What All Good Leaders Do?

"Those of us who are strong and able in faith need to step in and lend a hand to those who falter, and not just do what is most convenient for us. Strength is for service, not status. Each of us needs to look after the good of the people around us, asking ourselves, "How can I help?". - Romans 15:1-2 (The Message)

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This evening, I was browsing through the journal I kept for my sabbatical. In it, were a number of loose papers and sticky notes in which I scribbled some nuggets of truths, words of wisdoms, or inspiring thoughts that I came across. I believe most of them came from books or articles I read or sermons I heard during that year. Regretfully, I didn't do a good job recording their sources; thus, I may not be able to cite or acknowledge where I got them from. The scrap notes are currently all over the place. Over the next few weeks, I will be revisiting these gold nuggets, reflect and share them on this blog. Trust they will be a good reminder for you and me.

The first one is entitled "What All Good Leaders Do?". One, they get the job done. Two, they get people to produce. Three, they teach people how to do things right, and four, they delegate authority. Whilst all these are true, there's a simple answer that covers all that ground. It is:

"to bring out the best in the people you are leading."

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A good scripture to accompany this thought is Romans 15:1-2 (above). In summary, strength is for service, not status. Leaders need to look after the good of the people around them, asking "How can I help them to be succesful?" We can have enormous influence on the people with whom we come into contact. That influence could be for good or for bad. Similarly, as a professor and an educator, my legacy will not be my research papers nor the awards, but the success of my students.

Field trip to Sentosa Cove (2006)

You have heard of MSG, which is often used in chinese cooking as a flavor enhancer. Well, have you heard of life enhancers? They are people who improve, strengthen, and beautify the world around them. In their interactions with other people, they bring out the best of people. They see something good in us, and then they help us see it too. More important, they help us tap into it... .

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The bible has a lot to say about bringing out the best in people... "Let your words be for the improvements of others, as occasion offers" - Ephesians 4:29; "Therefore encourage one another and build up each other" - 1 Thessalonians 5:11; "The mouth of the upright is a life-giving fountain - Proverbs 10:11; "Say only what is good and helpful to those you are talking to, and what will give them a blessing" - Ephesians 4:29.

In closing, good leaders bring out the best in other people. It's better to build up than to tear down.

Hedgehogs vs Foxes

“You want to know what separates those who make the biggest impact from all the others who are just as smart? They’re hedgehogs.” – Marvin Bressler, Princeton professor.

In his famous essay “The Hedgehog and the Fox,” Isaiah Berlin divided the world in to hedgehogs and foxes, based on the ancient Greek parable: “the fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.”

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The story: The fox waits in cunning silent at this juncture in the trail. The hedgehog, minding his own business, wanders right into the path of the fox. “Aha, I’ve got you now!” thinks the fox. He leaps out, bounding across the ground, lightning fast. The little hedgehog, sensing danger, look up and thinks, “Here we go again. Will he ever learn?” Rolling up into a perfect little ball, the hedgehog becomes a sphere of sharp spikes, pointing outward in all directions. The fox, bounding toward his prey, sees the hedgehog defense and calls off the attack. Retreating back to the forest, the fox begins to calculate a new line of attack. Each day, some version of this battle between the hedgehog and the fox takes place, and despite the greater cunning of the fox, the hedgehog always wins. (p. 90-91).

The fox is a cunning creature, able to devise a myriad of complex strategies for sneak attacks upon the hedgehog. Day in and day out, the fox circles around the hedgehog’s den, waiting for the perfect moment to pounce. Fast, sleek, beautiful, fleet of foot, and crafty – the fox looks like the sure winner.

The hedgehog, on the other hand, is a dowdier creature, looking like a genetic mix-up between the porcupine and a small armadillo. He waddles along, going about his simple day, searching for lunch and taking care of his home.

Foxes pursue many ends at the same time and see the world in all its complexity. They are “scattered or diffused, moving on many levels,” say Berlin, never integrating their thinking into one overall concept or unifying vision. Hedgehogs, on the other hand, simplify a complex world into a single organizing idea, a basic principle or concept that unifies and guides everything. It doesn’t matter how complex the world, a hedgehog reduces all challenges and dilemmas to simple – indeed almost simplistic – hedgehog ideas. For a hedgehog, anything that does not somehow related to the hedgehog idea holds no relevance.

To be clear, hedgehogs are not stupid. Quite the contrary. They understand that the essence of profound insight is simplicity. For example, what could be more simple than e = mc2? No, hedgehogs aren’t simpletons; they have a piercing insight that allows them to see through the complexity and discern the underlying patterns. Hedgehog see what is essential, and ignore the rest. (p.91).

In his best selling managment book, Good to Great, Jim Collins, argues that those who built the good-to-great companies were, to one degree or another, hedgehogs. According to him, the essential strategic difference between the good-to-great and comparison companies lay in two fundamental differences. First, the good-to-great companies founded their strategies on deep understanding along three key dimensions (what you can be the best in the world; what drives your economic engine; what are you deeply passionate about). Second, the good-to-great companies translated that understanding into a simple, crystalline concept that guided all their efforts - hence, the term the Hedgehog Concept.

"Are you a hedgehog or a fox?"

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source: Jim Collins (2001) "Good to Great".

