Where Have the Leaders Gone

Where have all the Leaders gone? There seems to be such a shortage today. Too often we are teaching our kids the exact opposite of what it takes to be a leader. Too often we see examples of our "leaders" on the national stage who lie, cheat, steal, and self-aggrandize to where that is the image leadership seems to be imprinted on our national conscience. That isn't being a leader, there are so few today that most Americans probably couldn't point one out in the crowd. Real leadership isn't always flashy, it is about hard choices made for the good of the people not for the good of the leader. We don't see much of that. I am thinking of a couple who are giving us signs that they may be. I look forward to watching them rise.

My first goal for this blog tonight was to give a quick overview of what a leader was, and then compare some well known figures from today and from the past. However giving the overview became longer than I planned, but I believe to have a substantive talk on leadership we must know what one is. We can continue this discussion another time on who and what. However, a teaser for future posts. I am FED UP, with the gross lack of leadership I see daily in business, in politics, in public. People we can do better, I am tired of watching people not stand up and lead when they are in position to. I am tired of people not showing character and integrity, no matter if it is in a local club, business, or politician, or even with those in the White House. I don't care if I agree with their ideology or not, I would respect them if they showed ANY integrity and character.

Tonight we are going to look at what it takes to be a leader. Later I will deal with those who are pretending, but not leading.

What is a leader? How can they be defined? How does one become one? One of the great teachers of Leadership skills today is John Maxwell.

Leadership is influence, however sociologists tell us that even the most introverted individual will influence ten thousand people during his or her lifetime. We never know who or how much we influence. Yet influence is a skill that can be developed. The three components of this triangle are communication, recognition, and influence. You start to communicate effectively. This leads to recognition and recognition in turn leads to influence.

There are four levels of leadership.

1. Position: This is the basic entry level of leadership. The only influence you have is your title. Your boss makes you a "manager" and your subordinates have to do what you tell them for fear of their jobs, however your influence is only as far as you can see them. Your only influence here is your authority over them. Those who stay at this level, and frankly most managers you meet do, get into things like territorial rights, protocol, tradition, and organizational charts. These things may not be negative, unless they become substitutes for leadership skills. Real leadership is being the person others will gladly and confidently follow. A real leader knows the difference between being the boss and being a leader, as illustrated below.

The boss drives his workers; the leader coaches them.
The boss depends upon authority; the leader on goodwill.
The boss inspires fear; the leader inspires enthusiasm.
The boss says "I"; the leader, "We."
The boss fixes the blame for the breakdown;the leader fixes the breakdown.
The boss knows how it is done; the leader shows how.
The boss says "go"; the leader says "let's go!"

These appointed positional leaders have more difficulty working with volunteers, white collar workers, and younger people.

I have often suggested to those who want to become leaders to get into volunteer organizations. I learned more leading volunteers running wrestling tournaments than nearly anything else I have done. It is wonderful experience leading those who simply do not have to listen to anything you say, you don't hold anything over them, not a paycheck, nothing. When you learn to lead a team that is having to work harder than they ever would at work, under more pressure, and as volunteers you will see what I mean.

2. Permission.

Fred Smith of FedEx says, "Leadership is getting people to work for you when they are not obligated." That will only happen when you climb to the second level of influence. People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. Leadership begins with the heart, not the head. It flourishes with a meaningful relationship, not more regulations. The leader who is on the "permission" level will lead by interrelationships. The agenda isn't the pecking order but people development.

On this level, time, energy, and focus are placed on the individuals needs and desires. People who are unable to build solid, lasting relationships will soon discover that they are unable to sustain long, effective leadership. Needless to say, you can love people without leading them, but you can't lead people without loving them. Relationships involve a process that provides the glue and much of the staying power for long-term, consistent production.

Please don't try to skip a level. The most often skipped level is #2, Permission. For example, a husband goes from level #1, position, a wedding day title, to level #3, Production. He becomes a great provider for the family, but in the process he neglects the essential relationships that hold the family together. The family disintegrates and so does the husband's business.

3. Production; On this level good things begin to happen. Profit increases, moral is high, turnover is low, needs are being met, goals realized. Accompanying this growth is momentum. Leading and influencing is fun, problems are being solved easily. Everyone is results-oriented, in fact results are the main reason for such great activity.

This is a major difference between levels 2 and 3. On the "relationship" level, people get together just to get together. There is no objective. On the results level people come to get together to accomplish something. They like to get together to get together, but they love to accomplish. In this level your team will follow you because things are happening, they believe in your vision and are starting to share it. They want to be a part of it, they are no longer following just because they have to, or even that they like you, they like themselves better as they are realizing goals and seeing success.

