Effective Long-Term Leaders

In class on Tuesday we discussed long-term effective leadership. We determined that the most effective leaders believe in themselves and their strategies. They are confident people, but also admit when they are wrong. This is the type of check and balance system that eliminates a leader from appearing arrogant or cocky. Wesleyan senior Liz Chabot stated, “You need confidence in everything you do, but effective leaders do not let their egos get the best of them.” Our class agreed. We also determined that creating a family-like working atmosphere where all opinions are equally valued is important to long-term success. Obviously the leader has the last say, but individuals in a firm or on a team should be able to think freely and feel important. When employees and team members feel valued they are far more likely to perform at their best. Wesleyan senior Derrick Williams supported this idea. “The CEOs were not always around, but when they were they took the staff out to lunch on them. This created a feeling of importance and made us work hard everyday regardless of whether or not they were around.” Part of being an effective leader is having effective followers. In our coming class, we will discuss how a leader can build character in his or her followers- the type of character that appears when people are not watching.

Best,

Salah 

Leadership: Commitment to Building a Clock versus Telling the Time

Taking over the student forum in the fall, will be Tom Salah who you might remember posted back in February: http://leadershipatwesleyanu.blogspot.com/2011/02/salah-comments-on-leadership.html. He'll be leading class with the help of Wesleyan Government Professor Giulio Gallarotti. It's an honor to have the academic deans pass the class again and Tom is going to do a great job with it. Here's a post he's written while he's done research over summer break:

Last week ESPN’s Rece Davis hosted a 2-hour special with two of the most committed leaders in the history of collegiate athletics: Penn State Football coach Joe Paterno and Duke Basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski. “Difference Makers: Life Lessons with Paterno and Krzyzewski,” examined the illustrious coaching careers of these two individuals, their strategies of leadership, and what got them to where they are today. To them it was the structure, the process, and the passion they had to build the indestructible clock. On numerous occasions they lost five-star recruits, blew big leads, and had by their standards, ‘unsuccessful’ seasons, but at no point lost faith in what they were trying to accomplish. They believed that overcoming these challenges was a small kink in the armor and that little had to be done, if anything at all. Joe Pa and Coach K stayed true to themselves and their mission and in doing so built a legacy of trusting and committed players who believed in the clock that never stopped ticking.

 

To me, a clock is built in three steps: formulate a vision, commit to that vision, and stay committed to that vision. From the beginning, a leader must construct a vision that exploits the creativity of the human mind. By this I mean, the vision should not be team specific, year specific, or aimed at a specific goal for those visions are boring and for the ‘time tellers.’ They create tunnel vision and fail to factor in human curiosity. This is why I never agreed with Rex Ryan’s strategy to adamantly publicize the Jet’s goal to win the Super Bowl year after year. When the Jet’s lost in the 2011 AFC Championship to the Steelers, one win shy of Super Bowl XLV, Rex was again found commenting in an interview about the Jets' 2012 goal. What a surprise. Their vision for the third straight season (Rex’s 3^rd season in the Big Apple) was aimed at a specific goal, to win the Super Bowl. Don’t get me wrong, Rex is a committed leader, but it seems though he’s committed to time telling and not clock building. His vision makes for a mundane working environment. No room for imagination, no room for incentive, no Super Bowl (Knock on wood – I’m a diehard Pats fan). Sorry Rex.

On the other hand, Joe Pa and Coach K never focused on how their season was going to end until it was actually the end of the season. They were committed to building character in young men and believed that the success of the team would fall into place if they were able to accomplish this goal. Their equations never changed, but allowed each one of their teams to have its own identity, thus factoring in human curiosity. Both Penn State Football and Duke Basketball have winning traditions, though not simply a credit to their great leaders. Joe Pa and Coach K built an environment deemed for success, regardless of changing time and tough breaks. Good leaders are ‘time tellers.’ Great leaders are clock builders. (Built to Last: Successful Habit of Visionary Companies by Jim Collins) Rex Ryan is a time teller, while Joe Pa and Coach K are clock builders.

