A521.9.4.RB - Reflections on Leadership

Reflections on Leadership Gregory Rutbell 21 December 2013 Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University - Worldwide Campus For this Reflection Blog, I will create a reflection blog focusing on Denning's Chapter 12, "A Different Kind of Leader." In Chapter 12, Denning explicitly describes his dimensions of leadership. I will reflect on those dimensions and how I expect they will impact the way I lead in the future. Include specific examples of how at least THREE of Denning's dimensions manifest in my own application of leadership. In my current thinking, what is most important to me? The interactive leader works with the world rather than against it. The key is to read the world and let the world do some of the work for you rather than trying to manipulate and control others by imposing various kinds of boundaries, incentives, and disincentives to get compliance with your will. The interactive leader is someone who can overcome stronger adversaries by catalyzing and channeling his or her energy. (Denning, 2011) Interactive leadership both adds and subtracts elements from the leadership palette. Interactive leadership supplements the traditional management functions of command, control, regulation, analysis and optimization by adding new capabilities. It's not possible for leaders to exercise manipulative and spinning behavior in one part of their conduct and expect to be accepted as open, truthful, and trustworthy in other domains. (Denning, 2011) Interactive leadership builds on personal integrity and authenticity. Because you can communicate who you are and what you stand for, others come to know and respect you for that. Because you are attentive to the world as it is, your ideas are sound. Because you speak the truth, you are believed. Because you treat others as ends in themselves, not merely as means to your own ends, people trust you. Because you make your values explicit and act in accord with those values, your values become contagious and others start to share them. Because you listen to the world, the world listens to you. Because you are open to innovation, happy accidents happen. Because you bring meaning into the world of work, you are able to get superior results. (Denning, 2011) Interactive leadership doesn't depend on the possession of hierarchical authority. Anyone and everyone who can help clarify the direction or improve the structure, or secure support for it, or offer coaching that improves performance is providing leadership. (Denning, 2011) Interactive leadership benefits from an understanding of the different narrative patterns that can be used to get things done in the world. This involves telling stories, not talking about storytelling. Narrative depends on emotional intelligence, but it also puts emotional intelligence to work to achieve practical outcomes. (Denning, 2011) Above all, interactive leadership entails active participation in the world rather than detached from observation. And it is to this distinction that I now turn. (Denning, 2011) I attended a John Maxwell training class at work this spring titled "The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership." He is an incredible speaker and subject matter expert on leadership and teams. He stated "everything rises and falls on leadership." When good leadership is in place an organization succeeds at customer satisfaction, employee retention, productivity and growth. Without sound organizational leadership an organization may experience lack of moral, high turnover rate and difficulty maintaining a strong public image. (Maxwell, 2007) Leadership is won or lost on body language! How do you want to present yourself, deliverable and "connect" with your audience? Your dress attire, hand shake, eye contact, posture (how you stand, walk and movements), gestures, voice (use your voice), smile etc. along with your interpersonal "soft" skills will make or break you. Are you "connecting" along with your deliverable to the audience? Leadership guru John C. Maxwell, researcher and author of the masterpiece book "Everyone Communicates Few Connect: What The Most Effective People Do Differently" states that it's not experience and talent that stands between you and success but "connecting" with people. This includes: finding common ground, keeping communication simple, capturing people's interest, inspiring people, staying authentic in all and your relationships. (Maxwell, 2010) There is a leadership crisis today. Leaders are important for three basic reasons. First, the success of failure of all organizations (including stock prices too) rests on the perceived quality of the people at the top. The second reason is that the change and upheaval of the past years have left us with no place to hide. Visionary navigators are needed who can develop and implement charted courses and plans for dead reckoning. The third reason is that we as a nation are alarmed by the pervasive erosion of the character and integrity