Learnings from Richard Branson's Leadership Style

I was intrigued by an article in the November 2008 issue of Entrepreneur magazine about Richard Branson and his views on business – and life. Certainly, no one could say that he isn’t a risk taker. In talking about cheating death in some of his personal stunts, he says “…just like in business, I have to stay completely focused. I haven’t got the time or the energy to spend getting scared.” His commitment to take on challenges, live life to its fullest, push himself to the limits, take action rather than merely talk about it, and not waste precious resources are all driven by his passion and vision to make a difference in this world.

Isn’t this a great testament to effective leadership that we can apply to our lives and our business? To not let anything stop us? I’m reminded of self-help author Susan Jeffers’ book entitled, Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway. It’s not that we don’t experience fear. It’s not that Branson isn’t scared at times. It’s what we do with that fear that matters. Do we push through it or allow it to hold us back? A certain amount of fear is what keeps us focused on our vision. That focus, commitment and determination is what has allowed Branson a “net worth valued at $5 billion.” That’s not so bad, eh?

Branson’s newest book, Business Stripped Bare, was just released in September.

Talented "do-whatever-it-takes" People: Amazing and priceless

This weekend, I had the honor of working an event in Orlando with a handful of really terrific people. And I'm amazed at the level of commitment and service these folks brought to this event. They are used to working with people like themselves, somewhat outside of the corporate and traditional business world. So I know that working 18- to 20-hour days non-stop is almost commonplace for them. I don't think they realize how unusual it is to work with people who will do what they do, with such a wonderful serving attitude and who will still smile and laugh and have fun no matter what goes wrong, no matter how many problems they solve, no matter how tired and physically and mentally exhausted they become.

People like that inspire me to be at my best. To not let my teammates down. To do whatever it takes to create a fabulous experience for the participants. To do special things for other people. To not let anyone pass me by without offering them a smile. To help others be their best.

I think we learn a lot about ourselves in those moments or challenging times in our lives that we are pushed to our limits. Somehow we can handle more than we could before, fewer things seem to bother us, and we get more accomplished in less time because our boundaries have been expanded, our tolerances have been extended, and our physical and emotional selves begin to become immune to sickness, pain and stress.

Clearly not everyone would choose to put themselves through such a test. And certainly not many people would do it repeatedly. But for those who do, something happens to them over time. As the good book says, iron sharpeneth iron. As we become stronger ourselves, we help others to become stronger. We understand more fully to lean on a power that's greater than our own. To have faith that everything will turn out just fine. And for that reason, I suppose it's not a bad gig. You know, to work with such talent. I figure that in a few months time, I'll take my own self to a new level. To a place I've not been previously.

I'm a different person than I was last Thursday when I left to work with these folks. And I'll reach another new level when I work with them again in a few weeks. They tapped into their greatness and helped me to tap mine. And there's no better way to learn than to do. I admire them, honor them and will be forever grateful that I was a part of their team.

To the 6 event team members and all the event volunteers, I say "thank you." You truly rock.

Ryder Cup Leadership: Azinger's strategy worked

I've been stewing for a few weeks on the leadership efforts displayed by that of the U.S. Ryder Cup captain, Paul Azinger, admiring both his dedication and courage to set up the underdog team for a win.

For two years, he worked diligently on both the strategy and setting the vision. The strategy included getting what he felt was an antiquated selection process fixed so that the players who were playing their best going into the Ryder Cup actually got to play. In addition, he was able to negotiate 4 captain's picks instead of just 2. That helped him to feel like he could implement a truly winning lineup because, at the end of the day, a win can only be achieved if the guys were playing well leading up to the event.

He also set up a vision which, interestingly, wasn't so much about winning at all. He wanted simply to utilize the Ryder Cup as an opportunity for as many people as possible to have an experience they would never forget, win or lose. He even made sure he had 3 co-captains, people he knew he could trust and people who had had his back in the past when he needed them. Faldo said he didn't want more than one, that he himself wanted to maintain a pulse on the tournament. But you have to admire Azinger for realizing that having a small core team around him would not only give those guys the experience of a lifetime, a small thank you for their previous service to him, but would also help to relieve the intense pressure and tension that an event of that magnitude ensues.

