20 Things all Great Organizational Leaders Do

Jim Collins said he wanted to write a book about great organizations not great leaders. But as his research grew, he realized great organizations had one thing in common, great leaders. He ended up writing, “Good to Great,” a book about leaders.

Never underestimate the power of lousy leaders
to demotivate people and destroy organizations.

The roots of great organizations are found in great leaders.

Great organizations have leaders who:

1. Have mentors and coaches.
2. Point out uncomfortable truths quickly, honestly, and compassionately.
3. Live authentically. Fakers can’t be trusted. Trust is foundational to influence.
4. Monitor and manage emotional states. Feelings impact performance.
5. Expect results and don’t make excuses.
6. Compare themselves with their potential, not others.
7. Concentrate on people. Love is a leadership word.
8. Clarify and narrow focus.
9. Make others feel powerful. Employees in great organizations don’t say, “Things never change.”
10. Love winning and compete aggressively.
11. Talk and act humbly. Great leaders make others great. They’re never full of themselves.
12. Engage with others without interfering.
13. Ask “stupid” questions. They aren’t afraid to look stupid by not knowing.
14. Prioritize culture building.
15. Set direction but delegate decisions to those closest to the action.
16. Hold themselves and others to high, agreed upon, standards.
17. Have fun. Many leaders I know take themselves too seriously.
18. Recognize, reward, praise, and honor others.
19. Give back to the community. Generosity is normal, not rare, for leaders who build great organizations.
20. Face forward by thinking, talking, and acting with the future in mind.

(This post is the result of reflecting on the presentations at the Great Place to Work Annual Conference 2013)

After writing this post, I found a post I wrote on 6/5/11 titled: “20 Proven Things All Great Leaders Always Do.” It was fun comparing the lists.

Which qualities do you find most important, challenging, or fulfilling?

What behaviors would you add to this list?

10 Ways to Spot Authentic Leaders

Talk isn’t always cheap. Words change lives and organizations. However, when it comes to authenticity, talk is nearly meaningless.

Authenticity, like trust, feedback, and empowerment are words tossed around in leadership circles likes nuts at a squirrel buffet.

Words apart from practice make you
feel you know when you don’t.

Using the term “authentic” doesn’t make you authentic any more than sleeping in a garage makes you a car.

10 practices of authenticity:

I’ve interviewed scores of high profile leaders. Authenticity appears quickly. Authentic leaders:

1. Talk comfortably about failure.
2. Say, “I hadn’t thought of that.”
3. Speak tough truths comfortably.
4. Share what they are learning. Fakers pretend they already knew.
5. Ask “dumb” questions.
6. Explore-with rather than conclude-for.
7. Invite feedback. You’d be amazed how many leaders fear feedback, even refuse it.
8. Honor others, profusely. Phony leaders need honor. Authentic leaders give it.
9. Know and acknowledge frailties and weaknesses. Fakers are omniscient and omni-compitent.
10. Empathize without compromise.

Bonus: Adapt, change, and grow. Phonies don’t grow they spiral inward like black-holes.

You change before you help others change.

The power of authenticity is influence rather than coercion. Fakers rely on position, authority, and manipulation. Authentic leaders influence through the power of their person.

Benefit:

Authenticity lowers stress; faking increases stress.

For the record, most leaders I interview practice authenticity. It’s refreshing and encouraging. Authenticity fills words with authority and power, without it, words are cheap.

How do you spot authenticity?

How does authenticity develop in a person?

Seven Power Tips for Spotting Future Leaders

You’ll fail apart from surrounding yourself with talented people. This means:

Great leaders identify and develop great leaders. 

One of my favorite Jack Welch quotes is,

“The team with the best players wins.”

But, how do you identify the best players? Look for those who are:

1. Already active.
2. Frustrated. They look around and don’t like what they see.
3. Give voice to complaints and frustrations. Those who won’t say what’s wrong are dangerous.
4. Seeking evidence. They say, “Prove it.” Show them what works.
5. Grateful for opportunity. They need to matter. Give them purpose and you’ve won their hearts.
6. Fearful at first; courageous in the end. Those without fear don’t appreciate the challenges of leading. Small successes fuel courage.
7. Passionate. They care deeply.

Frustration:

Frustration indicates they want more. They aren’t satisfied.

Apart from dissatisfaction
everything stays the same.

Look for frustration with self and/or frustration with circumstances. I’ll take either. But I prefer both.

Key factor: How future leaders learn to deal with frustration determines success. Some degenerate into whiners others escalate into difference-makers.

More on dissatisfaction: Walking the Leadership Tightrope.

Team building:

Team building is perhaps the most challenging and important activity of future leaders. Few are good at it – even fewer seek it. They see themselves at the center, which is fine at the beginning. Exponential success depends on a future leader’s ability to participate in and build teams.

What do you look for in a future leader?

How to Face the Challenges of Leadership

The purpose of leadership is to identify and create the future. If you want to lead, go somewhere and take someone with you.

The challenge of leadership is helping people keep up. You are ahead. If you aren’t ahead you aren’t leading.

