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Leadership with a Soul
Stephen Seavecki sseavecki_at_hotmail.com


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State of Leadership

• With the issues around the dot com meltdown and
  failures of Worldcom and Enron, it becomes harder
  and harder to rally the troupes and secure
  emotional employee commitment
• Why should employees put forth the extra effort?
  For a paycheck? Will that allow you to beat the
  competition?
• What attributes will be necessary for successful
  leadership in the 21st century?
• Are attributes really any different than the
  leadership in the last century?

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The Road to Successful Leadership
Leadership

• Successful leadership is all about building trust
• Trust is earned through displays of integrity
• Integrity is built by knowing ones self and
  having the courage and discipline to stick with
  your core values.

Communication
Trust
Interaction
Integrity
Discipline
Core Values
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A Personal Journey

• Success a an individual contributor. How to be
  successful and happy as a team
• Why am I here? What is the calling?
• What legacy do I want to leaave for my community,
  family, work?
• How much more improving can I do with technical
  skills versus transformational behavior?
• How is my life evaluated and what happens next?

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A Personal Journey

• How do I take concepts from Metaphysics, Chaos
  Theory, Quantum Physics and apply them to the
  business world for the greatest impact My answer
  is to lead people in the most effective way.
• How do you define effective leadership?
• How should it be measured? Does Microsoft have
  effective leaders? Does the Microsoft technique
  work outside Microsoft?

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1. Challenges

• Are you met with sarcasm, pessimism and fear? Q
  How can you change this?
• Work for someone who is intimidated by your
  skills and approach? Q How can you be your type
  of leader in this situation?
• How many unwritten rules and sacred cows do
  employees and yourself follow or adhere to?

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1. Challenges

• Can you create change without causing disruption
  to someone? Why do we think this should be easy,
  without confusion and frustration?
• Is it the lack of defining the purpose behind
  the change that causes the biggest negative
  reaction?
• Can you learn to enjoy the journey and not what
  for the end to celebrate and feel satisfied
• How many of you enjoy the journey?

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1. Challenges

• What has been your biggest leadership challenge?
• How do you get employees to really care about
  doing the right thing for the company, rather
  than for themselves?
• How do you blend up or out or churn and burn
  with building trust?

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2. Leadership is About Your Soul

• I believe the only demons worth taming are the
  ones inside ourselves Ghandi
• If your current calling is a garbage man, be the
  best damn garbage man you can be.
• Martin Luther King
• In the end, it is not about our talent,
  techniques or knowledge that matters in being a
  great leader, it is about the person and the soul

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2. What are you After?

• What is the point of being where you are today?
  Money, fame, status, provider, educator, friend,
  mentor? Do you know?
• Leadership is about creating a unique standard.
  What kind of unique standard are you creating?
• How often do you lower your standards to fit in
  with co-workers or bosses?

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2. Risk

• What is the last really significant risk you have
  taken? How can one be satisfied/fulfilled without
  succeeding at something very risky?
• What risky (way out of your comfort zone) thing
  have you done in your job search?
• How much does the preoccupation with emotional
  and financial security have on your behavior and
  decision making regarding taking risks?

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2. Core Values and Integrity

• Leadership is not about fitting in. Being
  different is what makes leaders stand out. How
  often do you try to fit in with the corporate
  culture versus sticking to an different/
  unpopular viewpoint/style?
• How often are you hypocritical in saying one
  thing and doing another?
• Are you and your employees doing 100 meaningful
  tasks? Do employees really know the purpose
  behind completing these tasks?

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2. Core Values and Integrity

• Does anger, bitterness, self- righteousness,
  being egotistical, pessimistic and sarcastic lead
  to increased productivity, success, satisfaction?
  If not, what does?
• Do you or your employees feel like a victim? Like
  someone else is responsible for your situation?
• How can this victim mentality be changed by a
  leader?

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2. Core Values and Integrity

• How many of you have the same vocal tone,
  patience, open-to-sharing approach at work as at
  home? Do we treat our co-workers and employees
  better or worse than we treat our family?
• How many of you feel that your creativity,
  caring, enthusiasm and idealism has disappeared
  over the years? Increased?

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2. Satisfaction

• We need to forget about what we know and
  discover who we are and what we need to become a
  satisfied employee and/or leader
• How many of you are working from a point of sheer
  discipline versus passion and positive motivation?

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3. Interaction with Others

• When is the last time you were humble enough and
  patient enough to allow another employee to teach
  you something?
• How can you and your employees positively engage
  and complete work that is less interesting, less
  fulfilling, less challenging and less satisfying?
• How much do you know about your direct reports,
  bosss or co-workers family, hobbies, dreams,
  passions?

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Expectations

• Leadership boils down to influencing and changing
  the behavior of others
• Employees have high expectations of leaders.
  However, do they hold themselves accountable for
  delivering on expectations others have of them?
• How can you get them to appreciate that they face
  the same expectations from their staff or
  co-workers

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Why Dont Employees Care?

• Souls of workers are sensitive to the toxic
  fumes of purposeless work When work becomes
  devoid of meaning commitment and focus
  disappear.
• Successful companies keep a specific purpose in
  front of their teams at all times, regardless of
  overall importance
• One philosophy is to keep employees so busy that
  they dont have time to worry about what is wrong
  with the company strategy, etc.

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Bottom Line Its about You

• Once you have the employees, co-workers, bosss
  trust, you have their hearts, minds and energy
• Find and communicate the purpose in your work and
  the work of your employees
• Enjoy the journey because it never really ends
• Get to REALLY know your co-workers, employees and
  boss. Building trust is the only path to
  commitment, passion and focus

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Reference Material

• Awakening the Corporate Soul Klein and Izzo
• Topgrading Bradford Smart
• The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success Deepak
  Chopra
• The Purpose of Your Life Carol Adrienne
• Principle Centered Leadership Stephen Covey
• Going Deep - Percy

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The Question is What Role Will You Play in
Leadership?