I recently came across a website entitled “The Seditionist” containing the writings of Louis Beam. Wikipedia defines the term Sedition as “overt conduct, such as speech and organisation that is deemed by the legal authority to tend toward insurrection against the established order.” Beam describes that The Seditionist as follows:

“a quarterly journal of Seditionist thought was my response to the government for placing me on trial for Sedition against the U.S. government. It was published from the time of my release from jail in 1988 until 1992.”

I was somewhat surprised by the article “Precepts of Leadership” as it seems to have everything to do with being a leader and nothing to do with sedition…

1. The most important principle of leadership is to lead by example. If at all possible, a leader should have already done that which he will ask others to do.
2. The best leaders, more often than not, “come up through the ranks.” They lead by example and by experience.
3. An indispensable principle is that the leader believes absolutely in the cause for which he is to fight. The devotion of a leader is transferred to his men
4. A leader must not observe, but rather share with his men that which they are to endure. Leadership does not consist of commanding, but of leading.
5. The man who will not do himself, that which he asks others to do, is a commander, not a leader.
6. There is no room for the theorist in a good leader. His successes are measured by accomplishments, not by theories. Good ideas are those that work, all others are for speculators.
7. Leaders are not given respect, they earn it. If there is no respect from the ranks, then the leader must look to himself for the answer as to why.
8. The man who after serious thought and deliberation envisions himself a leader, usually is not, or he would already be leading instead of contemplating doing so.
9. There are men who seem to be “born leaders,” as well as men who are born leading. The former possess a natural ability and talent from the beginning, the latter by training and experience.
10. A leader is not an island unto himself, he understands people and what motivates them. Praise and recognition is given by him to men who are successful, concern and help to those who fail. Men in the ranks are always given a second chance to prove themselves. No man who has given it his all should be judged harshly upon a single incident that may have been subject to the vicissitudes of life.
11. The hardest task for a competent leader is to delegate authority. Doing so, where possible, is what makes him superior to those leaders that cannot.
12. A truly brilliant leader is always looking for his replacement.

by Louis Beam, Reprinted from The Seditionist

Several years ago the term “leadership” became fashionable. Leaders were seen as people that “Do the right thing.” Indeed, I have blogged many, many times on the need to act with integrity and transparency such that your followers trust you to do what’s right for them and the firm over your own personal interests. My view is that people follow leaders with integrity and vision.

However, I recently read an article on BusinessWeek by Henry Mintzberg, Cleghorn Professor of Management Studies at McGill University entitled “The Best Leadership Is Good Management” and it raises some interesting points.

Mintzberg asserts that separating “Doing the right things” from “Doing things right” doesn’t work in practice and that we now have “too many leaders who are detached from the messy process of managing.” Mintzberg’s reinforces his assertion through a couple of interesting scenarios and it is difficult not to see the wisdom of his words.

Having read the article a couple of times, I now think that Leaders are people the “Do the right things the right way.”

The best leadership is inextricably linked to the best management.  

Often it is the little things that impact how others around you perceive your ability to lead. There are a few basic rules that, in my opinion, go a long way towards helping set the right perceptions:

1. Be accountable – It is not always possible to get everything right every time.  Playing the blame game is a sure sign that you are not a leader.
2. Wear your Integrity proudly – Always be truthful. Nothing demolishes your credibility like being caught out telling lies, being insincere or simply not being genuine. Once you have lost your credibility, getting it back is an almost impossible task.
3. Make commitments and deliver – If you say you are going to do something… do it. I find it fascinating that simply following through and doing what you say you are going to do seems to result in an astonishingly good reaction.
4. Don’t just listen… hear – Give your full attention, question and clarify, be specific in your answer to any questions, then take appropriate action. Failure to hear the message and act appropriately will eat away at the trust others have in you.
5. Be approachable – It is important to understand the difference between being friends and being friendly. Good leaders are friendly; they are approachable by everyone around them but they are not necessarily friends with them.
6. Don’t complain – People that constantly complain are losers. Good leaders have the ability to fix things.

