Leading With Focus and Intention

Your general leadership skills are helpful and useful, especially during tough times. In addition, the more you exhibit those skills, the more people in the organization will emulate them. By following your actions, the organization will generate its own leaders at all levels. But it is necessary to use your skills in a more distinct way, to hone your leadership into focused, intent, and useful actions for individuals and the organization as a whole. Here are five ways to lead with focus and intention.
First of all, you must know what you're trying to achieve and how you're going to get there. This may sound elementary, but leaders can become "all talk", especially when things are at a high level of uncertainty. Analyze your own knowledge of this subject. Ask yourself where your organization is and what it is trying to achieve. This means looking again at the vision and mission of the organization. Perhaps it means creating a five-point strategic plan based on that vision and mission. But this also means that you have to get familiar with the organization's operations in order to know how you're going to lead it from where it is now to where you want it to be. But the main point here is to know where you're going and how you're going to get there.
Next, you must take the "how" you've just discovered, i.e. how you're going to get the organization from point A to point B, and learn to talk about it. Don't simply talk about it at the executive or leadership levels. Take it to the "streets" of your organization. Know how to talk about the "how" to the front lines, the middle managers, the accounting department, and the salespeople. Know how each unit you're addressing fits in with the "how" and go from there. Leadership is inspirational, but imagine how inspirational you can really become if you can talk intelligently to all the levels about how each person will contribute to the achievement of the organization's goals.
The first two actions may be fairly easy. Or, depending on how you've involved yourself in the past, they may come with a difficult learning curve. But once you know what you're trying to achieve, how you're going to achieve it, and how to talk about it, you must be prepared for the obstacles that will come your way. In the current economic uncertainty, the one guarantee is that tomorrow will probably not be like today. And you must prepare for this. When obstacles arise, go back to the drawing board to figure out how they affect the original goal and mission. Then figure out the "how" once again. This is where your executive or leadership team comes in - each one of them has specific experience that will help you create a new plan in the face of obstacles. But the biggest thing to remember is that when obstacles occur, focus the organization back on the mission and goals using the new and improved "how". Your job is to keep people from losing their focus in uncertainty. You and your team have to figure it out and keep moving.
Along with a refocus in the face of uncertainty, you can use your other leadership skills. Think about how you can use your powers of persuasion and negotiation to refocus the groups that may be suspicious of changes, even if the changes mean that the organization is saving itself from a bad situation. Also think about how you can use your ability to choose the best battles to refocus not only your own energy but that of the organization, as well. All of the skills you've built as a leader over time will now come in handy. It's not up to the rest of the organization to get your buy-in. It's now up to you to get their buy-in; every person in every group must come with you in order to keep things moving.
Finally, if things change completely, you must still refocus. Your entire organizational goal or mission may change in the face of new problems, issues, and obstacles. But there is no giving up on leading with focus and intent. Find the organization's new goal, the new "how", and start over again. This can be the most difficult aspect of leadership - it means that you may have to admit whatever failures caused the problem, and whether they were internal, external, or both. But once you do that, keep the focus on the new goal and the new "how". Position the change as a field of ripe opportunities that each person can take advantage of as the organization moves forward.
Leadership is one thing, but leading with focus and intention is another. Do both and you'll see that the organization follows.

