This is a guest post by Dani Robbins, a Metcalf & Associates, Inc. Associate.

As we all know by now, the Susan G. Komen Foundation Board of Directors adopted and then quickly revised (in response to fierce opposition) a policy that disallowed financial support to organizations that are under investigation, even politically motivated investigations, after a Florida Republican began an investigation into Planned Parenthood to assess if any Federal funding was being used to support abortions.

It all took less than a week, but during that week, some powerful leadership lessons emerged.

Let’s start in Philadelphia from whence the article entitled Komen foundation needs cure for backlash over Planned Parenthood cutoff hails. The article says ”The Susan G. Komen foundation, a behemoth in breast cancer philanthropy and creator of the immensely successful Race for the Cure brand, is battling a public-relations debacle. Within hours of Tuesday’s news that Komen would stop giving grants to Planned Parenthood for breast health services, donations began pouring in to the family planning organization while pink-ribbon crusaders vowed to cut Komen off.”

Talk about picking a hill to die on! Regardless of if you are pro choice or pro-life, love Planned Parenthood, love Komen, hate one, or hate the other, the Komen Board found themselves with a PR tsunami. NPR.org called it “one of the worst weeks in terms of public relations of any organization in recent memory.” And Komen is the PR queens of pink.

National Foundation Boards, like many Boards, tend to be filled with very smart, talented, passionate and connected people. I can only surmise that they greatly underestimated the ramifications of their decisions. Or that Board members who did not agree, also did not speak up! Stupid things happen, sometimes because they are allowed to happen.

The Washington Post reported ”Komen has been deluged with negative emails and Facebook postings, accusing it of knuckling under to pressure from anti-abortion groups, since The Associated Press reported on Tuesday that the charity was halting grants that Planned Parenthood affiliates used for breast exams and related services. The grants totaled $680,000 last year.” The article goes onto say “Besides $400,000 in smaller donations from 6,000 people, Planned Parenthood is receiving $250,000 from a family foundation in Dallas and a $250,000 pledge announced Thursday by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg to match future donations.”

Leadership at any level is hard. Leaders make decisions. Some decisions will be unpopular. Some will be unwelcomed. Some will be unsafe for the leader but right for the organization. “Is this the hill you want to die on?” is a great question to ask before you charge forward.

It may well be the hill you want to die on. We all have values and when we’re lucky and intentional, we work at a place where the values of the company match our values. The question comes up less in this environment but it still comes up, especially if leadership, at the Board or senior level, changes.

What if you work with someone who continues to make sexually charged comments or gestures? You’ve said something to him. (Sorry; it’s usually a him.) You’ve said something to your boss. Where do you take it from there? What is the price?

What if the culture has changed around you? What if a board member/s or manager encourages you to do something you believe is unwise, or unethical or illegal? What if other Board members disagree but remain silent? What if you’re in charge and despite your best efforts to the contrary, you cannot align your values and the organizational values. In those circumstances, it may very well be the hill you want to die on.

What if your women focused work place decides to de-fund another women focused organization? Maybe you charge the hill. Maybe go away quietly. Where do the lines go between burning bridges and refusing to be a part of something that is abhorrent to you?

Mollie Williams, the Komen official who resigned to protest the organization’s decision to defund Planned Parenthood, managed to do both, and to do it brilliantly. She is quoted in The Atlantic as saying “Thank you for contacting me. As a public health professional, I must honor the confidentiality of my former employer, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, and for this reason, I ‘m not responding to questions about Komen’s decision to no longer fund Planned Parenthood. The divide between these two very important organizations saddens me. I am hopeful their passionate and courageous leaders, Nancy Brinker and Cecile Richards, can swiftly resolve this conflict in a manner that benefits the women they both serve.”

Now, you might note that other than offering respect, she didn’t say much, but then, again, she didn’t have to. Because she left, and that says it all.

Are you considering improving your ability to be an innovative leader?  If so, take this free on-line Innovative Leadership assessment to determine where you fall on the innovative leadership scale.  If you are looking for tools to help develop you ability to be an innovative leader, check out the Innovative Leadership Fieldbook.  Metcalf & Associates offers assessments, coaching and workshops to help you and your leadership team become more innovative.

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Photo credit:  flickr: Gavin St. Ours

I have had a number of discussions with clients and colleagues lately that point to the profound risk people are facing of burnout and the cost we experience when this happens.  Many of our strongest leaders are saying they cannot maintain the pace and they are looking for other options that will allow them to maintain their health even if it means stepping back in pay and responsibility. 

