Leadership, Management, Mentoring And Tough Love - Tools For Transformation

"To Lead Is To Serve"
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Leadership, Management and Mentoring are tools for personal, professional and busin3ess transformation. Those of us who choose to solve problems and achieve victories on a large scale -- "march into hell for a heavenly cause" -- are obligated to recruit, train and prepare the people for whom we have chosen to become responsible to take on many obstacles, impediments and internal psychological barriers which would otherwise prevent or scuttle progress toward their consentual benefit.

Leadership is the catalyst that activates the finest elements, skills, passions and unique personal assets inside each of the individual persons being led or mentored. Leadership is the most important component of entrepreneurship -- it is the spark that starts the fire.

The trick is to temper the fire to produce more light than heat, and to avoid the occasional urge to jump into the center of it and be consumed by it. Leaders, managers, teachers, mentors and team leaders TEND the fire, without allowing themselves or their constituents/ followers/ students/ charges to be burned. - Douglas E Castle, Chairman, TNNWC Group, LLC.

If you are cast, by fate or by personal conviction, to become a leader or a mentor of a person (occasionally a dear friend) or of a team or organization, your ultimate prospects, especially if you are successful, are quite predictable, each framed with frightful irony:

1) You will become resented, or seen as an enemy, by those whom you've helped. You will feel isolated and lonely. You will feel a longing for someone better or wiser than yourself to confide in, or to guide you;

2) You will be cast aside, as your charges no longer feel that they need you, or if their skills, honed by your diligent efforts, come to surpass yours. You will feel obsolete, vestigial and minimized -- and, sadly, your sense of achievement will not outshadow this feeling of being exiled by your own tribe;

3) Your experience will harden your heart, and you will find yourself leaning toward an atavistic indifference to your best qualities of empathy and of the ability to love. If you do not eventually develop sociopathic tendencies, you may find yourself lloking at members of your own species as "cases," "diagnoses," "challenges," or "prospects," instead of as individuals.

Yes -- this world needs more leaders, mentors and trainers. It is also true that as our society becomes increasingly dysfunctional because of inculcated selfishness and declining educational stndards, the need for leaders, mentors, trainers, coaches and teachers becomes more pressing.

Just be advised that leadership, if it is not egocentric opportunism, may require Tough Love. And be further advised that Tough Love can be tougher on the teacher than the pupil... and tougher on the leader or commander than on those in his or her charge.

If circumstances or a compelling need to change the world (or a small part of the world) should find you in the position of leader or mentor, you must heed the calling and do your very best. But a true leader or mentor will incur profound internal casualties in the process of leading or mentoring.

You cannot be weak and hope to serve others as a leader or a mentor. You must become a tower of strength to accomplish the work required, and to bear the pain that is an integral part of your success.

Faithfully,

Douglas E Castle
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NOTICE: This article is Copyright © 2011 by author Douglas E Castle with all rights reserved. It may be republished without permission provided that it is published in full, with all hyperlinks and exhibits left intact, and with full attribution given the author. This article does not contain or constitute medical, health, psychological, legal, regulatory, investment, securities, financial, tax, or any other form of professional advice -- the reader acknowledges and accepts this disclaimer. Further, the reader indemnifies and holds harmless both the author and all publications in which this article appears of any damages, claims, loss, responsibility or liability emerging from the reader’s utilization of any information contained herein.

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Meetings - The Nightmare Continues...

Meetings (gasp!): Kill or Cure? How to Have Great Ones.

Somebody has called a meeting.

You don't know what to do...  

Can you come up with a plausible excuse for not attending? Do you quickly down a double shot of espresso, hold your nose and just go? Have you learned to sleep with your eyes open? Will you know when to go "mmm, Hmm,"? Will you nod your head at the same time? Can you discreetly send text messages and get some "real" work done while some egomaniac drones on? Have you prepared an excuse for why you haven't gotten your project accomplished, in the event that someone asks you about your (gulp) status?

If  the meeting is in-person, it's going to be a challenge. If the meeting is done by teleconference, don't lie down on the courch with your phone in the crook of your neck if your prone to bouts of snoring.

Facing facts, meetings can be amazingly productive and energizing, or they can be as pleasurable as oral root canal surgery. The latter is usually the case: everyone generally dreads them, except for the moderator or organizer, who desperately craves attention - sometimes it is because his parents didn't show him adequate love; sometimes, it's because he has learned a witty new joke, and wants to try it out on a captive audience; most of the time it is because he has been taught that "meetings are necessary."

