Oct

29

How Shall We Follow?

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Friends,

Imagine you are part of a system that faces hard choices and complex challenges.  For example, you’re in a family that is trying to decide about end-of-life issues, or you’re trying to decide whether to relocate your kids for a job opportunity. Or perhaps you’re in a company that’s trying to decide about layoffs.  Or imagine you are running a large company and trying to decide whether to overhaul it completely, sell it off, or enter into a risky merger.  If you were at the helm in such situations, I wonder: What attitudes or commitments among your “followers” would you most like them to have?

Here’s what I’d want:  Openness to new ideas, because sometimes institutions have to change to survive.  I would hope for candid feedback, because I would want to know how people think proposed changes would affect them. I would also hope for some patience and trust, because steering through difficult decisions requires a whole lot of balancing, thinking and rethinking. Lastly, I think I would love to have my “followers” get in my shoes or see through my eyes, to see what I hope is the entire picture.  Allow me a paragraph’s digression.

Next week’s Reading for Leading will launch a second blog for the year ahead.  This new blogsite will address the question, “Among the important traits of leaders, what do we most need in our next President?” A number of great leadership writers will contribute.  This will NOT be about partisan issues, and it will NOT be about particular candidates.  Instead, we will ask about what we need; What attitudes, traits or behaviors seem most important in our next leader at this unique time?  Why not begin with what we need; then see who fits the bill?

Before I began that, I want to ask you to reflect not on what we need, but what will our next President need from us, in order to lead well.  If the examples in the first paragraph above – of leaders facing tough decisions – beg for great followers, how much more could great followers help our next President?  I’d love for you to comment on this blog about whether you think I have offered the right attributes of great followers, the things our next president will need from us.  And you might also comment about how we can generate such attitudes as openness, candor, patience and trust, or a full appreciation of the big picture.  If I’ve named the follower attitudes for citizens to generate great leadership, I have to wonder whether we deserve a great leader!

All leadership is dynamic, two-way, interactive – even in a system as huge as our political system.  It is only if we follow well that we can expect our next President to

Lead with their best self.

Dan

 

Oct

22

Context and Purpose

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Friends,

On Friday I had two MSU freshmen on my radio show.  They were graduates of a marvelous middle and high school program called the Art of Leadership.*  One facet of that program is that the young people write a personal life vision statement.  The first young lady told me that her vision was to bring joy into the lives of all of the people that she met.  She said that even when people were negative, she would make every effort to listen to them, to help them to see the positive, and to maintain her own sense of joyfulness.  It was very cool to see this young woman approaching life with a sense of purpose that was both broad yet deeply personal.  I was uplifted by the vision and the light in her eyes.

I asked the other young woman what her vision was.  She said that a lot of times life is not really that great but that if you communicate and work with other people you can actually make good things happen for them and for you.  I will admit it.  I felt underwhelmed.  A vision statement should greatly inspire; it should offer hope in some lofty purpose.  Our interview went on.

Later we were discussing how they became like a family in the Art of Leadership program.  And the second girl quite matter-of-factly said: “Well I lost both of my parents…”  She said that Denise, the program leader, had helped her face that loss and move on.  These thoughts screamed in my head:  “Mulhern, now are you still underwhelmed by this young lady’s vision?  Because when she says life isn’t always that great she knows whereof she speaks! When will you realize how misleading appearances really are?”

I took two very lessons from this experience.  First, context really matters.  People’s words truly make sense only to the degree you understand the context in their thought and their life. 

I was also struck by the power of two eighteen year old women moving through life with a vision and a sense that they belong and have a unique purpose.  With vision and purpose of their own, they don’t have to wait for others, blame others, or even follow others.  They have a direction of their own and can lead.  As we raise up our fellow employees, and as we “raise adults” at home, we should never lose track of the power that comes when they choose a purpose.   As we help them find purpose, we and they can

Lead with our best self.

Dan

You can read about the great work of the Art of Leadership programs at www.artofleadership.net

Oct

14

Raising Kids, Picasso and SuperLeadership

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Friends,

Back in the late-80s when there were only around 50 or so books on leadership, a book by Sims and Manz called SuperLeadership grabbed me! By “super” they meant “really great,” but they also meant super, from the Latin meaning “above,” i.e., leaders above leaders. Their whole idea, which has become way more popular since then, was simple: great leaders make followers into leaders themselves.

I was reminded of this idea when my friend Janet Lawson told me how she really dislikes the idea of “raising kids.” She says, “we don’t raise chicks, puppies or goslings; we raise chickens, dogs and geese.” And she wondered aloud: What would be different if we thought we were raising adults, not kids? It sure made me wonder: if someone watched my actions, heard my speech, traced my steps in the kitchen and family room and car, would they think my intent was to raise kids or adults? And what if we took it even a step further and asked, “What if we thought we were raising leaders?!”

Scott Blakeney, an RFL reader, loaned me A Touch of Greatness, a marvelous documentary. In it an extraordinary teacher named Albert Cullum offers this Picasso work as an image of how he tried to teach:

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Pablo Picasso, Mother and Child, 1921 © 2007 The Art Institute of Chicago. 111 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago, Illinois, 60603-6404.

