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I feel compelled to extend the conversation taking place in Leaders that DON’T:politicians, from Leadership Turn, regarding alternatives to politicians. First let me restate, as I said in We Need Alternatives to Politicians!:

“…politicians just want to get elected and let that cloud their judgment (even many well-intentioned ones, I’m afraid) while true leaders care about their values and ideals more than they do about elections.”

With that said, we shouldn’t just criticize and stay with our arms crossed. We must propose alternatives to solve the problems we all face, and DO something about it. For every issue that confronts us, there are likely hundreds, thousands, or millions facing the same thing. Gather a group of like-minded people and visit the mayor. Organize protests. Raise money for the cause. Produce marketing campaigns which promote your ideals. Start a business that aims to solve or improve a particular social need or problem which affects you. What is important is that you don’t just talk about it. Use your leadership skills to start something.

Identify a need and fill the gap. That is entrepreneurship at its best. Be it for-profit or not-for-profit, local or international, big or small, it’s bound to make a difference. Today’s social evils, as those of any era’s, can’t be solved through one method only. We can’t depend on one great leader like Gandhi or King (though I hope one appears). Many people will think of many different solutions, and there must be a space for all.

I will suggest, though, that what has come to be called ’social entrepreneurship’ can be key to advance many causes. For-profit businesses, specifically, are a great vehicle to accomplish change in many areas. Give it a chance.

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Tim and Bob are both junior executives in a big corporation. Both are faced with the same situation: Their boss has signed a particular contract, which is pretty clearly a waste of resources in their eyes. But their boss is 100% convinced that she’s doing the right thing. Tim and Bob both are 100% convinced that she’s wrong. Ladies and gentlemen, we have a difficult case in our hands. This is how Tim and Bob each go about in trying to convince the boss that she’s wrong.

1. Tim goes right up to the boss and, with an obvious air of superiority (thinking, “how dumb are you! I’m right, you’re wrong.”). “We all know that you’re making a terrible decision. This is a total waste of money.”
2. Bob knows his boss is a hardheaded person, who normally takes other people’s advice lightly. He makes an appointment with his boss and courteously chats about the contract. “I hope you’re making the right decision. I trust in your judgment, since you’ve already proved to us that you have the company’s best interests in mind. However, since the moment you announced the contract I became aware of some numbers I thought you should know…bla bla bla.”

So who is a better ‘arguer’ then?

Well, wait a minute there before you answer. We first need to answer this:

WHY do we argue?

Let me give you a short answer: To get things done. Not just to ‘be heard’, but to accomplish something concrete.

So with that in mind, who is more likely to get something done? Who is more likely to make the boss reconsider her previous decision? Tim or Bob? I’d have to put my money on Bob. His priority was to keep his boss’s and the company’s best interest at hand. He didn’t shout and thrash about, but I’m pretty sure he was able to disarm the boss and get his point across. Tim, on the other hand, had eliminated his chances for prevailing from the moment he entered the door, before even opening his mouth. His attitude problem talked more clearly than his words: “I’m better than you, and I know more than you.” Who will react positively to that?!

So go ahead, don’t be afraid to argue. We all need to get ideas across, and get things done. But please, don’t argue merely for the sake of “winning”, whatever that means.

P.S. The next post will provide some pointers on “how to argue”. Stay tuned.

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The Art of Leading is back. Life circumstances didn’t allow me to post regularly (almost nothing at all). But from now on I’ll be aiming to post three high-quality articles per week. Happy (late) New Year! Please keep visiting for new, reinvigorated content.

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EIGHT STEPS TO FINDING AND CREATING THE WORK YOU LOVE

By Brian Kurth, author of Test-Drive Your Dream Job

Many of us are still trying to figure out what we want to be when we grow up.  We may have good jobs and nice paychecks, but we are not really happy in our work.  We daydream about the “what if’s” in our life and long for the chance to discover and explore the job of our dreams.  Identifying your dream job and the path that will take you there is both a challenge and an opportunity.  But by following a realistic step-by-step “vocationing” process, you can pursue your interests and passions to the job of your dreams. 

1. Define Your Dream Job(s)

What are your passions and your interests? What activities give you a sense of purpose and satisfaction? Can you envision yourself in a job that fully engages your heart and your mind? You may still be trying to figure out what you want to be when you grow up.  That’s okay. The “vocationing” process gives you the opportunity to explore, experiment, and discover what your dream job is and how to pursue it.

