Chapter 15
Determining Your Leadership Point of View
All right, you’ve heard from us. Throughout this book, we have essentially shared with you our leadership point of view—our thoughts about leading and motivating people. Our leadership point of view is based on a belief that to create a great organization, leaders have to make sure everyone’s aiming at the right target and vision. They need to make sure everyone is treating both their customers and their people right. As leaders, they need to focus on serving, not being served.
Now it’s your turn.
The goal of this chapter is to help you develop your own leadership point of view. Not only will this help you clarify your thoughts on leadership, it will also prepare you to teach your leadership point of view to others.
Why is developing a clear leadership point of view important? Ken Blanchard was sold on this idea after reading Noel Tichy’s book The Leadership Engine and talking with Noel while they were doing consulting work with Yum! Brands. Noel’s extensive research has shown that effective leaders have a clear, teachable leadership point of view and are willing to share it with and teach it to others, particularly the people they work with.1
This realization so impacted Ken that he and his wife, Margie, created a course called “Communicating Your Leadership Point of View” as part of the Master of Science in Executive Leadership (MSEL) program jointly offered by The Ken Blanchard Companies and the College of Business at the University of San Diego. As we have said, effective leadership is a journey beginning with self leadership, moving to one-on-one leadership, then team leadership, and ending with organizational leadership. This course is the final focus of the self leadership portion of the degree program. The course culminates in all of the students making presentations to the class that embody their leadership points of view. The students deliver their leadership points of view as though they are talking to those who report to them in their organizational leadership positions.
If you can teach people your leadership point of view, they will not only have the benefit of understanding where you’re coming from, but they’ll also be clear on what you expect from them and what they can expect from you. They may also begin to solidify their own thinking about leadership so that they can teach others, too. Tichy feels strongly that learning, teaching, and leading are intricately intertwined and therefore should be considered inherent parts of everyone’s job description. Why everyone’s? Because, as we emphasized in the preceding chapter, we are all leaders in some part of our lives.
Elements of a Leadership Point of View
In determining your leadership point of view, you should be guided by the following questions:
1. Who are the influencers (key people) in your life who have had a positive (or, in some cases, negative) impact on your life, such as parents, teachers, coaches, mentors, or bosses, and what did you learn from these people about leadership?
2. What key events in your life have had an impact on how you lead others? Think back to events and turning points during your childhood, school years, and early career. How did these events impact your thinking about leadership?
3. Think about your life purpose. Why are you here, and what do you want to accomplish?
4. What are your core values that will guide your behavior as you attempt to live your life “on purpose?”
5. Given what you’ve learned from past influencers, life events, your life purpose, and core values, what is your leadership point of view—your beliefs about leading and motivating people?
6. What can your people expect from you?
7. What do you expect from your people?
8. How will you set an example for your people?
When you finally share your leadership point of view, your listeners will often be particularly interested in questions 6 and 7. Sometimes that is where we ask people to start with their leadership point of view—with expectations. Think of an example of yourself or someone behaving consistently with your expectations. Real examples are better than platitudes.
Once your expectations are clear and are supported by examples, think about your background. Where did those expectations come from? Was it from modeling by your parents or a coach or boss? What did they do, and what did it mean to you? Perhaps a significant life event shaped your expectations. Get in touch with that story. People remember and respond more to stories and examples than to glittering generalities, and usually, less is more.
The idea in your leadership point of view is to share some meaningful information about yourself—what that information taught you about leadership and development, and what it means to your listeners. By sharing your leadership point of view, you are revealing some important background about yourself, harvesting key lessons from that background, and letting others know how they can accomplish their goals and meet your expectations.
What follows are some ways to think about your leadership point of view and where your key beliefs and expectations might have come from. Each of these examples may give you ideas about your life and help you decide what you want to share. It is helpful to think through all the areas and then select the most powerful or insightful ones to put into your leadership point of view. Your leadership point of view is to help others relate to you. By giving examples, you allow people to do that.
