Another slice of Mr Kipling

When a person chooses me to work with them through an immediate or emerging challenge I start out by seeking to better understand the person's perceptions as to the nature, size and complexity of the issues confronting them.

The person may report that the challenge relates to the business within which they work or within  their family or within the neighbourhood in which they live and play.  

From my experience the root of a problem that someone is seeking to remedy is never quite as simple as first presented.  So I bring in ''six honest serving men'' to help me better understand from the person and other relevant individuals and parties a range of perceptions to help me build up a picture to enable me to get the most objective view I can as to reality of the situation as I see it.

My fact find,  investigation, research - call it what you will - uses the advice and guidance provided in the opening stanza of Rudyard Kipling's poem 'The Elephant's Child':-

I keep six honest serving-men

(They taught me all I knew)

Their names are What and Why and When

And How and Where and Who.

I send them over land and sea,

I send them east and west;

But after they have worked for me,

I give them all a rest.



In other words I  ask of each party a series of open questions starting as appropriate with 'what, why, when, how, where and who'.

On capturing the responses to the 'Six honest serving-men', interrogating my own intuition and seeking further clarification in order to close the gaps in my own understanding I consider that I am better able to support my colleague, family member or neighbour to identify for themselves what needs to be done, by when, and identify anyone else they consider essential (or desirable) from whom to secure assistance.

The next step is to formulate a plan of activities, assign accountability's and put in place monitoring and evaluation arrangements to check that the essentials are getting done when they should be and that the activities are having the required impact.

The 3i Leader's Code of Conduct

3i Leadership  - a profession, a job, a calling  - however we try to categorise the role and function of the 3i Leader - one fact is for certain.

3i Leadership - which is rooted deep in absolute integrity, provides the passion, vision and energy to inspire family members, co-workers, business partners and neighbours to make an impact way beyond the ordinary - is the hardest and most important  profession, function, role, job, vocation (call it what you will) known.

To maintain excellence in our own 3i Leadership we need to regularly benchmark ourselves against the 3i Core (competence, consistency and credibility) and reflect upon the impact of our own Emotional Intelligence (how we manage ourselves and how we manage our relationship with others).  Blog posts to assist a better understanding of the 3i Core and  Emotional Intelligence and the application to 3i Leadership can be accessed via the Blog Archive or Labels tabs in the column to the right of this blog post.

One way that professionals, communities of interest and practitioners of all types assess and challenge their own performance against a range of agreed set down standards is by having a code of conduct. 

A code of conduct provides the values and behaviours expected not only by each of the code's adherents of themselves and of each other, but also to communicate to the wider community and interested parties what can be expected of the code's adherents.

Striving to adhere to the values and behaviours described within a code of conduct will support the achievement of excellence in 3i Leadership especially when used in conjunction with the self assessment against both the 3i Core framework and the elements of Emotional Intelligence. It should provide clear and comprehensive guidance as to the required values and behaviours demanded of the 3i Leader, and contain essential advice which can be usefully applied to maintain performance in the midst of the most daunting of challenges.  Therefore the 3i Leaders code of conduct must be very intelligently crafted.

For over quarter of a century I have pinned to a wall both at home and in the workplace the 3i Leader's code of conduct to remind me what I expect of myself and also what others expect of me.
 
The code I choose to follow was written about 100 years ago, and due to the era in which the author lived  refers solely to the male gender in the text.  Obviously, for us in the modern era both sexes who choose to strive to be 3i Leaders can draw upon the wisdom contained within the code to support their individual efforts to become more effective in the application of their own 3i Leadership.

And the code which has adorned the walls of our home and my work places over the years? - Mr Rudyard Kipling's ''If'' - as given below:

3i Leader's Code of Conduct (from Rudyard Kipling's ''If'')

If you can keep you head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

But make allowance for their doubting too:

If you can wait and not be tired of waiting,

Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,

Or being hated, don't give way to hating,

And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;

If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;

If you can meet Triumph and Disaster

And treat these two impostors just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken

And stoop and build 'em up with worn out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose and start again at your beginnings

And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,

Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,

And - what is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

Emotional Intelligence

Emotional Intelligence (EI) accounts for the difference between outstanding leaders and their more average peers.

