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LRC Email – You’re Needed

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Here’s the email I sent to Leadership Reno County Alumni on 6/3/13:

I recognize that many of you have plenty on your plate.  Having said that, though, I also realize that some of you are looking for the right opportunity in which to engage.  The Alumni Association was recently approached by the city for help in dealing with board vacancies.  Here’s the low-down:
The City has many advisory boards, commissions and committee, and we are constantly seeking out volunteers who can give the time to participate in their local government.  The City’s web link below provides access to a description of each board, a listing of current board members and upcoming vacancies, an Application for Board Appointment, an Applicant Bank form, and information about our appointment policies.  [They] respectfully request that [we] share the City’s web link with [you].
So, consider if this might be for you and follow up accordingly.  If we really believe that engaging in acts of leadership helps us make progress on our most daunting challenges, joining a board might be a way to engage in an act of leadership and pursue change, while seeking to work for the good of our community. 

With you in this…

LRC Email – Negatives Can Be Positives

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Here’s the email I wrote Leadership Reno County alums today:

We’ve been thinking this month about the temperature and raising the heat, using KLC’s Raising the Heat resource.  Today, the simple reminder I have gets at something we often fail to remember.  We tend to think of raising heat as negative and risky (and, at times, it is).  However, sometimes apparent negative things can actually be positive. 
Consider: WHAT ARE THE POSITIVE CONSEQUENCES OF RAISING THE HEAT?
■ You provide an example for others and create a culture that raises the heat when necessary.
■ The result is always better than you imagine. It’s always easier than you imagined, too.
■ It can reveal what is on people’s minds and put others things to rest.
■ It creates new energy and the opportunity for alliances.
■ It can catalyze self-discovery
So there are many benefits to be found in raising the heat.  What are you waiting for?

Have a great day…

LRC Email — LRCPlexVipr3D Radar

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Here’s the email I sent out to Leadership Reno County alums on 5/20/13:

Don’t you love those snazzy names that meteorologists have for their radar systems?  The subject line of this email is my attempt at coming up with something for our group.  We need some sort of radar that helps us in diagnosing the situation when raising the heat, or, as KLC’s Raise the Heat resource asks, “How do you know when to raise the heat?”
Some answers:
■ If you are the only one doing the work and things are going slowly.
■ When time pressures are requiring action.
■ When people are bringing “elephant in the room” type issues to your attention outside the main group meeting time.
■ When you aren’t feeling satisfied with the amount of progress.
■ If you aren’t doing any of the work.
■ When you feel burning questions inside of you that aren’t being addressed.
(It was noted that it may NOT be time to raise the heat when you have severely entrenched opposing views.)
So, again, as the weather warms, let it be a reminder to you that you may very well need to engage in an act of leadership and raise the heat.  And see if it doesn’t help us make progress on issues in our community we care about deeply.  To that end…

LRC Email – Hopin’ for a Heat Wave

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Here’s the email I wrote to leaders in Reno County this AM:

Yup, we’re back on the weather again.  While last week, I spoke of taking the temperature as a way to diagnose the situation, today, I want to encourage you to raise the heat.  Now, raising the heat affects things (even here in KS where we bemoan the cold weather and hope for warmer temperatures knowing that it will inevitably produce those tornadic May storm cells).  Raising the heat in our civic environs may be a risky adventure.  That’s why our raising of the heat must be purposeful and skillful.
Here’s one installment and simply a portion of the KLC’s Raise The Heat resource which gets at how we can raise the heat:
■ Use silence. Don’t jump in and answer the question for others. Let them do the work.
■ Allow more time. Tough issues will surface and progress will be made if you allocate enough time to let a group stew.
■ Grab the bull by the horns and declare a way forward after receiving input from others. Movement often raises the heat and gets people to engage more fully.
■ Lay out the consequences of inaction.
■ Define the roles of individuals and organizations, thus formally placing responsibility where it is needed most.
■ Use humor.
■ Provide an external reality check on the situation.
■ Identify the elephant in the room.
■ Ask open-ended questions.
So, as you consider how you might engage in an act of leadership by raising the heat, do it skillfully, purposefully and creatively so that we can make progress on those areas we care about deeply.
Hopin’ for a heat wave…

LRC Email – The Weather, Temperature and Reminders To Diagnose

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Here’s the email I sent out to leaders in Reno County:

