It’s all about the connections. This series of images is amazing.

We regularly hear the chant “we are becoming a global society” but we all think about that idea in our unique way. If we are teachers we may think of it in one way, if we are entrepreneurs, another. We think of it through our local connections first. Leaders understand this and value those connections but also entertain the potential impact of how truly connected we are all becoming and what that means for the future. What comes to your mind? What opportunity do you see? How do you share that thought with others?

In this piece celebrating the 40^th anniversary of the creation of the The University of North Carolina system, President Bill Friday made this comment on the essential need for this institutional system:

“The University and all its campuses is the engine that produces the people who will lead this state in the next half century. And we’ve got to be about making certain that it will continue to draw the talent irregardless of the cost. “

His comment bring forth in my mind the importance of starting some leadership development efforts earlier in the school curriculum and throughout a students education. We need each and every student to understand their potential to lead and to build a better link between leadership development for the different age groups. To many youth programs are focused on the high potentials. As President Friday points out, we must make education accessible to all. The same holds true for leadership. Too many youth leadership programs focus on preparing students to be better speakers, be more organized, be groomed for positional leadership. These are all good qualities but step over the fundamental basis of effective leadership: knowing your innate capacity, right and responsibility to lead based on understanding what matters to you and to the communities you are part of. Early, ongoing, accessible leadership development makes that possible. We should inspire young people to take the lead throughout their lives as a personal choice. If we could inspire them with that notion, then as they moved through their lives, they may choose to lead more frequently. We will all benefit from that. We should make it a priority with accessibility to the training being paramount.

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Here’s a link Bill Friday’s comments to the piece on NPR.

The following chat stream came out of an online program we conducted.  What follows is a question I posed and some of the responses. 

I’ve been thinking about the events in the Middle East and how the Five Practices apply in different cultures around the world.  It seems to me that they very much apply to what is happening in Egypt and elsewhere – creating a new Shared Vision, Challenging the Process, etc.  What do you think – do the Five Practices work in different cultures or are they North American centric?

DG posted: 

“This is a fascinating question to ponder, Charles, and I appreciate the comments thus far. I agree that all Five Practices, or lack thereof, are clearly evident here, and in brief, I think the Five Practices could be applied successfully to other cultures. However, even in our American culture, the lack of clarity in who is the one leader to follow, or a long-standing leader who is out of touch with the realities of the community – these are examples of how the spirit of the Five Practices are not always demontrated in the leadership behaviors themselves. As was mentioned in comments for this thread, the nuances of being savvy to the enviornment can make a significant difference in a leader’s success or failure. I see the events in the middle east as incredibly complex, and I confess, I’m not as learned on them as I need to be to make a knowledgable conclusion. Still, even in these extreme cases, I think there are leadership lessons to be learned in how the leader does or does not demonstrate all Five Practices…If nothing else, I think that looking through the LPI lens at these situations helps us in trying to understand these uncertain environments just now…”

Advances in communication and the increased use of collaborative technologies are making space for new forms of leadership. Leadership that is born from deeply held values but is emerging from quiet corners of the collective where they may have been missed before. An example of this is the young man, Wael Ghonim, who is said to have started the “new age revolution” the groundswell of passion that toppled the government in Egypt. As leadership development practitioners and coaches who espouse the principle that “leadership is everyone’s business”, this makes perfect sense. It also tells us we are on the right track with our offering of the Leadership Challenge® Worksop Online. This program will use community to support the leadership development and growth of all it’s members to explore their potential in this new paradigm. As a member of this learning community, you will experience the best of the old and the new. We will use the firmly established, well researched, and highly respected Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership model in an environment that focuses on learning in real time and from each other, in a community. Come join us.

What will leaders need to be effective in the future? Let’s start with a premise that the best leaders are great learners. Next, peek into the future to look at what our next generation will need to learn to be successful in the future. There is no crystal ball, but there is plenty of research that can help open our minds to what might be.

