I was looking back on a book that I had read quite a few years back by 2 wonderful insightful authors, Scott Campbell and Ellen Samiec, called "5-D Leadership". They put together, what they call, a 5 dimensional leadership, basically saying that there is no one style of leadership that can prove effective over every situation or circumstance that you find yourself in. therefore it calls for a blending of different kinds of leadership, different dimensions that are necessary for the mental makeup for a successful leader.
They talk about the 5 dimensions, which in a nutshell are:
1. To be a commanding leader, or one that takes charge
2. To be a visionary leader, at some points where you need to point the way.
3. To be a relational leader where you need to create harmony and a wonderful environment to work in.
4. To be a coaching leader and spend time in developing people
5. To be an enrolling leader, and get people to buy into new things and get their commitment.
It always struck me, because we always think of a particular style and categorize people like that. It may be true that one of these may be the dominant style, but in reality, it takes all five to bring together all these facets to be successful. Situations and circumstances are always beyond our control. At that time, it could be that you need to either take charge or to be a visionary leader and point the way, or to enter into a place of strife and create harmony, to look at succession so that you can develop people, or as you bring in a change, to be able to get people to buy in to what you are doing. That's such a good thing for us to be reminded about, that there is no 'one-size-fits-all' kind of leadership model, that we need to navigate between these different styles to be able to achieve what it is that we need to achieve.
In this book, they also talk about the importance of how all of these styles actually go towards a particular goal. They are all there to take us to a point where we want to be – to say, "this is the goal and we are going to get there whether we are a commanding, visionary, relational, coaching or enrolling kind of leader." I followed that down, thinking it might be a rabbit trail, but it turned out to be quite an interesting pathway as I looked at successful goal pursuits. I found that it takes a little more than just saying, "That's where I want to go." When we look at successful goal pursuits, we find that it is almost 2-dimensional, that it has two subsequent tasks.
· To strongly commit to the goal.
· To effectively implement them.
To strongly commit to the goal is a necessary but not sufficient step towards goal attainment. This is what authors Gollwitzer and Oettingen write in an article on "Implementation Intentions". They say, "There must always be 2 subsequent tasks after the goal-setting. First, the commitment to a goal, and secondly, the implementing of it."
Not, to be strongly committed to a goal, might get hampered by various problems if we are not careful to set out implementation procedures. They go on to say; "Meta-analytic findings suggest that goals account for no more than 28% of variance in goal-directed behavior. One remedy to impaired goal pursuit is, after one has strongly committed to a goal, to plan out in advance how one wants to deal with potential." Basically, what they say is that this is what the implementation intentions are all about. Furnishing goal intentions with implementation intentions is what you need. Because if you only have goal intentions, you are saying, "I intend to reach Z. that's my goal." with Z relating to a desired future behavior or outcome. Whereas implementation intentions have this structure. If situation X is encountered, then I will perform the goal-related response, which is Y." thus, implementation intentions define when, where and how one wants to act on one's goal intentions.
I like that because it's looking ahead to the future. It's saying, "I want to get there," and then creating the scenario to allow one to get there. "When this happens, I will do this, where this can be done, this is how I will respond. When the right situation is in play, this is how I will respond." So you're already planning ahead to make sure that the goal is implemented. That's something good for us to think about, to be able to look at our actions and say, "Even if I have a goal, have I really thought it through how I am going to get there?"
The writers go on to say that it's basically what we call an 'if-then' situation: 'if' being the condition and if this condition arises, 'then' I will have this kind of behavior pattern or action plan in place. So we look ahead and say, "If these situations come, already I have a plan in place to move through." So it moves form that point where you are thinking what to do to an automated response that says, "Here's the scenario; if this happens, this is how we will do it." that's a good thing – to plan ahead, to have multiple scenarios, maybe hypothetical, but then you are already prepared that in situations like this, you have multiple solutions to various situations that can arise, that will still allow you to get to your goal.
As every good thing, 'if-then' situations also have a down side. The downside is that it can sometimes become a cop-out. Mark Hunter talks about 'Sales Leadership Meetings' and he says, "One of the worst things that you can hear from a sales person is this: If we could come out with a cheaper model, then I know I could sell more. That's a cop-out. But again they are using the same model – if-then. A cause and an effect, but the cause and the effect here is not positive. It's negative. It's more a cop-out for bad salesmanship than anything else.
Also, on the negative side, are certain fallacies that we may have – just mindsets that say 'us' maybe, or our behavior pattern or the way we think about ourselves. For example, if I get one B on my report card, then I can't be happy. And we buy into that. Or if I'm not totally good, then I'm totally bad. Or if this doesn't go well, then this will never go well in the future as well. Over-generalize, jump to conclusions that are not really true, catastrophizing. If a thief robbed my neighbor's house, then they are sure to rob me.
So we need to be very careful even as we look at planning ahead for these kinds of situations, that they are not placed in a negative mold. In our Holy Scriptures, it says, "As a man or woman thinketh in their heart, so he is." So, if you bring in a negative component to the if-then scenario, then it is more than likely that that would take place, because that's what you are expecting.
But today, let's move back to the positive, look at the goals that we have set, company goals, personal goals, goals for family, goals for community and say, "Have we looked ahead and made plans for the where, when, how? If these situations arise, then this is the way I am going to operate?" I think, always being prepared is a good way to go.
That's my thought for today as we look at the remainder of this week, to look at all that we doing and instead of just getting to Z being your goal, think whether you have X and Y in place to get there. Maybe some changes may take place through the day.
May I pray with you? Almighty God. Thank you for goals that you place in our lives, but the action remains with us. Sometimes we fail because of various reasons. Help us with your wisdom to put in place the Xs and Ys that need to be in place so that when the situation presents itself, we can quickly grasp the opportunity and move ahead. Give us that action plan, Lord God Almighty, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
• Scott Campbell & Ellen Samiec, "5-D Leadership." http://www.amazon.com/5-D-Leadership-Dimensions-Leading-World/dp/0891064028
• Peter M. Gollwitzer & Gabriele Oettingen, "Implementation Intentions." http://www.psych.nyu.edu/oettingen/Gollwitzer,%20P.%20M.,%20&%20Oettingen,%20G.%20(2013).%20In%20%20M.%20Gellman%20&%20J.%20R.%20Turner%20(Eds.).pdf
• Mark Hunter, "The Sales Leadership Friday," http://thesaleshunter.com/sales-leadership-friday-two-deadly-words-in-sales-if-and-then/
• Brad Kellum, "If-Then Thinking...The Mother of all Leadership Skills." https://bradkellum.wordpress.com/2014/07/18/if-then-thinking-the-mother-of-all-leadership-skills/
• Scripture reference: The Bible, Proverbs 23:7.
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