Why the Best Leaders Are the Best Leaders?

A great piece By Dr. John C. Maxwell which I thought deserved to be shared:
From 1996 to 2007, manager Joe Torre led the New York Yankees to the playoffs every year - winning an astounding 17 series in the post-season. Over those same 12 years, the Los Angeles Dodgers did not win a single playoff series. This past season, Torre departed New York to coach the Dodgers. The result? The Dodgers won their first post-season series in 20 years, while the Yankees missed the playoffs altogether.

Ask Yankees and Dodgers fans, and they will tell you that Joe Torre's leadership matters. However, they may not be able to tell you exactly why Joe Torre is an excellent leader. What's true of the fans in New York and Los Angeles is true for many of us. We experience the effects of leadership without understanding the cause. In this article, I hope to make plain why the best leaders are the best leaders. In a nutshell, remarkable leaders give their best to their people, and get the best from their people. Let's look at how this happens.

The Best Leaders Give Their Best to Their People By...

1) GROWING

People naturally follow leaders they respect as being more advanced than they are. For this reason, personal growth is directly proportional to influence. If you desire to gain followers, then pay the price of getting better. To give people your best, you have to elevate your leadership capacity. Consider the metaphor of walking up a narrow staircase - you can only go as fast as the person in front of you. When leaders stop growing, they quit climbing and impede the progress of everyone following them. However, when leaders grow, they ascend the stairs and create space for those behind them to climb higher. Personal growth involves challenging yourself, and pushing beyond the realm of comfort. When is the last time you did something for the first time? How long has it been since you felt in over your head?

2) SERVING

"Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile."

~ Albert Einstein

Serving others is an attitude issue. Unfortunately, many leaders operate under a king-of-the- hill mentality. They attempt to pull down anyone above them in order to secure the top spot for themselves. In doing so, they clutch at power, grapple for control of company resources, and strive to dominate others. Seeing relationships as win-lose propositions, they ultimately burn bridges and isolate themselves. The best leaders take an entirely different approach. Rather than dragging down anyone who threatens their position, they extend a hand to lift the performance of teammates and coworkers. They function with a mindset of abundance as opposed to an attitude of scarcity, and they wield their influence to prop others up rather than to elevate themselves. Over time, they are honored for the contributions they have made to the lives around them. All leaders serve. Sadly, some serve only themselves. Serving is a motives issue, and the crux of the matter boils down to a simple question: "Who?" Does a politician serve the public or his pocketbook? Does a CEO serve to benefit her shareholders or to support her lifestyle? The best leaders set a tone by serving and prove they are deserving of being out in front.

3) MODELING

Growing leaders have something to share; serving leaders have something to give; modeling leaders have something to show. As V.J. Featherstone said, "Leaders tell, but never teach, until they practice what they preach." The best leaders embody their values. Their passion exudes from every pore and demands respect.

The Best Leaders Get the Best from Their People By...

1) LISTENING

The smartest leaders realize the limitations of their wisdom, and they listen to their people in order to capture invaluable insights. However, leaders don't just listen to gain knowledge, they also listen to give their people permission: permission to challenge the process, permission to test assumptions; and permission to take risks. Nothing turns off an up-and-coming leader like the deaf ear of a superior. The best leaders don't simply listen to incoming ideas; they proactively draw them out of their people. They listen actively, not passively.

2) RELATING

Leaders touch a heart before they ask for a hand. To touch a heart, a leader has to be open to disclosing his or her identity by sharing personal stories and owning up to professional weaknesses. Mysterious or aloof leaders may be successful decision-makers, but they won't get the heartfelt loyalty that comes from authentic relationships. As simple as it sounds, making a person feel known correlates powerfully to their job satisfaction. In fact, Patrick Lencioni lists anonymity as one of the top indicators of a miserable job. Leaders dignify their people by studying their interests, learning about their families, and finding out their hobbies. Conscious of the power of connection, the best leaders refuse to be barricaded inside of an office, and they take responsibility for relating with others on a regular basis.

3) TEACHING

Gifted teachers have a way of making students out of disinterested bystanders. The best leaders have an infectious thirst for knowledge, and they take pride in cultivating knowledge of their craft and awareness of their industry. A leader's teaching ability depends upon ongoing personal growth. As Howard Hendricks said, "If you stop growing today, you stop teaching tomorrow."

4) DEVELOPING

The best leaders understand the differences between training people for tasks and developing people to be better leaders.

