Leadership & Communication

Leadership & Communication

By Anubha Walia International Trainer & Facilitator

www.prism-global.org

Total Leadership Principles Developed by Friedman in Ford

• B e r e a l . A c t w i t h authenticity.

• B e w h o l e . A c t w i t h integrity by recognising how the different parts of life affect one another.

• Be innovative. Experiment with different ways of getting things done.

Total Leadership Principles Thomas J. Tierney - The Bridgespan Group

• *Be real: Envision your legacy. Tierney keeps himself on track to achieving his legacy by journaling every day and conducting "annual reviews" of himself.

• *Be whole: Weave disparate strands. Tierney weaves the different parts of his life together into a coherent whole by aligning his actions to his core value of producing social good.

• *Be innovative: See new ways of doing things. Tierney does not allow routines to dictate his life, but instead questions his old habits and experiments with solutions. His belief that people make their own paths in life has helped foster his ability to take uninhibited, innovative action.

Total Leadership Principles Sheryl Sandberg Facebook COO

• *Be real:  Convey values with stories. Sandberg forges a connection with others by sharing personal anecdotes, which inspire others to act in accordance with their own values as they pursue their dreams. This in turn benefits Sandberg's personal mission of closing the gender gap.

• *Be whole: Build supportive networks. By creating the Women of Silicon Valley group, Sandberg has built a reputation as someone who connects people to others.

• *Be innovative: Resolve conflicts among domains. Instead of sacrificing certain parts of her life for others, Sandberg finds creative win-win solutions that meet multiple goals simultaneously.

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Total Leadership Principles Eric Greitens Boxer

• *Be real: Hold yourself accountable. Greitens holds himself accountable by identifying what needs to be done and then following through with action. When he saw veterans in need of opportunities, he found a way to help them with TMC.

• *Be whole: Apply all your resources. To meet his goals, Greitens creatively applies skills from certain domains of his life to other areas. For example, he transferred the psychological tools of boxing into military combat and his humanitarian experience into helping veterans.

• *Be innovative: Focus on results. From surviving Hell Week in the SEALs to launching TMC, Greitens focused on his goals; he is flexible, creative, and practical in the way he achieves them.

Total Leadership Principles Michelle Obama First Lady

• *Be real: Align actions with values. Obama spends her time and energy on issues that personally matter to her. This gives her focus and perseverance.

• *Be whole: Manage boundaries intelligently. By creatively and flexibly merging and separating the different domains of her life as necessary, Obama is able to alternate between her roles as First Lady and mother to pursue her goals more effectively.

• *Be innovative: Embrace change courageously. Obama not only embraces change, but sees it as an opportunity for personal growth.

Total Leadership Principles Julie Foudy Women soccer captain

• *Being real: Know what matters. Foudy has always been able to clearly identify the parts of her life that deserve her attention, energy, and time.

• *Be whole: Help others. Foudy's relationships are built to be mutually enriching. By providing resources to and contacts with other people, she is able to give her own life more purpose while fostering widespread support for the causes she is passionate about.

• *Be innovative: Challenge the status quo. Foudy's willingness to question traditional assumptions and take risks has enabled her to tackle challenges like gender inequality in sports.

Total Leadership Principles Bruce Springsteen Musician

• *Be real: Embody values consistently. By steadfastly staying true to his belief that music can l i f t the human spir i t , Springsteen has developed a community of millions of loyal fans that think of him as a friend.

• *Be whole: Clar i fy expectat ions . Springsteen is able to make the music he wants by clearly expressing his goals to his collaborators while simultaneously receiving their constructive feedback, asking them clarifying questions, and working to resolve disagreements.

• *Be innovative: Create cultures of innovation. Springsteen inspires others to take creative action by always working toward better ways to express his ideas and art.

Being Real: Acting with Authenticity• The first Total Leadership principle requires leaders to act with authenticity by clarifying

what is important to them and then aligning all of their actions with those values. The following skills can enable leaders to act with authenticity:

• *Know what matters. Exercises to help leaders identify important issues include imaging a future self and the roles it comprises, and generating ideas for creating more overlap between the four domains of their lives.

• *Embody values consistently. Leaders can spark conversations with colleagues and family members about how they are perceived, and thus identify and correct any deviations in their behaviors where they stray from their values. Engaging in routine actions consistent with their values will also help leaders to create new, positive habits.

• *Align actions with values. By reflecting on the meaning of mundane tasks, leaders can appreciate how those tasks are evidence of them living their values. Leaders should also have friends ask them questions that reframe their thoughts to focus on the benefits of their actions.