Vision in Leadership - Pointing the Way For Your People

Vision in leadership guides the way for your team or organization to move forward. However, before you can have a vision for your organization, you must first have a personal vision for your life.
- Where do you see yourself in 5 years time? - What are you going to achieve? - Who are the people they are going to be around you?
Many managers inherently know that a vision statement is required of their organization. They're thinking,"since everyone else has one, I better have one too." That is the beginning of problems in any organization; management doing something that they don't understand, much less believe in. I don't know about you; but I've heard enough of mission and vision statements put up in organizations but no one actually knowing that it means and stands for.
I'm sure you've got one in your organization and you probably can recite it by heart. The problem of an organization not living out its vision begins with the leader of the organization. If a leader does not have a vision for his own life or does not even understand what a vision is, he cannot possibly have vision in leadership ask his organization to live it out.
Your personal vision
The question of vision is a very simple one; what do you want in your life? What does your heart desire you to be? For me, one day I want to become an influential business leader who will groom potential leaders and teach other businessmen to do business the right way. How about you? It doesn't matter what people want you to be; think about what you want. Maybe you want to be a writer. Great! Writing is powerful because words can influence people's opinions, thoughts and beliefs. Maybe you want to be a pastor of a big church who is changing the community. Maybe it's something else for you. But most important, you need to know what you want and see yourself in that future.
If you currently don't really know what you want; your answers to these type of questions are, " um... I suppose I want this.. or that.." or some vague answer like," I want to be rich." If that is your answer to the questions I posted, then its time to get away from the hustle and bustle of life and start thinking about what you want. Take a holiday to a quiet destination and start thinking about this issue. It concerns your life; and if your life is important to you, nothing would be too costly for you to go and find out what is your life's calling. That is so important in leadership. Because you chose to be true to yourself, you can be authentic in pursuing your passion and achieving your goals.
Your vision won't be another statement on the wall; it'll be written in your heart, guiding your every speech, your every action. And that speaks louder than any plaque on the wall. Your team will see it in you. They will see you are true, authentic in pursing the vision you have set your life out; and they will follow you for it. So take some time to think about it. Don't allow the clutter of life to get to you; keep your life in focus. If you don't fight for your vision, no one else will.
Creating the vision for the team
It's only after that that you are ready to create and share a vision for your team. Your vision in leadership should never deviate too far from your personal vision. Your life is one. You can't be moving one way for your own life, and asking your followers to move another way.
Two visions give DI-vision.
Here are some important qualities of a corporate vision.
A good vision excites. Visions of the future should excite people. It must be a future that everyone is longing to create. It is that excitement that can bring out the passion in people to commit to seeing that vision come to pass.
A good vision stretches. A good vision challenges people to rise beyond their comfort zone and develop as an individual to become better, stronger, to become more of a man than today. A vision that does not stretch everyone's capacity means that it can already be achieved today; it doesn't qualify as a vision.
A good vision is clear While a good vision is pretty much imagination, but it must be clear enough that everyone on the team can visualize what you are talking about. Vague visions are as good as not having a vision at all. You must be extremely specific; detailing everything that you see in your mind's eye to your team!
A good vision includes everyone Remember that you are not getting your team to buy into your agenda. You guys have a common agenda and it's a win-win for everyone on the team.
Vision in leadership is very powerful and it can draw commitment from people like nothing else can. Many of the most powerful leaders in history have been visionary leaders and they changed their world on a simple vision that they saw in their head. A vision begins with a thought or an idea but when put into action, it can change teams, communities and even nations!

Leadership Authority - The Need For a Lead Rope

In the horse world the lead rope is very much like your name on the office door. It alerts your horse to your presence just as your name plate tells your employees where your desk is located. These are symbols of formal authority that do not entitle you to trust, respect or loyalty from your horse or your employees.
I can tell exactly how the relationship is developing between a horse and a human by watching the tension in the lead rope. When the two first meet the rope is short and tight. The human knows he must provide leadership for the horse. What is really going through his mind though is whether this huge animal is going to either run from him or over him. He doesn't trust the horse to cooperate and he doesn't trust his ability to control it. In the absence of trust the human micro-manages the relationship by shortening or pulling on the rope. He doesn't realize that this is a completely ineffective (and somewhat ludicrous) act. If a fifteen hundred pound horse decides he is leaving it doesn't matter what length your rope is!
As the human and horse work together over time they begin to build a relationship. The human develops more horse handling skills. His communication becomes clearer and his actions become more consistent and dependable. He learns to focus on the horse and listen to its body language. As he demonstrates his integrity through his growing knowledge, consistency and empathy the horse begins to acknowledge him as the leader and becomes more cooperative. The rope loosens and lengthens as trust grows.
When both human and horse feel they have established a relationship of trust and respect the lead rope can be removed. This is the true test of earned leadership. If there is mutual trust the horse will not only stay but follow the human willingly. To have a horse follow you freely in this manner is a very powerful experience. As one woman observed, " The first time he walked towards me and followed me, absolutely by his own choice, was a moment that has been suspended in time for me. He wanted to ... and he trusted me enough to do it ... and that was absolute magic."
A simple lead rope can reflect the quality of a relationship with a horse. In our human relationships we also rely on intangible lead ropes. It seems easier to depend on symbols of formal authority to establish leadership in our professional and personal lives. In the long run however we will hopefully come to realize that the energy spent pulling on the lead rope could be put to much better use.

