Leadership in the Moment

An article in the San Francisco Chronicle was recently written by former State of California Speaker of the Assembly and now journalist–Willie Brown.  He was commenting on the criticism that is being aimed at President Obama about his health-care plan.  He believes the real challenge is to present a plan that can pass Congress.  How?  He writes, “A good leader never imposes his will on his followers.  A good leader tries to blend his vision into something  that his followers can adopt as their own.”   His definition of leadership sounds a lot like one of Kouzes and Posner’s 
Characteristics of Admired Leaders (from The Leadership Challenge) defining a good leader as someone whose direction people willingly follow.  I think that Willie would agree.

In the movie, City Slickers, actor Billy Crystal was looking for a way to re-energize his life.  He was a burned-out ad executive who went to a dude ranch to “find himself”.  Instead he found a tough cowboy, Curley, who attempted to guide Crystal’s character into a journey of self-realization.  In a famous scene, Curly, upon being asked what the key to happiness was, held up one finger.  He was attempting to simplify life by making the point that there is only one key to happiness and you’ve got to find it. 

If you were asked, “What is the one thing that is the key to inspired leadership?”  What would it be?

Sonoma Leadership Systems offers a program, Leadership is Everyone’s Business® and, as they say, the title says it all.  It’s about taking responsibility for leading and taking charge no matter what the position or title. 

Motivational speaker and trainer, Brian Tracy, recently wrote a piece with a similar perspective:   “Everyone’s a Salesperson”.  He asserts that there is a gap between the current situation that needs to change and a solution or idea that can make change happen.  One method is asking “What if” questions such as, “What if we treated our own people with the same courtesy and respect as we do our customers.”  You get the idea.  Selling is not just something done in the sales and marketing department.  It’s part of everyone’s business in an organization to proactively look for gaps between what is and what can be and then “selling the idea” to your colleagues and customers. (And it doesn’t hurt to do it in a compelling way.)  As Brian says, “Your job is to describe a state of even greater satisfaction that they could enjoy if they did something different.”  Everyone can do that!