THE BEGINNING OF THE JOURNEY

It is a magical night—one of those rare December evenings when the cold and the warmth mix just right to blanket everything with big, fluffy, crystalline flakes of snow. Everything looks so perfect; everything feels so silent. As the snow deepens, so does the silence in the atmosphere. I could be viewing this mesmerizing winter scene from a chalet in Switzerland, but I’m not. I’m in bumper-to-bumper traffic on a Minneapolis freeway, and oddly enough, I’m enjoying every minute of it.

Being in a car at rush hour can be a prison or a monastic retreat. It all depends on your perspective. Does it really matter that I’m going to be late? Even though I could feel stressed, I don’t. I could use this time to peek at e-mails, catch up on calls, or listen to a podcast. Instead, I welcome the opportunity to sit in the quiet and to reflect. As I sink into a meditative state, I begin to think about my day. And a meaningful day it was—a rich mixture of purpose, passion, emotion, and concentrated learning.

Our consulting team finished guiding a senior executive of a major company through our Chief Executive Institute. It was an intense, rewarding three days. We helped the client pull together a profound, integrated plan to better leverage his whole person to impact the whole enterprise. In a way, we helped him step back and observe himself, just as I was observing the snowfall—clearly, objectively, and appreciatively.

At the end of the last session, he said, “You know, I’ve been through all sorts of assessments, coaching, and development programs. This is the first time things have really made sense to me. I’ve gotten pieces of the puzzle before, but never the whole picture. I clearly understand where I’m at, where I’m headed, and what I need to do to really enhance my leadership and life. What would my organization be like if a critical mass of leaders mastered the same sense of conviction and clarity that I have now?”

As the snow picks up, I’m feeling very blessed. To occasionally help people connect to their purposeful potential would be lucky. But to coach thousands of leaders, teams, and organizations for more than thirty years and play a role in helping people and organizations actualize their potential is a privilege. I’m feeling very blessed, when suddenly I snap out of my thoughtful state and catch a glimpse of the clock. I’m an hour late! When the heck is this snow going to let up!?

My good fortune goes beyond playing a role in the growth and development of leaders, teams, and organizations. Possibly the greatest blessing is the depth of co-learning along the way. I’ve had the opportunity to witness the essential human dynamics supporting sustainable success, fulfillment, and effectiveness. But one learning is very clear: these principles are not reserved for a few exceptional leaders. They are fundamental insights available to guide and to inspire us all.

While reading this book, you may think, “Is this book about leadership, or is it about personal development?” The answer is yes. It is about both. As much as we try to separate the leader from the person, the two are totally inseparable. Unfortunately, many people tend to split off the act of leadership from the person, team, or organization. We tend to view leadership as merely an external act. We only see it as something people do. This book attempts to expand that view. Leadership is not simply something people do. It comes from a deeper reality within us. It comes from our values, traits, principles, life experiences, beliefs, motives, and essence. Leadership is an intimate expression of who we are; it is our whole person in action. Andreas Guenther, CHRO of Bayer, shared this perspective: “For leadership development programs to be meaningful and lasting in influence, they must be designed to develop the whole person in order to serve the whole business. When leadership programs find this important intersection of the whole leader and the whole business, then great things are possible.”

We lead by virtue of who we are. Some people reading this book will make break-throughs and then lead their own lives more effectively. Others will develop themselves and passionately lead major organizations to new heights. Whether we are at an early stage in our career, a midlevel manager, or a senior executive, we are all CEOs of our own lives. The only difference is the domain of influence. The process is the same; we lead from who we are. The leader and the person are one. As we learn to master our growth as a person, we will be on the path to mastery of Leadership from the Inside Out.

What does mastery of leadership mean to you? To many people it is mastery of something: mastery of the skill to be a dynamic public speaker; mastery of strategic planning and visioning; mastery of consistent achievements and results. Instead of being an ongoing, internal growth process, mastery is usually seen as mastery of something outside of ourselves. When you think about it, it’s no wonder our ideas about mastery and leadership tend to be externalized. Our training, development, and educational systems focus on learning about things. We learn what to think, not how to think. We learn what to do, not how to be. We learn what to achieve, not how to achieve. We learn about things, not the nature of things. We fill up the container of knowledge but rarely consider comprehending it, expanding it, or using it more effectively.

In organizations, this external pattern continues. As leaders of organizations and communities, we receive recognition for our external mastery. Our success is measured by the degree to which we have mastered our external environment. Revenue, profit, new product breakthroughs, cost savings, and market share are only some of the measures of our external competencies. Few would question the value of achieving and measuring external results. That isn’t the real issue. The core questions are: Where do the external results come from? Is focusing on external achievement the sole source of greater accomplishment? Could it be that our single-minded focus on external results is causing us to miss the underlying dynamics supporting sustainable peak performance? Malcolm Forbes said, “Only a handful of companies understand that all successful business operations come down to three basic principles: People, Product, Profit. Without TOP people, you cannot do much with the others.”

