Stepping Up

Stepping Up - a leadership attribute?

A few months back I heard John Izzo speak about his new book ‘Stepping Up’ .

The words stepping up got my attention as I stewed in my own funk wondering why, despite living in a society full of information, knowledge and good intention, we the people were witnessing an increase in socio-economic challenges. Child poverty, youth-at-risk, access to affordable housing, return on educational investment, and a stressed and stretched work/life balance, are a few of the frequently mentioned concerns.

Is stepping up a missing ingredient in the formula for socio-economic well-being? The author says, 'stepping up changes everything.  Being responsible helps teams, leaders and professionals act like owners and less like victims. The overarching theme of the book is 'change begins in this room, it begins with me and it begins now'.

So what does it mean to step up?  Izzo's key themes are: -

·    accept personal responsibility

·    focus on what can be changed

·    realize we (you/I) have tremendous power to influence those around us

·    responsibility will ripple

·    you can't not lead - we (you/I) have influence over others whether we choose to acknowledge it or not.

Are leaders (we/you/I) stepping up? Are leaders acting on the principles and practice of leadership?

For the past two years Tim and I have been posting information on leadership. We've shared with readers, evidence that Canadians favour participatory or shared leadership and our accepting of transformational leadership. We have focused on global leadership attributes and Tim recently published his book Leadership Peruvian Style.  

The leadership characteristics we talk about appear contributory and hopeful, yet almost 70% of Americans believe we are suffering from a crisis of leadership.  Cohn & Moran (2011) suggest rather than asking, why are leaders failing, we need to ask, "Why aren't we choosing better leaders?"

Why aren't we choosing better leaders?  The stories from the Costa Concordia did it for me writes Stephen K. Henn, President, SmartPros Legal & Ethics Division - "The Costa Concordia is the Italian luxury cruise ship that shipwrecked off of the island of Giglio. Captain Francesco Schettino, who stands accused of manslaughter, reportedly abandoned ship. As we look around the world today, the good captain's actions are seemingly becoming more commonplace (2011)".  

There is plenty of evidence that the captains and leaders across sectors, and around the world are not what they profess to be or what they are expected and compensated to be. A five year analysis of honesty and ethical standards in professions supports Henn's statement and local, national and global observations.

Henn follows up his statement by saying 'We are facing a leadership crisis in this country and throughout the world. The foundation of this crisis, apparent to even the most casual observer, is that the leaders of today seem small compared to the problems that we face. To date, we have not successfully brought forth a generation of leaders ready and willing to tackle these severe challenges. Something is lacking in the moral fabric of our current leadership, and, as a consequence, our country and the world are suffering'.

In 2009 and 2010, Tim and I conducted a literature review of leadership in Canada. Our objective was to identify what leaders and pundits of leadership in Canada had to say on the subject before delving into a critical analysis. Our research spanned multiple sectors and revealed four factors negatively impacting leaders and leadership in Canada:

1. Absence of a commonly accepted definition of leadership,

2. Change and complexity of leadership in the 21st century,

3. Limited understanding of the traits and attitude of leadership,

4. Deficit and development of leadership.

Stayed tuned - there is more to be said on this topic.

We welcome your comments and stories.

Reference:

Stephen K. Henn, President, SmartPros Legal & Ethics Division. Leadership in Crisis, Part 1
http://accounting.smartpros.com/x73373.xml