The Hands, Legs and Stomach of a Leader

No body part works alone. Each body part can be an instructive filter for us as we examine our own leadership strengths and weaknesses. This is the fifth part of a five part series on the Body of Skills for Leaders. All of the skills addressed in the series are listed below. This article looks at the Hands, Legs and Stomach of a Leader.

Eyes:See the vision; see the future in the present

Ears: Listen carefully to what the needs are, and act

Nose: Sniff out opportunities, build relationships

Mouth: Your organizations voice, communication

Neck: Don't be a stiff neck, be flexible

Heart: Value driven mission

Shoulders: Bear the responsibility, coping

Brain:Thinking clearly, thinking strategically

Hands: Be a servant leader

Legs: Walk the talk, be congruent

Stomach: Guts, courage, risk taking

Hands

Are you a servant leader? At first, the term servant leader seems to be an oxymoron. After all, servants are at the bottom rung of the social ladder. But, take another look. Peter Block in his book Stewardship writes about the strength of service and stewardship as the power behind leadership. He describes stewardship as serving the organization and being accountable to our organizations without overly controlling or care taking. To over control or over care take are too extremes that both lead to weakness.

Ken Blanchard in his book The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey does a nice job of showing how over care taking weakens the organization. The monkey is the problem. When a staff person comes into your office with a problem or monkey, do you take the monkey, or show them how to care and feed the monkey for themselves? When you take the monkey, you rob the staff of the growth and learning opportunity of caring for and feeding their own monkey. Not only do they not grow from the experience of you solving their problems for them, but also, you have taught them that you are the only one who can handle problems. Soon, you are angry and frustrated because your office if full of everyone else's monkeys.

The result of over controlling is exactly the same. You unintentionally teach your staff to stop thinking through their own problems, and you rob yourself of the creative thoughts and ideas of others. Robert Greenleaf sums it up nicely in his book, Servant Leadership; "The first order of business is to build a group of people who, under the influence of the institution, grow taller and become healthier, stronger and more autonomous."

Consider these questions with your team:

1. Which words would our staff use to describe us: Caretaker, Controller or Servant Leader?

2. Do we do more teaching than telling? Do we do enough listening and showing?

3. What can you do to strengthen the staff's abilities to handle their own challenges?

Legs

Do you "Walk the Talk"? Leaders unwittingly teach by their own example. They set the standard for what is normal and acceptable for the team. If you are consistently late to meetings, you are teaching your staff that being late for meetings is normal and acceptable. Likewise, if you tolerate lateness, you are actually promoting lateness. What you permit, you promote.

Robert Cialdini, in his book Influence, describes "Social Proof" as the most powerful of all human influencers. It is so powerful, he says, it is power principle behind cults. The principle of Social Proof is that when we are surrounded by people who act or think differently than our own moral or value system, we can be influenced by that social reality, and behave differently than we would normally. If you were to walk by a building and see flames surging outside the windows, your first instinct would be to call 911 or if you are the heroic type, run into the building to see if someone needed rescuing. If, however, you drove by the exact same scene and there were 30 people walking by not giving the flames a single look or notice, you would begin to question your own eyes. You may presume that this scene is not what it appears. Perhaps someone else has called 911 already; maybe the fire fighters are burning this house down on purpose. In any event, you would more likely drive by, not call 911, and simply scratch your head in confusion.

How does this relate to the workplace? As a leader, you can set a healthy tone or an unhealthy tone. Discourage disrespectful behaviors like backstabbing, lateness, missed deadlines, and broken promises. Here are some behaviors that demonstrate respect of your staff: listening to them, being on time, giving them credit for great ideas, asking for their help and feedback, stretching them, helping them to succeed, being constructive and helpful in your feedback rather than critical, addressing tough issues directly and not embarrassing them in public. Hold yourself to the highest standards of behavior. The staff is watching.

Here are some questions that will help you assess your organizational legs:

1. Does the staff feel respected? On a scale of 1 - 10, 1 being not at all and 10 being very much so, ask the staff to rate how respected they feel by leadership. Ask them to share the behaviors of leadership that back up their rating.

2. What can you do to increase your rating?

3. What behavior changes can your leadership team commit to in order to improve the overall atmosphere and culture of your organization?

Stomach

Last, but certainly not least, leaders need guts. It takes true courage to take risks, confront negative behavior, and stay true to your values. To think, speak and act courageously requires a maturity of skill that very few leaders have truly mastered. Whenever we talk about courage, our minds are influenced by the T.V. and Movie images of heavily artilleried warlike super-humans. In his book The Empowered Manager, Peter Block writes about 'non-suicidal courageous acts'. The goal is to take reasonable risks, not commit suicide. Those are risk-taking behaviors that are related to facing harsh realities, admitting our own contribution to the problem, and being authentic in the face of disapproval. Courageous people are not socially or politically suicidal or homicidal. You don't need to be extreme to be brave.

How much risk is safe? Ask the question, what is the worst thing that could happen if I (or we) do or say this? If you can live with the scenario and it provides either learning or the possibility of opportunity, then it is a risk worth taking. If not, then it is probably politically, socially or organizationally unwise.

Courageous acts get easier with practice. Just like the 'Cowardly Lion' in The Wizard of Oz, when we act brave, it makes us braver. When I think of the bravest people I know, they all have strength of conviction and strength of action. Make sure that a pure motive is behind your 'non-suicidal act' of courage.

These questions will help you think more about the strength of your stomach:

1. Think of the most courageous people in your organization. What brave characteristics do they display?

2. When was the last time you did something courageous in the workforce? What did it feel like, how did it impact the organization?

3. What are some examples of acceptable risks that your organization could be willing to take? What are examples of risks that you would be willing to take to further your organizations mission? What risks would not be wise because they are more organizationally suicidal or homicidal in nature?

I hope that this series has been a helpful filter for you as you examine your strengths and weaknesses as a leader. If you didn't catch the rest of the articles, here is a brief overview of what they covered:

Part 1: The Eyes and Ears of a Leader
Part 2: The Nose and Mouth of a Leader
Part 3: The Neck and Heart of a Leader
Part 4: The Shoulders and Brain of a Leader
Part 5: The Hands, Legs and Stomach of a Leader