of our organizations. (Bennis, 1989) Our quality of life depends on the quality of our leaders. If you've ever dreamed of becoming a leader, now's the time to make those dreams reality. The future needs a legacy from today's leaders, and those are far too few to answer the challenge. Bennis contributed to the field of leadership in extraordinary ways. One specific thing he expanded on is the idea of self-actualization and reflection. Bennis mentioned that it's important to reflect on our past experiences in order to begin to know ourselves and our world. It is through this reflection, that leaders can lead more effectively. (Bennis, 1989) Becoming a leader isn't easy but learning to lead is easier than one may think because every manager possesses an inventory of raw materials to become a genuine leader: experiences, observations, vision and others. The key is molding and integrating them that are unique and to your own self. Although everyone can become a leader not everyone will. Why? Because too many people are prisoners of their own inertia. They lack the will to change and develop their potential. People who are willing to overcome inertia can transform themselves if they really want it bad enough. Leadership comes from evolution instead of a series of individual lessons. (Bennis, 1989) Bennis on Understanding the Basics: According to Bennis (1989), the basic ingredients of leadership are having a guiding vision, passion, self-knowledge, candor, maturity, trust, curiosity, and daring. Bennis goes on to say that these are ingredients for becoming a leader and not traits, hence, we are not born with them but must develop them over years. Bennis on Knowing Yourself: In knowing yourself, Bennis (1989) outlines four lessons aimed at leaders. He tells us that we should be our own best teacher, we should accept responsibility, we can learn anything we want, and that true understanding comes from reflecting on our own experiences. Bennis (1989) mentions that we should really know ourselves and what we are capable of before we can lead others. In other words, knowing yourself gives you confidence to lead people. Bennis on Knowing the World: According to Bennis (1989), to become a leader we must know our world as well as we know ourselves. We know our world through learning. We do this learning through our experiences, our reading, our formalized instruction, our travels, our mentors and our own mistakes. But it's not just learning, it's about having a passion for learning; it's about losing yourself in the reading, education, travel, friends, and reflections. Bennis on Operating on Instinct: A leader is a person that knows himself, knows his world and relies on everything he’s learned to set a guiding vision. A leader uses prior knowledge to make difficult decisions based on “gut” feelings. Bennis (1989) calls this visions “inner voices,” which leaders learn to trust when making decisions based on limited data or information. Bennis on Forging the Future: According to Bennis (1989), leaders forge the future by managing the dream, embracing error, encouraging reflective backtalk and dissent, possessing optimism, providing hope and faith, develop understanding, possessing the touch, seeing the long view, understanding stakeholders, and creating strategic alliances. It's not as easy as it seems. Leaders must be able to manage internal and external change while leading the organization to a shared future. It will inspire and motivate the reader to Bennis (1989) theory can be summed up into one sentence. A great leader must first know himself and his world, then and only then can they lead through a shared set of values and objectives with the passion and determination of turning the shared vision into a reality. In his 1989 book titled On Becoming a Leader, Warren Bennis outlined the principles and implementation plan for becoming a leader. He sums up his book with three top recommendations for leaders. They include the status quo is unacceptable, recruiting and retaining smart people leads to competitive advantage, and followers need direction, trust and hope. Organizations cannot be reengineered, downsized, or even managed to prosperity, success, greatness and excellence; they can only be led. Work harder at using influence to bring out the best in others and to direct that toward the benefit of the organizations that are served by the leader. (Bennis, 1989). References Bennis, Warren (1989). On Becoming a Leader. Cambridge, MA: Perseus Books Group. Denning, Stephen (2011). The Leader's Guide to Storytelling - Mastering The Art and Discipline of Business Narrative. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass (John Wiley & Sons, Inc.). Maxwell, John (2010). Everyone Communicates Few Connect: What The Most Effective People Do Differently. Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson. Maxwell, John (2007). The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow You. Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson.

