Distributing assignments efficiently is a science in its own right, and a proactive leader does it well. Being sure the right people are assigned to the right tasks is where it starts. It goes on to include being sure things are done in the right order, at the right time. The science of efficiency expands out to include avoiding bottlenecks, eliminating any loss of resources and materials, preventing errors and having to do things over again, and getting continuous feedback from customers. Achieving and maintaining efficiency is quite complex.

For a proactive leader though, there is an underlying dimension skilled leaders emphasize at least as much as maximizing the efficient conversion of resources into products and services that are fully responsive to the needs and interests of customers. a proactive leader does not take advantage of anyone. The secret is that there are obvious and not so obvious ways people are taken advantage of, and a proactive leader avoids them all.

The most blatant abuse happens when a good team member has more and more work piled on top of work piled on yesterday. Another version of the same kind of abuse happens when work is given to someone just because the leader is not going to get any hassle or flack. Some people have positive attitudes and just do not say, No, when asked to do something. They are simply too nice for their own good, but fortunately, a proactive leader understands even his best workhorse can be run too fast or pushed too hard. The best of them needs a good measure of oats and some time in the barn now and then. …

Two other areas of unfairness and abuse are also worth noting. First, tolerating anyone's not doing what is expected or doing less than is expected is unfair to others on the team. Letting shirkers get away with it does nothing but shift the burden unfairly onto others. Second, assuming everyone is equally efficient is wrong. This is particularly unfair to those who are unusually efficient. The exceptional few can routinely do a two-hour job in an hour and a half. Do you then expect them to do more work in the extra half hour?

a proactive leader does not think so. He will discuss options with them, but the choice is theirs. a proactive leader certainly would not increase the load just because someone is especially efficient and hard-working.

There is a further but hidden area of unfairness even a proactive leader can overlook if he is not very attentive. People should not be expected to do things they do not know how to do or do not know how to do well. The solution here is fairly simple. Identify individuals who do know how to do what is expected and add them to the team. For a proactive leader, there is an even better solution. Train people who are already on the team to do the job, to do it well. They are already onboard, already committed to the mission, already vested in the team's success. a proactive leader knows it is always better to invest in those who are already on your team than to take a chance on newcomers. The Johnny-come-lately likely will do fine, but a proactive leader prefers sticking with the horses that got him there, whenever he can.

Cottrell, David. Monday Morning Motivation: Five Steps to Energize your Team, Customers, and Profits. New York: Harper Business, 2009.

The single greatest influence on your organization's energy is the leader...you are the ultimate energizer. The energy you create can be positive or negative, and that energy is multiplied in the organization because of your impact on every member of your team.

Your organizational energy is not the sum of your individuals. It is dependent upon the ratio of energizers to sappers. If you have more sappers than energizers, the energy will be drained, and in fact the energizers may eventually become sappers. As unfortunate as it is, a negative, cynical person has a far greater impact on the energy of the team than a positive person. He or she will deplete far more energy than a positive person will add.

Consider the effect on a team if their leader speaks negatively about her boss's decision to change a particular process or policy. Will the members of that team be energized about and supportive of the change? Not likely, because they see leadership chaos above them. On the other hand, when employees see that everyone in their line of leadership is on the same page, they are motivated to get on board also.

With respect to your team, are your organization's values actually practiced or merely posted?

When conflicts are ignored, tremendous organizational energy is diverted from moving forward to dealing with the conflict. The rule illustrates how a small issue can grow exponentially if left unchecked. The longer it persists, the more difficult and time consuming it is to fix--and the more of your organization's energy it will waste.

Southwest Airlines' mission statement says: "Above all, employees will be provided the same concern, respect, and caring attitude within the organization that they are expected to share externally with every Southwest customer."

Unfortunately, very few organizations are completely satisfied with their internal communications. No matter how many workshops are conducted, how much emphasis it's given, and how many e-mails or memos are circulated, organizations rarely have the clear communication channel that they envisioned.

However, that's no excuse to stop making an effort. It's important to continue making every effort to enhance your internal communications at every level of your organization.

