The Best Learning Practices of The Best Leaders

By James M. Kouzes
and Barry Z. Posner

We asked a number of leaders and leadership coaches to share with us their best learning practices for becoming a better leader. We combined their observations with our own and others’ research, and synthesized these lessons into the following Top Ten Tips. Use them as you review your progress and continue your leadership development efforts.

Tip Number 1. Be self-aware
There’s solid evidence that the best leaders are highly attuned to what’s going on inside of them as they are leading. They’re very self-aware. They’re also quite aware of the impact they’re having on others. In fact, self-awareness may be the most crucial learning skill of all.

Tip Number 2. Manage your emotions
While the best leaders are self-aware, they are careful not to let their feelings manage them. Instead, they manage their feelings.

Tip Number 3. Seek feedback
One of the reasons the best leaders are highly self-aware is that they ask for feedback from others. In fact, the best leaders not only ask for feedback about what they’re doing well, they also ask about what they’re not doing well. They want to know the negative as well as the positive.

Tip Number 4. Take the initiative
Our research is very clear on this point: The best leaders are proactive. They don’t wait for someone else to tell them what to do. They take the initiative to find and solve problems and to meet and create challenges.

Tip Number 5. Engage a coach
The top athletes, the top musicians, and the top performing artists all have coaches. Leadership is a performing art, too, and the best leaders also have coaches. The coach might be someone from inside or outside of the organization. She might be a peer, a manager, a trainer, or someone with specific expertise in what you are trying to learn.

Tip Number 6. Set goals and make a plan
Exemplary leaders make sure that the work they do to develop themselves is not pointless ambling but purposeful action. Too often people participate in training and development without any clear goals in mind. They never ask themselves: "Why am I here?" "What do I want to get out of this learning experience?" People who attend training programs with a clear sense of what they want to accomplish are much more likely to apply what they learn than those who don't have clear goals.

Tip Number 7. Practice, practice, practice
People who practice more often are more likely to become experts at what they do. To be the best you can be you must not only apply what you learn on the playing field, you must also hone your skills on the practice field. We know this is true in the performing arts and in sports, but somehow we do not always apply the same idea to leadership. Professional leaders take practice seriously. The practice may be role-playing a negotiation, rehearsing a speech, or conducting a one-on-one dialogue with a coach. Whatever it is, practice is essential to learning.

Tip Number 8. Measure progress
People need to know if they're making progress or marking time. Goals help to serve that function, but goals alone aren’t enough. It's not enough to know that you want to make it to the summit. You also need to know if you’re still climbing, or if you’re sliding downhill.

Tip Number 9. Reward yourself
If new behavior is not rewarded, that behavior will be quickly forgotten. Even worse, when you say you want new behavior but actually reward the old behavior, people quickly conclude that you’re not serious about the new behavior.

Tip Number 10. Be honest with yourself and humble with others.
We know from our research that credibility is the foundation of leadership, and honesty is at the top of the list of what constituents look for in a leader. What does honesty have to do with learning to lead? Everything. You can’t become better at something unless you’re able to recognize and accept your strengths and your weaknesses.

About the Authors
Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner are the authors of the award-winning and best-selling book, The Leadership Challenge (Jossey-Bass/A Wiley Company, 3rdnd edition, 2002/2003.) Visit their Web site for details: www.leadershipchallenge.com.

Jim is an Executive Fellow at the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at The Leavey School of Business, Santa Clara University (SCU). Barry is dean of The Leavey School of Business and Professor of Leadership at Santa Clara University, where he has received numerous teaching and innovation awards.

Click here to read the full text of this article, also available in the News section of our website.

Cultivating Conversation

by Beth High
HighRoad Consulting
highroadconsulting@mac.com

As Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner point out In their 3rd edition of The Leadership Challenge, "Leadership is a relationship. This crucial truth revealed itself in the early stages of our research and has become more apparent with time. Leadership is a relationship between those who aspire to lead and those who chose to follow. " This is a simple truth the authors have come to prize as it appears woven into every leadership situation and action, and therefore seems to be at the root of every leadership opportunity. It is simple truth that is validated through many reliable sources. In her research at the Center.

for Creative Leadership, Jodi Taylor and her colleagues found “relationships with subordinates” to be the number one success factors for leaders. Jim and Barry conclude from this, "Success is today and will be in the future wholly dependent on the capacity to build and sustain those human relationships that enable people to get extraordinary things done on a regular basis."

