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Have you ever seen one of those motivational posters? You know, the ones with something like a rainbow or a lion and a nice one liner of sage advice. Yes I know you've seen them, at work, at school, or heck even at the doctor's office.
Anyway, a little while ago I saw one of these posters that had an eagle and said something like "Leaders Go It Alone". I can't disagree with this sentiment more. Granted, sometimes leaders need to make the tough decisions which may be unpopular, or sometimes the leader will have to "remove someone from the team". However, leaders never go it alone!
Lets think about it. Assuming that a leader has to make a tough decision, that she knows will not go over well with the rest of the team. What should she do?
- Well the first thing I would do is to do what leaders do best, use your influence to explain to the team why this is the right thing to do.
- Next, listen! The team will probably have some very good reasons for doing things a different way. Maybe they have thought of things that you hadn't realized. Maybe, it would be best after all to do things their way.
- Discuss both sides of the argument. Make sure everyone understands all of the costs and benefits.
OK, so lets say our leader has done her best to convince us and we (the team) have done our best to convince her but to no avail. Should she now storm out of the room, say "Damn it all, I am the boss, we'll do what I say, and I don't care what you think!"
Probably not the best idea right? Right. I would say a good leader should check her ego at the door and go with the team. I think it is such a problem these days that we glorify those people who act like loose canon's not caring about anybody else but themselves. While the selfish part of ourselves might want to run off, do things our way, and hope that everything works out in our favor just to come back and say "I told you so!"... most likely, if you have built a competent team they will be the ones who will be right.
So what do you think? No, I don't want to hear stories about "the one time I went it alone and was right". What these stories inevitably leave out is how this act strained the relationship between team and leader. But still, comments are much appreciated!
-Jason
Hi Everyone,
I hope you are all enjoying the warmer weather on this lazy Sunday afternoon. (Did you all remember to set your clocks forward today for Daylight Savings Time?)
Anyway, I just wanted to make a quick post about Leadership and Politics. Like them or not, in the United States, our elected politicians are our leaders. By default that makes each and every one of us their followers. But we have the choice to vote for and elect our own leaders! And that is why as responsible citizens and followers, we must take the time to understand these people who we are electing to be our leaders.
So I know the next Presidential election is over a year away, but if you've seen anything on the news, you've probably heard about the race thats ramping up already. Therefore, all I can say is GET INFORMED AND GET INVOLVED!
A friend of mine has created a website VoteIssues08, and he promises to help organize the promises / platforms of all of the candidates, as well as to let people "vote" (American Idol style) for their favorite candidates and on issues important to them. So check it out!
-Jason
Good Morning everyone! I hope you are all enjoying this lazy Sunday afternoon. Drumroll please.... time for my first post in quite a while. ^_^
Anyway, lets get down to business. I recently finished this book called The Greatest Salesman in the World by Og Mandino. It's not exactly a book about leadership, but then again I wouldn't say it is merely a book for sales people. Essentially, the book is a parable (with an overt Christian theme) which tells the story of a young boy, who is given the knowledge of 10 ancient scrolls. These scrolls contain the secret to becoming the Greatest Salesman in the world. I'll go over the main points of each scroll.
- Today I am a new person and can make the choice to succeed. I will read these scrolls religiously, over and over again, everyday.
- I will greet each day with love in my heart. - Love and respect others (your customers / your followers). You'll get ten times the love and respect back.
- I will persist until I succeed. - Life is tough out there. Being a leader is also tough. But if you persist you can win!
- I am nature's greatest miracle. - You are unique. Make the most out of your uniqueness, live everyday and your life to the fullest.
- I will live this day as if it is my last. - Don't get caught up with guilt, the "I should haves, I could have, and I would haves." Also, don't get caught up with worrying about the future. JUST DO IT!
- Today I will be master of my emotions. - Tony Robbins took this idea and ran with it. If you can master yourself, changing your state and looking at the positive, you can do anything.
- I will laugh at the world. - Smile! Even if you are at the very bottom, things can only go up.
- Today I will multiply my value one hundred fold. - The human mind is an amazing thing. A mountain of sand touched with human genius can become a super computer. Aim high, believe in yourself, and you will create wonders!
- My dreams are worthless, my plans are dust, my goals are impossible. All are of no value unless they are followed by action. - Just do it! (and Nike please don't sue me).
- Only for guidance I will pray, that I may be shown the way to acquire these things (gold, love, good health, fame success, happiness) and my prayers will always be answered. - Now, Og Mandino isn't specifically saying to pray to God (the Judeo-Christian god) but instead recognizing that people sometimes need something else. Something beyond just themselves and the visible world. No matter what this higher force might be, ask for guidance. This can very well be likened to "When the student is ready the teacher will appear." If we are caught up in the thoughts of "I want this!" we might never put our minds to "How can I get this?".
For such a small book, this is some heavy stuff. So let it sink in. Think about it. Actually, that is how this book works. It is an affirmation. Reading it over and over again. Saying the words out loud every day, will make an impact down in your subconscious.
This book has been out since the 60's. You can probably pick up a used copy for pretty cheap. (I bought a copy on Amazon for a penny - plus shipping). Check it out!!
Until next time,
-Jason
OK so I've "fixed" the template for all you IE users. (Well ok I didn't fix it, I just imported a new template and then customized it to look more or less like how it was before). Now I only have to make the text column a little bit wider....
I'll save that for another time.
