Called to Lead

I don’ think you can train just anybody to become an effective leader. You can assist him or her to manage ‘a position’ that requires leadership qualities or even competencies but not a leader in the true sense of the word (I know I am going into contentious grounds here by saying that). A true leader is one who just leads. He doesn't try to lead…he simply leads. And, I am not even talking about charisma; though that helps too. Those who have a calling to lead don't stay in a 'position' of leadership although this may be bestowed upon them in many ways and forms. Rather they stay in a 'state' of leadership.

You can only make a leader out of someone who has a calling to become one. The challenge is – how do you measure a ‘calling’? Well, instead of worrying about how to ‘measure’ or in essence how to identify someone who has the calling to be a leader; it could serve your purpose better if you redefine what ‘leadership’ means for your company and your business. By focusing only on what I term as ‘classical leadership’ .ie. those who can lead with all the strength and refinement of a heaven-sent leader, you will be on a journey as epic in scale as the search for the holy grail. No, your company do not have that luxury. Instead, look at leadership from a more realistic levels. Perhaps you should look at the functionality of leadership more than the qualities of what is deemed to be great leadership. This would probably change your entire organizational leadership development interventions. Maybe even dramatically so and for the better.

Consider this. There are more than 1 type of leader or shall I say there are more than 1 type of situation in which a company may need leaders. A company may need leaders :

1. To lead the people (what we commonly refer to as executive leadership/classical leadership)
2. To lead strategy (formulation)
3. To lead strategy (implementation)
4. To lead strategy (follow-through)
5. To lead client experience
6. To lead the company’s knowledge advantage (those who want to be seen as leaders in their respective job-specific areas and may not necessarily want to be seen as executive/classical leaders)
7. To lead sales
8. To lead marketing (Yes! There is a world of difference between leading sales vs leading marketing and I am yet to see one who can do both equally well)
9. To lead the company’s ‘happiness index’ (individuals who are adept at keeping the peace and sowing the seeds of harmony and joy at the work place. It is better if the executive leaders can play this role but often times, they will need someone on the floor to do it. Those who are magnets for others to share and confide to are leaders in their own right and often becomes good change leaders too if given proper training and preparation.
10.To lead the company’s culture and values (those who constantly remind everybody else to keep true to the company’s values). These are the living brands of the company. Though they may be unfairly labeled as the ‘furniture’ of the company, they are in truth an embodiment of the company’s DNA. I have an amusing (and sad) story to share here : Some years ago when I was an independent trainer, I was involved in delivering leadership development workshops for a company that was incidentally going through a branding exercise. I got to know from my participants that the company had formed a 45 strong brand ambassadors who had the following qualities : female, young, pretty, ‘energetic’. The new brand values and promises of this company was around the idea of strength, stability and maturity. Right there in my sessions, I could have identified those who would have made great leaders of this type. No offense to the PYTs though. It was not their fault to begin with.


Lets take a look at the 1st type of leaders as this seems to be what we are all most interested in. Companies invest huge sums of money to identify, assess and develop those who are deemed as possible future leaders of the ‘1st type’. The results have been mixed. I suspect that the problem lies in the misconception that the 10 types of leadership are interchangeable and hence anyone can be trained to narrow the gap. So, if you have a super-performing R&D specialist, you can easily train and develop her to become an excellent lab manager (which involves much…much more than just researching, recording and analyzing data)….or so this thinking goes. It is not impossible for a knowledge specialist to become an effective executive leader but this is not a given. It is a lottery game. Failure rate is high.

