“Influencing others is a matter of disposition not position.”

John C. Maxwell, The 360 Degree Leader

How you show up is more important than where. A fully engaged person will be far more effective than a dud a few levels higher in the organization.

Do you know how you show up?

You better figure it out.

Your co-workers know.

The Global Human Capital Study, 2008 conducted by IBM noted that the primary workforce-related issues facing organizations are:

• Inability to rapidly develop skills to address current/future business needs almost 55%

• Lack of leadership capability about 35%

• Employee skills not aligned with current organizational priorities about 35%

Lack of adaptability is the bottom line in regards to all these workforce issues.

If the workforce was more adaptable it would be able to rapidly change its skill set to reflect current trends as well as align itself with the organization.

Additionally, adaptability would enable leaders and future leaders to change the way they do things and increase their capacities for leadership.

But, adaptability is difficult and rare, as the numbers show. It is actually a talent that enables you to live in the moment and operate in a environment with a high degree of ambiguity.

Unless individuals with this talent are identified by organizations and nurtured, it does not appear that these issues will be mitigated soon.

Can leaders and employees alike develop this talent?

Yes, to a point, and with a lot of work. Adaptability requires an even-keel mindset where the unpredictability and setbacks of the day won’t result in frustration and emotional turmoil.

• Start with assessing your adaptability quotient. Do you crack at the first sign of pressure, or do you go with the flow. Where are you on that continuum. What situations are you best in? What are most challenging for you?

• Developing a calm and reassuring personality. When events no longer
  upset you as much, you are able to keep focused on the task at hand and
  see more possibilities for action. Meditation has been used for
  thousands of years towards this end.

• Visualize. Think of situations that cause uncomfortable and strategize what you would do. Make a game of it.

• Push the envelope. Get uncomfortable. Start placing yourself into situations where you need to use some flexibility. Keep breathing, and keep thinking.

Unless your one of the lucky ones who come by this naturally, ultimately, it’s change or die. The numbers show that this won’t go away soon.

Leaders are the one who have it, or can develop it quick. Companies will pay a premium for those who can stay just ahead of the power curve.

It’s worth investing in yourself now to realize a long term payoff over your career.

“Research showed that leaders who focus on self-management and relations produced 390% more.”
(from Primal Leadership - Goleman)

How do you show up to others? Do you know? How would you like to show up? Grid International provides a self-assessment to evaluate the leadership style that you value the most. It is not necessarily the actual behaviors you utilize with other people.

The test results are useful for establishing your own understanding of where you want to be as far as ideal behaviors, and are not meant to be an assessment of your actual style.

VALUES TEST RESULTS

My leadership values results reportedly reflect my preferences which express themselves as a dominant and backup style. The dominant style is the approach I value as the most effective way to work with others, and the backup style is the one I prefer when the dominant approach temporarily will not work.

The 9,9 Style: Sound (Contribute and Commit)

Excerpt from the book, The Power to Change.The 9,9 style is located on the top right corner of the Grid figure and integrates a high concern for people with a high concern for results. The difference between 9,9 and the other six Grid styles is that the 9,9 person sees no contradiction in demonstrating a high concern for both people and results. He or she feels no need to restrain, control, or diminish the concerns for people or results in relationships. The consequence is a freedom to test the limits of success with enthusiasm and confidence.The 9,9 attitude leads to more effective work relationships based on “what’s right” rather than “who’s right.”The full integration of concern for people and results is in contrast to the levels of control evident in each other style. The 9,1 person feels that a high concern for results disables the expression of a high concern for people. The 1,9 person feels the reverse-that a high concern for people is more important than results.The 5,5 feels that a high concern for either is too risky, and prefers to remain at a middle level to maintain the status quo. The 1,1 sees any high concern as unrealistic and too demanding.The paternalist expresses a high concern for results and for people, but is unable to relinquish control and allow others to make their own contribution. The opportunist sees a contradiction in working with others in the first place and so uses people and organizations to further selfish goals.The 9,9 style is firmly entrenched in logical reasoning and common sense business thinking: If you have a problem, get it out into the open and work through it. This person is truly objective, and is not afraid to tackle tough issues openly and honestly. This approach brings strength and focus to team resources and potential results, but can also lead to dramatic resistance in a culture unfamiliar with the concept.Although effective, the 9,9 style can come across as forceful and blunt in a team or company where the culture dictates playing politics, smoothing over conflict, or always deferring to one or more people in authority regardless of how sound or unsound their actions might be. Over time, however, 9,9 actions demonstrated in a team overcome any fears that prevent people from embracing the style.

