On Leading Well

Category: Leadership

  • Blogference 2008: Lead Change by Bridging The Gap

    Yes, you’re at the right place. Welcome to the Blogference on Leading Change.

    Each day several of us will be posting entries on some aspect of leading change. You’re invited to read, reflect, and respond. I hope this will serve as a great exposure to other thinkers and their ideas about living well and leading well.

    On this blog we’ll explore this idea: Lead Change by Bridging the Knowing-Doing Gap.

    What is the Knowing-Doing Gap? It’s a very dangerous place. If left unexplored it can grow into a black hole of fear, pride, and traditionalism. Worst of all – nothing grows there. Jesus described the gap this way:

    Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat, so practice and observe whatever they tell you—but not what they do. For they preach, but do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger. They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi by others. (Matthew 23:1-7, ESV)

    What does this have to do with leading change in an organization? Well, everything. An organization is simply a group of people who work together toward a common end. It can be as small as a family or as large as a sprawling multinational corporation. As members of an organization, it’s easy for us to wait for someone else to change first. We say things like “If only the leadership – they – would do this or change that, then I could….” This type of thinking creates passivity. Desirable change occurs each time a person in that organization chooses to act in accordance with what they know is right.

    Leadership is initiative. Leadership is character in action.

    This concept is captured well in some recent ads by Liberty Mutual.

    The first requirement for leading change is to model the Way. Jesus, without question the greatest organizational change agent who ever lived, knew that. So it comes as no surprise that James Kouzes and Barry Posner, co-authors of The Leadership Challenge, list Modeling The Way as the starting point for exemplary leadership. (BTW: If you don’t have that book on your shelf, you’re missing out on one of the best books published in the last 1,000 years on leadership.)

    Lesson for change agents: Start here. Lead change by modeling the way.

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  • Know Your People

    Last night I witnessed some excellent old-fashioned leadership at Timber Creek High School’s Awards Night. Following the opening fanfare, principal John Wright rose to introduce the “Leaders of the Pack.” Out of a graduating senior class of 1,000 and a high shool with an enrollment of 4,500, these 16 or so Timber Creek Wolves were selected from among the top 70 recommended by faculty as leaders among their peers.

    Travis and I both gawked in amazement. Mr. Wright introduced each student by name, then added personal remarks such as “Tim Gooldy, dual-sport athlete in soccer and lacrosse, also a member of such and such clubs and the National Honor Society, and….” Why were we amazed? Because the man had no notes in front of him. He knew these students.

    People today long to be known. Whether Wolves or sheep or people, servant leaders know well the state of their flock. Way to go, John Wright!

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  • Four Powerful Words

    OK, now that we’ve explored the implications of digital screens, I want to reflect on some profound analog concepts. Freedom, liberty, personal responsibility, sacrifice, loyalty, honor and unity come to mind.

    Last week our family used spring break to visit Washington D.C., our nation’s capitol. During our decade overseas, we visited many of the great seats of government throughout Asia and Europe, but we’d never seen the home court. Wow!

    If you ever want a dazzling multimedia experience, I suggest standing in the cavernous memorial to Abraham Lincoln among a silent crowd and slowly digesting the words of Abe’s Gettysburg Address and his Second Inaugural Address. You can read them online, or you can read them under the massive statue, covered by the roof with the names of the States of the preserved union, looking down at the Capital across the reflecting pool, the Washington Monument, and two full miles of the West Mall. In contrast, the Korean War Veterans Memorial only highlights four words: Freedom Is Not Free. It will take your breath away as you gratitude wells up from a deep place inside. Ditto the WWII and Vietnam Memorials. This is hallowed ground.

    The sense of respect and honor grows as we visit Arlington Cemetery (310,000 servicemen and women are buried there, marked with a simple white cross), the tomb of the Unknown Soldier (inscription: “Here rests in honored glory an American Soldier known but to God”) and the JFK eternal flame. And so my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country. Fellow citizens of the world, ask not what America will do for you, but what we together can do for the freedom of man.

    As we moved from place to place, from museum to museum, and out into the colorful parkways lined with pink and white cherry blossoms in full bloom, the deafening drumbeats of ceaseless scoffing and endless criticism of the United States by the media somehow faded away. Live blues flowing from the Cherry Blossom festival certainly contributed. I could picture George Washington and a few close friends sitting on the back porch of his Mount Vernon estate, overlooking the Potomac River, dreaming of a country that would be so radically different from the despotic self-serving governments the world had known to date. I found myself believing that George’s personal assessment of the United States still rings true today:

    That the Government, though not absolutely perfect, is one of the best in the world, I have little doubt. – George Washington

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