Sunday, December 31, 2006

Ten Mistakes Inexperienced Youngleaders Make

I read these somewhere and have them in an old notebook I dug up. If anyone has the cite please let me know!
  1. Taking a rigid top down attitude - This is a biggie... how many times have we heard people say "I'm in charge..." even though we know other members of the team or organization are either really doing all of work or could do a much better job. Youngleaders need to quickly realize that a leader's power comes from his or her team/followers. Quite often they are the experts in their fields. Take the time to listen!
  2. Putting paperwork before peoplework - This is another big one. "It can't be done that way... We NEED to do it this way..." Get these ideas out of your brain. Paperwork, and "formal" procedures for doing anything can usually be circumvented or done another way. Realize that jumping through hoops and cutting through red-tape can be frustrating for people. Cut your team some slack and be flexible. Remember that people always come first!
  3. Not providing their teams with affirmations - See the One Minute Manager. You need to let your people know when they are doing a good job (or need improvement). It only needs to take a minute!
  4. Leaving no room for mavericks - Sometimes you gotta just be a little crazy, bend (or break) the rules. Give everyone a fair chance to speak their ideas. No matter how crazy they may seem at first. Seriously, how crazy would the Internet seem to people in the 1950's?
  5. Having a dictatorship in decision making - Your team members will usually perform better when allowed to make some of their own decisions. You really don't have to hover over their shoulders and make sure they are following the format that YOU think is the most efficient for writing emails to their grandmothers ^_^.
  6. Dirty Delegation - Just Let Go!! If you've delegated a task, and assigned a firm due date (important!), let your team complete it according to their best judgment. Trust them, unless there is a good reason not to.
  7. Communication chaos - Tangles of emails, voicemails, memos (who sends those anymore), and water cooler "meetings" just don't cut it. Have a standard method of gathering and dispersing information to/from your team. This could take the form of a standing staff meeting, a daily/weekly/monthly update email, or even some fancy shmancy collaboration website like Basecamp or Microsoft Sharepoint.
  8. Missing the clues of corporate culture - Generalize this to the culture of any organization. To put simply you can't "beat the system". You can change it... slowly. Take your time and understand what makes the people in the system tick, then you can win.
  9. Success without successors - This is one of the keys to Level 5 Leadership. Think about the future. When you move up or move on, you will need a capable successor.
  10. Failure to focus on the future - All too often we are caught up in our daily firefighting, that we don't focus on the future. If you don't know where you want to go, you're not going to get anywhere.
I hope you all have a Happy New Year! Please keep reading the Youngleader blog in 2007, I have lots of things in store!!

-Jason

Thursday, December 28, 2006

Be a Mentor

Just go and do it. Be a mentor. It's that simple!...

Ok, ok, maybe it's not that simple, but being a mentor is one of the best leadership building activities EVER. Think about it for a second. You're a Young leader with tons of ambition, ready to take on the world... But you want a little direction; you want to see some of the pitfalls that lie ahead; you want to know the best ways to achieve your goals quickly. How do you get this information?

The short answer is, it's not Google or the internet (those these can help... some). No the best answer is from a mentor, someone who has already gone through what you're going through. Now, now, don't go about conjuring up images of wizened old men with long white beards. Mentors come in all shapes and sizes, and there are plenty of mentoring opportunities for Young Leaders.

Supposed you're in college. Then, you probably know tons of high school students who want advice on what classes to take, colleges to look at, good after school jobs, and etc... But then maybe
you're still in high school. Well there are plenty of middle and elementary school kids who could use a "big brother" or "big sister" to show them the value of education or help them resist negative peer pressure. To put it simply, no matter what stage of life you are in, there is always someone who would like to learn about your experiences, and I'm sure there are times in your life where you felt the same way.

Being a mentor is also an amazing feeling. Not only will you feel good because you are helping someone else along in their careers or lives, you will never forget the appreciation and respect that your mentees will show you.

Even more, as a Young Leader and a mentor, you will also be able to practice your leadership skills, by listening to what they want and helping them to shape their own personal vision and setting the goals that they need to achieve it.

So the take away is to go and be a mentor! Just remember not to just go up to a school and tell a teacher, "I want to mentor some of your kids for a few hours." People will think you're some kind of weirdo. :-) Start simple. There are probably younger people in your own family that already look up to you for advice and guidance. If not, reach out to your network of extended family and friends. Finally, remember that being a mentor isn't about "being older" or "wiser" it just means sharing your experiences with those who want to listen.

Comments are well appreciated. Leave your stories about being a mentor / having a mentor!

