tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-92008269138533831962024-02-19T11:05:08.697-05:00Leadership UnleashedA forum for discussion and information for the UGA community on leadership topics.Teresa Raetzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134681727158780535noreply@blogger.comBlogger78125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9200826913853383196.post-90590787514994983062014-04-22T16:48:00.000-04:002014-04-23T08:30:39.184-04:00What's Your Motivational Focus?<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Everyone has motivators and understands,
in a leadership context, that motivating others is critical to individual and
team success. According to <a href="http://hbr.org/2013/03/do-you-play-to-win-or-to-not-lose/ar/1">Dr. Heidi
Grant Halvorson and Dr. E. Tory Higgins</a>, there are two primary ways in
which we work to fulfill personal and professional goals: (1) through a focus on <i>promotion</i>, or the opportunity to advance, grow, and avoid missing
opportunities; or (2) through a focus on <i>prevention</i>,
or a concentration on staying safe, not losing anything or incurring detrimental
effects. Promotion- and prevention-focused
people can be recognized this way:</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">“<i>Promotion-focused
people:</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
</div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Work quickly</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Consider lots of alternatives and are
great brainstormers</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Are open to new opportunities</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Are optimists</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Plan only for best-case scenarios</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Seek positive feedback and lose steam without
it</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Feel dejected or depressed when things
go wrong</span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Prevention-focused
people<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
</div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Work slowly and deliberately</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Tend to be accurate</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Are prepared for the worst</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Are stressed by short deadlines</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Stick to tried-and-true ways of doing
things</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Are uncomfortable with praise or
optimism</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Feel worried or anxious when things go
wrong”</span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Each type has its own strengths and
weaknesses and most teams, regardless of industry, thrive when both types are
involved.</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Knowing </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">your</i><span style="font-family: inherit;"> focus can </span><a href="http://lifehacker.com/choose-the-right-career-path-based-on-your-motivational-608818423" style="font-family: inherit;">help
you choose a field</a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> in which your motivational focus strengths are utilized
and understanding the focus of your supervisor and your team is critical to
effectively persuading and motivating them.</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">For example, promotion-focused people can be best motivated through
praise, inspirational stories, and understanding what they gain when they
achieve something.</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Prevention-focused
individuals are motivated by understanding what they did wrong (criticism),
cautionary tales, and understanding what they will lose if they don’t achieve
something.</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I’d also like to point you to <a href="http://blogs.hbr.org/2013/08/how-motivational-focus-drives/">an hour-long
webinar presented by Dr. Halvorson</a> in which she delves deeper into this
interesting topic, including describing how your focus can be changed by
circumstances and by different domains, such as work and parenthood. She also gives specific advice about working
with people of both types of motivational focus.
I highly recommend it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Dr. Halvorsen says you can figure out your
motivational focus by reading the descriptions.
I’m pretty sure I’m a promotion-focused person. What’s your focus? </span>Does reading the description immediately make
you think of people you know who fit into them?</span></span></div>
</div>
Teresa Raetzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134681727158780535noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9200826913853383196.post-53564796485812072392014-04-14T16:34:00.000-04:002014-04-14T16:34:44.742-04:00The Almighty Cover Letter<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">I rarely use this space for personal reflections
but this week is an exception. After 15
years of being involved in hiring, I have seen more applicant packages than I
can count. One of the most common places
I see applicants go wrong (and right) is the cover letter. Given that spring graduation is fast
approaching and it’s the time of year that many people begin a job search
process, I want to provide a list of dos and don’ts to help you make your cover
letter or email as strong as it can be.
If you’d like to read more from the experts, <a href="http://blogs.hbr.org/2014/02/how-to-write-a-cover-letter/">go here</a>,
and <a href="http://career.uga.edu/job_search/correspondence/">here</a>, and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-new-rules-of-the-modern-cover-letter-2013-10">here</a>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">First the dos:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
</div>
<ol>
<li><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Do
your research.</span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> One of the quickest ways to get into the “take
a second look” pile of resumes is to show that you have taken the time to do
research on the position and organization to which you are applying. It shows respect for the hiring authorities
and that you are a knowledgeable professional.</span></li>
<li><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Do
have other people look over your cover letter and resume.</span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> Faulkner and
Hemmingway had editors, and you need one, too. It’s important to have at least one other person look at
your cover letter and resume before you submit it to look for typos and mistakes. It’s important to choose reviewers who are
good communicators and who will give you honest, constructive feedback. If you are a student at a university, you
have <a href="http://www.career.uga.edu/">a built-in option</a> – career
services – that will help. These services are also often <a href="http://career.uga.edu/alumni/alumni">available to alumni</a> as well. </span></li>
<li><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Do
show definite interest in the position and organization.</span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> Any reader of
your cover letter should be able, after reading it, to state back why you are
interested in that <i>specific</i> position at
that <i>specific</i> organization.</span></li>
<li><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Be
honest and authentic.</span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> Don’t over- or under-sell your experiences
and accomplishments, and don’t gush when expressing interest.</span></li>
<li><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Do
state why you believe you are right for the job and frame it as how you can
help the organization solve a problem or address a need</span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt;">. Most cover letters are all about the applicant. That’s natural on some level, but you need to
connect the dots for the hiring manager about how you can help the organization
address a need. This is also one reason why #1 above is so important.</span></li>
<li><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Do
talk about your values and how they match the organizational mission and/or culture.</span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> Don’t just
highlight your experiences. Also spend
a sentence or two outlining your values and how those match the organization’s. (Again, research!)</span></li>
<li><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Do
explain gaps in the resume.</span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> A hiring authority has never met you. If there are gaps in your resume when you
weren’t employed – say a two-year timeframe where you returned to school
full-time to get a master’s or started your own business – it’s important that
you explain this. Most applicant packages
have <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/23/resume-tips-for-post-50s_n_1372705.html">literally
seconds</a> to make an impression so hiring authorities won’t take the time to piece together where you were for those two years. At worst, they may think
you are trying to hide something, so it’s important to address the gaps
concisely.</span></li>
</ol>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">And now the don’ts:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
</div>
<ol>
<li><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Don’t
ever send a generic cover letter. <i>Ever</i>.</span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> “To whom it
may concern, I am interested in a position at your company…” The message this
type of letter sends is that you don’t care enough to even insert the
organization’s name in the letter. It’s
the equivalent of never learning anyone’s name and just calling everyone “hey
you.” In an age of social media and ubiquitous Google, you can find a name to
whom to address your letter or email. Of
course, you should also double-check that you have the right organization
listed as it is equally bad to send a cover letter that is specifically
addressed…but sent to the wrong organization.</span></li>
<li><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Don’t
use humor.</span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> Everyone loves a fun person to work with but
humor is extremely difficult to convey in writing to people who’ve never met
you, so it almost always falls flat.
Just don’t use it. </span></li>
<li><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Don’t
try to be cute or clever.</span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> You can write a letter that demonstrates your
“voice” and point of view, but, along the same lines as #2 above, let your
accomplishments and research set you apart.
