Tag: Leadership

Are we building people-or just running programs?

Are we purposefully collaborating with experts from other disciplines in meeting people’s needs? And are we measuring what truly matters?

credit: Visit Philadelphia

Part of why recreation and parks doesn’t receive more of the rave respect it deserves, in my opinion, is because most people notice programs far more than the objectives behind them.

That’s not surprising. It’s always easier to focus on outward expressions than on internal improvements of the mind, body and soul.

But that’s where the common disconnect begins, I believe.

When we providers declare that recreation and parks are essential community services, what does that mean to our constituents? What is our bottom-line purpose of enabling quality leisure experiences? And are we cognizant enough of it?

• Is it just a walk in the park—or is it physical exercise, stress relief and mental rejuvenation?

• Is it merely a Paint With Me class (with wine!)—is it or stretching skills and enriching relationships?

• Is soccer practice just about scoring a trophy—or is it developing fine motor skills, building teamwork, modeling good sportsmanship, and growing cooperative social interactions among diverse teens, teams and talents?

• Is it merely an object of public art—or is it celebrating a cultural heritage, invigorating a downtown district, connecting destinations, and attracting visitors, tourists and new businesses?

• Is it just an evening activity—or is it character development, anti-ganging intervention, and preventative treatment for abusive and addictive behaviors?

Are we strategically planning with such measurable outcomes in mind, or are we satisfied that it was “fun”?

Here’s the crux: Are we building people—or just running programs? Are we purposefully collaborating with experts from other disciplines in meeting people’s needs? And are we measuring what truly matters?

Because here’s the other just-as-important part of our jobs: we must show it.

Moving beyond ROIs, attendees, and social media stats, are we documenting personal and social good in our value statements? Can we point to specific cases of cleaner resources, less waste, crises averted, problems solved, and healthier lifestyles? Are we enriching our neighbors’ lives, improving the livability of our cities, and ensuring a more equitable future?

If we are to convince a wider audience of the great worth of our indispensable services (and, in turn, influence higher funding and priorities by decision makers), we must deliver whole goods. We can’t merely insist that recreation and parks are essential, we must intentionally demonstrate it—and prove it!

Messing around in a small town

the learning legacy of engaging peers in free-spirited, unsupervised outdoor play

Chapman Quarries is the smallest incorporated borough in Pennsylvania, with a population in the 2010 census of 199 people. It’s where my dad’s family was established, and where his dad, granddad, and nearly all his male relatives worked the slate quarries.

While I didn’t grow up in town, that’s where church was and where my cousins and grandparents lived and where I spent a good amount of time. And it was the only place apart from school recess where I was able to freely interact with a lot of other kids outdoors. Three childhood memories tell a connected story:

Ice skating on the dam. The nearby quarries both used and generated a lot of water, and before Hurricane Agnes’ flood broke it in 1972, the dam was an idyllic nook in the woods. All the kids would walk out the back of town down “the dam hill” to amuse ourselves on the frozen lake. (It was a good joke to tell the new preacher about “the dam hill!”) I wasn’t a very good skater and I remember my cousin Judy telling me that I spent more time lying on the ice than skating on it. The older kids would build a bonfire off to the side, and we’d spend the better part of the whole day freezing, thawing, and “just messing around,” as we called it, with never a grown-up in sight.

Skateboarding on Main Street. The town was founded on a great hill after slate deposits were discovered in the 1850s, which brought an influx of hard-working families from Cornwall, Wales and Devon to work the quarries. When the skateboard craze hit some hundred-plus years later, it drew all their young descendants to Main Street with short, metal-wheeled boards to mess around. (Metal wheels were the leftover technology from roller-skates, which took a special key to adjust on your feet. And—let me tell you—roller skating on uneven slate sidewalks just wasn’t even fun!) I remember my cousin Craig telling me I had to get a skateboard with clay wheels—they’d work a lot better and I wouldn’t be spending all that time lying on the concrete than riding atop it. Like sledding, we’d walk to the top of the hill and ride the boards straight down the center of town, pausing only when someone would yell “CAR!” The old folks in town wished we wouldn’t go so fast because they didn’t want to see us get hurt. But no one stopped us.