-Jason

Sunday, December 24, 2006

Good To Great

I find many business books on leadership to be filled with a lot of fluff. Usually, they just rehash the buzzwords of the day and usually characterize leadership some sort of magical "charisma" to coerce or fool people into doing what you want. Good To Great by Jim Collins is not one of those books.

First off, Good to Great, was the result of two years of intense research by Collins' group of 21 researchers on what made a "great" company, and how a company went from just being profitable in the short term (good) to being "great", with examples of Kimberly Clark, Walgreens, Nucor...

Collins makes a number of key points:
  1. Great companies have "Level 5 Leadership" (more on this later)
  2. Great companies think about getting the right people before finding the right vision
  3. Great companies are able to "confront the brutal facts" (not sugar coating weaknesses or faults in order to solve them)
  4. Great companies know their strengths and follow the law of constant renewal
  5. Great companies foster a culture of discipline
  6. Great companies realize that technology is only an accelerator, a means to a greater end
  7. Great companies build momentum by reinforcing their consistent efforts with success.
I'll spend this post talking a little bit more on what Collins calls "Level 5 Leadership".

Essentially Collins describes 5 levels of leadership:
Level 1: Highly capable individual
Level 2: Contributing team member
Level 3: Competent manager
Level 4: Effective Leader
Level 5: "Executive Leader"

Most of the levels are pretty self explanatory, except you might ask "What is the difference between Level 4 and 5?" According to Collins, "Level 5 leaders channel their ego away from themselves and into the larger goal of building a great company." They show personal humility and they never stop trying.

The problem with Level 4 leaders is that they are often wrapped up in themselves. They are "effective leaders" in a very strict sense of the term. They are able to motivate others to achieve, however because of this they often take on a "larger than life" or "rockstar" persona. We often see these types of "rockstar" CEO's flaunting their 9 figure salaries as they are surrounded by reporters from business magazines who proclaim him or her as a "genius". While they very well might be a genius, it doesn't set a very good example for the developing Young Leader.

First of all circumstances are completely different for each individual. What might work for one leader at one organization probably won't work completely at another. Secondly, a lot of Level 4 leadership success has to do with luck, being at the right place at the right time with the right people. A "great" organization needs more than just one genius leader... because no matter how long he or she stays in control, one day successor will be needed and without the proper culture, chance has it that another "genius" leader will not be the one taking the helm.

However, Level 5 leaders often breed more more Level 5 leaders. As such they will spend the time to cultivate successors who will have the discipline to keep the organization "great". This makes all the difference.

So check out Good to Great! It's definitely worth it.

-Jason

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Integrity

We've all heard about "integrity". I actually, think we probably hear "too much" about integrity. We are told to "live with integrity". Many schools (especially in business in the wake of the Enron scandal) require students to promise that they will "hold themselves to the highest standards of integrity". Students are left to the conclusion that this probably means "don't do bad stuff" (cheating, plagiarism, and etc...)

Quite often though, in a display of extremely poor leadership, some smart-ass will point out that integrity is the property of "oneness", and that as long as you believe it is morally acceptable to lie, cheat and steal, you can still have rock solid integrity.

This kind of thinking is not only immature, but also potentially dangerous. Can you imagine the world that we might live in? Leaders claiming to be examples of integrity truly believing that as long as their actions aligned with their own twisted moral code (and that they wouldn't get caught), that they could get away with anything? It's not exactly the kind of place I want to live in either.

Though I do agree that integrity does in fact mean the property of "oneness", I take this in a much broader, and I believe 'truer' sense. I take integrity to mean something more like "the oneness of expectations and behaviors". This leads to something more along the lines of the "Golden Rule". No, not "the ones who have the gold make the rules", but "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

This is a simple yet powerful message that Young Leaders need to take to heart. If you have the reputation of having integrity of expectations and behavior, others will take notice. People will want to work for you, knowing that you will treat them fairly, and others will learn to treat you fairly, knowing that you expect to be treated as such.

So when was the last time you aligned yourself to your moral compass? Maybe it's about time to think about what you value in a leader (and in just a person) and to try to live up to that standard. And as always thanks for reading!

-Jason

Friday, December 15, 2006

Good Search

OK this post isn't exactly about leadership... but one thing Young Leaders must realize is that leadership takes practice. And one place where people are just dying to give Young Leaders this badly needed practice and experience is in the realm of community service! I was involved with the Penn State Dance Marathon (THON - The world's largest student run philanthropy, raising over $4 million to conquer childhood cancer in 2005.) as a technology captain, and got a unique perspective at the corporate-like organization of THON as well as seeing many examples of "Young Leaders gone bad".

