Thursday, June 16, 2016

Carolynn Cameron, PhD Candidate 2017: Are Leaders Made or Born?



It seems an everlasting question about the origins of leadership; can anyone be made into a leader?  Is someone a leader or not, a condition anointed at birth?  I’ve spent my career working with leaders of all levels and capability levels seeking to understand the answer to these very questions.

To be clear, we’re talking about true leaders, big “L” leaders; those of whom most of us are in awe for their vision, ability to inspire others, do new and unprecedented things.  Those who succeed in making an indelible mark on their part of the world.  The world is mostly comprised of little “L” leaders who can lead departments and groups through variations of the status quo.  There is also a sizable number of little “L” leaders masquerading as big “L” leaders, sometimes causing harm but usually their self-delusion is benign to everyone except themselves.

What I’ve observed about big “L” leaders may sound trite or mitigated, but I think accurate.  Leaders are both made and born.  In other words, one cannot turn anyone into a leader, and a naturally born leader must have the benefit of certain experiences to allow their innate leadership attributes to flourish into something the rest of us can appreciate.  So what are these innate characteristics, and what are these critical experiences?

Again, my responses lead me to conclusions which are more ambiguous than I would like.  And the characteristics and experiences are inextricably linked. 

Leaders must have an internal desire to serve a purpose; they must desire to serve something larger than themselves.  They must also be exposed to a situation that inspires them to discover and articulate that purpose and then the drive to pursue it in the face of countless setbacks.  Leaders must also have a desire to learn, be curious and perpetually improve.   They must consequently have the benefit of education, coaches and mentors, and those who provide clear, honest and constructive feedback.  Leaders must be humble and invest themselves in the service of others.  True humility comes from love and so leaders must have had the opportunity to experience real, self-sacrificing love in any of their relationships.  So long as the person also has the ticket-to-entry level of intelligence, he or she will make their mark.

I’ve spent years of my life and tens of millions of dollars trying to turn people into leaders.  The sad discovery has been that in any group I’m privileged to work with, there are only 1 or 2 with all the natural prerequisites.  My job became simply providing the experiences to help their capabilities emerge, and by consequence help improve the little “L” leadership of all the others.  And how can you tell who’s who?  The little “L” leaders became easily identified as they sooner or later migrate to the sidelines, discouraged and worn out by the prevailing headwinds but comforted by the legions of little “L” sideline cohabitants.    The big “L” leaders by contrast forge on, oblivious to naysayers and frustrated by the legions of comfort-seeking little ”L” leaders, racing only against themselves, for themselves.
 

Tuesday, June 14, 2016

Jodi Berg, PhD Candidate, 2017: Don’t Lose Sight of Your Personal Purpose


If you are considering joining the DM program, or already fully entrenched - and questioning your sanity - don’t lose sight of the personal purpose that brought you here in the first place. This personal purpose may very give you the focus and energy you need to see it through to the end.

I joined the DM program because I had a very specific purpose – a practical problem that I wanted to solve. I, like many other leaders around the world, was seeking ways to focus, energize, and retain good employees. We were told to increase the levels of engagement and commitment because employees experiencing greater levels of engagement perform better than companies whose employees are not as engaged (Macey & Schneider, 2008), and commitment has been tied to retention (Boyatzis et al., 2012; Cardador et al., 2011; Mowday, 1979;). Clearly engagement and commitment are important; yet according to the 2015 Gallup Poll (Adkins, 2015), less than 33% of the US workforce feel engaged with their work and even more distressing is that the percentage has not moved very much in 12 years (Beck & Harter, 2014). Recognizing that engagement and commitment positively impact performance and retention apparently is not enough. This part I knew. What I did not know was what to do about it. (Some people would seek the answer by reading a book. Not us. We want to not only find the answer, but understand how to find it so we can tackle other equally challenging questions down the road.)

It was clear to me that cracking the code to positively influencing engagement and commitment would require identifying tangible things that we, as leaders, could wrap our arms around. Two and a half years later, my research led me to three tools that I can say with confidence will move the dial on engagement, commitment and even better - life satisfaction:  1) helping employees develop a personal purpose, 2) tapping into a higher purpose for the organization and 3) building a culture in which relationships that support sharing these visions are encouraged and supported.

I (yeah me – how cool is that) was able to empirically demonstrate that having and sharing a company higher purpose positively impacts the level of an employee’s workplace engagement and organizational commitment. What is even more exciting is that when an employee has a personal purpose - their level of engagement and commitment to the organization are even higher AND they experience a sense of life satisfaction that does not come from a company higher purpose.

Having a personal purpose is powerful! You are considering, or have embarked on, this journey because you have a personal purpose. Don’t lose sight of this purpose, in fact, hang on to it. It will give you the wind beneath your wings necessary to persevere through this program and to ultimately explore, discover and demonstrate a truth that will lay a foundation for others to build upon.

References

Adkins, A. 2015. Majority of U.S. employees not engaged despite gains in 2014. Gallup, January 28. Retrieved from http://www.gallup.com/poll/181289/majority-employees-not-engaged-despite-gains-2014.aspx.

Beck, R., & Harter, J. 2014. Why good managers are so rare. Harvard Business Review, (March). Retrieved from http://blogs.hbr.org/2014/03/why-good-managers-are-so-rare

Boyatzis, R. E., Smith, M. L., & Beveridge,  A. J. 2012. Coaching with compassion: Inspiring health, well-being, and development in organizations. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 49(2): 153–178.

Cardador, M. T., Dane, E., & Pratt, M. G. 2011. Linking calling orientations to organizational attachment via organizational instrumentality. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 79: 367–378.

Mowday, R. T., Steers, R. M., & Porter, L. W. 1979. The measurement of organizational commitment. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 14(2): 224–247.