Productive Confrontation

Last Friday, our CG study the following passage in the bible: Numbers 27:1-11. It tells the story of five sisters who sought to secure an inheritance because their deceased father had no sons. They went to the entrance of the Tabernacle to give a petition to Moses, Eleazar the priest, the tribal leaders, and others who were there....

"Why should the name of our father dissappear? We feel that we should be given property along with our father's brothers."

Whilst many lessons could be gleaned from this biblical story, my reflection centred on the productive way in which the five sisters confronted Moses. It could have been so different...

Confrontation does not have to be adversarial. It merely means that we are going to “face this issue together instead of putting our heads in the sand and ignoring it.” …. Poor confronters turn things adversarial too easily and quickly. It is experienced as “me versus you”, or “us versus them”, as opposed to “you and I versus the problem”. In the later scenario, we are a team against what is wrong, and coming together to fix it. That keeps the problem, the person, the relationship, and the result all in mind in an integrated fashion (pp. 193-4)

Henry Cloud in his book Integrity, wrote that "one of the most important aspects of character of life, without question, is one’s ability to confront. It is true that you get what you tolerate. If the nature of reality is that there are always problems, if you do not confront them and instead tolerate them, then problems are what you will have (p. 191).
photo: vancouver (2006)
On the other hand, “a lot of people confront easily, even too easily, and yet do it in a manner that is more destructive than helpful. The combative or angry or critical, demeaning confronter does not solve problems. He or she usually drives problems more deeply into hiding by creating an atmosphere of fear rather than resolution (p. 191).

This is one of the areas where character integration is so important. If you fail to confront, you lose. But if you confront poorly, you will also lose. So, you must confront, but confront well. That means that the truth-telling side of your character must be integrated with the loving and caring side of your character. When you show up to deal with a problem, you must bring both of them together. Confront the problem, but in a way that preserves the relationship and the person. If you err on either side, the wake will be affected.

In theology, we hear of grace and truth, which means to be “for the person” and have standards. .. The important thing is to say what needs to be said, and to say it in a way that shows that you care about the person…. “I try to go hard on the issue and soft on the person.” That means that both his truth telling and his care for the connection came together at once. … Honesty without love is not integrity.

¨ But this requires a character that has neutralized the truth… If he or she is still running with a lot of anger inside that has never been integrated and metabolized, then confrontation is going to be toxic, “beating people up”. Love and healing must first have taken place inside people’s souls, or they might be in danger of treating others not in the way they themselves want to be treated, but in the way they have been treated. They repeat the abuse that they have been subjected to in their own experience (p. 192).

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Another aspect of confronting well is that integrated people care about the results of the confrontation, not just making themselves feel good. So, they ask themselves before the confrontation, “what do I want to have happen as a result of this confrontation?”

• If they are impulsive and don’t do that, then they might just care about releasing anger, or forcing someone to do things differently, or getting revenge and making someone feel bad and themselves feel better.

But if they are mindfully integrated, then what they do is desire an integrated outcome. They think, “I want to solve the problem, make the relationship stronger, help the person develop, and empower their development.” So, they confront in a way that is going to bring about that wake. (p.193).

Ready, Aim & Fire

If you have not read the book, Integrity, by Henry Cloud, I encourage you to buy it as an investment in yourself, in your growth and success. The new academic year has started and I have a heavy teaching load this semester. Thus, my reading pace will slow down considerably over the next few months. I am still at Chapter Nine, in which Cloud introduced the concept of Ready, Aim & Fire.

photos: Boalsburg, USA (2007)

Being ready means that someone is prepared and able. You can have a great opportunity coming along, and if you jumped in unprepared, or unable to complete it for whatever reason, you will fail. … Another aspect of being ready has to do with “sharpening the saw”, training, doing, self-maintenance, etc. Getting oneself “ready” may mean training, learning, changing, revamping, restructuring, or a host of other things. But the winners are ready before the game. Long-term high achievers are ... prepared (p. 150).

Aim has to do with focus. It has to do with purposeful, goal-oriented action that knows where the energy and resources are being spent and therefore spent well. A lot of people spend a lot of energy working, but their character is so scattered that they never focus on particular goals and outcomes and keep on tract to get there.

A linear path requires the character to say no to impulses and wishes to do other things, to say no to new opportunities that may be good but are not best. Some people’s makeup is such that they still think they can have everything, and as a result, they achieve nothing. They are all over the place. If you were to focus, or aim, and direct all of that energy and talent toward specific, particular goals, they would succeed (p. 150-1).

• He get sidetracked because he refuses to acknowledge that if you want to do A, you cannot do B. In the end, neither one gets the attention they need (p.151).


• Reality is that time, energy, and resources are finite. Focus is about directing those in a way in which enough of each is given so that things happen (p. 152)
  

Fire means that the person is actually able to pull the trigger. She can, after getting ready and getting focused, go for it. She is not risk-aversive, if the risk makes sense. A lot of preparation has gone into the plunge so that risk is minimized. That is the difference between investment and gambling. You cannot really prepare for rolling the dice. It is going to come out the way it is going to come out, and other than researching the odds, that is really all you can do. But an investment risk is jumping into the water after you have found out that it is not poison, toxic, or polluted (p. 152).

To finally be able to jump is important. Some people, even after intelligent evaluation of risks, do not like to sow. They are afraid to put the seed on the ground and trust the process. They can’t see the seed, and what if it doesn’t rain this year? It is just too scary for their character - Henry Cloud (p. 152).