Ralph Waldo Emerson Archives - denisgmclaughlin.com

Ralph Waldo Emerson

You Belong

Sep 28

You belong because your you. You don’t have to change who you are to belong. You don’t have to act a certain way to belong. You just need to be you and let people see the real you. Certainly, there are always activities that must be completed, goals to be achieved, and deadlines to be met. But have you considered that perhaps you can do all of those things, and be you?

We all want to belong. Do you remember the TV show Cheers? The theme song had this great line that perfectly captured why people came to Cheers “Where everybody knows your name, and we’re always glad you came.” Wouldn’t it be great if the room lit up when you came in and people stopped to shout your name? “Norm” was the refrain on Cheers. This is what we all want. It’s in our DNA to want to be connected to other people.

“The most basic human desire is to feel like you belong.” – Simon Sinek

The world wants you to fit in. If you’ve ever applied for a job you have undoubtedly seen that each opportunity had a thorough description of the candidate’s desired skill, experience, background etc…It’s unlikely that you, or anyone else meets all of the descriptors as laid out. But, this is what we compare ourselves to. Instead we should find the role that allows us to do what we do best that also fulfills the needs of the employer. Alternately, you could confidently aspire to achieve success in roles in different ways than they have always been done by being you.

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

You should want to stand out. If you subscribe to the use of tools like Strengthsfinder you are aware of the statistics that accompany the output. In Strengthsfinder, the participant receives a report of their top five strengths in order out of 34 possible strengths. The math behind those numbers says there is a 1 in 33 million probability that any one person’s top five strengths, in order, are the same as anyone else’s. So, if you allow yourself to be you, you will stand out. And your unique perspective will be a key aspect of why you belong.

“It sounds so simple, but if you just be yourself, you’re different than anyone else.” Tony Bennett

Seating Chart Leadership

Sep 15

In school classes each teacher has a seating chart. These are first set up alphabetically to help the teacher learn each student’s name. As the year progresses, students may move to seats that better suit their particular needs. Some students do their best in the front of the room as they see the board better, others move closer to their friends because they learn best in social settings. No matter the system used to place students on the seating chart, it is all done to help them achieve the best possible outcome.

Successfully leading a team also requires a seating chart. Like the school classroom example, this seating chart needs to adapt over time to help your team achieve success. In his book Good to Great Jim Collins talks about great companies as a bus. The bus drivers are the leaders and their main job is to get the right people in the right seats on the bus so they can arrive at the right destination.

Here are three ways leaders can use the seating chart to help their team achieve the best possible outcomes:

Help your team align to their talents

The best performing teams recognize the diverse talents of each individual, make sure they are in the right seats, and fit them together to achieve a common purpose. According to Gallup, “The best opportunity for people to grow and develop is to identify the ways in which they most naturally think, feel, and behave, and then build on those talents to create strengths.”

People want to be personally successful and on a successful team. Unless we all operate in our strength zone, we will be less successful than we could be. Aligning people with their talents is a sure way to give them the best shot at being all the can be.

Help your team aspire to be great

Being in the right seat and excelling in the right seat are two different things. People may be naturally gifted with talent, but it takes work to become great. Reaching greatness requires diligently practicing to hone your strengths. Inspirational author H. Jackson Brown, Jr. says it this way, “Talent without discipline is like an octopus on roller skates. There’s plenty of movement, but you never know if it’s going to be forward, backwards, or sideways.”

There are many self-motivated people who may challenge themselves each day, but sometimes it is easier for others to see what we can become. The leader’s role here is to challenge your team to succeed today beyond yesterday and tomorrow beyond today. Ralph Waldo Emerson put it like this, “Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be.”

Help your team help others

Achieving personal greatness by being in the right seat and becoming your personal best is a great accomplishment worth celebrating and emulating. The ultimate in success is never just our own personal achievements. The real accomplishment is always in helping others learn from our actions and succeed even beyond our results.

For those driven to success, the steps from personal to team success and from team success to other’s success are mere extensions of the same desire to be the best. Those who want to be the best will be searching for the next step. Zig Ziglar highlights this search when he says, “There is a certain amount of dissatisfaction that goes with knowing that your time, talent and abilities are not being properly used.”

Your role as the leader is to now change the seating chart once again so that the best individuals can become the best leaders. As Ronald Reagan said, “The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one that gets people to do the greatest things.”

Leading a company the military way

Apr 28

I was recently asked if a military model of leadership was adequate to run a company. When I responded seeking the definition of military leadership, I understood why the question was being asked.

There is a misperception of what military leadership really is: marching and drills, marching and drills…This initial response is usually taken from a movie, or television show that focused on basic training (boot camp) where the very beginning of military leadership is formed. Even children’s stories are filled with these ideas: Colonel Hathi’s March (The Elephant Song) from The Jungle Book says it this way: “The aim of our patrol, Is a question rather droll, For to march and drill, Over field and hill, Is a military goal!”

