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Leadership Lessons from History

At Sonoma Leadership Systems, we cultivate talent. We also bring you stories that exemplify talent in the workplace. Beginning this month, we’re highlighting leadership stories told in the words of our clients in which they describe ways that inspired leadership has impacted their organizations. Our first story in this category is from the Nevada Department of Transportation. You can view the account of their transformation at "Client Stories."

Brand New—The Leadership Challenge® On-Line. We’re also committed to providing a range of integrated training solutions and methods of delivery. So, for the first time ever, we’re launching The Leadership Challenge® online. It’s a way to provide participants with a fast-start to applying the Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership®. Beginning October 16, 2009, we will be offering the first of the series of 6 facilitator led sessions. More than just a one-way webinar presentation, this is an opportunity to be fully engaged through group discussions, polling and video examples. For more details and course outline, call Sonoma Leadership Systems at (707) 933-3882 or make a request at ask@sonomaleadership.com.

In this issue—“Leadership Lessons from History.” We’re going back to basics with our fall Almanac topic, “Leadership Lessons from History.” Based on feedback from our last issue, “Leadership Now,” readers thought we ignored the value of learning from past mistakes and successes. With lessons learned, leaders can make improvements, re-chart and re-calibrate their course. We agreed and decided that looking over our shoulders at past leadership experiences is more than a good neck exercise! So, this month, we’re tackling the opposing view of being “in the moment.” No doubt there is tremendous value in looking in both directions of the compass. Yet the old adage reminds us, “There are no mistakes in life, only lessons to be learned.” In this issue, our very capable writers, Jeni Nichols, Tina Admans, Beth High, and Gil Jardine offer some of those learned lessons.

—Pat Schally, Editor
pat@sonomaleadership.com

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History’s greatest leaders give us tangible examples of living the Five Practices (defined in The Leadership Challenge®) without knowing that they were. We have real life, great leaders from the past here in Sonoma, which many people don’t know, is the birthplace of the State of California. Surrounded by such towering accounts of outstanding accomplishments, walking through Mission San Francisco Solano and the adjacent military barracks, one can’t help but get a sense of the immense leadership challenges that were overcome here.

If you think you have it tough selling your idea to upper management, consider Father Altamira. He was founder of the Mission San Francisco de Solano; a young, ambitious, and impatient leader who had a controversial plan to replace the existing mission establishments of San Francisco and San Rafael. He was drawn to the Sonoma Valley and called the area “The Valley of the Moon,” after the Native American observation that the moon in winter made seven successive appearances between distant mountains. Under the direction of Father Altamira, Mission San Francisco Solano was the last, Northernmost, and most controversial of the 21 California missions. He Inspired a Shared Vision of dedicating a new mission to God’s work.

Are you finding it difficult to face budget cuts? General Mariano Vallejo, the man credited with shaping California, was sent by the Mexican government to Sonoma in 1835 to secularize the mission and founded the pueblo of Sonoma. Under the command of General Vallejo, barracks were built, troops were trained, and natives were subdued. All of this was done with virtually no subsidizing from the Mexican Government. Because of the isolation of California, Mariano Vallejo learned to make his own decisions, finance his own army garrison, serve as foreign minister in matters relating to the threat of Russians settlers to the north, and monitor and control the American immigrants and foreign traders. General Mariano Vallejo was a fine example of Challenge the Process.

In this beautiful, nearly idyllic town in the heart of the world renowned wine region, over the course of four days, three times a year, we have our Leadership Challenge Open Enrollment Workshops. Using history as the platform we have an orienteering-type of activity at our Leadership Challenge Workshop here in Sonoma to learn from these leaders from the past. We explore the plaza, barracks and Mission and find historical parallels to most challenges that leaders face today. It is intended to give participants a chance to hear real life stories that drive home the lessons from the workshop and make the practices of leaders come alive, ensuring that what they have learned in Sonoma doesn’t stay here but rather stays with them over time.

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The one quality that distinguishes leaders from other “credible sources” is their ability to be forward looking. It may seem odd then that much of the data that some leaders rely upon to create their vision and strategy for the future is of course, historical data. Looking back to assess how processes, people, performance and decisions have played out over time is one of the most critical tools for a leader to actually move a business forward. If looking at the past as an indicator of the future is a proven method, why isn’t it done more often?

