7 Primary Responsibilities of Leaders

Via Greg Baer's Real Love in Workplace

Remember that as leaders we have seven primary responsibilities:

1. To love people—fellow employees, direct reports, fellow managers, vendors, and customers - unconditionally.
2. To give people the information, training, materials, manpower, and other resources that will enable them to complete their assignments.
3. To teach people how to unconditionally love those around them.
4. To encourage people to find an innate sense of meaning in their jobs, especially as they experiment with creativity and innovation. Th is naturally includes supporting people as they make the inevitable mistakes that accompany experimentation.
5. To give people a sense that they own their jobs and are responsible for them.
6. To put people in the jobs best suited for their talents and desires.
7. To hold people accountable—in a loving not controlling way—for their responsibilities.

This is a to-read book in my list.

Encouraging a new vocabulary at work

"The inherent language of the corporate workplace is far too small for us now. It has too little poetry, too little humanity, and too little good business sense for the world that lies before us. We only have to look at the most important word in the lexicon of the present workplace - manager - to understand its inherent weakness. Manager is derived from the old italian and French words mannegio and manege, meaning the training, handling and riding of a horse....images of domination... and the taming of potentially wild energy. It also implies a basic unwillingness on the part of the people to be managed, a force to be collared and reined in.....most people don't respond very passionately or creatively to being ridden... Sometimes over the next fifty years or so, the word manager will disappear from understanding of leadership... It is the artist in each of us we must now encourage into the world, whether we have worked for Getty Foundation or for Getty Oil" - 
- David Whyte

One Part Humility and One Part Ambition

[Via Leader to Leader Journal, "Are you Humbitios enough to lead? ]

“Humbition is one part humility and one part ambition,” they wrote. “We notice that by far the lion’s share of world-changing luminaries are humble people. They focus on the work, not themselves. They seek success—they are ambitious—but they are humbled when it arrives. They know that much of that success was luck, timing, and a thousand factors out of their personal control. They feel lucky, not all-powerful. Oddly, the ones operating under a delusion that they are all-powerful are the ones who have yet to reach their potential. . . . [So] be ambitious. Be a leader. But do not belittle others in your pursuit of your ambitions. Raise them up instead. The biggest leader is the one washing the feet of the others.”

Leadership and Spirituality

[Via Ode Magazine ] A rather long article on Intersection of Spirituality and Leadership

.....

The new story is described as High Touch and High Concept.

High Touch is about finding purpose and meaning to life, eliciting joy in others and being content.

High Concept is about detecting new patterns and opportunities and creating artistic and emotional beauty. Unrelated ideas are brought together to form something new.

This is spirituality. In the new story spirituality is the foundation for Authentic Leadership. 

So, how can we marry spirituality with leadership ?. The only way is to focus on self through a life of inquiry and mindfulness. 

What is Spirituality?

Let us explore this further. What does spirituality mean ?. To me, spirituality is about integrity. It helps us to find meaning in life, provides a foundation of our values to guide us in the way we behave with self, others and the world around us.

Spirituality is a way of facilitating a dialogue between reason and emotion, between mind and body. This provides a base for growth and transformation from our ego centered material self to an active, unifying, meaning-giving centre.

Spirituality is about a transpersonal vision of goodness, beauty, perfection, generosity, graciousness, and sacrifice. It hinges on dignity for self and others and the foundation is true integrity. Love and compassion is its cornerstone.

In contrast, our education system has shaped us to be more left brained, analytical, rational and target oriented. Religion which is supposed to teach us about spirituality has externalized it and handed over responsibility to an outside entity. We could do anything and ask for forgiveness, but the damage has been done to humanity. There is no focus on the individual responsibility and based on moral values. Religion focuses more on ritual and not personal inquiry and meaning to life. So we misconstrue it to worshiping external deities and statues rather than focusing on self, where our spirituality resides.

If we are to make a lasting transformation in individual behavior, we have to begin with education.

To redesign our education system we have to get away from the traditional Cartesian mind - matter divide which has been the focus of our global education system for the last 500 years. This system promotes IQ based rational, target based learning. It has done well to develop science and technologies to make some of our lives comfortable. Yet, this is the system that has the entire planet on the edge now, with the social challenges of a divided world of ‘haves and have nots’, steeped in insecurity, fear and violence for the ‘have nots’ and the environmental challenges we all face – both the rich and poor. Only a few fortunate of the 6 billion people on this earth live life of dignity for now. The disparity is outrageous, when one thinks that 80% of the world’s wealth is held by a mere 5%. Something has to give and we may lose it all.

Inspirational Leadership

Lance Secretan talks about his upcoming book "The Spark, The Flame and the Torch" in a conversation and he touches upon Love as one the key ingredients for Inspirational Leadership.

You can listen to the conversation at www.secretan.com/media_podcasts.php

Leadership is caring deeply

Head over to Dinesh and Bawa's blog and read Antoine's account of getting couple of folks to get rid of their dependency and while you do that, do not forget to drop in a line to Antoine and most importantly do write to Erika and Patricia as well.

Silver Tsunami

Last evening I had a very interesting discussion with the CEO of an Indian IT company, in the context of APEX Program. Apart from the program, we conversed on a wide range of topics, cloud computing, autonomic computing, future of IT, future of Indian IT industry etc and then inevitably the conversation turned towards CSR and I was delighted to hear from him that he was instrumental in driving the hiring of people with disabilities to over 1% of the total workplace.

While the 1% looks small, but given the large workpool that Indian IT companies have, it translates to quite a big number.

I came back happy, getting to know a leader who really cared about the society and translated that care and empathy into action.

Today, the 800-CEO-Read blog had a post about a new book titled Dive In. This is what 800-CEO-Read had to say. BTW I really really envy the guys at 800-CEO-Read....they get to read the latest books. Not sure if this a viable business model out here in India.

Fifty-four million American adults live with a disability. Add to that tens of millions of parents of children with special needs and mature workers with age related disabilities and the number grows.

Why are these numbers important to your company, agency, organization, or school? Because these people make up the special needs workforce a group of talented employees that you cannot afford to overlook. Unlike many books about employing the disabled, Nadine Vogel includes in the special needs workforce parents of children with special needs and workers with age-related disabilities.

In this book she presents the business case for hiring and supporting this untapped and under-used workforce. She demonstrates the value of inclusion with statistics, anecdotal evidence, and examples from the world's most successful companies.

Vogel not only encourages employers to consider this under-used group, but also presents concrete how-to information and best practices from in-the-know corporations. In Dive In, she maps out a plan for inclusion that can increase your company's productivity, elevate your status with your customers, and position your company as an employer of choice.

Courage and Love are more powerful than force

[Via Nipun Mehta's blog] A must read post on Leadership. I haven't heard or read about this book, but will put it in my to read list.

 I happened upon an unread book sitting on my desk -- A Higher Standard of Leadership: Lessons from the Life of Gandhi, by Keshavan Nair.

In so many ways, Keshavan Nair's first chapter really articulates all that I am feeling today ... so here it is:

In putting forward a path to a higher standard of leadership, there is no greater exemplar than Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. Gandhi spent more than fifty years in public life and is best known for leading hundreds of millions of people against one of the greatest empires in the history of the World.  

In contrast to the other political leaders and military commanders of his time -- men such as Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Churchill, Roosevelt, de Gaulle, Eisenhower, Montgomery, Patton and MacArthur -- Gandhi wore no resplendent uniform, commanded no armies, and held no government position.  Instead he preached and -- more importantly -- lived the gospel of truth and nonviolence and demonstrated through his life of service the oneness of humanity.  He reminded the world that the human spirit is indomitable and that courage and love are more powerful than force.  The world acknowledged his special place when the United Nations flew its flag at half-mast when he was assassinated.  He is the only individual with no connection to any government or international organization for whom this has been done.

Gandhi had many of the qualities we associate with a successful leaders. In addition to courage and determination, he could sustain high energy level for extended periods, he was decisive, he had great interpersonal skills, he was thoughtful but action oriented, and he paid great attention to the details of implementation.

Gandhi's life was not governed by policies; it was governed by principles and values. The best political leaders have their country as the source of passion. Business leaders have as their passion the organization, whether it is through customers, products, or technology. Gandhi's life was driven by his religion: truth and nonviolence and life of service to others.  When a journalist asked Gandhi for a message for the United States, especially for African Americans, Gandhi responded, "My life is its own message."

The lessons from Gandhi's life challenge our beliefs about the standard of leadership -- beliefs that many of us have come to accept as necessary for success. While most leaders identify with symbols of power to elevate themselves above the people they lead, Gandhi symbolized the people he was trying to serve. He tried to be like them with his lion cloth and his commitment to voluntary poverty. He symbolized service rather than power.

Gandhi believed in a single standard of conduct in public and private life -- a standard founded on integrity derived from the absolute values of truth and nonviolence.  He believed that individuals must have ideals and try to live up to them, and he demonstrated that an idealist could be practical and effective.  His claim, however, was to integrity, not infallibility.  He made his share of mistakes but was not afraid to acknowledge them.  He did not strive for consistency except in his quest for the truth.

As all policies, strategies, and laws ultimately have an impact on people or the environment, Gandhi believed moral principles had to be included in setting goals, selecting strategies, and making decisions.  He worked for the betterment of all people so they could enjoy freedom from fear and exploitation.

Some of Gandhi's ideas may seem irrelevant today -- applicable only to his time and place.  But on the fundamental  values of truth, nonviolence and service, he had a message for the ages.  He asked us to reject not only physical violence, but violence to the spirit.  It becomes more self-evident every day, that if we do not embrace the ideal of nonviolence, societies all over the world will deteriorate to the point where life will be intolerable.

Today we talk about controlling physical violence with more violence and controlling spiritual violence with laws.  Maybe its necessary.  But I believe that the long-term solution is to put before us, especially the young, the ideal of nonviolence of the brace.  We need a new heroic ideal: the brave, the truthful, nonviolence individual who is in the service of humanity, resists injustice and exploitation, and leads by appealing to our ideals and our spirit.  Such a heroic ideal is embodied in Gandhi.

Gandhi's life point the way to a higher standard of leadership in which integrity based on a single standard of conduit is central, a spirit of service is imperative, and decisions and actions are bound by moral principles.

May we all be the change we wish to see in the world!

Speaking to passion

The Art of Possibility by Zander and Zander is a book that I heartily recommend. A very easy read based on the life experience of authors. They call it the book of practices. Go engage with it.

"Listening for passion and commitment is the practice of the silent conductor whether the players are sitting in the orchestra, on the management team, or on the nursery floor. How can this leader know how well he is fulfilling his intention? He can look in the eyes of the players and prepare to ask himself, "Who am I being that they are not shining?" He can invite information and expression. He can speak to their passion. He can look for an opportunity to hand them the baton." 

Without Love....

Fred, author of Conscious Business writes:

Many business people consider "love" to be a personal matter, certainly nothing that belongs in the corporation, yet love forms the foundation of all human interactions. Without love, there is no teamwork; without love, there is no leadership; without love, there is no real commitment to customer service.

As I said earlier, Conscious Business is a wonderful book and ought to be read by anyone who is leading a team.

The Key is in the One

Stephen Covey states a universal but rarely understood truth:

"The key to ninety-nine is the one....how you treat the one reveals how you regard the ninety-nine because everyone is ultimately one." 

The realization that everyone is ultimately one can never happen at the level of intellect - however much one tries, one cannot see that unity, more so because the nature of the intellect is always to compare, to judge, to evaluate, to justify, to reason.....and so on. We all are conditioned by our environment, by the society, by parents, by our education and all the while huge emphasis is placed on "standing out". It becomes even more prominent by the time we join the workforce. We have difference of opinions, thoughts, ideas, perceptions, attitudes on even simple things, forget the fact how things come up when we are in conflict or worse in competition.The Performance Appraisal Systems at work are designed to accentuate the differences, to pull a few people up and push a few other down.

So with so much emphasis on "being different", "being unique", how does one see the unity? For we are always being pushed and forced to look at otherness thereby conditioning ourselves to constantly see the difference and in the process alienating ourselves from our own Self.

So how does one get to see the Unity?

Two probable answers from one who is still searching.....
a) Grace of the Master and/or
b) Spiritual Practices - Sudarshan Kriya and Meditation.

The mystics say that the unity is realized only in the depths of Meditation. Till this becomes an experiential reality all that is in our hands is how we consciously treat the person - irrespective of his/her age, sex, nationality, religion, caste, designation, title - in front of us. All we can do is to bring forth our best and treat the person with respect and dignity, without hurting or violating their sense of worth. We can do this if and only if we are able to love the person unconditionally in the moment. For Leadership is Love and we cannot experience the Unity we are seeking unless we are deeply in love - with life and with our own selves!

Leading by Serving

Came across James A. Autry's book on The Servant Leader via Servant Leadership blog. James writes about servant leadership in the context of work. He weaves the principles of Spirituality in presenting the concept of Servant Leadership.

James writes:

This concept of serving others is an essential part of what I believe about leadership, let me offer you a list of six things I believe about leadership:

1) Leadership is not about controlling people; it's about caring for people and being a useful resource for people.

2) Leadership is not about being boss; it's about being present for people and building a community at work.

3) Leadership is not about holding on to territory; it's about letting go of ego, bringing your spirit to work, being your best and most authentic self.

4) Leadership is less concerned with pep talks and more concerned with creating a place in which people can do good work, can find meaning in their work, and can bring their spirits to work.

5) Leadership, like life, is largely a matter of paying attention.

6) Leadership requires love.

Leadership and Love

We begin our Leadership journey by this fantastic quote - which incidentally also is the theme for this blog as well - by Sri Sri RaviShankar, founder, Art of Living Foundation.

"Leadership and love go hand-in-hand. Only a leader who loves his people naturally, selflessly and unconditionally will reap success."