In this issue: ACTION: IT’S ABSOLUTELY INDISPENSABLE FOR GETTING RESULTS. YET FEW LEADERS REALLY UNDERSTAND IT. LAST MONTH, I DESCRIBED EIGHT ATTRIBUTES OF RIGHT ACTION. THIS MONTH I’LL SHOW YOU HOW TO GET PEOPLE TO TAKE RIGHT ACTION BY USING A CALL-TO-ACTION.
(PART TWO OF TWO PARTS)
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“Authority is a poor excuse for leadership. Poor leaders order people to do a job. Action leaders have those people choose to be the cause leaders of that job -- for more results faster, continually.” –Brent Filson
Vol. 2 Number 11 -- November, 2004
Publisher: The Filson Leadership Group, Inc.
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IN THIS ISSUE: ACTION: THE CALL TO ACTION. The Most Important and Least Understood Aspect of Leadership.
SECTION 1: The Call-to-Action.
SECTION 2: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.
SECTION 3: Points of Light.
SECTION 4: News.
THE CALL-TO-ACTION:
Most leaders are either getting the wrong results -- or the right results in the wrong ways. Since results don’t happen unless people take action, a key reason these leaders are stumbling is that they don’t know the difference between right action and wrong action.
In last month’s ezine, we talked about right action and, by inference, wrong action. I described 8 attributes of right action. But knowing those attributes won’t do you any good unless you can actually get people to take action. That’s where the Call-to-Action comes in.
“Call” comes from an Old English word meaning "to shout." A Call-to-Action is a "shout for action." Implicit in the concept is urgency and forcefulness. But most leaders don’t deliver the most effective Calls-to-Action because they make three errors regarding it.
First, they err by mistaking the Call-to-Action as an order. Within the context of The Leadership Talk http://www.actionleadership.com/ezine/v1n6.html), a Call-to-Action is not an order. Leave the order for the order leader.
Second, leaders err by mistaking the Call as theirs to give. The best Call-to-Action is not the leader's to give. It's the people’s to give. It's the people’s to give to themselves. A true Call-to-Action prompts people to motivate themselves to take action. http://www.actionleadership.com/ezine/v1n5.html The most effective Call-to-Action then is not from the leader to the people but from the people to the people themselves!
Third, they error by not priming their Call. There are two parts to the Call-to-Action, the primer and the Call itself. Most leaders omit the all-important primer.
The primer sets up the Call, which is to prompt people to motivate themselves to take action. You yourself control the primer. The people control the Call.
Knowing this can make a tremendous difference in the effectiveness of your leadership.
Look at it this way: Getting the right call is like igniting a fusion or fission reaction. In such a reaction, you have a primer then the reaction itself. The primer takes place when intense energy strikes a critical mass of radioactive material, unleashing an on-going atomic chain reaction.
Likewise, in leadership, the leader introduces sudden energy into the critical mass of the people, creating an on-going motivational chain reaction within the people themselves.
That critical mass is their NEED/PROBLEM. The people always have needs, and problems are always part of those needs.
So, every leadership situation is in essence a problem situation. There is the problem the leader has. And there is the problem the people have. In many cases, they are two different problems. But leaders get into trouble when they think it’s only one problem, mainly theirs.
For instance, a leader might be talking about the organization needing to be more productive. So, the leader talks PRODUCTIVITY.
On the other hand, the people, hearing PRODUCTIVITY, think, YOU’RE GOING TO GIVE ME MORE WORK!
If the leader thinks that productivity is the people’s problem and ignores the “more work” aspect, h/she’s Call-to-Action will probably be a bust, resulting in the people avoiding committed action.
Let’s apply the primer/Call dynamic to the productivity case. The leader talks PRODUCTIVITY: but this time uses a PRIMER. The primer’s purpose is to establish a “critical confluence” – the union of your problem with the problem of the people.
In this case, the leader creates a critical confluence by couching productivity within the framework of LESS WORK.
The primer may be: LET’S GET TOGETHER AND SEE IF YOU CAN COME UP WITH AN ACTION PLAN THAT WILL ENSURE THAT THE PRODUCTIVITY GAINS YOU IDENTIFY AND EXECUTE WILL CAUSE YOU LESS WORK.
Note what we’ve done: The primer is LET’S GET TOGETHER AND SEE IF YOU CAN COME UP WITH AN ACTION PLAN.
The actual Call is from the people to themselves: LET’S WORK LESS BY BEING MORE PRODUCTIVE.
With that Call, the leader moves from just getting average results (YOU MUST BE MORE PRODUCTIVE: i.e., you’re going to solve MY problem) to getting great results (YOU COME UP WITH WAYS TO TIE PRODUCTIVITY INTO WORKING LESS: i.e., you’re also going to solve your problem.) http://www.actionleadership.com/ezine/v1n4.html
Mind you, just as a atomic chain reaction needs to be contained lest it get out of control, the powerful motivational chain reaction ignited by the right Call also needs to be contained. The people simply can’t do whatever they want. If they did, you wouldn’t be leading them, you’d be instigating a kind of organizational prison break.
