Guest Post:  When Leaders Get Out of the Way by Scott Mabry
Elumn8-Blog

Sometimes leaders get in the way. When they do…bad things happen.

• They bottleneck decisions – people get frustrated
• They fail to communicate – people become cynical
• They put process before progress – people disengage
• They put their ego first – people become self-centered
• They fail to honor their word – people become passive aggressive

When they get out-of-the-way. Beautiful things happen.

Think about some of your favorite leaders. Were they in the way? Literally…did people have to go through them to get things done? Did they try to control people or outcomes or did they connect with bright people, provide a mission worth achieving, intervene selectively and get out-of-the-way?

5 Reasons to Get Out of the Way

1. When you get out-of-the-way you develop new leaders. Only by giving other people the opportunity to step into the gap do you provide the soil for leaders to emerge. If you are in the way, potential leaders leave or are lost. Leaders grow through doing.
2. When you get out-of-the-way innovation has space to breathe. The best leader provide a clear vision, one that inspires and challenges, and then allows people to be creative in how to reach the goal. Case in point – JFK’s vision to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade.
3. When you get out-of-the-way you improve your line of sight. When you step aside and let others take on the challenge you allow yourself to move around and see the opportunity from different points of view. This enables you to coach, intervene, realign, set expectations, etc. without blocking the progress of others.
4. When you get out-of-the-way you create a climate of trust. As you extend trust, and then act in alignment with the organization’s core values, the team not only develops trust in your leadership but also trust in themselves and each other. You are the beacon of trust. People look to you for how it should be done.
5. When you get out-of-the-way you expand your influence. By enabling people to carry the dream or drive the vision forward without your direct control you multiply the capacity for progress and your ideas have greater impact. You haven’t stopped leading; you are just not pulling the strings. Puppets aren’t your friend.

Here’s the challenge, ready?

Ask your team if you are in the way, where you are in the way and when you are in the way. Push them for an honest answer.

If the answer is yes, take down your orange cones, your crossing gates and your barricades and get out-of-the-way. I promise it’s a risk worth taking. ® Scott Mabry, All rights reserved

About the Author, Scott Mabry

Former school teacher now 22 years in the world of business but still a teacher at heart. Trying to leave the world a little better than I found it. OK a lot better than I found it. Love to help people and organizations realize and live their full potential. Peter Pan cleverly disguised as a COO.

Twitter: scott_elumn8
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/elumn8
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/elumn8

 More on Leadership?  You betcha!
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Rising to the Challenge Before Us–Leading Forward
Lead Forward (10 posts in one)
The Reach and Resonance of the Human Heart
Leadership Means Developing a Community of Purpose
Meaningful Work-A Leadership & Management Must
Against All Odds-A Personal Story of Leadership, Hope & Courage

About Irene Becker, Executive Coach, Consultant, Speaker, Writer
Chief Success Officer, Just Coach It -The 3Q Edge™

First woman CEO of a steel company in Canada, Irene Becker has a track record of trailblazing accomplishments in business and in the community at large. An insightful and inspiring executive coach, mentor, speaker and writer, Irene helps clients achieve breakthrough results in their communication, leadership and lives. Passionate about the integrity of her work and its ability to help change-makers LEAD change, Irene helps smart people and organizations develop 3Q Leadership™ and effective verbal, written and social communication that builds reach, resonance and results. Irene welcomes your emails at irene@justcoachit.com and tweets at @justcoachit.

Leading Forward in the Face of Crisis

 ® Irene Becker, 2012, All rights reserved

  I live what I teach. I believe in our power to use what is to create what can be in our lives and our organizations.
Leading in the face of crisis  means building your 3Q Leadership™ Edge
Click for a short video.   Read Against All Odds.

►HOW?  Shift your mindset

Seeing your strengths and challenges, stressors and turning points, even your most difficult transitions or crises with new eyes that help YOU build your most important advantage, your 3Q Edge™. Yes, learning and unlearning faster and better than before.  Making a pivotal shift in mindset that will help you learn and unlearn faster, develop improved whole brain thinking and embrace a new solution focused philosophy is critical to the reach, resonance and results you seek to achieve. “ Leaders are made rather than born.” Warren Bennis

 
►WHY? We must distrupt/change what no longer works. Innovation-Actualization-Optimization of Potential is Key

Go ahead and disrupt/change/transform what no longer works. Leadership demands strong Q skills. Our unsurpassed access to knowledge, information, technology and training alone cannot help us actualize and sustain greater leadership. Leadership means inspiring, motivating and leading the best in ourselves and others by using our strengths and challenges to build Q1: Whole Brain Thinking-Enhanced Creativity & Focus -IQ Q2-Empathy-Communication-Collaboration-EQ Q3-The courage, purpose and faith that drives our ability to serve the greatest good. SQ  Helping clients build 3Q Leadership™ is what my work is all about “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” Steve Jobs

►WHEN?  NOW because the challenges you face will increase.  Using them to lead forward is critical

Now, because leaders are innovators and pioneers who are ready to develop the 3Q™ strengths that drive passion, purpose, potential and leadership in the face of changes, challenges, stressors and crises. Developing our Q strengths is what leading well in the face of crisis is all about.“The real source of wealth and capital in this new era is not material things; it is the human mind, the human spirit, the human imagination, and our faith in the future.” Steve Forbes

The time to build 3Q Leadership™ is NOW.  Whether you want to develop stronger leadership, improved teams or communication that drives results, your ability to optimize-humanize and monetize is critical.  

