The Things Women Need To Know About Men
All women need to know what it means to be a guy. Times have become much differently, especially in recent years. More men are seeing women as an equal, and respecting their independance. Men are showing more and more respect towards women, and realizing their true value. Men have shifted from being the provider and owner of the household, to being a more neutral and sharer of responsibiliities.
Women And Marriage-
When a girl decides to marry, they take on several responsibilities that guys would traditionally back away from. A women is supposed to be able to prepare meals, maintain a tidy home and be the primary caregiver of the child. In today’s age, given that women share a professional career with their male counterpart, they have alot on their plate to deal with.
But, men are starting to share these tasks and becoming more helpful in the household, and other traditional woman roles.
Women And Equality-
Women were once thought of as being more of the caregiver and company to the male, have really stepped up and made their presence felt in a male dominated world. CEO’s, bodybuilders, Sole income earners in the household. Women will never be taken on lightly again. They are emerging ever more strongly as new standards are being set with each passing moment.
Women And The Dating World-
When it comes to dating, anything goes these days. A woman could be looked at as just as much of a hunter or chaser as a man. Many women are happy to say that they wear their pants around, and call the shots. It’s great to see things on an even playing field, and it changes the whole meaning of ‘woman’.
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One More Time; Do Women Make Better Leaders Than Men?
An outsider, studying our culture from the headlines on business and news magazines, might wonder what all the fuss is about. Women wanted the top jobs, then they got them, then they didn’t want them anymore. Men wanted to keep women out, then they thought that becoming more feminine would give them a competitive advantage, then they got tough and ruthless all over again. Now women are nearly as ubiquitous as men in the middle management ranks, and there are enough women making an impact at the “C” level that no one can label them token representatives anymore. But while things may look slightly better in terms of numbers, something is still not quite right below the surface. Male or female, gender isn’t supposed to matter in the corporate setting anymore. So how come the bulk of the research out there points to the same ugly problems concerning women in leadership?
You see, ever since the industrial revolution — or at least the 1930s — the organization had been markedly masculine. The dominant “mechanical school” of organizational theory, for example, was founded on such ideas as centralized authority, specialization and expertise, division of labor, principles, rules, and regulations. The emerging organization, however, was more feminine in gender because it was characterized by collaboration, the delegation of authority, empowerment, trust, openness, concern for the whole person, an emphasis on interpersonal relations, and the inevitability of interdependence. The type of organization that would appear to be the perfect platform for what Dr. Lois Frankel calls the “feminization of leadership”. In her instructive book, See Jane Lead (2007), Frankel states that women have always lead, but not in ways that were valued or recognized in the old, mechanical school. Women, it would seem, were finally in the right place at the right time
So Soft It’s Hard
With a flattened organizational structure, and a knowledge economy that put a premium on such feminine characteristics as collaboration, trust and sensitivity, it was only a matter of time before some social psychologist decided to start grooming men in a new way. After all these years, men were now told that hard skills were not really that important when it came to leadership. Technical attributes were like tool belts; they could be picked up at the hardware store when needed, and strapped on to suit the task at hand. Being smart was way less important than being emotionally intelligent.
According to writers like Daniel Goleman, women have emotional intelligence in spades. All that time spent chatting instead of getting to the crux of important issues? That was really about bonding, openness, sharing, empathy, building rapport, and trust. How about the need to consult everyone in the organization from the boss to the janitor before making an important decision? That was all about consensus building, alignment, and seeing the issue from multiple perspectives.
During the boom years, it seemed to work. Productivity was high, stock prices rose, new markets emerged and old markets got bigger and more profitable. Maybe this business of the organization and leadership becoming feminine wasn’t so bad after all? Then the bubble burst, the economy contracted, and long-range projections for growth fell off a cliff. Time to baton down the hatches. After all, when the going gets tough the tough get going.
That’s when women started to reconsider what I call “ROL”, or Return on Leadership.
Who’s Sorry Now?
