Putting Your Money Where Your Mission Is

Zoo Boise was the first in the country to charge a conservation fee.  That instituted fee, is in addition to the entrance fee, and goes directly to the conservation of wildlife. Originally, it was just twenty-five cents and remains minimal today at fifty cents. Even though the fee is small, the impact it has had has been far-reaching, raising $250,000 annually, a million dollars to date and contributing to numerous conservation projects around the world.

Steve Burns, the Executive Director of Zoo Boise wanted to become more involved in wildlife conservation. One day, the idea of a conservation fee struck him. Steve thought through the idea for several months before sharing it. His simple but profound idea has now spread to fifteen zoos around the country, raising between five to six million dollars annually in an effort to save many of our favorite zoo animals’ wild counterparts. It is now possible for us, as zoo-goers to participate in saving our wildlife. Steve says:

“People don’t want to see animals go extinct. People love animals, but they sit and wonder what they could possibly do, and so in our case we feel we’ve turned the act of visiting the zoo into a conservation action. And now we’ve empowered our visitors to actually do something about it- come to the zoo, enjoy yourself with the family, and when you walk out you will have done your part on that day for conservation.”

Long before implementing his plan, Steve wanted to somehow incorporate the zoo into the conservation effort, but struggled with how. After sharing his desires with the Board President and the Director of Parks and Recreation, he was given permission to think outside the box for a solution, …“and one day I was walking around the grounds of The High Desert Museum in Bend Oregon, when the thought occurred to me [the Conservation Fee]. It took a while. It took me a few months to unveil it. I didn’t know how it would go over with people, but it ended up going over well.”

The Conservation Fee was rebranded under the name “Quarters for Conservation” and has gained much support. Colorado Springs Zoo Director says, “It is the easiest money to   generate, and the amazing part is, people actually thank you for taking their money.”

Steve’s efforts do not end with the Conservation Entry Fee. The zoo began adding activities that cost a few dollars extra, the monies from which also go toward conservation. The activities are ones that zoo-goers get an up-close encounter with an animal, like feeding the giraffes, taking a solar-powered boat ride to see monkeys, going to the zoo farm to feed goats and sheep and feeding a sloth bear. By adding those activities in support of conservation, Zoo Boise went from raising $1500 annually (before the Conservation Fee), to $120K annually (after Conservation Fee) to $300K annually (after adding activities for conservation). That is an increase from $1500 – $300,000 in five years!

Steve tells me about a project in Africa that the Zoo Boise Conservation Fund money is supporting.

“The project we have given the most money to is Gorongsa National Park in Mozambique. It was one of the greatest parks in all of Africa in the 60’s; it had one of the highest densities of wildlife of any National Park in Africa.  Then, over the next twenty years of war, the park was destroyed and 95% of its animals were killed. They were eaten, and the elephants killed for their ivory and sold to buy more weapons.”

“For us, the restoration of Gorongsa National Park is the perfect zoo project. People come to the zoo, see animals here, do some fun things with their  kids, and now the money goes to help put animals back on the ground in Africa. This past year, our donation helped to fund a scientific study of lions at the park. Researchers have been setting out camera traps and using radio collars to study the lions because, for some reason the population is not growing the way it should be. The lions are in the park and there is enough prey that they should be thriving but they aren’t. The symbol of Gorongsa National Park is a lion, and what a tragedy it would be if there were no more lions there. They are an incredibly important part of that eco-system.”

“We are going to expand that partnership with Gorongsa and build a Gorongsa National Park exhibit here in Zoo Boise. Over the next ten years, we will be able to generate over two million dollars for that restoration effort.”

Steve’s always thinking of ways to generate more money for conservation. Whenever a new exhibit is built, they take 10% of the cost of the exhibit and allocate it to the conservation of the animal in the exhibit. Steve recognized this request was going to be a harder sale to make to the Board, as it is already difficult to raise money. Nevertheless, it was approved. Steve applauds the Board of Directors saying, “What a testament to the board … were going to take an already difficult project and raise even more money because we care so deeply for these animals. My hats off to the board, I am just thrilled they agreed to do that.”

It is obvious that Steve is doing something right at the zoo keeping in mind his recent accomplishments. I asked him what is the single most important thing he does daily as a leader. Without pause, Steve said, “Set expectations. I have very high expectations of myself, my staff and volunteers. Setting those expectations and also communicating and reinforcing them.” “In terms of what I expect out of people, I think that hiring is an incredibly important part of the business because you have to have the right people. I can teach anybody a Zoo Boise how to do anybody else’s job, (except be a veterinarian), but I cannot teach people to work hard and have a good attitude. So I tell people right from the beginning I expect you to work hard, we are paying you to work hard, when you go home at the end of the day you should be tired because we all worked hard, because we all have some really important work to do.”

