In Vol. 4, Issue 2 of the Journal of the Kansas Leadership Center (p.51), Joyce Webb made an interesting few comments about our engagement in the civic arena, especially on issues that are “value-laden.”  She writes,

“Effective interventions requires a keen sense of self-awareness and awareness of others, which is really hard to hold onto when the person across the table is polarized.  People have territory and values to protect and often get mired in the energy this defensiveness brings. 

“Whether one of us agrees with any factions’ opinions or not probably isn’t the issue when it comes to practicing leadership.  It’s OK to hold to purpose and not compromise values.  But one is always presented with a potential dilemma when deciding to make opinions and beliefs clear.

“This work requires us to be honest, yet challenges us to be intentional in reaching out and embracing those who have different life experiences, beliefs, values, and sometimes fears to protect.  It highlights our own beliefs and exposes our own biases and potential losses.  It requires tremendous courage, openness and love for our neighbors to be effective. 

“That kind of vulnerability seems to be too risky these days for most of us, including myself.  But we need a great strategy than playing it safe and doing nothing in order to make progress.

(Webb, Joyce. “When It Comes to Civic Life, We Need To Do More Than ‘Play It Safe’,” in The Journal [published by the Kansas Leadership Center] Volume 4, Issue 2, Fall 2012.  Pp.50-51.)

There are many things that resonate with me in what Webb writes, but one issue we consistently encounter is what we might call “Kansas Nice.”  We don’t want to cause trouble or a ruckus, so we choose silence and miss out on opportunities for leadership.  Now, I’m not suggesting we try to be intentionally unkind or mean-spirited.  I am saying that to make progress on issues that matter, it will require us to step into acts of leadership that are risky.  We must try to free ourselves out of that ever pressing default mode and find new behaviors that will help us make progress.  The competencies like managing self, diagnosing the situation, intervening skillfully and energizing others help give us some different ways of acting in leadership.  Today, what strategy will employ to help our community make progress?  It might be that rather than helping us make progress, playing it safe will actually hinder progress.  At the very least it’s something to think about.  At the most, it requires our skillful intervention.  Let’s check ourselves on this point, then, and see if we can’t make progress in these areas we are so passionate about.

As we’ve maneuvered our way around some of the 5 civic leadership principles over the past few weeks, some collisions might have occurred in your brain regarding other examples or definitions of leadership that we regularly encounter.  Part of the foundation of these principles comes from the pen of Ed O’Malley: “Kansas said a different type of leadership is necessary if we want to make more progress on our biggest challenges and opportunities.  The ideas in [the KLC Quick Guide] embody that leadership and come from intense listening across our state.  Today, thousands of Kansans are working to exercise the type of leadership described here.” 

One notion that you’ve maybe heard of is that of the “natural born leader.”  When we press a little further to define what we mean by that, the language we gravitate toward can often tend to be a charisma, twinkle-in-the-eye, or a willingness to step out and lead by example.  So, as you think about these 5 principles: 1) Leadership is an activity, not a position. 2) Anyone can lead, anytime, anywhere.  3) It starts with you and must engage others.  4) Your purpose must be clear.  5) It’s risky.  I might concede that there are certain traits within certain people that make them more willing to engage others in risky ways, but leadership is decidedly about making a conscious choice for yourself to be about the activity of mobilizing others to difficult work. 

Progress in our communities doesn’t happen as we all sit passively waiting for the next great natural born leader rise up and fix the daunting challenges we face.  No, progress happens as we individually choose to step into risk and engage others with a purpose (often higher than ourselves) so that progress is made little by little and our community is a better place. 

Today, then, step out and be the leader you’re capable of being.  With you…

Good morning, everyone.  We’ve been looking at the KLC Civic Leadership Principles:

1) Leadership is an activity, not a position.

2) Anyone can lead, anytime, anywhere.

3) It starts with you and must engage others.

4) Your purpose must be clear. 

And, today, we finish up with the 5^th principle: “It’s risky.”  I grew up loving the concept of the game Risk.  I was fascinated that the “older kids” could maneuver those wooden pieces around the board and seem to have so much fun.  There’s a risk to playing risk and achieving global domination. 

For those engaging in acts of leadership, we probably don’t need to be reminded that “It’s risky,” but it certainly is.  When we make a conscious choice to intervene (even if we’ve been effective at managing ourselves and diagnosing the situation), there is a risk involved.  That’s why, we’re encouraged to act experimentally or take a “smart risk” with our actions.  When it comes to deeply adaptive work, where neither the problem nor the solution of our adaptive problem is clear and there are many stakeholders involved, we should be very aware of the risk inherent to an act of leadership.

