Learn to Adapt to Different Leadership Styles

Leadership styles are behavioral adaptations to particular situations.

The key to getting the most from all these leadership learning activities to coordinate them. Know what knowledge, skills, and experiences you need, and plan how to acquire them in an integrated fashion.

Leadership styles are behavioral adaptations to particular situations. Effective leaders learn, practice, and master each of the six leadership styles. Even though these leadership styles are presented as distinct behaviors, they often overlap as needed.

STYLE: Coercive

CHARACTERISTICS: Leader gives orders and expects to be obeyed.

WHEN USEFUL: Turnaround situations, natural or man made disasters. Dealing with difficult employees

WEAKNESSES: Inhibits organization's flexibility, weakens employee motivation.

STYLE: Authoritative

CHARACTERISTICS: Leader establishes overall goal and pushes people to follow.

WHEN USEFUL: Business is adrift and needs direction. Business is in a downturn.

WEAKNESSES: Leader's goal may not be the best one. Experts may disagree with the leader.

STYLE: Affiliative

CHARACTERISTICS: Leader assumes a "people come first" attitude.

WHEN USEFUL: need to build team cohesion, need to raise low morale.

WEAKNESSES: May allow poor employee performance to continue unchecked, employees may not have a sense of direction.

STYLE: Democratic

CHARACTERISTICS: Leader gives employees role in decision making.

WHEN USEFUL: Need to build organizational flexibility and responsibility.

WEAKNESSES: May result in indecision and a sense of confusion

STYLE: Pace setting

CHARACTERISTICS: Leader sets high performance standards.

WHEN USEFUL: Highly motivated employees can work on their own.

WEAKNESSES: May feel overwhelming for employees who cannot attain the high standards, some employees may feel resentful.

STYLE: Coaching

CHARACTERISTICS: leader focuses on personal development.

WHEN USEFUL: Employees want to change and improve professionally.

WEAKNESSES: Not successful when employees are resistant to change.

You may find some styles more comfortable than others, but the more you can develop a range of styles, the more effectively you will perform as a leader.

ACTION POINT: Adapt your leadership style to the needs of your people. Give latitude to those who can handle delegation; provide coaching to those whose skills and confidence need a boost; give explicit directions to those who need close supervision.

How to Acquire Leadership Skills

Be aggressive about becoming a leader.

Becoming a leader does not occur by osmosis. If you want to be a leader, you need to work at it. You probably have some of the skills mastered already. You may have excellent communications skills, or you already have a pretty good idea of what your vision is. You may even have that gift to inspire others. but if you lack some skills, knowledge, or experience, go out and get them!

How? Here are some suggestions:

Enroll in formal leadership programs. There are plenty of management training programs; aim for the ones designed specifically for leaders. Offered by consulting companies or universities, these programs may include focused weekend workshops or yearlong programs that cover the whole range of leadership skills. The training techniques may vary from case discussions and role playing to games that simulate analytical or decision-making situations.

Learn from experience. Even here, however, don't learn passively. Think strategically about how you will gain the experience you need. here are some ways to gain real leadership experience:

Ask to be assigned to challenging projects that will provide new and unusual problems to solve, such as joining a cross-functional team or a team working on a merger or acquisition.

Stay Alert. Try to observe situations from different perspectives. Watch how different people approach and solve similar problems.

Don't be afraid to fail. You probably learn more from failing once or twice than from succeeding all the time. The important thing is to take responsibility for your failure and recognize how you could do better the next time.

Get involved in a variety of assignments; don't just do the same old tasks over and over again.

Ask for feedback. Find out from others how you are doing. Be open to helpful criticism.

Elect to join job rotation programs. These programs can help you develop your managerial, technical, business, and communication skills in diverse roles.

Find a true mentor. Mentoring may seem like an excellent source for gaining knowledge about leadership, but the results have been mixed. The mentor should have the experience you want to gain, a genuine willingness to help you along, and a positive relationship with you.

ACTION POINT: Identify the programs, experience and mentors that will develop your leadership skills.

Evil and Humility

Deliver us from evil... Matthew 6:13

None of us knows until we have been through difficult problems and tragedies what we would do in a challenging situation. Once I attended a panel discussion of people who had suffered during the Holocaust and other barbaric oppressions of this century. One woman on the panel had survived the Holocaust, but her parents had been killed. She had started a humanitarian organization to prevent such horrors from being repeated and mentioned casually, "You know, I couldn't have started that organization unless I knew that, with the situation just a little different, I could have done the same things that the Nazis did to my parents and the others in the concentration camps." This woman, it seems to me, possessed true humility -- the knowledge of one's self that clearly perceives that with just a little change of circumstances, one is capable of any evil.

Matthew 6:13

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and glory, for ever. Amen

Do you Remember

Where you were when Elvis Presley died? (August 16, 1977) That was the question I was asked when I walked into Ike and Jonesy’s to meet a group of folks for a beer on Thursday night of this week. Technology had just delivered the news to a fellow’s phone that Michael Jackson had died.

Earlier that day (June 25, 2009) on a country road in Southern Ohio I heard that Farrah Fawcett had surrendered to cancer. Someone said it was tough day for those of us that grew up in the 70’s.

I did remember where I was when Elvis died. Athens, Greece around midnight and I was sending messages out of the Comm Center I was assigned to for the US Air Force.

