Kevin Bowser

October 3, 2014

Communicating as a Leader

I recently spent 2 days in meetings with the North American members of my global team. There were a lot of presentations. A lot! One word that came up over and over again was the word: “Communication”. I have heard many presentations in my career on the importance of communication. But, one guy boiled it down very succinctly. And I loved the sense of urgency that it conveys.

He said it this way:

What do I know?
Who needs to know it?
Have I told them yet?

I thought that was pretty good. Effective communication is one of the key skills that a leader must possess if they are to be successful. So, let’s break it down.

What do I know? – As a leader, I have access to and am privy to things that the rest of the folks on my team do not have access to and are not privy to in their current roles. So, I must recognize that I have a duty to spread that knowledge when and where it is appropriate to do so.

Who needs to know it? – Not everyone needs to know what I know. And in many cases it would be detrimental to the team for them to know what I know. Personnel and salary information are the easy examples. But it goes well beyond those examples. The ones that need to know specific information are those who are somehow engaged in a project and need the information that you possess.

Have I told them yet? – This indicates that there is time sensitivity or an imperative to share the information when they are the right person to receive the information. So, do not delay. Share the information as quickly as you can because they may be waiting on that information in order to determine how best to proceed.

But, I think that there may be a little more to the process than those three questions. In fact, I would add three more. Continue reading “Communicating as a Leader”

September 24, 2014

Adaptive Leadership

So many of the world’s problems, and the issues that organizations, businesses, and people face every day can seem intractable and unsolvable. Leadership consultants Ronald Heifetz, Alexander Grashow and Marty Linsky discussed a new way to lead the charge to change in their book in 2009 entitled, “Adaptive Leadership”.

Adaptive Leadership calls for moving beyond outdated approaches and embracing new skills and attitudes to guide your organization in the 21st century. Adaptive leadership combines established ways of leading with new skills and new perspectives for dealing with unprecedented challenges.

But, if it were easy, everyone would be adaptive leaders and everyone would be successful. Before you begin the process of bringing lasting change to an organization you must Continue reading “Adaptive Leadership”

September 22, 2014

Listening for the Future

Great leaders are always “listening for the future” all the while staying grounded in the here and the now.

That sounds impressive and insightful. But what does it mean? Simply, it means that our society is evolving into a noisy, chaotic world; characterized by “volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity” (This is what “Futurist” Bob Johansen refers to as “VUCA”).

Elements of the VUCA paradigm have existed throughout history, but never to the extent evident in the early 21st century. Leaders who make decisions without regard to VUCA realities tend to exhibit various “dysfunctional and dangerous” attitudes and reactions, including fear, disdain, procrastination, frustration, anger and denial. And I am not exactly sure where the anger is strongest. Is it on the side of those who loath their leaders? Or is it on the side of the leaders who loath the burden of leadership?

Nevertheless, there are enduring leadership principles that will hold you in good stead during these VUCA times. Consider the following:

To be on time is to be late. – Get there early. Get there before your team arrives and be ready to greet them as they arrive for the day or for the meeting.
Always start on time. – Don’t punish those who are on time for the sins of those who are late. And don’t go back over what you have already covered for those who do arrive late.
Mental gymnastics. – Build leadership skills through leadership thoughts. Read and study other great leaders.
Actively listen. – But carefully filter what you hear. Make sure that in the midst of your listening that you are not swayed by an emotional message that takes you away from your core values.
Be ready for action. – We are living in a fast paced world and in the face of uncertainty, preparedness is a great benefit.
Practice “urgent patience”. – Know when to press forward and when to ease up on your team.
Be a storyteller. – Use compelling stories to inspire hope in your team.
Observe synchronicity. – Nothing occurs in a vacuum. So explain connections and patterns to help others find the reason for your actions.
Stay positive. – It is easy to succumb to the negativity that surrounds us. We get a steady diet of it on the news and from the media. Do not dwell on this. [I could speak at length here about the importance of being in some type of daily devotional reading, but I will save that for another time and place.]
Don’t spread yourself too thin. – You cannot directly lead a multitude. So, find a small group of leaders to develop and pour yourself into them and make them into great leaders. Don’t make them clones. Make them leaders.

Continue reading “Listening for the Future”

September 17, 2014

Wit & Wisdom from Midland County, TX

I love living in Texas. I usually tell people that I was born in way extreme far east Texas. [better known as Alexandria, Louisiana]. And you get wit & wisdom out of folks in Texas that you don’t seem to find in or around the Capital Beltway. I know, because I lived in that area for quite a while also.

I don’t often tackle politics in my writing. And I really am not trying to tackle politics right now. Instead I think there is a leadership lesson to be learned here. Consider if you will for just a moment Sheriff Gary Painter from Midland County in Texas. Recently he was interviewed on Fox News about the ISIS threat to the United States. Consistent with what he has been saying for at least 8 years he made the following statement. I am providing it below with advance apologies for some of his language as I never want to offend our readers. But here is his quote:

“If they show their ugly head in our area, we’ll send them to hell.
I think the United States needs to get busy and they need to bomb them.
They need to take them out. I would like for them to hit them so hard and so often that every time they hear a propeller on a plane or a jet aircraft engine that they urinate down both legs.”

