Posts from — April 2008

Since starting to study Legendary Leadership and leadership in general, I have been wondering if certain things make a huge difference for those people who actually go through a meteoric rise and reach the highest levels in industry, organizations, non-profits or politics.

In the beginning many articles, books and other sources seems to indicate that it all depends on charisma – something one would have to be born with. Then, slowly over the years I learned that leadership, even legendary leadership, can be learned. I agree that there need to be follower to have leaders and a lot of followers to have legendary leaders.

As mentioned before, the main ingredient for anybody to follow a leader is trust. If you can also find some additional fascination, compatible goals, charisma, and a few other things in your superior, so much the better.

If you strive to reach high levels of responsibility and authority and lead others towards common goals, you might want to learn a little about the physiology of our sensory system. I can remember many times when I felt bad right at the beginning of the day, even though very little had happened yet. I didn’t even read any emails, didn’t attend any meetings, or had any conversations with anybody, and still the atmosphere just felt negative.

Have you had situations when you came to a building of a new company, meet a new client company, have a first meeting with a new team and the energy in the place feels hostile, negative, and not very inviting?

I am pretty sure we all have been in this kind of a situation, or something very similar. How do we know if it will be a good day or a bad one? How do we sense if it will be a successful meeting or a boring, dragged out one?

Some of you might say: :”Well, if you attended enough of these meetings and have been in enough of these situations you just have the experience to anticipate what will probably happen.” I am not saying that here isn’t some truth to that. Experience definitely plays a role.

On the other hand, experience can be the reason to be surprised when what we expected to happen based on previous occasions suddenly doesn’t.

As part of the Lengendary Leadership development program I teach and apply in coaching, we go into a lot of detail abut these situation and how to create an environment that fosters positive energy and fun. When you ask most people what they are looking for in their job, positive energy, challenging goals, good relations with co-workers, fun, and a few other things come way before money or any other reason.

So it is not the experience you gained form repetition, how do you know or sense or feel how things are going? Richard Boyatzis and Annie McKee looked into this phenomenon (and many others) in their book “Resonant Leadership”. One of the chapters I particularly like and use frequently in seminars, while teaching, and as foundation for coaching is a chapter titled: “Resonance is contagious – and so is dissonance”.

Here is a small passage I like a lot:

We gauge our emotional response on the feelings we notice in the people around us. Our emotions can convey our intentions ot others, thereby enabling smoother communication and interaction. For example, fear may signal the need to mollify, defend, or flee; joy may indicate a chance to share good fortune or a desire for contact and connection. Our bodies respond to emotions in subtle as well as obvious ways; things like facial expressions and tone of voice are fleeting but important signs of the emotions that drive a person’s behavior.

From a conversation with the Dalai Lama the authors cite: “Our bodies tell the truth, and even when we do not intend it, we send messages about our true feelings”. A little later the text goes on to explain: “We are not always conscious of the messages we are sending or receiving about emotions. Nevertheless, we are very good at reading each other. This is likely related to survival mechanisms that have been in place for thousands, if not millions of years.”

This sensory sensitivity exists regardless where there are smells, words, signs, etc. It’s almost as if we can detect the energy emanating form other people. If we know these people and their position in the food chain or hierarchy, it has more or less influence on our reaction.

In a dissertation I read the sentence: “We can watch our leaders and we can smell their emotions a mile away”. Coming back to determining what kid of a day it’s going to be.

In a nutshell, if the leader or supervisor we work for is fearful, frustrated, afraid to make a mistake or being seen as a failure we can sense it and our defense mechanism kicks in. On the other hand, if the leader is optimistic, confident, full of ambitions and positive energy, we feel good and motivated to follow and do whatever we can to achieve the common goals.

Scientifically you can actually measure people blood pressure and prove that they are in the normal range when things go well and in an elevated state when things are not. If you are reading this article and see yourself as a follower, you now have a better understanding what is going on within yourself when you feel good or bad about the new day.