Swimming in Claude’s Pond. Deep, water-filled Fisher’s Quarry was the destination of choice for the older teen boys to go skinny-dipping and wash up when it was hot. (This had also been the common practice of all the previous generations.) But I had that opportunity only once, living out of town as I did. Instead, my pappy would occasionally drive me and my brother and sister and a couple of cousins to his friend’s farm pond where we’d go wading and swimming and messing around. The older teen boys would drive there themselves and bring a long wooden plank. They’d extend it over the deep end of the pond and secure it with one of their jalopy’s front wheels to create a perfect diving board. The bigger boys allowed me, as a non-swimmer, to take a few turns, and after some tentative jumps into the shallows, I ignored my own caution and jumped out as far as I could. I remember my cousin Robert hauling me out of the water, saying that I shouldn’t spend more time lying on the bottom than floating on the top.

I learned a lot from my cousins. And from going outside and getting involved.

Like mine, most Baby Boomers’ childhoods were characterized by the habitual frequency in which we engaged our peers in free-spirited, unsupervised, outdoor play. It was there that we learned leadership and cooperation in picking teams for a pick-up game, and creative problem-solving in building a treehouse over a creek. We exerted our bodies while managing risk, and stretched our imaginations while messing around. We discovered both ourselves and our places when we pushed our limitations and our possibilities. Our self-development sprung from self-reliance.

A copious body of research now proves what we then knew, but didn’t understand: that social interaction in connection to nature is essential for our physical and mental health and our intellectual and social development. May we extend that legacy to both encourage and enable it with our children—and theirs.

Gaining credibility through crisis

lightning storm at sea

Something has gone drastically wrong and, like it or not, you’re involved. What now?

Say you’re the supervising engineer at Three Mile Island when the alarms indicate a nuclear meltdown in progress.
– Or the CEO of Johnson & Johnson when someone poisons your brand’s Tylenol capsules.
– Or the County Sheriff as massive wildfires advance in a constricting ring around your residents.
– Or the Malaysian Prime Minister when Russia shoots down your passenger airliner.
– Or the Captain of a cruise ship when it runs aground off the coast of Italy and capsizes.
– Or the Director of Recreation when a new and violent gang claims your skatepark as its turf.
– Or the Office Manager when an underling hasn’t properly filled out his TPS Report.

Granted, crises come in all sorts and sizes of potential career-sinkers, and managing them and their responses is never a pleasant task. For a leader in a crisis, it is baptism by fire. Not only is it critical to deal effectively with the immediate consequences, it is crucial to the wellbeing of the innocent, the guilty, the present and future. And as the above examples attest, the caliber of leadership during the crisis, good or bad, makes all the difference in the eventual outcome.

So while you may be spared an international incident or two, as a leader in your organization you will see your share of corporate crises and unmitigated mayhem. And although these successful tactics work at all times, (practice them in peacetime!) here are five never-fail strategies for growing your leadership credibility during a crisis, and enabling a better yet-to-come:

Remain composed instead of clamorous.
There’s enough crazy: adding to it only exacerbates the problem. When the sky is falling, people crave a leader who keeps his or her head when everyone else is losing theirs. In the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers, those who controlled their panic were able to lead countless others to safety before the buildings’ imminent collapse. Firefighters and other emergency personnel proved themselves the best in the midst of the worst by remaining calm in the calamity. Keep cool in a crisis to fill a crucial leadership need.

Offer clarity instead of confusion.
Many in a crisis become instantly consumed with demanding to know why. And while that may be crucial to prevent a repeat catastrophe, it usually doesn’t address the “what” of the immediate need. When Hurricane Katrina destroyed New Orleans, its victims needed to be rescued, sheltered, and provided for. Debating the contentious and confusing issues of levee management, evacuation policies and public administration failures needed to be reserved for the mop-up. Offer clear, coherent and direct solutions to alleviate the immediate needs.

