HL Arledge

12 Characteristics of a Remarkable Leader

Here are the 12 characteristics of remarkable leadership according to author Kevin Eikenberry:

• Champions Change   
• Communicates Powerfully   
• Builds Relationships   
• Develops Others   
• Focuses on "Customers"   
• Influences Impactfully   
• Thinks & Acts Innovatively   
• Values Collaboration & Teamwork   
• Solves Problems & Makes Decisions   
• Takes Responsibility & Accountability   
• Manages Projects & Processes   
• Sets Goals & Supports Goal Achievement   

Does your management pass the test?

Read more about these in Kevin's book, Remarkable Leadership.

18 definitions that can make you a better leader

When I first took this job, I started jotted down notes, regarding different ways to interpret words. I've come to believe that real leaders have a slightly different dictionary than managers, bosses, dictators, and elected officials.

Here are my top 10 definitions used by real leaders...

Attitude–A state of mind, an emotional and intellectual inclination and predisposition to actions based on what you convince yourself is the truth.

Communication–Refers to anything, verbal or nonverbal, that imparts information, thoughts, or feelings. It is a vehicle than enables leaders and followers to connect with each other and to learn about their respective worlds.

Defensive Culture–A world in which people are more concerned with their image than they are with solving problems.

Desires–Unexpected bonuses or other pleasant surprises. The items that complete a staff member's statement that begins with, "It sure would be nice if..."

Expectations—Refers to perceived entitlements, any deliverable or treatment staff considers essential to happily performing their jobs.

Fertile Workplace Culture—An environment that encourages individuals to grow, learn, and be as good as they can as employees and as people.

Presentation are not about hyperboles or widgets

Everyone, I want to apologize for not updating you as often as I usually do, but the office is extremely busy preparing for our user conference on the 29th and 30th.

More to come on that.

In the meantime—and considering the industry Tom comes from, this could be considered "presenting at a conference" related—PR Guru Tom Murphy has some words of wisdom I would like to pass on...

"[The Public Relations and Presentation industry] needs leadership, we need people to lead by being realistic, by reflecting the challenges we face such as how we can build a better understanding of our audiences and the tools we’ll use to reach them.

This is not about shiny objects, hyperbole or widgets.  It’s about world class communication, based on insight into your audience and pragmatic investments in the channels that work."

My team's success is built on Trust

Michael Hopkin reported today is his blog "Lead on Purpose" that "Trust is essential to building a successful team"—something readers of this blog have seen proven time and time again.

Michael said...

"One of the best ways to gain trust is to be up front with the people you lead. Great leaders are not afraid to admit mistakes. At first blush it implies weakness; however, admitting mistakes actually helps leaders gain credibility because the people they lead see them as down-to-earth and genuine."

A recent article in Investors Business Daily discusses the importance of winning the trust of your team. Some leaders waste time trying to win acceptance—or even popularity—with their teams, rather than being vulnerable—open, honest, and transparent—about their strengths and weaknesses.

Trust is ultimately more important than popularity.

Patrick Lencioni, one of my favorite authors of wrote...

“Ironically, pretending you’re strong when you’re not is a sign of weakness. Trust is the most important thing a leader can have. People will walk through walls of fire for you if they know they can trust you. Without trust, nothing else matters to them.”

Leaders fulfilling promises and providing feedback—on both desired and undesired behaviors—will gain the trust of their teams and strengthen their organizations.

3 Big Questions from Patrick Lencioni

You may recall that Patrick Lencioni is one of my favorite authors.

He has a new book that everyone should read.

If you take time to read The 3 Big Questions for a Frantic Family, please let me know what you think.

Hiding unjustified stress from your team

Someone said to me today...

"You hide stress really well."

I thought of all of the people in my life that would disagree with that statement, and then, I realized that I do act differently at the office.

Don't misunderstand me. I do try to be vulnerable and honest with my team at all times, but I also strive to guard them from the sky-is-falling types. If my team knows I am concerned, they may lose confidence in our work or in the company as a whole.

For this reason, I try to expose my stress only when I am 100% certain there is a real problem.

Steve Jobs once said...

"Remembering that you are going to die is a sure fire way to remind yourself that you have nothing to lose."

I prefer that my teams think this way.

Don't ignore the risks, but don't run away from them either.

If a team has a leader that is constantly in panic mode, no risks will be taken, no one will focus on mitigating risks, and innovation will die.

How's that for a doom a gloom viewpoint?

Real leaders can save the world

On the subject of Environmental Health...

What would you say if I told you there was a conservative oil tycoon—the 117th richest man on earth!—who had a realistic plan for breaking the United States' dependency on oil and saving the world in the process?

In this blog, I love to point out great leaders.

I'm beginning to think—unless he really has a lot of people fooled—T. Boone Pickens is one of the greatest.

Liberty and Justice for all...Happy Independence Day!

 

"Liberty is the quality or state of being free; the power to do as one pleases; freedom from physical restraint; freedom from arbitrary or despotic control; the positive enjoyment of various social, political, or economic rights and privileges; the power of choice."

—Webster's Dictionary

 

“Experience hath shown, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny...Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends—life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness—it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government...Leave no authority existing not responsible to the people...A society that will trade a little liberty for a little order will lose both, and deserve neither.”

—Thomas Jefferson

 

“Those who desire to give up freedom in order to gain security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one.”

—Benjamin Franklin

 

“...we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and success of liberty.”

—John F. Kennedy

Agile and Lean really Hipopalorum and Lopopahirum

In his blog this week, Martin Fowler attempts to explain away the misconceptions that "lean" and "agile" software practices are two different methodologies. I wanted to add that the idea that these were different came from consultants who are trying to convince you that the differences are so complicated that you need a consultant to succeed.

Whether your talking about Extreme Programming, Scrum, Lean, or Agile, you are really talking about tools that follow the same basic practices and understandings that make these all work.

As I explained in my guest post at Management Craft, you are talking about common sense.

Agile practices work well in Software Development, but if you boil them down to their basic common denominators, you are talking about something that can work for anyone—without consultant hand-holding.

Being a history buff, this whole Lean versus Agile debate reminds me of something Senator Huey Long used to joke about in the 1930s.

There were two patented arthritis medicines on the market, one was called Hipopalorum and the other was Lopopahirum.

One you rubbed on your body from bottom to top and the other you rubbed on your body from top to bottom. The ingredients of the product were exactly the same. They were just being promoted by different salesman.

This is not unlike the different business consultants that confront us today.

Anyway, just to finish the story...

Long—aka "the Kingfish"—had been elected Louisiana governor, then United States Senator, and he announced his candidacy for President of the United States in 1935.

Most of his speeches compared our political parties to Hipopalorum and Lopopahirum—and their product vendors.

"The only difference between the two parties is one skins us from the top down and the other skins us from the bottom up."

Huey Long was assassinated in September of 1935.

This is the funniest Scrum thing I've ever heard

The following is from the agenda for the Agile 2008 Conference.

It describes one of the classes they offer...

"Come to this tutorial if you are an Agile coach or a Scrum Master and want to let your teams self-organize. They just don’t become self-organizing on their own."

For a mere $1,999.00, you can attend this conference and find out how to organize your self-organizing team.

Give me a break!

Scrum is common sense.

Attend one Scrum class if you need to—I do have two Scrum certifications—but once you understand the fundamentals of what works and what doesn't, move on, and get the job done.

Unless you're just looking for a tax write-off, stop wasting company money on consultants and conferences.

Once you understand the basics of creating a perpetual team—be it Agile, Scrum, Six Sigma, or Super Process Come Lately—there is simply nothing else to learn.

Get out there and make it happen.