Whether you're an avid golfer or have tooled around a bit or even have never picked up a club in your life, Azinger certainly shows us some leadership lessons that we can apply to our business, our clients' businesses and our life.

1. Make a thorough evaluation of the current situation, what has worked and what hasn't. Azinger met with all the past U.S. Ryder Cup captains to get their input, but in the end he made his own analysis and conclusions.

2. Push for change. If your analysis reveals to you that the process needs to be improved then, by all means, do what you have to do to make those changes happen. Azinger had to stand up for what he believed in, he made specific recommendations on what needed to be changed to improve the selection process, and got agreement by the golfing gods. No small feat.

3. Set a vision that people can embrace. And champion the cause. Companies often fail maintaining a vision because either their vision is only about making money or they forget to rally their people around the common bond. Azinger did a great job of creating a vision that was about creating the experience of a lifetime and he grounded his vision in plans that supported it, even with a PEP rally, t-shirts printed with the "13th man,"-- a phrase he coined for the Kentucky crowd, and making sure the details supported his vision. I believe a vision like this took pressure off the team because they knew that if they had a great experience they were winners to matter the final outcome.

4. Let the team members be themselves. What I liked about Azinger's style was that he seemed to allow each team member to flourish in their own space. Professional golfers certainly are akin to this more individual sport so allowing their strong personalities, their playing preferences and their individual strengths to shine through was key to the success of the overall team.

5. Allow what's going to happen, happen. Game day is not the time to micro-manage. Azinger had a lot of trust in his team and his co-captains, he believed in the strategy and vision that he cast, and when it came for the guys to tee it up, he had to "let go and let God" so-to-speak. He had to let it ride. This is probably the most difficult thing for a leader to do -- to gently stand back. To coach and not direct. To reassure and not be disappointed when things don't go your way. To continually motivate and pump up both the players and the crowd or audience.

6. Celebrate with your team and extended team. I fully believe that Azinger planned to celebrate fully even if they lost. Because his vision of creating a highly memorable experience would have been fulfilled. And the team would not have walked away with heavy heads in defeat. The fact that they could celebrate with such a patriotic win just made the end sweet -- a win that they could share with their family, friends and the rest of the nation especially at a time that the nation -- and the world for that matter -- is in economic turmoil.

There has never been a time in recent history in which influential leadership is as important as it is right now. Whether you're running a department, a division, a company or a nation, it is imperative to be an effective leader who can cast the right vision, who can implement strategy and change for the better, and who can encourage greatness in the people he or she leads.

Your next lecture. Take a stand.

I'm still being inspired by Randy Pausch's last lecture, the meaning behind his life lessons and what he accomplished by sharing his beliefs with the world (well, he might not have known it would be with the world but YouTube had a different idea).

And certainly the political season is in full force and, no matter your views, we know that it is time for both candidates to take a stand on their beliefs and communicate their strategies and action plans for fixing our economy and keeping us safe. As we hear speeches and listen to beliefs, plans and opinions, we can be influenced to shape our own thoughts in order to vote for the candidate that we feel will be best to lead this great nation.

Whether it's Randy Pausch or a politician, taking a stand for kids or country is vitally important. Mission critical, in fact. There are many professors like Randy Pausch and hockey moms like Sarah Palin and singers like Paul Potts in the world. People who are doing great things but for most of their life hide behind running their day-to-day lives, when the world needs to hear what they have to say. The world needs to hear their voice. To positively impact the lives of others. To inspire a cause. To challenge the status quo. To entertain. To move people at a cellular level.

So if tomorrow you were given a stage and you had a chance to give a speech the whole world may hear, what would you say? What lessons would you like to teach? What talents or experiences would you like to share? In what way would you like to influence others? What legacy would you like to begin creating and leaving for your family?

