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StrategyDriven Podcast Special Edition 60 – An Interview with Doug Moran, author of If You Will Lead

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StrategyDriven Podcasts focus on the tools and techniques executives and managers can use to improve their organization’s alignment and accountability to ultimately achieve superior results. These podcasts elaborate on the best practice and warning flag articles on the StrategyDriven website.

Special Edition 60 – An Interview with Doug Moran, author of If You Will Lead explores the four key questions every leader must answer and the principles behind those questions every leader must embrace in order to be truly effective. During our discussion, Doug Moran, author of If You Will Lead: Enduring Wisdom for 21st-Century Leaders, shares with us his insights and experiences regarding:

  • the four critical questions every leader must answer
  • how a leader can identify who he/she is and what he/she believes in
  • how a leader can convey their beliefs and values to followers in a way that is constructive and understandable
  • what leaders must do to earn the right to lead others

Additional Information

In addition to the outstanding insights Doug shares in If You Will Lead and this special edition podcast are the resources accessible from his website, www.IfYouWillLead.net.   Doug’s book, If You Will Lead, can be purchased by clicking here.

Final Request…

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About the Author

Doug Moran, author of If You Will Lead, is the founder of If You Will Lead, LLC, a firm providing leadership development and executive coaching advisory services. Throughout his career, Doug has served in leadership roles including several executive positions within Capital One Financial Services and as Virginia’s Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Resources. To read Doug’s complete biography, click here.

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Selfless Leadership: Putting Our Cause First

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In the fourth couplet of his poem ‘If-,’ Rudyard Kipling wrote:
 

Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;

 
Kipling is telling us that as leaders, we must be willing to put our cause or beliefs ahead of our personal gain. He is reminding us that true leadership requires a degree of selflessness. It requires us to put our cause and those we lead ahead of ourselves.

[wcm_restrict]When we think of selfless leaders, many great names come to mind: Jesus; Gandhi; King; Lincoln; Mandela; Stockdale… the list goes on. Whether we call it selfless leadership, altruistic leadership, or servant leadership, the concept is not new. Most religious traditions extol the virtue of selflessness and the need to lead for the benefit of others. The Bible, Torah, Koran, Bhagavad Gita, and many other religious writings are loaded with references to selflessness. History is full of stories of selfless leaders who did the right thing simply because it was the right thing to do. They weren’t seeking personal gain or reward. In fact, the leaders above understood that their actions would ultimately cost them dearly.

Lately selflessness has not been an attribute that is highly celebrated in leaders. Today’s leaders are more often known for the size of their egos and the cults of personality that surround them. Many leaders spend their energies focusing on their personal rewards and status, rather than focusing on the greater good of those they serve.

Most great leaders have demonstrated some degree of selflessness. Leadership is, after all, dependent on one’s ability to gain followers, so leaders must give others a reason to follow them. Most of us want to follow someone in whom we believe. We want to be part of something worthwhile and meaningful, so we follow leaders who are working for something important.

So how do we become leaders that are more selfless? The good news is we don’t have sacrifice to the degree that the leaders above did – no need to die or spend years in prison for our cause. We also don’t have to ignore our personal commitments and responsibilities. The bad news is that it still requires a great deal of work and personal sacrifice. The following are some simple lessons for those wishing to become more selfless.

  1. Subordinate our personal feelings/needs/ego to the greater good. OK, this one is not simple. In fact, none of these lessons are easy, but when we commit ourselves to a cause, we will often need to put the cause ahead of our personal goals. This may mean sacrificing our pet project or sharing our strongest resources for the greater good of the organization or the team.
  2. Selflessness takes practice. We can’t just wake up one morning and become selfless leaders. It takes practice and discipline. Selflessness often goes against our natural instincts for self-preservation. It requires us to build and exercise new muscles. We have to look for opportunities, both big and small, to practice selflessness.
  3. Don’t confuse selflessness with a lack of will or sense of self. Many may confuse selflessness with weakness or lack of will. On the contrary, selfless leaders often have huge egos and wills of iron. They know what they want. As leaders we have to remember to keep thinking big and remaining confident, and we must know when and how to put the needs of our organization or cause first.
  4. Selflessness requires leaders to understand boundaries and priorities. If the cause is great and we believe in our ability to effect change, we should be prepared to make equally great sacrifices. We may jeopardize a big promotion or bonus to do the right thing. We may even put our job on the line. We will also make smaller personal sacrifices, like missing family events or bringing the stress of work home with us. Selfless leadership requires us to explore fully our boundaries so that when we confront choices we are prepared to make them.

