Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Your Virtuous Cycle

Happy New Year!! I hope you enjoyed a break over the holiday season. I know that I did.

As I thought about the newsletters for the upcoming year and thought about you, I concluded that helping you take your leadership abilities to the next level might add a great deal of value to your life both personally and professionally.

As we start the New Year, many people reflect upon the past. Some realize that the last year may have been much like Bill Murray experienced in the movie "Groundhog Day". Many folks realize that there hasn't been much difference from one year to the next.

Well, if this is you, I'd like to help you change all that. Ok, even if it isn't you, I know that you will find value from this.

In Jim Collins' book, Good to Great (c) 2001, he talks about the difference between Level 5 leaders who create great companies and teams and Level 4 leaders who create good companies and teams. Mr. Collins lists a number of traits but when you look at it, I believe it boils down to:
  • Level 4 leaders focus on the what and how (extrinsic)
  • Level 5 leaders focus on the why and who (intrinsic)
In Daniel Pink's book, Drive, he talks about using extrinsic rewards for motivation and why the carrot and stick approach no longer works. Oh, sure it did work in the industrial age when workers were needed primarily for their hands and feet. However, in the information age, workers are needed for their brains and minds. Brains and minds aren't only fed with extrinsic rewards. Mr. Pink give us the M.A.P. for intrinsic motivation: mastery, autonomy and purpose.

In the book, Multipliers, Liz Wiseman and Greg Mckeown discuss how the best leaders are able to make everyone around them smarter by intrinsically valuing the people they lead.

Over the last 5 years, my coaching practice has focused exclusively on teaching leaders these "latest discoveries" and taken many clients to the next level of leadership in their businesses, careers, and also their personal lives.