You contain and control the energy with a Leadership Contract. We’ll be discussing the Leadership Contract in the February ‘05 issue. Suffice to say that you embed in your Call a framework for them to take action.
For instance, in regard to the productivity example: the leader must insure that the people commit not simply to working less but to achieving productivity gains that help them work less or work smarter or work more efficiently. Getting “productivity” on one side and “less ... smarter ... more efficiently” on the other must be objectively designed, implemented, measured and evaluated.
In summary: understand what the call to action is truly about.
(1) It’s not an order.
(2) It’s best manifested when the people give themselves the Call.
(3) It is always primed by your creating the “critical confluence” -- they’ll be solving their problem as well as yours.
(I’ll discuss the critical confluence in the January ‘05 ezine).
Now go and make great Calls-to-action happen -- now and throughout the rest of your career.
SECTION 2: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.
The Good:
In 1803, the American Congress granted to General Lafayette, 11,520 acres of land in what was then called the territory of New Orleans. However, shortly afterwards, a portion of the land was inadvertently granted to the Corporation of New Orleans. Lafayette was advised to sue to get the land back. But he replied, “I was graciously bestowed the land by Congress. I cannot for the moment think of going to court to regain a blessing.” On that land rose the city of New Orleans.
–In leadership, great results are not always achieved in what you make happen, but in what you LET HAPPEN -- through integrity.
The Bad:
There’s the story of the rabbit being chased by a dog. A hunter passing by says, “Run faster!” The rabbit replies, “Thanks for the advice, but please shoot the dog!”
–Giving advice is not a Call-to-action. Sometimes the best Call-to-action is to take action yourself for the people.
The Ugly:
A member of Abraham Lincoln’s cabinet was burning to become president himself. Several of Lincoln’s aids demanded that he be fired. Lincoln told this story.
“My brother and I were plowing a field with a particularly lazy mule who, one time, suddenly took off, and it was all I could do to keep up with him. Upon reaching the end of the furrow, I saw an enormous chin fly on the mule and knocked it off. My brother asked me why I did that. I told him I didn’t want the mule bitten. My brother replied, ‘But that’s what made him go!’ Now, if my cabinet officer has a chin fly attached to him, why should I knock it off? It’s what makes him and his department go!”
–Leaders who master the Call-to-action are those who best identify (and don’t knock off) the “chin flies” of the people
SECTION 3: Points of Light.
“Action ought to come out of an achieved stillness -- not mere rushing on.” D. H. Lawrence
“It’s not so much what you say that’s important. It’s the action the people take after you have had your say.” –Brent Filson
“Things don’t turn up in this world until somebody turns them up.” James A. Garfield
“Action springs not from thought but from the readiness for responsibility.” –Dietrich Bonhoeffer
“We can’t know how good we are without many times taking action to be better than we are.” –Brent Filson
“Do not ask me to be kind. Just ask me to act as though I were.” –Jules Renard
“The election of all leaders too often depends upon the majority taking no action.” –Brent Filson
Our acts our angels are, or good or ill,
Our fatal shadows that walk by us still. –John Fletcher
“The distance is nothing. It is only the first step that costs.” --Mme. Du Deffand
“There are thousands willing to do great things for one willing to do a small thing.” –George Macdonald
Section 4: NEWS:
Brent’s latest leadership books, THE LEADERSHIP TALK: THE GREATEST LEADERSHIP TOOL and 101 WAYS TO GIVE GREAT LEADERSHIP TALKS is available in bookstores. You can purchase copies by calling 800-403-5368. Mention this e-zine and you’ll receive a free wallet card with the Leadership Talk processes. If you purchase the hardcover book, you’ll receive a free copy of 101 WAYS TO GIVE GREAT LEADERSHIP TALKS. In addition, you’ll be eligible to receive a set of Brent’s previously published books at half price.
Radio Blitz: Brent has been interviewed on more than 105 radio shows since Memorial Day. After the election, he will continue his heavy interview schedule, focusing on leadership and the war on terror. If you are interested in having him on your show or at your meeting: http://www.actionleadership.com/media_room/index.html and http://www.actionleadership.com/meeting_planners.html
The Filson Leadership Group, Inc. is putting together a CD collection of interviews with leaders, called the “Leaders Speak” Series. http://www.actionleadership.com/leadersSpeak/index.html Brent says, “I want to interview leaders from a broad spectrum of human endeavor to be represented. Don’t be surprised to find landscape contractors, gang leaders, horse trainers, sports coaches, as well as business and political leaders. Leadership is practiced by practically everyone, and we will bring it to you on the CDs in all the richness of human relationships.” For more information, call the F.L.G. headquarters, 413-458-4403 or email Brent at brent@actionleadership.com
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