Steve runs the zoo just like any other business, if fact, his focus on mission and values is one that many businesses could be inspired by. “Our ultimate mission and goal is that we are here to help protect animals in the wild.” Everything that Zoo Boise does is in support of their mission. To Steve that means starting with values. Steve’s team was not built haphazardly; he looks for people who share the same conservationist values, are hard workers and resourceful. He recognizes that his employees might come to work and think; gosh, my job could be easier if we spent some of the money we raised for conservation on… but “because of the shared belief in the mission, that what we’re doing is the right thing, it makes it a whole lot easier that everybody is coming from that standpoint. Doing what we do for conservation takes a sacrifice.”

Steve’s answer was not a surprise when I asked what the one leadership principle that guides him is, since his main focus is always Zoo Boise’s mission. Fiscal responsibility was his answer. Steve’s been called, careful, frugal, and cheap, and he takes all of them as a compliment saying, “We don’t spend money on things we want, we spend money on things we need. If you have fiscal discipline and are only spending money on things you need, then you will have the money to carry out your mission.” At the end of the day, if the zoo isn’t willing to stand up and speak for animals, then I’m not sure why else you’d be in business.”

Changing the Mission of the zoo did not happen overnight. From donors, to the community, to the Mayor and City Offices, to staff and Board members, Steve forged ahead working to convince people of the worthiness of this change. Bit by bit, piece by piece, the entire program was approved. Steve tells people “We still wanted to be a zoo; we just wanted to be a zoo for a different reason. What we turned it into was a mechanism to help generate money for conservation.”

With the mission and Conservation Fee approved, I wondered if the culture at the zoo changed and if so, how. What Steve said next was sad, but made clear why this change was so necessary.

“I think the culture has changed. People have no idea of how much trouble wildlife is in. Only 3,200 tigers are left in the wild, the lion population is down from 400,000 to 30,000 over the last 20 years, and there are people in National Parks in Africa flying over in helicopter gunships as we speak, using machine guns to kill elephants and rhinos. Our natural world is under assault. I think when our staff, volunteers and supporters hear about it, they begin to embrace very quickly what it is we are doing. The problem is, people don’t realize this is the case. When we hire somebody, we talk to them a lot about our mission so we make sure that people know and they are buying into what we’re doing.”

Steve recognizes that his role as a leader does not stop when a new hire is versed on the zoo’s mission. Referring to himself as the Chief Cheerleader, he talks about conservation often with his colleagues. Every Friday Steve sends out an email called “This Week at the Zoo,” the purpose of which is toward sharing the weekly zoo happenings, but also  information on conservation issues and chiefly, how Zoo Boise is helping to make a difference.

Zoo Boise has successfully transformed their purpose as a zoo over the last five years, raising one million dollars to put toward their conservation work. Steve’s most significant lesson-learned is that one cannot do something so big  alone; it’s all about having good partners. From the initiation of Steve’s idea, he had partners and supporters at his side, and now several years later he continues to rely on partnerships to make the best use of the money his idea has collected. A few weeks ago, Zoo Boise celebrated raising one million dollars with a Wildlife Conservation Expo. Fourteen representatives of the projects Zoo Boise’s Conservation Fee has helped fund, spoke about how the money has impacted their cause.  As Steve told me about his experience at the Expo, listening to the presentations, I could feel his excitement and rightly so; his little idea is paying off in spades.

We thank Steve and his team for their hard work and making a valiant effort to save our world’s magnificent animals. Our lives get busy with work, kids and grandkids, and planning our next day off, and when the news does not cover a story or it is not in our backyard, we forget about its importance.  Steve is right when he says, “People don’t want to see animals go extinct; people love animals.” It is people like Steve we need to thank for bringing our awareness to issues we care about, but may forget about. Even further, he offers a simple way to participate- going to the zoo. Now, our weekend outing with the grandkids to the zoo has more meaning. It would be a terrible day if our grandchildren never get to see for themselves the shyness in an elephant’s eyes or the heavy paws of a tiger, because there were no more.

By, Phil Eastman

Most of us work in environments that focus more on short-term tactics than on long-term strategy.  Consequently, when we conduct strategic planning sessions for clients, it takes several hours of deliberate effort to get the leaders to elevate their thinking to a level that allows them to contemplate and foresee the future.  A strong tactical focus is understandable.  We are more often rewarded for tactical accomplishments rather than strategic ones.  They carry with them a bigger payoff. We know that careers are upended by tactical failures more often than strategic ones.  Additionally, focusing tactically provides a much stronger sense of personal accomplishment.

Getting things done feels good.  I am not   suggesting that leaders shift their view to focus solely on the strategic aspects of their organizations.  This is not a case for either/or.

