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Unexpected Discoveries
Leadership is not about your position as much as it’s based on who you are as a person and the capabilities you demonstrate.
John Townsend—clinical psychologist who coauthored the two-million-selling book Boundaries with Henry Cloud (including People Fuel which is summarized here)—shared, “It’s far more important that the [leader] have two characteristics. One is that he or she is the right person inside, someone who has a good level of character structure and maturity—that he or she is the real deal, so to speak. And secondly, that person must know how to relate to people on an authentic and real level.”
Leadership is less about commanding and more about empowering people to live up to their potential by using all of their abilities.
Barry Black—first African-American Chaplain of the U.S. Senate, elected in 2003—said, “I have come to think of leadership as the mobilization of people toward a shared objective. And that mobilization requires the leader to first listen in order to learn, in order to lead.”
Tony Dungy, a man of quiet intensity (and author of Quiet Strength summarized here), responded, “The big change for me was getting to a point of understanding that leadership is really about getting people to follow you as opposed to you having to push them in a direction you want them to go.”
Defining and Evaluating Real Leadership
Former attorney general, governor, and U.S. senator John Ashcroft noted, “First, leadership is the identification of noble goals and objectives, and second, it is the pursuit of those noble goals and objectives with such intensity that others are drawn into the process… Leadership is different from governance. Some people confuse the two. Governance is the process whereby minimums are established. In government, the law is passed, and it sets the minimum threshold for activity. Leadership is different from governance because it doesn’t establish the lowest and least that is acceptable, but it inspires people to their highest and best.”
Laurie Beth Jones, the internationally recognized bestselling author and leadership coach, responded, “I think of leadership as the ability to persuade others to accomplish things together. It is getting people to go along and work together to accomplish something, being able to persuade others around what needs to be done and making that happen.”
Sam Chand said, “My personal vision is to help others succeed, because I think real leadership is never about you getting the job done; it is helping others do what they can do best.”
Seth Godin, the iconoclastic voice on matters related to leadership and marketing, said, “Frist of all, leadership is mostly about connecting people both to each other and to a future that they want to see. It is rarely about the characteristics or personality or traits of the leader. People magazine would have us believe that celebrities and leaders are the same thing, but they are not.”
Chaplain Black—the first African-American Chaplain of the U.S. Senate, elected in 2003—said, “Success involves at least three things for a leader, no matter what you’re leading.
- Faithfulness: 1 Corinthians 4:2 says it is required of servants that they be found faithful. And in the parable of the talents in Matthew 25, the commendation is not ‘Well done, good and successful servant’ or ‘Well done, good and talented servant’ but ‘Well done, good and faithful servant.’ I believe that God measures our effectiveness by our faithfulness. Are you reliable? Are you dependable? That’s what I think faithfulness means.
- Glorify God: Jonathan Edwards, the great Christian writer, said his first resolution was that whatever he did would glorify God. And 1 Corinthians 10:31 says, ‘Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.’
- Please God: When I am leading in such a way that I know God is pleased with my work, then I’m successful, regardless of what the world might think.”
Chaplain Black went on to say, “Remember, Noah preached for 120 years and was only able to convince seven people to go into the ark with him. And yet he was successful, I believe, because he was faithful. His leadership glorified God, and his leadership certainly pleased Go.”
Former governor and presidential candidate Mike Huckabee said, “Success is essentially having clearly defined goals and meeting them with integrity. And integrity is an important part of it, because if you gain the world and lose your soul, that’s not success.”
Vision & Values
Ben Carson, the brilliant neurosurgeon who was named by Business Week as one of the most influential people in the world, said, “The key thing that a successful leader is able to do is to create a vision that people can get behind. The book of Proverbs says, ‘Where there is no vision, the people perish’ (Prov. 29:18).”
Seth Godin said, “True leadership is not necessarily about having a concrete vision of what the end will be like. It’s embracing the process of what a group is going to go through to get to wherever the group is going. Leaders never know what the end is going to bring. They just know that there’s a process they’re willing to embrace.”
