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Leadership Development
by Marcia L. Conner

I was given my first official leadership position at nineteen when I lead a wilderness education program in Ontario Canada with a group of incoming college students. That experience taught me that much of leadership comes from within each of us when we have the courage to lead ourselves. Since then, and through many more official and unofficial leadership opportunities, my personal approach to leaderships has been to create a space where people to learn together, laugh together, and experiment with new ways of working together. My approach to leadership development focuses neither on changing people or training them, rather to help them find new skills and set free their natural leadership qualities.

In my leadership development workshops I ask people to begin by reflecting on what leadership means to them and what they may want to do differently to be more effective (or polish up, or unlearn). We do this because it's tough to talk anything without first considering what we already know about the subject, and asking ourselves if we have room to grow what we know.

Key topics: New Approaches to Leadership, Understanding Yourself and Understand Others, Dancing with Decisions and Success, Work/Life Integration, Creating Energy Networks, Speak Up, Speak Out!, Organizational Design, Specific to Women in Leadership, Favorite Content Sources

New Approaches to Leadership

The dictionaries, literature, and even practice offer two conflicting modern definitions of leadership. One is to get and guide followers. The other is to have influence. That is the one I'm more apt to use because it includes self-leadership, the way we work as human beings, sometimes with other people, sometimes on our own.

Ask yourself, "What makes a leader?" and "What is leadership?" Also, what are the roles of influence and inspiration, identifying and realizing our potential, and listening and caring about other people's values, attitudes, beliefs, experiences, and expectations? All relate to leadership.

Here are my favorite reading materials to help people think about leadership in different ways. First I list articles (some you can read online now, others you'll need to purchase or get from your local library in order to read) and then books for purchase. Recent additions are marked (new).

Articles

"Level 5 Leadership: The Triumph of Humility and Fierce Resolve" by James C. Collins. Harvard Business Review, January 2001. What catapults a company from good to truly great? A five-year research project searched for the answer to that question, and its discoveries ought to change the way we think about leadership. The most powerfully transformative executives possess a paradoxical mixture of personal humility and professional will. They are timid and ferocious. Shy and fearless. They are rare and unstoppable. Download the free discussion guide as well as a shorted version of this article and a few key exhibits (Level 5 Hierarchy, The Yin and Yang of Level 5, One Question, Five Years, Eleven Companies, Not by Level 5 Alone)

Leadership is a matter of how to be, not how to do. We spend most of our lives mastering how to do things, but in the end it is the quality and character of the individual that distinguishes the great leaders.

Leaders succeed through the efforts of their people. The basic task of the leader is to build a highly motivated, highly productive workforce. That means moving across the boundaries both within and outside the organization, investing in people and resources, and exemplifying personal commitment to the common task.

Leaders build bridges. The boundaries between sectors, between organizations, between employees, and between customers and other stakeholders are blurring. The challenge for leaders is to build a cohesive community within and outside the organization, to invest in relationships, and to communicate a vision that speaks to a richly diverse workforce and marketplace.

Leaders today have to be healers and unifiers. They accept responsibility for what lies outside the walls as well as within. True leaders at every level of the organization understand that a deteriorating, fragmented community is not going to provide the kind of engaged, energetic, high performance workforce that competition—and their own mission and goals—demand.

"A Star to Steer By" by Frances Hesselbein. Leader to Leader's inaugural issue, Summer 1996

"Carry a Big Basket" by Frances Hesselbein. Leader to Leader, #24 Spring 2002. The former head of the Girl Scouts of America and now executive director of the Leader to Leader Institute (formerly, the Drucker Foundation) introduces here approach to learning from any leadership development effort and to gain wisdom from every leadership experience. She encourages us to "carry a big basket to bring something home."

"Good to Great" by Jim Collins. Fast Company Issue 51, October 2001. Start with 1,435 good companies. Examine their performance over 40 years. Find the 11 companies that became great. Now, here's how you can do it too.

"Why Should Anyone Be Led by You?" by Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones. Harvard Business Review, September/October 2000. After an exhaustive review of the most influential theories on leadership the authors learned that great leaders share four unexpected qualities: 1) They selectively reveal their weaknesses; 2) They rely heavily on intuition to gauge the appropriate timing and course of their actions; 3) They manage employees with "tough empathy"; and 4) They capitalize on their differences.

"Natural Leader" by Cheryl Dahle. Fast Company Issue 41, December 2000. Rayona Sharpnack is a teacher and a mentor to some of the most powerful women in some of the most important companies around. Her message: Don't worry so much about what you need to know. Instead, figure out who you need to be.