Deeper still, since leadership is risky, it calls for courage.  We can’t let the risk that goes along with acts of leadership paralyze us from this activity.  In this sense, this final point works well with the other principles we’ve seen.  Since leadership is activity done by anyone, anytime, anywhere and it begins with me and engages others out of a clear purpose, I can courageously step into this risky adventure and see what progress can be made, little by little, on the issues I care about so deeply. 

Today, then, will you resolve to remember that leadership is risky and courageously act to make progress for the good of our community?  With you to that end…

Good Morning.  Here’s a review of where we’ve been for the past 3 weeks:

We’ve been looking at the KLC Civic Leadership Principles:

1) Leadership is an activity, not a position.

2) Anyone can lead, anytime, anywhere.

3) It starts with you and must engage others.

Today, we move to principle #4: “Your purpose must be clear.”  Purpose should loom large in our acts of leadership.  One exercise that has helped some of us get after purpose is that “Why, Why, Why” exercise.  If you’re not familiar, we form a class into groups and encourage participants to think of an issue that they care about so deeply that they would be willing to give their time to be involved in it.  Then, we have them explain their purpose by digging deeper and asking “Why?”  What emerges is typically what is driving you to do what you do and often this purpose is shared between people with different issues they care about.  This simple exercise helps, then, to inspire a collective purpose, energizing others, as well as helping each individual hold on to purpose, which might make their interventions more skillful. 

As we think in this core principle, then, about how “our purpose must be clear,” we can begin to see that our engaging in acts of leadership—mobilizing people to difficult work—is helped by a clear purpose.  A clear purpose doesn’t mean our acts of leadership will be easy, but it does remove some of the fog off of the windshield of our journey.  A clear purpose helps everyone: it reminds us why we are doing what we’re doing and helps unite us with others so that progress can be made on issues we care about deeply.  

So, today, focus.  Have a clear purpose in what you do and see if it doesn’t affect our community for the better.

Have a great week…

Happy “Day-After-Super-Bowl”.  Hope everyone’s doing well.  We’re in a bit of a series on our Monday emails.  Here’s a quick review:

We’ve been looking at the KLC Civic Leadership Principles:

1) Leadership is an activity, not a position.

2) Anyone can lead, anytime, anywhere.

Today, I want to remind you of principle #3: “It starts with you and must engage others.”

Keeping in mind that leadership is “mobilizing people to difficult work” and authority is “providing comfort, order and direction” we can see that acts of leadership begin with us.  It starts with you, that is, acts of leadership begin with you making a conscious choice to engage.  It’s like flipping a switch.  It might be choosing to “raise the heat” over an uncomfortable issue or choosing to disengage when one of your triggers have been tripped.  But, leadership begins with you making a conscious choice. 

And, leadership engages others.  Leadership isn’t you climbing up on Pride Rock and roaring out orders for the masses (yes, another Disney film reference for those of you without small children).  Leadership involves others.  Typically, we “lead” by surrounding ourselves with people who will agree with us and proceeding accordingly.  But, leadership might mean we engage others by seeking out the unusual voices, strive to understand the factions on a dilemma or what people might lose if a direction is pursued.  Leadership engages others and this is what makes it such hard work.  It’d be easy if we just had to lead ourselves.  But throw others in the mix and things get a little complicated.

Today, then, remember that civic leadership “starts with you and must engage others.”  You can step out into acts of leadership and make a difference today.  So, what are you waiting for?

Last week, we looked at the first of the KLC Civic Leadership Principles and today we add another:

1) Leadership is an activity, not a position.

2) Anyone can lead, anytime, anywhere.

I think #2 is more than the KLC encouraging us to be equal opportunity employers.  Recognizing that anyone can lead, anytime, anywhere, helps us realize exactly what leadership is.  Remember, point 1 was that leadership is an activity, not a position.  It would naturally follow, then, that anyone can do this.  Leadership is more than a position or being in a position to flex one’s authority.  It seems like in the foggy recesses of my mind I have a definition of leadership emblazoned from Lynette and Kris: “Leadership is moving people to do difficult work.”  And, this takes more than just those in authority.  Leadership takes everyone.  We all have to make conscious choices to be leaders in situations that will produce lasting change.  Anyone can lead.

