Hacking Leadership E-Book

Mike Myatt

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 334

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013

Beschreibung

Hacking Leadership is Mike Myatt's latest leadership book written for leaders at every level. Leadership isn't broken, but how it's currently being practiced certainly is. Everyone has blind spots. The purpose of Hacking Leadership is to equip leaders at every level with an actionable framework to identify blind spots and close leadership gaps. The bulk of the book is based on actionable, topical leadership and management hacks to bridge eleven gaps every business needs to cross in order to create a culture of leadership: leadership, purpose, future, mediocrity, culture, talent, knowledge, innovation, expectation, complexity, and failure. Each chapter: * Gives readers specific techniques to identify, understand, and most importantly, implement individual, team and organizational leadership hacks. * Addresses blind spots and leverage points most leaders and managers haven't thought about, which left unaddressed, will adversely impact growth, development, and performance. All leaders have blind-spots (gaps), which often go undetected for years or decades, and sadly, even when identified the methods for dealing with them are outdated and ineffective - they need to be hacked. * Showcases case studies from the author's consulting practice, serving as a confidant with more than 150 public company CEOs. Some of those corporate clients include: AT&T, Bank of America, Deloitte, EMC, Humana, IBM, JP Morgan Chase, Merrill Lynch, PepsiCo, and other leading global brands. Hacking Leadership offers a fresh perspective that makes it easy for leaders to create a roadmap to identify, refine, develop, and achieve their leadership potential--and to create a more effective business that is financially solvent and professionally desirable.

Leseprobe

Contents

Prologue

Chapter 1: Hacking the Leadership Gap

Overview—The Commoditization of Leadership

The Leadership Gap Defined

Hacking the Control Gap

The Awareness Gap—Finding the Blind Spots

The Key to Clarity—White Space

Hacking the Status Quo

Hacking the Preparation Gap

Chapter 2: Hacking the Purpose Gap

Following in the Footsteps of Greatness—The Movement Hack

Individual Purpose—Hacking the Purpose Continuum

Hacking the Pursuit Gap

Hacking the Passion Gap

Finding Organizational Purpose Begins with Hacking Why

Hacking the Profit Gap

Chapter 3: Hacking the Future Gap

How to See around Corners—Hacking the Vision Gap

To Hack the Future You Must Have Clear Perspective on the Past

To Hack the Future You Must Understand How to Navigate the Present

Hacking the New Normal

Great Leaders Hack the Future by Pulling It Forward

Hacking Generational Complexity

Chapter 4: Hacking the Mediocrity Gap

Hacking the Impulsivity Gap

Hacking the Impossibility Gap

Hacking the Safety Gap

Hacking Political Correctness

Chapter 5: Hacking the Culture Gap

Hacking the Gap between Strategy and Culture

The Right Foundation—Hacking the Culture Construct

Hacking the Management Construct

Hacking the Scarcity Gap

Hacking the Courage Gap

Hacking the Arrogance Gap

Hacking the Rumor Mill

Hacking Diversity

Hacking Scalability

Hacking the Me Too Gap—Don’t Copy, Create

Chapter 6: Hacking the Talent Gap

Hacking the Trust Gap

Hacking the Loyalty Gap

Hacking the Four Dimensions of Talent

Hacking the Hiring Gap

Hacking the Definition Gap

Hacking the Quality Gap—Supply versus Demand

Hacking the Consensus Gap

Hacking the One-Size-Doesn’t-Fit-All Gap

Hacking the Pressure Gap

Hacking the Turnover Gap

Chapter 7: Hacking the Knowledge Gap

Hacking Static Thinking

Hacking the Decision Gap

Hacking the Competency Gap

Hacking the Learning Gap

Hacking the Reading Gap

Hacking the Communication Gap

Hacking the Sensitivity Gap

Hacking the Story

Hacking Verbosity

Chapter 8: Hacking the Innovation Gap

Hacking the Idea Trap—What Innovation Is Not

Hacking the Change Gap

Hacking the Gap between Incremental and Disruptive

Hacking the Next Level

Hacking the Competition

Hacking the Flexibility Gap

Chapter 9: Hacking the Expectation Gap

Hacking the Alignment Gap

Hacking the Discipline Gap

Chapter 10: Hacking the Complexity Gap

Hacking Complexity

Hacking Smart

Chapter 11: Hacking the Failure Gap

Hacking Perfection

Hacking a Defensive Mind-set

Hacking Succession

Final Thoughts

About the Author

Index

More Praise for Mike Myatt’sHacking Leadership

“Great leaders are aware of gaps and blind spots in their organizations, teams, and lives. Learn the secrets of great leaders when you read Mike Myatt’s Hacking Leadership!”