"Aligning Actions and Values" by James C. Collins. Leader to Leader, Summer 1996. Executives spend too much time drafting, wordsmithing, and redrafting vision statements, mission statements, values statements, purpose statements, aspiration statements, and so on. They spend nowhere near enough time trying to align their organizations with the values and visions already in place.

"How to be a Real Leader" by Polly LaBarre. Fast Company Issue 24, May 1999. Kevin Cashman advises leaders "To be more effective with others, we first need to become more effective with ourselves."

"Dare to Dream" by Carol Sturman. Leader to Leader, Winter 2002. Exhilaration comes from working for an organization where employees take initiative to head off customer and product issues before they become problems, people work together rather than against one another, and the majority contribute wholeheartedly each and every day.

"When Complex Systems Fail: New Roles for Leaders" by Margaret Wheatley. Leader to Leader, Winter 1999.

"Leadership That Gets Results" by Daniel Goleman. Harvard Business Review, March/April 2000. Effective leadership still eludes many people and organizations. Drawing on research of more than 3,000 executives, this article explores which precise leadership behaviors yield positive results. He outlines six distinct leadership styles, each one springing from different components of emotional intelligence.

"Goodbye, Command and Control" by Margaret Wheatley. Leader to Leader, Summer 1997.

"Everyday Leaders: The Power of Difference" by Debra Meyerson. Leader to Leader, Winter 2002.

Books

The very highest leader is barely known by men.

Then comes the leader they know and love.

Then the leader they fear.

Then the leader they despise.

The leader who does not trust enough will not be trusted.

When actions are performed without unnecessary speech the people say, "We did it ourselves."

—Lao Tsu

On Becoming a Leader by Warren Bennis (1994). THE classic.

Nobody in Charge: Essays on the Future of Leadership by Harlan Cleveland (Jossey-Bass, 2002). This book brings together a lifetime of essays on personal leadership and organization written by an incredible man who weaves his special interest in education through the themes of every chapter.

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't by James C. Collins (HarperBusiness, 2001)

On Becoming a Servant-Leader by Robert K. Greenleaf. 1996. Servant leadership is a practical philosophy that replaces traditional autocratic leadership with a holistic, ethical approach. It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first and to make sure that other people's highest priority needs are being served. The best test is: Do those served grow as persons, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants? Also see Focus on Leadership: Servant Leadership for the 21st Century by Robert K. Greenleaf.

First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman

The Cycle of Leadership: How Great Leaders Teach Their Companies to Win by Noel M. Tichy and Nancy Cardwell (HarperBusiness, 2002) The Leadership Engine (by Noel M. Tichy, rereleased by HarperBusiness in 2002) is also very good. Both books make the argument that "To advance the cycle of leadership, everyone in an organization needs to adopt a teachable point of view, where everyone learns and everyone teaches."

Primal Leadership: Realizing the Power of Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman, Annie McKee, and Richard E. Boyatzis (Harvard Business School Press, 2002)

Mastering Self Leadership: Empowering Yourself for Personal Excellence (2nd edition) by Charles C. Manz, Christopher Neck

Leader of the Future: New Visions, Strategies, and Practices for the Next Era from the Drucker Foundation, Hardcover 1996 (Paperback 1997)

The Charismatic Leaders: Behind the Mystique of Exceptional Leadership by Jay A. Conger (NJ: Jossey-Bass, 1989)

The 21 Irrefutable Laws Of Leadership by John C. Maxwell

Leading the Revolution: How to Thrive in Turbulent Times by Making Innovation a Way of Life by Gary Hamel (Cambridge: Harvard Business School Press, 2000)

Leadership from the Inside Out by Kevin Cashman (Executive Excellence Publishing, 1999) "As much as we try to separate the leader from the person, the two are totally inseparable. Unfortunately, many people tend to split off the 'act of leadership' from the person. We tend to view leadership as an external event. We see it only as something people do."

What makes a leader and what is leadership? Additional topics include the role of influence and inspiration, identifying and realizing our potential, and listening and caring about other people's values, attitudes, beliefs, experiences, and expectations.

Understanding Yourself and Understand Others

How can we expect to bring out the best in others if we can't even find the best in ourselves? Another key to effective leadership is understand yourself. Also, the role of self-assessment and adjustment, new ways to resolve conflict and making decisions, and a personalized approach to workgroups and teams

Assessments

You might want to learn more about yourself by completing a learning styles and motivation styles assessment, or learning more about other types of assessments.

