Rogue Leadership Read online

  “Okay,” I hear you say, “I get vision, but what about instinct and gut?”

  A friend of mine knew Steve Jobs during Apple’s formative years and was invited to join the fledgling company. He thought about it for a few days and then said no. Relying on logic, not his gut, he used facts and risk management to make his decision. He jokingly tells me that every day he wakes up, splashes water on his face, looks in the mirror, and says, “You are a f#@*ing idiot!” He didn’t trust his gut, which told him to accept.

  Another example: When the internet first rolled out, no one saw its use beyond initial defense or security applications except for a few early adopters and innovators. The people who “got it” encountered a lot of initial resistance. Similar breakthroughs happened in voice-recording technology, originally designed for dictation. In every case, someone had to see beyond what everyone else saw.

  Effective leaders also understand the value of balance. We know from biology that if too much energy accumulates in one area of the body, it creates an equally destructive imbalance or counter-reaction. When leaders throw more hours and attention at one problem, they naturally focus less on other issues. Working long hours and weekends is fine in short bursts, but a long-term lack of attention on other parts of the business will cause greater problems.

  With hundreds of emails a day, multiple meetings, the clamor for big data and instant decision-making, something has to give—usually effectiveness, along with the ability to recognize opportunities and capture them.

  So how do we achieve balance? Of course, as leaders, we want it all nicely packaged—for example: “Ten Keys That Will Unlock Success,” “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.” “Ten Top Tips” . . . “Three French Hens” . . . “Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lover.”

  We want the fastest, easiest answer.

  None exists.

  Instead of a quick fix, we can all make use of our natural “leadership muscles” by strengthening and developing them over time. The pages that follow will show you how.

  CORE ROGUE LEADERSHIP TRAITS

  This book will show you how to think and act like a rogue leader. Rogue leaders tap into their intuition, welcome new ways of operating, look for ways to optimize tools and processes, and manage change with a distinctive style.

  They also show up with purpose, communicate simply, lead from the heart, and work tirelessly to empower their workforce.

  This is not a one-size-fits-all book of solutions. You are unique, as are your organization’s challenges. Though not all the insights offered here may apply to you, I trust you will find grains of wisdom that will serve you and challenge your current mindset. My goal is to start a conversation with you that I hope will move you to a better place, both in the workplace and beyond.

  Together, we will explore tangible and successful approaches you can apply to leading your people and your business. While you might not embrace all the suggestions offered here, nevertheless they all remain essential to any leader’s ability to transform. The book focuses on transformative leadership, not merely on leadership. It’s about effectively changing the course of your team or organization—it’s about changing objectives and improving results.

  PART 1

  EMBRACING YOUR INTUITION

  You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you’ll discover will be wonderful. What you’ll discover is yourself.

  —Alan Alda, actor

  1.

  Finding the “One Thing”

  Success demands singleness of purpose.

  —Gary Keller, author

  The outside world commands our attention and draws us in every day. Whether market pressures, staffing levels, endless meetings, or requests from the boss—almost anything can trigger the all-too familiar morning crisis.

  Many leaders are moved and swayed by the fray. To effectively manage what happens in the professional world, we need to do the opposite by standing firm and acting from our foundation.

  In the movie City Slickers, Mitch (Billy Crystal) makes a similar discovery, as lone-wolf cowboy Curly (Jack Palance) enlightens him:

  Curly: “Do you know what the secret of life is?” He pauses a moment, then holds up one finger and states: “This.”

  Mitch: “Your finger?”

  Curly: One thing. Just one thing. You stick to that and the rest don’t mean sh*t.

  Mitch: “But what is the ‘one thing’?”

  Curly: That’s what you have to find out.

  Curly’s statement, both humorous and true, strikes a chord. Each of us has a different compass, and we lead people with different compasses. Successful leaders know how to align their teams’ North Stars with their own, and they do that by first understanding themselves. If we just pay attention to the daily noise and don’t have a guiding path and focus, we will not reach our destination.

  If every action and decision we take is based on that core guiding principle, we ensure that we have alignment in all that we do. I liken it to a downhill ski run. The skier can take many different actions on the course, but the finish line remains the same. How you get to the finish line is up to you. Decide the principal guiderails first.

  Two examples of the “one thing”:

  I had a long candid talk with one of my clients, a senior executive with a global leader. In his late forties, he had a great salary and perks. His guiding principle was time with his family, but he had reached a point in his career where the withdrawals (time away from his family) were more than the deposits (perks/shares/financial security). So, he left and gave up much of the golden parachute he was due if he had stuck around a few more years.

  Another: One of my bosses mentioned that his work was all about creating memories for his clients and his team. That’s what drove him. That was his one thing. As such, he focused on building robust connections, true partnerships, strong results, and shared stories that remain his legacy to this day.