Mr. Cullum explained: “Teaching is pushing them away form you – through doors, different doors; not embracing them. When you embrace someone you’re holding them back. Picasso really captured that in his artwork Mother and Child: the chunky mother balancing the baby perfectly; she doesn’t hold him; he’s balanced; he can go, any time he’s capable of going. But he’s perfectly balanced. Classroom teaching should be that. Find a secure spot for them and then they’re ready to go.”

Raising adults. Raising leaders. You push them through doors, when you

Lead with your best self,

Dan

Oct

8

A Leader Who Sees Religion Need Not Divide Us

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Friends,

Today’s RFL offers both an example of courageous leadership and a resource for enrichment. I’ve been following a leader named David Crumm. David’s been a journalist for thirty years, the last twenty as the religion writer for the Detroit Free Press. To me David models courage, because in his mid-50s he has left the rather staid, 20th century world of a big city newspaper, and the even more tranquil realm of religion writing – not to mention a regular paycheck – for the wild, wild west of the worldwide web. I am inspired and challenged as I see entrepreneurism spring from this unlikely place.

I am also enthused at what he’s doing at www.readthespirit.com. Religion has exploded – quite literally – into our mainstream worlds. Globally, we see religious strife in Myanmar, in Israel and Palestine, between Sunni and Shia, and the terrorism driven by extremist Islamists. Religion has become increasingly divisive – in American politics, and in religious sects themselves – where ordination of women and gay and lesbian leadership, abortion and stem cell research threaten to tear apart whole congregations.

David Crumm is disturbed by this, but he has responded with hope and wisdom. His site offers a place to learn, as he takes us from the obsession with what divides us to see and appreciate the overwhelming similarities we share. He offers interviews with Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, and Christians of all stripes and digests great books in the field, and invites us to read, pray, and participate in the dialogue. He has more than once made me say: How great to live in this time when my Catholic faith is enriched by – not threatened by – other traditions through which God has spoken in this world.

On my radio show tonight I’ll be interviewing Imam Hassan Qazwini, whom David recently featured. David’s review of Qazwini’s new book, American Crescent captures Imam Qazwini’s spirit, but I think he has also managed to give us a glimpse into his own open-minded, open-hearted optimism. Crumm writes: “Hassan Qazwini…writes not only to explain his faith to non-Muslims in an uplifting way, but also to critique American culture. And, in the end, he points out eloquently why he has such boundless optimism about Americans’ spiritual potential. He’s not talking about converting Americans. He’s talking about his pride and optimism as an American himself about our respect for cultural diversity and our desire to make faith an essential part our daily lives.” As Ramadan winds down, David Crumm points a way for us to learn and to heal division through understanding.

Perhaps it’s a book you might want to read as you

Lead with your best self,

Dan
You can listen to my interview with Imam Qazwini by going to www.Danmulhern.com and clicking on the radio icon to the bottom left. The show airs live from 6-7 PM, EST.

Oct

1

When It Comes To Energy – Don’t Do What I Did To Jennifer

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Friends,

Chapter three of my book Everyday Leadership speaks to the ever-present concern of great leaders: motivation, or motor-vation! How do you get people’s engines going? Given our national, state, and business challenges, which one of us doesn’t need to get the engines roaring?

In one part of the chapter, I offer a tongue-in-cheek list of energy Don’ts – the kinds of things that suck the energy right out of your group. The following story has been often on my mind as my wife endures: three hours of sleep on her office floor last night, and still at negotiations at 11 tonight (Sunday), as talks have dragged on to midnight nearly every one of the past ten nights. If like me you need to support someone – a bride, a boss, a teammate or teenager – don’t do what I did about a year ago during the thick of her campaign for governor:

Jennifer was doing her typical morning ritual. Up just after 5:00, reading the papers, reading a briefing book, putting on her make-up (and armor!). Oh, and punctuating all that with radio interviews. She had just finished one with Paul W. Smith, the most listened-to morning drive-time guy in Detroit. “Jen, you did a nice job,” I offered, and without pausing went on, “But you know where you said Y, I think it might have been better to say Z, because when you say Y, I think some people take it the wrong way, and they are going to react much more harshly than they ought to. So if you just said it a little differently, you would have been more effective.” I was trying to help.

Jennifer listened, looked at me and said something I’ll never forget: “Could you just once tell me what you think I should say before I start the interview?!” Whew. What a wake-up call. What had I been doing to her – thinking all the time I was helping? Think of the last time somebody second-guessed you, the way I had been second-guessing Jennifer on a weekly basis. What did it do to your motivation, to your energy level? How often do you tell your kid in the car about how they passed when they should have shot? Or how someone should have done some Y instead of some Z?

As my friend M.A. always says, “feedback is a gift,” but there are much better ways to do it than to second-guess and dwell on a past that by definition can’t be changed! Don’t skip the hard work of framing feedback well, if you’re going to

Lead with your best self,

Dan

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