OK, but the point of this post was about Good Search. Good Search is a search engine, powered by Yahoo! with a twist. 50% of all of their ad revenue goes to the charity of choice of their searchers (I have mine as THON). So check it out and get involved, and as always keep reading!!

-Jason

Thursday, December 14, 2006

Time Management (II)

You might have heard of the Cult of Getting Things Done (GTD). No the people in this "cult" don't put on Nike sneakers and drink spiked Kool-ade at midnight in the hopes of being taken on some magical alien spaceship ride. Instead they are obsessed with productivity and with David Allen's wildly popular book Getting Things Done.

Smart Young Leaders typically do already have some sort of grasp of Time Management. However, most of the time this depends on our own mental prowess. We have an innate knack at keeping our every growing lists of projects, to-do's, due dates in our heads. But we all have a limit, and when people are pushed past their limits... we will get frustrated.

So how do we fix this? In its essence Getting Things Done aims at clearing your "mental RAM" by #1 Capturing all the things that need to be done and #2 Having the discipline to do them. Yes it sounds easy... but in practice we all know it's easier said than done. If you can commit to mastering Allen's workflow, your productivity can shoot through the roof.

So let me break this workflow down for you:

1. The first step in getting your life organized is collect all your "stuff". Allen recommends some sort of "inbox" where you will put anything new that you want to look at.
2. Next you need to process this stuff, i.e., Ask yourself, "Is this item actionable?"
If not, "Is it trash? Is this something I might want to think about for later? Do I want to keep this as a reference?"
If yes, decide the very next action you need to do to move forward on that task. If you can do that action in 2 minutes or less JUST DO IT! (Nike please don't sue me ^_^). If not, "Is it something you need to delegate to another person? Do you need to put it on your calendar for a later time? Should you put it on your list of actions that must be done as soon as possible?"
3. Organize all the items related to the processing in step #2. Allen loves two things... manila folders and automatic label makers... well I got to say I love automatic label makers too ^_^. He recommends having plenty of these around. Create a "someday/maybe" folder for all those things you're not sure if/when you might want to do them. Create folders for each "project" for you to store reference materials. If you delegate something, remember to record that you are waiting for something from that person. Create a tickler file, a physical calendar with 43 folders - 12 for months of the year and 31 for days in a month (You put the tasks to be done on that day or month into the corresponding folder). Finally have your iron-clad Next Actions folder (totally pwns wimpy to-do lists) for things that need to be done ASAP.
4. Review, Review, Review! What good is all this organization if you don't review your stuff regularly? Allen recommends weekly reviews of your organized items. Have you gotten the things you were waiting for? Have you completed all of your next actions? Do you still someday/maybe want to do that? and etc...
5. Have the discipline to action Do It! This is important. You don't want to let yourself fall behind, because if you do it defeats the purpose of having your trusted system where all of your things that need to get done are systematically collected and completed.

OKOK, I know this wasn't a magical cure-all for all your time management needs. But it's worth a shot. And hey, who knows you might be the next to join the cult of GTD.

-Jason


Sunday, December 10, 2006

The One Minute Manager

The One Minute Manager: The Word's Most Popular Management Method. The name almost says it all. I'm sure you've all at least heard of the One Minute Manager. It is a deceptively simple book of around 100 pages and having a cute and engaging story. Thats probably why it has been so popular for so long.

Well the secret to this book's success are the three "One Minute Secrets":

The First Secret - One Minute Goals
This boils down to the KISS (Keep it Simple Stupid -or- Keep it Sweet and Simple) method. Writing your goals down on a single sheet of paper using less than 250 words. Constantly reviewing and evaluating the goals and your performance, one minute at a time.

The Second Secret - One Minute Praisings
The young leader must learn that it is human nature to be appreciated. We love it. We need it. We hardly get enough of it. One minute praisings get right to the point. They tell people what they did right, and that you feel good about what they did. It also encourages them to do more of the same and create even better results.

The Third Secret - One Minute Reprimands
The converse of the One Minute Praise is the One Minute Reprimand. You also need to be specific about exactly what they did wrong and how it makes you feel. (Making sure they know the reprimand is for the action, not for the person). Then, after stopping and allowing the other person to understand this, you always need to followup with reminding them how much you value them as a member of the team.

That's about it... though you'll have to read the rest ofthe book to get the full details. Ultimately, I think the magic to the One Minute Manager is something somewhat more psychological. One minute is an almost insignificant amount of time to us. Though if we are conscious of our time, and actually use every spare minute, we can reap huge benefits.