So, as you might have guessed it by now : Right selection is the key.
There are some tell-tale signs (which are not scientific and I can’t defend this vigorously except that I have noticed these qualities in different settings and circumstances). There are some unique qualities of those who have a natural calling…a certain predisposition…to lead people and if viewed in tandem with more scientific and objective tools, there is a higher chance of making the right selection:

1. They are grounded. Their language is one of realism with a healthy dose optimism. They are able to show others how to reach for the skies while keeping their feet firmly on the ground.
2. They like to be involved (there is bound to be a slow progress from getting involved in everything and anything to selective and meaningful involvement without any sign of detachment for those things deemed not worthy of their involvement).
3. Exhibits a strong sense of personal values. I have said before that it is one’s professional duty to find a company that fits one’s personal value system. Those who have a calling to lead seem to be able to find jobs and companies that are aligned to their values. This value-alignment gives them the confidence and wherewithal to explore their personal boundaries of capabilities in terms of taking the risk of leading. They are also the first to leave when there is a non-alignment for extended periods of time.
4. They do not constantly tell stories of their past successes and their good deeds to establish their credibility. In the art and science of leadership, sharing truthful stories of past successes (and failures and the subsequent learning) are indeed an excepted strategy to build one’s leadership credibility. One with a calling to lead will know how much and how often this sharing should take place. For most effective leaders, their success lasts for only that moment. They do not live on past glories. They take their due credit and move on to new success paths.
5. Shares credit and keeps away from trivial and insincere praises.
6. Seeks out leadership tasks even without an official leadership portfolio or reason. They lead for the sake of wanting to lead to add value, to provide direction and ensure collective success.
7. Develops others in many different ways and often times beyond the call of duty.
8. Takes initiatives and explores beyond the boundaries of their comfort zone at the risk of failure.
9. Spirited and reflective and somewhere in between this continuum, they are constantly showing subtle signs of insecurity and self-doubt. This enables them to constantly improve and achieve better results while showing their followers their very human side.
10. They exhibit a fierce and determined sense of ownership.

So, for those of you good talent development professionals out there, remember that leadership development is as much an objective process as it is a wise decision. Decide wisely every step of the way and you may see the intended results that your company so richly deserve for such a huge investment of money, time and effort. I am all for objective data based selection and development process though I will not discount the benefit of a wise observation and judgement call.

The Marrow of Life…

“Live deep and suck out the marrow of life..”
Henry David Thoreau in Walden


Thoreau challenged us to experience life deeply in all its excitement, wonder and glory. Don't float on the surface. Dive deep. Live intensely. Love powerfully.

There are 3 of us wannabe hot rods who frequent the gym, pumping away at the irons or burning the rubber until our bones ached. In the course of my usual 1 ½ hours in the gym, there were countless times when I just feel like throwing in the towel, literally, and hit the shower. I would have been well justified as it is not easy to do a full workout after a day at work and I am sure my other gym buddies felt the same. One of them works as a ice-cream distributor and he clocks hundreds of miles in a day. Another is an entrepreneur with a string of companies under his belt. I am sure they have a more demanding day than me. In fact it is never easy to be in the gym for anyone. There are just so many other things one can do instead of sweating it out. So many other pleasant things like a couple of cold beers for instance or a comfortable sofa with a TopGear and a drink in hand. One of my gym buddies usually ends his final set of weights with an expletive….not sure at what or whom that is targeted at but it usually signals a good workout for him. A good workout for me is when my sweat clouds my vision. A good workout is one that takes you to the edge; when you feel your heart is going to explode or when you feel your arms are just going to give away and yet you could push your self for one more minute or one more set of weights. And….that is when I sometimes feel that I have sucked the marrow of my live for all its worth. It is indeed worth all that effort as somebody once said -you don’t pay the price but rather enjoy the price of doing things that you otherwise would rather not. Later, as I hit the shower and wash away the sweat of the work-out and the day’s physical, mental and emotional pains and aches, the subsequent feeling of relief and ‘achievement’ can be a seductive catharsis. It is that feeling of achievement and subsequent flow of warm soothing relief that I crave for. Strangely, I find my self being more vigorous and pushing my self harder in the gym on days when work seem mundane and lacking of any particular challenge to satisfy my craving for ‘worthwhile and meaningful endeavors’.

