Brent Filson's Action Leadership Report is a monthly e-zine helping leaders achieve more results, faster results, continually.
In this issue: THE WAY OF THE QUESTION MARK: CAN YOU MOTIVATE THEM TO BE AS MOTIVATED AS YOU?
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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 7 – July, 2005
Publisher: The Filson Leadership Group, Inc.
brent@actionleadership.com
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IN THIS ISSUE:
SECTION 1: The Way Of The Question Mark: Can You Motivate Them To Be As Motivated As You?
SECTION 2: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.
SECTION 3: Points of Light.
SECTION 4: Message from Brent Filson:
SECTION 5: News.
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SECTION 1: The Way Of The Question Mark.
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I'm often asked to come in to organizations and give a motivational speech to their employees. I reply that I'm not a motivational speaker. Never have been. Don't want to be. I do something else. I teach their people how to become motivational leaders. That's a far more productive endeavor.
The concept and application of motivation are totally misunderstood in most business communities. The motivational industry is based on a fundamental contradiction; because the focus of motivation is misplaced. After all, leaders (salespeople included) should be motivated. If they aren't, they shouldn't be leaders.
Here's where the true focus should be placed: Can those leaders (and salespeople) transfer their motivation to other people so those people are as motivated as they are about the challenges they face?
Furthermore: Can those people who "catch" the motivation of their leaders then go out and motivate others -- and those others go out themselves and motivate still others ... and on and on?
Finally, can people at each phase of this "cascading of cause leaders" translate motivation into action that achieves results -- and not just average results but more results faster on a continual basis?
All my books, articles, courses, seminars, workbooks and interviews are based on that simple sequence of ideas.
In previous e-zines, I talked about motivation and how to transfer your motivation to others.
http://www.actionleadership.com/ezine/v1n5.html
http://www.actionleadership.com/ezine/v2n4.html
But there is another way of transforming your motivation to others. It's surprisingly simple, easy to use, and effective. Yet few leaders I've encountered use it, and those who use it, don't use it well.
It's the Way of the Question Mark.
A "way" is a course of life, action and experience one undertakes to advance in a particular discipline: "The way of Zen", "The way of the peaceful warrior," etc.
So it is with the Way of the Question Mark. It is not simply a technique; you'll find it is actually a disciplined course of life. And it's effects can enhance your relationships with the people you lead so you get a lot more results as a leader.
From now on in all your leadership endeavors, make a conscious effort to put a question mark at what would otherwise be declarative sentences.
Asking the question rather than using a declarative is usually more effective because it gets people reflecting upon their situation. After all, we can't motivate anyone to do anything. They have to motivate themselves. And they best motivate themselves when they reflect on their character and their situation. The question prompts people to answer, and when they are answering, they may engage in such reflection. You may not like the answer; but often their answer, no matter what it is, is better in terms of advancing results than your declaration. Also, the question has them thinking that they have come up with the idea. People are less enamored of your great ideas than they are of their ideas, even if those ideas are average.
For instance, your organization needs to have people to from point A to point B. An order leader might say, "Go from A to B."
So, why not say, "Tell me what you think about going from A to B?" or "What's the best way for you to go from A to B?" or "Tell me how I can support you going from A to B?" or "How will you take leadership of others going from A to B?"
Don't get me wrong. I'm not talking about pandering to people's whims. I'm talking motivation, motivating people to get more results faster on a continual basis. (In fact, you can't order people to get more results faster continually. Only motivated people can do it.) I'm talking about challenging people to undertake extraordinary things, to be better than they think they are.
The question mark, as opposed to the simple declarative, opens up a world of results-producing possibilities. And it's a world predicated on their choices.
Make the Way of the Question Mark your way. Discipline yourself to ask questions rather than make statements. It'll help you get more results.
SECTION TWO: The Good. The Bad. The Ugly.
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The Good:
A question triggered one of the great revolutions of scientific knowledge. Albert Einstein, sitting in the patent office where he worked, asked himself, "Would a man who is falling feel his own weight?" Answering the question led to Einstein's developing the theory of general relativity. He later said, "It was the happiest question of my life."
–Don't ever underestimate the power of your questions to create great results.
The Bad:
A simple question can have far-reaching results. Scientist Michael Faraday asked a question in 1831, several years after the electro magnet was invented by William Sturgeon. Sturgeon wrapped copper wire around an ordinary iron horseshoe. When he sent an electrical current into the horseshoe, the iron turned into a magnet. That led Faraday to ask, "If magnetism can be made from electricity, why can't electricity be made from magnetism?" His question led to his discovering the electric generator, without which our modern civilization would not exist.