—Marshall Goldsmith, 2 million-selling author of the New York Times bestsellers, MOJO and What Got You Here Won’t Get You There

“Hacking Leadership is a thought-provoking, status-quo-shattering jolt of leadership wisdom that can propel anyone in the direction of their full leadership potential. At a time when scores of people are content settling for What Is, Mike challenges us to ask ourselves, What If? Instead of simply writing another book on leadership, he’s penned a powerfully persuasive narrative that reminds us the only limits to our leadership are those we impose on ourselves. Hacking Leadership is a must read for everyone!”

—Brigadier General John E. Michel, Commanding General NATO Air Training Command-Afghanistan, and author of (No More) Mediocre Me: How Saying No to the Status Quo Will Propel You From Ordinary to Extraordinary

“Hacking Leadership merits a place on every twenty-first century leader’s short list of must-read books. Written from the heart and the mind of the renowned leadership expert Mike Myatt, this remarkable manual for action will inspire you to the greatest leadership contribution in your work and life.”

—James Strock, author, Serve to Lead, Theodore Roosevelt on Leadership, Reagan on Leadership, former George H.W. Bush appointee as chief law enforcement officer for the U.S. EPA

“Mike’s insights are logical, entertaining and well outlined. Deep experience with a myriad of leaders enables him to understand the landscape, and his passionate pursuit of innovation lets him crack it open. Hacking Leadership is a fresh take on what it means to be an effective leader and take action.”

—Thomas X. Geisel, CEO, Sun Bancorp, Inc.

“Every leader I know, including myself, has leadership gaps, and all of us need a resource and framework for not only identifying the gaps, but also a practical roadmap to help close those gaps. Hacking Leadership is an essential tool for every leader to have in their toolbox for working on their own leadership and thus improving the team and overall organization. Mike reminds us all not to settle for the status quo, and the important role each of us has to bring about the change we seek. True leaders do something about it, and are willing to mix things up and hack away at their leadership, with the constant pursuit of excellence and thus their true leadership potential.”

—Brad Lomenick, president and key visionary, Catalyst, author, The Catalyst Leader

Cover image: © iStockphoto.com/ROMAOSLO

Cover design: Wiley

Copyright © 2014 by Mike Myatt. All rights reserved.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.

Published simultaneously in Canada.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

ISBN 978-1-118-81741-4 (Hardcover)

ISBN 978-1-118-81737-7 (ePDF)

ISBN 978-1-118-81735-3 (ePub)

To my family—they inspire me to be better.

To my friends—they challenge me to do better.

To my clients—they require me to think better.

To my co-workers—they motivate me to lead better.

Prologue

In my office hangs a plaque given to me as a gift. It originally read, It Is What It Is. After a few weeks of reading that phrase several times a day, what I once regarded as a harmless saying began to challenge my thinking and poke at my convictions. It became clear to me this seemingly innocent phrase embodied much of what’s wrong with leadership today. So I did what any good leader would do—I took action.

I rummaged through my desk drawer and found my whittling knife. I then proceeded to carve the following inscription beneath the original statement: Until You Decide To Change It. What once served as a statement of defeat now reads as instructive encouragement; the text no longer lulls people who read it into a state of complacency—it now propels them forward.

This simple piece of wall art (prior to my modification) is sadly representative of many who hold positions of leadership. Burdened by common practice, busyness, and an aversion to change, many leaders today suffer from an acute case of mental numbness. They have fallen prey to the slow seduction of the status quo. As time has passed, they have succumbed to accepting what is instead of pursuing what if. They make safe choices instead of smart choices—they have forgotten what it is to be a leader.

