Learning As A Way Of Being

I highly recommend reading Peter Vaill's book Learning As A Way of Being. The book focuses on how to educate for managerial leadership, whether taking place in corporate training programs or higher education. Vaill describes seven qualities of learning as a way of being that are critical for training leaders. The seven qualities of learning proposed by Vaill include:

• Self-directed: The learner should be able to manage his/her efforts to confront unique learning challenges.


• Creative: An attitude of exploration is needed when confronting novel learning problems.


• Expressive: This is learning by doing.


• Feeling: The learner needs to be able to deal with feelings of confusion, fear, and incompetence as well as experience the meaning of what is learned.


• On-line: Learning takes place within the environments we find ourselves rather than being confined to educational institutions.


• Continual: The realization that we are to learn throughout our lives and maintain the mindset of a beginner.


• Reflexive: Learn about learning and be aware of one's own learning process.

Vaill explains each of these qualities in depth. The book will be valuable to those responsible for leadership training. It will also provide those who would lead with an understanding of the type of learning that is required to grow into being a leader.

Start

Leaders create that which does not yet exist. Leaders initiate. In the book Poke the Box, author Seth Godin makes the case for taking the initiative. Those who create, lead, succeed are those who risk being initiators. Godin urges the reader to get in the habit of starting. He addresses the reasons for not taking the initiative and shatters the rationale behind each excuse.

Godin, at the start of the book, outlines the seven imperatives for making something happen. These include: 1. be aware; 2. be educated; 3. be connected; 4. be consistent; 5. build an asset; 6. be productive; 7. ship. To make something happen you need an idea, people to work on it, someplace to make it, raw materials, a way to distribute, finances, and marketing.

This is not a how-to book, though. Poke the Box is a manifesto about starting. There are no set formulas for initiating. There are no road maps for success. Success goes to those who create the maps. Godin’s purpose is to motivate the reader to start. Poke the Box is a quick read; it can be finished in one sitting. Godin doesn’t want you wasting time reading a manual, he wants you to start. Godin’s book is a great place to begin.

Lead With Luv

Lead With Luv is written as a conversation between business author Ken Blanchard and President Emeritus of Southwest Airlines Colleen Barrett. The main message of the book is that you need to care first about your employees if you want to achieve lasting business success. Southwest Airlines is held up as the role model of a company that gets it right. The authors emphasize that profit is a product of caring. The purpose of a business is to serve—first the employees, then customers, and finally shareholders.

The book is a quick and inspiring read. There are many stories illustrating Southwest’s outstanding customer service. The authors describe what needs to be done to create a caring company, but don’t expect a how-to manual. Do expect to discover how love is relevant to business success in a competitive world.

A Quick Reference on Persuading

Persuasion is an important skill for leading. For those looking for a quick introduction to the subject, I recommend The Skinny of The Art of Persuasion by Jim Randel. This book provides sound information in an engaging, conversational style. Information is presented in short frames with simple visuals. The information is concise. The essence of the topic is covered in a fun way that keeps the reader’s attention. The book can be read in an hour or so; excellent for people in a hurry or who don’t like to read. For those who want more details on the subject, the reading list at the end provides sufficient recommendations. This book is a good introduction to the subject and a handy resource. There is even a removable bookmark printed with the nine rules of persuasion the reader may use as a quick reference. A good book for those new to the subject or for those who want a quick refresher.

Most Influential Books On Leadership

An informal survey done over the listserv of the International Leadership Association resulted in the following list of most influential books on leadership. I came across this list in Deeper Learning in Leadership by Dennis C. Roberts.