Training

Focus is on the job

Adds value to specific things

Helpful for a short time

Changes a performance

Developing

Focus is on the person

Adds value to everything

Helpful for a lifetime

Change the performer

The best leaders view their people as appreciable assets and prioritize investing in the talent on their teams.

5) MOTIVATING

After one of my presentations, an audience member approached me who was visibly indignant about my speech. "Why is motivation last on the list?" he demanded. "Well," I replied, "because if you listen, relate, teach, and develop your people, then they will be motivated!" Sustained motivation comes by creating the right environment for your people and by doing the right things consistently to nurture them. Consider a flower. It cannot grow in the Arctic; it requires a climate conducive to growth. Yet, even in the right environment, the flower must be planted in hospitable soil, exposed to sunlight, watered, and freed of weeds.
Review:

The Best Leaders Give Their Best to Their People by... 1. Growing 2. Serving 3. Modeling

The Best Leaders Get the Best From Their People by... 1. Listening 2. Relating 3. Teaching 4. Developing 5. Motivating

About the Author

John C. Maxwell is an internationally recognized leadership expert, speaker, and author who has sold over 16 million books. His organizations have trained more than 2 million leaders worldwide. Dr. Maxwell is the founder of EQUIP and INJOY Stewardship Services. Every year he speaks to Fortune 500 companies, international government leaders, and audiences as diverse as the United States Military Academy at West Point, the National Football League, and ambassadors at the United Nations. A New York Times , Wall Street Journal , and Business Week best-selling author, Maxwell was named the World's Top Leadership Guru by Leadershipgurus. net. He was also one of only 25 authors and artists named to Amazon.com's 10th Anniversary Hall of Fame. Three of his books, The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership , Developing the Leader Within You , and The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader have each sold over a million copies.

Organisational Communication

Easy and effective ways to communicate symbolically include using metaphors, songs, poems, quotes and jokes. Mementos, awards and logos are also part of symbolic communication as they allow employees to connect a fact with an emotion or sentiment.

For instance, an employee who receives a letter of commendation on the organisation’ s letterhead, knows that his contribution (fact) has been appreciated (sentiment) by the management.

Leadership communication needs to inspire, and numbers alone do not do this.Communication steeped in emotions too fails to drive the desired response. Moreover, purely emotional communication has no place in a business environment.What makes an effective leadership communication is a blend of facts and feelings.

Speak For Smiles - K.V. Kamath

Reproduced from a memorable Interview of Mr. K.V. Kamath conducted by Ms. Shireen Bhan, CNBC TV18 for “Speak For Smiles”, a series of interactions with eminent personalities of India Inc. at Welingkar Institute of Management Development & Research in Mumbai. The guests choose to donate the proceeds of the function to their chosen cause for charity via Toofles Foundation.

Some of the insights shared by Mr. K.V. Kamath during his initial interaction with Ms. Shireen Bhan – The statements would be in first person as delivered by him:

• It is certainly not important to be academically on top of the class.


• Leadership comes from across the class.


• I was never in the top 5% of the class.

• Nowadays, some of us have a fetish for data. It is however, not the data but the analytics that is more important.

• Debunking of pre set beliefs is critical

• Academic world needs to revisit the curriculum.

Eg: We studied trigonometry – never used in real life scenarios. But subjects like anthropology should be included in the system as it is greatly relevant across streams today.

• Young managers should guard against making “Mercenary Decisions”


Eg: My move from ICICI to Asian Development Bank


• Things that the young students / managers must keep in mind before changing jobs:

1. How well will I be able to leverage what I have learnt?


2. Leveraging skill sets should be the single most important agenda


3. What are the economic returns?


4. Where will this take me?

• Unlike what some B School students think, career charting doesn’t probably work that early on. You must keep 5 year targets (Personal 5 year plans).

• In early 30’s question yourself where do you see yourself by 40 everything then can be mapped.


Q - Biggest challenge is the transition from the B – School to the real world.


A – Need to realise the relevance of what is taught to what is relevant. At this stage “Unlearning” is critical. Analysis is not the only factor for decision making.


Gut Decisions are very important. By Gut Decision I don’t mean, a baseless decision. It means not overanalysing.

Process of Gut Decision Making:


1. Collection of relevant facts


2. Analysing available facts


3. You digest those facts and reach a perception


4. Hidden persuaders are at work – listen to them

5. Softer issues need to be taken into consideration too

• When just out of the B – School, young managers over zealously want to change their entire organisation. Change is very difficult. You can’t be driving change. Atrophy sets in.


