Lead Like a Skinny Cow

Skinny-cow-leadershipRecently my organization underwent a grueling boot camp style, dramatic and innovative healthcare system process redesign. It was a rip the band-aid off fast approach, and two weeks of asking people to quickly change many of the ingrained daily processes they had known for many years. Set-up for organizational failure?

Nope. I was impressed by the speed at which we were able to accomplish much, while never losing a soul. One of the reasons it worked out so well was due to our Sherpa’s. In the Tibetan region of the Himalayas, Sherpa’s are guides that are highly regarded as elite mountaineers and experts in their local terrain. Our assigned “Sherpa’s” commanded leadership to get out of the way, sought positive opportunities for change at the front lines, and guided staff in doing what they needed to do. As leaders our sole role was to get behind them, coach them, and support them. It worked well.

Skinny Cow Leadership

At the end of two weeks I joyfully arrived at the office with celebratory boxes of Skinny Cow Ice Cream sandwiches at 2:30 on a Friday afternoon. I had purchased all the flavors I could find, Mint and Chip, Cookies and Crème, Vanilla, and Chocolate. It seemed like such a small thing to do, cost all of $15, yet the experience made me appreciate something far greater. As I journeyed to each work station and watched the faces light up, offering the yummy ice cream sandwiches, I was reminded of how important it is as leaders we first serve others. As I traveled to a next department, I heard a female voice yelling from down the hall, “Susan, wait, I was told I should find you.” Honestly I felt a bit like the Pied Piper. It made me wonder, what if we could lead in a manner that compelled people to follow us with the same enthusiasm, even in the absence of ice cream. Servant leaders do, through three simple behaviors that contribute the cultivation of a culture that responds in just that way.

Servant Leadership

First and foremost, if we as leaders expect to have followers, we must first serve others. The greatest contribution a servant leader can offer their team will not be in what we do, but in what we offer to do for others. The way you can do this and achieve great results begins with asking others “What is the one thing I could take off your plate today that would make your day better?” If you’ve never done this they will look at you in disbelief. “Yes, really. What can I take off of your plate?” Each time I have asked that question I have been handed a task, and most often it is something so very basic. It can be as simple as communicating a message to another department that they do not feel comfortable in delivering themselves, or the addition of a shred basket at their work station; little things go a long way.

Effective Leadership

Secondly, effective servant leaders close the gap.  Once you’ve accepted the task of taking something off someone’s plate, remember to circle back around and close the gap; were you effective in your actions. Check back in with followers and ask how it’s going. Did your actions actually serve to make their day better? If you were effective in your efforts it will reinforce to your followers that you are there to support them, you are on their side. In practicing the “close the gap” you will strengthen your ability to effectively listen to, and serve others. You won’t know if you were effective if you don’t ask. Effective servant leaders are good listeners and ask good questions.

Ask to Serve

Lastly, effective servant leaders recognize that most of us are not very good at asking for and accepting assistance. We humans, for whatever reason tend to feel less worthy of accepting help.  I was recently reminded of this during a trip to the grocery store. At the checkout, instead of the obligatory “Do you need any help to your car?” (to which I always decline since I truly do not NEED any help), the freckly faced bag girl grabbed my three bags and with a big smile said “Which way to your car?” A sudden feeling of being served and cared for hit me. As we walked to the car I had the pleasurable experience of connecting with her on a very basic level, a human experience I would not have otherwise had. The benefits of doing this for our followers, of giving one the feeling of being served and cared for is something we could all use  little more of.

The top three servant leader messages:

  • Your greatest work will not be in what you told others to do, it will be recognized by your service to others.
  • To do great work you must know what it is that others value, start by asking questions. Stop telling and start asking, then stop asking and start doing.
  • There are no leaders without followers  If we expect to effectively lead we must sometimes get out of the way of our people and get behind them. Effective servant leaders don’t stand in front of our people, we get behind them.

How do you go about serving those you lead. Please share your thoughts in the comments section.

Be a “Karma Yogi”- The Leadership of Thoughts and Action

Karma Yogi LeadershipLeadership is encompassing, endearing and all pervasive to the man kind. They say, history repeats itself and history is the greatest teacher of all.  Since time immemorial, every century has examples of leaders which have led by the front – by their thoughts and action.

Someone in the prehistoric times would have rallied the infant human society and would have started creating social groups – hence the village would have been formed. Someone would have discovered fire, invented the Wheel and would have shared that with the social society – these advances were innovations which we don’t give a second thought about in our daily lives these days; but they have shaped our lives and altered the course of history. At that period of time, these advances would have been as ground breaking as the invention of the Internet seems to us in the modern times.