Jesse Stoner, who studied the power of vision for decades, realized that there are three parts to a compelling vision:
- Who you are
- Where you’re going—your picture of the future
- Your values that guide your behavior on your journey
Ken Blanchard (Co-Author of Lead Like Jesus and The Secret, summarized here) offered, “If organizations get those three components—knowing what their business is, picturing the end result, and ranking values—and communicate them, everybody can understand them. Then, when you put it up on the wall, it has some meaning. And then you put the goals under that and they just come alive. It’s really powerful.”
Newt Gingrich—former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives—added, “In the process, metrics are important because you have to figure out in the real world whether or not your vision and values are happening.”
In the course of doing what is right, genuine leadership doesn’t pander to public opinion and attitudes; it shapes it.
Colleen Barrett of Southwest Airlines (Co-Author of Lead with Luv, which is summarized here) noted, “The core culture of Southwest was formulated out of the struggle. We didn’t say, ‘This is going to be our culture,’ but it evolved to the point that our culture included family, fun, and hard work. Herb wanted people to take our business very seriously, but not themselves. He valued a sense of humor.”
Jimmy Blanchard, CEO of Synovus which topped Fortune’s 100 best companies to work for, pointed out, “Ultimately, the value we have pushed and thrived upon is simple: we need to treat folks right. It doesn’t matter who they are. All people have worth, they are valuable, and they ought to be appreciated. We ought to be considerate and respectful of them.”
Don Soderquist, COO and senior vice chairman of Wal-Mart agreed, “One of the primary principles found in the Bible is that we have respect for the individual. That means that within the framework of Wal-Mart, regardless of what you may believe, no matter where you may have been raised, no matter what your religious preference might be, we respect you for who you are.”
When Patrick Lencioni—consultant, speaker, president of the Table Group, and author of The Advantage)—was asked what values his organization embraced in its effort to have a positive work environment, he responded, “We talk about being humble, hungry, smart. I hire people who are stronger than I am in humility and who inspire me to work hard because that’s who they are, and people who care about how others are feeling.”
Creating Culture
John Kotter, esteemed professor of leadership from Harvard Business School describes culture this way, “The way culture develops is that a group of people does something in a certain way and it works. And if it works over a sufficiently long period of time, it seeps into the bloodstream of the organism. They don’t do anything, it just happens. So what great leaders do is just that. If the culture isn’t right, they get a group to act differently, get positive results, and if they just keep doing it for a while, it will start to seep into the bloodstream and replace the old stuff.”
John Townsend argues, “A healthy culture is one where people know they are around a leader who will lead, who will actually take the reins, create the vision, be ahead of the pack, make the hard decisions, care about the people, and protect the mission and goals. The people know who the leader is. Secondly, it’s a place where there’s a team environment. People feel like there is cohesion and they are all valued parts of the whole—and that the bigger picture of us together is more important than any individual need. And thirdly, they create an environment where there’s no such thing as a bad question. Because of that, people always question things; they’re changing and challenging, and they’re making mistakes—and all of that creates a very rich field of new ideas and new solutions to problems.”
Mike Smith, coach of the Atlanta Falcons—a team that was a real mess—said, “I need to create a strong culture. Culture drives behavior, and behavior drives habits in the organization.”
Kirbyjon Caldwell—who left a successful Wall Street career to pioneer entrepreneurial ministry ventures in an economically depressed section of Houston, including a large church with a nationwide audience—said, “When you are talking about establishing the type of culture you want, you must make certain the employees know what you expect, know what the vision is, and know what it takes to pursue that vision, and you need to make sure they have what they need in order to do what you are asking them to do.”
Developing Leaders
Bob Dees, retired major general of the U.S. Army and executive at Microsoft, says, “I think we often have it out of balance in terms of leader selection and leader development. We need to place greater priority on leader selection. We really have to figure out what is the best place for each leader, based on his or her abilities.”
To the question—“What do you think about the Gallup research that says you should first find out your strengths and then that will tell you what a good job fit would be?”—Henry Blackaby responded, “It’s an interesting theory. It’s just not sound biblically. You name one person whom the Lord called who was qualified. They all complained, whether it was Abraham or Moses or Mary. The Lord doesn’t call the qualified, the Lord qualifies the called.” Then, what does it mean to be called? Blackaby responded, “It means to be humbled and to be open to learn.”
