Leadership Strategies and ToolsA Webinar Presented by NYS ARTS Craig Dreeszen, Ph.D., 2009

This program is made possible with support from National Endowment for the Arts, American Express Foundation and the New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency

Hear some of your reflections on leadership

Explore paradoxes of leadership and a few more principles

Examine leadership tools and ongoing learning opportunities

Encourage your plan to enhance your leadership

Adulation & mistrust of leaders

Leaders closely scrutinized

Complex organizations Fast changing and

complicated environment Economic upheaval Arts funding volatile Politics polarized Power shifting Society transforming Technology advancing Information ubiquitous Generational shift of leaders

“The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality.”

Max DePree

Organizations in crisis Organization turnarounds and failures Leadership succession

Founding directors leaving Baby boomers (slowly) retiring Interim directors Next generation leaders

You may plan dramatic changes that would be resisted in calmer times Abandon ineffective programs Lay off unproductive staff Reorganize governance or

operations Merge with competitor

Surviving organizations will be stronger

“Think of leadership as the sum of two vectors:

Competence – your specialty, your skills, your know-how, and

Authenticity – your identity, your character, your attitude.”

Peter Koestenbaum, Philosopher, Fast Company, March 2000

Competence Authenticity

A central attribute of leadership is capacity to accept ambiguity and manage polarities.

“Taking personal responsibility for getting others to implement strategy is the leader’s key polarity.”

Like parenting, “You are 100% responsible for how your children turn out. And you accomplish that by teaching them they are 100% responsible for how they turn out.”

Peter Koestenbaum

“Leaders don’t create followers, they create more leaders.”

Tom Peters

The best leaders operate in four dimensions:

The visionary leader thinks big, thinks new, thinks ahead

Realistic leader faces reality as it is, not as you envision it

Ethical leader respects human values of integrity, love, and meaning

Courageous leader has the will and capacity to make things happen

“The real challenge of leadership is to develop all four of these, often contradictory modes of thinking at once.

Peter Koestenbaum

“Too many people separate the act of leadership from the leader. They see leadership as something that they do – rather than as an expression of who they are. People who understand who they are…have a more powerful voice.”

Three core qualities of leadership: Authenticity Self expression Value creation

Ask yourself: “Do you know yourself?

Why do I pursue the work and life that I do? What do I act like during the most fulfilling times of my life?

Do you know how to listen – and to hear?”

Fast Company, December 2007

“The servant-leader is servant first… It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead.

…different from one who is leader first, perhaps because of the need to assuage an unusual power drive…

“The difference manifests itself in the care taken by the servant-first to make sure that other people’s highest priority needs are being served.”

Robert K. Greenleaf

“There go the people. I must follow them for I am their leader.” Alexandre Ledru-Rollin

“Leadership involves finding a parade and getting in front of it.” John Naisbitt

Barbara Kellerman, Bad Leadership, identifies seven types of bad leaders

Incompetent -- Lack skill or will Rigid -- Inflexible Intemperate -- Lack self control Callous -- Uncaring or unkind Corrupt -- Lie, steal, or cheat Insular -- Disregard welfare of those outside

immediate group Evil – commit severe harm

When the Master governs, the people are hardly aware that he exists….

If you don’t trust the people, you make them untrustworthy.

The Master doesn’t talk, he acts.

When his work is done, the people say, “Amazing: we did it, all by ourselves.”

Lao Tzu 5th Century B.C.E.

A real leader, through actions and words, has the ability to motivate others to their highest level of achievement;

then gives them the opportunity and the freedom to grow.

The leader acts with little motion, instructs not with words but by deeds, keeps informed but seldom interferes.

Warren Bennis

Observe leaders

Follow leaders & mentors

Read

Study

Reflective practice

Shannon Leadership Institute http://www.wilder.org/shann

on

NY State Arts Webinar series www.nysarts.org

Americans for the Arts Webinar local arts management series www.arts-usa.org

Arts Extension Service online Certificate in Arts Management www.umass.edu/aes

James P. Shannon Leadership Institute, St. Paul, MN

“Organizations flourish under the leadership of people who are: clear about their purpose and

values, approach challenges

proactively and with energy, and

who have a vision of how they can best serve the people in their community.”

Leadership is an Art, Max DePree

The Starfish and the Spider, Ori Brafman and Rod Beckstrom

Leaders: The Strategies for Taking Charge, Warren Bennis and Burt Nanus

Leadership and the New Science, Margaret Wheatley

Leading Change, John P. Kotter

Bad Leadership, Barbara Kellerman

Governance as Leadership, Richard Chait, William Ryan, Barbara Taylor

Community: The Structure of Belonging, Peter Block

The Creative Community Builder’s Handbook, Tom Borrup

Harvard Business Review on Leadership

Harvard Business Review on What Makes a Leader

Tao te Ching, Lao Tzu

Reflect on your practice Be comfortable with yourself Take care of yourself

Exercise Rest Create Reflect Get support

What have you learned about your leadership?

What do you need to learn? Resolve to learn and improve your

leadership practice.

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”

John Quincy Adams