Great leaders watch the future.
The president of Sony has a 200-year plan for the company.
American leaders know that companies will be facing a educated workforce shortage within the next 20 years.
Now some leaders are stepping forward to do something.
Solutions for Our Future is
"a national initiative to establish a dialogue about the critical role colleges and universities play in serving the public, solving pressing societal needs, and preparing people for our country's future."
This is a organization of leaders from over 400 colleges and universities who are seeking to raise awareness of the mission-critical impact that higher education has on our economy.
For a hilarious PSA (Public Service Announcement), click here and scroll down to the "First Responders" file. This PSA shows the importance of higher education in the community.
BOTTOM LINE: Smart Leaders support Higher Education, because Higher Education will produce the leaders of tomorrow.
Monday, March 27, 2006
Friday, March 24, 2006
Great leaders Go the Extra Mile
Lately, I've been thinking back to when I started practicing Aikido, over 15 years ago. I was fortunate enough to begin my training under Akira Tohei sensei (now, sadly, deceased), 8th degree black belt and chief instructor of the Midwest Aikido Center in Chicago.
I remember Tohei sensei comparing Aikido training to stacking up a pile of paper one page at a time -- in the moment, it doesn't seem like you're getting much work done, but over time, you can really accumulate a great deal of experience.
Great leadership is like that -- your day-to-day doings by themselves don't add up to much. But, done mindfully and in a spirit of practice, those day-to-day events can add up to a huge amount of leadership experience.
Bottom Line: Go the Extra Mile - mindfully treat every moment at work as an opportunity for practice and new learning as a leader.
I remember Tohei sensei comparing Aikido training to stacking up a pile of paper one page at a time -- in the moment, it doesn't seem like you're getting much work done, but over time, you can really accumulate a great deal of experience.
Great leadership is like that -- your day-to-day doings by themselves don't add up to much. But, done mindfully and in a spirit of practice, those day-to-day events can add up to a huge amount of leadership experience.
Bottom Line: Go the Extra Mile - mindfully treat every moment at work as an opportunity for practice and new learning as a leader.
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
"Three Secrets for Empowering Women Leaders"
Next Monday, March 27th, I will be presenting "Three Secrets for Empowering Women Leaders" to the Women's City Club of Cleveland. Here's the description:
Leadership Coach Tim Warneka presents insights from his new book Leading People the Black Belt Way: Conquering the Five Core Problems Facing Leaders Today, including three mission-critical Black Belt secrets for empowering women leaders. Warneka’s relationship-based approach to leadership combines the power of Emotional Intelligence with the strength of the revolutionary non-violent martial art of Aikido.
Please note - copies of Leading People the Black Belt Way will be available for purchase and signing after the program, with a portion of the proceeds being donated to the Domestic Violence Center.
To learn more, click visit the Women's City Club of Cleveland's website and click on "Programs & Events"
Hope to see you there!
Leadership Coach Tim Warneka presents insights from his new book Leading People the Black Belt Way: Conquering the Five Core Problems Facing Leaders Today, including three mission-critical Black Belt secrets for empowering women leaders. Warneka’s relationship-based approach to leadership combines the power of Emotional Intelligence with the strength of the revolutionary non-violent martial art of Aikido.
Please note - copies of Leading People the Black Belt Way will be available for purchase and signing after the program, with a portion of the proceeds being donated to the Domestic Violence Center.
To learn more, click visit the Women's City Club of Cleveland's website and click on "Programs & Events"
Hope to see you there!
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
Excellent Leaders Take Care of People!
Kudos to Florida Assistant State Attorney Richard Ridgway, one of the prosecuting attorneys in the case against Debra LeFave, the Florida teacher who was convicted of having sex with underage boys. Mr. Ridgway was quoted on MSN as saying:
“The court may be willing to risk the well-being of the victims in this case in order to force it to trial. I am not.”
Mr. Ridgway could have chosen to keep the trial in the media -- thus keeping himself in the media and advancing his career (a tactic used quite effectively in several recent high profile legal cases).
