In order to Breed Strong Leaders:
Presented by Jeff Thomas Airport Fire Chief ,Salt Lake City Fire
If you want to or not, after all it is your time, I am as flexible as the water.
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Our Goal: is to identify and share thoughts,
best practices associated with mentoring and
leading, leaders of tomorrow
Objectives: Examine leadership and what
exactly does that mean, organizational
transparency and communication, open
discussion concerning best practices
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The American Heritage Dictionary defines a
follower as: One who subscribes to the
teachings or methods of another; adherent.2.
A pursuer, An attendant, servant, or
subordinate.
Generational divides in the work place
considers:
 Baby Boomers, “work, work, work. Its what
we are about 1946-64.
 Gen Xer’s, Enjoy work, but are more
concerned about work-life balance, flexibility
1965-1980.
 Millennials or (Gen Yers) “Work flexibility
anywhere but I need complete access to
information and the answer to why”,
technology driven,1980 and forward.
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“If I have seen farther than others, it is
because I was standing on the shoulder of
giants”.
Isaac Newton
“A leader is a person who has the ability to get
other people to do what they don’t want to
do, and like it”
President Harry Truman
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“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn
more, do more and become more, you are a leader”.
 President John Quincy Adams
 “The leaders who work most effectively, it seems to
me, never say "I." And that's not because they have
trained themselves not to say "I." They don't think "I."
They think "we"; they think "team." They understand
their job to be to make the team function. They accept
responsibility and don't sidestep it, but "we" gets the
credit. This is what creates trust, what enables you to
get the task done”.
 Peter Drucker
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“The one thing you can’t take away from me
is the way I choose to respond to what you do
to me. The last of one’s freedoms is to choose
ones attitude in any given circumstance.”
Victor Frankl
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“ In order for the one to lead, he/she must
understand the needs of the followers, for it
is the common interest that motivates and
empowers the march forward regardless of
the obstacles before you”
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Leadership attributes:
Uncommon communicator that utilizes a
medium that the followers are able to
understand.
Consistently consistent but able to adjust if
out of necessity.
Trustworthy and a relationship builder.
Sixth sense
Courage while under fire and an undying
support of the team
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Please provide examples of leaders in the
past that we can all identify with?
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Jesus Christ
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
General George S Patton
Marin Luther King Jr
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Caesar Chavez
The Profit Muhammad
Parents, teachers and spiritual leaders etc.
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The late Dr. Oliver J Jones said that “the key
to creating leaders of tomorrow is all about
giving the followers the good stuff.” He
would always include the Pygmalion effect as
a way to provide a transformation. Can
someone provide a description of the
Pygmalion effect?
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People tend to live up to what's expected of
them and they tend to do better when
treated as if they are capable of success.
These are the lessons of The Pygmalion
Effect.
George Barnard Shaw wrote a play, entitled
Pygmalion, about Henry Higgins (the
gentleman) and Lisa Doolittle (the cockney
flower girl whom Henry turns bets he can turn
into a lady).
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Treat a man as he is and he will remain as he
is. Treat a man as he can and should be and
he will become as he can and should be.
Goethe
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Victor Frankl’s book “Mans Search For
Meaning”, he said that you must support the
subject to an even higher position than
he/she could be but rather to the level where
he/she should be. If you have an even
perspective you will fall short of expectations.
You should aim higher than the subject can
imagine and therefore end at the level that
you want for the desired outcome.
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Now that we have started to provide the
positive reinforcement how can we influence
the middle of the road performer. We have a
tendency to create the star’s of our
organizations through the Pygmalion effect
from day one. What can we do to influence
the followers of tomorrow?
How does the fledgling follower (needs improvement, meets standards, exceed
standards) transform to becoming a leader. He/she must consider how they fit into the
team and the support needed to accomplish the goal.
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In terms of understanding leadership we
must examine how the leaders of tomorrow
need to comprehend how to avoid pitfalls.
“The Five Dysfunctions of a Team” by Patrick
Lencioni will be discussed.
Leadership and the
follower
The first dysfunction is an
Absence of Trust among team
members. Essentially, this
stems from their unwillingness
to be vulnerable within the
group. Team members who are
not genuinely open with one
another about their mistakes
and weaknesses make it
impossible to build a
foundation for trust.
