Single-Tasking is Back!

I love this video from Fast Company Magazine. Our workplaces have become havens for multi-tasking, and thus, potentially less productive. That seems counter-intuitive, but watch the video:

Leadership in Film: Legend of Bagger Vance

The Legend of Bagger Vance tells the story of a man (played by Matt Damon) in the early part of the 20th century, who was on track to be the greatest golfer of his generation. His path is interrupted by fighting in World War I. His battlefield experiences shake him so much that upon his return he struggles at the game he played so spectacularly before. Those around him, including his love interest, begin to lose faith in him.

Enter a mystical caddy named Bagger Vance (played by Will Smith) - who literally appears out of nowhere. Bagger inserts himself into the golfer's life and coaches him back to greatness. His message to the golfer is that he needs to rediscover his one true authentic swing. He can do this by clearing his mind so that he can see what Bagger calls, "the field." The movie is a metaphor for life. It's story could be taken in many different directions, bringing forth questions of destiny, fate, integrity, and perseverance.

The lesson I value most from the film is the idea that we all have an authentic core (represented by the golfer's swing in the movie). Life, through many different tactics, tries to challenge this core. Life experiences and the voices of the external world can hide, bury, or weaken our core. Full self-actualization happens when we are able to rediscover that core and use it to guide our actions. Author Parker Palmer calls upon us to do this by listening to our "inner voice." As he describes in the book Let Your Life Speak, "Before I can tell my life what I want to do with it, I must listen to my life telling me who I am. I must listen for the truths and values at the heart of my own identity...the standards by which I cannot help but live if I am living my own life (p. 12)." I believe this inner voice is represented in the movie by the caddy.

I find this scene to be the best of the movie - and a summary of its messages.



Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation (2000) by Parker Palmer

Mixing Up the Message

The next time you fly, take notice of the passengers when the flight crew is doing its usual safety talk. Most of them won't pay a bit of attention. They will continue reading their paper, talking to their neighbor, sleeping, etc. That's because the message never changes and is always conveyed in the same way. It becomes nothing more than background noise right before takeoff.

As leaders, when we communicate, we face the same problem. We may have a really compelling vision or idea, but how it is conveyed makes a difference.

The video below of a Southwest Airlines flight attendant serves as a great example of how we can get people engaged in our messages if we are willing to mix up the delivery. This can be applied to how we conduct meetings as well. If we surprise others with a new approach, we are likely to get and keep their attention.

Leadership and Guide Dogs

I was re-reading an old Ken Blanchard article, and came upon this passage, which made me smile. He is referring to the training of Guide Dogs:

Trainers take two kinds of dogs out of the program - the completely disobedient and the completely obedient. You'd expect the first group to be dismissed, but why the second? Because the only dogs trainer's keep are the ones that will do whatever the master says unless it doesn't make sense. Imagine letting dogs think! And yet, it would be a disaster if a Seeing Eye Dog and his or her master were waiting on the corner and the master said, "Forward." The dog, seeing a car speeding in their direction, shrugs his shoulders and thinks to himself, "This is a real bummer" as he leads his master into the middle of the street. Frontline / customer-contact people are asked to do that all the time - do what they're told, follow policy, even if it doesn't make sense for the particular situation (p. 24).

If your team is full of only completely obedient people, who do only what they're told, then get ready to be run over by a car. Thinking critically, providing feedback, and challenging ideas are all qualities of an effective leadership process.

This passage also reminds me that those we lead sometimes know where to take us, how to get us there, and when to start. Sometimes it's best to trust them, and get out of the way.

Source: Blanchard, K. (1998). Servant-leadership revisited. In L.C. Spears (Ed.), Insights on leadership (pp. 21-28). New York, NY: John Wiley and Sons.

Michael Jackson's Leadership Anthem

Michael Jackson, the pop star who passed away earlier this year, has been in the news again thanks to the release of the documentary "This Is It." Jackson was a controversial figure, but there's no doubt his music was indelible. As I was reflecting on Jackson's songbook, I remembered one of my favorites: Man in the Mirror. Performed by Jackson, but written by Siedah Garrett and Glen Ballard, the song provides a powerful message about the responsibility each of us has towards a better world. It's a musical expression of the Ghandi quote "be the change you want to see in the world."

I see applications in big and small ways. If we are bothered by behaviors in the workplace, perhaps we need to think about how our own behaviors could be a cause. If we want to see more integrity in the world, we have to examine our own ethical shortcomings. Basically, we shouldn't advocate for choices that we aren't personally willing to make and we shouldn't whine about the state of society if we aren't actively ensuring that we're not part of the problem.