Until next time,
-Jason


Saturday, November 25, 2006

Rapport

So it's pronounced "rappore" kind of like the "report" in the "Colbert Report" :-). Silliness aside, you've probably heard of rapport. But most people probably don't appreciate how powerful of a leadership tool that it can be.

I would actually put two of the Dale Carnegie "Golden Rules" as precursors to being able to build rapport. #4 "Become Genuinely Interested in Other People" and #8 "Talk in Terms of the Other Person's Interests". Essentially rapport is all about building that connected feeling with other people. This is that feeling of "knowing someone for years" even though you may have just met them 15 minutes ago. There are many many components that go into the process of building rapport, e.g., body language, physical appearance, tone of voice, environment... and there literally shelves of books devoted to each of these topics that you can find at your local library. (You have been Sharpening the Saw lately right?)

Anyway, some people are naturally talented at building rapport. If you have read the recently popular book The Tipping Point you may remember the story about Paul Revere. The author, Malcolm Gladwell, calls Revere a "super connector", because he was a master at building the important relationships with people (and that why he was able to rally colonial forces during his famous midnight ride). Another, modern day example of someone very skilled with building rapport would be former president Bill Clinton. Politics aside, people again and again say that whenever they are speaking with the former president, they feel as though it is an intimate conversation between old friends, even if it is just 30 seconds at a huge charity dinner or political rally. He's just that good at making people feel comfortable and at ease.

You probably use rapport to some extent everyday, and for the most part without realizing it. That's why happiness is contagious and sometimes when you're in a bad mood you're best friend who you always hang out with might say "I'm mad at something... but I don't know what." Human beings are social creatures and we tend to pick up on these subconscious feelings. But it goes even further than that.

So how can we use rapport to help us become better leaders? Well essentially using rapport as a tool involves using the two Dale Carnegie rules I listed above. You need to first "get inside their head". I don't mean this as playing psycho-analyst, but instead figuring out what kind of basic emotional state they are in. The simplest way would be looking at the person's face. Is he or she smiling or frowning, has a tense expression or looks relaxed, is looking intently into your eyes or drifting out into space? These are all keys to understanding. However, one of the most effective tools for building rapport is mimicking (Tony Robbins). By taking on the physical characteristics of a person, facial expression, posture, breathing pattern, tone of voice... you can almost instantaneously "feel" the other person's state of mind.

This leads into the next step of using rapport as a tool for leadership. After you have successfully (and tastefully) mimicked the other person something will turn on in the other person's head and say "I like this person, he or she understands me and is like me". And at this point the other person will be much more receptive to hearing your ideas.

NOTE: Some may call this "manipulative", however if you look back at Rule #4
"Become Genuinely Interested in Other People" the key word here is "genuinely". Now this is a paradigm that needs to be made clear. If you can get to the point where you truly believe and realize that every single human being has valuable experience or knowledge or qualities
that you can learn and benefit from, then you will "Seek first to understand and then to be understood." And because of this respect and understanding of the other person, you are going to want to share with them your knowledge, experience, and qualities for them to learn and benefit from. This is where rapport comes in. Rapport is the tool for building understanding along the two way street of communication.

So why not try using rapport with your friends, you'll probably discover an even strong and deeper friendship. Until next time.

-Jason

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Theodore Roosevelt Quote

"It's not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strides valiently, who errs and comes up short again and again... who spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place will never be with those cold timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat." -- Theodore Roosevelt

Take a minute and think about this. It's tough being a leader. It's tough taking the responsibility of leadership. But the important thing is to remember that through your own effort and the effort of your followers, you can make a difference in your life, the lives of others, and even in the world. What's stopping you?

-Jason

The Dale Carnegie Course

So you might ask, "What is the number one most effective thing I can do to jumpstart my career as a Young Leader?" To this I can unequivocally say, "Take the Dale Carnegie Course, it will change your life forever!"

How can I make such a bold statement? Because I know it works. OK first off. This you need to understand that is not an "easy fix". It is not a magic pill. And you can't treat this course like an average lecture, taking notes and expecting to "pass the exam". It is a course that you can get as much out of as you put into it. My instructor likened it to "filling your pockets with sand, in which after the 12 weeks, they will transform into priceless jewels."


OK, one more caveat. This course is pretty expensive (about $1400 when I took it 4 years ago). Though, if you are currently working, most probably your employer would be more than happy to pay for or at least subsidize the tuition. The course also counts for something like 3 "continuing education" credits. I'm not 100% what that means, though I think it might be transferable to college credits.

