iMap

The Process
The iMap Process is designed to get to the heart of what your organization needs, and develop custom solutions, based around the Dale Carnegie Training Methods, for those needs. We follow a 5 step process as follows:

1. INTENT
Your organization's strategic vision - the "should be" as opposed to the "as is".


2. INQUIRE
A strategic conversation with you to understand where the operation is today, where you want to take it, and what needs to change to get there.


3. INVOLVE
Through assessments, surveys, and a unique BID process, determine the alignment around the vision, competency gaps that needs to be closed, and attitudes that undermine change.


4. INNOVATE
Design interventions that support your strategic intent, provide measurable results, map directly to the competencies needed to power the strategic intent, blend competency development with attitudinal change, and align emotional intelligence with corporate
initiatives.


5. IMPACT
Ingrain long-term behavior change and gain emotional and intellectual engagement with corporate objectives.

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The Competency Based Development System consists of unique modular programs designed to focus on areas that are important to the success of an organization. The system was created to reinforce organizational competencies and address performance gaps while giving participants the ability to apply what has been learned in their own work environment.

Competency Areas:

Values
Vision
Attitude
External Awareness
Professionalism
Initiative
Results Oriented
Stress Management
Creative Thinking
Decision Making
Customer Acquisition
Customer Experience Interpersonal Skills
Communication
Influence
Diversity
Conflict Resolution
Teamwork
Adaptability
Change Management
Management Controls
Human Resources Management
Leadership

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Curriculum Areas
The competencies taught through our iMAP process are delivered through six different curriculum areas. The curriculum areas are then broken down into over 150 training modules that can be interchanged to address your organization's needs. Select your area of interest below to learn more.


Team Member Engagement
Leadership Development
Sales Effectiveness
Customer Service
Presentation Effectiveness
Process Improvement

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Enterprise-Wide Global Solutions
If you’re a global player you need a global partner in the learning and development arena. If you’re a global player you understand the importance of consistency around the world…adapted to local culture. You want a partner that has global reach combined with local touch. You want Dale Carnegie Training. With 166 offices in over 80 countries – all locally operated – we are the only learning and development organization with a footprint that matches yours.
From Moscow to New York, from Cape Town to Shanghai we work with you – utilizing the iMap process and the Competency Development System to create a cohesive organization that is aligned to the vision and has the skills needed to drive performance.

iMap:

Unique solutions to help your organization reach its unique future

Every organization is different. Our iMAP process creates a unique road map that gets you where you want to go.
intent
inquire
involve
innnovate
impact

Unique Resources:

Unique Resources
For individuals and teams

Courses
Produce behavior change
Seminars
Build essential competencies
Online Training
Tune up business skills
Web Events
Provide free information
Guide Books
Offer thought-provoking ideas
Smartphone App
Take-anywhere learning

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Assessments

Through the iMAP engagement process, Dale Carnegie Training supports organizations in developing solutions to enhance organization results and minimize performance gaps. We provide a variety of assessment options that aid in uncovering and clarifying organization, performance, and competency gaps. Please see overviews and samples of the various assessment tools that Dale Carnegie can offer to you, your team, and your organization.

Training Assessments
Organizational Assessments
Talent Assessments

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The Go Point: When It's Time to Decide--Knowing What to Do and When to Do It

The Go Point: When It's Time to Decide--Knowing What to Do and When to Do It [Paperback]
Michael Useem (Author)

Editorial Reviews
Review
“Useem fashions a template for seeing ahead.”
—Boston Globe

“Great decisions are the hallmark of a successful executive. In The Go Point, Michael Useem provides invaluable insight into how to make the critical call.”
—Larry Bossidy, retired chairman and CEO of Honeywell International and coauthor of Execution and Confronting Reality

“The Go Point is a tour de force of a tour through battlefields and boardrooms, illuminating the differences between brilliant and tragic decisions. Michael Useem is a wise, witty, and understanding guide whose insights can dramatically improve leadership and decision-making skills. Go for it!”
—Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Harvard Business School, bestselling author of Confidence: How Winning Streaks & Losing Streaks Begin and End

“Michael Useem . . . spells out in plain English the consequences of making hard and fast decisions, when they matter most and impact teams of people. There are plenty of books on leadership, but few that explain how to take a team from one place to the next. This one is the best.”
—Maria Bartiromo, journalist and CNBC anchor

“This exciting book is a valuable guide to effective decision making. The Go Point’s great strength is to put the reader inside the heads of fascinating, often heroic people as they seek to ‘get it right,’ under pressure and with incomplete information.”
—Steven Kerr, managing director and chief learning officer, Goldman Sachs & Co.

“In The Go Point, Michael Useem identifies the essence of what it takes to prepare for moments of decision. He draws from an array of compelling accounts to help us appreciate what is essential for decisive decision making when it really counts.”
—Peter M. Dawkins, vice chairman, Citigroup Global Wealth Management, U.S. Army Brigadier General (Ret.)

“How does any leader know what to do and when to do it? Here Michael Useem, one of America’s foremost thinkers about leadership, unravels that mystery in a fast-paced, well-written, and unforgettable book. Highly recommended for everyone with courage for the arena!”
—David Gergen, professor of public service, director, Center for Public Leadership, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University

“In his latest book, Michael Useem walks you up close to your moment of decision, and, with examples from some of the most pivotal go points in human endeavor, shows you how to master it. This is by far the most practical book on decision making I have ever read.”
—Marcus Buckingham, author of First, Break All the Rules; Now, Discover Your Strengths; and The One Thing You Need to Know


From the Hardcover edition.
Product Description
What do you do when it’s time to get off the fence?

One of the world’s most noted leadership experts, Michael Useem uses dramatic storytelling to show how to master the art and science of being decisive. He places you smack in the middle of people who faced their go point, when actions–or lack of them–determined the fates of individuals, companies, and countries.

• Why on earth did Robert E. Lee send General George Pickett on an almost suicidal charge against the Union lines at Gettysburg?

• How does the leader of a firefighting crew make life-or-death decisions when one direction means safety, the other danger?

• You’ve just assumed responsibility for a scandal-wracked corporation, a company teetering on the brink of disaster. What you decide over the course of the next several days will have consequences for thousands of employees and investors. How do you fulfill your responsibilities?

You’ll discover why some decisions were flawless, perfectly on target, and others utterly disastrous. Most of all, you’ll learn how to make the right calls yourself, whether you’re changing your career, launching a product, or deciding on a potential acquisition or merger.
About the Author
MICHAEL USEEM is the William and Jacalyn Egan Professor of Management at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania,and director of its Center for Leadership and Change Management. Dr. Useem is also the author of The Leadership Moment.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
1

In the Heat of the Moment

At 4 p.m. on August 5, 1949, Wagner Dodge and his crew of sixteen parachuted into the remote Montana wilderness at Mann Gulch to combat what seemed to be a routine forest fire. By 5:56 p.m., all but three of the firefighters were dead, fatally burned—then the worst disaster in the history of the U.S. Forest Service and one caught memorably by Norman Maclean in Young Men and Fire.

Forty-five years later, on July 6, 1994, Donald Mackey was helping to oversee a team of forty-nine firefighters spread out on Storm King Mountain in Colorado. Some of the group had parachuted onto the mountain that day; others had come by helicopter, still others by foot. Again, it looked like a routine fire, and again, the fire proved that it is always a mistake to treat any backcountry blaze as routine. By four o’clock in the afternoon of July 6, the Mann Gulch disaster seemed about to repeat itself.

In both cases, bad luck and a fatal confluence of environmental factors contributed to the flaming ambush of the firefighters, but individual decisions were critical in each instance. At Mann Gulch as at Storm King, those most directly responsible on site faced a sequence of decision points during their fateful hours in the fire zone, and their decisions at those moments helped take their teams to the brink of disaster and beyond.

Wildland fires are a special circumstance, and wildland firefighters— the men and women who parachute, helicopter, or trek in to fight them— a special breed. But while the conditions are unique, the experience of those who fight fires in the outdoors has much to teach us all about decision making indoors, especially when there is little room for error or delay. The go points their crew leaders reach and the consequences that follow are unusually clear-cut and consequential for the goals of the enterprise. And like so many critical business decisions, fire decisions brutally punish those who do not keep both the big picture and small detail well in mind.

The blaze that raged over Colorado’s Storm King Mountain on July 5 and 6, 1994, in what has come to be known as the South Canyon fire, has been the subject of extensive official study and secondary analysis, including one by Norman Maclean’s son, John, who chronicled the fire’s course and the efforts to combat it in Fire on the Mountain. Thus, we have an exceptionally well-documented record of the decisions taken by those responsible for the firefighters on the mountain.

In analyzing the record, I do not seek to criticize anyone involved or to affix blame for the disaster that occurred on any one individual. Whether they survived the blaze or not, the wildland firefighters who assembled on Storm King Mountain were heroes: they placed themselves in harm’s way to protect others, and some paid the ultimate price. But firefighters also feel it is their duty to unflinchingly examine past tragedies to determine what decisions went wrong so they can prevent similar calamities in the future. In that spirit and from their bravery come enduring lessons in the art and science of decision making whatever the zone.

The Basics: Safety, Speed, and Suppression

In attacking wilderness fires, firefighters traditionally form into crews ranging from three to twenty members. The crews are rapidly deployed, combining with other crews to combat larger fires and then just as quickly breaking up and redeploying to other incidents. As might be expected of their organizational chart, crew leaders operate both collaboratively and independently, but during multiple-crew blazes, as was the case in the South Canyon fire, one individual of necessity should assume clear and authoritative responsibility. As we shall shortly see, that did not happen on Storm King Mountain.

“On any incident, large or small,” states one of the basic fire service manuals, “the Incident Commander has ultimate responsibility for the effective and safe execution” of all aspects of the attack. The commander’s duties place a premium on ensuring that decisions optimally contribute to the three primary goals of firefighting: safety, speed, and suppression.

