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Kryptonite: The Thing That Weakens Leadership

An excellent post by Dan Rockwell

Kryptonite is mythical material from Krypton that drained Superman of his superpowers.

The belief that self-evaluation trumps the evaluation of those directly impacted by your leadership weakens your leadership. What you think of your leadership isn’t as important as what others think.

Leadership is about others.

The people around you know what they think of your leadership. But, when they’re “wrong” you marginalize their feedback and move on.

Minimizing the perception of others gives you permission to ignore them.

Leaders who spout, “I don’t care what you think,” are asses. They often don’t have the courage or honesty to face hard truths about themselves.

You’re not as great as you think.

You have one or two outstanding leadership qualities. Anything beyond that and you reached divine status.

Benefit and danger:

The benefit of over-estimating your strength is the courage to try big things. The danger of over-estimating your strength is ignoring others.

10 ways to solve the kryptonite problem:

1. Keep your big ego to yourself. Don’t talk about self-confidence. Self-confident leaders express confidence in others.
2. If you are a leader with confidence, you aren’t as great as you think. (Meditate on that.)
3. Say thank you when receiving feedback.
4. Celebrate the strengths of others. Great leaders see greatness in others.
5. When someone says, “You seem harsh,” for example, believe them.
6. Treat others as more significant than yourself.
7. The people around you are reluctant to tell you the brutal truth, even when you invite it. Work hard to get feedback.
8. Listen to those who share your values and commitment to your organization.
9. Listen to those who are committed to your success.
10. Keep saying to yourself, “I could be wrong.” Keep asking others, “What do you think?”

You need enough ego to believe you matter but not so much that you ignore others.

Essentials for Developing Leaders

A great post by Dam Rockwell.

It hurts when those around you don’t believe in you. Leaders sell themselves short when they undervalue those around them.

The first step toward leadership is believing you matter; believing in someone else is the second.

The greatest opportunity of leadership, after developing yourself, is developing those who aspire to lead.

3 enemies of development:

The enemies of development are personal ease, coddling by others, and education without experience.

Growth hurts.

McCall, Lombardo and Eichinger’s survey of high-performing managers revealed the most effective way to develop others is to challenge them. 90% of development happens in real life, 10% from books and in classrooms.

1. 70% from tough jobs.
2. 20% from people (mostly the boss).
3. 10% from courses and reading.

Bill Hybels offered five ways to develop leaders in his 2014 Global Leadership Summit presentation.

5 essentials for developing remarkable leaders:

1. Put them in high-challenge roles.
2. Assign them to a short-term task force.
3. Give real-time feedback.
4. Provide them with coaches and mentors.
5. Offer them classroom courses and seminars.

The best way to develop emerging leaders is to put them in short-term high-challenge roles.

Growth requires you do what you have’t done before.

Hybels went on to describe five ways to design short-term tasks that develop leaders.

5 marks of developmental tasks:

1. Success or failure must both be possible.
2. Emerging leader must have full charge.
3. Must work with a large variety of people.
4. Must have real pressures and a deadline.
5. End result must be evaluated by a senior leader.

Frustration:

Frustration in stretch-assignments is normal. Don’t help too quick. But, frustration that hampers performance indicates:

1. Too little preparation.
2. Confusion about results.
3. Misalignment of strengths with tasks.
4. Meddling by senior leaders.
5. Not enough support.

Surrender

The captain of the ship looked into the dark night and saw faint lights in the distance. Immediately he told his signalman to send a message" "Alter your course 10 degrees south." Promptly a return message was received: "Alter your course 10 degrees north."

The captain was angered; his command had been ignored. So he sent a second message: "Alter your course 10 degrees south--I am the captain!" Soon another message was received: "Alter your course 10 degrees north--I am seaman third class Jones."

Immediately the captain sent a third message, knowing the fear it would evoke: "Alter your course 10 degrees south--I am a battleship." Then the reply came "Alter your course 10 degrees north--I am a lighthouse." - Paul Aiello, Jr.

There are many people who want full control of their life. They refuse to surrender to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. When we don’t listen to God’s instruction in our lives …WE CRASH! If that ship’s Captain refused to alter his course he would have crashed right into the rocks below the light.

YOU?

he Three Most Dangerous Mistakes Leaders Make

Patrick Lencioni was asked to present at the Global Leadership Summit 2014 (#GLS2014) on the biggest mistakes leaders make. Here’s what he said

#1. Becoming a leader for the wrong reason.

“Most people want to be known as the person who changed the world. That’s a very dangerous reason to become a leader. People should want to become a leader because they want to sacrifice themselves for the good of others even when they know there is no ROI.” Patrick Lencioni at (#GLS2014)

      To aspire to lead is to aspire to serve.

“I’m tired of hearing about servant leadership, because I don’t think there is any other kind.” Lencioni #GLS2014

#2. Failing to embrace vulnerability.

1. I don’t think you can be too vulnerable as a leader.
2. People don’t want leaders to be perfect, they want leaders to be human.
3. When you as a leader can be genuinely butt naked with people, then they will walk through walls of fire for you.

#3. Making leadership too important.

“Ask your family – do you think that I think my job is more important than you?” Lencioni #GLS2014

The greatest loss of leadership is losing yourself to your role.

Which leadership mistakes are most dangerous?

Happy leaders stand out

This is an excellent post that every leader should read!

Anyone can be a sour puss. Some leaders are just too important to smile.

Sad faces don’t inspire confidence.

Organizations reflect their leaders!  

Successful leaders smile even while facing serious challenges.

Sad leaders are:

1. Self-important.
2. Isolated.
3. Power hungry.
4. Controlling.
5. Distrustful.

Organizations reflect their leaders. Unhappy leaders build unhappy organizations.

Smiling:

There’s no rule that says the more important you are the sadder you have to look.

Dan Berger and Anthony Demangone talk about smiling leadership while we discussed their new book, “Managing and Leading Well.”

7 ways to smile more:

1. “You have to enjoy people,” Berger. Enjoy people because they’re human beings. It doesn’t matter if you like everything about them. Enjoy them.
2. “Trust your team,” Demangone, “My job is to bring out the best in others.” Trusting the team frees leaders to enjoy the process.
3. Care for people. “I have an obligation to find out what keeps our CEO’s up at night,” Berger
4. Connect with people. Both Dan and Anthony talked about management by walking around. Find out what’s happening on the Little League team or in their family life.
5. “Bring enthusiasm to problem solving. There’s a lot of room for fun in solving challenges.” Demangone.
6. “Talk about having fun. You’ll reach a point where it’s self-reinforcing.” Dan & Anthony.
7. “We have a no asshole rule here. If you hire one you just became the biggest one.” Berger

Fun doesn’t have to be frivolous or irresponsible even in financial institutions.

How can leaders build happy organizational cultures?

Check out, “Managing and Leading Well – It Ain’t Rocket Science, But it’s Still Hard Work!” It focuses on leaders in financial institutions but has application for all leaders.