Cuteness will make you look immature and unprofessional. If you work in a creative field where creativity
is a major differentiator, by all means ignore the second part of this advice
and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EzNll1U2N8&noredirect=1">do
something like this</a>. But for everyone else, spend your energy on making
your cover letter as correct and clear as it can be.</span></li>
</ol>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">What other tips can you offer your
fellow job seekers? Want more? How about some social media tips for job
seekers? <a href="http://www.lifehack.org/articles/work/here-are-the-most-important-social-media-tips-for-job-seekers.html">Done.</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.25in;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
Teresa Raetzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134681727158780535noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9200826913853383196.post-32134603392901059822014-04-07T20:06:00.001-04:002014-04-07T20:06:32.644-04:00Rewiring Your Brain for Better Leadership?<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">What if you discovered that there were
very simple things you could do to increase your concentration, increase your
thinking clarity, and make you feel calmer and more even-tempered? Maria Gonzalez describes a few simple
practices in “</span><a href="http://blogs.hbr.org/2014/03/mindfulness-for-people-who-are-too-busy-to-meditate/"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Mindfulness for People Who Are Too Busy to Meditate</span></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">” that can do just that. As the title indicates, these are things you
can literally do in one minute or while you’re doing something else like
sitting in a meeting. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">But what if the idea of mediating just feels
too “soft” or isn’t for you? If so, it’s
important for you to know that repeating mindfulness practices -- which are different than traditional seated meditation -- has a cumulative
effect on your brain that has been <a href="http://blogs.psychcentral.com/mindfulness/2014/04/the-neuroscience-of-resiliency-an-interview-with-linda-graham/#more-4114">documented
in neuroscience research</a>, rewiring it for resilience and calm<span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="color: windowtext;">.</span></span> Mindfulness practices change physical
structures in your brain like the hippocampus and the amygdala in much the same way as working out changes your muscles and
pulmonary system, and you don’t need to buy a gym membership or even
appropriate clothing. So set your
calendar to remind you to do these two or three times a day and begin the
rewiring process today.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Teresa Raetzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134681727158780535noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9200826913853383196.post-56879877436118706342014-04-01T15:12:00.001-04:002014-04-01T15:12:32.106-04:00Twitter Tips<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Twitter.
You may love it, or hate it, or just be indifferent to it, but one thing
is for sure: It’s here to stay. Many businesses and non-profits use Twitter,
but a great many use it badly. That occurs
for many reasons, but one of them may be a misunderstanding what Twitter is and
what the culture of Twitter entails. <a href="http://www.bethkanter.org/twitter-rules/">This brief piece</a> provides
some simple Twitter tips (Twips?) to help you understand how to use it more
effectively. It is written for the
non-profit world but almost all of the suggestions apply everywhere. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
Teresa Raetzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134681727158780535noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9200826913853383196.post-43788172463596286112014-03-24T13:45:00.000-04:002014-03-24T13:45:57.399-04:00Creating Gender-Inclusive Environments<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2014/03/05/1314788111.abstract?sid=a843d711-02d4-4fed-9b42-15607680c45e"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Recent research</span></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">
indicates that both women and men are twice as likely to hire a man than a
woman, even if the woman is more qualified. This study pertains to business hiring, but </span><a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/109/41/16474"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">research
also exists</span></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"> demonstrating a similar
hiring and pay bias for academic jobs in the STEM fields and the </span><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/25/science/bias-persists-against-women-of-science-a-study-says.html"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">stories of women</span></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"> in those fields provide support for those conclusions. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Both studies indicate that the biases
exist in both men and women hiring authorities.
So how does a fair-minded leader remedy this? </span><a href="http://www.inc.com/will-yakowicz/how-to-help-end-gender-bias-while-hiring.html"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Will Yakowicz offers</span></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"> three great suggestions:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.25in;">
</div>
<ol>
<li><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Make gender
bias a business issue, not a women’s issue:</span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> An organization that is
choosing less qualified men over more able women is going to lose in the long
run, because their talent will go elsewhere or otherwise not be fully engaged. </span></li>
<li><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Educate
yourself (regardless of your gender) instead of asking women to change:</span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> Women tend to
under-sell their abilities, while men tend to over-sell theirs. When women <i>are</i> assertive about their abilities, they are perceived negatively
and penalized. So the burden is on the
leader to understand this no-win dynamic for women and compensate for it rather
than asking women to brag more about themselves.</span></li>
<li><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Look for
bias in hiring policies and systems:</span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> Many hiring authorities believe that
candidates who self-promote are the best, despite what’s noted above. It’s important that they become aware of this
erroneous bias and look for other ways to identify competence and ambition.</span></li>
</ol>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Samuel Bacharach </span><a href="http://www.inc.com/samuel-bacharach/how-to-lead-everyone.html?cid=readmore"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">offers some additional tips</span></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"> for leading in a way that includes everyone.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Do the stories of this kind of bias
match with your experiences or observations?</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">
</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">If you work in a female-dominated field, do you see this playing
out?</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
Teresa Raetzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134681727158780535noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9200826913853383196.post-56145866232110845962014-03-07T13:27:00.002-05:002014-03-07T13:27:58.853-05:00The Greatest Barrier to Success is…Success?<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Most
of us think that there is a direct, linear relationship between effort and
success. The more time we spend working on something,
the better results we see, right? (The term education
researchers use for this is “time on task.”) Greg McKeown is a leadership
researcher and teacher, and his findings call that notion into question. In a blog post called <a href="http://gregmckeown.com/blog/the-unimportance-of-practically-everything-harvard-business-review">“The
Unimportance of Practically Everything”</a> and a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9x6D09AKBU">5-minute video</a> he
describes the principal he’s discovered by studying some of the most successful
leaders and some who are talented and hardworking but never “break through” as
they should. That concept is essentialism,
or as he calls it, “the disciplined pursuit of less.” McKeown’s findings indicate that, as he says,
“the biggest barrier to success is success” because it means an increasing
number of opportunities and options, which overwhelm us and take away the
mental space we need to separate the essential from the inessential in our
lives. He posits that you will never
accomplish what you want at home or at work unless you actively eliminate these
distractions. Effort, in other words, does not equal success unless it’s spent
in the most important areas. This is not
a new idea – Covey fans will think back to the “first things first” habit – but
it’s an important message nonetheless. He
gives you a tip that you can get started with today and provides real-life
examples of how others, like Warren Buffett, have put this idea into
action. I hope you’ll take a look.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">How do you eliminate the inessential in your own life? Have you learned to say no effectively? What stops you from paring down the list of things you spend time on?</span></div>
Teresa Raetzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134681727158780535noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9200826913853383196.post-91588450835191939772014-03-03T10:27:00.003-05:002014-03-03T10:27:50.787-05:00Culture Trumps Strategy<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: black; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p>It's often said that culture trumps strategy. Strategist <a href="http://blogs.hbr.org/2011/03/culture-trumps-strategy-every/">Nilofer Merchant says</a>, "After working on strategy for 20 years, I can say this: culture will trump strategy, every time. The best strategic idea means nothing in isolation. If the strategy conflicts with how a group of people already believe, behave or make decisions, it will fail." T</o:p></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">his </span><a href="http://www.booz.com/global/home/what-we-think/multimedia/video/mm-video_display/2013-culture-change-management-survey-video"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">short (two minute) video</span></a><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> explores this a bit more. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">What makes a great organizational culture? According to the </span><a href="http://blogs.hbr.org/2013/05/six-components-of-culture/"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">John Coleman with the Harvard Business Review</span></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">, there are six things to consider:</span></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><b>Vision:</b></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"> A strong, clear sense of what kind of impact
the organization wants to create orients all stakeholders about what’s really
important. Coleman cites examples like Oxfam’s
“a just world without poverty” and The Alzheimer’s Association’s “a world
without Alzheimer’s.”</span></li>
<li><b style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Values:</span></b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"> If the vision is the “what,” values are the
“how.” Values are the standards for
behavior that guide the organization as it works toward its vision and purpose.</span></li>
<li><b style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Practices:</span></b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"> What good are values without the actual
practices to enact them? If my office
says we value student input, but then never ask your opinion on anything, we
would be failing our values. Practices
that match organization values are “walking the walk” and making the values
real.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"><b>People:</b></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">
Organizations with strong positive cultures are extremely selective in who they
hire in order to find those candidates who are excited about enacting the
values and vision of the organization.</span></li>
<li><b style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Narrative:</span></b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"> Every organization has a story and the skill
and frequency with which it shares that story, both internally and externally,
are important to creating culture. An
example of telling the organization’s story that Coleman cites is Coca-Cola’s
World of Coke museum in Atlanta.</span></li>
<li><b style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Place:</span></b><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;"> The physical environment influences human