Best,
-Jason
Hi Everyone,
Sorry for being away for so long. I've been quite busy with work and everything else. Though I have started getting involved with the Philadelphia chapter of NAAAP (The National Association of Asian American Professionals). They seem like a really cool bunch, and the organization is probably bursting with opportunities for leadership, so we'll see how this goes!
In other news, I found out that Accenture (the company that I work for) has an entire mini-website dedicated to leadership. Long story short, it had quite a few reprinted articles from the Harvard Business Review which I spent a good chunk of the past few weeks (and at least 5-6 hours on this lazy freezing cold Sunday) to read.
So depending on how everything else goes we'll see if I can't get a few posts in by the end of today. If not, within the next few days.
So please stay tuned!!
-Jason
OK so I've been reading Ken Blanchard's (One Minute Manager) new book Leading at a Higher Level (He sent me an autographed copy so I had better read it cover to cover ^_^). The book is actually broken up into essays / chapters that are written by a number of different people on his research team. But anyway, one section on writing mission statements is slightly different from what I wrote about before though more or less analogous. Again it is broken up into three parts:- Significant purpose - The why of the mission statement
- Picture of the future - The what of the mission statement
- Clear Values - Clear and ranked values direct the day to day running of your team
I would have to agree.... though I feel there still might be a place for the how that I mentioned in the previous post about mission statements... though how's might be related more to objectives than to mission statements. Any ideas on this matter as always are well appreciated in the comments section!
However, the WHY is something I totally agree with. Sometimes this can get muddled in with the what, but other times, especially with long lived organizations, you need a stronger why. (If your mission was to land a man on the moon, and you have already achieved this, why else should your organization exist?)
Anyway, much more reading to get through. Until next time!
-Jason
Hi Everyone! Just wanted to apologize for the blog not working for IE users.... (switch to Firefox) . But as you can see from Firefox, I've changed the template a little bit... and it broke in IE. I'll be trying to fix things back up, but in the mean time please be patient, Thank You!!! ^_^
-Jason
-_-' alright, I'll probably get hate mail for this. But maybe someone can help straighten me out, and help me find this more useful. So a while ago I read through three or four books that explained some "scientific" studies on leadership.
Going through my notes, I'll pick on the "Multiple Linkage Model". I'll make this as brief as possible. A leader's effectiveness is driven by the leader's behavior, however there are many situational variables, such as corporate culture, that will influence the effectiveness of a leader's behavior. (Yelling and swearing at subordinates might work in the military, but will probably get you fired at your job). Similarly, intervening variables, such as subordinate's level of ability, available resources, natural disasters... can also influence results and effectiveness.
OK, my response to this "Duh!". Ok maybe I have a prejudice against this because it took the better part of a book to explain this in its original form (I see in my notebook where I drifted off to sleep with my handwriting becoming unrecognizable). I also just completed a Computer Based Training course on leadership where I sat through almost three hours of early 90's computer graphics that described four or five more theories of leadership.
I can't help but think, "How does this make me a better Young Leader?" Does anyone have any opinions about this? Is it better to think of leadership in the scientific (almost psychological) manner that you might read about in musty books? Or is it more reasonable to think about leadership from the basis of a few very basic principles and build up from there?
I would think that people are so incredible complex that it would be more effective to think about leadership from the ground up. Comments welcome and appreciated! Thank You!!
-Jason
Some of you might be reading this and think to yourself.... "WTF! isn't that the point of leadership?" To this I must say "Yes and No". Let's step back a minute and I will explain.
I've talked about Good to Great a few times already. But I think it's worth mentioning "The Three Circles". Essentially, in order to find what you (and your organization) can be truly "Great" at you need to find the intersection of "What you can be the best at; What drives your economic engine; and What you are deeply passionate about". This makes sense. Suppose you are the best at doing something, but you don't really care for it... it wouldn't make sense for you to pursue this, because your heart would not be in it (no matter how much everyone else in your life may try to cajole or guilt you into doing it). Similarly, if you know doing something will make you filthy rich (lets say playing professional basketball), but you're like me and can't make a layup if your life depended on it... this again probably shouldn't be one of your goals.
Now I've also been listening to Tony Robbins in the car on my otherwise long and boring commutes to and from work everyday. I went through his "goal setting workshop" in which he focused much less on the actual goals (you could set whatever goals you wanted) and much more on asking "What your reasons that you absolutely must achieve these goals?" He went to explain how critical the Why's were for you to avoid "setting and forgetting" them.
Now going back to the beginning. Why can't you motivate anyone? The simple reason is that if these people don't have any passion to share your goals or they can't think good reasons for them to follow you, they won't. No matter how much yelling and screaming (Steve Balmer) you make, you can't "motivate" people. But the converse is also true. If people have the passion to share your goals and have lots of good reasons to follow you, they will. Even if you are low keep and mild mannered!
So you have to learn that you can't "motivate" anyone, only discover their passions, and give them good enough reasons that show how these match up with your goals. Then they will motivate themselves.
Think about this one, it's tough to get your head around, but well worth it! Until next time.
-Jason
This is going to be a quick post. Here is another pretty fun ice breaker that I have recently used. It's called Hi's and Lo's.
Essentially, if you have a group where everyone might not have been introduced to each other, you can play this (well you probably can modify it and play even with people who know each other).
Going around the table each person starts by introducing themselves. They then tell the group the low point of their day, e.g., "The copier jammed on me" and then because we always want to end on a high note, the high point of their day, e.g., "My boss gave me a One-Minute Praising about my work on the XYZ project".
It's that simple! So try it out at your next meeting! Until next time.
-Jason
