Orrin Woodward on LIFE & Leadership

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    Former Guinness World Record Holder for largest book signing ever, Orrin Woodward is a NY Times bestselling author of And Justice For All along with RESOLVED & coauthor of LeaderShift and Launching a Leadership Revolution. His books have sold over one million copies in the financial, leadership and liberty fields. RESOLVED: 13 Resolutions For LIFE made the Top 100 All-Time Best Leadership Books and the 13 Resolutions are the framework for the top selling Mental Fitness Challenge personal development program.

    Orrin made the Top 20 Inc. Magazine Leadership list & has co-founded two multi-million dollar leadership companies. Currently, he serves as the Chairman of the Board of the LIFE. He has a B.S. degree from GMI-EMI (now Kettering University) in manufacturing systems engineering. He holds four U.S. patents, and won an exclusive National Technical Benchmarking Award.

    This blog is an Alltop selection and ranked in HR's Top 100 Blogs for Management & Leadership.

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Archive for May, 2011

Sturgeon’s Law and Tri-Lateral Leadership Ledgers

Posted by Orrin Woodward on May 31, 2011

Here is a snippet from the leadership resolution chapter of my upcoming book. Enjoy. God Bless, Orrin Woodward

What’s the Tri-Lateral Leadership Ledger?
Chris Brady and I, in our New York Times best seller, Launching a Leadership Revolution (LLR), taught, in chapter four, the Tri-Lateral Leadership Ledger (TLL), a measurement of one’s leadership abilities.  Every leader must grow in his character, task and relationships, in order to lead at the highest levels.  Each of the three areas interact with one another, allowing leadership to grow when one grows personally.  The TLL measured Character, Task, and Relationships, on a scale from zero to ten, multiplying each of these scores together (review LLR for more detail) to obtain the total score.  For example, if someone rated themselves a two on Character, a one on Task, and a two on Relationships, then the total score would be 2*1*2 = 4.  The lowest score, one which many, including the author, score when they start their leadership journey is zero.  The highest score, one which no reader will ever obtain is one thousand – 10*10*10 = 1,000.  Perfection, although strived for daily, will never be achieved, since no one reading this is perfect, but the TLL has helped tens of thousands of people to evaluate their current leadership score, helping them identify areas in need of further improvement.

Who is Theodore Sturgeon?
Theodore Sturgeon, a science fiction writer, in 1958, in an attempt to refute the many critics of science fiction, wrote,  “I repeat Sturgeon’s Revelation, which was wrung out of me after twenty years of wearying defense of science fiction against attacks of people who used the worst examples of the field for ammunition, and whose conclusion was that ninety percent of SF is crud. Using the same standards that categorize 90% of science fiction as trash, crud, or crap, it can be argued that 90% of film, literature, consumer goods, etc. are crap. In other words, the claim (or fact) that 90% of science fiction is crap is ultimately uninformative, because science fiction conforms to the same trends of quality as all other art forms.”  Sturgeon’s Law validated a truth proven again and again in our mass participation internet age. For example, if a person were to review all YouTube videos, he would find the majority (90%) were crud, but the remaining 10% were informative or entertaining. The content providers for Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia, display the same trends, with less than 10% of the content authors providing around 90% of the useful content. Another example is American Idol, where numerous contestants audition for the opportunity to showcase their talents on TV.  Can anyone imagine having to listen to every person who auditions for the show?  Tens of thousands audition, but only the best ever are viewed by TV audiences.  Is anyone shocked that 90% of contestants are eliminated quickly, since American Idol follows Sturgeon’s Law, as all human endeavors do?  The remaining contestants, the 10% with real talent, are evaluated further, eventually filtering down to the select few who appear on TV.  One shouldn’t criticize American Idol because 90% of the auditions are poor or outright bad, as it couldn’t be otherwise by the simple truth of humanity shared in Sturgeon’s Law.

Let’s Combine TLL with Sturgeon’s Law
By studying and analyzing Sturgeon’s Law further, one realizes that it represents beautifully the art of leadership, the idea that anyone can lead, but few will, simply because leadership is tough, requiring a focused disciplined approach.  This doesn’t mean people are crud, but only that their leadership development still needs work to be effective. The TLL reveals that leaders must be effective in three key leadership attributes – Character, Task and Relationships. In other words, leaders must advance into the elite 10% of Sturgeon’s Law in each key area.  Sturgeon’s Law, when applied to the TLL, reveals that only 10% of the people will excel in character, task, or relationships, but a leader must excel at all three; therefore, Sturgeon’s Law reveals that only 10%x10%x10% will excel in all three areas, explaining why true leadership occurs one in a thousand, in a typical community.  In other words, only 1 out of 1000 people will ever discipline his character, task, and relationships, breaking through Sturgeon’s Law, entering into the select group of leaders who influence others in a positive direction.  This number, 1 out of a 1,000, is the estimate used by leadership gurus around the world, even those who have never heard of Sturgeon’s Law of the TriLateral Leadership Ledger.  Gladwell reports that a performer can build and maintain a community of around 100-150 people, but a leader, someone who is mastering leadership, who leads performers (see LLR book) of these 100-150 people groups will develop about once in a thousand people.    In any community,  a thousand people won’t just gather by themselves, rather, it requires a leader at the highest levels of TLL achievement to attract, serve, and lead them. Performers then, can build an organization of around 100-150 people, but if one is building in a community of thousand of people, then leaders are required, people who break through Sturgeon’s Law on all three attributes of the TLL.