Jimmy Blanchard, who leads Fortune’s 1999 best place to work in America, said, “We were flattered with the recognition, and it validated to us that training and preparing leaders, teaching them the basics, and trying to enthuse them to seek their own highest level of leadership was a good approach and a good investment in a corporate environment… One thing that we learned is that developing leaders is probably the most appreciated benefit in the company. When current or would-be leaders realize that you are investing in their growth, it’s more important to them than money… When you look at people who are eager to learn more, you can bet they are on the right track. And when you talk to people who just don’t want any more instruction, they have pretty much hit the wall. They are done.”
Warren Bennis—widely regarded as a pioneer of the contemporary field of leadership studies—said, “I think the most important and difficult thing is to create a culture in the organization where leadership is really important. It’s important for people in the company to realize that this is a growth-oriented company, and the biggest thing we have to grow here is you, because it’s you who will make this company better and better by your own growth.”
Laurie Beth Jones noted, “An almost universally neglected commitment is making it a primary practice of the leadership team to develop leaders internally. Everyone’s role is developing leaders for the next generation. It’s one of their most important roles. That is what Jesus did, and I think He was very aware of what motivated His individuals.”
Hiring the Right People
Colleen Barrett explained her views about hiring people at Southwest Airlines, “We are almost religious about hiring. We hire their attitude and then we train for skill. We look for caring, fun-loving, spirited people who want to deliver customer service.”
Henry Cloud—clinical psychologist with broad experience in private practice, leadership consulting, and media, who is well-known for his two-million selling book Boundaries—noted, “An important phrase to me in leadership development is ready, aim, fire. You have some leaders who are ‘fire, ready, aim,’ and they do things impulsively. You have others who are ‘ready, ready, ready, ready, ready, ready,’ and they can’t ever pull the trigger. Wise leaders have systems and people with a timeline, and they don’t allow themselves to hire someone by skipping or going around the process.”
Rich Stearns—former CEO of Lenox and president of World Vision, a Christian relief and development agency—said, “When I reorganize our team, I look at how to best reorganize around the gifts of my players.”
Sam Chand—former pastor, college president, and chancellor—said, “I ask myself one simple question. Is this a person a can’t or a won’t? Can’t is about abilities. We can help these kinds of people in most cases—not in all cases, but in most. But won’t is about attitude. If the issue is attitude, the time to let that person know there is a problem is now, because here is the deal: we hire people for what they know and fire them for who they are.”
Henry Blackaby noted that good leadership is so often about applied common sense. He described setting standards and communicating regularly with people about whether or not they are meeting the agreed-upon standards. As Mark Twain famously said, “Common sense ain’t.”
Leading Well
Rich Stearns pointed out, “Perhaps the two most important jobs of a leader that I would have are, number one, setting and casting a vision that sets the sights of the people in the organization on a tangible goal that is palpable, energizing, and exciting. Number two, after casting the vision, the most powerful leverage a leader has is in the selection of the people who will carry out the vision. Finding the right people with the right skills and putting them in the right jobs and then turning them loose ends up being incredibly powerful.”
Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the House, explained, “To be a great leader, you have to do three things that are very hard. First, you have to teach in a way that others can learn. Second, you have to be able to articulate vividly with emotional and moral power what you are rallying people to do. And finally, you have to live it. You have to personify it.” Gingrich went on to say, “Leadership is about listening, learning, helping, and leading—in that order.”
Colleen Barrett explained, “Part of leadership is knowing when to follow. You have to know when to get out of the way.”
Great leaders sometimes put themselves out of a job by raising up other leaders who are competent and ready to provide direction.
Henry Blackaby explained, “Those who lead well have an orientation toward increase. Leaders make things grow. They’re not maintainers. To do that, they avoid gambling—but they also take risks… A good leader’s character gives him or her an orientation toward transcendence. In other words, good leaders realize it’s not about them; it’s about things larger than they are, things that transcend them. It’s really about the values, the people they serve, the constituents, the employees, the stockholders, the mission, and God Himself.”
Patrick Lencioni put it this way, “When I think of leadership, I think of being a servant, for sure, but being a servant leader means taking a position out in front of people, without making yourself out to be more important than the people you’re serving as a leader.”
Earning and Maintaining Trust
How does a leader gain people’s trust? Seth Godin immediately responded, “You have to trust them.”