But the military wouldn’t be successful if this was the full extent of its leadership. The military has eleven principles of leadership. I have summarized them below with a reference to how each of these is viewed in non-military professions. You will see from these principles that the answer that a military model of leadership is not just adequate to run a company it is essential.

ELEVEN PRINCIPLES OF MILITARY LEADERSHIP

1. Know yourself and seek self-improvement – Learning is a lifelong task that you should continue no matter what you are doing.

“Never become so much of an expert that you stop gaining expertise. View life as a continuous learning experience.” – Denis Waitley

2. Be tactically and technically proficient – In whatever business or profession you are in, aim to be the best.

“I do the very best I know how, the very best I can, and I mean to keep on doing so until the end.” Abraham Lincoln

3. Know your soldiers and look out for their welfare – Take time to get to know them and look out for their health and well being. They will notice you genuinely care about them and probably perform better.

“People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” – John Maxwell

4. Keep your soldiers informed – Tell those you follow you what your plans are, accept their insight and suggestions, make them a part of the planning.

“We must open the doors of opportunity. But we must also equip our people to walk through those doors.” – Lyndon B. Johnson

5. Set the example – In everything you do you must do it well and set a good example.

“What you are speaks so loudly, I can’t hear what you are saying.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

6. Ensure the task is understood, supervised and accomplished – Make sure you give clear instructions, ask for feedback on what your followers think you said.

“To effectively communicate, we must realize that we are all different in the way we perceive the world and use this understanding as a guide to our communication with others.” – Tony Robbins

7. Train your soldiers as a team – Create community and teamwork.

“Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.” – Henry Ford

8. Make sound and timely decisions – Look at the options and then make the best choice.

“If a decision-making process is flawed and dysfunctional, decisions will go awry.” – Carly Fiorina

9. Develop a sense of responsibility in your subordinates – Delegate certain jobs and tasks, training up new leaders.

“I am convinced that nothing we do is more important that hiring and developing people. At the end of the day you bet on people, not on strategies.” – Larry Bossidy

10. Employ your unit in accordance with its capabilities – Align strengths with responsibilities.

“The key to any game is to use your strengths” – Paul Westphal

11. Seek responsibility and take responsibility for your actions –Taking responsibility for things is a key trait of a leader

“Success on any major scale require you to accept responsibility…In the final analysis, the one quality that all successful people have is the ability to take on responsibility.” – Michael Korda

Communicating expectations

Apr 17

There are four steps that successful leaders take in communicating expectations:

Write them out – Clearly define your expectations

Hand them out – Overtly explain your expectations

Point them out – Verbally reinforce your expectations

Live them out – Openly demonstrate your expectations

Imagine you start a new job. You are anxious to hear communication from the top; what is the vision of company? The head of your division steps up to the front of the room, clears his throat and says, “You are all doing a great job, keep it up. If you need me I will be in my office.”

Do you have any idea what is expected of you? What will you do first? How will you know if you are on the right track for success? Was there any communication at all?

Now imagine you are a rookie wide receiver on the 1980 San Francisco 49ers. In walks Bill Walsh, the head coach, who hands you a playbook and the first twenty-five plays of the next game fully scripted. He also hands out something called his “Standards of Performance” which lists requirements for your job such as: a commitment to learning and teaching, self-control under pressure, a positive attitude, and continuous improvement.

You read the playbook and your handouts overnight to prepare for your first day of practice. Later in the week you are surprised when Bill Walsh himself runs over in the middle of a drill to correct your squad and the assistant coach. He fully explains the route you were supposed to run and why it is important that it be carried out just as it was scripted.

Now that was leadership communication. You were given written communication that described exactly what was expected. This was followed up by verbal communication to reinforce expectations.

Theodore Hesburgh said, “The very essence of leadership is that you have a vision. It’s got to be a vision you articulate clearly and forcefully on every occasion. You can’t blow an uncertain trumpet.”

Leaders shouldn’t expect their teams to achieve unseen and unheard expectations.

Now let’s examine the last step, the one where the best leaders spend most of their time – how to demonstrate your expectations. This one is a very quick discussion.

Leaders must realize that their team will do what the leader says until the leader doesn’t do what the leader says.

Ralph Waldo Emerson described the last step like this, “What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say.”

Does a leader need power to lead?

Mar 31

The simple answer –Yes, leaders need power to lead. John Maxwell said, “Leadership is influence, nothing more, nothing less.” Therefore, you need power in order to influence others if you want to be an effective leader.

The follow up question that we will explore is what kind of power does a leader need to lead?

There are two kinds of leadership power: those that fade and those that last.

Leadership Power that fades

These are the most often discussed, and unfortunately sometimes the most relied upon forms of Leadership Power. Let’s look at them and see why their effectiveness fades away in time if they are the only method used to influence others.

The Power of Position. In this case, the leader has influence because of their position in the company. They are in charge and can ask others to take actions based on that position. This type of power fades as there is no sense of commitment or connection to a greater good. People only follow because they have to, not because they want to.

