Leaders, Are You Creating Gangs in Your Org?

Leadership-Gangs-GraffitiIt was just after eight in the morning. I had been on an overnight flight across three time zones. My mind was fuzzy with fatigue and eyes drowsily droopy. But shut they would not.

I grabbed my bags and headed for the train station. A few minutes after rolling out of the station, my sight was assaulted by vivid color. For the next mile, the earth-retaining walls and the back walls of buildings next to the railway tracks were covered with graffiti. And I wondered, if graffiti was this elaborate here, why was there none in the airport arrival lounge?

At every train stop, the same scenario repeated itself about a mile into the station and another out of it. An hour later, we rolled into my destined station. It was the same as all the others. As soon as I stepped out onto the street, I quickly surveyed all the surrounding building for any signs of graffiti. None, zilch, nada… I wondered, “Why?”

There was clearly a lot of artistic acumen in the canvas of graffiti that was laid out on those walls. I could see the intricate thought. However, I also had a deep sense of the violent despair in the soul of the graffitist, emptiness.

The words and images were a depiction of a lost hope. It was like those behind the graffiti had ganged up to send a silent challenge and a plea to be pointed in the right direction. What if their talent was harnessed to improve the aesthetics of public places?

Back home, two separate incidents helped me understand why ganging up emerges when true leadership fails. When a leadership vacuum occurs, gangs slowly start to form and thrive.

Stop, Police!

I had a conversation with a senior police officer as he sat in the passenger seat of my car. Where I come from, it isn’t uncommon for a police officer to flag you down for a lift. They sometimes don’t have sufficient resources at their disposal. It was then that I spotted the driver of a commuter bus commit a traffic offence.

When I asked the police officer why this was so rampant, his response left me gutted. “You see,” he sighed in resignation, “If I arrest this guy, I’ll waste a good part of my day. The paperwork is time-consuming. When he goes to court, he’ll only have to pay a small fine and is back on the road a few hours later. So why bother? No one has been injured anyway.”

This special breed of gangs have emerged because of a lack of leadership in the judicial system and weak enforcement of laws. The traffic-law-breaking gangs have grown to endemic levels; just because a leader abdicated their role to put in place the right policies and protocols.

Checked Out

The second was a series of events at one of my former workplaces. Discord was evident everywhere. The quality of work had deteriorated. By the time I left, about half the work force was coming to the office an average of thirty minutes past the official reporting time. Some would saunter in as much as an hour late and act like nothing unusual had occurred.

About half the workforce was showing up but was checked out. They had formed an alliance; a gang of employees who did the bare minimum work that reflected the quality of the leadership.

Something unfortunate began to happen. A few hard-working valuable employees were unsettled by this mediocre gangs that had formed. They were frustrated as delivery of their results depended in part to their colleagues who had already “checked out.”

Finally, some of these valuable people started to check out too. They did not join the gangs of mediocrity; they left the organization for good!

Three ‘must-dos’ for Leaders

First, people have a deep desire to be led in an authentic way. You can’t expect goodness from people if you don’t extend it to them first. “If we have a good heart and concern for others, our actions will be positive.” ~Dalai Lama

Secondly, start small before things snowball on you. Assess your habits as a leader. If you show up late for work late, your followers will follow suit. It doesn’t matter whether you are a morning person or not. “Leadership is an action, not a position.” ~Donald McGannon

Third, listen to the pulse of workers who churn out quality work effortlessly. Protect and influence them to create gangs of excellence that grow the organization’s vision. “Leading an organization is like frying a small fish. You spoil it with too much poking.” ~from the Tao the Ching

Which gangs would you rather lead? I’d love to read your comments!

Leadership Evolution – The Missing Link

Leadership-Evolution-The-Missing-Link-Kimunya-MugoAbout eight years ago, I attended a job interview. It was your typical run-of-the-mill affair. The panelists just wanted to confirm that I was whom I said I was on my resume. The questions came at me fast and furious. “What is your main weakness? How do you cope when you are under pressure?” The scene was akin to the Spanish inquisition!

One thing bothered me throughout the interview. There was something wrong with the whole approach. It seemed none of the interview panelists was interested in knowing ‘who’ I am: the core of my person that is my heart, soul, and passion. Their focus was on ‘what’ I was. What had I done? What was I bringing into the organization? What this, what that… At some point, I was ready to walk off in protest if anyone of them uttered another ‘what’!

