Movement on the Leadership Ladder

The challenge in moving from rung to rung is you can’t apply a formula or follow a recipe.  We live in a fast food society that expects things to happen quickly without much effort.  Leading people requires heavy lifting.  Breaking News, people are unique and different.  I learned this lesson growing up with a father who taught college physics.  He would study the material he was teaching year after year.  I finally asked him why he felt compelled to study after teaching for twenty plus years.  Had physics changed over the years?  His answer is the key to understanding how to become a better leader. He said, everyone learns differently and in order to reach each student, I need to completely understand the material.   What works for teaching one person may not work for the next.  Great leaders are lifelong students, focused on understanding the intricacies of leading people.  What works for leading one person or organization may not work for the next.  That is the challenge of leading. 

Becoming a better leader requires developing a set of skills or filling your leadership play book with an understanding of what plays work in different situations.  As Liam Neeson says in the movie Taken, “…But what I do have are a very particular set of skills; skills I have acquired over a very long career...”  You won’t become a great leader overnight.  Leading people requires book smarts and street smarts developed over time.  You can’t learn by just reading or just working in the lab.  What I am trying to do with this blog is provide you the classroom portion of leadership.  But it will be pointless unless you get into the game and play.  You have to be willing to jump in, sink or swim.  That is where the real learning occurs.  You might fumble a few snaps but you will also throw a few touchdown passes!!

Leadership Ladder - Position

I will continue to build on the previous posts in developing the concept of viewing leadership opportunites against the backdrop of the leadership ladder.

Every time you accept a new position, change roles within your company, or bring new people into your organization, you begin as a positional leader.  It doesn’t matter how successful you have been in your previous job or how much your reputation precedes you.  You ALWAYS start out as a positional leader.  The question or decision you have to make is will I take the easy road and stay a positional leader or am I willing to invest the personal and professional capital necessary to be better, to move down the ladder.  Positional leadership is the starting point, the beginning, the entering argument, the entry level job.  It is not designed to be a place where you stay for any length of time but merely a place to begin.  The tragedy is that many people stay positional leaders.

When you become a parent, you are a positional leader with your kids.  You know this is true because what parent hasn’t said, “You will clean your room because I’m you father and I am telling you to clean it!”  Confession time, I’ve been there and done that.  The room gets cleaned this time but you have to go through the same routine every time because they are following you only because of the POSITION you occupy.  They have no choice.  Parents that stay positional leaders are puzzled by the fact that their kids don’t solicit their advice later in life.  Against the backdrop of the leadership ladder, it makes perfect sense.  If you haven’t moved down through permission to production, you won’t have developed the relationship necessary to be a people developer or mentor.  The same is true in your organization.  People will follow you if you occupy a leadership position because they value their job.  However, you will spend your time managing them, motivating them, and maintaining the status quo.  People expect positional leadership but they desire something more. 

Leadership Ladder

I’m sure you’ve heard the saying and associated answer, “How do you eat an elephant?  One bite at a time”.  Leadership can often be viewed as an elephant - massive in size, complex in relationships, slow to change directions, and life-long in impact.  Can you break leadership into bite size pieces or is this one of those times where the cleaver saying is purely that, a cleaver saying?   The leadership ladder is a tool that will help break the challenge of leading into bite size pieces, breaking down the overwhelming nature of leading into smaller segments that are easier to comprehend and apply. 

If you were to search the Internet for leadership ladder, you would find many images that differ in their number of rungs or what each rung stands for.  However, they find common ground in their shape, vertical stringers with horizontal rungs connecting them, and function, starting at the bottom and climbing up.  The leadership ladder you see below differs in shape and function from both an actual ladder and a “typical” leadership ladder.  I’d like to take complete credit for this, but that would be both dishonest and poor leadership, so I will give John Maxwell the credit for the different rungs of the ladder.  What you see below is a modified version of Maxwell’s leadership ladder to drive home the two differences mentioned above:

·    Different shape:  The top rung of the ladder has the most people and each subsequent rung has fewer.

·    Different function: As you grow as a leader, you move down the ladder, becoming less not more visible.

I will let you digest the picture, and in subsequent posts I will describe each rung of the ladder and how to move between rungs.

Are Leaders Made or Summoned to Lead?

