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Leadership Like Water-Water Canoeing
Although world business is undergoing historic changes, the prevailing view of what constitutes business leadership is stuck in the past. Generally, business leaders view leadership as an order-giving process. The word "leadership" itself comes from old Norse root meaning "to make go." Many leaders believe that they must "make" people go by ordering them to do things. But today's new business realities are requiring new kinds of leadership, leadership that has very little to do with order giving. Organizations are more competitive when leaders don't make others go but instead have those others make themselves go - when employees are not ordered to do tasks but instead are in the frame of mind and heart that they want to do those tasks. That "want to" is the cutting edge of competitiveness. Order-leadership in business has its roots in the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution. "Order" comes from a Latin root meaning to arrange threads in a weaving woof. The captains of the Revolution dealt with the relatively uneducated country people who flocked to their factories by ordering them where, how, and when to work. The most efficient and effective production methods resulted from workers being "ordered" or ranked like threads in the woof of production lines. Refined and empowered by the Victorian commercial culture, with its patriarchal power structure and strong links to Prussian military organization, the culture of the order-giver leader reached its zenith in the United States after World War II. During the post-war years, many U.S. businesses were like ocean liners plowing through relatively calm seas, their leaders, like liner captains and mates, running things by getting orders from superiors, giving orders to subordinates and making sure that those orders were carried out. But today, with competition increasing dramatically, with the volume and velocity of information multiplying, with the pyramidal structures of order-giving businesses flattening, leaders need skills not akin to ocean liner piloting but white-water canoeing. Order leadership founders where lines of authority are blurred, information proliferates, markets rapidly changing, and employees are highly skilled and educated. A new kind of leadership, a new vision of leadership is needed - leadership based on the principle that the leader doesn't make others go by ordering them about but instead has them go by creating an organizational environment in which they prompt themselves to go. This new leadership is: 1. Motivational. Motivational: Leaders do nothing more important than get results. But leaders can't get results themselves. They need the people they lead to get results. And the best way for them to get results is not to order them but to motivate them to take action that produces results. However, the English language misconstrues motivation. English describes the act of motivation as something one person does to another person. Leaders can't motivate anybody to do anything. We communicate - the people themselves motivate. They motivate themselves. Only they can motivate themselves. The motivators and the "motivatees" are the same people. We engage in the new leadership when we recognize that we are motivating people to get results only when we set up an environment in which they are actively motivating themselves. Action-based: A key aspect of the new leadership lies in the first two letters of the word motivation. Those letters - "mo" - are also found in the words "motion," "momentum," "motor," "mobile," etc. The words denote action - physical action. Motivation isn't what people think or feel but physically do. To engage in the new leadership, leaders must constantly be challenging others to take physical action that leads to results. Results-oriented: Motivated people are useless to a business. People taking action are useless to a business. Only those people who get results are useful. The thing is that people who are motivated and taking action are more likely to get results. Leaders must have a passion to achieve results. Not just results - but more results, faster results. They must permeate the culture of their organization with a more results faster esprit. Clearly, many order leaders have a passion for results. But as to the new leadership, how people get results is as important as their getting those results. To get more-results-faster, the order leader demands that people run faster in the organizational gerbil wheel. But there is a limit to how fast and hard people can work before they burn out. The new leader, however, recognizes that to achieve more results faster on a continuous basis that people can't simply speed up, work harder, and be straight-jacketed by tight controls. They must replenish their spirit and energies. They must slow down to develop and employ powerful processes, and they must challenge others to lead for results. The new leader's effectiveness is not measured so much by his/her actions but by the effectiveness of the leadership activities he/she challenges others to engage in. The recent emergence of interlocking global markets has stimulated a new vision of world commerce, a vision of a single global playing field. Leaders must match their business activities to the demands of that vision. But a corresponding new vision of leadership has not emerged. Stuck with an outmoded vision of order leadership, today's leaders are not seizing the full array of opportunities before them. When they begin to establish leadership that is not order-driven but is instead motivational, action-based and results-oriented, the world might not beat a path to their door but more importantly, they will beat paths to the doorsteps of the