If you are a leader or an aspiring leader, you might want to consider finding ways to put yourself in a state of positive energy, confidence, balanced communication, empathy and caring for everybody you touch and genuine interest in those you lead. The Legendary Leaders development program provides a long list of things you can do to reach this state. For now, try to keep a positive attitude, take a deep breath before talking or making decisions, look for the opportunities in everything you do, and make sure you always see the proverbial glass as half-full.

If you like to learn more or have some comment and experiences about the vibe in a room or building, please let me know via E-mail or on this blog.

Axel Meierhoefer, AMC LLC

You probably heard of legendary leaders. When you went to school, you had to recite the presidents, or the winners of great battles, like Alexander the Great, Julius Cesar, Napoleon, and others. When you went to college, and especially if taking any business classes, you probably heard of early legends like Henry Ford, Ferdinand Porsche, Gandhi, and later ones, like Lou Gerstner, Bill Gates, Jack Welch…

There are legends all around us, in business, music, the arts, and politics. In many cases these individuals actually became legends after they died, but recently a fair number of folks make it to that level well before their life ends.  That begs the question if one needs to be famous to be or become a legend and if you can become a legend as well?

Just imagine:

Wouldn’t it be great if many of the things you want get done everyday would happen as you directed them to?

Wouldn’t’ you like to know that you have the trust and admiration of the people you work with?

Wouldn’t you like to have weeks without stress because you know that your team is doing what needs to be done without complaints.

Don’t you crave for the day when your guidance, goals, and statements would be immediately understood and the whole operation would flow seamlessly?

Wouldn’t you actually like to take a 2-3 week vacation knowing that the organization would still work fine when you return and people would welcome you back because they missed you rather than dumping all the problems that accumulated in your absence on you in the fist half hour?

I know how you feel. I have been there myself, first in the military in charge of a $100 Million Dollar project, and then in private industry as a director of customer service and training. It felt like a rat race that never ended. It was constant pressure, constant stress, almost no time to take a breather, and honestly- no life.

You know what, I sometimes even wondered why I was doing all the things I stressed about and had the impression nobody appreciated. Then I began to study the legendary leaders to learn what they did and how they got to where they are, but more importantly – what they had that I didn’t.

In my coaching practice I actually use a program called “The Legendary Leader Within You”. In a six months course I go into much detail and analyze 12 different attributes I found to make a huge difference for anybody on the path to joy, fun in life and at work, appreciation, and ultimately the legendary status.

What I found when studying many books and film footage about Lengendary Leaders was pretty amazing. It wasn’t really the great decisions or actions they made (although that sometimes helped), but it was always the person and the behaviors that made the huge difference.

The legendary politicians needed people to follow their lead and they always found them because they were humble and dependable. Legendary business leaders are ambitious without aggression, confident without being pompous, balanced in emotions and facts when discussing tough issues, organized without being rigid. All leaders, most important of all, are willing to give praise to everybody around them who deserved it before looking at themselves, see themselves as servants to a larger cause, and surround themselves with individuals better than they are in certain specialties.

As you might expect, there is more to learn about Legendary Leaders and how to become one yourself. One thing is for sure: You can do it! Trust in those who want to help and support you, and when the next situation arises that would normally get you all stressed out, apply this formula:

1. Take a deep breath
2. Analyze the situation and work with the specialists who can best help you
3. Trust in the individuals on your team to follow your lead
4. Admit mistakes when they happen
5. Give praise where it is deserved
6. Calm down and believe in yourself

Bottom line: You can become a Legendary Leader, respected and admired by everybody around you at work and at home, in all aspects of your life. It will not happen over night, but trust me, it will happen if you are accepting help, believe in your followers, friends, and co-workers, and honor everybody who deserves your praise.

If you like to learn more about Lengendary Leaders, have comments or actual stories to tell about your steps on the path to Legendary Leadership, please send them to me or email me at AM@Meierhoefer.net

Axel Meierhoefer, AMC LLC

When we look at how things are changing in our world, one term recurring almost daily is the word global. Otto Scharmer (2007) defines:

“A world economy is an economy in which capital accumulation proceeds throughout the world.  By contrast a global economy in an economy with the capacity to work as a single unit in real time on a planetary order.”

