Wow, I know. 

Thanks for hangin' tough, though! 

My intention is that as we build these conceptual frameworks for leadership, you will have a 'bucket' to put future topics/activities and a solid rationale for what we are studying. For instance, when we start doing some online assessments, you can think to yourself, "Ah, I am using introspection and this will help me gain accurate self-assessment. I'm doing this because SELF-LEADERSHIP is critical to overall leadership. No one can leads others if they aren't leading themselves."

Or, when we study leadership styles, you will see that one of them is Visionary Leadership. By then, you will know that Visionary Leadership is an element of Social Skill. You can tell yourself, "Learning to use the visionary leadership approach is important because it is going to help me in my INTERPERSONAL LEADERSHIP abilities."

Buckets. We're creating buckets.

As Amy mentioned, I will share the quotes about leadership I shared yesterday so that you can reflect on these and see if you want to integrate them into your philosophy of leadership.

"Ultimately, leadership development has to integrate the depth of the inner self-awareness work with the breadth and complexity of the external marketplace and cultural dynamics."

"Some influence through ideas, some through systems, yet others through people, but the essence is the same."

"Leadership development is about our ongoing journey to discover and develop our purposeful inner capabilities in order to make a more positive contribution in our jobs, families and communities."

"It can be said that anyone who authentically expresses him/herself in a way that creates value in an organization is leading." (Kevin Cashman)

"If your actions cause others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader." John Quincy Adams

Hopefully some of those ideas will help further refine your philosophy of leadership statements.

LIA Challenge #1: Cross-reference the 6 Core Competencies and the Learning Framework.  For each of the 21 skills/characteristics listed in the learning framework, there is an underlying competency that helps facilitate that skill/characteristic.  (A couple of the competencies such as INITIATIVE and INFLUENCE are simply stated as they are.)

LIA Challenge #2: Complete the leadership skills inventory in order to get a baseline for where YOU think you fall on the scale of these 10 leadership characteristics. No one will read this. It is for your reference. If you're feeling super ambitious, in a different color, complete it again from the perspective of how you think your spouse, parent, manager and closest friend might complete it for you.

I had a blast with ya'll yesterday. Thanks for showing up AND being present!


P.S. Some adjustments:

- While management and leadership call on different skill sets, they are both essential to running an organization. Sometimes the 'management' role gets a bad rap. I encourage you to read back over the functions of management and ask yourself: What would happen to our organization if no one performed these responsibilities?

- Please remember our ground rules for the group that we are employing the highest level of respect for one another and anyone else who is not with us. We are all members of one team. Thanks for keeping it classy.

Testing. Testing. Is this thing on? Anyone out there? (tap, tap)

Thank you guys for showing up and really 'showing up' on Monday. My intention was to open the spigot of ideas around leadership, management and the responsibilities that go along with each. Plus, we considered the value of creating quality space in our lives. Next time, we'll kick off with the 9 Responsibilities of Leadership and also the 6 Core Competencies that the ELI Program is built around.  We are laying a foundation these first few weeks that we can build on throughout the year.

One thing I have been personally reflecting on is Amy expressing how difficult it can be to reflect on the deep things (what it is that matters, what leadership is, what do we want, what do we want to become, and what kind of leader we are or are becoming, etc.) Don't let me put words in your mouth, Amy, this is just my interpretation of what you said. I agree with you, it is hard! Who has times to 'go deep' when so much is demanded at the surface of life.

For those that asked, I am posting John's Philosophy of Leadership statement here and I'll also email it. Mandy, I really appreciated the story that you shared about how John is authentically living out his leadership beliefs and assertions. That is where the rubber hits the road. Does anyone else have a comment on the things that John is saying here?

ELI – My Philosophy on Leadership  (John Egger)                                                                             August 31, 2015

"I believe that leadership is a lifelong process of growing in wisdom and maturity.  It involves:

             Discovering who I am and what I care about and value.

Finding the commitment for self-development and self-control.  Shaping my expression of     myself.

Developing the self-confidence to have my own ideas about what it means to be a high-performing leader – having awareness and faith in my own personal power.

Being willing to truly serve those that I lead.

I believe that my ability to inspiration as a leader is directly related to the depth of my cause.

People always say companies fail because – 1)They are under-capitalized, 2) They don't have the right people, 3) There is a bad Market.  How did the Wright Brothers (who had none of these things) ever fly a plane??  Because they had a cause.  They gave blood, sweat, and tears.  They had a deep cause. They were inspired.

There are leaders and there are those that lead.  Leaders hold positions of power and authority. Those who lead inspire us.  People don’t buy what I do.  They buy because of the why I am doing it (inspire).  They buy because they believe what I believe (inspire).  If I talk about what I believe, I will attract others that believe.

So Leadership is influence and thus it is an awesome responsibility.  I am touching and moving real people.  I always need to be a breath of encouragement.  I need to call people up.  Everything I do needs to be elevating the humanity (much more than justice but acts of love, selflessness, and social intelligence) within the organization.  Then I need to challenge people and be there to insure their success.

I must feed myself daily doses of courage.  I will be vulnerable.  I will be exposed, open to ridicule and often defenseless to the economist, engineer, and the judge.  It will almost always be the way less traveled.  As Mary Anne Radmacher said – “Courage doesn’t always roar.  Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says I will try again tomorrow.”

As leadership is a continuing and sometimes arduous process of acquiring wisdom and maturity, I will develop processes to manage energy more skillfully so I can continue the process of becoming a high performance leader." - End of John's statement

A note: if you want to be notified to posting on this blog, look for the check box in the comments area where you post. You are not required to post here every week, but sure would be more fun if you did.

Vision & Voice LAUNCH 8-29-2016

Hey KP's!

I don't know about ya'll but I had a blast with you on Monday the 29th! Our purpose for our first meeting was really just to get to know one another better, to set down some ground rules for how we're going to work together and to get a feel for what the next year will look like.

Right away, you jumped in, and are already thinking about taking risks, your personal strengths, what you respect about others and overcoming challenges. If these aren't related to leadership, then what is? Well, you thought about that too! "If you had to design an effective leadership development program, what would it entail?"

Next time, we're going to look more closely at putting some definition around the term 'leadership'? Who has it, who does it, how do you get it and when do you know you've got it?

This blog will be a place where we can dialogue about important ideas outside of class. You can hop on here at any time to post your musing, questions, challenge an idea (respectfully), ask for help, give a shout-out to someone who was awesome - or however you see fit to use this space. I will post an idea from time-to-time as well.

Bonus Question: The main difference between an effective group and a high-performing (team) is...?

We are a CKP! And I'm so glad you're here!