What does it mean then to think strategically?  It means elevating the mindset to the proper altitude.  In my work, I fly to different locations weekly.  I use that time on the airplane to think about our work and the work of our clients from a different altitude.  At 37,000 feet the world is simpler (if not more comfortable).  There are few distractions.  The people around me don’t know me and are not clamoring for my time.  Gazing out the window, it is easy to think more broadly because as I look at the ground, it is simple as well- a few farms, a desert landscape, a lush forest.  The cities (even the large ones) look small and simple at that altitude.  At 37,000 feet all the earth’s patterns not visible from the ground come in to focus.  You can see the layout of farms and cities, and how foresting practices have shaped the landscape.  It is possible to see the erosive effects of wind and water, and the scars from mining.  At 37,000 feet it is easier to see how things fit (or don’t) together.

As a leader, you face the challenge of delivering tactical success and then being ready to shift your thinking to a higher altitude where instead of focusing on individual outcomes and challenges, you see the broad sweep of how collective tactical actions move your organization.  The requirement to shift altitude in a moment’s notice is a great challenge facing today’s leaders.

The good news- there is a set of tools available to adjust your altitude.  Those tools include your organization’s directional statements, your values, purpose, vision and mission statements.  These statements by definition are lofty. They were originally crafted by you and your leaders to define behavior (values), to state why your organization exists (purpose), to describe the future state of the organization (vision) and to describe the essential ingredients need to reach that vision (mission).  Together these four statements constitute your organization’s direction.  If you are like many leaders, the only time these statements are used is during annual planning.  At the end of that session, you promise yourself and commit to the team that this year will focus more on direction, but it won’ .  It won’t because your day is overwhelmed by what Steven Covey calls the ‘tyranny of the urgent,’ the tactics.

I wish to issue a challenge; Learn to begin to see your direction as a leadership tool available for daily use. The tools will ensure that your organization not only succeeds tactically, but moves in the chosen  direction.

Start with yourself.  Look at your own work for the next week.  On a sheet of paper write out your organizations values, purpose, vision and mission statements.  Carry those with you to your meetings and keep them close at hand as you work at your desk.  Each time you say or do something that reflects one of these statements, put a mark on your paper as a note to yourself.  At the end of the week, review that paper. Which of the statements has the most marks?  Does your daily work reflect the directional statements of your organization?  You may see that many of your weekly actions in fact did have a direct connection.  If so, you are well on your way to showing your team the connection between their work and company direction.  If your marks don’t reflect a connection to the direction of the organization, consider the answers to two questions:  Does your direction make sense? Are you working on the right things?

If you do see the connection between your actions, meetings, conversations and decisions with your organization’s direction, your task is to show others the same thing.  Unless you are deliberate in illustrating these connections for people, they will not see them.  People seldom stop to reflect on how their work role takes the organization in the direction it has decided to go. Your task is then to call out when you see the connection in the work of others. Tell stories about how their work propels the organization forward.

So, now you know how to use direction as a tool.  One final question still remains.  Why bother with this?  The answer is simple.  People are motivated by meaning, both in the long and short run.  Every human being wants to make a difference.  Your task as a leader is to show your team members how their work matters.  Doing this motivates your team, motivates you and moves your organization in its chosen direction.

***

Phil Eastman is a speaker and the author of The Character of Leadership and Dimensional Strategy: A Leader’s Guide to Building a Strategic Plan. His experience as a CEO and the founder and Principle Advisor at Leadership Advisors Group has provided Phil the experience and opportunity to advise leaders in areas of executive coaching, strategic planning, leadership development and leading change.

Jackie Robinson: A Leader On and Off the Field

Most know Jackie Robinson as a gifted baseball player for the Brooklyn Dodgers (1947 – 1956).  What is lesser known about him is his upstanding leadership character. He was the first African American to play major league baseball.  Robinson’s timing and athleticism allowed him the perfect platform to help propel forward and have a leadership impact on The Civil Rights movement.

The Leadership Advisor, March 2013. 

Over the past few weeks, one word has been on my mind.  I keep mulling this word over, considering how to craft an article on the subject.  I visited the dictionary, as is my practice, to see how the world’s linguists define it. That has led me to talk about this word in the context of leadership.

Merriam Webster online dictionary defines capacity as:

• legal competency or fitness
• the potential or suitability for holding, storing, or accommodating
• the maximum amount or number that can be contained or accommodated
• an individual’s mental or physical ability
• the faculty or potential for treating, experiencing, or appreciating
• the facility or power to produce, perform, or deploy  also :maximum output

Based on those general definitions we will define leadership capacity as:

A leader’s maximum leadership performance potential.

With that simple and challenging definition in mind, let us consider three aspects of leadership capacity.

Leadership capacity is bound by a leader’s skill, experience and motivation.  These three boundaries are elastic, which means a leader’s capacity can increase.  That is encouraging since the demands of today’s organizations require continual evaluation and improvement in leadership ability.  Since leadership is the single greatest enabling force in every organization, the organization’s performance level depends on a leader to continually push against the boundaries of her leadership ability.

