Power of 3 Leadership Paradigm

by Steven E. Mays | Mar 12, 2019

Leadership is not defined by personality or style. It is defined by actions. It is defined by what leaders DO! What leaders DO causes others to willingly follow their direction to accomplish a goal. Nevertheless, many leadership texts deal primarily with personality and style.

If leadership is defined by style, then how did so many great leaders arise with so many different personalities and styles? Was General Patton similar in style and personality to Gandhi? Did Winston Churchill and Dr. Martin Luther King share those traits? Was Nelson Mandela a lot like General MacArthur? Obviously not. So, what is it about leaders that make others want to follow them?

To answer that question, it is necessary to look beyond personality and style to see what it is that all these leaders DO. After a career in military, civilian, and government service I wondered what it was that the leaders I respected and admired did that “leaders” I wanted avoid at all costs didn’t do. When I finally looked at things the good leaders did and bad leaders did not do, I composed the Power of 3 Leadership Paradigm to help others who want a career of leadership to be more successful and have a tool to assist them through the challenges they would inevitably face. Below is a pictorial representation of that concept.

There are three areas a leader must master to become effective. These are the foundation, challenges, and achievement. Each is important and each depends on the strength of the previous one to assure success in the subsequent areas as one moves up the paradigm from bottom to top.

Foundation

Anything being built requires a foundation. This is equally true with a leadership career as a building. All the great buildings you know have a strong foundation and all the leaders you admire and respect have one too. The Power of 3 Leadership foundation is composed of three parts – honesty, courage, and talent. Without them, catastrophic failure is assured.

Honesty is the ability to see the world and your situation in that world THE WAY THAT IT IS. Not the way you WANT it be, not the way you think it SHOULD be, not the way that you think it COULD be if things were different. The way that it is. Scott Peck in his book “The Road Less Traveled” describe a map that every person has that represents how they see the world and their place in it. A leader must nurture their map and share it with others in order that they may learn from the leader’s map and the leader can learn from their maps. You must know where you are before you can figure out how to get to where you want to be.

Courage consists of three things – the ability to overcome fear, acting to benefit others, and the willingness to do so without regard to the cost to oneself. Everyone can think in terms of a soldier diving on a grenade in combat to preserve the lives of comrades. However, courage is shown in many ways without the necessity for forfeiting a life. All it takes is for a leader to practice it, observe it in others, and praise it in public to activate this powerful foundational tool in themselves and others.

Talent is a self-evident requirement. Every great leader started out being good at something whether that was playing a sport, running a business operation, creating a political movement, or some other field of endeavor. Talent is composed of three things – knowledge, skill, and perseverance. People forget that Michael Jordan didn’t make the varsity basketball team as a freshman despite his knowledge and skill. He never let the lack of perseverance limit him again.

Of these, three talent is the least important. If you examine failures in leadership in your own experience or others, you will seldom find a case where lack of talent is the primary cause. It should not be surprising given that we focus so much energy on talent development in formal education and training, but comparatively little on honesty and courage.

Challenges

There are three types of challenges every leader must deal with. These are unmet expectations, ethical conflicts, and despair. Each involves creating an environment where these challenges can be overcome for the team to move forward to the next level – achievement.

Unmet expectations are the most common problem leaders face. However, it is relatively simple problem with which to deal. When an expectation is missed, there are only three possible reasons – someone didn’t know WHAT to do, someone didn’t know HOW to do it, or someone didn’t WANNA do it. The trick is to realize that the leader is responsible for WHAT and HOW, the follower is responsible for WANNA. Unless the leader fixes any issues with WHAT or HOW, it is unlikely that the expectation will be met. The resources, material, training, practice, and time allowed must align for the follower to be able to accomplish the HOW part. If they are not, it is up to the leader to fix it or change the expectation to match the circumstances that exist (see honesty discussion earlier).