International Dimensions of Organizational Behavior by N. Adler
Integrating the Individual and the Organization by C. Argyris
Knowledge for Action by C. Argyris
Social Foundations of Thought and Action by A. Bandura
On the Nature of Leadership by R. Barker
Bass & Stogdill's Handbook of Leadership by B. Bass
Leadership and Performance Beyond Expectations by B. Bass & B. Avolio
Spiral Dynamics by D. Beck & C. Cowan
Leaders by W. Bennis & B. Nanus
Stewardship by P. Block
Thought As A System by D. Bohm
Power Up by D. Bradford & A. Cohen
The Student Leadership Guide by B. Burchard
Leadership by J. M. Burns
Philosophical Foundations of Leadership by D. Cawthon
The Courageous Follower by I. Chaleff
Leadership Theory and Research by M. Chemers & R. Ayman
To Lead The Way by D. B. Clark
The Charismatic Leader by J. Conger
Principle Centered Leadership by S. Covey
The 8th Habit by S. Covey
The Deep Blue Sea by W. Drath
A Theory of Leadership Effectiveness by F. Fiedler
New Approaches to Effective Leadership by F. Fiedler & J. Garcia
Paradigms and Promises by W. Foster
The Reconstruction of Leadership by W. Foster
Nuts! by K. Frieberg & J. Frieberg
The Leadership Investment by R. Fulmer
On Leadership by J. Gardner
Leadership the Eleanor Roosevelt Way by R. Gerber
Servant Leadership by R. K. Greenleaf & L. C. Spears
Leadership by M. Hackman & C. Johnson
The Leadership Secrets of Colin Powell by O. Harari
Leadership Without Easy Answers by R. Heifetz
Kinds of Power by J. Hillman
Leadership by R. L. Hughes, R. C. Ginnett, & G. J. Curphy
The Social Psychology of Organizations by D. Katz & R. Kahn
Exploring Leadership by S. R. Komives, N. Lucas, & T. R. McMahon
The Leadership Challenge by J. Kouzes & B. Pozner
Leadership On The Line by M. Linsky & R. Heifetz
The Connective Edge by J. Lipman-Blumen
SuperLeadership by C. Manz & H. Sims
The Leader, the Led, and the Psyche by B. Mazlish
The Leadership Odyssey by C. S. Napolitano & L. J. Henderson
Leadership by P. Northouse
The Adventure of Working Abroad by J. Osland
Surfing the Edge of Chaos by R. Pascale, M. Milleman, & L. Gioja
In Search of Excellence by T. Peters & R. H. Waterman
Lincoln on Leadership by D. Phillips
Ready To Lead? by A. Price
Leading People From The Middle by W. Robinson
Leadership for the Twenty-First Century by J. Rost
Organizational Culture and Leadership by E. H. Schein
Leadership in Administration by P. Selznick
The Fifth Discipline by P. M. Senge
Insights on Leadership by L. Spears
Policy Paradox by D. A. Stone
Leadership and the New Science by M. J. Wheatley
A Theory of Everything by K. Wilber
The Leader's Companion by T. Wren
Leadership in Organizations by G. Yukl
The Nature of Executive Leadership by S. Zaccaro

"Bad" Leaders Revisited

Someone on the Learn To Lead network (http://learntolead.ning.com) responded to my blog posting entitled “Are There Bad Leaders?” The posting originally appeared in this blog on October 8, 2007. The responder began his comments by saying there are of course bad leaders and ended arguing that there have to be or how else can we decide who are the “good” leaders. His comments prompted me to elaborate further why I asked the original question.

People seldom get to choose their manager—whether in sports or the workplace. Having a position, however, does not make one a leader. Management is based on position while leadership is founded on relationship. People “obey” a manager and “follow” a leader. The difference between a manager and a leader is also based on perspective and focus. See my blog post entitled “What Leaders Do.”

In true leadership followers choose the leader by deciding to follow someone. When followers withdraw their loyalty, that someone ceases to be the leader. People may still obey the individual but will not be followers. Take Hitler for an extreme example. There were some who followed Hitler as their leader to the end. They never stopped believing in the man, his values, or what he was striving to accomplish. Others, though, became disillusioned. They no longer believed in the man and his cause. They may have continued to obey Hitler, though, out of fear of the consequences of not doing so. This made Hitler their dictator, not their leader.

I don’t perceive people judging a person to be a “bad” leader and then continuing to consider that person to be their leader. They may continue to obey but not to follow. As I have argued in previous blog postings, leadership is a system; it is a relationship. When followers withdraw their loyalty from a leader, they destroy the system. They now judge the lead person from outside the system, outside the leadership relationship. I don’t believe that people choose to follow someone they perceive to be “bad.” That label is applied by those who are outside the leadership system. I judge as “bad” those I do not consider to be my leader.

That leads to the question the responder raised at the end of his comment. How are we to decide who is a “good” leader and who is a “bad” one? The way to answer that is to say that there are those who are leaders and those who are not. A more disturbing question is how do we know we are following a “good” leader? We continue to follow someone because we consider them to be “good.” Others, though, may judge that individual as “bad.” Who is correct? Whose judgment prevails? Are we unknowingly following “bad” leaders? How are we to know? Who is to decide?

Stop Talking, Start Acting

I am tired of listening and talking about what is wrong with the workplace, the community, the country, the environment, education, etc., etc. etc. I have decided it is time to act. If there is something I think should be changed, I consider what I can do to start that change. Then I do it. If I am not willing to contribute to the solution, then I stop complaining about the problem.

If you share my frustration and are ready to take action, the place to start is to identify other like-minded individuals. Approach them about collaborating on addressing mutual concerns. Share ideas, resources, and connections. Decide on what actions you each will take individually and jointly. Schedule times to follow up with each other to provide support and accountability.

When deciding how to contribute to changing the situation you are addressing, focus your actions on what you have control and influence over. Small actions can have large results. Your initiative may ignite others to take action. As you identify interested people, recruit them into your group of collaborators.

Each of us is more powerful than we imagine. By exhibiting our own commitment to a cause, we give others the courage to come forward. By then uniting our energies and expertise, we have the start of a movement.

It would behoove us to keep in mind the words of John F. Kennedy: “There are risks and costs to a program of action. But they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction.” Stop talking, start acting. Lead now!