Menu

leadership

Man in the Arena_3x5 Leadership

Five Challenges from the Greatest Leadership Quote in a Century

, , , , , , , 0

On April 23, 1910 – 112 years ago almost to the day as of this writing – former president Theodore Roosevelt gave what is considered the best speech of his career and provided what is seen as one of the greatest quotes of the century.

His speech, titled “Citizenship in a Republic,” which he delivered in Paris to an audience of thousands, to include minsters, military officers, and students, has since become commonly known as the “Man in the Arena”. Within the speech, Roosevelt touched on many things: his personal family history, human and property rights, war, the responsibilities of citizenship, and France’s falling birthrate. Most notably, though, Roosevelt objected against cynics who looked down at those who were trying to make the world a better place – an issue that is unfortunately still all too common today.

Roosevelt said:More

Org Justice_3x5 Leadership

Do People View Your Organization as Just?

, , , , , , , , , , , 0

In my previous job as a member of the West Point faculty, I had the responsibility of selecting a few cadets (of the 130 in the organization) for specific leadership positions each semester. This gave those selected cadets a focused opportunity to practice their leadership in a safe and supportive environment, while striving to improve the company they led. Of course, I could not pick every cadet for important roles over the semesters available.

But after a few semesters of managing these decisions, one of my soon-to-graduate cadets offered candid feedback during a one-on-one meeting with me. He said that many in the organization viewed me as a “puppet master,” selecting the cadets I personally preferred for these leadership positions, leaving the rest without opportunity to be considered.

Whoa. Definitely NOT my intent.More

Peer leadership_3x5 Leadership

Peer Leadership: The Most Challenging Relationship Many of Us Are Not Talking About

, , , , , , , , , 0

Leading a group of peers is arguably the hardest situation a manager can find themselves in. For whatever reason—be it slightly more experience, a higher level of maturity, or perhaps the trust of supervisors—we can sometimes find ourselves placed in charge of a group of colleagues who hold roughly the same rank and position as our own. Without a base of power to fall back on, these situations call for a unique style of leadership that we don’t often talk about. To understand how to be successful in this type of situation, we should first unpack the basics of leadership research and then dive into how effective (and ineffective) peer leadership techniques can help us be successful.More

The Power of Leaders Creating Moments_3x5 Leadership

The Power of Leaders Creating Moments

, , , , , , , 0

A recent phone conversation with a mentee led me to discover the incredible impact of leaders creating moments for others. Our relationship began four years ago when he served as a new freshman in the West Point cadet company I oversaw. Now a senior, in our conversation a few weeks ago, he shared a story from his freshman year where he was struggling to collect all the items he needed for a unit inspection that was occurring, which he was already late for. He recalled being flustered and after frantically searching his entire room for the necessary items and not finding them, he hopefully looked for any support in the barracks hallway. I happen to be in the hallway at that moment, heading to observe the inspection myself, when I encountered the cadet. He was embarrassed but looked to me for what to do.More

LBWA 2.0_3x5 Leadership

Leadership by Wandering Around 2.0 – Connecting & Communicating Through Presence

, , , , , , , , , , , 0

3×5 Leadership Note: Leadership by Wandering Around was the first article we wrote and published when we created 3×5 Leadership. To date, it remains the most popular article. That tells us the idea resonates with many. So, to celebrate 3×5 Leadership turning 5-years-old this month, we want to revisit this essential idea and expand on the idea with what we have learned over these years. Enjoy!

The idea of presence remains a critical component to effective leadership. It is an essential ingredient to building trust, deepening connections, and creating shared understanding with those we work with and lead. And while physically being present is the foundation of this idea, it requires so much more like our attitudes, words, and behaviors during those times. Regardless of industry and organizational context, leader presence is necessary; it is something we can enact across physical and digital domains.More

Big Rocks Theory 2.0_3x5 Leadership

‘Big Rocks Leadership’ 2.0: Living & Leading with Intentionality

, , , , , , , , , , 0

3×5 Leadership Note: Big Rocks Leadership was one of the first articles we wrote and published when we created 3×5 Leadership. To date, it consistently remains one of the two most popular articles. That tells us the idea resonates with many. So, to celebrate 3×5 Leadership turning 5-years-old this month, we want to revisit this essential idea and expand on the idea with what we have learned over these years. Enjoy!

The theory of the ‘big rocks’ goes like this:More

Creating Leadership Sace_3x5 Leadership

Creating Leadership Space for Others to Fill…and 8 Book Recommendations to Help

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , 0

In my decade-long journey of growth as a leader so far, I’ve come to firmly believe that one of the greatest impacts I can have as a leader (and a developer of other leaders) is to create leadership space for others to fill. Creating this space, enabling others to fill it, and supporting their growth throughout the experience truly is one of the best things we can do to nurture others’ leader development. This directly supports the 70-20-10 Model for Learning and Development (70% of learning occurs from challenging experiences and assignments), cultivates ownership and responsibility within those leaders, gives them experience to expand their perspectives, and creates rich opportunity for follow-on reflection and learning (even from failure).More

Psychological Solutions vs Organizational Problems_3x5 Leadership

Are We Simply Applying Psychological Solutions to Organizational Problems?

, , , , , , , , , , 0

In a recent WorkLife podcast episode I listened to, the host, Adam Grant, made a statement that resonated deeply. He said, “Let’s ban psychological solutions to organizational problems.” That sentence felt like a 100-pound brick being dropped in my lap! He went on to list common examples that may be all too familiar to many of us – organizations applying employee-based fixes like mindfulness activities, emotional intelligence training, or strategies to avoid personal burnout, when really the organization has deeper rooted issues like the need to remove an abusive boss or diagnose ineffective and inefficient systems. And while I have written on emotional intelligence and avoiding personal burnout on this platform, I think Grant’s idea is valid and warrants exploring.More

Intentional Leadership Frameworks 2_3x5 Leadership

To Be a More Intentional Leader, You Need to Craft These 3 Frameworks

, , , , , , , , , 0

How are you learning as a leader?

How are you leading?

And how are you developing others?

Can you sufficiently answer these questions about your leadership impact right now? As intentional and effective leaders, we should be able to.

Two primary goals for 3×5 Leadership are to (1) help make other leaders more intentional and (2) deliberately developmental in how they lead. Defining how we learn, lead, and develop others are all critical aspects to achieve those. To maximize our effectiveness and efficiency in these efforts, we need to model how we achieve each of those through an operating framework.

An operating framework is a representation that serves as a guide to areas of emphasis and behaviors around a particular topic. It models components and relationships as a system to explain how it works.

Leaders need to have operating frameworks for how we learn, how we lead, and how we develop others.More

Empathy Up_3x5 Leadership

The Often-Ignored Facet of Empathy – Having Empathy Up

, , , , , 5

Empathy plays a critical role in leadership. It impacts how we interact with and relate to those we lead.

Personally, empathy was a leadership quality near the top of my “needs development” list just a few years ago. Following feedback that I needed to grow this capacity, I invested time and effort to learn more about the science of empathy, ways to integrate it into my leadership style, and practice it to build the muscle. Now, I’m confident that empathy has become a strength of mine, no longer a developmental need.

But experiences this past year have taught me a new dynamic to empathy and leadership that I was blind to before – the need to have empathy up our chain of command or organizational chart. More

Load More