Instead, as one of the leaders of this case, Mr. Ridgway took the more ethical route, choosing instead to protect the 14-year-old male victim from having to testify...an event that would certainly have traumatized the young boy; given our society's reluctance to see males as victims.
Bottom line: Florida Assistant State Attorney Richard Ridgway made the right leadership choice!
P.S. Memo to Ms. LeFave: Whether or not you suffer from bipolar disorder is irrelevant to the fact that you engaged in inappropriate sexual behavior with an underage teenager.
“The court may be willing to risk the well-being of the victims in this case in order to force it to trial. I am not.”
Mr. Ridgway could have chosen to keep the trial in the media -- thus keeping himself in the media and advancing his career (a tactic used quite effectively in several recent high profile legal cases).
Instead, as one of the leaders of this case, Mr. Ridgway took the more ethical route, choosing instead to protect the 14-year-old male victim from having to testify...an event that would certainly have traumatized the young boy; given our society's reluctance to see males as victims.
Bottom line: Florida Assistant State Attorney Richard Ridgway made the right leadership choice!
P.S. Memo to Ms. LeFave: Whether or not you suffer from bipolar disorder is irrelevant to the fact that you engaged in inappropriate sexual behavior with an underage teenager.
Setting bones in 30 minutes or....free MOVIE TICKETS?!?
Interesting article here ...
Seems a U.S. hospital is using the marketing ploys used by so many other service industries - if you come into their ER, they pledge to have you seen by a doc in less than 30 minutes or you get... an apology and a pair of movie tickets.
Now, this has BAD IDEA written all over it.
I'm fine with pizza joints offering 30 minute delivery time or you get it free. But the ER is a different place. Entirely.
If I, or (God forbid) my kids have to go to the ER, I don't want to be wondering if the doc who is treating my child is rushing thru the care in so the next patient doesn't win free movie tickets.
And a hospital offering an apology? For years, I've been in favor of apologies as a standard part of medical practice, believing that apologies could dramatically decrease malpractice suits. Every lawyer I've ever spoken to has always told me something to the effect that "Hospitals can never apologize, because that would open them up for lawsuits." I'm wondering if the marketing dept. checked with legal before launching this "free tickets" deal....
The biggest reason that this is a BAD idea is that ER stands for EMERGENCY ROOM, and emergencies (by definition) can take a highly variable amount of time. As a mental health professional I have had to wait at the ER with patients -- sometimes for what seemed like enormous amounts of time -- but I've always assumed that the ER staff is doing their best to get to everyone. It's not like I assumed they were in the backroom playing pinochle or something!
I'd be very curious to hear how the ER staff is responding to this new marketing campaign. Dollars to donuts they don't like it. And when employees aren't happy, they emotionally disconnect from their job...and everything slows down.
Bottom Line: An apology and free movies tickets in an ER Room is a BAD Leadership call!
Seems a U.S. hospital is using the marketing ploys used by so many other service industries - if you come into their ER, they pledge to have you seen by a doc in less than 30 minutes or you get... an apology and a pair of movie tickets.
Now, this has BAD IDEA written all over it.
I'm fine with pizza joints offering 30 minute delivery time or you get it free. But the ER is a different place. Entirely.
If I, or (God forbid) my kids have to go to the ER, I don't want to be wondering if the doc who is treating my child is rushing thru the care in so the next patient doesn't win free movie tickets.
And a hospital offering an apology? For years, I've been in favor of apologies as a standard part of medical practice, believing that apologies could dramatically decrease malpractice suits. Every lawyer I've ever spoken to has always told me something to the effect that "Hospitals can never apologize, because that would open them up for lawsuits." I'm wondering if the marketing dept. checked with legal before launching this "free tickets" deal....
The biggest reason that this is a BAD idea is that ER stands for EMERGENCY ROOM, and emergencies (by definition) can take a highly variable amount of time. As a mental health professional I have had to wait at the ER with patients -- sometimes for what seemed like enormous amounts of time -- but I've always assumed that the ER staff is doing their best to get to everyone. It's not like I assumed they were in the backroom playing pinochle or something!
