Leadership is Teaching

Are you a teacher?

Sure, you are. The only question: are you an effective teacher?

In a lecture on leadership, Limited Brand's founder and CEO Leslie Wexner taught:

If you're a manager, you are a teacher. If you are a good manager, you are a good teacher. Good teachers have a list of students, intentional learning objectives, a thoughtful curriculum — and on Sunday night, the teacher considers the progress of each student and the lesson plans the teacher will implement to advance each student.

The teacher model works, of course — and this was Mr. Wexner's point — for leaders of any kind: communal, corporate, entrepreneurial, organizational and familial. For example, a good parent approaches his children as beloveds and also as students of the family.

And, as we all learn at Integrated Leadership Systems, leadership starts in the mirror: what will I learn this week?

I've Joined The Faculty.
Years ago, I came to Integrated Leadership Systems, seeking coaching. Recommended by a good friend, Steve Anderson offered great insights, challenges and encouragement.

In time — during a year's worth of meetings — I learned plenty. And, when change finally happened, I was readier for it, thanks to Steve.

Now, I'm glad to be joining Steve's team of executive coaches at Integrated Leadership Systems.

The entire ILS team interviewed me. Steve's trained me. I'm ready for clients.

Who Do You Know?
Ideally, we seek to work with people who are:

1. wise and experienced enough to know they need to change and
2. ambitious and energetic enough to do the hard work that change and leadership requires.

Does anyone come to mind? If so, send them over.

The coaches are in.

Feel free to write me directly or visit my blog on creativity and ethics. Integrated Leadership Systems website is here.

What would we do without technology? by M.J. Clark

Thinking back, I marvel at how I went through the dating process without a cell phone, how my parents kept track of my whereabouts without text messaging, how I hooked up socially with friends without Twitter. Now, I become extremely uncomfortable when I forget my Blackberry at home. I feel I can barely function throughout a work day without it. I often e-mail people instead of calling, so not having my cell phone takes away an important communication tool.

How reliant are we on technology? Is it really helpful to us as business people, or is it more of a crutch? Do we hide behind technology instead of facing people? I often wonder if this age of technology contributes to our lack of assertiveness, a skill so very necessary for business leaders. What do you think?

Does New Technology Help or Hurt? by M.J. Clark

In today’s Technology Age, I find that there is much more responsibility involved in communication. We have many more communication channels to check – voicemail, e-mail, text messages, social media sites, blogs, etc. Because people can reach you almost immediately, they in turn expect immediate responses. They also expect some level of skill in all of these communication channels. You can’t be too blunt on e-mail and you have to be professional on social media sites, for instance.

It takes time for some people to develop these skills. Responding to all of these communication avenues and developing skills that were not needed previously takes time in our day – time that used to be spent simply working.

Some of the executives I’m currently coaching are challenged in these areas. They are under scrutiny for the way in which they communicate via these new channels. How can we expect people to just know how to communicate in these new ways? There are no manuals to teach us these skills, and each person seems to approach it somewhat differently. This leads me to wonder if all of these grownup toys really help us or do more damage to us professionally. What do you think?