Each of us already have a stage and we probably don't even realize it. That stage starts in the form of a blog. An ebook. A book. A conversation at the coffee shop. A talk in front of a small group.

Harv Eker once said, "if you've learned something and you don't teach it, you're ripping people off." You know, that couldn't be further from the truth. Some people say they're afraid to put themselves out there. Yes, it does require a decision -- a rather simple acceptance of being who you are.

So what if. What if you share and you don't get any feedback. Who cares? That doesn't mean a life didn't get changed for the better. Some people will never tell you. Or some will tell you years later. As many trainers have said, "if I only make a difference in one life, it will be worth it." And I agree. But what if you could make a difference in 100. Or 1000. Or 1 million. Or 10 million.

Randy Pausch just thought he was giving a lecture for his kids and a few people at CMU. He didn't know that the lecture he would give on September 18, 2007, would be seen by over 10 million people on YouTube. Nor did he know the material would be published so quickly into a book that would live on long past his life. In fact, I just gave a copy of the book to my nephew for his college graduation, with a note that said "may you achieve all your childhood dreams." That one bit of inspiration, or the many millions like it, wouldn't have been possible if Randy hadn't of made the decision to press on, even in the face of impending death, to spend some of his last days writing a speech and putting some slides together. He made a decision. He took a stand. He shared his beliefs.

And so did our country's founding fathers. Proof that we can't take anything for granted.

So what's your next lecture? What of your life will you share with others? And when will you share? Take a stand.

The maturation of Mandela: His 8 lessons of leadership

If you haven't yet read Time magazine's article on on Nelson Mandela, it's an impressive recap on Leadership from the man who's now 90 years young. I've listed 3 out of his 8 leadership lessons that I'm most passionate about -- you can read the article and choose your own.

Lesson #1: Courage is not the absence of fear -- it's inspiring others to move beyond it.

That is so true. Often we have to take some action ourselves in order to help others see that it's o.k. And sometimes it requires great faith in ourselves, our abilities, the unknown and a higher spiritual power. One of the best quotes of all time is from Gandhi, "We must be the change we wish to see in the world."

Lesson #3: Lead from the back -- and let others believe they are in front.

This is a critical leadership lesson. I've seen many leaders make the mistake of always thinking they should be in front instead of drawing out the greatness in others. And they can't even begin to see how and what it costs their companies in terms of creativity, innovation, engagement, speed, client relationships, (I could go on and on). It's like they forget that their role as a leader is to teach and inspire others to lead.

There are two books that I've devoured on this subject, because I felt the authors were humble in their writings, realizing the mistakes they had made and where they had achieved success within their organizations. The first is from Michael Abrashoff, "It's your ship" and the second from Belasco & Stayer, "Flight of the Buffalo." Both books are in my Amazon recommended read list.

Lesson #7: Quitting is leading too.

I don't think we hear this very often in leadership advice but it is good advice to heed. Mandela says, "Knowing how to abandon a failed idea, task or relationship is often the most difficult kind of decision a leader has to make." And I would add that knowing "when" to equally critical.

His 90th Birthday

Quoted from the end of the article... Ultimately, the key to understanding Mandela is those 27 years in prison. The man who walked onto Robben Island in 1964 was emotional, headstrong, easily stung. The man who emerged was balanced and disciplined. He is not and never has been introspective. I often asked him how the man who emerged from prison differed from the willful young man who had entered it. He hated this question. Finally, in exasperation one day, he said, "I came out mature." There is nothing so rare — or so valuable — as a mature man. Happy birthday, Madiba.

Nelson Mandela is proof that one person can make a difference. Let's never stop asking ourselves, each day and each present moment, how we can make a difference in the lives of others. Be inspired by one man's life.

Leadership that resonates, captures passion

Last week, a colleague gave me a brochure for the upcoming 10th annual Forbes Executive Women's Forum, Building Bridges. Quite a few great speakers on the line up, including Shelley Lazarus, whom I had the pleasure of hearing speak at the DMA last year.