Always, the premier criterion for decision making by fire crew leaders and incident commanders is the safety of their team. Even though physical peril looms large whenever crews are called in, fatal injuries are no more tolerable in firefighting than is fraudulent accounting in business or bogus stories in journalism. Yet since risk is always present, wildland fire leaders must be able to appraise it and take appropriate steps toward mitigation.

The second criterion for crew leaders and incident commanders is speed. Firefighting is a world of decision urgency. Hesitation and equivocation can do more than delay a solution: they can radically compound the problem. In product markets, the short term can be months; in stock markets, days; in fire zones, hours or even less. A 10-acre fire—small potatoes in the wildfire playbook—if not quickly suppressed can explode in minutes into a 1,000-acre conflagration. “Make sound and timely decisions,” the official firefighters’ manual exhorts, with good cause.

The final criterion for decision making in a fire zone is a set of technical considerations to actually suppress the fire: How many firefighters are required? Where should a fire line be constructed? What aerial reconnaissance is needed? On such technical calls can hang the fate of both the zone’s natural resources and the men and women who seek to preserve them.

Winding around all these matters and never separate from them are the shifting conditions of the wilderness fires. It is not in the nature of blazes to sit still, and each new shift in the fire can create new and dangerous microclimates—powerful winds, intense heat—that further complicate suppression. An incident commander or crew leader who makes the right choices, handles them quickly, and anticipates correctly where the fire might suddenly go and where his crew should subsequently be achieves the primary purpose of the business: “fight fire aggressively but provide for safety first.” Make the wrong choices, make them too late, and all hell can break loose.

When “Can Do” Is Not Enough: Preparing for Decision Making

Wildland firefighters often assume leadership roles with little warning, in venues that are always new. Military leaders, of course, are called to do the same: freshly commissioned officers commanding soldiers in combat, for example, or seasoned officers taking troops onto an unknown battlefield. But unlike graduates of the military academies or war colleges, where leadership decisions have a central place in the curriculum, newly appointed wildfire incident commanders traditionally have taken charge with little or no formal preparation in leadership decisions. Indeed, prior to the South Canyon fire, the responsible federal agencies offered virtually no coursework in how to make decisions when lives depend on them.

Poor preparation predictably leads to poor choices. Consider one large adversary of good decisions: overconfidence, a moment when a responsible decision maker believes that a decision outcome is more likely than the factual situation would predict. Business studies have found that excessive audacity is most prevalent when managers face decisions on products and markets with which they are least familiar. In one such study, two researchers examined confidence among product managers of small computer software and hardware firms when they introduced radically new products to the market. The more pioneering the new products—and thus the less familiar the market—the more the product managers were likely to view the prospects for success through rose-colored glasses.

Firefighters constantly forced to make snap decisions in unfamiliar terrain face the same challenges. The less they have been prepared for a responsible decision-making role, the more a natural can-do attitude takes over. Without a pool of experience to back them up— experience in firefighting and in decision making—incident commanders sometimes latch onto a flawed firefighting strategy, certain that “we can make it work.” In the rapidly changing world of a racing fire, a can-do attitude is both essential and potentially dangerous.

In the Heat of the Moment: Acute Stress and Decision Making

Wildland fires can reach 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit, race forward at speeds up to 25 miles per hour—a gold-medal speed in the Olympics’ 100-meter event—and leap overhead without warning. At their most dangerous, such fires are said to “blow up,” an inflection point when they acquire a manic momentum of their own. Like avalanches and tornadoes, a blowup is one of nature’s most terrifying spectacles, one reason tension is ever present in a fire zone. For crew leaders and incident commanders, those who carry personal responsibility for the lives of others, the resulting tension can become acute. The more severe the stress, the less optimal decisions are likely to be just at a time when they are becoming most consequential.

Research confirms that individuals under time pressure or performing simultaneous multiple tasks are more prone to indulge in poor decision making for a host of reasons including a reluctance to search for relevant information. Studies also demonstrate that the adverse effects of underpreparation on decision making become most pronounced in the most severe conditions. In short, the two enemies of optimal decisions—poor preparation and great stress—are particularly pernicious when combined.

In studying urban firefighter captains and lieutenants, Fred Fielder found that while seasoned officers actually improved their performance under the stress of a fire, less prepared ones went in the opposite direction. The same is true of responsible o...


http://www.amazon.com/Go-Point-When-Time-Decide-Knowing/dp/product-description/1400082994/ref=dp_proddesc_0?ie=UTF8&n=283155&s=books

Upward Bound: Nine Original Accounts of How Business Leaders Reached Their Summits

Upward Bound: Nine Original Accounts of How Business Leaders Reached Their Summits [Hardcover]
Michael Useem (Author), Jerry Useem (Author), Paul Asel (Author)

Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
This collection of essays from nine executives who are also experienced mountain climbers shows the similarities between this extreme sport and the business world. Certain qualities-patience, perseverance, a talent for teamwork-are important in both the boardroom and the outdoors. Contributors include Michael Useem (the director of Center For Leadership and Change at Wharton), Jerry Useem (a senior writer at Fortune), Asel (a venture capital advisor), Jim Collins (author of the bestseller Good to Great), Stacy Allison (one of the most experienced woman mountain climbers) and Al Read (the executive vice chairman of Geographic Expeditions); essays focus on their authors' mountain experiences, analyzing the decisions and challenges of their more difficult adventures. Reviewing a failed effort to climb the Himalayas, for example, Allison writes that "a leader's job in such an extreme setting is to balance drive with caution, but it's every climber's responsibility to recognize the true limits of survival-to know just how far you can push yourself before inviting disaster." She goes on to suggest that "many companies have also faced much the same consequences when dealing with the absence of a strong leadership team at the top." The other contributors all share Allison's belief that the skills and confidence that are critical to their success as climbers are equally important in the business arena. This book will appeal to hard-charging, type-A readers who are dedicated both to their professions and to their individual athletic pursuits. The essays preach essentially the same message about teamwork, loyalty, hard work and commitment, though, and the mountain climbing stories compel far more than the business lessons.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Product Description
Your team has faltered at a critical moment. A key member says he can’t continue, requiring you to make a snap decision: Do you write him off? Or do you risk the whole venture by trying to get him back on his feet?

It could be a scenario straight from the business world.

Yet this one occurred high on the slopes of the world’s deadliest mountain, K2, where lives, not just livelihoods, depended on the leader’s choice.

Decisions don’t get much starker. That’s why mountains—though seemingly a world apart from business—hold unique and surprising insights for managers and entrepreneurs at any altitude. More than just symbols of our upward strivings, they are high-altitude management laboratories: testing grounds where risk, fear, opportunity, and ambition collide in the most unforgiving of settings.

Upward Bound brings together a remarkable team of nine writers equally at home among the high peaks and in the corridors of corporate power, including Good to Great author Jim Collins, legendary climber and outdoor clothing entrepreneur Royal Robbins, and Stacy Allison, the first American woman to summit Mount Everest. Their riveting, often harrowing accounts, reveal

• Why rock climbers’ distinction between failure (giving up before reaching the edge of your abilities) and what they call “fallure” (committing 100 percent and using up all your energy and reserves) can help companies transcend their vertical limits
• What happens when a leader abdicates responsibility in the Death Zone of Mount Everest—and how a similar vacuum at sea level can corrupt corporate purpose
• How large climbing expeditions use exquisite organization and “pyramids of people” to place just two climbers on top, making heroes of some from the sacrifice of all
• What “ridge-walking” between deadly avalanches and the lure of Mount McKinley’s summit taught a venture capitalist about nurturing risky high-tech start-ups
• How a simple insight—using “proximate goals”—propelled a faltering climber up El Capitan in a seemingly undoable solo ascent, a ten-day lesson that would later jump-start a business
• Why more accessible peaks like Mount Sinai can exert a pull every bit as powerful as Mount Everest
• How to think like a guide

While most people will never find themselves in the thin air of the world’s highest places, Upward Bound brings those places down to earth for anyone seeking the path to his or her own summit. Whether it’s up the career ladder or toward a creative peak, Upward Bound addresses the fundamental question of why we climb, while capturing the power of mountains to instruct as well as inspire.
From the Inside Flap
Your team has faltered at a critical moment. A key member says he can?t continue, requiring you to make a snap decision: Do you write him off? Or do you risk the whole venture by trying to get him back on his feet?

It could be a scenario straight from the business world.

Yet this one occurred high on the slopes of the world?s deadliest mountain, K2, where lives, not just livelihoods, depended on the leader?s choice.

Decisions don?t get much starker. That?s why mountains?though seemingly a world apart from business?hold unique and surprising insights for managers and entrepreneurs at any altitude. More than just symbols of our upward strivings, they are high-altitude management laboratories: testing grounds where risk, fear, opportunity, and ambition collide in the most unforgiving of settings.

Upward Bound brings together a remarkable team of nine writers equally at home among the high peaks and in the corridors of corporate power, including Good to Great author Jim Collins, legendary climber and outdoor clothing entrepreneur Royal Robbins, and Stacy Allison, the first American woman to summit Mount Everest. Their riveting, often harrowing accounts, reveal

? Why rock climbers? distinction between failure (giving up before reaching the edge of your abilities) and what they call ?fallure? (committing 100 percent and using up all your energy and reserves) can help companies transcend their vertical limits
? What happens when a leader abdicates responsibility in the Death Zone of Mount Everest?and how a similar vacuum at sea level can corrupt corporate purpose
? How large climbing expeditions use exquisite organization and ?pyramids of people? to place just two climbers on top, making heroes of some from the sacrifice of all
? What ?ridge-walking? between deadly avalanches and the lure of Mount McKinley?s summit taught a venture capitalist about nurturing risky high-tech start-ups
? How a simple insight?using ?proximate goals??propelled a faltering climber up El Capitan in a seemingly undoable solo ascent, a ten-day lesson that would later jump-start a business
? Why more accessible peaks like Mount Sinai can exert a pull every bit as powerful as Mount Everest
? How to think like a guide

While most people will never find themselves in the thin air of the world?s highest places, Upward Bound brings those places down to earth for anyone seeking the path to his or her own summit. Whether it?s up the career ladder or toward a creative peak, Upward Bound addresses the fundamental question of why we climb, while capturing the power of mountains to instruct as well as inspire.
About the Author
MICHAEL USEEM is professor of management and director of the Center for Leadership and Change at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of several books, including Leading Up and The Leadership Moment, and he runs programs for managers in the Andes, Patagonia, and the Himalayas.