Now that I laid down some ideas behind creating ‘the winning way’ if you will, let’s discuss the role commitment plays in staying true to this vision. Commitment can be interpreted in various ways, but the most successful leaders are the ones who stay committed to their original mission, regardless of what is occurring around them. Joe Pa and Coach K are the epitome of leaders who continuously stayed true to their vision. They never wavered, never let outside factors influence their decisions, (I think it’s funny how much the media influences coaching decisions, but not Joe Pa or Coach K. They could care less.) and most importantly never lost sight of the bigger picture. As previously stated, the bigger picture for them was to create a winning environment by building character in their players. Coach K discusses this point in his book, Leading with the Heart: Coach K’s Successful Strategies for Basketball, Business and Life. “If our culture is properly developed, if it’s nurtured and cared for and watered every day, then in the heat of competition, in those moments when you need to slam home a message, where you need to “spike it,” the individual, or the team collectively, will respond well,” states Krzyzewski. The framework at Duke, built from the ground up by Coach K himself, has resulted in over 800 wins and 4 National Championships. Clearly Duke Basketball players believe in the system. They believe that plugging the right habits into the equation, results in an output of a National Title. If you want to build a clock, take a page out of Coach K’s book. His clock is still ticking.

A lot can be learned from studying leaders. Whether you have intentions to lead large groups of people down the road or not, everyone should understand leadership for their own personal sake. What I share is not restricted to specific settings. You can incorporate these ideas into your family, professional, or social lives.  I think it is important to learn what different people, from various walks of life think makes up a great leader and how individuals influence others. Everyone is a leader at one point or another, so how should people measure success (I do not intend for success to mean anything more than personal satisfaction- how satisfied you are in your leadership?) For individuals like Joe Pa and Coach K, one could argue that success can be determined on the number of wins, championships, etc. but what the special revealed was they accepted leadership roles for a different reason: to build character in their players. Over the course of the next 6 months, I will continue to tackle the challenge behind what it takes to truly be a great leader. I hope to adopt many of what I’ve picked up along the way from Joe Pa and Coach K and apply those ideas to the class I will be teaching, Strategies of Leadership. Joey G (who taught the class this past spring) and I have and will continue to discuss this topic. We feel strongly about leadership and understand that unfortunately the world lacks great leaders because they don't take on the responsibility of it. However, we're here to prove that there are time tested ways to become a leader yourself. I hope you enjoy my thoughts and please feel free to respond.

Best, 

Salah

Hero to Villain Yet Still a Leader: Lebron James

Hero to villain in a matter of months.  

"He's overrated."
 
"I asked Lebron for a dollar and he couldn't give me the fourth quarter." Good one.

Lebron's one of the best in the game, hands down. For most of the playoffs he led his team in points, assists, and was a close second to Chris Bosh in rebounds. I'll make the excuse for him: he's 26 years old. He probably ran out of steam. 28 other NBA cities could only dream and wish that they ended their seasons two wins away from a world championship. Kobe, Durant, Carmelo, and a slew of other NBA stars were left at home watching one of the best and closest NBA Finals in league history.

Is Lebron arrogant? No doubt. I've never met a great player that wasn't, who didn't have that confidence in himself. Labeled as the next coming and the King since middle school, I think you'd be somewhat full of yourself too. With little guidance from adults, he had no role models to look up to. He had nobody tell him, "The Decision" was a bad idea. Maybe he should've stayed in Cleveland. But, in LBJ's defense, the Cavaliers' owner wasn't shelling out money like George Steinbrenner either. Little help from role players, and tired of mediocrity will get to people who want to look for better. Why wouldn't you want to form a legendary trio with two of the other top players in the league, be in a great city, and play somewhere else than Ohio for the first time in your life? It's like the way a father feels the first time his son leaves home for college. People will certainly feel a sense of despair, except in Lebron's case - a little hatred too.

Lebron is an icon. He is seen everywhere by young kids. He's what every kid on the blacktop at their local park wants to be - a high flying, Nike wearing, jump shooting stud. Is he Derek Jeter? No. I wish Lebron would say the right things or handled himself better.

Will he be as good as Michael Jordan? That's unfair. No one ever will. Lebron James will be as good as Lebron James is. He'll be as good as he wants to be. For probably the first time in his young life, he has failed and most of America loved to see it. LBJ didn't handle it all that well either.