Leadership Versus Management

Question Posed This Week:
If everyone seems to know what leadership is when they see it, why do most organizations seem to bewail lack of leadership continuously, and why is there an apparent huge dearth of leadership at the top of most corporations these days?
Is it? a) Accident of birth? Leaders are born not made? b) Demographics? Maybe there is only one leader for every 1000 managers? c) Training? Do our education systems train managers rather than leaders? d) Selection? Maybe true leaders don't get selected in favour of managers or get screened out, or just maybe are not recognized as leaders? e) Desire? Maybe folks just don't want to lead even if they have the skills & aptitude?
My answer: Sorry, I don't buy into the belief that Leaders are born. Anyone can become a leader of any organization at any time. All that is required is a firm commitment to better oneself at every turn, acknowledging every foible and be willing to accept it and to continuously make improvements - real lasting improvements in becoming a better, more decent human being.
The more we read, the more we learn, the more personal discovery seminars (not that Meyers-Briggs or DISC fluff - a twenty-minute personality assessment which only explains why you are the way you are but not any real tools to change it) from real hardcore, locked-away for weeks at a time personal development journeys that we can attend, the more work we do on ourselves the more we become real.
Leadership must be authentic. In order to be authentic, a leader must be prepared to show all of him or herself - warts and all. Leadership comes from confidence. Real confidence requires no proof (think about that statement until you get it).
Management, however, can be done by anyone (I didn't say quality management). That's why it would be easier and more expedient to send someone to management school instead of self-discovery programs. It's quicker. It's cheaper. It doesn't remove the person from the workplace as long. And if he or she doesn't work out, the company can start again and send someone else.
You can be a jerk most of your life but it's in the "why" of being a jerk that we can discover many of our subconscious driving needs. Once we figure out what makes us tick, we can find more appropriate avenues to realize those needs.
Until organizations around the world figure out that you can't send a jerk to manager's school and expect him to become a leader, we'll keep ending up with the same old-same old. Leaders CAN be made. But they have to want to go out and get it. And it's hard work - I mean HARD work. Most people don't want to do the work. That's why there are so few leaders.
ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT: If you need to have power and control - then you will only ever be a manager. If you want to help people become better, more proficient and help them find meaning in their work - then you are a leader.
If you need to demand respect - you will only ever be a manager. If you give respect knowing deep down that you get what you give, then you are a leader.
If you believe that your people serve you - you will only ever be a manager. If you believe that you are, in fact, in service to your people - you serve them - and that you work WITH them - then you are a leader.
You see, Leadership is an Attitude. Management is a position. Service is an Attitude. Customer Service is a department. Safety is an Attitude. Occupational Health & Safety is a program. Engagement is an Attitude. Work is a job.
The moment you give up the NEED to be in control is the moment you stop being a manager and start being a leader. Managers control. Leaders inspire.

