Tag: leadership development

Motivation in Motion

Leadership is not about position. Leadership is about a passion for making a difference.

Robin Sharma

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about motivation.  As leaders, it is our responsibility to ensure that our teams are motivated and empowered to move forward to achieve both personal and organizational goals.  Great leaders work daily to keep their teams motivated and inspired.  But who inspires the leader?  How do leaders stay motivated enough to motivate others?

The truth is, all leaders get tired.  On occasion, my own motivation wanes and I just don’t feel inspirational today … or this week … or this month.  Continuously meeting the expectations of others both above and below on the organizational ladder can impact the expectations we have of ourselves.  As leaders, we often spend so much time inspiring others, we forget what inspires us.  These are the thoughts that led me to question the leader’s need for renewed motivation.

So I did what everybody does when they need an answer – I Googled it.  There are over 17,000 results for “how does a leader stay motivated?”  Apparently, I’m not the only leader who finds internal motivation to be challenging at times.  After reading a few articles (not all 17,000, I assure you), I noticed that a majority made the following suggestions: remember your “why,” ensure balance, and find a support system.  All of these suggestions had one thing in common; namely, increasing motivation requires a focus on others rather than self.

Motivation is an inward drive inspired by outward actions. 

When we take our eyes off ourselves and focus externally, we remember why we lead.  Remembering your values and purpose, considering others on the scales of the work-life balance, and accepting support from colleagues all provide an opportunity for leaders to re-focus eyes on a greater aim. Reflecting on motivation beyond the workplace provides the impetus for leaders to lean into leadership and fully move forward once again.   

Lessons from Calvin & Hobbes

Calvin and Hobbes were speaking more truth than they realized.  Research has shown that many leaders arrive at their positions as a result of organizational need, rather than a planned, career trajectory (Garza & Eddy, 2008; Inman, 2007; Klein & Salk, 2013). My own experience agrees with the research, and I know a myriad of people who are given leadership roles or provided with leadership opportunities for which they had no desire or plan. Often, this results in a leader who lacks leadership preparation and is left to figure it out on the job.  Research and evidence are great, but …

You’re the leader – Now What?

It’s not too late.  You can plan your own leadership development.  While you may find yourself in this position randomly, leadership is learned through the day-to-day practice of leading.  With intentional focus on your own development, you can grow your leadership skills every day.  With a few specific and intentional practices, you will be able to focus on leading today while growing your leadership skills for tomorrow.

ASSESS Your Skill Set – Take an honest look at what you know … and what you don’t know.  Leaders must know themselves before they can lead others.  Spend time assessing your strengths and areas needing growth.  Seek help from a coach or someone who can help you identify what skills should still be developed to propel your leadership.

REFLECT on Your Leadership Style – Reflect on who you want to be as a leader and what authentic leadership looks like on you.  Write your thoughts down in a journal or a blog or just scraps of paper, but put them down somewhere.  Getting your thoughts out of your head and onto paper makes them more real which is the first step toward achieving your leadership goals.

MOVE into Your Leadership Role – Lean in and embrace the position you’ve been given.  Crawling, walking, and running are all movement.  You will not grow as a leader until you fully take on the role and move within it.  You are gifted or you wouldn’t be there, so reach for it and move into this leadership opportunity with all you have.

Growth is one of the best things about being human.  We are built to learn and develop.  You may not have planned this part of your leadership journey, but you have arrived here and there is so much to discover.   

References:

Garza, R. & Eddy, P. (2008). In the middle: Career pathways of midlevel community college leaders. Community College Journal of Research and Practice, 32, 793-811.

Inman, M. (2007). The journey to leadership: A study of how leader-academics in higher education learn to lead. University of Birmingham.

Klein, M. F., & Salk, R. J. (2013). Presidential succession planning: A qualitative study in private higher education. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 20(3), 335-345.

A View from My Window

There’s a world out there. Open a window, and it’s there.

Robin Williams

It’s May 2020 and unless you have been sleeping under a rock, you know that the world is in the midst of a pandemic that has people both fearful and excited, working from home and working harder than ever, confused.  I told myself I wasn’t going to write about this situation.  There are literally hundreds of articles about crisis management, leading during change, and working with new technologies.  But, I can write about what I know…. I know people and I know leadership.

A few weeks into the stay at home measures, a friend of mine suggested I take a look at a Facebook group called A View from My Window.  The entire social media content consists of pictures taken by people of their current views.  I’ve seen photos of Greek islands, Italian villas, and seaports in Croatia.  My scrolling has given me a view of Texas thunderstorms, tornadoes over the Great Plains, and even hospital rooms from the office of essential medical personnel  It’s been pure enjoyment and respite from the conflicting news reports and confusing data otherwise streaming in the media.