Henry Cloud responded, “To become more trusted and better followed, some leaders need to close the say-do gap, not by doing more, but by saying less. Leaders have to be very careful about what they say they’re going to do. Don’t open your mouth if you’re not really going to do what you say, because people are watching you, overtly and covertly.”
Patrick Lencioni said, “To be humble, you have to be vulnerable, which means disclosing things about yourself, letting people relate to you as an equal, and knowing it is not jeopardizing but enhancing your ability to lead them.”
Miles McPherson, who retired as an NFL football player, suggested, “People, by nature, want predictability. When people look at a leader, they want to know what they are going to get and when they are going to get it. If the leader delivers, that’s consistency, and if you are consistent, people will respect you.”
Coach Lou Holtz put it this way, “Now, I don’t know of any other way that you can get people to trust you and to trust each other than to have everybody operate on the same rule, and that’s do what’s right. Just doing the right thing is what builds trust. If you’re going to lead, people have to trust you.”
Confrontation & Conflict
Henry Cloud explained, “Naturally speaking, you can usually categorize people into one of three styles in terms of conflict:
- People who are very Aggressive, as if they’re looking for a fight and they’re going to win (e.g., attorneys, who are aggressive and have a ‘take no prisoners’ attitude, and that’s natural to them).
- Moving Away style, where they want to avoid conflict. They don’t really want to be involved in it.
- Moving Toward approach, which involves being a peacekeeper rather than a peacemaker. They’ll join the person and love him or her and smooth things over.
Each of those styles is incomplete because it’s not integrated.”
Henry Cloud noted, “Leaders need to learn skills for dealing with conflict and to find out that confrontation can be good. And it’s important for leaders to remember that they get what they tolerate.”
One of the most important things leaders can learn is to stay neutral in conflict.
Henry Cloud asserted, “A good leader is very strategic about when to confront, how to confront, why to confront, and whom to confront.”
Erwin McManus—lead pastor of Mosaic, a community of faith in Los Angeles—explained, “Leaders make people uncomfortable. We take them out of their comfort zones.” Erwin pushed the boundary: leaders bring danger within the arc of their shadow because they diligently seek the truth, they unfailingly tell the truth, and they won’t settle for anything less than the truth. When a leader performs at that level, it can get uncomfortable.
So many tasks that a leader needs to perform—from developing vision to hiring, from developing trust to creating shared values, and from creating a healthy culture to resolving conflict—depend upon good listening.
Character
Patrick Lencioni pointed out, “With leadership in any position, I look at character first. In my own company, even when I hire people for jobs that are mostly about getting things done, I look for character first, because people can learn the skills and industry-specific things that they’ll need.”
Mike Huckabee argued, “The best definition of character is that it is those qualities that make you the person you are when nobody else is looking. So character is that which causes you to make the same decision in public that you would make in private.”
Sam Chand said, “One of the nonnegotiable elements of a leader’s character is how he or she treats others. If a leader has high respect for people—all people, regardless of their positions—then I know that I can work with this person. But if a leader has low respect for people, that tells me how that person views people, and that’s a whole other issue.”
Rich Stearns added, “Something that I’ve [long] thought of as an important in character, and that’s selflessness… I also think the best leaders have a very keen sense of self-awareness. They take account of how they are perceived by others, how their words are received by others, what their blind spots and weaknesses are, and what their strengths are… Unfortunately, many leaders who lack integrity compensate by using fear. They figure, ‘Well, they don’t like me, but I’ll make them afraid of me.’ That’s another way to lead, but it’s not a good way to do it.”
Following
General Bob Dees—from years of leading in the military (army), business (Microsoft), and ministry (Campus Crusade for Christ) enabled him to view leadership from multiple angles—explained, “Things break at the seams. So the wise leader knows that as you’re instructing your followers and making it easier for them to respond and support, you not only define a good division of labor, but gain a bit of altitude so you can monitor the seams. The leader must look at the interface between organizations, and between individuals of dissimilar functions, which then allows you to take the sand out of the gears so that followers have clarity and are not precluded from realizing their purpose.”
Ken Melrose—former president, CEO, and chairman of the board for the Toro Company—said, “I stayed in contact with the people whom I worked with on the line. It’s all part of trying to make their lives better because you love them. When you build that kind of relationship, you don’t have to say, ‘You’d better perform or else,’ because they will. They’ll outperform any standard you have set because they want to.
