Tag Successful Leadership

What is Success?

Steve Keating 9 Comments

My wife and I went to see a movie with some friends last week and as we left the theater the husband of the other couple says, “Well that guy was a complete failure.” I replied that while there could certainly be differing opinions as to his level of success “that guy” was anything but a complete failure. 

 

Here’s a spoiler alert if you haven’t seen the movie “Hostiles.” It is a different kind of Western about an revered Army Captain (that guy) who is given the mission of escorting a hated and dying Indian Chief and his family, held prisoner for 17 years, from New Mexico to their homeland of Montana to die. 

 

The Captain is known for his fearlessness in fighting (and killing) scores of Indians. He strongly resists taking on the mission but relents when told his Army pension is at stake. He musters a unit together and along with the Chief, his daughter, his son and daughter-in-law and their young son they head north for Montana. 

 

To say the least they run into some trouble along the way. First it’s a scalp hunting band of Indians and then a murderous band of white fur trappers. The Captain rescues a woman along the way whose entire family had been killed by renegades but by the time the group reaches Montana all but one of the Captain’s soldiers had been killed. 

 

But they made it to the Chief’s homeland with all the Indians alive. Along the way the Captain and the Chief have come to respect each other and buried the hatchet. (no pun intended, well, maybe a little)

 

But the Chief is very sick and dies soon after reaching his tribes land. The Captain and his remaining solider bury the Chief as his family mourns his passing. They have no sooner finished burying the Chief than a man and his three sons ride up and demand that the Indian be removed from “their” land. 

 

The Captain refuses and a gunfight ensues. The landowner and his three sons are killed but so is the last of the Captain’s unit and all the Indians except the young boy. All that remains of the group is the Captain, the woman rescued early in the trip and the Indian boy. 

 

So did the Captain fail? He lost all his people so it’s hard to exactly call the whole thing a great success. But his mission was to get the Chief home to die and that mission was successful albeit not without great cost. So I don’t think the Captain could be described as a failure, certainly not a complete failure. 

 

What do you think? How do you define success? There are many levels to success and the best definition of success is a very individual and personal definition. 

 

As for me, I believe the Captain successfully completed his mission. He overcome great loss and many obstacles and still completed an assignment he didn’t want in the first place. He persevered and it’s hard for me to call anyone who does that something other than a great success. 


What say you?

Creating Leadership Success

Steve Keating 4 Comments

One of the common causes of failure among leaders is assuming that they cannot fail simply because they never have.

They assume that their future, and the future of their organization is just an almost automatic extension of their past. They assume that they will always succeed because they always have. That causes the assumption that because “things” have always been a certain way they will always be that way. 

That assumption has always been wrong but it’s never been more wrong than it is today. “Things” are most certainly changing and they are changing at a breakneck pace. 

This increased pace of change has never been on greater display than in the current United States Presidential Campaign. The Republican Party has completely missed the fact that people don’t want and won’t accept the status quo. The leadership of the party just assumed that despite all evidence to the contrary, “things” would eventually return to normal and everything would be as it was.

The Democratic Party is just as confused. They appear to be in the process of selecting a candidate who proudly says “I am a child of the sixties and I think like a child of the sixties.” Well guess what, as sad as it might make me and a lot of other people, children of the sixties are not the future of the United States or the world.

What once was isn’t anymore and leaders who fail to understand that absolute fact will themselves fall victim to failure. 

To avoid that all too common leadership failure you must know exactly why you do everything thing you do. If you’re doing anything, anything at all, simply because “we’ve always done it that way” then you are putting yourself, and your organization on a potential path to failure. If you assume that anything will be the same in just ten years as it is today then your path to failure is even wider.

Some, maybe even many, leaders from the Baby Boomer generation, when asked by a leader from the Millennial generation, “why do you do it that way?” see the question as a threat or a challenge to their leadership. They need to see it as an opportunity to verify that what they are currently doing is still the best way to do it. They need to see the question as an opportunity to improve. They absolutely need to understand that “the way they have always done it” might not actually be the best way to do it today.

To avoid this common leadership failure leaders must challenge their own thinking everyday and surround themselves with people who will challenge their thinking for them when they can’t or won’t. Then, and this is the real secret to leadership success, then they must allow those people who they have surrounded themselves with to actually challenge them with zero risk of reprisal.

Leaders who assume, hope or believe that “things” are not changing have blinded themselves to the fact that most everything IS changing and they are going to continue to change whether they are ready for it or not.

As President Lincoln said, “The best way to predict your future is to create it.” Leaders who let the future happen will eventually fail. Leaders who continually create their future will have the best opportunity for continual success. 

Who is creating your future? 

Immediate Leadership Success

Steve Keating 8 Comments

New leaders often feel pressure to succeed immediately. Whether they are simply in a new position or truly a new leader they feel the need to “do something.” Their boss may have expectations of immediate improvement in one area or another. “People” are watching to see what changes the new leader will make. Everyone expects “progress.”

Being a new leader or a leader in a new position isn’t easy.

That’s why I never expect a leader to succeed immediately. Besides, I’m not as interested in a quick change as I am in lasting change. Leadership success, lasting leadership success,  requires time. It cannot be accomplished quickly.

Here’s why.

New leaders have a title and a position. Neither make a person a leader. That title and position buys them some time to earn the permission of their people to lead. It gives them a relatively small window of opportunity to show their team that they care about them as people.  

New leaders have to act quickly to demonstrate their understanding that they must earn any respect they are given. New leaders who turn into good leaders know that trust must also be earned and that without it, they simply cannot actually lead.

That’s why it is critical that a new leader’s words match their actions. The fact is, people are watching. They are watching to determine what makes this new leader “different” from the last one. “People” make up their minds pretty quickly. If the new leader appears to believe their position or title will make people follow them then their “leadership brand” becomes that of a “position leader” and they could spend years trying to separate themselves from that brand.    

People do not commit to “position leaders” they merely comply with their demands. Position leaders may have some small successes but their leadership is so limited that they will not, let me repeat, they will not have long-term success.

Compliant team members are not engaged team members. Only committed team members will fully engage and support the leadership. A non committed, unengaged employee will cost an organization far more than the most expensive committed, engaged employee.

Position leaders create unengaged team members. That’s just how it is.

If you’re a leader who creates more leaders don’t expect immediate success from your developing leaders. Leadership development cannot be forced, it must be allowed to grow. 

Leaders who grow more leaders understand that lack of immediate success is not failure, it’s simply part of the process. 

Immediate success is good, long-term success is better, much much better.