JERRY USEEM is a senior writer at Fortune magazine, where he has covered management in such diverse contexts as Wal-Mart stores, the New York Yankees, and big corporate disasters.

PAUL ASEL was an adviser to start-up companies who helped pioneer venture capital in post-Communist Russia before bringing his experience to Silicon Valley. All three have wandered the world’s high—but mainly not so high—mountain ranges.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Hitting the Wall: Learning that Vertical Limits Aren?t

JIM COLLINS

In 1999, Nick Sagar reached the end of his rope. He had a dream: to climb The Crew, a route at the upper end of the rock-climbing difficulty scale in Rifle State Park, Colorado. In his twenties, Sagar had given his life over to the monomaniacal dedication required to climb 5.14 routes (the highest rating possible on the Yosemite Decimal System), living off a few dollars of sponsorship money with his wife, Heather, munching donated energy bars and living out of a truck parked at the crags for months at a time.

Then Sagar saw the dream crumble before his eyes. During a rest day while preparing for his next attempt, he got the bad news: His sponsorship from a climbing gear company?money he desperately needed to survive while working on the route?failed to come through. Out of money, he had no choice but to abandon his quest for The Crew and head home, seeking work. Sagar knew that he would likely never again be fit enough to ascend the route; never again would he have an entire year to do nothing but live in Rifle Park and train all day every day, like an Olympic decathlete in the year before the games. The loss of sponsorship virtually guaranteed that he would never reach his goal. Sagar removed the gear he?d fixed on the route months earlier. Tears streaming down his face, he packed up his equipment and walked back to camp. He and Heather said good-bye to their friends and drove toward the exit, defeated.

But then a lone figure stepped into the middle of the road, holding something in his hand.

?That?s Herman,? said Nick. ?What the heck is he doing??

Herman Gollner, a dedicated climber in his mid-fifties, had watched Sagar?s quest with quiet admiration. When he heard about Sagar?s situation, he drove back to his home in Aspen, visited his bank, and made a withdrawal. Now, here stood Herman, with a handful of cash, flagging down Sagar?s truck.

?Here, take this,? he said, thrusting the cash at Nick. ?You must finish The Crew.?

?No . . . I couldn?t possibly . . . no,? Nick stammered.

?You must take it,? asserted Herman, in his Austrian accent. ?You are so close. You may never have a chance again. I am older now?never again to climb at the top?but you . . . maybe I can help you. Please, take it.?

The Sagars reluctantly accepted the cash, and Nick returned to the route for another attempt. This was his Olympic Gold Medal attempt, his shot to come through. He launched into the upper section of the wall, feeling strong, knowing he could do it. But just before the top, he heard a sickening sound?a little crackle under his foot and the skitter of his climbing shoe against stone. He had broken a key foothold!

Like one of those movie scenes in which the hero grasps for something in a dream, only to watch it disappear from his outstretched fingertips as he wakes, Sagar watched the top of the route suddenly fly up out of his grasp as gravity pulled his body off the rock and into midair. The rope snapped tight, and he knew he?d just expended his best effort ever. And now, without the key foothold, the route would be even more difficult.

?I almost wanted to quit,? he said. ?But Herman and all my friends believed in me. I couldn?t let them down.? Foothold or not, Sagar was determined to do the route, working on it through the autumn months and into early winter. Finally, on the last possible day of the season, with snow falling all about, Sagar made a final attempt. The overhanging rock shielded his hand holds from snow, but that was the only relief from the weather. Despite subfreezing temperatures and fingers so numb that he could barely feel the smaller edges, Sagar pulled through to the top and fulfilled the dream.

?I learned so much from The Crew,? reflected Sagar three years later, ?but very little of the learning was about climbing. I learned that the highest individual achievements are never solo events, that you only reach your best with the help of other people, and their belief in you. It?s a lesson I will never forget, no matter what I do with the rest of my life.?

The adventure of The Crew became not just a climb, but a classroom for life. It was not reaching the top that mattered most, but the lessons?the struggle and the adventure?learned along the way. Says Sagar: ?I?m a better person for the experience, not the success.?

I?ve been a rock climber for more than thirty years now, and while I?ll probably never break through to climb 5.14 like Nick Sagar, my whole approach to life and career has been inextricably linked with my development as a climber. I began in my early teenage years, when my stepfather signed me up for a climbing course against my will. (?I?d rather study,? I whined.) At the end of the first day, however, I knew I?d discovered one of the burning passions of my life. Growing up in Boulder, Colorado, I had one of the great climbing centers of the world as my backyard, and some of the greatest climbers in the world as mentors. When I applied to Stanford University as an undergraduate, I noted in my application that one of the main attractions of Stanford was its sandstone buildings and wonderful weather that would enable me to train year-round by climbing on the walls between classes. (Climbing on the walls had long been a tradition with the Stanford Alpine Club, which had even published a small guide to routes on campus.) One day while trying an unclimbed route on the side of the philosophy building in the main Quadrangle, I heard a shuffle of feet behind me and then the voice of emeritus philosophy professor John Goheen: ?Really, Mr. Collins. Do you think this is the ultimate solution to the existential dilemma?? I named the climb Kant Be Done.

Rock climbing for me has been the ultimate classroom, with lessons applicable to all aspects of life, including business, management, leadership, and scientific study. It is a sport from which you do not always get a second chance to learn from your mistakes?death tends to stop the learning process?but I?ve been fortunate to survive my own blunders. In this chapter, I offer five of my favorite lessons from climbing as a classroom, and how they apply to life and work outside of climbing:

1.Climb to fallure, not failure: How to succeed without reaching the top

2.Climb in the future, today: How to succeed by changing your frame of mind

3.Separate probability from consequence: How to succeed?and stay alive?by understanding the true risks

4.Form the Partner?s Pact: How to succeed by practicing the discipline of first who, then what

5.Don?t confuse luck and competence: How to not let success kill you

LESSON 1. CLIMB TO FALLURE, NOT FAILURE: HOW TO SUCCEED WITHOUT REACHING THE TOP

Matt and I walked around the bend in the trail and I stopped dead in my tracks, looking at an absolutely beautiful sheet of rock?smooth and slightly overhanging, with a thin fingertip-sized seam splitting right up the middle of the gray-and-silver granite wall in the Colorado Rockies Front Range. ?You can see why I named the route Crystal Ball,? Matt said, pointing to a baseball-sized quartzite handhold fifty feet up the climb.

We roped up and I set off up the route, shooting for an on-sight ascent. An on-sight means that on your first try you lead the climb without any prior information about the moves (other than what you can determine looking from the ground) and without any artificial aid. Other climbers may have climbed the route before you, but they have not given you any information on how to climb the difficult sections, nor have you watched anyone else attempt the route. For you, in other words, the route is an entirely blank page, no matter how many other climbers have ascended the route. You get one chance for an on-sight. Once you start to climb, if you blow it (and thereby fall onto the rope), you?ve forever lost the chance.

Ten feet below the crystal, my feet began to skitter about, slipping off slick pebbles, and I curled my thumb around a little edge, thinking to myself, ?If I can just get a little weight off my fingers . . .? The adrenaline of the on-sight attempt made me overgrip every hold, clamping down as hard as I could?like an overanxious runner who goes out too fast in the first 800 meters, only to pay the price for the indiscretion with lactic acid and gasping breaths.

If you?ve ever taken a pull-up test, you can get a sense for the feel of a hard sport climb. With the first pull-up, you feel really strong?like you can do this forever. But when you get close to your limit, the movement that earlier felt so easy becomes impossibly hard. If you could just let go of the bar and rest for a minute, you could do two or three more pulls-ups, easy. But when you try to do all of your pull-ups in one hang, you hit a wall; drawing on all your will, you just can?t get over the bar again. End of session.

A hard sport climb is similar to a pull-up session: It?s a race to the top before you run out of power. The moves that would be so easy if they were moves one, two, and three become much harder when placed higher on the route, at, say, moves twenty-five, twenty-six, and twenty-seven. (A move is simply a hand movement. If you move your right hand from one hold to the next, it counts as a single move.) As we say in the realm of steep routes, ?the clock is ticking? as soon as you leave the ground. You only have so many minutes and seconds before you will reach a point where your arms and fingers unwrap and uncurl, and you go plummeting down until (hopefully) the rope catches you.

?Breath, Jim. Relax.? Matt?s voice soothed me for a moment.

I gathered a bit of composure while hooking my thumb and rest- ing my fingers, trying to get my breathing to settle down. But to little avail. My mind chattered away: ?Should I go right hand or left hand to the sideways edge above? . . . If I get it wrong, there?s no way I can reverse . . . and even if I get it right, I?m not sure I?ll have enough power to pull up to the crystal ball. . . . And if I can?t get to the crystal ball, there?s no way I?ll be able to get the rope clipped into the next point of protection. . . . How far would I fall? . . . Matt?s a good belayer. . . . I hope I checked my knot . . . God, my fingers hurt . . . but this is the on-sight . . . don?t blow it. . . . You only get one chance to on-sight the route. . . . But what if I go for it and I can?t clip? I?ll take a huge fall . . . But I won?t hit anything . . . I?ll just fly off into space . . . It?s only scary, but not unsafe. . . . Just do it. . . . Just punch for it. . . . What have you got to lose? . . . I wonder if I can go right left right . . . But I don?t like to take big falls . . .?