Leadership Lessons From "Hook

Have you seen "Hook", starring Robin Williams? It is one of my favorites, with so much truth buried among the comedy, if you are willing to look for it. "Hook" begins with a corporate giant workaholic, Peter Banning, completely missing his children's lives. He is rarely present, and never listens to his wife and kids. First rule of good leadership broken. . . always listen to those in your group.
As the story progresses, Peter finds himself on an airplane headed for London to celebrate the opening of a new hospital wing in honor of Lady Wendy, THE Wendy from the Peter Pan story. Again, he refuses to listen to those around him, and is constantly distracted by his cell phone. Peter failed again to connect with his "tribe" as it were, and paid the price of the dreaded pirate, Captain Hook, stealing his children.
Now, poor Peter must come to grips with the fact that he is actually Peter Pan (talk about an identity crisis!), and begins his adventure to rescue the kids. Enter the Lost Boys, a ragtag bunch of kids who have no one to lead them, so they live in constant chaos. Peter has no desire, initially, to join forces with this "tribe", but will do anything to save his children. He is in fact, scared to death, and must find a way to push through his fear if he is to accomplish his objectives. The lost boys are instrumental in encouraging Peter to move past his fear, and return to them as a true leader with a plan.
After Peter finds the courage to move forward, the next step is to discover his true self and his true passion in life. Peter eventually discovers both as he learns to fly. With the encouragement of the lost boys, Peter finds his happy thought (his kids) and accepts that he IS the Pan.
Once Peter's vision is established, he leads the lost boy tribe, training them to be a well oiled fighting machine with the purpose of rescue. From there, the story has a very happy ending with the pirates defeated and Peter's children rescued. Peter comes away with many solid life lessons learned as a result of his adventure. His wife hardly recognizes him.
So, what can we as leaders in home business learn from this fun yet quirky movie? We need a clear vision and a plan to go with it, encouragement flowing freely between our followers and us, and an ear to hear those around us. With the proper motivation, we can go forward and change the world. Keep in mind, Peter needed to be flung from a giant sling shot. I guess some of us just need a bigger nudge than others.

Ten Powerful Questions For Finding Your Leadership Voice

Time and again my coaching clients tell me that one of the best outcomes of coaching is finding and developing their leadership voice. They say how cultivating their leadership voice made a huge difference in how they contribute to their company and how good they feel about themselves.
So just what is "leadership voice" and how might you find it even without a coach's support?
To me, leadership voice is an authentically articulated point of view based on integrating your values, vision, and purpose. It originates in self-awareness; it develops and deepens when combined with meaningful behaviors, and culminates in a lasting contribution and professional satisfaction.
No single activity can completely unearth your leadership voice; however, reflecting and responding to some or all of the following questions can help you define and declare it.
How to Use these Questions:
These questions are not all distinct; therefore you might have similar answers to the different questions; that's fine and most likely helpful. Approach these questions with curiosity and playfulness. It might be best to be in a relaxing environment other than work when you answer; also, consider using a journal for your responses. Unlined journals will encourage you to write or draw or make a collage with your responses. Whatever you do, resist thinking that there is one "right" answer" to any question.
Ten Powerful Questions
1. What gets you up in the morning beyond the alarm clock, the dog, the kids and the train; and even besides the pay check? What motivates you to go to this job at this company at this time? Is it to get a promotion, develop others, solve problems, build a community, have fun? 2. What do you stand for as a leader? What core values drive your decisions? If you're not sure, then think about a time when you were really angry about a decision someone else at work made - what value was not being honored? 3. What do you believe motivates others to do their best? 4. How do you believe change happens - both personally and organizationally? 5. What do you want your employees to say about you when you're not around? What do you want your boss, peers, customers to say about you? 6. Who are you being when you are at your best? 7. What conditions make it easy for you to be your best? 8. What attitudes/beliefs move you forward? What attitudes/beliefs hold you back? 9. How do you define success at this point in your professional life? 10. What nourishes you?
How to Use your Answers
Look for common words, themes, values; then find a useful and creative way to capture them. For instance, write a professional mission statement that embodies the essence of what you discovered - ideally something short enough to remember and post on a 3 x 5 card. Or, if you are more visual, find or make a picture that symbolizes what you found. One client used a tree with various branches to depict her values and vision.
Talk about what you've discovered with a trusted colleague or friend.
Refer to your responses when you are struggling with a business dilemma or tough decision.
Use a compelling question from the ones listed above to generate meaningful conversation with your employees - either in one-on-one development meetings or in team meetings.
Ask yourself if your behaviors consistently align with your values. If not, what should you do to make them align?
Benefits of Cultivating Your Leadership Voice:
1. Being consistent and explicit in using your voice builds trust and fosters engagement as it helps your staff and peers understand what they can count on you for. It also feels good, which leads to doing good and feeling even better and doing even better!
2. Having clarity and certainty in your leadership voice sustains you during organizational change. You become your own anchor and you can also be an anchor to others who feel blown adrift by the stress of change.
3. You move from victim to victor as you use your voice to influence outcomes that are useful to the organization and meaningful to you.
Investing in these 10 questions is investing in your own renewal as a leader. You are creating vitalized purpose and passion by connecting who you are more clearly with what you do.