When the going got tough, a lot of women decided they didn’t want to be any tougher. All of that slaving for the big bucks, working yourself to the bone, ripping the fabric of your family and personal life to shreds . . . maybe it just wasn’t worth it; the ROL was in the “red” for many talented women. The headlines on those business and news magazines said it all. Women Aren’t In The Corner Office, They Don’t Want Power, They’re Opting Out . . . magazines like Fortune, FastCompany, and the New York Times Magazine exclaimed. Warren Farrell’s taboo-busting book, Why Men Earn More, laid it out straight: women tend to put in less time than men, working fewer hours; and, statistically, people who work 44 hours a week make almost twice as much as those who work 34 hours. As a result, women still comprise fewer than 2% of Fortune 1000 CEO’s and just 7.9% of Fortune 500 top earners. As an article in the Wall Street Journal (10/24/05) pointed out, the reasons are many; “women hit their prime child bearing years at the same time they are most pressured to prove themselves at work; they are reluctant to put in the 80-hour work week and globe trotting required for the corner office; they are too concentrated on staff positions like HR and marketing, where they never learn P&L responsibility; and they don’t have informed mentoring and networking opportunities, like golfing with the guys. These theories belie a consistent finding in the research — there is little difference between the leadership abilities of successful male and female bosses. Carol Hymowitz of the WSJ hit it right on the head when she states, “the big problem is both sexes believe their own biased perceptions more than they believe [the facts].” To be sure, I, and a number of researchers, realize that women still face an inherent bias in or society, adding to the challenges that Alice Eagly and Linda Carli describe in their HBR article (September 2007) Women and The Labyrinth of Leadership. In the language of psychologists, they state that the clash is between two sets of associations: “communal and agentic”. Women are still associated with communal traits, which denote compassion and affection, whereas men are associated with agentic, or dominant, self reliant, and confident traits; core to the traditional notion of leadership.
For all of these reasons and theories, research organizations like Catalyst claimed that women were leaving Fortune 500 companies at an astounding 1400 women per day rate. Where they were going was anyone’s guess, but given the level of heated discussion over the issue of work-life balance, we can imagine that they were sick of the grind. Maybe power wasn’t worth it? Maybe the glass ceiling was more like plexiglas protection around a violent hockey game? Or maybe the women are not getting the intellectual stimulation they need, or, as a May 1, 2005 article in the New York Times decided, they are just bored. (“Behind the Exodus of Executive Women: Boredom.”)
Frankly, many men are beginning to analyze their ROL as well, and coming to the same conclusions that apparently many women have come too. In a study conducted by Burson and Marsteller, in 2001, 27% of Senior Executives said they are not interested in becoming CEO. In 2005, over 60% said they are not interested. I would only assume that this percentage has risen significantly again in the last two years.
On The Folly of Hoping For “A” While Rewarding “B”
The true nature of our problem, in my opinion, is explained best in Steve Kerr’s famous essay, “On the Folly of Hoping for ‘A’ While Rewarding ‘B’.” Kerr described a common problem in HR development initiatives. We say we want “X” but we persist in rewarding “Y.” Consider the case of the feminization of leadership. A whole generation of leaders — men and women alike — were developed on the notion that sensitive, caring, coalition-building characteristics would lead to success. Open your arms, give your employees a big hug, explain everything they ever wanted to know about your motivations and underlying objectives, empower them, set them free, and they will perform for you at unprecedented levels, thereby securing your ultimate goals. It’s a win-win-win situation.
Does it work like that in the real world? Well, as Ernest Hemingway once wrote, “Isn’t it pretty to think so?”
In the real world, leadership is not always most effective when it is most caring, open, transparent, sensitive and empowering. In fact, fear, manipulation, ruthlessness, power-hoarding and the competitive will to win at all costs are common characteristics of our best, and most effective leaders. While that may not sound very warm and fuzzy, it cannot be ignored. The organization may have become more feminine in structure and culture at the dawn of the knowledge era; but business results remain unabashedly male. Leadership may have softened in the last decade, but getting to the top, and staying there once you’ve made it, remains a tough, hard, ruthless, and overtly political act.
It isn’t pretty to think so; but it’s real.
In the Final Analysis
Is leadership gender neutral, or does gender matter? Are men better at the leadership thing in practice, or do women have better leadership attributes in theory?
I think we will be debating these questions for centuries to come. But for the record, as far as the skill side of the leadership equation, I (and many other researchers) think women do have the edge. The differentiator appears to be on the will side of the equation. This is why I plainly state in my by book, The Taboos of Leadership, that women do make better leaders, when that’s what they really want to do. The important point, however, is that all leaders, prospective leaders, and followers — men and women alike — need to understand the true nature of leadership. It’s messy. It’s not clean cut. Some characteristics work in some situations. But to put our head in the sand, and wish the ugly side away will cause us to fail.
I think that men and women could learn a lot from each other about leadership if they could talk about the elephant in the room. Women have all of the tools to be leaders. So do men. We all have different tools in different balances; and we all need to lean on some strengths over others, or compensate for weaknesses.
A Few Presumptuous Considerations for Women (and Men)
Remember that leadership isn’t the only noble and worthy pursuit in an organization. I hear the rhetoric too that everyone “can and should” be a leader. I think this is so widely accepted because very few understand what leadership really is. Being excellent and great at what you do doesn’t always translate into becoming a leader; we can’t forget that some of the greatest individuals in history had a significant impact in life without being a “leader.” I think we would be better off if everyone believed that they “can and should be” a productive, wonderful, compassionate, loving human being.
