Paying Attention To Your Level of Impact

I think you're spot on with this, Donna. This is something that is rarely, if ever, discussed or thought about. It is important to keep this in the front of your mind because it is easy to forget.

Thanks Kasey I think we have to think on multiple levels when we lead any organization. Some of those areas are "What am I not seeing?" "What is my level of impact?" "Is the organizational vision understood by all and do I have buy in? If not, what do I have to do to engage, inspire and motivate those around me?" There are many others but this one seems to be the one that IS often forgotten. Reality check -- abetterperspective.com executive and political leadership coaching

You are so on target... corporate communications runs deep. When a company is in transition, especially, the "silence" creates opportunities for gossip, water cooler talk and, frankly, misinformation. It's incredilbly important for managers and rest of the organization to know what and how to communicate with everyone.

Donna, I find what you are saying here spot on. People do indeed fill in the blanks and I have seen leaders who think that they are David Copperfield and that a bit of message management will magically make issues disappear under the carpet. In a world where people can communicate things readily, leaders are surprised when curiosity itself seeks people to whisper and examine about what it is that is under the carpet. It is as if the school of leadership for the kind of Machiavellian-type leader you describe here attended, taught them to look at life from only the head upwards. My own personal issues with personal branding amount to personal branding so often becoming the stop gap against emotional viruses and perceived stories rather than what it should be which is to support authentic needs of ones clients, in other words, just like the "wholeless" leader, personal brand can turn into an illusion from this box of pseudo-leadership magic tricks. Leaders are in a position where deep and effective listening should be the chief glue of organizational communication but here I think that beyond inculcating patience, there is also a need to bring the learner into what I would call a learner-leader loop. Such a loop is the intelligence that I find mostly missing in leadership includes ethics also. Ethics in this learner-leader loop should be come from a forgiveness perspective rather than condemnation, for it is obvious at least to me that learners do not learn well or effectively in any fear based environment and that when leaders become self-righteous, we engage "what's right" rather than as Margaret Wheatley suggests we do, which is to explore "what works". Leaders need need good judgment but they also need to recognize compassionate ethics. Personally my interest in reading your views isn't about organizational leadership but simply questions about my own attitude to thought leadership. In the learner-leader loop I don't want to be a thought leader, I want to be thoughtful and I want consequently learn from my own mistakes, I really don't want to infect others with my musings or ideas - and a learner-leader loop creates space for that to occur, or at least a space for creating such an awareness. Such humility may be missing in organizational leadership today because there is an general impression that such people like me are fools on the hill. In such a case it is either exalt someone or fault someone because we are mostly time driven or time boxed rather than explorers of our own given reality. Intelligence therefore for me is more than just how leadership appears from an intellectual perspective but operates from body as well as mind. I also recognize that what you are writing about here is reality based, based on human nature and what I am commenting upon is more an idealism, but that is the beauty of idealism. The impact of idealism IMHO is best left to breed and grow as an individual art and as a personal choice. The ideal world I would like to live in is when we all learn from our own mistakes, rather than simply "make no mistake", but you are on the mark in regards to your meaning of "make no mistake", for we are either insensitive or psychopathic in nature if we don't realize that people influenced by everything they perceive that there leaders do......M.

T-belle, one of the recommendations I make for all clients is to communicate concisely, in a timely way so there is no 'empty space' for others to fill with assumptions, expectations and rumor. That way they are in the loop and the generative dialogue that results from communicating effectively evolves everyone in some way. Simple but often forgotten. Best! Donna -- abetterperspective.com executive and political leadership coaching

Manjit, thank you for your perspective on this. As a Shadow Coach I work in the social, relational and environmental aspects of my clients worlds so they are coached from all perspectives in real time so we look at the truth of situations as they unfold, not what is perceived and processed by them after the fact. It's very powerful for them as they see dynamics, interactions, speak to strengths and the best in an individual. A piece of that certainly is how they communicate. Once they stop speaking only from their own story and start conversing with others based on sharing of both their perspectives and, in turn, create something new between them, they rarely go back to how they were leading and working before. A great deal of this is just paying attention to what is beyond yourself. Best Donna -- abetterperspective.com executive and political leadership coaching