From Drift to Clarity

Is being a leader worth the effort?

If you find yourself asking this question, you are not alone. Most of us have doubts about our choice to lead at some point in our lives. But if you find you are adrift — going through the motions but not moving forward — it's time to make a change.

Many leaders have too few hours and too little energy to bring their best leadership to bear, according to Sara King, coauthor of Discovering the Leader in You: How to Realize Your Leadership Potential. "As a result, leaders have begun to question their abilities, the direction their life has taken and their hopes for future impact," says King. "We call this the problem of drift."

If you stay adrift for long, you find yourself making decisions by default rather than conscious choice. You may feel frustrated, conflicted or unhappy. It takes a toll on your enthusiasm, vision and energy - all characteristics needed to lead effectively. "Leading by rote wastes good talent and energy, dilutes the talent and energy that others muster to create results and creates drag on company resources," coauthor David Altman explains.

To boost yourself out of leadership drift, first consider some fundamental questions:

• Are you currently in a leadership role? How did you get there?
• Do you see yourself as a leader? Are you a leader all the time?
• How comfortable are you with your identity as a leader?
• Did you choose to become a leader or did it somehow choose you?

Then, take time to explore five issues to understand why you may be adrift and provide insight into how to take action:

1. Current organizational realities. What's your context? It can be as broad as the social, economic and global trends affecting leadership today. It might be more specific to your industry, your organization or your leadership role. The goal is to understand the broader circumstances that influence your current leadership situation.
2. Leadership vision. A vision for your life describes what you see as the overall purpose of your life: what dreams you want to achieve, what goals you want to accomplish, the people you want to be with, the kind of life you want to have. To specifically look at your leadership vision, you want to ask, "What is the role that leadership plays in my life?" Being purposeful about what you want in life is important to being purposeful about what you want in your leadership situation.
3. Leadership values. Values are the standards or principles that guide your beliefs, decision and actions. The ability to understand your values and leverage them as a foundational cornerstone of your leadership choices is a critical contributor to effective leadership.
4. Leadership profile. Your leadership profile is your personal leadership tool kit. What do you draw on to lead? Your answer might include many factors, such as competencies, styles and experiences. Through careful analysis of your profile, you can assess what you see as your strengths and developmental needs.
5. Current personal realities. You have a personal life that has an impact on your work life and a work life that has an impact on your personal life. How you integrate all aspects of your life with your responsibilities as a leader is one of the most challenging tasks you will face.

The book authors, who combined have nearly 100 years of experience assisting leaders in the development of their talents and careers, have written Discovering the Leader in You to guide people through the five issues in a practical, relevant way.

"The most effective leaders are those who commit themselves to getting better day by day and week by week and then apply their skills to improving the lives of other people in the organizations in which they work or their communities," explains King. "Facing these issues will hopefully encourage you to make more conscious choices about why, when, how and where you lead."

This article was adapted from Discovering the Leader in You: How to Realize Your Leadership Potential, by Sara N. King, David G. Altman & Robert J. Lee.

Apps Are on the Rise and What It Means for You

Apps Are on the Rise and What It Means for You
by Tim Elmore

It Takes a Whole Community

Last Saturday at the NC State University Agricultural Education Commencement, one graduate stated, "They say it takes a whole community to raise a child."  I couldn't agree more.


No, I'm not underestimating the value of our parents.  However, I am advocating that we should surround ourselves with quality people to coach, train and mentor us along the way.  When we enlist the help of others, we exponentially expand our ability to learn, grow, explore and become a better person.  We gain valuable insight from our team of coaches.  We receive advice and counsel that we otherwise may have never thought about.  


And when we listen to that insight, advice and counsel with an open mind and come with a coachable attitude, we grow.  We become stronger leaders.  We become stronger people.  We become better servants.


As we serve in organizations, we are fortunate to have many wonderful stakeholders, customers and members that share a common mission.  We are also blessed to have others -- people and organizations -- that believe in our mission.  They believe in it enough to share their time, talents and treasures with us so that we can better fulfill our common mission.


Today I am reminded that in order to grow, we need people to help us along the way.  In order to become better leaders, we need supporters.  


Thank you to the supporters who help organizations like FFA fulfill our mission of making a positive difference in the lives of students.


And thank you to my personal coaches, mentors and supporters for helping me continue to stay green and growing.