  Once we define our one thing, our intuition will let us know if we are straying away from it. When things don’t feel right, when there is extra pressure, or events seem unsettling, we need to listen voices and impulses. It might be time to lean in by spending some time with ourselves.

  2.

  Alone Again Naturally

  The Power of Solitude

  Without reflection, we go blindly on our way, creating more unintended consequences, and failing to achieve anything useful.

  —Margaret J. Wheatley, author

  By three methods we may learn wisdom: first, by reflection, which is noblest; second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.

  —Confucius, philosopher

  Today’s world often feels like a feeding frenzy at an all-you-can-eat buffet. We will be full, but what did we eat? As inputs barrage us at an accelerated pace, our expectations for handling them increase accordingly.

  How can we stop the daily grind of reacting and step away to respond in a more purposeful way that allows us to take back control?

  Sandja Brügmann, a visionary leader of the Passion Institute, lays out the challenge clearly: “Once we have developed understanding of how we interfere with our visions and goals, then comes the challenging process of unlearning and changing specific behaviors.”

  Unlearning takes hard work. “It requires one to move out of automatic behaviors and into conscious understanding, where we take control of our own actions and lives,” notes Brügmann. “It requires confronting uncomfortable feelings and adopting an attentive vision for a different business life.” In fact, it takes many of the same skills that entrepreneurs need to succeed in their businesses. “It’s a real act of self-love at a deep level,” she says. “It’s also what you need to do to become a more effective leader.”

  According to Brügmann, to unlearn and become effective leaders, we mu
st adopt behaviors that support solitude and reflection.

  SOLITUDE

  In The Voice of the Dolphins and Other Stories (Stanford University Press, 1992), Leo Szilard talks about removing yourself from your surroundings to find out who you have become. I can’t think of a more powerful tool for a leader. By placing yourself in a different environment, you remove the background noise that may be influencing you.

  When we look at the same things every day, we tend to stop seeing them. If you insert something new into the picture, you will notice more detail and understand your situation with more clarity.

  Getting away for long periods can be difficult for most people, but even the busiest leaders find time to do so, especially when they face some tough decisions. They slow down, go for a walk, change locations, or turn off their phones.

  Control the environment—don’t let it control you. You aren’t responsible for what is out there—but you are responsible for how you deal with it, process it, or act on it.

  REFLECTION

  A different environment allows you the space to reflect. Originating in Sweden with the consulting firm Leadership in Motion, action reflection learning (ARL) offers a methodology for thoughtfully reflecting on experience as an essential part of the learning process. At its core, it’s taking the time to reflect before acting. Done well, this practice can help you derive greater meaning and understanding from a given situation.

  In Gentle Interventions for Team Coaching: Little Things That Make a Big Difference (CreateSpace, 2013), author Ernie Turner focuses on the power of reflection:

  To reflect on something that happened helps us connect effects with causes, extract meaning, and learn from it. We can also learn about ourselves when we reflect on the responses we generate in others.

  We have evolved with brains hardwired to react rather than going “within” and stopping that impulse. You will do well to practice reflection, giving yourself time to weigh pros and cons and make informed decisions.

  Many of my colleagues use headphones to silence the noise around them, especially on planes. Why wouldn’t you do the same for your business life? Shut out the world and take time to think and feel more clearly, paying attention to your own inner process. Again, slowing down in critical situations enhances your ability to take in the big picture.

  When my new boss at RLG International told me I was being assigned to a new project in Chile, I soon found myself on a plane headed for Santiago. Like the plane I took to Madrid, it gave me an opportunity to listen to my instincts.

  As I headed out that night, I felt deep regret. What had I done? What if I failed? What if I couldn’t function in this new role as a coach? What about the new team? How would they feel about an American coming in? Noticing the chatter, I forced myself to quiet down.

  Sure enough, I heard a calm and sure voice from within: “This should be interesting.”

  I’d felt trapped in a dead-end job, and the change forced me to develop new skills much more quickly than if I had brought along my own experience. The changed circumstances allowed me to remain present and to listen without any other voices—all because I had no preconceived ideas about what to do. I had the luxury of creating responses based on actual feedback from my environment.

  As it turned out, the stint in Chile launched my role as an international leadership and performance coach. I also met my wife and daughter there. Pretty good decision!

  One of the strongest and most successful innovators in the financial world I have ever met approaches everything with a measure of healthy skepticism. Although he trusts his gut absolutely, he approaches big, complex issues by giving himself time to sit with the project to let it take shape within him.

  Few leaders can accomplish this under pressure. They jump into projects without sufficient preparation. If you are one of those rare individuals who can do well on the fly, good for you.