There is no shortage of debate surrounding leadership when it comes to philosophy, style, definitional distinctions, nuances, complex theory, and so and so forth. That said, I believe most reasonable people would agree leadership is nothing if not personal. Leadership can represent a pursuit, discipline, practice, passion, calling, skill, competency, obligation, duty, compulsion, or even an obsession. I’ve known those who have worshiped at the altar of leadership as a religion, and a bit of reflection will reveal more than a few leadership revolutions dotting the historical timeline. My goal for Hacking Leadership is to challenge your thinking and your perceptions with regard to the state of leadership. So, my question is this; what’s next for leadership?

In my first book Leadership Matters (2007), I made the following statement:

Whether through malice or naiveté, those who trivialize the value of leadership place us all at risk. Poor leadership cripples businesses, ruins economies, destroys families, loses wars, and can bring the demise of nations—Leadership Matters.

On an individual basis, a person’s perceived leadership ability, or lack thereof, will in large part determine their station in life; the schools they’re admitted to, the jobs they hold, the family life they create, the influence they acquire, and the financial security they achieve. On a collective basis, the quality of leadership has a ripple effect (positive or negative) that can impact generations. Leadership, good or bad, is a contagion.

Nothing impacts our world like leadership, and sadly, the practice of leadership is broken. We live in a society where the pace of change has never been faster and more dramatic, yet our leadership practices have remained painfully stagnant. Using eighteenth, nineteenth, or twentieth-century leadership practices in the twenty-first century simply doesn’t work. It’s time for a fresh perspective—it’s time to begin Hacking Leadership.

Core leadership principles have remained largely the same since the dawn of time. The problem with today’s leaders is they don’t understand how to integrate time-tested principles with evolving leadership practices built for twenty-first century success. The world in which you attempt to implement previously successful strategies and tactics has changed and is ever changing. Organizations, their employees, and the various constituencies they serve are far different today from what they were centuries, decades, or even a few years ago.

Here’s the thing—these core leadership principles need not be abandoned, but outdated and ill conceived practices must be hacked in order to reestablish leadership equilibrium. Hacking Leadership puts the practice of leadership under a transformative lens for the purpose simplifying the complex, while not throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

It’s important for leaders to embrace the practice of change as it applies to their own tradecraft. I’ve spent much of my adult life committed to the belief and practice there is always room for innovation, development, and improvement. As much as some don’t want to hear it, this applies to leadership as well. When leaders hold themselves to a higher standard of rigor, discipline, accountability, and transparency everyone wins.

I’ve often said the rigidity of a closed mind is the first step in limiting opportunity. So let me ask you this question: When was the last time you changed something about you? Not someone or something else, but your thinking, your philosophy, your vision, your approach, your attitude, or your development. Most leaders are quite skilled at embracing change—except when the focus of the change initiative happens to be on them. Show me a person that never changes their mind, and I’ll show you a static thinker who has sentenced their mind to a prison of mediocrity and wasted potential.

Smart leaders challenge everything—especially conventional thought, best practices, and dominant logic. When I refer to dominant logic, I’m referencing existing behaviors/practices, which lock organizations into a pattern of once-productive thinking that no longer is (false truths held as real). Anything in business can be improved, everything can be reimagined, and many things can flat-out be eliminated. The trick is knowing what items to focus on—which items to hack.

I want to pause here and set the tone moving forward by giving you my definition of hacking:

hacking [hak-ing]—present participle of hack (verb) to discover an alternate path, clever and skillful tricks, shortcuts and workarounds, breaking the code, deciphering complexity, influencing outcomes, acquiring access, creating innovative customizations to existing/outdated methodologies.

Everyone has blind spots, and leadership gaps exist in every organization. The purpose of this book is to equip leaders at every level with an actionable framework to identify blind spots and close leadership gaps. Hacking Leadership offers a fresh perspective that will make it easy for leaders to create a road map to identify, refine, develop, and achieve their true leadership potential.