Quotable Quotes - May 17, 2011

“I am because you are.” - African Proverb

“You must never be fearful about what you are doing when it is right.” - Rosa Parks

“Fill each day with life and heart. There is no pleasure in the world comparable to the delight and satisfaction that a good person takes in doing good.” - John Tilloston

“The purpose of life is a life of purpose.” - Robert Byrne

“I seek constantly to improve my manners and graces, for they are the sugar to which all are attracted. ” - Og Mandin

“What we do today, right now, will have an accumulated effect on all our tomorrows. ” - Alexandra Stoddard

A Game of Golf Can Help the Game of Life by Zig Ziglar

To take a little literary license and paraphrase Tim J. M. Rohrer of WSOC FM 103 radio in Charlotte, North Carolina, in golf the objective is to hit each shot well and to get into position to hit the next one effectively.  Tim says this is the smart way to approach a demanding game.  Concentrating on hitting each shot forces the player to focus on the current shot and to forget about past mistakes.  Unfortunately, in golf and in life, we do hit some “bad shots” or things just don’t go “our way.”  It is important, however, that we not let a missed shot or a bad break today keep us from doing our best tomorrow.

Failure is an event, it is not a person; yesterday really did end last night.  A bad shot or a bad break should not influence the next shot or the next action we take.  As a matter of fact, on the golf course when we miss a shot we should say to ourselves, “I can’t believe I did that!  That is totally out of character for me.  I just won’t do that again.”  Then, as we step up to make the next shot, we should be saying, “Remember how you hit that last seven iron on number eight?  Here’s your chance to do it again!”

If we’ve missed a sale or fouled up a relationship or made a poor decision in the past, we should not let that be the measuring stick for future behavior.  We should, in fact, step up to the next opportunity and remind ourselves of our past successes, painting a new picture of success and accomplishments in our lives.  The combination of mental imaging and self-talk can make a difference.  Paint the picture of success before the next shot in golf or the next step in life.  You will find it to be helpful.  Think about it.  Do it, and I’ll SEE YOU AT THE TOP!

Ronald Reagan's Secret to Great Leadership By John Baldon

As we mark the occasion of Ronald Reagan's centenary it is important to remember what he taught us about what it means to lead.


When Reagan became President in 1981, the prime rate topped 20% and would rise even higher. A lingering recession kept unemployment rates higher than normal, 7.5% in 1981. It was the worst recession since the Great Depression. Many businesses could not seem to find a way to compete against more agile and quality-conscious competitors from Japan. To many Americans it had seemed we had lost our way, especially in the wake of the Iranian hostage crisis.

Yet none of this could extinguish Reagan's faith in the nation and in its people. After all, Reagan's gift was not just an upbeat attitude; it was his salesmanship of the American dream. Yes, he was a great communicator. And he worked hard at it. [Now that we have access to his correspondence we see what a prolific writer he truly was.]


The salesmanship came from selling the American people on the same dream that Franklin Roosevelt, a Reagan hero, had sold to us in the depths of the Great Depression. We can succeed if we put our minds to it. Kenneth Duberstein, a former Chief of Staff to Reagan, put it best when he said that Reagan got us to believe in ourselves again. People believe in themselves and in a cause greater than themselves they can achieve great things--as long as they have a well-intentioned leader to point them in the right direction.


But Reagan was no happy-go lucky salesman. He was not afraid to make unpopular decisions. As a proponent of smaller government, he lowered the top income tax rate (from 70% to 29%), but he also raised taxes eleven times and increased the size of federal government. The national debt also nearly tripled under his tenure. As presidential historian Douglas Brinkley told CBS News, "Ronald Reagan was never afraid to raise taxes. He knew that it was necessary at times."


It takes a strong leader one confident in his own convictions to persuade others to follow his lead, even when he sometimes might deviate from a desired goal. That does not make him less credible; it makes him a pragmatist. And I would argue that when trust their leader they will grant him discretion to make hard choices.


No president, no leader for that matter, can accomplish much by himself. He or she must harness the power of others, to bring people to common cause. Reagan was the master at this. His positivism was contagious. Even his political enemies, notably Speaker of the House Tip O'Neill, liked him personally. Reagan's winning personality even softened the stiff diplomacy of the Soviets. Premier Mikhail Gorbachev did not like Reagan at first but in time found him impossible to dislike personally, even when they could not agree over limiting the number of nuclear weapons.


Getting others to see the virtues of your point of view is what every leader must strive to achieve. And when leaders face long odds it may do them well to recall the example of our former president who sought when possible to look on the bright side because to do otherwise was for him to give in to the forces of defeatism.