Adversity. Lebron's going to grow up. As outsiders we can only hope he'll work on his jump-shot and low-post game this summer. Lebron is a leader in the NBA and in professional sports. All great leaders have failed, but all great leaders have that drive and determination to be the best at what they do. It is how people come back from adversity to achieve the goals they set out to that makes them leaders. Sylvestor Stallone said it best: "It's not how hard you can hit -- it's how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward."

I read about how Jack Nicklaus offered advice to Rory McIlroy at the U.S. Open. Nicklaus said that he always put a lot of pressure on himself. He expected himself to play well. He expected himself to be [on the leader board] all the time. It's the same with Lebron. We can only hope he does.

Guest Speaker Kennedy Odede Featured on MSNBC Nightly News

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Our friend and fellow Wesleyan student, Kennedy Odede, who came into speak to our class in April was featured in an MSNBC Nightly News clip. Kennedy doing big things and getting the positive word out about Shining Hope for Communities, his organization that is building schools for girls in his native Kibera, Kenya.

Tufts Men's Lacrosse National Champion Documentary (2010)

Classmate Todd Keats '11 let us know about this documentary in the forum. The head coach, Mike Daley, does a great job as the chief motivator guiding his players. You'll see the effort, preparation, and dedication that is required in the off-season to achieve success in-season.

Most importantly, for our purpose, you'll also see the message he sends to his players about trusting one another (which derives from those off-season workouts) and also about focusing on one thing at a time - "take care of the ball, take care of each other, and YOU will be proud, YOU will be champions." We always talks about how effective leaders inspire a shared vision [scroll down to the Kouzes and Posner part towards the Obama video]. I love when he gives his team the article about how they will get blown out against Cortland - great go to motivational tactic.

Tufts is on another run this season after winning back to back NESCAC championships. They face Cortland St. for the second year in a row, except this time earlier in the quarterfinals. Even though I'm a Wesleyan U. Cardinal, I wish them the best of luck as they represent the 'CAC in the National Tournament.

Wesleyan Connection Article

This is copied directly from Ben Cohen's stellar article about our class that was featured a couple weeks ago in the Wesleyan Connection.