What is Your Score?
Study each of three attributes of leadership in the TLL. The common tendency is for a person to overrate himself when tabulating his TLL score.  But, with the increase in tribes and communities, a simple reality check for the TLL score is to compare one’s results with one’s following.  For example, if a person has around 100 people attending in his tribe, then his TLL score is around 50 points, but by developing three performers who can lead 100 people each, his TLL grows to 150 points. Top leaders, with over 1000 people attending community get togethers, score over 300 points on their TLL evaluations. By knowing the total score, a person can backtrack and calculate individual score in Character, Task, and Relationships, multiplying them together to ensure he is not suffering from self-delusion.  Every leader has room to grow because no one reading this will hit anywhere close to 1000 points, with few, very few, ever hitting above 500 points.  This leads to Woodward’s Law, a natural leadership corollary to Sturgeon’s Law, stating, “90% of leaders are convinced they are part of Sturgeon’s 10%”  In other words, even though only 10% of the people will ever truly lead at the upper echelons in any category, the single biggest reason that most leaders do not continue the growth journey, is that most believe they have already arrived.  Good truly is the enemy of great.  This may sound strong, but self-deception has ended more leadership careers than any other factor.  When a person lies to himself, why is anyone shocked that he starts lying to others?  Sadly, most people would rather live with comfortable lies than deal with uncomfortable truths. Similar to the proverbial ostrich, who sticks his head in the sand, hoping to avoid the hungry lion by refusing to acknowledge him, but not surprisingly, this doesn’t alter the lion’s dinner plans. It’s only when a leader grows personally over a lifetime, that he attracts other leaders into his community or tribe, leaders who lead organizations of thousands themselves, changing the lifetime leader into a servant of other top leaders.  A leaders of this magnitude refuses to work for time punchers, dictators, or micro-managers, but loves responsibility and feeding on visionary leadership.  Imagine developing into a servant leader, thus attracting leaders into one’s community, forming a tribe of volunteers who can lead change in any field they set their minds to. Leadership then, isn’t a nice add on feature, but an essential part of every world-changer, as John Maxwell said, “Everything rises and falls on leadership.”

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Aristotle’s Three Types of Friendship

Posted by Orrin Woodward on May 18, 2011

Here is another snippet from the Friendship chapter of a book that I am currently working on. Enjoy. God Bless, Orrin Woodward

True friends begin as companions, but soon go further, developing a love and respect for one another. Author Fred Smith shares a poignant description of love, “Love is willing the ultimate good for the other person.”  Only deep friendship will build loving bonds of this magnitude. C.S. Lewis shares the process of discovery from companions into friends, “Friendship arises out of mere Companionship when two or more of the companions discover that they have in common some insight or interest or even taste which the others do not share and which, till that moment, each believed to be his own unique treasure (or burden). The typical expression of opening Friendship would be something like, ‘What? You too? I thought I was the only one’. . . In this kind of love, as Emerson said, Do you love me? means Do you see the same truth? – Or at least, ‘Do you care about the same truth?’ The man who agrees with us that some question, little regarded by others, is of great importance, can be our Friend. he need not agree with us about the answer.”  There is an indescribable joy in the discovery of, and being discovered by, another human being, providing a brief respite from the loneliness of life. Emerson pinpointed the thought, writing, “The glory of friendship is not the outstretched hand, not the kindly smile, nor the joy of companionship; it is the spiritual inspiration that comes to one when you discover that someone believes in you and is willing to trust you with a friendship.”  Aristotle distinguishes between genuine friendship and two other counterfeit types – one founded upon utility, the other upon pleasure. Friendship based solely upon utility, like the mailman, survive only as long as both parties receive benefit, while a friendship based only upon pleasure, like golfing buddies, end when one party no longer finds the activity pleasurable.

Genuine friendship, on the other hand, is based upon something more enduring, according to Aristotle, “It is those who desire the good of their friends for the friends’ sake that are most truly friends, because each loves the other for what he is, and not for any incidental quality.”  Genuine friendship then, will last as long as both parties remain committed to virtue, since virtue desires good for his friends as much as for himself.  But virtue does’t signify lack of fun.  The best of friends laugh often and heartily.  Just as one can tell a man’s character by his ability to laugh at himself, so in a friendship, one can tell the quality of friends by their ability to laugh at each other.  Not a derisive or condescending laughter, but simply one that acknowledges the imperfections inherent in the human condition. Any person or friendship that cannot laugh at itself isn’t real. True friends enjoy one another’s company.  When a person finds someone, who can help him become better while enjoying fellowship, he is on his way to developing a true friend. Each person should be this type of friend and seek a friend of this caliber, in order to fully enjoy life’s experiences during his pilgrimage on earth.