Anyone can become a selfless leader. Selfless leadership requires hard work, patience, sacrifice, and most of all love. We must love what we do, the people we serve, and our cause. A selfless leader’s journey is a testament to Kipling’s lines, “Or being hated don’t give way to hating, And yet not look too good nor talk too wise.”[/wcm_restrict][wcm_nonmember]

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About the Author

Doug Moran has more than twenty-five years of leadership experience in a variety of industries. Doug is the author of the forthcoming book, If You Will Lead: Enduring Wisdom for 21st-Century Leaders. He founded IF YOU WILL LEAD, LLC to help leaders and organizations reach their fullest potential. The firm focuses on leadership development, organization excellence and information technology. His book, speaking, and consulting leverage the power of story-telling and enduring wisdom to help leaders and their organizations excel and grow.

Leading with Patience – The Will to Wait

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Patience is a virtue. This pearl of wisdom has been a bone in the throat of even the most patient leader. Patience is an easy thing to talk about, but it is extremely difficult to practice. Webster’s defines patience as, “the quality of being capable of bearing affliction calmly.” Patience is the third attribute Rudyard Kipling described in the poem ‘If-:’

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,

 
[wcm_restrict]Most of us think of patience as a construct of time, but Kipling was addressing the broader definition – enduring difficulty and hardship while awaiting the appropriate opportunity to act. He is also referring to the patience required to bear the nagging and sniping that often accompanies a decision to wait.

Patience is a quality often lacking among today’s leaders. Society expects those in charge to take action quickly and decisively. True leaders recognize that patience enables them to take stock of the situation, to understand what is required, and wait while they build the capacity to take appropriate and effective action. Patience requires composure and character (as discussed in earlier blogs). Societal pressures for action may cause others to criticize and condemn a leader’s perceived inaction or lack of speed. People will first demand action. Then they will demand results. The greater the crisis, the greater the impatience.

By demonstrating patience, leaders reinforce the importance of focusing on the long-term outcomes. Patience doesn’t mean ignoring the interim milestones or short-term deliverable. It does mean keeping them in context.

Many tasks associated with leadership require patience (e.g., strategic planning, negotiations, people development, program management, etc.). The bigger the issue and the longer the planning horizon, the greater the patience required to remain committed. Strategic plans, for example, typically have a long-term time horizon and address big issues that affect an organization. It is easy for a leader to see the desired end-state and want to jump ahead without exercising the patience needed to succeed. Leadership means understanding that patience may require sacrificing short-term glory for long-term results.

Patience has contributed to many great leadership successes, and impatience has led to many failures. Benjamin Franklin’s failed negotiations with the British to avoid the American Revolution and his successful negotiation with France to support the war were both great tests of his patience. Both required years of hard work and sacrifice, but in the end, they were instrumental in American independence. Gandhi demonstrated extraordinary patience in working for a free and independent India. For more than thirty years, Gandhi worked, never varying from his commitment to non-violence. His patience resulted in a free India.

Many encouraged Franklin and Gandhi to give up or to compromise, but their patience enabled their success. Most of us think about the patience to wait months to build the capability to take action. Franklin and Gandhi recognized that they must work and wait for years before they could succeed.

Impatience is at the heart of the international financial crisis. Many attribute it to greed and regulatory failures. I would argue that the root of the problem was impatience on the part of investors, consumers, lenders, and regulators. Everyone wanted immediate results. Too many people lacked the patience required to create long-term value. This impatience led to disaster.

Practical Lessons:

While patience is an essential leadership attribute, it also demands skills more often associated with management. Our ability to lead patiently requires us to manage the situations in which we find ourselves.

  1. Understand the situation and establish the facts. A patient leader understands the situation. How important is this problem? How urgent is its resolution? You must leverage your skills and the skills of others to gain an understanding of the situation you face.
  2. Have the patience to create your plan. Patience requires us to know what we are going to do. Planning is a critical management function that enables leaders to build stakeholder confidence.
  3. Build support and get the right backing. Any good program manager knows that the best way to relieve the pressure from impatient stakeholders is having a powerful and engaged sponsor. Enlisting and retaining the right support is a critical component to leading patiently.
  4. Execute your plan on your schedule. Having the confidence to stick to your plan is challenging. Hold your ground when others attack you, and make sure you deliver on your commitments.
  5. Be prepared to respond to the unexpected. Nothing ever goes as planned, and the sign of a good plan and great leader is the ability to respond effectively when things go awry. Unforeseen events are always a test of patience, and so we must have plans that enable us to respond.