Ask any group of NESCAC student-athletes why they chose their respective institutions, and each will likely mention the conference schools’ strength in both academics and athletics. But Joe Giaimo ’11 has taken things one step further. Giaimo, a captain on the Cardinal football and baseball squads, is leading a student forum this semester, CCIV420-02: “Leadership, Mentoring, and Coaching.”
The forum evaluates effective forms of leadership, seeks out answers to what is leadership, defines it, dissects the changing conceptions of leadership, analyzes the psychology of leaders, and eventually discusses the difference between leadership and power.
The roundtable discussions are made up of many future Wesleyan leaders in business, medicine, law, teaching, religion, and athletics.
“It’s almost like a talk radio show throwing around ideas and observations,” Giaimo says.
Although the course is taught by one of the campus’s most prominent student-athletes, Giaimo and his 14 students have by no means limited their case studies to coaches. Leaders studied in the class have ranged from Fortune 500 CEOs to Barack Obama. Of course, sports figures are well represented in the curriculum, as the class has also studied New York Jets head coach Rex Ryan, former UCLA men’s basketball coach John Wooden and Chicago Bulls point guard Derrick Rose, among others. Giaimo also arranged for frequent guest lecturers, including Wesleyan baseball coach Mark Woodworth ’94, football coach Mike Whalen ’83 and Wesleyan President Michael Roth ’78.
“Wesleyan has given us the opportunity to go off and study this heavily interesting question in an academic environment amongst our peers,” says Giaimo, who serves as vice president of Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity. “The forum is going to be an inspiring journey that is going to allow people who may have never been in leadership positions before to find their inner leader, because according to Former Green Bay Packers Coach Vince Lombardi: ‘Leaders aren’t born, they are made. And they are made just like anything else, through hard work.’”
Some students, such as men’s ice hockey co-captain Tom Salah ’12, are not enrolled in the class but have been able to follow its progress via the blog. Salah praised the real-world applications of the course in a guest post.
“I enjoyed your links between leaders throughout social scenes and various interactions,” Salah wrote. “I had an interview this past week for an internship at a bank in Boston and I answered many of the woman’s questions by relating them to sports….[F]or me, it felt right. I think your tie between a firm, team, parish, and family is right on. This was the direction I headed in my interview….I would have to say that leaders of all different groups should value many of the same things.”
Students in the forum have not had to leave campus to apply the lessons they have learned in the classroom. In a guest blog post, men’s tennis co-captain Steve Hauser ’11, who is also a member of the football team, wrote about the parallels between a Sports Illustrated article on Kansas City Chiefs team president Scott Pioli and his goals for the tennis team.
“As a newly appointed captain for the Wesleyan men’s tennis team, I am attempting to ‘model the way’ for my teammates,” wrote Hauser. “After reading these accounts and listening to the discussion in our forum, I decided to gather the team and we created a mission statement. Like Pioli, we found keywords that harkened back to the origins of our beliefs and those words were effort, aggressiveness, and teamwork (a.k.a. EAT). With a catchy mnemonic and a basic creed, our team now has concrete aims.
“Sustainable success, however, is not simply granted upon the creation of a mission statement; it must be earned through action. With our goals now concretely formulated and proudly shown on a large banner, these words must continually resonate and be religiously practiced. It is my responsibility, as a captain, to make sure we continually move forward in line with these virtues.”
Giaimo’s guest lecturers have also brought a series of diverse perspectives on what defines a leader. For example, Woodworth spoke of his view of the parallels of coaches and CEOs.
“Coach [Woodworth] then introduced his idea that a leader or a coach is a CEO,” wrote Giaimo in a blog post after Woodworth’s lecture. “What does a CEO do – they oversee and manage a company. Coaches need to be CEOs and CEOs need to be coaches – it’s about getting people to do what they need to do. It’s as simple as that. The CEO implements a vision, has a set of convictions and morals that guide an organization. A coach implements a vision for his team, has a set of convictions and morals that guide his/her players. It’s an interesting concept and something that we talked for a long time about.”
“I think that what’s great about having guest speakers in class is that you can learn so much from people who’ve been through it and who are real world leaders,” Giaimo continued. “The key word is learning – learning something new every day is what makes life so beautiful. I think that being open minded and willing to learn is in fact one of the keys to making people great leaders.”
Despite the differing perspectives, however, the underlying themes of leadership have remained the same. As Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) chair and baseball team captain Jon Sheehan ’11 explained, “The most interesting thing has been that all of our readings have, in some way, hit on the same themes: Treating those under you with respect, getting those you lead on board, and leading by example.”
Giaimo has certainly excelled at leading by example through his time in the Cardinal and Black, most notably in the aftermath of an injury suffered during the 2008 football season opener at Tufts. In the fourth quarter of that game, Giaimo was sacked and broke his leg in half on the play, ending his season and forcing him to miss the entire baseball campaign as well. Giaimo worked tirelessly to “get that athletic edge back,” as he put it, and when the football coaches decided to move him from quarterback to tight end last fall, his efforts throughout the transition did not go unnoticed.
“Joe approaches everything with a positive attitude and unbelievable enthusiasm,” offensive coordinator Jack Siedlecki said at the time. “His leadership has been invaluable to our success this season.”
While many of the class’s guests have been alumni, Giaimo has not shied away from bringing in fellow students to lecture. Kennedy Odede ’12, who started an organization called Shining Hope for Communities to combat gender inequality in his hometown of Nairobi, Kenya, was the semester’s third guest speaker.
“Kennedy’s definition of leadership is how the leader is able to influence others,” Giaimo wrote in a blog post. “Leadership to Kennedy happens when you don’t do it for yourself. You can’t force it. A leader is a person who can connect with people and a good leader is someone who ‘leads from behind.’ When things are bad the leader takes the blame and he shoves attention away to the members of the group when times are good….Kennedy explained that leadership is not easy. Leadership is a responsibility…and leaders don’t have to know everything, but they have to be able to work with what they have. Good leaders inspire hope in people who have no hope in life.”
Above all, Giaimo noted that leading the forum has made him further appreciate the leadership qualities of the Wesleyan faculty, in addition to giving him an experience he will treasure for a lifetime.
“I have a newfound appreciation for what teachers and professors do when I think about how hard it is to get through to kids and really inspire them,” he said. “I’ve been surprised about how hard teaching is. But I love connecting with my students….It’s been an awesome experience having Wesleyan award me this opportunity. I was so honored…to be able to lead a class and try to inspire others. It’s what a teacher does, and that’s what I’m doing.”
Wesleyan offers several other student forums, and allows students to create them.