Some of the most interesting pictures are those that focus on a single subject – a beautiful red flower or a solitary tree in a field.  I’ve been thinking about the view from my leadership window.  Do I see the beauty in the individual or am I only looking at the wider angle?  We are called upon to be visionary leaders; however, sometimes the vision can block our view.  Vision is important to leadership, but a focus on the individual is critical to leading.

Do you see the team member whose home feels more like a prison than a workplace?  How about the office clown who is missing his audience?  A team is only as good as its players and players need a coach, especially when our plans have been altered and purpose obstructed.  There are a few things you can do to make sure your view is as clear as your vision.

Look Up – Look up from the reports, budgets and market analysis necessary to organizational success to invest in success of the human capital in front of you.

Look Deep – Look close at the players on your team and see them as individuals not only participants in a greater game.

Look Inside – Look inside and be clear about what you see.  Both vision and view must begin within the leader.

Take a look … what’s the view outside your window?

The Danger of the Leadership Plateau

There are no limits.  There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them.  

Bruce Lee

The great leadership expert Bruce Lee was absolutely right – you must not stay in the plateau places.  The greatest danger of the plateau is that it simply feels so comfortable.   In fact, it feels so comfortable you may not even realize you have plateaued.  Leadership plateaus let us move into autopilot and relax into familiar patterns.  Moving from one situation to another, one decision to another, one person to another without the need to think about the next step.  Comfort isn’t wrong, and every leader needs a chance to rest into their leadership on occasion.  But remaining on a leadership plateau will never move you forward in leadership; nor does it provide the engaged leadership needed by those being led.

There are four things leaders must do when facing a leadership plateau:

EXAMINE yourself and your leadership – Recent research revealed that 86% of senior leaders found making time and space for reflection critical to their leadership success[1].  Intentionally setting aside time to reflect on leadership decisions creates better decision makers.  Examining important interactions and critical conversations changes the way we lead people.  Considering future leadership roles provides direction to leadership growth and development.  Personal examination increases understanding of one’s leadership strengths and characteristics, allowing leaders to lean into those strengths while working on areas needing growth.

EXPAND your network of professional relationships – Successful leaders maintain a broad network of professional relationships to enhance their leadership skills.  By intentionally building relationships with a variety of people, leaders gather experience and learning that is strategically designed to benefit their leadership growth. By sharing information and experiences, individuals learn from each other and develop personally and professionally.  If you find yourself regularly seeking leadership advice and coaching from the same person or group, you may want to expand your professional network.  Developing strategic relationships is important to continued leadership growth and prevents stagnation.

EXPLORE new opportunities to stretch your leadership – Complacency is the enemy of growth.  When we settle for what we know, we fail to grow.  Seeking stretch opportunities requires leaders to leave their comfort zone and risk failure.  This is scary as hell.  However, accepting these stretch opportunities develops new skills and insights that often cannot be learned in any other context.  An added benefit is that stretch assignments spark new excitement and interest in our leadership roles and create leaders who are more engaged.

We cannot change what we are not aware of, and once we are aware, we cannot help but change. 

Sheryl Sandberg

EXIT a bad situation – In some instances, the only way to move off the plateau is to actually move.   This may appear drastic, but sometimes removing oneself may be the only way to escape a bad situation, a bad leader, or a bad work culture.  Remaining with an organization that does not value you or your leadership will drag both down.  It’s not always possible to simply walk away from a position.  However, when the leadership plateau is the result of a toxic environment, every additional moment should be spent seeking the means to leave that environment. 

Leadership should never be boring.  Leadership should be moveable, changing, and exciting.  Leaders must take responsibility for their own leadership growth by intentionally engaging in the leadership development process.  Jumping off the plateau and heading out on the path of leadership makes you a better leader, and your leadership growth impacts everyone around you. 

[1] Karavedas, J. (2019). Becoming leaders: A phenomenological study of how mid-level leaders in Christian universities develop leadership skills.

Your Leadership Heritage

“To remember where you come from is part of where you are going.”         Anthony Burgess

Armed with a little information from a second cousin in New York, plus anything we could glean from ancestry.com, my husband and I set out this summer to trace his Greek heritage and, hopefully, discover the birthplace of his grandparents.  We had been told that there were three cafes in the small village of Ihalia, and a distant cousin owned one of them.  We struck gold at cafe number three when we met a lovely young lady adept at using Google translator.  Within a short time, we found ourselves chatting with a taxi driver friend of hers – a guy who knew a guy.  

