Let it Go and Let it Flow.

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Posted on February 7, 2012 by Chess

When Leaders let go, magic flows and people grow.

There’s not a person that I know, including myself, who couldn’t stand a little softening around the edges or wouldn’t benefit greatly from a bit of letting go.

Think about your friends, family and co-workers. I’d wager that when you consider how they might be a bit more graceful in the world, you most likely see where they might soften an edge, ease a tightness, loosen a clenched grip or let go of some need to control.

Of course, this applies to you too, you being human after all.

And if you’re in a leadership position, then the areas where you hold on the most fervently might very well be inhibiting the growth and potential of those you lead.

Consider this…
The main reason people leave their jobs is not because of pay.
It is because of the way that they are managed and led.

Ask any employee and the majority will tell you that leaders who are willing to be vulnerable are seen as strong and trustworthy. Leaders who have an over-active need to control are less trusted, less respected and viewed as more fearful leaders. And people are more willing to follow and strive for a leader they trust and respect.

If Dr. Suess were to chime in he might put it this way…

“Oh, the places you’ll go
when you’re willing to let go.”

One all too common misgiving I hear from people working within organizations is that they don’t feel respected, appreciated or trusted by the leaders for whom they work. Typically this is indicative of a leadership style that pushes hard or effective and efficient end results at the expense of building a strong sense of morale, confidence, responsibility, enjoyment and synergy within the culture.

You can have it all if you remember that…
You are ALWAYS building your team.

No matter what else you are focusing on, you are ALWAYS building your team. Always. Either you are endeavoring to build a culture that feels trusted, respected and celebrated, or you are not. And if you aren’t, then your team simply will not remain in tact, let alone grow, strengthen and unify.

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Leadership from the Mountaintop Perspective

Posted on February 22, 2012 by Chess

The Courageous Leader’s most critical role is ensuring that those they lead are having the most courageous conversations possible.

One of the core guiding principles of courageous leadership is that you are always evolving the team. No matter what problems you are trying to solve or goals you are attempting to reach, there is ALWAYS a parallel agenda of building, strengthening and supporting a highly productive and creative team culture.

Confident leaders don’t concern themselves with being the smartest person in the room, just the most present and attentive.

It is not the leader’s primary function to generate the best ideas. A leader’s most important role is to create the culture and environment where courageous conversations, daring ideas, ingenious collaborations, healthy conflicts and bold actions can take root, grow and thrive.

I’ve been facilitating team and leadership development programs now for almost 30 years. And in that work I have guided thousands of teams through experiential activities where they get to work together to generate solutions to problems. It is exceptionally rare that I come across a team that will purposefully choose a leader to hold themselves somewhat apart from the “problem solving” aspect of the activity and instead take on the role of creating and maintaining an environment within which the team can do their best work.

It is the quality of the conversations being held that has the most influence over the quality and creativity of the results.

Consider the leader to be akin to the conductor of an orchestra. Without the conductor the performance of the even the most dedicated and passionate of symphony musicians just wouldn’t be as brilliant. It is the quantity of music they play or how loudly or even how passionately. It is the grace, synergy, attentiveness and fluidity with which they crete their music that makes the difference. And that ability to be graceful is held and supported by the leader.

The leader holds the Mountaintop Perspective.

It is often a good idea to have the lead on a project be the person who’s nose isn’t buried in the details. This allows the leader to keep an mountaintop perspective on how the team is working together and how the progress being made is aligning with the overall objective while others dive into the gritty details of the project.

Teams typically mistakenly think that the person with the best idea about how to solve a problem or the most creative thinker should be the leader of a project. Then when that person get’s so focused on the task and swimming in the details the team is left without a leader who can truly see the big picture. Don’t shackle your most creative thinkers with the need to be both in it all and above it all at the same time.

Hold space for Courageous Conversations and results you never imagined will pleasantly surprise you.

Poet and philosopher, David Whyte speaks to the idea that rather than focusing solely on finding solutions and making the changes that you think need to happen, it is far more powerful to create the opportunity to have the most courageous conversations you can have.

When we focus not so much on finding solutions but instead focus primarily on creating the conditions where courageous conversations can occur, then solutions that we might never have imagined will instead find us.

This is a practice that takes the discipline of a truly courageous leader. A faith needs to be employed here. A faith in your team and a faith in what can reveal itself when you let people interact at a deeper level of intimacy and courage.

The additional benefit to this concept, beyond yielding more imaginative ideas, is that your team feels the faith that you have placed in them. They rise to the challenge with courage, accountability, responsibility and the ability to handle the most difficult of encounters. They grow, evolve and become stronger individuals and a stronger team. Bonus! You achieve outrageous results while simultaneously strengthening your team.

Leaders ask questions that other can’t see to ask.

When everyone else is deeply invested in the task, the leader is the one who who’s paying more attention to the process. She is the one who steps back and listens and observes. She is the one who can “feel” how the team is progressing and how effectively they are working together. When she does this, she can see very clearly what questions need to be asked to keep the team in alignment with their greatest strengths and abilities.

“You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers.
You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions.”
~ Egyptian Author, Naguib Mahfouz

Critical questions might include:

Has everyone had an opportunity to contribute?

Did you all hear what Joe just said? It is a critical point he makes.

Are we asking the right questions?

Have we explored enough ideas or are we chasing the first idea that sounded plausible?

Make a plan (And then ask more questions)

ALWAYS ask – Is everyone clear what our plan is?

Is everyone clear what their role is?

Set clear actions with clear timelines.

What are the exact actions that need to be taken to implement our plan or ideas?

