What's On Your Leadership Menu?
Ann Marie Kenitzer
Business Coach | Fractional COO | Integrator | Startup Advisor | Operationalizes Strategy | Transforms Businesses | Turns Ambiguity into Growth | Disruptor for Good
Leading á-La-Carte: ?Some Go-To Resources and Models
Just like tastes in food, everyone has their own favorites in books, resources, or quotes about leadership. There are as many references on leadership as there are restaurants and unique dishes or recipes. I like to consider leadership learning as pulling together that special á-la-carte combination that elevates insights and practices, like when everyone brings their favorite dish to a Friendsgiving dinner, or that collaborative blend of shared Tapas.
Leadership – the art of motivating a group of people to act toward achieving a common goal.
Leadership is an art, a continual learning journey, and is applied uniquely by each person. In this issue of Paradigm Tipping, I’m going to share some of my go-to leadership books and models, while providing my insights on how I see these triangulate around some synergistic foundational practices and mindsets.
Resources and Frameworks about “Being a Leader”
If we want to understand what it means at the core to be a leader, these books offer deep insights presented in a simple and holistic framework or metaphor.
“Leadership is a relationship between those who aspire to lead and those who choose to follow.” — Kouzes & Posner
The Leadership Challenge:?James Kouzes and Barry Posner have integrated over twenty-five years of research into a practical and straight-forward handbook to guide leaders along their journey by engaging in “Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership
"Real leadership involves inspiring people at all levels to serve something much bigger than themselves." — Paul Laudicina
The Radical Leap: A Personal Lesson in Extreme Leadership: Steve Farber’s engaging narrative story unwraps what it means to be an “extreme leader” established around the acronym LEAP … cultivate Love, generate Energy, inspire Audacity, and provide Proof.? Extreme leaders are motivated by a commitment of the heart, such as a cause, a principle, the customers they serve, or the people they work with, and are willing to take a stand for these and change the world.? They have an internal drive for action with a belief in people to do amazing things.? Extreme leaders are bold and courageous to break through constraints, and they live by actions that match their words, standing up for what is right and learning through failures and successes.
“Leadership is courageous, authentic influence that creates enduring value.” — Kevin Cashman
Leadership From The Inside Out: Becoming a Leader for Life.? Kevin Cashman presents a model with eight pathways to mastery as an ongoing and interrelated process to grow and become a whole leader.? He sees the leader and the person as one – “we lead by virtue of who we are.” Building mastery is a journey of reflections and applying practices to authentically bring our whole selves including strengths and vulnerabilities to influence and inspire going beyond existing boundaries in order to make a difference for the long-term.? The eight mastery pathways include: Personal, Story, Purpose, Interpersonal, Change, Resiliency, Being, and Coaching.
Leadership That Gets Results: Daniel Goleman’s classic Harvard Business Review article introduces 6 leadership styles used by executives, where four of these consistently have a positive effect on the organization climate and results.? These include Visionary Style that mobilizes people toward a vision, Affiliative Style that creates harmony and builds emotional bonds, Coaching Style that develops people for the future, and Democratic Style that forges consensus through participation. Leaders seamlessly integrate and apply each of these styles like clubs in a golf bag, depending on the situation.
Common Foundational Practices and Mindsets
In synthesizing the messages, insights, beliefs and practices across these books and articles, there are definitely some common themes.? There is consistently an element of leadership that is inward centered, the core of who a leader is and their drive to influence and change the world. Then there is aspect of leadership that manifests as energy, inspiration, and impact outwardly directed to influence others. ?And permeating all things and propelling leaders is their commitment to take a stand, and to the relationships and community they serve.
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I like simplifying things into a pattern or model, and above is my perspective for “Being a Leader”, that reflects the common themes among these expert leadership sources and references.? It starts with Leading with Heart & Relationships, as all things originate from individual passion shared and shaped with others to make a difference.? ?Then with an emphasis at an individual level, it means Being Authentic and the catalyst who outwardly Ignites Energy and Actions.? And at a team level, it means Being Bold and encouraging risk taking, while Inspiring a Vision for others to mobilize around. ??
“Great leaders multiply energy.” — Kevin Cashman
Assessments To Expand Awareness of Self and Team
Being a leader implies an intent to influence and enable others, followers. Hence being a leader is also about building community and teams
Personality type assessments like the Myer-Briggs Type Indicator, Enneagram, and DISC Profile use a self or administered questionnaire to match responses aligned into the “types or profiles” in their respective framework. The Myer-Briggs Type Indicator identifies 16 personality types and is based on Carl Jung’s work on the theory of psychological types. Enneagram describes patterns in how people interpret the world and manage their emotions aligned to nine personality types.? The DISC profile assessment is an acronym for the four personality profiles in its framework. These assessments can elucidate inherent behavior styles that may impact the team’s collaboration, trust, decision making, communication, and productivity.
“These are the two assumptions that guide the world’s best managers: 1. Each person’s talents are enduring and unique. ?2. Each person’s greatest room for growth is in the areas of his or her greatest strength.” — Don Clifton and Marcus Buckingham
However, in working with teams I prefer the CliftonStrengths, or previously called Strengthsfinder, inventory because it emphasizes uncovering and building from each members unique pattern of core talents and strengths, and isn’t about personality typing. It was invented by Don Clifton, based on Gallup’s 40 year study and over two million people on human strengths. The objective is to understand how to distinguish natural talents from what can be learned, provide a system for identifying dominant talents, and establish a common language represented by 34 talent themes. Each person’s top five most dominant themes are identified, enabling insights and opening dialogue on talent areas to develop and grow as strengths, whether for an individual or team. It also can highlight potential blind spots to be aware of, or potential gaps in the collective team’s talent base with respect to the business challenge and uncover areas to consider partnering or augmenting the team. ????
Some Go-To Leadership Resources:
I hope you consider exploring some of these resources I've shared, a few maybe familiar and some new, as part of your á-la-carte menu.?
Please share in the comments your go-to leadership books or references that we all should add to our leadership menu!
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