Oh, I guess I was reminded of 1 more thought, too.  Some of you may know I have 4 kids 6 and under.  So I get a regular diet of some of the, how do I say it?, cartoon part of television.  We love the Pixar movies and the premise of Ratatouille is that “anyone can cook.”  It is rather shocking that the heir apparent to the best chef was a rat.  But, anyone can cook.  Likewise, in our acts of leadership, anyone can lead.  It might be you, in a position where you don’t feel you have the authority to make a difference, yes, you, can lead.  Further, if you’re one of those in authority you must remember that you’re not the only person in your organization who can make a difference but anyone can lead.  You have leaders all around you.

Let’s remember this principle: “anyone can lead, anytime, anywhere” and see if by holding true to it, we don’t see progress made in those areas we care about the most.  

Today, I wanted to begin a few weeks of reminding you of the 5 leadership principles from the KLC found in their QuickStart Guide.

1) Leadership is an activity, not a position.

It took me a while to wrap my mind around this one, because many of us are taught that it’s about the position or that the one with the position determines the direction and other thoughts like this.  But, when we stop and think about this we know this to be true.  The best leaders aren’t necessarily those who run at the front of the pack.  They are the ones who are performing acts of leadership, not merely wearing a title.  This can be quite convicting for some of us who have titles of leadership.  We may have the position and the reality is that we may or may not be the best leaders IN our position.  And, it can be encouraging to those who may feel squished by a system where they don’t have the position.  Leadership is about acts of leadership being lived out, not merely having a title.

Wherever you find yourself today, look at your life.  Think about your functioning as a leader.  Is it your acts of leadership that make a difference or merely the authority you exert?  There is a huge difference between authority and leadership.  They can go together, but don’t blur the lines and make no mistake…leaders act.  So today, remember, leadership is about activity, not merely position.

Hope you have a great Monday and week.

Happy Monday.  Well, we are 14 days in to a New Year.  I continue to think about holding on to purpose, though, in both my personal priorities as well as with the organizations I’m involved with, so today I wanted to write something about purpose and values and saying “No.”  Some of you have probably learned this lesson long ago, but I’m one of those people who have a hard time saying “no” to things when I am given an opportunity.  But, as we think about holding to purpose, we see that purpose is all about maintaining focus on what you want to accomplish, staying grounded, keeping entwined to those things crucial for progress.  This inevitably means that we will have to choose among competing values.  We might have to evaluate between 2 equally good things.  Holding to purpose will free us say “no” to one so that we can give ourselves to saying (and living) “yes” to another. 

I need to learn this.  There are many things that call for my attention.  I have a full time job pastoring a church, 4 kids ages 6 and under. I chair a non-profit in our community, write and help with some facilitation for Leadership Reno County and volunteer as a WatchDog at Lincoln Elementary.   Holding to purpose is important as I try to juggle things that are important and meaningful to me.  (And I’m sure some of you are even busier than I am).  I say all this to say, purpose helps us navigate around those competing values and make some difficult choices at times.  Holding to purpose undoubtedly makes us effective leaders. 

Today, then, hold to purpose and, in so doing, choose among competing values.  Make those difficult choices to say “no” to good things at times and “yes” to those things that line up most clearly with your purpose.  And let’s see if we aren’t able to see progress in those purposeful areas of our lives and leadership.

Hello Everyone.  Welcome into a New Year.  As many of us are strategically thinking this time of year, I was privileged to be a part of 2 discussions and they both drew me back to the importance of purpose.  One was a meeting with the Leadership Reno County Advisory Board.  Lynette was presenting some details on the coming class and asked a gathering question, “What is the purpose of Leadership Reno County?”  Our discussion around this question really helped give us focus, and, specifically, encouraged us to dream about what we’d like to accomplish in the future.

My second discussion area was in the church work.  My leadership team was discussing the ins and outs of a particular decision and one of my leaders asked, “Well, what is the purpose of this?”  The light bulb went off in our collective heads as we realized that all our time in discussion would have been better served if we would have started with that question, because the discussion would have been a moot point.  A direction would have been clear if we agreed on purpose.    

So, purpose matters.  It serves a pragmatic purpose (as my examples show) but also keeps us on target and affects the decisions in the minutiae.  Time and again in life I see how important this is to unite people around purpose and chart direction accordingly. 

Let’s begin this new year, then, holding relentlessly to purpose and see if it doesn’t help foster progress in those issues we care about so deeply.