What made the difference in this situation was facilitative leadership –  the process of engaging others (either individually or in a group) in creating their own solutions, then enabling them to implement successfully. More than a set of skills or techniques, facilitative leadership is a stance or a posture. There are skills and techniques but I want to talk about the personal work of moving fully into this posture.

Want to learn more?
Seton Cove workshop – Feb. 7 in Austin, TX

First, we will need to let go of certainty. To facilitate the emergence of collective wisdom in those we work with, we will need to be willing to hang out in uncertainty, to know that we don’t know it all. The there is the challenge of experiencing our own vulnerability. It’s been said that “Trust is a risk game and the leader must ante up first.” We have to put our own imperfections out there if we expect others to do so. And without that willingness to risk.

If you’re willing to be with uncertainty and live into the strength of your vulnerability, you can bring the full power and creativity of your team to the complex challenges you face through facilitative leadership.

Learning Opportunity:

Want to learn more about facilitative leadership and the skills and practices involved? Join me at Seton Cove (Austin, Texas) on February 7 at 7pm. Visit the Seton Cove website  for details.

During the holidays, my husband and I took some time to share passages from “The Prophet” (Kahlil Gibran). I was most struck by what Gibran says about work. Here is the part that stood out for me.

You work that you may keep pace with the earth and the soul of the earth.
And in keeping yourself with labour you are in truth loving life,
And to love life is to be intimate with life’s inmost secret.
Often have I heard you say, as if speaking in sleep, “He who works in marble, and finds the shape of his own soul in the stone, is nobler than he who ploughs the soil.
And he who seizes the rainbow to lay it on a cloth in the likeness of man, is more than he who makes the sandals for our feet.
But I say, not in sleep but in the over-wakefulness of noontide, that the wind speaks not more sweetly to the giant oaks than to the least of all the blades of grass;
And he alone is great who turns the voice of the wind into a song made sweeter by his own loving.
Work is love made visible. 

The “punchline” at the end is often quoted alone and it sometimes leaves me feeling that it’s all about finding the work we love rather than simply loving the work that finds us. And it is in loving that labour that we make it sweet.

This year, I’m loving all of my labour as part of loving life.

Have a wonderful new year!

LaNelle, Dennis, Gary, Ed, Jerry, Kathy, Don, Patty, Ross, Julie, Will, Anna, Charlie, Melissa, John, Mary, Bill, Angie, Cass, Elizabeth, Boogie, Dee, Richard, Charlyn, Travis, Natalie, Dan, and so many more.

I’m thankful for all of the amazing leaders I’ve had the pleasure to know and the difference they’ve made in my life.

Leaders who . . .

• bring heart and soul to the challenges of leadership.
• see a time horizon that exceeds your own lifespan.
• have the courage to show up with your vulnerability along with your strength.
• seek the common good.
• inspire us to believe we can do the impossible.
• enable us see our connectedness and our humanity.
• help each of us become more of who we are.

Thank you for your leadership!

Think about a leader who has made a difference in your life. Write her/him a short note about the impact they have had and send it to them.

The question is — does your Gorilla like innovation?

One key ingredient is gumption. Kevin Leahy (the Mind Athlete trainer) defines gumption as will + intent + belief.

Here’s a look at each of those three ingredients as elements of culture.

Will refers to desire that drives action. In a culture with strong will, there is a sense of motion, of getting things done. The urge to act trumps the fear of getting it wrong if your Gorilla has will.

If your Gorilla has intent, people know what the team is about, what you will accomplish together. If your Gorilla has strong collective intent, shared goals trump individual agendas and personal wants.

A Gorilla with belief knows it can get the job done. People believe they have what it takes to succeed together. Believing in the impossible comes naturally to a Gorilla with strong belief.

Will + Intent + Belief = Gumption

How does gumption support innovation?

Without gumption, fear of mistakes can block innovation. If you jump out there with your idea before it’s been perfected, you could be wrong. It takes gumption to jump out there anyway. But if you don’t, innovation will happen slowly if at all. It’s also a risk to point out the flaws in your colleagues’ ideas. That could create conflict and most of us don’t like conflict. However, without taking that risk, you’ll let the wrong ideas carry the day. It takes gumption to speak your mind.

Individual gumption is great and it will carry you far. And, if your Gorilla has gumption, that means the organization is gumption-prone. Gorillas with gumption innovate and win.

