Some authors make their case for evidence-based advice and sound research. I appreciate it where I can find it. I also submit that personal experience is an additional form of evidence.
Some replies to my posts have asked for citations about me adding my opinions. My life experiences have informed my current way of thinking and it continues to change. I am not in the business of doing academic studies at this stage of life. I am living it and trying to teach my own kids to do it too.
Those that find a ring of truth in what I say are welcome to use it. Those that think I am way off base, are free to ignore what I say and follow their own opinions. I am open and constantly looking for what works in life, whether it is researched and cited or just off the top of someone's head.
I often form a hypothesis about a particular leadership idea, test it and let the results I observe inform whether that idea or method goes into my leadership toolbox or not. My results are within my own sphere of influence and are necessarily limited. I have conducted many such 'experiments' in the 'laboratories' of organizations whether volunteers or paid. I have been in organizational leadership roles for years and have tested much. Leadership is a big subject and has many situational variances, so not all ideas apply in all situations, but as I have searched for truths that transfer across specific situational boundaries and applied the knowledge I have found some things more effective than other things. This is what I hope to share over time. Some of my posts will be less useful than others, I'm sure.
Documenting fully with statistically valid sample data sets is for others to do. The children are growing too quickly for that full process right now. For now, I am time constrained. So I'm not opposed to the research of others, I just don't have the time to be as rigorous in my own experiments.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
12 ways of leader thinking - does this apply to kids? Some of it.
There was an interesting post in the Harvard Business Review called 12 Things Good Bosses Believe.
It lists 12 ways of leader thinking that are in addition to skill and knowledge.
To try to put it in terms older children may better understand, I will modify his 12 a bit. Most kids leadership is not based on organizational position, and even when it is, it is more strongly affected by interpersonal influence.
1. I have a flawed and incomplete understanding of what it feels like to be led or influenced by me.
2. My success — and that of followers — depends largely on being the master of obvious and mundane things, not on magical, obscure, or breakthrough ideas or methods.
3. Having ambitious and well-defined goals is important, but don't focus so much on them that you forget to encourage small wins that help people to make a little progress every day. This is how you get to the goal together.
4. One of the most important, and most difficult, parts of my leader role is to strike the delicate balance between being too assertive and not assertive enough. This takes time to get right.
5. Sometimes I have to keep my followers focused when other things distract or affect them.
6. I strive to be confident enough to convince people that I can lead, but humble enough to realize that I am often going to be wrong.
7. I may need to convince others I am right, and also listen as if I am wrong. As I get better at leadership, I teach followers to do the same thing.
8. One of the best tests of my leadership — and my group — is "what happens after people make a mistake?"
9. Part of my role is to encourage followers to generate and test all kinds of new ideas. Then I help to winnow the many down to the few we can or should do. This means dropping the bad ideas and most of the good ideas, too.
10. It is important to eliminate the negative and to accentuate the positive.
11. How I do things is as important as what I do.
12. Because I lead, I am at great risk of acting like an insensitive jerk — and not realizing it.
With kids, it may be more feasible to ask them to watch for manifestations of these beliefs in leaders within their sphere of influence such as teachers, coaches, youth group leaders, parents, friends parents, and so on. Then after letting them share what they have noticed, ask what they plan to do when they lead or influence. This is more sowing stage than reaping stage with children, in my opinion.
It lists 12 ways of leader thinking that are in addition to skill and knowledge.
To try to put it in terms older children may better understand, I will modify his 12 a bit. Most kids leadership is not based on organizational position, and even when it is, it is more strongly affected by interpersonal influence.
1. I have a flawed and incomplete understanding of what it feels like to be led or influenced by me.
2. My success — and that of followers — depends largely on being the master of obvious and mundane things, not on magical, obscure, or breakthrough ideas or methods.
3. Having ambitious and well-defined goals is important, but don't focus so much on them that you forget to encourage small wins that help people to make a little progress every day. This is how you get to the goal together.
4. One of the most important, and most difficult, parts of my leader role is to strike the delicate balance between being too assertive and not assertive enough. This takes time to get right.
5. Sometimes I have to keep my followers focused when other things distract or affect them.
6. I strive to be confident enough to convince people that I can lead, but humble enough to realize that I am often going to be wrong.
7. I may need to convince others I am right, and also listen as if I am wrong. As I get better at leadership, I teach followers to do the same thing.
8. One of the best tests of my leadership — and my group — is "what happens after people make a mistake?"
9. Part of my role is to encourage followers to generate and test all kinds of new ideas. Then I help to winnow the many down to the few we can or should do. This means dropping the bad ideas and most of the good ideas, too.
10. It is important to eliminate the negative and to accentuate the positive.
11. How I do things is as important as what I do.
12. Because I lead, I am at great risk of acting like an insensitive jerk — and not realizing it.
With kids, it may be more feasible to ask them to watch for manifestations of these beliefs in leaders within their sphere of influence such as teachers, coaches, youth group leaders, parents, friends parents, and so on. Then after letting them share what they have noticed, ask what they plan to do when they lead or influence. This is more sowing stage than reaping stage with children, in my opinion.
The Leader in Me - Seven Habits for Kids
So we've kept it to one of Stephen Covey's habits per week because we want to keep their attention for 20 minutes. We have been pleasantly surprised at how much of it the children take in. It seems to have helped the teenager's perspective a bit and the younger children seem to take as much in as they understand.
Some weeks we have not gotten back to it due to all the other things going on in life, but it has worked out well so far. We're up to habit 5.
Some weeks we have not gotten back to it due to all the other things going on in life, but it has worked out well so far. We're up to habit 5.
Watching 12 and 13 year old boys plan a campout
In Boy Scouts a few weeks back, the challenge to the youth was to plan the menus for their camp out later that month. It was really entertaining to watch the back and forth as some offered really complicated meals, but when the duty roster for clean up was worked on, the menu changed to less complicated meals too.
This is worth seeing!
1. The Youtube video I'm linking you to is a great talk about motivation that applies to kids just as well as adults. It is aimed at leaders of organizations, but it is a good talk of itself. The subject is about reward systems and how the science shows that pay for performance works mostly with physical skills, but with cognitive skills it doesn't work as many think. The focus instead is autonomy, mastery, and purpose.
2. The person who did the video based on the talk edited their cartoon drawings to match the speaker's voice and timing. What an engaging method of delivering information! My kids might even watch something like this and get something from it. It is like a mind map happening at speaking-speed (from the viewer's perspective).
2. The person who did the video based on the talk edited their cartoon drawings to match the speaker's voice and timing. What an engaging method of delivering information! My kids might even watch something like this and get something from it. It is like a mind map happening at speaking-speed (from the viewer's perspective).
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