..You can't think and hit at the same time.

This Yogi Berra witticism points out the fact that using effective strategies requires practice. Practice is what enables us to take the right action at the appointed time. In this posting, I suggest that individuals can influence the advancement of Connective Era leadership by practicing the new more effective leadership behaviors in all domains of life. Ricardo Semler, CEO of Semco S.A. reminds us that “Outside the factory, workers are men and women who elect governments, serve in the army, lead community projects, raise and educate families, and make decisions every day about the future. Friends solicit their advice. Salespeople court them. Children and grandchildren look up to them for their wisdom and experience. (5)” Certainly we have opportunities within our families and communities to practice effective leadership.

Back to Peter Drucker. He insists that, “Successful careers are not “planned.” They are the careers of people who are prepared for the opportunity because they know their strengths, the way they work and their values.” (180) Stewart Friedman uses a program called total leadership to help people align their values with their actions. Instead of work-life balance, his approach promotes work-life integration. Performance and results are still the primary objective, but they are informed by the three key principles of clarifying what is important, recognizing and supporting the whole person, and continually experimenting with how things are done.

Friedman says that clarifying what is important includes among other actions being able to choose what matters most, to communicate your story, and to pursue accountability.

• Family: I believe in connecting with my family, so it is important to me that we join together for dinner each evening in order to catch up with the events of the day.
• Community: I have held leadership positions in my church community. I choose worship over golf on Sunday mornings because I believe in the need to nourish and heal my soul, to visibly demonstrate my commitment, and to affirm the responsibility to join with other believers in pursuit of our mutual goals.
• Work: Translating this behavior into the workplace, I recognize that sometimes we should have meetings if for no other reason than to collectively affirm our values, get to know one another better, and stay on course.

Friedman’s second principle, recognizing and respecting the whole person, requires taking responsibility for building networks of trust, communicating expectations, transferring skills across domains, and managing the boundaries and transitions.

• Family: In sharing a dual-career household, we have learned to trust the abilities of one another in areas as diverse as cooking, cleaning, finance, and doing the laundry. At the same time we give each other space to develop our physical and spiritual selves.
• Community: I have found a more highly developed openness to the diversity of gifts in the church community such that we are more likely to recognize that we can’t do it all by ourselves.
• Work: I carry both of these experiences into the workplace where it becomes easier for me to care for and recognize both the contributions and the diversity of my co-workers.

The third principle, continually experimenting with how goals are achieved, can further be described as the ability to question assumptions and fostering a learning environment.

• Family: We live this principle in our household where we have studied French, cooking, art, philosophy, and business together and separately over the past several years. This led to a mid-career MFA for my husband and an EMBA for myself. These formal studies have not only taught us to support and reciprocate each other’s needs and desires for learning but also to acknowledge and accept our passion for finding new ways of expressing ourselves.
• Community: My church community fosters life-long learning programs that range from caring for impressionable tiny tots to teaching seniors already full of life experience. I also serve in an advisory capacity on the Property and Finance committee, and while I am happy to connect past precedent with present realities, I am also open to encouraging new ways of doing things in order to further the mission into the future.
• Work: Turning to the workplace, modeling this capacity for change can be a powerful influencing factor if the energy is channeled towards effective, flexible leadership focused on results.

Friedman comments “practice and discipline are needed to learn how to stay focused while moving rapidly and diplomatically from one domain to another” (1279) while Berra says you can’t think and hit at the same time. Reflecting on my experience has given me more confidence that individuals can influence the advancement of 21st Century leadership. You must be willing to use every opportunity to enhance your leadership style so that you can connect your practice with performance and results with authenticity in all domains of your life.

References
Semler, Ricardo. “Managing Without Managers” Harvard Business Review, September 1, 1989

Drucker, Peter F. (1999). Managing in the 21st Century New York: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.

“Learning to Lead in All Domains of Life”
Stewart D Friedman. The American Behavioral Scientist. Thousand Oaks:May 2006. Vol. 49, Iss. 9, p. 1270-1297 (28 pp.)

Microsoft Clip Art Photo