Four Simple "Shared" Ideas for Building Community

I'm into simple and concise ideas about leadership.

This even applies to more complex leadership challenges like community building where I have written previously on simple concepts for community building. For example:

Building Community - Trust Begets Trust
Cites the work of Kouzes and Posner in The Leadership Challenge where the authors identify trust as a foundation for community and teamwork.

Building Community: Thank you as a way of leading
Proposes gratitude as an easy and remarkably powerful step in building the type of community that is essential for successful teams.

Building Community with Giving
Suggests that giving and service are key ingredients to building community across teams.

Becky Robinson at the Mountain State University LeaderTalk recently posted four simple ideas for community building. Her ideas were both "simple" and accessible.

Here are her four points along with my comments and links to my previous posts:

Shared relationships. People feel part of a community when they are well connected in relationships... leaders facilitate this interconnectedness. The more people are interconnected, the more likely they are to have a sense of community.

Get to know the people around you. To me, it starts with knowing about their families and names of spouses and children; it allows you to connect quickly.

Sustain the interconnectedness with smiles and gratitude.

Shared experiences. When people participate in activities together, collaborating as a whole or working in small groups, relationships have a chance to grow. Even after the activity is over, shared memories with others can contribute to a sense of community.

Draw people into your plans and tasks. Collaboration doesn't have to be hard. But is starts best with questions and listening; not telling. Also, let's dispel the myths that collaboration takes longer or suggests that a leader is soft or weak.

Shared goals and purpose. As people rally around a shared cause or goal, a sense of community builds. People feel emboldened by others who are working toward the same purpose.

I have previously cited the work of Kouzes and Posner who describe the importance of a shared vision across a team or organization. They suggest in their work, "Remember that leadership is a dialogue, not a monologue.... it's about developing a shared sense of destiny. "

Shared achievement. People enjoy being a part of something bigger than themselves, knowing that their contribution makes a difference. Leaders who recognize a groups' effort build community.

I feel that celebration should be an important element of the gratitude shown by an organization. As I have written before Gratitude is Transformational.

Becky's community building list is a perfect way to remind leaders that building community doesn't have to be hard.

Thanks for David Zinger for his Tweet that shared this nice list.

Thanks for reading. Please lead quietly. Don

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Are You an In or an Out Leader? - Gill Corkindale - HarvardBusiness.org

How much time and energy are you spending in (or with) your team and how much time out in the wider organisation? It might seem like a simple question, but executives rarely take the time to think about it. It's important to do though, because this single question could answer many other questions that you — or your boss — have about your style and effectiveness.

Executives usually have a preference for one arena, which can be reinforced by their role, their personality, or even the corporate culture. A quality control manager, for example, would naturally be more inwardly focused while a communications director would roam across the business. Both roles would attract different personalities. Similarly, some organisations are structured as, or have developed into, silos due to the nature of their business or markets. Examples might include law firms, where separate practices evolve to serve clients in specific areas.

My suggestion is that executives need to balance the time they spend in both the In and Out arenas if they are to be effective.

via blogs.harvardbusiness.org

I liked Gill's label of In and Out Leadership. In my comment on the post I wrote:

I appreciate the thoughtful post and the distinction between In and Out Leadership and the need for balance.

I have this notion that the line that you draw between In and Out could also be positioned differently along different definitions. I think of one alternative as a line drawn between "we" and "me" leadership. You might identify leaders who fail to focus on the "we/inner" needs of the team by focusing on their own advancement or ego/"out" leadership needs. In this case balance is also required.

Regardless of where you draw the line, I like the distinction between In and Out Leadership.

The key seems to be balance.

Thanks for reading. Please lead quietly and stay balanced.

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Scary Bloggers - I'm guilty?

There’s been a lot of fear about blogs this past decade. Even the word “blog” is scary, like some gelatinous swamp thing oozing over our precious discourse, upending the neat order of things and leaving behind a trail of slime. These monsters were multiplying by the thousands, threatening to consume national media, bring Congress to its knees and subvert the interests of decent, regular people.

via 2010.newsweek.com

Bloggers are scary. I can't help but laugh.

After writing Lead Quietly for over two years and learning so much and really appreciating the opportunity to connect with others on the blogosphere, the only scary part for me is that I continue to discover there is too much to learn and explore. I'm afraid that I won't live long enough to get to it all.

I hope that I haven't scared you with subversive information.

Check out the Newsweek series. Another favorite part, the celebrity mug shots.

Thanks for reading. Please lead quietly.
Don

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Great leaders don’t actually lead at all

When I watch ‘leaders’, here’s what I notice. Some people lead quietly, some lead loudly, some lead with ideas, some lead with deeds, some lead with unbending integrity, some lead with inspiring words and others lead, surprisingly effectively, with ego and selfishness.

