![]() |
|||||||||||||||
Issue 203 - February 2020 |
|||||||||||||||
Is humility a key trait of highly effective leaders? Are charismatic leaders who can stir strong emotions more effective leaders? Questions about these intertwined leadership characteristics recently came up in workshops and online discussions. Charismatic leadership seems to especially confuse many people. It's a popular media stereotype of strong leadership. As much as I enjoy reading Fortune magazine, they keep adding to this misguided leadership view by continually putting larger-than-life CEOs, politicians, and other leaders on their covers and featuring stories on their forceful personalities. Numerous studies show that charisma isn't a key quality of highly effective leaders. A European study reports on "The Downside of Charisma" with this conclusion, "We found that leaders of the higher-performing companies were often not charismatic -- and were, in fact, less likely to be charismatic than the leaders of the lower-performing companies. The problem with charismatic leaders is that exceptional powers of persuasion make it easy for them to overcome resistance and opposition to their chosen course of action." Charismatic leaders often don't listen. They're too busy overcoming resistance with their powers of persuasion. They often see humility as weakness. If they could shut up long enough to learn, they might discover that it's a vital trait for great leadership. From his good to great research, Jim Collins found humility is a hallmark of the very best leaders. In his Harvard Business Review article, "Level 5 Leadership, The Triumph of Humility and Fierce Resolve," he wrote, "Level 5 leaders, inherently humble, look out the window to apportion credit - even undue credit - to factors outside themselves. If they can't find a specific person or event to give credit to, they credit good luck. At the same time, they look in the mirror to assign responsibility, never citing bad luck or external factors when things go poorly. Conversely, the comparison executives frequently looked out the window for factors to blame but preened in the mirror to credit themselves when things went well." Humility is a vital part of the me/we continuum so central to leadership. A leader with a healthy ego feels a deep sense of satisfaction in the accomplishments of the team or organization he or she is leading. Their ego is stroked by coaching, developing, and building others and watching them grow. A leader me-deep in their unhealthy ego is self-centered and diminished by the accomplishments of others. The leader must always be in the spotlight and have others defer to their authority. This leader works to build dependence and a parent-child relationship. This unhealthy ego drives the leader to seek all credit for team or organization accomplishments and blame others for all failures. Less effective leaders often have low levels of emotional intelligence. A webinar participant in last month's Powerful New Approaches webinar (see first item in this newsletter) asked, "what are some good ways to coach toward greater emotional intelligence? This has proved difficult with low self-awareness in those with low EQ." The best approach I've seen is 360 feedback. Low EQ awareness usually means it's a fatal flaw. When leaders get that feedback, they're often surprised or even shocked. They need to appreciate how fatal flaws drag down perceptions of their overall leadership effectiveness and the impact of that on engagement, service/quality, profitability, safety, etc. The challenge is often helping them understand that soft skills have become an even more critical priority. A strength-based 360 assessment and development process is the most effective approach to lower feedback resistance and raise energy for building a personal development plan. This issue provides a follow up to last month's webinar with a link to watch the recording and a few answers to some of the questions raised. Engaging and energizing is a vital leadership task. You'll have a chance to determine if you're leading in the key of E. And we conclude our New Year's series on losing those fake news blues with thoughts grounded in reality. May you find some ideas to continue to keep yourself, your organization, and our world growing better and better. Answering Questions About Powerful New Approaches to Leadership and Coaching Development![]() Last week, I delivered a 45-minute webinar on Powerful New Approaches to Leadership and Coaching Development. This webinar condensed the key research and approaches from The Extraordinary Leader and The Extraordinary Coach workshops. An 11-minute Q & A session followed the webinar presentation. I was able to answer just seven questions and couldn't get to many others. Click here to access the archived webinar and Q &A session (starts at 45:15). Here are a few of the questions and summarized answers with links for you to drill deeper into the topic: When dealing with a workplace focused on weaknesses, what would you suggest a person do to introduce strength-based development?
In selecting companion competencies for development, should we choose to focus on areas that are already strengths?
