When I was a young banker with a few dollars, I was looking for the next hot investment. It was the 80’s and people were acquiring businesses every day, and I wanted in on the action. My first deal was awesome. A friend mentioned that company XYZ was a ripe prospect for a takeover, the kind that could be snatched up any day. So I wrote a check and sure enough, I doubled my investment in a week.

A month or so later I had a similar opportunity.  I bought a few shares in a hot prospect and waited for the deal to go down. But the only thing that went down was my investment. I watched it dwindle to zero as potential buyers went looking elsewhere for their next target. I was a bold, quick, decisive risk taker. But I discovered that speed kills.

They say he who hesitates is lost. There’s a lot of truth to that. Waiting too long can be as dangerous as acting too quickly. But is there a time to wait? What do wise leaders do? When should we act and when should we hesitate?

Perhaps it depends on why we wait, not that we wait at all. Andy Stanley offers some great insight on in a favorite book of mine, Next Generation Leader. Andy said that there is a difference between being careful and being fearful. If we hesitate because of fear, we will never lead well. But if we hesitate because we are being careful and wise, then people will follow our lead.

Here’s how Andy compares the two.

Careful versus Fearful

• Careful is cerebral; fearful is emotional
• Careful is fueled by information; fearful by imagination
• Careful calculates risk; fearful avoids risk
• Careful wants to achieve success; fearful wants to avoid failure
• Careful is concerned about progress; fearful is concerned about protection

Are you hesitating to make a key decision? Why? If because of fear, you’ll never lead. But if you are waiting because you are careful – weighing the options, calculating the risk, doing your homework – then you’ll never lack for followers.

When your gut causes you to wonder, it may be as sign to wait and get some more information. Generally, use as much time as you can before making a big decision.

Because sometimes he who hesitates is…a leader.

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Leadership development that substitutes dazzling events for developmental equipping is not a short cut — it is short sighted. We make a series of terrible tradeoffs. We exchange transformation for information, mentoring for meetings, and mobilization for communication.

What is your method for developing leaders and empowering teams? Here is a comparison.

                 Event-driven           vs.        Development-focused

Satisfied with Inspiration           vs.        Committed to Transformation

Moves people with Emotion      vs.      Moves People into the Mission

People Watch Performers         vs.       People Become Performers

Relies on a Program                  vs.       Begins with a Relationship

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How about your Leadership Gauges? There are 3 to pay attention to. Where would you mark each gauge in relation to your life?

Check your gauge

1) Spiritual Gauge: Empty…..Half ……Full?

This gauge moves toward empty every time you invest spiritual energy in others. Helping people connect with God, providing soul care and engaging in great moral or ethical battles can sap your tank. Though especially true of pastors and non-profit leaders, this can affect every leader.

The spiritual life must be replenished. Times for prayer, meditation, solitude, reading and silence are usually sufficient to refuel the tank. Pay attention to the soul and to the heart. Life flows from those places and, like a garden, they must be tended to and weeded regularly.

2) Emotional Gauge: Empty….Half….Full?

Are you experiencing unresolved conflict with co-workers, family or friends? Are you continually sad and depressed, filled with fear, easily aggravated or overly defensive? Then your emotional gauge is likely near empty.

Getting relationships back on track, addressing conflict head on, and forgiving people who have offended you will help move the needle back toward Full. It is important to process these emotions with a trusted friend or safe small group who know you and want to see you find healing. Consult a professional counselor if needed, especially if there have been serious losses in life; a death, job loss, a broken dream, or a relational breakdown.

3) Physical Gauge: Empty….Half….Full?

Lack of sleep, poor diet, too much caffeine or sugar, illness, and too little exercise or fresh air will drain this tank quickly. Some of these we cannot avoid, but we must address. Allow time for healing during an illness. Too many of us get heroic and come back to work before we should, infecting others and slowing our healing. The result is poor performance and fractured relationships.