Etched, certain times simply get etched into our lives. Like the day in first grade and we had just rolled out our nap maps for afternoon rest time. My teacher came in crying and said the school was closed, President Kennedy had been shot. (November 22, 1963). Sadly the same day the world lost C.S. Lewis and Aldous Huxley, but I didn’t know whom either of those guys was till much later in life.

I walked home and remembered the black and white TV playing nothing but the news coverage of the event for next three days. I was too young to know what the loss of the president meant, I only knew it cancelled Saturday morning cartoons.

Then there was the night the phone rang and immediately upon hearing my sister’s voice say my name, I knew that my father had died. (December 13, 1979). I cried as I listened to the Neil Young Harvest album over and over and thought of my dad. Here is where I recently took two of my kids to visit. I remember him, I miss him and I am thankful for the years of good memories he gave to me.

ACTION POINT: Remember someone special today.

Effective Leaders are Future Focused

In general, leaders who are effective now and in the future have learned how to be:

future-focused. They create a vision, articulate it to their group, and stick with it. They understand how their unit or organization fits into the larger picture, and they organize short-term tasks according to long-term priorities.

comfortable with ambiguity. They are willing to take calculated risks, can handle a certain level of disruption and conflict, and are willing to change their minds when new information comes to light.

persistent. They can maintain a positive, focused determination in pursuing a goal or vision, despite the obstacles.

excellent communicators. They know how to write clearly, listen closely, run meetings, make presentations, negotiate, and speak in public.

politically astute. They have acquired a solid sense of their organization's power structure, listen carefully to the concerns of its most powerful groups, and know where to turn for the support and resources they need.

level-headed. They know how to stay calm in the midst of turmoil and confusion.

self-aware. They know themselves enough to realize how their own patterns of behavior affect others.

caring. They have a demonstrated ability to empathize with other people's needs, concerns, and professional goals.

humorous. When the situation warrants it, they know how to inject a little mirth to relieve tension within a group.

ACTION POINT: Be the change you want to bring about--model the behaviors you're trying to encourage.

Pragmatic leaders--from the Ideal to the Real

Pragmatic leaders face the realities of the business environment


The most apparent characteristic of pragmatic leaders is their focus on the organization rather than on people. Pragmatic leaders face the realities of the business environment; they listen to and understand the truth, whether good or bad, hopeful or daunting. They are effective because:

Have a vision that is recognizable as a variation of the status quo

listen carefully to their people

make realistic decisions for the good of the organization

manage by the numbers

put the right people in the right positions to get the job done

delegate responsibilities to people they can trust

Pragmatic leaders may not be as flamboyant or exciting as other types of leaders, but they get the job done. Pragmatic leaders are most effective when an organization is going through rough times or when the business environment is too turbulent to see far ahead, when a short-term, familiar vision is necessary.

After all, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark were successful in attaining the goal of the Northwest journey. When they reached the Pacific Ocean in April 1805, Lewis wrote the he was "much pleased at having arrived at this long wished for spot."

ACTION POINT: Use pragmatism to focus on the needs of the organization.

Transformational Leaders Focus on the People and the Task

It was Sacajawea, a Shoshone teenager, who led the Lewis and Clark expedition over its most perilous routes. But you also have to remember that Lewis must have been a great leader also, because he was willing to turn over the leadership and follow a young Indian who seemed to know what she was doing, but whom he had never met before." - Douglass T. Hall

Unlike charismatic leaders, transformational leaders remold an organization not through the force of their own personality but by appealing to their people, gaining their trust and respect. Transformational leaders achieve results by paying close attention to their group or team as they:

articulate a clear and compelling vision

clarify the importance of the vision's outcome

provide a well-defined path to attain the vision

use symbols to realize their vision

act with confidence, optimism, and self-determination

encourage their people to work as a team rather than as individuals to reach the organizations
goals

empower people to make good decisions for the benefit of the whole.

What makes transformational leaders effective is their ability to make their vision a clear, identifiable goal that can guide their team's actions to meet the goal. They trust their people, provide the resources they need, and encourage them to move forward.

ACTION POINT: Empower and encourage your people for the benefit of the whole.

Charismatic Leaders Seem to Shine

The cult of the heroic leader remains strong. Loren Gary

A charismatic leader may seem to be born with a gift to inspire. Particularly during a crisis, people turn to this powerful voice for a grand vision and hope for solutions. Such a leader can clarify the situation for his people and instill the confidence they need. People feel safe handing off a problem to this type of leader.

What makes charismatic leaders such champions? They differ from the norm in greater self-confidence, energy, enthusiasm, and unconventional behavior. Charismatic leaders tend to:

have a clear, fresh, new, and creative vision

be completely devoted to their vision

make great sacrifices to achieve their vision, taking personal risks--financial, professional and
social

create a sense of urgency among their followers

gain the absolute trust of their followers (and also their fear)

use persuasion rather than forceful commands or democratic appeals for consensus to
influence their followers

A charismatic leader is most successful during a crisis. For example, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was a charismatic leader who led the United States out of the Great Depression and readied the nation for World War II. On the other hand, Adolf Hitler was also a charismatic leader who gave his defeated nation a new vision of power an might. Thus, charismatic leaders can have great power and influence, but how they use it determines whether their inspiration works for good or not.

However most organizations are not in a continual state of peril. A lofty vision for achieving a grand mission may not be attainable, and the value of inspiration may dissolve into a need for everyday, step-by-step progress. Thus, charismatic leaders are not always the best type of leader.

ACTION POINT: Balance the strengths of charismatic leaderships with the ongoing needs of your organization.

