The Practice of Leadership » Meaning

Three Criteria for Defining a Worthwhile Goal

George Ambler — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 19:00:53 +0000

Leaders set goals that inspire and challenge. Goals energise people when they are well defined, provide meaning and give direction. Sadly leaders often set goals that are ambiguous, unrealistic and uninspiring, for example “providing a superior return to shareholders”. So how do leaders go about defining a worthwhile goal? In the book “A Bias for Action” by Heike Bruch and Sumantra Ghoshal, which I’ve just finished reading, provides the following criteria for defining worthwhile goals:

Concrete: Concrete goals make it clear what the various components other make up the goal, the challenges that need to be faced and overcome to achieve it. There is a good understanding of the tasks that need to be completed to achieve the goal.
Meaningful: People have to believe that the goal is worth the effort, that the goal is necessary to make a difference.
Challenging: The goal should stretch us whilst not so overwhelming that it paralysis action. If goals don’t seem to be achievable they are quickly abandoned. Worthwhile goals are personally challenging.

When these three criteria underpin a leader’s goals, they help increase the level of commitment people give to the attainment of the goals.

Are your goals concrete and well defined?
Do you personally identify with your goals? Is it a worthwhile pursuit?
Is your goal personally challenging? Will it stretch you whilst not overwhelming you?

Are you investing in your personal leadership?

George Ambler — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 18:26:27 +0000

The "Integer Leadership Consulting" blog has a great post "Thinking about Self-Leadership: A brief reflection" which builds on what Greg Thomas describes as personal leadership which is..

“the desire of an individual to take charge of his or her own life. Personal leaders realize that leadership is not a position or title, but an outlook on life and their role in the world…..If personal leadership had a motto it would be this, ‘Before I seek to change or motivate others I must first learn to change and motivate myself. I must first become the change I wish to see in others.’”

and Jeffrey calls personal leadership his post self-leadership and defines it as:

"…the ongoing discipline of cultivating inner personal meaning, constructing an engaging personal vision and assessing personal impact."

In our rushed and busy life we often neglect taking the time out to strengthen our personal leadership practice. How often do you take time out to focus on the development of your personal meaning and purpose, the pursuit of a your personal vision and taking the time to reflect on the personal impact that you’re making on the world around you. And, the consequences of not strengthening your personal leadership? I think Jeffery puts it best….

Unfortunately, leader’s who disregard the practice and discipline of self-leadership can eventually pay a steep price on the personal and professional level. When leaders become detached from their inner moorings and abandon the work of maintaining inner congruence due to the “tyranny of the urgent,” their integrity, moral compass and external performance is in danger of eventual collapse. This slow-burn or incremental deterioration resulting from the ongoing (and often unconscious) neglect of one’s sense of self, sense of rootedness and personal vision is more often than not realized only after there has been damage to self, others as well as to one’s professional standing and trajectory. The cumulative effect of ignoring the work of self-leadership is not unlike the metaphor of the “Frog in the Kettle.”

This is a really challenging leadership practice, one we usually neglect and fail to invest in meaningfully. What’s the state of your inner life? How effective is your personal leadership?

Posts that may be of help in developing your personal leadership include:

Technorati Tags: Leadership Development, Leadership, Management, Practice, Business, Purpose, Reflection, Growth, Vision

Marcus Buckingham Outlines the Core Concepts of Superior Leadership

George Ambler — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 14:05:37 +0000

An article “The Clear Leader” from Fast Company discusses research conducted by Marcus Buckingham, author of First, Break All the Rules and Now, Discover Your Strengths, on the heart of leadership. Based upon his research Marcus Buckingham, maps out the core concepts that mark superior leadership as follows:

Leaders are Compelled by the Future – “There’s something unique and different that makes a leader, and it’s not about creativity or courage or integrity. As important as they are, you can have those attributes and still fail to be a great leader. A leader’s job is to rally people toward a better future. Leaders can’t help but change the present, because the present isn’t good enough. They succeed only when they find a way to make people excited by and confident in what comes next…….. With leaders, the future calls to them in a voice they can’t drown out. The future is more real than the present; it compels them to act.”
Turn Anxiety into Confidence – “For a leader, the challenge is that in every society ever studied, people fear the future. The future is unstable, unknown, and therefore potentially dangerous. So in order to succeed, leaders must engage our fear of the unknown and turn it into spiritedness. By far the most effective way to turn fear into confidence is to be clear — to define the future in such vivid terms that we can see where we are headed. Clarity is the antidote to anxiety, and therefore clarity is the preoccupation of the effective leader. If you do nothing else as a leader, be clear.”
Be Clear about Whom You Serve – “Leaders can be wrong. They can’t be confusing. If we are going to follow you into the future, we need to know precisely whom we are trying to please. It’s a scary thing to please all of the people all of the time. So to calm our fear, we need you to narrow our focus. Tell us who will be judging our success. When you do this with clarity, you give us confidence — confidence in our judgment, in our decisions, and ultimately in our ability to know where to look to determine if we have fulfilled our mission.”
Be Clear About Why You’re Going to Win – “….As a leader, your job is to make people more confident about the future you’re dragging them into. To that end, you need to tell them why they’re going to win. There are many competitors out there. Why will we beat them? There are many obstacles in our path. Why will we overcome them? The more clearly you can answer these questions, the more confident we will be, and therefore the more resilient, the more persistent, and the more creative…. Even if it doesn’t incorporate all the reality of the world, find the edge — one edge — and talk about it all the time….”
Keep Your Core Score – “…clarity is lost if you end up looking at 15 different metrics. It’s a terrible leadership failure to tell your employees that all of these measurements are important. When followers are presented with numerous scores, they get confused. The job of a leader is to say, ‘Of all the things we measure, this is the most important.’”
If You Want to be Clear, Act – “Of course, a leader must take action — action leads to impact. But actions also possess a separate, equally powerful quality. Actions are unambiguous. If you, the leader, can highlight a few carefully selected actions, then your followers will no longer have to infer the future from theoretical pronouncements about “core values” or your “mission statement.” We will simply look to see what actions you take and found our faith and confidence on these. But be aware that we respond best to two types of action: symbolic action and systemic action… Symbolic action is just that — a representation of what the future can look like. Symbolic action grabs our attention; it gives us something new and vivid on which to focus.”

I have previously posted on the importance of clarity for successful leadership.

Have you acted yet?
Are you clear on why you’re doing what you’re doing?
Is your team clear?

Effective Leadership Requires Clarity

Martin Luther King on Effective Vision

George Ambler — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 21:50:08 +0000

Effective visions provide context, give purpose, and establish meaning. They inspire people to mobilize, to act, to move in the same direction Every good leader realizes that effective visions cannot be forced upon the masses. Rather they must be set in motion by means of persuasion and inspiration. – Martin Luther King Jr.

The Leadership Insight

Vision is not merely an academic process, resulting in a vision statement. Vision must be compelling and should evoke an emotional response in others. Without purpose and meaning vision will fail to inspire action. A vision that is not lived will not be considered meaningful. Are you living you’re vision? The most inspirational visions are live every day. Yo need to persuade others everyday and if necessary use words!

Passion and Engagement Equals Increased Profits

George Ambler — Thu, 31 May 2007 19:48:26 +0000

Photo by archer10 (Dennis) (BUSY)

I have highlighted previously the importance of employee engagement and meaning. A new study by Philadelphia-based consultants PeopleMetrics, supports the previous posts, highlighting the importance of engagement and meaning in driving corporate profits. The study surveyed more than 5,095 workers, across the United States and found that Fortune 500 companies in the lowest quartile in company profitability had 50% fewer engaged employees compared to those in the top quartile. The research found…

“…that creating emotional connections to employees is what truly matters because this is where organizations can dramatically boost employee productivity and business outcomes….. Building an emotional bond with employees, … requires organizations to create a ‘sense of meaning and purpose’ among employees by connecting them to the ‘higher vision and purpose’ of the organization…. Equally, organizations need to build trust and confidence through regular dialogue with managers and senior leadership as well as celebrating successes, having fun and showing individual appreciation.”

How engaged are people in your team? Engagement is the real measure of effective leadership…….. How do you measure up?