I had three discussions this weekwith highly successful executives who are seriously considering these options.  To paint the picture, these are people who have been the ones who stepped in when others could or would not.  They are the heroes; they had the stamina, the competence and the commitment to sacrifice their personal wellbeing for the good of the organization.  What happens when they cannot do it anymore?  In many cases, they stepped up because others could not or would not so they are filling a gap that they thought was temporary.  Things were supposed to get better.  This was supposed to be a short term choice and now it has been a few years for some of them. 

According to Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chair of the World Economic Forum: “In the run-up to the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, there is a distinct sense of burnout in the air.”

What is the impact?

According to Wendy Woods, “Basex research found that 50 percent of a knowledge worker’s day is spent “managing information” and that an excess of information results in “a loss of ability to make decisions, process information, and prioritize tasks.” In fact, research shows that constant information overload sends the brain into the fight-or-flight stress response, originally designed to protect us from man-eating tigers and other threats.”

What do they recommend?

The theme of this year’s annual World Economic Forum is “The Great Transformation: Shaping New Models”, precisely because we are in an era of profound change that urgently requires new ways of thinking instead of just more business-as-usual.

According to Klaus Schwab again, “There is an urgent need to act. As well as finding new models to collaboratively address all our global challenges, we also need to form a new model of leadership that is effective in the modern world: leadership that emphasizes both vision and values in order to overcome the current challenges. It is this combination that can provide leaders with a compass to guide their decision-making.”  Leadership based on vision and values will go a long way to regaining trust and beating the burnout, but only if leaders themselves can prove through concrete actions that social responsibility and moral obligations are not just empty words.

We completely agree with this assertion.  In our recently published book, the first step in developing innovative leadership is to examine and clarify your vision and values.  This set of exercises and reflections encourages you to consider the impact you will make on the world and how you will behave in the process.  We will be publishing a workbook in the first quarter of 2012 with exercises to help you identify your vision and values.  This will be a condensed version of the Innovative Leadership Fieldbook.  Our current plan is to make this chapter available at no cost on-line to encourage leaders to consider their personal vision and values and provide a set of tools to make this possible. In the absence of this clarity, leaders and organizations are more susceptible to the onslaught of information, changing priorities and fires to be addressed with no “north star” to use for navigation.

Are you considering improving your ability to be an innovative leader?  If so, take this free on-line Innovative Leadership assessment to determine where you fall on the innovative leadership scale.  If you are looking for tools to help develop you ability to be an innovative leader, check out the Innovative Leadership Fieldbook.  Metcalf & Associates offers assessments, coaching and workshops to help you and your leadership team become more innovative.

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Photo credit:  flickr: L.I.N.S.

Title: ASQ Spring Conference – Innovative Leadership
Location: Columbus State Conference Center
Link out: Click here
Description: Conference: Improving Quality – some assembly required. Innovative Leaderhship: Explore the five key elements of innovative leadership, score your proficiency, create a plan to improve the highest impact area.
Start Time: 8:30
Date: 2012-3-22
End Time: 16:30

I had lunch with a dear friend and executive yesterday talking about her sense of dread about getting out of bed in the morning and going to work.  She is a very upbeat person so this is a new experience for her.  She believed about 80% of her executive peers had similar dread on a daily basis and really wondered how they could make it through their day. 

People are actually hoping the 2012 disaster predictions are true so they can escape the jobs that they dreamt about and worked their entire lives to achieve.  How can that be? 

We go to college, take the right stretch assignments, relocate for jobs, and work crazy hours so we can reach this goal – being an executive.  All those sacrifices, time with friends and family, missed events, putting off relationships and family.  Then the question – I gave up so much to get here?  Now what?  Is this really it? 

How does this tie to innovative leadership?  Most of the leaders I know are working longer hours than they ever imagined at this point in life.  We all expected to pay our dues and we expected that the long hours and crazy schedules would be rewarded with promotion and an opportunity to live a more balanced life. Many are at the top of their game with regard to skills and abilities and still working crazy hours and feeling burned out.  As they look down the road, what are they working for? 

Innovative leadership helps leaders change how they see their role as leaders and develop additional awareness and skills to shift their experience. What do you get from focusing on Innovative Leadership?

