3G Leader Characteristics

In the Harvard Business Review's book "Leaders on Leadership" (1992), Jimmy Carter, past President of the USA, says: "[a leader requires] the ability to work with other people, the capacity to expand one's mind and one's heart as the years go by, and to see the broader dimensions of the future. Most important, it's necessary not to fear the prospect of failure but to be determined not to fail. If a leader is not willing to attempt things that might not succeed, then he has little faith in himself or the goal he seeks to achieve."

In my book "Leaders: diamonds or cubic zirconia" (1998) I quote the people interviewed as stressing the first building block for a leader is for a person to recognise that they have a leadership responsibility and, coupled with this, to have the self confidence to acknowledge they are not always right and so a preparedness to enlist help from others and to apologise when they are wrong.

Both of these are activities that are possible because the leader has moved away from the red zone of anxiety to the blue zone of courage (see http://thesuccesszone.com/). They are characteristics of Third Generation Leadership and of 3G Leaders.

Other characteristics of Third Generation Leadership and 3G Leaders are:

• they engage with others rather than seeking to obtain obedience or compliance
• they are collaborative and facilitative
• they encourage growth and self directed learning by everyone
• they respect other people even if they are not receiving respect in return
• they invite questions and discussion
• they ask questions with a view to helping others find their own solutions
• they listen to help others engage with their own or shared solutions
• they are totally non discriminatory in thought, word and action

Because of these characteristics, 3G Leaders are able to create environments in which people feel:

• emotionally safe
• unconditionally respected
• believed in as individuals
• listened to

and these are the critical conditions for people to be engaged not only with what they do but also with those they are doing it with. These are the optimal conditions for organisational and personal success.

More information about Doug Long and how I may be able to help you at http://www.dglong.com/

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Third Generation Leadership - Developing 3G Leaders

Over the years there has been recurring discussion relating to leadership development and right now one of the on-line discussion groups I am involved with is looking at the question: "What traits do you think our next generation of leaders should possess?"

There are certain things that seem to be self-evident. My research that lead to the 1998 book "Leaders: diamonds or cubic zirconia?" indicated that knowing yourself and recognising that you do have leadership responsibilities in at least some areas of life is at the very core of any group of essentials. Most leadership development programs address this issue.

But there is another issue that is less often addressed - and even then, often not very well. This is the issue of "creating an environment in which everyone can be successful".

With First Generation Leadership (G1 Leaders) and Second Generation Leadership (G2 Leaders) this was not so much of an issue. However with Third Generation Leadership (G3 Leaders) it is critical.

One of the key researchers of value to G1 Leadership and G2 Leadership in addressing this issue was Elliott Jaques who, in books such as "Requisite Organisation" (1998, Cason Hall & Co), made the point that leaders needed to have greater conceptual and complex information processing skills than their followers if they were to provide an environment in which others could be successful. Jaques' work is still absolutely vital for G3 Leadership.

But G3 Leadership requires another element - it requires the ability to manage down those areas of the brain that are not helpful in leader-follower interactions while simultaneously managing up those areas of the brain that are helpful. I refer to these as "Red Zone" (not helpful) and "Blue Zone" (helpful). Where the leader has his or her brain's locus of control is critical because only G3 Leaders are able to engage everyone with whom they interact: a G2Leader can engage only some and a G1 Leader can engage only a few.

This is the area of leadership development to which I will pay attention in coming blogs.

For more information about Doug Long and how may be able to help you, see http://www.dglong.com/

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The three generations of leadership - G1 Leadership, G2 Leadership, G3 Leadership

We are all used to hearing about generations of mobile phone technology and G3 is now dominant. Similarly we are used to hearing about the various versions of computer programs - terms like V1, V2, V3 are commonplace.

But what about leadership?

When you read the leadership literature it seems as though there is an underlying assumption that the basics of leadership have remained the same for countless years. I am as guilty as anyone else of allowing this view to continue.

But not any more.

One of my major recent learnings has been that there are at least 3 generations of leadership - we can call these "G1 Leadership" (or "Leadership v1.0"), "G2 Leadership" (or "Leadership v2.0") and "G3 Leadership" (or "Leadership v3.0").

