LEADERSHIP DISTRACTIONS

Leaders cannot afford to be distracted from their primary objectives by world and national events. Lord knows there are plenty of them. It happened to me over the past two weeks. With the main calendar holidays falling on a Tuesday, many of us just felt out of sorts, so to speak.

TAKE YOUR PICK OR ADD TO THE LIST

Hurricane Sandy, an election, Sandy Hook Elementary School the "Fiscal Cliff" and who cares to add to a long list of others led us to yearend, perhaps a bit numb and well, distracted. At our place, we chose to occupy our down and quiet time reading. Besides interacting with family and close friends, We ignored the nightly news and Sunday talk shows - tired of it all. We reengaged with the world to some degree on January 2.

Since then my conversations with business leaders planted the theme of this post in mind. Leaders cannot afford to be distracted but that doesn't mean they aren't concerned about all of the above. It won't surprise you to know that to a person, they are very concerned about Leadership, theirs' and that of the POTUS, to say nothing of the political morass that swirls thickly around him.

MASTERING THE SKILLS - EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AND MORE

Thinking about those leaders I have the privilege of working with; they accept the serious responsibility of leading effectively and diligently incorporating new things learned as societal norms and attitudes shift. All, to one degree or another, possess an emotional intelligence, not unlike that which is discussed in a fine work now dated by some years but pertinent nonetheless , Primal Leadership (Daniel Goleman  @DanielGolemanEI;  Richard Boyatzis  @RBoyatzis, Dr. Annie McKee  @anniemckee; Harvard Press).

They realize that despite whatever regulations, executives orders and government mandates that are imposed upon them, they still must hone their strategic and tactical skills that lead them to become better leaders, making better decisions with better results. With this in mind, as much as I tried, I could not distance myself from wondering about these men and women and how their determination to lead for the greater good would be compared to the tactics of the Leader of the Free World.

HISTORICAL PRECENDENT - NOTHING LIKE IT

I won't dwell on this but it does confuse me because I go back to Eisenhower's days and while admittedly I was much too young to fully appreciate much of anything, from my age of reason on, I haven't observed anything like what we all are watching today. I am thankful for the internet for giving me access to literally thousands of bright, articulate thought-leaders. In the old days, there was a reliable portfolio of great teachers, but today we can learn from untold numbers of them and that's a good thing.

I'll let the historians chronicle the leadership attributes of our current President but I also don't believe that any professionals I work with would attempt to use  or recommend that his model as one for success in their worlds. http://www.franksonnenbergonline.com/blog/counterfeit-leadership/

CORPORATE v. POLITICAL LEADERSHIP

One of the four books I took on over the New Year's long weekend was Managing With A Conscience, 2nd Edition; (Frank Sonnenberg  @FSonnenberg). Frank's one of the folks I'm alluding to above and as you've likely noted, wrote a terrific post to his blog entitled Counterfeit Leadership. When I first came across some of Frank's thoughts, to be honest, I concluded that while well-intentioned, he was perhaps a bit naive. Happily, I read on and began to follow Frank. In so doing, I found that he believes not only in the goodness of humanity but is convinced that leaders must and can lead with "goodness" intact. It wasn't that I thought otherwise, it's just that I had not come across anyone who put it out there in the same way. That's high praise when you consider the many renowned authors that most of us have read.

While time management and priorities require discipline, it is the leaders I speak of who take advantage of the speed and easy access with which we gain the insight shared by so many that leaves us with little excuse than to attempt to become the best leaders we can possibly be.

Leaders cannot afford to be distracted and must go on leading regardless of how difficult and challenging a national or local government may make it. Whether it's a 5-point this or a 10-point that, it is in the thirst for knowledge and better ways of doing things that will be passed from this group of leaders to the next and perhaps it is a foregone conclusion that relying upon government of any kind will distract but will not destroy free enterprising and life-long learning leaders altogether.

Jim Naleid is a Serial Entrepreneur, Change-Agent and Thought Leader, Managing Director of Naleid & Associates and Regional TEC (“The Executive Committee”) Chair leading a group of executives to become Better Leaders, Making Better Decisions with Better Results. http://www.linkedin.com/in/jimnaleid