Our definitions of leadership also tend to be externalized. Most descriptions of leadership focus on the outer manifestations of leadership (i.e., vision, innovation, results, drive, etc.) instead of getting to the foundational principles of leadership itself. For years, many companies came to us with their beautifully crafted leadership models. One day I had a meeting with representatives from one of these companies. When they walked into my office, I noticed that they were carrying an imposing, massive document. They dropped it onto my desk with a thud. When I asked them what it was, they said with obvious pride, “This is our leadership competency model.” A bit taken aback by its size, I said, “Gee, it looks pretty big. How many competencies are in there?” With a knowing confidence, they said, “Eighty-four.” Not sure how to respond to this, but wanting to provoke their thinking, I asked, “Have you ever met one?” The certainty in their eyes disappeared. Their faces twisted into puzzlement, and they asked, “What do you mean?” I explained, “In the whole history of your career and experience in organizations, do you know of anyone who has all these qualities at all times in all circumstances? In your current organization, does anyone possess all these qualities?” They said that they hadn’t, and I pressed further. “But you want everybody to develop all eighty-four competencies, right?” We went back and forth like this, settling into a more realistic view of leadership. Companies create perfection myths about what they want or expect of leaders. While aspiring to all those competencies may be a noble growth goal, we have yet to meet the “perfect, fully developed leader.”

We are not saying that we do not support competency models. In fact, we help companies globally build leadership competency models directly correlated to their business strategies. But when competency models are perfectionistic, and disconnected from business needs, they are counterproductive.

As a result of seeing too many of these unrealistic competency models, we decided to step back and look at the most effective clients we had assessed, advised, and coached over the last thirty years. After reviewing thousands of leadership assessments, we challenged ourselves with the questions, “What is foundational to the most effective, results-producing leaders? What supports their various competencies or styles on the surface?” Three patterns became clear:

1. Courage and Authenticity: Having the courage to authentically be our whole selves, complete with strengths, vulnerabilities, and differences; having the courage to authentically show up with openness and integrity.

2. Influence: Purpose-driven communication that inspires self and others to do what is genuinely important and meaningful for the long term.

3. Value Creation: Serving multiple constituencies—self, team, organization, family, community, and world—to sustain enduring performance and contribution.

Continuing to evaluate and test these emerging principles over an extended period of research, we landed on what we think is an essential definition:

Leadership is courageous, authentic influence that creates enduring value.

The implications of this definition are potentially far-reaching. From this new perspective, leadership is not viewed as hierarchical; it potentially exists everywhere in organizations. The roles of leadership change, but the core process is the same. Anyone who is courageously and authentically influencing to create enduring value is leading. Some may influence and create value through ideas, others through systems, and yet others through people, but the essence is the same. Deep from their core, leaders courageously bring forward their talents, connect with others, and serve multiple constituencies.

Courage is foundational to all moments of authentic leadership:

• courage to authentically be ourselves

• courage to be vulnerable

• courage to risk judgment and rejection

• courage to stand for the difficult and the unpopular

• courage to explore the new and the different

• courage to do the right thing

• courage to risk our own safety, security, image, and comfort in service to others

• courage to change and be changed

Reacting to this definition of leadership, Paul Laudicina, Chairman of the Global Business Policy Council and former Chairman and CEO of A.T. Kearney, shared, “Leadership is so much more than a hierarchical role. It is how we courageously and authentically show up to serve all those we touch. Real leadership involves inspiring people at all levels to serve something much bigger than themselves.”

Using this definition, we acknowledge that there are an infinite number of ways to manifest leadership. There are as many styles of leadership as there are leaders. Viewing leadership from this vantage point, we will be exploring three essential questions to enhance the impact of our leadership:

• How can we enhance our courage and authenticity as a leader?

• How can we extend our collaborative, inspiring, purpose-driven influence?

• How can we create more enduring value inside and outside our organization?

Leadership from the Inside Out is about our ongoing journey to discover and develop our purposeful inner capabilities to make a more positive contribution to the world around us. Bill George, Harvard Business School professor and former Chairman and CEO of Medtronic, shares this view: “As leaders, the more we can unleash our whole capabilities— mind, body, spirit—the more we can create within and outside of our organizations.”