What Makes an Effective Leader

There are many kinds of effective leaders

Effective leaders are not born with the gift of knowing how to lead. Rather, they gain experience, they absorb knowledge, they see and listen to the world around them--both inside the organization and beyond.

Effective leaders are also capable of assuming the leadership qualities needed for specific situations. There are many kinds of effective leaders--among them the charismatic leader, the transformational leader, the pragmatic leader--but these distinctive qualities can blend together in one person in different ways at different times.

ACTION POINT: Recognize that leadership takes on many different forms.

Friendship with God

You are my friends...I chose you. John 15:15-16

How do we cultivate any friendship? By spending time together with those to whom we are attracted. There are stages of building any relationship, beginning with getting acquainted, which is a bit awkward, through friendliness, which is more pleasant; to friendship, which is a commitment; to various levels of union and unity that restore the state of intimacy that we lost symbolically in the Garden of Eden. Here we are under the influence of unconscious drives of various intensity that in turn influence our decisions and relationships with other people and foul them up...Contemplative prayer is a deepening of faith that moves beyond thoughts and concepts. One just listens to God, open and receptive to the divine presence in one's inmost being as its source. One listens not with a view to hearing something, but with a view to becoming aware of the obstacles to one's friendship with God.

Remove every obstacle out of the way of My people. Isaiah 57:14

Be Like Mike

In 1992 one of the most inspiring commercials ever aired was the Gatorade "Be Like Mike, Drink Gatorade" commercial. A great tune in the background of some of Michael Jordan’s most amazing shots on the basketball court sets the stage for the kids that “sometimes dream that he is me”. Jordan’s amazing skills and sheer love of the game and life are infectious and inspiring.

YouTube - Be Like Mike Gatorade Commercial (ORIGINAL)

Recently the “Be Like Mike” thought popped into my head, not because of the commercial but because of a couple of Mike’s that I have the privilege to work with. Both of these Mike’s are infectious and inspiring as men and fathers. One Mike recently added a fourth child to his family. His joy was evident as he shared the news about the little guy’s arrival into this world. A short time later Mike received the news that his new son was diagnosed with downs syndrome. More tests with doctors revealed that there was also a heart problem Open heart surgery for the new arrival was now added to the calendar.

I don’t pretend to know the emotions that welled up in Mike as he faced the news. What I did see was the strength of his faith in God, courage in the face of trial and undaunted hope for the future. Mike counted the blessings of living in a city that housed some of the best resources in the world for children with downs. Mikes faith and hope were evident in each prayer request he shared. And Mike's grit spoke loudest when he quietly said to me, “Folks say God won’t give you anything you can’t handle, just sometimes I wish he didn’t give us so much.” That phrase conveyed Mike’s humility and strength. Inspiring and infectious.

The other Mike is a guy that pours his heart out for his team and is always looking for the good and hoping for the best in people. It’s painful to learn that there are some that will simply take advantage of that. It stings. Such was the case for Mike in recent weeks. Confronting such vice is never easy and the hard call of severing ties with those you have poured so much into is both painful and disappointing.

This Mike also has a child with a brain tumor. It was something that popped up once when she was young and disappeared, only later to return in her teen years. Now she faces regular treatments of chemo and the family adds new meaning to the “one day at a time” acceptance of life. I can only imagine that there is a weight to this that never leaves. However, you would'nt know it if you saw the way that Mike takes on each day. Unblinking hope, zany humor and rock solid integirity are what you see in Mike. I have watched it for years. Inspiring and infectious.

Be Like Mike(s).

Leading or Managing?

The primary difference is that managing involves coping with complexity; leading, coping with change.

Are leadership skills the same skills effective managers use? Yes, to a degree. Managing and leading are complementary and often overlapping activities. The primary difference is that managing involves coping with complexity; leading, coping with change. At the same time, managing requires leadership skills, and leading requires management skills.

Management skills will always be essential, but in responding and adapting to the changing socioeconomic realities of today's market's, managers, even middle managers, are increasingly be called upon to be leaders as well.

MANAGEMENT SKILLS LEADERSHIP SKILLS

Planning and budgeting Setting a direction
Organizing and staffing Aligning people to a vision
Controlling and problem solving Motivating and inspiring


ACTION POINT: No matter what the current economic, political, and social realities may be, the challenge for leaders today is to define their special goals or vision, to acquire as many management and leadership skills as possible, and finally, to know when to sue them to influence others to reach those goals.

Expand Your Leadership Skills

...few leaders today use formal authority and the power to command and control

There will always be a time and place for charismatic leaders, but few leaders today use formal authority and the power to command and control; rather, they influence and motivate people to achieve clearly defined goals. The power to influence and motivate requires skills such as:

Communication skills to speak and write persuasively

Interpersonal skills to listen and hear what people are really saying

Conflict-resolution skills to handle the inevitable times of friction and tension

Negotiation skills to bring differing groups together

Motivational skills to convince people to strive for the same goal

ACTION POINT: Develop the skills required to motivate and influence people.

The Challenge of Contemporary Leadership

The definition of leadership is to have inspired, energized followers. - Warren G. Bennis

Leadership used to be viewed as innate. Epitomized by heroic, Lone Ranger types, it was seen as a mystical blend of courage, charisma, and even a flair for the dramatic. But beyond those traits, to paraphrase Louis Armstrong, if you had to ask what leadership was, you'd never know.