Be considerate instead of caustic.
In a crisis, there’s usually plenty of blame to go around. And while some insist in loudly pointing fingers, it changes nothing. Belligerence is not becoming of a leader. But compassion is, and it seeks the best solutions for the most people. Immigrants streaming illegally into the southwestern U.S. create inestimable problems for individuals and governments on both sides of the border, but intolerance for others’ viewpoints and situations never produces a sustainable solution. Discern realities with compassion and direct resolutions with care.

Exude confidence with courage.
Courage comes from acting despite threat, uncertainty, fear or peril. Like a tonic, faith in an idea, a resolution, or a better future helps enable it, especially when that confidence becomes contagious and the vision is caught by your followers. In coordinating a massive international response to the recent Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the World Health Organization is combatting the viral plague in a setting of “extreme poverty, dysfunctional health systems, a severe shortage of doctors, and rampant fear.” Yet its dedicated health workers, armed with hope and courageously immersing themselves in the epidemic, are the ones who will ultimately make a difference in defeating the deadly disease. Seize tomorrow’s solutions with certainty to solve today’s distresses with confidence.

Bring competence with candor.
Education is an invaluable investment in developing crisis leadership when its lessons are judiciously and honestly applied. For when you later find yourself in the pits, you’ll discover your capacity is deeper still, and provides a way up and out. In the first major foreign crisis of the U.S. after the Cold War, Iraq invaded neighboring Kuwait, destabilizing the entire Mid East. Operation Desert Storm’s General Norman Schwarzkopf, characteristically forthright to his Commander-in-Chief, his troops and the world at large, led his well-trained forces to liberate Kuwait in just 100 hours. Shape your professional edge with training and hone it with integrity.

MasterPoint: Character in crisis creates credibility in command.

Sweet inspiration!

and exemplary lessons from an industry giant

Sweet! The Hershey Company is the largest producer of chocolate in North America and a global leader in chocolate and sugar confectionery. With revenues of more than $6.6 billion in 2012, Hershey offers much-loved products under more than 80 brand names, including such iconic brands as Hershey’s, Reese’s, Kit Kat, Twizzlers and Jolly Rancher.

But the industry giant started inauspiciously enough with a rural farm boy lacking a formal education who apprenticed to a Lancaster, Pennsylvania candy maker. Milton S. Hershey went on to become not only one of America’s wealthiest individuals, but also a successful entrepreneur whose products are known the world over, a visionary builder of the town that bears his name and a philanthropist whose open-hearted generosity continues to touch the lives of thousands.

I recently enjoyed reading a biography of this intriguing man (Hershey: Milton S. Hershey’s Extraordinary Life of Wealth, Empire, and Utopian Dreams, by Michael D’Antonio).  Here are a couple of exemplary lessons from his life for our mutual inspiration:

Persistent Improver. As a young entrepreneur, Milton Hershey failed repeatedly as a candy maker in Lancaster, Philadelphia, Denver, Chicago and New York City. After 14 years, he returned home to Lancaster and started over once again, this time improving on a recipe for caramels he learned in Colorado. His successful Lancaster Caramel Company became an early model for production line methods that Henry Ford later perfected.

Risk-Taker and Self-Believer. After selling the caramel company to a competitor for $1 million in 1900, he invested all his energies in developing a new concoction then finding favor in Europe: milk chocolate. Without even knowing how to produce a marketable milk chocolate recipe or a process for a stable and consistent chocolate bar, he bought the necessary equipment and began construction on a new factory.   

Fearless Experimenter. Even after he was very wealthy and successful, Milton remained a tinkerer, always on the lookout for new products and productivity. But he was never afraid to fail in his open-minded experiments—like his ill-fated attempts to boost vitamins in his chocolate by mixing in turnips, parsley, beets, and even celery! Nor did he complain of the costs associated with such experiments.

