A521.9.4.RB_DavisCarl Reflections on Leadership

                 Thunderstorms over the Amazon River Basin from the cockpit of a B747-400F (2010)

Hello readers and welcome to the last entry for Leadership Communication class!

We were assigned chapter 12 in Denning’s book (2011) regarding the ways various dimensions of leadership are impacted by narrative and storytelling. Through the chapter, Mr. Denning discussed 11 dimensions of leadership. Leadership that participates, leadership that connects, leadership that is like conversation, leadership that is possible, leadership that fits the modern need, leadership that is not for everyone, leadership that is relatively free of ego, leadership that is like judo, leadership that has feeling, leadership that avoids ‘Apollo run amok’, and leadership that includes beauty were all presented and examined (Denning, 2011, p. 277-289).

I found Denning’s commentary about each dimension to be appropriate and applicable to the overall message he was attempting to communicate with the book. I also appreciated Mr. Denning’s technique of comparing the leadership styles of those who do not practice narrative communication as they lead (or attempt to do so). Of the 11 dimensions noted, I found that most resounded with me, as I have seen what leadership that runs opposite of the dimensions is like as a place to operate.

A quote that I found especially meaningful was, “Narrative thus has one final contribution to make: restoring beauty to the workplace. With a well-turned phrase, an elegant telling, a story creates the shapeliness of the beginning, middle, ending” (Denning, 2011, p. 288). My workplace is dreary. The area of the world in which I reside is known for being dreary a majority of the year. Finding beauty in narrative about the achievements, accomplishments, and possibilities of what could be would be a tool of unparalleled usefulness. I will practice leadership that includes beauty.

I also recognized the dimensions of ‘Apollo run amok’ and leadership that fits the modern need. The need for both of those dimensions was evident at my last two employers. Both were very large companies with high-risk business models. Lives were literally at stake every day. Denning brought up about bigness providing clout while at the same time limiting agility and responsiveness when discussing the modern need of leadership (2011, p. 278). He mentions the order of the Greek God, Apollo and how the need for order grows as the company grows in size. I will continue to practice interactive leadership to combat the limits of Apollonian structure run amok. I will maintain relationships throughout the levels of the organization and strive to communicate narratives that will allow all levels to see how they impact the capabilities of the organization.

The fact that narrative leadership is not for everyone has been made apparent to me. I will continue to embrace that fact. Time and again, I have experienced the repercussions of leading the way I do. Others have been unable to deal with the truth I communicate, the fact that I treat coworkers with respect and that I am willing to communicate the expectations, dreams and goals I have for the team and myself. That’s ok. I used to lose a lot of sleep worrying that not everyone liked me or what I was doing. I have grown to realize that I only need to worry about the people who are aligned with the goals of the team and organization. The rest will take care of themselves, one way or another. I can communicate the needs, operation, and future of the group and that may not work for leaders or followers of different styles.

To that end, I will also continue to practice leadership that is like judo. This skill is also hard-earned. “When you take on the role of the interactive leader, aware of who you are, confident of your values, assured of the soundness of your mission, and competent to communicate it through a story, you will acquire supporters. But you will become an immediate threat to the powers that be, the forces that support the status quo” (Denning, 2011, p.281). I was asked to build a new team. I was told to ‘craft my destiny’. I set out to build my vision of excellence and to craft that destiny. Once the team was actually built and running, my former supervisor worked diligently to place multiple landmines in my path. The strength of the team I had been privileged to create ended up garnering attention from levels much higher up in the organization. The team, my direct reports, and I all grew stronger from our experiences. The pride of being able to demonstrate competency and a resolute practice of ‘taking the high road’ served to build an even stronger ethos and trust across the organization. Rolling with the body blows, insults, and outright assaults are skills that I will continue to nurture and pass along to those I am allowed to lead.

As I read through Denning’s book (2011), what I realized what that he was describing tools I wanted to ensure I had at my disposal as a leader. The dimensions he delineated in chapter 12 are a great summation of applying the tools. Am I bold enough to say I will master all of these techniques? No. I am bold enough to say that I will attempt to apply these tools in my everyday life so that I have a hope of being the leader my colleagues expect me to be.