It matters what they hear, not what you say.

In your management approach, celebrate successes by quickly recognizing high performers. Quick, on-the-spot action to recognize the achievements of employees can have a tremendous impact in building loyalty and respect. And although it's a painful task, take decisive action to clear out the underperformers from your organization. The longer they stay, the more energy they drain.

Problems do not just go away. Address issues quickly to avoid larger problems later.

One of the toughest things for a leader to figure out is "What's the truth?" Many times the truth is camouflaged by politics, personal agendas, or even a sincere, intense desire to want something else to be the truth.

Honesty, integrity, and transparency are inextricably linked.

Your personal integrity is judged every day. The people in your organization judge your integrity not by what they hear you say, but by what they see you do. When you criticize one of your team members in public, you lose integrity. When you … say, "We'll deal with it later," your integrity comes into question. When you show favoritism, choose to not return phone calls, say you're out of the office when you're not, or say that you didn't receive a message when you did--you lose trust.

Without a doubt, your personal integrity is your most prized possession. Each day,

A man of genius makes no mistakes. His errors are volitional, and are the portals of discovery. James Joyce

This certainly puts a different twist on the concept. The only requirement is that one is A man of genius. If so, you don't make mistakes, you merely commit errors, on purpose. Try that one the next time you screw up, It's no big deal. I just decided to make this mistake in order to open the portal for discovery. You can also note that on your resume where you explain why you left your last job.

Niels Bohr said, An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made, in a narrow field. Of course, Bohr does qualify as a man of genius. but to assume that he too is suggesting that those mistakes are the portals for discovery is likely not correct. A little folk wisdom may be more to the point. Why are things always in the last place you look? It's because, once you find it, you quit looking.

Confucius has a better perspective, A man who has committed a mistake and doesn't correct it, is committing another mistake. George Washington also joins in on the same side of the matter, To err is nature, to rectify error is glory. As you hustle to rectify those errors, it will help to allay your anxiety if you remember Robert Henry's advice, Don't ever be afraid to admit you were wrong. It's like saying you're wiser today than you were yesterday. While you're at it though, don't overlook Frank Lloyd Wright's insight, A doctor can bury his mistakes but an architect can only advise his clients to plant vines. Since you are the architect of your success, you would do well to minimize the number and size of the vines required to cover up your mistakes. …

. . . . .

Since changes are going on anyway, the great thing is to learn enough about them so that we will be able to lay hold of them and turn them in the direction of our desires. Conditions and events are neither to be fled from nor passively acquiesced in. they are to be utilized and directed. John Dewey

It's not surprising that Dewey bases his approach to change management on active learning. Since change is a fact of life, you might as well make the best of it. Learn as much as you can about the changes in your life and then use them, as much as possible, to your advantage. William Douglas suggested that success in using change in your best interest depends, in large measure, on adjusting your thinking to conform to today's reality. Security can only be achieved through constant change, through discarding old ideas that have outlived their usefulness and adapting others to current facts. Francis Bacon also agreed that you need to take charge of change and mold it to your purposes. Things alter for the worse spontaneously, if they be not altered for the better designedly.

However, there are cautionary voices as you slide into the driver's seat of your life. For example, Ellen Glasgow said, All change is not growth, as all movement is not forward. Distinguishing good change from the not so good is an important aspect of the learning Dewey recommended. Arnold Bennett also raised the voice of caution, Any change, even a change for the better, is always accompanied by drawbacks and discomforts. Nonetheless, Lichtenberg submitted what is likely the take home point here, I cannot say whether things will get better if we change. what I can say is they must change if they are to get better.

The substance of your life is in continuous change. The elements form and then rearrange. Some of those elements you can move and shift. Change can be slow or unusually swift.

It's an ongoing saga through each twist and turn. You refuse to change. It's not your concern. Edwards Deming discovered the conclusion to the story. It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory.

“The superior man understands what is right, the inferior man understands what will sell.” You may, at first glance, assume this characterization was made by a hard-hitting, modern business executive, but it wasn’t. It came from our old friend Confucius, again dividing us into superior and inferior people.