The attendees either participate because a) they have also been taught that "meetings are necessary," or because b) if they don't attend, they're afraid that everyone else will be talking about them, or because c) if they don't attend they will be fired, or because d) they have accidentally wandered into the wrong room at some convention center and have (to their horror) emerged through the door right in front of the podium.

The Fact: Meetings can be either fabulous or monstrous. If they are fabulous, they will get your team to its objective in quantum leaps. If they are monstrous, your audience will become de-motivated, unresponsive and resentful.

The Rule: For a meeting to be *fabulous*, it must be purposeful, focused, action-oriented and businesslike. It cannot be one second longer than is necessary. 

A Great meeting must be more like a football huddle and less like an 8:00am university graduate-level lecture on organic chemistry. A bad meeting does damage --- in terms of time, credibility and motivation.

The Guidelines: Want great meetings? Here are the necessary ingredients:

1.   Have a specified purpose (an objective to be accomplished) for the meeting;

2.   Announce the meeting well in advance, with a reminder immediately before;

3.   Distribute a bullet-point memorandum identifying the purpose, the time and place, and a specific agenda, with definitive items;

4.   Start the meeting promptly;

5.   Allocate specific amounts of time for the coverage of each agenda item. The leader of the meeting should moderate the discussion;

6.   Stay focused and true to the agenda - any diversions from the agenda must be sidelined for another time or an offline conversation if they are not beneficial to the whole group or if they are not directly relevant to the agenda item under discussion;

7.   Maintain order;

8.   Assign specific tasks to specific individuals with specific timeframes for their completion and status reporting. Gain each tasked individual's agreement and commitment right then and there, in full witness of the group;

9.   End the meeting promptly;

10. Distribute a memorandum (not more than 2 pages, please) which restates each agenda point, each decision, each tasked person, each timeframe, and a "thank you," within two days following the meeting.

Of course, every meeting requires a thorough F.U. ("follow up")

Remember: Meetings, like pencils, are dull when they are pointless.

Remember: Meetings that are informal, feel-good, everybody-meet-everybody-else, "how ya doin'," "whatcha workin' on?" or are "regular" meetings (i.e., mandated but without agendas), should not be meetings at all. They are unnecessary. Have lunches, dinners, parties, pep rallies and networking events instead, where these things are appropriate and can be savored. 

Meetings are business tools. Think of them that way and use them that way.

Meetings are either a waste of time, or an investment of time. Think of them and use them that way.

And now, ladies and gentlemen, this meeting is adjourned.

Faithfully,

Douglas Castle




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Making HARD CHOICES - A Thought-Provoking Exercise

Making Hard Choices – A Thought-Provoking Exercise

Sponsored by The Blue Tuesday Report (A TNNWC Publication) and Douglas Castle's Braintenance Blog.

Dear Friends:


I respectfully submit some questions for your consideration and response via comment to this Group. Answer honestly, without regard for what you think the conventionally appropriate answers may be:


1. Would you rather be loved or feared? Why?


2. Would you rather have a singular extraordinary talent (without any other competencies beyond the minimal), or be "fairly good" at a large number of things? Why?


3. Would you rather have fame or fortune? Why?


4. Would you rather be the most valued participant on a team, or would you rather be a participant on the most valued, successful team? Why?


5. Would you rather serve a decisive leader, or a leader who decides by consensus or committee? Why?


6. Would you rather face your life friendless, anonymous and constantly on the run, or serve a two-year prison sentence? Why?


7. Would you rather try to outrun an expert gunman, or attempt to disarm him? Why?


Your life is filled with difficult choices, and constant attempts to achieve compromise, balance and a sense of reason.

What would you choose in each of the foregoing "hard choice" scenarios, if you could not mitigate, hedge, negotiate, alter terms, propose an alternative or negotiate at all?


Think about each question carefully. Think about the answers you would choose. Do you find that you are learning about yourself by this exercise?

An observation: Leadership begins with deep self-knowledge.

Please let us know your answers by clicking on the COMMENT ON THIS ARTICLE button below. Your answers can be anonymous if you choose.

Faithfully,

Douglas Castle
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Mastermind Groups versus Committees

MASTERMIND GROUPS VERSUS COMMITTEES

Dear Friends:

I have finally learned how to differentiate between "Mastermind Groups" and "Committees". The key to identifying which type of enterprise is in question is in the result produced!  While this retrospective categorization is inconvenient (in fact, it seems at first blush to be just about as useful as "predicting the past"), in can work. Here are the outcomes by which you can judge the type of enterprise:

1.     If the result is indecision, anger, or the creation of a camel instead of a horse, you have witnessed the workings of a committee;

2.     If the result is a decision (of some type, about some issue), the giving out of assignments, but with the ultimate burden to do substantially everything somehow falling upon one of the members as soon as the meeting has ended, you have witnessed the workings of a typical mastermind group.

