Final President’s Leadership Session 2007

Monday, February 19, 2007

Ground Rules

Leave positions at the door Keep an open mind Participate!! Spectators will NOT

Grow! Respect new ideas, even if you

don’t agree with them Have mercy on your facilitator

As compiled and written by Robert P. Neuschel of the

Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University and adapted by Gary Barnett for weekly

discussion with his seniors.

Servant Leadership

What does that mean to you?

It is not the lot of the leader to be served but rather his/her privilege to serve. “Ich Dien” appears prominently on the crest of the Prince of Wales. It says so simply, “I Serve.” Putting that concept into practice is the basis for developing the servant leader concept.

Efforts to gain human understanding should dominate a leader’s thinking and actions.

The leader needs the capacity to meet adversity without succumbing to emotional paralysis or withdrawal and without lashing out at colleagues or subordinates. One significant teat of quality leadership is how well a leader copes with disappointments, defeat, or some form of overriding adversity.

Voltare, in praising this quality in the Duke of Marlborough, called it, “Calm courage in the midst of tumult, that serenity of soul in danger, which is the greatest gift of nature for command.”

Stamina is the leader’s ultimate resource.

Little is much good without endurance. This is evidenced by the ability to work long and hard, especially under pressure or after disappointment.

A corporate president recently saying, “My greatest strength grows out of my tenacity.”

Life and leadership both are more of a marathon than a dash.

No amount of technique can produce courage. Courage

comes from the heart, and the soul, and it can hardly be

intellectualized.

Success in interpersonal relations does not depend on

intellectual endowment; it depends rather on basic

intelligence and emotional maturity.

All effective leaders have a deep and abiding want for accomplishment that

glues together other important attributes such as:

Human Understanding

Integrity

Total Sense of Responsibility

Touch of Wisdom

Capacity to be Big

Decisiveness

Courage

The high performing leader must have and display (and be perceived to have) an unswerving sense of moral decency.

The head is smart but not always wise. Perhaps the highest art in leadership is to balance the head and the heart. The effective leader must have both head and heart. Each situation requires a different balance of the two. There is no formula or scientific way to determine what this balance should be. This is part of the reason why being a talented leader is more art than science.

The capacity to quickly assess that which is important is a quality common to most successful executives. Some call this an instinct for the essential. This is really basic to solid, common sense, an invaluable asset to an effective leader.

The image of the leader is not his/her superficial self but rather the sum total of a system of values demonstrated over time. When this manifestation is clear and consistent and reflects a quality of personal integrity, it is a powerful instrument.

Integrity implies that a person has developed over time a consistent ordering of his/her system of values, attitudes and goals.

The effective leader is mentally and emotionally grown up. He has matured – is objective and thoughtful. Such a leader must be free of arrogance and moodiness and realistically well-adjusted to life.

The leader needs vast amounts of physical, spiritual and psychic energy. Frustrations, disappointments and “high mountains” will drain energy. The pressure to compete, to make changes, to face the new demands will be physically and emotionally tiring–it will be energy draining and there is a need to continually replenish the leader’s source of energy.

The leader must have a high tolerance for ambiguity and learn to live and be productive in an increasingly uncertain environment. The managerial playing field will be messy and require a great deal of sorting out and striving to operate on an even keel in an ever-changing and churning sea.

The leader needs unswerving strength of character. The choices will be difficult. The temptations will be many. Making the right decisions will not be so much intellectual as demanding of one’s character.

The effective leader energizes people as he/she leads them. Above that, the leader needs the passion to inspire.

The leader must have the courage, the inner peace of mind and soul and the willpower to take difficult and sometimes very lonely positions.

The leader needs much more than integrity to be successful. Without integrity and trust, nothing else matters much. In fact, integrity and trust are the foundation stones of all voluntary leadership.

The leader needs special wisdom and courage to sort out conflicting demands and desires–e.g., production vs. humanity, output vs. environment, sales vs. production, short-term vs. long-term . . . The tough parts of leadership are the choices that must be made.

Remember that leadership and followership represent a continuum. Followership sets the pattern for leadership. The leader cannot cheat up and get trust from below. The leader’s own style of followership provides the model for his/her own people to imitate.

Most people desire to be led. They usually want to be part of a going thing. We are a society of organizations. We want to belong. People want a firm sense of direction from the leader. The trumpet sound must be clear.

The leader must be an extraordinary agent for change. In this world of rapid change and discontinuities, the leader must be out front to encourage change and growth and to show the way to bring it about. There are two requisites to bringing about change:

Knowing the technical requirements of the change

Understanding the attitudinal and motivational demands to bringing it about.

Both of the preceding requisites are critically necessary. More often than not, failure to change will result from inadequate or inappropriate motivation–not from lack of technical smarts.

Many great military commanders were as natural as children–straightforward–not artful–no acting–no pretense. Naturalness is a priceless virtue in leadership.

The effective leader must have the capacity for abstraction, vision and ability to conceptualize. The leader must have great facility to translate conceptual into concrete specifics that are readily understood and meaningful to the people in the organization. This is translating vision into reality.

There is a strong need for commitment and not just compliance. All high-performing organizations have key leaders and sub-leaders imbued with deep commitment.

The effective leader is constantly inspirationally dissatisfied. It is a healthy kind of dissatisfaction that encourages persevering through daily challenges and trials and always reaching for higher levels of performance.

The mature leader needs:

A high flashpoint

A soft but strong voice

Deep reserves of energy

An inner peace–an internal calmness that fosters stability in the face of tumult

Unswerving strength of character

A well-mannered ego

A lot of smarts and still growing

You have to be able to say “yes” or “no” crisply. Don’t waffle. You can withhold a decision, but do not be or appear to be tentative in the process.

Organized Meetings Work Best Create an Agenda and Follow It Make Sure That Your Committees are

Active Do Not Let Committees Meet During the

Meeting of the Club Learn Robert’s Rules of Order Keep Control of Your Meeting End the Meeting at a Reasonable Time

Take Great Care in Filling Your Board Take Great Care in Filling Your Committee

Chairpersons Get Commitment From Those That Agree

to Serve Make Sure You Are the Best Leader You

Can Be Remember That Your Commitment Will be

Infectious There is No ‘I’ in Team!

LIP ‘n Lunch 5/12/07

Questions & Comments