A521.8.4.RB - Making Contact

McKay, Davis and Fanning provide some direction for making contact with strangers. How comfortable are you striking up a conversation with someone new?. Are you able to "work a room" with ease? In your blog, reflect on aspects of your personality and/or upbringing which make you able to relate to strangers easily—or not so easily. What lessons can you take from Chapter 14 of Messages to improve your ability to connect with others? The world is full of interesting strangers. Every day potential friends and lovers pass you in the hallway and the parking lot. They eat next you. They wait on you in the store. Your glances meet and shyly slide away. It's scary to step out of your anonymous role and make contact. What would they think? What would I do if I was rejected. (McKay, Davis, and Fanning, 2012) Fear of strangers comes from two sources: outmoded nineteenth-century social restrictions and your own self-depreciating internal monologue. Nineteenth-century rules mandated that strangers must be introduced by a third party before initiating conversation. It was off-limits for unacquainted people to approach for anything more intimate than asking directions. People out in public were isolated from those around them. These rules contributed to the modern-day phenomenon of loneliness in the midst of crowds - people bustling everywhere but forbidden to make the slightest contact. (McKay, Davis, and Fanning, 2012) Your fear of strangers may have been influenced by habitual negative thoughts. I may say things like this to myself: "They don't want to talk to me." "They probably won't like me." It's hopeless." "I'm too awkward, too ugly, too short, too stupid." In each case you view yourself as someone inferior, unworthy, and unattractive. Like the comic strip character Charlie Brown, you imagine that other people are always heroes while you are always the goat. The belief that you are unworthy inevitably leads to awkward self-consciousness and the painful conclusion that people you could enjoy won't enjoy you. (McKay, Davis, and Fanning, 2012) It is important to analyze what you say to yourself. Imagine that you are in a doctor's waiting room and have just started a conversation with an attractive person of the opposite sex. The person listens for a moment, makes a few perfunctory responses, and returns to reading a magazine. Now notice your internal monologue. Are you blaming yourself for the rejection? What fault have you found with yourself for the other person's disinterest? Are you using global labels to describe yourself, such as "stupid," "lame," "ridiculous," and so on? Negative judgments and labels should be changed. Make a list of your negative labels and devaluing statements. Make a commitment to yourself to use descriptive rather than negative labels in your internal monologues. The hard part is sticking with your nonjudgmental descriptions when trying to approach someone or after you've been rejected. The solution is to make a list of your significant positive and negative qualities. The negative qualities are nonjudgmental descriptions. The positive qualities are things you realistically like or take pride in. (McKay, Davis, and Fanning, 2012) Reframe your approach behavior. Meeting with interesting strangers shouldn't be a test to see if they want to sleep with you, want to be your friend or mate, or even particularly like you. It's merely an opportunity to begin getting to know someone who interests you. You're curious about what will happen but not worried about it. You don't want anything from the other person; you are merely offering your time and interest. A refusal of your interest is a lost opportunity, nothing more or less. (McKay, Davis, and Fanning, 2012) Reframe rejection. When you approach a stranger, you are offering a gift - the gift of interaction. If the other person declines the offer, you may frame the rejection in a variety of ways. You may see yourself as inadequate and unworthy, you may focus on your physical and character flaws, or you may bear yourself up as socially incompetent. The problem with these frames is that they assume facts not in evidence. You are mind reading. Mind reading will almost always get you in trouble by leading you to the most negative possible interpretation for any refusal. The best thing to do if you are rejected is to assume there are personal reasons for the refusal that have little to do with you. If you want more information, ask for clarification. (McKay, Davis, and Fanning, 2012) You should expect to get soundly rejected at least three times a week. This means that you've found yourself interested in someone who, for one of hundreds of possible reasons, wasn't receptive to your interest at the moment. How can you deal with an emotional blow? Your deep breathing and body awareness can act as a sort of thought stopper and keep you from psychologically kicking yourself. Later, when you're in a quiet place, think back and notice how many of your assumptions were right or wrong. Did you enjoy yourself at all? Did you experience any sense of accomplishment in meeting a challenge. (McKay, Davis, and Fanning, 2012) There are two basic rules for successfully making contact. First, you have to give what you would like to receive, which means that the attention, interest, respect and liking that you want must also be something you offer to others. Second, you have to have an outward rather than an inward focus. You listen to the other person instead of rehearsing your next remark or worrying about your hair or your awkwardness. Body language is very important in making contact: • move toward the other person • lean forward • uncross your arms and legs • make eye contact • smile • let your responses show • touch the other person (McKay, Davis, and Fanning, 2012) The art of conversation has several guidelines for making contact: • use icebreakers • ask questions • listen actively • disclose a little about yourself (McKay, Davis, and Fanning, 2012) References McKay, Matthew, Davis, Martha and Fanning, Patrick (2012). Messages: The Communication Skills Book (3rd ed.). Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications, Inc.

A521.7.4.RB - Knowledge Sharing Story

With $85 billion in annual revenues and 170,000 employees, Boeing is quite literally the biggest airplane-building company in the world. Just one of its airplane models, the ubiquitous 737, has carried more than 16.8 billion passengers over its lifetime -- more than twice the population of the globe. So chances are, if you're breathing today, you've probably flown on a Boeing. Yet as familiar as the Boeing brand is to us, there's still a lot about the company that a lot of people don't know. Here are just a few of those things. (Boeing, 2013)

1. Look up in the air! That's not Superman. That's a Boeing 737!
Take that 737, for example. You've probably heard that it's the "best-selling commercial aircraft in aviation history," right? More than 11,500 orders placed? More than 7,700 planes delivered? What you may not know is what those numbers mean in practice. As a result of its immense sales success, there are now so many 737s in service around the globe that, on average, a 737 airplane takes off or lands somewhere around the globe once every two seconds. And any given moment, 2,000 of Boeing's 737 workhorses are probably airborne. So yes, if you "look! Up in the sky!" -- chances are that thing you see with the sunlight glinting off it is neither a bird, nor a Superman, but a Boeing 737. Other commercial products include: 747-800, 777, 767, and the revolutionary carbon fiber (composites) 787 Dreamliner. The newly launched 777X at the November Dubai Air Show will change wide body international global flight. The KC-46 refueling tanker and strategic transport, P-8A Poseidon "Sub Hunter," and F/A-18E/F Super Hornet multirole fighter will help the US Air Force and Navy maintain global leadership. Take that, EADS - Airbus! (Boeing, 2013)                

2. Boeing's older than your grandfather -- and richer, too
Impressive as this sounds, it's actually old hat for Boeing. It's been 110 years since Orville and Wilbur Wright took their first powered air flight in Kill Devil Hills, N.C. But within just 13 years of the Wright Brothers' invention of the airplane, Boeing had invented the airplane company.

