Inspiring Leadership Greatness
Yesterday I blogged about Patrick Lencioni’s 2010 book, Getting Naked, and the first fear that blocks consultants from building client relationships and loyalty. The second is fear of embarrassment, which can keep people from sharing their best ideas with clients, and admitting to mistakes. The remedies are to ask dumb questions, make dumb suggestions and celebrate your mistakes.
I just ran across Patrick Lencioni’s 2010 book, Getting Naked, and thought his message that consultants need to be vulnerable particularly relevant given today’s business environment. I completely related to the three fears that block consultants from providing excellent service to their clients and will be profiling one a day. Today’s blog is the fear of losing business which causes consultants to avoid the very things that ultimately build trust and loyalty. It can be remedied by entering the danger (speaking up in high risk situations), telling the kind truth, giving away business and consulting instead of selling.
To say I have mixed feelings about being glued to Oprah’s interview with Lance Armstrong is an understatement. To say I have mixed feelings about the interview itself is another one. As an ex high school English teacher, I can’t help but think of the great Shakespearean tragedies. Today I am most struck by his comments about surviving cancer and how his fall from grace compares to that. While he did recover his physical health, will he ever recover his integrity and heal his emotional and psychic health or will he live out the tragedy storyline? I guess only time will tell.
I LOVE, LOVE Dan McCarthy’s blog on the 4 types of learning leaders, and have taken some liberty in creating additional animals for 2 of his types. I take a risk in this blog as I am moving beyond the comfort of the landscape, stick people 🙂
Which type are you, the ostrich who has no skills and doesn’t want to learn, the eager beaver who may not have a ton of skill but wants to learn, the know it all dinosaur who refuses to learn, or the continuous learner hummingbird who has endless energy, purpose, curiosity and stamina?
While it was fun to draw today’s visual about dysfunctional teams (perhaps it was cathartic ;)), I am happy to say there is also good news according to a research study into teamwork by the University of Phoenix. Chad Brooks reports that 95% of people believe teamwork is a critical skill in today’s workplace, but that:
Clearly we can all learn more about healthy teamwork!
Great leaders know when to create time and space for silence. They pay attention to the emotional energy of those around them and manage their own discomfort with ambiguity, lack of closure, and emotion laden situations. They let things unfold instead of driving to an artificial sense of closure.
“What is that crazy woman doing?” I said to Dave, as we approached the coordinates for the cache. He didn’t answer, as he was preoccupied with reading the hints for the cache. The woman continued to look intently at the ground beneath the tree and then sat down and looked even more intently at the ground, picking something up and examining it every once in a while.
“She looks homeless, poor thing. Probably been out all night, strung out on something or other.” In a few minutes, she got up and wandered down the street.
“I think the cache is just over here,” Dave said and he started rummaging in the bushes. I went over to where the woman had been and started looking at the ground.
“You two look like you are wandering around looking for wiliwili seeds,” a man walked up to me and said.
“What in the heck are wiliwili seeds?” I asked cautiously, letting my paranoia get the best of me and thinking we had wandered into the middle of a tourist scam. I grabbed my purse tighter and was glad I had left my credit cards and precious technology in the hotel room.
“They are little seeds that fall off this big tree you’re under … only at certain times of the year. They are bright red and people collect them to make jewelry,” he replied. He bent down and picked one up. “Here’s one. They are becoming quite rare and jewelry makers are finding it harder and harder to find them.”
Hmmmm … mystery solved. I felt like an eejit (as Dave would say). How quickly I forget the things I teach about checking one’s assumptions!
I have been a passionate Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) qualified facilitator for over 20 years and am always on the lookout for great stories to understand type differences. This particular sensing (S) – intuition (N) exchange happened on a beach in Hawaii. I would love to hear any type stories you have!
Vineet Nayar’s final finding about what managers need to stop doing is playing favourites. As he says, “We can all put a name to the employee who steadily rose up the corporate ladder despite weak performance because he was affable and didn’t bruise anyone’s ego.” Touché.
Vineet Nayar’s third finding about what managers need to stop doing is being incongruent in words and actions. As he says, “Megaphone managers have thrived for too long; people now want their leaders to be the change they advocate.”
