Gutsy Leadership
Lynne Becker
What’s a Gutsy Person?
„ Or
put another way – what’s not?
„ Do you follow the rules...mind your own
business...try to do everything...want
everyone to like you...avoid taking risks?
A History of Gutsy People
Women
M
O
R
E
W
O
M
E
N
In a 1966 picture named "Girls With Guns," the first generation of women police officers stand in a row at the
shooting range in skirts, heels and bobbed hair, all holding revolvers. (Copyright Los Angeles Police
Dept./Courtesy Fototeka)
Michael Bloomberg
Andrew Carnegie
John M. Templeton
Men
George Eastman
Michael Jordan
People and Leadership:
The Old School
„ We
have to get into the game to change
the rules
„ Use a deeper voice
„ Control your body language
„ Don’t be emotional
„ Ask questions only when necessary and
safe
„ Expect less praise
People and Leadership:
The Gutsy School
Ten Ways to Own your Power
Know Thyself
Taking a Questionnaire to Measure
the Strength of Your Organization
These next twelve questions are the
simplest and most accurate way to
measure the strength of a workplace.
Source: The Measuring Stick, First, Break all
the Rules – Marcus Buckingham and Curt
Coffman
Questionnaire
1. Do I know what is expected of me at work?
2. Do I have the materials and equipment I need
to do my work right?
3. At work, do I have the opportunity to do what I
do best every day?
4. In the last seven days, have I received
recognition or praise for doing good work?
5. Does my supervisor, or someone at work, seem
to care about me as a person?
Questionnaire cont.
6. Is there someone at work who
encourages my development?
7. At work, do my opinions seem to count?
8. Does the mission/purpose of my
organization make me feel my job is
important?
9. Are my co-workers committed to doing
quality work?
Questionnaire cont.
10. Do I have a best friend at work?
11. In the last six months, has someone at
work talked to me about my progress?
12. This last year, have I had opportunities
at work to learn and grow?
Celebrating the Past
„ Knowing
ourselves and where we come
from
Our stock
Our experience
Our influence
Bringing some of the past with us
Forgiving so we have energy for today
Celebrating the Past cont.
Our bridge to the future
Where we are going – the power of
intention
What’s really important
A liberating way to direct our own lives
Intention
“ the heart space that guides
everything we undertake”
Sharon Salzberg
Seven Ages of the Leader
Each stage of leadership brings new crises
and challenges. They’re wrenching – but
knowing what to expect can help you get
through them.
Warren G. Bennis, University of Southern
California
Seven Ages of the Leader
The Infant Executive
The Schoolchild with Shining Face
The Partner with Woeful Ballad
The Good Trooper
The Tribal Head, Full of Wise Sayings
The Statesperson with Spectacles on Nose
The Sage, Second Childishness
The Infant Executive
Every new leader faces the misgivings,
misperceptions, and the personal needs and
agendas of those who are to be led. To
underestimate the importance of your first
moves is to invite disaster.
The best mentors are usually recruited, and one
mark of a future leader is the ability to identify,
woo, and win the mentors who will change your
life.
The Schoolchild with Shining Face
Major changes in the first six months
will inevitably be perceived as
arbitrary, autocratic, and unfair, as
much for their timing as for their
content.
Our first challenge is to try not to take
your new followers’ assessments too
personally, even if they are accurate.
The Partner with Woeful Ballad
Sighing is something many leaders find
themselves doing as they struggle
with the tsunami of problems every
organization presents.
For the leader who has come up through
the ranks, one of the toughest is how
to relate to former peers who now
report to you.
The Good Trooper
Over time, leaders grow comfortable with
the role. This comfort brings confidence
and conviction, but it also can snap the
connection between leader and
followers.
The second challenge is to nurture those
people whose stars may shine as brightly as the
leader’s own.
The Tribal Head, Full of Wise Sayings
One of the greatest challenges a leader faces
at the height of their career is not simply
allowing people to speak the truth but
actually being able to hear it.
Leaders further along in their career are
frequently brought in with a specific
mandate to bring about change and
hesitation can be disastrous.
Building alliances and coalitions are critical.
The Statesperson with
Spectacles on Nose
The years in which a leader’s power begins to
wane, but hard at work preparing to pass on
wisdom in the interest of the organization.
The leader may also be called on to play
important interim roles, bolstered by the
knowledge and perception that come with age
and experience and without the sometimes
distracting ambition that characterizes early
career.
The Sage, Second Childishness
Mentoring has tremendous value to a leader. The
value accrues to the mentor as well.
The ruling quality of leaders, adaptive capacity,
is what allows true leaders to make the nimble
decisions that bring success. Adaptive capacity
is also what allows some people to transcend
the setbacks and losses that come with age
and to reinvent themselves again and again.
Great leaders are capable,
visionary, and inspiring. That
doesn’t mean they’re rationale.
Manfred F.R. Kets de Vries, Insead, France
Brag!
Best Practices
Blow the doors off business as usual
Brand your operation
Create a sense of ownership
Hire people who don’t suck
Lead with love
Make business heroic
Inspire Fun
Have guts
Go first
„ Show
initiative
„ Boys raise their hands first
„ Fierce Conversations
Take the GUTS! CHALLENGE
Have you ever done something incredibly
gutsy at work? Have you ever been willing
to risk it all and created extraordinary
results in the process?
If not, now is the time.
Go and do something gutsy at your
company on your own or with your team.
Be unconventional. Create a movement.
Be an imposter
What the Great Managers Said
What did great managers say to the three
questions asked by the Gallup Poll?
As a manager, which would you rather
have: an independent, aggressive person
who produced $1.2 million in sales or a
congenial team player who produced
about half as much?
Great Managers cont.
You have an extremely productive employee
who consistently fouls up the paperwork.
How would you work with this person to
help him/her be more productive?
Great Managers cont.
You have two managers. One has the best
talent for management you have ever
seen. The other is mediocre. There are
two openings available: the first is a highperforming territory, the second is a
territory that is struggling. Neither
territory has yet reached its potential.
Where would you recommend the
excellent manager be placed?
Engaging the Future
Do backgrounds of successful leaders have
anything in common?
Managers and Leaders, Are They Different?
Take smart risks
Six Ways to Counter Wayward
Influences
One simple test of whether we’re getting
the feedback we need is to count how
many employees challenge us at our next
staff meeting.
Keep vision and values front and center
Make sure people disagree
Cultivate truth tellers
Do as we would have done to us
Honor our intuition
Delegate, don’t desert
Be too big for your
britches
Closing the Leadership Gap
Why Each of Us Matters
Barriers to Leadership
Authority
Ambition
Ability
Authenticity
Culture
The Business of Transformation
Read minds
Marketing Ourselves
The Law of Focus
The Law of Leadership
The Law of Perception
The Law of Perspective
The Law of Candor
The Law of Unpredictability
The Law of Success
The Law of Failure
Wear your heart on your
sleeve
Get a mentor…or coach
or cheerleader or
advocate
Network
Thank You!
Lynne Becker