Why Will a Horse Allow You to Ride Him Into Battle?

I was having a Twitter conversation with my friend, Daniel, this morning about horses, and I had some thoughts that just wouldn't fit in 140 characters.
I was talking to Daniel about how smart horses are. They aren't smart in the same way we are. They are smart in the ways they need to survive. Since horses are prey animals, they must always be aware of their environment. Their survival depends on being able to discern what is dangerous and what is not. If they perceive something to be dangerous, they are hard coded to run. On the other hand, they can't run at every leaf that rustles in the bushes. As a result, horses are black belts at reading body language.
Daniel then asked an astute question: "Why do horses allow us to ride them into battle?"
My tweet was: "Leadership. Develop a strong relationship with your horse, and he will follow you anywhere. Same w/ people."
Here's the part that doesn't fit in a tweet:
Horses crave leadership. In a wild herd, the lead stallion or mare, or the two working as a team, are always on the look out for danger. This allows the rest of the herd to relax and graze. When you meet a horse for the first time, his biggest question to you is, "Can you keep me safe?" If you can show the horse that you can be an effective leader and keep him safe, he will be happy to let you lead him.
As your relationship grows, and the horse trusts you more and more, the two of you will be able to work together and do things you could not do separately. This includes going into battle.
The same thing works with people. Most people are better followers than leaders. They are happy to let someone tell them what to do and where to go. When a leader can convince his followers that he has a vision and can protect them, they will follow him anywhere.
Horses are great teachers of leadership. If you are not an effective leader, your horse will not follow you. Unlike with people, a horse's feedback on your leadership skills are unadulterated, immediate, and honest. There is no pretense. You are either a good leader or you are not. The horse will follow you only if you can lead.

Things to Look For When Performing a Leadership Self-Assessment

The issues that surrounds the self-assessment thinking depends on the scope of, what specifically is being assessed. One thought of discussion however, is the self-assessment process is in my view perhaps the most important functional exercise in the area of: organizational development and management, personal assessment and/or business leadership direction. Often times individuals in leadership positions and the staff they lead, though often hear the term think they really know what it means; ultimately, quite honestly know very little on what the true mission of the self-assessment process is. I make this statement from eight years as a quality assurance executive of a 200 million dollar program and of a staff consisting of over 300 employees. You see typically most executives underestimate the self-assessment process; and, staff have very little idea of what to expect; other than fear of being assessed and the two; leaders and staff are not on the same page in preparing for a meaningful competent revealing self-assessment process.
So how does self-assessment apply to you as an individual? From my perspective though self-assessment is typically utilized in the professional setting; if one looks at the elements of self-assessment one will begin to observe a system that is full of components that can help you with your own personal development. And so therefore, a tool that one can have at their disposal to apply in the monitoring aspect of your personal life's goals, your business qualitative results, a document used as a guide to make change in the area of quality; quality as a person and quality as a business. Stop and really think to yourself; what in your view would you like to get from a self-assessment process? The fundamental aspects of the self-assessment process to what is called in this business as; continue quality improvement (CQI); most of us would like to be in the search for excellence and most of us would like to interact with organizations that appreciate quality. In my professional opinion the primary vehicle to obtain the level of excellence and sustain excellence is to have some form of an self-assessment tool that can be utilized in order to reach quality and excellence.
The central issues one should be driven by in mobilizing a self-assessment task is to be looking for management systems that are working in isolation from the concept of interrelated management systems operations. Whether it is a larger, medium or smaller organizational setting it doesn't necessarily matter. What matters is the model of personal and professional assessment that will reveal your strengths of your program and the quality of the services rendered or the quality of life one is seeking; these are the issues of importance and these are the issues that one must take action on.
As one continues the road to success and seeking the path to quality; keep in mind the important aspect of sustainability and of quality and of one's progress. Take corrective measures in the revelations of your self assessment results. Work on enhancing your personal and professional development by addressing and ensuring that a plan of action has been formulated which will concentrate on the weakness of what your self-assessment report reveals. Look at the external factors that could embellish on the progress of improving yourself or your organization and how external factors could work on and your weakness and how you can strengthen your skills to produce better results.

