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Creating Passionate Users

From Jason Fried:

“Hire curious people. Even if they don’t have the exact skill set you want, curious, passionate people can learn anything.”

 And from Jacques Hadamard:

” Logic merely sanctions the conquests of the intuition.”

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Don’t Rely Solely on the #’s

What’s Next: The Dashboard Dilemma – Data – Metrics

Einstein kept a sign in his office that read, “Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.”

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Readers are Leaders, Part 2
While having coffee this AM, I spotted a new survey/study (study by National Endowment of the Arts) announcement that claims that readers and consumers of the arts are better citizens. They are more involved, donate more time and money. They are more likely to volunteer. The study even correlates reading and an increase in physical exercise and outdoor activities.Crazy? A simple case of correlation, not causation? It would be easy to argue that people with time to read make more money and that people with more money can afford gyms and are politically active too…but I think there is actually a link.A few years ago, I shared a stage with Dr. Stephen Covey in Salt Lake City at a convention for hospice care workers. In his talk, Dr. Covey urged people to read books as a habit to improve their “emotional imagination”. He said reading will increase the empathy you show people. This is true. When you read books (from self improvement to trash novel), you activate a part of your brain that unleashes creative energy. There is nothing more primal and perpetual than creative energy. You want to work out, write a protest song, call your mom. When you feel creative you feel alive.If you read one book a month, and half of them help you improve your life and the lives of others — you will feel more creative. You will experience a heightened sense of the possibilities in life. You will prove these cats are right.Recommended read: The Art of Possibility by Ben Zander

Sanders Says: Readers are Leaders, Part 2

technorati tags:Leadership, Ideas, Blogging

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Why Learning is a Leader’s Most Important Skill

Why Learning is a Leader’s Most Important Skill

Ask anyone to give you a list of skills that describe a highly effective leader and I’m guessing they’€™ll give you a pretty extensive list. (Go ahead, make a quick mental list right now.)

Since I’ve done this many times in groups I am accustomed to what I will hear or read. These lists typically include: Leaders must have vision, they must be compassionate, they must be good communicators, they must build relationships, they must work well in teams, they must be powerful persuaders, and many other similar sentiments. All are excellent observations.

Rarely though do I find someone listing the most basic, underlying skill of all.

Learning.

Highly effective, remarkable leaders must be continuous, lifelong learners.

There are at least four reasons why I believe this is true: the complexity of leadership, the nature of change, the role of leaders to model for others and the overall source of leadership. Let me explain.

Leadership is a complex endeavor. Humans are complex, and a leader is dealing with more than just his or her own complexities. They are tasked with understanding the complexity of human behavior and interactions across many people. When we put it this way, the role can seem daunting. Something this complex won’t be mastered quickly. Remarkable leaders know that the mastery of these complexities is a lifelong journey with no defined endpoint. The result? The need and desire to be in a continuously learning mindset.

The status quo requires no leadership. Think about it. If everything in the current situation was great ‘€“ if there was no need for change ‘ how much leadership would be needed? Leadership is required because we want to move somewhere. In other words, the need for leadership is predicated on change, and so leaders must be prepared to work under changing conditions. If conditions change, then learning is required to continually adapt to and work under the changing conditions. Remarkable leaders know their job is to move people through status quo. Therefore they know that they must continue to grow themselves to meet the needs of the situations and the people they are leading.

We must model it for others. While the needs and forces for learning are great, leaders aren’€™t just learning for themselves. Sure they are learning for their own competency and confidence as well as to better serve those they are leading, but they also are setting a tone and modeling for those that are following them. When you are a leader, whether by position or reputation, people are looking to you, whether you like it or not, you are a role model. How then, can leaders expect their teams to continue to grow and develop if they aren’t doing it themselves?

Better leader = better human. The best leaders are learners for all of the reasons above (and their own other reasons), but they also know something else. They know that in the end, the skills that make them better leaders also make them more highly functioning human beings. Remarkable leaders are learners because they want to be better leaders and because they want to be better people. For example, learning how to communicate more effectively makes you more effective in more than in just your role as a leader,€“ that skill development, that growth, spills out into every part of your life. If none of the other reasons above are compelling enough for you, this one should be!

So, if learning is such an important skill, why don’t people notice it and/or add it to the list of traits of great leaders?

Precisely because it is the underlying skill.

People can become exceptional at the other skills on the list because they are willing to learn, grow, improve and change. They know that to become more effective they must continue to improve. They know that effective leadership is a journey, so they remain focused on becoming more effective, not on arriving and maintaining.

The mindset of being on the path, of constantly being a learner, is the path of the truly remarkable leader.

The good news is that you can choose that path everyday. You can choose to be a more effective leader,€“ and your first choice is to become a learner.

You can make that choice anytime. Today’€™s the day to start.

by Kevin Eikenberry, Chief Potential Officer of The Kevin Eikenberry Group. You can read more of Kevin’s thoughts on Leadership and Learning on Kevin’s Blog. You can also subscribe to his weekly newsletter, Unleash Your Potential here.

Technorati Tags: Joyful Jubilant Learning 2006, Kevin Eikenberry, leadership

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Tags: leadership | leader | learning

Hello world!

Hi,

Welcome to my second attempt at blogging.  My first site, “The Musings of EnewEd”, is over at Blogger beta, and it seems to be beset with problems.  So I decided to try WordPress.  I am an advocate of the Open Source Community, and so I believe getting involved with WordPress will help support the cause.

I plan to make this a journal of my thoughts on the myriad of subjects which catch my interest.  My brain, at times, works in mysterious ways.  Thus the title of this blog.  Roughly translated “The convoluted brain”.