Is Leadership Really About “Style?”

There’s a lot of material out there about leadership “styles,” “personalities,” “strengths,” and a host of other things that are frankly off the mark – some of them way off the mark.  The notion is that if you look “inside” closely enough, if you understand more and more who you are and why you do what you do, you can become an effective leader.

There’s some truth in these materials that at times seem to dominate the market in leadership development.  These tools and instruments can have some value.  But not as a starting point.  If we begin here, we end up focusing too much on our personality.  We can too easily end up overfocusing on ourselves and on our “strengths” and flaws, as we’re led unwittingly to leadership narcissism.

Real, effective leadership is first about powerful principles and practices and second about personality and style.  There are things that work for leaders; we have to learn them no matter how hard it is for us personally, or we simply will not be good leaders.  And there are things that don’t work for leaders; we have to unlearn them no matter how hard it is for us personally, or we simply will be bad leaders.

We need to assess ourselves against the very best that leaders can be.  There really is a set of principles that works with actual human beings, teams, and organizations.  Once we know what these are, we can learn how to act on or adjust our personality and style to apply them in the most effective way.  There’s just no way to be a passionate, performance-oriented, ethical leader if we don’t know what that means, if we’re making it up as we go along based on the latest “hot” self-assessment tool.

NEW! High-Performance Ethics ONLINE COURSE!

We are proud to announce that our first comprehensive online interactive course is now available for instant access. This course teaches leaders how to achieve performance through the power of ethical behavior.

High-Performance Ethics includes groundbreaking principles of leadership taught by author and internationally acclaimed speaker James R. Lucas. This comprehensive 12 module course (approximately 9 hours of interactive learning) covers the 10 Timeless Principles for Next-Generation Leadership that Jim Lucas and Wes Cantrell (Former CEO of Lanier Business Systems) cover in the book, High-Performance Ethics.

To learn more or to order, click here: High-Performance Ethics Online Course

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Just what in the world are “ethics?”

If you see what most large businesses, C-level leaders, and politicians are talking and writing about, you would think that it means “avoiding breaking the law and going to jail.”

But that’s like saying, “being successful means that your business doesn’t go bankrupt.” It’s true in a sense, but it’s the lowest possible level of truth. There’s a lot more to being successful than just staying in business and out of foreclosure. Just as there’s a lot more to ethics than avoiding an indictment.

Here’s the problem, and it’s huge: We train people to be unethical every day.

What? Am I kidding? Not at all. Let’s look at a typical meeting with “the boss.” He or she asks at decision time, “Do you all agree with me on this?” Ten people are in the room, and ten heads are nodding up and down. But inside, five of those heads are nodding “No.” They are pretending to agree, without really agreeing. A few of them may even think the idea is nuts.

So what do we call this? Typical company behavior? Sadly, yes. But it’s a whole lot more. It’s building lying – yes, lying – into our everyday business interactions. Inadvertently, perhaps, we’re teaching people that not speaking the truth is good for their careers. So is it any surprise that the might fudge the truth in other areas, like who made this mistake or missed this opportunity?

At Luman, we believe that ethical organizations start at the everyday level. And if you start there as a leader, you probably won’t have to spend any time worrying about ethics at the grand-jury level. Our course Leading with High-Performance Ethics addresses 10 areas that , if you get them right, will produce an ethical powerhouse from the ground up.

And yes, lead to higher performance too. Why? Well, how can you reach top performance as an organization when most of your people aren’t even telling the truth?

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NEW! Leading Passionate Teams ONLINE COURSE!

We are proud to announce that our first of many online interactive courses is now available for instant access. This course, the first of five on the topic of Leading Passionate Teams, tackles the difficult area of leading teams that can deliver sustained results.

Leaders have a very difficult assignment: find a way to tap into the individual passions of team members and the collective passion of the team and to merge them all in a tightly focused direction. In this session, you’ll discover how to design, build, and lead passionate teams that deliver outstanding results by learning the 7 Keys to Effective Teams™.

The 7 Keys to Effective Teams include Vision, Intelligence, Cohesion, Tools, Openness, Results, and Sustainability. Courses include interactive exercises, video teaching by author James R. Lucas, and unique material that will help you design, build, and lead passionate teams!

To learn more or to order, click here: Leading Passionate Teams Online Course

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NEW! Maintaining Passion in Tough Times Presentation

Delivered by James R. Lucas, this streaming presentation delves into how you can Maintain Passion in Tough Times.

To read more and to order, click here: Maintaining Passion in Tough Times. The DVD video version will be available soon!

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