So pay attention to your gauges, and make two decisions. First, build some margin into the calendar. Put “ME” on the schedule just like any serious appointment and stick to it. Set vacation time NOW. And second, set clear boundaries. Say NO and mean it. You do not have to do it all, and your kids do not have to sign up for everything. FOCUS is your friend!

Lead at full capacity, and your leadership will flourish.

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It’s the “C” word of the 21^st century- COMMITMENT.

And there is less of it to be found every day.

It is wise – no, it is essential – to keep your options open in a volatile economy and ever-changing marketplace. Flexibility is the new stability. Preparing for the worst isn’t enough – you have to prepare for the best. What if you succeed? What if our idea goes viral? What if we have to hire 5 people instead of 2 so we can keep up with demand?

It makes sense to stay flexible, adaptive, mobile and accommodating.

And that strength may be your greatest weakness.

COMMITMENT – not flexibility…

• got Peary to the North Pole in 1909
• drove Alan Kay and Xerox PARC to invent the laptop in 1968
• brought down the Berlin Wall in 1989

The man or woman who has been willing to embrace the “C” word is the one who sees the fruit of their labor.

Born in 1890, an era when women were to stay at home, raise kids, and tend to husbands, Henrietta Mears started a small Bible study group on the UCLA campus in the late 1930’s – at 6 a.m.! For decades to come she would teach and train COMMITTED men and women for ministry. Some of her protégés include Bill Bright who founded Campus Crusade, Dick Halverson, Chaplain of the Senate for many years, and a little known man by the name of Billy Graham.

I am glad she was committed!

In business, education, church work, or athletics it is the COMMITTED – not just the gifted – who make the biggest impact.  Are we willing to hang in there when others are bailing out?

Are we willing to pay the price, take the high road, the rugged path?

Being busy does not always mean real work. The object of all work is production or accomplishment and to either of these ends there must be forethought, system, planning, intelligence, and honest purpose, as well as perspiration. Seeming to do is not doing. 

- Thomas Edison.

Are we just “seeming” to do – or are we doing?

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Teerlink agreed; but he wanted more.

“I’m all for empowerment. But we need competence first. If you empower dummies, you get dumb decisions faster!”

Teerlink wanted competence, in a team and in a leader. Core commitments and a clear sense of calling are essential for success (see my previous 2 posts in this 5-part series on Developing the Leader Within). But without competence, all the character and clarity in the world won’t get you very far.

David Gergen, an eyewitness to the leadership of four US presidents, writes on this matter. Instead of competence he uses “capacity” to refer to a leader’s ability to muster the wisdom, resources and willpower to make decisions and handle the complexities of the job. His words in the foreword of True North demand more than a few moments of reflection:

“…character without capacity usually means weakness in a leader; but capacity without character means danger.”

Character at the core is indispensable; but note also the role of competence. An incompetent leader is a weak leader. We all know leaders who have exhibited solid character – presidents, business leaders, college professors – but who lack the competence (capacity) to perform at a high level, especially under pressure.

Competence matters! Does it matter to me? To you?

Are you good at what you do?

Are you working at getting better at your craft?

Where is your growth edge?

Who gives you honest feedback about your skills and performance?

Will you identify your true strengths and use them to the best of your ability?

I hope so…we need you at your best!

Dr. Bill Donahue

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To be eligible for a free copy, comment below by answering this question: How would improving the relational dynamic of your team increase its effectiveness? There will be multiple winners per day! You can also follow me on Twitter or “Like” Dr. Bill Donahue on FB for more chances to win!

The SGI assessment has been used with universities, hospitals, churches and businesses. It is a proven tool that we have refined for greater use. So we added a simple leader’s DVD to help guide a group or team toward health and productivity. The multiple-page SGI results (sent immediately to each person online) provide awesome feedback about how each member of the team connects with others. This insight into each person, combined with information on how to work better as a team, will create an authentic environment where you can build healthy relationships and get the mission done more effectively.

Respond below for your chance to receive a free copy!

