Brent Filson's Action Leadership Report is a monthly e-zine helping leaders achieve more results, faster results, continually.
In this issue: KILLER GAPS: THEY'LL CRIPPLE YOUR LEADERSHIP. IN PART ONE, I SHOWED YOU HOW TO IDENTIFY THEM. NOW I'LL SHOW YOU HOW TO CLOSE THEM (PART TWO)
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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. 3 Number 10 – October, 2005
Publisher: The Filson Leadership Group, Inc.
brent@actionleadership.com
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IN THIS ISSUE:
SECTION 1: Killer Gaps. How To Close Them. (Part 2)
SECTION 2: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.
SECTION 3: Points of Light.
SECTION 4: Message from Brent Filson: Two Guys With Guns.
SECTION 5: News.
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SECTION 1: Killer Gaps
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In Part One, I showed you how to identify stakes gaps. Every leadership challenge has stakes. Stakes are what's in danger of being lost if the challenge isn't met. As a leader, you should always be asking when confronting challenges: "What's at stake here? What will happen if we fail?"
If you did not read Part 1, here is the link: http://www.actionleadership.com/ezine/v3n9.html
When your understanding of the stakes and their understanding of the stakes are different, you have a "stakes gap", and when that difference is so large it threatens your ability to meet the challenge, you have a "killer stakes gap."
In this ezine, I'll show you how to close them.
1. Select which side of the gap (or gap-bridge) that you want to focus on, i.e., the side that will get results. (Do not necessarily focus on your side of the gap. Their side might be more important for getting results, or bridging the gap may be more important.) For example, they want to walk, you need for them to run. In this case, RUN is going to get you the best results. Focus on the RUN side.
2. Recast your selection as a PROBLEM. For example, your audience does not want to run.
3. Precisely define that problem by breaking it down into its defining characteristics, those concrete factors that make up the problem. For example, you may think that they don't want to run because they are lazy. From your perspective, their laziness is the problem's defining characteristic. But from their perspective, they might not want to run not because they are lazy but because: 1. They don't have the proper running shoes. 2. They don't feel they are in shape. 3. They fear they will fail. Same problem, different defining characteristics.
4. You and they must agree on the defining characteristics of the problem. If you tell them that they are lazy when, from their standpoint, their major concerns are shoes, physical conditioning, and failure, you cannot motivate them. Unless and until you and they agree on the defining characteristics of the problem, you cannot close the motivational gap.
5. Once you have agreed on the defining characteristics of the problem, examine each characteristic in terms of its relevancy or irrelevancy in getting results. For example, you change your mind and agree with them that it is not their laziness that prevents them from running but their lack of shoes, lack of conditioning, and their fear of failure. Are those characteristics relevant or irrelevant in terms of their getting results? If irrelevant, the audience must understand why. If relevant, go to Step 6.
6. Create a process (action steps) to solve the problem. Process translates concepts into action. Solve major problems with process, since process can be used to solve similar problems. Don't create your process downstream-to-upstream but instead upstream-to-downstream. For instance, develop a process that will get them committed to running. Tell them that you will give them information on how to run well and the equipment to run well and that you will train them and put them through conditioning exercises, practice sessions, and competitions. Important: Differentiate between concept and process. Don't just create the concept. Instead, create the specific action processes that realize the concept. Also: Differentiate between procedure and process. Procedures are rules usually imposed upon people from the outside. Processes are organic actions that grow from inside out. There are four requirements of processes in Action Leadership: 1. Processes must get results. 2. They must be measured. 3. They must have value. 4. They must be tied to the heartfelt convictions of the people who use them.
7. Close the gap by having them become committed to your process. Until they demonstrate such commitment (i.e., commitment to your solution to their problem), they are not and cannot be motivated.
8. Monitor the closure as you put them through the process to insure that the gap does not open again. Be constantly engaged in gap-analysis, gap-closing.
SECTION TWO: The Good. The Bad. The Ugly.
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The good:
"When oil was discovered in the United States in 1859, gasoline was a useless byproduct. It remained so until the development of automobiles. Rock oil was the first commercial product made from petroleum. It sold at a $1 a bottle as a cure for cholera, corns, toothache, and neuralgia. In 1970, one company turned 70,000 pounds of paraffit into chewing gum." Issaac Asimov's "Book Of Facts.".