Ask people the question, “Are leaders born or made”, and the overwhelming answer is made.  Ask people the question, “Are leaders made or summoned to lead”, and most people would say huh? Leonard Sweet wrote a book called Summoned to Lead in which the basic premise is leaders are neither born nor made but rather summoned, called into existence by circumstances.  He goes on to say those who rise to the occasion are leaders.  He believes vision is a worn out concept and that the whole leadership thing is demented, that the future needs more ears than eyes.  If you were to go to the library and spend a few casual minutes browsing through leadership books, you would quickly realize Sweet is in the minority.  But is he wrong?  Haven’t you ever found yourself in the right place at the right time, where you were left to decide should I help or mind my own business?  Was that your moment to lead?  We think of the heroes that are presented to us in tragic situations like September 11, 2001, natural disasters, or war.  Every time they are given an opportunity to speak they say the same thing, “Anyone would have done what I did”.  Really, would they really or was the person seizing the moment to be a hero, being summoned to lead?   

In general, I subscribe to the John Maxwell theory that leadership is influence, nothing more or nothing less.  However, I can’t discount the fact that I believe we are purposeful beings created to fulfill something bigger than surviving day to day.  Can leadership be a summons to influence people at the right time and in the right circumstance?  Why did I pick this moment to discuss Leonard Sweet’s book written seven years ago?  In light of the recent reflections ten years after the devastation in New York, Washington D.C, and Shanksville, PA, I believe we are all summoned to influence people around us and that we all must be ready to rise to the occasion when the circumstances require, whether it be a tragedy like 9/11/2001, the birth of a child, change that has to be implemented in your business, or standing up for a cause.  I’m not sure if leadership is influence or if we are summoned to lead by circumstances.  But I do know that you will either be influenced by people or be an influencer of people.  That is a decision each of us will make at some point.  For me, I want to be an influencer of people, helping others to more productive in whatever endeavor they choose.  How about you?

Boat Rocking Leadership - What is it?

It is an early June morning with a crisp breeze blowing out of the North.  You are in your new Triton fishing boat on Big Twin Lake along with several other fishermen.  If you sit quietly in your boat, it will be hard to differentiate one fisherman from another.  But imagine, if you would for a minute, what would happen if you suddenly stood up in your boat and started rocking it side to side - maybe laughing or hollering loudly?  This serene, calm day on the lake would quickly turn into chaos.  Other boaters might be puzzled by your behavior.  They might assume you had a crazy night on the town or Attention Deficit Fishing Disorder (ADFD).  You would look different. Why?  The normal way to fish is patiently, sitting quietly until the fish are ready to take the bait.  Passive fishing is the “Right” way to fish.

            Boat Rocking Leadership looks different.  It breaks the status quo of “normal “leadership we have grown accustomed to by putting organizational goals ahead of personal, casting vision void of self promotion, developing relationships in order to mentor subordinates, and leaving a legacy long after you have retired.  Boat rocking leadership is about influencing your family, community, and organizations in ways that exceed your wildest imagination. 

            The key to Boat Rocking leadership is the integration of leadership concepts and ideas into your daily life - to live leadership rather than try to be a leader! Knowledge is important in every aspect of your life, but applying that knowledge to achieve maximum effectiveness is critical in becoming a better leader.  Knowing that stopping a team’s running game is a key to winning the game is good, but applying that knowledge and actually stopping their running attack will win you the game.  Knowing that investing is important for future financial stability is great, but choosing the right stocks, mutual funds, etc. is critical to establishing a secure financial future.  Knowing that raising your kids is an incredible responsibility is important, but actually investing the time and energy in a chaotic world is critical to them becoming productive adults, and knowing that vision, character, integrity, mentoring, etc. are all necessary qualities for a leader is important, but living leadership daily in the face of new and difficult challenges is critical if you desire to ha an influence in the lives of the people that surround you.

Why fight against the leadership status quo that says, “Do what is best for me regardless of the cost to my organization or family”?  What’s wrong with maintaining the leadership status quo?  Economies are crumbling, unemployment is rising, and moral failings are the norm; the church has been reduced to irrelevant and insignificant.  What’s wrong with the leadership status quo?  Maybe a better question is what’s right with the status quo!  We need leaders who aren’t looking for solid footing but rather are willing to push through uncertainty, are focused on doing their best NOW and trusting the future will take care of itself, are willing to stand up in the boat when everyone else is shouting sit down, and even willing to take risks that might result in falling out of the boat!  In my humble opinion, falling out of the boat is better than NEVER standing up.  Let’s be BOAT ROCKERS!!!!