We are now on part four of my notes from the book The Leadership Challenge. As I said when we began, I hope my effort will spare you from having to read the entire book.
Part
Four – Challenge the Process
Chapter
Seven – Search for Opportunities
Leadership
experiences are, indeed, voyages of discovery and adventures of a
lifetime.
You
want to be looking around, every day, for opportunities to improve.
Constant learning is a key.
Professionals
act as they must, not as they feel.
I'd
rather ask forgiveness than permission.
The
personal-best leadership cases were about radical departures from the
past, about doing things that had never been done before, about going
to places not yet discovered.
When
people think about their personal bests they automatically think
about some kind of challenge.
Leaders
search for opportunities to change, grow, innovate, and improve.
To
search for opportunities to get extraordinary things done, leaders
make use of four essentials: seize the initiative, make challenge
meaningful, innovate and create, and look outward for fresh ideas.
Stress
always accompanies the pursuit of excellence, but when we're doing
our best it never overtakes us.
Legendary
Hollywood super agent Irving (“Swifty”) Lazar once said,
“Sometimes I wake up in the morning and there's nothing doing, so I
decide to make something happen by lunch.”
One
reason is that proactive people tend to work harder at what they do.
They persist in achieving their goals; others tend to give up,
especially when faced with strong objection or great adversity.
People
who are high in self-efficacy–who consider themselves capable of
taking action in a specific situation–are more likely to act than
those who are not. The most important way leaders create this can-do
attitude is by providing opportunities for people to gain mastery on
a task one step at a time. Training to crucial to building
self-efficacy and to encouraging initiative.
Raise
the bar a bit at a time.
The
best leaders know that simply saying “I know you can do it; I know
you can do it” actually works.
Leaders
must be agents of change.
Seizing
the initiative has absolutely nothing to do with position. It's about
attitude and action.
Just
do it!
All
of the nominated historical leaders were people with strong beliefs
about matters of principle.
What
gets you going in the morning, eager to embrace whatever might be in
store?
Climbing
mountains is a great metaphor for the process. It is not easy.
Recently Malcolm Gladwell's book Outliers popularized the idea
of the 10 year rule.
When
it comes to excellence, it's definitely not “what gets rewarded
gets done,” it's “What is rewarding gets done.” You can never
pay people enough to care.
True
leaders tap into people's hearts and minds.
Reliance
upon external incentives and pressures doesn't liberate people to
perform their best, and it constrains leaders from ever learning why
people want to excel.
Work
is an expression of our soul.
When
we're faced with new challenges–whether personal, organizational,
economic, or technological–we live with a high degree of ambiguity.
Leadership
is inextricably connected with the process of innovation.
Energize
everyone to try new things.
The
challenge of creating a new way of life is intrinsically motivating
to leaders and constituents alike.
In
today's “always on” world, where the mobile phone rings in the
restaurant bathroom, it's all too easy to get caught up in the
routine and the trivial, ensnared in an activity trap.
The
issue isn't whether to have routines but which routines to have.
It's
only by staying in touch with the world around them that leaders can
ever expect to change the business-as-usual environment.
There
simply aren't enough good new ideas floating around the lab when
people don't listen to the world inside.
A
good leader gets down and works in the trenches. He makes calls with
sales associates, etc.
Seeing
and hearing things with your own eyes and ears is a critical first
step in improving or creating a breakthrough product.
The
challenge of change is tough; it's also stimulating and enjoyable.
Even
if you've been in your job for years, treat today as if it were your
first day.
Stay
alert to ways to constantly improve the organization.
Be
an adventurer, an explorer.
People
do better work when they feel challenged.
Where
is there a chance to stretch your strengths a bit so that you're
succeeding and learning at the same time? The opportunities are
there; you just need to see them.
There's
no better way to test your limits than to voluntarily place yourself
in a difficult job.
People
who have never been asked for the time of day often thrive when given
problem-solving tools and opportunities to contribute.
Be
sure you know what motivates each of your team members and what they
find challenging.
Make
the search for opportunities a fun adventure.
Fun
is certainly one of the obvious characteristics at Southwest
Airlines; in fact, having a sense of humor is an explicit hiring
criterion.
Vow
to eliminate every stupid rule and every needless routine.