behavior. Many companies where
collaboration is key situate their staff in open environments where they see
each other a lot. What does your work
space say to others?</span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt;">What’s the culture of your workplace? If you are in a management position, how do you create a culture that is supportive of great work? As a team member, how do you contribute to such a culture</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">?</span></div>
Teresa Raetzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134681727158780535noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9200826913853383196.post-46160666296622889222014-02-17T13:51:00.001-05:002014-02-17T13:51:22.783-05:00The Difference Between Management and Leadership<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">How do you know when you have transitioned from managing to leading?</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Do you ever actually transition or do you add leadership into existing management abilities and practices?</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">If you Google the difference between management and leadership, you will likely find </span><a href="http://www.appleseeds.org/Manager-Leader_Bennis.htm"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Warren Bennis’ semi-poetic piece</span></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> that draws a pretty sharp line between the two. “The manager administers; the leader innovates. The manager has a short-range view; the leader has a long-range perspective. The manager accepts the status quo; the leader challenges it.” He’s also often quoted as saying, "Managers are people who<i> do things right</i> and leaders are people who <i>do the right thing</i>." In other words, leadership is the vision and management is the execution. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://blogs.hbr.org/2010/08/true-leaders-are-also-managers/"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Robert Sutton</span></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">, however, says this distinction is misleading. He rightly notes that leaders cannot simply sit in an office and come up with big ideas, without a detailed understanding of the industry in which the organization operates, the staff who actually implement the ideas, and the individuals served by the organization. He proposes a better idea: "To <i>do the right thing</i>, a leader needs to understand what it takes to do things right, and to make sure they actually get done." In other words, a leader must have a vision for what should happen next <i>and</i> a detailed understanding of how to make that vision come to reality within the current context.</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br />
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">So rather than conceiving leadership and management as separate concepts with a bright line between them, perhaps it would be better to think of the two as a Venn diagram, incorporating the overlapping execution and contextual knowledge of good management and good leadership.</span></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7Rtro0fe6EdYcJ2Ed4ad226029ol_aNrH80x2RXDg0GM-AXW9Dr8Ag-PIhjOLVyFEQXlkYLQO7vgTrr0wRJbrxi0EqQRV-lVdAHc3YLH5VcO3hsLRWJ0HlA3im9XWDoYe9cKJVaU0624/s1600/circles.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7Rtro0fe6EdYcJ2Ed4ad226029ol_aNrH80x2RXDg0GM-AXW9Dr8Ag-PIhjOLVyFEQXlkYLQO7vgTrr0wRJbrxi0EqQRV-lVdAHc3YLH5VcO3hsLRWJ0HlA3im9XWDoYe9cKJVaU0624/s1600/circles.gif" height="207" width="320" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">What are the differences and similarities between good management and good leadership from your experience? How should a leader cultivate both</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
domains?<o:p></o:p>Teresa Raetzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134681727158780535noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9200826913853383196.post-32255566202475968052014-01-31T12:50:00.000-05:002014-01-31T12:50:24.302-05:00Three Words That Will Transform Your Career<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Sometimes we like to keep it simple at Leadership Unleashed and
with Snowjam 2014 exploding everyone’s plans, this seemed like a good week for
simplicity. So for this week's post, I'll point you to a
piece called <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130530122723-36792-three-words-that-will-transform-your-career">Three
Words That Will Transform Your Career</a>.
Many headlines these days seem to oversell what follows, so this post is
a nice contrast because I actually think it undersells the content. I think these are three words that could
change not just your career, but your life.
This is seemingly simple but pretty profound advice. Enjoy!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Teresa Raetzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134681727158780535noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9200826913853383196.post-86012337201643442212014-01-27T09:36:00.000-05:002014-01-27T09:36:11.763-05:00Taming the Email Beast<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">One resource that leaders never have
enough of is time. Strong time
management requires you to say no and set priorities, which is something most
of us can continually improve. One of
the biggest time-wasters is email.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
Don’t get me wrong: Email has provided
some helpful benefits. It allows you to
keep a record of your communications and allows you to send information to
people without being concerned about whether they are available at that
time. But most people use email a little
addictively, checking it constantly and allowing it to take time away from more
important tasks. We also use it a little
delusionally, believing it’s possible to check email while being productive at
other things, despite the </span><a href="http://www.npr.org/2013/05/10/182861382/the-myth-of-multitasking"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">neuroscience research</span></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"> that explodes the multi-tasking myth. Smartphones have only magnified this
phenomenon.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">So how do we fix this? How do we put email in its place and use it
as a tool but not a driver of our work lives?
Here are some tips. (Some of
these come from a book called, appropriately enough, </span><a href="http://www.juliemorgenstern.com/Products_Books_Email.php"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Never Check
Email in the Morning</span></i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"> by Julie
Morgenstern</span></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">, which I highly
recommend). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.25in;">
</div>
<ol>
<li><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Like Ms.
Morganstern says, don’t check email until at least an hour into your day.</span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> I’ll give you
a minute to pick yourself up off the floor.
<i>Yes</i>. I said wait an hour to check your email. Use that hour to do the most critical task of
that day. Spend a minute or two at the
end of the previous day deciding what that will be and then do it. You will start your day with an important
accomplishment, regardless of what vortex of crazy ensues from that point
forward. If you work in an industry that
has mission-critical emails first thing in the morning, such as orders that
come in overnight and must be filled immediately, move that hour to immediately
after you look at the critical emails.</span></li>
<li><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Turn off
your email and only read and answer emails during set times during the day.</span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> Most people
fear that they are missing out on something by doing this, but it’s important
to begin seeing that email is not for urgent matters. Try setting times – say, 10 am, 2 pm, and 4
pm – as email times.</span></li>
<li><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Answer emails
immediately if you can do it in 2 minutes or less.</span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><a href="http://www.success.com/article/1-on-1-david-allens-two-minute-rule"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Productivity expert David Allen</span></a><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> recommends that emails that require more than two
minutes should be delayed. You can move it
to the end of your designated email checking time or to another of those time
slots later in the day. Then you can
power through the quickies and reserve time for your more thoughtful responses.</span></li>
<li><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">If you genuinely
can’t turn off your email or need to baby-step your way into it, at least turn
the email alert sound off.</span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> It’s almost impossible to ignore and takes
you out of the flow of whatever you are working on.</span></li>
<li><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">If an email
string involves two or more replies, use the phone or in-person discussions to
address the issue. </span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt;">If you need a record of what was decided, send a quick
summary email after you talk.</span></li>
<li><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Set your
outbox so that it delays sending by 5 minutes to help avoid those “Oops, I
forgot to include this” follow up emails.
</span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt;">This will also help you avoid
the dreaded “I really wish I hadn’t sent that” emails.</span></li>
<li><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Train
yourself and others.</span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> Ask them to use the phone or in-person
discussions if an email is more than two paragraphs. Morganstern recommends that you should state
right at the top or in the subject line what you want from the receiver –
please review and advise, double-check, etc. -- especially if you simply must
send a long email. Help others understand that email is not
instant message and anything urgent should be handled by phone, text, or in
person.</span></li>
<li><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Realign your
priorities.</span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> If you wear your “I leave every day at zero
inbox” priority like a badge of honor, rethink this. In most workplaces, there are much more
important tasks to be done each day than responding to each and every email on
the same day. </span></li>
<li><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Use the organization
tools in your email solution.</span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> Some allow you to set rules so that newsletters,
blog updates, and “FYI” type emails will go to a file to be read later. Set alerts to remind you to reply to an email
by a certain date or time.</span></li>
</ol>
<br />
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">These are a few tips to get you started
with keeping email in perspective, allowing it to serve you and not vice
versa. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">What other tips have you found to be
helpful in taming the email beast?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Teresa Raetzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134681727158780535noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9200826913853383196.post-27527116546109910112014-01-21T09:06:00.000-05:002014-01-21T09:06:21.830-05:00Effective Leadership Practices, Part 4<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Periodically over the preceding weeks,
I’ve summarized the effective practices of servant leadership as described by
Kent M. Keith, in <i>The Case for Servant
Leadership</i>. Those practices include </span><a href="http://ugaleadershipforum.blogspot.com/2013/10/effective-leadership-practices-part-1.html"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">self-awareness, listening</span></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">, </span><a href="http://ugaleadershipforum.blogspot.com/2013/10/effective-leadership-practices-part-2.html"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">changing the pyramid, developing your colleagues,</span></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><a href="http://ugaleadershipforum.blogspot.com/2013/11/effective-leadership-practices-part-3.html"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">coaching (not controlling) and unleashing the energy
and intelligence of others</span></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">. (If you’d like to review the posts, the links
will take you back to each). The final effective leadership practice that Keith
describes is <i>foresight</i>. Foresight in this context is identical to
what is more commonly called “vision” and I will use the terms interchangeably
here.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Foresight is the ability to visualize
the future, to anticipate the needs of your organization and industry, as well
as to envision the impact you want to have.