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This year I had the privilege of working with Dr. Les Parrott, a guy who, with his wife Leslie, has devoted his life to helping people build quality relationships. Based on the research and expertise of Rodney Cox, (developer of the Leading from Your Strengths profile), Les developed Small Group Insights (SGI) to help groups and teams.

The SGI assessment is a low-cost but in-depth analysis that provides essential feedback to each member of a group, team or family. It allows them to forge the relational glue they need for growth and team synergy. By taking the assessment and processing it as a group or team, you discover the communication style of each member, how they interact with others, and what you can do as a leader to facilitate growth, team success and healthy community among members.

Even after leading groups for 25 years I found this information invaluable to my group, and with the leaders I am working with. So, to help leaders use this well, I asked Les if we could put a tool together to guide leaders of groups and teams in using this profile effectively. The result? The Small Group Insights Leader’s Kit. Thanks to the folks at LifeWay we got this together quickly and in your hands for 2012. It has already been used in hospitals, universities, businesses and churches with leaders and teams at all levels.

The kit comes with a very simple process that is easy to use yet provides pages of great feedback to each person. Then it provides understanding of how your engagement style (Doer, Thinker, Talker or Listener) works with others in the circle so you can increase communication, build relationships and get on mission quickly.

We are excited to bring this tool your way, and grateful to Rodney for bringing the research and process pieces together. Give it a shot first for yourself, and I think you will find it useful for your team.

Real relationships that foster the growth of real groups and real teams.

Give us your feedback as we make this available to a broader audience!

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Leaders need some direction for the next leg of the race, but before leaping into the future it might be good to look at the past. In the first blog of this series (The Core) we looked at your dreams, those inner drives that motivate you and give you passion for your life and work. It is time to leverage that passion and direct it – but where? The answer: in the direction of your calling.

Your calling is what you were wired for. It is NOT a position: it is a function. You are not called to be Vice President of Sales – you are called to motivate and lead teams toward mutual goals and success. Next year you might be CEO of an electronics firm, but your calling will be similar. Your role changes, but your calling will be less likely to fluctuate. Your call defines the nature of your work, not the strategy or environment in which you perform it. And, I believe it should be described in terms of people, not simply products or outcomes.

What is your calling? This takes some time to work through, and I enjoy guiding strategic leaders through the process of clarifying their calling as they make transitions in life and work. But here are a few thoughts to get you going.

1) Discover your motivated abilities. Some years ago I took an assessment that required me to write 8 stories about projects or leadership opportunities in which I was successful and also enjoyed in each era of life. My 1-page descriptions ranged from restoring an old, oak desk to redesigning a training manual for a training department when I was a banker.

Despite the range of projects, there was a core theme: I love to unleash potential and make things/people more effective. It makes sense that I have been in leadership development roles and strategic planning initiatives. I can see the core capabilities in a team or leader, unleash their potential, and get things moving in the right direction.

2) Compare your motivated abilities with your current work. Where are you headed? Is your work going to reflect who you really are and what you are called to be, or will it remain in conflict with your calling? Are you called to bring strategic insight to core problems, yet have demanding people management obligations that drain you? Are you wired for change and entrepreneurial risk-taking but remain trapped in a quality control environment with little freedom for experimentation?

Granted, it is a tough economy and you can’t simply job hop. But you can begin bringing more of who you are to what you do, or start looking for opportunities that align core motivations with work expectations.

Thanks to this process I realized I am a developer of leaders and processes – but I am not limited to working with raw material. I have the ability to bring resources, people and ideas together in fresh ways that shape organizational direction and empower life-changing leaders to lead well.

What about you? Are you working in your sweet spot? Maybe it is time to get clear and get moving.

Your leadership is too important to get this one wrong.

Dr. Bill Donahue

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Erwin McManus, author of Wide Awake: The Future is Waiting Within You, says “Great lives that are born out of great dreams often come through great sacrifice and great suffering.” At the core we have longings…but at the core we also know suffering and fear. But suffering and fear can be crippling to a leader, unless there is a dream emerging from that dark, intimidating place.

