Fundamentals of Level Three Leadership

How to Become an Effective Executive

James G.S. Clawson

• Publisher: Business Expert Press
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781637420409
• eBook ISBN: 9781637420416
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Leadership
• Index: Business

What does it take to become an effective executive?

Anyone with that dream goal will want to know the answers to the six questions around which this book is organized: Who are you? What's your strategic story? Can you sell your story? Can you organize to help not hinder? Are you a Change Master? Can you transform intangible asset pools into tangible financial results?

For easy apprehension, this unusual volume presents 140 concepts, one per short chapter each with an explanation, examples, visual diagrams, and challenging questions. Participants in 200+ three to five day seminars worldwide (US, Canada, Europe, Africa, Asia, South America and the Middle East) have been energized by these concepts and their applications to their careers and personal lives.

SECTION V

What’s Your Strategic Story?

Anyone who wants to influence others needs some kind of story, some rationale for getting them to do what they want. In the absence of a strategic story, influence devolves to coercive power based on rewards and punishments. There are dozens of traditional, established models for strategic thinking. I will introduce a few of them here and then the one I find to be critical to leading effectively at Level Three, a charter, and its six elements.

46. The Eastern Ball: Strategic Thinking: What’s Your Story?

Concept

Given our assertion earlier that leadership really means leading strategic change, a big part of, the Eastern Ball, our leadership model is formulating a strategy. In easy to remember terms, “what’s your (strategic) story?” IF you want to be an effective and inspiring leader, you will have to have a view of what your organization is about and where it is trying to go. If not, you will be a listener in the conversations—conversations that take place in the board room, in the hallway, in the rest room, in the office, and on the airplane or in the cab. If you have no opinion about what the company’s purpose is, about where the company is going, and how the company should get there, you have relegated yourself to the role of implementer, manager, and follower.

It is not easy to develop a strategic story. There are multiple models, frameworks, and pathways for doing this. Some are clearer than others. Some have a particular focus while others have a broader, vaguer scope. But unless you do this intellectual homework, you are little more than a chip riding on the currents of everyday news and disjointed information sources. To have a strategic story means you are clear on what you are trying to build. Clear on what you are trying to create.

For many, the purpose is simple. They say, “You ivory towered academic! The purpose of business is to make money!” It is true that every successful organization is self-sustaining and turns a profit. But if that is your purpose, you will have a hard time motivating your employees. You will be stuck with Level One leadership techniques, rewards, and punishments. Who wants to work hard to make other people rich? Who will give their best efforts to people who cannot point to a future?

Example

Well, you say, how does one inspire people to make concrete sewer pipe or any of the hundreds of other mundane businesses necessary to keep society moving? Ah. Perhaps you know the story of the three bricklayers?

A reporter went out one day to interview some bricklayers. She asked the first person, “What are you doing?” The man answered, “I’m laying brick. Thousands and thousands of bricks. Day after day, brick after brick! The boredom is unending! I hate my job!” The reporter went to another brick layer and said, “What are you doing?” His reply was, “I’m building a wall. It’s a big, long wall. Forty feet high, a hundred feet long, four feet thick. It’s a big wall.” Hmm, she thought.

Then she asked a third man the same question. His reply was,

I’m building a cathedral in which people are going to worship God. Every brick in this cathedral is going to contribute to or take away from the feeling of awe and inspiration that those people feel when they go into the building. I’ve got to make sure that my work contributes to that overall sense of awe and reverence.

Three men, three different perspectives. And where do those perspectives come from? From inside for sure, for each man comes from a different home and different set of VABEs imbued early in life. So what is the role of the leader? To make sure that the bricks are laid within the minimal standards of quality? To ensure that the men are paid on time? To replace men who are sick or quit?

Let’s take an even more ordinary example, mentioned above, concrete sewer pipe. What is the leader of that organization likely to say to his or her employees? “Okay, y’all, show up on time, dig like hell, make sure the joints fit, and turn in your time sheets.” What could the leader of that organization say?

Hey guys, do you know what cholera is? Probably not since you haven’t had to live with it. Let me tell you about cholera and dysentery. These are horrible diseases that can kill people within hours. People with cholera have racing hearts, explosive diarrhea, they vomit, for hours on end, they lose all the fluids in their bodies, their skin goes hard and plastic, their blood pressure drops, and they have painful muscle cramps. And THEN they die, within hours. And you know what causes cholera? Contaminated water! What we are doing here today is creating a system that intends to remove diseases like cholera and dysentery from this neighborhood. What we do here today means a better, healthier life for the people who live here. So be careful! Make sure there are no cracks in the sections! Make sure every joint is tight and secure! Make sure the backfill is tight and fully supporting of the pipe. What you do here today will matter for years to come. Do it right the first time!

The first leader had a strategic story, but it wasn’t inspiring. The second leader’s story was much more likely to inspire the workers. Hmmmph, you may say. What concrete pipe team leader would say the latter? Exactly. That’s why most people work for minimum wages and are only looking to get their wages and go home. In my view, it’s a failure of leadership. Their leaders have no story to tell, or at least the story they tell or imply is “work your butts off to save this company as much money as you can so the owners can have big houses and fancy cars.” THAT I say is a story that produces mediocrity—and leaders who come and ask, “How can I motivate my workers?”

Diagram

Challenge

1. Do your mental/intellectual homework and form your own opinions about the purpose of your organization and what you/it are trying to create.

2. Practice framing a story in your mind and articulating it—in the car, the shower, on your walks/jogs, while swimming, wherever.

3. Strive to uncover the implicit story in the employment contract you now have. What did they sell you to make you come work for them?

4. Like the third bricklayer, try to identify and articulate the bigger picture of what your job is supposed to do. Hold onto that every day.

5. Even if your employers don’t do this for you, be different. Stand out. Create the worthwhile purpose and vision for your work no matter how mundane it may seem. You will be happier, you will do better work, and your chances of being promoted and gaining more responsibility will grow!

47. Hope Is Not a Strategy

Concept

“Hope is not a strategy.” The source of this phrase is unclear. Rudy Giuliani and the Reverend Akande used it in 2009. I was making this comment in classes prior to 2000. Later, it became a comment in presidential campaigns.¹ Like many things, there may have been a parallel development; that said, early on I became distrustful of students’ in-class statements like, “I hope so.” and “Hopefully, they will respond.” Students would propose something and then add on, “I hope that will do it.” Usually, it was a substitute for more careful thinking like, “If I did that, what would happen? I might get A or B or C. How would I deal with each?”

This is a simple chapter—but it can have a deep impact. Whenever you find yourself saying, “Hopefully, …” pause and ask yourself, “How can I deepen my planning? How can I prepare for various outcomes? How can I make my own luck?”

I often use role-plays in my classes. I don’t instigate them, I only use them when a student recommends going to talk to someone. Usually in that suggestion, they will either sa...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Description
• Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Section I Basics
• Section II Who Are You?
• Section III The Unexplored Linkage Between Feel and Performance
• Section IV Global Business Leaders
• Section V What’s Your Strategic Story?
• Section VI Can You Sell Your Story?
• Section VII Organizational Architecture : Can You Organize to Help Not Hinder?
• Section VIII Mastering the Change Process: Are You a Change Master?
• Section IX Conclusion
• About the Author
• Index
• Backcover