In <i>The Servant as Leader</i>,
Robert Greenleaf (the originator of servant leadership) speaks of foresight as <i>the</i> leadership skill. He believed it was so important that he
considered a lack of foresight to be an ethical failure because it prevents the
leader to act for the good of his team or organization (Greenleaf, 2008). Without it, he believed the leader is not
leading, she’s reacting. Leadership
without vision and foresight is management.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Greenleaf was not alone in seeing vision
as the sine qua non of leadership. If you Google “vision and leadership” and
you will receive a host of references, blog posts, books, and other
exhortations of leaders to develop vision.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">So the natural next question is, how do
you develop vision? </span><a href="http://hbr.org/2009/01/to-lead-create-a-shared-vision/ar/1"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Kouzes and Posner</span></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"> (2009) note the importance of taking time out from pressing work
matters to think and ask questions of yourself and your environments. The leader must keep principles at the
forefront, asking who do we want to be as an organization and as
individuals? What needs to change within
the scope of our influence and what’s our role in bringing it about? The visionary leader must listen to others
and plug into her professional environment, seeking to constantly understand it
(and predict it) better. Finally,
reflection is critical to vision. None
of the previous activities are worth the time if there isn’t a period of
reflection in which they can all be synthesized. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Do you agree with the idea that vision
is <i>the</i> central characteristic of
leadership? Why or why not? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">How do you find time to withdraw and
reflect on your own vision? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
Greenleaf, R. K. (2008). <span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>The
servant as leader</i>. Westfield, IN: The Greenleaf Center for
Servant Leadership.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">Keith, K. M. (2008). <i>The case for servant
leadership</i>. Westfield, IN: The Greenleaf Center for Servant
Leadership.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Kouzes, J. M. & Posner, B. Z.
(2009). To lead, create a shared
vision. <i>Harvard Business Review</i>.
Retrieved from </span><a href="http://hbr.org/2009/01/to-lead-create-a-shared-vision/ar/1">http://hbr.org/2009/01/to-lead-create-a-shared-vision/ar/1</a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
Teresa Raetzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134681727158780535noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9200826913853383196.post-89125500289936789742014-01-13T09:53:00.000-05:002014-01-13T09:53:21.378-05:00The Happy Life or the Meaningful Life?<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">I recently read some fascinating
research out of Stanford University that examines the happy life and the
meaningful life.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">I think it provides
some insight for both leaders and graduate students, both of whom engage
in activities that may require sacrifice and difficulty.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">These actions may not make us happy in the
immediate sense, but they add depth and meaning to our lives and those of
others.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">The full article </span><a href="http://news.stanford.edu/news/2014/january/meaningful-happy-life-010114.html"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">can be found here</span></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">, and I recommend it. It’s not a
lengthy piece. Here are the points I’ve
been chewing on since reading it:</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 7pt;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
</div>
<ol>
<li><span style="font-size: 12pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><b style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">The happy life and the meaningful life are often not
the same. </span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"> Meaningful experiences almost always mean that
you will encounter stresses, obstacles, and challenges; otherwise, the
opportunity for impact would not exist.
Examples would be parenting, doing social work, or being in graduate
school. Happiness is about getting what
you want and need <i>without</i> challenges
and struggles, which brings zing to our lives but not necessarily meaning.</span></li>
<li><b style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Happiness is often about superficial things and
taking, while meaning is about deeper relationships and giving. </span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">Having
coffee with a friend where you are silly and laugh a lot makes you happy but
doesn’t ultimately provide much meaning.
Having coffee with a friend who you counsel and advise through a
terrible personal situation may be stressful, but it has tremendous impact and
meaning. </span></li>
<li><b style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">The in-the-moment, “hakuna matata” mindset makes you
happy but linking together past, present, and future increases meaningfulness. </span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">(You’re welcome for the </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abjAqvdGZgM" style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">hakuna
matata earworm</span></a><span style="font-size: 12pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">, by the way.) The Stanford research showed that thinking
about the past, present, and future makes you less happy but it’s the only way
to create a more meaningful life. </span></li>
</ol>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">For most of us, our goal is to balance
both superficial happiness and deeper meaning.
But I think this research could help with some of those more
challenging...er, meaningful times. The next
time you have to talk to a colleague about something stressful or you have to
sacrifice doing something fun to do your academic work, think about this
idea. Understand that you are increasing
the meaning in your life and the lives of others through your actions today.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">This research was somewhat surprising to
me, as I’d never thought of happiness and meaning as so dichotomous. What is your reaction?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">I tend to believe that a meaningful life
is the path to a happy life, but this research would seem to cast doubt on this
idea. What do you think?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">How do you help colleagues, friends, and
family to find create meaningful lives or find meaning in difficulty?</span></div>
Teresa Raetzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134681727158780535noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9200826913853383196.post-25740883427933626752013-11-26T09:34:00.000-05:002013-11-26T09:34:06.263-05:00Effective Leadership Practices, Part 3<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Intermittently over the past several
weeks, we have been looking at effective leadership practices as outlined by
Kent M. Keith in The Case for Servant Leadership. Key practices have been </span><a href="http://ugaleadershipforum.blogspot.com/2013/10/effective-leadership-practices-part-1.html"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">self-awareness and listening</span></a><span style="font-size: 12pt;">, </span><a href="http://ugaleadershipforum.blogspot.com/2013/10/effective-leadership-practices-part-2.html"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">changing the pyramid and developing your colleagues</span></a><span style="font-size: 12pt;">, and this week we’ll explore <i>coaching (not controlling) </i>and <i>unleashing
the energy and intelligence of others</i>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Servant leadership espoused a coaching
approach to working with others long before it became popular. The idea behind this tenet, as Keith (2008)
notes, is that no one really controls anyone else. As leaders we can motivate and inspire, we
can remove barriers to self-direction, and on the negative side we can compel
compliance by exerting threats or pleas, but ultimately people choose their own
actions. A leader who thinks she truly controls
her team is delusional. If you’ve ever ridden a horse, you understand that the
horse is much more powerful than the rider and the rider is only directing the
horse because the horse chooses to be cooperative. Leading a team is much the same. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Displays of power and authority can get
people to act, but they often produce the appearance of compliance and inspire
large amounts of defiance instead.
Servant leaders coach. They
teach, they mentor, and they facilitate.