Fortunately, we've all grown wiser--or at least, we've had the lesson drummed into us by a business climate that is increasingly competitive and volatile. Yes, leadership still calls for courage and decisiveness in the face of conflicting demands. For example, the ability to make trade offs between people, resources, money, and deadlines--often causing short-term pain for the sake of long term benefit--remains a vita element of effective leadership. But the changing structure of organizations, the growth of alliances and joint ventures between organizations, indeed, the changing nature of work itself--all call for more practical and diverse approaches to leadership.

ACTION POINT: Identify practical, courageous and diverse leadership approaches that will inspire and energize your team.

Leading People II

"Cheshire Puss," she began, rather timidly,... "Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?" "That depends a good deal on where you want to get to," said the Cat.

So where can you start? Start with the purpose. It does very little good to spend time trying to influence others if you have not idea for what purpose. What is the vision? Where are you trying to go? What are you trying to accomplish? This sound so simple, but it is absolutely critical. Good leaders know what they are trying to accomplish. Not only do they know where they are going but why they are going there. If you cannot answer these questions--where are you going and why--you will spend a lot of time rushing to and fro but getting nowhere. Remember the classic scene from Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland?

[Alice] was a little startled by seeing the Cheshire Cat sitting on a bough of a tree a few yards off.

The Cat only grinned when it saw Alice...

"Cheshire Puss," she began, rather timidly,... "Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?"

"That depends a good deal on where you want to get to," said the Cat.

"I don't much care where--" said Alice.

"Then it doesn't matter which way you go," said the Cat.

"--so long as I get somewhere," Alice added as an explanation.

"Oh, you're sure to do that," said the Cat, "if you only walk long enough."

The Cheshire Cat is right. If you do not know where you are going, any path will do. But once you do know where you are headed, then you can focus your resources and motivate and inspire people to get the work done. Remember, if you are going to be a leader, it is not about what you do, it is about what others do. As a leader, you influence others to help you accomplish the common objective.

One last word of caution. Don't wait for others to clarify your vision. In our work in organizations, we are forever hearing the comment, "If only they would tell me where we are going, I would know what to do." That simply tells us the speaker is not a leader; he's a follower waiting for someone else to lead. And guess what! You already know more about your job, your life, your customers, your hopes and desires than "they" do. What are you waiting for them? Leaders do not wait.

Leading People

Leading, simply defined, is the abilty to influence others to mvoe toward the accomplishemnt of common goals.

The word leader evokes images of great men and women who, in moments of crisis, rise up to make a great difference in the course of human events. We enjoy books about them, we watch movies about them, and we tell stories about them. Unfortunately, this image creates the belief that in order to lead we somehow have to be at that golden moment and have the ability to inspire thousands. Not so, Leading, simply defined, is the ability to influence others to move toward the accomplishment of common goals.

Mothers and fathers lead. Little children lead. Unit heads lead. And you can lead. In fact, you probably already do. Think about the times recently when you have influenced others by the decisions you made, by how you choose to spend your time and money, or by simply engaging in a conversation that affected what others were doing.

ACTION POINT: Recognize that you have the ability to lead.

Effective Action

Let me sing God's song and dance God's dance.

Once the presence of God is a permanent part of daily life, there is a sense of spaciousness in the midst of all our activities. When difficulties arise because of events or other people, and our emotional reactions start to give us trouble, we can surround them with God's presence. This awareness relativizes the importance of the compulsion that we have to do something about every situation. Yes, we have to do something about certain situations, but if we do them from false self-motivation, we will not accomplish anything. When we act from the conviction of God's presence within us and with openness to the inspirations of the Holy Spirit, action becomes effective.

Ephesians 3:20
Glory be to him whose power, working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine...

Opportunity

The following is an email I received from a friend that was inspired to have a little fun with me based on recent real events taking place in our country. My friends humor gave me a good laugh and the links to actual events from recent news gave me a bit of a sobering chill.


Comrade Steve,

Official request (from those unable to earn an income by working hard)

You need to inform your over-qualified “paying” tenants to vacate your property to make room for our brothers from our southern neighbor – Guantanamo Bay. These brothers have been held too long illegally by that tyrant George Bush (single-handedly) and after reading them their MIRANDA RIGHTS, they will soon be joining us here in the US. Granted, this country (United States) has done so many terrible things wrong to every other nation in the world that it is strange they would honor us by relocating here. Nevertheless, we plan to make their lives more comfortable by letting them stay in your “rental” homes. It is obvious, you are not in need of these possessions and they will be better served as property of the state! As you know, we, the real people, frown upon capitalism and work (secretly) to discourage anyone from earning more money than we say you can earn. Therefore, the state has decided to pay you……uh….nothing for these unneeded possessions. In fact, due to your reported income, or at least what we think you make because you are a middle aged white person, you cannot report this as a loss on your income taxes either. I am sure you understand.

Do not fret over our decision; rest assured we have your greater good at heart. We plan to deploy a national health care system as effectively as we run any Federal program – FEMA, Social Security or Medicare. Our plan is to drive this inefficient, high priced, fiasco down your throats with tools such as “the twisted truth”, innuendos, and misconceptions by capitalizing on the American people’s hatred of all those rich capitalist and their desire to keep everyone down.

This program will succeed due to our first initiative to kill the largest economy in the world with time proven techniques like over-taxation and massive-spending strategies. Once our economy is just less than Costa Rico’s, the existing supply and demand medical community will cease to exist creating a demand for our program.