1. It can help you become more self-aware – providing a foundation for different choices and more productive interactions
2. It can increase your ability to find innovative approaches to solve problems
3. It can help you change your habitual thinking –  moving away from unproductive thoughts
4. It can help you become more systematic in your problem solving and decision making – more comprehensive solutions mean more efficiency
5. It can guide your leadership behaviors to a more generative (less controlling) style – increasing engagement and productivity among your team

So, with those potential benefits – can you afford the time to explore what it is?  Please see our blog post on Innovation Excellence site explaining more about Innovative Leadership – titled Is Your Leadership Innovative.  You can also take the free on-line Innovative Leadership assessment to test your own development.

Based on feedback from busy executives, we are in the process of condensing the highly acclaimed Innovative Leadership Fieldbook into a much shorter workbook format.  While it does not have the depth of information, it is shorter thus requiring less time.  We provide practical tools and templates that help you in your leadership development along with an example of what completed worksheets look like.  You can use this as a stand-alone process or work with a coach. If you as a leader find the content and process helpful, you can use it with your staff to help them develop. 

If you are looking for tools to help develop you ability to be an innovative leader, check out the Innovative Leadership Fieldbook.  Metcalf & Associates offers assessments, coaching and workshops to help you and your leadership team become more innovative.

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Photo credit:  flickr h.koppdelaney

The TechColumbus Leadership Series is an exclusive invitation only event with 50-75 small and large company Founders, CEOs and Presidents.  It is an opportunity for the best and brightest of Columbus leadership to share ideas and discuss best practices. It is a more informal and conversational forum than other events with discussion designed to create greatest interest and value for attendees.  When company leaders can exchange ideas, lasting value and lasting relationships are formed.

Our first Fall Leadership Series in 2010 was very successful and became a space where veteran “business builders” shared their philosophies in a conversational setting.  Why were the speakers and their companies successful?  What mistakes did they make?  What lessons were most important?  Each, with their unique perspectives and experiences, engaged the attendees in ways that sparked new thinking and created valuable takeaways.  An experienced moderator directed the discussion and encouraged participation.

I attended most of these discussions and wrote blog posts about them to share the Founder, CEO and President’s messages with our community.  You can find links to the entire blog posts for each presentation below.  

January’s discussion featured Michael Glimcher – Culture Differentiates.  Michael talked about the tough economy and the tough lessons that allowed Glimcher to endure the economic crisis and position them for success going forward.  He shared some of his lessons learned over the past 15 years in detail.   Culture was one of the key differentiators.

In a world where we face a great deal of uncertainty in all areas of our lives, Glimcher promotes a culture of respect resulting in greater employee engagement, greater productivity and greater customer satisfaction.  All of these contribute to company sustainability and success.

As with other successful leaders, Michael has focused his attention on knowing his business, hiring the right leader and creating a culture and systems that promote effective operations.  Additionally, he built a company that supports the wellbeing of his associates and the community.  

April’s presentation featured Cheryl Krueger – Passion for Excellence.  In listening to her, she seemed very clear that no one element drove her success but rather the combination of doing everything well.  She created a system (business model) that operated impeccably.  She was committed to employee morale and engagement as a key enabler to deliver the customer experience she expected in every interaction. 

While her entire talk was interesting, a few things really stood out to me.  She was passionate about the company, about her vision, innovation and customer service. Her company was the first to offer individually wrapped cookies which had several benefits including flavor preservation and allowed the cookies to arrive intact.  As a consumer, I had not given packaging any thought.  In her discussion it was clear that the packaging was an important innovation that was unique to Cheryl’s and created a competitive advantage and also ensured a better customer experience.  What stood out most was her militant focus on customer care. 

Cheryl created a corporate culture, systems, processes, compensation plans, and organizational structure that delivered an experience to employees and customers that is consistent with her values. 

In September Jay Jordan, OCLC President Speaks   OCLC’s purpose is:  Furthering access to the world’s information and reducing the rate of rise of per-unit costs.   Here are a few of the ideas Jay shared that allow OCLC to meet it’s purpose:

• Understand what the future will require of us and build our technology and services to intersect that future. 
• Engage younger folks (digital natives) – bringing kids to work.  Ask questions of young people in high school who see the world differently?
• Get out of your comfort zone – remain curious
• Hang out with crazy people – those who want to change the world and leave a legacy.   Even if they miss the mark, they are still making an impact
• Live your values
• Failure is expected if you are learning and growing – keep experimenting
• Collaboration is critical with other organizations and around the world
• Hire diverse people with different strengths to ensure a well-rounded team
• Measurement is important but so is realizing that there are important things that cannot be measured – stay open and aware of the value and the limitations to measurement

October featured Tony Wells – Business Success Linked to Giving Back.  Tony  opened his presentation talking about the one trait many of history’s great leaders had in common; a commitment to giving back from an early age.  The core point I took away from Tony’s presentation is the idea that the new generation of leaders is committed to doing well by doing good – they want to make a positive impact in the world while also succeeding financially. While many of us spent our early careers establishing ourselves so we could give back later, this generation wants to do both from day one. 

