crossing the line into arrogance through the simple act of remaining humble. It isn’t easy, especially for leaders who’ve had big success.
When we are humble, we understand and invite the gifts that others bring to our effective leadership.
When we are humble, we invite participation by others.
When we are humble, we are open to new learning.
When we are humble, we have empathy and compassion.
Arrogance breeds behavior that isn’t inclusive, diverse of thought, creative, or enlightening. We know that we are not humble when we’ve become arrogant.
How do we know when we’ve crossed the line into arrogance?
Be vigilant. Listen to yourself. You’ve crossed the line into arrogance when:
- You take all the credit: real leaders know that their success is a group effort. When we are humble, credit goes to all who share in your success.
- You are the smartest person in the room: learning has ceased. You feel as if you have nothing new to learn from those around you. When we are humble, we are in a state of inquiry; not knowing all the answers, which allows us to continually learn.
- You judge those around you as “less” than yourself: you’ve put yourself on a pedestal. Nobody can do anything better than you can. It’s not important where you are in relation to everyone else. What is important is that we push our own edges outward to continually evolve.
- You’ve lost empathy and compassion: you just can’t seem to identify with those in a tough spot or feel sympathy for those in sorrow. When we are humble, we can walk in the shoes of others and we can reach out to them.
Are you staying humble, or have you crossed the line into arrogance? Spend some time thinking about this question and asking for feedback from those you trust on what they are observing in your behavior. And if you’ve crossed the line, call your executive coach to help you get back to humility.
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Humility and the Effective Leader-Art’s Thoughts
I concede the dictionary war to all of you that will turn to the word “humility” and see a definition that says, “a modest or low view of one’s own importance; humbleness,” or, something as profound as “the quality or state of being humble.”
These are not definitions and words that you tend to associate with successful leaders, and yet, I cannot help but observe that many of the most impactful and successful individuals that I’ve worked with and around have an element of humility in their demeanor and an approach that exudes a quiet but positive self-confidence.
Is humility one of the secret ingredients of successful leaders?
To me, humility in a leader is best described as having the self-confidence borne of experience to be comfortable in your own leadership skin, without having to project to the world that you’re on top and in charge.
To be humble as a leader does not mean that you are weak, but rather that you are thoughtful, considerate and confident in the people around you and their ability to solve problems and learn and solve more problems.
It takes time and experience and self-awareness and raw courage to develop and project humility and confidence at the same time. Both are essential.
We generally don’t come into the leadership world with a sense of humility. Many of the mistakes of early leaders stem from a misguided belief that To Assert = To Lead.
Unfortunately, many carry this belief in assertion equals leadership with them as they climb the ladder. The earlier over-stated and over-projected self-confidence often evolves into arrogance and then hubris. The collateral damage from the leaders that follow this evolutionary path is huge.
The path towards confident humility is considerably more difficult and is filled with its own opportunities for derailment. Those that act humble may be misperceived as weak or uncertain. The To Assert =To Lead crowd likes to hire their own kind in some form of twisted Darwinian practice that ensures the survival of their kind, fully understanding that they may very well be hiring the individual that steps on their back in the climb up the ladder.
Alternatively, I submit that humble leaders are never weak. Like some martial arts experts, they have the skills to strike and defeat, but choose to use them only to defend or to fight for what is right. Fighting or striking out is the last resort of the incompetent who lack the wisdom and intellectual tools and substance to fight fair over concepts and ideas. One of the strengths of the humble leader is that everyone knows that he or she is capable of fighting and winning. This “walk softly and carry a big stick” approach buys the ability for the leader to cultivate his or her humility.
Like so many difficult tasks in life, there is no magic pill or simple guidance that anyone can offer on becoming an effective leader. You learn by doing and YOU choose your own style. I regard leadership both as a profession and as a journey and I encourage people that when they come to the fork in the road on choosing a leadership style, to turn away from the To Assert = To Lead path and start down the more difficult road and spiritual journey that focuses on others over self. I also encourage them to keep their eyes wide open and carry a big stick.
The Bottom Line:
Never underestimate the ability of the quietly confident and slightly humble leader to inspire others to move mountains.
Guest Post-More Leadership Lessons Learned the Wrong Way
Filed under: Career, Fresh Voices, Leadership, Leadership Skills, Leading the Generations, Life and Business, Professional Growth, Surviving Lousy Leaders, Your Professional Development "To Do" List
Note from Art: It’s always fun when a post strikes a chord and compels someone to comment or even put hands to keyboard and crank out a guest post. Last week’s “Leadership Lessons Learned In a Crane and Sitting on a 5 Gallon Pail” drew upon some of my own early career memories and the formative lessons learned the hard way and served as inspiration for some interesting comments and today’s guest post.