Leadership - Inside, Outside

In this article I aim to achieve the following:
- dispel common myths about leadership,
- emphasize the tremendous importance of personal leadership in all walks of life,
- reveal a surprising facet of leadership and
- leave you with steps to take to develop a key quality of effective leadership.
Intrigued, then read on!
Leadership is a concept that is mis understood by many people.Until recently that included me as well.
Leadership is not about telling people what to do. Nor is leadership something that has to be practiced only by senior executives in large corporations. Leadership is not a genetic trait though some are born great leaders. Leadership is very much a learnable skill. Research conducted into the lives of some of the greatest leaders reveals undeniable evidence that they had picked up effective leadership skills on the way.
To really understand leadership you have to do the following:
- Understand the evolution of leadership down the ages
- Consider some of the important leadership models
- look both inside yourself and outside.
While there are various definitions of leadership, some so academic you would become more confused than enlightened, the one I like best is:
"Leadership is about CHANGING the status quo". - Wyatt Woodsmart
Note that leadership is not about keeping things the same.
Another definition that I like is by Eben Pagan:
"Leadership is the ability to effect human behavior so as to accomplish a mission".
A Brief History of Leadership
When society first developed, a hierarchical model of leadership evolved. Some leaders were great and their people flourished. Some were not and their people suffered.
As society evolved further we got religious leaders.
And later, politicians emerged as elected leaders.
And finally business leaders.
Managers came into existence much more recently in the late nineteenth century. The common belief is that managers were invented when two trains one each from Buffalo and New York city collided. A post mortem revealed the need to have someone oversee the movements of trains.
Traditional Model
In the traditional model a charismatic / autocratic leader of pre eminent status creates a vision for the future. He then issues clear directions to his followers.
Orders flow from top to bottom.
Information flows from top to bottom.
The Modern Model.
Leadership is a collaborative process. Anyone can engage in leadership when there is a need for change.
We cannot do it all ourselves, we need others. Hence the need for collaboration.
The Inner Game of Leadership
The concept of the inner game first came into popular vogue with the publication of the phenomenal book "The Inner Game of Tennis" by Timothy Gallwey in 1972. Gallwey wrote "Every game is composed of two parts, an outer game and an inner game." The former is played against opponents, and is filled with lots of contradictory advice; the latter is played not against, but within the mind of the player, and its principal obstacles are self-doubt and anxiety.
This concept can be extended to leadership as well. What goes on inside you is more important than what goes on outside. Your state of mind, your visualizations, your beliefs, self motivation, internal behavior, how you perceive problems etc.
The inner game of leadership is particularly challenging to understand. In the business world an undue emphasis is placed on results. Results that are tangible, quantifiable and measurable. In other words the emphasis is completely on the outer game, what happens on the outside.
Most successful leaders operate out of unconscious competence. They do not know what they are doing right mentally.
Leadership and You
If you look at some of the biggest losers in life a common theme you will notice is their lack of leadership. A lack which manifests itself in their inability to attract people that can help them, an inability to collaborate with people that can help them.
Leadership is an important skill for the future because it connects people. An important equation to know is:
Your Success in Life = Your Skill As a Leader
Until you can lead yourself it is very difficult to lead others.
A Surprising Take on Leadership
Most people think leadership is about ordering people around but to become a great leader you need to become a great follower. When you become a good follower you put your personal needs aside to serve and support others. Think of it. You get promoted because you serve your boss well. Often the person at the top is one who is best at supporting others.
The best leader is one who is the best supporter of others.
What is a vision - a key attribute of effective leadership
Humans have a unique gift, an ability to imagine a future that does not yet exist. A vision is a constructive picture, an image or a slide. It does not exist yet and is better than the present.
Leadership is about conscious change so vision is key to successful leadership. All change starts with the vision. To get other people to follow you we need to communicate a clear picture to others so that picture will enter their minds and become an attractor. In the modern world the collaborative group comes together to create the vision. Therefore the real key is in creating a compelling vision conjuring up all your creativity and imagination..
To develop a vision we should engage in reflective thinking. We should replace:
Information with inspiration
Knowledge with wisdom
Isolationist thinking with systems thinking
Detailed thinking with big picture thinking
Short term thinking with long term thinking
Things that divide us with things that unite us
Naveen Thalanki is a book lover, an IT project manager and an Internet Marketeer. He is very into human psychology.
Nothing appeals more to him than searching for the best free stuff on the web

