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September 5, 2007

9:58 am | 0 recommendations | 6 comments

Leadership: Acknowledging Leaders

| posted by Donna Karlin

This week I was tagged for a Personal Development List through my personal blog Perspectives. This list grew very quickly and exponentially and soon became a Blogger’s phenomenon as those tagged made recommendations for others to be tagged. The ripple effect was extraordinary. Because of that list I was again tagged to give my opinion for something called “Does Most Leadership Suck Challenge”.

Now I have a fundamental problem with pretty much everything about this so called challenge, from the name, the focus and the reasons behind doing this in the first place because I do feel most people want to succeed as leaders, even those put in the position by chance or default. Blogging is a powerful, far reaching and influential medium. I wouldn’t have a community of subscribers who I dialogue with from 111 countries otherwise. So I’d like to turn the “Does Most Leadership Suck Challenge” around for a moment and ask you, the readers, to tag people who are amazing leaders no matter what their level of responsibility within an organization, so they are recognized for their strengths, not because they might “suck” in someone’s view. Who are they and what stands out about their leadership? Is it their style, their ways of communicating? Their vision or enthusiasm?

Speak to strengths, you’ll get more of them. The same goes for weaknesses. It goes back to my post on “I caught you doing something good”. This is “I’m tagging you for being someone great, whether for a day, a month or always.” What do you think? Do you know someone who ought to be acknowledged and recognized for his or her leadership? Let us know who that is and send them a link to your comment so they not only know you’re acknowledging them but telling the rest of the world too.

Call it ‘Acknowledging Leaders Week’. I look forward to seeing how quickly this list grows.

Donna Karlin • Executive and Political Shadow Coach™ • Ottawa, Canada • •www.abetterperspective.com

Tags: Leadership
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Recent Comments | 6 Total

September 7, 2007 at 7:27pm

John W. McKenna
Donna I think you can do better than that. The challenge is not intended to encourage people to stand hidden in a crowd casting dispersions on others in leadership positions. In fact, none of the posts that people have written has taken that track. Rather, this is a challenge to recognize “our” shortfalls as leaders so that we, each of us, might improve the lives of those who suffer under our leadership foibles. Saying I would rather recognize great leaders kind of misses the point. Take care... JWM
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September 8, 2007 at 10:40am

Donna Karlin
John, then why not name the challenge "Do we suck as leaders"? If, as you say "it is a challenge to recognize “our” shortfalls as leaders so that we, each of us, might improve the lives of those who suffer under our leadership foibles" then why use a generic term. Leaders should partner with staff to evolve everyone in the process. Leadership is no longer about one person over the masses, it's about everyone growing which in turns grows an organization. Feedback is always best when it goes both ways. As a Shadow Coach™, I not only help leaders see what they don't see on their own but work with their shadow personalities as well. Yes, they look at whether or not they suck based on their assessments and having the generative dialogue with others that gives them insight. So if I were to look at the Challenge in the way you've just described in your comment, I would look at "Do I suck as a leader and am I doing anything about it?" or "Am I listening to the feedback from others that's telling me I suck at what I'm doing and I need to change" and in many ways, it would be "I work with a leader who sucks and what am I doing about it so we can fix this together?" Responsibility goes both ways, top down and bottom up as success of the organization and people within it rely on it. Languaging is everything. Most leadership? The reason why I posted this in the first place was to show that most of any group don't suck or succeed at anything. It's individual. However with human nature these days, people respond to languaging such as suck, fail, apologize, and screw up. That's what gets people's attention at least in this culture. I wonder why that is exactly.
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September 9, 2007 at 5:30pm

John W. McKenna
Donna Thank you for the thoughtful reply. I agree that leadership is not a one-person affair. Rather, it requires a partnership or relationship between leaders and followers. In addition, I agree with your assessment that the language use to frame a question is a significant contributor to how we respond. As such, be assured that I did not choose my title lightly or by accident. However, that conversation goes beyond the scope of my reply here. Finally, it appears to me that given your professional, you are in a somewhat unique position to address this challenge with a different perspective than many of the other people who have written posts. As your reply to my comment suggests, while you may not agree with my assessment, you do have something to say. I hope you decide to accept the challenge and write a post. Take care... JWM
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September 9, 2007 at 10:02pm

Donna Karlin
Hey John... I'd love to have that conversation (re how you chose the topic) off line and perhaps we can later this week. I will take the time to post a reply. I'm on the Hill tomorrow so it'll have to wait until after that, but I will. You can hold me to it! Best.. Donna
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September 10, 2007 at 3:06pm

John W. McKenna
Donna Sounds good to me. You have my e-mail so just catch me there. Take care... JWM
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September 12, 2007 at 8:39am

Donna Karlin
OK John....you've got 2 posts in response, one in my most recent entry here on Fast Company Experts which looks at defining leadership which is key to your question, and another on my own blog Perspectives which looks at my three cents in a direct answer to you. Looking forward to your three cents back! Best.. Donna
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