What Should You Talk About With A Leader?

What should you talk about with a Leader?

When you think about the question, "What should I talk about with my leader?", how do you plan the time you've arranged with them? Do you talk about stuff they already know? Do you provide them with information about what they don't know? Do you ask them to fill in information gaps?

Question

Do you have a personal story about a leader who has inspired your creative juices to break through a wall when they asked you a simple question?

Is Leadership Genetic?

In the Linked In, Leadership Think Tank, group several questions were asked about whether or not leadership is an inborn, innate, or genetic trait.  Or, if leadership could be learned.

Using the definition of Leadership, "Guiding Intent with Integrity", and Behavior Theory, I will answer your questions.

- How can we determine that someone has inborn leadership traits? Leadership is not an inborn trait. Leadership is a learned behavior. Some people are able to express the behaviors intuitively at an early age, which is what makes it appear that leadership is inborn.

- At what age we can see inborn leadership traits: 5, 10, 15, 20, 25...? Leadership can be expressed at any age. The place that you will see it initially expressed is in the sand box. Watch how children group and who is leading the activity and watch the ripple effect.

- Are those who have inborn leadership traits superior from those who do not have inborn leadership traits? Superiority is an ego issue. While our society prefers charismatic leaders to introverted leaders, individuals who express leadership traits early one and are unaware of how this can become a drug for them, will feel superior to others. This problem can be exacerbated when individuals misunderstand leadership with supervisory roles. The power to manipulate and control people to do what you will, vs guiding people toward a larger goal.

- Is gaining leadership inborn traits genetic or accidentally? Leadership behaviors are not genetic, they are learned. Learning how to guide people either intuitively or through formal training. Integrity is the product of the social contract that leaders have with their followers, non-followers, outsiders and observers. As leaders maintain this contract with their followers, they will gain further influence.

- Can we easily distinguish leaders in practice: Those who have inborn leadership traits from those without them? Leaders who started early vs leaders who needed a master degree to become leaders should be indistinguishable, if both have mastered the process of leadership. This is the same with individuals who are born enlightened vs those who achieved enlightenment through many decades of sitting on a matt and cushion. However, the distinguishing features will be the skill level to which the leader can express their guidance.

- Are all individuals who have inborn leadership traits become leaders? If not, why? While leadership is a learned behavior, some children can be burned early on and while having the intuitive knowledge about leadership choose not to use it. This emotional response is seen in children that are attacked by dogs. From that point forward they will avoid dogs until the trauma is resolved.

What is Bad Leadership?

Bad Leadership, as defined by the definition of leadership, "Guiding Intent with Integrity", Bad leadership is a product of several bad choices on the leaders part that misguides his followers, hides, represses or denies intentions, and completely misunderstands or construes the social contract between them and their followers. A bad leader consistently makes bad decisions 75% or more of the time.

Incorrect Definitions of Leadership

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-makes-leader-dr-travis-bradberry

=====

Summary Points of the article:

Leadership has nothing to do with seniority or one’s position in the hierarchy of a company. 

Leadership has nothing to do with titles. 

Leadership has nothing to do with personal attributes. 

Leadership isn’t management.  

So, again, what makes a leader?

Peter Drucker: “The only definition of a leader is someone who has followers.”

Warren Bennis: “Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality.”

Bill Gates: “As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others.”

John Maxwell: “Leadership is influence – nothing more, nothing less.”

So what is leadership?

DEFINITION: Leadership is a process of social influence which maximizes the efforts of others toward the achievement of a greater good.

=====

Definitions should be simple and elegant, to which you definition is not, and my research contradicts your definition.  

1st - Any definition of leadership must account for both the Light side and Dark side of Leadership - from Gandolf the White through Emperor Palpatine.

2nd - Leadership does not require followers. There is self leadership.  

3rd - The "Greater Good" is of no consequence to the definition of leadership, as pointed out in point #1.  Leaders can and do use the "Greater Good" to mis-guide followers.

The definition of leadership is, "Guiding Intent with Integrity".

Guidance, like coaching, depends on what the goal is, and how all parties wish to achieve it.  What you call, "Social Influence". Psychologist determined that teams follow a coach's instructions directly - tell them what not to do and they do it; tell them what to do and they do it.

Intentions are the a mix of: interests, problems, expectations, values, motivations, feelings, wants, desires, goals, rules, beliefs, education, psychological, physiological, fears, cravings, obligations, experiences, needs, strategies, issues, habits, expressions, ... to describe these visually, think of intentions as the wax in a lava lamp flowing up and down.

Integrity is maintained or broken based on the social contract between the leader and the followers. There are many cultural issue to take into account when looking into the social contract between leader and followers.

There is a lot more, for example there are 3 classes of followers, and observers.

Seven Ways to (Really) Engage People

This article is in response to:

http://bnetworking.info/?p=2369

Interesting article on Seven (7) Engagement Motivators. Question: What brought this group together in the first place? It's a generic question, but usually points to the issue that people are passionate about working on and trying to solve. The more that people care about the problem they are trying to solve, the more energy, effort and fighting spirit that they will put into the project. As you pointed out, a project that has personal meaning and SMART goals remains tangible to the whole group. Relationships are formed as people discuss various aspects of the problem, ways towards the solution, and fight over the best course of action. Commitment becomes a self motivator that prevents apathy from setting in. Belief is a tricky issue though, yes I would want people to believe in my abilities, but I think belief goes much deeper than that. I suggest that you take more time to delve into how belief affects individual members, the group as a whole, observers, peers no in the group, and people who don't care about this issue. I think there is a lot that will affect the human psyche from each of these perspectives. Freedom arrives as, you mentioned, managers learn to stop micro managing the process, and rely on subordinates to follow the ISO documents that describe the step by step process. However, as long as managers are tasked with gathering metrics against the ISO documents, their ability to provide freedom may not be permissible. And, subordinates may have to rely on other venues to provide feedback into the system. As described through "The Toyota Way." Work Ethic and Integrity. The Social Contract. Whether written or verbal is an agreement and understanding about the quality of the work that needs to be performed, what each person is responsible for, and why they are there - usually their expertise. These points, in turn, point back to each individuals intentions for being part of the project. Only 10 percent of the each persons intentions will ever be exposed to the group. As a leader, following the definition of leadership, "Guiding Intent with Integrity" towards a goal, these categories plus the additional 600+ out there, need to be thoroughly understood to properly master leadership. I look forward to reading your thoughts on how the rest affect leadership, followers, non-followers, outsiders, and observers. For example, a topic you touched on, and could discuss further is, how facilitation affects a leaders ability to build stronger relationships with everyone.