Tony gave lots of statistics and case studies but his message consistently came back to the underlying theme, we can solve many of the problems we are facing by marrying the innovative spirit of entrepreneurs, innovation, a desire to do good in the world, innovative leadership, a family foundation, and a foundation founder who is highly involved and shepherds the process.  One of the innovations was teh Time Traveler pictured on the right.

Tony talked about his involvement in non-profits early in his career. Before he could afford to donate money, he donated time. Do you have a skill and time to volunteer? Skill can be your core profession, a hobby, or a basic skill like driving meals to people who cannot get out of the house. If you are not already, what can you do to use your talents and creativity to help solve the challenges our community faces?

December’s presentation was Randy Wilcox – Culture of Customer Service Creates a Competitive Advantage.  Randy talked about the key themes for success of his businesses over the past several decades:

• Customer service must be a priority
• Culture matters
• Hire and retain great sales people
• Implement strong financial reporting and controls

This culture of satisfaction was very similar to the culture Cheryl Kruger created at Cheryl’s Cookies.  Her company was also known for a very high level of service as well as innovation.  The proof of success is in the level of customer retention and in the top and bottom line performance.  SARCOM was a very successful company at the time Randy Wilcox sold it.  He is using similar principles for Quest Business Centers. 

What are your company differentiators?  Are you creating a comprehensive system of leadership behaviors, culture, processes and measures to leverage those differentiators?

Are you considering improving your ability to be an innovative leader?  If so, take this free on-line Innovative Leadership assessment to determine where you fall on the innovative leadership scale.  If you are looking for tools to help develop you ability to be an innovative leader, check out the Innovative Leadership Fieldbook.  Metcalf & Associates offers assessments, coaching and workshops to help you and your leadership team become more innovative.

To receive future blog posts in your mailbox, enter your name in the subscribe box on the right column.

You may be thinking – who has time for a vision – my vision is to get through the day and get most of my tasks done.  Or, I was reading holiday letters from friends, how did they possibly find time to do all of that? 

And yet, here we are at the beginning of a new year, the time to consider what you want to invest your time and energy into.  If you could transport yourself to the end of 2012 and write the end of year success story, you had a great year and accomplished more than you had dreamed – what would that look like for you?

“You’re in the midst of a war: a battle between the limits of a crowd seeking the surrender of your dreams, and the power of your true vision to create and contribute. It is a fight between those who will tell you what you cannot do, and that part of you that knows / and has always known / that we are more than our environment; and that a dream, backed by an unrelenting will to attain it, is truly a reality with an imminent arrival.”  Tony Robbins

The Innovative Leadership Fieldbook, provides an extensive process to create your person vision.  It is important to cultivate a sense of clarity about your overall vision which can also be summarized as your direction and aspirations.  Simply put, your vision and aspirations help you to decide where best to invest your time and energy.  Clarifying your personal vision and aspirations helps you define a manner of contributing to the world that authentically honors who you are.  Your vision and aspirations further help you clarify what you want to accomplish over time.  This can be any time span that resonates especially for you, whether in the short-term—as in one to five years—or perhaps a longer time-horizon, such as the span of your lifetime. Knowing your vision and values ensures that you are precise about your goals and can better align your behavior to your aspirations.

In addition to creating a well-defined vision, it is also important to be clear about your motivation.  It is the combination of vision and desire that will enable you to optimize your potential.  Without sufficient desire combined with solid vision and understanding of your current capabilities, you are likely to struggle when progress becomes difficult.  

• What one thing could you invest your energy in that would make you say at the end of the year – this was an amazing year?
• How would you life be different at the end of the year than it is today?
• Who needs to be involved now to support your success?
• Is there anything you need to stop doing to ensure your success?
• How will you maintain life balance and accomplish this goal (sleeping, working out, etc.)?
• How will you know if you have  been successful – what will you measure?