They understand that everything they do is done via relationships with
those who are closer to the customer, the client, or the public that is served
by the organization. So, as Keith (2008,
p. 48) states, “The issue for the servant-leader is not how to control others,
but how to build strong, positive relationships with others.” That is coaching, not controlling.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">One of the ways they do that is the
second effective leadership practice we will discuss today: <i>unleashing the energy and intelligence of
others</i>. Servant leaders remove the
barriers to self-efficacy for others, allowing them to tap into their own
internal motivation. They also identify
and grow the talents of their colleagues, they include their team members in
decisions and major activities, like goal setting and evaluation, and they
coach them along the way. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">This does not mean that they abdicate
the responsibility to hold others accountable, or let a dysfunctional colleague
dominate or alienate the team. Servant
leaders hold themselves responsible to the needs of their team colleagues, but
they also work in service of the needs and goals of the organization. When an individual hijacks that process
through noncooperation or toxic behavior, the servant leader, like other types
of leaders, takes remedial action to correct the situation, or terminates the
employment if no other remedy works. The
servant leader does not allow one person’s dysfunctional choices to corrupt the
development and work of others.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Through these methods – coaching and
unleashing the energy and intelligence of others – the effective leader can
leverage the talents and abilities of his team, fully engaging his colleagues
to choose to do their best.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">Cited:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">Keith, K. M. (2008). <i>The case for servant
leadership</i>. Westfield, IN: The Greenleaf Center for Servant
Leadership.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Teresa Raetzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134681727158780535noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9200826913853383196.post-52514658067414531472013-11-18T10:21:00.000-05:002013-11-21T14:47:31.587-05:00This Week’s Inspiration<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">This blog is written for the benefit of
the graduate and professional students at the UGA Gwinnett Campus, and anyone
else who’s interested in leadership topics. We are located on a university campus, and it’s the time in our fall semester when inspiration,
energy, and motivation are likely waning.
You’ve progressed through the multitude of duties, assignments, and
tasks in the past few months and you have just a bit more to go before the
academic part of your life can take a rest, if not the professional and personal.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Leaders are called to inspire others,
but they also must be inspired themselves.
So this week, I’d like to help you “fill your tank” with something
positive that will help you push through this final part of the semester. I’d like to share with you </span><a href="http://amplifyhappinessnow.com/blog/2013/05/06/eight-ted-talks-that-continue-to-inspire/"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">some Ted Talks</span></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">
that you may find will provide you with a little of that inspiration. I recommend the talk by </span><a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/steve_jobs_how_to_live_before_you_die.html"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Steve Jobs on how to live before you die</span></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"> and the </span><a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/shawn_achor_the_happy_secret_to_better_work.html"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Shawn Anchor talk on the happy secret to better work</span></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Teresa Raetzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134681727158780535noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9200826913853383196.post-10988527150770557792013-11-11T10:20:00.000-05:002013-11-11T10:20:21.109-05:00Leadership Presence, Part 1: Light Up The Brain with Storytelling<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Leadership presence is a critical factor for leaders and often can determine or significantly influence their success. So what is leadership presence? You may not know the formal definition yet but you undoubtedly have experienced it. Presence, on its most basic level, is the ability to command attention, and leadership presence, as defined by Halpern and Lubar (2004, p. 8) as “the ability to connect authentically with the thoughts and feelings of others in order to motivate and inspire them to achieve a desired outcome.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span 12pt="" style="font-family: inherit;">You’ve been in a room with someone who has presence and maybe you’ve seen them give a presentation. Presence is that thing that makes you want to listen to them. At this point, you might be thinking presence is a talent that you’re born with. “How is one blog post going to make me into George Clooney or Angelina Jolie?” you ask. It’s true that there are no magic wands here, but you <i>can</i> learn to develop your leadership presence skills. One of those skills is storytelling.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span 12pt="">Imagine you are listening to two presentations. The first presentation is about the invention of Scotch tape. And the presenter does a competent job of presenting facts, nicely summarized in bullets and arranged in beautiful PowerPoint slides. The second presenter talks about a similar topic, the </span><a href="http://www.snopes.com/business/origins/post-it.asp"><span 12.0pt="" calibri="" minor-latin="" mso-bidi-font-family:="" mso-bidi-theme-font:="">origin of the Post-It note</span></a><span 12pt="">. This presenter also has bullets and slides but also tells you this:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span 12pt="" style="font-family: inherit;">It was 1968 and just past the Summer of Love, a scientist for 3M invented an adhesive that had some interesting qualities but wasn’t consistently sticky enough to work on tape. He played around with it for a while but just couldn’t make it work with any of his projects, so he shelved it. In 1974, another 3M scientist named Art Fry had a problem at church. He sang in the choir and his bookmarks tended to fall out of his hymnal, so when he had to sing the same songs at the church’s second service, he would fumble around because he’d lost the pages he’d previously marked. A bookmark didn’t work but tape wouldn’t work either. Mr. Fry needed something in between, something that would stay in place but wasn’t permanent. He went back to the lab and applied a bit of this odd adhesive he’d heard about to little slips of paper. He tried them out on a Sunday and…and voila! No more lost places in the hymnal! Hallelujah!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span 12pt="" style="font-family: inherit;">Which presentation would you rather listen to? More importantly, which content would you remember? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span 12pt="">Our brains are </span><a href="http://lifehacker.com/5965703/the-science-of-storytelling-why-telling-a-story-is-the-most-powerful-way-to-activate-our-brains"><span 12.0pt="" calibri="" minor-latin="" mso-bidi-font-family:="" mso-bidi-theme-font:="">hard-wired</span></a><span 12pt=""> to respond to stories. </span><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/18/opinion/sunday/the-neuroscience-of-your-brain-on-fiction.html?adxnnl=1&pagewanted=all&adxnnlx=1354716276-vBCJNxgtIuIFGnU+PmkBpA&_r=1&"><span 12.0pt="" calibri="" minor-latin="" mso-bidi-font-family:="" mso-bidi-theme-font:="">Neuroscience researchers have found</span></a><span 12pt=""> that the sensory cortex of our brain lights up when we hear descriptive phrases like, “The singer had a velvet voice.” Action descriptions – “Pablo kicked the ball” – and scent descriptions – “The delicious scent of coffee” – light up the parts of our brains associated with action and scent, respectively. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span 12pt="" style="font-family: inherit;">Based on this and other studies, brain researchers now believe that our brains don’t make much of a distinction between experiencing something, like that velvet voice or that wonderful coffee, and hearing about it. Hearing facts and figures ignites your neurons, sure, but hearing facts within a descriptive story engages many more parts of your brain, including your emotions, thus increasing the likelihood of engaging you and helping you remember what was said.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span 12pt="" style="font-family: inherit;">Leaders must do this every day. Leaders have to have a vision but they must also engage others in that vision and inspire them to act. Storytelling, then, is a critical communication skill for leaders.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span 12pt="" style="font-family: inherit;">Now that you know the “what” of leadership storytelling, next week we will get into the “hows” of specific tips for strengthening your storytelling ability. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span 12pt="" style="font-family: inherit;">Cited:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Lubar, K. & Halpern, B.L. (2004). Presence: What actors have that leaders need. In </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">Leadership Presence</i><span style="font-family: inherit;"> (p. 3). New York: Gotham.</span>Teresa Raetzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134681727158780535noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9200826913853383196.post-12612810455643974302013-10-31T16:24:00.000-04:002013-10-31T16:24:47.700-04:00Effective Leadership Practices, Part 2<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">During the past several weeks, we’ve
been <a href="http://ugaleadershipforum.blogspot.com/2013/08/make-it-better-introduction-to-servant.html">exploring servant leadership</a>, a leadership philosophy whose fundamental
basis is leaving a team or group better than you found them. This week, we will continue our deeper dive
into what servant leadership looks like by outlining two more key practices, as
defined by Kent M. Keith (2008) in <i>The
Case of Servant Leadership</i>. (</span><a href="http://ugaleadershipforum.blogspot.com/2013/10/effective-leadership-practices-part-1.html"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">See this post</span></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">
for a discussion of the first two key practices.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">The third key practice is <i>changing the pyramid. </i>Robert Greenleaf founded servant leadership and he believed that the typical management
hierarchy – usually communicated as a pyramid – was detrimental to the leader
at the top of it. Over many years of
working at AT&T and consulting with other organizations, he came to
understand the effects of power, namely its tendency to corrupt. </span><a href="http://ugaleadershipforum.blogspot.com/2013/09/power-poisoning-and-servant-leadership.html"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Some have called this “power poisoning”</span></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"> and it has been established in many studies. He noted that most leaders aren’t genuinely
questioned or even communicated with honestly, leading to information that is inaccurate
and an inflated belief in their own effectiveness. Greenleaf believed that the pyramid should be
expanded at the top to accommodate more peers in the leadership role, to
prevent the corrupting influence of isolation and “happy talk” from
subordinates. He believed that leaders
should function as a “first among equals” in order to obtain more honest
feedback and appropriate challenges to their ideas and functions. The leader’s role within this idea is to
listen, to set the vision and mission of the organization, then step back into
the group structure to facilitate solutions and ideas. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Keith (2008) notes the examples of
faculty governance in higher education – in which faculty elect one of their
own to head a department who then governs (typically) with a very light
hand. He also cites a company, The
Schneider Corporation, that has created a “Primus Council” based on this
servant leadership principle. This group
is composed of members from various parts of the company and “focuses on
strategic planning and vision, furthering the company’s culture, the growth and
development of the entire staff, and major organizational policies” (p.
