What is the state of your union?

The President makes an annual address.

Publicly traded companies release quarterly earnings.

Sports teams compile stats for every game.

There was a time when most companies and associations produced annual reports. That seems to have diminished over the years.  But has our need to track progress?  Has interest in the health of our organizations?  Has the value of weaving together isolated facts into a coherent narrative about a company, an association, a profession, or an industry?

I don't think so.

So what is the state of your union?  And more importantly, how is it being communicated to those who need to know?

Leadership Limerick: Fresh Answers Require Fresh Thinking

To break things up a bit in 2011, I will be offering a leadership limerick each Monday, highlighting an idea or strategy about effective leadership in limerick form.

 If you’re weary of ideas that seem lame
You must think in ways not so tame

Big questions you should ask
Of those minds up to the task

In groups of people who are not the same.

When we plan strategy conversations, the invite list too often consists of the usual suspects.  Nothing wrong with that as you definitely want people with a stake in the outcome.

But fresh thinking requires fresh eyes, so also consider inviting some unusual suspects, individuals with a peripheral view of the topic being discussed, folks outside the inner circle, etc.  

Don't just invite people based on their position.  Also look to include people with different perspectives and individuals who are provocative thinkers in general.

Leadership Limerick: The Importance of Experimentation

To break things up a bit in 2011, I will be offering a leadership limerick each Monday, highlighting an idea or strategy about effective leadership in limerick form.

To make new or better I behest

Thou shalt not dally nor rest

Start thinking big now

Use your existing know-how

And put your ideas to the test.

Innovators call it rapid-prototyping.  In Built to Last, Jim Collins and Jerry Porras describe Trying a Lot of Stuff and Seeing What Works.  Broadway denotes them as preview performances.  Software developers call it beta-testing.

Call it what you will, but organizations must move beyond analysis paralysis and release pilot efforts in which real-life members and consumers interact real-time with the program or service being created and offer feedback to hep refine the initial iterations.  This is particularly true when you operate in a fast-paced, competitive landscape.

So get comfortable with sharing works in progress as it is the only way your work will progress.

Leadingship Limerick: Delegation Diligence

Every Monday I offer a leadership limerick, highlighting a leadership fundmental in limerick form.

Delegation gets lots of things done
If people have the permission to run

Your support is what they need
Don't overmanage or underlead

Or their success is sure to be none

People exercise initiative only when they have freedom of choice and the power and authority to act.  When you delegate with too many strings attached, they don't own the responsibility, instead feeling constrained to executing only on your terms.

Don't specify every step along the way.  Instead, communicate a clear picture of what success looks like for the responsibilities being delegated and then inquire what support people need from you to complete the work.  Remain aware and interested in their progress, but not overactive in the actual work.

The Scarlet F of Freeloading

During the past few weeks I have been a participant in an online discussion I found to be fascinating and frustrating, one that has been a catalyst for incredibly insightful comments and unnecessarily judgmental or inflammatory opinions.

The reason?  One bright and articulate young professional blogged about why he would not be renewing his membership in a professional association.  While his story is specific to one organization, ASAE, universal lessons about how individuals perceive value can be gleaned.  You can read what resulted here, here, here, and here.  Brew yourself a pot of coffee or grab yourself a stiff drink because there is much to contemplate and learn if you spend some time with the posts and comments at those links.  Be forewarned.  It ain't always pretty.

I just want to add one observation on this blog, my own forum.  A few individuals on these other sites have asserted that members of a profession who don't join their association in some ways are freeloaders.  Literally, this could be true.  Those who pay dues help ensure the association exists and their financial contributions support activities designed to sustain the profession or industry the association serves and represents.

Freeloading implies benefiting from others.  And when that definition is comprehensively applied, a significant percentage of these supposedly more worthy dues-paying members are themselves freeloading.

• Freeloading off those who contribute to newsletters, magazines, and discussions boards when they might only lurk.
• Freeloading off those who prepare and present educational sessions at meetings while they never share their knowledge.
• Freeloading off those who devote personal time and money to perform volunteer responsibilities to lead the association while they sit back and observe.
• Freeloading off those who solicit donors to fund new programs and recruit new members to broaden the dues base while they note they don't like to do sales.
• Freeloading off those who contribute to PACs and lobby actively while they do nothing to shape regulations that affect them.
• Freeloading off those who take the risk to offer honest feedback that brings about meaningful change while they remain silent or just gossip.

So by all means, feel a brief moment of dues-paying smugness when you meet a member of your profession who didn't join the association, but freely reads its magazine, the one he borrows from a colleague who is a member.

But if our only contribution is in the form of being a joiner writing a check and not being a contributor, remember we also could be chastened with the Scarlet F of Freeloader.  In fact, at any given time, other than keeping our dues current, we all freeload and let others contribute in ways that we aren't.  That's the way it has always been; that's the way it probably always will be.

Many ways exist to evaluate whether or not someone is a contributing member of an association or community.  Paying dues is one of the most obvious metrics, one we've used for a very long time.  But those who write, speak, mentor, advocate, fundraise, share, and present pay their dues as well, and we are foolish to not value them for doing so, regardless of whether or not they join our associations.  For in many cases it is those contributions on which others freeload the most.

Leadership Limerick: Selling A Vision

To break things up a bit in 2011, I will be offering a leadership limerick each Monday, highlighting an idea or strategy about effective leadership in limerick form.


You imagine a future quite bold
A vision you want others to hold

Connect one-on-one with those who care
Embrace their thoughts about what you share

And this might bring them into the fold


Individuals and organizations often develop elaborate roll-out plans and presentations to sell the masses on a new vision for a project or the organization overall.  But politicians know there is little substitute for going door-to-door and engaging in one-on-one campaigning.  As famed business fable author Patrick Lencioni has noted, "Weighing in is a prerequisite for buying in."

Don't underestimate the value of having many, many "wouldn't it be great if ... " conversations to enlist others' support.  You don't need PowerPoint to make a powerful point.  Speak more from the heart and rely less on the podium.