Many businesses, including my current clients, simply have not invested in gathering historical data. Don’t get me wrong, they have a great deal of data but it is not easily and readily accessible to all. It is in hard copy format, locked in disparate systems, stored in people’s heads, etc. The result of this is that a company ends up redoing a lot of work, including repeating many of its mistakes. The age-old adage, “History repeats itself until you learn from it,” is incredibly applicable to businesses that do not invest in simple, powerful, but user friendly, business intelligence tools. At one of my current client's organization, we have just started on this path and my caution to them is to not try to gather every bit of data the company generates. The last thing you want any one to do is get caught up in the minutiae of the past. Data is only useful if it helps make better decisions for the future

Everyone knows that past performance, whether people or processes, is no guarantee of future performance. However, as we learn in The Leadership Challenge®, becoming a better leader or building a better process, all starts with data from past experiences from history. The strength of a business and a leader comes from how it applies the lessons and insights gathered from the past to create, refine and reshape its vision for the future.

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In North Carolina, the signs of fall are clear. Okra is plentiful, air conditioners get a well deserved break and kids are heading back to school. I recently packed my daughter, Georgia, off to college with mixed emotions. Our relationship had been strained all summer. She was living on her own for the first time, yet still very dependent on us for support. We both had assumptions and expectations about how this should work. Most, it turns out, were not well articulated. “Didn't we just give her money?” “Shouldn't she be contributing to her independent living if she has a perfectly good room here at home?” I have some valuable lessons to teach but is my daughter ready to hear the message?

Watching our daughter assume she'd have enough money and fall short set off all my worry alarms and our conversations began to sound like a broken record. "In this economy you can't be casual about this!" and "Living beyond your means is how this country go into he mess we're in!" She came over less and less, which means I had less time to talk with her, which also means that every time we did talk I saw it as the only opportunity I might have to convey these life lessons (also known as "Life Lectures" in our home.) It all came to a head as we discussed finances for the coming year. It became clear that the messages received were far different than the messages intended. I was speaking from past mistakes and a deep desire to help her avoid the same pain. What she heard was lack of confidence. She was doing what she thought would work, in other words, figuring it all out. My lessons from the past cannot be her lessons for the future. The learning I can provide comes from modeling the behavior NOW and believing in her. Her deepest learning will come from her own experience.

No matter how much we suspect that there is danger ahead, a leader lets people learn from his/her own experience. It is not easy. Nobody wants to stand by and watch an approaching train wreck. So all too often we jump in and do whatever we can to stop it, denying those we lead the experience of learning in their own time, in their own way. Our job as leaders is to clear the tracks and fuel the engine. Then it's time to let the train leave the station.

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Lessons generally resonate as opportunities lost because of reluctance to operate outside of historical cultural norms and resulting definitions of what works and what doesn’t. Courage in leadership moves leaders and their constituencies beyond barriers that no longer exist. What lessons can we learn about the characteristics of courage in leadership?

I have learned along with my clients that a leader who exhibits presence does so in part by being courageous, optimistic and flexible in seeking to understand and embrace differences. In demonstrating this kind of courage and genuine curiosity, sources of possible conflict are uncovered and turned into sources of creativity, breakthrough thinking and productivity.

Here are some time-tested approaches that leaders have used in the past to demonstrate their courage in overcoming differences that work:

• Turning-off your ego while receiving tough feedback be it 360 degree or real-time
• Seeking to really understand and appreciate another’s perspective and context through open inquiry
• Being relentless and “selfish” in scheduling regular dialogues with your most “difficult” feedback providers and clients
• Being ready to share your concerns so understanding can be achieved when you are uncomfortable or perplexed
• Recognizing that authentic learning is unlikely to occur if you don't have the courage to fail on occasion, learn from that failure, and move on
• Acknowledging that all perceived conflict represents a special opportunity for learning which may never recur
• Spending time with your perceived opposites— their observations can be invaluable
• Avoiding allowing conflict to simmer
• Practicing the leadership behaviors discussed in the “Challenge the Process” section of Kouzes and Posner’s book, The Leadership Challenge®

Dag Hammarskjöld, my role model as a leader, expressed a classic leadership dilemma: “Your errors of the past make your relations to others difficult when the present shows you that you might repeat them.” By developing our courage, leavened by judgment and purpose, we can avoid blind repetition, overcome barriers and build trust-based relationships. The next time you hesitate to act or to explore a situation that feels uncomfortable because of past experience or conditioning, think of the lost opportunity that the resistance represents and then dare to eradicate that fear through bold inquiry. As Winston Churchill once said: "Difficulties mastered are opportunities won…."

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