I'd be very curious to hear how the ER staff is responding to this new marketing campaign. Dollars to donuts they don't like it. And when employees aren't happy, they emotionally disconnect from their job...and everything slows down.
Bottom Line: An apology and free movies tickets in an ER Room is a BAD Leadership call!
Saturday, March 18, 2006
Let's talk about "LeaderSpeak"
LeaderSpeak is a verbal trick used by poor leaders to Push or Pull people into going along with what the leader wants. Leaders who engage in LeaderSpeak are not truly Leading People because effective leaders do not Push or Pull people.
Here's an example of LeaderSpeak from today's media:
Today's media reports President Bush as urging "Americans to resist a temptation to retreat from Iraq..." (here's the full story).
Framing withdrawal from Iraq as a temptation is a brilliant LeaderSpeak move. Americans have "avoiding temptation" deeply ingrained at them from an early age, as we learned that temptation is a sin and something to be avoided.
The further brilliance of this statement is it sets up a perfect rebuttal towards anyone who argues in favor of leaving Iraq. Notice the LeaderSpeak use of retreat as well - retreat is a word that is loaded with shame in America. Americans never retreat - or at least so the cultural message goes.
By powerful combining the religious power of temptation with the shaming power of retreat in a single LeaderSpeak phrase, Bush effectively pushes people into following along, as well as cutting off any dissenting voices.
On the other hand, Great Leaders.....
...avoid LeaderSpeak like the plague.
Great leaders value dissenting and opposing voices, for they know that wisdom can often be found in dissent and opposition. Great leaders are willing to risk saying what is important for them, as well as the vision they hold for the organization they all -- all without needing to resort to rhetorical trickery and deceit.
What's at stake? The emotional engagement of the people in any given organization (or nation). Currently, the lack of emotional engagement in our employees is costing America around $360 billion (that's billion with a "b") per year.
What's it costing your organization?
Have a LeaderSpeak story from work you'd like to share with others?
Email it to me at Tim at blackbeltconsultants.com
Here's an example of LeaderSpeak from today's media:
Today's media reports President Bush as urging "Americans to resist a temptation to retreat from Iraq..." (here's the full story).
Framing withdrawal from Iraq as a temptation is a brilliant LeaderSpeak move. Americans have "avoiding temptation" deeply ingrained at them from an early age, as we learned that temptation is a sin and something to be avoided.
The further brilliance of this statement is it sets up a perfect rebuttal towards anyone who argues in favor of leaving Iraq. Notice the LeaderSpeak use of retreat as well - retreat is a word that is loaded with shame in America. Americans never retreat - or at least so the cultural message goes.
By powerful combining the religious power of temptation with the shaming power of retreat in a single LeaderSpeak phrase, Bush effectively pushes people into following along, as well as cutting off any dissenting voices.
On the other hand, Great Leaders.....
...avoid LeaderSpeak like the plague.
Great leaders value dissenting and opposing voices, for they know that wisdom can often be found in dissent and opposition. Great leaders are willing to risk saying what is important for them, as well as the vision they hold for the organization they all -- all without needing to resort to rhetorical trickery and deceit.
What's at stake? The emotional engagement of the people in any given organization (or nation). Currently, the lack of emotional engagement in our employees is costing America around $360 billion (that's billion with a "b") per year.
What's it costing your organization?
Have a LeaderSpeak story from work you'd like to share with others?
Email it to me at Tim at blackbeltconsultants.com
Book Review: FIVE STARS from Reader Views
I just received this new, five-star review about Leading People the Black Belt Way:
"Leading People the Black Belt Way: Conquering the Five Core Problems Facing Leaders Today"
By Timothy H. Warneka
Asogomi Publishing Company (2006)
Reviewed by Joanne Benham for Reader Views (3/06)
What do King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, Aikido and Charles Dickens' 'The Christmas Carol' have in common? Good question! According to author Timothy Warneka, they teach you true leadership qualities and he makes a compelling argument for this in his book, "Leading People the Black Belt Way."
Click here for more...