The 1,9 Style: Accommodating (Yield and Comply)

Excerpt from the book, The Power to Change.The 1,9 style is found in the upper left corner of the Grid figure. This person demonstrates a low concern for results with a high concern for others. The high concern for people brings a valuable quality to teams for building relationships. This individual maintains a heightened awareness of personal feelings, goals, and ambitions of others, and always considers how proposed actions will affect them. He or she is approachable, fun, friendly, and always ready to listen with sympathy and encouragement. The interdependent low concern for results, however, works against the high concern for others in the workplace by shifting the focus away from work achievement. This makes the relationships, although warm and friendly, too shallow and superficial for synergy to occur because full candor is lacking. This leads to individuals and teams that are ultimately unprepared for the kind of challenges that arise in the pursuit of improved productivity and change. The 1,9 and 9,1 styles are diametrically opposed in their perspectives.Each of these orientations leads in a narrow and singularly focused manner by trying to diminish the other primary concern in the workplace. The Achilles’ heel in 1,9 thinking is, “As long as I’m keeping people happy, they respond by working hard to achieve results.” The evidence shows the opposite: relationships suffer when employees are not challenged in the workplace. People become bored with work and frustrated with each other because something is missing in the relationships. Further, productivity decreases when the concern for results is low.Some cornerstone phrases of the 1,9 attitude are “Let’s talk about it.What can I do to help? Let me know what you think.” The main weakness, however, lies in the focus of the discussions. Instead of focusing discussions in specific terms of causes and solutions, 1,9 discussions include an overwhelming emphasis on personal feelings and preferences. The discussion itself becomes the goal, so conversations can meander in any direction. If an individual is angry, the 1,9 person follows the comments and offers sympathy and encouragement whenever appropriate. If an individual is pleased, the 1,9 person offers compliments and celebration. He or she uses discussions to constantly gage morale levels and quickly offer encouragement, support, and praise as needed.

Click here for more detailed information on Grid Theory.

[Part I of this series rejects the quick fix attitude of performance improvement]

Over one hundred years ago, William James, the pioneering philosopher and psychologist, wrote this on development:

Human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives.

After the inner work is done by an individual, the outer changes will follow. These lasting changes will result in a more productive, meaningful, and enjoyable life. You will radiate skill, competence, and reliability, if you have done the required work.

Bottom line: It’s all inner work!

All learning, skill building, experience, is inner work. The sooner that people realize that everything they do is developing their inner selves, the sooner they can make the big step up. Once you start focusing on your inner self, there is no longer a separation between what you do and who you are.

Most people have it backwards. They think who they are, is what they do. When you focus on who you are (inwardly), you are that no matter what you do (outwardly). So the better you operate inwardly, the better you will operate outwardly.

This is why great leaders can operate at such high levels. They have the inner ability to be there which supports their outer performances. At a certain point, just going through the motions doesn’t cut it anymore. It’s not fake it, ‘til you make it. You have BE it.

Once you make the commitment to concentrating on and developing your inner self, you can then begin the true journey of leadership and executive development. Everything else, is just window dressing.

Questions to ask yourself:

How am I not addressing my inner dimensions?

What are the areas of my inner life that I need to work on?

What am I avoiding to work on because it is too painful or uncomfortable?

What can I begin to change inside myself that will allow me to operate at a higher level?

Question: How do great leaders rise to the highest positions?

Answer: They are able to better operate at levels higher than the rest of their contemporaries.

How did they get that way? Some had a bit of talent to aid them, but all of them worked for it. Brian Tracy contends, “Your outer world of results will always correspond to your inner world of preparation.”