If you have pursued becoming a leader, and your ROL is in the red, consider “Quitting”. I highly recommend Seth Godin’s new book entitled, The Dip; A Little Book that Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick). He states that when you find yourself asking if the goal is even worth the hassle, “maybe you are in the “dip” — a temporary setback that you can overcome if you keep pushing. But maybe it’s really a Cul-de-Sac, which will never get better, no matter how hard you try.” He goes on to say that “believe or not, quitting is often a great strategy, a smart way to manage your life and your career.”
Consider “Entrepreneur” Leadership instead of “Corporate” Leadership. I know it sounds easy, but the challenges that one encounters in building their own business may be less demanding and less restrictive than trying to climb the corporate ladder. In many corporations, getting to the “top” requires that you prove you can develop, run, grow, and lead a team or organization to profitability; why not do the same for your self instead of a Fortune 500 company and all it’s shareholders?
Break the Taboo of Discussing Gender in the Workplace. If women are only talking to other women about the struggles of leadership, and men are only talking to other men about “women” leaders, progress will continue to be slow. In Eagly and Carli’s HBR article referenced earlier, they state that women have traditionally “underinvested” in social capital. They cite a study that suggests that social capital is even more necessary to a managers advancement than “the skillful performance of traditional managerial tasks.” Let me emphasize that the “social networks” need to comprise both men and women if greater understanding (and thus, appreciation) among the sexes is to be achieved. Women have traditionally complained that ‘breaking” into the “good ole’ boy’s” network meant that they learn to play golf, drink Scotch, and have an occasional lunch at Hooters. Let me just state plainly; if these are the mores of the leadership within the company you want to advance in, you probably do need to learn “to play the game.” Let me also state that this applies as much to men as to women. I have coached several male executives over the years who were faced with the same challenge, and who opposed going to Hooter’s, hated golf, and preferred Chardonnay over Scotch . . . and my counsel was the same for them . . . learn the game or find an organization that more closely reflects your values, hobbies, and preferences.
Make it known that it’s your intent to become a leader in your organization. So many men and women alike engage in what I call “hinting and hoping” around their aspiration to become a leader. When a female partner let us know that she wanted to become a leader in our firm, and that she also intended on having a family, we were all able to help her manage her “path to partner” much more effectively than if we all would have waited around and second guessed one another about the “what if’s?” There were no surprises; we, the leaders in the firm, did not sit around and wonder if she was planning on leaving once she became pregnant, and we committed to providing feedback, coaching and mentoring, all focused around what she needed to do to become partner. Remember, if you have the skill and will to lead, and you make it known, you may find much greater support, which may even accelerate your path to leadership.
Copyright © 2007 Anthony F. Smith
Anthony Smith is Co-Founder and a Managing Director of Leadership Research Institute and author of The Taboos of Leadership: 10 Secrets No One Will Tell You about Leaders and What They Really Think (Jossey-Bass, May 2007).
Women Helping Women Through Volunteer Organizations for Women
It is amazing and inspiring to hear of women helping other women through a volunteer organization for women. Women empowering other women to be better, be stronger and to live their dreams are so astonishing. Women standing together at their best helping other women in the community to be their best are what a volunteer organization for women believes in.
It’s all around us; look for it in your community. A volunteer organization for women can be found in your community clubs and you may not realize it. The name may not stand out as a volunteer organization for women, but the focus and commitment do stand out. There are so many ways to make a difference. A volunteer organization for women encourages you to help other women and girls by:
• Volunteering at local domestic violence shelters.
• Serving as mentors to underprivileged women and girls.
• Participating in breast cancer and heart health awareness activities.
• Joining a volunteer organization for woman that specifically works to improve the lives of women and girls.
• Supporting women’s disaster relief funds, assisting female victims of natural disasters and acts of war.
• Recognizing other inspiring women that are working to improve the lives of other women through a volunteer organization for women.
Women have come a long way in this journey and they haven’t come alone. A volunteer organization for women welcomes all ages, cultures and ethnic groups. Members come from all professions and are doctors, attorneys, homemakers, teachers, CEOs, business owners, and government officials. They are all leaders in their communities. Find a volunteer organization for women in your community today. Women joining together to help each other will make the world a better place. You can make a difference.
Womens shoes-Work Boots and Shoes-Sandals
Like many shoe styles, women’s work boots and shoes are now available in an astonishing array of fashions with countless features, using a variety of materials. This wasn’t always the case. In fact in ancient history women’s footwear was often designed by men to be deliberately restrictive, thus ensuring that their women couldn’t stray far from the home. Luckily attitudes have changed over the years and the plethora of women’s work boots and shoes available today exemplifies the strides made in women’s rights.