"Leading People the Black Belt Way: Conquering the Five Core Problems Facing Leaders Today"
By Timothy H. Warneka
Asogomi Publishing Company (2006)
Reviewed by Joanne Benham for Reader Views (3/06)
What do King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, Aikido and Charles Dickens' 'The Christmas Carol' have in common? Good question! According to author Timothy Warneka, they teach you true leadership qualities and he makes a compelling argument for this in his book, "Leading People the Black Belt Way."
Click here for more...
Friday, March 17, 2006
The Leading o' the Green....
Happy St. Paddy's Day to all!
St. Patrick has a fond place in my heart, not only because I'm Irish, but because he's the patron saint of my ever-loving brother.
Pondering leadership and the Irish reminds me of Thomas Cahill's wonderful book, How the Irish Saved Civilization. As we live in a time when many leaders (read: CEO's) rationalize that their net value to the company is over 400 times that of general "line staff" employees, a passage from Mr. Cahill's book bears repeating at length:
"Perhaps history is always divided into Romans and Catholics--or better, catholics. The romans are the rich and powerful who run things their way and must always acrue more because they instinctively believe that there will never be enough to go around; the catholics, as their name implies, are universalists who instinctively believe that all of humanity makes one family, that every human being is an equal child of God, and that God will provide. The twenty-first century, prophesied Malraux, will be spiritual or it will not be. If our civilization is to be save--forget our civilization...if we are to be saved, it will not be by Romans but by saints."
(emphasis added)
In these days of the Senate having recently passed a 2.8 trillion budget that projects $350 billion in deficits for this year and the next; with GM just announcing $10.6 billion in losses last year; and with Sherron Watkins, the former VP of Enron who testified this week that her concerns about accounting irregularites in what was the 7th largest company in the U.S. were ignored....
truer words were never spoken.
St. Patrick has a fond place in my heart, not only because I'm Irish, but because he's the patron saint of my ever-loving brother.
Pondering leadership and the Irish reminds me of Thomas Cahill's wonderful book, How the Irish Saved Civilization. As we live in a time when many leaders (read: CEO's) rationalize that their net value to the company is over 400 times that of general "line staff" employees, a passage from Mr. Cahill's book bears repeating at length:
"Perhaps history is always divided into Romans and Catholics--or better, catholics. The romans are the rich and powerful who run things their way and must always acrue more because they instinctively believe that there will never be enough to go around; the catholics, as their name implies, are universalists who instinctively believe that all of humanity makes one family, that every human being is an equal child of God, and that God will provide. The twenty-first century, prophesied Malraux, will be spiritual or it will not be. If our civilization is to be save--forget our civilization...if we are to be saved, it will not be by Romans but by saints."
(emphasis added)
In these days of the Senate having recently passed a 2.8 trillion budget that projects $350 billion in deficits for this year and the next; with GM just announcing $10.6 billion in losses last year; and with Sherron Watkins, the former VP of Enron who testified this week that her concerns about accounting irregularites in what was the 7th largest company in the U.S. were ignored....
truer words were never spoken.
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
Lots of poor business books out there...
While there are some wonderful business books out there ("Follow this Path", and pretty much anything by Peter Block comes to mind), there are also some really horrific ones. William Holstein of "Chief Executive" finally sounds off on some of the real stinkers.
On Counter-Intuitive Leadership
Okay, I said I was going to post but once a week....
...but sometimes the Muse takes over.
I got into a cyber-discussion with a colleague about "Intuitive Leadership". My colleague -- as I understood him -- was suggesting that sometimes intuition isn't all that it's cracked up to be, because sometimes when we look back, we see the mistake we made. He was suggesting that perhaps "counter-intuitive" leadership is really the best way to go.
I started thinking about what he said, got into the zone and wrote this response to him. Feel free to listen in....
ON COUNTER-INTUITIVE THINKING
Okay, here's my research geek side coming out, so bear with me....
With a psychology and philosophy background, I was always trained to consider the definition of words. I'd suggest that the word "intuitive" gets used a bit haphazardly in our culture, and we have to be careful in applying it to leadership.