Contrast that with our President who calls them the “JV squad” and who doesn’t have a plan to deal with them. And ask yourself for a moment, Continue reading “Wit & Wisdom from Midland County, TX”

September 9, 2014

Signs That A Leader Is Succeeding

I recently wrote an article called, “Signs That A Leader Is Failing”. And I did so with a fair amount of trepidation. When you consult with other leaders you always wonder what one of them will think when they read one of your articles. You wonder if they think it is about them.

(Why is there suddenly a Carly Simon song playing in my head)?

Well, today, I hope that all of the leaders that I have worked with over the years think this article is about them.

I have written over 160 articles describing, in some way or another, what it takes to be a superior leader in the home, at church, on the job, and in society. Some researchers and authors claim a superior leader possesses certain traits or abilities innately; others say it is all personality, style and charisma. Still others maintain it is the behaviors or actions that I take — if I do this, then my followers will do thus — that are crucial. Regardless of the how and why, these are some signs that your followers are following you and that you are succeeding as leader:

The team caught your Vision — Successful leaders have followers that have a clear understanding of your vision and what it means to them as an individual contributor or follower. They see it and they own it. There is no ambiguity. If you ask them on an elevator to describe the vision of the organization, they can express it with clarity and passion.

The team understands the Mission — Successful leaders have communicated the mission and the team “gets it”. They know why the organization exists in the first place and they have a sense of the historical context of the organization. They can also answer the mission question on an elevator just as effortlessly as they can answer the vision question.

The team has a Goal — Successful leaders have followers who understand the goals set for them. They were probably participants in setting the organizational goals and their individual goals. They are both excited and challenged by the goals and they are looking forward to stretching to achieve them.

The team is Confident — Successful leaders have followers who are confident in their leaders and in themselves. They have been taken through a process Continue reading “Signs That A Leader Is Succeeding”

September 7, 2014

Five Things You Can Do To Prepare The Young To Lead

There is much to be learned from those who have served our Country by serving in the military. This is especially true if you look at some of the “specialized” organizations within the military. I am blessed to have some very dear friends who have served. One or two have served in some of our military’s most elite units. Consider the following as it relates to leadership and youth.

“We expect to lead and be led. In the absence of orders I will take charge, lead my teammates, and accomplish the mission. I lead by example in all situations.” — Navy SEAL Creed

Navy SEAL Teams are a relatively flat organization. Everyone goes through the same grueling training, and everyone is trained to lead regardless of age or rank. In the civilian world, emergent leadership is about team members stepping up and taking the initiative to accept more responsibility and to perform work outside of their general roles when called upon. If we, as leaders, encourage and promote this type of drive, our young team members will be ready to rise within the organization, and our organization will be better off for it.

Here are five ways that we can prepare our young people for leadership. But remember they are, in fact, young:

Give them a platform. Don’t hide your young leaders. Show them to the world. Let them be a feature of your organization. Encourage them to contribute to the organization’s blog if you have one. Take them along with you to trade shows and give them an opportunity to represent you in the booth. And offer them opportunities to collaborate on ways to improve the organization’s systems and offerings.

Manage them, not their output. Get the right people in the right jobs, give them a goal, but don’t micromanage their efforts. It has been my experience that when someone comes to you and says, “I am not trying to micromange, but . . . “, they are usually micromanaging! Set goals and boundaries and then back off. Allow them to be innovative and develop systems, processes, and methodologies that will accomplish the goal you set for them and that get the job done. They may and probably will do it differently than you would have done it. And that is OK. Doing this will not only result in a more confident team and better retention, but will give your team members a sense of ownership that they wouldn’t get by simply following your orders.

Let them fail. This one is hard. Continue reading “Five Things You Can Do To Prepare The Young To Lead”

September 4, 2014

Signs That A Leader Is Failing

I was told by a manager one time, “If you aren’t failing, you aren’t trying.” And I am sure that there are many situations in which that statement is true. But, I am not dealing with effort and intentions alone today. Instead, I am dealing with results. To some this may seem harsh. Our society often expresses success in terms of trying really, really, really hard. But for today, let’s look at failure from a results-oriented perspective.

There are certainly tell-tale signs when a leader is failing. And that is true even when the leader himself does not see it. Certainly those around him don’t always it either. And if those that do, don’t always know hot to address it. But many times, those with discernment will see it.