Hackers are innovative thinkers who acquire and distribute knowledge, tips, and tricks for solving complex problems—they reinvent strategies, protocols, and practices to create more effective solutions to both existing problems and new challenges. They adopt the mind-set of innovating around best practices in pursuit of next practices.

Most of us are all too familiar with the statement “you don’t know what you don’t know”—there’s never been a more dangerous cop-out for leaders than rationalizing ignorance. The fact of the matter is the best leaders are poignantly aware of what they don’t know, and exhaust all efforts to close those knowledge gaps.

In many respects, leadership is nothing more than identifying personal, team, organizational, and market blind spots and then dealing with them in the most effective fashion. Therefore it’s critically important for leaders to understand that most blind spots exist in the form of gaps—positional gaps, philosophical gaps, strategic gaps, operational gaps, expectation gaps, knowledge gaps, and so on. Gaps exist in every organization: The issue is whether you recognize them, and if so, how you choose to deal with them.

Many leaders choose to be ignorant of gaps and pretend they don’t exist. The problem is that when leaders fall into a gap, it often resembles a crevasse from which there is no escape. Smart leaders proactively seek out gaps in an effort to bridge, close, fill, jump, or navigate around whatever chasm they happen to be facing. The better you become at turning gaps into opportunities (hacking the gaps), the better leader you’ll become.

I’ve had the privilege of working with thousands of leaders around the globe. I’m honored to count among my clients many past and present chairmen and CEOs of some of the world’s leading organizations. What these men and women have consistently taught me is that holding a position of leadership is not the same thing as being a good leader; understanding the basic tenants of leadership is not the same thing as being able to successfully apply them, and that leadership isn’t a destination it’s a journey.

While many things can cause leaders to stumble, I’ve found there are 11 specific leadership gaps, which if not properly identified, understood, and addressed can be fatal. In each of the 11 chapters that follow, I address a particular topic by framing it within the context of a leadership gap. I then go on to offer a series of hacks to help you reframe your thinking so that you can either avoid or altogether eliminate the gap.

Finally, I want to share with you my opinions and biases about most business books, as well as offer a few insights for how you can get the most out of this work. Most business books are full of fluff, and while they may be entertaining, they often serve no real purpose other than to transfer some of your wealth to the author. In the final analysis, a book is only as valuable to leaders as their willingness to discerningly pull the useful concepts off the pages and place them into practice. Books are little more than words on a page unless you choose to make them something more.

I would certainly encourage you to challenge the concepts put forth in this book. More importantly, I would encourage you to challenge your own thinking. Don’t just read the book; study the material and commit to becoming a better leader. The day you stop hacking leadership is the day you should stop leading. Good luck and good hacking. . . .

Chapter 1

Hacking the Leadership Gap

The plausibility of impossibility only becomes a probability in the absence of leadership.

Overview—The Commoditization of Leadership

Whether you believe leadership has evolved or devolved over time, there is no disputing the practice of leadership has become a contentious topic steeped in ethereal, ambiguous rhetoric. Everyone seems to have an opinion of what constitutes good leadership, but if good leadership is so easy to define and identify, why then does it seem so hard to come by?

Society has essentially commoditized leadership resulting in a leadership bubble of sorts. Because leadership has become the latest version of an entitlement program, too many unqualified leaders have been allowed to enter the ranks.

This is not just a business problem—it’s a global leadership problem. The media is littered with daily examples of those placed in positions of leadership who failed to lead. Leaders are often selected, promoted, and retained on entirely the wrong basis. When leadership is perceived as little more than a title granting access to a platform for personal gain, rather than a privilege resulting in an opportunity to serve, we’ll continue to find ourselves in a crisis of leadership.

Those of you familiar with my work know I’m a dyed in the wool leadership guy. . . . I believe all things begin and end with leadership. In fact, I hold this thesis so dear, I’ve said for years “businesses don’t fail, projects don’t fail, and products don’t fail—leaders fail.”

With principled, effective leadership, all things are possible. It’s only when optics become more important than ethics, when profit becomes more important than purpose, when process becomes more important than people, and when politics becomes more important than doing the right thing, that individuals and organizations lose their direction. Sadly, this is where much of the world finds itself today. The good news is by hacking current leadership frameworks and dynamics we can find our way back to true north.

