A Leadership Lesson: Two Guys With Guns
All leaders get to a point where they feel blocked in their jobs and careers. They feel they can't go on, or even if they can go on, are progressing much too slowly. The author gives a surprisingly effective pointer he learned from a crime novelist on how to become unblocked.
By Brent Filson - 2005
Raymond Chandler author of the famous Philip Marlowe detective stories
advised writers suffering from writers' block: "Whenever you get stuck,
have two guys walk through the door with guns."
Leadership has its own "leader's block." All leaders now and then get
a good dose of it. You're sailing along in your job getting the
results you want when, for whatever reason or for no reason you can
discern, you come to a screeching halt and can't go any farther. You
get stuck on getting the same results. You get stuck on motivating
people. You're stuck on motivating yourself.
Being stuck, take advice from Raymond Chandler: Have two guys walk through the door with guns!
Chandler was talking about shaking things up in the writer's head and on the written page.
Here's the way you can have the leadership equivalent of Chandler's
advice: shake things up in your job and career simply by giving
Leadership Talks.
My experience working with thousands of leaders world wide for the past
two decades teaches me that most leaders are screwing up their careers.
On a daily basis, these leaders are getting the wrong results or the right results in the wrong ways.
Interestingly, they themselves are choosing to fail. They're actively sabotaging their own careers.
Leaders commit this sabotage for a simple reason: They make the fatal
mistake of choosing to communicate with presentations and speeches --
not Leadership Talks.
In terms of boosting one's career, the difference between the two
methods of leadership communication is the difference between lightning
and the lightning bug.
Look at it this way: There's a hierarchy of verbal persuasion. The
lowest parts (least effective) are presentations and speeches.
Primarily, they communicate information.
But the highest part of the hierarchy of verbal persuasion, the most
effective way to communicate as a leader, is through the Leadership
Talk.
The Leadership Talk not only communicates information. It does
something much more important than what speeches/presentations do.
Now here's the key: The Leadership Talk has you, the leader, establish
a deep, human, emotional connection with people – so important in
motivating them to achieve results.
Why is this connection important in shaking things up? Simply, it's
better to motivate people to get a job done than to order them.
Once you understand the Leadership Talk, you'll find it's indispensable
to your leadership. You'll never go back to giving
presentations/speeches again; for no other single tool can make that
motivation happen as effectively and quickly and have long lasting
impact than the Leadership Talk.
The Leadership Talk is the greatest results-generator of all. That's
because it works in relationships. That's what great leadership is
about. Relationships. Relationships. Relationships.
Having people be so motivated by your leadership that they become your
cause leader(s) in achieving more results faster, continually.
Leadership Talks can be formal ways of communicating but mostly they
are informal. Unlike a speech, they are usually interactive. They can
be delivered anywhere: at a conference table, over lunch, at a water
cooler, across a desk.
(One of the best Leadership Talks I have witnessed was given by a plant
supervisor to one of his team members at a company picnic while they
sat on the back of a truck, sipping beers.)
And in many cases, an effective Leadership Talk can be given when roles
are reversed, when the audience speaks to the speaker.
Here are a few:
When Churchill said, "We will fight on the beaches ... " That was a leadership talk.
When Kennedy said, "Ask not what your country can do for you ... " that was a leadership talk.
When Reagan said, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" That was a leadership talk.
You can come up with a lot of examples too. Go back to those moments
when the words of a leader inspired people to take ardent action, and
you've probably put your finger on an authentic leadership talk.
Mind you, I'm not just talking about great leaders of history. I'm
also talking about the leaders in your organizations. After all,
leaders speak 15 to 20 times a day: everything from formal speeches to
informal chats. When those interactions are leadership talks, not just
speeches or presentations, the effectiveness of those leaders is
dramatically increased.
Throughout your career, you'll now and then get stuck in your job.
When you do, remember Raymond Chandler. Then remember the Leadership
Talk: the Leadership Talk is the organizational equivalent of having
two guys walk through the door with guns. But don't just use Leadership
Talks only when you're stuck. Use it many times daily throughout your
career, and you'll find that leader's block is a thing of the past.
2005© The Filson Leadership Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
The author of 23 books, Brent Filson's recent books are, THE LEADERSHIP TALK: THE GREATEST LEADERSHIP TOOL and 101 WAYS TO GIVE GREAT LEADERSHIP TALKS. He is founder and president of The Filson Leadership Group, Inc. – Celebrating 25 years of helping leaders of top companies worldwide achieve outstanding results every day. Sign up for his free leadership e-zine and get his FREE report "7 Steps To Leadership Mastery"