We thank you for your cooperation and look forward to confiscating the rest of your belongings. It will not be in the near future, after all we are the government and we do nothing fast or efficiently, that is why we must tax you so much.



Your brother in poverty,
Comrade Dave “disillusioned”



Related stories (all today) and all true:

Bermuda takes 4 detainees from Gitmo
Their release comes as the administration scrambles to meet President Barack Obama's pledge to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility by early next year.
Americans' net worth shrinks $1.33 trillion in 1Q (ABC News)

WASHINGTON – American households lost $1.33 trillion of their wealth in the first three months of the year

CEO says gov't pressured bank to buy Merrill Lynch (Associated Press)

WASHINGTON – House lawmakers on Thursday accused the federal government of orchestrating a "shotgun wedding" between Bank of America Corp. and Merrill Lynch that cost taxpayers $20 billion

Obama declares time to fix health care is now (Associated Press)
GREEN BAY, Wis. – President Barack Obama went to the nation's heartland Thursday to challenge critics of his proposed health care overhaul, asking: "What's the alternative?"
White House uses Web during speech to Muslims (Associated Press)
Obama's speech Thursday was an illustration of the administration's aggressive strategy to work the Web to enhance the White House's message. A flurry of messages flooded the Internet, as the White House's Twitter feed and Facebook page posted highlights while Obama was still speaking and the State Department sent free text messages about the speech.
California nears financial "meltdown" as revenues tumble (Reuters)
California's government risks a financial "meltdown"
Administration, Congress seek to rein in exec pay (Associated Press)
WASHINGTON – The Obama administration is taking a half-step toward taming executive pay. Some lawmakers prefer a fuller stride.

More students on free lunch programs (USA Today)
Nearly 20 million children now receive free or reduced-price lunches in the nation's schools, an all-time high, federal data show

Managing Oneself

...managing oneself requires new and unprecedented things from the individual...

The challenges of managing oneself may seem obvious, if not elementary. And t he answers may seem self-evident to the point of appearing naive. But managing oneself requires new and unprecedented things from the individual, and especially from the knowledge worker. In effect, managing oneself demands that each knowledge worker think and behave like a chief executive officer. Further, the shift from manual workers who do as they are told to knowledge workers who have to manage themselves profoundly challenges social structure. Every existing society, even the most individualistic one, takes two things for granted, if only subconsciously: that organizations outlive workers, and that most people stay put.

But today the opposite is true. Knowledge workers outlive organizations, and they are mobile. The need to mange oneself is therefore creating a revolution in human affairs.

ACTION POINT: Manage yourself.

The Second Half of You Life V

In a society in which success has become so terribly important, having options will become increasingly vital.

There is another reason to develop a second major interest, and to develop it early. No one can expect to live very long without experiencing a serious setback in his or her life or work. There is the competent engineer who is passed over for promotion at age 45. There is the competent college professor who realizes at age 42 that she will never get a professorship at a big university, even though she may be fully qualified for it. There are tragedies n one's family life: the breakup of one's marriage or the loss of a child. At such times, a second major interest--not just a hobby--may make all the difference. The engineer, for example, now knows that he has not been very successful in his job. But in his outside activity--as church treasurer, for example--he is a success.

In a society in which success has become so terribly important, having options will become increasingly vital. Historically, there was not such thing as "success." The overwhelming majority of people did not expect anything but to stay in their "proper station," as and old English prayer has it. The only mobility was downward mobility.

In a knowledge society, however, we expect everyone to be a success. This is clearly an impossibility. For a great many people, there is at best an absence of failure.
Wherever there is success, there has to be failure. And then it is vitally important for the individual, and equally for the individuals family, to have an area in which he or she can contribute, make a difference, and be somebody. That means finding a second area--whether in a second career, a parallel career, or a social venture--that offers an opportunity for being a leader, for being respected, for being a success.

ACTION POINT: Begin early to find a second area for success in your life.

The Second Half of Your Life IV

If one does not begin to volunteer before one is 40 or so, one will not volunteer once past 60.

There is one prerequisite for managing the second half of your life: You must begin long before you enter it. When it first became clear 30 years ago that working-life expectancies were lengthening very fast, many observers (including myself) believed that retired people would increasingly become volunteers for nonprofit institutions. That has not happened. If one does not begin to volunteer before one is 40 or so, one will not volunteer once past 60.

Similarly, all the social entrepreneurs I know began to work in their chosen second enterprise long before they reached their peak in their original business. Consider the example of a successful lawyer, the legal counsel to a large corporation, who has started a venture to establish model schools in his state. He began to do volunteer legal work for the schools when he was around 35. He was elected to the school board at age 40. At age 50, when he had amassed a fortune, he started his own enterprise to build and to run model schools. He is, however, still working nearly full-time as the lead counsel in the company he helped found as a young lawyer.

ACTION POINT: Prepare for the second half of your life before you are there.

The Second Half of Your Life III

People who manage the second half of their lives may always be a minority.

The second way to prepare for the second half of your life is to develop a parallel career. Many people who are very successful in their first careers stay in the work they have been doing, either on a full-time or part time or consulting basis. But in addition, they create a parallel job, usually in a nonprofit organization, that takes another ten hours of work a week. They might take over the administration of their church, for instance, or the presidency of the local Girl Scouts council. They might run the battered women’s shelter, work as a children’s librarian for the local public library, sit on the school board, and so on.

