Leadership: Assumptions or Facts?

I was revisiting many of the comments I've received in the past and they got me thinking….

I heard everything from “Talking about leadership style is a distraction” to analogies re the present Administration to definitive ideas of what makes a leader. These are amazing, insightful comments.

I wonder how many assumptions are made around the term and definition of ‘leader’? One might assume that a leader needs followers. One might assume a leader is brought on board to help evolve an organization. And one might assume that a leader has the ideas, insight and innovation to bring a stagnating organization forward. There are assumptions that leaders have the “ability to see a bigger picture than us and an ability to make meaning for us”. That is definitely not the case, though something most people crave in their leaders.

I could ask 100 people about what they look for in a leader and get 100 different answers. Oh yes, there would be commonalities, but as everyone’s needs differ, so do their needs for what they want in a leader.

A question recently asked is “Do leaders really listen to advice or do they use advice to validate what they already know and want to do?” A great question. To find out the answer I’d have to poll many a leader. You might assume I’m going to pose that question to you (and you would be right)

Listening to advisors and integrating their advice are very different and can really impact a leader’s world. Paying attention to informed advisors can also make or break a leader. I know many in positions of leadership who are known for their experience and level of expertise but that doesn’t mean they have the up to the minute information they need or are up on current trends. No one person has all the information necessary to run an organization. What they need are the right contacts in various areas of expertise to give them what they need when they need it.

As a Shadow Coach™, one of the dynamics I question clients on is when they say “Interesting concept, however I would have done it this way”… and continue to outline their perspectives. When this happens on a regular basis, I challenge my clients to stretch beyond what they know into the world of the unknown to listen for and integrate what they didn’t know.

Great leaders listen to the wisdom of those around them. I’ll go out on a limb to not only say that’s an assumption but a fact. Learning is more than gathering information. It’s being open to realizing you don’t know and will never know all you need to know to lead and operate from that premise.

Your thoughts on this?

Best!
Donna Karlin

**A few notes: Welcome reader from Suriname, 120th country and counting! We're very glad you've joined us and hope you stick around for a long long time.

Many of you are emailing me directly with your insightful comments, which is great! Keep them coming! Now if you posted them as comments on the site, that'll generate more than just my three cents and will create a community dialogue. That way everyone can benefit from your perspectives as well.

Secondly we put out a free newsletter, Perspectives in Brief every other week that is delivered to your in-box or handheld that will give you great tips on the run to run with, pricing breaks for coaching and program launches. Reading time 2 minutes or less. To subscribe, go to www.perspectivesinbrief.com/subscribe

We Know What We Know…Doesn’t Everybody?

I was recently reading a book summary for “Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die” and as I had recently read “The Tipping Point” where they talk about stickiness as well, the topic of this book intrigued me. I was fascinated by this not to promote a product, but to help me in my work laser coaching my clients through chaotic days. This concept helped me articulate a snapshot of a moment in time in such a way they’d not only see it but ‘get it’.

I just returned from Washington D.C. doing a training for The School of Shadow Coaching™. My goal was for the participants to know what I do so intricately, they would not only get it but could walk away using it in their day to day practices. The first step to get my concepts across was to ask them to park all assumptions about what they had already learned...what they already knew. There were two reasons behind this: 1) so that they wouldn't keep trying to 'fit' what I do into what they had already learned and instead look at how they could add it to what they already knew and 2) that they would all be on the same page because even though these were experienced coaches, they all didn't know what the others knew. This way they would be learning one methodology and then align it with their current ways of practicing.

To get back to the summary, something really hit home when Chip Heath and Dan Heath stated “To strip an idea down to its core, we must be masters of exclusion. We must relentlessly prioritize. Saying something short isn’t the mission — sound bites aren’t the ideal. Proverbs are the ideal. We must create ideas that are both simple and profound. A one-sentence statement so profound that an individual could spend a lifetime learning it…. Once we know something, we find it hard to imagine what it’s like not to know it. Our knowledge has “cursed” us.”

It then occurred to me that many people are cursed by their knowledge as they can’t fathom why others don’t see things as they do because it’s obvious, right? ‘Knowing’ becomes a filter through which ideas are shared and instructions given but if the other party has no idea of what you're talking about, there is an immediate disconnect. That was another key aspect of the training; looking at filters, both ours as coaches and our client's filters, acknowledging them and working with them.

As much as I dislike assumptions and how they get people into trouble, what would it mean if we assumed others didn’t know what we knew? If we started off with that premise, how much easier would it be to have generative dialogue and create something that not only stuck but just might be sustainable?

This was an extraordinary group, coming together from all parts of the US and Canada; seasoned, experienced coaches.... practitioners in various fields of expertise with different clientele. They all parked their assumptions and came together to learn, to grow and to work with each other to help integrate that learning so they could broaden the scope of their practices.

It was magical! But learning is magical, don't you think?

Best..
Donna Karlin

*Note: Welcome 117th subscriber from the US Virgin Islands!

