Everyday Leadership (3 of 3 free samples)

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COPYRIGHT
Everyday Leadership by Daniel Granholm Mulhern. Copyright 2007 by Daniel Granholm Mulhern.
All Rights Reserved. Sharing not permitted.

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INTRODUCTION (CONT'D)

So, because the basic nature of human beings does not change, the little, personal stuff of leadership matters. Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Buddha, and Jesus did some of their most amazing work in the little moves in the midst of it all. So do you! Little human moves matter. A small, serious conversation with an employee can turn him or her around. Or some clear thinking about your vision of success can get you back on track. Changing a baby’s diaper might be the small human moment that will change the way you lead and follow. This book attempts to bring leadership back down to earth. It offers everyday stories that illuminate some of the best ideas--modern and ancient--about real human leadership.

The ideas flow from a number of sources. Many come from my direct experiences practicing leadership of teams and on teams in many different settings. Some of the lessons come from managing in the public sector, others from running a small business, and many from a practice of executive coaching and consulting to large and small businesses and nonprofits. For the past eight years I have also had the opportunity to watch my wife lead in the highly public roles of attorney general and governor of the state of Michigan. And let me hasten to add that since this is a book about human leadership many of the most useful lessons come from my core human experiences: growing up in a family of seven, raising three children, helping raise three mentees, and coaching many children (and sometimes their parents) in basketball. As you will soon see, some of the dilemmas faced by governors or CEOs distinctly mirror the choices faced by parents with regard to their adolescents.

The book is divided into eight chapters, each dedicated to an important facet of leadership activity. Although leadership takes place in the middle of the muddle of a day spent at work, at home, or at the school board, and though leadership is practiced in small things, anyone who leads must have a sense of direction or destination--a vision. So we begin by looking at vision, quite literally: effective leaders are continually developing and sharing a picture of where they want us to go together. We’ll see the power of vision at the human level--not something grandiose and esoteric but vision as a practical and engaging everyday strategy. Vision is useless without a strategy to communicate it, so chapter 2 turns to issues of communication.

One of the reasons the old-fashioned, “boss knows best” style of leadership is dead is that people in authority simply can’t control information flow anymore. Corporate executives compete with Wall Street analysts and bloggers, who appear inside and outside their companies. Parents have to grapple with kids getting their information from a hundred TV channels and a thousand Web sites. Even pastors compete for mobile followers who can turn to online Bibles or the life interpretations of Oprah, Rush, or a hundred other meaning makers. Competitors know what you’re paying your people, and your people can find out exactly what the competition is paying.

The need for quality communication from you and quality communication with others has never been greater. In this world you can hardly “tell” them anything that they will accept just because you are saying it. Furthermore, the world is telling them that their opinion matters. So shareholders, citizens, customers, employees, and even kids increasingly expect to be consulted, not told. Never have the skills of communication been more essential for good leadership.

Of course, leadership is less about what you say than about whether it gets them to move. Leadership is fundamentally about motivating them, or “motor-vating” them, getting their engines running strong. So chapter 3 offers some critical dos and don’ts of great motivation, and it also lays bare some of the things we all do that deflate our teams, our organizations, and even our families.

The fourth and fifth chapters speak to the very heart of a great leader. The leaders we most want to follow seem, as we say in the vernacular, to “have it all together.” By this we mean that they are themselves no matter the context; they communicate their values and ideas and intentions clearly. And their actions track their words. Because they have grown comfortable with themselves and don’t seem to be acting or hiding, they also seem more at ease with others, neither having to please them nor having to judge them. They engage others in a straightforward way. While we tend to think of this kind of “together” character as something people simply are or aren’t, this chapter offers questions to ask and practices to pursue in achieving that kind of wholeness.

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