Your Leadership Role Models
When we ask people who most impacted their lives, sometimes they mention bosses or other organizational leaders. More often they talk about their parents, grandparents, friends, coaches, or teachers. When Ken Blanchard is asked this question, he is quick to mention his mother and father:
“My mom was the ultimate positive thinker. She told everyone that I laughed before I cried, I smiled before I frowned, and I danced before I walked. With those kinds of messages, how could I have ended up anything but a positive thinker? My dad was a career naval officer who retired as an admiral. He was a powerful leadership role model for me. He didn’t think leadership was choosing between people or results. He thought leadership was a ‘both/and’ relationship—both people and results were important to him. He taught me that position power and ‘my way or the highway’ are not the way to lead. I’ll never forget when I was elected president of the seventh grade and came home all excited. Dad said, ‘It’s great, Ken, that you’re president of your class. But now that you have a position, don’t use it. Great leaders are followed not because they have position power, but because they’re respected and trusted as individuals.’ He always supported and involved his people, yet he demanded high performance.
“My mom instilled in me a strong belief in God. That helped me keep things in perspective. Mom said, ‘Ken, don’t act like you’re better than anybody else. But don’t let anyone act like they are better than you, either. We are all children of God.’ The one-two punch I received from my mom and dad gave me the belief that in life, I was here to serve, not to be served.”
In crafting your leadership point of view, first think about who influenced your life and your beliefs about leadership. Then think about which key events gave you a sense of what leadership was all about. Think about the milestones in your life. Where were the major transitions? What were the sliding doors—those moments in time where you made a choice to go one way versus another and that, as Robert Frost said, “made all the difference”? Choose three to four key events and reflect on what these events taught you about leading or influencing others.
Your Life Purpose
Next, think about your life purpose. Why are you here? What business are you in? As we suggested in Chapter 2, “The Power of Vision,” if an organization doesn’t have a clear purpose and sense of what business it’s in, we think something is wrong. Yet few people have a clear sense of their life’s purpose. How can you make good decisions about how you should use your time if you don’t know what business you’re in?
The following is a simple process that will help you create a good first draft of your life purpose.2 First, list some personal characteristics you feel good about. Use nouns, such as
For example, Ken chose sense of humor, people skills, teaching skills, and role model.
Next, list ways you successfully interact with people. These will be verbs, such as
Ken picked educate, help, inspire, and motivate.
Finally, visualize what your perfect world would be. What would people do or say? Write a description of this perfect world.
To Ken, a perfect world is where everyone is aware of the presence of God in their lives and realize they are here to serve, not to be served.
Now combine two of your nouns, two of your verbs, and your definition of your perfect world, and you’ll have a good start on a definition of your life purpose.
Ken’s life purpose is to be “a loving teacher and a role model of simple truths who helps and motivates myself and others to be aware of the presence of God in our lives and realize we are here to serve, not to be served.”
One of our MSEL students said his life purpose was “to use my humor and people skills to help and inspire others to be successful in achieving their goals.” He went on to say, “I would like our company to become a place where people want to come to work and where they can grow to feel better about who they are and what they are accomplishing.”
Your Core Values
Values are beliefs you feel strongly about because you choose them over other alternatives. It has been said that
When you were a kid, your parents and other adults tended to dictate your values, but at some point in life we all choose what is important to us. Your leader at work might value results more than people. You might be the opposite. People don’t all value the same things. Some people value wealth and power, and others are more concerned with safety or survival. Success is a value; integrity and relationships are values as well. The following is a sample list of personal values:
In trying to determine what your values are, you might start with a long list. You probably like a lot of the values listed above, plus others you might think of. But fewer are better, particularly if you want your values to guide your behavior. In Managing by Values, Ken Blanchard and Michael O’Connor contend that more than three or four values is too many and can become immobilizing.3 So, see if you can pick out what you think are your most important values. If you’re having trouble narrowing down your top values, you might combine a couple. For example, Ken combined two words to create “spiritual peace” as his number one value, followed by “integrity,” “love,” and “success.”
Your number-one value is often your core value—something you want to be present no matter what you’re doing. So, if your number one value is integrity, living without integrity is not an option.
In talking about core values, the implication is that your values should be rank-ordered. Why? Because values live in dynamic tension with one another, as we discussed in Chapter 2. For example, if you value financial growth but integrity is your core value, any activities that could lead to financial gain must be checked against your integrity value.
How do you know when you’re living according to a particular value? You have to define that value as specifically as possible. Without defining your values, the people you work with might not really understand what’s important to you. Pat can remember a conversation in which three people defined the value of “justice” differently. For Pat, it meant equal opportunity. For another person, it meant fair process. For the third, it meant “getting my due share.”
Let’s take something that you might not think is easy to define, like love. According to Ken, “I value love. I know I am living by this value anytime I feel loving toward myself and others, anytime I have compassion, anytime I feel love in my heart, anytime I feel the love of others, anytime my heart fills with love, and anytime I look for the love of others.”