Early women workers in America had to settle for poorly fitted boots or adapt men’s boots to fit their needs. Today, women finally have the same choices as men in both profession and work footwear. No matter what career path you have chosen we have the appropriate footwear to meet the demands of your work environment.
The most important thing in choosing a work boot or shoe is selecting the right combination of safety features for your occupation. The many styles offered here on shoe-store.net allow you to find the right combination of safety, comfort, and style for any work environment. We are confident our selection of women’s work boots will offer you the rugged dependability and comfort you need to make it through that exhausting double shift.
Sandals
Here at shoe-store.net we know that women love choices. Our selection of women’s sandals is designed to give you just that. From dressy high heeled sandals to laid back thongs we have almost any style you can imagine. No matter what the occasion or function we have you sandal needs covered.
While many sandals tend to have flat, unsupportive insoles we strive to bring you styles that are thoughtfully designed to bring you lasting comfort and support. From the natural comfort of cork footbeds to athletic inspired rubber soles and even calorie burning rocker bottoms our entire selection is based on the idea that sandals can be just as supportive as traditional shoes without sacrificing fashion.
Brands like Dansko, Naot, Beautifeel, and Finn Comfort offer luxuriously comfortable sandals for all sorts of occasions while Merrell and Chaco offer fantastic choices for all sorts of adventures, expeditions, and water sports. While we mentioned a few brands here the links to the left will lead you to an astonishing selection that we can’t begin to cover here. Use the links to check out sandals from your favorite brand or to narrow your search according to the type of sandal you’re looking for.
Naot
womens shoes
Women, Leadership and Personality: Insights Form the Myers-briggs Type Indicator
The MBTI is extensively used for leadership development training and coaching in companies all over the world. Based on psychologist Carl Jung’s theory of personality types, for more than 50 years it has been the most widely used psychometric instrument for understanding normal personality differences.
How does the MBTI work?
The MBTI identifies your natural preferences in four areas or dichotomies:
1.Where you get your energy from
Extraversion(E) the external world of people, activities and things; or Introversion (I) the inner world or ideas and experiences
2. How you take in information
Sensing (S) a focus on facts and present reality; or Intuition (N) a focus on patterns and future possibilities
3.How you make decisions
Thinking (T) using objective logic; or Feeling(F) subjective and values based
4.Preferred lifestyle
Judging(J) Planned, organised, liking things settled; or Perceiving(P) Flexible, spontaneous, keeping options open
This yields 16 possible personality type combinations.
Is there a “Leadership Type”?
It is simplistic to label any one category as a “leader type,” for various reasons
1.We are more than our personality type. The MBTI does not measure factors such as intellectual ability, emotional intelligence, or skill level – all of which would impact on a person’s potential for leadership.
2. Different types have different strengths, all of which can be important in a leadership role.
3. We are not “boxed in” by our type. MBTI theory holds that whilst our underlying type does not change, as we mature we develop the non preferred parts of our personality and so become equipped with a wider choice of behaviours. This development is both a natural process and something which we can cultivate consciously.
Interestingly however, research across different countries has consistently shown that Thinking and Judging (TJ) types are the most frequently occurring in managers and leaders. Kirby, 1997 notes that because these types are so prevalent, it may be that “Thinking and Judging behaviours have become the accepted definition of what it means to lead, and therefore, people displaying these behaviours are seen as ‘leadership material.’”
Leadership strengths associated with Thinking-Judging include a focus on creating order, structures and processes, use of logical reasoning to analyse problems, and an emphasis on competence and efficiency. However there are also potential weaknesses such as limiting creativity and flexibility, failing to include and consult with others, and a tendency to rush decisions.
It is therefore clearly unwise for any organisation to rely too heavily on a TJ management or leadership culture; fortunately this beginning to be more recognised.
What does this mean for women?
It’s significant. Thinking – Feeling (T or F) is in fact the only dichotomy which shows a gender bias. Women are more likely to report as Feeling types (75% ). In part this may be due to pressure to conform to what is considered socially desirable.
The implications for women aspiring to leadership positions within predominantly TJ organisations are obvious. According to type theory, people are most effective and fulfilled when they have identified and developed their natural strengths. In an environment which rewards TJ skills, women with different preferences may not have been given the opportunity to develop their own natural leadership style.
So how can I use personality type theory to help me be a better leader?