John Egan pointed out, “The absolute fundamental aim is to make money out of satisfying customers.” How do you do that

You sell great products combined with terrific service. That is the formula for what sells. Of course, understanding that makes Egan – and you – inferior people, according to Confucius.

Alternatively, William Arthur Ward said, “Wise are those who learn that the bottom line doesn't always have to be their top priority.” Perhaps you will want to share this view with your stock holders the next time you are presenting your company’s financial statement. At least you can assure them you are a superior person, using Confucius as your authority.

Elting E. Morison advised, “The executive exists to make sensible exceptions to general rules.” Your first sensible exception can be with Confucius’ rule about superior and inferior people. You can do this by suggesting a replacement rule, your rule. “The exceptional man, the truly exceptional executive, both understands what is right and how to sell it." …

. . . . .

No less a philosopher than John Stuart Mill said, “We can never be sure that the opinion we are endeavoring to stifle is a false opinion, and if we were sure, stifling it would be an evil still.” “The peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race, posterity as well as the existing generation, those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth. if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error.” “If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.”

You likely agree John Stuart Mill is a complex thinker. He is definitely not one who endeavors to stifle an opinion, especially his opinion. What might be easily overlooked though, is each of us is the “minus one” in his “mankind minus one.” We are thus obligated to be sure the opinion we are endeavoring to stifle isn’t ours. You have it on the authority of John Stuart Mill stifling your opinion is “an evil still,” so the next time your tempted to keep your opinion to yourself, are tempted to be self-censoring, consider standing up, speaking up, and sharing your “clearer perception and livelier impression of truth.” It’s your civic duty.

. . . . .

President Eisenhower said, “Neither a wise man nor a brave man lies down on the tracks of history to wait for the train of the future to run over him.” Proactively boarding the train isn’t just a good idea, it’s the only ride from the past. As Confucius counseled, “They must often change, who would be constant in happiness or wisdom.” The advice was, in turn, expanded by Saint Augustine, “If you would attain to what you are not yet, you must always be displeased by what you are. For where you are pleased with yourself there you have remained. Keep adding, keep walking, keep advancing.”

You may bemoan the ever-changing, uncertainty of life, but as Bertold Brecht pointed out, “Because things are the way they are, things will not stay the way they are.” Over four hundred years ago, Francis Bacon observed, “He that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils, for time is the greatest innovator.” He also noted, “Things alter for the worse spontaneously,

Cooperrider, David L. and Diana Whitney. Appreciative Inquiry: A Positive Revolution in Change. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Incorporated, 2005. ... Cooperrider, David L., Diana Whitney, Jacqueline M. Stavros, with Foreword by Ronald Fry. Appreciative Inquiry: Handbook for Leaders of Change. Second Edition. Brunswick, OH: Crown Custom Publishing, Incorporated, 2008.

Companies all too often call for low-morale surveys instead of designing rigorous inquiries into extraordinary moments of high engagement, commitment, and passionate achievement.

Human systems grow in the direction of their deepest and most frequent inquiries. What is it that you want more of in your organization?

Our experience suggests that organizational change needs to look a lot more like an inspired movement than a neatly packaged or engineered product.

Every organization has something that works right--things that give it life when it is most alive, effective, successful, and connected in healthy ways to its stakeholders and communities.

Valuing the best of "what is" leads to envisioning what might be. Envisioning involves passionate thinking, creating a positive image of a desired and preferred future. …

The most important resource for generating constructive organizational change or improvement is collective imagination and discourse about the future. One of the basic theorems of the anticipatory view of organizational life is that the image of the future guides what might be called the current behavior of any organism or organization. Much like a movie projected on a screen, human systems are forever projecting ahead of themselves a horizon of expectation that brings the future powerfully into the present as a mobilizing agent. In the final analysis, organizations exist because people who govern and maintain them share some sort of discourse or projection about what the organization is, how it will function, what it will achieve, and what it will likely become.

The most powerful vehicle communities have for changing the social order is through the act of dialogue made possible by language. Therefore, alterations in linguistic practices hold profound implications for changes in social practice.

