Of Cheerleaders and Fear Leaders

History records the leadership, lessons and legacies driven by collaboration versus those driven by conflict. Leaders generally come in two types: (1) CHEER LEADER or (2) FEAR LEADER. CHEER LEADERS call out strong abilities, strategic alliances and sound agreements. FEAR LEADERS call out weak points, worn personalities and willful paranoia.

A CHEER LEADER operates in the affirmative and optimistic. A CHEER LEADER sows, speaks, shares and stimulates cooperation between diverse, adverse and converse parties.

A FEAR LEADER operates in the negative and pessimistic. A FEAR LEADER guides, gives and gloats in creating factions, fictions, failures and frictions.

How would you describe your leadership attitudes and approaches? Are you a CHEER LEADER or a FEAR LEADER? What kind of leadership do you want for your family, corporation, city, state and country?

The “E” in TEAM

This blog posting is the second in series about team building.  The “E” for enforcement in team building IS empowering individual and mutual education and experiences to enlarge vision and enjoy victory.  The first blog posting in this series pronounced that “building a team of two or ten thousands requires trusting talents and thoughts.”

By combining trust, talents and thoughts, groups associations, communities and corporations TEAM BUILD.  TEAM BUILD is maximized by skillfully, strategically and successfully synergizing the educational backgrounds and life experiences of team members. For example, lawyers analyze, approach and address “problems” differently than engineers,  elementary school teachers and accountants.  Each profession, each industry, each vocation and each individual  conceives, perceives, receives and achieves with a unique combination.

Teams that work well respect the differences in the educational backgrounds and social experiences of business partners, co-workers and strategic allies. In the mid-1990s,  as the Baltimore Area Director for Baltimore Dollars for Scholars, Citizens Scholarship Foundation of America, Inc., I led a workshop on “Collaboration, Communication and Coordination between Foundation Grant Makers and Non-Profit Organization Staffers” at a national convention. I incorporated a role-reversal exercise in which the grant makers in the room assumed the viewpoints and voices of charitable organization leaders seeking funding.

Active listening and abundant laughter led to a  mutual learning about the importance of  acknowledging, affirming and addressing the diversity of education, experience and expectation that individual team members bring to a proposal, plan or program.

Effective enforcement of the “E” in team building encourages group self esteem, facilitates clear communication and promotes team harmony that ultimately results in increased productivity,  progress, profits and yes, PEACE.