First, take the MBTI questionnaire with an accredited practitioner to establish your MBTI type. Once you understand your type, you can apply your learning as follows:
1. Seek opportunities which will allow you to use your strengths. If you are a Feeling type, you may find these in Human Resources, Training and Development, or client facing roles where people skills are important. But remember any type can do anything – do not feel limited by your type.
2.Recognise that the goal of healthy type development is to acquire a repertoire of skills which you can draw on as appropriate; so work on your least preferred areas as well.
3.Identify the dominant organisational culture (likely to be TJ) and work on developing your skills in these areas, particularly if these are your least preferred behaviours.
Above all, use your new knowledge as a framework for understanding and appreciating colleagues’ viewpoints and behaviour. Through understanding others you greatly increase your capacity for influence – as Blanchard states “the key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority.”
Go East Young Woman! Tips for Corporate Women, Female Leaders to Solve Their Sales Business Problems
No I’m not directionally challenged. Nor are the corporate women, women CEOs, successful business women and female leaders that we’ve spoken to at recent events.
In the frontier era, the phrase Go West Young Man was popular. It encouraged younger entrepreneurial pioneers to seek greater opportunities in the undeveloped western part of the United States. California was the land of gold and unlimited opportunity. And until recently, this model and that direction had not changed too much over the last hundred years. It was the preferred part of most everyone’s problem solving strategies to fix your sales business problems. Seek growth in the West.
In the United States, we’ve typically focused on developing opportunities and economic growth for ourselves within this country, particularly in the South and Western regions. And despite the current tough economy, many corporate women, women CEOs and others still find some opportunities in these places. However, as recent experiences have taught me, there’s an even greater potential offshore. Especially with the growth in women leaders in Asia from countries such as China, Indonesia, etc. The best female leaders, women CEOs, entrepreneurs and executives looking for growth and increased opportunities would be wise to take a stronger look at Asian markets and in particular, how the growth of the Asian female leader’s segment will impact their businesses and global economies.
The growth of women CEOs and female entrepreneurs in the Far East region has been astoundingly rapid. Just a few decades ago, the primary concerns for many women was simply just finding enough to eat, the lack of running water, poor government services, limited education and confinement to the traditional role of exclusive and primary care giver for their families. Fast forward to today and we begin to see how quickly this has changed. While most female leaders still have primary care-taker roles, the percentage of women starting new business and yearning for new opportunities has skyrocketed.
We’ve discovered this in the growth of the Facebook fan pages for women that we monitor. Most of the new fans come from outside of the US.
While Facebook should not be confused with solid economic research, it’s a great metaphor to understand how fast globalization, integration and the break-down of barriers between countries is shrinking the globe. These trends have increased the speed and effectiveness of communications throughout the world, facilitating interactions between almost anyone, anywhere at any time. Most importantly, it provides immediate and almost free access to the most important capital that any new business owner with limited experience needs – knowledge and information. Women CEOs and entrepreneurs in these developing areas are now able to take this information and turn it into actionable knowledge to avoid or at least mitigate the impact of mistakes that would have derailed even the best of their female leader predecessors.
Avoiding these pitfalls accelerates the speed, decreases the time and dollars needed to get a business up and running. This dramatically increases the probability of a success. This acceleration of success is evident when you compare and contrast the starting positions of women CEOs in the US versus women in China over the last decade. You’ll be amazed at how quickly the growth and development of Chinese female leaders has occurred. Is the question really, “Will they over take us?” or is it “When?” Regardless of which question you ask, you should really be thinking, “What are the opportunities’ for my organization in these emerging markets?”
But remember one caveat – what works over here, doesn’t always work over there.
We tend to be influenced and our perspectives shaped by our experiences working and living with the corporate women and successful business women expatriate populations of these countries. We see them, work with them and think that everyone in their native country is just like them. But if you believe that, you will be making the same fatal mistake that many other companies have done before you. The billions of dollars of money wasted in attempts to penetrate a sizable portion of these markets are enormous and might equal the GDPs of some of these smaller emerging countries.
The reality is what you see here is not always what you get there. What works here doesn’t necessarily work over there. Expatriates represent just the tip of the iceberg. There is a far larger segment of the greater population in these countries that you rarely see because they do not speak English and their access to technology and the Internet has been limited – until this point. But just wait – as the Internet, with tools such as Facebook, Google, Xing and others expands along with the improvement in technology infrastructure needed to support them, you’ll likely see an even greater acceleration in the growth of female leaders and women-owned businesses in Asian markets. While the impact on you and your business is unknown, both male & female leaders should pay attention attention.
So if you are looking for increased growth opportunities for your business, look east, not west.