I was talking to a client today about her goals for 2012.  She is a very accomplished journalist who has dreamed of writing books.  She has a very successful career and yet, this is the one goal she has not prioritized above all of the other life challenges.  Today, she committed to writing a book and getting it published in two years.  This means she set interim deadlines of outline due date, contacting an agent, etc.  By the end of 2013, you may be reading her first book.  She is a person who, once she sets something as a goal will get it done and we will discuss her progress on an ongoing basis.  In addition to setting her goal, we talked about what she is doing that gets in the way of writing.  She agreed to spend less time focused on house hunting (x hours per month).  While her current location is not optimal for her, she agreed that this takes away from her primary focus.  I hope to report next year that she has a contract with a publisher for her first novel. 

Are you considering improving your ability to be an innovative leader?  If so, take this free on-line Innovative Leadership assessment to determine where you fall on the innovative leadership scale.  If you are looking for tools to help develop you ability to be an innovative leader, check out the Innovative Leadership Fieldbook.  Metcalf & Associates offers assessments, coaching and workshops to help you and your leadership team become more innovative.

Photo credit:  flickr by banalities

Randy Wilcox is a Principal in the firm of Long and Wilcox which is a central-Ohio based real estate development company, a partner in Wilcox Development which is a Chicago based real-estate development company, and the Founder and Owner of Quest Business Centers. He founded Quest Business Centers in 1998 and Quest is currently the leading provider of business conference space in central Ohio.  He founded SARCOM, Inc. in 1983. SARCOM grew to become a national provider of technology products and services and had nearly $1 billion in sales by 1999. 
 
Randy Wilcox has served on a number of non-profit boards including the Columbus Chamber of Commerce, United Way of Central Ohio (board member and Treasurer), the Technology Leadership Council and the OhioHealth Foundation which he chaired. He is also the former Columbus Chapter Chairman of the Young Presidents’ Organization, and a member of both the World Presidents’ Organization and the Chief Executives Organization.

Randy was a featured speaker of the TechColumbus 2011 Leadership Series sponsored by Vorys in December.

Randy talked about the key themes for success of his businesses over the past several decades:

• Customer service must be a priority
• Culture matters
• Hire and retain great sales people
• Implement strong financial reporting and controls

While all of these themes were critical to his success, the one that struck me as most interesting was how he differentiated a technology service business through creating a culture of exceptional customer service.  If your product is not differentiated, price is the main factor in making the buying decision.  Why Culture?  It is hard to create and copy so a company that gets it right can create a relatively sustainable advantage. 

How did he use culture of customer satisfaction to create a premium product in IT Services?

Every employee at SARCOM knew that customer satisfaction was the most important thing they did.  When customers came in to meet Randy, he indicated that if they could walk around and ask any employee what their top priority was, all employees would indicate customer satisfaction.  If they did not, the person asking the question would get $100.  Evidently, universally, employees gave the same answer, customer satisfaction is most important.  So how did he create this culture?

• Employees were given customer skills training
• Employees were empowered to spend up to $500 to fix the customer complaint
• He personally attended monthly meetings at 18 locations
• They conducted surveys and USED the data as the foundation for root cause analysis and change

What did the company do to fix problems?

They tracked employee ability to solve problems and created a standard process based on the success they observed.  The process was:

• Listen
• Agree with the customer
• Apologize for the inconvenience and frustration they experienced
• Fix the problem
• Follow up to ensure the problem was fixed
• Offer a token to restore the balance for their inconvenience – often a note of apology with a tin of cookies. 

This culture of satisfaction was very similar to the culture Cheryl Kruger created at Cheryl’s Cookies.  Her company was also known for a very high level of service as well as innovation.  The proof of success is in the level of customer retention and in the top and bottom line performance.  SARCOM was a very successful company at the time Randy Wilcox sold it.  He is using similar principles for Quest Business Centers.  I am a regular customer of Quest and select them over other providers because of their exception service. 

Randy Wilcox has combined his value of customer service the following elements to create a winning formula for the success of multiple companies he has run or advised as a board member:

• time to attend regular customer satisfaction meetings,
• empowering employees to spend the company’s money to address issues,
• creating consistent processes to address customer problems, and
• surveying customers to find ways to improve

What are your company differentiators?  Are you creating a comprehensive system of leadership behaviors, culture, processes and measures to leverage those differentiators?

