Matthew’s Blog

I am publishing this long lost article from the unpublished archive of this blog.  The bulk of my work these days revolves around sustainability and corporate responsibility consulting.  Interestingly enough a large part of the leadership required to implement sustainability, transparency, and corporate responsibility requires - Followership. ~Matthew Rochte

Followership – the missing leadership component.

Leadership is not about leadership. Leadership books, business school, and coach training always talk about the leadership skills, the attitudes, and the motivations to get people to do things. They call this leadership.

These “leadership skills” are good things that leaders need to know.

However, having successfully run a triple-bottom-line manufacturing firm for 7 years as owner and coach and having been in leadership positions since age 11, I have discovered an interesting phenomenon about leadership – something we don’t talk about in leadership books nor in coach training and certainly not in business school, but we all are aware of on some level. Leadership, ultimately isn’t about leadership.

Leadership is about Followership.

Who is going to follow you and why?
This missing piece ultimately will determine a leader’s success and continued success. We have become myopic in our dissecting of leadership that we have missed the whole point of leadership. We have focused on the content and the image of leadership rather than the substance. So instead of asking “What makes a good leader?,” lets be coach-like and turn this question 90 degrees and ask – “Who do people want to follow?” or “Who would you follow?”

Think about it.

Who do we most admire and want to be around?
Who do we want to or are willing to follow?

We want to follow people of integrity and people in alignment. We all know when people are out of alignment.  Do we want to follow them? We have twisted our understanding of integrity to mean an image rather than its
core substance. And our leadership training programs tend to mold the “leader” in a way to attract the most number of people rather than alignment of the leader with themselves and the community. These programs therefore create leaders who are attractive but lack integrity, because they lack alignment. They lead for a while, because they look right, but eventually we followers start to see inconsistencies, misalignments, and lack of integrity. We become disenchanted, uneasy and stop following them.

We stop following them because of a breakdown and/or exposure of the misalignment and lack of integrity within the individual..

Be-Say-Do:

So now it is time to look at what we mean by integrity.
Integrity is a matter of alignment.
Integrity is an alignment between ones actions, words, and thoughts.

Be-Say-Do
Being in alignment with one’s being, saying, and doing.

In authentic leadership there is integration and consistent alignment with who you are, what you say, and what you do as a leader. An authentic leader’s actions are consistently aligned with who they are, what they say, and what they believe.

This alignment ultimately makes up who you are. People see it, people know it, people sense it. Because it is real. When all these elements are in alignment you are a leader, a natural leader, an authentic leader, and a magnet for followers.

Some Questions To Ponder:

What do you believe? What Thoughts guide you?
Are you true to yourself? Do you betray yourself?
Do you say what needs to be said or do you say what is safe?
Do your actions/ behaviors align with who you are?
Does what you do reflect who YOU are?
What kind of leader do you want to be?

Author: Matthew Rochte

Article originally published in 2004 in Corvus Enterprises Connected Coach

Take the 16 minutes to watch this film.

A charming, delightful reminder of the impact we have on others.  And, it is a choice.

Validation: A film about the magic of free parking.

Spiritual Cinema Circle has picked it up and is sharing it on their website as well.

As I transition my life this week, this quote seemed apropos.

Life isn’t about how to survive the storm,
but how to dance in the rain.

~unknown author

Absolutely. Elections are won by those who are voted for, not by those who didn’t vote.

We put far to much weight on the presidential election and despite the sometimes contentious electoral balloting system for the executive position, every voter and vote does count.  Those electoral votes are representative of the states.  So on a state by state basis, every vote counts.

Now, of far more importance are all the other candidates and positions on the ballot. The US Senate, US House, State Senate, and State House, governors, judges, county, municipal, mayoral, and local board elections, which are on the same ballot, are equally if not more important than the presidential ballot.

Many of these “smaller” elections are won or lost by individual votes.
These “smaller” elections have more impact on our daily lives than the presidential, and we can have a definite say in what that life is like.

Get out and vote!  Your Vote Counts!

I am passionate about responsible business practices.  Not only have I been actively studying, practicing, teaching, and coaching on it my own businesses for the past 20 years, but these experiences were built on top of  a foundation of being raised by a family of responsible business owners for the first 20 years of my life.  Responsible business is smart business.

