The New Mandate for Today’s Leaders

The Armed Forces War College uses the acronym VUCA to described the world today. That stands for Volatility, Uncertainty, Change, and Ambiguity. Ron Holifield, my guest on this episode and the president of Strategic Government Resources, argues that this state of affairs has brought on a new set of expectations for leaders.

People, he says, are looking for leaders who communicate a sense of clarity, confidence, and certitude. Unlike workers 40 years ago, who tended to accept what leadership said at face value, today’s workers are more skeptical, more likely to question leadership decisions. They want to assure themselves that the leader is trustworthy, competent, and authentic.

Authenticity means that the leader has a clear and well-defined set of values and that the leader lives consistently with these values. People, more than perhaps ever before, want leaders to authenticate themselves by walking their talk. According to Ron, a discussion of values is the one topic which creates the greatest resonance in his in his workshops at present.

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Making Good Use of the Shutdown

The pandemic shutdown has been particularly disruptive for owners of small or medium-sized businesses. Rather than merely hunkering down and waiting out the economic downturn, men and women who are heading and leading smaller businesses should see the opportunity in the moment.

What are these opportunities? To answer that question, I turned to Bob McKinnon, host of RealLeadershipPodcast.com and a veteran expert in the leadership of small and medium-sized businesses.

Bob talks about the importance of using this lull in economic activity to retool your business in terms of your vision, your company strengths, and what he calls your “unfair competitive advantage.”

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Emotional Well-Being When Leading in Times of Uncertainty

If any one word describes the American landscape at the present moment, it’s “uncertainty.” The national shutdown over the corona virus pandemic has left leaders everywhere facing uncertain futures for their people and their organization.

The pressures of leading in times of uncertainty can take a toll on the emotional well-being of any leader. In this episode I share five lessons which I learned from one of my earliest leadership roles. In that role, I had to cope with unbroken uncertainty for four years.

The lessons which I carried away from this experience were:

1. Keep faith in yourself
2. Trust your instincts
3. Avoid needless delays in decisions
4. Be transparent about your struggle with difficult decisions
5. Hold to your standards

A PDF copy of this episode can be downloaded at https://www.leaderperfect.com/podcast.

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Crisis Leadership in the Face of the Corona Pandemic

The corona virus pandemic calls for exceptional leadership both globally and at every level of society. This is by no means the worst crisis mankind has faced. But it is no doubt the most extensive.

Great leaders emerge in times of great crisis, especially prolonged ones. In such moments these leaders have historically pursued five time-proven principles:

1. Stay visible as a role model to your people.
2. Find ways to give your people a sense of hope.
3. Be realistic in sharing your assessments, but never lapsing into pessimism.
4. Respect the feelings which your people need to process in adjusting to the crisis.
5. Spell out specific, concrete actions which people should take in pushing back against the crisis.

This episode expands on these principles with practical examples of how great leaders draw on them. A PDF transcript of this episode is available for download at https://www.leaderperfect.com/podcast.

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How Non-Profit Leadership Differs

In many ways, leading a non-profit is more challenging than leadership in the for-profit realm. Because non-profits are so dependent on volunteer workers, the leader must have exceptional skills in engaging people and motivating them.

To accomplish this motivational task, non-profit leaders must be able to draw people to their organization by articulating a distinct and clear sense of purpose. And they must bring this same clarity to the process of fund-raising. While the ability to promote vision and engage workers is important to for-profit leadership, it’s absolutely essential for non-profit leaders.

In this episode, I interview Richard Baggett about lessons which he has learned in four decades of successful non-profit leadership. We discuss topics ranging from enunciating vision to marketing to fund-raising to attracting volunteers to board relations.

In recent years, he points out, corporations have begun to invest in social causes which were once the sole province of churches and non-profits. This corporate involvement adds to the number of voices urging the public to support good causes. To build appeal for their own cause, non-profit leaders — now more than ever — must be able to clearly define what sets their organization apart and to communicate their vision compellingly.

A transcript of this podcast can be downloaded at https://www.leaderperfect.com/podcast.

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Leadership Development Done the BNSF Way

Shortly after the turn of the century, under the leadership of CEO Matt Rose, BNSF Railway initiated a comprehensive leadership development program. Among other things, it provided exceptional mentoring experiences for emerging leaders across the company.

At the heart of this effort was what BNSF calls its Leadership Model. The model centers on five principles:

1. Lead More, Manage Less
2. Cast a Compelling Vision
3. Communicate, Communicate, Communicate
4. Model the Way
5. Develop Your People

Over the past two decades BNSF has expanded and enhanced the elements of its leadership development system. But the Leadership Model remains at the core of the system. Leaders in any organization would profit from embracing the model’s five principles.

This podcast examines these principles and how they interrelate. It also looks at how BNSF implemented the Leadership Model so that it became embedded in the corporate culture.

A transcript of the podcast is available at https://www.leaderperfect.com/podcast.

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What Values Actually Steer Your Corporate Culture?

A basic tenet of leadership is to define the primary values which should guide your organization. These are the values which we espouse. But are they necessarily the values the organization embodies?

What’s often the case is that an organization has a set of espoused values which are posted prominently and listed in employee handbooks. But the values which actually guide the organization are altogether different.

One way to identify this alternative set of values is to pay attention to the people who are celebrated as heroes within the corporate culture. What values were behind the actions which led them to be seen as heroes? Those are in fact the values the organization treasures.

And new workers, seeing incongruity between the organization’s espoused values and the values it celebrates, will conclude that the celebrated values are the ones they should heed.

You can download a transcript of this episode by clicking on the link to Download Scripts at https://www.leaderperfect.com/podcast.

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The High-Performance Molecule for Team-Building

For leaders who want to develop a high-performing team, here’s a template to work from. I call the template the High-Performance Molecule, because my graphic representation of it resembles a molecule.

I structure this molecule around five essentials for any team which wants to perform at an exceptional level. If one or more of these elements is weak or ignored, the team may still be able to function reasonably well. But it will never attain high performance.teams.

A link to download a transcript of this episode can be found at https:www.leaderperfect.com/podcast.

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Do You Want a High-Performing Team?

Andrew Carnegie once described teamwork as “the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results.” As a manager or leader, your own success is either limited or expanded by the performance of your team. It therefore behooves you to build a team which is uncompromising in its commitment to high performance.

But what does high performance mean, exactly? The team has to make that decision for itself. Your first step in building a high-performing team is to gain team on how it will measure high performance. Here are some thoughts to keep in mind as you guide your team in that process. A printed transcript of this episode is available by following the download link at https://www.leaderperfect.com/podcast.

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How Satisfied Are Your Workers with their Second Paycheck?

Studies have repeatedly shown that intrinsic motivations, not extrinsic ones, are the longest lasting in their impact. With an appropriate intrinsic paycheck, people often stay with an organization long after they have concluded that their extrinsic paycheck — salary, bonuses, benefits, etc. — is too small.

This episode looks at five intrinsic rewards which determine how motivated people will be to stay with your organization. These rewards have to do with why a person has chosen to be part of your organization rather than some others. If they are not finding satisfaction for that “why,” they are already on a path toward disengagement or departure.

A transcript of this episode is available at https://www.leaderperfect.com/podcast.

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