Who is taking lead on these actions?

When can the team expect this action to be completed?

What will that action step actually look like?

Core Actions:

Create time and opportunity for the right people to collaborate.

This won’t always happen on it’s own within a time pressured environment.

Hold meetings in a space conducive to open dialogue and creative expression.

Consider lighting, windows, temperature, privacy, open space, tools for capturing the outcomes of the creative process.

No matter how small the task or scope of the meeting, choose a leader to facilitate the process. Some call this a process monitor, but this is more important than that. You are choosing someone who is going to LEAD you through the journey of your meeting.

Educate your team in the art of engaging in healthy conflict.

Educate your team in the art of innovative collaboration.

Ensure that your team really knows each other and has developed a powerful sense of Team Viscosity.

Guide your team rather than control your team. Let go and let the magic flow.

These are just a few initial guidelines and considerations for the Courageous Leader. There is a lot more to explore. The well is deep and the opportunities are profoundly rich when leaders can keep an eye on the big picture while others relish in the engaging details of making the magic happen.

Chess Edwards and his team at True North Alliance are ready to support you and your teams as you achieve the highest levels of Courageous Leadership and deliver Outrageous Results!

The Reciprocity of Right Action

Posted on February 15, 2012 by Chess

~ Building Courageous Communities

“Be generous & prolific in your own self care and acts of courage. Those who your heroic choices inspire today, might well be your own inspiration tomorrow.”

The communities in which we live and work are the communities that we help build, create and evolve through our own actions and deeds. If we choose actions and behaviors which are inspiring, healthy and courageous then those qualities will be reflected in the world around us. Choose wisely and you will find yourself surrounded by healthy, courageous and inspired people who will be there when you need them most. It is a self sustaining and self promulgating course of positive action that inspires more positive action.

“The world around us is nothing more and nothing less than a reflection of what we have become from within.
We must become the very things that we choose to experience in life.”
~ Gregg Braden – The Science of Miracles.

Whether it be our work communities or those of our friends and family, it is important that we contribute to them mightily, abundantly and consciously because it is within our communities that we do the vast majority of our living, loving, dreaming, creating and evolving.

To truly be of service to our communities, it is important to consider not only how we act toward others, how we communicate and even what we think, but to what degree we take care of ourselves and make healthy lifestyle choices.

How we act toward ourselves
is as important as
how we act toward others.
Self care is a powerfully selfless act.

In our various roles as a leaders, parents, siblings, sons, daughters, friends, co-workers, etc… we make a tremendous difference when we make healthy life affirming choices that are reflected in our daily practices, commitments and regimens.

Those close to us are paying attention and when they witness us making heroic and challenging choices and commitments, they do reflect upon their own choices.

Your courage of self care is a gift for others.

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Succeed, Explore, Discover, Repeat.

Posted on February 10, 2012 by Chess

Examining your wins and applying the lessons learned is a winning success strategy all too rarely practiced in time-stressed organizations.

Most organizations I work with have learned to take the time to examine the particular circumstances that contribute to failure or significant problems. This is often called a ‘Post Mortem.’ It’s a great idea and companies that don’t learn from their mistakes in a systematic way often make the same or similar mistakes again and again.

But here is the real game changer….

Don’t just celebrate your successes;
Study your successes and let your discoveries lead to more big wins to come.

Standard business models have taught us to learn from our mistakes. Unfortunately we’re not so well trained in taking the time to explore the often subtle details behind our big wins.

The Big Idea here is to bring the same care, diligence and systematic exploration and discovery to your successes!!!

Time is not inherently the enemy. It only becomes so if we don’t use it well.

“We don’t have the time to……”

Sound familiar? That’s the story we tell ourselves as we rush in an often reckless drive right past tremendous opportunities that can ultimately save us this very same precious time. But time is just time. Our power lies in how we choose to use it. We either stop and take the time to learn from our successes and then apply the lessons to our benefit, or we don’t.

How do we apply this winning strategy?

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Team Viscosity

Posted on January 11, 2012 by Chess

The true depth of connection between team members is an invisible quality that is only seen when it is reflected in the actions of the team under the most challenging of circumstances.

Don’t look up ‘Viscosity’ in the dictionary if you want a good description of highly effective teams. I don’t assume you want your team to be “gooey.” And yet I can’t imagine any other term that so effectively describes that “stuff” that flows throughout a highly cohesive team and keeps them smoothly humming along under the greatest of stress.

What is that mysterious quality that truly connects team members, lubricates difficult situations and keeps friction from building to a point where parts and systems begin to break down? I call it Viscosity. It’s not quite invisible. And yet it’s also not a team component that’s easily held up for examination. It tends to slip through the fingers of those trying to mold it into an easily recognizable and tangible shape that can be examined, probed, prodded and dissected for clear and perfect understanding.

It is the truly ineffable. And yet, as my colleague Jeff Salz states, it’s the only thing that really eff-ing matters.

Sound travels four times faster through water than it does through air. Why? Density. Information (sound waves) are passed from one particle to the next in an efficient manner. It’s a successful handoff. The more dense and compressed the water is between two objects, the easier it is for sound waves to be handed off from one particle to the next. Each particle or molecule acts as a connector – a series of links that bind the whole together.

Fill the space between your team members with these small bridges of connection. Space, devoid of connective material, between team members creates a wilderness where effective communication can easily dissipate.

Things that are in any way connected respond to each other’s subtle changes and communications with a more nimble grace than those that are separated by vapid space. People are the same way. We respond more effectively to those with whom we feel a connection than to those about whom we know little or nothing.

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