41). The Schneider Corporation has seen
significant growth since adopting the servant leadership philosophy and
practices.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">The fourth key practice is <i>developing your colleagues</i>. If you’ve read other parts of this series,
you’ve read the basic tenet of servant leadership, as outlined by Robert
Greenleaf: “The best test, and difficult
to administer is: do those served grow as persons? Do they, <i>while
being served</i>, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely
themselves to become servants?” (2008, p. 15).
Greenleaf’s quote gets to the heart of this practice, which is about
whether you help your team improve and help them to become better people and
professionals. This practice does not
mean that you take your eye off the goals of your organization or that you
focus on improving your team to the exclusion of accomplishing things. It’s about understanding that the investment
you put into helping your team improve, whether it’s their ethics, their
skills, or their interpersonal functioning, pays huge dividends as those colleagues
improve their work and become more effective.
This has direct benefits to an organization in both the short- and
long-terms. A developmental approach
improves work on a day-to-day basis and also improves loyalty and cohesiveness,
which benefits the larger organization in the long-term.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">What do you think about these leadership practices? What benefits to this approach do you have and what concerns you about it?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">Cited:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">Keith, K. M. (2008). <i>The case for servant
leadership</i>. Westfield, IN: The Greenleaf Center for Servant
Leadership.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">Greenleaf, R. K. (2008). <span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>The servant as leader</i>.
Westfield, IN: The Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Teresa Raetzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134681727158780535noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9200826913853383196.post-54248747410279163662013-10-25T16:22:00.000-04:002013-10-25T16:22:59.471-04:00Can You Hear Me Now? Listening As Critical Leadership Skill<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Picture this.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">You need to talk to someone about
something.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Maybe it’s your boss, maybe
it’s a colleague, maybe it’s your significant other.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">You sit down to talk and the other person
checks his phone every few minutes, makes minimal eye contact, interrupts you,
and appears to spend the times you are talking composing his response in his
head.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Would you leave feeling like you
were heard?</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Would the outcome of the conversation
be positive or constructive?</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">If you are thinking you weren’t heard
and the outcome would be far from what you intended (probably nothing), you are
most likely right. It’s possible the
person heard part of what you said but didn’t listen well enough to truly get
what you were communicating.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">We’ve all had this experience. We know how it makes us feel and we also know
its impact on work settings. How can
anything get done – new ideas and approaches tried, solutions brokered,
relationships formed – when listening isn’t happening? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/mikemyatt/2012/02/09/why-most-leaders-need-to-shut-up-listen/">Listening
is common</a><span style="color: red;">ly</span> <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jose-costa/leadership-skills-advice_b_3796177.html">named</a>
as an <a href="http://www.holberton.com/sol_vol-3-no12.html">essential
leadership skill</a> and it’s easy to see why.
Last week, we saw how <a href="http://ugaleadershipforum.blogspot.com/">listening
is critical to servant leadership</a>. We
all have a certain level of listening skill but we all can also improve. Here are some tips on how to become a more
active listener:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<li><b><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Be here, now.</span></i></b><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> The first step in active
listening is attention. It’s increasingly
difficult to shut off distractions like phones and that “new email sound” from
your computer, but it’s critical to focus if you want to be a good listener. Even harder is stopping the “monkey mind” or process
of jumping among the thousand other thoughts in your head that most of us live
with. Active listening requires you take
a breath, commit yourself to giving your attention, and refocus whenever you
get distracted.</span></li>
<li><b><i><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Send signals.</span></i></b><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> It is critical that you let the speaker know that you are “there” with him. Asking question is important. Other signals that you’re clued in are nodding, eye contact, and verbal cues like “uh huh.”</span></li>
<li><b><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Listen comprehensively</span></i></b><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">.</span></i><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> Active
listening involves paying attention not only to the words someone is saying but also attending to the tone, her body language, and even sometimes what she’s not saying. Listen for content but also listen for any
emotions. Is the speaker
frustrated? Angry? Excited?
That’s as important as the content because it will guide how you respond.</span></li>
<li><b><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Look for the important stuff.</span></i></b><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> Ram Charan
tells a story of a CEO who would divide his notepad paper into two
sections. He’d draw a line down the
middle of the sheet where he would take notes, making the right side section about ¼
the width of the paper and the other side ¾ the width. On the wider left section, he’d write his
notes from the conversation and on the smaller right hand section, he’d jot
down the two to three word “nuggets” that were the important take-aways from each part of the conversation. Whether you do this or not,
you can still seek out the key points whenever you are listening.</span></li>
<li><b><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Try on their shoes.</span></i></b><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> It’s critical
that you understand what’s being said from the perspective of the speaker. You don’t have to agree with it, but you need
to see the issue through her eyes before you can truly understand what she's saying. Defer your judgment of what you’re
hearing until you really understand the other person’s perspective. Check in with him to see how accurate you
are. “What I hear you saying is…” is a
very useful tool in summarizing your understanding and letting the speaker
comment on how well you got it. Even if
you got it totally wrong, if you humbly give the other person the chance to
correct you, she will usually be very happy that you cared enough to
listen and check.</span></li>
<li><b><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Practice, practice, practice.</span></i></b><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> Active
listening is a skill and, like all skills, it must be practiced to be
maintained. Also like other skills,
everyone can get better. Pro sports
players and actors don’t stop practicing once they get to the big time and
neither should you. Charan recommends
soliciting feedback from colleagues or others who will be honest with you about
how well you’re listening. He also
recommends you take a moment to evaluate yourself after each conversation,
asking yourself how you did and how you can improve. </span></li>
</ol>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Listening skills often decline the
busier we get. It’s easier, we tell
ourselves, to just issue directives or get conversations over with. That may be true in the short-term but most
of us who fall into this mindset lose in the long-term. Miscommunications and people around you who
rarely feel heard cost you. Active
listening really connects your communication, preventing mistakes and misguided
efforts, and also builds your relationships.
Listening is critical to your success.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
Cited: Charan, R. (2012). <i>The discipline of listening. </i>Found at: <a href="http://blogs.hbr.org/2012/06/the-discipline-of-listening/">http://blogs.hbr.org/2012/06/the-discipline-of-listening/</a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Teresa Raetzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134681727158780535noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9200826913853383196.post-23125310180766381572013-10-18T16:03:00.001-04:002013-10-18T16:03:18.589-04:00Effective Leadership Practices, Part 1<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">For the past several weeks, we’ve been
exploring servant leadership, a style of leadership that turns many aspects of traditional, “<a href="http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2010-12-10/news/27591286_1_leadership-responsibility-authority">command
and control</a>” leadership on their heads. Any time you discover a new leadership style
or model, you probably want to know more about what the model looks like in
action, so for the next three weeks, I’ll be taking servant leadership closer to
ground level. I’ll be summarizing the
essential practices of servant leaders, as described by Kent M. Keith, in <i>The Case for Servant Leadership</i>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">The first two key leadership practices
Keith describes are <i>self-awareness</i>
and <i>listening</i>. It’s not a coincidence that self-awareness is
the first practice because, in the “physician, heal thyself” tradition, change
begins with us. Self-awareness is the “mother
skill” because it allows the development of the other skills. If you aren’t aware of your strengths and
growth opportunities, how can you turn the latter into the former? How can you make your strengths even better? You can’t.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Further, self-awareness is important because
robust teams – the outcome of good leadership – can’t be formed by a leader who
doesn’t understand her impact. Leaders
in a group have enormous influence.
