weLEAD Online Magazine
leadingtoday.org
Copyright
2005 ă weLEAD, Inc.
July 2005 Editorial: Are you a consistently caring leader?
Welcome to the July 2005
weLEAD editorial
By Dr. Howard Baker
In his book, The
Student LEADERSHIP Guide, Second Edition, Brendon
Burchard defines a leader as “a person engaged in,
and who intends to consistently engage in, the leadership process.”
He continues by defining the leadership process:
“Leadership is the process of leaders and
collaborators coming together through an influence relationship and seeking
envisioned changes that reflect their mutual purposes.”
Notice that a leader intends to consistently engage in the
leadership process. Consistency is a key
element in leadership. Of course, no one
is perfectly consistent. As Aldous Huxley once said, “The only completely consistent
people are the dead.” However, Brendon Burdhard’s definition
only calls for one to intend to consistently engage in the leadership
process. None of us are perfect, but an
effective leader must put his hand to the plow of consistency and never look
back!
Successful leaders consistently guide, inspire, teach, and
serve. They are learning leaders. For instance, Jeff Immelt,
CEO of General Electric, spends about 30% of his time teaching and coaching
people (Fast Company, July 2005, p.64). Both Jack Welch, former CEO of GE, and Jeff Immelt, the current CEO, see leadership as a marathon, not a sprint. You must stick
with it and be consistent, year after year. This consistent behavior is the
result of being proactive, not reactive, to circumstances.
Stephen Covey says that being proactive means far more than merely
taking initiative. It means, “Our
behavior is a function of our decisions, not our conditions. We subordinate feeling to values.” We demonstrate a high level of emotional
intelligence. There is an observable
consistency in our demeanor, purpose, and behavior.
Covey says that a personal mission statement is a wonderful tool to help
achieve consistency in one’s life. Our
integrity to our mission creates a life of consistency.
Brendon Burchard also
states that leadership is about coming together through an influence relationship. Our influence is supposed to consistently
serve the needs of our collaborators.
Building and maintaining effective influence relationships can’t be done
in a hit or miss fashion. We must take
time, on a consistent, regular basis, to meet or communicate one-on-one
with our employee, child, team member, customer, or mentee.
In his book, Thinking For A Change, Michael Gelb
states:
“The most effective leaders understand that results are generated
through relationships and that relationships are best cultivated
one-on-one. People ‘do not care how much
you know until they know how much you care,’ and investing the time to meet
individually is one of the best ways to show that you care.”
Stephen Covey entreats us:
“Spend time with your children now, one-on-one. Listen to them; understand them.”
Some consider themselves to be true Servant Leaders but lead only at arms
length. They spend little or no time
one-on-one with those they claim to serve and lead. A manager may choose to manage at arms
length, but an effective leader connects consistently one-on-one.
We are familiar with this need as members of an audience. Michael Gelb points
out that “the best speakers and presenters are those who can give every member
of a vast audience the feeling that they are being addressed in a personal,
even intimate, fashion.”
In order to accomplish this Gelb says we must
be authentic. “Authenticity is the
source of authority…Who you are communicates more than
what you say…If your actions are inconsistent with your words, people will
believe your actions.”
This brings us back to the issue of consistency. Warren Bennis, in
his classic, On Becoming a Leader, states that the quest for
authenticity is the heart of leadership.
Authenticity flows from consistency.
Consistency is achieved when we exercise self-management. We must acknowledge our personal
accountability and stop acting like a victim.
We must stop excusing our inconsistency.
“I was too tired.” “I was having
a hard day.” “His actions really upset
me.”
In his book Discovering the Soul
of Service, Leonard Berry states:
“With caring and encouragement, leaders uplift the spirits and kindle
the energy of people at work who may be wearing down…Hard work is not what
defeats most people on the job. What
defeats them is work without personal growth, without teammates, without
kindness, without meaning.”
In their book, The Leadership
Challenge, Kouzes and Posner state:
“Leaders encourage the heart of their constituents to carry on.”
Leaders who are at
their personal best care for their people, lift their spirits, and help them achieve their personal best. Leaders that are consistently caring are people we will trust. Covey points out that “trust is the highest
form of human motivation. It brings out
the very best in people.”
Those served by caring Servant Leaders grow as people. They are
likely to ultimately become consistent,
caring Servant Leaders themselves.
Comments
to: hbaker@leadingtoday.org
To read more
of Dr. Baker’s articles, click
here to locate the “Baker Collection”.
About the
author:
Dr. Howard Baker is Director of Education for INSPIRE! Learning Systems. He holds a B.S. in Management from Samford University, a Master of Accounting (MAcc) from the University of Southern California and a
Ph.D. in Information Systems from the University of Texas at Arlington. He has been a Certified Internal Auditor
(CIA) since 1989. He is an adjunct
professor in both Business Administration and Public Administration at the