Are you setting the right perceptions in those around you?

I recently read an interesting article by Les McKeown on MyVenturePad entitled The 3 inescapable characteristics of growth-oriented leaders. In the article Les states that he sees the top three growth indicators as:

1. A respect for, and knowledge of what happened in the past, but with zero interest in blame.
2. Highly developed pattern recognition skills.
3. Constant but (relatively) low-level self-competitiveness.

For me, item one is obvious and can’t be argued against. Similarly, item three in the list is relatively straight forward. After all, if you can’t stay focused on the vision and if you let your personal interests win over the organisation’s interests then growth will naturally take a back seat.

Item two in Les’ list intrigues me. Les states that

“Every successfully growth-oriented leader I’ve ever met had the capacity to see persistent patterns in both data and accumulated actions. They also tend to be good at the use of metaphor (which is a necessary skill to turn their pattern recognition into someone else’s vision).”

I think Les is missing the point. Simply having the ability to spot patterns and describe them, using good metaphors is, in my opinion, not enough to drive growth. For me, a growth leader must be capable of forging new paths, creating new patterns, leading us into new territory.

What’s your opinion?

I urge you to read Les’ article and comment as I am fascinated by his observations.

If you want to see more of Les go to his website here http://www.predictablesuccess.com or follow him on Twitter here https://twitter.com/#!/lesmckeown

This post is a reblog of an excellent article posted on The Process Excellence Network and is published with the kind permission of the author Debashis Sarkar.

A lot is written about process excellence, writes columnist Debashis Sarkar, but one area that has not been covered in much detail  is what actually makes a great process excellence leader? It’s not about the tools, he says. Here are the eight habits of effective leaders.

For many of us being a process excellence leader is about mastering the tools and attaining certifications in the domain of six sigma (belts), lean (master), TOC (Jonah) etc. While these skills are required, what makes a successful process excellence leader is demonstrating skills and behaviours beyond the methods. It’s not the technical skills but the adaptive skills that makes a PEX Leader successful.

Here are what I consider to be the eight habits of effective Process Excellence leadership:

Habit #1: Ability to Zoom-in and Zoom-Out

Leaders must be able to zoom in and out

Leaders need the ability to zoom-in and zoom-out: zoom-in to get into the core of an issue and zoom-out to see the larger picture. It’s essential to have this focus so that when looking at a problem (or an opportunity, as I like to call them), to understand the strategic imperatives of business and which processes need to change to make an improvement. You need to be able to quickly see how the details of individual processes connect up with the big-picture of the business. In everything that they do, PEX Leaders need to be system thinkers who see problem solving in the context of the larger business system and how this affects other parts of the business. This not only helps ensure that improvements in one area aren’t negatively affecting another, but also ensures that all process improvement work is supporting the strategic objectives of the business.

Ultimately, as I wrote in an earlier column – How to tell if you’re a process centric organization – leaders of process excellence should be able ascertain how the strategic and tactical efforts in process improvement will impact the overall performance of the company. A key deliverable of a PEX Leader is to script a holistic improvement roadmap for the next couple of years that enables a company to achieve its strategic vision.

Habit #2: Ability to engage

Process improvement is as much about convincing people to change as it is going around and changing processes. The ability to engage other people, therefore, is essential. Process Excellence Leaders must be able to persuade the CEO and other senior leaders to adopt process excellence practices for business improvement. This is about being able to sell performance-enhancement ideas to leaders based on the explicit & implicit needs of the business, and then being able to support them start-to-finish to catalyze the changes necessary.

The key word here is “catalyze” which is about the business leader owning the deployment while the PEX Leader acts as a coach. Leaders of process improvement need to be comfortable both with C-level executives as well as teams at middle & junior management. Senior leaders look at him as a trusted partner while people at junior and middle management look at him as an inspirational leader who is able to motivate them to adopt process-practices for eliminating some of the deep chronic issues that they could be facing. The PEX Leader should be able to provide visibility to teams on how their efforts impact the strategic objectives of the company.