Organizations do not need to be fixed. They need constant reaffirmation. … The challenge for organizational learning and development is creating the condition for organization-wide appreciation. This is the single most important act that can be taken to ensure the conscious evolution of a valued and positive future.

Transforming the human system and its organization toward an affirmative learning and working environment requires a conscious effort to maintain a positive focus on the dialogue. In so doing, positive affirmations or comments should be encouraged, while negative dialogues should be minimized or avoided altogether.

All organizations have something to value about their past. This element must be appreciated so that change becomes a positive experience without unnecessary resistance from a sense of disruption.

Imagine your organization five ... years from now, when everything is just as you always imagined it would be. What has happened? What is different? How have you contributed to this future?

How do you help your children develop a growing sense of independence and autonomy by the age of seven? How do you deal with the increasing independence of your adolescent? The process begins as your toddler learns about play and social activities. However, your child is not able to play unless he knows how to play. He learns the idea of taking turns from people who allow him his turn and insist on their turn. He learns to be appropriately assertive without being excessively self-centered and aggressive from you and other adults who deal with his temper tantrums. He learns not to be too passive or compliant when you and other adults encourage him to stick up for himself, to speak up when it is his turn or when his rights are infringed upon.

Social development begins when you relate to your children as friends and playmates. Yes, you are a parent first; but part of the time (especially with your small children) you are friends and playmates. Within this playmate relationship, your child learns how to ask someone to play with her. She develops a feel for situations in which people do not want to play with her. She learns to accept an invitation to play. Occasionally, you may ask your toddler or preschooler if she wants to play a video game, accepting your child's judgment about whether or not to play. Similarly, your child learns to ask you to play, accepting your judgment whether or not to play. Peek-a-boo played with your infant becomes hide-and-seek when she is a toddler or grade schooler. Working puzzles with your preschooler becomes assembling models or playing X-Box with your grade schooler or adolescent. Helping your preschooler fix her bicycle becomes helping your adolescent fix her car. Playing Fish with your preschooler becomes playing Scrabble with your adolescent. Making mud pies with a preschooler becomes helping prepare supper with your teenager. Friend and playmate relationships begin quite young and continue throughout your lives. Establish the playmate relationship with your child while remaining a good parent, and the fun and good times can go on for a long time. …

Helping your children select their friends and playmates begins when they are young. It is best for your children to play with other children of approximately the same age, and is not a good idea for them to spend most of their time with children significantly older or younger. Your child who spends a lot of time playing with older children gets into situations for which he is not prepared, emotionally or socially. Similarly, children who spend most of their time playing with children significantly younger than they are tend to relate like younger children. Thus, encourage your children to play with children about their own age and discourage their spending a lot of time playing with children much older or much younger.

Next, encourage your children to become selective about who they play with in their own age group and help them develop criteria for deciding who, when, what, where, and how in respect to play and other activities.

With whom to play? As a general rule, your children should be encouraged to play with any child their age who holds similar values; they should be discouraged from playing with children who do not accept basic parental values of good and bad, for example, children who steal, lie, damage property, or fail to respect the rights of other children and adults. Your children should also be discouraged from playing with children who believe it is alright to get bad grades in school, to be disrespectful to teachers, to skip school, to get into things or go places where they should not. Finally, your children should be discouraged from playing with children who habitually fight, do not play in a cooperative way, do not take turns or who hold beliefs about other people which are negative and prejudiced. Your children should be encouraged to pick their friends and associat...

Cooper, Robert K. The Other 90%: How to Unlock Your Vast Untapped Potential for Leadership and Life. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2001.

Although studies indicate that people who regularly think ahead tend to experience more frequent leadership opportunities and career advancement, this mechanism is about something deeper than the external trappings of success. It keeps overriding the don't-grow-or-change instincts of the amygdala and clarifies what makes you original and sets you apart from the crowd.

It's no wonder that when people don't feel cared about and uniquely valued, they do not put their hearts into their life or work. After an extensive three-year study of the critical variables for leadership success, the Center for Creative Leadership recently concluded that the only statistically significant factor differentiating the very best leaders from the mediocre ones is caring about people.