Posted in Life Training | 1 Comment »

True Friendship

Posted by Orrin Woodward on May 11, 2011

True friends give the most when they receive the least – Orrin Woodward

Friendships are not what they used to be. The quality and quantity of friends, according to the 2006 study of the American Sociological Review, is declining.  In the study, 1,467 people were surveyed and compared to data collected 19 years ago.  The data found the average number of people with whom Americans can discuss matters of importance had dropped by nearly one-third, from 2.94 people in 1985 to 2.08 in 2004. Lynn Smith-Lovin, one of the authors, a Professor of Sociology at Duke University, stated, “”The evidence shows that Americans have fewer confidants and those ties are also more family-based than they used to be. This change indicates something that’s not good for our society. Ties with a close network of people create a safety net. These ties also lead to civic engagement and local political action.” The study also revealed that the number of people who have no one with whom to discuss important matters more than doubled, to nearly 25% of survey respondents.  Another of the report’s findings was the percentage of people who talk only to family members about important matters increased from about 57 percent to about 80 percent, while the number of people who depend totally on their spouse has increased from about 5 percent to about 9 percent.  To summarize, both family and non-family confidants dropped over the 19 year period, but the most significant loss was in non-family connections – friends.  Sociologists believe the “discussion networks,” a person’s friends and family, to be an important social resource, providing encouragement, counseling, and support in people’s lives. Some may argue that FaceBook or Twitter connects people in “discussion networks,” but the high-tech world will never replace the warmth of high-touch relationships.  In fact, Robert Putnam, in his seminal work, Bowling Alone, ask, “What is the single most common finding from half a century of research on the correlates of life satisfaction?” His extensive research can be summarized in one sentence, “that happiness is best predicted by the breadth and depth of one’s social connections.”  C.S. Lewis described the change in the value of friendship, writing, “To the Ancients, Friendship seemed the happiest and most fully human of all loves; the crown of life and the school of virtue. The modern world, in comparison, ignores it. We admit of course that besides a wife and family a man needs a few ‘friends.’ But the very tone of the admission, and the sort of acquaintanceships which those who make it would describe as ‘friendships,’ show clearly that what they are talking about has very little to do with that Philia which Aristotle classified among the virtues or that Amicitia on which Cicero wrote a book. It is something quite marginal; not a main course in life’s banquet; a diversion; something that fills up the chinks of one’s time.”  Sadly, if true happiness is based upon a person’s friends and social connections, then the future of the Western world is dismal at best.  But perhaps, with a little self-discipline and character development, the principles of true friendship can be restored, turning the tide of Western decline.

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Courage – The Lost Virtue

Posted by Orrin Woodward on May 5, 2011

Here is a tidbit on courage. Enjoy. God Bless, Orrin Woodward

Courage is the choice to get involved in defending one’s highest held principles, even when one’s personal interest isn’t at stake. Gus Lee, author of the inspiring book, Courage, wrote, “But courage doesn’t depend on practical outcomes, risk versus gains analysis, or collateral impact on others – that’s pragmatism.  Pragmatism is the application of practicality, utility and consequences to decision making.”  Courage, on the other hand, is principle based, causing a courageous leader to sacrifice personal benefits in order to uphold the greater principle on the line.  In fact, Winston Churchill, the legendary English Prime Minster who stood up to Hitler, said, “Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities… because it is the quality which guarantees all others.”  Lee writes, “Courage is addressing wrongs in the face of fear, regardless of consequences, of risk to self, or of potential practical gains. That’s why everyone practices pragmatism and risk balancing. . . Courageous leadership is about utilizing all of our brains, character and spirit to advocate principles regardless of the odds, heedless of fear, apart from collateral impact, and independent of personal career needs.”  Les Csorba, in his book, Trust, concurs, writing, “When we follow leaders without a moral compass interested in only results, get ready for the ditch. The ditch into which modern leadership has fallen is the pit of pragmatism.”   Many confuse compromise and pragmatism, but Stephen L. Carter, Yale Law School professor, discerns the key difference, “Compromises that advance high principles are acceptable; those that do not advance high principles are not.”  Pragmatism is compromising our principles for the short term personal advancements, but noble compromises entail sacrifice of personal gains to advance the highest of principles.  Lee writes that, “Courage is manifested in courageous communication, courageous leadership, courageous problem-solving, and in resolving high-end conflicts.”   Sadly, most people will do anything except address the underlying issues, avoiding the perceived conflict because they suffer from a lack of courage, thus lack character to produce consistent leadership results.  Simply put, without practicing courageous actions in communication, leadership and problem solving, one cannot be a successful leader.  David, without the courage to face Goliath, would still be known as a shepherd of sheep, instead of the King of Israel.  In the same way, people, without the courage to confront their Goliath’s, will not achieve leadership mastery.  Courage, in today’s pragmatic world, is a lost virtue that must be re-birthed in order for character based leadership to thrive again.

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