As a leader I wrestle with McManus’ comments like, “the limitations you are willing to accept determine the boundaries of your existence,” and “a dream needs a person to bring it to life.” Dreams, it seems, lie at the core of our existence, but require others to pull them out of us. We are easily intimidated by our dreams, fearing failure or not wanting to suffer along the way to realizing our dream.

Here is the key question for every serious leader: “Am I willing to risk the changes needed to really live?” McManus challenges us: “How long you live does not reflect how well you live. The real question is, were you alive when you died?”

Ouch! Will I be alive when I die?

Let me push this a bit further. Take time to start this now… TODAY!

• What is stirring at the core for you right now?
• Is it a dream worth pursuing, worth suffering for?
• Is it a dream that is life giving?

I have been to 3 funerals in the last 15 days; 2 of them tragic deaths of men in their early 20’s, and one for a woman in her 50’s. Each time I asked myself, “What will they say about me?” I hope they talk about me like a woman I heard about some years ago. She was 79 when she died. On her desk at home they found a number of books she was reading, underlining key passages and taking notes. Also, there was a calendar of activities and commitments for her month. But most striking—this will challenge you—was a list of her goals and pursuits for the next 10 years! She was looking forward to 90 and was not about to waste a minute of her life!

So how do we answer the question, “What will it take to be fueled by life-giving dreams?” McManus says this requires focus.

Find your Focus

McManus teaches that focus comes from the Latin word for “hearth” or “fireplace” and thus means “the burning center.” What is the burning center of my life, my leadership, my work and family? To find it I must carve away distractions, cut off the peripheral could-do for the more central must-do. But the “do” must be centered in the “be” – what I am becoming.

Sure—but there’s a challenge. I am overwhelmed by the responsibilities I have, opportunities that arise, and problems I must solve. Focus seems like a luxury only a well-subsidized artist can afford—someone who’s paid to paint one portrait, not someone who’s running around splashing his brush at every blank canvas in the room.

Are you and your team focused—on change? Can you change? Really? Are the habits and patterns that scar our lives beyond transformation? Are we willing to make the effort? To say no to un-change; to wrestle with our core convictions, mission, faith, beliefs, dreams – even if we walk away from the grueling contest with a limp afterward?

It means strengthening the core. And that takes the courage to put our dreams out there – personal and strategic, individual and organizational. Then, focus our energies. And let it rip.

Risky? Yes.

But I want to be alive when I die.

Dr. Bill Donahue

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Great leaders ask, “How did I develop in my ability to lead others, lead my peers and lead myself?” But what are the categories or areas of focus to evaluate? By looking at successful, strong leaders we can gain some insights into what they care about, and it can inform our own evaluation.

One thing in particular seems to mark great leaders – how they view themselves in relationship to others in the organization. Are they there to serve others, or to have others serve them?

Great leaders move from “I” to “We” in their leadership. No one likes working with, or for, a narcissist. Unfortunately, many top leaders fit the bill. It may not be totally their fault, however. Others are looking to them to lead, to take ultimate responsibility for the organization or make the difficult decisions average leaders prefer to avoid. So we expect a lot from them, and make them the center of attention.

Others started the venture and in the early days it WAS all about them – it had to be! From making sales to designing the support systems to hiring the first employees, these leaders did not have an organization…they WERE the organization.

But the question is, “As you mature in leadership, can you move from I to we?

Harvard’s Bill George says,

 “…if we believe that leadership is just about getting others to follow us and do our bidding as we climb the organization ladder, we risk being derailed.”

I have seen the inability of the senior leader(s) to move toward a “we” culture first hand, and it is devastating to the staff and customers alike.

To move to “we” instead of the proverbial “it all depends on me” requires three important shifts in your approach to leadership.