Joe Zurawski is back with us today serving up a nice post on one of the early career experiences that shaped his own leadership development. You may recall that Joe joined us here a few months ago with his take on “Things I Wish I Knew When I Became a Leader.” Joe, welcome back and thanks for sharing!
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Why I’ve Vowed Not to Be Like Glen, by Joe Zurawski
How does this sound for your first job out of college: starting salary above most of your friends, five weeks vacation plus 15 holidays, 8:00-4:30 days with 90 minute lunches, and a 2:1 matching 401(k)! Why would anyone ever leave?!
As a newly minted, 21 year old mechanical engineer out of Marquette University, I was ready to go conquer mechanical stuff. This job at a U.S. Department of Energy research facility, where physicists were making new discoveries every year, seemed liked the perfect place to put my education to the test.
My first real assignment was to work with visiting professor from Cornell University to design and build a new type of device to support his research. It had everything an “engi-nerd” could want: an all-new device with gears, motors, lots of stainless steel, and some extreme environmental conditions. Also, I would have the chance to learn from the most senior person in the group (“Glen”) who had worked at the facility since it was a pristine prairie with no buildings nearly two decades earlier. He literally built the facility from ground up and knew every piece of equipment inside and out.
You can maybe guess what happened. Instead of being coached on how to design my first machine, I was handed a stack of machine design magazines and told to read them (and to take my time…). Not being the patient type, I plunged ahead and created my design by talking to lots of people, asking for help, and just taking my best shot. Glen did not want to be bothered by a junior know-nothing.
As the design took shape, I had my college textbooks spread out on the table and diligently worked calculations and triple checked the math. When I thought it was ready, I presented to Glen, ready to hear how great it was. Instead, he quickly said it wouldn’t work and I should design it like so. When I asked him why, he said that because of all his experience doing these things, he knew a key area of my design just wouldn’t work right.
Crushed, I went back to my table and went back through all my calculations again. It had to work – everything that could go wrong was accounted for in the design. With the blessing of the department manager, I moved ahead on my approach. Glen wiped his hands of the project and blew me off.
During this time, I had made a point of getting to know the factory fabricator guys and asking their perspective on how to build the device. It turns out they didn’t care for Glen and were eager to help me show him up. Glen never asked for their help; he just told them how it had to be.
When the device was finally installed, I had a few nervous days as the Cornell professor tested it. The results were in: it worked perfectly! As for Glen, he literally never said a word about it to me.
The Bottom Line
I have carried that lesson with me my entire career. A super experienced engineer was completely closed to the perspective that a young kid could have a good idea. He was closed to learning and displayed an attitude that there was nothing that I could teach him. As I am now the older person in the room, every time I get the sense of “I’ve been there and done that and know the answer,” I force myself to pause and remember not to be like Glen.
- There is always something to be learned from everyone, including the most junior associates
- As a leader, get good at asking challenging questions to help your associates consider the unexpected and see how they answer. Have they really thought through it?
- Don’t miss the chance to have a positive impact on a young professional by actively coaching and mentoring. They will learn more, and you just might learn more.
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About Joe Zurawski: Joe is a strategy and innovation executive with a career that has spanned strategy development and execution, whole lifecycle product innovation and management, demand generation marketing, and global alliances. He has worked in electronics companies (including Motorola), software (Firstlogic/Business Objects, SPSS), and spent several years in management consulting at Ernst & Young. You can reach Joe at jzurawsk@chicagobooth.edu.
October Edition of Leadership Development Carnival at Leader Talk
Filed under: Career, Fresh Voices, Leadership, Leadership Carnivals, Leadership Skills, Leading Change, Life and Business, Management Education, Middle Management, Not-For-Profit Leadership, Performance, Professional Growth, Talent Management, Your Professional Development "To Do" List
Becky Robinson, the articulate and highly engaging author of one of my favorite blogs, Leader Talk, has posted the October edition of the always exciting and thought-provoking Leadership Development Carnival. She appropriately names this one the Endurance Edition, in part, because she received a record number of posts from the leading leadership bloggers on the planet and brought them together in one place for your reading convenience. Plan on a rousing workout as you digest some fantastic content. Oh, and she was kind enough to include one of my posts as well!
Take the time to visit the Carnival and enjoy the leadership rides. And while you’re there, check out Becky’s consistently great material. Her blog is well worth subscribing to for your regular dose of genuine inspiration and leadership guidance.
Thanks, Becky for a job well done!
Enjoy!
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