If we accept this definition, we are probably currently living in a more and more worldwide economy than in a real global economy. Exceptions might be seen in large global companies operating in many parts of the planet and following the same goals and approach everywhere. Still, I don’t believe as society or across the majority of economic activity we are really global just yet.

What has become global much in the way described by Thomas Friedman some years ago is the access to information. The world wide web allows almost anybody for very little to no cost to exchange information and have access to the most modern data in the planet.

As always, there is a dark side to this affect. Again Otto Scharmer (2007) has this to say:
“Those in the networked society who are not equipped with the right kinds of knowledge, skills, and networks are socially excluded ad polarized.”
In Castells’ ‘End of he Millennium’ manual this is called the “black hole of informational capitalism”.

It almost may appear as if the changes described here are only focused on industrial activity and the flow of capital. In reality, what is really almost more important is the change in society when it comes to participation in all these changes. People across all cultures realize that their world is changing and want to be involved. They voice their opinions, using the global information network, and they trigger reactions and the formation of new ideas across all cultures.

In addition, people who have the freedom to choose where they want to live, generate their income and be creative have been shown to congregate in certain geographic areas. Richard Florida calls this the rise of the creative class when focused on the United States, and the flight of the creative class when looked at on a global scale.

In a nutshell Florida proclaims that the difference between those people in the creative class and those outside of it lies in what they are getting paid to do. Individuals in the traditional working class and services industries are paid to follow directions and be managed. The creative class on the other hand is paid to come up with creative ideas and new solutions. To do so, they are afforded more flexibility, autonomy and freedom. That’s where developments like flexible work schedules, work form home, telecommuting have their origin. It’s hard to be creative from 9-5 in a cubicle.

While it is relatively easy to follow the ideas of Richard Florida regarding creativity, the aspect of spirituality as it applies to this contact is a little harder nut to crack. Otto Scharmer (2007) writes about it:

“Spirituality can be defined as the source of our creativity. It is distinct from religion for it concerns experience and not belief systems. A spiritual revival is sweeping across America ‘as executives of all stripes incorporate mysticism into their management, importing into office corridors the lessons usually doled out in churches, temples, and mosques”.

These kinds of spiritual aspects are more concerned with personal mastery than with religion of any kind. I have previously defined mastery as the sum of life experience and tangible action, like performing a trait. The other kind of mastery would be called wisdom and is defined as the sum of knowledge and life experience. From a personal conversation with McKinsey & Company Otto Scharmer recalls: …that both can lead to “overcoming significant performance thresholds …not only for individuals, but for the team as a whole.” (U-Theory, 2007)

For me this all points to aspects of passion. To be creative, free, innovative, and happy, we need to be passionate about something. We need to fully understand what the issue or goal is and then begin to participate I finding solutions. That leads back to the idea of the blank canvas or the untouched piece of wood or marble, soon to become a beautiful sculpture. It is more than reflecting about something that has already happened – it is truly the participation and shaping of the emergence of the future.

What we at AMC LLC can do in all of this is help anybody interested in our help to learn what they really want to achieve, what they are really passionate, and which areas of the personality are standing in the way to reach the goals related to the passion a person feels inside or may discover when allowed to dream. We call the latter option the fairy dust experiment, where we invite individuals to imagine they had a jar with fairy dust and could use it to shape the future in any way they like.

By assessing the current situation, identifying the current roadblocks to success and the things one wants to achieve, we can be of great help into a more complete, spiritual, fulfilling and passionate future. The first step is to take action by completing our online questionnaire. The result will tell us how far on the path to success someone has already come and what might be in the way in the form of obstacles to reach the long term goals. Armed with that knowledge we can help to overcome the obstacles, move them out of the way, and/or shining a light onto what is possible and reachable.

If you like to take the first step, visit us at www.MyPerformanceIQ.com and use the link to the free assessment.

I hope to meet you there and provide you with a free introductory session to our amazing programs.

Axel Meierhoefer, President AMC LLC

For some time we have been looking at leadership and management as processes to run organizations and help the individuals in them to operate with common goals in an efficient way. This view of leadership and management is fading away as we are moving more and more into a truly global economy.