1) Give credit instead of taking credit. Even when they deserve some of the credit, great leaders pass it off to others. I am working with a CEO who really gets this concept. In the 360-degree evaluation I recently completed for him and his team, it was clear that he deflected praise to the team. In contrast, is the senior leader who requires constant affirmation and praise, even when others do most of the real work. This is so de-motivating to other leaders.

By using personal notes, email and public affirmations, my CEO friend gives credit frequently and authentically, and does not have to be at the center of the universe. His ability to share success with the team, remind others of their great contribution, and give control to others marks him as a great leader – and his people love him for it.

Want to get the real story about a leader? Ask the people who used to work for him or her. Would they return? Was it a healthy environment? Would they readily partner with them again? Or was the leader manipulative, condescending, inauthentic, self-focused, always posturing and more concerned with image control? Did he or she readily give the spotlight to others and praise them in public?

Henry Cloud, in his book Integrity, refers to this as a leader’s “wake” – what they leave behind after a meeting, a decision, or a departure. In many cases the character wake is ugly. We have all heard our share of stories of disillusioned staff members who felt betrayed, deceived, manipulated and outright lied to by a senior leader or manager. And in most cases, narcissism was at the root of it all. The desire for personal praise and prominence left a destructive wake.

2) Share the load versus dumping the load. Some leaders believe the best way to empower new leaders is to give them a greater challenge. This is a good approach…if the emerging leader has the gifts, talents and savvy to handle it. But if not, it can be a disaster, and you will be shuffling leaders around the organization or shoving them out the door.  I have seen many poor leadership calls in the last few years. In each case the pattern was the same. Give a newer leader a huge challenge, and throw them into the fire with a slap on the back and a “Good luck…Don’t screw up!” This is foolish.  It is actually a testimony of the senior person’s lack of leadership, versus the inability of the underling to perform under fire.

This method may work on occasion, but fails when the new leader is not wired for the new job, has no passion for the nature of the work, and is incapable of sharing leadership responsibilities with others. Lot’s of people drown with this “throw them in the deep end and see if they can swim” approach to leader development.  As a result they have no developmental pattern to follow, and have acquired no skill for sharing the overwhelming leadership challenges with anyone. So they roll up their sleeves and give it their best – and fail. Such leaders become gun-shy, wondering if they really were leaders in the first place. And the senior leader blames them, instead of himself.  The result is a climate of fear, disappointment, and steady turnover.

Developing and mentoring people is hard work. And few top leaders take the time to do it well. Most have a quick “teaching session” with a new leader or direct report and assume that will do the trick. The remain in steadfast control of all things, never moving from “I” to “We” as described in #1 above, making all the important decisions and using people to foster their personal goals.

3) Take responsibility for the bad news, not just the good news.  I know an organization that had to lay off 30-40 people (almost a third of the team). People working there were fired with little or no warning. Some of this was done in response to the bad economy. But it was clear from insiders and outside observes alike that a big part of the downturn was the result of poor leadership decisions. Senior leaders had ignored many warning signs communicated by employees, and had not listened to what the market was saying for years. As Jim Collins describes in How the Mighty Fall, hubris was at the core of the problem. There was an inability to see the truth because of self-obsession with past success and personal agendas (instead of organizational realities). As a result, it all came crashing down.

When it came time to make the layoffs, the Chairman and the President both were absent while the bad news was communicated. It was hard for employees to believe. And, upon their return to town, at the first gathering of the shell-shocked survivors, there was virtually no processing of the layoffs. The Chairman did not even have the courtesy to show up. It was a major trust-buster, and the survivors have lost much of their motivation.

When courageous leadership was required, there was none to be found.

But when there was good news to report, they were there to communicate it and celebrate it. Rightly so. But leaving the bad news and tough conversations to others left a major stain on the integrity of the leaders involved.

As you look to 2012, commit to give credit, share the leadership load and take responsibility for results – good or bad. That’s what great business leaders do. Your team will respect you for it and eagerly join you in moving the organization forward.

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