The best leaders understand leadership is the key to unlocking and realizing limitless potential. I want you to think about leadership like this—the only boarders to leadership are those which are self-imposed. The only limits on your personal, team, or organizational leadership are the ones you submit to.

So, you have a choice—you can limit your worldview, or you can expand it—you can embrace the status quo, or you can shatter it—you can follow best practices, or you can lead innovation around them to identify next practices. Real leaders don’t limit themselves, but more importantly they refuse to limit those they lead.

All truly great leaders I’ve had the opportunity to work with have had one thing in common—they have a clear understanding of their strengths and weaknesses. They’ve learned to check their ego, enhance their level of self-awareness, and understand how others perceive them. They are clear thinkers who understand their role and are prepared to act accordingly.

This is a foundational chapter—one that sets the tone you can build upon chapter by chapter as you move forward. Therefore, the balance of this chapter will offer some insights into how you can hack away at the self-rationalizations and justifications keeping you from reaching your leadership potential.

The Leadership Gap Defined

Those who become what they do not understand will not like the outcome. It’s imperative you define yourself on both an aspirational and practical level as a leader in order to lead well. Leadership isn’t just a role or a title—it’s a choice. The best leaders choose to be better, they choose to be different—they choose to lead well. The seminal question you must ask yourself as a leader is why should anyone be led by you?

Think about it like this—aside from having a job, how are people better off for being led by you? In order to consistently receive the right answer to the aforementioned question, a leader must first gain an understanding of the following three critical leadership gaps:

1. The Development Gap: This refers to the gap between how you assess your current leadership ability and your true potential as a leader. An accurate understanding of this gap indicates whether you see leadership as a destination or as a continuum. It will determine whether you grow and develop your leadership skills, or whether you will follow the path of least resistance and rest upon your laurels. Keep this in mind—it is impossible for a leader who is not growing and developing to lead a growing and developing enterprise.

2. The Influence Gap: While influence can be generated in all directions, for purposes of this discussion I’m referring to the gap between your self-assessment and the assessment of your leadership ability by your peers. Your understanding of this gap, and willingness to do something about it, will determine your ability to build a cohesive team. Leaders who don’t have the trust and respect of their team won’t be able to generate the influence necessary to perform at the expected levels.

3. The Reality Gap: This refers to the difference between how you view yourself and how those you lead feel about you. A leader who loses the faith and confidence of their workforce won’t be able to attract and retain talent, will have a culture on life support, and subpar performance that ensures only one thing—a limited shelf life.

Let’s stop right here and do a quick gut check. I want you to rate yourself as a leader on a scale from 1 to 10, with 1 representing the worst in leadership and 10 being the best in leadership. I don’t want you to rate your leadership potential, but rather how you are currently performing as a leader. This is a risk-free evaluation, as nobody will see your score but you; do this now and write the number here ____.

Here’s what we know to be true based upon the empirical evidence gleaned from conducting thousands of interviews with senior executives. Regardless of your position/title, you likely rated yourself between a 6 and an 8. Am I right? The reality is regardless of how transparent you tried to be, 90+ percent of all people in leadership positions won’t rate themselves below a 6. Similarly, 90+ percent of people in leadership positions won’t rate themselves higher than an 8.

While this first set of data might not shock you, here’s something else we know about leadership self-evaluations—leaders consistently overrate themselves. How do we know this? Because we have also surveyed thousands of subordinates and peers, as well as those whom the leaders report to. This next set of data will shock you.

When we ask those who work for and with you to rate you on the same scale with which you conducted your self-assessment, they rate you on average 200 basis points lower than you rate yourself—that’s right, two full percentage points lower. So, if you rated yourself an 8 your co-workers likely rate you a 6. If you rated yourself a 6, then they likely rated you a 4. How does that make you feel?

The difference between your self-assessment score and how others rate you is what I refer to as the leadership gap. Whether the leadership gap is perception or reality doesn’t really matter—it’s nonetheless the gap all leaders must learn to hack.

Put yourself in the shoes of those who rated you—how impassioned and motivated would you be to awaken each morning to go to work for a leader who rates somewhere between a 4 and 6?

