I’m going to skip blogs for Chapters 4 and 5 and add them a bit later. In this blog I’d like to summarize yesterday’s discussion of Chapter 6.
It was great to hear all your opinions and examples on the subject matters presented. I especially enjoyed learing of your fear battling techniques and our discussion on whether its a crippler or a motivator. I have also enjoyed very much hearing about how having an ambition creates all esle to follow and fall into place. The toughest question yesterday was of course, a discussion of full self-expression, which is an essential elelement of becoming a leader according to Benis. Many of you expressed great ideas on what it means for you to fully self express. For your future reference, I’m pasting in here the document I’ve prepared for the class discussion and hopefully you can come back to the “wizdom” of these quotes in your near future and find them usefull:
- Reflection leading to resolution
- Resolution leading to perspective
- Perspective leading to point of view
- Point of view leading to tests and measures
- Tests and measures leading to desire
- Desire leading to mastery
- Mastery leading to strategic thinking
- Strategic thinking leading to full self-expression
- The synthesis of full self-expression = leadership
QUESTIONS
- What were some big fears you’ve had and how did you overcome them?
- Fear for most leaders, is less a crippler than a motivator. Why do you think it is so?
- Give an example to prove that having an ambition will have all other things fall in place?
- Why do you think that knowing where you end up is important?
- What is your definition of full self-expression?
- Give an example of you taking a leadership role and others following you. What did you do to make that happen?
REFLECTION
“Freud: analysis is to make unconscious conscious”
“We are more shaped by negative experiences than positive.” Why?
“We remember lapses, rather than triumphs”
“Work your depression out by starting the day of thinking of ten things that bring pleasure”
“When you’re down, think of the things you have to look forward to”
“Mistakes contain potent lessons, but only if we think them through calmly, see where we went wrong, mentally revise what we’re doing, and then act on the reservations”
“Most of us are paralyzed by our failures” True?
“Just as writers turn experiences from their lives into novels and plays, we can each transform our experiences into grist for our mill”
“Too much intellectualizing tends to paralyze us”
“To do anything well requires knowing what it is that you’re doing, and you can only know what you’re really doing by making the process conscious – reflecting on yourself, reflecting on the task, and coming to a resolution”
“There are two kinds of truth, small truth and great truth. You can recognize a small truth because its opposite is a falsehood. The opposite of a great truth is another truth”
PERSPECTIVE
“Leaders don’t necessarily have to invent ideas, but they have to be able to put them in context and perspective”
- When you consider a new project, do you think firs of its cost or its benefits?
Profit higher than progress = short term perspective - Do you rank profit or progress first?
- Would you rather be rich or famous?
Famous rather than rich = more ambitious - If offered a promotion that required you to move to another city, would you discuss it with your family before accepting it?
If discussing before accepting = more humane, than ambitious - Would you rather be a small fish in a big pond, or a big fish in a small pond?
Big fish in a small pond = may lack the drive
“Perspective is your frame of reference, without it you’re flying blind”
“If you know what you think and what you want, you have a very real advantage”
“Everyone who wants to express him- or herself fully and truly must have a point of view”
TESTS AND MEASURES
“Have ambitions in terms of the way you want to live your life, and then the other things will flow out of that.”
“Expressing yourself fully is the most basic human drive”
How to best express you? Tests:
- “Knowing what you want, knowing your abilities and capacities, and recognizing the difference between the two.”
- “Knowing what drives you, knowing what gives you satisfaction, and knowing the difference between the two.”
- “Knowing what your values and priorities are, knowing what the values and priorities of your organization are, and measuring the difference between the two.”
- “Having measured the differences between what you want and what you’re able to do, and between what drives you and what satisfies you, and between what your values are and what the organization’s values are – are you able and willing to overcome those differences?”
“Whatever it is you want to do, you shouldn’t let fear get in your way. Fear for most leaders, is less a crippler than a motivator”
“The greatest opportunity for growth lies in overcoming things you’re afraid of.”
DESIRE
“The difference between desire and drive as the difference between expressing yourself and proving yourself”
“If you hold your ground and make your conviction known, people will come around.”
MASTERY
- Competence
- Ability to articulate
- Level of human sensitivity, tact, compassion and diplomacy
“The path of master is built on unrelenting practice, but’s also a place of adventure”
“If you love something and want to make it happen, you can convince other people to go along with you”
“If you had a good idea yesterday, its going to be a good idea tomorrow, an just because you haven’t convinced anyone to go with it today doesn’t mean you won’t convince someone to go with it tomorrow”
STRATEGIC THINKING
“Unless you’re the lead dog, the scenery never changes.”
Steps:
- Know where you’re going to end up”
“Mountain climbers don’t start climbing from the bottom of the mountain. The look at where they want to go and work backward” - Flesh out those routes, elaborate them, revise them, make a kind of map of them, complete with possible pitfalls and traps as well as rewards
- Examine this map objectively, as if you were not its maker, locate all its soft spots, and eliminate them or change them.
“Develop a corporate planning system in which planning and management were synonymous”
SYNTHESIS
“Leaders differ from others in their constant appetite for knowledge and experience, and as their worlds widen and become more complex, so too do their means of understanding.”
“How you attract and motivate people determines how successful you’ll be as a leader.”
“Leadership without mutual trust is contradiction in terms.”
“Vision, inspiration, empathy, trustworthiness are manifestations of a leader’s judg