So What Really is Leadership?

Thought leadership or action leadership? Or a combination of both?

What really causes people to follow leaders to the journeys unknown, to pledge lives, to follow without a second thought?

What should a leader have? Assertiveness? Superior intelligence? A position of power? Great aspirations?

Or is it something else which transforms a person into a leader?

These questions have been asked before, and answers are actually there for everyone to understand who looks at human history.  All we have to do is “stand on the shoulders of giants” to understand what really is leadership.

Leadership Starts When People Turn Back to Their Inner Self.

Leadership is about being detached, yet being in control of the inner senses, and thoughts.  Leaders must understand their life’s philosophy and understand what makes them happy and hence involved in what they do.

One of the extremely well known scriptures from the Indian history is Gita – which encompasses a life’s meaning and is a great work on stratagem. It says, “Don’t worry about results – for results are temporary” – focus on your work which might take you a lifetime to achieve the results and leave the results to be savored as an outcome of your work – this is also really known as the “karma”.  This is action leadership.

Think about it, this verse from Gita, gives out what a leader must do to be a great leader.  People tend to forget about what they love to do and just focus on bottom lines, sales targets and the like and in that process they forget about the road they travel to their goals. Savoring the journey is more important than the relishing the time to reach the destination.

Steve Jobs travelled to India when he was 19 and returned back as a Buddhist. In later years of his life, he acknowledged that this trip had a profound impact in his working life and – where he saw the power of intuition and experiential wisdom- that too in his travels from Villages – places where little or no modern learning had reached.  The thought or learning that prevailed was from centuries of collective wisdom from the likes of Gita, which are still understood well. Steve Jobs’ stated goal was not to make money – but to make the world a better place to live in. He made a lot of money – but that was only a bi-product of him trying to do what he loved the most- innovate and hence create products which helped shape the world we live in.

The process of turning back to your inner thoughts and yourself to find your true calling evokes the thought leadership process. In the usual grind of daily lives, contemplation is usually lost, and we are many times left with a singular sense of monotony and the morbid.  Being able to be detached, and achieve the state of Zen is the starting point for becoming a great leader. Many times a person knows and understands the path he/she wishes to take is what  is the right way, yet still gets distracted by what others might see as not right.  The Zen like ability of a leader keeps him/her focused and truly allows them to enjoy the path they seek to take or in more Indian terms- be a ‘Yogi’. A person who practices Zen is a Yogi – to seek internal awakening- essentially this is thought leadership.

Leadership Failure is To Be Afraid of Failing

If a leader is afraid of failing, he/she has already failed.  Failures teach and to be afraid of learning is unacceptable.  Leaders believe and believe strongly in their paths and if they ‘fail’ – the failure is just an outcome.  To be true to themselves and to the people they lead, learning to be not to be afraid of ‘failing’ is a must. Leaders must then be ‘Karma Yogi’. Just focus on work with Zen like ability and forget about results.  Again going back to the example of Steve Jobs- he was fired from Apple – and at that point of time- he would have seemed like a failure for many. He came back to apple, much stronger – after turning Pixar into a success story – and lead by his beliefs to unshackle two more industry verticals to creating a totally new market for tablets. Failures are part of the game, and leaders should be able to enjoy the failures as much as they enjoy success.

Leading is Really About Understanding People.  

Leadership draws on the ability to be compassionate and have a superior sense of empathy.

To quote from two recent tweets from the Dalai Lama

“Compassion is the ultimate source of success in life”

“With inner strength or mental stability, we can endure all kinds of adversity.”

Coming from one of the great leaders in the modern times, this has a special meaning.  He is a person who has rallied his people for a common cause- which necessarily might not have been a personal cause for people who have stood by him and the cause espoused by him.

If the leaders are prepared to take on the work they would want others to do at their behest and lead from the front , the “circle of influence” grows. Getting hands dirty is essential and leading from the front sets the right example. What Dalai Lama believes and preaches – really sums this age old adage. Selflessness, truthfulness and great vision shines though like a beacon and hits the heart of people around you. Loyalty and motivation are not rationally defined, but emotionally governed and people can sense selflessness, truthfulness and a great vision which rallies them to follow their leaders to the ends of the earth and beyond.

Summing up, leaders should work to be a Karma Yogi. Action leadership combined with thought leadership is karma yogi.   Great results are adored and praised. The work path is usually forgotten and relegated to secondary spot- but this is what gets leaders great results hence it is more important to focus back being a Yogi and rely on karma to achieve the great results!

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