It is significant to note that neither of these two types of enterprises is usually a team, and that both types tend to be tremendously inefficient in terms of productivity as well as in an equitable allocation of responsibility.

Faithfully,

Douglas Castle
p.s. Transforming groups of individuals into real teams takes powerful, focused, results-driven leadership. Headless creatures (with the notable exceptions of chickens and cockroaches) don't move...they tend to stagnate and then die. This is, in major part, what makes democracy such a formidable challenge.


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The Full Version: Hypocrisy Discredits You - It Negates Your Message

HYPOCRISY DISCREDITS YOU - IT NEGATES YOUR MESSAGE
This article originally published on Douglas Castle's Blog.
Douglas Castle is a Featured Columnist for THE NATIONAL NETWORKER.
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Dear Friends:

I am not a particularly religious person, but I appreciate the value of integrity in setting a good example, rather than in merely labeling yourself as something (or professing to believe in something) but acting in a manner which is wholly inconsistent with your proclaimed values. In brief:

1. You cannot "spread Democracy" through aggressive military means or against the will of a people;

2. You cannot preach non-violence while you point your gun at my chest;

3. You cannot be a patriot in any country if you wish its leadership to fail, when the failure of that leadership (regardless of its character, values, approaches or agenda) would cause the collapse of the country which you claim to adore. This whole type of thinking is rather like wanting the Titanic to sink (while your loved ones are on board) because you thought that its designers and engineers were pompous asses, and you want them to "learn a lesson" to prove that you are "right".

Recent correspondence follows. Please read the hyperlinked article first, then read William's comments to me, then read my response to William.

Faithfully,

Douglas Castle
__________
THE NEWS ARTICLE CONTAINING THE OFFENDING QUOTE:

D_Castle_BuzzFlash Sean Hannity Butchers Barack Obama Quote, Again, to Win BuzzFlash's Media .. http://bit.ly/fSN3X .
_________
WILLIAM'S LETTER TO ME (Via Linked In):

William Mitchell has sent you a message.
Date: 7/16/2009
Subject: RE: DOUGLAS D_Castle_BuzzFlash Sean Hannity...
Quote From William:"He (Hannity) is disgusting...and he proposes to be a Christian...UGH" >>
Regarding: DOUGLAS CASTLE LinkedIn Status: DOUGLAS D_Castle_BuzzFlash Sean Hannity Butchers Barack Obama Quote, Again, to Win BuzzFlash's Media .. http://bit.ly/fSN3X
___________
MY RESPONSE TO WILLIAM:

Dear William:

The sad paradox in this situation is how a self-professed Christian can be intolerant or hateful. This things are the ugly disqualifiers that break the hearts of so many people who truly aspire to live by the teachings of Jesus Christ. This type of "selective exception" to those teachings defeat the integrity needed to be a credible Christian.

Just my opinion.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts with me, William.

Faithfully,

Douglas

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ON LEADERSHIP - TNNW Survey # 88

YOUR OPINION IS RESPECTFULLY REQUESTED: "THE TASKS OF LEADERSHIP" - TNNW Survey #88

Dear Friends and Colleagues:
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I am not an expert per se on the subject and elements of leadership, but I understand the need for quality leadership, and I have all too often witnessed the effects of poor or absent leadership. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I am trying, with great dedication to find out not so much about the attributes of great leaders (as that is extraordinarily complex and esoteric), but about the things that they need to do for their followers, their teams and their organizations in order to make these groups of dependent people successful. I have identified several characteristics, but would like to accumulate a greater, far more exhaustive list. When I have compiled this list, I would like to publish it in THE NATIONAL NETWORKER (subscribe free at http://www.thenationalnetworker.com/), LINKED IN, and a variety of other social media.
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I believe that a leader must:
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1. Have a firm agenda, which he or she repeats as unwavering mantra;
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2. Have a constant focus on the group mission, and not permit tangential departures and straying from the path;
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3. Have the ability to repeatedly address the expectations (e.g., what is expected), in some technical detail, of each member of the group...
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Please let me know your thoughts...I would like to complete this project with a large number of varied opinions representative of a broad cross-section of the professional, business and entrepreneurial communities. Click on https://ciof.wufoo.com/forms/your-response-to-a-tnnw-survey/ to submit your responses.

Thank you.
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Faithfully,
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Douglas Castle
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