Are you considering improving your ability to be an innovative leader?  If so, take this free on-line Innovative Leadership assessment to determine where you fall on the innovative leadership scale.  If you are looking for tools to help develop you ability to be an innovative leader, check out the Innovative Leadership Fieldbook.  Metcalf & Associates offers assessments, coaching and workshops to help you and your leadership team become more innovative.

I attended TEDx Columbus on 11-11-11.  For those unaware of TED -  it is a nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader. Along with two annual conferences — the TED Conference in Long Beach and Palm Springs each spring, and the TEDGlobal conference in Edinburgh UK each summer — TED includes the award-winning TEDTalks video site, the Open Translation Project and TED Conversations, the inspiring TED Fellows and TEDx programs, and the annual TED Prize.  Ruth Milligan holds the license and is the main curator for TEDx Columbus.  After meeting Ruth several months ago, I knew this would be a must attend event and she did not disappoint.  I worked as a volunteer so I could better understand the behinds the scenes processes as well as see the speakers.  The theme of this conference was “A moment in time”.

The event is masterfully curated.  Ruth Milligan and Allyson Kuentz of Articulation Inc., her colleague managed every detail for an event with over 600 participants.  The day was choreographed from the experience people had pulling into the COSI parking lot through their exit 9 hour later.  She had gas filled balloons pop at 11:11.  The Columbus Foundation Announced the 8.7 million dollars the community donated during at 24 hour period preceding the event including their $1million match. Ruth stated that her goal was to provide a mind bending experience, she did just that. 

So, what made this mind bending?  Ruth selected a broad range of speakers from many walks of life from poets, to musicians to PhD researchers.  I realize we will make sense of the day differently given our personal bias and interests (there was even a speaker talking about bias).  One of the themes I noticed was a call to connect with our human side in an era where we are massive consumers of technology.  Maryanna Klatt led us through a mindfulness meditation followed by Mark Berman who showed images of amazing bugs that surround us with great beauty that we do not notice in our daily lives.  Dirk Knemeyer talked about the need for schools to teach students not only math and science but also the ability to relate and connect.  Then Trent Tipple, survivor of 3 bouts with cancer talked about gratitude and the small act of thanking people who helped him survive. 

On the other side of the coin, there were discussions of the challenges we face in our complex society.  Unthinkable challenges like human trafficking.  Theresa Flores talked about her experience as a middle class child who faced the unthinkable.  While her tale was awful in ways I cannot even imagine, she is now living testament to the strength and resilience of the human spirit.  She is dedicating her life to helping other young woman who are in the same spot.  David Burns talked about the Heartache of Education and Dirk Knemeyer talked about societal challenges we face.  They too offered ideas to move beyond these challenges.

I left feeling hopeful.  People were talking about the problems we are facing.  Young people are performing music, artists created amazing photographs to be placed in Columbus as public art.  I also met young organizer of the TEDxOhioStateUniversity, Jordan.  How exciting to meet the very talented college student who has the license to create a TEDx experience at OSU. 

So, I left the evening of 11-11 with some reflections and some questions. 

• We live in a community of passionate, smart people dedicated to making the world better in different ways
• We have much of what we need right here in Columbus and the surrounding areas to make many of the changes we want to see
• Many of the changes really do being with being different ourselves before trying to change others

So that leads me to some personal reflections:

• How do I want to be different going forward?  What do I want to do more of and less of?
• How do I ensure my volunteer time is spent making an impact on things I really think matter? 
• Am I doing the basics well like recycling, composting, mindful eating, showing gratitude, collaborating with others effectively

I spent part of the weekend at a cabin in the woods at Earthtouch Nature Preserve where I serve as the Board President.  I wanted to have some serious reflection time to think about these questions and use this day 11-11 as an invitation to consider what I value.  Here are some of the things I came away with.

• Take care of myself (I tend to be a workaholic)
• Treat others with empathy, respect and compassion even when I do not agree with or understand their actions
• Take care of the earth that sustains me by paying attention to my actions
• Seek peace, honesty and harmony in all of my dealings (sounds fluffy but to me this means having the tough conversations so we find true peace rather than conflict avoidance).

So, if you did not attend, I invite you to check out the TEDx Columbus blog and watch some of the talks and/or performances.  After watching, consider asking yourself some of the questions above.

