Leaving a Leadership Legacy

Looking back over my career in business management, I can recall a variety of bosses and leaders. Some were very poor leaders which I recall as mere ‘bosses’,  while others were fantastic leaders that enriched my life for years to come.

I have very fond memories of the truly great leaders.  I am eternally grateful for the life changing leadership skills I learned and all the wonderful experiences I had while in their employ.  A multitude of fun times and endless pats on the back are some of my favorite memories.  As part of their team, we constantly strove to be the best (and we were!).  Outstanding business performance was a natural side effect of those great leaders.  We all felt like valued members of a rare 'superstar' team.  We appreciated every minute of it of those lessons and experiences!

As far as the “bosses” (or sub-standard leaders), when I recall them, a sour taste creeps into my mouth.  It is amazing how the sour taste is just as strong today - many years later. I remember the unpleasantness of working 70 to 80 hours a week while they worked barely 40.   I can also recall with crystal clarity, constantly being redirected without a clear vision and feeling that I was never good enough.   Sadly, I can still evoke the overwhelming feeling of dread that came just prior to working a long endless day.  That said, even with all that negatively, I learned plenty of very important information regarding how NOT to act as a leader.

It is interesting to note that there is a segment of leaders that I can barely recall.  These leaders make up the segment of middle-of-the-road, blah and completely mediocre supervisors.  Strangely, these folks only exist in some hazy memory.  I even have trouble recalling some of their names.   It is thought provoking to realize that being average or barely passable makes you completely forgettable.

We have all worked for a wide variety of leadership and we all have our favorite memories, but I think it is interesting to note how various leaders impacted our lives along the way.  It is also intriguing to ponder which memories our brains chose to retain along the journey.

The moral to this story is:  if you want to live on in the memories of your employees, don’t be mediocre, barely passable, or just another “boss”.  Strive to be remembered in a positive way, as a leader who was strong and caring.  Be one of the leaders that taught life changing skills, had fun, hired great talent, created a powerful team, and took pride in being the best!

Your leadership leaves behind a legacy that lives on for a long time… good, bad, or otherwise.

The Creative Leader

Dee Hock, founder and former CEO of the VISA credit card association, wisely stated:  “Every mind is a room packed with archaic furniture.  Clean out a corner of your mind and creativity will instantly fill it.”

The paradox within this quote is… the more experience we gain as leaders; the more crammed and cluttered our minds become.  We know that we need to maintain our “edge” in order to thrive as creative leaders, but sometimes, the flow of new ideas just seems to elude us.  Why does the once free flowing fountain of new ideas and solutions sometimes slow down to a trickle? 

For starters, you have a multitude of responsibilities, which can generate a multitude of emotions.   Worry, anger, and stress are all negative emotions that can creep up on even the best leaders.  This is where the trouble starts brewing.  These emotions slowly work their negativity and begin to shut down the part of the brain needed for creative thinking and can even start to shut down logical thinking.  Eventually, you’re left with the emotional part of your brain working at peak performance while the creative portion of your brain closed down for the night.  Unfortunately, left unchecked by the creative portion or the logical portion, the emotional brain can make us say things we regret or can cause us to make bad decisions that need to be corrected later on.  We’ve all experience this at least once, and it can be embarrassing and humbling.

Creatively flows best when you are happy and unruffled.  Have you ever woken up at 3 am and suddenly have the answer to a difficult problem just pop into your head?  Or maybe a great new idea seemed to wake you up?  This is because your brain finally took a much need rest and the creative portion of your head put up the “Now Open” sign.

Humans are exceptionally creative beings, but if you find your creativity blocked, try a few of these ideas:

·    First, step away from the computer… way away.  Get away from the source of stress (whatever it is) for a while.

·    Remind yourself that you need to toss out any negative emotions, and then do something physical while you give your mind a rest.  Take a walk, go to the store, workout, etc…

·    Do something inspirational, something that you haven’t done for awhile, such as browse a bookstore, go to an art gallery or museum, visit a botanical garden, etc…

·    Do something that will relax you.  Go to a movie, get a message, sit in a hot tub, read a book, meditate, etc…

·    Do a self check and make sure the negative emotions have been swept away!