Finally, there are the social entrepreneurs. These are usually people who have been very successful in their first careers. They love their work, but it no longer challenges them. In many cases they keep on doing what they have been doing all along but spend less and less of their time on it. They also start another activity, usually a nonprofit. My friend Bob Buford, for example, built a very successful television company that he still runs. But he also founded and built a successful nonprofit organization that works with Protestant churches, and he is building another to teach social entrepreneurs how to manage their own nonprofit ventures while still running their original businesses.

People who manage the second half of their lives may always be a minority. The majority may “retire on the job” and count the years until their actual retirement. But it is the minority, the men and women who see long working-life expectancy as an opportunity both for themselves and for society, who will become leaders and models.

ACTION POINT: Establish a long view of your working life through either a parallel career or social entrepreneurship.

The Second Half of Your Life II

We will see many more second careers undertaken by people who have achieved modest success in their first jobs.

There are three ways to develop a second career. The first is actually to start one. Often this takes nothing more than moving from one kind of organization to another: the divisional controller in a large corporation, for instance, becomes the controller of a medium-sized hospital. But there are also growing numbers of people who move into different lines of work altogether: the business executive or government official who enters the ministry at 45, for instance; or the mid level manger who leaves corporate life after 20 years to attend law school and become a small-town attorney.

We will see many more second careers undertaken by people who have achieved modest success in their first jobs. Such people have substantial skills, and they know how to work. They need a community—the house is empty with the children gone—and they need income as well. But above all they need challenge.

ACTION POINT: Consider community, income and above all challenge when contemplating a second career.

Lectio Divinia

From the earliest accounts of monastic practice--dating back to the fourth century--it is evident that a form of reading called lectio divina ("divine" or "spiritual reading") was essential to any deliberate spiritual life. This kind of reading is quite different from that of scanning a text for useful facts and bits of information, or advancing along an exciting plot line to a climax in the action. It is, rather, a meditative approach by which the reader seeks to savor and taste the beauty and truth of every phrase and passage. This process of contemplative reading has the effect of enkindling in the reader compunction for past behavior that has been less than beautiful and true. At the same time, it increases the desire to seek a realm where all that is lovely and unspoiled may be found.

There are four steps in lectio divina: first to read, next to meditate, then to rest in the sense of God's nearness, and, ultimately, to resolve to govern one's actions in the light of a new understanding. This kind of reading is itself an act of prayer. And, indeed, it is in prayer that God manifests His Presence to us.

President Ronald Reagan, Normandy June 6 1984

It was the deep knowledge — and pray God we have not lost it — that there is a profound, moral difference between the use of force for liberation and the use of force for conquest.

We’re here to mark that day in history when the Allied armies joined in battle to reclaim this continent to liberty. For four long years, much of Europe had been under a terrible shadow. Free nations had fallen, Jews cried out in the camps, millions cried out for liberation. Europe was enslaved, and the world prayed for its rescue. Here in Normandy the rescue began. Here the Allies stood and fought against tyranny in a giant undertaking unparalleled in human history.

We stand on a lonely, wind-swept point on the northern shore of France. The air is soft, but 40 years ago at this moment, the air was dense with smoke and the cries of men, and the air was filled with the crack of rifle fire and the roar of cannon. At dawn, on the morning of the 6th of June, 1944, 225 Rangers jumped off the British landing craft and ran to the bottom of these cliffs. Their mission was one of the most difficult and daring of the invasion: to climb these sheer and desolate cliffs and take out the enemy guns. The Allies had been told that some of the mightiest of these guns were here and they would be trained on the beaches to stop the Allied advance.

The Rangers looked up and saw the enemy soldiers — the edge of the cliffs shooting down at them with machine guns and throwing grenades. And the American Rangers began to climb. They shot rope ladders over the face of these cliffs and began to pull themselves up. When one Ranger fell, another would take his place. When one rope was cut, a Ranger would grab another and begin his climb again. They climbed, shot back, and held their footing. Soon, one by one, the Rangers pulled themselves over the top, and in seizing the firm land at the top of these cliffs, they began to seize back the continent of Europe. Two hundred and twenty-five came here. After two days of fighting, only 90 could still bear arms.

Behind me is a memorial that symbolizes the Ranger daggers that were thrust into the top of these cliffs. And before me are the men who put them there. These are the boys of Pointe du Hoc. These are the men who took the cliffs. These are the champions who helped free a continent. These are the heroes who helped end a war.

Gentlemen, I look at you and I think of the words of Stephen Spender’s poem. You are men who in your “lives fought for life . . . and left the vivid air signed with your honor.” I think I know what you may be thinking right now — thinking, “We were just part of a bigger effort; everyone was brave that day.” Well, everyone was.

Do you remember the story of Bill Millin of the 51st Highlanders? Forty years ago today, British troops were pinned down near a bridge, waiting desperately for help. Suddenly, they heard the sound of bagpipes, and some thought they were dreaming. Well, they weren’t. They looked up and saw Bill Millin with his bagpipes, leading the reinforcements and ignoring the smack of the bullets into the ground around him. Lord Lovat was with him — Lord Lovat of Scotland, who calmly announced when he got to the bridge, “Sorry I’m a few minutes late,” as if he’d been delayed by a traffic jam, when in truth he’d just come from the bloody fighting on Sword Beach, which he and his men had just taken. There was the impossible valor of the Poles who threw themselves between the enemy and the rest of Europe as the invasion took hold, and the unsurpassed courage of the Canadians who had already seen the horrors of war on this coast. They knew what awaited them there, but they would not be deterred. And once they hit Juno Beach, they never looked back.