Used in common parlance, "intuitive" often means "common sense", i.e., the solution to a problem that presents itself with the least amount of reflection. IMHO, when people say that they made an "intuitive decision" that turned out to be wrong, what they really meant was that they grabbed at the first common sense response that presented itself.
"Intuition", as it was developed as a concept by Jung (who really brought the word into Western language), was much more interested in what might be better termed (by Ken Wilber and Robert Kegan and those folks) as post-rational thought, which is what Gary Klein is writing about in "Intuition at Work", as well as what Malcolm Gladwell is talking about in his best-selling "Blink".
Depending on how we use the term "intuition", then, we can go in one of two ways:
1. If we use it "intuition" in the sense of "common sense", then it is possible to move in counter-intuitive ways, and often wisely so. Ask any medical or mental health professional -- what often seems (from a 'common sense' perspective) to be the problem is 9 times out of 10 not the problem at all.
2. If we use "intuition" in the sense of "post-rational thought", then it is probably not possible to move/think/be in counter-intuitive ways, and certainly wouldn't be wise (as post-rational thought is a higher order thinking process than rational, and 'common sense' thinking, which would be like trying to solve a problem by moving from (in Piagetian stages) formal operations to concrete operations -- the solution you come up with is NOT going to work.
[My colleague wrote about how teams/groups could have a person playing the role of the "counter-intuitive...]
In your leadership example, I think it's better to use the term "Devil's advocate" than counter-intuitive person. My comment above were only approaching intuition from an individual level. If we begin to move the level of system to the team/group level, then it gets increasingly more complicated. IMHO, what is often seen as "intuitive" by the group often is a very serious case of groupthink. (And also brings us to the "Fifth Discipline" error (after Peter Senge's book), which might bring us to speak about a group or organization as a "thinking organization" or an "intuitive organization", when, in fact, such a thing is impossible, as neither groups nor organizations have a central point of consciousness.)
[He then began pondering whether "counter-intuitive thinking" would be an Art or a Science....]
As to Art or Science....why not avoid the 'tyranny of the OR' and have it be both? This area is particularly where I find value in the study of traditional Eastern philosophies. For a variety of reasons, Eastern philosophy didn't get as caught up in separting Art and Science as we in the West did (which led to some other problems unique to that choice, but I'll save that for another post). Therefore, studies like Zen and Aikido and Chado and Ikebana and things like that (to stay in the Japanese realm for a bit), could focus on both the aesthetics of Art and the precision of Science. And it seemed to work pretty well....to develop post-rational thought in the practitioners. So that an Aikido practitioner can block a punch without 'thinking' (rationally) about it. Rationally thinking about a punch to the face is too slow of a response -- you get punched in the face. An Ikebana (flower arranging) practitioner can 'see' the aethetics of a particular arrangement to see if it is in balance (i.e, to perceive the flowers from a post-rational perspective).
[He then observed that there is a nearby Metropark that where "Engraved on that rail is the statement "There is within us a deep place at whose edge we may sit and dream.", and he cautions people not to fall in...]
Finally, that park is one of my wife's favorite places to hike in the woods, so I'm familiar with that plaque. Perhaps, though, it might be best for us to fall in -- to take the creative leap that allows us to move from rational, 'common sense' approach to the world to a wider, broader post-rational place where the woodland trails listen to the harmony of the Universe and the waterfalls speak with the voice of Truth.
...but sometimes the Muse takes over.
I got into a cyber-discussion with a colleague about "Intuitive Leadership". My colleague -- as I understood him -- was suggesting that sometimes intuition isn't all that it's cracked up to be, because sometimes when we look back, we see the mistake we made. He was suggesting that perhaps "counter-intuitive" leadership is really the best way to go.
I started thinking about what he said, got into the zone and wrote this response to him. Feel free to listen in....
ON COUNTER-INTUITIVE THINKING
Okay, here's my research geek side coming out, so bear with me....
With a psychology and philosophy background, I was always trained to consider the definition of words. I'd suggest that the word "intuitive" gets used a bit haphazardly in our culture, and we have to be careful in applying it to leadership.
