Thursday Leadership Insight: What Road is Leadership Practice on?

All leaders have a story about their journey. The story revolves around how they developed as a leader and the paths they chose. All leaders' stories revolve around the development of three components. A leader's core is their values, purpose, mindset, and motivation. All leaders develop content skills to best serve. These content skills vary with the context of the times of their leadership practice. The leader's core is the foundation that drives the other two components. One's leadership practice is an ever-evolving inside-outside process. Yet, core components are the drivers of content skills acquired in the context of the time. A way to visualize this journey is to conceptualize the journey as a road. The leaders of Roads to Travel shine a spotlight on their leadership practice and how they serve. Leadership is crucial for any organization. In his newest bestseller, High Road Leadership Bringing People Together in a World that Divides, leadership expert John Maxwell writes a timeless truth of Leadership: "Everything rises and falls on Leadership. Leadership is critical in facing any crisis. Today, however, the world is facing a crisis that will have dire consequences. That crisis is in Leadership. We live in a world where disagreements have gone from civil discussion to battles marked by disrespect and derisiveness for either side of any issue. Charles Duhigg in Supercommunicators notes that these shifts in conversations are always made by a motivation to control. Once the motivation understood each other, our position was to control the situation and work together for a common solution. It is often marked by a desire to stay in line with our tribe and defend our position with little care to understand the other tribe as the evil enemy. The goal for this group is to protect their tribe and control the other "tribe' to be vindicated and victorious by blaming, criticizing, and stereotyping th the other "tribe "to fit our view of them. Psychologists refer to this as confirmation bias.. This is true for virtual any issue and the sad truth is the division is driven by leaders who divide to build their "power." It is often noted as a Democratic problem or a Republican problem, yet the truth is that it is an American problem with divisions stirred up by leaders. We live in a "LeaderSad" world at a time when all people deserve to be well-led.

"It is often noted as a Democratic problem or a Republican problem, yet the truth is that it is an American problem with divisions stirred up by leaders."

The movement to bring unity, understanding, and empathy for disagreement and difference depends on Leadership. The same is true for division, divisiveness, and disrespect. Interestingly, this is true of all opposing sides, and Leadership is the way forward. John Maxwell, in High Road Leadership, asks a tough question. What road is your leadership practice traveling on? This is the most critical question of our time, as it is the foundation to address all the other crises our organizations and the world face today. This Thursday, leadership Insight starts a series on High Road Leadership with an explanation of how values and skills in the context of the time affect Leadership. A description of the three roads a leader can travel and their leadership practices in this first part of the series.

Leadership is a combination of core values and skills, as well as content in the context of the time. Maxwell writes that the difference between good and bad leaders is values, core, skills, and content at any time. He writes, "Leadership rises when leaders have good values and skills at any time. It falls when leaders need better leadership values or skills. He further cites that the failure of leadership skills is easy to see, yet bad values greatly impact the people they lead. He notes how the different combinations of values and skills affect those a leader leads.

1. Leaders with good values and good values   that raise people up

2. Leaders with good values and poor leadership practices don't know how to help people

3. Leaders with poor values and Good Skills use the skills to manipulate people

4. Leaders  with poor values and good skills drag people down

 Maxwell demonstrates three roads a leader can choose in their leadership practice.

High Road Leadership

High Road leaders have a values orientation found in a servant leader

1. They have strong values and ethics. They value the dignity and worth of all people

2. They are focused on adding value to all and uniting people.

3. Their practice focused on putting others first.

4. They work to close gaps between the people they lead to develop a respectful, inclusive, safe organization.

5. They want those they lead to win. They  develop others to be leaders

6. They treat others better than they were treated

7. They don't keep score. They celebrate growth for all

8. Their motive is to be responsible and to serve others, not themselves

9. They have an abundant mentality and learner approach to developing themselves and connecting with those they lead.

10. They see the big picture and communicate and connect to rally people.

The high-road leader embodies the practices shared by Kouszes and Posner in the Leadership Challenge. The five practices of High Road leaders are "modeling the way, inspiring a shared vision, challenging the process, enabling others to act, and encouraging the heart."

Middle Road Leaders

Middle Road leaders have a transactional system of leadership. Everything is negotiable based on what the leader wants for themselves or close followers. They seek to get value from others in exchange for their leadership. Leadership is a reward for them.

1. They have a variable and situational set of values about the dignity and worth of all people to be adjusted for them to win in any context.

2. They are focused on self-interest, getting values from others

3. Their practice focused on themselves or close allies winning first or those that can benefit them.

4. They live with gaps between people looking for advantages and not wanting either side to be unhappy.

5. They want themselves and their allies to win. They develop their friends and family.

6. They treat others based on what is in it for them.

7. They keep score, and they mark growth for themselves or their allies.

8. Their motive is to be rewarded first as the leader. They are what Patrick Lencioni mentions in The Motive, a rewards-based lead. Who has arrived

9. They have a scarcity mentality and a fixed approach to developing themselves first, and then they lead. They may hoard resources or knowledge for their benefit before that of the organization and  people  they serve

10. They see the big picture regarding bargaining and rallying people to maintain the status quo.

The middle road leader journey is difficult. They must always seek the best deal and maintain the status quo to guarantee their reward of a tile, salary, and perks before the game ends.

"The low road leader's holy trinity is I, Me, and Myself."

Low Road Leadership

Low-road leaders have a self-serving, win-at-all-costs leadership practice based on using people to reward themselves at others' expense. They lead through intimidation, manipulation, and fear to control others. They are rewarded based on their leadership practice.

1. They have no values or ethics. They value themselves only or others that can add to their value. "The low road leader's holy trinity is I, Me, and Myself."

2. They focus on adding value to themselves and devaluing others viewed as useable and disposable resources.

3. Their practice focused on putting themselves above others in all situations.

4. They work to expand and exploit gaps between the people to achieve their goals of self-aggrandizement.

5. They want those they lead to follow their directives without question. They are more concerned with followers' unswerving, unquestioning loyalty. They follow to serve them and their goals.

6. They treat others as disposable resources and see divergent thought as a threat to be punished.

7. They keep score, and they mark wins for themselves. Their goal is for them to win and all others to lose.

8. Their motive is to be responsible and to serve others, not themselves

9. They have a scarcity mentality and a win-at-all-costs approach to keep what's theirs and take what are others.

10.   They see a big picture of their dominance and communicate over and over Lies, What Joseph Goebbels called "the Big Lie," to sell their version of the truth and connect to rally people by blaming and denigrating others as the cause of supporters' suffering.

The low-road leader is a self-serving, divisive leader. Their goal is to grow their rewards and maximize their opposition's losses.

The number one superpower of any leader is choice, says Mark Miller in Smart Leadership  A leader can choose to be a high-road leader, valuing people. The leader can choose to be a middle-road leader who uses people for their gain and is transactional in their leadership. Finally, a leader can choose to be a low-road leader, Whose motivation is to divide and castigate opposition for their personal gain. A great question is whether a person can be part of all three roads. The best answer is that you can be for a will but will rise or fall in your leadership. It is a choice. Leadership is a choice that provides hope in our leadersad world. Next week's issue will provide the tenants of high-road leadership to guide a leader who chooses to upgrade the road of Leadership a leader can aspire to. The change will require the choice and doing the hard work. In Star Wars, Luke Skywalker's Mentor, Yoda, said, "Choose Wisely," and acted as Yoda coached his mentee, saying, "Do or Do Not, There is no try."

The leadership question for you is

1. What road are you on in your leadership practice?

2. Do You need to upgrade your road in your leadership practice?