–Killer gaps come not only from the wrong knowledge but also from an absence of knowledge.
The bad:
The American Civil War may have been avoided but for a single vote in Congress. While serving there, Thomas Jefferson introduced a bill that barred slavery from future states admitted to the Union. He failed by only one vote.
–Killer gaps do not have to be great and wide. Often, huge developments come about, or fail to come about, by what was originally a very small gap.
The ugly:
In medieval Europe, church bells were rung to ward off what the people believed were evil spirits lurking in storms. The result was not to turn back the storms but to kill many bell ringers by lightning.
–In the analysis of stakes gaps, always be aware of what you think you know as opposed to what you should know.
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SECTION THREE: Points of Light.
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It's better to know nothing than to know what ain't so. –Josh Billings
There are two kinds of bad leaders, those who know nothing and understand everything, and those who understand everything and know nothing. –Brent Filson
Men who know the same things are not the best company for each other. –Emerson
To understand everything is to forgive everything. –Gautama
Men are most apt to believe what they least understand. –Montaigne
If you think you know enough, you don't know. –Brent Filson
Leadership is about having to draw sufficient conclusions from insufficient facts. –Brent Filson
If a little knowledge be a dangerous thing, where is the man who has so much as to be out of danger? --T. H. Huxley
Knowledge is proud to have learned so much; wisdom humble to not know more. –Cowper
Never mind what I told you – you do as I tell you. –W. C. Fields
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SECTION FOUR: Message From Brent Filson:
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PERMISSION TO REPUBLISH: This article may be republished in newsletters and on web sites provided attribution is provided to the author, and it appears with the included copyright, resource box and live web site link. Email notice of intent to publish is appreciated but not required: mail to: brent@actionleadership.com
Word count: 768
Summary: All leaders get to a point where they feel blocked in their jobs and careers. They feel they can't go on, or even if they can go on, are progressing much too slowly. The author gives a surprisingly effective pointer he learned from a crime novelist on how to become unblocked.
A Leadership Lesson: Two Guys With Guns
by Brent Filson
Raymond Chandler author of the famous Philip Marlowe detective stories advised writers suffering from writers' block: "Whenever you get stuck, have two guys walk through the door with guns."
Leadership has its own "leader's block." All leaders now and then get a good dose of it. You're sailing along in your job getting the results you want when, for whatever reason or for no reason you can discern, you come to a screeching halt and can't go any farther. You get stuck on getting the same results. You get stuck on motivating people. You're stuck on motivating yourself.
Being stuck, take advice from Raymond Chandler: Have two guys walk through the door with guns!
Chandler was talking about shaking things up in the writer's head and on the written page.
Here's the way you can have the leadership equivalent of Chandler's advice: shake things up in your job and career simply by giving Leadership Talks.
My experience working with thousands of leaders world wide for the past two decades teaches me that most leaders are screwing up their careers.
On a daily basis, these leaders are getting the wrong results or the right results in the wrong ways.
Interestingly, they themselves are choosing to fail. They're actively sabotaging their own careers.
Leaders commit this sabotage for a simple reason: They make the fatal mistake of choosing to communicate with presentations and speeches -- not Leadership Talks.
In terms of boosting one's career, the difference between the two methods of leadership communication is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug.
Look at it this way: There's a hierarchy of verbal persuasion. The lowest parts (least effective) are presentations and speeches. Primarily, they communicate information.
But the highest part of the hierarchy of verbal persuasion, the most effective way to communicate as a leader, is through the Leadership Talk.
The Leadership Talk not only communicates information. It does something much more important than what speeches/presentations do.
Now here's the key: The Leadership Talk has you, the leader, establish a deep, human, emotional connection with people – so important in motivating them to achieve results.
Why is this connection important in shaking things up? Simply, it's better to motivate people to get a job done than to order them.
Once you understand the Leadership Talk, you'll find it's indispensable to your leadership. You'll never go back to giving presentations/speeches again; for no other single tool can make that motivation happen as effectively and quickly and have long lasting impact than the Leadership Talk.
The Leadership Talk is the greatest results-generator of all. That's because it works in relationships. That's what great leadership is about. Relationships. Relationships. Relationships.