All of these men were part of a roll call of honor with names that spoke of a pride as bright as the colors they bore: the Royal Winnipeg Rifles, Poland’s 24th Lancers, the Royal Scots Fusiliers, the Screaming Eagles, the Yeomen of England’s armored divisions, the forces of Free France, the Coast Guard’s “Matchbox Fleet” and you, the American Rangers. Forty summers have passed since the battle that you fought here. You were young the day you took these cliffs; some of you were hardly more than boys, with the deepest joys of life before you. Yet, you risked everything here. Why? Why did you do it? What impelled you to put aside the instinct for self-preservation and risk your lives to take these cliffs? What inspired all the men of the armies that met here? We look at you, and somehow we know the answer. It was faith and belief; it was loyalty and love.

The men of Normandy had faith that what they were doing was right, faith that they fought for all humanity, faith that a just God would grant them mercy on this beachhead or on the next. It was the deep knowledge — and pray God we have not lost it — that there is a profound, moral difference between the use of force for liberation and the use of force for conquest. You were here to liberate, not to conquer, and so you and those others did not doubt your cause. And you were right not to doubt. You all knew that some things are worth dying for. One’s country is worth dying for, and democracy is worth dying for, because it’s the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man. All of you loved liberty. All of you were willing to fight tyranny, and you knew the people of your countries were behind you. The Americans who fought here that morning knew word of the invasion was spreading through the darkness back home. They thought — or felt in their hearts, though they couldn’t know in fact, that in Georgia they were filling the churches at 4 a.m., in Kansas they were kneeling on their porches and praying, and in Philadelphia they were ringing the Liberty Bell.

Something else helped the men of D-Day: their rock-hard belief that Providence would have a great hand in the events that would unfold here; that God was an ally in this great cause. And so, the night before the invasion, when Colonel Wolverton asked his parachute troops to kneel with him in prayer he told them: Do not bow your heads, but look up so you can see God and ask His blessing in what we’re about to do. Also that night, General Matthew Ridgway on his cot, listening in the darkness for the promise God made to Joshua: “I will not fail thee nor forsake thee.” These are the things that impelled them; these are the things that shaped the unity of the Allies.

When the war was over, there were lives to be rebuilt and governments to be returned to the people. There were nations to be reborn. Above all, there was a new peace to be assured. These were huge and daunting tasks. But the Allies summoned strength from the faith, belief, loyalty, and love of those who fell here. They rebuilt a new Europe together. There was first a great reconciliation among those who had been enemies, all of whom had suffered so greatly. The United States did its part, creating the Marshall Plan to help rebuild our allies and our former enemies. The Marshall Plan led to the Atlantic alliance — a great alliance that serves to this day as our shield for freedom, for prosperity, and for peace. In spite of our great efforts and successes, not all that followed the end of the war was happy or planned. Some liberated countries were lost. The great sadness of this loss echoes down to our own time in the streets of Warsaw, Prague, and East Berlin. Soviet troops that came to the center of this continent did not leave when peace came. They’re still there, uninvited, unwanted, unyielding, almost 40 years after the war. Because of this, Allied forces still stand on this continent.

Today, as 40 years ago, our armies are here for only one purpose — to protect and defend democracy. The only territories we hold are memorials like this one and graveyards where our heroes rest. We in America have learned bitter lessons from two World Wars: It is better to be here ready to protect the peace than to take blind shelter across the sea, rushing to respond only after freedom is lost. We’ve learned that isolationism never was and never will be an acceptable response to tyrannical governments with an expansionist intent. But we try always to be prepared for peace; prepared to deter aggression; prepared to negotiate the reduction of arms; and, yes, prepared to reach out again in the spirit of reconciliation. In truth, there is no reconciliation we would welcome more than a reconciliation with the Soviet Union, so, together, we can lessen the risks of war, now and forever.

It’s fitting to remember here the great losses also suffered by the Russian people during World War II: 20 million perished, a terrible price that testifies to all the world the necessity of ending war. I tell you from my heart that we in the United States do not want war. We want to wipe from the face of the Earth the terrible weapons that man now has in his hands. And I tell you, we are ready to seize that beachhead. We look for some sign from the Soviet Union that they are willing to move forward, that they share our desire and love for peace, and that they will give up the ways of conquest. There must be a changing there that will allow us to turn our hope into action. We will pray forever that someday that changing will come. But for now, particularly today, it is good and fitting to renew our commitment to each other, to our freedom, and to the alliance that protects it. We are bound today by what bound us 40 years ago, the same loyalties, traditions, and beliefs. We’re bound by reality. The strength of America’s allies is vital to the United States, and the American security guarantee is essential to the continued freedom of Europe’s democracies. We were with you then; we are with you now. Your hopes are our hopes, and your destiny is our destiny.

Here, in this place where the West held together, let us make a vow to our dead. Let us show them by our actions that we understand what they died for. Let our actions say to them the words for which Matthew Ridgway listened: “I will not fail thee nor forsake thee.” Strengthened by their courage, heartened by their value [valor], and borne by their memory, let us continue to stand for the ideals for which they lived and died. Thank you very much, and God bless you all.

ACTION POINT: Strengthened by their courage, heartened by their value [valor], and borne by their memory, let us continue to stand for the ideals for which they lived and died.

