Leading News - “Leading for a Lifetime”
Thank you for joining us for a discussion focused on “Leading For A
Lifetime” with Dr. Warren Bennis and Patricia Wheeler, executive coach and
managing partner of The Levin Group (www.TheLevinGroup.com).
In addition to the following notes, we are attaching a bonus article about
Warren from last week’s edition of The Economist. We hope you enjoy it!
JOIN WARREN, PATRICIA AND MARSHALL AT THE #1 RANKED LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT
PROGRAM THIS SEPTEMBER!
Warren is co-founder and co-chair of Linkage’s Global Institute for
Leadership Development, named for the second year in a row as the #1 ranked
program by Leadership Excellence magazine. Our friends at Linkage offer
Leading News subscribers a $500 Discount on registration.visit
http://gild.linkageinc.com for details (and enter GILD08-PW for your
discount).
The mp3 link for this TeleForum is:
http://www.leadingnews.org/tfarchive/20080729.mp3.
We recommend you copy and paste the link into your browser.
You may also visit http://www.leadingnews.org/tfarchive.htm and right click
the mp3 link to save it.
During this 60-minute conference call we discussed the points below plus
fielded your specific questions.
1. Forged by fire: how life experiences cultivate leadership
- Interviews with leaders confirm that how individuals respond to crises and
challenges galvanize their approach to the world and their leadership
ability
- Two types of crucibles involve people who voluntarily “dive into
challenges” (think: individuals who occupy political office) and unbidden
events (think: Nelson Mandela’s imprisonment).
- Both of these experiences, in which we face great pressure, ambiguity and
uncertainty, either galvanize us toward increased strength or set us on the
road to discouragement and giving up.
- What makes the difference? While we don’t know for certain, we believe
that it is a “focus on the possible” and the decision to continue moving
forward in the face of adversity that makes the difference.
- Each one of us can cultivate this ability!
- To gain maximum traction from these life crucibles, we must be open to the
unbidden.
- What are the leadership crucibles you have already experienced, and what
have you learned from them?
- How can you help others embrace and learn from these crucibles as well?
2. Geeks, geezers and “living a life of uncontaminated wonder”
- Interviews with leaders over 70 and leaders 30 and under yielded a number
of differences due to the era in which one is raised; geezers focused on
earning a living, geeks focused on greater meaning and life balance.
- Successful leaders in both generations had in common these qualities: they
were lifelong learners who were curious and creative; they accepted and
thrived in ambiguous situations; they reached out to others and they were,
in Saul Bellow’s words, “first class noticers.”
- To thrive in the long run, we must continue to notice what’s new, what
engages us, and avoid “long run-itis.”
- The qualities that contributed most to developing leadership capabilities
were identical to qualities that help people live well decade after decade.
- In your organization, how are you using the talents and perspectives of
all generations in your workforce?
3. Leading with transparency and candor
- In today’s digital world transparency is inevitable! This is due to the
rapid proliferation of the blogosphere.
- Warren participated in an MIT study in the 1950’s which demonstrated that
collaboration leads to better performance when solving complex problems. A
“top-down” structure in which all information had to flow through a single
point of contact worked well when decisions were easy to make. For complex
tasks and ambiguous decisions, a more “transparent” information flow in
which people connected with one another led to more efficient and effective
decision making.
- In his 2007 book Global Edge, Joel Kurtzman makes the case that
transparency has a measurable ROI, and “high opacity” cultures in which
bribery, fraud and secrecy prevail ultimately cause more economic harm than
occurrences such as natural disasters and terrorism.
- Transparency creates an atmosphere of trust and safety, which fosters
productivity and engagement.
- How are you fostering.or impeding.transparency in your organization?
4. Patricia and Warren’s suggested action steps for leaders
- Assume that each organization, and each of us, has barriers and blind
spots. Know yourself.even if you think you are transparent and open with
others, do others perceive this?
- Investigate what blogs and forums say about you and your company. Work
with the increased flow of information rather than attempt to stifle it.
- Ask yourself: who do I listen to? Who do I NOT listen to?
- Ask yourself how information flow was handled in your own family. What
did you and others notice? Not notice? Communicate about? Decide to
ignore? Remember: we bring our learning about how to be part of a family
into our experience with “corporate families.”
To contact Warren, you may call his USC assistant, Marie Dolittle, at 213
740-0766. For managers and executives or teams interested in coaching,
mentoring or teambuilding Warren recommends Dr. Mark Goulston, whom he has
mentored and worked closely with for years. You can contact Mark by email
at: mgoulston@markgoulston.com.
As developing your current and future leaders is our business, please let us
know if you have further questions or if we can be of help to you and your
organization in developing your talent. We have deep expertise in building
leadership capability, and assisting leaders making transitions into their
organization’s most senior roles.
We hope you enjoyed our discussion. As follow-up.could you please send us
any specific questions you have from our call- or topics you would like for
us to cover in future calls? We always appreciate your FeedForward. And
please let us know if there is any way we can help you and your organization
be even more successful.
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Best,
Patricia and Marshall