Who the hell knows? There is likely no answer, except maybe that provided by the Greek philosopher (apparently it’s unclear) who summed it up: Know Thyself.

via dcnonl.com

I pulled two sentiments from this post. First, great leaders get out of the way and let their people charge ahead.

Secondly, there are many different styles of leadership. I like the quiet types because it allows me to be authentic, effective and personal.

The "Know Thyself" quote is good advice.

Thanks for reading. Please lead quietly.
Don

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ChangeThis: The Upstarts Are Here! - Surprising demand for leadership and community building skills.

Technology is GenY’s humble servant and they use it to connect and collaborate with their peers, co-workers, employees, business partners, customers and, yes, complete strangers. So it’s not the technology that’s important, it’s the relationship and community building that’s facilitated by technology that matters.

via changethis.com

One of the surprises in reading Donna Fenn's Change This Manifesto about young entrepreneurs is that their success is dependent on their ability to build relationships and community between partners, vendors, and customers. Here are some examples:

1. Fenner found that Upstarts have a strong tendency to start businesses with partners. They look to use a team to expand their skills and reach.
2. In this economy—in any economy, really—you don’t just need customers, you need evangelists. Do this by building communities of customers.
3. Build dedicated tribes of employees. "Upstart CEOs tend to build company cultures that reflect their own workplace needs. So traditional hierarchies are rare, frequent feedback and short-term rewards are popular, and training is viewed not as a luxury but as a necessary recruitment and retention tool."

My primary takeaway from the manifesto is that, although technology is important, the community and leadership skills that I describe here on Lead Quietly, are still an important tool in the entrepreneurs toolbox. It is much more than technology.

Thanks for reading. Please lead quietly.

Don

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Achieving Business Excellence - Words of Wisdom from John Spence

Words of Wisdom

Keys to Success in Business and Life

• Attitude is everything. Be positive, optimistic, engaging, spirited and happy. People like to be around happy people.
• Build your house on a solid rock of education. Be a dedicated lifelong learner. Be curious. Ask lots of questions. Be an absolutely superb listener.
• Take a risk, try something new. Life is a bold adventure or nothing at all.
• Your integrity and your reputation are all you have, guard them carefully.
• Surround yourself with smart, values-driven and caring friends, and then don’t be afraid to ask for, and give them, lots of help.
• To be truly successful in life, find something you are passionate about and follow it with gusto.
• Take good care of yourself. Health, vibrancy and vitality are essential for a long, happy and successful life.
• There is more opportunity than you could possibly imagine, but you have to go look for it.
• Lasting success does not come from chance, fate or good luck. Be well prepared, have a plan, set clear goals and remain focused on them regardless of circumstances or difficulties.
• No success is ever achieved without diligence, hard work and unrelenting persistence in the face of inevitable challenges and failures.
• Be kind and fair. Stay humble. Treat everyone with respect. Give back, help others, help your community.

via johnspence.com

Just doing my normal morning reading (Google Reader and TwitterGadget) and I came across this work by author John Spence.

I was inspired by both the simple list and the video. My favorite from the list:
"Be kind and fair. Stay humble. Treat everyone with respect. Give back, help others, help your community."

All nicely stated.

Thanks for reading. Please lead quietly.
Don

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Reinventing Leadership In The Age of Collaboration - FP Posted

In his book, Leadershift, author Emmanual Gobillot, a consultant and speaker with a wide audience in Europe, describes how to adapt traditional leadership roles and a develop a new business model for success. Leadershift explores the world of mass collaboration--that is, the collective actions of large numbers of people working independently of organizations and institutions. Gobillot argues that social, collaborative and virtual networking have far deeper implications than just changing the way we work or do business. Mass participation makes business a social enterprise, and therefore changing the nature of roles within.

Gobillot argues that leadership during a mass participation era is linked to narrative (story telling) and contribution more than it is to power and prescribed roles. The real challenge with collaboration is that it needs to be implemented with tools that do not currently facilitate it. Engaging in conversations with people that help paint desired pictures of the future, or apply our knowledge of human behavior from brain science research is at odds with the kinds of structures and processes that currently exist in organizations.

via network.nationalpost.com

There are four trends that all suggest that individual experience, skill, effort and power are diminishing in importance in favor of collective experience, skill, and networks.

In this post I also appreciated the definitions of Leader and Ruler supplied by commenter rossbcan:

Leader: One we voluntarily follow because they expose a vision and a place / role for us that is in our self-interest

Ruler: Those we FEAR to cross.

Interesting concepts in new leadership.

Thanks for reading. Please lead quietly.

Don

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