Articles

"When They Look at Us, Can They Find Themselves?" by Frances Hesselbein. Leader to Leader #11, Winter 1999. Are we grooming people today for tomorrow's leadership positions? Are there new faces in the pipeline? And in the position descriptions of all those who direct the work of others, is there a clearly stated accountability for building the richly diverse organization we require? When we assess our performance we ought to look not just at people currently employed and engaged, we examine those still making their way into our orbit, as prospective leaders, customers, donors, contributors, or partners.

"Boooorrriinng!!!" by Harriet Rubin. Fast Company Issue 35. That's exactly what Philippe Gaulier teaches leaders not to be. He uses theatrical techniques in order to help would-be leaders find their inner clowns.

Making Differences Matter: A New Paradigm for Managing Diversity by David R. Thomas and Robin J. Ely. Harvard Business Review, Sept 1996. Read a preview. v74 n5 p79 (12)

"The Abrasive Personality" by Harry Levinson. Harvard Business Review, May-June 1978. Learn more from the Levinson Institute. Sometimes personalities prevent otherwise capable leaders from getting very far. A profile of the problem personality reveals a generally intelligent, analytical, hard worker who exhibits impatience with others and reluctance to delegate assignments.

"The Five Most Powerful Ways to Annoy Others" by Harriet Rubin. Fast Company Issue 68.

Books

Level Three Leadership: Getting Below the Surface by James G. Clawson (Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1999) Also see Jim's course on the same subject.

Now, Discover Your Strengths by Marcus Buckingham and Donald Clifton (Free Press, 2001). This books helps you focus on enhancing people’s strengths rather than eliminating their weaknesses and offers a self-assessment to help identify your own strengths so you can use them to the your own advantage and in the organizations where you work.

Jack Welch's Operating Principles

1. Control your destiny or someone else will.

2. Face reality as it is, not as it was or as you wish it were.

3. Be candid with everyone.

4. Don't manage, lead.

5. Change before you have to.

6. If you don't have a competitive advantage, don't compete.

Dancing with Decisions and Success

Completion and action, and the decisions that lead up to them are fundamental to leadership and helping one another succeed.

Articles

"Turning Goals into Results: The Power of Catalytic Mechanisms" by James C. Collins. Harvard Business Review, July/August 1999. How to convert a big, hairy, audacious goal into concrete reality. You can also read a text-only version of this article online.

Strategy as Revolution. Harvard Business Review.

The Smart-Talk Trap by Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert I. Sutton. Harvard Business Review, May 1999.

Books

The Knowing-Doing Gap: How Smart Companies are Turning Knowledge Into Action by Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert I. Sutton (Harvard Business School Press, 2000). This book describes the discrepancy between understanding something and taking action on it, largely caused by fear, and profiles successful companies that overcome them.

Failing Forward: How to Make the Most of Your Mistakes by John C. Maxwell (Thomas Nelson, 2000). This book offers inspirational advice for turning life's difficulties into stepping stones. It also offers examples from people who persevered after encountering adversity, learning from the failures instead of letting the mistakes derailed them.

Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan

Accountability by Rob Lebow, Randy Spitzer. Fabulous!

Work/Life Integration

None of us can effectively lead ourselves, let alone others, when we're living a out-of-balance life, facing workaholism or professional neglect. I frequently ask the questions: What is the role of trust and discipline in our lives? How do we find and keep balance? And is there a women's leadership style?

For a far longer list of resources visit my balance pages on marciaconner.com

Thomas Jefferson's Ten Rules for Life

1. Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today.
2. Never trouble another for what you can do for yourself.
3. Never spend your money before you have earned it.
4. Never buy what you don't want because it's cheap.
5. Pride costs more than hunger, thirst, and cold.
6. We seldom repent of having eaten too little.
7. Nothing is troublesome that we do willingly.
8. How much pain the evils have cost us that never happened.
9. Take things always by the smooth handle.
10. When angry, count 10 before you speak; if you're very angry, count 100.

Articles

"Sleep is the New Status Symbol for Successful Entrepreneurs" by Nancy Jeffrey. The Wall Street Journal, April 1, 1999.

Books

Balanced Life and Leadership Excellence by Madan Birla (Balance Group, 1997). Birla tells how he has gained balance and taught leadership even while working at often stressful FedEx. He has a wonderful writing style and a terrific book.

Lifebalance: How to Simplify and Bring Harmony to Everyday Life—Balancing Work with Family, Balancing Structure With Spontaneity, Balancing Achievements With Relationships. Linda Eyre and Richard Eyre (Fireside, 1997) In sharp contrast to the slew of books available that urges you to make the most of every moment of your day, this book espousing an approach to living that emphasizes balance between personal and professional demands. This is one of my very favorite books and one that does a terrific job of helping you create a schedule right for you.

