6 Lessons from Children’s Books to File Under “Leadership”

Leadership

Just because we get older doesn’t mean that the lessons from the pages of children’s books are any less relevant. In fact, re-reading some of those passages may prove more poignant and fitting in our adult years. Here are six children’s books worth turning back to for lasting lessons in leadership.

1. The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams

What it’s about: The Velveteen Rabbit, a newcomer to the nursery, begins his journey to become real – through the love of a child.

The leadership gem: “You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t happen often to people who break easily, or who have to be carefully kept.”

2. Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie

What it’s about: The adventures of a boy who wouldn’t grow up.

The leadership gem: “The moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease forever to be able to do it.”

3. Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day World by Judith Viorst

What it’s about: Alexander knew it was going to be a terrible day when he woke up with gum in his hair.

And it got worse…

The leadership gem: “My mom says some days are like that. Even in Australia.”

4. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by JK Rowling

What it’s about: Harry’s second year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

The leadership gem:  “It’s our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.”

5. The Little Prince by Antione De Saint-Exupéry

What it’s about: This is the story of a grown-up meeting his inner child, embodied by a little prince he meets in the desert.

The leadership gem: “Here is my secret. It is very simple: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”

6. The Lion and the Mouse by Jerry Pinkney

What it’s about: After a ferocious lion spares a cowering mouse that he’d planned to eat, the mouse later comes to his rescue, freeing him from a poacher’s trap.

The leadership gem: “No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.”

Books like these helped lay the foundation for where we are now as leaders. We can still appreciate the magic in their pages when we read them as children, and the timeless insight that apply to us as adults.

Question: What children’s books have inspired you along your leadership journey? 

Driven by the premise that excellence is the result of aligning people, purpose and performance, Center for Executive Excellence facilitates training in leading self, leading teams and leading organizations. To learn more, subscribe to receive CEE News!

Mastering the Art of Delegation

Leadership

Most leaders are naturally high achievers. Their schedules are busy, they keep long hours, and their drive is tireless. Unfortunately, they may also be overscheduled, buried under their work, and on the edge of burnout. Over time, both the leader and the organization can suffer.

Successful leaders know what needs to be done and how to leverage the talents of their team. They know how to broker work to the right people, in the right proportions. In short, they delegate.

As Stephen Covey observed,

“Effectively delegating to others is perhaps the single most powerful high-leverage activity there is.”

But delegation can be tricky. It can be used as an excuse for everything from dumping workload onto subordinates, or as a dynamic tool for motivating and training your team to realize their full potential.  Below are four levels of work distribution. Ask yourself which level you are on.

Level 1: Doing. Many people get their first leadership titles because they are Doers. Action, initiative, and productivity are part of their toolkit. They deliver high-quality results quickly with no drag from others. The benefits of working at Level 1 are knowledge, growth, and reward. The danger comes when we’ve done so much so well for so long that we begin to burnout. Here are some symptoms of burnout as described by Dr. Herbert Freudenberger in his book, Burn-Out: The High Cost of Achievement.

Level 2: Dumping. Level 2 is a coping mechanism from too much Doing. Frustrated by doing it all, leaders begin dumping work on others. They unload menial tasks on their team. The good news is, they’ve gained a little breathing room. The bad news is, team members spend more time doing mundane, repetitive work. This limits their ability to take on added responsibility and grow. Healthy team members will not bear this kind of environment for long. No one likes to get dumped on.

Level 3: Delegating. By Level 3, leaders have gained the ability to plan ahead and determine how to best delegate projects. They find people with available time and suitable talent. Skilled delegators take the time to match the individual’s development level for a given assignment with the appropriate leadership style. This delegation style is also known as Situational Leadership. Work gets done at a healthy pace and no one burns out, but it’s still not the highest level to be achieved.

Level 4: Developing. Successful leaders know that there is a need beyond creating a highly productive team. At Level 4, leaders invest their time, energy, and thinking into growing others as leaders. They gauge each team member’s potential for growth and leadership. This practice compounds success, because bringing out the best in a person works as a catalyst for bringing out the best in the team. At this stage, production becomes secondary to outcome. As author Tom Peters notes, “Leaders don’t create followers, they create more leaders.”

It’s true that delegating something the first time can take more time and effort. You could do it faster and better yourself. But if you want to avoid burnout and take your organization to the next level, you’ll find the investment is worth it.

Question: As a leader, what level do you choose to get the work done? What would it take to move to the next level? 

This is Your Brain on Power

Leadership

“Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

Unfortunately, that statement from British historian Lord Acton is not entirely false.

How power impacts our brains is the subject of The Power Paradox: How We Gain and Lose Influence, written by UC Berkeley Professor Dacher Keltner. At Berkeley’s Social Interaction Laboratory, Keltner and his students explored how power reduces our inhibitions and weakens our social awareness.

“What we’ve learned,” says Keltner, “is that when we feel powerful, the empathy regions of the brain disengage. We suddenly become impulsive, we behave inappropriately, we are more likely to swear, and we generally lose touch with other people.” Keltner’s lab students dub this the Cookie Monster effect.

Thus, the paradox. The skills we need to gain power and effectively lead others – like social intelligence and empathy – are the very ones we are likely to lose when we achieve power.

So, does power corrupt? Yes and no.