In a piece on Marketplace, Marina Gorbis, executive director of the Institute for the Future in Palo Alto, CA points to a future where many of the middle class jobs that exist today will be replaced with robots. Futurist Paul Saffo and other experts categorized the skills young people will need to succeed in this increasingly competitive space: analytic and quantitative skills; social awareness, social IQ as I call it; creative problem-solving; the ability to be adaptable; language skills, foreign languages; and then of course, communications skills. I see significant overlap with leadership capacity particularly in these 4 areas: social awareness, creative problem-solving; the ability to be adaptable, and communications skills. Using Kouzes and Posner’s Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership, an evidence based model that has over 25 years of research behind it, these 4 seem to fall squarely into their practices called “Challenge the Process” and “Enable Others to Act. Doesn’t it make sense then to make leadership development available as early and as often and in as many ways as possible?

In the same piece Jonas Prising, the president of Manpower’s Americas division, adds this perspective:

“The very rapid change means that it’s going to be hard to be proficient at a skill that will take you through 40 years of workforce career. So your ability to be adaptable is going to be extremely important.

This is all pretty heavy lifting in a country where the public schools are struggling, kids rank 21st internationally in math and 25th in science. Prising says mastering those basic skills — not to mention things like creativity and adaptability — is the most daunting task ahead.”

Daunting indeed. So why are we asking our schools to do all the “heavy lifting”? Why not introduce leadership development early and often as we prepare people for the future, not just in the schools, but in all organizations that want to fill themselves with the talent that will help them adapt and grow into the increasingly competitive times ahead. Check out their cool Future-Jobs-O-Matic tool.

John Hickenlooper was Denver’s Mayor and is now Governor of the State of Colorado. In an article in the Denver Post, Linda Eichenbaum Lent, his former head of communications, describes his leadership style by saying: “He creates an environment where good ideas have the opportunity to percolate up.”

This made me wonder how many leaders do a periodic check on what kind of environment they have created. Do you foster an environment in which good ideas can percolate up? One in which people feel free to experiment and test new ideas. Do your people feel appreciated for pushing the envelope whether they succeed or not? What kind of environment would your people say you create?

Peggy Noonan, columnist for the Wall St. Journal, was a panelist on Meet the Press and said, “We hire leaders to make things better.” This struck me as one of those very simple yet powerful statements that made me think. Do leaders always make things better? Certainly not, we just have to recall recent Wall St. shenanigans, Enron, the Bernie Madoff ponzi scandal, and on and on…
I think most leaders intend to make things better but they may not pause to think about for whom they are making things better. Certainly Bernie Madoff made things better for himself in the short term and tragically bad for his investors in the long term. This could be a simple talisman for leaders to touch regularly – did I make things better this month, this week…today? Is the decision I am about to make or the way in which I am handling an interpersonal matter with my people going to make things better? Who am I making things better for – me, my people, my organization, my customers, society at large? If I am helping one of my constituent groups am I hurting others? Consider that BP’s did many things to their own financial benefit that turned out to be very bad for the environment and residents of the Gulf region. Part of the burden of wearing the mantle of leader is to be mindful of these challenging matters and, in the end, truly leave things better than at the start.

Christine Lagarde, the French Finance Minister, appeared recently on This Week with Christiane Amanpour. When asked if women have a different way of approaching business and government, she said that women as leaders “inject less libido and testosterone into business decisions.” She went on to say that women don’t “inject our own ego into business deals.”

Are women leaders different than male leaders? How so? Is this a good or a bad thing or does it matter?

Christine Lagarde, the French Finance Minister, appeared recently on This Week with Christiane Amanpour. When asked if women have a different way of approaching business and government, she said that women as leaders “inject less libido and testosterone into business decisions.” She went on to say that women don’t “inject our own ego into business deals.”

Are women leaders different than male leaders? How so? Is this a good or a bad thing or does it matter?

Denver’s current mayor John Hickenlooper is running for Governor of the State of Colorado. In an article in the Denver Post, Linda Eichenbaum Lent, his former head of communications, describes his leadership style by saying: “He creates an environment where good ideas have the opportunity to percolate up.”

This made me wonder how many leaders do a periodic check on what kind of environment they have created. Do you foster an environment in which good ideas can percolate up? One in which people feel free to experiment and test new ideas. Do your people feel appreciated for pushing the envelope whether they succeed or not? If you haven’t created this kind of environment – why not? What are the fears and barriers that get in the way of unleashing your people’s creativity? What do you think?