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Are you considering improving your ability to be an innovative leader?  If so, take this free on-line Innovative Leadership assessment to determine where you fall on the innovative leadership scale.  If you are looking for tools to help develop you ability to be an innovative leader, check out the Innovative Leadership Fieldbook.  Metcalf & Associates offers assessments, coaching and workshops to help you and your leadership team become more innovative.

The following blog post was written by Dani Robbins, one of our associates. Dani Robbins is the founder and Principal of Non Profit Evolution, www.nonprofitevolution.com, a consulting firm providing board governance and operational assistance, including capacity building, to non-profit organizations.

I have been thinking about failures of leadership as of late, and not just failures but if and how leaders are trained to respond to potential liabilities (and thereby avoid the failures!).  Since I am guest blogging I will share that I own a non-profit management consulting firm which I started after have spent my career leading non-profits.  My leadership style has evolved and greatly benefited from the brilliant and strategic minds at Boys & Girls Clubs of America.  My lens has also been impacted by my prior work with victims of violence.  The combination has taught me to be mindful of potential liabilities and have a plan to deal with them.  In fact, I have two general theories, and have encouraged my team and my clients over the years to plan accordingly:

1. Risk management is easier that damage control.
2. Having a plan will reduce the need for a plan, and allow you to immediately implement the plan rather than figure out a plan in the middle of a crisis.

So with that, I have been wondering about the absence of reaction, follow through and planning from a wide variety of leaders as of late. Here are a few:

• The Sherriff of Muskingum County, Ohio, who showed tremendous leadership and did everything in his power to protect people and property when the wild animal crisis happened but had no obvious plan to avert its happening, or even to reduce the damage once it happened, which he and other clearly knew it would.
• Coach Paterno and Coach Tressel who both went down for different things (Yes, Tressel’s failure pales in comparison) yet had either lived up to their formidable reputations, the failures would not have happened at all or for the length of time they happened.  In Paterno’s case, several children were traumatized, and he could have protected them, but didn’t – either because he wasn’t trained to react and follow thru appropriately, or didn’t know he was responsible to protect children, as we all are.

Those are the most well publicized incidences of leadership failure in recent memory, politics aside.   I also have one incidence of leadership success. The Trustees of the Board of Penn State did what was right, instead of what was popular:  They fired the President.  They fired the Coach. They didn’t let him finish the season. They didn’t let him finish the week.  He went home that day, and to his credit, Coach Paterno left in a way that reminded everyone how he earned his reputation in the first place, by acting with class.  

I write crisis management and crisis communication plans for my clients, and encourage all companies, for profit or not for profit, to have one.  But a plan is not enough, especially if that plan sits on a shelf.  A plan, coupled with regular training, discussion of scenarios at staff meetings, feedback loops to address issues that had crisis potential, and accountability for action and inaction, all need to be combined to create the kind of leadership that avoids failure by creating plans to manage risk, so they do not have to control damage.

Maureen Metcalf & Mark Palmer. . Innovative Leadership Fieldbook. Tucson, AZ: Integral Publishers.  Reviewed by James L. Ritchie-Dunham

What is interesting about this book?  One of my favorite papers on “interesting” suggests that showing what seems to be complicated and disparate is actually straightforward and connected is interesting (Davis, 1971).  The world of leadership development is definitely ready for a “straightforward and connected” contribution, and Metcalf and Palmer make it with the Innovative Leadership Fieldbook (ILF).

As a reviewer, I believe it is my responsibility to show you why I think this book makes a contribution, and is worth your investment of time.  To evaluate what a framework contributes, I will use the CRISP criteria (Ritchie-Dunham, 2008), which basically suggest that if we want to understand something through any given framework, the framework should support our understanding of how Comprehensive, Rigorous, Integrative, Simple, and Purposeful it is.  This book scores high on all five.

Using Wilber’s integral AQAL lens (Wilber, 2000), ILF defines a comprehensive leadership development framework as one that meets the inner and outer perspectives of the individual and the collective, at different levels for different types:  “An Innovative Leader influences by engaging self, culture and systems equally.” (p. 14)