John Townsend said, “At the end of the day, people need to feel like they are valuable and they are valued. People need to know they matter. They need to hear that the leader believes the workplace would be a different—not as good—setting if they were gone. If you are able to convey to them that you depend on them being there, and it’s not just what they provide but who they are as people, that’s meaningful encouragement… If you look at the Gallup research, Marcus Buckingham makes a real strong case that the best leaders are those whose followers say they know clearly what is expected of them and who are resourced specifically to meet those expectations.”
Sam Chand urges, “Make it simple. Break it down into concrete communication. Tell them the basic facts they need to know very simply: give the who, what, when, how, where… Re-languaging is a big part of what a leader must do when he or she works with followers. In general, leaders are more abstract than concrete and followers are more concrete than abstract.”
Team Building
Patrick Lencioni cautions, “I’m not a believer in only focusing on your strengths, because I think there’s a humility in understanding what you are not good at. Yes, God gave you strengths and you should use them. But the reason you have to know your weaknesses is that some of those are the things that keep you from being a good leader or a better person.”
Lencioni went on to offer, “Teams should be smaller rather than larger. When you have more than eight people, the team breaks down. Chris Argyris of Harvard told us years ago that in order to communicate effectively, you have to have two kinds of communication: advocacy and inquiry. When you get more than seven or eight people at a meeting, they stop inquiring and it’s more likely you’ll just have people advocating a certain position.”
Rich Stearns explained, “I tend to be a participative leader. I try to get good discussions going and listen a lot. I don’t tell people what the answer is. I try to uncover or discover the answer through dialogue and by stimulating conversation. I like to get strong people assembled in a team and recognize that the team has a lot more ability to discover answers than any individual.”
John Townsend spoke about his observations of leadership teams, “First of all, it takes spending time together. You can talk about teams all day, but unless you intentionally structure formal and informal settings in which team members can interact, it’s just another good idea.
Faith & Morals
Barry Black said, “Faith and morality ultimately affect how you lead because they affect you. I love the statement Paul makes in Acts 24:16. He says, ‘I myself always strive to have a conscience without offense toward God and men.’ I think that talks about a spirituality where you can live in such a way that you’re transparent.
Jon Gordon—an emerging voice in the leadership field as a speaker and consultant and author of The Positive Dog; The Shark & The Goldfish; The Power of a Positive Team; The Power of Positive Leadership—explained, “Because I have argued that a leader is someone with three qualities—God’s calling to lead, character that pleases God and allows Him to entrust the leader with authority, and the core competencies to get things done that fulfill a God-given vision—I raised the matter of calling and whether a Christian leader has a different kind of calling than a leader who is not a follower of Christ.”
Ralph Winter—Hollywood film producer of blockbuster movies such as X-Men, Fantastic Four, and Star Trek—said, “Hopefully, your faith affects how you deal with people in that you have a sensitivity, a respect level, and a worldview that underpins the way you deal with them. You have to pay people a fair wage and be truthful about that. When you fire them, you have to tell them the truth and not sugarcoat it… I’m going to do all the things I’m required to do, but try to do it with a sense of humanity. I try to fire people so they will say thank you.”
Ken Melrose of Toro told this story, “I put up a sign that said, ‘God meant for you to be here…now!’ It was a very visible sign, framed and all, and I put it on the wall opposite my desk so when I’d come in the office, I’d see that sign, first thing. I had some doubts about myself and talked to myself about the situation—Am I up to this? Well, I’m not but God and I are. As long as God’s with me, I’m going to be okay.
Power
Michael Franzese—son of reputed Colombo underboss John “Sonny” Franzese, who joined the Colombo crime family as a young adult, made more money for a crime family than anyone since Al Capone and ultimately left the crime family after becoming a Christian—noted, “The hunger for power is a horrible thing. In the life that I led, that search for power always led to destruction. Always. I have never seen a power-hungry person survive; it eventually catches up to you. You can’t survive it. You should always lead with the recognition that you have power, but without making power the central reason for which you lead.”