4. People Development; How do you spot a leader? They come in all shapes and sizes, and personalities. Here is a clue: Since some people are mediocre, the true leader can be recognized because somehow his people consistently demonstrate superior performances. A leader is great, not because of his or her power, but because of his or her ability to empower others. Success without a successor is failure. A worker's main responsibility is doing the work himself, a leader's main responsibility if developing others to do the work.

Loyalty to the leader reaches its highest peak when the follower has personally grown through the mentorship of the leader. At level 2, the follower loves the leader; at level 3, the follower admires the leader; at level 4, the follower is loyal to the leader. Why? You win people's hearts by helping them grow personally.

This is the level that most of us aspire to. This is where you are building new generations of leaders under you, replacing, duplicating, and improving on yourself with your team. The core of leaders who surround you should all be people you have personally touched or helped to develop in some way. When that happens, love and loyalty will be exhibited by those closest to you and by those who are touched by your key leaders.

Keep in mind that as you move up the levels of influence and leadership in a growing organization, you will always have people who see you in each of the levels. Those who are new may just see you from your title, others who have begun to get to know and like you who are in that relationship permission level, and those who are starting to see success through their association with you in the production level.

5. Personhood; this is a level few of us ever see. It is that rare air where you have developed legions of level four leaders who are leading their organizations, but still see you as their mentor and guide. Few of us are fortunate enough to know anyone here, I have been blessed to know one well, and have been through him, with a couple others for extended periods of time. These are people who leaders seek for guidance.

Some people who you will know who would fall into this category that are well known are from the sports world. One is John Wooden, another Dean Smith. Let's consider Dean Smith, not only was he a legend as a basketball coach, his legacy of great basketball coaches who learned their trade working under Smith is long and a whose who of the sport both in college and professional ball. These men still get together with Coach Smith once a year at a retreat to learn from him. None will make a move professionally without consulting him. His influence on the game is still powerful though he is personally retired.

The higher you go in the leadership scale, the higher the level of commitment you must give. There are times in leadership that are the loneliest and most heartbreaking you can imagine. There will be times when what you are doing, and where you are leading won't be initially understood. One of those level 5 leaders once told me, "Whenever you have to make a tough decision that one way favors you personally and the other way more your people, even if it is not good for you, always do what is in your people's best interest."

As a leader you must develop the ability to juggle three of four high priority projects successfully. Your people must always see you as consistent, your attitude must be predictable, positive, and inspiring. You don't have the luxury of being down. A leader can give up anything except final responsibility.

Ultimately the mark of a great leader is character. The secret to rising and not falling is integrity.

"In order to be a leader a man must have followers. And to have followers, a man must have their confidence. Hence, the supreme quality for a leader is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army, or in an office. If a man's associates find him guilty of being phony, if they find that he lacks forthright integrity, he will fail. His teachings and actions must square with each other. The first great need, therefore, is integrity and high purpose." Dwight Eisenhower.

"If my people understand me, I'll get their attention. If my people trust me, I'll get their action." Cavett Roberts
For a leader to have the authority to lead, he needs more than the title on his door. He has to have the trust of those who are following him.

"Every great institution is the lengthened shadow of a single man. His character determines the character of the organization." Emerson

"People's minds are changed through observation and not argument." Will Rogers.

Leaders must live by higher standards than their followers. this insight is exactly the opposite of ost people's thoughts concerning leadership. In a world of perks and privileges that accompany the climb to success, little thought is given to the responsibilities of the upward journey. Leaders can give up anything except responsibility, either for themselves or their organization. John D. Rockefeller, Jr, said, "I believe that every right implies a responsibility, every opportunity, and obligation; every possession, a duty."

"It is priceless to find a person who will take responsibility, who will finish and follow through to the final detail- to know when someone has accepted an assignment that it will be effectively, conscientiously completed. But when half-finished assignments keep coming back- to check on, to verify, o edit, to interrupt thought, and to take repeated attention- obviously someone has failed to follow the doctrine of completed work." Richard L. Evans

"Don't let yourself be victimized by the age you live in. It's not the times that will bring us down, any more than it' society. There's a tendency today to absolve individuals of moral responsibility and treat them as victims of social circumstance. You buy that and you pay with your soul. What limits people is character." Tony Robbins.

When the character of leaders is low, so are their standards. Image is what people think we are, Integrity is what we really are.

"The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he would never be found out." Thomas Macauley

Life is like a vice' at times it will squeeze us. At those moments of pressure, whatever is inside us will be found out. We cannot give what we do no have. Image promises much but produces little. Integrity never disappoints. We cannot lead anyone else further that we have been ourselves. Too many times we are so concerned about the product we try to shortcut the process. There are no shortcuts when integrity is involved. Eventually truth will always be exposed.

"People of integrity expect to be believed. They also know time will prove them right and are willing to wait."