Expectations

I’m just back from the 2007 International Coach Federation Conference in Long Beach California. It was an amazing experience for me. The reason I’m starting off this post with that comment is, my expectations for this event, based on last year’s experience was as low as they come. I made a conscious decision, in spite of low expectations to go and to turn those expectations around into what I decided would be an invaluable experience.

It was.

I wonder how many times we expect something to be a “1” on a scale of 1- 10, thereby choosing not to go. There were many criteria at play here. First of all, it would be an expensive event to go to simply by virtue of having to travel pretty much the length of the continent to get there. Little did I know when I booked it and registered that the Canadian dollar would be stronger than the US dollar. It’s been many years since that had happened. Bonus. Travel was less than optimal as because of mechanical problems the plane had to return to the tarmac for 2 hours. I knew I had missed my connecting flight before we had even taken off. Still, ever part of this trip was an amazing experience. From wonderful ticket agents trying their best to get me there are quickly and safely as possible to the amazing people I interacted with along the way, it was extraordinary.

If I had let my low expectations dictate whether or not I would have gone, I would have missed out on the following:

• Meeting up with my ICCO colleagues and friends, which I rarely get to do in person
• Supporting my dear friend and colleague in his presentation (awesome)
• Meeting some fascinating people from my home town and from other parts of the globe
• Learning more about the Foundation of Coaching and perhaps becoming more involved
• Lunch and networking meeting with my friend Marion and people from her world
• Planning some future work with someone I respect so highly and would be honoured to work with
• Learning about internal coaching programs from the Deloitte perspective
• Meeting someone from Tokyo Japan and sharing ideas with him about a program in his company

I could go on and on and not have nearly enough time and space to list them all. Even the shuttle bus ride to the airport was an experience as I met coaches who had participated in this event, all fascinating in their own right.

Bottom line is, I could have as many expectations as I want; the best part of these conferences isn’t the continuing credits that I get or even the breakout learning sessions. It’s the people, the cultures that come together, insights, ideas and enough energy to raise the roof! Yes, I have to weigh cost with value, but how does one put a value on being inspired and growing in leaps and bounds?

I made a conscious choice to toss expectations out the window from now on. I had started on that journey but I’m way ahead after this past week.

The question I ask of you is, what expectations do you have that might be holding you back from something amazing, if you’d give it half a chance?

Best..
Donna Karlin

*Note: I often recommend products, technology or services, a book or two or program that will move you forward in some way. Well today is no exception. If you’re a coach or someone who grows people for a living or passion, I recommend you subscribe to IJCO, the International Journal of Coaching in Organizations. It is brimming with ideas, expertise, latest concepts and trends, research and dialogue that you’ll refer to again and again in your work. Every issue brings a new level of awareness. It’s a magnificent publication in every way shape and form. Click here to learn more.

You Know What You Know....

...but do you know what you don't know or take the time to discover it?

One of the first conversations I have with clients is "You know what you know. What don't you know that you need to know in order to do your job and succeed?" That in combination with "If you're making decisions based on assumptions then those assumptions just might become truth and is that where you ultimately want to be?" That's where incorporating data or evidence gives them the foundation they need with which to make informed decisions.

It's like trying to forecast the future by only looking at the past which might assume that conditions remain constant. They don't. Situations change moment to moment. It's like driving a car by looking in the rearview mirror. Eventually you crash.

We can learn from from the past, decide to repeat how we did something because it worked for us, or to absolutely never go there again because it didn’t. One of my major roles is to look at a situation or snapshot in time that created something extraordinary for my client, and rather than him looking at what transpired as a stroke of luck or a fluke, I put words around it so he can repeat it again if he so chooses.Alternatively often I share with my client something that happened that didn’t work for him, and help him become so aware of the intricacies of that situation that he will make sure he doesn’t react in quite the same way again.However the purpose of what I do is not to keep my clients in the past but to give them the vehicle with which to create their future right now as each moment unfolds. The future is built on what we do in the present. They’re building blocks, yes, but not independent segments of life. They all need to fit into some sort of puzzle we put together to invent what we want to evolve into. If we constantly live in the past, whether in our own problems or successes, or using pure data, there would be no growth.

Conditions never stay constant. As we grow, learn, experience through life we start this moment in time from a new wrung on the ladder. Forcing ourselves to go back to what was is like starting the climb all over again. Why in the world would we ever want to do that?

I learned not to fight the intuitive thoughts as they come, or to talk myself out of them with logic or pure fact, it's to incorporate them into the whole picture and work with them to succeed.One of my clients recently told me I look right through him. When I asked him what he meant he said I see past the obvious. One of the benefits of them working with a Shadow Coach™ is they know their Coach will be aware of what they were too busy to pick up. I'm not treating my clients as transparent or one dimensional. It's taking into account all the intricacies of a personality and how that person changes with every personal interaction, situation and experience they have and seeing what isn't there as well as what is. Add the foundation of data to the mix and that leader will fly, taking the rest of the organization with him. One is not exclusive of the other. Together they're extraordinarily powerful.

Best!
Donna Karlin

* Note: Welcome 104th subscriber from Cote D'ivoire!