• Atrophy and no change (stagnation) go hand in hand.
• Standardization is extremely important in organisations.


• No same style presentation. Different font size, colour schemes etc are key.


Q - How did you manage change – Making ICICI computer savvy?


A – • Golden Handshake – get rid of the people who are a detriment to your change. Structures and people, who cannot adapt to change, need to be weeded out.

• People, Structure & Processes – All need to change


• “Organisational Structure Change is worst than a root canal”

• Interesting Gut Decision: Eg – Madhavi Puri Buch came one day and said we have only 150 branches. Long lines to deposit cash. How can we avoid this?


Her solution was, Let’s give our customers envelopes. They can put money in it, drop it with a person in charge and get it stamped by the collecting authority – Convenience. KVK completely against it. Security issues. How do we tally if the customer hasn’t lied to us – claim to have deposited more, actual money less. Litigation issues etc. Madhavi was confident. Backed her.

Took gut decision, it worked wonders. It became a runaway success. Then the whole process was adopted by all banks across.

Q - What has been your biggest learning in your illustrious career?

A – 1. You must choose your mentor carefully – Initial grounding very important


2. Technology – Ability to integrate & leverage technology for business


3. Sensitivity to societal changes – India moving from $1000 per capita income to $2000 per capita. We need to study how China made that journey. There are great learnings there.


Q – India playing catch up to China we’re at 8.5% GDP growth what are your views?

A – There was never a better time to be born in India.


• We’re doubling our per capital incomes every 6 years


• I don’t believe much in the GDP figures that are spoken about. Let’s assume:


GDP (9%) + Unaccounted Growth (2%) + Unaccounted Growth in the form of Black Money (2%) = We are definitely growing at 13-15% plus.

How else can you justify automobile sales growth of 25% YOY in a 9% growing economy?

Q – What are your views on “Succession Planning” – Eg: Tata’s


A – • It should be a well thought out process


• Nurture & give opportunity to your people


• They leave because of perceived better opportunity


• When they leave, instead of ill – will, give them a pat on their back and say thanks for your contribution. They’ll never forget you.


• “Flipside of challenge is opportunity”


• Several cases where senior executives find themselves hitting the glass ceiling. All positions are blocked, what do I do?

• Corporate scenario is like a carom board. In a given structure everything is set, but you do not know what moves where, great learning there. Movement of people opens up the carom board. Understand the talent pool, when people move, others get opportunity. “People moving never bothers me” only because I know I have a back up team.

Q – What are your views on women joining the BODs?


A – Investors are certainly happy. It should be on merit. It should not be forced upon just because someone is of a certain gender. Merit should find its own place. Having said that, there is no job that a woman can’t do today. We must realise that we as a society are still not at equilibrium. It will improve dramatically in future.

Q – What have been some of your most difficult decisions?


A – • Technology based decisions – No precedent available. We used mainframe servers, 10% of the cost at that time 10 – 12 years ago no-one used them at that time.

• Moving from a project finance company to a retail company – Large consulting firm advised us against it. We observed that per capita incomes were moving from $500 to $1000. Insight – People need consumer credit – there was a huge vacant space – we spotted the opportunity. BOD support + ability to execute. You need execution ability.

Q – Is it lonely at the top?

A – Certainly, as the buck stops with you but you have to take certain decisions. Respect and popularity happen as a consequence of your actions. Hard task master.


Q – What are your views on CSR? Do you think it should be made mandatory?


A – Society has a fabric. Keeping the greater good in mind is important for the survival of the business in the long run. You must listen to your conscience – create win win situations. Maximise everyone’s interests. No need to make CSR mandatory as it is gathering momentum on its own. We need to create an enabling environment.


Q - Formula 1 Racing & business – relationship?


A – • Speed is important in both. You need to drive at your optimum speed but you cannot go just beyond. If you do, you’re going to have a really bad fall.


• Pit stops are the best example of what can all can be done in 4 seconds. It should be a benchmark for further innovations. It is unimaginable what optimum team work can achieve.


Q – Who are the leaders who have inspired you?

A – Jack Welch & Dhirubhai Ambani (approach to opportunities was interesting)

“When you change orbits, it always creates friction”


Q – Family run businesses and succession planning?


A – • Introspection by the companies is a must


• At least 3 levels of leadership pipeline should be created


• 2 leaders should be available for each position

• At the top – people should have atleast 10 years of a clear run. Ideal is 15.

• Outsiders can advise – end of the day, it’s an internal process.

No regrets on what he has achieved so far. There isn’t anything he’d like to change about the journey.