• On Comprehensiveness ILF scores high.
• ILF defines rigor as a framework that is proven to deliver strong results and based on solid science.  The authors bring in very credible, often peer-reviewed tools that they have themselves tested with many leaders over many years.  ILF scores high on rigor.
• Integrative means that the framework makes clear how the different elements fit together.  Using the AQAL framing and a pyramid structure, ILF is very explicit about how the inner, outer, developmental, and type perspectives fit together.  On Integrative ILF scores high.
• Perhaps the authors’ most significant contribution is the Simple criteria.  Simple means understandable to intelligent leaders, in this case, not dumbed down.  Metcalf and Palmer provide an elegantly simple and, thus, very accessible entry to material that is often presented in very complicated and overly complex ways.  ILF excels on the Simple criteria.
• The book also defines the Purposeful criteria for leadership development as one that enables leaders to critically self-assess and authentically engage in their own development, so that they can influence AQAL alignment and movement, directionally and tactically.  If it does not meet that purpose, it should not be in the framework.  On the Purpose criteria, the book does well, providing tools for critical assessment, examples of how others worked with the tools, and processes for implementing the insights from the tools.

These are five major contributions to a literature on leadership development that usually scores low on all five CRISP criteria.

Now that it is clear that ILF makes a contribution, what does the journey look like?  This is the content question.  ILF proposes a design for a multi-month journey into one’s own leadership.  The design comes in two segments: lenses and processes.  The first segment describes five different lenses into one’s own leadership, keying on different AQAL dimensions.  The second segment suggests a six-step process that uses the lenses to critically assess and re-define one’s own leadership.

• The first segment looks at leadership development from the integral lenses of type, stages, resilience, all-quadrants, and behaviors.
• For types, ILFuses the Enneagram to explore types of individuals and teams, providing a simple language, tables, examples, and reflections for using this lens.
• For stages of ego development, ILF uses the well tested Maturity Assessment Profile developed by Susanne Cook-Greuter, providing brief, rich profiles of leaders at different developmental stages. 
• Resilience is explored using a physical well-being, thinking, emotional intelligence, and connection framework presented earlier in this journal (Metcalf & Gore, 2011).
• Building on leadership type, stage, and resilience, an all-quadrants perspective is used to analyze any leadership situation.
• Finally, the lens that rests on top is the Leadership Circle Profile of a leader’s creative and reactive people and task behaviors.  Each lens is presented simply, with clear leadership examples from the authors’ experience, ending with reflection questions for the reader.

The authors then walk the reader through a six-step process for living into what is seen through the integral lenses of innovative leadership.  Each step is broken down into a series of straightforward and insightful questions that uses the insights from the integral lenses.  The six steps are: (1) create a compelling vision of your future; (2) analyze your situation & strengths; (3) plan your journey; (4) build your team & communicate; (5) take action; and (6) embed innovation systematically.  The brilliance of the book is how CRISPly these traditional areas are presented, making the deep, transformative use of the material relatively easy, engaging, and useful.  That is a lot to accomplish in 263 pages.  I highly recommend the Innovative Leadership Fieldbook to anyone who is ready to take on the transformation of their own leadership.

Click here for more information about Innovative Leadership Fieldbook or to purchase the book.

About the Reviewer

Jim Ritchie-Dunham is a student of the agreements that guide human interaction.  He explores these agreements through practice, research, and teaching.  Jim is president of the Institute for Strategic Clarity, a trustee of THORLO, and an adjunct faculty member at the EGADE Business School and at Harvard.

Jim’s work has focused primarily on understanding human agreements as integral systems, developing strategy from a systems-resource perspective, and fostering large-scale social-change as a collaborative, holistic inquiry. He has developed conceptual frameworks in his work with executive teams in corporate, government, civil society, inter-sectoral, and global-action-network settings for twenty years in seventeen countries. Jim co-authored the book Managing from Clarity: Identifying, Aligning and Leveraging Strategic Resources, and has written many articles on integral, systemic strategy for academic and practitioner journals.

Institute for Strategic Clarity, 108 High Street, Amherst, MA 01002 (603) 620-4472

jimrd@instituteforstrategicclarity.org   

References

Davis, M. F. (1971). That’s Interesting: Towards a Phenomenology of Sociology and a Sociology of Phenomenology. Philosophy of Social Science, 1, 309-344.

Metcalf, M., & Gore, B. (2011). Resilience Through The Integral Lens – A Case Study. Integral Leadership Review, 11(2).

Ritchie-Dunham, J. L. (2008). A Collaborative-Systemic Strategy Addressing the Dynamics of Poverty in Guatemala:  Converting Seeming Impossibilities into Strategic Probabilities. In C. Wankel (Ed.), Alleviating Poverty through Business Strategy(pp. 73-98). New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Wilber, K. (2000). A Theory of Everything. Boston: Shambhala.