These days many people speak about the recession we are facing, we are already in, or will be in very soon. Interestingly, many “experts” when asked about the measures the Federal Reserve and government agencies are using, point towards interventions that have worked in the past and how to apply them in this particular case. As frequent readers will recall, we are actually dealing with the definition of insanity: “Doing the same things over and over again and expecting different results”.

While we acknowledge that our world is changing on a daily basis and it appears this change is accelerating, we are still trying to apply old practices of leadership when it comes to solving problems. Much like I am saddened by the fact that many organizations still believe they should lead in a command and control fashion applying a vertical hierarchy, I am also dismayed by the backwards approach to our modern problems.

In leadership I believe the time of inspiration has begun. I am by no means the first person to say so and it’s not just something that started yesterday. In 2000 while interviewed for an article in Fast Company, Kevin Roberts of Saatchi & Saatchi said:

“In the 21st Century, organizations need to achieve peak performance by creating conditions that allow them to unleash the power of their people. – not leading them, not by managing them, but by co-inspiring them.”

This inspiration is focused on providing the fertile environment to be creative and develop new solutions to emerging problems. That’s why having six meetings every day, talking about procedures to keep a process going, or managing processes to achieve small advances, is not what leadership should be focusing on anymore. Rather we need to find what differentiates us in the Western world from those in the global economy who gladly produce goods and services for a comparatively low hourly rate.

For me the evolution of leadership is directly related to the achievement of wisdom. As you have read in the past, by my definition, wisdom is the sum of knowledge and experience. Some of the new competitors in the global marketplace might have a longer history than the United States, Britain, France, Germany or other European economic powers. Japan just celebrated the 1000th anniversary of a certain book and China can look back at more than 6000 years of history. Still, the modern global economy is not really based in this ancient history, but in experiences and advancements of the last approximately 150 years.

With this perspective, the Western countries clearly have the experience advantage. It’s not a matter of better, greater, earlier; it’s just a simple fact. When we want to advance on a global scale, I believe we should each focus on what we are good at and what is needed.

In the Eastern emerging powers, the standard of living needs to be raised, human rights need to become a matter of all aspects of life and providing basic (and maybe more and more advanced) goods to the enormous populations is a challenging goal.

For the Western economic powers, the goal should be to provide solutions to the problems of the globe. These solutions will need to be based in the significant economic experience. This allows wisdom and creativity to exist. True evolving leadership has the aim to share. We can and shall develop the solutions of the future and have their manifestations produced in those areas of the world where high quality production at affordable rates is possible.

For these new developments to emerge, an inspirational environment needs to be present. It is formed by allowing people to have time to reflect and wait for solutions to emerge in front of their inner eye. There are a lot of similarities to an artist waiting for inspiration to direct the shape of the next sculpture, the colors of the next painting, the sound and rhythm of the next symphony.

No longer can we afford to see leadership as defining a goal, communicating it to the managers of the organization, and have them develop the processes to realize these goals. The goals themselves have to emerge, directing us to see the processes required to refine them to a point that we can describe them in such detail that other members in the global community can construct the products that will make these goals become reality.

Axel Meierhoefer, President AMC LLC

Today, let’s return to my review of Theory-U, a new system of leadership and professional development developed by Otto Scharmer. I am fascinated by what Otto has to say but also see a lot of applicable aspects for our coaching and development system at AMC LCC.

The aspect we are looking at this time is the way organizations work in this 21st century, - or better- how they should work. The first aspect of this point is the way modern western societies act versus what would be desirable.

Do you recall cases where you knew things weren’t going well, where you felt something needed to change or your superiors should actually realize that continuing what has been done for years is not leading to success? If you do, you will find a lot of familiar thoughts in what Otto writes:

“In all of the key areas of society, we collectively produce results that few people (if anyone) want: schools that prevent our children from unfolding their capacity for deeper learning; health care systems that fight symptoms rather than address the root causes of health problems; industrial production systems that are out of sync with the principles and laws of our planetary ecosystem; an approach to world politics that focuses on issues such as terrorism by reacting to the symptoms rather than addressing the systematic causes.”(Scharmer, 2007, p.50)

I believe nobody can deny the fact that all these things happen and that we are not really learning what to do about them. The media is constantly feeding us quick fix solutions, especially regarding our health buy suggesting taking a pill. Nobody ever looks at all the side effects, especially those generated by all the different medicines we are asked to take as soon as we detect a symptom.