Habit #3: Ability to manage change

This is about treating a process excellence rollout as a change program and doing everything to make sure it sticks in the firm. It includes getting the organizations’ attention to the process excellence agenda, catalyzing the required sense of urgency and gaining true buy-in by winning over the hearts and minds of people.

The Process Excellence Leader does not keep the people who oppose the process agenda out of his way but proactively gets them to the table to understand their concern and even allows them to find holes in the way he is proposing the deployment. PEX Leaders need to treat those who attack us with respect and engages with them to allay their concerns. We are able to successfully manage a wide-range of behaviours that oppose / raise doubts about the process agenda. One of endeavours of the PEX Leader should be to work with the CEO to build a change-ready company that is able to wade through the changes in the environment.

Habit #4: Ability to understand financials

Process Excellence Leaders must understand financials

Process Excellence leaders need to demonstrate to the business the financial value of the work the team is undertaking but also understand how process improvement work affects the financial of the company.

PEX Leaders need to understand not just basic financial statements but also the relationship between them and the derived ratios. For example, if a cost-income ratio is a key metric tracked by top management in a bank, the PEX Leader works towards finding which processes can improve this ratio.

Conversely, if there are financial measures that top management should be tracking, but aren’t, the PEX Leader should be able to highlight this and argue why a particular measure is important and what impact process improvement will have on the measure.
The ability to help others become better is a key skill which PEX Leaders should master. We are in the business of not only improving processes but also helping to improve businesses. A key part of that is ensuring that we are building up capabilities and skills in others in the business. PEX Leaders should be able to coach those in the process improvement team but also those who are not direct reports as well as peers and top management of the firm.

Habit #5: Ability to Coach

To know more on coaching I would suggest you go through my earlier column: 13 Essentials of Coaching for Process Improvement

Habit #6:Ability to understand customers and spot trends

Ultimately, we’re in business because we have customers. When customers become the centre-stage of a process excellence endeavour the undertaking gains a greater magnitude of importance – everyone in the business can and should have a sense of how their role serves the end customer. A process excellence initiative can die when primarily targeted towards internally focused objectives such as cost cutting, efficiency gains, etc. while a process excellence journey is long lasting when it is designed around customers.

PEX Leaders work towards improving the value delivered to the customer.  We must work with other leaders in the company to design a suitable value proposition for the customer and make sure that each part of the business works in tandem to deliver the customer promise. We need to keep an eye on the emerging trends that impact customers and help the CEO to design a business-strategy with the customer at the centre.

Habit #7: Ability to embed capability

Get your best and brightest involved in process improvement

The real power of process improvement starts when business units have the skills necessary to make improvements and changes to their role.

Part of our role is to put ourselves out of a job by building capability and embedding required skills within business units so that they can pursue the process improvement efforts for enhancing the performance of the business. This includes making sure that best and brightest employees are involved in process improvement, teams get time to carry out improvement work and they get recognized for accomplishing business outcomes by using the power of process. Excellence in process excellence work needs to be made a criteria for career growth. Each of the business units and functions should have adequate number of change agents in improvement approaches such as Lean, Six Sigma, BPM, Triz, Small Group Activities, JIT etc.

Habit #8: Ability to guide teams on tools and techniques

A PEX Leader should be adept in the key improvement approaches and should be in a position to guide teams when required. While it helps to have deep knowledge in process improvement practices, you shouldn’t worry if you’re not a master of any of them. What is really required of PEX Leaders is the ability to ask the right questions and understand the technical output of teams. Remember, when the job of a PEX Leader is to engage and provide strategic inputs, it’s fine if the PEX Leader is a bit “tool deficient”. You need deep experience in change management.

Do you agree that these are the eight habits essential for PEX Leaders? Is there anything I’ve left out? Join the discussion by leaving a comment.