Now, it seems to me that this is what management consultants the world over (like yours truly) tell their clients whether in their one-on-one relationships, in seminars or in workshops. Manage and Lead like you are sucking at the marrow of life. Do things with such focused intent and purpose that what you do brings out the best out of your people and adds the greatest value to your organization. Push your mental and emotional energy to the edges of human endurance BUT don’t break. Keep your cool. Manage with a smile and loads of wisdom. Create a friendly atmosphere and be a magnet for those seeking advise and guidance. Grow others, leave a legacy, build a winning team. Defeat your fears and walk on fires, literally.

Usually in a workshop, I can get my clients excited about the prospect of managing and leading as deeply as sucking at the marrow of life. But I also know that the positive feeling lasts until the next morning when they step into their offices and the first nasty email from a customer pops up or hears what a new and arrogant young staff says or whatever. At that exact point in time, their managing and leading becomes less than experiencing the marrow of life. All that energy and motivation dissipates into thin air. And that's why in fact, I have christened this blog as First Coffee. It is to remind my self, my participants and clients that they should not get excited with what I say and what we discuss and get all fired up and feel a great sense of energy; just like what you feel as the first gulp of your morning coffee goes down your throat. Then, when the first irritant hits the face, that feeling vaporizes. The idea is to keep repeating that experience of a first coffee through out the day, to keep sucking at the marrow of life throughout your day at the office. Keep feeling that warm soothing sensation throughout the day. It is possible.

In my experience there is only one thing that can make that happen : Your Values.

The marrow of our lives is in our VALUES. It is not in the way we live. Definitely not in the accessories that we surround ourselves with. It is to be found in WHY we life? Go find them and/or make them. Never just accept them. Once they are identified use it for everything, for every single interaction, decision and action. Find jobs and companies that are aligned to those values. Make it as a basis for dealing with the easiest of problems and toughest of the challenges. Drink it through-out the day and that first coffee feeling should creep back and spread soothing warmth and calmness down your spine.

Know that each time you loose that first coffee feeling, you are probably doing something incongruent with your values. Trace back, make corrections, say your piece; and go home knowing that you have been true to your values.

Do yourself and everybody else a favour - don’t get a job to pay the bills as you will soon pay the price. Get a job that fulfills you and you will find it pays the bills and more. Also, if for whatever reasons you find that your values are no longer aligned to that of the organization or vice versa – leave honorably and on a position of strength and truth. There are too many of us stuck in our seats and lamenting how ‘wrong’ that seat feels. Go find a better seat. There always is one that will fit you perfectly. You will find that the fit is usually more to do with a fit of values than anything else.

In my line of work, it gives me a great sense of comfort knowing that at the highest levels of our organizations, our leaders have their hearts at the right places. They do indeed focus on the values of the organizations. Making a profit is a given. How that profit is made will make the difference between a lasting and benevolent organization and a short-living and selfish entity. Again, as I said earlier, it is not what life we live but rather how we live it.

The how is always answered by our values. I salute each and every individual whom I come across on a daily basis who continue to suck at the marrow of live by living their values and constantly having that first coffee feeling at work.

Present Truthfully and Efficiently : Basic Principles for Effective Business Presentation

As my relationship with my workshop participants or my career transition candidates evolve into more than just a consultant-client relationship, and when they share their trials and tribulations at the work place I often hear them lamenting how difficult it is for them to make effective presentations. Once, a senior manager of an organization who was in my workshop wrote to me this sentence (with a smiley added at the end) : “I am cooked! Remember, the new area GM? Presenting to him tomorrow! Any remedies other than a malt?!”

I have delivered my share of successful and less than successful business presentations and over the years I have begun to trust a simple mantra for making the best out of any type of business presentation : Present the truth….present it efficiently….walk away with your integrity if nothing else. I hope you will find this useful too.

First, PRESENT THE TRUTH, don’t take people for a ride! A presentation be it to influence or to inform has one underlying purpose and that is to educate. Facts need to be conveyed first and foremost with confidence and conviction; not arrogance. Do not sugar coat what you have to offer with bombastic words and phraseology as usually that is a clear sign that you are fishing for something to cling on for dear life. Why? Because you didn’t go in with a clear ‘point-of-view’ (POV). Have a crystal clear POV and decide what exactly you want to walk away with. For example, your POV could be : I am going to inform the Boss that the launch of the new product in November this year is not the way to go as we have quite substantial historical data to prove this. Your take away could be : I will walk away from the presentation with the Boss’s agreement that another round of meeting need to be held with our external branding advisors’.

