Paying Your Leadership Forward

Paying their leadership forward seems to be a common thread that emerges in the stories of my book Leaders: Their Stories, Their Words. Not only do they lead people from a sense of values and humanity, or as I call it "humanness", they honor those who helped them evolve into their leadership by doing something that matters.

Joe Saltzman shows how much he honors his mentor and past High School English teacher, Ted Tajima by giving his all to his students and sharing Ted's impact as a role model with everyone around him. He states it beautifully when he says "The best lessons I’ve learned along the way are these: always put others ahead of yourself, and never do anything solely for personal gain. By helping others, by doing the best job you can on everything you do, true joy will be yours. The unhappiest people I know are the ones whose goals are trivial and unimportant, and who put what they do second to what they want to get out of it. I believe that if you care about what you do and put all your talent and time into it, the rewards will come. But to do something simply because of those rewards is to fail." 

Ron Kitchen had many who dramatically impacted his life from Ewing Kauffman in an exchange he had with him at the ball field to his mother's best friend to a good friend who mentored him into business.  In his words, "Most people want to be asked to mentor, whether it’s officially or unofficially. They’re willing to give you a little bit of themselves to help if they believe you’re honest and genuinely trying to use that to move forward. I’ve never had anybody who I asked for help and mentorship who turned me down, and I don’t think I’ve ever turned anybody down either." 

The key factor with these leaders is they don't forget their roots nor the people who helped them emerge into their leadership. They don't take all the credit for being "self-made" they acknowledge those around them who they paid attention, listened to and learned from.

There were a few people in my life who showed me not to take no for an answer. Jim, an early mentor and teacher told me I could hugely impact the world if I just gave myself the permission. David told me "no" had no business being in my vocabulary. And Paul told me to go out and start my own firm as I was making a name for myself way back when and I had a choice to either make it for the consortium I was affiliated with or myself.  I listened. The rest is history.

When I was talking at Catalyst University I challenged the people in the room to find others who can help them make their dreams a reality. Everything knows something about life and living that we don't.  Ask them for their guidance and help and give the same back. Do it without any expectations of anything in return and you'll get back more than you imagined.

Clients often call and ask if I might speak to their kids who are going away to university. I always say yes and hope that they'll help someone some day who's in the same boat. Next week I'm donating my time to teach at a local high school. This is the age when dreams are formed and if I can light a small light in the hearts and minds of these students, it's worth every minute and then some.

How are you going to reach out and pay your leadership forward? Before you start telling yourself (and others) that you're no one special or have nothing to share, think again. You just have to think deeper. In the day and age where social media makes it so easy to reach out and connect, your impact can go a long way to helping many realize their goals and dreams.

Just do what matters.

A Catalyst for Learning

Caring Doesn't Cost Anything. Not caring does. Caring continues to grow a community and that was tangible at Catalyst University in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
 
Speaking at Catalyst University was an eye opener for me in many respects. Hopefully you'll excuse the pun once I share my own learning because of this powerful event. 
 
Caring for community and the people within it is a driving force behind the leaders in Kalamazoo. What Southwest Michigan First does in bringing Catalyst University to the community is create an extraordinary 'container' within which one can shift their thinking, percolate on possibilities, benefit from the great minds and huge hearts in the room and, in turn, start "doing differently".
 
As a Coach, my job is to help people think differently, and view themselves differently. Asking the questions like "What don't you know that you need to know? Who don't you know who you need to know?"seemed to really resonate as I had quite a few conversations around the edges of Catalyst (breaks, lunch and post). People were sharing their interpretations of that and how they were going to integrate what I shared with them into their worlds.
 
Many picked my brain to see how they could integrate the models I use in my group and team work into their organizations and teams. And many thanked me for sticking around to have these conversations and to honor them by doing so. For me that's a given as in all the years I've been speaking and guest lecturing I will always stay around so the people in the room can connect the dots and have their questions answered. I never want to be so busy as to be able to stick around and get to talk with the people who take their precious time to hear me speak. My learning continues to be about talking with people as opposed to at them.
 
