Brought to you by Jeff Thoren, DVM  

People are hungry for a new metaphor for leadership.  They’re tired of the old imagery of sports and war, beating up on the enemy, winning at all costs, and the idea that someone has to lose for there to be a winner.  Success at work and in life does not require domination or defeat of someone else.

According to the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra’s world-renowned conductor, Benjamin Zander, maybe the way to think is that we’re all in a symphony.  That means all the voices “sounding together.”  It’s not about winning, it’s about sounding together and making sure that every voice is heard.  Suddenly, leadership takes on a whole new meaning!

Here’s this month’s feature ...

Ben Zander on Leadership by Polly LaBarre

From -- Fast Company, Issue 20, December 1998

Highlights from the article:

• Consider the conductor of an orchestra.  Instead of taking a top-down, hierarchical approach, he must remember that he’s the only one that doesn’t make a sound.  The conductor’s power depends on his ability to make other people powerful.  His job is neither to dominate nor be dominated by the orchestra but to help all the musicians make beautiful music together.
    

• Leaders have the capacity to enroll others in a vision or an idea in a way that brings all of those people’s faculties into play -- like a conductor who enables the musicians in his orchestra to be the best performers they can be.  Indeed, every relationship is an opportunity for leadership, the art of awakening possibility in others.
    

• Leaders have to pay close attention to how people receive what they have to say.  Are the eyes of people around them shining?  Human beings in the presence of possibility react physically as well as emotionally.  If people’s eyes are not shining, leaders should ask themselves, “Who am I being that people around me are not enlivened?”
    

• People are inspired more and ultimately perform much better when they are given a possibility to live into instead of expectations to live up to.
    

• Too much of the business world uses a narrow definition of success.  We often aren’t content with what we have in front of us but are constantly thinking about what else we ought to be doing, and whether that is enough.  We’re caught in the “Success-Failure” game -- which means that we live with an ongoing sense of anxiety and fear.  There’s an alternative ... waking up in the morning and saying, “How am I going to contribute today?”   Playing the “Contribution” game doesn’t involve comparisons and wondering, “Am I loved for who I am or for just what I’ve accomplished?”  It involves changing our mindset, realizing that we are part of a team of human beings, and that we have a gift to share with others that will make a difference.
    

• Nothing leaders do is about them.  It’s all about the people whom they are leading.  All of us need to learn “Rule #6” ... “Don’t take yourself so d___ seriously!”

For the full text article, go to ...
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/20/zander.html

A Universe of Possibility

Ben and Rosamund Zander declare that a new role for leaders today is to transform the conversation from that of a downward spiral (“What’s wrong?”  “What needs fixing?”  “Whose fault is it?”) to one of radiating possibility (“What’s right?”  “What can we build on?”  “What can I learn?”).  But what does that look like?

Possibility is always about the space between what’s happening right now and what might be.  Possibility is about how to live life passionately and purposefully, how to become braver, more open to human connection, and more capable of expressing our deepest and most creative self.  It’s the difference between seeing the creative options inherent within every situation or feeling driven by circumstances beyond our control.  The questions that possibility thinking leads to are always -- “Given what’s happening, what’s next?  What can I create out of this?  What can I learn?”

Many of the circumstances that seem to challenge and block us in our daily lives may only appear to do so based on the framework of assumptions we carry with us.  Draw a different frame around the same set of circumstances and new possibilities surface.  Find the right framework and extraordinary accomplishment becomes an everyday experience. 

There are two basic mindsets from which we, as human beings, can operate.  We can assume that life is about simply surviving and struggling to get ahead in a world of limited resources.  Or we can embrace a mindset that allows for unlimited possibilities and abundant opportunity.  The former often results in defensiveness, inflexibility, despair, inactivity, and failure while the latter is associated with curiosity, learning, energy, inspiration, and success. 

The mindset we choose makes all the difference.  A mindset of abundance and possibilities is much more conducive to learning and people who are more frequently engaged in learning activities perform better as leaders.  The best leaders approach each new and unfamiliar experience with a willingness to learn and an appreciation of the importance of learning.

What mindset do you consistently choose?  Your choice will have a significant impact on your effectiveness as a leader and your ability to learn and change.

Next Month

What would happen if the best moments of your life (i.e. those times when you were in the state of “flow”) also happened regularly at work?  Thanks to a guy with an unpronounceable name, more and more businesses want to know about it.

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