Ethical conflicts arise from a requirement to do something that clashes with the fundamental ethical core of a follower. The degree of the conflict will depend on the nature of the clash. When ethical issues arise, everyone suffers and bears the scars of the occasion regardless of the outcome. There are three potential ways to deal with these conflicts and each has a down side. The means of dealing with conflict are – fix it, accept it, or leave it. It is up to the leader and each individual to decide which path they can attempt/tolerate. The serenity prayer comes into play in these cases. “God grant me the courage to change the things I can, the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

One other option exists. Don’t fix it, don’t accept it, and don’t leave it. Just stick around and bitch about it. Everyone knows a person like this in their jobs at some point. They are a cancer to the organization and a cancer to themselves. The only viable option for cancer is excision.

The last challenge for leaders is to DRIVE DESPAIR OUT. Despair is the opposite of love. The opposite of love is not hate, it is despair. Love is a deeply felt emotion that compels action toward others for their benefit. Despair is a deeply felt emotion that PREVENTS action toward others. It is the shutdown button on your soul. You cannot lead in despair and your followers cannot follow when they are in despair. The leader must drive despair out of themselves as well as their followers to succeed.

Achievement

Once the foundation is strong and the challenges met, the leader gets the chance to achieve. There are three things the leader must do to achieve. These are included in the acronym AID. A is for assist. I is for inspire. D is for depend.

The primary job of a leader is to assist others to succeed. If the leader could do everything themselves, there would be no need to assist. But leaders exist specifically because they CANNOT do it all. Assisting others is the path to magnifying the impact of the leader’s competence so others can achieve more than the leader alone.

Leaders must inspire their followers. This takes two forms – aspirational and confirmational inspirations. Aspirational inspiration derives from followers understanding how important the overall goal is and how important their success is to attain that goal. Conformational inspiration comes from recognition of success along the way to the overall goal. Leaders must not wait to the end to recognize the successes along the way.

Depending on others is a natural consequence of having followers. If the leader could do everything, there would be no need for followers. However, it is human nature not to accept blame for failure and it is human nature to like acclaim for successes. The leader gets both whether the leader is directly responsible for the outcome or not. This is a harsh truth that leaders must accept. The exceptional leader only accepts credit on behalf of the team that achieved the goal. Also, the exceptional leader accepts the blame for failure and resolves to fix the failure and perform better in the future without blaming the followers.

Many thanks to Steven E. Mays as guest author of today’s blog post:
Steven E. Mays
SEM Consulting, LLC
Website: powerof3leadership.com
Email: semcon@comcast.net
Amazon: http://ow.ly/wDQb30nJVll

Leadership

by Fred Stuvek Jr. | Mar 5, 2019

Leadership is a hot topic. Go to any bookstore, podcast, or business-related platform and this topic is prominently featured. Leadership is both an art and a science, often times begging the question of whether leaders or born or made? The answer is simple, but the journey is complex as leadership is a more of a developed skill than something you are born with. If it was simply something you were born with, any further discussion of this subject would be pointless, although some people are born with traits or characteristics that predispose them to become leaders.

One of the best training grounds for leadership is the military. Leading a military unit is a complicated and rigorous process, with a range of tools needed to be effective, and the need to adapt, sometime very quickly, as events unfold. The experience and training you receive in the military is transferable to other sectors, and many of our former Presidents and great leaders had the origins of their leadership in the military. This does not by any means imply that someone who does not have military experience cannot be an effective leader. I am simply pointing out that the military embodies the very ideals and practices that are effective in other arenas as you are leading a diverse group of people in a cohesive and effective manner to accomplish a specific mission, which in essence is what one does in the business environment.

Leaders can be grouped into two categories, transactional leaders and transformational leaders. The transactional leader is more focused on the day to day business to ensure things are done properly and effectively. The transformational leader devotes more time to establishing a vision and generating initiatives which support this vision. There is a need for both.

There are also various leadership styles, with each one having its merits and drawbacks. There is no one size fits all. A good leader must be able to recognize which style is best as different circumstances require different approaches. Moreover, the leader must also understand which styles work best for him or her given their personality and skill set.

