The 10 "Leadership" Committments

Shortly after the first class, I indicated I would initiate a blog discussion on the 10 commitments of leadership that Kouzes and Posner attribute 10 individual chapters to in the book “The Leadership Challenge”. You’ve already read Chapter 1, which is for the most part a teaser chapter, and were hopefully intrigued by their coverage of what they refer to as the five practices of exemplary leadership. Under each practice, they elaborate on two critical commitments.

Exemplary Practice: Model the Way
The two commitments that form the foundation for this practice the authors term: 1) “ Find your voice by clarifying your personal values”; and, 2) “Set the example by aligning actions with shared values.” I would paraphrase these respectively by stating that people will not follow if they don’t understand what drives you, and they will not be lead by someone who doesn’t adhere to these values. You must define who you are and lead by example.

Exemplary Practice: Inspire a Shared Vision
The two commitments that form the foundation for this practice the authors term: 3) “Envision the future by imagining exciting and ennobling possibilities”; and, 4) “Enlist others in a common vision by appealing to shared aspirations”. I would paraphrase the third commitment by stating that leaders think big. Think of the world’s famous leaders and your personal mentors – did they not have a grand idea of what they wanted the world, themselves, their organization, or even you to become? Of course they did. Grand leaders think grand – they don’t think small. But, a vision without a corps of believers to implement strategies to make it a reality will forever remain fiction. To make a vision become reality, a leader must be able to enlist believers, hence the fourth commitment.

Exemplary Practice: Challenge the Process
The two commitments that form the foundation for this practice the authors term: 5) “Search for opportunities by seeking innovative ways to change, grow, and improve”; and, 6) “Experiment and take risks by constantly generating small wins and learning from mistakes.” This is my favorite practice and set of commitments. More accurately, I should state that it is the one I score the highest on (more on that later). Remember the Einstein quote that goes something like “insanity is the act of doing something over and over again expecting a different result”. The statement is a no brainer, but the reality is that many companies, organizations, and individuals get stuck in a rut. Leaders don’t allow ruts to happen (there’s another great leadership text that argues the biggest enemy of great is good – if you become comfortable with good you’ll never be great). They are always challenging the process to make things better. This involves risks – sometimes political, sometimes personal, sometimes financial, etc. But, if you stay inside your comfortable box your whole life, you’ll never really grow.

Exemplary Practice: Enable Others to Act
The two commitments that form the foundation for this practice the authors term: 7) “Foster collaboration by promoting cooperative goals and building trust”; and, 8) “Strengthen others by sharing power and discretion”. Based on my comments during the first session and the great example that Harry Radix talked about regarding how First State has moved to relationship management, these should be very apparent commitments. Simply, unless people trust you they will not follow, and, in fact, the act of leadership is more often not to lead followers “explicitly” at all, but to lead by “sharing power and discretion” – by giving power away.

Exemplary Practice: Encourage the Heart
The two commitments that form the foundation for this practice the authors term: 1) “Recognize contributions by showing appreciation for individual excellence”; and, 2) “Celebrate the values and victories by creating a spirit of community”. These commitments are personal weaknesses for me. This should give you a clue as to what my personality style is in case you haven’t already made a guess on the last blog. This year’s class is full of participants that have a temperament that should be consistent with a high skill set in this area (SP). But, we also have a fair number that don’t think we should celebrate at all because “it’s our job to succeed”.

By now you can tell I’m a big fan of this text. In fact, if I could only buy 3 leadership books, this would be one of them. The book is good, but the workbook that goes along with it is even better because it allows you to assess your skills in these commitments and make an action plan to improve. If you are interested in purchasing the book and/or workbook, I can provide you with the full reference.

What are your thoughts regarding the practices and commitments? Are they consistent with your leadership philosophy? Would you add some or maybe even subtract some? I’m extremely interested in all of your insight.

Personality Style Contest

Based on the Session #1 evaluations, you all learned a lot about personality styles and had some fun at the same time. In fact, I've received several emails from excited Class IX participants explaining how everything makes sense once their significant other took the personality preference analysis.



To refresh your memory, the Myers-Briggs analysis reports preferences based on four dichotomies. The first assesses preference for how one gets their energy - extraversion or introversion. The second assesses preference for how one prefers to learn/take in information - sensing or intuition. The third assesses preference for how one prefers to make decisions - thinking or feeling. The fourth assesses preference for how one prefers to interact with the outer world.



Given your new or expanded understanding of personality preferences and your knowledge of me, albeit limited, I am challenging you via a contest to guess my personality style. You already know that I'm an extrovert. In fact, my E-I preference is 22-0. Two of my other dichotomies are similarly skewed in one direction, but the other is very close.



The prize for the contest will remain a mystery until the October session. It will be given to the person who guesses my other 3 dichotomies. If there is a tie, the person who guesses the dichotomy that is neutral will win. So, please blog what you think my preference is and which preference is neutral. To make it fun, I even encourage you to explain why you guessed the particular preferences (and reinforce your learning from September).



I'll only give one hint. We have a ton of temperaments in the class that are NF. Folks who share my temperament are prone to cause NFs to cry. Penny Tank, the UWEX 4-H Educator, is an NF. When I started in Waupaca County, it took me two months of testing how to say things in an NF manner so she wouldn't cry during staff meetings. This is the power of understanding this stuff.

Also, I've inserted a video into this blog post that shows a great example of the introverted preference during session 1. These are the spouses of 3 participants who were asked to comment on their ideal vacation.



Good Luck!

Welcome to Leadership Waupaca County...

Welcome to Leadership Waupaca County!!! I truly enjoyed getting to meet everyone during our first session and am looking forward to getting to know you all much better over the coming months. LWC is truly a journey that will be a lot of fun. The journey will focus on achieving a number of objectives - building standard skills, building process skills, exposing you to a number of issues, building your knowledge of certain topics, enhancing your social network, and building your confidence to lead in situations that are right now outside your personal comfort zone. As I stated during the first session, you will be uncomfortable at some point during the class. The only way leaders grow is to "get outside their box". On Friday night, I went to a leadership seminar and the speaker told the audience that if you are perfect the first time you do something then you waited way too long to do it. It was her way of saying, you probably are going to be nervous and certainly not perfect the first time you do something, but unless there is a first time then there is never a perfect time. Unless there is a first time then that skill will never be developed and your leadership potential unfulfilled.

As I told you, this is my first time blogging let alone running a blog. Aside from Jan R., this is the first time blogging for all of you too. I am certain this won't be perfect and it's definitely outside of my comfort zone, but with a little practice we'll all be comfortable with one more communication and teaching tool in 9 months.