So again why is the Dale Carnegie Course so great? (or Are you getting kickbacks for referrals? - No I am not getting referral kickbacks from the Dale Carnegie people, though I wish I could because so many of my friends and family that I told about the course have now taken it). In short, the Dale Carnegie Course is a tool for bringing about a paradigm shift. I would call it the shift from being task oriented or self oriented to becoming people oriented and ultimately towards being a LEADER.

If you find yourself tending to be shy, this course will help support you and gain the confidence to shine. If you need help with public speaking, this course forces you (in a nice way) to give speeches every class. If you need help "connecting" with people and working on those "soft skills" the Dale Carnegie course puts a number of tools at your disposal. And perhaps the reason why the course is so successful, is that it makes use of the power of positive peer pressure.

The course creates an air of positive energy that is contagious. Every week, your fellow classmates will motivate you to set high goals for your personal achievement and smash through them. By the end of the course you will have made 20 or so new close friends. It is not uncommon for people to reveal a lot of pent up emotions and a lot about themselves as they go through their "transformation". In my class we had a state trooper who wanted to be less "emotionally retarded. He started out very gruff and matter a fact, but near the end of the course he was standing at the front of the class in tears as he recounted a personal story.

Compared to the other numerous "leadership seminars" which merely throw different tools at you, the Dale Carnegie Course is 12 weeks of "personal transformation". Sure, you can still read the books by Dale Carnegie How to Win Friends and Influence People and Stop Worrying and Start Living (which I also highly recommend), and any of the multitude of books on leadership to get the tools you need to be an effective leader. However, it is infinitely more difficult to bring about the change on your own.

So, please please please take this course if you can! And if not, check the books out and make it a goal to take the course when you can.

-Jason




Sunday, November 12, 2006

Time Management (I)

If only there were another hour in the day! Time management is a very important an useful skill to have. With our modern lives spinning at an ever quickening pace, the only way to get everything we need done, leaving some time to sleep and eat, is through time management. I know what you must be thinking, “Do I need to get an expensive PDA (personal digital assistant), or some other type of expensive computer software to organize my entire life?”.

The short answer is ‘no’. In fact the leading trend in many circles is towards these so called “hipster pda” which is a low-tech and cheap solution to getting organized. It is essentially a stack of index cards held together with a binder clip or rubber bands. Yes I know that it might sound a little bit crazy, but thousands, if not more, swear by it.

But lets first take a step back. What is time management? Well to put it the most briefly, I would point to the 2nd Habit of Highly Successful People, putting first things first. Now stop, and think about that for a second. How much of your day is spent just “doing stuff”, but that doesn’t really have any value for you? How many times have we stopped at the end of an exhausting day and realized we hadn’t really accomplished much of anything?

Well that’s just the point. Too often we let ourselves get bogged down by life minutia and become frustrated. However, by first doing first things first, that is setting aside time to do the most important things instead of things that seem important but are merely urgent, e.g., phone calls, emails, busy work, and etc… Now I’m not advocating not picking up the phone when your mother calls you, but in order to get the most out of your days, you need to start asking some questions.

Is this activity important? Does this need to be done right now? How does this activity fit into my overall goals and plans? Is there anything else that I should be doing right now because it is more important?

True it does take a minute to think about these questions and their answers. But it is time well spent as they will pay dividends in giving you more control over your time.

Time management is such a huge topic, be sure to tune in for more updates and tools that you can use to manage your time. Until then, think making the first step to managing your time and putting the “first things first”.

-Jason

Monday, November 06, 2006

Servant Leadership

High school principals seem to love extolling the qualities of servant leadership that their favorite student council members have demonstrated. While I truly believe servant leadership to be an excellent paradigm for young leaders to follow, I don't always believe that these people know very much of what they are talking about when they speak of "servant leadership".

However, if they had read The Servant the original book about "servant leadership" they would probably understand this topic a little more. In the simplest terms, servant leadership reveals the difference between Power and Authority. As we've mentioned before, dictators, drill sergeants, and pure “managers” wield power, while true leaders wield authority. The difference between Power and Authority is that with pure power, you coerce followers (underlings) to do your bidding, however with authority you get people to willingly do what you want through influence.

In the beginning of The Servant, a businessman is nearing a breakdown in his professional and personal lives. He ends up attending a week-long retreat at a Benedictine monastery. There he learns that even though he had been very successful in many areas of his life, it had come at a great human cost. This cost slowly took its toll on his coworkers and family as he ruthlessly disregarded their needs in order to pursue his own goals.

Throughout the book, the author takes the main character through a paradigm shifting journey. He realizes that often times managers spend most of their time enjoying their rights as leaders instead of their responsibilities as leaders. He learns that the true servant leader is committed to fulfill the needs (not the wants) of his or her followers. And in the end, followers work more effectively under a leader who actually cares about how they are doing versus under an authoritative taskmaster who “leads” with a bullwhip.