2. Address Your Fears

Financial instability, family disruption, giving up an identity, failing at something new.  These are all fears that may stand in the way of pursuing your dream job. The biggest thing you can do to get past these fears is to meet them head-on. Bring these deepest fears to light and examine them with reason; talk about them; play each one out to its most irrational end. What is the worst thing that could happen?

3. Do Your Research

Internal and external research helps you discover who you are and what kind of work meshes with your deepest self. Do your homework and access resources ranging from the Internet to one-on-one contact with people on-the-job to determine if what you think is your dream job, truly is your dream job.  

4. Find a Mentor

Inspirational, experienced, realistic, forthcoming and optimistic.  A good mentor is all of these things and eager to help someone else get started.  Recruiting a mentor who is a good match for you requires following a plan of action, asking the right questions, and building a relationship that is mutually satisfying.  Having a mentor is the crux to the vocationing process.  Whether you’re 20-something, 30-something, 40-something, 50-something or even 60-something, you need a mentor!   

5. Test Drive Your Dream Job

There’s no better way to learn than by doing. Test-driving your dream job with a mentor provides a hands-on experience that has the potential to change your life. This is the opportunity to learn as much as possible about the job, how you feel about the day-to-day activities, and what it takes to succeed.  Whether your mentorship proves your perceived dream job is indeed your dream job or if it is a reality check illuminating that the job is not the one of your dreams, the mentorship experience gives you the required personal and professional due diligence you need prior to making a career decision.

6. Create an Action Plan

Pursuing a dream job is less a leap than a series of incremental steps that move you closer to your goal. What is critical to reaching that goal is making sure the steps you follow are the right ones. An action plan is needed.  If you make a list of all the things you need to learn and do in order to realize your dream job, you will have mapped out a plan for moving ahead.  A knowledgeable action plan provides you with the power to forge ahead.

7. Establish Thresholds

The biggest reason we pursue our dream job is to increase our life satisfaction. It is important to understand how much risk, challenge, and uncertainty you can tolerate before the life satisfaction goal becomes blurred by the process.  The vocationing process is as much about what you learn on the journey as the rewards when you reach your destination.

8. Think Big, Start Small

You don’t have to quit your nine-to-five job to pursue your dream job. Obligations and concerns may take you down a less-than-direct path.  It may take months, not weeks….years, not months. If you are patient and creative, you can keep your career transition moving forward. The vocationing process will get you from Point A to Point B.

Brian Kurth is the founder of VocationVacations and the author of “Test-Drive Your Dream Job”  Kurth is a sought after expert on how to pursue and attain one’s dream job.  He has shared his wit and wisdom in appearances on NBC’s TODAY Show, CNN, and FOX News, and has been featured in articles in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and Fortune Magazine.  Many more regularly turn to Brian for his comments, advice and insights.  A native of Madison, Wisconsin, Kurth lives in Portland, Oregon.

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It’s extremely easy to speak “after the fact”. But I have to get something off my chest: Isn’t an institution as large and respected as Citigroup supposed to have a solid succession plan? CEO Chuck Prince is no more, and there’s a big mess over who will take charge.

True leaders, or at least organizations, need succession plans. In fact, the creation of new leaders is one of the tasks that any true leader should take to heart. Surely Citi will turn out fine in the long run. But this short-term scramble wouldn’t have happened if there was a succession plan in place.

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By, Dr. Anthony F. SmithAuthor of The Taboos of Leadership
People have paid me a lot of money over the years to answer the following
question for them: How do I become a great Leader? I will often answer them
with the following questions:

Q: How do you become a great parent?

A: Do great parenting, day in, day out, over a sustained period of time.

Q: How do you become a great consultant?

A: Do great consulting, day in, day out, etc.

So, how do you become a great Leader? You guessed it, do great Leadership,
day in, day out, over a sustained period of time!

