Frances Hesselbein - More Hesselbein on Leadership

MORE HESSELBEIN ON LEADERSHIP

Copyright 2012 by Frances Hesselbein, The Frances Hesselbein Leadership Institute,
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FOREWORD

A Call to Serve

To lead is to serve.

This is the theme that defines Frances Hesselbeins life. And its the dominant theme of this book.

There is no one better qualified to teach us about servant leadership than Frances. From her very early days as a Girl Scouts executive director in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, to her more recent two-year appointment as the Class of 51 Chair for the Study of Leadership at West Point, Frances exemplifies what it means to answer the call to serve. And its a call that all of us must answer if were going to be authentic leaders.

Alan Mulally, whom Frances mentions in the very first essay, would agree. Alan is the president and CEO of the Ford Motor Company and was the first person to be awarded the Leader of the Future by the Frances Hesselbein Leadership Institute (formerly the Leader to Leader Institute and the Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management). In an interview with the Washington Post, Alan was asked, How has your leadership style changed over the years? What have you learned? What do you know now that you didnt use to? Alan responded:

I think that just always remembering that were here to serve. We have the honor to be selected to be the leader, but were actually serving our customers, were serving our employees, and the more that you have a servant perspective or a servant attitude, then the more inclusion youll have, the more respect for peoples ideas [youll have].

Alan maintained that this servant attitude played a large part in the turnaround process at Ford during the difficult years at the end of the twenty-first centurys opening decade. Its no wonder that Alan has such high regard for Francess leadership philosophy and practice. He knows, as do countless other friends and colleagues of Frances Hesselbein, that she is absolutely correct: To lead is to serve.

As I read through the essays in this book, I found that a certain calm came over me. It was as if I were meditating. I think youll experience the same thing. Theres a graciousness to Francess writing, just as theres graciousness to the person. She writes with an elevating tone. She invites us to lead with our best selves.

As I reflected on her writing, a few key messages emerged for me about what it means to lead and serve. Those messages are:

• Leadership is local.
• Leadership is from the inside out.
• Leaders engage others.
• Leaders initiate change.
• Leaders go first.
• Leaders sustain hope.

Here are my reflections on these lessons.

In the opening essay, A Long and Exuberant Journey, Frances says that leadership is not a title. Amen to that. If there is one thing I can say for certain after researching leadership for over 30 years with my colleague and coauthor Barry Posner, it is that leadership is not about position or title. Its not about organizational power or authority. Its not about celebrity or wealth. Its not about the family you are born into. Its not about being a CEO, president, general, or prime minister. Its not about any of these things. Its about your relationship with others, your personal credibility, and about what you do.

You dont have to look up for leadership. You dont have to look out for leadership. You only have to look inward. You have the potential to lead others to places they have never been before. The true heroes of leadership are the ordinary people who get extraordinary things done. They are the men and women from all over the globe, from all walks of life and ages, and from a variety of organizations who struggle daily to lead us to greatness. Theyre the people who might live next door or work in the next cubicle over.

Its not surprising then to learn in The Defining Moment that the most influential person in Francess early life was her grandmother. That revelation is consistent with what we find in our research. Family members are the number-one source of leader-role modelsnearly twice as important as any other source. Teachers and coaches are second for young people and third for working adults, so its also no wonder that Frances acknowledges throughout this book the profound influence Peter Drucker had on her, on the Girl Scouts of the USA, and on the Leader to Leader Institute. Grandmothers and teachers dont often appear as case studies in most MBA or leadership development programs, but they ought to.

The data are very clear on this. The most important leaders are those who are closest to us. If youre a manager in an organization, to your direct reports you are more likely than any other leader to influence their desire to stay or leave, the trajectory of their careers, their ethical behavior, their ability to perform at their best, their drive to wow customers, their satisfaction with their jobs, and their motivation to share the organizations vision and values. If youre a parent, teacher, coach, or community leader, you are the person whos setting the leadership example for young people. You are the one they are most likely going to look to for the example of how a leader responds to competitive situations, handles crises, deals with loss, or resolves ethical dilemmas. Its not someone else. Its you.

Leadership is a choiceyour choice. The quality of leadership those closest to you get is entirely up to you. And when you choose to lead every day, you enlist in a very special relationship with others. Its one you should cherish, because you have the awesome opportunityand responsibilityto make a profound difference in the lives of others.

Authentic leadership does not come from the outside in. It comes from the inside out. Inside-out leadership means becoming the author of your own story and the maker of your own history. All serious leadership starts from within.

In three of her essaysA Long and Exuberant Journey, Seeing Things Whole, and Emerging LeadersFrances speaks to the issue of values. She tells us that all leaders will have to answer questions such as Who is that leader within? If I am expressing myself in my work, what are my ethics, my beliefs, my values, my philosophy?