If I am strong in a number of competencies, what how do I leverage those strengths?
There are times where people may be missing a competency or skill to move to the next level. How do "fatal flaws" feed into a personal development plan?
Can strategic thinking be learned?
How can you handle your CEO when he is not understanding your point of view or critique?
Given the vast number of webinars now available, we were delighted to have hundreds of sites register and join us. And we got the truest feedback of all -- they stayed until the very end! I am facilitating our only 2020 public workshops of The Extraordinary Leader and The Extraordinary Coach workshops in Toronto on March 2 and 3. Registration closes February 15 for The Extraordinary Leader and February 26 for The Extraordinary Coach. Engaging and Energizing:
|
![]() |
![]() |
This section summarizes last month's LinkedIn Updates and Twitter Tweets about online articles or blog posts that I've flagged as worth reading. These are usually posted on weekends when I am doing much of my reading for research, learning, or leisure. You can follow me on Twitter at https://twitter.com/JimClemmer and connect with me on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimclemmer
My original tweet commenting on the article follows each title and descriptor from the original source:
It's way too easy to lose sight of the big picture. We need to zoom out to get a more accurate perspective.
20 Ways the World Got Better in 2019, in Charts, Elijah Wolfson, Time
"It's difficult, in the context of the daily onslaught of bad news and its demands on our attention, to remember that when you look at the long arc of human civilization, there are many, many things that continue to get better."
Research on the age and positions of leadership development participants shows why organizational performance is so low.
The Virtues of Early and Powerful Leadership Development, Jack Zenger, Forbes
"Today a major dose of self-awareness via a 360-degree feedback process is most often reserved for upper-middle and top management."
Joe's research shows the competencies where leaders are aligned and misaligned with how others see their effectiveness.
Do You Know Yourself? You're Not As Good or Bad of a Leader As You Think, Joe Folkman, Forbes
"Leaders have some awareness of where they fall on the distribution based on their leadership effectiveness but overestimate weakness and underestimate strength."
![]() |
The items in each month's issue of The Leader Letter are first published in my weekly blog during the previous month.
If you read each blog post (or issue of The Leader Letter) as it's published over twelve months, you'll have read the equivalent of a leadership book. And you'll pick up a few practical leadership tips that help you use time more strategically and tame your E-Beast!
I am always delighted to hear from readers of The Leader Letter with feedback, reflections, suggestions, or differing points of view. Nobody is ever identified in The Leader Letter without their permission. I am also happy to explore customized, in-house adaptations of any of my material for your team or organization. Drop me an e-mail at jim.clemmer@clemmergroup.com or connect with me on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, or my blog!
Live, learn, laugh, and lead -- just for the L of it!
Jim Clemmer
President
Phone: (519) 748-5968
Email: jim.clemmer@clemmergroup.com
Website: www.clemmergroup.com
View PDF Version |
Past Issues |
Practical Leadership Blog |
Visit Our Site! |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
Share this!Please forward this newsletter to colleagues, Clients, or associates you think might be interested -- or on a 'need-to-grow' basis.Was this forwarded to you? Subscribe to receive The Leader Letter monthly! |
Permission to ReprintYou may reprint any items fromThe Leader Letter in your own printed publication or e-newsletter as long as you include this paragraph. "Reprinted with permission from The Leader Letter, Jim Clemmer's free e-newsletter. For almost forty years, Jim's 2,000+ practical leadership presentations and workshops/retreats, seven bestselling books, columns, and newsletters have been helping hundreds of thousands of people worldwide. His web site is www.clemmergroup.com." |
Please forward this newsletter to colleagues, Clients, or associates you think might be interested -- or on a 'need-to-grow' basis.
Did you receive this newsletter from someone else?
Subscribe to ensure you don't miss the next issue!
The CLEMMER Group
476 Mill Park Drive, Kitchener ON N2P 1Y9
Phone: (519) 748-1044 ~ Fax: (519) 748-5813
service@clemmergroup.com
www.clemmergroup.com
©2020 Jim Clemmer and The CLEMMER Group