Mastery of Leadership from the Inside Out is not merely a function of achieving things. It is principally about achieving one thing—consciously and courageously making a bigger difference by fully applying our potential. This does not mean that we only lead from the inside out. On the contrary, we lead just as much—and sometimes more—from the outside in. Leadership involves a constant dynamic between the inner and the outer. We are emphasizing the inside out dynamic because too often it is overlooked. We tend to focus too much on the outside. We are in a continuing flow, a dynamic relationship with ourselves and the constituencies we seek to serve: employees, customers, investors, vendors, local and global communities, and the planet.

Ultimately, we want a balance of leading from the inside out and the outside in. Our decisions and actions are in a dynamic loop from us to others and back again. To practice leadership at its highest level, we need to take responsibility—personal and social responsibility. We need to be equally vigilant about the “I” and the “We” of effective leadership. Daniel Goleman’s work precisely identified this inner-outer/outer-inner dynamic as representing the two interactive qualities of emotional intelligence that must connect: awareness of self and awareness of others.

The purpose of this book is to help you master eight ways to lead more effectively. We will do this by sharing our distilled insights from working with thousands of leaders. Although the subsequent chapters will elaborate, here are several essential themes that consistently surface as we help people master their leadership contributions:

• As the person grows, the leader grows. The missing element in most leadership development programs is actually the “Master Competency” of growing the whole person to grow the whole leader.

• Most definitions of leadership need to be strengthened from the inside out, moving from viewing leadership only in terms of its external manifestations to seeing it from its internal source as well. Balancing leadership from the inside out and from the outside in gets to the critical dynamic of genuine leadership development.

• Leaders who learn to courageously bring their core talents, core values, core beliefs, and core purpose to conscious awareness experience dramatic, exponential increases in energy, effectiveness, and impact.

• Leaders who balance personal power and results power with relational power, through the power of shared purpose, greatly enhance sustainable performance.

• Leaders who courageously work on authenticity—alignment of their real values and their actions—are more energetic, trust-inspiring, resilient, influential, and interpersonally connected.

• Transforming leadership development programs from a series of fragmented, content-driven events to an integrated, inside out/outside in growth process greatly enhances leadership, team, and organizational excellence.

• Helping leaders move from transactive management focused on speed, accuracy, and performance to transformative leadership, which fosters significance, authenticity, and purpose, greatly accelerates the agile leadership needed today.

Kevin Wilde, longtime Chief Learning Officer for General Mills, who was named “CLO of the Year” by Chief Learning Officer magazine, put it this way, “Ultimately, leadership development has to integrate the depth of the inner self-awareness work with the breadth and complexity of external marketplace and cultural dynamics. Enduring leadership development brings together both of these inner and outer realities.”

Leadership from the Inside Out involves clarifying our inner identity, purpose, and vision so that our lives thereafter are dedicated to a more conscious, intentional manner of living and leading. This inner mastery directs our diverse intentions and aspirations into a purposeful focus, and increased effectiveness is a natural result. As we move to a more fulfilled manner of living and leading, our attention to purpose transforms our single-minded focus on external success. This purposeful intention and action serves as the energetic, inspiring basis for enduring leadership effectiveness.

Unfortunately, I’ve lost track of the number of times I’ve met with a CEO, business owner, or corporate executive who had lost connection to this inner core of success. John, a founder and CEO, approached me a while ago. By all external measures, he was a great success. He had a thriving business. He recently built a new facility to house his expanding operations. But something was missing. When he sat down with me, he opened up immediately by saying, “You know, everyone thinks I’m a big success. My neighbors, friends, and my family look at me, and they see a success. My employees around the globe think I have it all together. But you know what? I’m miserable. I’m unhappy in what I’m doing. My whole life I’ve been just successfully reacting to circumstances. I got my degree and that defined my first job. That job defined my second job. The same with the third, and so on. Before I knew it I had this business, a family, a mortgage. Recently, I ‘woke up’ and said to myself, ‘Is this me? Is this my life or just a series of circumstances I’ve successfully reacted to?’ I’m not sure what to do, but I have this sense of urgency that I need to take my life back.”

From a developmental perspective, many leaders of organizations are like John. We are like naturally gifted athletes who have mastered our external performance capabilities but neglected the inner dynamics supporting our ongoing success and fulfillment. What happens to some of the most gifted athletes who become coaches? They often have an extremely difficult and frustrating time. Why? Most often it is because they have not comprehended, from the inside out, how they become great. As a result, it is challenging for them to mentor others to greatness, and it is equally challenging to be consciously aware of how to replicate their own success in the future. This is why most significant growth and development must begin with self-leadership—mastery of oneself.