The first boundary is skill.  Leadership skills are the tools available to a leader.

The second boundary is experience.   Even though leadership can be understood theoretically, it is not enough to understand the concepts and skills of leadership without the opportunity to put those skills to work.  Experience alone is inadequate for increasing a leader’s capacity just as skill alone is insufficient in the absence of experience.  Visualizing each of these boundaries on a spectrum helps us visualize the concept that some leaders have a very narrow set of leadership skills while others have a very broad skill set.  Likewise, some leaders have limited experience while others’ experience is extensive.

Skill spectrum

Narrow   <——————————————————————>  Broad

Experience Spectrum

Limited   <——————————————————————> Extensive

Aligning these to spectrums in a matrix helps make sense of how the combinations of skill and experience can either lead to leadership growth or stagnation.

The leadership capacity matrix helps identify capacity and which of these two boundaries are needed to mobilize in order to enable an organization to maximize performance.  You may need to expand your skill set or experience.  If you are new to leadership then you may need to expand both.  Regardless of which boundary you push, success in pushing that boundary is dictated by the level of motivation.  The motivation to increase your leadership capacity is the master key to expansion.  For instance, if you are in the lower left quadrant and have a drive to expand your skill and experience, you are going to move one or both boundaries by seeking learning and opportunity to apply that learning.  If however if you are in that quadrant and are unwilling to learn and gain experience,

then your leadership capability has stagnated along with your organization’s performance.

Beyond these three boundaries, there is as well a qualitative aspect to capacity.   This capacity model could be used to describe the leadership of Adolf Hitler or Mohandas Gandhi.  Thus, the additional consideration is character.

It is character that got me thinking about capacity in the first place.  I have been struck by the range of leadership character we see in today’s most visible leaders.  A quick look at nearly any media outlet points to leaders whose character is questionable at best and despicable at worst. For an organization to thrive in the long run, we must begin a deep, serious and meaningful conversation about the character we expect our leaders to demonstrate.  In other words pushing the skill, experience and motivation boundaries to expand a leader’s capacity is of no use if we don’t infuse that experience with the character we expect the leader to demonstrate.

The first indication that you need to expand your leadership capability is frustration.  If you are frustrated with your team or the performance of your organization then examine yourself and your leadership.  You may be the limiting factor, needing to expand your capability by pushing the boundaries or your leadership.

Phil Eastman is the Principle Advisor at Leadership Advisors Group. Specializing in strategic planning, leading change and leadership development.

Link to the publication where this article originally appeared.

Strong leadership and character are closely linked. Both are visible in many settings by anybody at any time.  Over 5 ½ years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, Colonel Lee Ellis observed leadership in the most trying of conditions. His time in the Hanoi Hilton and other camps helped him formulate 14 leadership lessons that helped him and others stay alive. His book Leading with Honor: Leadership Lessons from the Hanoi Hilton, where he outlines those lessons, is an inspiring story of courage and leadership.  It is our honor to present him as this month’s Featured Leader.

In doing my research on Col. Ellis, I found several instances where he said, “There is no honor without courage.” I began the interview by asking him to explain what he means by this.

“From my experience as a junior ranking prisoner in the camp, I was able to observe the leadership of our very highest and best officers and occasionally some of the worst. The most consistent theme was courage. In the POW camps, all the niceties of leadership were immediately stripped away along with the former advantages of power and authority. Higher ranking officers became the ones that were focused on the most by the enemy. They were subject to torture more often; were more isolated, were beaten more often and yet they still had to lead, make policy and then live by the policies they made. They could not hide their interactions with the enemy because it was obvious to everyone; however, they were transparent about it. When they were beaten into submission, they would admit what they had done. The environment was amazingly transparent. There was no pretending, which quickly revealed true character. In that process, I saw that courage was the key to leading with honor. There was always temptation to take a shortcut or say something to get the enemy off your back. Courage is the facilitator to honor. Without courage, it is hard to do the honorable thing day after day. The honorable thing is usually the hard road to travel.”

How can your experience translate to today’s generation of leaders?

“What I do is present the realities of leadership. I present the reality of the life they’re living, the realities of the world in which they live.  In that world, they’re going to face tough decisions and have to choose ahead of time where they stand and what they value. If that decision is not made in advance, the temptation to take the easy way out will be great.  I think younger generations understand that, conceptually; the challenge is to find role models who demonstrate that same level of courage to do the right thing. That is where I think the older generation has to step up and show young leaders what that looks like. In some cases, we are seeing the younger generation actually stepping up and showing the older generation. Regardless of position, rank, or authority level, everyone has the power to set an example of leading with honor and courage to do the right thing and to remind others what the right thing is. It is not enough to just be honest, one must lead by example.”

How does collaborative leadership play out in your philosophy?