Tick, tick, tick?the clock ran on while I hesitated.

?Okay, Matt, here I go.?

http://www.amazon.com/Upward-Bound-Original-Accounts-Business/dp/product-description/1400050480/ref=dp_proddesc_0?ie=UTF8&n=283155&s=books

The Leadership Moment: Nine True Stories of Triumph and Disaster and Their Lessons for Us All

The Leadership Moment: Nine True Stories of Triumph and Disaster and Their Lessons for Us All [Paperback]
Michael Useem (Author), Warren Bennis (Foreword)

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
To prove their various points, most books on business leadership focus strictly on either a series of standard, contemporary corporate illustrations or a single nontraditional model (such as a specific historic personality or a classic manuscript such as the Tao Te Ching). But Michael Useem, director of the Center for Leadership at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, has long used poignant real-life examples of people facing their "moments of truth"--regardless of the setting--to teach students how best to perform under the pressures they will face in the business world. In The Leadership Moment: Nine True Stories of Triumph and Disaster and Their Lessons for Us All, Useem presents some of these surprisingly effective profiles to show how others have responded when push truly comes to shove. Among them are: the story of Roy Vagelos championing an unprofitable drug that ultimately wiped out a debilitating disease in Africa; how flight director Eugene Kranz worked calmly and efficiently to return the endangered Apollo 13 astronauts safely back to Earth; and a look at Arlene Blum's pioneering all-woman ascent of the 26,545-foot Himalayan peak Annapurna in 1978. --Howard Rothman --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
Every head of state in business or politics who believes it's lonely at the top can take refuge in this broad look at the travails of leadership by the director of the Center for Leadership and Change Management at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. Useem picks nine leaders from different realms of business, public service and government, and focuses on one critical decision that each had to make. For NASA flight director Eugene Kranz, it was guiding a crippled Apollo 13 back to Earth. For El Salvador's President Alfredo Cristiani, it was bringing an end to his country's civil war. The stories are packed with detail, and some include charts and tabular matter as well. Useem does an excellent job of underscoring the lessons that would-be leaders should take away from his profiles. For example, as part of the Apollo 13 story, "When both speed and precision count, sharing information and keeping everybody's eye on both goals simultaneously are essential for achieving both," he says. Commenting on John Gutfreund's loss of Salomon Inc. ("one of Wall Street's richest companies"), Useem writes, "Inaction can be as damaging to leadership as inept action." These lessons are brought home again, often in the same words, in the Conclusion and the Leader's Guide, a listing of nostrums for aspiring managers. 32 photos.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
"Gripping adventure and actionable advice . . . Useem not only takes us into the experiences of others but also draws out
striking lessons."--Fast Company

"One thoughtful work like this is worth a ton of new-age, self-help tomes that are high on fluff and low on
scholarship."--San Francisco Chronicle

"A really good story is a time-honored way to show how leaders respond to extreme challenges [and] that's what Michael Useem delivers."--USA Today
Product Description
Are you ready for the leadership moment?

Merck's Roy Vagelos commits millions of dollars to develop a drug needed only by people who can't afford it · Eugene Kranz struggles to bring the Apollo 13 astronauts home after an explosion rips through their spacecraft · Arlene Blum organizes the first women's ascent of one of the world's most dangerous mountains · Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain leads his tattered troops into a pivotal Civil War battle at Little Round Top · John Gutfreund loses Salomon Brothers when his inattention to a trading scandal almost topples the Wall Street giant · Clifton Wharton restructures a $50 billion pension system direly out of touch with its customers · Alfredo Cristiani transforms El Salvador's decade-long civil war into a negotiated settlement · Nancy Barry leads Women's World Banking in the fight against Third World poverty · Wagner Dodge faces the decision of a lifetime as a fast-moving forest fire overtakes his firefighting crew
From the Inside Flap
Are you ready for the leadership moment?

Merck's Roy Vagelos commits millions of dollars to develop a drug needed only by people who can't afford it · Eugene Kranz struggles to bring the Apollo 13 astronauts home after an explosion rips through their spacecraft · Arlene Blum organizes the first women's ascent of one of the world's most dangerous mountains · Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain leads his tattered troops into a pivotal Civil War battle at Little Round Top · John Gutfreund loses Salomon Brothers when his inattention to a trading scandal almost topples the Wall Street giant · Clifton Wharton restructures a $50 billion pension system direly out of touch with its customers · Alfredo Cristiani transforms El Salvador's decade-long civil war into a negotiated settlement · Nancy Barry leads Women's World Banking in the fight against Third World poverty · Wagner Dodge faces the decision of a lifetime as a fast-moving forest fire overtakes his firefighting crew
From the Back Cover

"Gripping adventure and actionable advice . . . Useem not only takes us into the experiences of others but also draws out
striking lessons."--Fast Company

"One thoughtful work like this is worth a ton of new-age, self-help tomes that are high on fluff and low on
scholarship."--San Francisco Chronicle

"A really good story is a time-honored way to show how leaders respond to extreme challenges [and] that's what Michael Useem delivers."--USA Today
About the Author
Michael Useem is the director of the Center for Leadership and Change Management at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, where he is also the William and Jacalyn Egan Professor of Management. He regularly leads Wharton graduates on leadership treks to the Himalayas.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
"It's where you start your team building" argues Kranz. "The first thing I did in establishing the team building is to look at 'co-location': I want similar people working together as an element of a team." He grouped people across levels, and he grouped outside contractors with inside employees. Occasionally the arrangements violated civil service rules, but when told to conform, Kranz invented ways around them.

Implicit comprehension was a key objective of the team building: "You learn to use the nonverbal communication," Kranz says. "You develop the feeling whether this guy needs a few more seconds to work out a problem. Sometimes you'll change your polling procedures" in surveying the controllers before taking a decision. "You're going to come to him last, you're going to give him a few more seconds."

As a final reinforcing measure, Kranz arranged his flight teams into their own baseball league. The flight teams then challenged the astronaut teams on the football field. Other seasons produced still more competitive sports, even judo.

The team-building payoffs were evident in Room 210. The forty or so people working there had to solve dozens of interrelated problems on the fly, weaving hundreds of specific steps into broader fabric. They had to restructure technological systems so tightly coupled that tiny changes in one could create havoc in another. When a guidance controller proposed deicing Odyssey's thruster jets by briefly firing the engines, another controller immediately protested that the deicing could ruin the guidance system of the still-attached Aquarius. Those responsible for the flight's dynamics, guidance, and later retrofiring objected that the firing could divert the spacecraft from its required trajectory. Yet they quickly found an effective solution, reaffirming the collective virtues of the endless simulations and sports.

By implication: Developing teams and teams of teams through training and exercise can create the implicit understandings that make for fast and accurate decision making when the teams are under duress but must act.

The Two Faces of Leadership

Eugene Kranz enduredthe crisis with an unshakable faith that it would be resolved the right way. His optimism stemmed from an optimistic appraisal of the decision-making
apparatus he had fostered since taking control of the Apollo missions just two years earlier. "I thought that as a group we were smart enough and clever enough," he would later say, "to get out of any problem." Kranz's latticework of teams and specialists served as half the leadership formula. His driving optimism and demand for accuracy among the teamsand specialists added the other half.

Managers are vested with certain areas of authority from the day they arrive: they can revise budgets, assign people, and give raises. These are the levers of office shown in the bottom rectangle in Figure 3. 1-the ones Kranz was handed the minute he first stepped through the door of his new office. Like all successful managers, though, Kranz realized that the vested powers of office are only a platform to build on. As opposed to merely managing, leadership can be defined as moving above those vested powers in both personal and organizational ways, as shown in the upper rectangles in Figure 3.1.

Personal leadership includes the exercise of individual qualities of leadership, as seen in Eugene Kranz's insistence on fast and accurate decisions and in his abiding optimism about a successful return. Organizational leadership includes the exercise of change and development of other people, as seen in his team building before the mission and team restructuring during it. Leadership, then, can be viewed as leveraging what you are given to achieve far more.

Neither facet of leadership is a birthright. Both can be mastered, but mastery is lifelong, often beginning with early mentoring by those who understand both. For Eugene Kranz, several "incredibly gifted 'teachers' " served as early models for lasting lessons:

Flight desk manager at McDonnell Aircraft: "His theme was accountability. When you sign that airplane off for flight, you're signing off the lives of the crew on board. You're signing off that airplane that's very valuable. You're signing off responsibility for the future of McDonnell Aircraft." @ulne: Flight officer at McDonnell Aircraft: "He really taught me enthusiasm."

Primary flight instructor: "He taught me to watch out for the people around me. . If you want to fly safely, you take care of every person in this chain that you fly airplanes on."

Chris Kraft, NASA flight director: "He taught me about risk"-and in the most direct way. Kranz had been serving under Kraft in one of the early missions of the space program when, in the middle of the flight and with no warning, Kraft had turned full control over to him. Kranz recalls being kicked out of the nest so abruptly as a "defining experience."

The day after the successful splashdown of Apollo 13, The New York Times editorialized:

"For three-and-a-half days all three astronauts had lived at the brink of death in a crippled vehicle whose reserves were so near exhaustion that it had margin neither for human error nor for further malfunctioning of its equipment." The "almost incredible feat" of a safe return "would have been impossible were it not for the steady nerves, courage and great skill of the astronauts themselves" and the "NASA network whose teams of experts performed miracles of emergency improvisation."