When we define our identity and purpose only in terms of external results, the circumstances of our lives define us. In this externally driven state of identity, life is fragile, vulnerable, and at risk. Everything that happens to us defines who we are. We are success. We are failure. We become our circumstances. Life defines us. Our core identity and passionate purpose are overshadowed by the events of our lives. Success may even be present, but mastery has escaped us. Unintentionally, we have chosen to “major” in the “minor” things of life. Can we lead when we don’t see beyond the immediate external circumstances surrounding us?

Bill, a potential CEO successor in a global company based in Europe, was caught in this external trap, but he didn’t know it. His career had been a fast and consistent ascent to the top. He had the “right degree.” His background was with the “right companies,” and his results were always outstanding. However, his single-minded pursuit of success had great costs. Without intending to, he left a wide wake of frustrated people in his path to success. As a result, he had few close supporters, and team morale was low. At earlier stages in his career, this was not an issue, but as he advanced, it became an increasing problem.

One day the CEO approached him and said, “Bill, your results are outstanding, but we need more than that. The way you’re getting results is starting to diminish your effectiveness here.” Bill was shocked. A flood of thoughts came to mind: “What do you mean my results are not enough? Since when has my style been an issue? Am I missing something here?” Bill’s externally built façade of success was being questioned by his boss and by Bill himself. This jolt was exactly what Bill needed to jumpstart his development to the next level.

After a few days, Bill arrived in my office for leadership development. The shock of his boss’s comments and his need to reconcile them with his limited self-understanding had put him in a reflective mood. “I’ve been avoiding this. If I’m honest with myself, I know I have to do some work. Not the type of work I’m accustomed to, but work on me. But, I’m totally at a loss. My whole life has been focused on achieving at all costs: getting the grades at school, winning in sports, getting results in business. When I’m faced with changing, doing things differently, growing … whatever you call it, I’m lost. I’m even beginning to wonder what’s really important to me anymore. My life has been invested in getting results. Now that’s not enough. What do I do?”

After a couple months of intensive work, Bill began to turn things around. He started to sort out what was really important to him. He began leading more from his core values. He built relationships with people. He asked more questions instead of assuming that he had all the answers. He started to master the power of self-aware, purposeful leadership. His team environment responded to his newfound sense of service. His boss, coworkers, friends, and family all felt that something significant, something of real substance, had begun.

It’s important to note that we didn’t try to change Bill by taking him through some sort of “charm school.” We helped him wake up. He woke up to his identity. He woke up to the influence that he was having on people. He woke up to his values, purpose, and vision. He woke up to how others perceived him. This inside-out and outside-in mastery authentically reconnected him to himself, to others, and to the world around him. It had been there the whole time, but he needed to connect to it. Like Bill, we all fall into a metaphorical slumber at times. Rarely questioning where we are going and why, we go about our business and relationships day after day. Unfortunately, it often takes a traumatic event—a death, a termination, a divorce, a disease, or some other crisis—to bring us out of the depths of our deep sleep. But why wait for a shocking wake-up call? Why not make a more conscious choice to awaken to new potentialities now? If you are up for it, let’s begin this journey of awakening together.

When was the last time you woke up in the morning feeling thankful, fulfilled, and happy to be alive? On these days, the sun seemed brighter, your sense of self stronger, your life’s purpose clearer, and your mental and physical energies more abundant. These moments did not happen by accident. Several aspects of your life “came together.” Your self-recognition, sense of purpose, relationships, career, health, and lifestyle were all “more alive” at these times. As a result, you found yourself thinking, feeling, leading, and achieving in a more positive and energizing way.

For at least a brief period of time, each of us experiences these masterful moments. How can we experience them on a more consistent basis? Unfortunately, there is not a simple answer. There are no quick-fix programs in leadership development. Programs that take shortcuts may get some immediate results by temporarily masking acute symptoms, but the chronic situation remains. Over time, the person returns to an even more difficult condition. “Quick fixes” may be quick, but they don’t fix anything.

The people I’ve worked with over the years are looking for something more: courageous mastery of excellence over the long haul. These people are not interested in getting “psyched up” by a motivational speaker; they are interested in substance, results, process, and research-based solutions. They want to reach a deeper, more comprehensive level to master their lives as a whole. They want a holistic, integrated view of leadership.

Leadership from the Inside Out is about unfolding eight mastery pathways to our growth and development. As illustrated here, these mastery areas are not stages of development arranged in a sequential or hierarchical order. Rather, they are an ongoing, interrelated growth process in which each mastery area reinforces the others. When arranged together, we can think of them as an integrated whole, with each mastery area supporting progress toward a more fulfilling destination: making an enduring difference by bringing forth our gifts to serve others.

Now it’s time to begin our journey. Each of the following chapters offers you pragmatic torches to illuminate your pathways to become a leader for life.