Wayne Tarken is a senior business adviser, problem solver and performance coach to corporate men & women, female leaders, wom
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Become Your Companies Leader of the Future
Your company depends on its leaders for its continued survival. If you want your company to see continued growth and run as efficiently as possible, you need to make sure that the people you have leading the charge are the best leaders they can be. Leadership can be taught, or at least the techniques that will make you an effective leader can be. A great way to make sure that all of your company’s leaders are on the same page, and headed in the same direction is to have them take leadership development courses.
Courses in leadership techniques will give the big wigs at your company a better understanding of what it takes to rally the troops when times are tough, and how to give them effective praise when a job has been well done. All too often when we think of leaders in the business world we think of the hard-nosed boss who is quick to point out criticism and slow to hand out praise. Recognizing the role of the employees in the achievements the company accomplishes is an important aspect of being a good leader. Yes, you do need to be hard-nosed at times, but you need to be just as willing to give your workers a pat on the back as you are to chew them out.
Another huge part of being an effective leader is picking good teammates. One of the biggest benefits that you can gain from a leadership develop program is good hiring practices. As a company leader, you will likely do some of the hiring. By asking the right questions and knowing which answers to look for, you can make sure to hire the right people for the job. Hiring someone because they seem like a nice person is no longer a viable option. You have a responsibility to your company to make sure that you make the best hiring decisions possible. A leadership program will teach how to make the right choices when selecting the employees who will be working with your company.
Leading your company into the future is exciting. It is also a large responsibility; take the time to learn as much as you can about being a good leader. If you succeed in being a good leader, your employees will reward you with their hard work and devotion to the company.
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Entitlement-The Loftiest Leadership Stage a Leader Can Rise
Is Barak Obama enjoying the loftiest leadership stage any leader can reach? What about Nelson Mandela? Who between the two has reached the highest leadership stage? How can we know this? How do the leaders gain public fame? How did they take on the stage of public arena? Is there some defining moments that demarcate the leaders’ walk to public arena? If indeed there can be such moments, can these moments be captured? If so, can they be lessons for current and future leaders? What can current and future leaders learn from such moments? Yes, there are indeed defining moments and, these defining moments can be traced and captured. Besides, they can be used as learning lessons to current and upcoming leaders.
The loftiest leadership stage in the ten defining moments in leadership is Entitlement, when a leader has gained the public fame. The other stages stretching from when a leader is virtually unknown to when he or she is widely known are Emptiness, Experimental, Experiential, Endeavour, Engagement, Endorsement, Endearment, Endowment, Entrenchment, and the loftiest, Entitlement stage.
Whether positive or negative, fame is seen as increasing at the same level as the influence a leader exerts in the public domain. Thus, the more a leader is known and recognised, the more he or she exerts influence to the led. This simply means that if a leader is not known, his or her influence is small or none-existent. If he or she is a known public figure, his or her influence is great. In this way, a leader is able to affect the public agenda even more. With the ten stages, the book traces the leaders’ life’s journey from the time a leader is virtually unknown to when he or she becomes a household name. It traces the struggles, the huddles, the joys, the power and glory, of each stage, as well as the temptation accompanying each stage along the way. The book can be used as a leadership mirror to evaluate where the leader currently is, where he or she is going, and what such a leader needs to do as well as avoid during the current stage. The book also prepares a leader of what to expect in the next leadership and subsequent stages.
Why base leadership on fame? Simply put, a leader can simply be described as a dealer with people. At every level, from the home front to the national and indeed international front, leaders affect people either positively or negatively and many time a mixed grill of both. People rejoice when good leadership is in place or likewise mourn when the bad leadership is in place. Therefore, one cannot divorce leadership with follower-ship, and in the latter is where people are. For good or for worse the higher one climbs in the leadership ladder, the more people one affects, influences and touches. This means a man with a wife and three kids will adversely affect his family if that is the only influence he has. A business leader with a thousand people under him or her will adversely affect those people, and so will a president with a country of thirty million people. Then there are those leaders who have no geographical borders. They are bound to affect very many people in one way or another, for good or for worse.
Leaders everywhere occupy one of the ten stages of leadership ladder. The ten stages are further divided into four phases. Phase one is known as survival phase when the cup of fame is empty.
Phase two is known as success, a phase of relative fame when the cup of fame is half-empty. The third phase is called Success-Significance when a leader is enjoying wide fame, thus the cup of fame is full to the brim. The fourth and last, the highest leadership can go, is called Significance phase when the cup of fame is overflowing cup and the leader enjoys wider fame. Let us see this one further:
Emptiness-
A LEADER WITH A FLEDGING VISION & UNTESTED VIRTUE
Phase one is known as survival phase-The empty Cup of Fame. This phase has three stages, Emptiness, Experimental and Experiential.
