LEARNING TO LEAD, LEADING TO LEARN
Leadership Success
As a leader, it is not always about winning the race, but making sure everyone finished the race
“It Is Not About Winning But Finishing.”
Welcome to Take The Lead four.
What defines success as a leader? Naturally, one might think that it is the achievement of a defined goal or hitting a set target.
While good leadership is, certainly, made of such things, it might be surprising to hear that it is not the only thing.
As leadership is people centered, success is also people focused. So task completion is not the only assessment criteria of a successful leader.
Some of history’s greatest leadership stories are ones where the leader failed to reach a goal but still modelled great leadership.
Shackleton, Xenophon, Lovell: to name just three all are best known for their failures: all three failed to gain their primary objectives but still succeeded as leaders.
Shackleton, through his Endeavour enterprise, failed in his attempt to reach the South Pole, Xenophon, through his Anabasis adventure, lead a retreat after failing to usurp the Persian throne, Lovell, through his Apollo 13 theatrics, is best known for his failure to reach the moon.
Not to say that if you fail at everything you are a going to be a good leader, nor that it is not important to reach your goals, for every Xenophon there is an Alexander, for every Shackleton there is a an Amundsen: for every Lovell there is an Armstrong: each one of these succeeded in their primary objective and have claimed eternal fame for doing so, plus both Shackleton and Lovell reached their intended goals eventually.
The lesson here is that the success of leadership can be defined through the actions and survival of a team rather than just the exclusive achievement of a target.
The task may die but leadership must live!
If the original goal cannot to be reached, then, for the leader, a new purpose arises, a new direction is set, not now the moon, but back to earth; not the throne, but home; not the Pole, but posterity. Purposes may change but the need to lead remains.
Strong leaders create success from within failure. They adjust the focus from the task to the team to build character, develop strength, learn lessons, or even save lives.
Leadership is a process not a product, so successful leadership is evidenced through the evolution of that process.
Seems odd? Of course it does! We are so target driven and tend to define all success on goal acquisition at all costs. Endeavours may fail, but the team is the true test for a leader to be successful.
Our focus as a leader should be on the team, making the journey a success: motivating people to go on, developing people to be better, adjusting the course and finding a new targets as necessary: to survive so as to try again.
We can do irreparable damage to ourselves if we simply focus on the failure of achieving a goal instead of the success of leading a team safely and developmentally through change, a challenge, or even a disaster.
As a leader, success it is not always about winning the race but making sure that everyone in the team finishes the race.
Learning To Fail
“Failure is a process for perfection. So keep learning, keep leading, and remember: “failure is not final until you say it is!””
…Not Failing To Learn!
My granddaughter taught me something she picked up one day from her primary school teacher: “A fail is the First Attempt In Learning: F.A.I.L”. Wow! Mind blown! It has stuck with me ever since.
Failure can be a perspective as much as an event. If you have not succeeded in achieving something, sure, it is a legitimate fail, but that fail can be a thing of fear or be a source of fuel. It is all about the perspective.
Even though the unsuccessful event is a fact, it is how you view that event that defines it as either fear or fuel. More often than not it is the fear that dominates, and that fear can be so strong that sometimes we fail to even try; or more often the case, to try again.
It becomes a matter of positioning. Where we see the failure within the process changes our perspective. It comes down to where we see that unsuccessful “event” in our path of progression. If we see failure as an end result, then it is, indeed, final. If, however, we view it as being in the middle of a process, it is becomes formative. Failure does not have to be final!
To control the fear of failure, consider it as just one way of working out what does not work (Edison). The lesson my GD was taught by her teacher was that failure is all about learning.
It is not a “free” pass however! Failure has consequences and with it comes a responsibility to learn. So, as long as you learn from the event, it will fuel your next attempt and thus you have no reasons to fear.
Learning leadership will test your resolve and relationship with failure. As leadership is such a flexible and subjective experience, what works well once may not a second time. Thus, failure at some level is inevitable as you experiment and explore what works where, when and with whom. You have to try, though. Then, if it fails, learn from it and try something different.
Just do not give up! If at first you don’t succeed, fail, fail again; until you get it right.
Failure is a process for perfection, so keep learning, keep leading, and remember: “failure is not final until you say it is!”
When Is A Team Not A Team? (Pt. 3)
TEAMWORK
“Don’t let It fester, do something formative”
“Ask not what your team can do for you, but what you can do for your team.”
This installment of my TEAM Valence model (Talk, set an Example, Accept reality & responsibility, Motivate individuals) expands on the third action point:
A is for Accept.
This action has two aspects:
First, there is a need to accept the realities of team-work and then we can accept responsibility for our part in team-work.
Reality: we work for a small company that does a lot. So, with the enormous amount of work we few get through, there are going to be frustrations: it is probably the same for you: identify your reality, and accept it!