How to be your own best leader, today

Lehman Brothers, AIG, Bank of America buys Merrill Lynch, the housing crisis, mortgage mess, fuel and food costs, on and on...

While it looks dire, the times are creating opportunities for more people to become true leaders - not just in business, but in their lives. Let's examine leadership from the two perspectives, personally and professionally to see where you can gain the most from these changing times.

The current Wall Street events provide a good example of why leadership in these dynamic times is so critical. A recent article in Workforce Management1 magazine pointed out how "the upheaval at Lehman and Merrill has created an unprecedented opportunity to lure star employees from two of Wall Street's most well known brands." What an opportunity for those who are the talent and those who want this high powered talent! It's an opportunity for both sides to demonstrate both personal and professional leadership that counts!

Personal leadership is most critical in the midst of a volatile market. Demonstrating personal leadership means taking full responsibility for leading your life in the direction you desire. This is an opportunity being delivered to you. Take a step back and look at all of the possibilities. Create the life and career that gives you a sense of well being and purpose. Work with a coach, take one of the online assessments for insight into your skills and expertise, talk to people who are in an area of interest, and reach out to past and potential mentors. If you're being a personal leader, your career and life will never fall victim to the current trends, hits and misses. You must establish your own brand of leadership for your life and career, so that you have your own 21st roadmap. A roadmap that bends, curves and gives you what you can always count on - control of your destiny.

Professional leadership has always had broad impact and implications whether it's done well or not. We got a glimpse of this in the current market crisis. "Leaders" were out for themselves, speculating and investing in failing marketplace products - real estate, sub-prime mortgage, etc. For over a year, the market recognized the failing real estate market and sub prime mortgage crisis, yet the last ounce of "green" was still being drained - employing the "good to the last drop" approach. (Although, investing in Maxwell House and coffee futures may have been safer, with all the late night negotiations and job searches.) The "true" professional leader is authentic in who they are and how they demonstrate leadership. They recognize the power of purpose, passion and greatness and lead from this secure, confident place. With the spotlight on attraction and retention, it will increasingly become a competitive advantage to have a cadre of authentic professional leaders in every corporation. These leaders must exemplify the role of a "true" leader to not only attract but retain this high powered talent. Building authentic leadership begins with personal leadership and integrating your purpose, passion and greatness with business objectives. It is being comfortable with the courage, confidence and inner knowing of your leadership and demonstrating it on a daily basis.

So it's time...time for the emergence of leadership that counts! Today's leader has a grasp of the role and power of being an authentic leader. They demonstrate the influence and role modeling needed to lead in the new workplace and marketplace. They recognize that the role of the leader is to empower others to be leaders. They are also "true" leaders in their personal lives; embracing the purpose and passion of their well being as a leader. "Being" a leader for your personal life will enable you to step into this authentic role with insight and energy. Having an ability to lead and empower on a level more accessible by this newly enlightened workforce is the new call to action. This convergence of leadership that counts -- personal and professional -- is what we need in our leaders today. It is what truly creates an environment where talent competes to work in.

If you are a leader, here is your call to action. Use the insights and suggestions in this article to develop your personal and professional leadership to create the opportunities for yourself and attract the talent to your company that creates great teams to lead!