“One of the things we’ve learned from studying the science of power,” states Keltner, is that it “tends to amplify our pre-existing tendencies.” In effect, power reveals.

Power reveals

Consider the effects of power on the late U.S. President, Richard Milhous Nixon. Long before Nixon left the White House as an unindicted coconspirator in the Watergate scandal, he was a highly paranoid conspiracy theorist. His attempts to break an imaginary conspiracy led him to launch a conspiracy that broke him, and, ultimately, cost him the presidency.

Nixon’s words, “I am not a crook,” and “When the president does it, that means it is not illegal,” forever cloud the political zeitgeist of the 1970s. The pall of Watergate overshadowed Nixon’s foreign and domestic achievements even until his death in 1994. Nixon died not famous but infamous, an icon of the power paradox.

Keltner finds that examples of the fall from power like Nixon’s resignation may lead us to believe that the abuse of power is inevitable. But the power paradox is more complex.

Keltner writes, “It is not human nature to abuse power. Power is a dopamine high. Every time we experience power, we find ourselves at a moment, a fork in the road . . . we can act in ways that lead us to enjoy enduring power, or we can be seduced by the self-indulgent possibilities that power occasions. Which path you take matters enormously.”

What will you do with power?

In his classic work The Prince, Machiavelli concluded that a person should use any means necessary in order to acquire and protect power. Yet, the rise of countless leaders like Nixon who subscribed to the Machiavellian model show that tactics like coercion and manipulation inevitably lead to their fall.

Keltner writes, “Society has changed dramatically since Machiavelli’s Renaissance Florence in ways that require us to move beyond outdated notions of power.” He suggests that we broaden our definition of power as the capacity to make a difference in the world, to find our purpose – the specific difference in the world that we are best suited to make – and bring it to fruition.

To overcome the power paradox, Keltner recommends a fivefold path to stay in check with what matters most:

1. Be aware of your feelings of power. Be mindful of the dopamine high associated with power. Keep yourself grounded by reminding yourself of your higher purpose.
2. Practice humility. Power is a gift, not a right. Don’t get caught up in your own press.
3. Stay focused on others, and give. Our ability to make a difference in the world will grow exponentially when we give to others, and help others be givers.
4. Practice respect. People with their self-respect intact are unified behind the purpose and values of the society, and are committed to the success of the society over personal success.
5. Change the psychological context of powerlessness. Use your position to create opportunities that empower those without power. Call into question elements of society that devalue others.

In short, Keltner challenges us to answer the question, “What will you do with your power?” Will you be corrupted by it, or use it to make a positive impact on the world? The choice is yours.

Interested in overcoming the power paradox for yourself or your team? Check out our Leadership Development services or email me at info@executiveexcellence.com directly to set-up a free 30 minute consultation.

10 Goals for the Boss as Coach by Michael J. Coffey, MA

Leadership

This week’s post was written by my friend and Center for Executive Excellence Senior Executive Consultant, Michael Coffey. Michael actually trained me in how to be a more effective leader before Center for Executive Excellence was founded. There are few people who I trust with delivering results for our clients than Michael. He balances humor and humility with listening and learning to help our clients grow themselves and their team. – Sheri Nasim

Most managers are good technicians. They focus on the pragmatic planning and organizing to get the hands-on work accomplished through their teams.

Yet, many managers have deficiencies in “soft skills” – how to communicate, listen and empathize with those around them. There are important differences between managing and leading people. Leading others effectively requires a mastery of the soft skills necessary to inspire people to work at their full potential and take part in something bigger than themselves.

A symptom of a typical manager is that they take a “task with consequences” approach to their work versus inspiring their team to work for a greater cause. Coaching managers away from the “task with consequences” approach and toward a “boss as coach” model helps bridge the soft skills gap and create alignment. It’s an approach that goes beyond the “what” and “how” and toward the “why” to help team members discover how their individual values and professional goals align.

Here are 10 goals for managers to work toward building their “boss as coach” soft skills:

1.    Articulate the organization’s vision, purpose, direction, strategies, major goals and actions.

2.    Involve/include team members to acquire understanding, connection, commitment, passion and ownership.

3.    Align team member goals, actions and expectations with those of the organization.

4.    Remove barriers and provide resources.

5.    Follow up and hold people accountable.

6.    Promote feedback, input and idea-sharing from team members.

7.    Challenge and inspire team members to stretch for greatness.

8.    Develop and grow people through meaningful work.

9.    Increase work/career satisfaction and personal fulfillment.

10.  Create a positive, productive community of team members who volunteer their best and fulfill their potential.

When the vision, mission and culture of an organization are in alignment with the individual’s values and professional goals, employees are more committed to the organization, more productive, and happier at their job.

Question: As a leader, how do you align individual goals to the organization’s big picture goals?

Michael J. Coffey, MA is a Senior Executive Consultant for Center for Executive Excellence who brings over 22 years of hands-on experience as a senior leader, certified executive coach, team facilitator, strategic organizational and talent development consultant, trainer, and entrepreneur.

Michael’s approach focuses on double-loop learning as you pursue leadership mastery, organizational and cultural transformation. Michael has authored numerous enterprise-wide leadership training programs, focusing on values alignment, servant leadership, managing people, and leading strategically.