One of Tracy’s favorite lines of poetry is from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow:

“Those heights by great men reached and kept were not obtained by sudden flight, but they, while their companions slept were toiling upward in the night“

The desire for quick fixes abounds in today’s world. Everyone wants the most “bang” for the least amount of work. Carmine Coyote refers to this as “The perils of seeking success “on the cheap.”

Yes, one can have a marginal amount of short-term success with quick fixes. But it is not sustainable long term. You are fooling yourself to think that the burden is not shifted somewhere else. Long-term accomplishment is achieved through WORK and EFFORT.

The development of leadership capacities requires that one work on the inner aspects necessary to operate at higher and higher levels.

“What happens around us or what happens between us is never as important as what happens within us.” Diane Dreher

Our performance, results, profits, level of expertise, are all a reflection of the level of development inside ourselves. We have improved our inner abilities to the point where we can now realize increased outcomes.

[Part II will address the relationship between inner work and outer performances...]

All the best to you and yours during this holiday season and throughout the coming years. Thank you for your continued patronage.

Kevin

Preliminary results from a recent survey show that companies which invest in coaching for their senior executives, focus on leadership development.

The poll was conduced by Sherpa Coaching in association with the Tandy Center for Executive Leadership.

1,300 executives from 35 countries responded to the study. The complete report and breakdown will be released on January 15th.

The results showed:

• 90% of respondents found the value of coaching to be “very high” or “somewhat high.”

• 74% believe that the credibility of coaching to be “very high” or “somewhat high.” This is a 7% increase over last year’s results.

The International Coach Federation estimates that the annual revenue from the global coaching industry is approaching $1.5 billion. A large majority of that figure is invested in executive and leadership coaching.

PersonalDNA has a personality test which they claim reveals Your True Self.

I’m an Animated Leader

Animated Leader

Here’s an abbreviated version of my report:

• Your solid grounding in the practicalities of life, along with your self-assuredness and your willingness to appreciate new things make you a LEADER.
• Never one to pass on an adventure, you’re consistently seeking and finding new things, even in your immediate surroundings.
• Because of this eagerness to pursue new experiences, you’ve learned a lot; your attention to detail means that you gain a great deal from your adventures.
• Your confidence gives you the potential to take your general awareness and channel it into leadership.

• You are outgoing, comfortable with others, and up for anything, which makes you ANIMATED.
• You know the world is complicated and that there is often more than one side to a story, so you are careful not to make judgments about others too hastily.
• You would rather experience the world than sit back and observe it—you are not one to sit on the sidelines.
• You are an independent thinker and don’t get too worried about how others might perceive you—you are not self-conscious about being the active, engaged person that you are.
• In addition to having faith in the world, you have faith in the people around you—you trust others to do the right thing and to be honest.

Overall, I think the description of me is accurate, but I’m not sure if their description of a leader is right on the money. They describe more of a ‘Forerunner,’ not someone who moves others to action.

Check out PersonalDNA and see what you are.

The greater awareness you have about yourself, the more effective you will be in all that you do in business, your personal life, whatever.

Some of the things which are very useful to know about one’s self are:

• What are you like as a person? (Behaviors, Personality traits, Quirks)
• What are your preferences? (Likes, Dislikes)
• What are your motivations? (What gets you going?)
• What are your goals? (Life time, Yearly, Monthly, Weekly, Daily)
• How do others perceive you? (Do they think the same as your do?)

There are numerous tests and questionnaires that you can find in books and on the web to help you clarify your answers.

Write these answers down and examine them at length. Do you like what you see? Is this the way you want to be in you life?

Next write down your ideal life (business and personal). Where are you? What are you doing? How are you being as a person?

Compare the lists. What changes do you need to make in your life to achieve your ideal life.

What are some small changes you can make right now to start moving towards your goal?

Some resources where you can start making your life changes:

• Coaching (of course)
  
• Formal Education
• Training programs
• Networking
• Mentoring
• New assignments at work
• Lateral transfers at work
• Working outside your comfort zone everywhere

What ever you decide upon. Get started! Small changes over time lead to large improvements.