Servant leadership is again something that is best learned through experience than just through books. It also comes in time as a person matures and learns selflessness versus selfishness. Not something the average high school student council member displays. But anyway, this is only an introduction to servant leadership. For a great overview check out The Servant.

-Jason



Sunday, November 05, 2006

Public Speaking

Yes we’ve all heard it a million times. Americans fear public speaking more than even death. And to counteract this colleges and universities across the country are requiring students to take public speaking courses in record numbers. However, the classes are usually boring, focusing on the technical nuances of communication and stressing “proper” organization and structure. Most students leave these classes having read three or four speeches off of their note cards and hating the professor for not allowing them to talk about the topic they wanted to do.

This is a disservice to the young leaders who would greatly benefit from public speaking classes. Leaders, of course, need to use their public speaking skills all the time. Whether it is running a meeting, making a presentation, or networking effective speaking is a must have skill.

Fortunately, (or unfortunately) public speaking is a skill that gets easier with practice. The only problem is that for young leaders, you probably don’t have much of anything in the way of public speaking experience. But there are some tips for getting started.

  • Realize that it is natural to have some measure of “stage fright”. Everyone, even the professionals, get it. In fact, a little bit of nervous energy can help you deliver a dynamite speech.
  • Confidence is key. “What now I’m supposed to be nervous and confident at the same time?” No… well yes… but the idea is that you should be confident that you know what you’re talking about and your topic is important and that the audience ought to listen to you.
    Do you know what the biggest confidence booster is? Passion! Have the passion in whatever you’re speaking about and nothing can hold you back.
    And when all else fails, just fake it. If you act confident, you’ll feel more confident, try it!
  • Practice, Practice, Practice! Only the prepared speaker deserves to be confident. That being said, don’t ever ever memorize a speech word for word. You’ll probably forget and definitely will sound mechanical and dead. Prepare by organizing your thoughts in a way that flows. Think about the points you want to make and maybe some relevant anecdotes.
  • Know your audience. Yes I know… I’m sounding like your high school English teacher. This is an extremely key point though. The only way you can get your audience’s attention (and hopefully convinced to agree with you) is to know them. Think about how they would react to certain speaking techniques, and tailor your speech accordingly.

There is a lot more good information in the book The Quick and Easy Way to Effective Speaking by Dale Carnegie. (Dale Carnegie is essentially the granddaddy of the personal development book genre – More on and his other books later). So check it out and get out there to do some public speaking!

-Jason

PS. A organization that can help you get public speaking experience is the Toastmasters. With literally thousands (or more) clubs throughout the world, there should be one near you!



Thursday, November 02, 2006

Mission Statements

Yes, I’m sure most of us have played around with the Dilbert Mission Statement Generator. Throw together a bunch of random buzzwords and you get what the majority of mission statements look like, an unintelligible mess that doesn’t seem to say anything. Fortunately things don’t have to be that way.

Instead, a well written mission statement can galvanize a group to a vision. A mission statement serves as the guiding light for a group or organization, helping current and future leaders to decide what short term strategies and goals to employ.

Essentially a mission statement should be a short paragraph that does three things:

  • Summarizes what it is you and your team have set out to do, e.g., “To land a man on the moon”, “To give ordinary folk the chance to buy the same thing as rich people”, “To fight against and prevent acts of hate and prejudice as well as to support diversity”…
  • Describes how the vision will be reached, i.e., “By increasing spending on science research and science education”, “By improving the standard of living for our customers and serving communities around the world”, “By giving a collective and unified voice to the issues that are affecting Asian Pacific American Penn State students”.
  • Lay down the guiding Core Values that reflect the corporate culture, e.g., “Client Value Creation, One Global Network, Integrity, Stewardship, Best People, Respect for the Individual”

So how do you actually write one of these “hip and cool” mission statements? The real challenge actually comes from understanding what the group actually needs. Leaders aren’t geniuses who magically (and unilaterally) create “the perfect vision”. Instead, by understanding the people and their environment, they can discover their true best mission.

The rest should come naturally. Just make sure to be clear and concise. It also doesn’t help to make it memorable. Disney’s “To make people happy” is definitely a broad and perhaps audacious mission, but I’m sure that helped to make Disney a house-hold name globally. And as always, spend the time to review and edit the mission statement with peers as well as mentors. A mission statement is something that should be “forever”. Write as though you will carve it onto huge stone tablets.

Finally, remember a group without a mission, is just like a ship without a rudder, at best you’re going nowhere fast. Until next time.

