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AAL’s Senior Fellow and The 9 Virtues of Exception Leaders: Unlocking Your Leadership Potential co-author, Professor Rob Jenkins, continues AAL’s Leadcast conversation about perseverance. He tells us there are two opposites of perseverance and explains the important role of humility.
2018 April AAL Newsletter
Three Lessons CEOs Can Learn from King Hammurabi
by John Kador
While the Code of Hammurabi may translate as authoritarian by today’s standards, Kador shows how the Babylonian king’s concern for welfare and consequences protected his people from selfish business practices. Kador asserts that modern leaders can learn from Hammurabi’s “struggle to regulate accountability, align incentives, manage risk, and communicate standards.”
Leaders Who Make Their Own Luck Do These 5 Things
by Leigh Buchanan
Buchanan examines the relationship between luck, chance, and hard work in her discussion of the book How Luck Happens: Using the Science of Luck to Transform Work, Love, and Life: “Think of talent and hard work as the cherries you can control, setting yourself up to benefit from opportunities when they materialize, either randomly or as the result of events you set in motion in the past, perhaps without realizing it.”
2 Forces for Shaping Conversation and Building Relationships
by Marlene Chism
Chism defines what she believes to be the two forces that shape conversations among leaders and employees: intention and alignment. Chism explains, “Intention is a powerful force that affects the outcome, and alignment tells you when you are on-base or off-base.” She offers professional examples on how to better align with and practice these forces.
The Music of Day-to-Day Leadership
by Dan Rockwell
Leaders’ word choice is analogous to composing leadership music, says Rockwell. He recommends assuming a positive, solution-centered leadership position and not complaining when things go wrong: “People determine if you are positive or negative, backward-looking or forward-focused, follower or leader, weak or powerful by the language you use.”
The Workplace Culture Chasm: Why So Many Get It Wrong
by Knowledge@Wharton
If we know that workplace culture matters, why do so many organizations continue to struggle with it? Todd Davis, author of Get Better: Fifteen Proven Practices to Build Effective Relationships at Work, speaks to Knowledge@Wharton about the lessons learned from his more than 30 years in human resources and talent development. Davis says building culture boils down to improving relationships.
In this, the first of two Leadcasts on the topic of perseverance, AAL’s president and The 9 Virtues of Exception Leaders: Unlocking Your Leadership Potential co-author, Dr. Karl Haden, ponders the virtue of perseverance. Most leaders know how to persevere, but what can leaders do to help themselves recognize when it’s time to stop?
AAL’s Senior Fellow and The 9 Virtues of Exception Leaders: Unlocking Your Leadership Potential co-author, Professor Rob Jenkins, defines the essence of virtuous leadership (on and off the basketball court).
2018 March AAL Newsletter
Microsoft’s CEO on the Power of Being a Learn-It-All
by Adam Grant and Heleo Editors
Microsoft CEO and bestselling author Satya Nadella and Wharton professor Adam Grant discuss the importance of empathy in business. “The source of innovation is your ability to grasp the unmet, unarticulated needs of customers,” says Nadella, who believes that good service spawns from empathy and strong listening skills.
How to lead authentically
by Naphtali Hoff
“Personal authenticity can become your greatest leadership asset,” states Naphtali Hoff in this discussion of authentic leadership in the age of social media. Hoff believes it is, now more than ever, most important to live in your comfort zone and find your “true north” as a leader.
Interprofessional Education and the Liberal Arts
by Karl Haden
President and CEO of AAL Karl Haden argues, “Reframing IPE to be more inclusive by integrating the liberal arts in professional education can help healthcare graduates overcome the limits of specialized training.” Dr. Haden believes that liberal arts programs provide a universal foundation to all professions, made of critical thinking, communication, intellectual curiosity and a love of learning.
Your First Thought Is Rarely Your Best Thought: Lessons on Thinking
by Shane Parrish
Have you given your brain a chance to surprise you lately? Shane Parrish discusses how scheduling time to think leads to innovation and problem-solving. While it may be inconvenient to schedule a one-on-one with yourself from time to time to think, Parrish argues that it “pays you back tenfold in the end.”
Breaking Through Joy Barriers in Our Organizations
by Scott Savage
Scott Savage defines joy barriers as “the attitudes and mindsets which keep us from contentment, confidence, and delight in our organizations.” Entitlement, cynicism, critical spirits, selfish agendas, and fixed mindsets can have a huge, negative impact on work environments. Savage suggests removing these top five joy barriers to improve your company culture and morale.
Do we know what power is?
by Adriano Pianesi
Power in the workplace is much more than controlling others. Some of the world’s best leaders tackle problem-solving through collaboration, teamwork, and listening. Adriano Pianesi discusses the differences between “power over” and “power with,” defining the latter as “getting things done in concert with others, creating alliances, reaching out to engage differences in common and sharing work to get something done collaboratively.”
What Can Leaders Learn from the World Happiness Report?