The field of Leadership Development, with its plethora of books, seminars,
courses, videos, and executive coaches, has become a billion dollar
industry. Unfortunately, I believe that much of what is embodied within the
industry is simply misleading and deceptive. Books such as ‘Leadership for
Dummies’, ‘The Idiots Guide to Leading’, and ‘Leadership Made Easy’, all
capitalize on the fact that many want to be a leader, but few are actually
able, or want to put forth the effort required to really become one. (How
would you feel about a book entitled “Brain Surgery for Dummies”?) At one
point, we need to get real about leadership. Like diet programs that claim
you can eat all you want and still lose 20 pounds in a week, leadership
“products”, make similar claims, and therefore resort to oversimplified
theories and falsehoods that invite leader want-to-be’s to consume anything
that looks like a magic pill to Leadership. Well, unfortunately, there are
no magic pills to becoming a Leader, just like there are no magic pills to
losing weight, getting fit, making a million dollars, or shaving 10 strokes
off your handicap in golf. Simply stated, becoming a Leader occurs when one
exercises the arduous process of effective Leadership, day after day, week
after week, and year after year.

Q: So, what is Leadership you ask?

A: Leadership is a process (not a position) whereby an individual works
through a series of iterative stages by;

Stage 1

* creating a vision,

* establishing an objective and set of goals,

* setting direction,

Stage 2

* and following through by intentionally seeking to influence followers
(both established and potential),

* to perform the various tasks needed to realize the vision,

* to their full potential,

* for as long as possible,

Stage 3

* until the vision and goals are realized.

One can look at this definition as a “check-list” to Leadership; Do I have a
vision; a picture of a desired end state that is compelling to others? Are
people performing to their full potential? Who do I need to help me realize
this vision? Am I intentionally seeking to influence people to perform their
best? What else needs to be done, and who should do it?

Now, I realize individuals may find themselves at various points in a given
stage, before they choose to engage in the process of leadership. For
instance, one may be working in a division, or an organization, that already
has a clearly established vision, set goals, etc. In such a case, assuming
that the individual agrees with the vision, the leadership process begins at
Stage 2. We all must realize that part of the difficulty of leadership is
that some people are great visionaries, but lack the competence and EQ to
influence others to rally around their vision. Others, may not be great
visionaries, but are very influential and inspirational to those around
them.

What I have observed in my years of studying leaders, is that very few have
all the gifts and talents themselves; what many of the great ones do have,
is a self awareness of what talents they do have, and the self confidence
and security to surround themselves with others who can compliment them, and
compensate for their own lack of skills.

In closing, let me make one point clear; it is my intent to encourage as
many people as possible to exercise leadership as often as they possibly
can, for as long as they can!

When people are lost because they lack a “vision”, and you happen to “see”
an end goal that they can not see, then at least exercise Stage 1 of
leadership. By doing so, it doesn’t necessarily mean you will emerge as
their “leader”, but you will have engaged in “leadership.” If one of your
colleagues is not performing to their “full potential”, intervene and
intentionally try to influence them to raise their performance. Remember,
human performance is nothing more than the function of one’s skill and will
to perform a task; therefore, if one is not performing to their potential,
it is either because they lack the skill, or the will, to do their job.
Figure out what is impeding their performance and try to either coach them
to build their skills, or inspire, challenge, and motivate them to raise
their will to perform. Let’s be clear;

Everyone can not become a leader, but every one can engage in a lot more
leadership!

When I wrote my book, The Taboos of Leadership; The Ten Secrets That No One
Will Tell You About Leaders and What They Really Think (Jossey Bass, 2007),
I was accused by some that by “revealing” the un-savory aspects of
leadership, I was discouraging many from wanting to lead. Unfortunately,
they missed my message. As I state in my book, if we are serious about
trying to build the Skill and Will of future leaders, we owe it to them to
disclose the truth, as difficult as they may be, so that they may be better
prepared to engage in leadership, day in, and day out, over a sustained
period of time, thus increasing the probability that one day they will
indeed become great leaders themselves.

Leadership is the one and only path to becoming a leader.

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I just finished reading this book, and want to share with you my observations. Of course, the best thing you can do with this or any book is to read it for yourself. But at least this review might help you in that decision.

Structure

The structure of the chapters was very reader-friendly. They all consist of an anecdote, an explanation of that anecdote, conclusions, and recommendations. I’ve always liked books that don’t leave their topics up in the air, and give a call to action. One of this book’s virtues, in my opinion, is precisely that. Another virtue is the focus on transmitting messages through story-telling. The effectiveness of stories isn’t a new discovery, but they do let you see the concepts in action, and Mr. Baum, in my opinion, achieved that.

