Leadership in the Moment

“Sending and receiving (communications) at breakneck speed can make life queasy.”  So writes John Freeman in the August 22, 2009 Wall Street Journal.  Those of us who are feeling the effects of the frenetic pace by which tech-assisted communications are headed, should read this piece.  To reduce the message of a manifesto to a “Cliff Notes” version doesn’t do it justice.  Yet here are some meaningful quotes.  Freeman writes:

•  “This is not a sustainable way to live.  This lifestyle of being constantly “on” causes emotional and physical burnout, workplace meltdowns and unhappiness.  How many of your most joyful memories have been created in front of a screen?” 
•  “It (technology) has put us under a great physical and mental strain, altering our brain chemistry and daily needs.  It has isolated us from people with whom we live, siphoning us away from real-world places where we gather. 
•  “It has made it more difficult to read slowly and enjoy it, hastening the already declining rates of literacy. It has made it harder to listen and mean it, to be idle and not fidget.”
•  “It has encouraged flotillas of unnecessary jabbering making it difficult to tell signal from noise.”

 As I click away on my keys trying not to jabber, I’m wondering, how does this relate to leadership?  Perhaps you have some insights.  (Please respond immediately!!)

I just finished participating in hosting a webinar about the relationship between leadership and team development - the core theme having to do with the “intersection of leadership and team effectiveness being the ‘formula’ for producing extraordinary results”.   And it set me to thinking….  Many of us have had the experience of feeling like we’re doing all we can from the leadership perspective, but the team still doesn’t come together.  Sometimes; dare I say it; it feels like we’re on the school playground at recess.  And we’ve also had the experience of the team delivering beyond our wildest expectations, and we wonder what (or whether) we’ve done anything that brought that about.  If, at an operational level, it’s people’s commitment and accountability that ultimately ‘deliver the goods’, is it up to the leader to inspire them or does the responsibility lie within the team?

In other words, in terms of  ”accountability and commitment”, whose job is it anyway?

Don Hewitt, passed away last week at 86 and was instrumental in shaping a new tone for television journalism in creating “60 Minutes,” still a force in American TV ratings decades after he created it more than 40 years ago. He helped make CBS the pinnacle of TV journalism by directing legends from Edward R. Murrow to Walter Cronkite and producing  the 1960 TV debate of John Kennedy and Richard Nixon.  . “The formula is simple,” he wrote in a memoir in 2001, “and it’s reduced to four words every kid in the world knows: Tell me a story. It’s that easy.”

In a “60 Minutes” tribute to Don this past weekend it occurred to us that his formula of “Tell me a story” works in every social and business engagement.  As leaders, we can give life to our vision with a good story.  As Kouzes and Posner write in The Leadership Challenge, “The Magic of the theater of leadership is that a story that illustrates an important virtue can be told over and over again”. What’s your story and can it be transformed into a teachable moment?   

The theory of a black swan comes from a 17^th century European assumption that all swans are white.  So, in that context, a black swan was a symbol for something that was impossible or could not exist.  However, black swans were discovered in Australia a century later and the term morphed into a perceived impossibility that may actually come to pass.  The theory was described by Nassim Taleb in The Black Swan.  To identify it, the author’s criteria is:

1. The event is a surprise (no one thought about it ahead of time).
2. The event has a major impact (perhaps a huge financial loss).
3. After the fact, the event is rationalized by hindsight, as if it had been expected.

 Can any of our readers comment on examples of getting caught off guard due to a “black swan”?  Has it ever occurred in your organization?  How was it handled?  Did feathers fly?

 At one time I was committed to (well more like fixated upon) solving the problem of people not using their turn signals while behind the wheel.  I even fashioned my own bumper sticker with the above subject question.  One challenge, however, was that I had to be extremely diligent in my use of turn signals or I’d get “the look”. 

What happens if we don’t use our turn signals?  People can only guess where we’re going.  Making a quick turn or stop draws frustration or even anger from observers. At best, they’re confused.  It’s the same reaction that can be expected when a leader is not indicating his/her planned moves.  It reminds me of one of The Leadership Challenge® practices, Inspiring a Shared Vision.   The same behavior can be expected from our stakeholders if we as leaders are not consistently pointing to, articulating, and yes, signaling our vision. 

Few people know what’s really going on in the reclusive nation of North Korea but,  all appearances indicate that there is a dark side to leadership in that regime. (You’re surprised?) Their leadership has taken the opposite path to what our Western culture considers best practices.  There’s no Challenging the Process, Encouraging the Heart and certainly no Inspiring a Shared Vision (as in The Leadership Challenge®).   The dark side appears to be more like:  (1) Blind loyalty (ask no questions); (2) Secrecy that hangs over the nation (keeping them in the dark, like mushrooms); (3) Control by fear (many frightening examples from escaped citizens).   

Yet, with the release of two journalists, today’s news is optimistic about the channels of communication opening up.  One can only view North Korea from the outside but we can all anticipate that more than just communications will open up to its citizens.