“I am a big believer that one person has to own a project. Admiral Hyman Rickover, the father of the nuclear navy said, “If you don’t have one person in charge, you don’t have anybody in charge.”  Ultimately, there has to be somebody responsible for overseeing. That person is responsible for making things happen and taking care of the people. Having said that, I am a big believer in collaboration built on alignment. As alignment comes, collaboration becomes possible. To get collaboration, you have to establish a community, communication and clarity, which is reached through the building of mutual trust.”

“I am big on collaborative teamwork. Collaboration is essential because it indicates trust. If you have trust, you can get a lot of things done in a hurry and be very productive. I believe a leader needs to listen to others on his team. That’s how I have had a successful career. I’ve always surrounded myself with people smarter than me.”

The leadership structure in many organizations is changing from top down to a more flat approach. How do you see this affecting leadership in those types of organizations?

“I really like the least amount of structure possible because it brings people closer to the action. Action is where things get done, and the closer you are to it, the better you understand what’s going on. Better decisions can be made and better feedback can be given and received.  Better feedback, means better decisions by leaders and more effective coaching for the team. The problem is, as organizations get bigger, that becomes harder to do. Figuring out ways of capitalizing on being large and minimizing the impact of bureaucracy is one of the most difficult challenges, especially in large organizations today.  Moving from a purely entrepreneurial start up organization to a growing midsize, some structure is necessary. That is one of the advantages of growing- creating structure, adding preventative processes, but, you also have to keep in mind you are building layers. When there are too many layers it gets unwieldy and inefficient, leadership begins to fall by the wayside and management picks up steam.”

Can you speak to a leader’s responsibility to maintain his or her core leadership principles or skills?

“I think it’s critical that leaders sharpen their own saw and grow themselves.  If they do not, they will get caught up in their own reputations, headlines or in bureaucracy.”

“I think you have to spend time reflecting on your core principles and skills. The way I do that is to read other authors, leadership books, biographies and magazine articles. I try to stay abreast. All of those help me refresh and recommit to my values, what I stand for.  I have to ask myself whether I have the courage to stand for them and what that will look like when I do.”

“I think it is very important to build awareness first, and skills second. A leader needs to be working constantly on speaking and writing skills, perhaps writing blogs and memos or giving presentations to team-members or professionally within your industry. Also, an understanding of psychology and emotional intelligence is necessary.  I’m amazed at the number of leaders that really don’t have a good understanding of emotional intelligence and still have a fear of emotions in the workplace. Emotions are where we get all of our energy to do work. ”

Do you find in organizations today, that their leadership development programs are lacking in any one principle or skill? 

“There are two or three things that I think are extremely important and they are not getting as much emphasis as I think they need. The first one is building trust. Leaders need to take the time to build trust. It takes time, relationships and getting to know each other; I’m not sure how much people are trained to talk about that. My experience has been, they know that they need to do some teambuilding and they automatically think that’s Kumbayah and hugs, but what I’m talking about is getting to know each other. I don’t do any consulting without first conducting personality assessments. A personality assessment is the common denominator to understanding somebody’s leadership style, his or her strengths, struggles and fears. Knowing that about each other helps to build trust among team-members.”

“I also think the issue of accountability is huge and doesn’t get enough attention. Accountability is often absent when clarity is also lacking. Accountability and clarity go hand in hand, then come values and culture. Leaders have to build from their own values. Organizational values have to be operative and not aspirational. You can have aspirational values, but you need to be clear that that is what they are. For instance, if the value is against gossiping, but we still gossip, then it’s not a value. It’s an aspirational value. Having those few core values, then preaching them from the highest to lowest levels so your values are inculcated into daily work life, develop a work culture. I’m big on culture; it will hold you together and give you the freedom to empower people in ways nothing else will, i.e., this is who we are and this is what we believe. I help teams build ground rules or rules of engagement for how they will work together, basically agreeing, we hold each other accountable.”

“The last one is professional development of others. Leaders have to be developing their people all along the way, all the time. Setting an example, mentoring and coaching, making expectations known, clarifying why you do things a certain way and telling stories about how you learned about this value or this leadership principle, are all part of that goal.”

Do you think it is possible to change a culture? For example, when a new leader comes in.

“I think you have a challenge on your hands. It is doable but requires real commitment. You are going to have to articulate the new values very clearly, and show your commitment to them by walking them out, often times in the most difficult ways every second of every day. The new leader will need to identify who on the team is on board and who is not. Those who display or articulate an unwillingness to participate must be replaced. Then you just beat the drum and keep reminding people why they are there and holding one another accountable. You hire based on the new culture. Rewards and performance ratings become tied to the new culture and only then can people see that you really mean business. It goes back to the book, Built to Last by Jim Collins where he talked about the yin and the yang and preserving the core. The core is values and culture. If it’s not strong you have to go in and destroy the old core and build a new one. That is something that takes time.”