Foresighted Planner and Builder. As a social progressive who transformed his philosophies into realities, he constructed a company town for his workers that thrived devoid of problems associated with other utopian enterprises of the times. The picturesque settlement of 14,000 residents today takes pride in its uniquely attractive design, and the livability and lifestyle it affords. Dubbed “The Sweetest Place on Earth,” its other popular attractions include Hersheypark, Hersheypark Stadium, ZooAmerica, Hershey Gardens, as well as the Penn State Hershey Medical Center.

Visionary Provider. Unable with this wife Catherine to have children of their own, Milton founded a school for orphan boys in 1909, and later donated his entire fortune to a foundation to administer the school. Today, with assets of more than $10 billion (more than that of most universities!), the coeducational school provides a free world-class education, as well as meals, clothing, a nurturing home, health care, counseling and career training to nearly 2,000 children in social and financial need.

MasterPoint: Dream Big. Try Big. Live Big. Leave Big.

Ascending the levels of leadership

Those who strive to rise through the various levels of organizational leadership must contend with the particular challenges of each successive level to attain the top spot.

The neighborhood playground where I grew up contained a popular multilevel merry-go-round. Mounted above its rotating platform were three higher levels of successively smaller diameter.

The wildest ride was always found on the crowded, lowest level where centrifugal force could fling you out on the grass, where your head could continue to spin. Climbing to the second level where it was less crowded, but where you could grasp the rail, offered an easier go-around. On the third level, where there were even fewer riders, it took only one hand to anchor your soul to the earth while turning in a smaller orbit. But the pinnacle of derring-do was in achieving the post-top of the merry-go-round, where there was room for only one to stand, unassisted by any device, save your own guts, and pivot seven feet in air.

(By today’s safety standards, it was a veritable spinning factory of kid-tested hard knocks—it’s truly a wonder that so many of us survived such childhoods!)

In his excellent book, 5 Levels of Leadership, John Maxwell describes the advantages and challenges of each level of leadership, as well as the beliefs and behaviors that enable the ascendant professional to continue the climb to the pinnacle position. But as that old wooden whirler illustrates, those who strive to rise through the various levels of organizational leadership must contend with the particular challenges of each successive level to attain the top spot.

Can you identify the levels at which you are currently operating? (You won’t be at the same level with every person you lead!) What level do you aspire to?

Level 1. Rights. People follow because they have to. At its lowest level, leadership is a matter of title only, where potential is recognized and some authority is awarded. However, those who rely on their position to force others to follow often wind up devaluing them. Emphasizing rights over responsibilities can strand both the leader and the organization at this lowest level. Because the organization cannot function on a level higher than its leader, the best people bolt for better business elsewhere.

Like the crowded merry-go-round, leadership is difficult at this lowest level, where forces tend to keep both people and priorities unsettled. The astute positional leader, therefore, realizes that rights are not enough, and people, not position, is his or her greatest asset. She must aspire higher!

Level 2. Relationships. People follow because they want to.  The leader builds a foundation of relationships that focuses on the value of other people, creating an enjoyable and energetically-charged atmosphere nurturing trust, two-way communication, and possibilities.

Relational leadership eases the wayward pull on the followers, yet the upwardly-mobile leader understands that relationships alone are not enough. He or she must also deliver the goods!

Level 3. Results. People follow because of what you have done for the organization. Productivity brings reality to the vision, momentum to the mission, and credibility to the leader as others clamber aboard for the ride to results. The results-oriented leader helps people define, commit to, and experience the success of the vision.

Although exertion declines as the leader ascends, he or she realizes that productivity is not enough to reach the next level; developing people is where that’s at.

Level 4. Reproduction. People follow because of what you have done for them. Developing people is a distinctly higher level than most leaders reach, but it ensures that organizational growth can be sustained. Because only leaders can develop other leaders, level 4 leaders focus on recruiting, modeling, equipping and empowering their people to succeed as leaders themselves.

