LIA!

High School Leaders Tell Stories of Leadership in Action

On Tuesday, 1 November, we ran a Leadership in Action (LIA!) workshop for a group of exemplary high school students who are participating in the West Point sponsored “Frances Hesselbein Student Leadership Program” this week (Coordinated by Melanie Dodge & the Department of Behavioral Sciences & Leadership).

The students came prepared to share a story about a person—a story that is an example of leadership in action. During the workshop, participants told their story three times, and they listened to as many as 9 stories from others. Pictured below, the participants placed a hand on the person whose story resonated the most with them.

The exercise brings out underlying assumptions about leadership, and it helps clarify what we value and the kind of leader we want to become. One of the insights that crystallized for the participants is that they each have valuable stories to share and that, perhaps, one role of leaders is to create the space and time for people to share their stories.
We concluded the workshop by talking about specific, very practical, practices that we want to cultivate—practices that, over time, will enact the values and leadership principles that we think are so important. I think we all walked out of the experience more Positive, Inspired, and Energized than when we started!

If you want to learn more about leading your own LIA! workshop, read the callout on page 4 of this ARMY Magazine article (PDF) and read two previous blog posts: August 24, 2011 and April 5, 2011.

Thanks again to Melanie Dodge, the coordinator, for inviting us to contribute to this great program.

Personal Reflection: This was the first time we have done a LIA! exercise with young leaders like this (High School Juniors), and we were pleased with how well it worked out. Their stories were about exemplary teachers, coaches, and parents–and one especially good story was about an older brother who befriended a mentally challenged peer and, in the process, received more than he gave. The one thing we did differently with this one is that we asked the students a week ahead of time to come prepared to share a story. In other words, they had a solid heads up; in all our previous LIA! workshops, participants had to think of a story on the spot. There are pros/cons with both ways, but with this age group we thought it would be more productive if they had some time to think about it.

What Do You Want In A Leader, Part 2

For over twenty years, Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner have been asking people all over the world what they want in a leader. As reported in their exceptional book The Leadership Challenge (see page 24), based on the input of 75,000 people, the qualities of a leader people willingly follow include: Honest, Forward Looking, Competent, and Inspiring.

Based on their research, the authors go on to lay out a compelling model for leadership. And if the book feels a little too hefty with your current work load, start with their shorter book, The Truth About Leadership.

So, how does this jibe with what we experienced in the “Leadership in Action” workshop? The big surprise from our workshop was that we (36 cadet leaders) did not collectively value accomplishing the mission (competence), or vision (forward looking). In our discussion afterward, individuals objected because, after all, they only had three votes and there are so many things that are important to leadership; however, what was clear as we stepped back and looked at the big picture was that we, collectively, did not value certain things. Collectively, we had 108 votes. Collectively, we did not value vision/looks ahead, develops subordinates, competence/accomplishes the mission, or team building (builds a cohesive team).

This deserves some thought. What is behind this? Could it be that at West Point we socialize ourselves to see leadership a certain way? Could it be that because we are not experienced yet — and therefore do not see ourselves as “competent platoon leaders” yet — we undervalue the importance of competence and developing subordinates? What would happen if we changed the question. What if, instead of asking, “What do you want in a leader?” we asked, “What do you want in a battle commander?” Would that change our emphasis?

What Do You Want In A Leader, Part 1

Coming out of the Leadership in Action (LIA!) stories we told earlier this week, we identified a set of characteristics that the leaders in the stories exemplified. In other words, we developed a set of themes that were present in the stories that we told about leaders in action. We then voted on the factors that we thought were most important to each of us personally. Each person got 3 votes to cast. It’s really interesting to see how it played out: LIA1

Numbers in green show the number of votes received:
What jumps out at you? Any surprises?

Leadership in Action Workshop at West Point

This week, we kicked off a 3-month course at West Point called MX400: Officership. This is a capstone course for seniors that focuses on the character, competence, and leadership skills officers need to lead Soldiers in battle–to accomplish the mission at least cost–along with a range of topics that are important to officership.

For our first class meeting, we ran a Leadership in Action (LIA!) workshop.

Have you witnessed leadership?

This is the question we asked the cadets. They each answered the question by telling a one-minute story of leadership in action (LIA!)—giving each other concrete, personal examples of real-life leadership. After 3 rounds of storytelling in small groups, we finished the workshop by talking about the themes that emerged. The stories gave us a new glimpse into what is forging our understanding of what it means to lead.

Want to learn more?

Read LIA! stories and learn about how to run a workshop in this ARMY Magazine article (PDF). If you are like us, reading this article will call to mind your own stories, and it will evoke in you a desire to lead in a way that is worthy of a story yet to be told.
Also, see the April 5 blog post describing the Leadership in Action process in full.

Positive. Inspiring. Energizing.

How To Run A Leadership In Action Workshop With Your Team

Recently, a group of us spent the evening talking about leadership. The way we did it was this: we told one-minute “Leadership in Action” stories to each other (that is not a lot of time). Picture 25 leaders in small groups, 3-4 per table, each telling a story about an experience that impacted them and that stands out as an example of a leader leading. We kept a clock, keeping us to one-minute each. After we were done at that first table, we each rotated to a different table and the clock started again: we told our story to fresh faces and listened to several new stories. We did three rounds of this. By the time the “speed dating” was over, we had shared our story three times and had listened to at least 9 great stories. It was energizing and even inspiring. We came away from the experience fired up and plugged back into what we value most in a leader.

ASIDE: This can work as an ice breaker for new groups or an energizing experience for those who have been together for a long time. In addition to the learning around the topic of leadership, there are two skills that participants get to practice in this workshop: 1. The art of storytelling; 2. The art of engaged listening. As a facilitator, it helps to mention this. We like to interrupt the workshop after round 1 to talk specifically about how to be an engaged listener.

After round 3, we asked everyone to stand up and said: “Each of us is now going to put a hand on the shoulder of one person whose story really connected with us.” Picture the chaos. I have my hand on your shoulder, and you have to pull me across the room in order to get your hand on someone else’s shoulder. Big thanks to Nancy Dixon who shared this “shoulder touching” idea with us. Once everyone had their hand on one person’s shoulder, there were some participants who had many hands on them. We finished the workshop by asking these particular people to share their story one more time, this time with the entire group.

A week later, we did this again with a group of 27 Army lieutenants. We didn’t have time to do the full-blown version, so we introduced the idea and paired everyone up. Two minutes later, every person in the room had shared their story and heard a story. We closed out by inviting people whose buddy had shared an especially good story to “nominate” him or her to tell the story to the entire group. After five people shared their story to the entire group, we talked briefly about observations or insights that had emerged for people and, bam, we were done. Ten minutes incredibly well spent!

tonypburgess

Leadership Counts!