Many leaders today are great strategists and visionaries. They provide the directive to achieve their goals but are weak in the areas of accountability and follow up. Can you give leaders advice on comprehending the magnitude of their role?

“Leaders, just like everybody else need to manage and lead the accomplishment of their goals. In other words, check numbers and get objective data. This is where the managing part of leadership comes in- one has to both inspire and encourage people, energize and hold them accountable. Former IBM CEO, Gerstner said, “People don’t do what you expect but what you inspect.” You can’t expect your goals to come to fruition if you don’t have open channels for getting feedback. A leader must inspect whether the goals are on track or behind schedule. There’s nothing worse than putting great vision and strategy in place, then walking away expecting it to automatically happen. As the CEO, you are the conductor of the orchestra, and you can’t do that blindfolded. You need to establish eye contact with the people while getting feedback. It’s the responsibility of the leader to manage the process. To ensure it’s on track and when it goes off track, a leader needs to start asking questions like, ‘How did we get off track?’ and ’What do we need to do to get back on track?’ “Do we have the right resources and the right people?”, “has the market changed since we initiated this project?” My experience has been that this scenario happens most often in entrepreneurial organizations where leaders aren’t accustomed to directly managing people. Generally, in large organizations, the CEO has the information he needs. It’s people at lower levels that don’t have the skills to hold others accountable for results.”

What advice can you share with an aspiring leader?

“To aspiring leaders I say recognize this tremendous opportunity you have to influence other people, to develop other people and help them succeed. Obviously, everyone wants their organization to succeed and success means results. To get results, what we really need is for the people to succeed because if everyone is succeeding, the organization is going to thrive. It’s going to be a place where people want to work, which drives productivity.  Lastly, I want leaders to be inspired to see the magnitude of their role and the opportunity they have.  One final thought, if they don’t like leading and they don’t like dealing with people problems, holding people accountable while also patting them on the back; if they don’t want to walk that street, then I’d rather they move on and not pursue leadership. I think you have to be honest about that. It’s not for everybody.”

Please speak to the importance of nurturing up-and-coming leaders

“We’ve got to understand that if we don’t develop the next generation of leaders, they may not get developed. Leaders need to be aware of their influence on the next generation, because values are caught more than taught. I was sitting in the conference room with a group of leaders discussing one particular leader in the organization that yells and curses at his employees, when one man started laughing. He said he understood that behavior because that is how he used to operate. Everybody was surprised because he is not that type of leader today. He explained when he was a young leader, that is what his boss had done and he thought that was what leaders were supposed to do. It’s the realization of the power you have, how it shapes the way people see you and themselves. The acknowledgement of the up and comers have that you see in them potential that they may not. There are so many famous leaders in their role because somebody recognized their potential, encouraged them, and then helped develop it. I think that’s one of the best investments we can make in our future- to develop the next generation of leaders.  From a practical standpoint it makes so much sense because you’re building a stronger company, a company that will become more profitable, have longevity and be the type of organization you can be proud to be a part of. From a legacy standpoint, it’s huge.”

Talk about how one’s character plays into one’s leadership style

“Character is the foundation because if people do not trust you, they do not want to follow you. Therefore, you are going to have to use your power and authority to influence people to follow you. They really don’t want to follow you but may, driven solely by the need for a paycheck.  Their heart won’t be in it in the same way it would be if trust was part of the equation.  When people don’t trust their leader, it becomes every person for himself. Natural survival instincts take over. That’s why it is so foundational. You cannot have cohesion, if you don’t have trust. Second is courage; without courage you really can’t have good character. You may be honest but if you won’t stand up for what is right, you’re lacking character.”

“I close my presentations that way, with the trailer from the Lord of the Rings, and it says, “There can be no triumph without loss. No victory without suffering. No freedom without sacrifice.” I would add the one more, no honor without courage. What I say to that is, if you want to be a person of character, you must have courage and the way you exercise courage is to lean into the pain of your fear to do the right thing. Lean into the pain of your fear because it will feel unnatural, it will be scary, you’ll have doubts, and you’ll be afraid of what’s going to happen. That’s why you want a good team around you. I don’t think you can have good character over the long haul without a team around you.”

What did you hope to accomplish in your book Leading with Honor? And what was the moment you realized you needed and wanted to share these leadership principles with an audience?

“I wanted to tell the story of the great, incredible and courageous POW leaders. First off, I thought they deserved to be honored and second, it was going to be instructive for readers, it had been instructive for me for those 5 ½ years I was there. Third, to provide a leadership book that was story based, because I think stories are emotionally powerful, and readers are much more likely to remember and can more easily apply them. Fourth, I wanted to relate to today’s work environment, so I included case studies in each chapter supplied by my own clients. The purpose was to illustrate ways those lessons are applied in today’s work place.”

“I felt it was the right time to write the book. I’d never written a book about my POW experiences before, because I never wanted the attention of being a POW to drive people’s perceptions of me, I just want to be good at what I do and let the chips fall where they may.”