I love connecting with people through their stories; through conversations. Even when I'm on stage I want to see their responses, what's engaging them, exciting them and what might push their buttons. All creates shifts. My learning this particular time was difficult to say the least. I walked on stage, turned to the almost 600 people in the room and couldn't see a thing. Not only couldn't I connect with the people in the room, even visually, I couldn't see the monitors, timer, the video when it showed… I could hear it but couldn't see it. I was completely blinded by the lights. Because of the eye glasses I wear, my height and the positioning of the lights, I couldn't see anything. My first reaction was almost one of panic. My second was being grateful that I decided not to use the slides as I wouldn't have been able to see and speak to them. I spoke from the heart and shared some reality check questions with the people in the room. I learned that one can operate as much on instinct as preparation. What I do is as much who I am as a profession. That served me well. 

My second lesson was if I am completely focused on the people and not myself, then I could stay centered. That worked until towards the end when I asked myself how I was going to walk off stage without being able to see. Thankfully, once I turned away from the lights I could see enough to navigate the stairs. Once I was back stage in dim lights, my sight came back and off I went into a great conversation / interview. There would be time to process what just happened when I got home. I didn't want my personal experience to interfere with the people coming over to talk with me and the fabulous conversation I had about what I'll be doing with the future leaders when I return to Kalamazoo next month. My biggest lesson was how I will never again assume that the setup for a speaking engagement will work for me. That was something I took for granted at every talk. Now I'll check out the stage and position of the lights so this never happens again. The lights I want to see are in the eyes of those I'm talking to.
 
Someone asked me how they can pay their leadership forward. My answer is to open your minds to truly listening to what others bring to the table no matter what their age, title or position. Let them know what you plan to do to honor them in sharing their ideas with you. Help them make their ideas a reality.
 
Speak to them based on their story, not yours. Share possibilities with them, connect them to people who will help make their dreams happen and the ripple effect of your leadership will go well beyond your knowing.
 
We are the center of a circle, the circumference determined by our circle of influence. Join with other people and the circles and possibilities are endless.
 
At the end of Catalyst, Ron Kitchen, CEO of Southwest Michigan First (Leaders, Their Stories, Their Words, Chapter 2) asked everyone to answer the following questions. I'm sharing them with you (and my own answers) so you can answer them and positively impact your world.
 
1.    What am I personally passionate about?
Supporting people to achieve their level of excellence and to positively impact the world, even one person at a time.
 
2.    What needs to happen to bring results to my passion?

Teaching more, speaking more….working with students to help them see their leadership. Supporting other 'game changers' in their worlds. When we partner with others who have their own broad circles the impact is exponentially larger than our own no matter what our global footprint is.

When my book was formally launched end of November, 100 copies came in with damaged covers. I had to rip them off and send them back to the publisher for them to figure out what went wrong in the printing. They told me to do whatever I wanted with the books and that I could dispose them. I refused. Even though they were "naked" books they had value.

I sent a broadcast out through Twitter and my FaceBook asking locals for names of people who ran leadership programs in the high schools. I contacted them and because of the great responses, starting this month, I will be going into some of the local high schools with my "naked" books. I will be giving them to the students, doing personality profiling with them, and asking them to choose one story they will work on in triads and come back with their learning and action because of them. I'll spend a day with them up front, then go back towards the end of the program to see where the shifts have occurred. I will be donating my time and giving back to my own community.

I will continue to support the TED Fellows (which, by the way we do pro bono) and the Ronald McDonald Houses as we lived in one on and off for 18 years. I will also mentor 2 rising stars to help them evolve and continue implementing reverse mentoring programs in my clients' organizations.

3.    What can I commit to do today to make my passion a reality?
To remember to do what matters.
 
I commit to keeping the spirit of Kalamazoo and love of community and the people within it as a driving force in all I do, whether within Kalamazoo or elsewhere in the world, to always remember that people are behind everything we do and as someone who goes into communities, organizations, companies,  governments, and political offices, to be a steward and remember the basic tenet of stewardship which is "To do no harm".
 
And to always remember….no ceiling just sky.
 
I'd love to hear your ideas and action as to how you're going to dive into the deep end of what you're passionate about and make it happen.