Building a great team is never easy. The challenge when hiring staff is to find people with the right skills, personalities and attitudes to fit your firm’s culture that are aligned with your vision, values and mission.

Most hiring issues occur because you look for cheap people and you don’t have a clear understanding of your vision, values and mission. Cutting corners will undoubtedly cause bigger issues downstream. Here are some things to think about:

1. If you can’t afford to hire someone don’t hire them. It is always better to outsource projects and pay contractor rates for the duration. Hiring someone means you have a commitment to pay them even if the work dries up!
2. Hire specialists to specific jobs rather than generalists. Specialists are good at what they do. Generalists are not! If you are looking to grow your business you will need people that are capable and credible.
3. It is not always a good idea to hire someone just because you know them. There needs to be objectivity and accountability in the workplace and friends/family almost invariably expect a different standard of treatment. Think about it, how difficult would it be to discipline or fire your spouse, one of your children or your best friend?
4. Never hiring someone because you feel sorry for them or because you want to “help them out.” Being a “Good Samaritan” probably won’t help your business so look to hire someone who can add value to the firm. Experience tells me that they will end up looking to take advantage of what will inevitably turn into a bad situation.
5. Always hire from the bottom up. Again, this is about hiring capable and credible people to do specific jobs. Hiring top-down will tend to lead to you on-boarding generalists.
6. Make sure you have clearly defined roles for all new hires. By doing so you will avoid hiring non-productive people in badly defined roles and you will start attracting the kind of people who will add real value to the firm.
7. Always do the jobs you are good at even if you simply hate doing them. Never hire someone in to a role just because you don’t like doing it. There will always be other roles that are more important and will provide a better return on investment. Always look to hire in to those roles first.

Clearly, once you have hired your star team, growing and retaining them will become the next issues. I will address these issues in a future article.

I have written over a hundred articles for my blog. The majority of articles have been focused on leadership. You might, by now, have guessed that I am passionate about the quality of leaders today. I have read hundreds of articles, books and commentaries describing leadership and what it takes to be an outstanding leader and there are many varied views on the subject. Some claim that a great leader possesses particular characteristic traits; others expound that it is embodied in the leader’s personality. I have gone as far as to indicate that it is how the leader behaves towards his team that is of most importance. Whatever your view, I think you will all agree that outstanding leaders all share the following:

1. A clear vision: Leaders are able to paint a picture of the future that is both abstract (providing the imagination) and concrete (providing the incentive to climb on and drive to achieve it).
2. A strong mission: Leaders know what their mission is. They have a clear understanding of why their organisation exists and they ensure that every member of their team understands and identifies with the mission.
3. Expert communication skills: Outstanding leaders are natural communicators. They have the ability to easily and effectively convey ideas and abstract concepts such that they quickly and completely capture the imaginations of their audience.
4. SMART goals: Leaders set goals that are aligned with the mission and vision but that are achievable and measurable so that their team knows they are being successful in their drive to achieve the vision.
5. A high degree of competency: Leaders are be seen by their internal team and their external team (advisors, stakeholders, customers, etc.) as highly competent leaders or as experts in their field. If their competency is in question then it will be very much more difficult for them to be respected, admired and followed. Clearly a leader’s competency can grow with experience but in the initial stages it is often necessary to rely on their technical expertise in the field.
6. Strong Interpersonal skills: Successful leaders are naturally comfortable relating to the people around them. They easily create rapport regardless of whether they are introverted or extroverted. They are seen as approachable, likeable, motivational and comfortable in their position which makes it much easier for their team to interact with them
7. A strong team: You can’t be great at everything. If you were, you wouldn’t be a leader because you wouldn’t need a team to lead! Strong leaders understand this and build strong teams around them with experienced and capable individuals that augment their skill set. I firmly believe that this is what sets outstanding leaders apart from others. The difficulty some fledgling leaders have is that they struggle to admit they lack particular abilities and therefore flounder when creating their team.
8. A “can do” attitude: Success is built on achievement and achievement is the strongest motivator. Leaders that lead and direct with a clear vision and attainable goals are able to achieve their goals. When leaders are successful their credibility increases and the level of motivation across their team increases.
9. A strong ability to inspire: Everyone needs someone to look up to for direction, guidance, and motivation. The leader needs to be that person. Usually strong teams are comprised of highly self-motivated individuals. However, there are always times when inspiration is required and the leader must possess the ability to deliver that inspiration through their words and deeds.
10. A driving ambition: Resting on your laurels is bad for morale and leadership credibility. The whole team needs to be constantly striving to achieve and nothing drives this behaviour more than the ambition displayed by their leader. When the leader is seen as someone who works to achieve ever higher goals their team will be encouraged to do likewise. Conversely, if low performance is acceptable to the leader then the team will reduce their performance.