-Jason

Saturday, October 28, 2006

Setting SMART Goals

Have you ever made a New Years Resolution and then given up after only a few weeks? Who hasn’t? This could be caused by several reasons, i.e., biting off more than you can chew, having a vague or unclear goal, or not setting clear deadlines.

However, good leaders that in order to attain their vision it is important to set and achieve the right goals. You can find a plethora of information about setting goals. Though, I think using the SMART method of goal setting is not only easy to use but also very effective in creating goals that will work.

Specific – Set clear goals and articulate what it is exactly, that you want to accomplish. “I want to improve my leadership skills,” isn’t a specific goal. However, “I want to increase my knowledge of leadership by reading one book on leadership every week,” is more specific.

Measurable – How will you know that you’ve achieved your unless it is measurable. Whether you want to lose 15 pounds or increase sales by 15%, you need to have that finish-line clear in your mind.

Agreed Upon – For a leader this is critical. You might think that a certain goal is in line with the group’s vision. However, if the group doesn’t agree, or if the goal doesn’t agree with your own personal beliefs and values it will not be achieved.

Realistic – Of course you need to set goals that are realistic. If you set goals that are beyond your or your group’s capabilities you will fail and lower morale.

Time Based – You need to set a deadline or deadlines for your goal. Not only will the deadline make it possible for you to manage time and lay out the specific tasks needed to achieve your goal. In addition, deadlines affect the achievability of a goal. Making $10,000 in sales is easier to achieve over a month than over 3 days.

Remember that these are just guidelines for writing goals. Also, it requires a lot of time and thought to actually decide what goals will fit into your vision. Furthermore, it is important to be constantly reviewing and editing your goals as you and your team’s situation changes.

Anyway it’s time to get cracking and set some new SMART goals.

-Jason

Monday, October 23, 2006

What is a Leader?

What is a leader? This is the big question. Does a leader smell different from a “normal” person? Can someone be a “born leader”? This is a complex question (though you probably guess that leaders don’t smell different from other people).

In a simplified world, I would say there are three types of people: Technicians, Managers, and Leaders.

Let’s start with Technicians. First of all, don’t confuse these people with “followers”. Good followership is an important aspect of good leadership (but we’ll get to this in a later post). Technicians on the other hand are typically the grunts who, while being extremely competent from a technical standpoint, are often wearing blinders and only focus on one specific task. Technicians usually do not have a clear vision of the “big picture” of what he or she is working on, and therefore often do not have an internal sense of urgency, are indecisive, and avoid anything different from the familiar.

Managers are often given authority over their team by others. In contrast to technicians, they are goal oriented people. They are able provide their people with a detailed plan of attack to accomplish the tasks that must be completed to accomplish their goals. Managers tend to be highly organized and efficient to the point of seeming bureaucratic. Because of this, a manager can often become like a task master or drill sergeant, seeking recognition for him or herself often at rest of the team’s cost. Many managers think themselves to be leaders, having read a book or two on leadership or attended a so-called “leadership seminar”. Young leaders, please be wary of falling into this pit-fall. An inflated ego is the surest way to alienating your team and failure to achieve your goal.

Leaders understand their followers’ needs and provide them with a vision to help satisfy these needs. They see the big picture but also know how to help their team accomplish the specific tasks needed to achieve the ultimate goal. Leaders take on the responsibilities of leadership. They are willing to pay the price in getting the resources and tools that are needed to achieve the team’s goals.

Leaders are results oriented, allowing their teams the flexibility to make their own decisions. They trust their teams’ expertise and ability to get results. Instead of barking out strict orders, leaders set an example for the team to follow. Most of all, a true leader is people oriented. They focus on their people, giving clear and constructive feedback, acting as one part coach and one part cheer leader to energize their teams. A leader is given his or her authority from the followers, and therefore has a commitment to help them achieve the vision.

Hopefully this gets you all on the right track on understanding what is and what isn’t a leader. Often times we see people trying to “be a leader” by just bossing others around. This couldn’t be farther from what a true leader should be. But more on this next time.

-Jason

Sunday, October 22, 2006

Ice Breakers

Most people shiver at the sound of the word “Ice Breaker”. Maybe this is because we all have been to a meeting where an unenthused organizer has forced us to perform an embarrassing task along with a random bunch of strangers. However things don’t have to be this way. Ice breakers by their very nature should be fun activities that get a group of strangers or people who have never worked together before to begin to feel a little more comfortable with each other.