Founded by William E. Boeing in 1916 in Seattle, Boeing today employs roughly 170,000 people and has a presence in nearly half the countries on the globe. It sells $85 billion worth of merchandise annually, and while its 7.6% operating profit margin isn't the best in the business (that honor goes to Brazilian planemaker Embraer), Boeing is 73% more profitable than archrival Airbus. (Boeing, 2013)

 3. Boeing's come a long way (baby)
How did Boeing get so big, and so good at what it does? In part because the company's a high-tech wonder. We tend to take airplanes for granted. But did you ever wonder how they get made -- or where they get made?

Seventy-five percent of the commercial aircraft in use today were built by Boeing. Statistically speaking, most of the airplanes you've ever flown on probably got put together at Boeing's Everett Factory, just north of Seattle. By volume, Boeing's Everett factory is the largest building ever constructed in the world. Bigger than the Pentagon. Bigger than the Mall of America. It's so big that at one point, Boeing's engineers were worried that clouds might form inside, near the ceiling. So they put in an air circulation system to prevent cloud formation. (How many companies have that problem?) (Boeing, 2013)

 4. Planes in space
Everyone knows that Boeing builds planes. But did you know its high-tech expertise goes all the way into space? It's true. In 1995, Boeing joined forces with Lockheed Martin to form the United Space Alliance, which helps NASA with space launch and recovery operations and mission planning and control, and it even trains astronauts for spaceflight. A decade later, Boeing and Lockheed integrated further by forming the United Launch Alliance, which performs space launches for the Department of Defense, NASA, and the National Reconnaissance Office.

Boeing "turned over the keys" of the International Space Station's on-orbit segment to NASA in 2010, but it still plays an integral role in integrating new components into the station. (Boeing, 2013)

5. A 21st-century technological wonder, with a workforce still living in the 1950s
At the same time as its technological achievements astound, in some ways Boeing is still a slave to tradition -- for example, in its employment practices. You've probably heard by now about some of the problems Boeing has been having with its labor unions. What you may not know, though, is that union negotiations and labor strikes are a problem fast becoming unique to Boeing.

According to The Wall Street Journal, 35% of American workers were members of one labor union or another back in the 1950s. Six decades later, that number's just 6.6% ... everywhere but at Boeing, where union membership soars to 39%. Twelve U.S. labor unions have Boeing workers on their rolls.

The two biggest players are the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA) and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) -- and Boeing literally cannot work without them. They comprise 13% and 21% of Boeing's workforce, respectively. And every five years or so, they begin new contract negotiations that threaten to bring the whole high-tech wonder that is Boeing to a screeching halt. (Boeing, 2013)                         6. Legacy of leadership
As our leaders grow, our company grows. The Boeing Leadership Center in St. Louis was modeled after General Electric - Crotonville. Leadership development is the foundation for our continued success at Boeing. Through our disciplined approach to leadership development, guided by leaders at every level of the company, we improve the skills of our people. Boeing people have been the source of our innovation and success for nearly 100 years -- they are our leaders. Their creativity, passion, and desire to develop the next great innovation have made Boeing the world's aerospace leader -- from the 1916 B & W Seaplane and the aerial refueling KC-135 jet tanker, to today's revolutionary 787 Dreamliner and combat-proven F/A-18 Hornet. Everyone is a leader. And as our people grow as leaders, our company grows. It's that simple.

For the fifth straight year, Boeing was named the No. 1 innovator among aerospace and defense companies. Boeing has been awarded 14,251 patents around the world over the past 20 years. More than 140,000 of Boeing's 175,000 employees hold college degrees. Boeing is the #1 exporter in the United States -- a position the company has held for the last decade. (Boeing, 2013)                                                                                                                                                  7. The Greatest International Competition in Business                                                                   Boeing versus Airbus is the greatest international competition and rivalry in business history. Airbus is a European consortium including England, France, Germany and Spain. Both organizations have about a 50/50 split in sales revenues and number of aircraft. Both organizations try to beat the other at their own strategy and tactics. Both attend prestigious international showcase events including Paris Air Show and Dubai Air Show to showcase and sell the latest technological innovations in aviation. (Newhouse, 2007)

References

Boeing. (2013). [On-Line] Available http://www.boeing.com/         

Denning, Stephen (2011). The Leader's Guide to Storytelling - Mastering The Art and Discipline

            of Business Narrative. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass (John Wiley & Sons, Inc.).                                                                                                                                             Newhouse, John (2007). Boeing Versus Airbus. United States: Alfred A. Knopf.