At the bookstore, waiting for a friend, I picked up Mark Sanborn’s book, You Don’t Need a Title to be a Leader. “No, you don’t,” I said to myself smiling, as I thought about my Quotidian Leadership workshop. I liked the ideas in Sanborn’s book, and was familiar with his style, having read his “Fred book” before. In any case, I tried to think of how the six leadership principles that Sanborn discusses fit into the LSmarts 5-intelligences framework. (They say when you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail, but hey, on the flip side, isn’t is also true that when you want to put in a nail, everything looks like a hammer.)

Sanborn’s list includes 6 principles:

(i) Know yourself: good leaders understand their strengths and weaknesses first

(ii) Focus: excellent leadership has a laser-like focus on its goals

(iii) People: leadership must motivate people

(iv) Communication: good leaders use channels of communication that they keep open

(v) Execution: how leaders make the rubber meet the road, and

(vi) Giving: excellent leaders put others above self

Let’s see the 5 leadership intelligences from the LSmarts framework: Analytical, Inventive, Operational, Communicative, and Ethical LSmarts.

Clearly “Know Yourself” comes under the Analytical LSmarts, but so does “Focus” because Analytical LSmarts reflect an ability to monitor performance. “People” and “Communication” very obviously are powered by Communicative LSmarts, “Execution” relies on Operational LSmarts, and “Giving” is governed by Ethical LSmarts. What about Inventive LSmarts–the source of visionary leadership? Missing in Sanborn’s framework? Hmm… interesting.

So , Starbucks will close for 3 hours today for Barista training. With fast food chains poised to steam into the espresso world, Starbucks had better do something to pick itself up. I’ve always admired the genius of the understated Howard Schultz. This is one step in the long process of recovery. But Starbucks should recognize that what will differentiate it from the competition is that it is in the service industry. As Schultz has obviously recognized, stores such as the one in LaGuardia airport offer anything but a “third place.” As far as I am concerned, that is the last place I want to be.

As I have argued in my many years of studying the service industry, customer service folks (in Starbucks’ case, the baristas) are the ones who need to be tremendously innovative and display everyday leadership: customer requests are as varied as they come and operational crises happen all the time. Some want room for milk, some what whipped cream. Some want it hot, some want it “ready to gulp.” The milk spoiled in the fridge, a kid spilled hot chocolate on another customer.

Baristas have to demonstrate everyday leadership. What does that mean? It means that the baristas must be able to handle unexpected circumstances with aplomb. They must make winning situations of what could be store-shutting crises. How can they do it? They must be trained to identify, develop, and apply the five leadership intelligences of the LSmarts framework–the analytical, operational, inventive, communicative, and ethical leadership intelligences.

What is the barista training doing today? Schultz says:

He wants baristas to share their passion for making espresso, or as he says, “to pull the perfect shot, steam milk to order and customize their favorite beverage.”

In other words, he wants them to be trained in”operational intelligence” (the key word is “customize”–customization cannot happen without intelligence).

But I hope Schultz is paying heed to training Starbucks employees in all the five leadership intelligences–such training will definitely perk Starbucks up.

Presidential Elections and “Change”

The 2008 Presidential election is all about change. As the candidates profess change and each claims to be “a change-agent”, we are left with the question of how to assess which candidate will be most able to achieve change. We’d like to invite you to rate the candidates (see link at bottom) but before that, let me give you a short introduction to a new framework.

At Vivékin Group, through a decade of research at the Wharton School, Purdue University, and the University of Minnesota, we have developed the LSmarts framework. This framework, which draws on theories of multiple intelligences, allows us to rank the Presidential candidates on their ability to handle and bring change on the basis of 5 leadership intelligences.

The Five Intelligences of Leadership
A true leader demonstrates the ability to chart a path in unmapped territory, and to lead a group, a community, a nation, or all of humankind itself, along this path toward progress. This ability of a leader becomes all the more critical when times are uncertain–the true leader demonstrates a flexibility to plan and take action in the face of unforeseen circumstances.

Leadership ability is thus reflected by that which marks us as quintessentially human: Intelligence—the ability to combine knowledge, experience, perception, and imagination to solve a problem. But, by intelligence we do not mean its popular conceptualization as IQ.

Building on recent advances in psychology research, we view leadership intelligence as more comprehensive and multi-faceted. A true leader for the future needs to possess five different kinds of leadership smarts (LSmarts): Analytical, Operational, Inventive, Communicative, & Ethical LSmarts.

1. Analytical LSmarts

A leader with Analytical LSmarts quickly defines or identifies problems and appropriate solutions. The leader is able to systematically acquire new knowledge and demonstrates an ability to learn both from successes and failures. Analytical LSmarts also allows the leader to monitor performance and take corrective action when necessary. For instance, one illustration of Analytical LSmarts will be when a candidate finds a smart–and yet, legal–way of getting around campaign finance laws.

2. Operational LSmarts

A leader with Operational LSmarts transforms ideas into action even when circumstances are not congenial. Such a leader is an agent of change, and is efficiency oriented.
Operational LSmarts can be seen when a candidate (or a campaign) is able to find ways of getting around factors such as bad weather or technology glitches that adversely affect operations, or during a hostage crisis.

An excellent example of a leader demonstrating Operational LSmarts is that of Jack Kennedy during the Cuban missile crisis.

3. Inventive LSmarts

A leader with Inventive LSmarts demonstrates imagination. Such a leader carries and conveys a vision, and inspires the public with new ways of solving both old and new problems.

4. Communicative LSmarts

A leader with Communicative LSmarts demonstrates a capacity to persuade audiences. Such an ability is clearly evident in the Presidential debates where an example is that of Ronald Reagan who in the 1984 Presidential debate with Democrat Walter Mondale intelligently remarked that he would not make his opponent’s “youth and inexperience” an issue in the campaign.

5. Ethical LSmarts

A leader displays Ethical LSmarts when faced with an ethical dilemma. Ethical LSmarts are not about the ethical beliefs of a leader or how ethical you perceive the leader to be. It is also not about doing “good work” (as in “the ethical mind” that Howard Gardner of Harvard has proposed.) Rather, this aspect of intelligence reflects how capable the leader is of recognizing and understanding the ethical implications of a new situation. Ethical LSmarts bestow upon the leader a capacity to understand the ethical standpoints of people who do not share his or her ethics. Good examples of leaders who demonstrated ethical LSmarts are Abraham Lincoln (especially, his Gettysburg address) and Mahatma Gandhi.

An Invitation to You

We invite you to participate in the first-ever public application of this framework to assess leadership. We have an survey that you can access online and provide your assessment on both the Republicans and Democrats who wish to become the next President of the USA.

If you wish to participate in this unique experiment, please access the survey here.
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