He asked us to follow him and we did.  He led us outside the town, over the old bridge mentioned by the New York cousin, and up a dirt road with three stone houses.  My husband was drawn to the dirt road.  He knew.  The three stone homes were all abandoned but still standing strong.  With his cousin on FaceTime, my husband walked the dirt road and confirmed our find – this was his grandmother’s childhood home, built by her father and nearly destroyed in an earthquake several decades ago. 

Walking out of the path, we notice our taxi driver friend talking animatedly with a gentleman outside a modern-looking house across the street.  Crossing the street, we were introduced to my husband’s cousin. FAMILY! Our new cousin was the grandson of my husband’s great uncle, and he was just as excited as we were to discover more family. 

This excitement grew when our new cousin brought out several large sheets of paper on which were written something that looked like an organizational chart.  This cousin had been working on the family tree for the last two years, filling in what he could and leaving blanks where he had no information.  Nick’s grandmother’s name was written in pencil on the line with her siblings.  There was nothing written under her name – blanks. It was surreal to watch Nick work with his new found relative to add his father’s name, his aunts’ and uncles’ names, and then his own name to the Greek family tree.  

This is a great story, but what does it have to do with leadership?

Our past is what made us who we are today.  There is a theory in teaching called the Constructivist Theory that states learning occurs by building upon one’s experiences.  We construct our knowledge from each of our experiences, and these experiences build together to create understanding.  In other words, all of the jobs we’ve had and all of the roles we’ve played will figure into the leader we become.  They all help to construct our knowledge of people, of work, and of leadership.  

Let this story be a reminder – Never forget where you’ve come from.  Remember, …

  • the jobs you’ve had along the way from your first job at the ice cream shop to your biggest leadership role 
  • the work culture that made you feel alive and helped you thrive
  • the leader who saw something special in you and pushed you just a bit further than you thought you could go

You are constructing your learning about leadership, building your understanding of leadership.

As you lead others, remember your leadership heritage impacts them too.  They are constructing their own leadership learning and writing their own leadership stories.  You play the leading role in your own leadership story, but you also play a supporting role in someone else’s story.   Let your leadership heritage write a beautiful story for both you and those who follow you.

The Leader’s Bookshelf

Readers are leaders and leaders are readers.  We’ve heard it since elementary school. While it may seem trite, it’s true.  The best leaders I know read and study leadership. They read about other leaders, they read about ideas, they read about theories…they read about everything.  There is a diverse mix of books on my leadership bookshelf – some old favorites and some brand new reads. All are useful to my development as a transformational leader,  Here are a few of the favorites on my shelf.  

The Leadership Challenge  by James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner

This is the gold standard of leadership books.  Kouzes and Posner combine both practical knowledge with their years of research on leadership to form their model of leadership – the Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership.  The five practices are: Model the Way, Inspire a Shared Vision, Challenge the Process, Enable Others to Act, and Encourage the Heart. Developing these leadership skills develops leaders.

Dare to Lead by Brene Brown

Her 2011 Ted Talk on vulnerability was only the beginning for Brene Brown.  She is one of the best known authors on vulnerability, leadership, and relationships.  With many best sellers to her credit, Brown has successfully moved her career from the academy to the global market.  Dare to Lead is the latest edition from Brown’s pen, and it’s as strong as the others.  Providing an extra push for leaders, this book is perfect for those needing encouragement and confidence to continue along this leadership journey.

Lead From the Heart by Mark Crowley

Crowley’s book is an easy read.  He shares the story of his life and how he rose from scared child to transformational leader.  Crowley shares significant facts and data about employee motivation, but I found his discussion of the way the heart “thinks” to be profoundly interesting.  According to Crowley, engaging the heart of employees is the key to leadership success.

Emotional Intelligence 2.0 Travis Bradberry and Jean Greaves

If the heart has a brain, Bradberry and Greaves book about emotional intelligence makes people aware of how to use it.  Emotional intelligence is far more than controlling one’s emotions. It calls for an understanding of how thoughts and emotions interact and an awareness of triggers and effects of one’s own emotions.

The Politically Intelligent Leader by Patricia Clark White

Dr. Pat White was instrumental in designing the Doctorate in Organizational Leadership program from which I graduated.  When a professor requires their own book for a course, I usually roll my eyes, assuming its a method for boosting book sales.  Dr. White’s book is the exception. Her vast experience in leadership allows Pat White to draw upon personal examples to illustrate the struggle between competing priorities and personalities within organizations to guide leaders in understanding how to develop and utilize their political capital. 

The next books on my shelf will be Tribes by Seth Godin and Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader by Herminia Ibarra.  Neither book is new, but both offer continued opportunity for development along my leadership journey.

So, what are you reading?