In terms of structure, I do find that the book may have been structured with a different “skeleton”. Perhaps I would have preferred to structure the book around the ten “shaping experiences” that Mr. Baum first listed on Chapter 1. I do acknowledge, though, that the author used some kind of criteria to decide on this factor.

Substance

Let’s go to the important part, the substance. The book has a lot of messages, obviously. As I said, I think that the 10 “shaping experiences” are the backbone of the book. Out of those 10, the one that resonated the most with me was #1, “swim in water over your head.” I’ve always thought that putting yourself in supposedly impossible situations is a great way to grow. But two less obvious concepts jumped out at me.

The first was the importance of developing an educated instinct. The author referred to this mainly as “emotional readiness.” The book conveys the significance of shaping experiences in the development of what I refer to as instinct. The main theory is that as one gathers lessons throughout different situations in life and business, one can draw on those lessons more readily. That was very clear throughout the book. Perhaps some examples were somewhat repetitive, but other than that the concept of “emotional readiness” is central.

The other concept that I got out of the book was how those experiences throughout life contribute to what Mr. Baum refers to as “personal growth.” I’m somewhat of a personal-development junkie, so this stood out in my mind. Again, some stories may have been too shallow and repetitive, but all in all, they illustrated the message.

Verdict
Good. I think it achieves what it sets out to achieve. It conveys the importance of personal growth through life experiences. That may even overshadow the somewhat repetitive or shallow instances of the book. So what should you do? Buy it, read it, and find what is useful to you.

Here are some other reviews that may be useful:
Reviews in Amazon

Time-Work in Progress

Three Star Leadership

Barnes and Noble

Written Voices

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As The Art of Leading grows, more new content will be frequently added. Original and linked posts and articles will, as always, continue to appear. But the future also holds the possibility of weekly book reviews, more useful resources, and most important of all, FREE original information products. These will be available only as a benefit to email subscribers of The Art of Leading.

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The same thing told in different ways will be heard differently and have different effects. In a recent post (Who Needs Charisma?), I mentioned an article in the August/September 2007 issue of Scientific American MIND magazine (The New Psychology of Leadership). In that same issue, there is another extraordinary article which I want to refer to, since it has so much to do with persuasion. In When Words Decide, author Barry Schwartz describes how the wording of questions or choices have a shockingly deep effect on the final decisions of people. Some of what Schwartz says is pretty obvious information. But the article does provide some detailed tidbits that any leader should apply when trying to get his or her way. Here they are presented, along with suggestions on how to use them as a leader who wants to persuade

1. People normally choose the default option. It’s easier and they assume it’s best for them.
Tip: Use your preferred option as the default. It’s simpler and easier for people to do nothing. Provide an opt-out option instead of an opt-in option. For example, if you prefer that your employees have a 401-K plan, make it the default option, leaving the employees with the power of declining to have one by opting out.

2. People are more motivated to not lose something than to gain something. For some reason, the fear of negative things is more impacting to people than the possibility of gaining something.
Tip: Emphasize to people the negative characteristics of an option you are against (obviously) but do so in a way that motivates them to prevent loss. For example, if you are running a campaign to get people tested for HIV, tell them what will happen in the case of late detection (lose your life) instead of what they could gain in case of early detection (more effective treatment).

3. People pick the most favorable of two options, but if given only one option they don’t have anything to compare to. If you ask people if $100 is a fair price for a microwave, their answers will be inconsistent. If on the other hand, you present people with that same microwave and ask them if the new $500 “Premium” microwave is a better offer, most would see the first one as the best choice.
Tip: Give people a specific context to work with. Make your preferred option the most favorable of two options, even if it’s less favorable than a third unnamed option. In other words, provide a field of comparison when trying to persuade.

For clarification and further helpful examples, go to the complete article:

Scientific American Mind: When Words Decide
Researchers are discovering the myriad ways in which
language can have a profound effect on the choices we make–from the foods we eat to the laws we support

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I just created a Squidoo lens about this blog, The Art of Leading. I want to use it to put some additional information and resources about leadership that may be more difficult to include here. It’s still sort of lacking a nice amount of content, but I’ll add to it as I go along. It could be an effective extension of the blog, when needed. You can check it out at The Art of Leading Squidoo Lens.

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