Your Leadership Or Your Life: A Leadership Lesson
PERMISSION TO REPUBLISH: This article may be republished in
newsletters and on web sites provided attribution is provided to
the author, and it appears with the included copyright, resource
box and live web site link. Email notice of intent to publish is
appreciated but not required: mail to: brent@actionleadership.com
Word count: 740
Summary: The author draws a lesson from a classic radio skit to
show leaders how they might raise their activities to new levels
of awareness and commitment.
Your Leadership Or Your Life by Brent Filson
A classic radio skit by comedian Jack Benny involved Benny being
held up on the street by a man with a gun. "Your money or your
life," the gunman said to Benny, who portrayed himself in
character as an inveterate tightwad. There was a long pause. The
gunman repeated, "Your money or your life."
"I'm thinking!" said Benny. "I'm thinking!"
Whenever I remember that skit, I think of leadership. The
portrayal of Benny's stage character, a skinflint equally
concerned for his money as for his life, gives a kind of
sideways, albeit humorous, glimpse into the nature of human
commitment. For some people, there are things as important or
more important than one's life.
I submit that leadership involves such commitment -- maybe not
as extreme as offering up one's life (though history clearly
shows many leaders have) but none-the-less that calls for our
total devotion.
Leadership is not just position or even performance. It's much
more. It's a life-quest. I am not saying it should be more
important than your life; I am saying that if you are in a
position of leadership, you should make your leadership a better
part of who you are.
Leadership is important to you in two ways. First, it is a
career-maker/breaker. Most careers have at their basis
leadership. A human resources director told me. "Brent, we hire
people for their skills and knowledge but we promote them or
fail to promote them or fire them for their leadership abilities
(or lack thereof.) What we hire for and what we fire, promote
for are two different things!"
Organizations are hungry for good leadership. And if you can
provide it, you have a great career advantage over those who
can't, or at least those who provide it ineffectively.
This is especially so if you promote the right kind of
leadership. It doesn't mean being an order leader. The days of
the order-leader are not just numbered. They're over. Today,
leadership is motivational or its stumbling in the dark.
Because in terms of achieving more results faster continually,
the order is the lowest form of leadership.
With globalization, businesses worldwide are undergoing changes
as radical as any since the Industrial Revolution. With
competition increasing dramatically, with the volume and
velocity of information multiplying, with information becoming
accessible to more and more people, with the traditional,
pyramidal structures of order-giving flattening, leaders today
need skills akin not to those needed for white-water canoeing.
Order leadership founders in an environment where lines of
authority are dynamic, information widely disseminated, markets
rapidly changing, and employees empowered. In such an
environment, new leadership, motivational leadership, is needed.
In short, the leader who can "have" others get results. That
means global leadership is essentially motivational leadership.
That's the kind of leadership needed to achieve such success.
Now, here's the tool to make that leadership happen. That tool
is The Leadership Talk. Here's what the Leadership Talk is all
about.
When it comes to realizing motivational leadership around the
world, there is a hierarchy of verbal persuasion. This hierarchy
extends to people everywhere, no matter what their culture, what
job they hold, or what ambitions they have.
The lowest levels of the hierarchy are speeches and
presentations. They communicate information. The highest level,
the most effective level is The Leadership Talk. The Leadership
Talk not only communicates information. It does something much
more. It establishes deep, human, emotional connections with
people.
The question isn't, "Why is this connection necessary in terms
of getting organizational results?" (After all, the answer is
obvious.), the question is, "Why is the Leadership Talk the gold
standard for international leadership?"
For one thing, I've had top leaders in top companies worldwide
applying it for more than two decades, and it simply works. It's
all about helping leaders get what I call "more results faster,
continually." You can get those kinds of results on a global
scale without the Leadership Talk.
The Leadership Talk is motivational, action-focused, results
oriented. When you use it, you'll find it works not only on an
organization level but also on a deeply personal level.
And it is in the realm of the deeply personal that leadership
comprises the second way its important. This leadership
methodology can be of great benefit to your life-relationships,
not just your job ones. In fact, it's something you can devote
your life to in every relationship every day.
Your leadership or your life? With the Leadership Talk, your
leadership IS your life.
2006