To build gumption into your culture, there are four things you need to do. First, hire folks with gumption. Second, reward demonstrations of gumption. Third, coach those who don’t show gumption when it’s needed. And most of all, show your gumption as a leader. Strengthen your Gorilla’s gumption and you’ll get more innovation.

Reflection on Gumption

Think about a recent time when you showed your gumption. Write about what drove you to do that and what the experience was like for you. Did you come from a place of positive intent and belief in shared success or did you wait till anger and frustration drove you? How might you have used your gumption even more effectively?

The past three months have been a time of intense introspection for me. As a result, I have come to know myself as a leader in a deeper way. These new insights allow me to bring more of myself to my leadership and thus to lead more powerfully.

Drawing on my own journey, I want to share with you some thoughts about how you can deepen your own leadership through reflection. Reflection and journaling allow you to learn from yourself over time, to see how your leadership is changing and where you might want to go next on your leadership journey.

To maximize the benefits of a reflection practice, you’ll need to balance the opposite poles of three aspects of your reflection. Each of these aspects has a somewhat paradoxical quality. Embracing the paradox gives your reflection more depth and power. The three aspects to balance in your reflection practice are questioning, timing, and talking. In each of these, it’s not that one way is better but that you’ll get more from your reflection if you balance different ways of doing it.

Balancing Questioning:

Questioning concerns what you choose to reflect on and brings into focus the balance between freedom and structure. Sometimes it’s useful to simply reflect on and write about whatever is floating around in your mind. Perhaps you wake up puzzled over a failed communication at work yesterday. Let those thoughts and feelings flow out through your pen. Don’t edit or control it; just let it flow. At other times, you’ll want to reflect on a specific topic or question. Perhaps it’s a question from something you’ve read, an issue raised by a mentor or coach, or anything else that seems to be working on you. By allowing your mind free rein at times and guiding it gently at other times, you’ll blend the need to be with where you are and the need to extend yourself in a specific direction to move forward.

Balancing Timing:

Timing is about the balance of consistency and flexibility. Regular reflection is a discipline like meditation or prayer or fitness. As such, the practice will progress more rapidly if there is a regular time set aside for reflection. Still, there will be times when something will be bubbling up for you and you’ll benefit by finding time (even 10 minutes) to write about what’s coming up or what’s puzzling you. Embrace the paradox of being both consistent and flexible.

Balancing Talking:

The balance I’m referring to here is the balance between solitude and community. While the majority of your reflection will be a conversation with yourself, your practice will deepen considerably if there are trusted friends or colleagues with whom you can reflect in community. I’m not talking about help or advice but about a place for mutual, open-hearted sharing. Sharing with someone with whom you can allow yourself the vulnerability of uncertainty. This may be conversations with individual friends or it may happen in the context of a group retreat where both solitude and sharing are supported. Seton Cove’s “Leadership Pilgrimage” and Ed Perry’s “Life of Meaning” workshop have each been such a place for me.

My own reflection this summer has given me deeper insights into my gifts and challenges as a leader as they relate to creativity, organizational culture, vulnerability, consensus building, compassion, risk taking, and much more. If you’re serious about becoming a stronger leader, about having a bigger impact, then commit to reflecting daily for 60 days. It won’t cost you a dime and you can judge the results for yourself.

A Personal Example of Balancing the Paradoxes

Here is a brief glimpse into my leadership journey this summer to give you an example of being in a dynamic balance for these aspects of a reflective practice.

In July, I spent 5 weeks of focused, intense reflection in the “Life of Meaning” workshop. The assignments provided tons of structure – questions to write about, things to read and assignments to prepare. Thus, during those five weeks, my usual balance in questioning tipped far towards structure. At the same time, my usual balance in timing tipped way toward flexibility. While I generally journal in the early morning, I found I needed large blocks of time and took them wherever my calendar permitted. In the balance of talking, the dial on both the conversations with myself and conversations with others got turned up. One particular week before the Life of Meaning session after having spent many hours in solitary reflection and journaling, I felt a strong need for a sounding board. I reached out to two trusted friends and both were able to have coffee with me at the same time on short notice. (Such a calendar luxury!) We met at the local Starbucks and had one of the deepest, most impactful conversations of my leadership journey to date, which we now refer to as our “Starbuckification.” (Thank you, Melissa and Kevin!)

Ideas for Questions to Journal About

Poetry is a good source. Pull out a favorite collection of poetry and sit with one of the poems for a bit. Questions or topics will likely bubble up. Write them down as they surface without judging or editing. That will give you a nice starter collection. Another good source is Brenee Brown’s new book “The Gifts of Imperfection.” Worth a read and guaranteed to give you some questions to ponder that will deepen your leadership.