Where leadership always runs amok is when hubris overshadows humility, and self-serving motives take the place of service beyond self. Leadership is not about the power and the accolades bestowed upon the leader; it’s about the betterment of those whom the leader serves. At its essence, leadership is about people. At its core, leadership is about improving the status quo, inspiring positive change, and challenging conventional thinking.

As long as positional and philosophical arguments are more important than forward progress, as long as being right is esteemed above being vulnerable and open to new thought, as long as ego is elevated above empathy and compassion, as long as rhetoric holds more value than performance, and as long as we tolerate these things as acceptable behavior we will all suffer at the hands of poor leadership.

I think most of us understand at a high level that companies live and die by the quality of their leadership—but how many of you really internalize this deep down at a personal level? If you’re ready to dig deep and get serious about leadership, the first thing to understand is how control limits your ability to lead.

Hacking the Control Gap

The most common mistake I see leaders make is to attempt to lead through control. As counterintuitive as it might seem, in order to gain influence you must surrender control. The reality is you’ll rarely encounter the words leadership and surrender used together in complementary fashion. Society has labeled surrender as a sign of leadership weakness, when in fact it can be among the greatest of leadership strengths. Leaders who fail to learn how to hack the control gap fail to lead up to their potential.

Let me be clear, I’m not encouraging giving in or giving up—I am suggesting you learn the ever so subtle art of letting go. Leaders simply operate at their best when they understand their ability to influence is much more fruitful than their ability to control. Here’s the thing—the purpose of leadership is not to shine the spotlight on yourself, but to unlock the potential of others so they can in turn shine the spotlight on countless more. Control is about power—not leadership. Surrender allows leaders to stop impeding themselves and focus on adding value to those whom they serve.

If you’re still not convinced the art of leadership is learning that the focus point should be on surrender not control, consider this: Control restricts potential, limits initiative, and inhibits talent. Surrender fosters collaboration, encourages innovation, and enables possibility. Controlling leaders create bottlenecks rather than increase throughput. They signal a lack of trust and confidence and often come across as insensitive if not arrogant. When you experience weak teams, micro-management, frequent turf wars, high stress, operational strain, and a culture of fear, you are experiencing what control has to offer—not very attractive is it?

Surrender allows the savvy leader to serve, but control demands that the egocentric leader be served. Surrender allows leadership to scale and a culture of leadership to be established. Surrender prefers loose collaborative networks to rigid hierarchical structures allowing information to be more readily shared and distributed. Leaders who understand surrender think community, ecosystem, and culture—not org chart. Surrender is what not only allows the dots to be connected, but it’s what allows the dots to be multiplied. Controlling leaders operate in a world of addition and subtraction, while the calculus of a leader who understands surrender is built on exponential multiplication.

I have found those who embrace control are simply attempting to consolidate power, while those who practice surrender are facilitating the distribution of authority. When what you seek is to build into others more than glorifying self, you have developed a level of leadership maturity that values surrender over control. Surrender is the mind-set that creates the desire for leaders to give credit rather than take it, to prefer hearing over being heard, to dialogue instead of monologue, to have an open mind over a closed mind, to value unlearning as much as learning. Control messages selfishness, while surrender conveys selflessness—which is more important to you?

Keep this in mind—we all surrender, but not all surrender is honorable. Some surrender to their ego, to the wrong priorities, or to other distractive habits. Others surrender to the positive realization that they are not the center of the universe—they surrender to something beyond themselves in order to accomplish more for others. Bottom line—what you do or don’t surrender to will define you. Assuming you surrender to the right things, surrender is not a sign of leadership weakness, but is perhaps the ultimate sign of leadership confidence. I’ll leave you with this quote from William Booth: “The greatness of a man’s power is the measure of his surrender.”

Once you recognize where you stand with regard to the leadership gap and you get past limiting control issues, it’s time to identify your blind spots. This requires deep introspection and a heightened sense of self-awareness.