I hope to be a capable servant leader someday. I get a huge amount of satisfaction from seeing those around me succeed and grow. Developing the capability to communicate better through narrative is a cornerstone to achieving that goal. I have lived under leaders that are unable to allow others to grow, who are hampered in their ability to communicate, and who are sadly out of place. I feel it is an honor to have the chance to learn about ways to communicate in ways that reach across boundaries. I feel it is a duty to take those skills and apply them to help others succeed. That is the impetus for why I am in this program and what will power me onward.

See you next term and thanks for following along!

Denning, S. (2011). The Leader's Guide to Story Telling - Mastering the Art and Discipline of Business Narrative. San Francisco, CA, Josey-Bass.

A521.8.4.RB_DavisCarl Making Contact

                                         The Columbia River and Mt. Rainier  - CSD 2016

My father was an alcoholic. In that household, I learned to be careful in my interactions and to volunteer information rarely, if ever. Who knew what would set off a firestorm? I knew silence worked better than most other tactics. I was introverted.

As I grew and began playing sports, I found an avenue in which I excelled. That opened up opportunities I didn’t expect, the biggest change being that people started gravitating to me and (apparently) expecting me to lead. I lead two lives. That, I realize now, became a recurring theme in my life for a long, long time. I was one person at school and on the field and quite someone else at home. There were tangible expectations of me in both arenas, I could feel the need to change over.

I don’t believe I am unique in struggling with interaction in my younger days. I knew how to shake hands correctly and that one should look someone in the eye when speaking with them. However, I was not going to be the kid working the room at the roller rink or swimming pool. I was just fine with my one or two other friends.

We moved to a new city for my first year of high school. We also moved from the city of Houston to a town of 12,000. Our house was literally a log cabin nestled at the end of a two-mile-long dirt road surrounded by 40 acres of land. I went out for the football team and had an impactful experience about the third practice. No one had been talking to me. I was feeling quite alone in the locker room. Out of the blue, a fellow ninth-grader approached me, stuck out his hand and said, “Hi! I’m Mike. I’ve grown up in a military family that moved a lot. I know how you feel.” Eureka! What a moment! I will never forget it and will be eternally grateful to Mike Adams for taking that brave step.

My high school and college athletic careers provided me with more and more opportunities to lead and the need to be more outgoing in my approaches to people. Was I comfortable? No. Was I learning to allay my fears and that the power of reaching out to people opened up more opportunities? Yes. I learned techniques from watching others that I admired. Body language was a very powerful lesson for me. As McKay, et al, noted, “One of the biggest ways you can turn people off is through body language” (2009, p. 209). If I approached with a smile and had an open posture, my chance of not having the other person shut down or shut me out went up exponentially.

Rejection still bothers me. I figure it always will. I have learned to deal with being turned down and to refrain from taking it personally (most of the time). In my own way, and with my mother’s coaching, I learned the truth that McKay, et al, pointed out (2009). A vast majority of the time, the reason for rejection has little to do with me directly. I have also learned that if a person, for some reason, goes out of their way to let me know I am being rejected, I really didn’t want to be acquainted with them, anyway.

I now have the ability to “work a room” and am comfortable doing so. I can make my way around, introduce myself, and strike up conversations. As a senior manager, it is expected behavior. As a representative of my company to customers and at speaking engagements, it is expected behavior. I knew when I decided to pursue this career path, that I would need the skills of being personable, approachable, and able to approach strangers. The twist in the situation is the internet. When I go to speaking engagements now, people can Google™ me or find me on LinkedIn™. They may be strangers to me, but they already know something about me! That tilts the table! However, it makes me approachable because they now have something with which to start off a conversation.

The various icebreakers noted by McKay, et al, are all tried and true. I have used many myself. I learned the various styles from others as I watched them work rooms, deal with people, and deal with me. Monkey see, monkey do!

See you next week!

Matthew McKay, M. Davis, Patrick Fanning (2009). Messages - The Communication Skills Book. Oakland, CA, New Harbinger Publications, Inc.

