Becoming an Emergent Leader...

Earlier this week I read an interesting article by Paul H. O’Neill titled Truth, Transparency, and Leadership. Paul was the U.S. Secretary of Treasury from January, 2001 through December, 2002, during the early years of the George W. Bush administration. Prior to his stint as Secretary of Treasury, O’Neill was president and CEO for Alcoa for 12 years, transforming them into one of the world’s leading aluminum companies while emphasizing workplace safety. I had found this interesting, because I did not understand how the president and CEO of a major corporation qualified to lead the treasury department for the leader of free world. Later, I read that he had also served as the deputy director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget from 1974 to 1977. Now, I am more at ease with is qualifications. Not that the level of my composer should be of concern for a person’s qualifications, but I digress.

One of the points that Paul’s article makes regards what is considered “real” leadership. This will be my focus today. He discusses how each of our leaderships can be quantified by our staff answering three simple questions every day. Granted, any leader cannot make everyone happy every day, so let’s take averages here. If the majority of the people that each of us influence can answer yes to these three questions the

majority of the time, then we are doing a pretty good job. Answer these questions in your own mind:

• Are our employees treated with dignity and respect every day by everyone they encounter? 
• Are our employees given what they need so they can contribute in a way that brings meaning to their life? 
• Are our employees recognized for their accomplishments? 

Are our employees treated with dignity and respect every day by everyone they encounter?

This is a simple concept that can often be overlooked. Think about it. For example, do you treat your subordinate with the same dignity and respect that you would your director? One thing I must differentiate here is that O’Neill is asking about whether you treat everyone with dignity and respect, not whether you treat different people differently. You may, and undoubtedly do, treat your director differently than you do your subordinate. This is not a bad thing, as long as you are treating both of these people, as well as customers (internal and external), peers, etc., with dignity and respect.

Are our employees given what they need so they can contribute in a way that brings meaning to their life?
Think about the fact that you and your staff spend a very large portion of time at work. Together. Being a valued contributor at work helps bring balance to one’s life. Psychcentral.com (http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2014/02/02/8-ways-to-find-real-happiness-at-work/) discusses eight steps to achieving happiness at work, including finding balance, maintaining concentration, compassion, resilience, communication and connection, integrity, meaning, and open awareness. Being a valued contributor will help your employees reach meaning in their lives, and in order for them to become a valued contributor, you must remove any and all barriers that are in their way. As a leader, do you provide your staff with what they need in terms of education, training, encouragement, tools, and financial resources so they can contribute in a way that brings meaning to their life? If you are providing for the needs of your employees to succeed, then you should ask yourself if you are holding your employees and your organization back from achieving great things.

Are our employees recognized for their accomplishments?
Has there ever been a time when you took credit when one of your employees did something truly great?

Maybe you told them “great job”, but later when your boss told you that you did a great job, you didn't step up and give your employee their much-deserved credit. It may have been unintentional, but it is still unethical. Your boss will still give you due credit if you tell them that one of your employees did a great job, as your employee will get credit for the great work, and you will get credit for doing a great job empowering your employee and providing them with the tools they needed to do great things.

These simple things create a win-win situation for all. Lifting your employees up to praise their work relates directly to what I had spoken of earlier. Show employees respect and dignity. Provide them what they need so they can contribute in a way that brings meaning to their life.

As a result, you look like a “real” emergent leader

Have a great week!

Leaders Are Always Made...

Hello, and welcome to my blog!My name is Leroy Fenn.  I am writing this blog as part of the PA6665 Leadership course at Troy University. This course is part of the Public Administration graduate program at Troy. This course is an elective for my program, and I selected to take it because the knowledge gained regarding leadership will enhance my skill set, giving me additional tools to use in both my personal and professional life. Being a great leader is critical to create a great organization.  When serving as a public servant, being a great leader means being innovative, creative, and empowering. What I hope to take from this class will be to combine the great information I learn with the discussions generated between me and my fellow classmates, and develop this new knowledge into tools that can be incorporated not only in my current workplace, but also into my future, whatever it may hold.

A little about me: I live in Philomath, Oregon with my wife of 26 years and our old dachshund Otto.  We have two children who are both in college; one is in their first year of their master’s program, and the other is in the second year of college.   You might be wondering why someone my age is pursuing their master’s degree, and I often wonder that myself!  I have a thirst for knowledge, and an honest drive to help my community, and to really make a difference in this world. Even at my age, there is still an optimist in me that says “yes, you can make a difference”.  In the end, I think most of us want to help one another and try to leave this world in a better state than we found it.  I work for the Benton County, Oregon as an Office Manager, managing the finance, budget, and grant functions of the Sheriff’s office.  I enjoy working with numbers, so working in the areas of finance, budget, and grants is a natural fit.

What this blog is about: This blog is about leadership.  Each week, I will discuss the weekly activities from class, and provide my own twist to the topic.  What did the readings or weekly topic mean to me? How can (or how would) I use the information I gleaned from the past week in my circle of influence?  Lastly, what local, statewide, or national events relate to the topic?  My goal is to create a posting each week, and as I write my blog, I welcome any feedback that you may have.  If you agree with me, let me know.  If you do not agree with me, let me know.  Feedback is how I learn other perspectives and grow!

This week, we began discussing chapter one of Leadership: Theory and Practice by Peter G. Northouse.  Northouse provides a discussion on assigned versus emergent leadership, and the different bases of power. This provided a foundation for our classroom discussion of whether a person is born with leadership traits, or if these traits are developed through training; or the argument of nature vs. nurture. What a fantastic topic! It provided for some excellent discussions in our class.  

When discussing leadership traits in terms of nature vs. nurture, my opinion is leadership includes aspects of both qualities.  Some people are born leaders.  I think about those people I went to school with, such as the different student body presidents, the debate team leaders, and students who participated in DECA and FBLA. These were the young men and women who went above and beyond to represent our student body by assuming a leadership role to help foster change.  I still see some of those people today, and each of them serve in various professional fields as leaders. Two of them are founders of businesses and serve as the CEO’s of their respective companies.  Others are lawyers and doctors.  All are leaders in their field.  At such a young age, I can’t help to think that these people were born with some level of predisposition towards leadership (nature), as I can’t imagine that there would have been time at such a young age to have obtained sufficient training (nurture). 

Does this mean that an average person (such as me) cannot become a good, or maybe even great, leader without being born with obvious leadership qualities?  Of course they can! In addition to the importance that nature plays in a person becoming a great leader, nurturing plays an equally important role. Without the proper training in leadership, even the most predisposed leader cannot effectively guide his or her organization and gain the moniker or an emergent leader. Along with the attributes of nature and nurture, there is one other attribute that a leader must possess: drive.  A person must be driven to leadership in order to be successful at it. Like other things of value, leadership success is not easy to obtain.  It takes hard work, diligence, studying, self-discipline, and a genuine interest and thorough understanding of the people you lead. After all, you can’t lead without followers, and if you do not understand the needs and motivators of your followers (and nurture them accordingly), there is a good chance they will not follow you for long. 

In my closing thoughts, in reading Three Star Leadership, I found an interesting comment that I think sums it up: 

“Leaders are sort of born, Leaders are always made”. 

Have a great week!