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In an August 25, 2008 Business Week article, Robert Sutton, professor of management at Stanford and author of The No Asshole Rule, cites the scientifically proven phenomenon that leaders are prone to becoming jerks. Specifically, three things happen when people are put into positions of power: (1) they focus more on satisfying their own needs; (2) they focus less on the needs of underlings; and (3) they act like the rules others are expected to follow don’t apply to them. How do you protect against this? Make sure you have a network of mentors or advisors who will tell you the unvarnished truth about yourself. It helps to have a couple teenage kids, also! |
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| I just read Eugene O'Kelly's Chasing Daylight: How My Forthcoming Death Transformed My Life. O'Kelly was the U.S. head of KPMG, one of the Big 4 accounting firms. In May 2005, at the age of 53, he was told he had incurable brain cancer and three to six months to live. He died just over three months later. His book describes those last 100 days. It's inspirational as a guide to dying. It's more compelling as a guide to living, which is what he intended. Not surprisingly, at least not to me after a lot of years studying and working on my own presence, O'Kelly concludes that immersion in and appreciation of the present moment is the key to a more balanced, meaningful, and contented life. This is a great follow-up to Ekhart Tolle's Power of Now. Tolle describes all the philosophical dimensions of presence, and O'Kelly drives it home with a poignant, intimate real-life account that can't help but inspire us to seek what he calls "Perfect Moments", one after the other, forever. |
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| Leaders and aspiring leaders everywhere, rush out (after you buy my book, of course) to buy The Mindful Leader: Ten Principles for Bringing Out the Best in Ourselves and Others, by Michael Carroll. This is where leadership theory and practice is going. Carroll leads us deep inside ourselves to reveal the ten talents necessary for leadership success. And if you are still resisting meditation as a means of attaining mindfulness, and extraordinary performance as a leader, Carroll may well be the person who brings you to your senses. I love this book! And check out his website: http://www.awakeatwork.net. |
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| Love it! The July 23 issue of Fortune talks about the increasing trend of C-level corporate executives pursuing meditation as a means of grounding themselves in our increasingly complex, high velocity world. I learned and began practicing Transcendental Meditation years ago and am the first to recommend meditation as critical to high-impact leadership, as well as to self-actualization and personal contentment. |
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I just read Gregg Braden's The Divine Matrix (2007). Fantastic read! The best layperson's overview of New Science and its convergence with spirituality I have read. This man has as good of a grasp on today's reality as anyone I have heard. Compelling, compelling, compelling!
Focused on the proof behind oneness (the interconnectedness of everything and everyone) and the power of human consciousness within this web, he describes a 1997 University of Geneva experiment in which a photon was split into two, identical, separate particles. The photons were then fired away from each other, seven miles in opposite directions, creating a distance of 14 miles between them. At the end of the seven miles each was forced to choose from two courses. Without exception, each time the photons chose the same route. Over and over again. Scientists call it "quantum entanglement," but regardless of the term, they are convinced that there is a web of energy that connects everything in the universe in ways we are only beginning to understand.
He also describes a 1993 experiment conducted by the U.S. Army in which DNA taken from the mouth of a donor responded to the emotions of the donor even when the donor was hundreds of miles away from his or her cells. More proof of the web.
Beyond the science, though, I was particularly enamored with his inspirational descriptions of the power of human consciousness. Gotta read this book! |
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Margaret Wheatley is one of my favorite leadership authors. In Leadership and the New Science, she explains the "butterfly effect", a scientifically accepted principle that holds, for instance, that the flapping of a butterfly's wings in Brazil can cause tiny atmospheric changes that over a period of time can cause a tornado in Texas. This is just one of the realities of New Science that I find so compelling. Once we truly comprehend this, can we ever be unconscious again? Can we ever toss even the tiniest gum-wrapper on the ground again? Can we ever say something mean or condescending to someone again?
As a leader, realize that the smallest thoughts you have and actions you take, as well as those of your team, have the potential of creating huge effects. You assume the burden of that responsibility, but also the enormity of the opportunity.