10 ways to face the challenges of leadership:

1. Embrace dissatisfaction and discontent with optimism. Nothing gets done without optimism – the belief it can get done.
2. Define and explain the future in relevant language. Passion ignites when others own the future for themselves.
3. Find alignment of purpose between individuals and organizations.
4. Constantly explore change with openness and skepticism. “Will this advance the agenda?” Doug Conant.
5. Persistently push forward while celebrating past success – balance dissatisfaction with satisfaction. Many never move beyond dissatisfaction.
6. Leverage the power of simplicity and clarity. Change can be radical and dramatic but most change is a series of simple steps toward clear destinations. Break things down into bite-size pieces.
7. Develop individuals and teams. “The team with the best players wins,” Jack Welch.
8. Consult with others, constantly. The ability to suspend judgment takes you further than ruling things out quickly.
9. Go with the highest point of confidence even while doubting. Perfect answers are the result of lack of thought.
10. Start now. “Strong leaders don’t wait until they have it all together to lead. The more you learn the more you realize how much you need to learn. Act now and get better as you grow,” Harry Kramer.

If the purpose of leadership is to identify and create the future, what leadership skills are most useful?

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Post in a picture by Larry Coppenrath: Challenges of Leadership

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Tapping the Untapped Power of Power

Weak leaders struggle to gain power.

Insecure leaders fear losing it.

Power is good, it gets things done. Power is bad when it’s used to abuse and manipulate others for selfish ends.

Essential:

Who takes organizations further? You’ll go further with teams of powerful people. Those who never use power are doomed to be controlled by others.

Warren Bennis interviewed 90 individuals who were nominated by their peers as most influential leaders. They all shared one characteristic. They made others feel powerful. (Leaders: Strategies for Taking Charge, 2003)

Great leaders use power to make others feel powerful.

Those who give power gain it.

Technically, no one can make you feel powerful. We can, however, create empowering environments and engage in empowering activities. Help others by helping them help themselves.

12 ways to help others feel powerful:

1. Share information.
2. Change your mind.
3. Expect positive results.
4. Train to enhance expertise.
5. Ask don’t command. (unless you’re in a crisis)
6. Set goals together rather than independently assigning them.
7. Authorize to act and decide.
8. Establish mistake-making policies before mistakes happen. Your reaction to mistakes is central to freeing others for powerful action.
9. Expect people to solve their own problems, as much as possible.
10. Be an external cheerleader – most have internal critics.
11. Express enthusiasm for their projects.
12. Stay involved in ways that aren’t meddling. Ask, “What can I do for you or how can I help?”

Bonus: Support but don’t intervene.

Warning: Avoid giving power to people who haven’t demonstrated responsibility.

How can leaders help others feel powerful?

What makes people feel dis-empowered?

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Amy Lyman Kicked My Assumptions

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Marshall McLuhan said, “Most of our assumptions have outlived their uselessness.” Author, Amy Lyman showed me one of mine.

Our assumptions expose us:

Beliefs about, the world, ourselves, and others form assumptions. For example, some assume my direct style and enjoyment of controversy is a strategy to drive traffic to my blog.

You might think Dan is a blog-traffic whore. It’s true, I love visitors. I enjoy watching the numbers go up. But there’s something more.

I’m driven to instigating thought and love the conversations direct sentences inspire. The invisible values of inspiring thought and creating conversation underpin my visible behaviors.

“What a man believes may be ascertained, not from his creed, but from the assumptions on which he habitually acts.” George Bernard Shaw

An exploded assumption:

Back to Amy Lyman and her book, “The Trust Worthy Leader.” Amy’s interviews and research indicate leaders create and reflect trustworthiness through:

1. Honor
2. Inclusion
3. Valuing and engaging followers
4. Sharing information
5. Developing others
6. Movement through uncertainty to pursue opportunity

Honor:

I assume successful leaders extend honor to others and that’s the end of it. Of course honoring others is an essential leadership behavior. But there’s something more.

Amy’s thirty years of interviews revealed great leaders feel honor. They feel honored to lead. She wasn’t looking for this attitude, it just revealed itself.

“Trustworthy leaders express gratitude for being asked to lead and acknowledge the responsibility that comes with it.” Amy Lyman

Heart check:

My first response to seeing honor on the list of trustworthy leaders revealed my assumptions. Amy reminded me leadership is a privilege; it’s an honor to participate.

I don’t like thinking of myself as arrogant but pride is a stealthy sneak. I’m thankful Amy challenged my assumptions. I’m thankful for the privilege and opportunity to lead.

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I hope you’re great at honoring others. But, do you express the honor you feel to be a leader?

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Part one of my interview with Amy Lyman: The Secret to A Great Place to Work. It’s not about employees first or customers first.

Part three: How to Move Through Uncertainty to Opportunity. The opposite of uncertainty isn’t certainty, it’s opportunity.

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How to Leverage the Benefits of Confusion

Progress requires clarity. Confusion paralyzes. Great leaders create clarity; poor leaders confuse. Worse yet, confused people pull back.

Paralyzing confusion is bad but confusion has benefits.