It seems like every time I’m engaging in conversation with a casual acquaintance these days in Reno County, our dialogue turns to the weather.  Something like, “Will this winter ever end?” is offered as a talking point.  This caused my mind to jog to leadership competencies.  Most of us pay much closer attention to the physical weather than we do to the temperature of the leadership opportunities in which we are found.  When the weather is chilly, we’ll grab a jacket or sweatshirt to raise the heat.  When our situations seem to be cool, we wouldn’t think of raising the heat, because that might offend someone (or at the very least, we’re not willing to think of ways to skillfully intervene).  Today, I have a simple reminder: Take The Temperature.  This is part of diagnosing the situation. Taking the temperature might help us understand what’s happening and, in the end, help us make progress.   
A simple graphic on taking the temperature is found in KLC’s Pocket PlayBook: 
You can see that there are all kinds of ways of moving around this scale.  As we take the temperature, we get information that helps us step in to engage in an act of leadership (we’ll talk more about raising the heat next time).    
So, yes, the weather outside may be frightful.  But use it as a reminder to diagnose the situation by taking the temperature of your leadership opportunities and see if we aren’t able to make progress on the issues we care about deeply. 
With you in this amazing journey…

LRC Email – Once Upon A Time

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Here’s an email I wrote today to leaders in Reno County…

Howdy, Leadership Reno County People (sorry I was in TX last week)…
We’re all storytellers.  Whether it’s coming in from that long weekend to share our exciting exploits with others in the office or simply catching up with others by remembering when we did this or that, story looms large on the horizon of most of our lives. 
One of the contentions of the KLC curriculum is that to make progress on daunting issues, it requires that we act differently, that we engage in acts of leadership in different ways and this includes taking time to diagnose the situation.  The Quick Guide provides 2 questions that relate to story and help us come up with good diagnosis:
1) What’s our story about what’s going on here?
2) What story do we imagine others connected to our issue are telling?
Examining the story helps us diagnose the situation so that we can engage in acts of leadership in more skillful ways that propel us in the direction of progress.  Story matters.  So, next time you here someone sharing about “once upon a time” remember that dialing into this story might help you make progress on an issue that you care about. 
With you in the story of Reno County…

Leadership Email – Rotting Banana Peels

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Here’s the email I wrote to Leadership Reno County Alumni on Monday, 4/15:

At the church where I work, we have a gravel parking lot on the north side of the building.  For a few weeks (sad to say) I’ve watched the slow demise of a banana peel.  I know it’s a banana peel because of the bright Del Monte sticker on the side of it.  I’ve seen this peel on the sidewalk, then back on the gravel.  And, the thought has occurred to me, I wish someone would pick this thing up.  But part of me likes to watch this slow rot occur. 
I wonder how much of our civic leadership engagement is just like watching this banana peel.  We rest on those in positions of authority to fix things.  In this case, I’m waiting for those whose job it is to clean to get to this (rather that doing it myself).  We forget that anyone can lead, anytime, anywhere.  This is an opportunity for me to engage.  We forget that it starts with me and engages others.  Sure, what needs engagement here is a simple banana peel, but it does relate to me.  My purpose must be clear.  Why do I do this?  I want clean facilities.  Why? Because it helps the community?  Why is that important?  Because I want to make a difference in people’s lives.  Why?  (get the idea?).  It’s risky.  Ok, not too risky, but it will mean doing something different than I might.
Undoubtedly, the situations you engage in are much more significant than a miniscule banana peel (which I did go out and throw in the trash), but I hope this helps you see just how leadership unfolds.  Hope to see you Thursday.  

LRC Email – Waiting

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Here’s a portion of what I wrote leaders in Reno County on Monday, 4/8/13:

Now a quick thought on the practice of leadership.  As you know part of the conviction of the KLC curriculum is that leadership is an activity, not a position and anyone can lead, anytime, anywhere.  It starts with you, engages others purposefully and often is risky.  I’ve written a lot about this during these winter and spring months and I remind you of it again today to ask a simple question: what are you waiting for? 
I think many of us are way too timid.  We’re looking for someone to give us a green light that acts of leadership will be safe things to engage in and it will be alright.  But, engaging in acts of leadership is inherently risky.  If you’re looking for someone to give you a green light, then, more than likely, you may have lost sight of the fact that leadership is an activity, not a position.  So, what are you waiting for?  Engage others.  Step into acts of leadership and go after progress.  (And yes, the behaviors to exhibit are managing self, diagnosing the situation, intervening skillfully and engaging others.)  But, step into acts of leadership.  Don’t waste your time or influence.  Be about the work and actions of leadership today. 