Used in common parlance, "intuitive" often means "common sense", i.e., the solution to a problem that presents itself with the least amount of reflection. IMHO, when people say that they made an "intuitive decision" that turned out to be wrong, what they really meant was that they grabbed at the first common sense response that presented itself.
"Intuition", as it was developed as a concept by Jung (who really brought the word into Western language), was much more interested in what might be better termed (by Ken Wilber and Robert Kegan and those folks) as post-rational thought, which is what Gary Klein is writing about in "Intuition at Work", as well as what Malcolm Gladwell is talking about in his best-selling "Blink".
Depending on how we use the term "intuition", then, we can go in one of two ways:
1. If we use it "intuition" in the sense of "common sense", then it is possible to move in counter-intuitive ways, and often wisely so. Ask any medical or mental health professional -- what often seems (from a 'common sense' perspective) to be the problem is 9 times out of 10 not the problem at all.
2. If we use "intuition" in the sense of "post-rational thought", then it is probably not possible to move/think/be in counter-intuitive ways, and certainly wouldn't be wise (as post-rational thought is a higher order thinking process than rational, and 'common sense' thinking, which would be like trying to solve a problem by moving from (in Piagetian stages) formal operations to concrete operations -- the solution you come up with is NOT going to work.
[My colleague wrote about how teams/groups could have a person playing the role of the "counter-intuitive...]
In your leadership example, I think it's better to use the term "Devil's advocate" than counter-intuitive person. My comment above were only approaching intuition from an individual level. If we begin to move the level of system to the team/group level, then it gets increasingly more complicated. IMHO, what is often seen as "intuitive" by the group often is a very serious case of groupthink. (And also brings us to the "Fifth Discipline" error (after Peter Senge's book), which might bring us to speak about a group or organization as a "thinking organization" or an "intuitive organization", when, in fact, such a thing is impossible, as neither groups nor organizations have a central point of consciousness.)
[He then began pondering whether "counter-intuitive thinking" would be an Art or a Science....]
As to Art or Science....why not avoid the 'tyranny of the OR' and have it be both? This area is particularly where I find value in the study of traditional Eastern philosophies. For a variety of reasons, Eastern philosophy didn't get as caught up in separting Art and Science as we in the West did (which led to some other problems unique to that choice, but I'll save that for another post). Therefore, studies like Zen and Aikido and Chado and Ikebana and things like that (to stay in the Japanese realm for a bit), could focus on both the aesthetics of Art and the precision of Science. And it seemed to work pretty well....to develop post-rational thought in the practitioners. So that an Aikido practitioner can block a punch without 'thinking' (rationally) about it. Rationally thinking about a punch to the face is too slow of a response -- you get punched in the face. An Ikebana (flower arranging) practitioner can 'see' the aethetics of a particular arrangement to see if it is in balance (i.e, to perceive the flowers from a post-rational perspective).
[He then observed that there is a nearby Metropark that where "Engraved on that rail is the statement "There is within us a deep place at whose edge we may sit and dream.", and he cautions people not to fall in...]
Finally, that park is one of my wife's favorite places to hike in the woods, so I'm familiar with that plaque. Perhaps, though, it might be best for us to fall in -- to take the creative leap that allows us to move from rational, 'common sense' approach to the world to a wider, broader post-rational place where the woodland trails listen to the harmony of the Universe and the waterfalls speak with the voice of Truth.
Welcome to LEADING PEOPLE THE BLACK BELT WAY Blog
Hello! Welcome to my blog! Now that my book, LEADING PEOPLE THE BLACK BELT WAY: CONQUERING THE FIVE CORE PROBLEMS FACING LEADERS TODAY is out in the stores, I'm finally leaping into the blogosphere. (My brother and business partner, Patrick, has been bugging me for years to get a blog started! Okay, Patrick, here it is!).
I'll be using this blog to discuss all things leadership. Since everyone at some point in time in their life is going to be in a position of leadership, these thoughts will apply to many.
In general, my intention is to post a blog about once a week, but we'll see how this plays out...
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