How can we avoid the “cold shoulder” when doing an ice breaker? Well this is all up to the meeting organizer. Anyone can follow the instructions of an ice breaker, but it takes a leader to pull it off successfully. So what’s the trick? ENTHUSIASM If the meeting organizer is not truly excited about the ice breaker (I’m not talking about playing phony here), how do we expect the participants to get excited about it?

So in short, pick an ice breaker that you feel will be fun, and matches the dynamic of the audience. You would definitely want to have a different icebreaker for senior citizen librarians than for the Monty Python Society at the local college. Also keep in mind that ice breakers should be pretty short, under 5-10 minutes depending on the size of the group.

To help you out I’ll list a few ice breaker ideas as well as my opinions on them.

  1. Two Truths and a Lie – The old standby. Everyone writes their name and two truths and one lie about themselves on an index card. The organizer collects the cards and reads them off asking the group to guess which “fact” is the lie. It works for pretty much any group, and because of this, has been done to death. Use it only if you really really want to.
  2. Snowball Fight – A flurry of fun. Break the group into two teams. Each person takes a piece of paper and writes down their favorite music band, movie, book, and etc… on it. Then crumple up the pieces of paper and have an indoor snowball fight!! After a few minutes, everyone picks up a “snowball” uncrumples it and tries to find the owner. This one is a lot of fun, but some people might not appreciate getting whacked in the face with a crumpled up piece of paper.
  3. Birthday Line – More difficult than you think. This one is simple, the group is to form a line in order by birthday… with only one catch… no talking! The Birthday Line ice breaker is fun, especially when you see all the wacky body language people use to try to convey when their birthday is.
  4. The Name Game – “A person’s name, to them, is the sweetest and most important sound in the world.” This works easiest in a circle. Have the first person state his/her name. Then the second person states the first person’s name and then their own, the third states the first’s then the second’s, and then their own, and etc… By the end everyone will pretty much have learned everyone else’s name. This ice breaker is great for new teams, the only thing is that it takes a little bit longer to do.
  5. Story Relay – Yeah so maybe this is a modified drinking game… But that’s why it’s so fun! Bring the team into a circle choose a theme (maybe something relevant to your group/meeting) for your “story”. Then start the story with only one sentence, the next person to the right then continues the story with another sentence. This should continue until the story is finished or the story doesn’t make sense anymore (each person should go at least once). This ice breaker is mainly just for fun. Maybe better for groups that already know each other.
-Jason

Thursday, October 19, 2006

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is a modern classic. Filled with wonderful anecdotes, Covey leads the reader through each of the 7 Habits ending with what he calls the "Private Victory", the "Public Victory", and finally repeating the cycle to achieve more and greater goals.

One specific anecdote that I particularly enjoyed was about "paradigm shifts". Covey relates the story of being in the subway and becoming annoyed by a particularly roudy bunch of children. Upset he confront's the children's father who had been sitting in his seat apparently staring into space. Waking from his daze, the father apologizes to Covey, telling him that they had all just come back from the hospital where the children's mother just died not more than a few hours ago. Immediately Covey has a paradigm shift, seeing the father not as irresponsible and uncaring but rather as being in need of some emotional support.

This little story so wonderfully illustrates the need for the reader to see the 7 Habits as a paradigm, a frame of mind or method of action, that when followed will lead to high levels of effectiveness.

These 7 Habits are:
1. Be Proactive - Don't just sit there DO SOMETHING!
2. Begin With the End in Mind - Know where you want to go.
3. Put First Things first - Get your priorities straight and tackle them.
4. Think Win/Win - Success is much easier when it is shared.
5. Seek First to Understand then to be Understood - Hear what people have to say, stop, think and understand where they are coming from, and then explain how what you want is inline with what they want too.
6. Synergize - "2+2 = 5 or more" No man (or woman) is an island. Leveraging the knowledge, talents, and experiences of others you can achieve far more than you could alone.
7. Sharpen the Saw - Work to continuously improve yourself, never rest on your laurels, in our fast paced modern world what was good enough today won't get you by tomorrow.

If you haven't already read this book, READ IT. If you have read it, maybe this is the time to take a second look at how the 7 Habits can be made part of your life. Also realize that leadership requires the mindset of being a leader and The 7 Habits is a great start for getting into that mindset.

Happy Reading,

-Jason


Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Introduction

The Young Leader is a blog for Young Leaders. We live in a world today where "leadership" is touted to be a requisite skill at school, on the job, and in life. However many don't know much about leadership beyond "being able to tell others what to do". Therefore this blog is aimed to take readers on a journey as I share my experiences in leadership, research the art and science of leadership, and uncover the tools and resources to help Young Leaders succeed.

Enjoy,

-Jason