But I enjoyed reading the agenda details for speaker Annie McKee, co-author of Resonant Leadership: Renewing yourself and connecting with others through mindfulness, hope and compassion. The blurb to describe her talk says "What distinguishes great leaders? Exceptional leaders capture passion. Through resonance, leaders become attuned to the needs and dreams of people they lead. They create conditions where people can excel and are able to sustain their effectiveness through renewal..."

There are some great insights to ponder here. Connecting through mindfulness. Capturing passion. Becoming attuned to needs and dreams (which reminds me of the book, The Dream Manager). Sustain effectiveness through renewal not just of others, but ourselves.

Sounds great conceptually. But in our day-to-day world, how often are we as leaders truly connecting with people? How many of us take a moment to find out what drives an individual team member? Or to make "renewal" a part of the team or company's culture? I believe it happens, sure. But most often we're so busy getting work out the door that we're not keenly attuned to people's needs.

There's a lesson here for all of us. That today, we can make an effort to genuinely connect with someone and build a bridge between who they are and the job we're asking them to do. That's how we capture passion and bring it to life. How we resonate with others. Agree?

Freedom in a little word called "choice."

“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom."
- Viktor E. Frankl

Words to live by, literally. If we could only learn to live this lesson -- that we have a choice in our responses to people or situations. We can choose to react or we can choose to respond, the latter often coming to us by delaying the response just a bit. Finding that space to collect our thoughts, take a breath, weigh our options, and choose the best response -- which may be a calm response or no response at all.

And then there's the implementation of the 5 minute rule. That when something is really getting to us that we either do something about it right then and there -- take care of the situation calmly of course -- or we choose to let it go so that it doesn't continue to eat at us, as that's unproductive. The 5 minute rule requires discipline -- and lots of it -- but a good practice nonetheless.

Viktor Frankl understood a bit about growth and freedom and hope -- all things we can choose to live for. He exhibited a higher level of consciousness, which he viewed as sort of an unconscious spirituality. Isn't that what it takes to have freedom in our lives? Our decision or choice to respond versus react to situations almost requires us to reach a bit deeper in our being, beyond the ego mind and into the spirit-filled heart. To think more about others and less of ourselves, even in just that split moment of "space" that Viktor refers to. To allow ourselves the freedom that is ours, if we choose.

Is all leadership appreciative leadership? You decide.

I'm reading and being inspired by Robert E. Quinn's book, "Building the bridge as you walk on it: A guide for leading change." Not a weekend read (too deep for that) as there are many thought-provoking leadership concepts to digest. One so far really stood out, and that is the concept of appreciative leadership, as quoted here.

"It could be argued that all leadership is appreciative leadership. It's the capacity to see the best in the world around us, in our colleagues, and in the groups we are trying to lead. It's the capacity to see the most creative and improbable opportunities in the marketplace. It's the capacity to see with an appreciative eye the true and the good, the better and the possible."
- David Copperrider (quoted in Creelman, 2001).

Inspiration is like oxygen to the soul.

Several years ago, I was with a group of managers and we were talking about leadership and our role as leaders. We talked about the word inspire, and I remember one fairly young manager saying "whoa, I never thought of myself as someone who inspires." He responded as if the word was sacred. But by the end of the session, he began to really grab hold and accept the idea, and walked away looking at his position in a brand new light.

He was right in thinking the word carried some sort of holiness to it. It was derived from the latin word "inspiratus," pp of inspirare which means to "inspire, inflame, blow in to," from "in-spirare" which means "to breath" or "to breath into". Websters says that "to inspire" means to influence, move or guide by divine or supernatural inspiration." So I like to think that "to inspire" or "in-spirit" means to breathe spirit into someone, to not only touch their soul but to awaken it, as if we were breathing oxygen into someone who needs it to sustain life, i.e. a method of divine CPR.