Jimmy Blanchard said, “Servant leadership is all about modeling the life of Jesus as the perfect example of serving others in the midst of providing them with leadership. True servant leadership is all about getting a handle on our own selfishness.”
Barry Black pointed out, “Jesus said in Matthew 20, ‘I come not to be served, but to serve.’ The apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 4:1, ‘Consider us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.’”
Bob Dees—who revealed that he had not entered the military as a servant leader—said, “In Good to Great, Jim Collins writes that the two criteria of truly effective, great leaders are passion and humility… Somewhere along the way, I transitioned from taking care of the troops to loving the troops. It went from my head to my heart.”
Tony Dungy thought about the example of the Middle Eastern shepherd—that Christ used so often and even is referred to as the Good Shepherd. Dungy explained, “The shepherd takes care of the sheep so well that they come to recognize the voice and know his presence and what he wants them to do, and they follow because they think that is the best thing for them. They know they are being provided for. The shepherd knows the way to go and they follow. That has kind of shaped my style of leadership. The players and coaches that I have worked with know that I care about them enough to do everything I can to get them to reach their goals.”
Criticism & Pressure
John Ashcroft explained that a very good leader from Missouri once told him, “John, the dogs may bark, but the caravan moves on.” You have to understand what your objective is and not listen to the barking dogs. So how do you handle pressure? You keep your eyes on the prize. If it’s noble, if it’s the right thing, you just do it.
The question you have to ask yourself is, “Am I willing to endure the difficulties in leadership in order to be successful, or am I going to give in to the negativity and the mediocrity that everybody comes to expect from losers?”
Tony Dungy said, “When you accept a leadership position, you are going to accept everything that comes with it: the accolades, the fanfares, the thank-yous, the tough times, the extra work, the disappointment, the criticism. All of that comes with the job, and included with that is the pressure to make the right decision. That’s probably the biggest pressure, when you are not sure what to do and you realize the decision you made is going to impact so many people in your organization.”
Laurie Beth Jones said, “I think the willingness to lose everything when you have nothing to lose—when you live in surrender, nothing is really yours unless it was given, not even your own life—makes it easier to take the pressure. People who are people-pleasers are never going to be satisfied. They are always going to be under pressure.”
John Townsend explained, “To be able to handle your present circumstances increases your readiness to handle new things. In the future, you are going to have an increase of pressure, so strengthen those muscles today.”
Miles McPherson added, “I find that through pressure, God purifies my heart. How can a leader prepare for pressure? By handling pressure. By being in the fire. There is no other way.”
Skills & Discipline
What skill is perhaps most necessary to be an effective leader? “Listening” is the discipline most identified.
Ken Blanchard said, “I love the whole concept of leading with your ears. I heard that phrase recently; it has a nice ring to it.”
Lou Holtz agreed, “Well, first of all, I never learned anything—and I’m an old man—by talking.”
Laurie Beth Jones posited, “Perhaps the most important quality a leader can possess is appreciative inquiry and listening without a preconceived agenda.”
Barry Black offered an approach using the acrostic SOLER:
- Sit Squarely
- Open Posture: No crossed legs or crossed hands
- Leaning Forward
- Eye Contact
- Rephrasing what people have said, paraphrasing back what you heard for clarification.
If you use those attending tactics in listening aggressively to people, or active listening, you will be able to intuit things and hear what is not being said.
Rich Stearns explained, “Leaders have to be very aware of the power they wield. When you are the CEO or top leader, you can speak softly and it sounds like a shout to someone. So when you criticize someone, you have to be very careful about being too blunt or cutting, because whatever you say will be amplified ten times just because you’re the president. You have to adapt your style to realize that it’s not just you, the person, speaking; it’s the position that you hold that’s speaking.”
Bob Dees said, “You need to be able to lead with calmness and clarity in a crisis, but powerful leaders also capture the emotion of the moment as well. Leaders should not manipulate people’s emotions, but they should be sufficiently transparent to show empathy, compassion, righteous anger, and passion for the common cause to tap into the human emotions experienced by the team they lead. A slight touch of vulnerability is very positive in leading people.”
Next Steps
Biologists have learned that every living organism is in one of two states: growth or decay. There is no such thing as maintenance; standing still is equivalent to decay.
Be determined to grow every day in your leadership capacities.