New Year’s Leadership Resolutions

Every year I make several resolutions that seem to go nowhere.  I start off with every intention to do them, but for one reason, or another, they never get done.  Well this year is going to be much different.  I am going to resolve to change several things in my life to help me build the leader within.  Here is my list for this year:

1. Physical Readiness – This past year has been a tough one with respect to my physical readiness.  My age and poor diet choices have finally started taking their toll on my health.  This year I am going to change this by eating right and exercising at least 5 times per week.  As part of improving my health I have decided to lose another 40 pounds before June 1^st, 2011.  Getting control of my diet and exercise will have many benefits, but the reduction of my stress levels will do wonders for my leadership abilities.
2.  Better Listener – One thing I have never been good at is listening.  Throughout my career I have always said what was on my mind and it was usually when I should have been listening.  In 2011 I vow to improve my listening skills to show the people around me that their opinions matter.
3. Read Widely – Dr. Howard Lacey, Professor Emeritus Concordia University, used to always tell me that good leaders were well read and I tried to spend a lot of time reading everything I could get my hands on.  Over the last few years I have not been as diligent in my reading.  I am going to change all of that in 2011 and replace television time with reading.
4. Service – I am dedicating the rest of my life to serving others.  I am convinced that service to others, expecting nothing in return, is the only way to success.  God, my family, and my employer deserve to have my service and I vow to give it.

I hope everyone develops a realistic set of smart goals this year and I would like to hear about them if you get time to comment to this posting.  I hope the coming year is one of the best you have ever experienced and you are able develop the leader within.

May God Bless You!

"There's No Place Like Home"

    In my MBA classes at Concordia University Texas we just finished our first semester and it is good to have a few days off for our Christmas break.  In my class Leadership-self we looked at finding leadership lessons in everyday life and now I am hooked!
     My 13-year old daughter had never seen The Wizzard of Oz so we decided to watch it last Saturday night as a family.  Keep in mind that I have probably seen this movie 45 times in my 53 years on this earth, but this time I watched it looking for leadership lessons.  It was like watching it for the first time!  This movie is full of great examples of leadership and I would like to share a few of those with you today.

Teamwork
     When you look at the team Dorothy put together it is a great lesson in leadership.  Each member of her team had different reasons for getting to Oz.  The Scarecrow felt he needed a brain, the Tin Man wanted a heart, the Lion was searching for courage, and Dorothy just wanted to get home.  Many times as leaders we will face similar situations where individual members of our team will have different goals and motivations for serving, but we can use the individual talents of each member to achieve the goals of our organization.

Stay Focused
     As each member of Dorothy's team headed down the Yellow Brick Road they experienced many obstacles along the way.  They had trees trying to grab them, Poppies causing Dorothy to sleep,  Winged Monkeys stomping the stuffing out of the Scarecrow, and Lions, Tigers, and Bears frightening the Cowardly Lion.  Our teams will have all types of obstacles that get in our way when we are leaders, but it will be our job to remove them so the goals of the organization can be realized.

Join in the Fun
    It would have been easier for Dorothy to send her team down the Yellow Brick Road while she hung out with the Munchkins, but she was right there with them every step of the way.  The lesson we can learn here is our team needs us in the trenches with them.  Teams respect a leader who works with them and is not afraid to get their hands dirty.

     I'm sure there are many other lessons to be learned from this movie and when I watch it again I am going to look for them.  Actually, I will probably be doing this with any movie I watch from now on.

     As the grades are posted from our last semester I hope everyone got the one they were hoping for and they are able to relax a little during this short break we are getting.  I hope everyone has a great Christmas and is able to spend some quality time with friends and family.

     May God bless each of you.

Moral Leadership

     Last night was my last class in Leadership of Self which is part of my MBA program at Concordia University Texas and the focus centered on Moral Leadership. Our professor Dr. Don Christian asked us to share our thoughts on what we felt was the definition of Moral Leadership and the discussions that followed were pretty amazing.  Dr. Christian also mentioned that many times when a discussion takes place on Morals it usually ends up on death, murder, and various forms of abuse.  The question I thought about for most of the night is why do discussions on morals end up being about death, murder, and abuse?  I think I might have an answer and would like to share it with everyone here with hopes that I will get some good comments.

     I think our society’s morals have changed so much, and so many things that used to be immoral are now accepted, that we have become jaded.  Watch one night of television, listen to the radio, watch the evening news, and you can quickly see that our society, as a whole, is accepting of many things once thought unacceptable.  Television is glamorizing many things that not long ago were shunned by society.  Reality television lets us see people in all kinds of acts that only ten years ago would have had serious consequences for the broadcaster.  With the moral fiber of our country being manipulated to try to make us think these things are acceptable it will take strong leaders in families, workplaces, and communities to keep our compasses headed in the right direction.  So many bad things have become the norm that when a discussion starts up about morals the only things that everyone can agree on being unacceptable are death, murder, and abuse.

     Last night when the discussion started the thing that jumped into my mind was Enron.  I thought about the blatant disregard for what is right and wrong.  I think there are so many things that we can work on with respect to morals that fall well under the death issue.  I think everyone, less the mentally disable, would agree that murder is not acceptable.  We need to work on the other issues that are quickly eroding our quality of life and are more in our control.

     One of the ways I can help is for others to see great examples of Moral Leadership in me.  I hope to do that for the rest of my leadership journey.  Will anyone do the same?

     Have a very Merry Christmas.  Yes, I said Christmas!  It will always be Christmas to me.

Thoughts on Servant Leadership

    Earlier this year our leadership team here at work reviewed the book The Servant by James C. Hunter.  Our team learned in this book review that the true foundation of leadership is not power, but authority, which is built upon relationships, love, service, and sacrifice.  The Servant is an easy read and I would recommend it for anyone wanting to work on becoming a true servant leader.  The problem I had with this book, and many others that I have read, is putting the things I have learned to good use.  We finished this book review and I placed it on my book shelf where it was collecting dust.

     Now here I am in a leadership class as part of my MBA degree program at Concordia University Texas.  Each week we are given reading assignments on various aspects of leadership as it relates to ourselves.  I have made a vow to myself that I am not going to just put these books on the shelf when I am finished with them, but I am actually going to try to put them to good use.  As part of trying to honor my vows I have expanded my study of the area of servant leadership.  I truly believe that a servant leader is what I want to be when I grow up.  Keep in mind I am 53 years old and still have a lot of growing up to do.

     I recently read an essay by Robert K. Greenleaf titled The Servant as Leader.  In this essay, he states: "The servant-leader is servant first… It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. That person is sharply different from one who is leader first; perhaps because of the need to assuage an unusual power drive or to acquire material possessions…The leader-first and the servant-first are two extreme types. Between them there are shadings and blends that are part of the infinite variety of human nature."  Think about this for a minute.  Let Mr. Greenleaf’s quote sink in.  I am overwhelmed by the power of this one quote!  What would our communities look like if all of our leaders were servants first?  I just wonder what my personal life would have been like if I had chosen to serve instead of worrying about what I could lead and when my next promotion was coming.  I agree with Mr. Greenleaf that if I had dedicated my life to service then my opportunities to lead would have found me.

    

      I am going to look at this servant leadership thing in a lot more detail over the last years of my life.  It is a shame that I started so late, but I am excited about the prospect of finishing better.  I hope everyone that reads this blog takes a little time to consider servant leadership and the positive changes it can make in people, corporations, communities, and families.  I plan to dedicate more time to it in this blog and make every effort to try to become a better servant.  Maybe I can inspire others to do the same.

     I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and a very Happy New Year.