As a leader, if you want to create change in your organization, community, or anywhere else, you need to begin with yourself. It sounds very cliche', but like the song suggests, it is the only true way to work towards the change you desire.

The lyrics to the song are below. Below the lyrics is the video for the song, which shows images of activism and social change.

"Man In The Mirror"

I'm Gonna Make A Change,
For Once In My Life
It's Gonna Feel Real Good,
Gonna Make A Difference
Gonna Make It Right . . .

As I, Turn Up The Collar On My
Favorite Winter Coat
This Wind Is Blowin' My Mind
I See The Kids In The Street,
With Not Enough To Eat
Who Am I, To Be Blind?
Pretending Not To See
Their Needs

A Summer's Disregard,
A Broken Bottle Top
And A One Man's Soul
They Follow Each Other On
The Wind Ya' Know
'Cause They Got Nowhere
To Go
That's Why I Want You To
Know

I'm Starting With The Man In
The Mirror
I'm Asking Him To Change
His Ways
And No Message Could Have
Been Any Clearer
If You Wanna Make The World
A Better Place
Take A Look At Yourself, And
Then Make A Change

I've Been A Victim Of A Selfish
Kind Of Love
It's Time That I Realize
That There Are Some With No
Home, Not A Nickel To Loan
Could It Be Really Me,
Pretending That They're Not
Alone?

A Willow Deeply Scarred,
Somebody's Broken Heart
And A Washed-Out Dream
They Follow The Pattern Of
The Wind, Ya' See
Cause They Got No Place
To Be
That's Why I'm Starting With
Me

I'm Starting With The Man In
The Mirror
I'm Asking Him To Change
His Ways
And No Message Could Have
Been Any Clearer
If You Wanna Make The World
A Better Place
Take A Look At Yourself And
Then Make A Change

Deficit of Leadership?

David Gergen argues in U.S. News and World Report that we have a national deficit of leadership. He focuses almost exclusively on political leaders, yet claims the scope of the problem is national. A link to the article is below. Mr. Gergen makes some bold statements, including:

"It was nearly four decades ago that John Gardner first observed that at the founding, with a population of 3 million, the republic spawned a dozen world-class leaders—Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Adams, Madison, and Hamilton among them—but today, with a population nearly 100 times that, we struggle to produce even one or two."

That's a fairly subjective statement. What does it mean to be "world-class?" What does one have to accomplish to meet that standard? If it requires the founding of a nation, then it's no wonder we've had so few.

Mr. Gergen also points out that "the blogosphere and 24-hour news channels that feature extreme voices and manufacture artificial controversies" provide a greater challenge to leaders today than in the past. He reminisces about the good old days when everyone was civil and the tone was positive. These would also be the days when leadership was uni-directional and ordinary folks had very limited chances to question authority. The internet has provided a chance for followers to influence leaders - and thus become leaders themselves in the process. Cable news networks can provide a lot of negativity, but can also provide more public accountability to leaders, which there was less of in the good old days. Perhaps we'd consider more leaders today world-class if we knew as little about them as citizens knew about their leaders before cable and the internet.

So - Mr. Gergen - perhaps we've seen a deficit in traditional, top-down, positional leadership. But, perhaps we've also seen a rise in innovative, bottom-up, influential grassroots leadership. I don't have any empirical evidence to support this, but my sense is that while national leaders might be failing, local folks who work through nonprofits, activist groups, and civic organizations may be leading more strongly than ever. Where you see a deficit, I think I see a shift.

Here is Mr. Gergen's article.

Cowboy Humility

I came upon this old cowboy proverb today:

"If you get to thinkin' you're a person of influence, try orderin' somebody else's dog around"

I love the analogy in this proverb, and the many messages drawn from it. Leadership really is contextual. Just because we lead in one arena doesn't necessarily mean will be effective in another. Similarly, just because we have to withdraw a bit in one setting doesn't mean we can't be a full leader in another. This proverb also matches up with the emergent belief that leadership is about the process and not about the person.

The proverb also observes the power of being humbled. When in a position of power, we may often get caught up in our own influence. I think of star athletes who are often chided after a poor performance for "believing their own press clippings." Or, the high-powered executive who comes home and gets completely flummoxed by his teenage daughter.

If we think about the context, environment, and process we are in before we think about ourselves, leadership may come more naturally. It may also keep us more humble.