• *Convey values with stories. Leaders should describe three to four episodes in their lives that taught them about their values, their personas, and how they have overcome adversity. To improve their storytelling skills, they can review their recent social media posts to determine if there are any themes that stand out.

• *Envision one's legacy. Leaders must write out their desired future lives and legacies in detail in order to plan better and see the significance of everyday actions. When facing decisions with two options, they must select the one that will bring them closer to the lives they envision.

• *Hold oneself accountable. Leaders can hold themselves accountable to achieving an important goal by finding a "buddy" with a similar goal to whom they can regularly check in with. Also, every so often they should take 30 minutes to clear their minds and reflect on their actions.

Being Whole: Acting with Integrity• The second Total Leadership principle requires leaders to act with integrity or wholeness by

respecting the number of different, important roles they play yet striving to achieve a feeling of wholeness. The following skills can enable leaders to replace the chaos of their lives with coherence:

• *Clarify expectations. Leaders can role-play meaningful conversations with the important people in their lives to practice listening, while expressing their own needs. Also, a leader should identify a relationship that needs strengthening and build a better connection by choosing to be attentive, communicating a desire to help, or creating positive images of the future.

• *Help others. To contribute to others, leaders must identify personal goals that either directly or indirectly benefit others, determine how their efforts might help those others, and commit to providing that help. To establish cycles of compassion and mutual support, leaders can perform one act of kindness each day.

• *Build supportive networks. To strengthen valuable social bonds, leaders must select three to five important people in each domain of their lives, then identify actions that could provide these people with some kind of help, thereby strengthening social bonds.

• *Apply all your resources. Leaders should pinpoint a skill or talent they developed in one domain of their lives and then determine ways it could be used to improve other domains. Because leaders gain more resources when they help others, they should identify three people in their lives who are untapped resources, then draft a plan for enlisting their help on something both meaningful and mutually beneficial.

• *Manage boundaries intelligently. To learn how to set up boundaries, leaders must select a regular activity and do it for one day while multitasking, and for another day with no distractions, and compare the effectiveness of each approach. To merge different parts of their lives, leaders must identify positive opportunities to blend domains, like inviting colleagues to their neighborhood block parties.

• *Weave disparate strands. By sharing hidden talents or aspects of their personalities with others, leaders can gain trust and strengthen their social bonds. They should also think about the different roles they play in their lives, and then consider how the behaviors of one role could benefit other roles. Similarly, they must look for ways the accomplishment of one goal could benefit all domains.

Being Innovative: Acting with Creativity• Innovative leaders continually experiment with new ways to get things done and to accomplish four-way wins. The

following skills can enhance leaders' abilities to be innovative: • *Focus on results. To think more innovatively, leaders can identify one goal, succinctly describe the desired outcome,

and identify three alternative courses of action that would achieve the same result. Additionally, leaders must write down the metrics that they will use to measure their progress in achieving that one goal, which can be consistently reviewed and adjusted.

• *Resolve conflicts among domains. Leaders should develop ideas that could benefit multiple domains, like starting a book club with work colleagues or taking yoga classes with family. When leaders engage in healthy behaviors that benefit their minds, bodies, and spirits, they enhance their efficiency in all domains simultaneously.

• *Challenge the status quo. Leaders should write down ideas for new ways of getting things done, choose one idea, and then consider the assumptions they will have to challenge in order to implement that idea. Leaders can learn to think critically and test their assumptions by identifying an issue and asking a group affected by the issue to generate ideas for potential solutions. They must choose the best solution and draft a simple plan of action.

• *See new ways of doing things. Leaders can enlist the help of their most creative friends to bring about change by describing a problem and then asking for potential solutions--which should then be drafted into a plan of action. Leaders may also wish to create a mind map, in which they draw a word or image that represents a goal and then brainstorm branches of related ideas. Once they have all the important elements of the goal laid out, they can then consider how each can be used.

• *Embrace change courageously. Leaders should think of an upcoming change that they are worried about, envision both the worst- and best-case scenarios, and draft a simple plan for the next action step for the most likely outcome, which is typically somewhere between those scenarios. In order to embark on a new path, leaders should discern realistic concerns from unrealistic ones, and then engage in activities that will help them tackle the fear and anxiety that prevents them from moving forward.

• *Create cultures of innovation. Leaders can gain a beneficial outside perspective by getting a relevant group together to discuss a goal in positive terms and share related success stories, then write a simple, inspiring purpose statement. It is also important for leaders to teach their skills to others. When leaders take opportunities to practice sharing their knowledge and skills with others, they cultivate positive learning environments.

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