Level 5. Respect. People follow because of who you are and what you represent. Pinnacle leaders create a legacy within the organization and extend their vision and influence beyond what they could see on the lowest level. Honing all their skills, they and their followers develop a collective strength equal to the expanded mission.

While it takes considerable time, commitment and growth to rise through each level of leadership, going the other direction can happen very quickly! (As a couple of my old playground pals can attest!) But the time to mount the ascent is now. Assemble your followers, treat them right, teach them well, and together climb!

You can’t make me!

Mastering the art of positively influencing people is the only way to mutually elevate and empower lives, institutions and ideals.

(but I can be persuaded)

Leadership, by definition, prohibits the use of coercive power.

Think of a time in your adult life when someone forced you to do something despite your better judgment or convictions. How did that affect your relationship with that person or your inclination to act as that person subsequently directed?

Chances are, not positively.

True leadership—the kind that derives not from position or title, but through mastering the art of positively influencing people—is the only way to mutually elevate and empower lives, institutions and ideals.

The more proficient a leader becomes in the persuasive arts, the more likely the goals of the organization will be successfully met—and with less hindrance and resistance. (I am not speaking of manipulation here, which is the devious, dark side of controlling people: such is a coercive tool for dictatorial purposes.)

Abraham Lincoln, a lawyer by profession, recognized that this sometimes-illusive and counterintuitive practice does produce desirable results. Before he ever took on the mighty challenge of preserving the entire nation, he discouraged his clients to resort to litigation. Instead, he advised, “persuade your neighbors to compromise wherever you can.”

In Lincoln’s 19th Century eloquent prose, he expounded on this intentional tactic: “When the conduct of men is designed to be influenced, persuasion, kind, unassuming persuasion, should ever be adopted. It is an old and a true maxim, that ‘a drop of honey catches more flies than a gallon of gall.’ So with men. If you would win a man to your cause, first convince him that you are his sincere friend. Therein is a drop of honey that catches his heart, which … is the great high road to his reason, and which, once gained, you will find but little trouble in convincing his judgment of the justice of your cause.”

“On the contrary,” Lincoln continued, “assume to dictate to his judgment, or to command his action, or to mark him as one to be shunned and despised, and he will retreat within himself… and you shall no more be able to [reach] him than to penetrate the hard shell of a tortoise with a rye straw.”

Such folksy wisdom of the ages is now being buttressed by scientific research that shows that developing a respectful personal rapport with people enables the persuasive power that in turn exerts influence to effect change and achieve worthy goals. Not only does it move people and things onward and upward, it expands borders and motivates teams. It constructs possibilities, cements trust, and assembles ownership. It empowers mind, body and spirit for a better world.

And while persuasive leadership remains artful in its interpretation, its practice is open to anyone (you!) who applies the principles of the social science to the situation at hand. Here are seven suggestions to increase your persuasive influence, no matter what position you hold or where you are in life:

1. Be exemplary. Encourage affinity by being genuinely positive, enthusiastic, and unselfish. Do more than the minimum to maintain your interpersonal relationships; exceed expectations.

2. Be trustworthy. Earn trust with your peers, associates, bosses and clients by remaining readily open, transparent, truthful and teachable.

3. Be involved. Engage in shared experiences to create positive learning and sharing environments that promote team building and strengthening individual commitments.

4. Be we-oriented, not me-oriented. Focus on mutual strengths and desired outcomes; avoid detailing others’ weaknesses and shortcomings.

5. Be consistent and persistent. Consistently validate the relationship with enduring personal investments and practical, value-added contributions.

6. Be certain. Know your audience and your stuff. Be convinced of your data, your rationale, and your vision.

7. Be articulate. Develop and practice eloquence: say it clearly and show it creatively. Fluently and effectively express your ideals.

MasterPoint: Persuasiveness is power.

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