The Awareness Gap—Finding the Blind Spots

Leader Beware—ignorant bliss, no matter how enjoyable, is still ignorant. If you’re in a position of leadership and don’t feel you have any blind spots, you’re either very naïve or very arrogant. All leaders have blind spots—the question is what are they doing about them? The reality is most leaders invest so much time assessing the cultural and functional dynamics of their organizations that they often forget the importance of critically assessing themselves—big mistake.

I’ve never understood leaders who make heavy investments in personal and professional development early in their careers, who then go on to make only minimal investments in learning once they have reached the C-suite. Learning and development are lifelong endeavors.

The learning journey doesn’t come to an end just because you reach a certain station in life—or at least it shouldn’t. It has consistently been my experience that leaders who are not growing simply cannot lead growing organizations. Moreover, leaders who fail to continue developing will always be replaced by those who do. A leader who fails to understand the value of self-awareness fails to understand their true potential as a leader.

The further up the ladder leaders climb, the more they must be on top of their game as they have the broadest sphere of influence, the largest ability to impact a business, and they also now have the most at risk. It is at this place leaders should make the heaviest investment in refining their game, because increased performance will pay the biggest dividends. Let me be as clear as I can—the more responsibility leaders have, the bigger their obligation to be on the forward edge of learning, growth, and development.

The ancient Greek philosopher Socrates had a few guiding principles that today’s leaders would do well to adopt: Socrates said, “Know Thyself” and “An unexamined life is not worth living.” Those leaders who actively pursue gaining a better understanding of themselves will not only reduce their number of blind spots, but they’ll also find developing a sense of awareness is the key to increasing emotional intelligence. The better you know yourself, the more effective you’ll be, and the better you’ll relate to others.

To build on the hacks covered thus far, it will be important to evolve your critical thinking. This is best done through the refining lens of extreme clarity.

The Key to Clarity—White Space

Here’s something you may not want to hear, but you should definitely take to heart; if you’re having difficulty ordering your world, it’s nobody’s fault but yours. I don’t care how busy you are, but I do care about what you accomplish—the former doesn’t always lead to the latter. Busy leaders are a dime a dozen, but highly productive leaders are not so common. One of the easiest things for leaders to do is to bite off more than they can chew. All successful leaders are accomplished at hacking their schedule to create more time for clear thought.

Fact: Bright, talented executives with a bias to action will often take on more than they should. These leaders don’t understand the value of white space. The reality is maximizing results and creating a certainty of execution is all about focus, focus, and more focus. Here’s the thing—it’s difficult to focus in the middle of chaos. One of the hardest things for leaders to do is to learn to create white space. The best leaders are those who understand the most productive things often happen during intentional periods of isolation used for self-reflection, introspection, and the rigor of critical thought.

See if you can think of anyone you know who resembles the following description. I recently had the chance to work with a leader who is as bright and talented as they come. That said, he had confused being busy with being productive. He was in back-to-back-to-back meetings from the time he arrived at the office until after 5:00 P.M. He didn’t have any time to think much less do his own work. In fact, the working and thinking all took place after he arrived at home in the evening. This leader was working 70- hour weeks, falling behind, suffering from fatigue, and was becoming at risk.

Everyone in the company wanted a piece of this leader, but they were in effect sucking the leader dry. The leader was complicit to their own demise by not understanding the importance of maintaining adequate white space, as well as maintaining a personal life. If you’re honest, more than a few people in your organization likely fit this profile—it may even be you.

While the mind of a leader may be most comfortable being oriented toward the future, he/she can only act in the here and now. The knowledge and skills required to build mastery can only be acquired when we focus on what we’re currently doing. This is the definition of presence, and it is only when we operate in the present that real creativity, growth, and innovation occur.

The problem with being present is many leaders confuse this with having to do everything themselves. Have you ever interacted with someone who deals with silence by jumping in and filling the conversational void? This same thing occurs with executives who attempt to fill every open slot on the calendar with activity—this is a huge mistake.

All good leaders have matured to understand they can be fully engaged and present and yet still be alone. Smart leaders don’t fill their calendars with useless activities. They strategically plan for white space allowing them to focus on highest and best use endeavors. Leading doesn’t always mean doing. In fact, most often times it means pulling back and creating white space so that others can lead. This is true leadership that can be scaled.