“Leadership is action, not position.” – Donald H. McGannon

The Power of Perks. All leaders can give away perks: raises, bonuses, vacation etc… None of these is bad in and of itself but realize as a leader, you will get the behavior you incent. Your influence with this type of power fades as the commitment isn’t to the ultimate outcome, but to the immediate individual benefits. When you rely too much on rewards you may find that people are working only for their rewards, which means decisions may be made that do not reflect the best answer for the team, company, customer, or shareholder.

“The reward of a thing well done is having done it.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Power of Punishment. This is the opposite of the power of perks. This enforces consequences for behavior you don’t want. While your influence with this power will lead to short-term compliance, it will eventually create an atmosphere of insecurity and fear. People will become so afraid to make a mistake they will cease to make decisions and only do what they are specifically told by the leader.

“Nothing is more deflating to morale than to have a poor outcome pinned on someone who doesn’t deserve it. It lacks integrity and overvalues the outcome at the expense of the people.” – Tony Dungy

Leadership Power that lasts

The types of Leadership Power which last, are not often seen as power. In Leadership Power that lasts, the power is shared with others and not maintained by the leader.

The Power of Empowerment. The true measure of a successful leader isn’t what they have – power, possessions, prestige – it is the legacy of empowering other leaders to achieve their own success. Your success as a leader is defined by how many successful leaders you have helped grow. Your influence as a leader will grow because of the success of those you influenced.

“Leaders become great, not because of their power, but because of their ability to empower others.” – John Maxwell

The Power of Character. This is who you are inside. Your intentions and your actions point in the same direction – helping others’ succeed. With the power of your character you can influence people because of their respect for you.

“A leader…has authority due to their role, but their positional power will not bring about good for individuals or organizations unless it is backed up by the capital of character.” — Dan B. Allender

The Power of Conduct. As a leader you and your team will face many tough circumstances. You will need to influence them to not just survive, but thrive through these times. Your conduct will be the key to their success. When you remain calm, focused on the vision, and help your team find a plan the power of your conduct will be evident.

“Circumstances are beyond human control, but our conduct is our power.” – Benjamin Disraeli

Words from leaders only work when they are connected to actions.

Oct 30

It’s true that great leaders are great communicators. You have to connect with people to share your vision. But words will only take a leader so far until actions that back up the words have to kick in.

Here are three thoughts for leaders on the importance of actions in addition to words:

Should, could, or would don’t equal did.
There is a Chinese proverb that says, “Talk doesn’t cook rice.” You might be the most talented speaker ever, but unless your words lead to actions in you or in the listener, not much happens.

Remember, people will judge you by your actions, not your intentions. You may have a heart of gold – but so does a hard-boiled egg.

Inspiration doesn’t always proceed actions, but some action always proceeds more actions.
Most people imagine that history’s greatest composers were overflowing with inspiration and simply wrote music after they were inspired. Musicologist Ernest Newman tells us a different story, “Beethoven, Wagner, Bach and Mozart settled down day after day to the job in hand with as much regularity as an accountant settles down each day to his figures. They didn’t waste time waiting for inspiration.“

If you want to be inspired then get to work. The actions you take will inspire more action.

In the choice between say and do – do.
Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “Your actions speak so loudly I can’t hear what you say.” Of course people hear your words, but they feel your actions and that drowns out your words, positively or negatively.

So given the chance to influence people through your words or through your actions, focus on your actions.

“As I grow older I pay less attention to what men say. I just watch what they do.” – Andrew Carnegie

Leaders: All the world’s a stage. And all the men and women are merely players.

Sep 16

The title of this blog post is borrowed from William Shakespeare’s play As You Like It. Leaders can learn a lot from the works of William Shakespeare. Their comments on society, then and now, are full of insight. This particular quote is an introduction to a scene where the character bemoans the futility of life when he goes on to say, “and all the men and women are merely players…”

Let’s take a closer look at what wisdom leaders can obtain from Shakespeare’s words; “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women are merely players.”

In the theater there are three main players: the writer, the director, and the actors and crew. Each of these three players is integral to the successful outcome of the play. The writer is the visionary who sees the end before the beginning begins. The director implements the vision and seeks to make it a reality. The actors and crew bring the play to life.

Shakespeare’s words might have been meant to say that any one player, if only focused on their part, would see themselves as merely players – not connected and not integral to the bigger stage of the world. The job of leaders is to make sure that all players know their roles and that all players know the importance of their roles in the success of the entire team.

Here are some tips for leaders on the importance of each of the three player’s roles in any successful venture:

The importance of communication in leadership – Part 2

Feb 28

There are four steps that leaders take in successful communication of expectations:

Write them out – Clearly define your expectations

Hand them out – Overtly explain your expectations

Point them out – Verbally reinforce your expectations

Live them out – Openly demonstrate your expectations

In part one of the importance of communication in leadership, we talked about the first three steps – how to broadcast your expectations. Now let’s examine the top step, the one where the best leaders spend most of their time – how to demonstrate your expectations.