The Journey and Birth of "Leaders"

Leaders: Their Stories, Their Words finally launched this past Wednesday. Through recent months we tossed around ideas for the launch, where it would be, and what we wanted to do. For those who come to book signings and launches, show up at a book store, stand in line to have your purchased book personalized, and perhaps have a few seconds with the author, it's a fleeting, impersonal experience that you might remember when you pick up the book to read it.

We wanted something more personal, a celebration of sorts. The launch was that and so much more...but I'll get back to that in a moment. Surprisingly, many of the people who attended asked me about the journey of writing this book, the around the edges story behind the book of stories. I wasn't expecting that.

Was it an easy journey? 
No.

Was it a memorable, lessons-learned one?
Definitely. So much so, that it almost warrants a book on its own to take you through the journey and birth of "Leaders". Bottom line is, I learned it's not only alright to ask for what you want rather than have to live with what you think you can get when you publish but it's mandatory. A book takes a lot of time, focus, energy and commitment. It might not be the most perfect book but it's an expression of you and what you want to bring to light to the rest of the world. It's your voice in print. I know I will do this differently the next time around.

It was a journey of twists and turns, roadblocks and delays, missed deadlines, commitments not honoured, celebrating milestones, and heated debates - the full spectrum of highs and lows. I had to stand firm with my first publisher on the language that was used as these were conversations in our words, not a series of crafted, perfectly constructed sentences which were always grammatically correct. Let's face it. When was the last time you had a conversation with someone and worried about sentence structure and punctuation?

I also stood firm on the spelling, which probably drove my copy-editor batty as I insisted if I were speaking, and speaking to a Canadian leader, the spelling had to be in Canadian English and when speaking to an American, my words had to be in Canadian spelling and theirs in US. The spell check on the computer lit up like fireworks. Honouring cultures is critical to me and in my work. This is a small fraction of how that manifests itself. There were many heated discussions about terminology. Where I grew up in Montreal, we often use words that are direct translations from French, although I'm an Anglophone. So you might hear me say "Open (or close) the lights" rather than turn them on or off and other terms such as "Go to the cash" to pay for something. I'm still not sure how others say it but I insisted I leave it in as that was what I said in the conversation. I constantly found myself telling my editor / publisher "These are our words, not yours." Too often I found the magic of the conversations compromised for the sake of ensuring perfect grammar or sentence structure. I had to fight to protect it.

Finally, due to delays and capacity issues my publisher was dealing with, it was time to sever that working relationship and move on. Was the book going to go to print? This labour of love was in jeopardy. I had to make some tough decisions not to mention do rewrites and design changes if this book would ever get out.

Well it did. After more than 2 actually closer to 3 years of delays and unmet commitments, many lessons learned, some, thanks to Seth Godin's reality check questions around delivering, shipping, commitments, what are we willing to put up with etc., it was ready to go. Now what? I called my son who pointed me in a direction of Copper Canary editing (they are a gift), another suggestion from a colleague to call CreateSpace (Amazon) to self-publish and within 48 hours turnaround time, this book, with its new cover, layout, and edits was being reviewed. Another 36 hours later, a proof arrived at my door. A few more edits and format changes and off it went to print.

A mere week later it was out on Amazon and Barnes & Noble and this book was born.

Like many births, this one wasn't easy but oh, was it worth it!

We celebrated. The location was perfect...even its name "Play" reflected the atmosphere we wanted to create for the event. We talked, ate, reminisced, shared....clients met other clients, and family and friends got a taste of what it is I do through the words of a short reading and through the others who spoke.

So what's next? I'll continue having these conversations. Everyone has a story all their own which shapes who they are today. I'll be using the book to work with high school students in leadership programs to help them see their leadership through the eyes of these incredible stories. I'll be speaking at Catalyst University in Michigan in January on sustainable leadership, how to pay your success forward,and group coaching some of the community's identified rising stars. I'll be guest lecturing at the post graduate level and speaking at conferences and workshops to bring Human-Based Leadership perspectives to the business, government and technology worlds...arenas which often struggle with the human or soft skills aspect of leadership. And I am pondering over what to write next.

What form that writing will take is yet to be determined. I prefer conversations with people rather than lecturing or speaking at them. So let's talk. Tell me your stories and through them, let's see your Human-Based Leadership emerge.