Having people be so motivated by your leadership that they become your cause leader(s) in achieving more results faster, continually.
Leadership Talks can be formal ways of communicating but mostly they are informal. Unlike a speech, they are usually interactive. They can be delivered anywhere: at a conference table, over lunch, at a water cooler, across a desk.
(One of the best Leadership Talks I have witnessed was given by a plant supervisor to one of his team members at a company picnic while they sat on the back of a truck, sipping beers.)
And in many cases, an effective Leadership Talk can be given when roles are reversed, when the audience speaks to the speaker.
Here are a few:
When Churchill said, "We will fight on the beaches ... " That was a leadership talk.
When Kennedy said, "Ask not what your country can do for you ... " that was a leadership talk.
When Reagan said, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" That was a leadership talk.
You can come up with a lot of examples too. Go back to those moments when the words of a leader inspired people to take ardent action, and you've probably put your finger on an authentic leadership talk.
Mind you, I'm not just talking about great leaders of history. I'm also talking about the leaders in your organizations. After all, leaders speak 15 to 20 times a day: everything from formal speeches to informal chats. When those interactions are leadership talks, not just speeches or presentations, the effectiveness of those leaders is dramatically increased.
Throughout your career, you'll now and then get stuck in your job. When you do, remember Raymond Chandler. Then remember the Leadership Talk: the Leadership Talk is the organizational equivalent of having two guys walk through the door with guns. But don't just use Leadership Talks only when you're stuck. Use it many times daily throughout your career, and you'll find that leader's block is a thing of the past.
2005 © The Filson Leadership Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
The author of 23 books, Brent Filson's recent books are, THE LEADERSHIP TALK: THE GREATEST LEADERSHIP TOOL and 101 WAYS TO GIVE GREAT LEADERSHIP TALKS. He is founder and president of The Filson Leadership Group, Inc. – and for more than 20 years has been helping leaders of top companies worldwide get audacious results. Sign up for his free leadership e-zine and get a free white paper: "49 Ways To Turn Action Into Results," at http://www.actionleadership.com
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SECTION FIVE: NEWS:
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Brent gave three seminars in Orange County, California Sept. 14 -17th: two with business leaders, one a train the leader session, and for the first time, a life course session: i.e. using the Leadership Talk to help improve relationships. The response was highly positive, resulting in a growing community of Leadership Talk practitioners in Southern California. For more information on Brent's seminars in Orange county and ways to connect with the Southern California community: brent@actionleadership.com
On October 26th, Brent will conduct a Webinar for the Distinguished Guest Lecture Series sponsored by the Cardean Learning Group. Email Brent for more information.
Brent's latest leadership books, The Leadership Talk: The Greatest Leadership Tool and 101 Ways To Give Great Leadership Talks, are in bookstores. You can also 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 Brent's new book, 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.
The Leadership Talk: The Greatest Leadership Tool was a finalist in the "career" category of nonfiction books. The awards ceremony were held at the BookExpo America.
Brent has put together two great systems that will boost your leadership and your leadership communication abilities.
One is Brent Filson's The Leadership Talk System: www.theleadershiptalk.com
The other is Brent Filson's The CEO Public Speaking System: www.theceopublicspeakingsystem.com
Read Brent's interview conducted by Alistair Craven in ManagementFirst, an international business magazine out of London. http://www.managementfirst.com/management_styles/index.htm
Brent's article, Are You Sabotaging Your Career?" http://www.actionleadership.com/articles/0018.html has been translated into Chinese and is featured in the May issue of the Chinese magazine, "Global Sources: Career Sources China." Http://csc.globalsources.com
During the past few months, Brent has been interviewed on more than 125 radio shows – and many more are on the way.
If you are interested in having Brent on your show or at your meeting, go to the Action Leadership website and click on either the "meeting planner" button or the "media room" button.
Meeting planners: If you want a video of Brent's latest session, this time with a group of senior executives at a top global company, contact The Filson Leadership Group.
Brent has a new web link on the home page, "Seven Minutes With Brent Filson". Let Brent instruct you on a new concept that will immediately improve your leadership effectiveness.
Listen to Brent being interviewed: http://audiomotivation.com/go/brent-filson1204.htm
Brent has a number of new articles up on the internet. You can read the articles at:
http://www.actionleadership.com/articles
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