I have been inspired by a new colleague to get real with the definition of leadership.

Of course, I have been operating under the adaptive leadership framework that defines leadership as mobilizing others to make progress (do work) on complex or difficult problems. This colleague essentially said, “that this sentence has about five or six different tangents, I don’t understand it” and she is right.

So, I want to get really clear on the definition of leadership.

Influencing people to do “the work.”

It begins with noticing or recognizing that what is being done isn’t working, isn’t working well, or could be done better; and then enrolling them to take action in that regard.

Additionally, we want people to do their own work; but often they don’t. So part of leadership is to get people to do their own work.

Sadly, leadership can also be getting people to do other people’s work; hopefully something good but often not. I think of Tom Sawyer convincing others to paint his fence. A book to advance this idea is Barbara Kellerman’s “Bad Leadership.” I took her class on Bad Leadership at Harvard, got to study with Machiavelli, Hitler, Marx, and others. She also made me write poetry, tough to forgive her for that! 🙂

Tomorrow, I talk about “the work”…

I’ve started “another” new internet-based program. (Yes, another program, ugh – learning or dying I guess)

It is Seth Godwin’s Creative’s Workshop. It came highly recommended by a coaching friend, Lisa Orlick-Salka. The purpose of this workshop is to dedicate time to build confidence and momentum toward our creative endeavors.

My soul’s endeavors are to write a book on Pre-Crisis Leadership and build an Adaptive Leadership syllabus.

The Pre-Crisis Leadership project moves forward my thesis from Harvard around Crisis Leadership, but specific to those activities needed to adapt an organization to prevent or prepare for a future crisis.

The foundation of this work comes from Dr. Ronald Heifetz’s adaptive leadership foundation. Therefore, building a strong deliberate practice and understanding of adaptive leadership to underlay the book.

But, with my enthusiasm toward adaptive leadership, it is natural to want to teach. When in the Air Force, after becoming a combat pilot, we are sent back to teach. It is where the fundamentals are mastered.

It is Theory to Practice to Mastery.

Plus, I really enjoy teaching; and adaptive leadership changes people’s lives – it changed mine!

So… what does this mean.

It means I must write and publish (ship) it every day. At least every day for the next 100 days.

Experiment – Practice, Fail, Learn/Reflect, Begin Again!

If you are reading this blog, please comment on these future thoughts here or in an email to me on what makes sense and what needs to be reconsidered!

Pierre