Here's what we know: zero-sum competition--that is, competition in which one person must lose in order for another to win--tends to undermine the best in most of us. It makes us wary and distrustful of others, causes us to withhold and distort information, inspires us to negatively caricature others, makes us intolerant of uncertainty and change, and it so narrows our focus that constructive creativity is practically shut down. …

Recent studies indicate that up to half of all work time may be wasted or compromised due to mistrust. In large part, this mistrust is prompted or worsened by competition. Remember, whatever our conscious good intentions, our ancient brain instincts have been programmed to assume the worst. "It's a war out there," the subconscious asserts. "Defend yourself. Smile, play along, cover your back, withhold information, put a good face on things but gossip about others."

Even in groups with an overarching shared mission or purpose, it is unusual when more than one or two of the five values are shared by the group or team as a whole. Nonetheless it is our individual values that bring each of us to life inside as a unique person; they cannot be implanted from outside.

Trust is an emotional strength that begins with a feeling of self-worth and purpose that we're called to extend outward to others. The warm, solid gut feeling you get from trust--from counting on yourself and trusting and being trusted by others--is one of the great enablers of life.

We trust others when two crucial qualities are present in the relationship. First, we must feel that they understand us: that they know who we really are and what really matters to us. Second, we must feel that they care about us, and that they will weigh our true needs, interests, and concerns when they make decisions.

Of course, you have to be blasé about some things. Otherwise, you might die of overexcitement. Yet your individual passion about a direction or a dream can see you far.

This is the Brother's Keeper Principle, which dictates that once I have come to know you well, I must say and do what I believe is in your best interest and in line with your commitments, regardless of how that makes you feel about me. In other words, in many situations life is more about trying to make a constructive difference than trying to be liked.

Above all, and beneath all, accountability is generated from within your heart; it cannot be "given" from outside. It is conscience--and more. It prompts you to forgo excuse-making and instead to sense emerging problems and opportunities early on and accept a role in responding to them in new ways with commitment and ingenuity.

What do your loved ones miss the most about you in recent years? What part of you isn't coming home at the end of the day? It's likely to be something small but significant, such as the sense of humor or playfulness you used to have before you go...

•           I am a perfectionist

•           Either it is right or it is wrong

•           Rules are rules

These types of phrases frequently come up when you try to manage warriors. Interestingly, players who use this technique are likely to make their pronouncements when others are around and will overhear. When focusing their play on one person usually a subordinate warriors like to be sure others hear so they learn not to test the player. They have been forewarned.

Warriors step on the feelings of others

Since most people are at least a little insecure about their competence and ability to work with others, these players play on others' insecurities. Some phrases from an office environment are instructive.

•           That is trash

•           More of the same old stuff

•           Dragging your feet

•           Out of your area of expertise

•           Roadblock

•           They followed by any negative pronouncement

Add any other phrase or statement to the list implying that the other person is at fault, incompetent or less skilled and cooperative than the player. The key is to get them where it hurts. …

Warriors are ready to go to war over anything

At first glance, these players may seem to be the same as those who never give an inch. Although they are chips off the same block, these players are just as likely to go for the throat for what they want as for what someone else wants. The crux of the technique is drawing blood. These players say things like:

•           If you won't go to the mat over the little things, they will just get out of hand

•           You either win or you lost

•           I enjoy a good fight

•           If they want to go to war over this, it is war they've got

After a while, it becomes clear that the war is the thing. Even if they get what they want, they will find something to argue about, hoping to start another war.

Warriors are harsh and abrasive

The essence of this technique is more in the delivery than in the content. Players who have mastered this technique understand that the barb must be short and quick to work well. It is a sharp jab, a well placed phrase or a quick response.

Ask the player, "Do you have a minute for a quick question?"

The instantaneous response is, "No, not right now. Then the player immediately turns his attention away from the person asking the question, if his attention was there to begin with. It is quick, specific, and allows no opportunity for discussion or rebuttal. The key is to hit and run.