Your Beliefs About Leading and Motivating People
Your beliefs are where you will find the essence of your leadership point of view. These should flow naturally from the people and key events that have influenced you, and your purpose and values.
For example, let’s look at some of the beliefs about leading and motivating people that Ken shares with others. You’ll recognize that his beliefs represent some of the key themes in this book:
“I believe people who produce good results feel good about themselves. Therefore, my leadership role as your manager is to help you win—to accomplish your goals. I want you to get an A. If things are going in the right direction, I should cheer you on with an ‘attaboy’ or ‘attagirl.’ If progress is not being made, I should redirect your efforts and get you back on course. In other words, you should know when you are getting ‘wrong answers’ so that we can discuss what would make a ‘good answer.’ Everything I do as a manager with you should be geared toward helping you produce good results and, in the process, feel good about yourself.”
What People Can Expect from You
Letting people know what they can expect from you underscores the idea that good leadership is a partnership. It gives people a picture of how things will look under your leadership.
For example, one of the students in the MSEL program at the University of San Diego described what his people could expect from him:
“Knowing that I like building things will help you understand what you can expect from me. In fact, I look at many different things in the context of building. I like building houses. I like building my family. I like building businesses, and I like building and developing people. I’m happy to roll up my sleeves to help build most anything. It’s what I enjoy most. So you can expect that I will give you plenty of my time, I will listen to you when you see the need, and I will help you access what you already know.
“Just the other day, I noticed that Jack had stayed late at work and was looking a little frustrated. When I asked him how things were going, he shared that our building permits for the new office were held up, putting the whole project behind. Through our conversation, he figured out another person to call and approach to take. He had the answer all along; I just helped him ask different questions.”
What You Expect from Your People
Because leading is a partnership process, it is perfectly reasonable—in fact, it’s imperative—that you let people know what you expect from them. This gives people a picture of what their behavior will look like under your leadership.
Here is another example from one of the students of the MSEL program at USD:
“My expectations of you can be combined into a saying known as the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. What do I mean by that? I expect you all to act ethically in everything you do. You’ll have many opportunities to take shortcuts and do things that will result in short-term gains. Plenty of business examples in recent years have shown how disastrous this can be. I expect you to stand tall on this issue and to not allow anyone to think that you tolerate fraud or anything unethical. You manage hundreds of employees. While each of them may not know you that well, they need to know your feelings on this topic by way of your word and example.”
How You Will Set an Example
Your leadership point of view should let others know how you will set an example for the values and behaviors you are encouraging. As most parents know, people learn from your behavior, not from your words. Leaders must walk their talk.
For example, the MSEL student just mentioned made clear how he would set an example for his people:
“All of you know that I released our company’s top salesperson about nine months ago for questionable activities. He thought that he was untouchable due to his status as a top-producing account executive. However, no one, including me, is above the ethical standards that are expected of someone working at our company.”
Developing Your Own Leadership Point of View
Now it’s your turn to create your own leadership point of view. To serve as a guide, we’ll share a couple of examples. The first example comes from Colleen Barrett, the former president of Southwest Airlines.
Our second example of a leadership point of view is from Eddie Hiner, an MSEL student who is an officer in the Navy SEALs. We include this for a couple of reasons. Although Eddie doesn’t follow the seven elements perfectly, he talks from his heart and makes it clear to his people where he comes from, what he believes, and how his beliefs will impact them. So, don’t get hung up on following our formula to a T. Your leadership point of view is about who you are and how you intend to be with your people. We also included Eddie’s leadership point of view because it illustrates how a military officer can be a servant leader in the context of a hierarchical organization. We believe that servant leadership should be the foundation of all leadership, no matter where you find yourself leading.
During the writing of the first edition of this book, Eddie was in Iraq. No matter how dangerous the assignment, wouldn’t you like to have him as your leader?
In writing Leading at a Higher Level, we’ve done our best to give you the leadership point of view that we have been developing over the last 30 years. So, as you develop your own leadership point of view, don’t be hard on yourself. This might be your first time thinking about your beliefs about leading and motivating people. Feel free to incorporate any of the ideas you have learned in these pages.
The world needs more leaders who are leading at a higher level. As we said in the introduction, our dream is that someday everyone will know someone who is leading at a higher level. We dream of the day when self-serving leaders are history, and leaders serving others are the rule, not the exception.
You can be a leader who makes a positive difference on our planet. So, go out and do it! We’re counting on you.