If leadership is about relationship, doesn’t it then follow that in pursuit of increased capacity as leaders we should find ways to focus on developing our capacity for relationship? Take a look at the important relationships in your life; your partner... Your children...your dearest friends. How were these relationships established and nurtured? One conversation at a time. It’s through conversation that we discover each others values, dreams, beliefs, fears and expectations. Therefore, if Leadership is about relationship and relationship is about conversation, then conversation is at the heart of effective leadership.

Each conversation we enter into provides an opportunity to enrich the relationship of the people with whom we share the moment and to deepen our own capacity for self knowledge so we can lead from the values we have come to embrace. Every conversation is a leadership development opportunity, a chance to plant a seed and watch our learning grow.

As we launch The Leader’s Almanac, we hope to embrace this agrarian spirit and plant some seeds for conversation. With each issue we’ll look at concepts that frequently surface in the leaders world, whether that leader is established or emerging. We’ll look at Commitment, Credibility, Creativity, and Community and more. Hopefully, these columns will serve as seeds for thought and for conversations each of you can create, one to one or in groups, ad hoc or in structured settings. Our goal is to encourage conversation, each conversation holding the promise of future growth, each conversation a seed for cultivating Leadership.

The Coaches Corner

by Pat Schally
Certified Business and Leadership Coach

As with farming or gardening, the very act of growing something involves, planning, planting and tending. However, there is little “instant gratification” in this work. Rather, a farm or garden provides an on-going sense of accomplishment as plants grow and develop. A botanist once told me to be patient about a recent planting. She said that it takes time to see the end results. “First they sleep, then they creep and then they leap.”

Allow me to make some obvious connections and “dig in” to one of the practices of The Leadership Challenge. How often do leaders look for instant gratification from the people they lead? Are those new to a position, for example, expected to become an immediate, measurable success? Or, do leaders Encourage the Heart by patiently observing the individual or team and recognizing contributions when they DO leap? Do they show appreciation and create a culture of celebration? Leaders under pressure to perform may ask, “What’s the pay-off for this behavior? And, will it really impact the bottom line?”

Just as gardeners and farmers change their landscape by design, leaders can create different patterns of behavior and develop a “crop” of incredibly loyal, dedicated and high-achieving champions. Here are a few behaviors that will ensure an enormous “pay off” and an increased “bottom line” (Source: The Leadership Challenge):

• Leaders Encourage the Heart of their constituents to carry on in the face of difficult times when they’re exhausted frustrated and disenchanted. Pay off: Higher productivity as people willingly surge ahead.
• Leaders Encourage the Heart by supporting the basic human need to be appreciated for what they do and for who they are. Pay off: Sustained commitment to the organization and its success.
• Leaders Encourage the Heart by developing close relationships with their constituents and having a “big heart.” They show how profoundly grateful they are for the individual or team. Bottom line: Dedication and loyalty to the cause, which leads to greater efficiency.
• Leaders Encourage the Heart by demonstrating courage and credibility and imparting it to others. They set the example by “DWYSYWD” (doing what you say you will do). Bottom line: Admiration for a leader who aligns shared values with actions making constituents “go the extra mile.”

The Farmers’ Almanac is a guide for the timely planning, planting, tending, and harvesting a garden or farm. It is a publication that has longevity, integrity and staying power. For 213 years the Farmers’ Almanac has been a valuable and trusted source of information to farmers and gardeners throughout the country. What a perfect metaphor! Aren’t these the same qualities that inspiring leaders want to cultivate? The Leader’s Almanac concerns itself with taking similar steps to cultivate leadership in oneself and others. What are your next steps? Do you want to do some redesigning? Perhaps you’d like to weed and replant certain patches. The choice is yours. But know that the work is well worth the effort when, at harvest time, the leader reflects upon the evolutionary process by which his/her team or individuals have gone from “sleeping to creeping to leaping.”