Gene Kranz had dreamed of going to the moon himself. As a high school junior, he had authored a term paper on the logistics of moon flight. As a university student, he had majored in aeronautical engineering. As an air force officer, he had served as a jet fighter pilot. And when the Mercury spaceflight program placed a want ad, he was among the first to volunteer. He would never qualify as an astronaut. But in 1970, he received both NASA's Distinguished Service Medal and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Three years later, as he was turning forty, NASA awarded him its medal for Outstanding Leadership.


From the Hardcover edition.
=============================================================================



http://www.amazon.com/Leadership-Moment-Stories-Triumph-Disaster/dp/product-description/0812932307/ref=dp_proddesc_0?ie=UTF8&n=283155&s=books

The Power of Teams: Dividing the Tasks and Multiplying the Successes

The Power of Teams: Dividing the Tasks and Multiplying the Successes


Two years ago, Chris Warner was nearing the summit of K2 in Pakistan. Ahead of his team was a group of Korean climbers, led by the highly experienced Nima Nurbu Sherpa, who had successfully scaled Mount Everest six times. Just 100 feet above Warner's team, as they approached the infamously dangerous Bottleneck, Nima slipped. As both teams watched, he slid off the South Face. Warner later commented on the tragedy and its implications, "Leadership is a sweet delusion: so fragile, so easily sabotaged. Whether on a mountain or at work, leading others can quickly become difficult and dangerous."

A few months later, Warner, who has summited five of the world's highest peaks, was climbing again, this time in the Andes. He met "management sage" Don Schmincke on that expedition, and the two began exploring the connection between corporate leadership and hazardous mountaineering experiences. That first conversation eventually led to a book, High Altitude Leadership, which studies the dangers that prevent executives from achieving true success.

"Economic growth is challenged when people don't have confidence in themselves, in each other, and in what they're doing."

Jeffrey Klein, Academic Director, Creating and Leading High Performance Teams; Director, Wharton Graduate Leadership Program

When Warner addresses participants in Creating and Leading High-Performing Teams, he stresses the first crucial undertaking for leaders of any team: creating and communicating a "compelling saga." What is your vision for your team? What are its goals, and how eager is the team to embrace them? Warner told one recent group of participants, "As a leader, you're either going to create the saga, or those around you will fill that hole with their own drama."
Combating a Crisis of Confidence

Jeff Klein, academic director of Creating and Leading High-Performing Teams, and director of the Wharton Graduate Leadership Program, agrees. "The saga, or the vision, is especially critical today. When your company is going through tough times, your team is expending energy dealing with hardships. That might be a reduced workforce, smaller margins, longer hours. As a leader, you need to transfer that energy into support of a common goal. Effectively communicating a compelling saga does that."

Klein explains further that leading with a shared vision also creates confidence. "Economic growth is challenged when people don't have confidence in themselves, in each other, and in what they're doing. Lack of a common vision can translate into lack of positive growth as an organization. To break down this obstacle, we need to create and communicate a clear vision. Then, each member needs to understand his or her role in achieving it.

"It's pretty simple: the financial crisis is really a crisis of confidence. When you lack trust, it paralyzes you. People need to feel confidence not only in you as a leader, but in their own part of the bigger picture. The economy turns around when people start working productively toward a positive goal."
The Five Principles of Team Building

But it takes more than a vision to create a strong team. In the Executive Education program, faculty present the principles present in every successful team.
Creating a vision and aligning your team around it.
Defining roles within a team: the potential of each member is unlocked when you allow individuals to exercise creativity in support of the goal.
Maintaining the group as a whole: preserving your team's identity, nurturing your team, and providing the necessary support.
Using the team to get the work done: fostering innovation, generating ideas, and elaborating on them; encouraging autonomy to breed further creativity.
Maximizing the effectiveness of your leadership style: do you lead from the front, middle, or behind?
Strong Team Foundations Yield Optimal Results

“Ideally,” notes Jeff Klein, “you build this team foundation before any crisis hits. Then you reap the benefits. Similar stories emerged after 9/11 involving Meg Whitman of eBay and Ken Chenault of American Express. Both were away from headquarters during the attacks, and both were subsequently grounded without the means to return to headquarters for days. As they waited in remote locations, Whitman and Chenault devised their strategies.

Whitman wanted her team to secure eBay’s computer servers, start an online auction to benefit victims of the attacks, and make sure her employees were all okay. Chenault also wanted his employees accounted for and his company’s workforce and records secured. In addition, he needed American Express to support its customers: travelers who, like him, wanted to get home.

In both cases, their top management teams took charge, making dozens of decisions and implementing plans that were virtually identical to what the CEO would have done had she or he been there to directly exercise their leadership.
The Principles in Action

Once participants of Creating and Leading High-Performing Teams understand the team concepts, they're put in challenging situations to learn them actively. On one day, they find themselves in a shell on the Schuykill River, experiencing first-hand the ultimate team sport: rowing. To get the shell to move, eight men and women must synchronize their movements precisely.

Klein explains, "Rowing is the perfect metaphor. The goal of the oarsmen is to achieve what's known as ‘swing.' It's the term for near-perfect coordination of movement that results in top speed and performance. That's what Whitman's and Chenault's teams displayed in their boardrooms. An aligned group knows its goal, and each member knows his or her role while being conscious of other members of the team.

Ultimately, whether you're rowing or leading a team through a successful merger, you're a part of something bigger than yourself. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, ‘No member of a crew is praised for the rugged individuality of his rowing.'"
What's at Stake

Klein again refers to the essential role of teams in the current economic environment. "When you're facing uncertainty, how do you and your team stay focused on achieving goals? The financial crisis has created so many distractions. If we give those distractions energy, we're helping to prolong the crisis. A highly focused team, one confidently rooted in their vision, is the best way out. The risk we run right now is to become consumed by the crisis and letting those emotions prevent us from driving economic growth."

A recent program participant remarked, "I was able to accomplish things I didn't think were possible because I felt the trust of the team. The goal and my part in it were so clear. I understood the value of what we were doing, and that gave me the confidence to get things done."

http://executiveeducation.wharton.upenn.edu/wharton-at-work/0909/power-of-teams-0909.cfm

Friendship.....

Cut Nurul
FRIENDSHIP...means understanding...NOT agreement. It means forgiveness NOT forgetting. It means the memories last. Even if contact is lost....

Charisma Inspires, Admiration Expires

Charisma Inspires, Admiration Expires
Posted by Julie Henry on Wed, Apr 20, 2011 @ 01:26 PM

By Tricia Reese - Senior Facilitator with Bluepoint Leadership Development

There’s a social group that I’ve been a part of for over a decade, and I’ve recently stepped back to observe the group from the perspective of a leadership practitioner rather than as a participant. Viewing this group through a different lens, I was struck by the power secured by the group’s unofficially elected, highly charismatic leader. This triggered me to reflect on the charismatic leaders that I’ve encountered at the helm of both formal and informal social and organizational structures, and to consider the impact of these leaders.

The leader I’m referring to isn’t one who can be labeled by a style, model, or theory. It’s the leader who operates by charisma alone, personifying the dictionary definition of charisma - “a special personal quality or power of an individual making him capable of influencing or inspiring large numbers of people.”

Charismatic leaders are chock-full of self confidence and emotional intelligence. They are masters at reading verbal and non verbal cues then shading their actions and words to influence appropriately. They become attuned to individual’s passions and publicly proclaim their own passions. Charismatic leaders bestow acknowledgement heartily and frequently. As expert storytellers, their delivery is energetic and their message is full of conviction. These tools support the leader in connecting with others, resulting in the quick assemblage of followers and a distinct group identity. Charismatic leaders get peoples’ attention and generate energy that produces momentum. Followers become emotionally engaged and feel involved in something monumental.

Many times I’ve been captivated by such a leader, readily bequeathing them my admiration and witnessing others swell with admiration too. Regarding admiration, seventeenth century playwright Joseph Addison had an important observation: “Admiration is a very short-lived passion that immediately decays upon growing familiar with its objects.”

Admiration has an expiration date.
When I reflect on my experience participating on teams led by a charismatic leader, my most vivid recollections are about the results (or lack of results) we produced. It seemed as though the team of followers was galvanized by the leader but failed to become mobilized. The team was roused but not motivated enough or directed toward action that could achieve substantial results. Is it possible that lackluster results were symptomatic of the team members’ waning admiration for their charismatic leader?

For a leader to produce long term, sustainable results, it is essential that team members’ admiration be prolonged, and this can be accomplished if admiration is coupled with or converted to respect for the leader. Wherein admiration holds the recipient in awe, respect embraces the beneficiary with honor. Respect garners loyalty and long term commitment, and once an individual adopts the mindset of long term commitment, they’re willing to donate discretionary effort to the cause.

Respect is imbedded in integrity, and integrity is the cornerstone of successful leadership. Integrity encompasses many elements, but perhaps the most important is trust. Research indicates that these three leadership behaviors have been shown to build trust:
Consistency – Leaders must follow through and do what they say they’re going to do.
Caring – Leaders need to show that there is genuine concern for the needs of employees.
Competence – People like to work with leaders who can demonstrate their skill and knowledge.

If an individual with such magnetic personality makes people feel good, builds connections, and forms an entourage, have they automatically established the trust that would earn them respect? As a means to answer this, I offer some of the actions I’ve repeatedly experienced in the presence of charismatic leaders:
The leader focused only on making people feel great in the moment rather than building greatness in others for the future.
The leader dispensed repeated recognition that felt mechanical and misplaced.
The leader wore a facade rather than showing others his or her authentic self.
The leader implied rather than demonstrated that they had capability or skill.
The leader spent excessive time promising something big that never materialized.

When measuring these actions against the three trust building behaviors, trust falls short. There are hints of caring behaviors and a scant display of competency and consistency. The point here is not to imply that charismatic leaders lack integrity. Instead, it’s that perhaps in their zeal to engage followers, these well-intentioned leaders misallocate their time, spending an excess on exhibition, neglecting to build trust, and ultimately sacrificing results.