If you are interested in developing your leadership skills it is eminently doable as long as you are open-minded, listen, accept feedback, and continually look on ways to improve. However, remember “if serving is beneath you, then leadership is beyond you”.

How to Overcome Adversity

by Fred Stuvek Jr. | Feb 26, 2019

When adversity strikes your mindset is your primary weapon. How you react, how you respond, and what you do determines your ability to effectively cope with and overcome these inevitable challenges. There is a process that will enable you to more effectively deal with adversity, and if you do the following, your prospects are increased immeasurably.

Accept – What’s done is done. You can’t change what happened, time travel is not possible. You can learn from the experience, but for now focus on finding solutions instead of finding excuses. Accept responsibility instead of casting blame.

Get the Facts – Before any action is taken ensure you get as complete an understanding as possible as to what went wrong and why it went wrong. Making decisions on inaccurate information will only compound the problem. Ask questions instead of making assumptions. Do not shoot messengers and be open to feedback.

Maintain Your Composure – Project confidence and a calm demeanor regardless of the circumstances. Do not lose sight of what you are about and your values. Set the tone by reinforcing your commitment and belief in the cause. A confident demeanor and a positive attitude, even without a solution at hand, will instill confidence in those around you.

Take Action – Once you have all the facts, or as much information as possible, and have considered the options, develop a plan. Involve team members in the development of this plan to ensure greater buy-in. Create a roadmap with objectives and timelines, ensuring clear lines of responsibility.

Assess and Learn – Closely monitor the progress towards the objectives, making course adjustments as required. Pay attention to the mindset and health of team members understanding some people do not handle adversity as well as others. As you claw your way back take note of what went wrong and have measures in place to ensure history is not repeated.

When faced with adversity find the inner strength to be courageous and resilient. Bear in mind you have choices and be fiercely determined to find a way or make one to get through your current crisis. Afterwards, you will take satisfaction in the fact that you were able to successfully get through this crisis and be better prepared when adversity comes knocking again.

Resilience

by Fred Stuvek Jr. | Feb 19, 2019

Resiliency is the ability to cope and adapt when faced with adversity. When people who are resilient are faced with adversity or dire circumstances, they maintain their composure, have the psychological strength to deal with stress, and the skillsets required to cope and recover. Another phrase you may have heard is that someone “bounces back”. Those without resiliency become overly emotional, lose their composure, and have difficulty functioning. Those individuals who are not resilient often times portray themselves as the victim since they see events unfolding which conspire against them and feel powerless to do anything.

As with anything else, resiliency is a learned behavior and comprises a number of factors. If someone is cognizant of their shortcomings there is a process and actions which can be taken which will cultivate resiliency. This does not mean you will not experience the associated emotional pain or grief which accompany such events, but it does mean you will be able to navigate through the storm and eventually reach calmer seas. To do this keep the following points in mind during your travail.

Manage Your Expectations – Don’t set yourself up by expecting things to always go smoothly. Be an optimist, but also be a realist. Understand that setbacks happen and sometimes things don’t go the way you had hoped they would or had planned.

Positive Mindset – Maintain your composure. Do not view yourself as a victim of circumstances or view this as an insurmountable problem. Do not further exacerbate things by blowing this out of proportion in your mind. Focus on the issues at hand exhibiting a can-do attitude, vowing to find a way or make one.

Maintain Perspective – Consider the situation in the proper context. Understand this is a short-term issue that in the longer term will be valuable learning experience. Focus on past experiences where you have successfully overcome similar issues, drawing strength from the fact that you responded effectively then, and will do so now.

Take Action – Do not sit there and wait for something to happen, make something happen. Do not avoid the issue, it won’t go away by trying to manage it. Confront the issue head on and take decisive action.

Rely on Your Network – Relying on your relationships, either personal or professional, will help you weather the occurrence. Just as a cohesive military unit is stronger, taking strength from each other, you should do the same.