A similar situation has been developing in industry for the last decade. While many people speak about internationalization, globalization, outsourcing and world wide competition, the actual processes inside many organizations haven’t really changed. This has consequences on the internal leadership, as the world around the organization changes faster than the internal structures.

Otto Scharmer describes a process regarding this change-situation that breaks down into four steps or levels:

Level 1 is reacting: to respond by operating on existing habits and routines.
Level 2 is redesigning: changing the underlying structure and process.
Level 3 is reframing: Changing the underlying pattern of thought.
Level 4 is presencing: Learning from the future as it emerges
(Scharmer, 2007, p.51)

He points out that most companies stay on levels 1 or 2, reacting to issues that come up or reorganizing how they do things. The same is true for re-engineering, which is really only another way of putting a process or product together. To support these efforts we use change management to overcome the inherent resistance to change the vast majority of people have. Different methods of reflection help us analyze what we are doing and how well the changes are progressing. This in turn allows managers and leaders to intervene when things don’t find the acceptance they were hoping for before something has changed in a way or to a degree that is undesirable.

When we look at level 3, we are actually admitting that a fundamental change in the way we think about something is needed. A good example would be globalization itself. For several years organizations and nations have observed the changes and began to realize that it is more advantageous to participate than to close the borders and implement protectionist measures. This change of thought has lead to many new opportunities but also to new structures that are still unfamiliar and bear the risk of giving authority and power to regions and individuals who might use them differently than we would like to see them used.

A good example would be the countries rich in natural resources, like Russia. The evolving democratic structures have not succeeded and many people now believe that a mix of socialism and democracy is taking hold, often leaving huge amounts of wealth in the hands of very few while keeping many at the very lowest end of the economic scale. With an enormous amount of oil, gas, gold, minerals, etc. in the ground and prices for commodities at record highs, Russia has taken a different path than was anticipated when the dependence on the Western democracies was significantly higher.

The level 4 process of presencing is comparable to the creation of art. When getting ready to draw a picture, sculpt something, developing a new, never before seen piece, there is a reflection period before the artist is actually beginning to take action. During that period thoughts, desires, intentions, goals, etc. are applied together with a silence and stillness that precedes the manifestation of the new creation. This manifestation initially occurs in the artists mind.

You don’t need to be a painter to recall such a process. When a challenge, problem, issue, or something for which there is no precedence is presented, we all go through this evolution. We sit back, get quiet, think about what has been presented, and then, at some point, often unexpected, an idea or solution or shape for the artistic object emerges in our mind. We may not have all the exact shapes and details in clear view, but we have a feeling and the knowledge of a solution. In some cases people say: “I believe I know what I need to do”; or “I have the feeling we are on the right track and should do …next. In these situation we trust what we call ‘intuition’ to guide us. Otto Scharmer, to some extent, calls it being guided by the emerging future.

For the coaching process we apply at AMC LLC, we want to learn to be open to this emerging future. That includes becoming aware of the things that cause stress, identify the issues that manifest fear in our minds, and develop ourselves into individuals with real independence, good ambition and confidence, and a well developed ability to interact with others while forming resonating relationships. We want to be organized and structures where needed, but not shy to show our emotions and feeling, where appropriate.

The first step in this improvement process is the identification of the status quo. We do this by offering a free assessment. It will allow us to discover where a person stands and which areas are best suited to apply the level of change and receive the most improvement with the least amount of effort.

I hope you will act to discover your own status of performance and leadership by visiting our sites at www.Myperformanceiq.com or www.meierhoefer.net/welcome.htm and start the path towards your discovery.

Axel Meierhoefer, President AMC LLC