Leadership and the
follower
This failure to build trust is
damaging because it sets the
tone for the second
dysfunction “Fear of Conflict”.
Teams that lack trust are
incapable of engaging in
unfiltered and passionate
debate of ideas. Instead, they
resort to veiled discussion and
guarded comments.
Leadership and the
follower
A lack of healthy conflict is a
problem because it ensures the
third dysfunction of a team :
“Lack of Commitment. “
Without having aired their
opinions in the course of
passionate and open debate,
team members rarely, if ever,
buy in and commit to decisions,
though they may feign
agreement during meetings.
Leadership and the
follower
Because of this lack of real
commitment and buy- in, team
members develop an
“Avoidance of
Accountability”, the fourth
dysfunction. Without
committing to a clear plan of
action, even the most focused
and driven people often
hesitate to call their peers on
actions and behavior that seem
counterproductive to the good
of the team.
Leadership and the
follower
Failure to hold one another
accountable creates an
environment where the fifth
dysfunction can thrive.
Inattention to Results occurs
when team members put their
individual needs (such as ego,
career development, or
recognition) or even the needs
of their division above the
collective goals of the team.
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We as current leaders have an obligation to
posses the attributes that I listed on the
earlier slides. You must always be seen as
above board in all of your actions
We must avoid the pitfalls and the five
dysfunctions
I use the T.V. screen as my moral compass
Don’t shrink from the challenging employee
scenario, you will become stronger as a result
of your efforts and experience
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Never engage in the “gotcha” game.
Catch your people doing the right thing and
acknowledge them for it, positive
reinforcement.
Always set up your followers and superiors up
for success, this example is one of selfless
behavior.
Be quick to give others credit and make sure
that the person that can carry the water
receives the information behind the scene.
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Getting out of the “box". Do you have a
tendency to treat people as people or
objects?
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If you could spend a day with any three
people through out all time and history, who
would they be and why? Take a couple of
minutes and write it down.
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I can almost guarantee that the people that
you picked possessed an uncommon
leadership skill.
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Current leaders should consider the Japanese
philosophy Kaizen or constant improvement.
Harvard business review: The Toyota model,
the management and leadership connection.
Coach John Wooden identified the three B’s
of leadership as:
Be slow to criticize and quick to commend
Be more concerned with what you can do for
others than what they can do for you
Be more concerned with getting ahead instead
of getting even
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EQ: The emotionally intelligent know
themselves. They know their strengths and
weaknesses. Goals and fears, hot buttons and
emotional bare wires. They recognize their
emotions, and they use that knowledge to
succeed.
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The EQ concept argues that IQ, or conventional
intelligence, is too narrow; that there are wider
areas of Emotional Intelligence that dictate and
enable how successful we are. Success requires
more than IQ (Intelligence Quotient), which has
tended to be the traditional measure of
intelligence, ignoring essential behavioral and
character elements. We've all met people who
are academically brilliant and yet are socially
and inter-personally inept. And we know that
despite possessing a high IQ rating, success does
not automatically follow.
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Emotional Intelligence - two aspects
This is the essential premise of EQ: to be
successful requires the effective awareness,
control and management of one's own
emotions, and those of other people. EQ
embraces two aspects of intelligence:
Understanding yourself, your goals,
intentions, responses, behavior and all.
Understanding others, and their feelings.
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Emotional Intelligence - the five domains
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Knowing your emotions.
Managing your own emotions.
Motivating yourself.
Recognizing and understanding other
people's emotions.
Managing relationships, ie., managing the
emotions of others.
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Paving the way
assessing the organization's needs
assessing the individual
delivering assessments with care
maximizing learning choice
encouraging participation
linking goals and personal values
adjusting individual expectations
assessing readiness and motivation for EQ
development
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Doing the work of change
foster relationships
self-directed change and learning
setting goals
breaking goals down into achievable steps
providing opportunities for practice
give feedback
using experiential methods
build in support
use models and examples
encourage insight and self-awareness
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Encourage transfer and maintenance of
change (sustainable change)
encourage application of new learning in jobs
develop organizational culture that supports
learning
Big Picture
Remember that we all begin
the same way
Approximately 7 lbs., 20 inches
long, slippery and crying
Where we go from there is up
to us
Now Lead!
Thank you!