Leaders often face challenges for which we are unprepared. Having the patience to respond deliberately may cause others to attack us. Leadership means enduring their attacks. To “wait and not be tired by waiting” can test even the most patient leader.[/wcm_restrict][wcm_nonmember]

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About the Author

Doug Moran has more than twenty-five years of leadership experience in a variety of industries. Doug is the author of the forthcoming book, If You Will Lead: Enduring Wisdom for 21st-Century Leaders. He founded IF YOU WILL LEAD, LLC to help leaders and organizations reach their fullest potential. The firm focuses on leadership development, organization excellence and information technology. His book, speaking, and consulting leverage the power of story-telling and enduring wisdom to help leaders and their organizations excel and grow.

Leading by Looking Back

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Conventional wisdom teaches that leadership is about looking forward. We are all taught that leading means creating a compelling vision for the future and inspiring others to follow us into that future. While I fundamentally share this view, I believe the past plays a critical role in how we lead. Leaders must be able to look back. We must learn lessons from our own experiences and from the experiences of those who came before us.

Philosopher George Santayana said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” His words are especially true in the context of leadership. Either we can learn from the past, or we can continue to commit the same blunders. Many leadership “experts” argue that the problems and challenges facing today’s leaders require new leadership attributes. I contend that the attributes never change. How we use them may change, but the attributes remain constant.

[wcm_restrict]I am always amazed at the diverse resources from which we can learn. One such resource is Rudyard Kipling’s poem, ‘If-.’ Kipling wrote ‘If-’ in 1895. He described in the poem sixteen essential leadership attributes. While Kipling’s ‘If-’ doesn’t provide a perfect list of all of the attributes of leadership, it does provide leaders a place to start their journey. Within its thirty-two lines and 288 words, Kipling packed powerful lessons. ‘If-’ directs us to know ourselves and what we believe. It encourages us to see things that others can’t or won’t. It challenges us to motivate others to attempt things they think are impossible. It dares us to dream big and work to attain our dreams. The most important lesson the poem teaches is having the boldness and courage to step up and lead.

The poem speaks for itself and reveals enduring wisdom.

‘IF-’

 

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;
If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same:
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings,
And never breathe a word about your loss:
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings – nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And – which is more – you’ll be a Man, my son!

 

by Rudyard Kipling

IF YOU WILL LEAD, LLC

Leadership Development,
Executive Coaching,
Infrastructure Consulting

IF YOU WILL LEAD recognizes that your personal and professional success depends, in large part, on your ability to effectively and powerfully lead. We know that leadership is about choices. First we must choose to lead, and then others must choose to follow.

Successful leadership involves continuous growth and learning. Most of all it requires hard work and practice. If You Will Lead, LLC is here to help you and your organization reach your potential.

IF YOU WILL LEAD provides a variety of services to help you build and grow your business. Services include:

  • Executive Coaching
  • Group Coaching
  • Leadership Consulting
  • Organization and Individual Leadership Assessments
  • Motivational Speaking
  • Technology Leadership

So, what leadership advice could a 21st-century leader possibly get (or want) from a 19th-century poem – especially one written by a poet who is most remembered for his children’s stories? What can an Information Age leader learn from a Victorian Age poem?

It provides committed leaders with a framework on which to build our leadership careers. The poem is not a checklist that will guarantee success for an aspiring leader. There is no silver bullet for successful leadership. Rather, ‘If-’ describes a path we may choose to follow to become a better leader. It can guide us along this path. ‘If-’ has remained a compelling leadership guide for more than 100 years. It is simply written and easy to read and understand. Most importantly, the messages are direct and powerful.

This article is dedicated to connecting today’s problems with similar challenges from history. I will attempt to reveal the enduring wisdom from historical events, so today’s leaders can apply this wisdom to deliver superior results.[/wcm_restrict][wcm_nonmember]

Hi there! This article is available for free. Login or register as a StrategyDriven Personal Business Advisor Self-Guided Client by:

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[/wcm_nonmember]

About the Author

Doug Moran has more than twenty-five years of leadership experience in a variety of industries. Doug is the author of the forthcoming book, If You Will Lead: Enduring Wisdom for 21st-Century Leaders. He founded IF YOU WILL LEAD, LLC to help leaders and organizations reach their fullest potential. The firm focuses on leadership development, organization excellence and information technology. His book, speaking, and consulting leverage the power of story-telling and enduring wisdom to help leaders and their organizations excel and grow.