Who are some leaders you admire and why?

“I admire a lot of leaders. Some of the leaders I admire the most are my clients, because they have the courage to want to grow and strive to become even better leaders. To their credit, they also want to take their teams with them.  To me that is somebody who is really truly self-assured and confident. I look for the good in people, and of course, I also notice the bad. I try to filter the latter out because I don’t want to be focused on it, and instead am learning to concentrate solely on the good. For that reason, I have a hard time singling out a person. There are no perfect leaders; they are all flawed. The ones I admire most are those who display strong character, get results and take care of their people.”

Lee Ellis is a speaker and the author of Leading With Honor: Leadership Lessons from the Hanoi Hilton, in which he shares his experiences as a Vietnam POW and highlights leadership lessons learned in the camps.  As president of Leadership Freedom, a leadership and team development consulting and coaching company, Lee consults with Fortune 500 senior executives in the areas of hiring, teambuilding, executive development and succession planning.  For more information, please visit www.leadingwithhonor.com.

Want to up your leadership game? Have you ever considered an executive coach? Listen to Phil Eastman discuss this topic with Eric and Angel of the Experience Pros Radio Show.

Executive coaching interview with Experience Pros Radio Show

 

Author of Dimensional Strategy: A Leader's Guide to Strategic Planning

We have been doing a lot of leadership coaching recently and it occurred to us that we had not yet written an article about it, and more specifically an article designed to help you answer the question; do you need a leadership coach?  Our intention is not to sell you on our coaching approach, but rather to inform you of what coaching is, what it can and cannot accomplish and to help you evaluate whether or not you need one.

Coaching borrows its identity from sports.  That is a reasonable metaphor for the type of work involved in developing the “playing ability” of a leader.  However, in sports a coach is responsible for helping encourage and maximize the players’ potential ability, devising a game plan and executing that game plan to achieve the win.  In leadership coaching, the coach is primarily focused on helping the leader develop leadership ability.  The coach does not often get to devise the game plan or for that matter even attend the game.  So the sports metaphor applies in a limited way.  We believe the better term for leadership coaching is leadership advising.   We think that term more suitable because it sets a better expectation of what the coach or advisor can and should do for the leader.

Regardless of the terminology, an advisor must have these characteristics:

1. Be someone you trust
2. Have experience in leadership and advising
3. Have a methodology for advising that is thorough and pragmatic

 

The first two items will be up to your personal evaluation if you decide to pursue the enlistment of a leadership advisor.  However, we can provide insight into our advising methodology so you can evaluate that aspect of any advisor you meet.  We advise leaders using a simple and powerful approach outlined here:

• First we understand which capabilities the leader needs to develop.  This can be done in a series of interviews, assessments or both.
• Second, we determine a list of behaviors the leader needs to begin or stop in order to build the desired capabilities.
• Third, with the behaviors identified, we then ask the client to tell us what scares them about changing those behaviors.
• Fourth, we find situations the leader is facing to provide the context for our advice.  For us context is everything, and consequently there must exist real situations within which the leader is expected to demonstrate their ability to lead.

Before you ask yourself this question, of whether you need a leadership advisor let us share some important lessons we have learned about the power and limitations of leadership advising.

So, do you need a leadership advisor?  If you are already a good performer and looking to take your skills, confidence, thinking and career to a new and higher level, then you may.  If you wonder what you don’t know about leadership and want to learn more, then you may need a leadership advisor.  If you think you are holding your team back with your limited ability, then you may need a leadership advisor.

You can find an advisor internally or externally.  If you look internally, look for someone you trust, that is willing to commit time and energy to you.  If you choose an advisor outside the company, then again look for someone you trust, has the experience to help you develop skills and has a process for advising that fits with your current workload and commitments.

Create Common Good (CCG) is a local Boise, Idaho non-profit making a big difference. They provide training and employment opportunities primarily to refugees transitioning to the U.S. from various countries around the world.  Creator and founder Tara Russell parlayed her healthy, locally grown, love for food into an avenue of impact for these new community members. Russell created an important community resource that brings hope, opportunity and skill development to refugees and other at-risk groups. Create Common Good trains one third of the adult refugees resettling to Idaho annually and successfully places 95% in jobs upon graduation.

Russell noticed a gap in the network of humanitarian services when it came to transitioning refugees, including a lack of experiential job training and employment assistance.  She decided to combine her love for healthy food and passion to serve others and create Create Common Good.  Tara and her husband Jeff (CEO of Jitasa, another social venture providing outsourced financial services to the non-profit industry) seek to use the skills and principles they gained in the corporate business world and transfer them to areas of greater need. Every year the U.S. government resettles approximately eighty thousand individuals in communities across the United States. Refugees are resettled on the basis of racial, ethnic, political, and religious persecution, natural disasters and war. The majority of refugees living in Idaho come from Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Boise typically receives a several families each month.  A handful of agencies help resettle them by assisting with housing, schooling, medical needs and case management.  In late 2008 when the economy tanked, It became obvious to Tara that there were greater job training and skill development needs than the community could meet. Tara’s hope is to… “provide a safety net for individuals who might need a little extra skill development and confidence building before getting into employment.”