The technique comes up in other contexts. For example, the player suddenly has to leave but says something cutting or troublesome on his way out the door. Those still in the room are left to deal with the problem.

Warriors never let anyone take advantage of them

The interesting point here is that these players think people are always trying to take advantage of them. They spend their time and energy figuring out how everything will lead to their getting had. Warriors are to be admired for the levels of energy they put into their game. It takes constant vigilance to be sure no one ever takes advantage of them.

One of their automatic questions is, "Why?"

"Would you like to go to lunch? "Why?"

"May I use your phone? "Why?"

"How's it going? "Why do you ask?"

The player's need is to evaluate everything in terms of how he might get had. His motto is, If I don't take care of myself, no one else is going to do it for me.

Warriors will argue with anyone, anywhere, at any time

You are a member of your agency's Leadership Team. Consider these brief scenarios and how you would handle them?

You are a program manager with a neighborhood center providing a variety of services for neighborhood residents. Jerry is an adolescent client who was expelled from your after school tutoring program due to an incident where he was caught passing small green pills to another student. Jerry's father €“ who also is an agency Board member €“ calls to tell you Jerry will not pass this year and may not graduate on time if he does not continue tutoring. Jerry has not been in trouble before and was just doing a favor for a friend, according to his father. He is a good kid and being expelled from your program is too severe. Jerry's father goes on to say, I don't want to take advantage of being a Board member but think you should make an exception for Jerry.

Your agency provides foster care services for abused and neglected children. Bob and Harold are a gay couple who have been working for many years with children exhibiting difficult behavior issues. They ask to adopt one of the girls they have been fostering for a year or so. The Executive Director of your agency's primary authorizing entity hears about this and privately asks you to stop the adoption process, since she thinks some of her Board members may be unhappy about it. She tells you, I don't want you to think I have a problem with this but I have a couple of Board members€¦. …

David Martinez is a local accountant who has helped your agency from time to time with setting up agency accounting records and with developing procedures for things such as managing agency credit cards and internal cash controls. He always tells you to call him any time and never says anything about his getting paid. It is now time for the agency's annual audit for which the agency normally pays several thousand dollars. You mention this in passing to David one morning at the Rotary breakfast. Later, David calls you, About that audit. Don't worry about it. I'll take care of it as soon as I can work it in. I'm in a rush but let's pin this down the first chance we get. You also have a personal friend whose accounting company did the audit last year and knows the audit is coming up soon.

You are told confidentially by one of your agency's therapists an area

physician reportedly advised two clients with whom she works to stop coming to your agency. The physician referred them to another agency in the community and encouraged them to switch. According to your staff person, the clients said the physician had some not so nice things to say about your agency but the clients did not give any detail. You had also heard this same report from someone you were talking with at an open house at your child's school.

Mrs. Thomas has been an active agency supporter for many years. She has been a strong

agency advocate with your primary authorizer, has helped with fund drives and other agency activities, and has recruited several of her

influential friends to support agency initiatives and causes. You call her to ask if she will help organize a clothing drive for the area's disadvantaged children. She says, Not this time. I've been really busy. You'll need to find someone else to help out. I don't think I'll be able to help out much anymore since I've gotten so busy with other things. You ask her if there is a problem you can help with but she declines to discuss it more. She is pleasant enough about it but somewhat abruptly ends the conversation.

Conaty, Bill and Ram Charan. The Talent Masters: Why Smart Leaders Put People Before Numbers. New York: Crown Business, 2010.

Any time two or more people work together there's a social process in which they exchange information and ideas, exercise power, and express their values through what they say and do.

Coaching and feedback are constant, direct, and substantive.

Dialogue is candid and ongoing throughout the year.

…if you're going to have a performance culture, there's got to be a very well understood set of company values to keep people from going off the rails ethically or behaviorally.

Charisma and talking well are useful leadership qualities, but they are not enough if a person cannot connect authentically with others to build consensus and teamwork.

…the four major components of talent: personal traits, skill mix, relationship building, and judgment about people and business.

…judgment is required to know which old rules of thumb to discard and which new ones to develop.