Fortunately, I got a small gap at the tail end of the interview. “Do you have anything you’d like to ask us?” asked one panelist. “More like something I want to share with you,” I replied excitedly! “I just wanted to let you know that I have a young family and my first baby on the way,” I began. Four bewildered faces stared back at me. It was like some tiny hamsters were furiously running tiny wheels in their cranium. Good sign, I had their undivided attention. “You see,” I began, “My family is central to my life and work. If any of them squeaks, I jump. They are my first priority.” You should have seen the baffled looks on their faces! It was like I had just walked into the dentist’s with a major cavity in my tooth while chewing on candy.

That is why I started to ask this question. Isn’t it time that recruiters looked beyond the papers? Some do, but where I come from not many. Now, in any recruitment process I am involved in, I try hard to learn as much as I can about an individual’s background. To try to know the person in a deeper way that goes beyond their talents and qualifications. Why is this important to me?

Human beings abhor vacuum

I find a disconnect between work and family. There seems to be an assumption that as long as one can perform well at their duties in there workplace, then they can move up the ranks and become leaders. For a few, this may be true. However, it is paramount to remember that leaders can’t develop in a vacuum. They only grow and thrive in context of their background; community and family. If any of these relationships are broken, chaos is the most probable outcome.

In mid-February this year, Kenya carried out her first-ever presidential debate. What stood out for me was not the normal political rhetoric. I was stunned when the candidates could not respond to a simple question, “Who are you?”

None could provide a credible response. They fumbled through their answers, reciting their qualifications, what they had done, hadn’t done or what they could do. None talked about growing up, or their family interactions. They came across hollow as an owl’s hoot in the dead of the night.

It left me wondering if we are molding ‘whos’ or ‘whats’. It may have been that they are driven to believe that if they have the credentials, then that could transform into credible leaders.

Leaders don’t tell a better story, they make a story better .”~ Kimunya Mugo Tweet this!

Family gives a sense of leadership potential

If you dig a little deeper into a someone’s family background, the probability of determining their leadership potential becomes higher. It exposes their ability to work in a team, to be accountable for their actions or lack thereof, and be open to opinions or different cultures. You are able to appreciate his or her clarity of their roles or responsibilities.

“Superficiality is the curse of courage…the desperate need today is not for the greater number of intelligent people, or gifted people, but for deep people,” notes Richard Foster. Deep people care about transformational leadership. They can be trusted, are more probable to have regular open communication, and tend to have activities outside work that involve family. Team building is a common trait amongst these people.

Susan Thorn puts this very well. “I recently hired a dynamite nurse for a new Case Management Model in a journey toward a patient centered medical home delivery of care model. She does not start for several weeks but we will be having a 7 am breakfast on Friday in my attempt to do just that. Discover how we fit into her work and family. I agree on the family. I have told employers that if ‘I give 100% to my family when they need it, I will always be able to give 100% while I am here’. And I tell my staff the same. Family always comes first!”

When you can say who you are…

This I believe is the missing link in the evolution of a leader. It is that sense of self-awareness. One does not walk around trying to seek power in material things or power. Knowing who you are helps in identifying with a cause and provides an opportunity to lead. Remember, people don’t buy into what you do but why you do it…the missing link in leadership.

There are those who lead. They inspire us. We follow because we want to and not because we have to. Remember, leaders don’t tell a better story, they make a story better.

Are you bridging the missing link in your leadership evolution process? Are you looking for ‘what’ rather than ‘who’? What are you going to do different in your leadership development pursuits? Let’s keep the discussion going…

Kimunya Mugo – Lead by Choice

I originally met Kimunya on Twitter. He contacted me when I was looking for writers for the International Leadership Blogathon and wanted to write. He wrote a great post that brings leadership to the family. We have stayed in touch since then and have become very good friends. I have a lot of great respect for him and all he does. He recently published a great book on bringing leadership to the family.
Kimunya Mugo
Name:
Kimunya Mugo 
 Company/ Blog Name:
 Lead By Choice
Website: 
Click Here
 Home:
Nairobi, Kenya 

BIO:

Born in Kenya’s Great Rift Valley and now making home in Nairobi Kenya, Kimunya is first and foremost a husband and a father of three great kids. His family, he believes, is his first calling in life. During his free time, he works on his three passions: Communication, Leadership and Branding.

As a seasoned communication specialist, Kimunya has years of experience in communication strategy, publishing, branding, social media, development communication, media relations, campaigns, photography and filmmaking for development.

He started of as a scientist but his communication skills were accidentally discovered as he had a knack of digesting complex scientific information into popular script. Kimunya never looked back. Along the way, he noticed that there was something missing in his environment, intentional leadership. For a number of years, he explored what it means to be a leader. This finally inspired him to start writing a blog on intentional leadership Lead by Choice.