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| Marshall Goldsmith, the great executive coach, tells a wonderful story about presence. Two monks traveled a great distance to collect herbs for tea and healing potions. As they collected their bounty near a fast-moving stream, a young woman approached and tried to cross. She was slight of frame and was soon knocked down by the forceful waters. One of the monks went over to her, picked her up on his shoulders, carried her across the stream, and delivered her safely to the other side. When he returned, the other monk said, "Why did you do that? You know we aren’t allowed to touch a woman, let alone pick one up and carry her. You have violated a very important rule of our order." The first monk said nothing. For the rest of the day, picking herbs and then over the next several hours trekking back to the monastery, the event gnawed away at the second monk. Several times he scolded the first monk. Still, the first monk said nothing until finally, when they arrived back at the monastery, he turned to the other and said, "You are right. I carried the woman across the stream. But you, my friend, have carried her ever since." |
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| Joe Montana, the Hall of Fame quarterback and his San Francisco Forty-Niners were down 16-13 against the Cincinnati Bengals in Super Bowl XXIII in 1989. The 'Niners were in possession at their own 8-yard line, with 3:10 left to play. As the offensive unit waited for the play to come in from the sideline, they were on edge. The 'Niners had won in their three previous Super Bowl appearances, and no one wanted to be on the first 'Niner team to lose a Super Bowl. But they not played well all day and circumstances seemed stacked against them. Montana sensed the tension in the air and knew his teammates could not deliver the performance needed to win unless they relaxed and settled down. An ice-breaker was needed. Montana noticed the late actor, John Candy, in the stands and said, "Hey, look! Isn't that John Candy?" Everyone in the huddle looked to the stands and then cracked up. Indeed, the actor was there, but they were blown away that their future Hall of Fame leader seemed unfazed by the task in front of them and was completely enjoying the moment. The unit relaxed and Montana drove them 82 yards for a touchdown with less than a minute left. They won 20 - 16. This is the kind of presence that makes great leaders. Montana first had the presence to not be worrying about what might go wrong. He had the presence to notice one man in a crowd of over 50,000. He had the presence to sense that his team was stressed and needed something to bring them back to the task at hand. He had the sense to know exactly what that something was. |
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| Despite record numbers of books on leadership telling us what leaders must be and what they must do to be effective, leaders across society seem to be less effective with each day. One key reason is that leadership theory has always assumed a positional advantage that is quickly eroding in our fast and flat world. Until very recently, many leaders could achieve positive results over the short- and medium-term, despite their lack of personal preparedness, because of certain positional advantages over those they led. In particular, they had superior knowledge, mobility, and communication. These advantages placed them closer to a perceived reality than those they led. And people followed them, over the short- and medium-term - because they perceived them to be closer to reality. Today, however, technology operates as a powerful equalizer. These positional advantages are gone. Those being led have equal knowledge (via the Internet), mobility (via the ability to work anywhere for any entity), and access to communication channels (via e-mail, blogs, chatrooms, instant messaging, mobile phones, podcasting). Today, a leader must be closer to actual reality. Those who are closer to what is real will lead those who are more distant. How does one navigate toward actual reality? By practicing, and ultimately mastering, personal leadership. Personal leadership is all about identifying, accessing, and developing deep personal energies that bring one closer to what is real. |
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| When we choose to be present, we begin to understand that everything, absolutely everything, is energy, and we can begin to function effectively as people and as leaders. And when we embrace everything as energy - every piece of matter, every non-particulate, every thought, every emotion, every action - we begin to see and feel everything within us and outside of us very differently. Irrelevance is gone. Everything matters. Everything is connected by one ubiquitous energy. And this energy has specific properties. The recognition of this produces two profound effects. First, we quickly realize that we are in synch with the true nature of our existence. We feel a sense of peace because we are now in the flow of life instead of denying or resisting its true nature. Second, and more important for the leader within us, we start to see relationships between everything and we begin to get a sense about how we can affect those relationships to achieve a desired result. We feel more empowered than ever before. |
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