world. =========================================== PERMISSION TO REPUBLISH: This article may be republished in newsletters and on web sites provided attribution is provided to the author, and it appears with the included copyright, resource box and live web site link. Email notice of intent to publish is appreciated but not required: mail to: brent@actionleadership.com ===========================================2005 © The Filson Leadership Group, Inc. All rights reserved. =========================================== The author of 23 books, Brent Filson's recent books are, THE LEADERSHIP TALK: THE GREATEST LEADERSHIP TOOL and 101 WAYS TO GIVE GREAT LEADERSHIP TALKS. He is founder and president of The Filson Leadership Group, Inc. - and has worked with thousands of leaders worldwide during the past 20 years helping them achieve sizable increases in hard, measured results. Sign up for his free leadership ezine and get a free guide, "49 Ways To Turn Action Into Results," at http://www.actionleadership.com
Latest News:Site: Yahoo! News Search Results for news News Ltd buys Getprice NEWS Ltd is preparing itself for the online retailing explosion with the acquisition of comparison shopping site, Getprice.com.au. Alabama news links: Judge gives man 187 years in prison on child porn convictions News from around Alabama. News Near You for Sept. 6 This daily column features short news items from some of the 20 localities that make up the greater Richmond area. If you have a news item, call 649-6990 or e-mail us at news@times dispatch.com NEWS NEAR YOU PowhatanB-24 bomber pilot Neely Young will speak at the World War II Round ... News Briefs Good news for working mothers. Minister of Education, Gideon Saar, announced Monday his decision to extend tuition subsidies for children aged 3-4 in public nurseries. BREAKING NEWS - Child struck by car, car doesn't stop TUCSON - News 4 has confirmed that a child was hit by a vehicle in the area of Drexel and Mission. Officers on scene say the vehicle did not stop. They are actively searching for the driver. Northwest News: John Canzano blames lousy city leadership for baseball's demise in Portland; Say so long to the ... Northwest News is a daily roundup of what's making headlines in the Pacific Northwest. News by location Get local and national news updates via E-mail. LUMBERTON - The Robeson County Board of Commissioners is expected to approve a resolution Tuesday formally adopting a quarter-cent sales tax increase. News buys up shopping website NEWS Limited has signalled a push into the online retail space. News Snapshot: Exit 12B in South Burlington is back in the spotlight ? THE NEWS: The city of South Burlington and the Chittenden County Metropolitan Planning Organization will hold a public meeting to discuss the latest developments on a proposed exit ? 12B ? from Interstate 89 onto Vermont 116 near Kennedy Drive. News by location Get local and national news updates via E-mail. Ten drivers have now clinched spots in the Chase for the Sprint Cup. HAMPTON, Ga. - Tony Stewart raced to his first victory of the year, pulling away from Carl Edwards off the final restart Sunday night at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Site: news - Google News AP Top News at 7:45 pm EDT - The Associated Press
MORE RESOURCES: Site: Yahoo! News Search Results for leadership Leadership and cowardice don?t mix President Obama may need to kick his leadership up a notch if he wants to inspire democrats before the midterm elections. Saying that I was pro-Barack Obama in 2008 would be an understatement ? I was infatuated with the then-democratic presidential candidate. His speeches moved me. His stances on multiple issues during the 2008 campaign [...] Leadership Bonita aims to aid community The Leadership Bonita program provides a forum to identify, enlighten and engage current and future leaders to improve the quality of life of the... Labour leadership hopefuls take centre stage in Norwich TV debate Labour leadership hopefuls were centre stage in Norwich today for a televised hustings in which they all tried to make their case about whey they should lead the party - under instructions not to mention this week's city council elections. Leadership program adds graduates The Oxford-Lafayette County Chamber of Commerce recently graduated 23 emerging community leaders from its Leadership Lafayette Program at a recent graduation ceremony held at the Oxford Conference Center. Leadership Hawkins seeks applicants ROGERSVILLE ? Leadership Hawkins, a program of the Rogersville/Hawkins County Chamber of Commerce is accepting applications for its 2010-2011 class. NDTV Profit Business Leadership Awards 2010 Watch NDTV Profit Business Leadership Awards: Pranab Mukherjee, Mukesh Ambani, Vivek Kundra, Farah Pandith, Deepak Parekh, Narayana Murthy, and Aamir Khan, are among those who shared the stage. Leadership Louisville offering coaching to nonprofits The Leadership Louisville Center is offering local nonprofits free coaching and support under the newly dubbed "Yum! Ignites Louisville Challenge." Leadership comes from the locker room ? even in stocks For the market to move higher, some stocks have to become leaders, convincing investors they're convincing buys. We're all socialists, say leadership rivals Labour's leadership contenders all described themselves as socialists as they took part in hustings in Norwich. Leadership speculation mounts in North Korea NORTH Korea?s ruling Communist Party members gathered in Pyongyang yesterday ahead of their largest political conference in 30 years, amid predictions that leader Kim Jong Il would use the meeting to give a key ruling party position to one of his sons. Site: leadership - Google News Japan's Leadership Merry-Go-Round - New York Times
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