  3.

  Inner Voice

  The Third Eye and Leadership

  Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice.

  —Steve Jobs, entrepreneur

  By creating space for solitude and reflection, you also clear the way to hear your inner voice. That can’t happen unless you have some form of “noise cancellation.” You have to consciously put that into place.

  The third eye serves as a great symbol for inner wisdom. Whether or not you believe you have a third eye, it symbolizes our ability as humans to move beyond the norm.

  What feels right? What choice could I make to feel better? Sit with these questions and see what shows up. Clear your mind, and perhaps listen to some music to shut out the intensity of your surroundings, pausing all the things you have to do.

  Just because you can’t hear your inner voice, or you ignore it, doesn’t mean it isn’t there.

  A personal story might help here: My twin brother and I are basically on the same wavelength, so we experience telepathic connections and shared moments of experience.

  Years ago, when I found myself caught in the middle of a police shootout with a sniper, I had unknowingly triggered a response a thousand miles away. As I witnessed two policemen get shot in front of me and then got trapped between the shooter and the SWAT team, my brother’s pulse began to race and he felt death was imminent—as if he were there with me.

  I know that all of us have the ability to tap into our gut and instinct, but too much noise prevents us from doing so effectively. I also know that we have the ability to connect telepathically at a distance, but many of us have never exercised it.

  In modern industrial society, we tend to discount anything that is not “scientific” or logical—we want “proof.” Yet day after day, many of us experience moments we call “miracles” or “paranormal” because we don’t understand them (and many people fear what they don’t understand).

  Mainstream society ridicules interest in New Age practices that involve crystals, shamans, or Earth priestesses. I, too, have had to stifle the urge to joke here about such things. Yet with a sober and more open-minded perspective, I realize that people have used these practices for millennia—so I tend to think they likely contain some knowledge and wisdom.

  It might not be wise to say “My gut tells me . . .” in front of your shareholders—even though I suspect many successful decisions have been based on gut instinct. I’m sure we have all seen examples of this in our professional lives. But we don’t acknowledge it when it happens.

  Based on conversations with people who use their inner voice a lot, I know that intuition and instinct do not always deliver precise information. Sometimes it’s a vague feeling or a premonition, and other times the message comes through loud and clear: “take this path.” A few of my colleagues make good use of intuition as one of many factors when making a decision. As a “tool,” intuition or instinct can adapt to different circumstances.

  So how do you actually connect to that resource—your innate intuition?

  Some of my clients use notes or journals. Others go into solitude, as discussed in chapter 2. Still others shut the door to the office and reflect. Whatever works for you, be purposeful about it.

  You don’t need to contort your body into different yoga positions or engage in mental gyrations to access the “muscle” of intuition. You strengthen it by paying attention to how and what you feel and eventually to what your inner voice communicates.

  Recreating a pathway takes time; repetition makes the difference. Combine reflection and solitude, and then listen for what emerges as you open up to your inner voice. The more you practice, the clearer your channel.

  Have you ever tossed and turned over something? Does your mind keep going there? These could be signs that you need to listen more and pay attention to the feeling that doesn’t go away.

  Two of my favorite quotes on this:

  A voice in my head tells me that I’m at the t
wilight of an extraordinary life. I say extraordinary because of the people who have loved me. I say twilight because of what people say to me in the supermarket.

  —Charles Nelson Reilly, actor

  That inner voice has both gentleness and clarity. So, to get to authenticity, you really keep going down to the bone, to the honesty, and the inevitability of something.

  —Meredith Monk, author

  4.

  Decision-Making

  Don’t Box Yourself in a Corner

  Quick decisions are unsafe decisions.

  —Sophocles, ancient Greek playwright

  When a decision must be made, rogue leaders know how to stop the impulse to respond right away. Even if someone says “I need an answer now,” rogue leaders take their time to determine if the person really does need an immediate answer.

  Push back on anyone who boxes you in a corner where you can’t make an effective decision. More often than not, the people who make such demands think they need a decision right away, which is their pressure they want to transfer to you. Yes, our bosses, teams, and the public appreciate decisiveness, but when the stakes are high and everyone is demanding an immediate response, they aren’t demanding the right solution. Instead, they are saying, “Do something now.” And it will make them feel better.

  If your inner voice tells you that doing something is better than doing nothing, tell it, “Time for a time out.”

  Listen to yourself first. Write down whatever emerges as possible courses of action—a good way to learn how to “hear” your gut and trust it.

  If you really can’t get that quiet, find one person in your circle who can reflect or “mirror” back to you what they hear, especially if you don’t have the luxury of working with a good coach. You can make this mirroring practice part of your reflection process and incorporate it as part of your weekly routine.