Create Common Good began operation in 2008 just as the economy headed down a steady decline. In the face of economic obstacles as refugee unemployment skyrocketed, Create Common Good began their job training. All programs are experientially focused on the food industry. From farming to the culinary arts and food service, all training is focused on entry-level job skills concentrated in some aspect of the production foods industry.

Create Common Good graduate, Awot Haile has a wonderful story of success.  He arrived in Boise from Eritrea, a tiny North African country bordering the Red Sea and Ethiopia. Boarder conflicts with Ethiopia have led to instability and uncertainty for the small country. Awot arrived in Boise as a refugee, alone and desperate for work, culminating in facing possible eviction from his apartment. Introduced to Create Common Good, Awot quickly showed his potential and enthusiasm. He went through a CCG job-training class and then was placed into a paid on the job training position after graduation. In just a few short months, Awot had a driver’s license, a car, two additional jobs and a girlfriend. Two years later, Awot is married, just welcomed his son to the world, is purchasing his first home and has reunited with his brother and cousin. He is now the Production Manager at Create Common Good overseeing their School Lunch Program.

One of the benefits Create Common Good employees receive is a farm share as part of their compensation. About twenty four to twenty eight weeks of the year, when the farms are producing, each individual gets to take home a basket of produce to share with their families.

Create Common Good is supported by charitable gifts, grants and foundation founding as well as generating a portion of their revenue through food products and services offered, such as school lunch and corporate cafeteria foods.

Behind every great organization is a great leader. Tara may not have set out to be a great leader, but through her service to her fellow man, she exemplifies the true meaning of a leader. She is humble, crediting Create Common Good’s success to her incredible team. In our interview with Tara, we hoped to discover the inter-workings of a service-oriented leader.

Leadership Philosophy:

Constant Learning: “I approach life with a humble student perspective. I am thirsty to gain and learn from others. I believe it’s important to not only learn and serve those you work with, but to care for them as individuals, building and developing their professional abilities, and part of that responsibility is ensuring that you, as leader, are learning constantly.”  “I’m very intentional about professional development opportunities and mentor relationships that can help guide and direct me through a variety of challenges Create Common Good is experiencing.”  I was selected for a fellowship program called PRAXIS that helps scale and accelerate the impact of an organization; making time to be involved was very intentional on my part.  I was seeking to refine, fine-tune and receive this type of counsel. I belong to several local and national development groups.  Having a constant thirst for learning is important and challenging to a leader because there is always more to be done than there is time for, but you have to make it happen.”

A Leader Tara admires:

“Theresa McLeod. Theresa works in the mayor’s office and helps to direct the community and city affairs. It humbles me that her day-to-day work is immersed in guiding and improving the community, yet her service does not stop there, she continues her community efforts outside of her day job.  I am proud to say she serves on our board here at Create Common Good providing guidance, counsel and wisdom and is always ready to roll up her sleeves and lend a hand. “

Characteristics of a leader:

“A servants-heart is critical. In order to lead well, one must first serve. Optimism and endurance are essential. Leadership in any context is challenging, whether it is for profit or not for profit, it is tremendously challenging and tumultuous with highs and lows every day. In my own leadership experience I have learned, if nothing else, that having endurance, perseverance and optimism are absolutely critical. It is important to be able to look back and celebrate a milestone amidst daily challenges.”

The future of Create Common Good:

“We envision the opportunity to replicate the model for any community where there is a need for poverty reduction, the creation of self-sufficiency and a need for food.  We think there is a lot of potential, but we would like to first demonstrate greater financial stability over time through the food products and services we offer.  We are currently working on the build-out of a new production kitchen and operations facility that will grow our food and product service revenue so we can continue to train and equip more people as time goes by.”

“We have begun to assist other sites through training so they can also train at risk individuals. There is a site in Twin Falls, Idaho called Grow Hope that has utilized our program template to impact their at risk community. We also advised another organization assisting battered women to begin an experiential job training program.  We are talking through the same goals with a handful of other communities in need.”

Tara defines leadership in action. At Leadership Advisors, we are constantly seeking examples of strong leadership; we often discover these leaders with their noses to the grindstone, selflessly dedicated to a mission. We want to acknowledge Tara and the Create Common Good team for their dedication to transforming the lives of refugees and others in need into ones that are self-sufficient, skilled and hopeful. If you would like to know more about, or help support Create Common Good visit their website.  Consider joining them in their new facility campaign today: http://www.createcommongood.org/.