As a business coach, I work with leaders who are seeking practical coaching on ways to impact their world and their constituents in a positive manner while dealing with their own challenges. It is at times a daunting “road to hoe” yet one that can be extremely rewarding. When Jeni Nichols, Editor and Queen of Connections, called to describe her vision of the Leaders’ Almanac, I thought, “This is exactly what is needed. A ‘down to earth’ resource aimed specifically at building leaders.” I’m delighted to be a contributor to this premier issue.

NOTE: For specific examples and practical steps to encourage others in your organization read, Encourage the Heart: A Leader’s Guide to Rewarding and Recognizing Others, by the authors of The Leadership Challenge, Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner. Jossey-Bass Publishers.

Pat Schally, CPCC, is a certified business and leadership coach. She lives in Northern California with her husband and has two adult daughters. She is passionate about coaching business leaders to become champions. She can be reached at: patcoaches@sbcglobal.net or 925-945-4909.

Roots of Leadership

John Ward is a graphic facilitator and a frequent contributor to Sonoma Learning System workshops. He draws murals during sessions, capturing key points, images and evolving connections from a totally fresh perspective. He’s a visual thinker who helps leaders and their teams think better together. Workshop participants have a richer learning experience. They can see the entire program stretched out around the room. The CD that they take home lets them view, review and print out the meeting graphics and clip art such as the “Roots of Leadership” gem shown here. It illustrates in an instant Jim and Barry’s contention that caring is the source of leadership. It comes from deep and often difficult places: discontent and desperation. The bird may be singing in the tree; but the song comes from the tree’s roots in the earth.

John designed the Leader’s Almanac and his images from Leadership Challenge workshops will be a key part of future issues. You can email him at johnward@manyminds.com

Editor's Notes

The Leaders Almanac is intended to be a resource for you and provide you with inspiration, tools and useful factoids, especially if you are on the Leadership Challenge journey. We’ll be bringing you, just like the Farmer’s Almanac, forecasts, development advice, Leadership Challenge tips and even some folklore. Specifically we’ll be offering up our experience, with leadership: coaching tips, succession planning, renewal, generational issues, emotional intelligence, accountability...not that we have the answers, but that we want to start a conversation with you about leading your life as a leader and as a developer of leaders. We want your feedback, outbursts, ideas...we’d love to hear from you. We will consider it a huge success if the Leader’s Almanac provokes you to start conversations about leadership in your world.

I decided to name this newsletter after the Old Farmer’s Almanac because I see the similarity in how you, a leader, can turn to The Leader’s Almanac for tips and tidbits just like the Farmer (or Farmer wannabe) reads the Old Farmer’s Almanac. I love the fact that the Farmer’s Almanac is full of practical information, rich with metaphors about life, and has a history...it has been published since 1792. I particularly enjoy tracking the oddities of the Farmer’s Almanac Calendar. For instance did you know that Distaff Day (January 7) is the first day after Epiphany and it is the day women are to get back to their spinning! I’ve often wondered if a “Distaff Day” might be a good way to kick off the year of work in organizations.

Until a few years ago I was a city girl and my main interest in the almanac usually centered on the amazing factoids and recipes. The Old Farmer’s Almanac is also full of gardening tips, weather forecasts and the curiosities of the human kind. Now that I live in the wine country, grow grapes, and am much more in touch with the seasons (and weather) I read what’s offered in the Almanac as advice and conversation starters (I’m still not hooked on the zodiac secrets though).

Because the Farmer’s Almanac is interesting and useful to me, I believe that leaders could use the same kind of straight-forward, honest, practical guide for their growth and the development of other leaders in their sphere of influence. Even though I like to read about the best fishing days and how to win at a pet show, I promise you won’t be subjected to articles that are quite that folksy. I do promise you insightful and provocative writing from friends like Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner and other authors that are authorities on leadership. Regular contributors are Pat Schally (leadership coach and humorist), Beth High (consultant and fellow dog lover) and John Ward (visual thinker and cat lover).

We hope to make your role as leader and leader developer a bit easier and more enjoyable. You are invited to dip in and enjoy...now back to my spinning.

Published by
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