THE 6:8 LEADER GROUP
Act Justly | Love Mercy | Walk Humbly

Leadership

Why Would Anyone Follow You?

http://www.dreamstime.com/-image1044168What leader has the most positive influence in your daily life today?  Take a few moments to think about this question if you need to.  Once you have someone in mind, list three words that you think best describe what this person contributes to your life.

From 2005 to 2008 Gallup conducted a study of why people follow a leader.  The question they asked is the same question just asked of you, “What leader has the most positive influence in your daily life?”  It was followed by, “List three words that best describe what this person contributed to your life.”

There was no list of leadership characteristics or categories to choose from, just an opportunity for followers to define how leaders make a positive difference for them.

At the end of the Gallup study, some of the most used characteristics of leadership from the leadership gurus were nowhere near the top of the list.  In fact, the most common responses were not purpose, wisdom, humor, or even humility.  The words that appeared most often were trust, compassion, stability, and hope.  With over 170,000 words available in the English language, to have these four at the top of the list is significant.

Trust

“The followers we surveyed also cited honesty, integrity, and respect as distinct contributions from the leaders in their lives.”

Compassion

“Caring, friendship, happiness, and love were other frequently mentioned words followers used when asked what leaders contributed o their lives.”

Stability

“The People we surveyed also mentioned the words security, strength, support, and peace.”

Hope

“Followers also mentioned the words direction, faith, and guidance when describing this basic need.”

It is interesting to note that none of the four characteristics listed above have anything to do with a person’s intelligence, or IQ.  Instead, they have everything to do with a person’s emotional quotient, or EQ.  What this means is the key to effective leadership is not “out their” somewhere, it is “in here,” inside ourselves.  The heart isn’t just a pump, it’s is the essential, active ingredient for building trust, integrity, empathy, resilience, and credibility.

Robert Cooper, in “Executive Leadership,” says this type of wisdom—from the heart, not the head—“is what ignites creative genius, keeps you honest with yourself, shapes trusting relationships, provides an inner compass for your life and career, guides you to unexpected possibilities, and may even save you or your organization from disaster.”

“People with high levels of personal mastery…cannot afford to choose between reason and intuition, or the head and heart, any more than they would choose to walk on one leg or see with one eye.”  Peter Senge

Open Your Gift for Goodness Sake

http://www.dreamstime.com/-image23398682Do you know your gifts?  Do you find opportunities to express them every day?  Your organization, your team, your family will only be at their best if you bring your best to the relationships each and every day.

You were created for good works.  Take time today to discover where and how you can open that gift and share it with your world.

The following comes from “Forming a Sense of Mission,” from The Path by Laurie Beth Jones.  It is a reminder of the importance of knowing what you bring to any relationship or team.

Great leaders know their gift is not…

…their job.  Your gifts are always larger than your work or your job.

…their role.  Your gifts are never defined by your role in life.

…their “to-do” list.  Your gifts are not the urgent, but the important.

Great leaders also know…

…they are already living it.  It is highly probable that you are already using your gifts.   Increase your awareness of them and use them to their fullest.

…they are important enough.  You can’t escape the responsibility—or the privilege of using your gifts.

…it doesn’t help a lot of people.  The most important gifts are often given one at a time, to one at a time.

…it isn’t full of suffering.  Your gifts should be a perfect “fit” for you—not a struggle.

…it isn’t like anyone else’s.  Your gifts are yours alone–stop all those comparisons.

…it is in a humble place.  Your gifts are not dependent upon where you were born or where you live.

…it is “out of the ordinary.”  Look out for imitations that look like, but are not, the real thing.

…it isn’t an accident.  Neither you, nor your gifts, were an accident.

What’s Love Got to Do with It?

dreamstime_xs_27050853 (2)“What’s love got to do with it?”  Tina Turner wasn’t the first to ask that question, and she won’t be the last.  For a leader, the answer is simple.  Everything!

If you are a leader, love is critical.  And I don’t mean the kind of “love” that is all about me.  You know the type.  “I want you to love me, because I like what I get.”  What I am taking about is the type of love that says, “I will show care, looking out for the interests of others because I simply decide to.”  I

t doesn’t mean I don’t love myself–if you don’t like you, you won’t like others.  It does mean I am interested in the lives and success of all the people who make our organization or business a success and in the lives of the people we serve.

Being a leader is not always easy.  Loving others is the same.  It may not be easy, but it is critical.  You need it.  Your team needs it.  The world needs it.  Lead with love and you will never lead with power or fear ever again.

The day the power of love overrules the love of power, the world will know peace. —Gandhi

Four Pillars of Leadership

http://www.dreamstime.com/-image7435618“Leadership is defined not by the scale of the opportunity but by the quality of the response.”  Chris Lowney

There is one promise you MUST make as a leader, and it is the promise to lead.  That may sound strange, but many leaders have abdicated their primary responsibility of leading and have become self absorbed, self serving, and, dare I say it, unloving.

In 2003, Chris Lowney, a former Jesuit turned investment banker, wrote a great book titled Heroic Leadership.  A principle that showed up early in his book and continued to be a theme throughout was that “we’re all leaders and that our whole lives are filled with leadership opportunities.”   He goes on to say “We can be leaders in everything we do–in our work and in our daily lives, when teaching others or learning from others.”

If leadership is something we can all do and it is not just for those “atop companies” or “on stage at work,” then we all need to understand what it is, and we all need to make a promise to the people in our lives that we will be that kind of leader.

Chris Lowney’s “Four Core Leadership Pillars,” those principles that become the heart of our promise to lead, are as follows:

  1. Self Awareness: I will understand my strengths, weaknesses, values, and worldview.
  2. Ingenuity: I will confidently innovate and adapt to embrace a changing world.
  3. Love: I will engage others in a positive, loving attitude.
  4. Heroism: I will energize myself and others through heroic ambition.

You can never promise certainty.  However, you can always promise to live your values, and you can make the promise to be a leader.  Make that promise to your team, or your students, or your family today.

Projects Make New Things Happen

http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photos-project-management-construction-planning-image39922093Processes pay the bills, save you time, and maintain quality products.  Projects, however, are what make new things happen.  A project is simply a problem scheduled to be solved.  And the steps needed to move an organization forward are primarily projects.  As a leader you must understand how to identify, develop and manage projects.  Leading your organization takes on two forms.  One is that of a process—doing the same thing over and over.  The second is that of a project—doing something for the first time.

Almost everything you do in a new organization begins as a project—that is unless you can borrow or buy it from someone else.  In older organization we tend to have too many process—we just keep on doing the same old things in the same old ways.  Your job as a leader is to make sure you know the difference and that you make sure your organization is doing the right ones at the right times.

Results are the Test

http://www.dreamstime.com/-image3181171“If results are our goal, they must also be our test….”  Judith Rodin

If you are looking for goals for your organization that really matter, try these:

Superior Performance:  Focus your organization on the achievement of meaningful results and efficiency in delivering on your mission.

Distinctive Impact: Focus your organization on work done with such excellence that it would not be easily replaced by any other organization.

Strong Connections:  Focus your organization on building and sustaining lasting partnership, great flow of ideas, and well funded programs.

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