Leadership Email – The Injury

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Here’s the email I wrote to Reno County Leadership Alumni on Monday, 4/1:

I don’t know if you caught any of yesterday’s Elite 8 action, but during the Louisville-Duke game, there was a graphic injury in the middle of the game that typically doesn’t happen in basketball.  Both teams were affected.  And, if you read headlines this AM, you know that Louisville ended up winning.  Some discussion this AM centered on how Louisville’s coach, Rick Pitino exercised leadership to help his team win.  I wondered in my mind how his leadership stacked up against KLC Leadership Principles, so here’s me making those connections.
1) Leadership is an activity, not a position.  This team didn’t win merely because they had a coach.  It wasn’t just because they had a coach that they were pushed in a direction to win.  Evidently, the coach wielded some sort of activity toward his team.
2) Anyone can lead, anytime, anywhere.  Again, it wasn’t up to the coach alone to say something to the team, but they did look to him as an authority.  Undoubtedly, this team had to pull together.  It wasn’t just one magic factor.  It was this coach and team’s players and staff choosing to lead during this time at this game.
3) It starts with you and must engage others.  All the players were visibly moved.  They had to get themselves under control (including the coach who was visibly moved) so that they could best serve those they were engaging in acts of leadership.
4) Your purpose must be clear.  It doesn’t take much to see that the halftime speech was purposeless.  It probably wasn’t something vague or ho-hum.  NO.  There was something spoken from the heart and it was clear that they were going to function differently.
5) It’s risky.  They could lose.  If the coach engages in leadership that doesn’t work, there will be critique and push back.  So it was very risky to step into acts of leadership in this situation and it appears to be a skillful intervention.
Undoubtedly, both coaches engaged in acts of leadership.  Part of the challenge yesterday was just getting back to playing.  But, I thought making some connections to this event might help us see how real to life these principles are.  I hope they find you on the ground floor this AM.  Step into acts of leadership and see if progress isn’t made in our community. 
Also, 2 reminders:
1) Don’t forget to vote tomorrow, April 2 (that’s today).
2) The Leadership Reno County Alumni Association invites you to KFSA (1515 E. 30th) on Thursday, April 18 from 5-7PM.  This will be a membership appreciation event as well as the Completion Ceremony for the 2013 Class.  (You might also like them on Facebook/LRCAlumni).
Have a great week.

Leadership Email – Trustworthy Processes

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Here’s my email to Leadership Reno County alumni on 3/18/13:

In a recent Leadership Reno County class, we asked them to “build a trustworthy process” and it got me thinking that this is something that might help more than just the class.  After all, under the competency of Energizing Others comes “create a trustworthy process.”  One question the KLC Quick Guide uses to get at this is: “What can we do to make the process more trustworthy for all involved?”  This dovetails very nicely with Diagnosing the Situation and its urging us to “understand the process challenges.”  Asking the question, “We’ve talked about the content of the problem but what processes need to be created to address it?”  So, there’s a lot to think about with this. 
First off, each situation and challenge we face has its own set of process challenges.  In our effort to quickly fix most of the problems we face with easy solutions, we can easily rush passed thinking about these things (this is part of the reason process is a diagnostic issue).  So, sometimes, more than merely fixing something, we need to think about what processes need to be put in place to address our challenge.  This might lead us to more effective diagnosis.
Also, trust is sometimes and elusive thing.  We’ve heard that trust has to be earned.  So, when we build a process that more effectively builds trust, it will have the effect of energizing others.  We must be careful to remember, though, that creating a trustworthy process will require learning, involve stakeholders, and involve us taking smart risks and so, creating a trustworthy process is an adaptive challenge itself.  Sure, authority can flex and help with the implementation.  But, the most effective (and thus most trustworthy) ones will be built from the ground up.  This will take energy and planning, but in the end might just help us make progress on those issues we care about so deeply.
So, think about creating processes, and trustworthy ones at that, and see if it doesn’t affect our community for the good.  Have a great week…