Even
the best teams get stale and need to be refreshed. Force them to
interact with others.
Let
anyone who wants to contribute take part in creation and innovation.
Amazing
things could happen at your organization if you provide the tools and
the structure and allow all the minds to contribute.
Keep
your antenna up, no matter where you are.
Chapter
Eight – Experiment and Take Risks
We
must do the things we think we cannot.
Encourage
people to do things most have never done before, to experiment with
themselves, to stretch and break their self-imposed limitations.
Fear
and apprehension are greater barriers to success than the actual
difficulty or danger of the experiment itself.
The
elation of victory over crippling doubts.
True
leaders foster risk taking, encouraging others to step out into the
unknown rather than play it safe.
Leaders
challenge people, sometimes to their very cores.
The
most effective change processes are incremental; they break down big
problems into small, doable steps and get a person to say yes
numerous times, not just once.
Researchers
have found that rapid prototyping, and plenty of it, results in
getting higher quality products to the marketplace more quickly.
Progress
today is more likely to be the result of a focus on incremental
improvements in tools and processes than of tectonic shifts of minds.
Leaders keep the dream in mind; then they act and adapt on the move.
Leaders
start with actions that are within their control, that are tangible,
that are doable, and that can get the ball rolling.
Impatience
and zest motivated her to do something – and her work has paid off.
Small
wins work.
Much
of the improvement was really part of the process of learning by
doing.
One
hour at a time. One day at a time.
The
simple strategy of winning step by step succeeds while many massive
overhauls and gigantic projects fail.
Experimentation
is key to challenging the process.
Acting
with a sense of urgency is another strategy leaders use to mobilize
for fast action. Waiting for permission is not characteristic of
people who get extraordinary things done, whether leaders or
individual contributor.
Small
wins breed success and propel us down the path. Experiments, pilot
projects, and market trials all facilitate the process of getting
started.
Above
all, leaders just do it. Small victories attract constituents, create
momentum, and get people to remain on the path.
It
is failure which breeds success.
If
you're not falling, you're not learning.
Learning
curves invariably show performance going down before it goes up.
Leaders
are simply great learners.
We're
not about finger-pointing. Everyone is going to make mistakes.
Managers
could be differentiated by the range and depth of learning tactics
they employ.
Learning
necessarily involves making some mistakes.
Some
stress even energizes us. It is a distinctive attitude towards
stress. It creates psychological hardiness. Hardiness, both singly
and in combination with other buffers, is the most effective
protector of health.
It
isn't just innovation and challenge that play important roles in our
personal progress; it's also the way we view the challenges that come
our way. If we see them as learning opportunities, we're much more
likely to succeed than if we see them simply as check marks on a
report card.
Hardiness
can be learned and cultivated at any time in life.
No
one will follow someone who avoids stressful events and won't take
decisive action.
We
need to believe that we're dedicating ourselves to the creation of a
noble and meaningful future that is worthy of our best efforts.
Another
variation on “little experiments” is to try out lots of ideas.
Leadership
is often akin to recruiting volunteers.
If
people are forced to copy the model, they won't develop a feeling of
ownership of their project.
Whatever
team members do, your job is to encourage them to test and learn.
To
move us out of our comfort zones, leaders should be on the lookout
for ways to eliminate firehosing (dousing ideas before they can flare
up)
Leaders
encourage people to break out of mindsets by questioning routines,
challenging assumptions, and, with respect to appreciating diversity,
continually looking at what is going on from variously changing
perspectives.
Once
you've set your sights, move forward incrementally. Don't attempt to
accomplish too much at once, especially in the beginning.
Let
people start on the beginners' slope and work their way up to the
advanced.
Keep
people focused on the meaning and significance of the vision, and
remind them to take it one day at a time (or one hour at a time, if
necessary).
It's
a lot more productive to make a little progress daily than to attempt
to do the whole task all at once.
Choice
builds commitment and creates ownership, and making people feel like
owners is key.
You
have an opportunity for “guided autonomy.”
The
art of leadership lies in knowing how to create a sense of
spaciousness while staying focused on the horizon.
Don't
say “yes, but,” say “yes, and.”
Don't
expect perfection; do expect dedication.
No
matter what your position or location, learning from mistakes–your
and others'–is key.
Develop
best practices based on everyone's cumulative experiences.