To leaders who use charisma as their primary lever, on behalf of many of your current or future followers, my message to you is this. You will win my admiration, but don’t bask in that for too long. Promptly redistribute your focus from the window dressing to employing trust-building behaviors. I have a plethora of people and things vying to secure my attention. Trust will keep me tethered to you. Earn that and you’ll be abundantly rewarded.

Tricia Reese is a Senior Facilitator with Bluepoint Leadership Development and welcomes your comments. She can be reached at triciareese@bluepointleadership.com


http://info.bluepointleadership.com/Bluepoint-News/bid/62929/Charisma-Inspires-Admiration-Expires

Charisma Inspires, Admiration Expires

Charisma Inspires, Admiration Expires
Posted by Julie Henry on Wed, Apr 20, 2011 @ 01:26 PM

By Tricia Reese - Senior Facilitator with Bluepoint Leadership Development

There’s a social group that I’ve been a part of for over a decade, and I’ve recently stepped back to observe the group from the perspective of a leadership practitioner rather than as a participant. Viewing this group through a different lens, I was struck by the power secured by the group’s unofficially elected, highly charismatic leader. This triggered me to reflect on the charismatic leaders that I’ve encountered at the helm of both formal and informal social and organizational structures, and to consider the impact of these leaders.

The leader I’m referring to isn’t one who can be labeled by a style, model, or theory. It’s the leader who operates by charisma alone, personifying the dictionary definition of charisma - “a special personal quality or power of an individual making him capable of influencing or inspiring large numbers of people.”

Charismatic leaders are chock-full of self confidence and emotional intelligence. They are masters at reading verbal and non verbal cues then shading their actions and words to influence appropriately. They become attuned to individual’s passions and publicly proclaim their own passions. Charismatic leaders bestow acknowledgement heartily and frequently. As expert storytellers, their delivery is energetic and their message is full of conviction. These tools support the leader in connecting with others, resulting in the quick assemblage of followers and a distinct group identity. Charismatic leaders get peoples’ attention and generate energy that produces momentum. Followers become emotionally engaged and feel involved in something monumental.

Many times I’ve been captivated by such a leader, readily bequeathing them my admiration and witnessing others swell with admiration too. Regarding admiration, seventeenth century playwright Joseph Addison had an important observation: “Admiration is a very short-lived passion that immediately decays upon growing familiar with its objects.”

Admiration has an expiration date.
When I reflect on my experience participating on teams led by a charismatic leader, my most vivid recollections are about the results (or lack of results) we produced. It seemed as though the team of followers was galvanized by the leader but failed to become mobilized. The team was roused but not motivated enough or directed toward action that could achieve substantial results. Is it possible that lackluster results were symptomatic of the team members’ waning admiration for their charismatic leader?

For a leader to produce long term, sustainable results, it is essential that team members’ admiration be prolonged, and this can be accomplished if admiration is coupled with or converted to respect for the leader. Wherein admiration holds the recipient in awe, respect embraces the beneficiary with honor. Respect garners loyalty and long term commitment, and once an individual adopts the mindset of long term commitment, they’re willing to donate discretionary effort to the cause.

Respect is imbedded in integrity, and integrity is the cornerstone of successful leadership. Integrity encompasses many elements, but perhaps the most important is trust. Research indicates that these three leadership behaviors have been shown to build trust:
Consistency – Leaders must follow through and do what they say they’re going to do.
Caring – Leaders need to show that there is genuine concern for the needs of employees.
Competence – People like to work with leaders who can demonstrate their skill and knowledge.

If an individual with such magnetic personality makes people feel good, builds connections, and forms an entourage, have they automatically established the trust that would earn them respect? As a means to answer this, I offer some of the actions I’ve repeatedly experienced in the presence of charismatic leaders:
The leader focused only on making people feel great in the moment rather than building greatness in others for the future.
The leader dispensed repeated recognition that felt mechanical and misplaced.
The leader wore a facade rather than showing others his or her authentic self.
The leader implied rather than demonstrated that they had capability or skill.
The leader spent excessive time promising something big that never materialized.

When measuring these actions against the three trust building behaviors, trust falls short. There are hints of caring behaviors and a scant display of competency and consistency. The point here is not to imply that charismatic leaders lack integrity. Instead, it’s that perhaps in their zeal to engage followers, these well-intentioned leaders misallocate their time, spending an excess on exhibition, neglecting to build trust, and ultimately sacrificing results.

To leaders who use charisma as their primary lever, on behalf of many of your current or future followers, my message to you is this. You will win my admiration, but don’t bask in that for too long. Promptly redistribute your focus from the window dressing to employing trust-building behaviors. I have a plethora of people and things vying to secure my attention. Trust will keep me tethered to you. Earn that and you’ll be abundantly rewarded.

Tricia Reese is a Senior Facilitator with Bluepoint Leadership Development and welcomes your comments. She can be reached at triciareese@bluepointleadership.com


http://info.bluepointleadership.com/Bluepoint-News/bid/62929/Charisma-Inspires-Admiration-Expires

How Current are your Current Measures of Success?

How Current are your Current Measures of Success?

By Jim Boneau

One afternoon, inspired by a desire for nostalgia, I toured my boyhood hometown and found myself driving through an area I had thought 30 years ago was my dream neighborhood. I always imagined buying a home there and settling my future family into that community. Remembering that goal, that previous measure of success, I rather quickly judged that particular goal a failure – a measurement of success that I had not met. As I reflected further, I began to challenge my quick label of failure. The reality is, my life today, the community I live in, the home I have, the family that lives there – those are my dream – not that outdated dream. In fact, that outdated dream was no longer relevant to my own current values and measures of success. There was no reason for me to label not living in my 30 year old dream neighborhood as a failure because not settling there was actually a contributing factor to what I now define as my success. My current view of success was something I could not have even imagined 30 years ago.

A few weeks later I was leading a leadership development class through a values identification activity. Half-way through the process, a woman raised her hand to share an observation. The values she had been identifying as most important were actually outdated from her current value set. She had not truly realized, until laying out values side by side, that what she thought were her values were actually reflections from her past, not truly what she believed today as a leader in a large organization. As we spoke further, I found that she too was measuring success today through an outdated set of values and goals.

As I considered this phenomenon of outdated views of self and old goals, I began to see more and more examples in my and other leaders’ behaviors:
Using a definition of success from prior to 2008 and the recession instead of adjusting my measure of success in our new economic reality;
identifying and developing talent based on my view of how I saw talent 20 years ago instead of looking at how to identify and develop talent now;
looking for new business opportunities from a value set and belief of business that was far from
the actual business person I am today.

For me and other leaders I have worked with, our outdated sense of self and measures of success were causing us to be blind to the new, innovative opportunities that were right in front of us. We were blind to these innovations because they were blocked from our sight by our outdated views of ourselves, what we valued, and how we measured success.

Every leader I talk to from Asia to Europe to North America speaks of the need to be more innovative. They focus on innovation techniques to generate new ideas. I wonder if they too are surrounded by opportunities for innovation, but blind to them because of outdated views of themselves, those around them, and the businesses they lead. Think of the implications of this: If I can update how I see myself and the world around me to be more in line with today’s reality than yesterday’s history, I could actually see the innovation opportunities that are right under my nose.

What can you do to open up this new window to seeing innovation?

1. Begin by reflecting on your values, goals and measures of success from a critical time in your early adult life–graduating from college, your first job, or your first remembered adult dreams of success. Write down as much as possible

2. Next, reflect on your values, goals and measures of success today. Again, write as much as possible.

3. Now write down all your most recent successes, times when you felt most satisfied with work and life. Create a mental video tape of one of the best days of your life.

4. Compare these 3 sets of data. What do you see? Are there clear connections between any of these? Rate how up-to-date your measures of success are.

5. Finally, sit down with a trusted friend or colleague. Tell them what you have learned in this reflection process. Ask them how they see you today and how they think you measure success. What information does that give you about how you see yourself and how you measure success compared to another’s view?

What meaning can you make for yourself after completing this reflection process? Do your current successes fall in line with how you think you measure success now or in another time of your life? Is it time to update your personal and professional values, goals and measures of success?
I heard this line once in a movie, “Don’t let your past dictate who are – let it be a part of who you become.” In life and in business, the past could be a hindrance to seeing new possibilities.

The innovative, up-to-date leader may realize that the biggest blocker to innovation is their outdated measurements of what it means to be successful.

Jim Boneau is Vice President and Master Facilitator at Bluepoint Leadership Development. He welcomes your comments by email.


http://www.bluepointleadership.com/blog/uncategorized/how-current-are-your-current-measures-of-success/#more-127

Bluepoint Leadership Development

For three straight years, Leadership Excellence magazine has ranked Bluepoint Leadership Development as one of the top 5 Leadership Development training firms in the country.

This year Leadership Excellence connected with over 1,000 organizations to determine the best Leadership Development programs and practices based on seven criteria:

1) Vision/mission. Are these statements linked to strategy, meaningful to participants, and focused on target outcomes?

2) Involvement and participation. How broad is the involvement and how deep the participation?

3) Measurement and accountability. What ROI measures are made and reported and to what degree is accountability for performance and results part of the program?

4) Design, content, and curriculum. How well designed is the program? How credible is the content? How relevant is the curriculum? How customized is the program?

5) Presenters, presentations, and delivery. What are the qualifications of the presenters, how effective are their presentations, and how is the program delivered?

6) Take-home value. What do participants take away and apply to improve themselves, their families, their teams, and their volunteer work?

7)Outreach. What is the impact of the program on stakeholders?