More on 3Q Leadership™?  YOU Betcha

Leadership is Olympian-Lead Forward
18 Word Success Formula
Rising to the Challenges Before Us
Lead Forward-7 power words & 8 posts in one
Extraordinary Women Interview on Leading in the Face of Career & Life Challenges
Against All Odds-Irene’s personal story and the genesis of her 3Q Leadership™ Model
The Secret to Peace and Prosperity

First woman CEO of a steel company in Canada, Irene Becker has a track record of trailblazing accomplishments in business and in the community at large. An insightful and inspiring executive coach, mentor, speaker and writer, Irene helps clients achieve breakthrough results in their communication, leadership and lives. Passionate about the integrity of her work and its ability to help changemakers LEAD change, Irene helps smart people and organizations develop 3Q Leadership™ and effective verbal, written and social communication that builds reach, resonance and results at the speed of change. Contact Irene:  irene@justcoachit.com  Twitter @justcoachit Tel: (1) 416-671-4726   Skype: beckerirene Irene goes the distance for her clients face to face and/or virtually!

Leadership is Olympian |  It is time to LEAD FORWARD
The causal mechanism of leadership is the integrity of our ambition.

Irene Becker | www.justcoachit.com | 3Q Leadership™ Blog
Helping smart people and organizations communicate and lead forward
smarter, faster and happier is what I do best  

Leadership is Olympian because the causal mechanism of leadership is the integrity of our ambition.  Ambition that is reflected in a constant dedication to creating value for others; ambition that is reflected in the ethics, integrity, humanity and fervor to learn and grow in ways that can help us all lead forward. It is a juxtaposition of me and we, an ability to see past the forest with wisdom that inspires the best in ourselves and in others.

Leadership is…

•A power rooted in empathy because we cannot lead without being able to understand the needs and wants of our constituents; we cannot speak from the heart when we are unable to see what is in the heart of others.

•Seeing the forest for the trees, the solution among the challenges, changes and even failures before us and making this solution, this vision real.

•Transforming the complex into simple, powerful, messages that align our greatest potential and purpose.

•Using changes, challenges even failures to new ways of thinking and doing, new ways of learning and relearning that take us forward faster and better.

•Encouraging evolutionary steps forward by rewarding good thought, good work and good actions; because it is our individual and collective ability to contribute, to do meaningful work that can help us retain the courage, the stamina and boldness required to succeed.

•Living and leading in alignment with the universal values that drive sustainability; modeling best actions, best thoughts, best leadership so that we may inspire the best in ourselves and in others.

•Creating meaning and value for others in a way that unites and integrates the skills and strengths, the hope and courage of all

•Being the architect of hope, courage and resiliency within the enterprise and in the community, because true leadership is “kaizen”-it only reflects change for the better.

Leadership is Olympian because it will be tested in every way by those who seek shortcuts to success, and have forsaken that which matters most for that which in the end matters least.  The test of leadership, the test of our greatest success will never be found in what we acquire, because true leadership, true success and true happiness are found in what we contribute.

Today, perhaps more than ever before the imperative for every man and woman to aspire to personal leadership is critical; and it requires Olympian courage.  Will we start each day lighting a torch of hope, courage, integrity and humanity that can inspire the best in ourselves and others?  Each day we are presented with another chance to light a personal Olympic torch within our hearts and our minds.  Most will forsake this opportunity because it is difficult, at times painstaking; but the future lies in the heads, hearts and hands of those courageous men and women who will refuse to be daunted; change-makers, personal Olympians who will embrace the integrity of their ambition, and their ability to make a positive difference each day in which every way they choose.

More on Leadership?  You betcha!
Extraordinary Women Interview-Overcoming Life & Leadership Challenges
18 Word Success Formula
Rising to the Challenge Before Us–Leading Forward
Lead Forward (10 posts in one)
The Reach and Resonance of the Human Heart
Leadership Means Developing a Community of Purpose
Meaningful Work-A Leadership & Management Must
Against All Odds-A Personal Story of Leadership, Hope & Courage

About Irene Becker, Executive Coach, Consultant, Speaker, Writer
Chief Success Officer, Just Coach It -The 3Q Edge™

First woman CEO of a steel company in Canada, Irene Becker has a track record of trailblazing accomplishments in business and in the community at large. An insightful and inspiring executive coach, mentor, speaker and writer, Irene helps clients achieve breakthrough results in their communication, leadership and lives. Passionate about the integrity of her work and its ability to help change-makers LEAD change, Irene helps smart people and organizations develop 3Q Leadership™ and effective verbal, written and social communication that builds reach, resonance and results. Irene welcomes your emails at irene@justcoachit.com and tweets at @justcoachit.