The first stage of section 1 entitled Survival- The empty cup of Fame is Emptiness. This is a stage where and when a leader is little or not known at all. Both the position such a leader holds and influence he or she wields is limited or non-existent. It is when a leader holds only a fledging vision in mind and untested virtue at heart. This stage is promising, has all potential, but troubles abound and hindrances abide. Nothing but hope and faith is vested in such a leader, hope that he or she will make something out of his or her life or will turn out to be or somebody in the society, and faith that he or she will not disappoint. Therefore, the ‘public’ expectation of a leader in such a stage is courageous leadership.
Experimental-
A LEADER TESTING THE WATERS
Two words form the basis of the second stage called Experimental stage. The words are ‘try’ and ‘risk’ because the stage has bottlenecks which include uncertainty and let downs, misunderstandings and threat posing, rejections and regrets. Well, these are enough to keep the leader’s diary full and his or her life occupied. But with all the odds in this stage, and though they do not come easily, there are payoffs as well. This includes baby steps and vision test, exploiting the unexplored potential, knocking doors, building networks and collecting a basketful of learning experiences. This is the stage where the public expect authentic leadership, enough to overcome the let downs on the way to public leadership.
Experiential-
A LEADER TASTING THE FRUITS
The third and last stage in this first phase is called Experiential. This when and where a leader tastes the fruits of his or her labour. The bottlenecks include intense competition as well as a leader settling on laurels by reducing the vision originally cast. It is in this stage that the road branches somewhere, one fork of that road leads to virtue, and the other expediency. This throws such a leader in a dilemma of which to choose from the two forks of the road. Will the leader choose virtue or expediency? This presents a crisis to the leader for both of them offer opportunities or danger. Having been in the field of leadership and having built some following, people’s expectations towards such a leader are rising. The most important expectation is that a leader in such a calibre shows some principle standards in all his or her dealings.
Endeavour-
A LEADER FORGING ON
Phase two is known as success -The Half-Empty Cup of Relative Fame. This phase has two stages, the Endeavour and Endorsement. Though both the position and influence are on the increase, position is still greater than influence. Because of this, a leader in this phase is therefore ruling.
This phase begins with Endeavour stage, when a leader feels that enough is not enough and decides to move on in leadership ladder. The first characteristic in this stage is that the leader has more than enough, described as successful and that both the position and influence of a leader is on the increase and the leader is desirous to leave a mark in his or her leadership. But there are at least three bottlenecks in this stage, the naked and un-tempered ambition and greed and grabbing as well as the urge to exterminate or at least smoothen out the enemies on the way. The public expect a leader in the endeavour stage to offer integrity leadership, much needed at this stage.
Endorsement-
A LEADER GAINING PUBLIC ACCEPTANCE
Overall the fifth stage, second stage in this phase is known as Endorsement a stage where and when a leader is gaining public acceptance. The dangers in this stage involve setting a secure leadership base or solidify this endorsement for he or she may still feel insecure and in so doing take the path of revenge, settling scores on personal vendetta, surrounding self with cronies, rewarding those who helped the leader up as well as taking people for granted. Opportunities of Endorsement Leadership include proving his or her saltiness and building bridges and mending walls as well as seizing this opportunity to serve the people who voted or put him or her there. Therefore, the led expect such a leader to offer responsible leadership.
Engagement-
A LEADER GETS SOMETHINGTO DO
The third phase is called Success-Significance- The full to the Brim cup of Wide Fame and contains Engagement, Endearment and Endowment stages. For the first time, the leader’s influence surpluses his or her position.
In the Engagement stage, a leader is engaged, he or she gets something to do. His or her diary is full. The stage is transactional in nature, that is, there is a business-like transaction taking place between the leader and the led. Therefore, there are discussions, communication, concessions, and mutual agreements reached between the two parties. However, transaction work well when every party plays their part and work wrongly when one does not play his or her part well. Transactions being in the business world, it follows the characteristics of misuses found in that world, like underhand and shady deals, as well as breaking promises and lack of integrity. Three requirements needed in this stage are, the minimum requirement, the leader keeping the promise, the optimum requirement, the leader uplifting the virtue of integrity, and, the maximum requirement, the leader raising the level of leadership offered in this stage from transactional to transformational. Taken together, the public expectations of leaders in this phase are public accountability, positive influence, and a show of integrity. The public expectations of leaders in the Engagement stage are transformational leadership, a more superior leadership than mere transactional one.