Keith and others describe the many studies that demonstrate that people’s
behavior changes around a leader. They literally
look to the leader, either consciously or unconsciously, for his reaction and
often mirror it. Leaders set the tone.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">A friend’s father understood this and
had a nice way of teaching it. He managed
a plant for many years and he was well known for his positive style. When speaking about the importance of
self-awareness, he put it succinctly: “Leaders don’t have the luxury of bad
moods.” He recognized that those in
leadership positions have many perks – such as the power to set the tone as just
described – but there were many corollary responsibilities as well and one of
those is refraining from taking out a bad mood on a team or infecting them with
one. In other words, a leader’s enthusiastic,
motivated mood catches on, as does a negative, uncooperative mood. Yes, we all have our <a href="http://www.televisiontunes.com/Saturday_Night_Live_-_Debbie_Downer.html">Debbie
Downer</a> days, but leaders must find a way to deal with theirs privately lest
they infect their teams with their bad moods.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">The second essential practice of servant
leadership is <i>listening</i>. Many <a href="http://www.holberton.com/sol_vol-3-no12.html">leadership</a> experts <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jose-costa/leadership-skills-advice_b_3796177.html">extol</a>
the power of listening as a <a href="http://www.usfa.fema.gov/pdf/efop/efo29219.PDF">leadership skill</a> and
there are numerous ways to <a href="http://www.mindtools.com/CommSkll/ActiveListening.htm">improve your
listening skills</a>. Entire books have
been written about this topic, so we’ll dive deeper into this skill at a later
time. But for now, it’s important to
know that Robert Greenleaf, the father of servant leadership, said, “Only a
natural servant automatically responds to any problem by listening <i>first</i>” (2008, p. 18). Stephen Covey
understood the necessity of listening to the extent that he made it one of his
seven habits: <a href="https://www.stephencovey.com/7habits/7habits-habit5.php">Seek first to
understand, then to be understood</a>.
Keith (2008, p. 38) sums it up well:
“The main point is this: Servant-leaders don’t begin with the answer, the
program, the product, the procedure, the facility. They don’t begin with their own knowledge or
expertise. They begin with questions
that will help identify the needs of others.”
(Those “others” also include the needs of the organization.) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Self-awareness and listening are
foundational practices of effective leadership.
The good news is that you can start immediately. What can you do this
week to notice your effect on others and listen better?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Cited:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Keith,
K. M. (2008).<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>The case for
servant leadership</i>. Westfield, IN: <span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>The
Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Greenleaf,
R. K. (2008). <i>The servant as leader</i>. Westfield,
IN: <span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>The Greenleaf Center
for Servant Leadership.</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Teresa Raetzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134681727158780535noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9200826913853383196.post-78416233771549286032013-10-09T12:08:00.000-04:002013-10-09T12:08:44.304-04:00Want to Become a Master at Something? Learn from Kobe Bryant and Mozart<span style="font-family: inherit;">I just discovered this <a href="http://lifehacker.com/what-mozart-and-kobe-bryant-can-teach-us-about-delibera-1442488267?utm_campaign=socialflow_lifehacker_facebook&utm_source=lifehacker_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow">really powerful article</a> on how you get to be a true expert at something. I first encountered this idea in the work of Malcolm Gladwell, but this post takes the idea further and makes it more accurate, I believe. An excellent read for anyone dedicated to getting better.</span>Teresa Raetzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134681727158780535noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9200826913853383196.post-70891712011549571822013-10-04T16:03:00.000-04:002013-10-04T16:03:04.539-04:00C’mon, All the Cool Kids are Doing It: What Other Leaders Say About Servant Leadership<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">For the past several weeks, I’ve been
posting about servant leadership.
Servant leadership contrasts pretty significantly from some of the <a href="http://ugaleadershipforum.blogspot.com/2013/09/mr-burns-gordon-gekko-and-other-power.html">more
traditional ways</a> people view leadership.
But even though many people are turned off by the power-hungry practices
of many old school leaders, servant leadership can feel unfamiliar. Sometimes something that’s different can feel
strange and you can hesitate about learning more about it. If that’s you, would you be interested in
knowing what other famous leaders say about servant leadership?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Covey">Stephen Covey</a> was a
fan. Mr. Covey, as you know, was famous
for espousing character-based leadership, which he described in his book, <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seven_Habits_of_Highly_Effective_People">Seven
Habits of Highly Effective People</a>, </i>and many other publications over the
years. He said, “Of all these
fundamental, timeless principles [which he says “have governed, and always will
govern, all enduring successes”] is the idea of servant leadership, and I am
convinced that it will continue to dramatically increase in its relevance….” (Covey,
as cited in Keith, 2008, pp. 32-33).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Not a Covey disciple? Well, how about <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Drucker">Peter Drucker</a>? You know, the guy who is, in many ways, the
father of modern management theory?
According to Keith (2008, p. 33), Drucker “described the effective
executive as someone who is focused on contribution and focused on others – a good
definition of servant leadership in business.”
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">But wait! There’s more!
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_C._Collins">Jim Collins</a>,
the author of <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_to_Great">Good to Great</a></i>,
describes various levels of leaders, with the higher levels corresponding to
better leaders. The highest level –
Level 5 – leaders, “channel their ego needs away from themselves and into the
larger goal of building a great company.
It is not that Level 5 leaders have no ego or self-interest. Indeed, they are incredibly ambitious – but their
ambition is first and foremost for the institution, not themselves” (as cited
in Keith, 2008, p. 33).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Surely by now you’re convinced that
servant leadership is awesome, right? If
you’re a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Senge">Peter Senge</a> fan
-- and if you’re not, get thee to a library, read <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fifth_Discipline">The Fifth
Discipline</a></i>, and become one, stat -- you’ll be glad to know he’s a
servant leadership proponent: “I believe that the book <i>Servant Leadership</i>, and in particular the essay, “The Servant as
Leader,” which starts the book off, is the most singular and useful statement
on leadership that I have read in the last 20 years…if you are really serious
about the deeper territory of true leadership…read Greenleaf” (Senge, as cited
in Keith, 2008, p. 34).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">You may be saying, “Yes, but what about
real organizations? How does all this
work in the real world and why should I learn more about it?” OK, I hear you. The <i>Fortune
Magazine</i> <a href="http://www.greatplacetowork.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=69&Itemid=214">100
Best Companies to Work For</a> list contains several companies among its ranks
that have initiated servant leadership principles and are highly successful. They include “TDIndustries, Southwest
Airlines, Synovus Financial Corporation, The Container Store, and AFLAC”
(Keith, 2008, p. 35). <i>The Chronicle of Higher Education</i>’s <a href="http://chronicle.com/article/Great-Colleges-To-Work-For/140369/#id=big-table">Great
Colleges to Work For</a> listing similarly contains many institutions that have
adopted servant leadership principles and practices.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Not only do well-respected leadership
experts agree that servant leadership is the way to go, but the success of many
organizations prove it. So…what are you
waiting for? You in?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Cited: Keith,
K. M. (2008).<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>The case for
servant leadership</i>. Westfield, IN: <span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>The
Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership.<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Teresa Raetzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134681727158780535noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9200826913853383196.post-42374334167039567252013-09-26T08:39:00.000-04:002013-09-26T08:39:12.492-04:00Mr. Burns, Gordon Gekko, and Other Power-Oriented Leaders, or Power Is a Means Not an End<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">Power is critical to leadership, but
very often leaders (and those who follow them) misunderstand it.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The traditional view of leadership is often
Machiavellian, meaning it’s about getting and maintaining power in a zero-sum
world where one person’s increase in power is another person’s deficit.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">This model lacks an ethical center and
success is defined only in terms of who has the most power, regardless of the
process used to get it.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Power is an end,
in and of itself.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Those who enact this
philosophy typically leave casualties in the wake of their climb to the top of the
power pyramid, creating a sea of animosity, which they often mistake for envy.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Often the power-oriented leader is ultimately
dissatisfied.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">In that world, there is
never enough power to go around, they must constantly guard against other
power-grabbers (which is exhausting), and many are left at the end of a career
or life surrounded by those who are interested in them only to the extent that
they can offer a transactional power benefit.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Many people see these types of games
play out and, unwilling to make the ethical sacrifices to grab power (and
afraid of becoming a real-life </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKUOB8MN4Kc"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Mr.
