Leadership: be clear, keep it simple

I was recently coaching three groups of high school seniors who were leading teams of freshmen through a series of team-building activities. I noted that the leaders were having really different experiences with their groups, and I wondered, "what makes the difference?"

One set of leaders in particular got me wondering. I admired their courage--they didn't have much leadership experience and yet they were in there, doing their best. And they had the most demanding team to lead as well--very energetic, very vocal. I noticed that the leaders weren't sure about which activity to lead next--they got hesitant.

The team seemed to pick up on this hesitancy, and they soon got impatient. "Come on, what are we going to do next?" And soon after that, they started shouting out their own suggestions. The leaders just weren't sure what the "right" activity was to do next.

At this point I remembered a lesson I learned from dancing as a follower in Argentine tango. Before I learned to follow, I would fret a lot about what the "best" moves to lead were as a leader. I would think "is this interesting enough? complex enough?"

But once I started to follow, I realized that I didn't care about the complexity at all. What really mattered to me was a good connection and a clear lead. If I had that, I didn't care if the moves were extremely simple--the connection and the clarity was more than enough.

And so I asked these student leaders what they thought the team needed. They talked to the team and found out that they wanted something active, and then we came up with a very simple game that involved two outlets for energy: running and noise.

And so with a sense of clarity, the leaders led this very simple game, which responded to the needs of the group. It worked! The energy shifted, and through clearly leading a simple activity, the leaders built their credibility with the team.

Leadership through self differentiation

I have been struggling with my responsibilities as a volunteer board member. Even just to say that is difficult. And at the same time, a relief.

Many professional organizations are run by volunteer boards. The people who join these boards tend to be over functioners--the types to get things done, take things on. I count myself as one of those types of people. Sounds quite complementary so far, right?

And I also see a tendency to buckle down and do things on my own. To take responsibility for everything, and to feel badly when things aren't moving forward. To feel like "I'm not doing enough, I need to do more."


I finally reached a point about a month ago when I said "no more--I have to get to a different place around how I participate on this board. I'm tired of feeling like I'm failing at this." And with that realization, I've decided on a road forward that I quite like.


The way out is self definition. I've sat down and given much consideration to why I'm on the board, what I want to get out of it, and what *I* would like to see happen. And I've come to some conclusions about what is interesting to me, what I'm willing to take on, what I will commit to. It feels great.

Here's the challenge--I'm expecting pushback of one sort or another. I'm not sure what form it will come in, but I'm pretty sure it'll show up. There are good reasons for a school of fish to all look pretty much the same--there is a safety in uniformity, in being part of the group. Yet leadership requires risk, requires standing out, while still remaining connected to the group.

My bet is that if I stay calm, stay connected to the other members of the board, then they'll get it, they'll go with my strategy, even if it's different from what's been done before, even if I stand out from the crowd because of it.

Getting (a lot) more from leadership development

How many times have you read a book, gone to a workshop and said "yes, this is useful, I'm going to do this" and then found that, well, nothing happened?

How to explain this? Too busy? Not motivated enough? Sure, those things may play a role, but I think there's something deeper going on that, when clearly understood, is a very powerful platform for growth.

Dr. Jim Loehr, pictured above, wrote a book that outlines a way to have the internal resources to actually implement new ideas. This book, "The Power of Full Engagement- Managing Energy, not Time, is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal" is basically summarized in a review on the free portion of this month's Harvard Business Review, which you can find here.

Here's the scoop: Dr. Loehr and a colleague, Dr. Jack Groppel spent many years working with world-class athletes, especially tennis players, to help them perform at their peak. Neither of these gentlemen know anything special about tennis--their speciality is understanding human behavior, and in this case, the power of routines.

What they found is that the top tennis players have very effective routines for building up, using, and then restoring energy. These routines were a key difference between the top players and the rest.

In their book, they give many actual cases of business clients they worked with, and the routines that the clients came up with to be peak performance leaders. As you might guess, these routines cover the basics--exercise, diet, sleep and general stress management.

What they found is extraordinary. In the HBR (Harvard Business Review) article, they show the impact of their program amongst Wachovia employees. And of course in the book, they talk about how their clients ended up with more energy, more focus, more creativity--the key ingredients for working well, and also for growing as a leader.

Here are two ideas from the book that I'm currently trying, and getting good results from. One is that I take a good 15 minute break in the morning, rather than working right through. It works wonders--more than I thought. I find that it effectively gives me another 45 minutes of peak morning time.

The other idea I'm trying is the "power nap." I take about 10 to 15 minutes after lunch to nap, and find that I get an extra hour, if not more, of productive working time in the afternoon.

The book has many more ideas, which I'm in the process of working through. They seem too simple--but when I try them, and pay attention to the results, then I appreciate the full potential of managing energy.

So there you have it--do you want to get more out of your work on growing as a leader? Master the basics--of energy.