As I transition from my role as Founding Director of the Concordia MBA back to my focus on consulting, one of the clearest “take aways” from this incredible learning experience is a renewed awareness of how very much leadership matters. To the organization, the people in it, and to our communities.

We often talk about “employee engagement.” Leadership can take us beyond just engagement. Frederick Buechner says that our calling is “the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” If we are in that place, living out our calling, we are more than engaged – we are enlivened and energized by our work and others are drawn to that energy.

I was fortunate to experience a sample of that intersection as we built the MBA program. Two aspects of leadership contributed significantly to that experience, hence my renewed awareness that leadership makes a difference.

Let’s start with “deep gladness.”

While there are many aspects to what brings us deep gladness, using our best gifts is an essential element. Leading the development of this MBA program called forth the best in me — bringing people together, drawing out their ideas, synthesizing it all, and making things happen. Waking up every day knowing that my work would call forth the best in me was a delicious experience. As leaders, when we are using our best gifts and enabling others to use theirs, people are drawn to the energy that creates. Because of this energy, our team accomplished more than many thought was possible. As a leader living out an aspect of my calling, I helped create the energy that made the impossible possible. Leadership can draw forth the “deep gladness” in team members.

That gets us half way to the calling. What about “the world’s deep hunger” and leadership?

Dr. Don Christian believed in the dream of the Concordia MBA developing leaders who make a difference in Central Texas and he inspired me with his vision. Together, we inspired others in the Concordia community to believe in themselves and join with us to collaboratively create the program. And that team inspired students and faculty to join us in the journey. Where there was only a dream, now there is a unique MBA program serving Central Texas. Doing this work allowed me and others to know that in this way, we were meeting the world’s deep hunger. Dean Christian’s inspirational leadership put us in touch with that feeling.

The bottom line? When we can lead from that place where we know that our “deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet,” our leadership is compelling. When we lead with our heart and soul, as well as our minds, we create a space where others can be more than engaged. They can be enlivened, energized and enriched by their work. They too can find that intersection.

And then, yes, leadership matters!

If the leadership that comes from my “deep gladness” might serve to energize and enliven your organization, let’s talk. My consulting work is aimed at making organizations better for everyone – employees, customers, and all stakeholders. You and others in your organization will experience an authentic and heartful presence as we work together to build your future.

If you want your board or executive team to live up to its potential, call me. Together we can make a difference.

And yet there are some patterns. As a coaching client, you wear different “hats” in the coaching engagement at different times. Consciously choosing which hat to wear when can help you get more value for your coaching investment

Briefly, there are six hats or roles that a client might occupy at some point in a session or engagement.

1. Student
2. Athlete
3. Devotee
4. Apprentice
5. Observer
6. Adventurer

Some of these may not sound too appealing at first glance. Each adds value to my clients at the right time and in the right measure.

1. Student
   When you are in the student role, you are seeking new knowledge. You may need advice about how to proceed with a problem, technical information, or other knowledge the coach has.
2. Athlete
   OK, maybe this one doesn’t feel like it applies to you. But when you look to your coach for motivation, accountability, and cheerleading you become the athlete on the field, driven by your coach’s support and belief in you.
3. Devotee
   No, you don’t worship your coach. But if she occasionally inspires you to reach inside yourself for a strength you didn’t know you had, you’re wearing the devotee hat.
4. Apprentice
   If your coach has a track record of success in your field, he can show you the way by example. You may have a chance to learn by observing him in action in that role. This is frequently part of the role of manager as coach.
5. Observer
   A key role of the coach is to provide honest, direct, useful feedback. Through this mirror, you are able to see yourself more clearly and improve your performance. You will also develop your ability to observe and assess yourself more realistically.
6. Adventurer
   The most challenging hat to wear. As you wear the other five hats, you are preparing for change. When you try on the new behaviors, it’s an adventure. Your coach can guide you on the adventure but it’s your adventure. Learn to love the journey use it to gather new information about yourself. These adventures can fuel your growth in ways you never thought possible.

Learn to wear all six hats with your coach and it’s sure to accelerate your growth.

So there you are, faced with unethical behavior from your boss. What do you do? Let’s make it a little harder – your boss is very tight with his boss so you’re pretty sure taking it up the channel would be a career limiting move.

You can

1. Do nothing.
2. Spread rumors behind the scene to force your boss’s hand.
3. Take action independently to cause the issue to surface.
4. Talk to your boss.