First Things First: To Live, to Love, to Learn, to Leave a Legacy by A. Roger Merrill, Rebecca R. Merrill, and Stephen R. Covey (Fireside, reprint 1996). This was the first book I read on goal-setting, and even though I have read many since it’s the one I always come back to.

Creating Energy Networks

There seems to be something that draws us together, pushes apart, and fuels our interest in continuing on with whatever we do. A growing number of people are beginning to believe that that quality is energy. Energy helps us learn together, foster connections, and become resilient.

Organizing Genius: The Secrets of Creative Collaboration by Warren G. Bennis and Patricia Ward Biederman (Perseus, 1998). This compelling and well-organized book, provides wonderful examples of how people work together to create something extraordinary.

Speak Up, Speak Out!

Institutional Barriers to Leadership

Hierarchical structures that restrict, constrict, box people in.

Corporate cultures that encourage mediocrity and reward playing it safe.

Corporate cultures and practices that kill the messenger.

Racism and sexism unacknowledged and unaddressed.

Fuzzy lines of accountability.

Lack of sharp differentiation between governance and management, and between policy and operations, with no clearly defined roles and responsibilities.

No mentoring plan for promising staff members.

Bottom-line mentality; not seeing people as the company's greatest asset.

Failing to build, now, a richly diverse, pluralistic organization that includes diversity on the board of directors and top management teams.

Not walking the talk; a leadership team whose behavior doesn't match its message.

Static staffing structures, with no job rotation, or job expansion.

Lack of a formal, articulated plan for succession.

—Frances Hesselbein, Leader to Leader #3, Winter 1997

In a recent program, one of the leaders in the group said she believed a core quality of leadership was the willingness and ability to speak up and to speak out. I agree completely. Looking for tips for communicating effectively?

Articles

Jim Clawson, at the Darden School, has written several terrific notes about leadership communication. I'm especially impressed with "E-Prime Language" (UVA-OB-0722) and Ten Tips for Effective Leadership Communication: Rules of the "Dance" (UVA-OB-684).

"Good Communication that Blocks Learning" by Chris Argyris. Harvard Business Review, July/August 1994.

"The Art of Listening" by Frances Hesselbein. Leader to Leader #29, Summer 2003. When it’s obvious we’re not being heard, it’s time to listen, time to deliver the message a different way. Listening is the essential element of effective leadership.

"The Power to Talk: Who Gets Heard and Why" by Deborah Tannen. Harvard Business Review, Sept/Oct 1995.

"The Power of Civility" by Frances Hesselbein. Leader to Leader #5, Summer 1997. Real etiquette is not about mindless or archaic ritual; it is about the quality and character of who we are. Spirit, motivation, respect, and appreciation win every time.

Books

Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In by Roger Fisher and William Ury (Penguin Paperback, 1991). A must read for all managers.

Gung Ho! Turn on the People in Any Organization by Kenneth H. Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles. A beautiful, compelling story with a wonderful message.

The Way of Council by Jack Zimmerman and Virginia Coyle (Bramble Books, 1997).

Organizational Design

What of the organizational forms leaders work in? I usually write about that separately, but here are few good resources to get you started.

Books

Maverick: The Success Story Behind the World's Most Unusual Workplace by Ricardo Semler (Warner Books, reprint 1995)

Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies by Jim Collins and Jerry I. Porras (HarperBusiness re-release, 2002)

Leading at the Edge of Chaos: How to Create the Nimble Organization by Daryl R. Conner (John Wiley & Sons, 1998)

Specific to Women Leaders

Is there a difference between the way men and women lead? Are there special considerations and issues surrounding leaders who are women? Here are a few perspectives and resource.

Articles

Ways Women Lead by Judy Rosenheim. Harvard Business Review, November 1990.

Books

Girls and Young Women Leading the Way: 20 True Stories about Leadership. Frances A. Karnes and Suzanne M. Bean (Minneapolis: Free Spirit Publishing, 1993)

Favorite Content Sources

Curious where I look for terrific materials? These are some of my favorite sites for leadership reading.

Across the Board Magazine from The Conference Board

Fast Company Magazine

Leader to Leader is the publication of the Leader to Leader Institute, formerly the Drucker Institute

The Robert K. Greenleaf Center for Servant-Leadership

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If you are interested in referencing this page in a report or article, the citation should read:

Conner, M. L. "Leadership Development." Ageless Learner, 1997-2006. http://agelesslearner.com/intros/leaderdev.html