The Ugly:
Here's another question that changed history. King Henry II and Thomas Becket, his archbishop of Canterbury, quarreled for years led over the rights and powers of the church and the state. When Becket remained steadfast in his excommunication of Henry's appointees, the Bishops of London and Salsbury, Henry, celebrating Christmas in Normandy, raged, "Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?" Four knights, members of his household, answered the question. They crossed the Channel, rode to the Cantebury Cathedral and killed Becket at the altar. Eventually, the Cantebury Cathedral became a shrine, Becket was canonized, and Henry made to atone by walking barefoot in a sack-cloth through the streets of Cantebury being flogged by eight monks with branches.
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SECTION THREE: Points of Light.
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"I had rather have a plain russet-coated captain that knows what he fights for, and loves what he knows, than that which you call a gentleman and is nothing else." -- Oliver Cromwell
"It's easy to look down on others. To look down on ourselves is the real difficulty." –Peterborough
"In leadership, the gentleness of the question mark is strength only if it is backed up by strength." –Brent Filson
"Life is the art of drawing sufficient conclusions from insufficient premises." –Samuel Butler
"All of us have wonders hidden in our breasts, only needing circumstances to evoke them." –Charles Dickens
"It is sweet to be remembered, but it often cheaper to be forgotten." –Kin Hubbard
"The question mark can bring the mountain to Mohammed." –Brent Filson
"In the case of political and even religious leaders, it is often very doubtful whether they have done more harm than good." –Einstein
"While the right to talk may be the beginning of freedom, the necessity of listening is what makes that right important." –Walter Lippman
"From listening comes wisdom, from speaking repentance." -- Italian proverb
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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: 517
Summary: Leaders need feedback to thrive. If they don't constantly evaluate how they are doing as leaders, they face repeated failure. Here is one important feedback mechanism that most leaders overlook to their detriment and that you can use immediately.
Your Ultimate Leadership Feedback Loop: Their Leadership
by Brent Filson
Life on our planet flourishes through feedback. If life forms don't develop feedback loops and get good information about how well they are interacting with their world, the world eventually kills them.
This holds true with leaders. Leaders must get feedback as to how they're doing -- otherwise they won't be leaders for long.
One kind of feedback is results. After all, leaders do nothing more important than get results. You should understand the kinds of results you're getting, if they are the right results, and if you are getting them in the right ways.
There is another kind of measurement that is as important, and sometimes more important, than results. It's a measurement most leaders overlook. That measurement has to do not just with you but with the people you're leading.
To explain what that measurement is, I'll first describe a fundamental concept of how one goes about leading people to achieve results.
There's a crucial difference between doing a task and taking leadership of that task that makes a world of difference in the task's accomplishment.
For instance, if one is a floor sweeper, doesn't one best accomplish one's task not simply by doing floor sweeping but by taking leadership of floor sweeping?
Such leadership might entail:
-- taking the initiative to order and manage supplies,
-- evaluating the job results and raising those results to ever higher levels,
-- having floor sweeping be an integral part of the general cleaning policy,
-- hiring, training, developing other floor sweepers,
-- instilling a "floor sweeping esprit"that can be manifested in training, special uniforms and insignias , behavior, etc.
-- setting floor sweeping strategy and goals.
Otherwise, in a "doing" mode, one simply pushes a broom.
You may say, "Listen, Brent, a job is a job is a job. This leadership thing is making too much of not much!"
Could be. But my point is that applying leadership to a task changes the expectations of the task. It even changes the task itself. Think of it, when we ourselves are challenged to lead and not simply do, our world is, I submit, changed.
Whenever you need to lead people to accomplish a task, challenge them not to do that task but to take leadership of that task.
This gets back to the key measurement of your leadership. Your leadership should best be measured not by your leadership but by the leadership of the people you lead.
Now, in becoming leaders, they can't simply do what they want. They must come to an agreement with you as to what leadership actions they will take. You can veto any of their proposed actions. However, use the veto sparingly. Cultivate your confidence and their confidence in their leadership.
When you evaluate the effectiveness of your leadership by the feedback loop connected to their leadership, you are assessing your world as it should be, and great results will follow.
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's latest leadership books, The Leadership Talk: The Greatest Leadership Tool and 101 Ways To Give Great Leadership Talks , are available 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 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 is a finalist in the career category of nonfiction books. The awards ceremony was held at the BookExpo America.
Listen to Brent being interviewed: http://audiomotivation.com/go/brent-filson1204.htm
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 him 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.
The Filson Leadership Group, Inc. is putting together a CD collection of interviews with leaders, called the "Leaders Speak" Series. It will begin this month and can be found on the Action Leadership website. Click on "Leaders Speak CD Series." 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
Commissions can be earned selling Brent's books and product as well as helping him get booked for speaking engagements. For more information, email Brent.
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