For 2010 the top five firms in consultants/trainers/coaches category are:

Korn/Ferry International
Marshall Goldsmith Partners
Zenger/Folkman
Bluepoint Leadership
Ninth House

Six Behaviors That Increase Self-Esteem by Denis Waitley

Six Behaviors That Increase Self-Esteem by Denis Waitley

Following are six behaviors that increase self-esteem, enhance your self-confidence, and spur your motivation. You may recognize some of them as things you naturally do in your interactions with other people. But if you don’t, I suggest you motivate yourself to take some of these important steps immediately.

First, greet others with a smile and look them directly in the eye. A smile and direct eye contact convey confidence born of self-respect. In the same way, answer the phone pleasantly whether at work or at home, and when placing a call, give your name before asking to speak to the party you want to reach. Leading with your name underscores that a person with self-respect is making the call.

Second, always show real appreciation for a gift or compliment. Don’t downplay or sidestep expressions of affection or honor from others. The ability to accept or receive is a universal mark of an individual with solid self-esteem.

Third, don’t brag. It’s almost a paradox that genuine modesty is actually part of the capacity to gracefully receive compliments. People who brag about their own exploits or demand special attention are simply trying to build themselves up in the eyes of others—and that’s because they don’t perceive themselves as already worthy of respect.

Fourth, don’t make your problems the centerpiece of your conversation. Talk positively about your life and the progress you’re trying to make. Be aware of any negative thinking, and take notice of how often you complain. When you hear yourself criticize someone—and this includes self-criticism—find a way to be helpful instead of critical.

Fifth, respond to difficult times or depressing moments by increasing your level of productive activity. When your self-esteem is being challenged, don’t sit around and fall victim to “paralysis by analysis.” The late Malcolm Forbes said, “Vehicles in motion use their generators to charge their own batteries. Unless you happen to be a golf cart, you can’t recharge your battery when you’re parked in the garage!”

Sixth, choose to see mistakes and rejections as opportunities to learn. View a failure as the conclusion of one performance, not the end of your entire career. Own up to your shortcomings, but refuse to see yourself as a failure. A failure may be something you have done—and it may even be something you’ll have to do again on the way to success—but a failure is definitely not something you are.

Even if you’re at a point where you’re feeling very negatively about yourself, be aware that you’re now ideally positioned to make rapid and dramatic improvement. A negative self-evaluation, if it’s honest and insightful, takes much more courage and character than the self-delusions that underlie arrogance and conceit. I’ve seen the truth of this proven many times in my work with athletes. After an extremely poor performance, a team or an individual athlete often does much better the next time out, especially when the poor performance was so bad that there was simply no way to shirk responsibility for it. Disappointment, defeat, and even apparent failure are in no way permanent conditions unless we choose to make them so. On the contrary, these undeniably painful experiences can be the solid foundation on which to build future success.

TRIBES

5.0 out of 5 stars Tribes: Is the world of leadership changing?, May 14, 2011
By Robert Ewoldt - See all my reviews
This review is from: Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us (Hardcover)
The Internet has made the world smaller. Instead of writing letters and waiting weeks for them to arrive at their destination, we now write emails, and they arrive instantly. Instead of watching the nightly newscast or reading the morning newspaper, we can find the news at our fingertips at any second of the day. Instead of joining the local club, we can now join any club in the world, with people that have the exact same tastes as we do.

In Tribes, Seth Godin writes that "before the Internet, coordinating and leading a tribe was difficult. It was difficult to get the word out, difficult to coordinate action, difficult to grow quickly." The Internet has made it easy for people to communicate with each other, but there are tribes that are just waiting for leadership.

Old rules are out the window
Instead of the old rules of the world that stated that everyone must report to a manager, and that manager to a vice president, and the vice president to a CEO, there are new rules in a new world. One no longer has to be a manager to lead a tribe. "There is a tribe of fellow employees or customers or investors or believers or hobbyists or readers just waiting for you to connect them to one another and lead them where they want to go."

What's needed?
What are the components of a successful tribe? It takes two things to turn a group of people into a tribe:

1.a shared interest and
2.a way to communicate.

Tribes was not written in the way that I usually think. It requires more interpretation than most authors require of their readers. Most people like to read a book that confirms their ideas. If you're one of these people, then don't read this book. If you are willing to have some of your ideas questioned, and open to a new way of thinking regarding leadership, then go out and get this book!
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4.0 out of 5 stars Short and Sweet for a Reason, April 9, 2011
By RG (Seattle) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us (Hardcover)
The negative review given by one contributor indicates that the person must not be a creative leader given his comments on the frustrating lack of clearer examples to validate Godin's confident reasoning. I don't think that is necessary for the audience Godin is speaking to. If they take him up on it, they will figure it out. If you are looking for scholarly validation of Godin's reasoning, Read Group Creativity by Paulus & Bernard (eds). I've read many books and articles on leadership creativity for the purpose of disrupting the status quo and for group-oriented innovation. What I like about Godin's book is that I can give a copy to everyone on my organization's leadership team, and indeed to all of our staff because it's not academically dense. Instead it's fast moving and inspiring. In addition, much of what he says in very casual, cheer-leading, non-academic language confirms much of the same learning coming out of more recent scholarly research. I've just ordered 17 copies Of Godin's book for our next Leadership Team meeting! Will see what happens...
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4.0 out of 5 stars Want to change the world? Read this book!, April 6, 2011
By Danielle Raine "Author of Housework Blues - A... (North Yorkshire, UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us (Hardcover)
Phew! I'm exhausted after reading this. It is absolutely crammed with ideas about business, altruism and leadership. Even though it's quite a short book, it took me so long to finish it as I found I could only digest a few pages at a time. There's something thought-provoking or eye-opening on virtually every page.
Really interesting stuff. If you've ever thought you might want to change the world -read this book!
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5.0 out of 5 stars Def get it, March 31, 2011
By Kyle Newell (Central, New Jersey) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us (Hardcover)
This book was great for anyone that is an entrepreneur or leader. You must create a tribe and a culture within that tribe to really grow what you are doing. Tribes follow their leaders and spread the word. Godin shows you how in this book. Very impressed with the content.
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4.0 out of 5 stars Coffeechug Book Review - [...], February 25, 2011
By A. Maurer "Coffeechug" (Iowa) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us (Hardcover)
This is a book about what it takes to be leader for your tribe. It is a different take on becoming a leader. This is not some action plan type book where you must follow this step, then this step, etc.

This is book bounces around from thought to thought. I loved it. It provides some great ideas, thoughts, and suggestions on what it takes to be a leader. It is general so it applies to whoever you are and whoever you plan on leading.

I am a big fan of Seth Godin.I started reading his blog and tweets a few months back and just love his insights and thoughts. I finally decided to read one his books. This was the one that I decided to go with. Yes, I will be reading his others. I have them all on hold as we speak. I took many notes.

My favorite little story in the book is the balloon factory and the unicorn. I laughed and then thought, "Wow, that is a perfect story to share with my team."

It is a book that is a quick read, but I spent many pages re-reading and then writing down my thoughts and reflections. Yes, like the other books I have been reading(Find Your Zone) I will be making future posts about how I am applying the ideas I have recorded in my notebook.

The key to remember is that anyone is capable of being a great leader in this day and age. We all have access to all the tools needed to organize and construct our tribes. Just remember that you have to have a tribe to be a leader and vice versa.

I have already thought about implementing his ideas in this book into my coaching youth basketball and in my job as a middle school teacher.

I would love to connect with others who have read this book about what they took away from the book.

This is one that will probably be purchased so I have it to reference to when needed.
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3.0 out of 5 stars "Tribes" One-Dimensional, February 20, 2011
By M. Edwards (Taichung, Taiwan) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us (Hardcover)
In "Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us", Seth Godin inspires by telling stories such as Nathan Winograd's, who followed the steps written about in "Tribes" and did not compromise. He was clear and vivid in communicating his vision and within months, half who didn't want to join the tribe, had left. Yet in the end he succeeded (p. 144).

Godin reminds us that one of the most powerful of our survival mechanisms is the desire to be part of a tribe, to contribute to (and take from) a group of like-minded individuals (p. 3) An important part of leadership is the ability to stick with the dream in leading the tribe for a very long time (p. 132) Resistance is to be expected: without people pushing against your quest to do something worth talking about, it's unlikely to be worth the journey (p. 129). And of course these and many other aspects of leading tribes are heightened and transformed in light of modern information technology and the internet.

However, the little which Godin says so often comes across sounding like a broken record to me. The status quo is bad.... Innovation is good... Effective leaders are "heretics" who change the status quo and innovate.... In repeating this Big Idea over and over and again and again, Godin does not seem to develop or support it beyond the shallow and superficial. For example, effective leaders also know when to preserve tradition, and how to maintain balance and stability when and where appropriate. In the final analysis I found this book to be a slight disappointment which did not measure up to all the hype.

SKIP THE NEXT TWO PARAGRAPHS IF YOU ARE NOT INTERESTED IN HOW "TRIBES" RELATES TO MY PARTICULAR FIELD'

On a personal note, I'm reminded of what the late Paul Hiebert has to say about so called "social clubs" and voluntary organizations in his book "Transforming Worldviews: An Anthropological Understanding of How People Change." Tribes, according to Hiebert, are normally single-purpose gatherings in that people gather in one club or tribe to meet a specific need and turn to other clubs to meet other needs. Attempts to make a club a strong group, such as a family, a clan, or a tribe, inevitably fail because the club, by its very purpose and nature, differs from strong groups... The social glue holding clubs together is weak because loyalties are based on personal interests... Idiosyncrasies and differences are not as well tolerated as they are in strong group societies. ... Members join because of that they hope to get, and they expect to receive essentially as much as they give... Clubs work well in modern societies because these societies view the autonomous individual as the highest value. The price of this freedom and autonomy, however, is a lack of permanent human relations and security. In the end, the autonomous person is a person alone, never in community, because he or she is not willing to sacrifice his or her interests for the interests of the group. The autonomous person is also a self-centered person who measures all things in terms of their benefits and costs to him or her (Hiebert, p 173).