The Second Half of Your Life

Today, however, most work is knowledge work, and knowledge workers are not “finished” after 40 years on the job, they are merely bored.

When work for most people meant manual labor, there was not need to worry about the second half of your life. You simply kept on doing what you had always done. And if you were lucky enough so survive 40 years of hard work in the mill or on the railroad, you were quite happy to spend the rest of your life doing nothing. Today, however, most work is knowledge work, and knowledge workers are not “finished” after 40 years on the job, they are merely bored.

We hear a great deal of talk about the midlife crisis of the executive. It is mostly boredom. At 45, most executives have reached the peak of their business careers, and they know it. After 20 years of doing very much the same kind of work, they are very good at their jobs. But they are not learning or contributing or deriving challenge and satisfaction from the job. And yet they are still likely to face another 20 if not 25 years of work. That is why managing oneself increasing leads one to begin a second career.

ACTION POINT: Consider the challenges and contributions you would find satisfying in a second career.

Responsibility for Relationships IV

Organizations are not longer built on force but on trust.

Even people who understand the importance of taking responsibility for relationships often do not communicate sufficiently with their associates. They are afraid of being thought presumptuous or inquisitive or stupid. They are wrong. Whenever someone goes to his or her associates and says, “This is what I am good at. This is how I work. These are my values. This is the contribution I plan to concentrate on and the results I should be expected to deliver,” the response is always, “This is most helpful. Buy why didn’t you tell me earlier?”

And one gets the same reaction—without exception, in my experience—if one continues by asking, “And what do I need to know about your strengths, how you perform, your values, and your proposed contribution?” In fact, knowledge workers should request this of everyone with whom they work, whether as subordinate, superior, colleague, or team member. And a gain, whenever this is done, the reaction is always, “Thanks for asking me. But why didn’t you ask me earlier?”

Organizations are not longer built on force but on trust. The existence of trust between people does not necessarily mean that they like one another. It means that they understand one another. Taking responsibility for relationships is therefore an absolute necessity. It is a duty. Whether one is a member of the organization, a consultant to it, a supplier, or a distributor, one owes that responsibility to all one’s coworkers: those whose work one depends on as well as those who depend on one’s own work.

ACTION POINT: Take responsibility for relationships by accepting others as individuals and being accountable for communication.

Responsibility for Relationships III

Today the great majority of people work with others who have different tasks and responsibilities.

The second part of relationship responsibility is taking responsibility for communication. Whenever I, or any other consultant, start to work with an organization, the first thing I hear about are all the personality conflicts. Most of these arise from the fact that people do know what other people are doing and how they do their work, or what contribution the other people are concentrating on and what results they expect. And the reason they do not know is that they have not asked and therefore have not been told.

This failure to ask reflects human stupidity less than it reflects human history. Until recently, it was unnecessary to tell any of these things to anybody. In the medieval city, everyone in a district plied the same trade. In the countryside, everyone in a valley planted the same crop as soon as the frost was out of the ground. Even those few people who did things that were not “common” worked alone, so they did not have to tell anyone what they were doing.

Today the great majority of people work with others who have different tasks and responsibilities. The marketing vice president may have come out of sales and know everything about sales, but she knows nothing about the things she has never done—pricing, advertising, packaging, and the like. So the people who do these things must make sure that the marketing vice president understands what they are trying to do, why they are trying to do it, how they are going to do it, and what results to expect.

If the marketing vice president does not understand what these high-grade knowledge specialists are doing, it is primarily their fault, not hers. They have not educated her. Conversely, it is the marketing vice president’s responsibility to make sure that all of her coworkers understand how she looks at marketing: what her goals are, how she works, and what she expects of herself and of each one of them.

ACTION POINT: Communication is your responsibility.

Responsibility for Relationships II

Each works his or her way, not your way.

Bosses are neither a title on the organization chart nor a “function.” They are individuals and are entitled to do their work in the way they do it best. It is incumbent on the people who work with them to observe them, to find out how they work, and to adapt themselves to what makes their bosses most effective. This, in fact, is the secret of “managing” the boss.

The same holds true for all your coworkers. Each works his or her way, not your way. And each is entitled to work in his or her way. What matters is whether they perform and what their values are. As for how they perform—each is likely to do it differently. The first secret of effectiveness is to understand the people you work with and depend on so that you can make use of their strengths, their ways of working, and their values. Working relationships are as much based on the people as they are on the work.


ACTION PONT: Base your working relationships on the strength and value of the people as well as the work.

Responsibility for Relationships

Managing yourself requires taking responsibility for relationships.

Very few people work by themselves and achieve great results by themselves—a few great artists, a few great scientists, a few great athletes. Most people work with others and are effective with other people. That is true whether they are members of an organization or independently employed. Managing yourself requires taking responsibility for relationships. This has two parts.

The first is to accept the fact that other people are as much individuals as you yourself are. They perversely insist on behaving like human beings. This means that they too have their strengths; they too have their ways of getting things done; they too have their values. To be effective, therefore, you have to know the strengths, the performance modes and the values of your coworkers.

That sounds obvious but few people pay attention to it. Typical is the person who was trained to write reports in his or her first assignment because that boss was a reader. Even if the next boss is a listener, the person goes on writing reports that, invariably, produce no results. Invariably the boss will think the employee is stupid incompetent and lazy, and he or she will fail. But that could have been avoided if the employee had only looked at the new boss and analyzed how this boss performs.

ACTION POINT: Understand and know how those around you perform.