Reality: teams are made up of individuals, with individuality. Inevitably, we will work with some we may not really like (bear in mind, however, that that sword cuts both ways: they may not like you, either).
As noted in TTL 1, our colleagues may not be our best friends, and we may find that we do not like them that much, but it does help to be likable. If we act like a bad-mannered bully, we should not be surprised if we are avoided. Whether others choose to like us is largely down to them, but whether we are likable is entirely down to us!
What we do need to do, though, is to respect the role they play within the team. Liking is based largely on emotion, so it may be a reaction. Respect is mainly based on thinking, so it becomes a choice. Choose to make the effort to respect your colleague’s role within the team. It is all about accepting the difference between a personal liking and a professional respecting.
Once we have grasped the realities of the team, we can focus on accepting the responsibility to the team.
No matter our position, we all have one common responsibility: to take the lead and make the effort to build unity.
Accept responsibility to play a leading part in building the team. Before we act, email or speak, ask: will it build or will it break the team?
Another reality of team-work is that the part we play in disrupting the team can be greater than we realise, or like to accept.
Too often we contribute to, or even sometimes be the cause of, the problem.
For example, a very common contributor to the loss of team valence is the failing to be SMART in our communication.
Not being specific, for instance, is a frequent cause of frustration and stress for many recipient of a message. If that is us, then we need to take responsibility for the quality of our communication.
It is not only are our “mechanics” that can be at fault though, but also our “manner” might need work. If our manner is disrespectful, rude or aggressive, then the mechanics of the message is unlikely to make much difference.
Effective leadership is unequivocally anchored by good communication, and this is judged by the way we deliver it as much as what we deliver.
It is not only our communication we need to take responsibility for but also our actions. Setting an example in action is as important as setting one in speech. Thus, our contribution to the team’s valence – or its disruption – is as much about what we do or, even, not do.
If we are too accepting of our own standard of execution being poor and feel it is okay to produce low standard work, then we are sowing seeds of discontent. A poor part played on our behalf will lay a latent weakness in the system that others will have to deal with, clean up, or worse: build on, thus causing a collapse, or confusion, somewhere further down the line; far away from our initial poor effort, and often leaving someone else to “take the fall”.
What can we do this week?
- When something goes wrong, do a JFK: “Ask first not what they should do for you, but what you can do for them!”
If we discover a fault in the system, instead of complaining, or even accusing, make an effort to fix it. Another key lesson from my Aps-class is: “never pass a deviation” – if you just pass over it, or even pass it on, you are part of the problem. Now, it may not actually be our mess to fix, nor may we have the ability to fix it, but accept responsibility to get it into the hands of one who can.
Don’t leave things festering in the system (a passive negative that contributes to breaking the team), take the lead in working toward a solution (an active positive for building the team).
2. If you think the team is lacking something; give something. Do not to be a complainer, be a changer! Think of ways to address what you have noticed and act: “don’t let it fester, do something formative!”
Be SMART
MY LEADERSHIP
“The Quality of your communication dictates respect.”
“Taking the time to communicate clearly is as much an aspect of respect as anything else: do not be a messy communicator.”
Communication is crucial! It is a central tenet of successful leadership. Developing good communication skills will get a lot of focus in future editions of TTL.
Where better to start than with the SMART system as mentioned in the main article?
For many, the SMART acronym is familiar. We have – or tried – to use it for years! It is easily found on the Web and is a frequent contributor to training courses.
For those who are not familiar, or perhaps have forgotten, here is a brief reminder.
Communication can be divided into three distinct areas for development: “method, manner & material”. SMART is a “method” system: it helps to ensure that some basic mechanics of your message are solid.
There are several versions, and a quick “google” will provide a few alternatives, but the following version is the one I use, as it creates less confusion between similarities of terms as used by others.
S – Specific: Your message should be focused, clear and precise.
M – Measurable: what you are asking must be practical with “specific” steps that can be targeted and measured along a path of progression.
A – Achievable: your request must be doable by the person. All necessary resources (which may include equipment or finances) must be available and they must have the ability to do it and time to accommodate it.
R – Relevant: to the person and the overall target. If the request is not “their job” or not necessary to them or the purpose, it won’t be relevant.
T – Timely: provide a clear time-frame for when the request is needed. Avoid “ASAPs”
Many consider the way you dress is a reflection of the way you see yourself and can reflect the level of respect you have for your role, the person you address, or even the place you attend. Likewise, how we communicate with others can send similar signals about how we feel about them, the purpose of our message, and what we do.
Taking the time to communicate clearly is as much an aspect of respect as anything else, so do not settle for being a messy communicator: make an effort to be SMART!
What Next?
Edition 5 of TTL will discuss the final action point of the TEAM valence model: M for Motivation, consider how we can keep learning, and asks: what should be our primary focus?