Do you share these views or am I speaking complete nonsense?

Have I missed anything?

How do you measure up as a leader?

Over the years I have met many, many people that are considered, or consider themselves, leaders. I have seen and heard may words used to describe these leaders including fearless, charismatic, focused, intuitive, thoughtful, assertive, aggressive, confident and eccentric. While I can honestly say that I have never seen any one person with all of these qualities, they do, in my humble opinion, characterise much what makes an outstanding leader.

Personally, I try to live up to seven qualities:

1. Communication
   I believe strong communication is key. Good communications is required to keep your team informed, motivated and focused on your vision for the future.
2. Honesty
   I try to be completely honest with everyone around me. For me, this is about personal integrity. I firmly believe that compromising one’s integrity is the start of a very slippery downward slide.
3. Vision
   I believe that a leader must look beyond the immediate and know where his business is going. This is a basic quality that is needed to move the company forward.
4. Pragmatism
   There is no point in being indecisive. I believe that it is important to make a decision based on the information available and then drive it through. The key to being a successful pragmatist is to ensure the best possible information is available.
5. Motivation
   I believe that a good leader must always be motivated to achieve, even against the odds. A good leader must also continually motivate his team. This is especially important in crisis situations as morale can be hardest hit. It is the good leaders that are able to motivate their teams to continue to fight against the odds.
6. Consistency
   I try to be consistent in my approach and my expectations. I believe that leaders are ineffective when they are inconsistent.
7. Open to criticism
   I believe that there are problem solvers and problem identifiers. I try to be a problem solver and I try to listen and act on constructive criticism. After all, I don’t know all the answers and I am certainly not perfect.

What qualities do you try to live up to? 

Great leaders have the ability create a sense of self-belief in their followers. Teams that achieve the seemingly impossible, Lance Armstrong’s return from critical illness to win the Tour de France 7 times for example, all have one thing in common – an unerring sense of self-belief.

Great leaders know and understand that this self-belief, this confidence to believe in something bigger and better must be earned. It is the leader’s job to help the team earn their self-belief.

Teams develop real confidence when they experience success and are able to attribute that success to the work they did.  If they don’t feel they’ve done anything remarkable they will not believe they can achieve the impossible.

My approach it creating a sense of confidence and self-belief is:

1. I look to hire the most talented people I can find that are also personally aligned with our values and vision
2. I set big expectations for great achievements from the outset
3. I always look to reward and celebrate successes
4. I make the time to constantly remind the team of their true capabilities.
5. I always push for a little more.

How do you instil the confidence to believe?

I once believed that great leaders oozed charisma. I saw them as being extroverts with golden tongues that smoothly coerced those around them in to doing their bidding, following them, like the children of Hamlin blindly followed the Pied Piper.

Silly really, I must have been so young and impressionable!

Many of the best leaders I know are introverted, often subdued.

I realise now that leadership is all about influence. Being trustworthy and dependable is usually enough to give others the confidence to follow you on your journey.

Are you an introverted or extrovert leader?

What problems does this bring for you?