Part of presenting the truth also involves clarifying your intend and purpose. Why are you the one delivering the presentation? Why have you taken up the responsibility of presenting? Is it because of your expertise, your convincing ability, your humour, your strong personality? Or, is it because this is an opportunity for you to shine, to make an impact, to put your name on the organisation’s radar? The answer to this question will to a large extend influence your intend and purpose and hence your approach. If you are asked to deliver a presentation ask the person assigning you the task this question. For all you know, you could be asked to deliver the presentation for a purpose that you are not naturally and truthfully inclined towards. For example, if somebody had asked me to present a solution to a client with the believe that I can convince, I will be in trouble. I don’t see my self as a natural convincer. I am more like somebody who will say all that is need to be said; both positive and negative, and hope that the listeners have an open mind to make their decision. I sincerely believe that in my industry what differentiates between one product from another is the passion put behind its delivery and that is what I will hope for my clients to detect rather than trying to convince them that ‘this framework is better than that’. For me to present most effectively, I need a less rigid ‘client take-away’ especially from a first meeting. For example, if a client called me in to share our Coaching solution as a way out for their performance problems VS if I was asked to share our coaching solution and what ever else that I think they will benefit better from, I will definitely do better in the latter. It will be difficult for me to go in with an aspirin-pill that the client had chosen and walk away ‘convincing’ them that that is the right pill for their aches!. Some presenters are what I call ‘high-focus/narrow-information’ type. People like me are what I call as ‘high-radius/broad-information’ type. There is a need for both type of presenters for different purposes.

Another element of presenting the truth involves ignoring the pressures of the moment. Have you experienced walking into a presentation feeling well prepared and relatively positive about your balanced approach only to be greeted by a obnoxious client who shoots you down after your first few lines or PowerPoint slides? I have, but more on that later. If you have than you will agree with me that your most immediate reaction is to switch to the survival mode. What will one do in a survival mode? That’s right…anything and everything to survive. When we are cornered into a survival mode, it is hard to present the truth as we have lost our upper ground. So, regardless of what initial reception you get, keep to your game plan. But that doesn't mean that you do not readjust to your listener’s motives and requirements. This brings me to my experience with a rather difficult client who barked at everything that I presented and shot holes into my presentation to an extend that I began to doubt my own preparation, which is rarely sloppy. But, as I persisted with my POV and maintained a humble predisposition and explained why the training program that I am proposing will be of value to his people, I noticed that he seemed to catch on with the idea that one of the modules will help participants identify where their true passion in life lies. With that, a presentation that was at the risk of being terminated prematurely, extended into late evening over cups of coffee and teh-tariks. I got the project and made the training provider a happy man for a year.

Next in the equation for effective presentation is to PRESENT EFFICIENTLY. This means you are conscious of your listener’s time and you are humble enough to admit that what you have to say is probably not really a life-or-death matter that they are willing to forgo their lunch hour for. So, say your piece succinctly and get the main points across quickly and allow time for questions and clarifications. Deliver your POV as clearly as you possibly can and make it known what take-aways you are expecting out of the meeting. Arrive early to get your materials ready. Make sure your laptop battery is fully charged and the slides are already on the screen before your clients/audience walks in. If you are not using a power point presentation but only printed materials, use your early arrival to arrange them neatly. Have your notebook and pen ready and open. Don’t begin the meeting or presentation by saying trivial things like ‘this is a nice meeting room’. You will have better chance of scoring some points if you mention something positive about the company that you have read recently. If it is a follow-up meeting, summarize the major points from the previous one before getting into you latest presentation.

In the end I suppose what makes or breaks a presentation is our mindset going into it. If we can get that right, the tool set follows seamlessly.

So, Present the Truth…Present it Efficiently….Walk away with your integrity.
You might just not need any 'malt' the evening before!