What Can Leaders Learn from the World Happiness Report?
by N. Karl Haden, Ph.D., AAL President
So much for “melancholy Danes.”1 For the third time since the publication of the first World Happiness Report in 2012, Denmark is ranked as the happiest country in the world. Switzerland, Iceland, and Norway followed, with the United States ranking 13th in overall happiness.2 The 2016 report is an update in anticipation of the World Happiness Report 2017. Led by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network, a global initiative of the United Nations, these studies aim to establish a scientific, empirically verifiable basis to measure humans’ subjective accounts of their well-being. Most of the differences in happiness among countries and regions result from six key variables: (1) GDP per capita; (2) healthy years of life expectancy; (3) social support (e.g., having someone to count on in times of trouble); (4) trust (as absence of corruption in government and business); (5) perceived freedom to make life decisions; and (6) generosity (e.g., donations to charity). According to the editors of the 2016 update, “increasingly, happiness is considered to be the proper measure of social progress and the goal of public policy.” A fundamental premise of these ongoing studies is that “subjective well-being provides a broader and more inclusive measure of the quality of life than does income.”2
In a chapter entitled Secular Ethics, Richard Layard, Director of the Well-Being Programme at the London School of Economics and Political Science’s Center for Economic Performance, describes three propositions that comprise the “greatest happiness principle.” They are as follows:
1. Human progress should be assessed by the extent to which individuals are enjoying their lives. Enjoyment is defined by the prevalence of happiness and the absence of misery.
2. The objective of governments should be to create the conditions for the greatest possible happiness and the least possible misery.
3. Likewise, every individual has an obligation to create the greatest amount of human happiness in the world and the least misery.
The greatest happiness principle calls for us to care not only about our own wellbeing, but also about the wellbeing of others. Layard states that human nature is both selfish and altruistic. Moreover, he argues that we need an ethical system to promote the altruist within us over the egotist. Historically, ethical codes of conduct have come from various sources, most especially religious traditions. Layard maintains that, “In an ever more secular society we urgently need non-religious organisations which promote ethical living in a way that provides inspiration, uplift, joy and mutual support—through regular meetings of like-minded people.” Such organizations need not be anti-religious; they simply need to provide a structure that will allow for the actualization of the greatest happiness principle.
While there are numerous organizations that can provide such inspiration, uplift, joy, and mutual support, I would like to propose that the workplace provides the greatest opportunity to create these conditions. For the majority of employed people, the workplace is where they spend most of their time. In a sense, workplaces create their ethical codes of conduct. Workplaces have cultures, characterized by values (whether explicit or implicit), and policies. For most people, the type of work they do, those with whom they work, and the rewards of work (monetary and otherwise) are fundamental to their sense of wellbeing and happiness.
What can leaders learn from the World Happiness Report? Income matters to employees, but other factors are more important to fostering a sense of wellbeing. In his book Drive: The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us, Daniel Pink uses decades of research to argue that the secret to high performance and satisfaction is the human need to direct our own lives, to learn and create new things, and to improve ourselves and our world.3 Pink and others found that monetary rewards work best when the task is simple and straightforward. However, once even rudimentary cognitive skills are involved, larger rewards actually led to poorer performance. Pink found that granting people autonomy and self-direction actually improves engagement with the task and others. He argues that for most people, mastery is also a motivation: we by nature want to get better at what we do. Lastly, people are motivated by purpose—they want to know that what they do matters. I call this type of work meaningful work; and it matters not only in terms of motivation, but also to one’s sense of wellbeing—one’s happiness.
A basic question for leaders is whether the culture of the departments, units, schools, and organizations they lead values autonomy, mastery, and purpose. Policies should foster self-direction. Vision, mission, and values must be discussed, debated, implemented, and lived. The leader’s attitudes and behavior should be consistent with espoused values of individual worth. The leader cannot possibly ensure that a given employee feels happy all of the time, or that the employee has all of his or her desires met. However, the leader does have a responsibility to create a meaningful workplace. If we return to Layard’s three propositions comprising the greatest happiness principle and apply them to our organizations, the leadership challenge might take the form of these questions:
1. What am I doing to ensure that people enjoy working here?
2. How do I create the conditions (culture, opportunities, etc.) in which people can grow, thrive, and make meaningful contributions?
3. How can our organization maximize its purpose to make the community and the world a better place?
I would offer that happiness and wellbeing are not only “a proper measure of social progress and the goal of public policy,” but should also serve as a measure of the work environment and the societal goal of our schools and businesses.
References:
1. Shakespeare, W. Hamlet. Simon & Schuster; New Folger Edition, 2003.
2. Helliwell J, Layard R., Sachs J. World Happiness Report 2016, Update (Vol. I). New York: Sustainable Development Solutions Network, 2016.
3. Pink, D. Drive: The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us. New York: Riverhead Books, 2009.
AAL’s President and The 9 Virtues of Exception Leaders: Unlocking Your Leadership Potential co-author, Dr. Karl Haden, considers the behaviors that make leadership virtuous.
2018 February AAL Newsletter
Three Daily Sheets Guide Morgan Stanley’s CEO
by Erik Schatzker
Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman talks to Erik Schatzker about his leadership lessons, one of which is to keep three sheets of paper every day: daily numbers, personal goals, and company strategy. Gorman explains they provide focus and reveal important patterns and aberrations over time.
Ten Behaviors Leaders Should Eliminate for Better Results
by John Stoker
How Servant-Leaders Cultivate Performance
by Dan Rockwell
Explaining that the “choice between personal advantage and organizational advantage speaks to the heart of servant leadership,” Dan Rockwell suggests you weather the short-term disadvantage of developing and supporting your new team members, because it will pay off in long-term performance. He says, “Developing people means setting them up for success when it’s quicker and easier to do it yourself.”
Mindfulness: Why Being Present Can Make You a Better Manager
by Knowledge@Wharton
Gretchen Steidle, author of Leading From Within: Conscious Social Change and Mindfulness for Social Innovation, discusses how mindfulness training can transform leadership, describing it as beneficial not just for the self, but also for the organization: It is “a way of shifting, creating change and doing business more effectively and more collaboratively, especially with your stakeholders.”