Great leaders should be skilled problem solvers and adept at sourcing new ideas…. So relax, stay positive and remember with confidence that negative emotions will shut down the area of your brain that you need to be successful.   Let the creativity flow!

The Evolution of Leadership

Studying leadership will change your life forever! 

You might be an assistant manager of a small operation, or CEO of a large company - your current position is of no consequence, because the study of leadership is a journey – not a destination.  You are never “there”, you can only aspire to become better, stronger, wiser.

Throughout my career in business management and training, I found that no matter what position I held, leadership training was the most valued and revered I thing I had to offer.  I’ve managed thousands of people, I've crushed goals, won numerous awards – experienced all kinds of “highs”… and I also experienced all kinds of lows… I've missed goals, I've had to lay off employees, and I've worked for impossible supervisors.  But, every job I had had one common thread, one thing that always prevailed as a constant truth. And that truth is - everyone craves outstanding leadership.  Everyone wants to work for a great leader and everyone wants to be a great leader.  Additionally, people absolutely love good solid leadership training.

Yet, with all of this interest in good leadership, we've all seen our share of substandard and even horrific leaders.

Dwight Eisenhower once said, “The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionable integrity.  Without it, no real success is possible.”  So, why it is our country has so many leaders lacking in integrity?

Today’s economy and political environment are frightening… there is so much scandal, so much dishonesty and seriously too much corruption.  These things all boil down to a string of bad leadership. We need to ask ourselves - where did these bad leaders come from?  Who trained them?  When exactly did these bad leaders begin to believe was OK to put the screws to everyone else meanwhile pumping their own bank accounts with hundreds of millions of dollars?  Dwight Eisenhower also stated, “A people that values its privileges above its principles, soon loses both.” Hmmm, makes good sense.  My biggest fear is that someday, excessive bad leadership causes our country to lose both. 

Now, my best explanation for the evolution of bad leadership – is that earlier in their careers of these folks, they simply never learned the critical elements to good leadership.  They, most likely, had bad role models and somehow, along the way learned to set extremely low ethical standards for themselves.  As Gordon Gecko from the movie Wall Street would say – they learned that “greed is good”.  

That said, we are all familiar with the saying “what comes around goes around”… and anyone who has lived for a while knows that all bad deeds eventually come back to bite you.  So, with a sense of justice, we often watch these bad leaders ultimately come crashing down… but very sadly, they usually bring down a monumental number of people with them.  And sometimes the downfall has an enormous impact on our society.

This is why I have committed myself to the study of leadership excellence.  I certainly don’t know it all, but I am constantly learning, and you should be too.  Read books, attend seminars, take a class, listen to a podcast, watch a video, whatever… there are countless ways in which you can learn and grow and develop your leadership skills. Remember:  leaders is a journey, not a destination. 

Even if you are the president or CEO of your company, you have plenty of room to grow and advance your skill set.  BUT - Herein lies the pitfall of many potentially great leaders:  lower level managers know they need to learn more to propel their careers forward.  Therefore they tend to be more open minded towards improvement and hungry for new experiences.  They will jump at the chance to take a seminar or read a book.  Not only does it look good on their resume, but are expanding their knowledge base.  Now, as these managers move up the ladder to higher pay scales, and loftier positions with greater demands… they tend to have more confidence in themselves and less time for things like learning new skills.  What’s worse, a sense of complacency settles in, and they tell themselves, “I’m a good leader, I’ve come a long way, I've worked hard, and I do my job well.”  This is where trouble can start brewing.  Yes, you’ve come a long way… but face it, the higher up the ladder you go the more developed your leadership skills needs to be.  You are never as good as you could be or should be.

John F. Kennedy said, "Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other."  He really hit the nail on the head with that quote.  When you learn the critical values, tools and techniques to great leadership, something within you changes.  You no longer except the very nature bad leadership… you set higher goals for yourself, you set higher goals for those that work for you… and most importantly ….you set higher goals for those who you work for.  Yes… expecting more from your supervisor is an important component in the evolution of leadership.

To quote Nelson Mandela, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change to world.” 

Let’s change the world together, one lesson at a time, one person at time, one leader at time…

Studying leadership will change your life forever!