So you can see how critically important it is to inspire someone, to wake up in the morning with the thought of "who am I going to inspire today?" or better yet "how many people can I inspire today?" Inspiring someone isn't difficult -- a smile, an act of engagement or a few words of gratitude or encouragement is sometimes all it takes to bring greatness up and out of someone's inner being. Try it for 21 days (it takes 21 days to create a habit) and see how you can breathe life into others.

For those of you who are leaders in your organization, you have much bigger opportunities and perhaps a much bigger responsibility to inspire your employees. There are some very simple things you can do to inspire people such as take 6 people on your staff to lunch -- but take 6 people you've never had lunch with before. Invite them personally. Or call an impromptu "stand up" staff meeting for no other reason than to share with them how you personally were inspired by something or someone lately, and make the story relevant to your staff. Employees have a tendency to emulate the leadership, whether they consciously choose to or not. If you inspire them, they'll be more likely to inspire others.

Change or Die. Second chances are few and far between.

When I was about 18, I was driving my very first car -- an olive green '69 grand prix -- home late one Sunday night when I fell asleep at the wheel only to wake up finding myself going up a hill at 45mph in the oncoming traffic lane with the nose of a semi-truck right in front of me. Miraculously, he was able to swerve over toward the lane I should have been in and I stayed out of the ditch, missed a mailbox and came back only to clip my right front fender on his 18th wheel. He didn't stop. There was little damage to my car. So I went home to wake up my parents to let them know that I was alive.

A couple weeks ago my uncle, my last relative alive besides my two siblings, was feeling ill. It was a Sunday night after attending a car show so he went to the emergency room only to find that he was quickly on the road to a major heart attack due to 90% blockage -- so they stabalized him, sent him home to get his paperwork finalized and performed triple bypass surgery a couple of days later.

We both got second chances at life. But for my grandmother who died of bone cancer at 56, for my father who went out running one hot day and passed out and into a coma and died over a year later at 52, and for my mother who died recently of lymphoma brain cancer, they didn't. Nor did a friend's baby who died recently after only 8 months on this planet. "Life is short" takes on new meaning to anyone who's had a second chance -- or has been close enough to someone who didn't.

Change is difficult, whether it's quitting smoking as my uncle has had to do or simply changing our thinking to wake up out of our comfort zones. In business, organizational change is something we have to continually work at. And with this economy, and how the world will be changing in the next few years, we are forced to change more than ever.

The title of this post links to a Fast Company article written in May '05 - entitled "Change or Die" which offer some different perspectives that are still relevant today -- perhaps more so.

There's also a short ebook that you can buy from Amazon.com that is a summary of Robert Quinn's books on deep change. It's titled "Deep Change or Slow Death" and has some interesting thoughts on this subject as well.

All of us are faced with changes we have to make in our lives or our businesses in order to survive. Change is hard, yes. But we really don't have a choice. Embracing change is the best thing we can do as we may not get that second chance. Leading change by being the catalyst for it is the role that each of us must play with as much passion and emotion as we can muster in order to change behaviors, thoughts and patterns. Each of us has to be committed to creating changes in both our lives and our organizations because if we're not changing, we're dying. There's really no in-between. It's just a matter of time.

I almost got hit by a Mac truck; don't let it happen to you. It's time to wake up. Today.

Note: I wrote this one week before Randy Pausch passed away. Please be inspired by Randy's strength, character and truth as depicted in "The Last Lecture" book or video -- or by his Time Management lecture. There is never a time when we shouldn't be doing something meaningful with our lives.

Leadership is influence.

John Maxwell's view of leadership is so simple. He boils it all down to the fact that leadership is nothing more than influence. And if you can simply influence people in positive ways, they'll discover through their own abilities that they can accomplish more in both their personal lives and in business. And when each member of the team changes individually, the whole team changes collectively. The flywheel starts turning, as Jim Collins says. One person's move in a positive direction can influence many others around him or her. As Gandhi says, "we must be the change we wish to see in the world." How will you positively impact someone's life today?