Consider some of these signs of leadership failure within an organization:

A leader is failing when there is a refusal to accept advice or help from other leaders within the organization who are more experienced. Sometimes we think that we must do it all ourselves and we must “gut it out.” Although advice is easy to find. Good and sound advice is a precious commodity. As a leader you must seek it out and give it very careful consideration.
Al leader is failing when they lack the support of those around them. Failure is near when you have lost the support of those closest to you and who have real insight into the situation.
A leader is failing when new people searching for a an organization with goood leadership continue to pass you by. Among many things, leadership is defined by followship. And when there are folks in need of leadership and yet they choose a different organization, this is a sign of leadership failure and that failure is obvious to those outside of the organization.
A leader is failing when they bring embarassment or shame to the organization. It seems that the concept of shame is a distant and bygone concept. But everyone still understands embarassment on a personal level. So, if your organization is the brunt of jokes or is ridiculed publicly, there is leadership failure.
A leader is failing when there are financial problems. This one is a little tricky if your organization is a church or non-profit and it depends upon charity or offerings for funding. Fundraising is an unavoidable function of leadership in this setting. And financial problems are most often indicative of the lack of “buy in” by those in the organization. As leaders we must be able to communicate and get buy in.
A leader is failing when you continually miss opportunitues. There is a big difference between “seeing” and opportunity and “seizing” it. And these lost opportunities are hard to quantify. But here is where great leaders surround themselves with great teams where there is likely to be someone with the ability to spot opportunities and initiate a strategy to take advantage of that opportunity.
A leader is failing when there is desperation. Great leaders do not let the situation degenerate to the point that deperation kicks in.

Continue reading “Signs That A Leader Is Failing”

August 20, 2014

Correlation Between Leadership and Emotional Intelligence

Emotional Intelligence is a topic that I have covered before here on Leadership Voices. But, it is worthy of some additional coverage because of the major influence it has upon your success throughout life and also due to the the fact that it is a skill that can be learned and developed.

Emotional Intelligence involves going past our limited sight, thought, and understanding. By definition, our best insights are those things that we observe, we receive, we experience and not the things that we generate or produce. Emotional intelligence first requires quieting the clamor of our own thoughts and words in order to become aware of ourselves and aware of those around us.

What is my leadership point here?

The key to emotional intelligence and leadership is the development of the sense of how our persona and our ideas are being received by those that we are leading. Can we agree that most of our communication is non-verbal? Continue reading “Correlation Between Leadership and Emotional Intelligence”

August 18, 2014

Evaluating Leadership Talent

From the C-Suite to the first level supervisor, all leaders supervise someone. That is, all leaders are called upon to perform some sort of oversight function. And, in so doing, they need to ensure that their subordinates have the right resources, the opportunities, the capabilities, and the support necessary to have a fighting chance to do a good job.

But how do you measure whether someone is an effective leader when it comes to supervising others? Here are five supervisory skills you can use:

Ability to Analyze Strengths and Weaknesses: Have you had a situation where the leader was faced with a challenge and you were able to observe them close up? What about assigning tasks to subordinates? Consider how effective the leader was in these instances.

Effectiveness at Identifying and Providing Leadership Development for Their Team: Whether the job is highly technical or not, there will most likely be instances where all employees need some training. So consider whether the leader gives everyone an opportunity to participate in training. Do they just offer training to the chosen few, the high-potentials, or do they offer training opportunities to all who are wanting to learn and grow?

Opportunities to Exercise and Enhance Skills: It is one thing to provide training. It is quite another to Continue reading “Evaluating Leadership Talent”

August 8, 2014

Moving From Vision To Action

The process and the information contained in the book that I just released on Amazon had its genesis back in the mid 1990s. And I want to tell you a little bit about how it came to be.

Many years ago I was given the incredible opportunity to work very closely with some guys and to take a radical look at how leadership looked and worked in the local church environment. Not before, nor since then, have I had the opportunity to have such an impact.

I worked most closely with a young officer in the military. His name is Capt. David G. Woods. He and I are the same age and and at the time were at somewhat the same station in life. Albeit his station was military and mine was civilian. We had similar circumstances and views of leadership at the time. We were young. We were passionate. We were energetic. We had boundless energy. We had very little patience with those not exactly like us. We were foolish at times.

One of the things that we noted was that not everyone who has the ability to “see the big picture” can then execute a plan to accomplish the vision that is seen in the big picture. Strategic and tactical planning are leadership skills that are not often found in visionary leaders.

I did not consider myself to be a visionary leader at that time nearly 20 years ago. I was much more strategic and tactical. I have developed visionary skills as I have grown older. But neither of us had them at the time. I won’t speak completely for David, but I know that I had brief flashes of vision and I had an innate sense that things could be and should be different. But, I struggled to see that big picture.

David and I were very fortunate to have an older guy be a part of our little brain trust. His name was Robert Spalding and he was one of the FBI’s preeminent forensic experts. I will not go into his area of expertise because some may be a bit squeamish to learn of his expertise. But he was brilliant, analytical, steadfast, and had the respect of the rest of the leadership that worked alongside us.

Together we produced some evaluation tools and a methodology for helping that local church move from a great vision and begin to put together specific, actionable, and measurable steps that would take us to where we felt that we were called to go. Dave and I, especially, burnt gallons of “midnight oil” in the basement of my office building in a little office hovering over demographic data, membership data, leadership tools and together we developed the material that was introduced the to the rest of the leadership team and was later used at a leadership retreat. The result of all of that was a dramatic restructuring of the roles of the various leaders that enabled them to really focus on their areas of strength and really begin to accomplish the goals that so many of them had – building the church spiritually, numerically and financially.

The results did not come over night. But they did begin to come. Continue reading “Moving From Vision To Action”