1. Confusion precedes breakthrough. Pushing confusion away pushes progress away.
2. Confusion drives everyone to seek clarity.
3. Confusion opens us to outside influences and input. We seek help.

Thriving in confusion:

1. Acknowledge you don’t know when you don’t. The illusion of “steady as she goes” negates the benefit of confusion.
2. Don’t grab the first point of clarity. Average answers come easily – gently “reject” them. Say, “That idea sounds great what other options could we generate.” Extraordinary answers require sweat.
3. Stay calm. Slow your breathing, movements, and rate of speaking; Pause.
4. Write.
5. Demolish secrets. “Everyone should know everything they need to know to succeed,” Jon Wortmann.
6. Create safe environments. “Clarity is sought by people not forced on them,” Jon Wortmann.
7. Nurture candid discussions.
8. Change willingly, once clarity emerges. 70% clarity is enough.

How to act on clarity:

Clarity doesn’t guarantee progress; it needs courage for fuel.

Teams bolster courage.

Sometimes you feel clear when others don’t. If you can convince your honest, talented team, then go forward with a lion’s courage. The worst that could happen is you all might be wrong.

Other times the fog clears during team meetings. In both cases, allies and advocates instill courage.

Finally, finding courage in teams requires candor and honesty. If you’re surrounded with weak yes-men, peril is near.

Note: Jon Wortmann quotes are based on our December 14, 2011 conversation. Jon is co-author of the insightful book, “The Three Commitments of Leadership.”

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How do you find clarity?

How do you find courage to act on your clarity?

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Want more? See: “15 Potent Ways for Fighting Confusion”

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Five Ways to Fill Others with Courage

I wanted to make a difference when I was a teenager but lacked courage.

Encourage means to fill with courage. You have the power to give courage to others. You also have the power to drain people’s courage, to discourage.

The hardest thing about my nearly fatal accident isn’t the pain and recovery. It’s the anguish I caused others. You never want to put your spouse, family, and friends through what I put mine through. You want to lighten the load others carry, not add to it.

The dance of courage:

Since my accident, many are encouraged by my reentry into social media and blogging. The power to give begins with receiving; it’s sustained when we give back.

We learn to love by being loved. We learn to serve by being served. Someone pours from their cup into ours and the dance of courageous action begins.

Last night, friends brought dinner over. Thankfully, they ate with us. There’s been a parade of people like them. They pour from their cup into ours. They give us courage.

Lolly Daskal, Becky Robinson, and Jesse Lyn Stoner are pouring into my cup. They wanted to encourage and decided to help meet the financial need that exceeds our insurance coverage. They give us courage.

Easy:

Encouraging others is incredibly easy.

1. Understand the dreams of others. Leadership begins with understanding and accepting the dreams of others.
2. See the strengths in others rather than persistently working to improve weaknesses. Inordinate desire to improve things may create negativity. Spend more time focused on strengths.
3. Speak hopefully. All great leaders are always realistically optimistic. If you don’t think others can rise up to meet challenges, get out of leadership.
4. Serve others by helping them reach their dreams.
5. When possible, meet a need.

Discouraging others is incredibly easy.

1. Do nothing.
2. Say nothing.
3. Be negative.

How can you fill others with courage, today?

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The Secret Power of Bragging

You honor the accomplishments of others while neglecting, even hiding your own.

Great leaders are great at honoring others. Honor multiplies success and motivates individuals. You’re constantly scouting-out behaviors, attitudes, and accomplishments to spotlight. Honor is one of your most powerful leadership tools.

Failure:

We’d all respond positively when encouraged to get out there and honor others. Honoring our own success, however, feels foreign, awkward, even wrong.

Questions:

If honor encourages others why wouldn’t it encourage you? Who celebrates your success with you?

Bragging Buddy:

Jon Acuff

Connect with someone and brag to each other. Don’t compete with each other, celebrate each other’s success. Jon Acuff calls it the “bragging table.” Jon gets together with a friend to enjoy bragging sessions.

Poo Poo:

Some may think a bragging buddy dangerously promotes arrogance. Acuff suggests a private “bragging table” is safe middle ground between arrogance and feeling ashamed of personal desires to share our accomplishments.

Public honor:

1. Never publicly brag; it’s unattractive, arrogant, and off putting.
2. Let others publicly honor you. Gracefully receive and appreciate any honor others extend to you.
3. Honor everyone who contributes to your success.

Private honor:

Tell a bragging buddy the things you’ve done; the things you’re proud of. Wouldn’t it be great to have someone in your life that celebrates your success with you?

What if:

What if you found a bragging buddy? What if you called and asked each other:

1. What did you accomplish this week?
2. What opportunities came your way?
3. What did you do that makes you proud to be you?

What are the pros and cons of having a bragging buddy? Is this something you would consider?

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During my conversation with national bestselling author of “Quitters,” Jon Acuff, he told me he regularly enjoys breakfast with a friend. They call it the “bragging table.” They honor their opportunities and successes. This post was inspired by our chat.

Check out “Jon Acuff’s Quitter Conference,” this Feb. in Nashville, TN.