Part of leadership is the ability to read the context of any situation. As an example, for any great athlete, reading the context  becomes second nature. This is true in business as well and Jim Collins (Built to Last & Good to Great) has a book excerpt in Business Week that is worth a read.  From a leadership perspective, the article is all about context. Take a look and see what you think. – Scott J. Allen

Reflection. Reflection in Action. Today, I am going to briefly discuss Preflection. What’s that? Day after day and week after week I work with student leaders who can tell you what went wrong in the simulation, group project, game, teambuilder or assignment – AFTER THE FACT. Preflection invovles taking time to define roles, develop a plan, think about the process (before jumping in). Now, I know that some of you are thinking that is simply planning – maybe/kinda.

Interestingly, others have thought of this word. A quick search on the web yielded the following definition from a syllabus I came across. I like it…

• “Preflection is the opportunity to gather your thoughts about a specific task you intend to accomplish. Through “preflecting,” you can situate future tasks in relation to prior experiences, recognizing skills you already possess and those you will need to gain in the attempt to complete the task. Preflecting also provides the opportunity to set meaningful goals against which you can later compare your accomplishments.”

From a leadership perspective, preflection, provides space to remind leaders and groups to get their act together prior to jumping in to the activity. What do you think? – Scott J. Allen

I am going out on a limb to suggest that many little league teams have a greater level of intentionality than some of the managers and educators with whom I have worked. After all, in Little League they have their roles established, the rules in mind, and a plan for practice and even a strategy to approach each game. Not always the same for your boss at the beginning of the day. At least not from a leadership standpoint. Now, if there is intentionality, it’s at times, off base or blatantly Machiavellian – “don’t let them get to close to you.” Approaches that the research would suggest do not work (at least in the long run). Intentionality. We need more of it. Not just in leadership development, but all aspects of life. Followers of faith need to be more intentional about living the values their religion espouses. Athletes need to intentionally remind themselves that they are role models for our youth. I need to intentionally close out this blog and go spend more time with my family. – Scott J. Allen

I love the word Intentionality. In fact, I think it may just be my favorite word in our language. There is so much behind it. I think it was dictionary.com that defined it as “done with intention or on purpose; Intended.“ So much of leadership is not approached in an intentional manner. Think about it. Leadership is all around us and how many transformational leaders do you stumble upon in your day to day work? How many Level 5 leaders (if you are a fan of Jim Collins)? I imagine, not many. The cause – perhaps, in part, a lack of intentionality. Maybe the leaders around you do not know leadership theory. If they do, maybe they cannot translate this knowledge into behavior change. Maybe they simply don’t care or are afraid to look in the mirror. More on this soon. For now, just sit back and observe and see what you think…Scott J. Allen

According to the research of Richard Arvey, leadership can be learned. So my mind wanders to sports like Karate or Gymnastics. In each, an individual needs to know base level concepts before he or she can move on to the next level. Remember the Karate Kid? That’s right…”Wax on wax off.” Mr. Miyagi made it look easy. So what knowledge, skills and abilities must be mastered before a student of leadership is awarded his or  her white belt? Yellow belt? Green belt? I think, that part of the problem with leadership development is that there is no agreed upon, sequential, and/or standardized items for development. So what would they be? Where does one begin? What are the buiding blocks for developing a leader? World, I would love to hear your thoughts…-Scott J. Allen