According to Hiebert, modern Christians unfortunately often tend to organize their churches the same way they organize other areas of their lives. Hence, many churches are reduced to one-dimensional religious clubs. Few members are willing to pay the price of real community. One result is that such churches increasingly tend to opt for professional and paid leadership, whereas the laity become consumers who come to church for the services it offers to them.

In conclusion, I think it is important to remember that what Godin says about so-called "tribes" may not always apply to all groups across the board. Some of our modern ideas about tribes may in fact impede us from moving beyond the autonomy of the individual and over into authentic community.
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5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Read, February 15, 2011
By Jennifer Reynolds "Jennifer" (Georgia, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us (Hardcover)
If this book doesn't change your life nothing will. A fantastic look at leadership, how it's done and how it's not done. I read the book frantically because with every page it inspired new ideas. If you want to stay exactly the same and never do anything exciting in your career, do not read this book. If, however, you want to take a risk and discover that work can be so much more than a daily grind, this is the book for you.
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3.0 out of 5 stars We need Tribes. We need World Changers., February 9, 2011
By Michael A. Robson "21tiger - Books Biz Asia" (Shanghai, China) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us (Hardcover)
A heretic, as defined by Merriam Webster's dictionary is: "a dissenter from established religious dogma; especially, a baptized member of the Church who disavows a revealed truth; one who dissents from an accepted belief or doctrine; a nonconformist"

If you understand why this actually a very good thing, and not a very bad one, you'll understand where tribes come from. In a way, it's Heretical to start a new religion. But that's what great leaders do. Let me explain.

We've seen a lot of marketing trends in the past 10-20 years. The question is obvious: how do you get people excited about buying stuff? Well as it turns out, people aren't really exciting about stuff, they're excited about human achievement, like breaking rules, changing the world, it turns out people don't care about buying stuff, what they really want is to be inspired.

And what's inspirational about doing the laundry with Brand X over Brand Z. Not much. It's not exactly William Wallace taking on the English.

So ask yourself this question: What evil empire are you trying to overthrow? If you don't know, or can't answer that, you just answered why your job/company is so dull, and why it's so hard to get your customers amped. We have to have big huge massive hulking challenges here: Think Death Star huge. Think Microsoft huge. Think Egypt huge.

This book is not about getting `tribes' of people (eg. lunatic customers) talking about the TVs your company makes. Forget it. It doesn't make sense, and wouldn't work. What you want them to do is carve the company logo in the back of their heads, because being a customer means being part of a group of cool, smart, confident, independent people. Or maybe it means something completely different.

We are hard-wired to belong to a group. Think of a fraternity. It's exclusive, it's important, and you have to go through an embarrassing/painful test to get in. It actually means something to be on the inside, and it means something to be on the outside. It means something qualitatively whether you're in or out. And we wanna be in. Why? Because there's something exciting going on. THere's a group of people that are fired up. They're going somewhere exciting and groundbreaking. That's why you want to join the journey.

So who gets these crazies together? Godin discusses huge difference between Leaders and Managers. I could have sworn Manager was a cool job title. Turns out, according to Seth, it's totally lame. Organizing things so that nothing gets out of control. Keeping people in check, making sure they're doing the same thing (essentially) they did last month. Mediocrity.

Instead, as a leader, your responsibility as the leader is to:

a) transform a shared interest into a super passionate goal. Specific. Not just wild arbitrary angst.
b) Give people the tools to do this, and tighten communications. Yes you can sell them the tools, if you must, but remember, any barrier to entry is gonna keep the tribe small.
c) Help the tribe grow.

As a leader you don't just tick these 3 boxes, done, done, got it. Nope. You keep pushing your tribe to do something bigger, and better. You exist not to keep the tribe `managed' or `status quo' but to keep the passion alive, so the tribe can grow.

As I said, it's a Heretocracy out there. We need nutjobs like Arnold Schwarzzenegar, Steve Jobs and Albert Einstein. People with principles are considered crazy, because humans are expected to break, to trip, to have weaknesses. Great leaders may have weaknesses, they may be unattractive, they may be ditzy, but they do not break when it comes to character. Their tribe aspires to have that resilience, and thus keep coming back for more.

Heretics don't ask for permission, as for forgiveness. They are needed not just for their electricity and their energy. They are needed because they are solutions to a problem that the status quo can't solve!

They don't ask for money (unless they're selling books, making movies, touring around the country giving speeches). Heretics don't even ask for credit (even though much is given). Credit isn't the point, Change is. As long as the Heretic is trying to change the world, the crowd of supporters, the fans, the tribe will follow. Not because they have to, but because they have faith.

In sum, to get your team inspired, take a look at your target. Are you just another laundry detergent? Or are you changing the world, one customer at a time? Your tribe will fight for you, given just the right enemy.


More reviews like this at
21tiger.com
Books. Biz. Asia
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5.0 out of 5 stars Tribes..., January 29, 2011
By Trevor J. Flannigan "www.theguidetogetrich.com" - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   
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This review is from: Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us (Hardcover)
The book of the week was Tribes by Seth Godin. There are quite a few little tidbits that give me that "Oh yeah! That's true!" kind of thought process. Right toward the end of the book Godin writes this: "Leaders have nothing in common. They don't share a gender or income level or geography. There's no gene, no schooling, no parentage, no profession. In other words, leaders aren't born. I'm sure of it." It's very smart... obvious, yet thought provoking. To be a leader is to make a choice. Sure, it may be easier for some to make that choice, but anyone can make it.

The book is about leadership. The idea is that a tribe is a strong organization with a strong fan base of members and strong leadership. I like the idea of a tribe. An organization that is so strong that it's members will fight for it's survival and put every ounce of effort in to maintaining continual success. Tribes don't grow on trees. They are developed by strong leaders. The leader doesn't need to have authority in the organization it is trying to transform into a tribe. A leader just needs raw passion and hunger for their desired outcome- The Tribe.

Two things I want to talk about from this book... Fear and Entertainment. Interesting couple of words. But they both deal with leadership as Godin writes about in this book.

Fear is a huge deterrent for individuals to step into leadership roles. That is the choice I was talking about earlier. It really comes down to choosing to step away from the status quo and into something new and better. It's easy to stick to the status quo, but the status quo is boring and not effective. People fear criticism more that anything else when stepping into a leadership role. "What will people say?" "What if people don't like my decisions?" "Will people follow me?".... The answer to all of the above- "It doesn't matter." These questions should not be a determining factor is stepping over the fear-line. This is easily the most difficult part of being a leader, but it should never deter you from continuing your path to make a better organization. The bigger and better changes you make, the more people will judge and criticize your actions. But no one has ever achieved greatness in the area of leadership by sticking to the status quo.

The next concept I want to talk about is Entertainment. This is an idea that is missed by a lot of leaders. They don't have the attention of their audience. If you can't make people interested in listening, then you have the cards stacked against you. The best way to illustrate this is with a teacher in a lecture hall. A teacher has a great venue for leadership. A lot of teachers are arguably some of the best leaders in the world. However, when you have a teacher in front of a bunch of students and the students are bored out of their minds, they aren't retaining the information and thus, they are not being led effectively. The same idea applies to organizations, if you are trying to lead the people of your organization to be more successful, but you can't capture the troops attention. You are fighting a losing battle. You have to bring charisma to the table. Get excited, fake it if you aren't. It's not easy to always be energetic, but it's the best way to get people's attention. So do whatever you have to do to make sure you aren't being boring.... coffee, tea, red bull... Whatever it takes! Once you have their attention, you just need to stick to your plan and choose everyday to continue to be a leader.

I think this was a fun little book. And it's been a few weeks since I had read a leadership book. And this one was really good to get me thinking about my own leadership techniques. As always, if you have any questions on the book don't hesitate to ask. I would be more than happy to help anyone that wants it.
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3.0 out of 5 stars fun, brief and breezy capitalist devotional, January 24, 2011
By Rob Fitzgibbon (MA, USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us (Hardcover)
Seth Goodin is the Professor Harold Hill of our era, a maestro of marketing, Trophonius of Twitter, apostle of aphorisms and all-around hyper-successful change-agent chieftain. Goodin's built a widely successful career banging out slim, didactic volumes on how to thrive in the new, new economy. "Tribes" is his volume devoted to groups of connected people, covering everything from corporations to swarm intelligence to Facebook groups.

What's good about "Tribes?" It's a fun, brief and breezy capitalist devotional - the kind of light, inspirational reading you might find in the bathrooms at the Stanford GSB. Goodin's seductive prose can effortlessly transport you into Walter Mittyesque fantasies, in which you imagine yourself dashing from the IPO meetings on Sand Hill Road to the TED Conference in Oxford - with a copy of Goodwin's wisdom purchased at the airport kiosk snugly nestled in the side pocket of your Hickey Freeman suit. We're all leaders, Goodwin seductively promises; we all have the capacity to be successful, adored and change the world through our passion.

What's the downside of "Tribes?" Goodwin's insight's come in Starbuck's VIA-sized doses, and there is nothing in his prose and vocabulary that requires any intellectual heavy-lifting. They are the tweet-equivalent of affirmations disguised as business cases, minus the data or empirical proofs, - ADD anecdotes for the MBA set. He's an incessant name-dropper and has a subtle conservative slant (if we're talking about self-organizing internet groups, why is the NRA mentioned but MoveOn omitted?) His metaphors often do not stand up to scrutiny - contrary to Goodin, heretics are NOT happier than everyone else - just ask Giordano Bruno or Tom Paine.

Overall, a good read but nothing extraordinary - perhaps "Tribe"s success is an example of what Charles Mackay documented in his Extraordinary Popular Delusions and The Madness of Crowds
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