Good leaders are visionaries. Great leaders convince others to share their vision by expressing it in memorable and inspirational ways.

While a sophomore at Harvard in the late 1960s, Kent Keith wrote a guide for high school student leaders. The booklet included a challenge for student leaders to always do the right thing, even if doing so goes unnoticed or unappreciated. Spelled out in what he called "The Paradoxical Commandments of Leadership," the ten principles reflected Keith's awareness that doing what's right provides greater personal meaning than being glorified for our actions.

Publisher Harvard Student Agencies sold nearly 30,000 copies of the pamphlet over the next several years. Keith went on to earn a B.A. at Harvard, became a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, and attended Waseda University in Tokyo. He worked as an attorney, a university president, and a member of the governor of Hawaii's cabinet. Keith went nearly 25 years without hearing about the Paradoxical Commandments.

In 1997, while attending a meeting of his Rotary Club, Keith was surprised to hear the invocator recite the Paradoxical Commandments in the form of a poem attributed to Mother Teresa. Intrigued, Keith located the source of the poem in a book about the beloved humanitarian and learned the commandments had hung on a wall of Mother Teresa's children's home in Calcutta. In the ensuing months, he encountered people from all walks of life following the commandments he penned almost thirty years earlier. His book, Anyway: The Paradoxical Commandments: Finding Personal Meaning in a Crazy World, is for people wanting to learn more about the commandments and the philosophy behind them.

My favorite of Keith's Paradoxical Commandments is the following: "The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds. Think big anyway."

Values-based leaders Have a Vision and Convince Others To Share It. But when you share your vision, you're likely to encounter opposition from those resistant to change. Writes Keith, "big men and women with big ideas are threatening to small men and women with small minds." Succumbing to discouragement, most business leaders refrain from cultivating visions. However, successful leaders follow Keith's advice: "If your big idea is shot down, simply pick it up, dust it off, and get moving again."

Employees want to feel important and useful, that they're contributing to the success of their organization. Therefore, workers are attracted to visions with grand aspirations. Adds Keith, "People want to make a difference; people need a reason to hope, a goal to work toward. Small ideas don't bring out our best. Big ideas do."

So think big! Have a BIG Vision and Convince Others To Share It. Bookmark this post on del.icio.us

On November 9, I presented the highlights of The Leading from the Heart Workshop at the Michigan YMCA Key Leaders Conference. Over 300 of the YMCA's best were at the summit and their dedication was unmistakable. Rarely do you find that many people so passionate about their cause, their organization, and each other.

I've had the good fortune to interact with YMCA staff workers for a number of years, first in my role as a banker, and lately as a leadership speaker. I've grown accustomed to hearing them describe themselves as "Y People." As a mission-driven organization devoted to building strong kids, strong families, and strong communities, the Y attracts a deeply caring group of individuals. That its employees recognize their unique altruistic qualities as part of a shared corporate personality explains the Y's sustained growth.

Also adding to the Y's success is an unrelenting willingness to question the status quo. Once an organization of Christian men, the Y now includes members and employees of any sex, religion, race, or nationality. The penchant for challenging tradition was exhibited in the successful merger of The YMCA of Greater Toledo and the city's Jewish Community Center.

Leadership often requires questioning convention. Ricardo Semler, CEO of Brazil-based Semco, described his company's philosophy in his book, The Seven Day Weekend. "If we have a cardinal strategy that forms the bedrock for all our practices, it may be this: Ask why. Ask it all the time, ask it any day, every day, and always ask it three times in a row."

Semler admits that asking questions is unnatural. We're taught early in life that asking too many questions is impolite. And asking questions might betray our ignorance. But by challenging useless and out-of-date rules, leaders are adhering to the values of their organizations, living up to their responsibilities, and upholding the trust placed in them.

And, as Semler reminds us, organizations must avoid what he calls "calcified" thinking, "that state of mind where ideas have become so hardened that they're no longer of any use." It's a strategy that works for his company. In ten years, Semco's annual revenues grew from $35 million to $212 million. "Employees must be free to question, to analyze, to investigate; and a company must be flexible enough to listen to the answers."

It takes a special type of person to enter the ranks of "Y People." Likewise, it takes an extraordinary leader to become a "Why Person" and to encourage your employees to be "Why People." Join the "Why" in your area today! Bookmark this post on del.icio.us

In his book The Peter Principle, sociologist Laurence Johnston Peter introduced his now-familiar theory of hierarchical incompetence. Dr. Peter observed that people within an organization tend to advance beyond their level of competence. Here's how it works: Once workers prove competent in their jobs, they're inevitably promoted. When competence at the next level is displayed, they're promoted again. The process is repeated until each employee reaches a position for which he or she is unqualified.

Furthermore, as The Peter Principle reveals, after people are promoted to their level of incompetence, they remain in place. Since top officials are seldom fired or demoted, explained Dr. Peter, incompetent people occupy the highest ranks of organizations.

A primary cause of The Peter Principal is the up-or-out promotion philosophy of many organizations. Because of the prevailing mentality that everyone aspires to be the boss, workers are required to assume leadership responsibilities before advancing in salary or station. The traditional career path compels employees to trade in their technical competencies for the status and financial rewards reserved for middle managers.

Although it's common for people to want recognition for their efforts, influence over how their work is accomplished, opportunities to display their creativity, and autonomy, the truth is many workers lack the desire to lead others. Interviewed for Meredith Ashby's book Leaders Talk Leadership, Frederick W. Smith, CEO of FedEx, warns, "Many organizations get in trouble in this regard, because the only avenue they have for financially rewarding top performers is to move them into management positions."

Smith suggests, "You have to have rewarding, alternate career paths for outstanding specialists--engineers, for example, or R&D people--who can continue to make major contributions to the organization without going into management." And talent-driven companies are doing just that. New titles like Specialist, Master, and Fellow describe experts with deep knowledge and experience in their crafts, and whose qualifications include demonstrated experience and expertise, as well as credentials from applicable professional organizations. Values-based organizations are creating opportunities for experienced practitioners, those for whom leadership holds little appeal, to grow within the jobs they love and do best.

This trend introduces enormous benefits. Companies recognize savings in training and increased workforce stability. Specialists get seats at the decision making table alongside those following a management track. Because specialists are uninterested in acquiring power, competition with their ambitious colleagues is nonexistent; therefore, teamwork improves. Viable career path alternatives make the organization more attractive to qualified job seekers.

Best of all, this approach foils The Peter Principle and allows leaders to Recognize the Best in Others. Bookmark this post on del.icio.us