Burns</span></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">), they end up opting out, believing
that leadership isn’t for them. Servant
leadership and similar leadership philosophies offer an antidote. Servant leadership defines success not in
terms of who has the most of anything, power included, but who <i>accomplishes</i> the most through helping
others to grow beyond expectations. Kent
Keith says “Power-oriented leaders want to <i>make</i>
people do things. Servant-leaders want to <i>help</i>
people do things” (Keith, 2008, p. 29).
Servant leadership offers an alternative to the </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONXpaBQnBvE"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Gordon
Gekko</span></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">-style, “me-first” pursuit of
power often offered by the traditional power model of leadership. It offers a
way to accomplish a great deal for organizations and individuals while
maintaining ethics and building skills in self and others.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">It’s important to avoid any false
dichotomies when considering the power and servant leadership models. It’s not a matter of choosing to have power
or not have power and servant leaders do not ignore or eschew power. Servant leaders <i>understand</i> power (</span><a href="http://ugaleadershipforum.blogspot.com/2013/09/power-poisoning-and-servant-leadership.html"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">including its dangers</span></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">), recognizing it as a valuable tool that can be used
to shape outcomes and create value for others.
Servant leaders do not worship power nor do they see power as an end in a
winner-take-all game. Servant leaders use the influence of power to
gather the right people and get the best outcomes for the clients, customers,
students, and organizations they serve and for their team members. Servant leaders work from an </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seven_Habits_of_Highly_Effective_People"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">abundance mentality</span></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">, empowering others to reach their full potential, with the
understanding that power takes many forms and can be obtained by all.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Citation:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Keith, K. M. (2008). <i>The case for servant leadership</i>.
Westfield, IN: The Greenleaf Center for
Servant Leadership.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Teresa Raetzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134681727158780535noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9200826913853383196.post-64077525185901174262013-09-23T08:28:00.001-04:002013-09-23T08:28:31.970-04:00Letting Others Encourage Us<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
I'm reading a book about women who became college presidents and they all cite people who encouraged them along the way. The author made an interesting observation: "I would argue that many women are given acknowledgement, recognition, and encouragement but only a small fraction of them hear and believe what they are told. Many women have the habit of dismissing comments as not accurate or significant...People can make profound differences in emerging leaders, but only if the leaders let them." What compliments are you dismissing? What would happen if we believed the positive feedback others give us?</div>
Teresa Raetzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134681727158780535noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9200826913853383196.post-29240151358161414362013-09-20T15:48:00.002-04:002013-09-20T15:51:43.413-04:00Power Poisoning and the Servant Leadership Remedy<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit;">~~Abraham Lincoln</span></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">An understanding of power is central to
all leadership. In fact, you could even
say that power -- its nature and its
uses – is almost synonymous with leadership.
Everyone has been on the receiving end of power and has at least some
understanding of the effects of power on teams.
But most leaders have little understanding of the effects of power on <i>them</i>.
Understanding the effect of power is critical to avoiding some of the
pitfalls associated with it.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Several researchers, including Robert
Sutton, have investigated the effects of power on leaders and have reached some
pretty interesting conclusions, which have been confirmed in literally hundreds
of studies. To keep this post brief,
I’ll summarize them. You can find out
more by looking at the links below.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The effects of power can be summarized
by the word “disinhibition.” Basically,
power acts on us to lower inhibitions, much like alcohol. Specifically, those with power become, over
time:</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">·</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 7pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.25in;">
</div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Overly confident, often misjudging the potential
dangers in a situation and refusing to take advice;</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Oblivious to what others think;</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 12pt;">More focused on themselves and pursuing their own
wants;</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 12pt;">More likely to believe “the rules” apply to others but
not to them;</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Less able to accurately judge how others react to them;</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 12pt;">More likely to stereotype others;</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 12pt;">More likely to engage in risky behavior. </span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This understanding of the pitfalls of power
is not new. Lord Acton, a 19<sup>th</sup>
century English historian and baron, is famous for summarizing it: “Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.” The modern term for this is “power
poisoning.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Power is an unavoidable part of leadership, but how should we guard against this
subtle but almost inevitable transformation?
One way is to adopt a leadership philosophy that teaches specific skills
that prevent this de-evolution and encourages an overall viewpoint that
remedies the ego inflation of power.
Servant leadership does just that.
In coming weeks, we will be learning the critical practices of servant
leadership, which counter the disinhibiting and corrosive effects of power.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">For more information: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">“<a href="http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/article/Power-is-not-only-an-aphrodisiac-it-does-weird-2546085.php">Power
is Not Only an Aphrodisiac, It Does Some Weird Things to Some of Us”</a> by Vicki
Haddock <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://bobsutton.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/01/it_isnt_just_a_.html">“It Isn’t Just a Myth, Power Turns People Into
Assholes,”</a> by Bob Sutton</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">“</span><a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0749597811000975" style="font-family: inherit;">The Detrimental Effects of Power on Confidence, Advice
Taking, and Accuracy</a><span style="font-family: inherit;">,” by Kelly E.
See, Elizabeth W. Morrison, Naomi B. Rothman, and Jack B. Soll</span></div>
Teresa Raetzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134681727158780535noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9200826913853383196.post-1275176162872970572013-09-06T16:42:00.000-04:002013-09-06T16:42:26.877-04:00What Do We Mean by “Servant” Leader?<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">When first hearing about servant
leadership, many people don’t think twice about the use of the term “servant,”
but others trip over the word a bit. The
word “servant” connotes to some subservience, passivity, or a lack of freedom
and free thinking. Additionally, many
populations – women, African Americans, and so on – have historically been
forced into servitude with no options for escape. This leads some to respond negatively to the
word “servant” in servant leadership. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">The word “servant” was chosen
intentionally by the founder, Robert Greenleaf, to communicate the service
orientation of his leadership model. He
worked on the model for decades, beginning his journey in the mid-twentieth
century, when understanding of the experiences of oppressed populations wasn’t
as common and when the word “servant” wasn’t laden with as much association
with those additional layers of meaning.
Greenleaf intends servant leadership to be a choice and an orientation,
meaning the servant leader puts the needs of her team as equal to her own and
generally sees that choice as a moral one.
Another way of saying this is that servant leadership is a “people
first” model, as opposed to an “ego first” or “power first” way of
leading. The term “servant” is balanced
with the term “leadership,” so servant leaders are not <i>servile</i> as some connotations of the word “servant” would
indicate. They facilitate growth in
others but they do lead, they do make hard decisions, and they do value the
organization for which they work but they chose to serve others in the process. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
Teresa Raetzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134681727158780535noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9200826913853383196.post-27546452467615268142013-08-28T14:17:00.000-04:002013-08-28T14:17:12.536-04:0012 Things Successful Women Do Differently<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/26/things-successful-women-do-differently_n_3787406.html#!">Twelve Things Successful Women Do Differently is a great piece</a> that should be required reading for every woman trying to make it all fit. (Men, I think a lot of the advice applies to you, too.) I hope you'll take a moment to read it.<br />
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<br />Teresa Raetzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134681727158780535noreply@blogger.com0