Great job Ben!

Elvin Lim for President 2012

Did you ever think Jesus, Batman, and George Washington’s leadership styles would ever be compared? Well, when in an Elvin Lim class you can expect just about anything for him to get through to his students.

Elvin Lim is a Professor of Government here at Wesleyan who teaches classes on presidential politics and political communications. He’s probably one of the sharpest men I’ve ever met in both mind and dress.

He’s the reason why I come to class in button downs and ties. Professor Lim loves what he does and he is very passionate about every lecture he makes. He is so knowledgeable on politics and he writes his own blog that I visit weekly. Fellow students who have had Lim in class often joke that if he ran for President then this country would be set.

Elvin Lim defined leadership as the ability to solve the collective action problem. The “leaders” who just command is not leadership, Lim claims. Strong leadership comes from whoever is able to make the person who won’t cooperate, to follow.

Professor presented the prisoner's dilemma. The officer in the situation is the sovereign leader and commands or dictates. It’s either going to be this way or that way. The best outcome for the prisoners is to cooperate, which creates the mutually best outcome for both of them. So, if the officer can get the two prisoners to cooperate then he is an effective leader.

Before there was democracy, there was no need for leadership because the King and Lords simply commanded. Everyone had to cooperate. James Madison, in Federalist 51, compared men to angels in saying that angels are naturally obedient to God, are unselfish and they fall in line. However, we know that humans have preferences, priorities, and self-interests so in a democratic form of government there needs to be a leader who will solve this collective action problem – to get people who wouldn’t cooperate to give in and listen.

Professor Lim, prepared as always, studied our blog and was drawn specifically to Jim Collins’ Level 5 leader. Professor noted that much of what we’ve discussed in our class this semester has surrounded around personality traits. Lim argued that personality matters because good leaders have a “paradoxical will and humility” about them.

If you remember, Level 5 leaders were the self-less individuals who looked through the window to give congratulations to everyone but himself when the company found success and  looks into the mirror when the company is struggling. Lim stated that an effective leader is willing to take a hit for their organization or constituents.

Lim argued that people can’t lead until they learn that it’s not just about you. He stated that the leaders who have failed never looked into the mirror because they were insecure. Level 5 leaders look outside and see how they can make others better. Effective leaders aren’t self-regarding, they never talk about themselves and they are quick to take the blame (take the hit). 

Lim demonstrated that Alexander Hamilton was young, feisty, and assertive where as George Washington felt no need to press his opinions on others. Elvin Lim calls Washington a Patrician President, because they were self-less leaders who shoved away attention, very similar to Level 5 leaders. Professor noted that Washington was the only Level 5 leader because the other great presidents – Lincoln or FDR – had to adapt to their political times. Lincoln and FDR had to promote themselves, make speeches, and campaigns. After the Patrician period, the presidency was a different type of position that required presidents to stand above the rest. This doesn’t mean that the great presidents weren’t effective leaders, but they were not, by definition, Level 5 leaders.

We moved to Jesus, who according to The Bible sacrificed himself. Jesus’ greatest power was that he could have asked God to save him. The great leaders contemplate how far to stretch their prerogative and not use it. Power, Lim said, is not how much you can use, but how little you use it.
 

Lim believes that leaders can emerge at any moment and there doesn’t need to be a crisis. Leaders need to be willing to sacrifice.

In my personal opinion, everyone can do this. It’s not easy and that’s why leadership isn’t for everyone. But, can everyone be a leader? Sure, you just need to make the sacrifice for others and be humble.

Lim stated that today there are so few great individuals who run for President because of the job’s revealing nature. And he’s right, and that’s why he’ll never run, but I’ll end with…

E. LIM FOR PRESIDENT 2012!