With a young family, he also noticed that he couldn’t become an effective leader anywhere else unless he started small, at home.  Together with his wife and another couple, they have facilitated parenting classes since 2007. It is their way to give back to community, as they prepare new parents [and sometime older ones] through the challenging maze of parenting.

Always one to try out new things, Kimunya pioneered Earth Hour in Kenya and has organized this global event in Kenya since 2009 (www.earthhour.org).

He will be publishing a book in December 2012 that looks at his struggle growing up with an absentee father. In it, he takes the reader through five steps that inspired him to bring leadership back home.

Randomness from Kimunya Mugo:

  • Mission/purpose: To work towards excellence, effective leadership, and creative thought that inspires and motivates people to sustainable action.
  • Passion: Passionate about family, leadership, communication and sustainable development in that order.
  • Claim to Fame: I shoot from the hip!
  • Favorite Quote: “People of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen. They went out and happened to things.” Leonardo Da Vinci
  • Biggest Fear: Fail as a father and husband. Everything else is redeemable…
  • Biggest Pet Peeve: People who don’t keep time
  • Weirdest Habit: Can scratch my pinky with forefinger, from behind the middle and fourth fingers!
  • Favorite Cartoon Character: Calvin & Hobbes!

Links to Connect With Kimunya Mugo:

 

Lessons of Leadership & Culture From Kenya

Leadership is CultureA few weeks ago, our three children taught me a valuable lesson during a trip to the national public library in Kenya to attend a children’s club. The first activity of the day was poetry, and the club’s coordinator asked for a child volunteer to teach the others a poem. There was a poignant unease as none of the children wanted to go up on stage.

Suddenly, a hand shot up. It was our precious six-year old daughter. My lovely wife nearly fell off her seat in fright! She wondered what our daughter could possibly teach her peers. Before my wife could react, our daughter bounced onto the stage. In a clear, confident voice, and without skipping a beat, she let forth the words:

“Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,
a peck of picked peppers Peter Piper picked.
If Peter Piper picked a pipe of pickled peppers,
where is the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?”

Like clockwork, all the children chimed in together and asked to learn the piece. At the end of it, there were many smiling, albeit tongue-tied children. Curious to know what drove her to volunteer, I asked her and she responded, “It was the right thing to do!” She had this funny look on her that seemed to suggest that I might be growing a little soft in the head.

Then it struck me, unbeknownst to her, she was already honing her leadership skills. Without fear of failure, she took the initiative, and taught her peers. Immediately, it took me back to a poem I read on Todd Nielsen’s blog, “The Leadership / Parenting Analogy”. Four lines from “Children Learn What They Live” by Dorothy Law Nolte, Ph.D especially stood out…

If children live with encouragement, they learn confidence.
If children live with acceptance, they learn to love.
If children live with sharing, they learn generosity.
If children live with security, they learn to have faith in themselves and in those about them.

Then I fully appreciated our daughter’s response. My wife and I have sung, spoken and read to our three children from when they were snug in their mother’s belly. In there, a culture was incubated… one of care, reading, love, and sharing. No one taught our daughter the tongue twister she recited that morning. Her mother had written it out on a card and posted it on a door at home.

From a very tender age we have encouraged our children to read wholesome literature. We read to them, bought them books, and spurred them to explore the joys of the written word. My wife and I also read a lot. Reading has become an odyssey into new worlds. At six years, our first-born daughter is exploring Greek mythology, presenting me with a mind-boggling account of Greek leaders and their conquests and failure. She is already engaging us in debates, trying to link historical events to present reality.

As parents, we have been very deliberate and actively present in our children’s lives. We have been able to practice what Lyn Boyer refers to as ‘Affective Leadership’, the ability to connect with and influence other people to achieve common goals through strong and genuine relationships and emotional attachments.

As we have developed the culture of our family, so the culture of organizations needs to be developed. A primary function of leadership is to develop culture. For the right culture to emerge, deliberate and careful nurturing is required. In Outliers: The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell notes that people don’t rise from nothing. “[People] are invariably the beneficiaries of hidden advantages and extraordinary opportunities and cultural legacies that allow them to learn and work hard and make sense of the world in ways others cannot.”

Furthermore, Brent Harris said, “You can’t teach culture. You have to live it. You have to experience it. You have to share it. And most importantly…you have to show it.”

As leaders I hope that we can all take heed of the lessons all around us, including in our family, that teach us how to develop and improve the cultures that we are responsible for.

Please leave a comment below.

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