LIVING ETHICALLY

At my sons karate class this morning I was sitting with another parent who is also a neighbour. We were chatting and suddenly my phone vibrates twice to let me know that I have a text message. I'm not going to tell you what I did, but the situation got me thinking of vice or virtue. In today's society is it a vice for me to peek at my phone to check the message? Is it virtue for me to demonstrate respect and consideration for our conversation by ignoring the text and practicing active listening? What role has technology played in ethical complexity?

After karate we went to pick up some groceries. Is it vice for people to leave their shopping carts diagonally in the middle of the aisle where it blocks others from getting by? Is it virtue to park your grocery cart on one side of the aisle to allow your fellow shoppers to pass while you are reading the labels?

The discussion of write and wrong is relevant in so much we do and as I am discovering in any interaction with others whether active or passive. While there are no real rules about my experience in the dojo, I believe the right thing is to ignore my phone until there is a break in the conversation and then excuse myself politely in order to check to see if I have an important message. However, I've seen others sabatoge a conversation because of a meaningless text message or phone call. While there is nothing written on any signs at the grocery store it only seems ethical to keep your cart to one side to consider others who may want to pass and enjoy their shopping experience.

Not sure how much I believe in an absolute right and absolute wrong, but awareness of how our behaviour affects others in critical for leadership and building better relationships. Bass (1999) suggests that ethics plays a huge part authentic transformational leadership.

What's the big deal?  Ethics are part of the invisible network of systems that connect humans to one another.  With Ethics comes an understanding of how ones behaviour impacts others and society.  Bad in, bad out.  Good in, good out.

THE ANSWER IS...IT DEPENDS!

What is the best leadership approach or style? It depends. Yes, that’s really the answer.

Contingency Theories of leadership suggest that the style or leadership approach should be based on the needs of the environment or situation and the needs of the participants or followers. Variables like time, working conditions and work agreements should come into play when considering a transformational or transactional approach. The level of motivation or skill of the participants should influence the leaders choices on a continuum of Highly Directive or Laissez Faire, or High or Low supportive.

With situations and people being so complex there is never one style or approach that is best. When we chose to be monocrematic in our leadership approach we are either not aware of the contingency variables or refusing to consider the complexities that situations and people bring. Transformational leadership cannot occur without considering the needs of the participants or followers.

The llabb is a wherever our conversations with thinkers occur.  I'm borrowing the lexicon from Sefu Bernard.  Conversations in the llabb have raised the premise of the opposable mind of the leader. It is suggested that successful leaders are integrated thinkers who integrate opposing ideas to create the best solutions (Martin, 2007). So instead of one leadership approach or another, successful leaders will take the best of different approaches and integrate them to best serve followers and navigate the situation.

For the past 5 years I have integrated a servant transformational and transactional approach when coaching athletes. During that time I have practiced a low directive, high supportive approach. The rational was that we wanted to develop thinkers on the basketball court. We facilitate emergent leadership, equip our athletes with info and empowering players to make the decision on the court. I always receive rave reviews for this coaching style. Most of our athletes thrive in this environment, but there are some who don't. Contingency theory has helped me to understand that the needs of the situation and participants must be priority one and that successful leaders today will adapt style and approach to meet those needs. How we want to lead is less important than modifying and specializing to suit the uniqueness of each of our athletes.

I’ll let you know later in the season how it goes.

WHAT IS YOUR ELEMENT?

Whether on court or facilitating self-direction in a cognitive sense,  my element is coaching.  Changing lives by helping people to learn new things, understand the depth of their greatness, empowering and enabling leadership are a passion.

Sir Ken Robinson suggests that you're in your element when something you're naturally good at comes together with a passion.  My favourite parts of my element is being in the zone because it is a state of unconsciously practicing presence.  There are other tasks or responsibilities in life where your mind wanders to past and future because you are not enjoying what you are doing.  Being in the moment is an indication that you are engaged and enjoying the present.

So, are you in your element?  If so, great.  If no, why not?

Your element (not to be confused with your comfort zone) is a place for you to realize your limitless greatness.  It is your multiplier and the place for the maximum returns to scale for every unit of your output.

Again I ask, are you in your element?  If so, great.  If no, why not?

10 RULES OF BEING HUMAN

One of my mentor just shared this nugget of greatness with me today.  Enjoy! 

10 Rules of Being Human, from Cherie Carter-Scott, From "If Life is a Game, These are the Rules"

Rule One:
You will receive a body. You may love it or hate it, but it will be yours for the duration of your life on Earth.

Rule Two:
You will be presented with lessons. You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called 'life.' Each day in this school you will have the opportunity to learn lessons. You may like the lessons or hate them, but you have designed them as part of your curriculum.

 

Rule Three:
There are no mistakes, only lessons. Growth is a process of experimentation, a series of trials, errors, and occasional victories. The failed experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiments that work.

Rule Four:
A lesson is repeated until learned. Lessons will be repeated to you in various forms until you have learned them. When you have learned them, you can then go on to the next lesson.

Rule Five:
Learning does not end. There is no part of life that does not contain lessons. If you are alive, there are lessons to be learned.

Rule Six:
'There' is no better than 'here'. When your 'there' has become a 'here,' you will simply obtain a 'there' that will look better to you than your present 'here'.

Rule Seven:

Others are only mirrors of you. You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects something you love or hate about yourself.

 

Rule Eight:

What you make of your life is up to you. You have all the tools and resources you need. What you do with them is up to you.

Rule Nine:

Your answers lie inside of you. All you need to do is look, listen, and trust.

Rule Ten:

You will forget all of this at birth. You can remember it if you want by unravelling the double helix of inner knowing.

EMERGENT LEADERSHIP

Marion & Uhl-Bien (2001) suggest an alternative focus on leadership where leaders enable rather than control, where power derives from the leaders' ability "to allow" rather than to direct (Regine & Lewin, 2000), and where people in the organization remain engaged and connected (Knowles, 2001).

In Teachers are Like Gardeners, Sir Ken Robinson suggests that gardeners do not make plants grow. The plant grows itself, however great teachers create the conditions for plants to grow.  This same concept applies to leadership.  Great leaders create the conditions to enable leadership to emerge.

Leaders as enablers, use the following mechanisms: disrupting existing patterns, encouraging novelty and making sense of the unfolding events for others (D.A. Plowman et al., 2007)