Endearment–
PEOPLE’S EMOTIONAL ATTACHMENT TO A LEADER
The seventh stage is Endearment stage. While the fifth stage, the Endorsement stage was rather rational in nature, Endearment one goes beyond that to involve and invoke the emotional side of people. In Endearment, people exhume great love and pride and admiration of their leader. However, this may produce the flip side situation where the leader yearns to consolidate all the adoration directed to him or her and yearn to remain the centre of attention. The public expectation of Endearment stage is to offer steward leadership. Thus, their main responsibility and test of leadership to be effective and faithful stewards of the resources they have been entrusted with and the greatest resource being people themselves.
Endowment–
A LEADER CROWNED BY THE PEOPLE
The eighth stage of leadership and fame is Endowment stage, a very high stage indeed and prone to all kinds of dangers and vanities. Crowned by the people either by votes or by increase of customer or client base, or even fans, the next stage, the Endowment leader, believes he or she has special knowledge to lead, and thus taken as a gift of God to the people and not the other way round, is a beneficiary and not the other way round, can enter in the realm of metaphysics and not the other way round. The feeling of nuli secundus, the Latin word for second-to-none may dominate in such a leader. This builds the leader’s greatest weakness. Such leaders can capture leadership opportunities by serving a higher cause, and giving people glory. People’s expectations of their leaders increase at every level, and become more serious. People expect empowerment leadership, a kind that will improve their lot, not that kind of leadership that will only enrich the leader.
Entrenchment–
A LEADER IN PEOPLE’S PHYSIC
The fourth and last, the highest leadership can go, is called Significance phase- The overflowing cup of Wider Fame which contains two stages, the Entrenchment and the Entitlement stage. While Endorsement stage leaders were approved rationally, and Endearment types approved emotionally, the ninth stage of leadership, Entrenchment stage, leaders’ transcendence beyond all these and enter into peoples’ physic. This means that such leaders has too great influence that even if they leave the position of leadership, without use of force or arms they still influence any decision to be taken or made.
For good or for bad, Entrenchment leaders are very hard to replace and the obvious gap exists between them and any thought replacement. For good or for bad again, everything around these leaders is public. Holding the world to the sway of their influence and power, and using their larger than life space, if these leaders climbed all the way while they are dwarfed inside, they can misuse this honoured position of leadership in more ways than one. The potential and real danger surround Entrenchment leaders are insecurity and power abuse, moral compromise and lapse, breaking of rules, pride, vanity, fantasy and fanaticism all rolled into one. Such can subsequently combine to produce false beliefs in a leader which can lead to the dangers of human rights violations. On the positive side, Entrenchment leaders’ influence is so great that their virtues are felt widely and deeply. They should serve the high office better doing two things, one serving the people, and two, mentoring others in leadership. This is encapsulated in shepherd leadership expected of them by the public.
Entitlement-
A LEADER TAKEN AS A GIVEN
When the queen of Sheba parked her train caravans full of gold, camels and precious stones and crossed over from Egypt to Jerusalem to see for herself of the fame she heard of King Solomon, she was responding to King Solomon’s last form of leadership, Entitlement leadership, a leadership that makes other kings and queens travel far and wide to witness for themselves the glory associated it. This last and highest stage of leadership rides on greatest fame, greatest power and loftiest glory.
However, even such a leader can be larger than life but internally dwarfed. Some of the characteristics of such a leadership are pride, aloofness and a don’t care attitude, manipulating and misusing people, squandering state or business resources and, smoothening his or her way through by removing opposition and competition on the way. His or her conscience may die and can transcend from a fellow human being to a demi-god. Once these leaders consistently maintain the negative trends of leadership, they have a final and permanent place for them to go in history- back into permanent and irredeemable obscurity.
In such a high position as this, leaders ought to have nothing to prove or lose, nothing to hide or hold back and, at the same time everything give and gain. Even as people offer them permanent entitlement for leadership, the best Entitlement leaders can do is to have no entitlement on their side. They should portray a sense of selflessness as they lead people. Virtues like to nurture and mentor new leaders, to help humanity, to empower others and to leave a positive, lasting legacy are virtues that such leaders are expected to maintain while in such a stage in leadership. The overall public expectations of this phase are a showcase of more wisdom and model to them, portray more of genuine humility and service, shower more praise and appreciation to people struggling with hard life and concerns and, probably a culmination or a combination of all, a more display of greatness that kisses goodness. This is a leadership that can rightly be called servant leadership.
This is a summary of a book entitled, PUBLIC LEADERSHIP: HOW LEADERS ACQUIRE & HANDLE FAME, POWER & GLORY by Moses Kibe Kihiko published by Miraclaire Publishing (Website: www.miraclairebooks.com. The book is also available in Amazon, Createspace,Googlesearch and Lulu Markets. The author’s can be reached at moseskihiko@yahoo.com.