A521.7.4.RB_DavisCarl Secret Structure

Hello again, readers! Welcome to week seven of Leadership Communications on the Educated Leadership blog.

We were asked to view a Ted™ Talk by Nancy Duarte (2011) about the structure of great speeches this week. This was not the first time I have viewed this particular lecture by Ms. Duarte. I had watched it last year while preparing to give a speech to the team I lead. I found the information presented to be very useful and fairly easy to apply.

Ms. Duarte presents a number of fundamental frameworks to assist speakers in relating ideas to an audience. One of her first points is that the speaker needs to act as a mentor to the audience. The audience is who needs to pick up on the idea and make it their own in order for the idea to grow and spread. The speaker helps them see and take ownership of the topic (4:52).

The next major point in the talk is in regard to diagramming how great speeches are framed or structured. Ms. Duarte labored for at least two years on the idea of great presentations before comparing them to a particular shape. The fundamental shape she developed looks much like a rudimentary snake drawn on an etch-a-sketch™.

                                          

                                                                      Duarte (2011)

The structure, it turns out, can be overlaid on most speeches that have been noted as famous or historic in their nature. Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address”, and Steve Jobs’ 2007 I-phone Launch speech all fit this pattern. The lower horizontal lines represent parts of the speech that refer to the past or the current state of things. The upper horizontal lines represent the parts of the speech that propose a future state that is (hopefully) better than the status quo or the past. Maybe it’s what the company looks like with everyone pulling together, or what the country looks like with lower cost health care, or what the world looks like without racism.

The vertical lines illustrate the gap between what “is” and what “could be”. To really drive the excellence of the idea, the height of those lines should be as much as possible. The contrast should clearly illustrate why the change is needed. As Ms. Duarte stated, “You want to make the status quo unappealing” (2011, 7:42). The final horizontal line indicates the need to leave the audience with the final picture of what their future could look like, allowing them to let their imagination build upon that idea.

I have applied this technique to a presentation with good results. I had an opportunity to give a speech that would hopefully unite a group of relative strangers and focus them on the goal of making our group the epitome of a professional team of flight instructors. Upon review, I know I could have done a better job. However, given the fact that it was my first attempt at writing a speech in this style and my first attempt to write a stirring and uniting speech, I am pleased with the results. I received a loud round of applause at the end of the speech and had a number of employees ask me for a copy of the speech to take home.

I followed the diagram and reviewed the past and then moved to a future I envisioned, went back to historical stress points we had faced together and talked about the future we could create a number of times. I tied our history to the life-cycle of high-performance teams (Tuckman, 1965) to impress upon the group that they clearly fit the mold of that type of team.

I used two quotes in my speech that really helped, I believe. One was the orchestra conductor Benjamin Zander’s TedTalk™ on the transformative power of classical music (2008). He stated that every leader must believe that their followers have the capability to forge the future the leader sees. I wanted my team to know that I had that belief in their capabilities. I closed with Ms. Duarte’s closing line in the TedTalk™ we reviewed above, “The future isn’t a place we’re going to go, the future is a place that you are going to create” (2011, 18:00).

My supervisor and other senior managers have made it clear to me that I will be given future opportunities to lead larger groups. I find myself examining the opportunities and groups I could end up leading and mentally crafting speeches I would give those teams. Reviewing Ms. Duarte’s talk again was an excellent refresher. In fact, I picked up on other pieces of her talk, this time, I missed before. Specifically, the had forgotten the point of Jobs conditioning his audience on how they should feel about what he is saying. Genius.

I recommend any leader who desires to communicate better to review Ms. Duarte’s talk. I also recommend you take the time to write a speech in the form she has uncovered. Even if you do not get to utilize it, the practice will help other opportunities to communicate a better future more apparent.

Duarte, N. (2011). You Have the Power to Change the World - Nancy Duarte talks at TED, YouTube.

             

Tuckman, B. W. (1965). "Developmental sequence in small groups." Psychological Bulletin 63(6): 16.

             

Zander, B. (2008). The Transformative Power of Classical Music. TED Talks, YouTube.