Let’s look at each of those in turn.

1. Do nothing.
   Seems likely that no one will suffer terribly from your boss’s actions. I mean we’re not talking about hiding O-rings on the space shuttle or exploding gas tanks on a car, right? If you are committed to not making waves, this is likely your only choice. And it’s the option least likely to cost you your job. But then, what is the cost when you look at yourself in the mirror?
2. Spread rumors behind the scene to force your boss’s hand.
   Not a pretty answer. Launching your own unethical behavior to stop your boss’s almost never makes sense. It’s not good leadership and may backfire. You’d have to take an “ends justify the means” posture to justify this.
3. Take action independently to resolve the issue or cause it to surface.
   Sometimes you can make things right without going head-to-head with your boss. Get creative about constructive, ethical actions you can take that will change the situation. As a last resort, this could include going to the media. But that surely will cost you your job and might hurt many others. Think of the media as your “nuclear option” if lives are at stake.

One big problem with these first three options — Will you still feel you can lead others if you can’t tackle this issue?

1. Talk to your boss directly and thoughtfully.
   If the “reasonable person” test suggests that your boss might hear your concerns and reconsider, you can fire up your courage and have that hard conversation. Your concerns might be resolved. Remember that a key to influencing someone is being willing to be influenced. Listen to what your boss has to say. Perhaps you weren’t seeing the whole picture. You just might change the outcome with this conversation. Still, it can backfire. Even if this conversation stops the behavior that concerned you, you may become a political outcast in your organization. Be sure you are willing to pay that price.

Bottom line? Sometimes doing what you believe is right has a price. So does doing nothing. Which price are you more willing to pay?

A simple comment expressing your genuine appreciation for something one of your staff has done makes a huge difference. It says you care and that you noticed. It says they matter.

Why don’t we do this more?

Leaders are problem solvers and that means we often focus our attention on what is wrong, what needs to be changed. And so we miss the dozens of small things (and often big things too) that are wonderful and worthy of our appreciation. Widening your point of attention so that you see things to appreciate changes everything.

This new year, give your staff the gift of simple statements of appreciation. They’ll love it! And it will get 2011 off to a great start.

Practically speaking, it can be hard to change your point of attention. If you forget to notice what you appreciate during your busy day, make it a practice to fall asleep making a mental list of all of the small things you appreciate that happened that day, at work or at home.

As you shift your attention to what you appreciate, be prepared for a change in your own point of view. The more you focus on what you appreciate, the better the world will look to you.

Strategies come and go, depending on market forces, technology, the economy and many more variables. But hope endures. Without hope, what’s the point?

Leadership springs from hope. As a leader, you must comb through the data about market consolidation and hope that your company will emerge from the consolidation as an industry leader. You must see the struggling employee and have hope for the employee’s ability to grow and develop. You must see the glimmer of promise in an innovation, and have enough hope that it will come to fruition that you will fund the development. This list could go on and on.

Is hope alone enough? Of course not.

If any single ingredient could ensure leadership success, it would be easy. As leaders, we wrestle daily with paradox. Hope and healthy skepticism. Forgiveness and accountability. Compassion and consistent standards. If we are mindful about our leadership, these paradoxes (and others) pass through our awareness many times a day.

If we are not, we may find your actions dominated by one aspect of the paradox. Hope unfounded on reality is foolish and can lead straight to bankruptcy. Skepticism without hope creates frustration and despair, for you and those around you.

Whatever the endeavor, somehow hope must live in it. For without some sense of hope that together we can make things better in some way, why go on?

I wish you peace and hope in the New Year.

Hope and an MBA – Sound unlikely?

Since January, I’ve been building The Concordia MBA. The program was founded on a three part theory of social change:

1.  It starts with hope.

2.  Innovation emerges from the soil of critical thinking.

3.  Social transformation is deeply personal work.

Those three principles led to the creation of a unique and transformative MBA program.

To learn more, visit MBA.Concordia.edu.

It starts with hope.

Something I would also say of my consulting work. For better or worse, my eye focuses on what is strong about the organization and how it might live up to its potential. Yes, I can see the flaws and weaknesses. But my focus is on what the client hopes for and believes in.

I can deliver the hard messages and have been told I’m very much a “straight shooter” when it comes to that. If there is something that needs to be said, and others are dancing around it, I’m willing to lay it on the table. I’m bluntly honest in those moments. But that honesty comes with a large dose of hope and compassion.

If want your board or executive team to live up to its potential, call me. Together we can make hope more than just a strategy.