G1 Leadership is characterised by a command and control mentality. It has its origins in the world prior to the Second World War. Leadership in this generation is predicated on the follower being obedient and at all time showing respect for their leaders. Followers are not expected to question the decisions of and/or instructions from their leaders and any questions made by the leader are primarily for the purpose of enabling the leader to make a decision. Followers obtain security and certainty by following the rules in a reasonably predictable world. Hierarchy is seen as natural and essential for the smooth operation of society.

G2 Leadership is a development from this. The key difference is that "conformance" replaces "obedience" although the follower is still expected to show respect for the leader at all times. G2 Leadership arose in the 1940's and 50's out of research by management theorists and humanistic psychologists who showed that rewarding people for compliance to instructions was more productive than blind obedience. Most current leadership development programs are based on the belief that followers will act in consistence with what the leader models and that providing positive reinforcement for appropriate behaviour ("operant conditioning") is the most powerful means of motivating people to achieve results. Access to or isolation from information is a key power base in this approach. Again in this model, some form of hierarchy is accepted as a core tenet of society and upwards questioning is often discouraged while questioning from the leader is generally for the purpose of helping the follower solve his or her problems.

Today's Generation Y tends to have considerable difficulty with this approach. They know that with access to the internet and social networking there is very little information that can remain hidden for prolonged periods. In addition they prefer to work out their own solutions to problems rather than relying on others to provide them with answers. There tends to be a significant disconnect between Generation Y followers and G2 Leaders with G2 Leaders often bemoaning the work and social attitudes of Generation Y.

Which brings us to G3 Leadership.

G3 Leadership is all about engaging people with both what they do and those with whom they do it. A G3 Leader operates in an atmosphere of mutual respect between leader and follower and in which the leader has the maturity to distinguish between the person (who is always acceptable) and their actions (which might not be acceptable.) Where G1 Leaders and G2 Leaders have their brain's locus of control primarily in the red zone (basic/reptilian - limbic areas), G3 Leaders have their brain's locus of control in the cortical areas of the brain - the blue zone.

The really good news is that we can all learn to become G3 Leaders.

More information about Doug Long and how I may be able to help you at http://www.dglong.com/.

Please let me know what you think about this. Click on the comment link below.

"Blue Zone" cares!

Last week my son purchased a 4WD vehicle and, over the weekend, went out bush with his mates. The group took several 4WD's and they are experienced 4WDers. This was serious "bush bashing" in an authorised area and they put themselves and their vehicles through some pretty testing stuff. The end result, fortunately just as they were about to come home, was that the clutch failed on my son's Nissan. It was interesting to be told of how the whole group worked together to get his car back to Sydney and to his workshop (as it happens most of them are mechanics): it has been equally interesting to hear how everyone is now helping him get the car fully repaired and back on the road in the shortest possible time.

They call it "helping your mates".

Also over the weekend we all heard of the disaster in Haiti. Again it is heartening to see the worldwide response of people seeking to provide help of all sorts to those who are in desperate need.

Some call this emergency international aid.

It doesn't really matter what you call it. Nor does it matter whether we are talking about a small group of friends working together or an international response to a disaster. The fact is that, for the most part, people are prepared to help others - even when there are significant costs to themselves. Its one of the really great things about humanity and it is totally independent of any religious, racial, cultural, or other perspective. We do it because we are human.

In another arena (http://www.evancarmichael.com/Leadership/5178/summary.php) I have talked about the areas of our brains that control how we see the world and how we respond to the various issues that confront us on a daily basis. I have also referred to this in a previous blog (Leaders and the Brain). In both of these, as well as in The Success Zone (2009, Mowat, Corrigan, Long, Global Publishing Group, Melbourne: http://www.thesuccesszone.com) I have talked about "red zone" areas of brain control as opposed to "blue zone" areas of brain control. Being "human" - caring about people and trying to find appropriate solutions when disasters strike is a blue zone activity.

Wouldn't it be great if we all had much more "blue zone" control in our lives?

More information about Doug Long at http://www.dglong.com