Is your rubber band stretched so tight it’s about to snap? Efficiency and productivity are not found working at or even near capacity. Rather entering the productivity zone is found working at about 60 percent to 70 percent of capacity. Operating in excess of that threshold will cause increased stress, lack of attention to detail, and errant decision making.

The old “what if I only had ‘X’ number of hours to work in a week, what would I focus on?” exercise is a good one. In fact, if you’re reading this text, just stop right now and benchmark your activity against your reflective thoughts: Is what you’re doing, in alignment with your true priorities, or have you been sucked down into the weeds?

It is important for executives to learn to apply focused leverage to a limited number of highest and best use activities rather than to continually shift gears between multiple initiatives. Resist the temptation to just advance a broad number of disparate initiatives, and alternatively focus your efforts on the completion of a few high impact objectives.

The simple reality is that if you continue to add new responsibilities to an already full plate, all of your obligations will suffer as a result. Face current challenges head-on by keeping your head down and applying focused leverage to the task at hand. Leaders who operate without margins usually hit the wall they are most desperate to avoid.

Have you noticed how some leaders are frenzied, stressed, and always playing from behind, while others are eerily clam and always appear to be a few steps ahead? It’s been my experience that leaders who fall into the latter category make great use of their thought life, while those in the former category seem to forgo their alone time in lieu of being busy. Savvy leaders crave white space, whereas unseasoned leaders feel uncomfortable with open time.

One thing that can be a difficult lesson to learn is that not all engagement is necessary or productive. Leadership and engagement go hand in hand, but only when engagement happens by design rather than by default. Don’t get me wrong, good things can happen with spontaneous engagement, but if you’re engaging with others without intent and purpose, it likely serves as a distraction for all parties. Don’t interfere with your team just because you don’t understand how to use your time wisely. If you do, you’ll become an annoyance known for not respecting others—this is not leadership.

I have found the best leaders are harder on themselves than anyone else could ever be. In fact, this is so much the case that the best leaders constantly self-assess and are relentless in challenging themselves. They relish their solitude because it gives them the ability to be alone with their thoughts, to challenge their logic, to refine their theories, and to test the boundaries of their intellect. It’s during these quiet moments that leaders willing to be honest with themselves will examine their own flaws and frailties. They are forever in search of new ways of dealing with old problems.

The beauty of leveraging white space is it helps you avoid falling into the all too common leadership rut. It’s now time to focus on hacking the status quo.

Hacking the Status Quo

Leaders who are bored, in a rut, or otherwise find themselves anesthetized by the routine have a huge problem—they are not leading. Leadership is a game for the mentally agile, not the brain dead. Sound harsh? It’s meant to. While most of the world has succumbed to a static life imprisoned by the limitations of their own mind, real leaders are always looking beyond what is, thinking about the possibilities of what if, and acting to ensure what’s next.

Why then do so many leaders complain about being in a rut? They get comfortable playing things safely, they rest on their laurels, they stop investing in personal growth and development, and they settle, they quit and stay—they become a leader in title only.

At one time or another we all experience the signs of boredom. Here’s the thing—boredom is a state of mind. The difference between real leaders, and leaders in title only, is what they do when the creative juices begin to dwindle. Feigned leaders accept the status quo, and real leaders see the signs of boredom as the precursor to needed change.

For most people, the simple truth is excuses come easier than solutions—but who said leadership was easy? Leadership is about acclimation and reacclimation, improvising and adapting, learning and unlearning—leadership is about change.

My observations and experiences over the years have led me to a very simple conclusion: I have yet to see anyone improve their status by maintaining the status quo. If you’re going to get comfortable with anything as a leader, I would suggest it be change. Change is a leader’s best friend, and the one thing that will propel you forward.

Don’t make excuses—make changes. Saying you don’t have time for “X” is just code for “X” isn’t important to me. Saying you don’t have the resources needed for change is just an admission you’re not very resourceful. Leadership has little to do with resources, but everything to do with resourcefulness. If you’re stuck in a leadership rut, use the following five hacks to help you find your path back to real leadership:

1. Go Break Something: