Leaders: Pride or Humility?

Proverbs 11:2 says, “When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.”  With pride, we are self centered and believe we have a strength, skill, talent or accomplishment that we have achieved.  When we are self centered like this, we can no longer learn because we are so focused on how good we already are.  Pride is destructive, there is no doubt about it.

When we are humble, we know it is not because of anything that we have done and we are fully and completely reliant on God for strength, skill, talent and provision or accomplishment – anything good.  That is when we have an openness to gain wisdom – only when we take the focus off self and put the focus rightfully on God and how He plans to use the skills He has provided us.

As I look at the proverb quoted above, I find that there is a definitive action that happens depending on the attitude that I have.  If I have an attitude of pride, then disgrace will come.  Notice the proverb is emphatic – it does not say that disgrace might come, or the odds are better than even it will come, or that it will come on alternating Tuesday’s – it just about guarantees that disgrace will come.  It makes me pause and ask the question, is having pride worth the disgrace that will come?  Is pumping myself up so I feel better or that others will look highly upon me worth it when I know that at some point, I will encounter disgrace?

If I have an attitude of humility, then wisdom will come.  We know from other proverbs that wisdom is more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold (2:14); wisdom is supreme (4:7).  We also know that fools despise wisdom. Therefore, if we want to have wisdom, one sure way to get it is to have an attitude of humility.  Having an attitude of humility is not about being weak or powerless or any of the other negative connotations that are typically associated with being humble.  Rather, a attitude of humility is displayed when we truly believe that we must still learn, be open to other ideas, that people all around us are more skilled than we are in certain areas, that we don’t have (or need to have) all the answers.

As a leader, do you desire wisdom?  Certainly, the answer is yes.  How do you acquire wisdom?  One way is to have an attitude of humility.  Another is to have an attitude of continued learning from those you can trust.  See the post Who Are You Listening To for more ideas on this.

What has been your experience?  How do you contrast pride and humility? Have you experienced a time when your attitude of humility has resulted in wisdom?  Have you experienced a time when your pride has led to disgrace?  Share with others so we can all learn.

Character Based Leadership

What is character-based leadership?  Quite obviously, it is a leadership style based on character. Duh, you may respond and rightly so.

Digging a bit deeper, what is character?  Some of the words that Webster’s New World Dictionary uses to describe character include “a distinctive trait”, “behavior typical of a person or group”, “moral strength”, “reputation”.

So, I suppose that the leadership style can be based on traits that are positive or negative, that are moral or immoral, and traits that can contribute to or define one’s reputation.  Given these considerations, I guess that most leaders would want to have a good reputation, don’t you think?  We can agree that many leaders who are in the news today including business, government and all other sectors, are “newsworthy” because a flaw has been discovered in the character of their leadership.  We read the story, sit back and say something like, “Well, there goes another one.” For some, it is not just a flaw in the character of their leadership; it is a flaw in their character.

I often wonder what our world would be like if more of our leaders would embrace, practice and really attempt to live out the principles of character based leadership – of having a positive influence on others, on having a focus on the success of others more than self success, on earning and keeping a good reputation.

There is a group that has taken on a challenge to engage other leaders in not only defining character based leadership but doing something intentional and almost revolutionary about advancing it.  The group is called Lead Change Group and is headed up by a friend of mine named Mike Henry.  He and some of his colleagues (and I am privileged to be one of them) have put together plans to gather people to talk about this and do something actionable and intentional about it.  The following comes from the Lead Change Group website providing more of the details. This is unique from the very start, as evidenced by its name – LeaderPalooza 2010.

We’re throwing an un-conference.  That’s right. We want to leverage each others’ ideas and energy in a get-together this February 19-20 in Ft. Lauderdale, FL.  We won’t have formal speakers and you won’t get a binder.  You will meet great leadership people and create opportunities to be part of something different.  You won’t just sit and listen; you will contribute.  Everyone (who will be attending) is capable of speaking on leadership anyway.  Come and share ideas and create ways to collaborate with other like-minded leadership friends. Will you join us?

The conference registration site is www.LeaderPalooza.com. The location will be at a Hilton Hotel very close to the Ft. Lauderdale Airport. (The room rates are very low, especially considering the time of year and location.) We want to get together, share energy and ideas and make a positive difference through character-based leadership. We believe together we will collaborate and create in a way that we can’t even imagine until we’ve done it. This is a chance for you to act on your beliefs about leadership.

Our world needs your ideas and energy applied toward advancing character-based leadership. Your contribution matters. But more than your individual effort, we need you to be part of a community committed to the same idea, supporting, energizing, equipping and mobilizing each other.  Our world needs us to pull together. Will you? You can get more information and register at www.LeaderPalooza.com.

Are you planning to go?

Five Reasons Every Executive Needs a Leadership Coach

I recently finished reading a book entitled “De-Railed” by Tim Irwin.  In this book, he profiles 6 CEOs who once had a thriving reputation and had been enjoying success, yet came to a point where they de-railed – they were fired from their CEO role.  Some of those profiled included Bob Nardelli (former CEO of Home Depot), Carly Fiorina (former CEO of Hewlett Packard) and Dick Fuld (former CEO of Lehman Bros.) If you are a leader or work with leaders, I highly recommend reading this book.

One of the key points that Irwin makes to avoid de-railing is to be aware of self and others.  I have talked about being open to criticism in another post.  Yet, it is apparent that one needs to be more than willing to be open to criticism; leaders need to be highly self aware of not only their strengths and weaknesses, but also how they are perceived by others, especially those they are leading.  Hence, I believe that every executive needs a leadership coach.

Those who are reading this who know me may be saying, “Well come on Bill, this is what you do for a living, so you are just being self-promotional here” and to that I would respond, “Yes, but…”  Consider the following statements:

“You may be good. You may even be better than everyone else. But without a coach you will never be as good as you could be.” This is from Andy Stanley, the highly regarded Senior Pastor from North Point Church in Atlanta, arguably one of the fastest growing churches in American today with over 16,000 people attending each Sunday.

“As a leader, you can’t afford to not have a coach.” This is from Michael Hyatt, the CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishing.  He has had a coach for many years.

Here are my top five reasons that every executive needs a leadership coach:

1.    Leaders need to have people around them that will be completely honest with them.  Oftentimes, leaders have people around them who, for a variety of reasons, just don’t share the honest truth with the leader.  The leader then develops a false awareness about his or her effectiveness.

2.    As a leader, you need to continue growing if you want your people to grow underneath you.  One of the most effective ways to grow is to seek feedback from others and utilize the services of a leadership coach to help you process and integrate that feedback.
3.    Coaching by a professional in the field will help ensure the leader remains open to hearing feedback and has a process to do something with it. It has been proven over and over that effective leaders are open to learning new information about themselves as well as their plans.
4.    As Proverbs 12:15 (NLT) says, “Fools think their own way is right but the wise listen to others.” Leaders who think their own way is right, without consulting others who are not yes-men, are nothing more than fools.  Fools are never successful, nor are they going to ever maximize their effectiveness as a leader.
5.    Proverbs 1:5 says, “A wise man will hear and increase in learning, and a man of understand will acquire wise counsel.” Breaking this down, a wise leader is one who is open to hearing what others have to say so that their learning can increase.  A person of understanding does not become that way on their own – they rely on obtaining wise counsel.  One of the elements of wise counsel for an executive is a leadership coach.

They say that it is lonely at the top.  I say that the people at the top can choose to be lonely or not. Executives need to have at least one person they can consult with who will be candid, open and honest about the leader’s behavior.

What would you add to this list of reasons?  Your comments and dialogue are most welcome.

The Top 5 Traits So-Called “Leaders” Are Missing

The Top 5 Traits So-Called “Leaders” Are Missing

There has been so much written about leaders and leadership, and I am no exception having written several articles and a book about the topic.  I thought for this post, I would take a different twist and talk about what many so-called leaders are really missing.  This is by no means a complete list; nevertheless, I hope to get some conversation going.

So here is my list of what leaders are missing and why it is so important:

1.    Integrity – I think we’d all agree that it helps to have followers, right? Well, if a leader is missing integrity, the followers will lose trust and confidence that this leader will take care of them and lead them to a common destination. Followers must have a strong sense that the leader can be trusted, and that comes when the leader does what they say they will do and acts in a consistent manner all the time – that’s integrity.
2.    Self Confidence – There is a delicate balance between a healthy belief in one’s abilities, competencies and talents vs. having an unhealthy belief creating low self-esteem on one end of the spectrum or arrogance, pride or hubris on the other end of the spectrum. Healthy self confidence is that balanced place in the middle that others will sense is positive without being arrogant.
3.    Vision – Without a clear and compelling vision, the leader nor the follower have any motivation to get up and go each and every day.  The proverb says, “Without vision, the people perish” and it is true.  Without vision, the followers will look to someone else who has a vision that fits their ideals, values and goals. Without vision, the leader will soon find him/herself alone.  An essential ingredient in the vision must be that it serves others and not the needs of the leader. When the vision serves the leader, it is hard to have integrity.
4.    Communication – Unfortunately, many leaders think they are communicating when they are talking.  Communication takes much more than talking – it requires connecting by listening, understanding what others are saying, knowing how your audience will best receive what you are trying to say, and so many other elements.  In today’s world, communication not only includes what is being said, but how it is being said and how it is being delivered.  All of these elements must be focused on the audience and not the leader.
5.    A Heart to Develop Others – What good is it to have all the above elements and not be able to have others carry it out in your absence – whether that absence is for a vacation, or whether the absence is permanent?  Leaders who do not develop other leaders are not only failing themselves, they are failing the organizations that have hired them in the first place.

What do you think about this list?  Do you agree, or would you substitute another element in place of one of the items discussed? Let’s hear what you have to say.

Investing Time in Developing Leaders

We have heard many of many well-respected and influential leaders talk about the necessity for developing leaders underneath them, and to ultimately take their place. Jack Welch was known to say that his most important job was to identify and develop his successor.  He would say that he spent 50% of his time on developing leaders.

Leaders must commit to spend some of their precious time developing leaders beneath them. If you are the CEO, Executive Director or Senior Pastor, then your responsibility is expanded to ensure the organization as a whole spends the appropriate amount of time and resources on developing its leaders – both current and next generation leaders. The CEO is accountable for ensuring the overall leadership development strategy is well-defined and works effectively to achieve its targeted goals. If a leader is not spending time developing other leaders, he or she will have failed in his or her full leadership role. They have also failed the organization that has entrusted them as leaders and failed God who appointed them in the first place. (See earlier post on Appointing Leaders.)

Leaders must develop other people to take their place; to not do so is a sign of self-centeredness, short-term thinking and pride that no one can replace you. It is the prideful leader that believes that no one can replace him as leader. This attitude fosters a reluctance to balanced or calculated risk-taking, a trait that has been well researched as being needed to sustain and grow and organization.  We are ALL replaceable no matter what our position is or how we attained that position.  The prideful attitude is not honoring God.

A planned approach to developing leaders must be a key and top priority among today’s leaders.  The approach must be multi-faceted and must be given months and years to take effect, not days or weeks.  Developing leaders does not happen by sending them to a two or three day seminar.  Moses didn’t send Joshua to attend workshops given by the Hebrew Management Association; he spent a great deal of time with Joshua to provide mentoring, hands-on and experiential training, coaching and feedback. Likewise, Jesus modeled for us that mentoring and developing those who would take His place took several years.

As a leader, do you have a plan to develop those underneath you?  If you do, why not share some of the elements of that plan with us.  If not, let me know and perhaps I can help you develop a plan that will enable you to fulfill one of the most important tasks of being a leader.

Appointing Leaders

The first realization we as Christians must have is that God appoints leaders. This is clear in the biblical accounts of how leaders came to be leaders. We must submit the selection of our organization’s leaders to God in prayer and seek His counsel, plan and direction. Proverbs 13:10 (NLT) comes to mind: “Pride leads to conflict; those who take advice are wise.” Another Proverb (16:9 NLT) provides good advice as well, “We can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps.”

When selecting and appointing leaders, we will make mistakes when we choose to make that decision without any input from other godly people or by not utilizing various information sources to clarify and validate our thinking. It stands to reason that an objective assessment must happen prior to the selection, promotion or appointment. The assessment must include obtaining counsel and advice from other wise, godly people who share in the overall vision of the organization. This is a process that will take time and should not be rushed into for any reason.

We recently conducted a survey of almost 600 business owners and leaders asking them about their leadership development practices.  (Contact me via email wbliss@blissassociates.com for results of that survey) Interestingly, 86 percent of the respondents to this survey indicated they would be interested in an objective process to assess the capabilities of their leadership team. (Contact me directly to learn more about an objective process.) Chief executives or other leaders who believe they are sufficiently wise in their own knowledge and experience to appoint and develop leaders by themselves are sadly mistaken. These decisions are made by people with a great deal of pride who trust their own instincts. In reality, these people have their own agenda; rarely is this agenda aligned with God’s agenda for the organization. Those mistakes inevitably cost hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars. These kinds of selection mistakes can be the forerunner of an organization’s failure.

CEOs of family companies who automatically appoint one of their children as their successor, simply to keep the business in the family, often make fatal mistakes as well. Without utilizing careful selection criteria, without submitting the appointment to prayer and seeking God’s plan, these selfish or self-centered decisions lead to disaster and quite often the demise of a once thriving organization. Unfortunately, I can tell you about dozens of clients who have taken this path.  I came along side to help when they began to experience the impact of the mistakes that were made.

Appointing leaders who are just like us is also a strategy fraught with errors. Aside from the obvious possibility of one’s swelled pride and ego leading to “like me” bias, appointing people who are just like us limits what the organization can do and limits where God might want to take the organization. We must appoint leaders based on what God desires the organization to accomplish in the future, not what has been accomplished in the past.

When selecting, appointing and developing leaders in a Christian-run organization, it is critical that those leaders are like-minded in their faith and walk with Jesus. Scripture tells us to not be unevenly yoked (II Corinthians 6:14). Paul was speaking to the Corinthians in a variety of contexts, including in a business or organizational arrangement. Ensuring that a leader’s heart is aligned with God’s eternal objectives is an important and critical criterion for appointment into a leadership role. Leaders who are not evenly yoked will tend to have different and oftentimes conflicting values about what is important.

Leaders who have different principles or moral values will inevitably take the organization to places that God does not intend for them to go. This is painfully clear in the Old Testament when recording all the kings who came after Solomon in both Israel and Judah. For an organization to achieve what God has intended, it must be populated with leaders who believe in and follow God’s principles to the core. Doing it any other way, while it might lead to temporary success or accolades, will surely lead to longer term failure.

We are told in Scripture that God will hold us accountable for our actions. This is certainly applicable to us as leaders.  In every leadership development or selection decision, why not have as one of your filters determining if Jesus will say, “Well done, my good and faithful servant.”

Do you have any stories to share?  Please let me know what you have experienced, or can add to this discussion.

Selecting Great Leaders

This post comes from a breakout session I recently delivered at a business leaders conference.  In a recent survey of about 600 business owners and leaders conducted by our organization, well over 50% have not developed or defined leadership competencies that are needed for success in the organization.

Does that statistic surprise you? Are these leaders saying they don’t know what determines success in their organizations? Probably not. But they may be saying that they haven’t taken the time or know how to specifically articulate those skills, traits and behaviors that are necessary for success.

This poses a significant problem – if one can’t articulate these things, how can one possibly hope to select great leaders?  Why is this so important?  Simply this, the cost of poor hiring decisions can be very expensive.  Research – strong documented research – shows that these costs can easily exceed 150% of the person’s base salary!

There is a multi-pronged approach to selecting great leaders (and great employees for that matter).  Here is the outline:

1.    Start with a clearly defined role description and competencies –
•    The role description must indicate the key accountabilities and expected result areas for the position, expressed in as clear and quantifiable a manner as possible
•    Competencies are skills, traits and behaviors that are necessary for success in the position and the organization
•    Competencies can be consistently described, measured and assessed
•    Skills are those things that can be learned, such as manufacturing, engineering or finance
•    Traits are natural talents such as detail orientation, creativity or energy – if they are not there to begin with, don’t count on them being learned
•    Behaviors are good habits such as time management, communication and integrity.

2.    Have a clearly defined sourcing strategy – where are you going to find suitable candidates for this position?

3.    Have clearly defined roles for the interviewers and agree on the decision making process. By the way, my experience in helping dozens of client organizations and hundreds of hiring managers tells me that the number one reason that hiring mistakes are made is due to the fact that there is no prior discussion or agreement on these points by those involved in making the hiring decision.

4.    Utilize a behavioral based interviewing technique – if you want more information on what this is, contact me directly.

5.    Compare candidates to the position requirements and not to each other.

6.    Use appropriate personality and cultural assessment tools. The skills and talents of an individual may meet the job requirements, but if they do not align with the culture and values of the organization, the new hire will fail and cause lots of turmoil in the process.

7.    Conduct multiple and in-depth reference checks.

8.    Ensure there is an intentional on-boarding or assimilation program that goes beyond a standard new employee orientation.

9.    Use this same approach when assessing internal as well as external candidates.

It is only when a formalized, intentional process such as the one outlined above is followed that an organization can possibly select great leaders.

Overconfidence Can Ruin a Leader

Last week, I attended the Catalyst Conference in Atlanta.  It was attended by about 13,000 leaders – primarily church leaders, yet business leaders as well.  The speakers were great – one talk that I really enjoyed was given by Malcolm Gladwell, the author of Blink and the Tipping Point among others.  His talk was entitled “The Mistakes Experts Make” and it was a truly outstanding talk.

During his talk, he asserted that the mistakes experts, and leaders, make can be due to overconfidence. When leaders think they have all the knowledge that is needed to properly address any given situation, they suffer from having too much overconfidence in that information. When leaders are overconfident, they have a tendency to become arrogant.  What’s more is that they don’t listen to other information sources around them who may want to provide alternative points of view, or alternative data points that have been either overlooked or just been made available.

Gladwell gave a few good examples of how this overconfidence has played out in live situations.  I am sure that you can identify some situations that you are aware of where overconfidence has resulted in large mistakes.  I know I can in my own life and business as well.

So what can we, as leaders, do to avoid the overconfidence trap:

•    Make it a habit to always be seeking new information, not just from those we trust, but also from those who know more than we do (and we should have people on our team that know a lot more than we do).
•    Realize that how ever good we are at compiling or gathering information, and processing that information, we can never be good enough, especially when it comes to making major decisions that will impact the lives and livelihood of others.
•    Regardless of how wise Plan A seems to be, always, always have a Plan B and perhaps even a Plan C.
•    Realize that the tools and techniques that got us to where we are today may not be enough or appropriate to get us where we want to be tomorrow.  I am not suggesting dishonesty or loosing integrity; I am suggesting that the methods that enabled us to achieve the position we (or our organization) enjoy today will probably not be sufficient for tomorrow.
•    Regularly check your humility meter.  Humility will not allow you to be overconfident but pride in your own abilities, strengths and experiences certainly lead to overconfidence.

What comments do you have about overconfidence?

Developing the Leadership Pipeline

Why have some organizations been able to grow and prosper for decades or even centuries? Of course there are many reasons for this, but one of the most compelling is the intentional and ongoing commitment of leadership development – the ongoing commitment to build and train leaders to take the place of the current leaders and carry on the mission and purpose of the organization. Centuries ago, God knew this to be true; the Bible is filled with examples of leaders training, mentoring and developing other leaders to take their place and allow God’s vision and purposes to continue.   

Leaders do not just appear. They cannot all of a sudden be appointed and expected to succeed without adequate training and preparation. Just because someone can throw a football fifty yards does not automatically make them a star quarterback for a football team. Other skills, such as communication, decisiveness, and leadership need to be well developed before this person can be successful as a quarterback. 

The son or daughter of a family-run business is not automatically qualified to be the founder’s successor to the founder merely because of their genealogy. Significant leadership skills must be developed if this person is to be successful as a successor. We will see that this process of training and mentoring takes a great deal of time – years, not weeks or months.

In our Leadership Development Survey, 90 percent of the almost 600 respondents indicated that leadership development was either essential or important to the organization’s success. Yet, only 60 percent indicated that their organization’s efforts regarding leadership development were either “very dedicated” or “dedicated.” This is alarming when we think about our responsibility as leaders to train up the next generation of leaders.    

Developing effective leaders is arguably a chief executive’s most important role and should receive the most attention. Sadly, this is not always the case. People are appointed to leadership positions who are not qualified or ready, and organizations that were once successful begin to flounder. Highly talented, motivated and loyal employees begin to leave. Core values and customer satisfaction begin to erode, and the very survival of a once thriving enterprise is at stake.    This scenario does not have to happen, but it takes significant focus and commitment, careful planning and a willingness to confront reality in order to avoid what has happened to thousands of organizations.

How can we avoid a leadership vacuum in our organizations? God’s model for building the leadership pipeline is a great place to begin learning. A more detailed discussion about building the leadership pipeline along with practical steps to accomplish this are the topic of a chapter in my recently published book, Leadership Lessons From THE BOOK.