So, what is EI?

I suggest that EI is the ability to effectively manage ourselves and our ablity to effectively manage our relationships with others.

In taking a closer look at the self management aspects of EI, the 3i Leader must:

• be self-aware, reading their own emotions and recognising their impact upon others
• keep disruptive emotions and impulses under control
• have the drive to improve performance to meet inner standards of excellence
• display honesty, intergrity and trustwrothiness
• accurately assess their own strengths and weaknesses
• possess a healthy self-confidence and a sound sense of their own self-worth and capablities
• demonstrate flexibility, adapt to changing situations and overcome obstacles
• be ready to act and seize opportunities
• be optimistic and see the positives in events

Taking a closer look at the relationship management elements of EI, the 3i Leader must:

• possess empathy, be able to sense others' emotions, understand the perspectives of others and take an active interest in the concerns of others.
• possess an ability to recognise and meet the needs of others through a willingness to serve
• proactively invest in peoples development through guidance, mentoring, coaching and feedback
• possess the ability to read groups and organisations, understand the politics and the informal factors influential in key decison making
• be tactful but assertive in order to influence and persuade for the benefit of others and the wider good
• healthily cultivate and maintain a network of realtionships
• guide, motivate and inspire through communicating a compelling vision
• judge events and situations and know when it's time to lead in a new direction
• foster cooperation, collaboration and building the ''team''
• resolve disagreement and damaging conflict in a timely manner

In my own journey to be seen by others as a 3i Leader I regularly reflect upon my performance against the list  - or competencies - outlined in the bullets above.

3i Core

What measures, determinants, attributes - call them what you will - do people use to evaluate our performance as a 3i Leader. 

When I am looking to buy products or services I consciously (and I guess sub-consciously) go through a 'feel good' check list to help me judge whether I feel secure in proceeding to complete the transaction - or instead, decide to say ''thanks - but no thanks''.

In reality 3i Leaders are providing a service.  Our reputation as a leader with absolute integrity, our ability to inspire and have an impact is being observed and assessed both consciously and subconsciously by fellow co-workers, business partners, family members and our neighbours.  Other peoples' assessment of us against their 'feel good' check list is continuous.

Based upon my own research and through personal experience and observation I consider that the core set of 'feel good' evaluation measures people are most likely to use in assessing our performance as a 3i Leader are as follows:-

• Competence: possessing sufficient skill, knowledge and expertise for people to feel safe and secure and choose to seek out and rely upon our 3i Leadership;
• Consistency: being totally dependable, reliable and alert time after time, responding promptly and effectively to the demands placed upon us as 3i Leaders;
• Credibility: being totally trustworthy, honest, acting with the utmost confidentiality, capable of being believed.

Therefore the 3i Leader needs to routinely and regularly reassess their own individual performance against the 3i Core - Competence, Consistency and Credibility - and take remedial action as appropriate and necessary to maintain the highest standards of performance. 

The 3i Leader's reputation of absolute integrity, their ability to inspire, have an impact and leave a lasting legacy for the benefit of their families, communities, businesses and the wider world will be seriously and possibly irrevocably damaged by achieving anything other than excellence in the eyes of those benchmarking them against the 3i Core.

What makes a 3i Leader

3i Leaders are renowned for their integrity, courage and resilience; are those who provide leadership founded upon the timeless values of honesty, fairness, respect, kindness and service.

3i Leaders have a palpable power to inspire the next generation at home, members of their community, work and business colleagues to achieve and sustain major improvements in both individual and organisational performance.

3i Leaders are those who through their leadership have a demonstrable positive impact upon the well-being of their children and family, neighbours, co-workers and business partners.

3i Leaders achieve extraordinary outcomes in an increasingly chaotic and unpredictable world.