These days I have come to say that “green business is smart business™” because green business is about responsible business and conscious capitalism.  It recognizes the interconnected and complex self-adapting nature of the systems in which business operates.

Having said this, whenever I get into a discussion about responsible business, green business, or conscious capitalism inevitably Milton Friedman and Adam Smith are brought up as counter arguments.   These men were brilliant and spoke in a language of their respective era.  And that language issue is critical to understanding and communicating about green business, responsible business, and conscious capitalism. (more…)

Book: Raising the Bar: The story of Clif Bar Inc. : Integrity and Passion In Life and Business
A journey toward sustaining your business, brand, people, community, and the planet.
- by Gary Erickson (founder of Clif Bar) with Lois Lorentzen.

As some of you know I have named the hunger of one of my bigger games - Sustainable Business.  Last Summer after viewing the movie  “The Corporation”, which is out on DVD now, was inspired by what could be and an awakening to how much we really don’t know as a culture of why things are the way they are.   In addition to being inspired, I found a hero/mentor in Ray Anderson, CEO of Interface (http://www.interface.com).  Since then I have been collecting and searching for information about people and companies truly working toward sustainable business.

My mother put me on to the Clif Story while she was out in California last month and as intention and creating my day would have it, lo and behold I found this book at the library in the new book section.

It’s a gripper.   It is an amazing and inspiring story about both about Clif Bar Inc. and its founder Gary Erickson.  Gary is a cyclist baker turned 25% growth business owner to borderline pauper and finally a pioneer in the world of sustainable business.  This is a very readable book.  Everything from a how to of working with funding sources to bicycle trips in the Alps to ecological business to Jazz trumpeting to hand-to-mouth existence.   It combines just the right mix of personal story and history with business models and savvy insight.

The story begins with Gary making an unconventional decision.  On the day of the $60million sale of Clif he follows his gut and chooses to go for a walk.   Upon his return he tells his partner to send the buyers home which begins the middle of this roller coaster “white road” story.   There is this brilliant chapter where he describes the “red road and white road” trekking to business theory and what it takes to be on either path.   Red roads on the map are the major highways, the fast and efficient routes between major cities and towns.   White roads are the far less direct and often more challenging routes which offer unparalleled views, joy, and direct contact with people.  The White Road is about soul and passion.  ”Stay focused on the quality of the journey, rather than the destination, and the rewards are already in your hands.” (Anon. reviewer of the book)

This is a passionate, inspiring, heart-pumping, and educational frontier book on what it does and will take to stay in integrity so that you can build sustainable business, brand, people, community and planet.  It is a must read for anyone on the sustainable business path.

This story came in the mail today and thought it was worth repeating. I do not know its origin.

A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as one problem was solved, a new one arose.

Her mother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire Soon the pots came to boil. In the first she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs, and in the last she placed ground coffee beans. She let them sit and boil; without saying a word.

In about twenty minutes she turned off the burners. She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl. Turning to her daughter, she asked, ‘Tell me what you see.’

‘Carrots, eggs, and coffee,’ she replied.

Her mother brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they were soft. The mother then asked the daughter to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard boiled egg.

Finally, the mother asked the daughter to sip the coffee. The daughter smiled as she tasted its rich aroma The daughter then asked, ‘What does it mean, mother?’

Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity: boiling water. Each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong, hard, and unrelenting. However, after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak. The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior, but after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened. The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the boiling water , they had changed the water.

‘Which are you?’ she asked her daughter. ‘When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?

Think of this: Which am I? Am I the carrot that seems strong, but with pain and adversity do I wilt and become soft and lose my strength.

Am I the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat? Did I have a fluid spirit, but after a death, a breakup, a financial hardship or some other trial, have I become hardened and stiff? Does my shell look the same, but on the inside am I bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and hardened heart?

Or am I like the coffee bean? The bean actually changes the hot water, the very circumstance that brings the pain. When the water gets hot, it releases the fragrance and flavor. If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you get better and change the situation around you. When the hour is the darkest and trials are their greatest, do you elevate yourself to another level?

How do you handle adversity?

Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?