A quick term definition from Robinson:

Imagination=bringing to mind that which is not present

Creativity=developing ideas that have value

Innovation=putting ideas into practice

To net out Robinson’s excellent thinking:  Creativity is collaborative.  We must imagine to create and we must create to innovate.  We create in groups, we inspire one another when we can bounce ideas around.  Ideo sure knows that.   They don’t create in isolation.  Virtual workers are often isolated in their home offices, cars or simply far removed from their global teams.  Trust is challenged in a virtual environment because of the loss of visual cues and cultural differences.  Yet trust is critical to creativity.  We need to know that our “silly idea” is one we can float out there and others will build off of it.  Virtual leaders must work even more to foster creativity.

Here are 3 little things I suggest to develop creativity in your team:

1. Say “yes and…”  I know you’ve heard this but it bears repeating.  Build on ideas rather than shooting them down.  Creativity is killed when ideas are rejected.  Play with ideas, grow them, develop them, bounce them around — let them evolve.
2. Expect new ideas — regularly.  Give assignments to teams to come up with ideas that are way out of the box.  Make time to create at every staff meeting — generate zany ideas that make people laugh.  Work to solve real problems by throwing out wild ideas for 10 minutes — just work your creativity muscles.
3. Use the ideas.   Apply small ideas for a limited time — try them out.  Work out the kinks in them.  Creativity will wither away if the ideas are not put into practice – in other words, if there is no innovation.  Folks need to see an environment of creativity all arond them.  Leaders must create idea gardens — grow the seedlings and watch others pop up.

Three important elements of the race this year are worth considering for lessons in leadership:

1.  Competition can be a great thing.  The leading pack stayed together for the first 20 miles.  The New York Times said it well:  “Togetherness Helps Set Winner Apart”   “I thank my colleagues because we helped each other,” Geoffrey Mutai said after demolishing the course record.  As a leader, we can leverage competition in a way that motivates others to do their best work.

2.  Steadiness beats boldness.  The women’s frontrunner ignored the cautionary tales about the toll that the early part of the course can take and, sure enough, she could not keep her fast pace and started to slow for the last 10 miles.  As she said, “Maybe I was trying but I was not thinking.”   Winning takes more than dazzling effort — it takes thinking.  As leaders, we can help our teams to work smart not snazzy.

3.  Self-assessment is necessary for growth.  “If you’re honest about your weaknesses, you realize you’re only going to make it so far being the athlete you currently are,”  says Lauren Fleshman (from Eugene OR – my home town).   Her races have always been 5,000 meters or 3.1 miles.  This was her first marathon — a huge change for her. As leaders, we can hear again and again about the need to change but until we recognize the need and are invested in our potential, we cannot grow.  It’s necessary to be honest with yourself — more honest than anyone else might be and as she says “The right answer is the simple answer.”  As a leader, we must rely on ourselves for honest reflection.    

Being a real, human leader in the virtual workplace is the focus of this blog.  Leadership is a relationship — one between real human beings.  It’s not a relationship with webinars, conference calls, instant messages and quarterly reports.   A basic human need is to connect with others, to feel authentic and to feel known.  So…how might that happen in the virtual workplace?   I’ll set out to answer that question in these posts.

Here are 3 ways to build a stronger, human presence in the virtual workplace:

1. Be a storyteller.   Share your life and your lessons learned through short stories — they can be less than 90 seconds.  Weave it into your business message or don’t — either way, it will bring your humanity into the virtual world.

2. Learn about others’ life outside work.  Rather than a minute of light “small talk” at the top of a business call, make a call only about life.   Just have “lunch” or a cup of coffee together on the phone.  You can make it 15 minutes and spend time building a real relationship.

3. Share pictures.  Just like walking into someone’s office and seeing photos, share photos of yourself.  You can create a blog, wiki, or even add them to your e-mails.   Reveal yourself through your human experiences.  Here’s where I spent most of August — at a goat ranch in eastern Oregon.  Wow–it was just what the doctor ordered! 

It is the same tried-and-true story of the hero who struggles, is transformed and enters a new reality.  In Betty Ford’s case, she shared her vulnerability but more important she took action to overcome it…a poweful leadership lesson there.  She then multiplied the good by opening the Betty Ford Center where so many people have been inspired by her struggle and her daily victories.  I say “daily” because I understand that one must work to overcome addiction every day….another leadership lesson there:  Small and manageable goals.

Storytelling for leaders is about teaching lessons…not by lecturing but by sharing struggle and lessons learned through hardship.  Certainly everyone treated at the Betty Ford Center hears her story and are comforted and motivated knowing they are not alone.

What can leaders learn from Betty Ford?

1. Share your struggle — Admit your vulnerabilities.
2. Take action to address weakness.
3. Set small and manageable goals.
4. Tell your story so others may be inspired.

My sympathies are with the Ford family as they mourn her death.  I hope they find comfort in knowing how many lives she touched.

Collaboration is talked about so much in leadership and in learning these days — which is great because it’s long over due!  Learning is social.  We learn from each other.  “Leadership is a relationship” — is the founding principle for famed thought-leaders, Kouzes and Posner.  Our Guided Learning Experience is very collaborative and we’ll be talking about June 9 from 1:00 to 2:00 pm EDT in our webinar.  You can register at orationgroup.com.  We’d love to have you join us.

You can find lots of models for collaboration and as many as 12 principles about it.  I’m a believer in keeping things simple so I’m sharing 5 tips here that I’ve learned in my years as a training facilitator, executive coach and co-worker.  I hope you find them useful.

1.  Agree on the goal and standards.  What are you out to achieve and how well will you achieve it?

2.  Agree on how you’re going to communicate.  Frequency, method, managing conflict?  Make sure face-to-face communication is often in the mix.

3.  Agree on priorities.   Maintaining the relationship should be near the top of the list.  It is critical that trust be maintained.  Priorities are not always about the work.

4.  Choose your battles.  That old adage is all about collaboration.  Each participant on the project must feel heard and respected.  Control freaks are not welcome. 

5.  Admit failure.  Failure is, indeed, an option.  A very human one.  It does not mean the end, for heaven’s sake.  It just means you failed.  If it is wasted, covered-up, lied about or not a learning opportunity then you’re in trouble.

Enjoy working together !

We cannot wait for our leader to have a vision.  We need to be responsible for our own future state — whatever it may be.   We need to be responsible for our own motivation.  Intrinsic motivators are those that are internal to us and the ones that really do put the fire in our belly.

Reaching your vision will mean that you’ll need to learn how to be a good learner.  In other words, focus your vision for learning.

I’m passionate about guiding motivated learners.  We’ll talk about that in our highly-interactive webinar:  Developing Leaders Virtually:  A Guided Learning Experience.  June 9 from 1:00 to 2:00 EDT.  Register at www.orationgroup.com

Meanwhile, here are 4 tips to create your own vision for learning:

1. Create a Learning Journal.  Write your goals.  What do you want to learn?
2. Know the benefits.  How will you benefit from knowing this?  How will others benefit?
3. Recollect your best learning experiences.  Identify what was so good about that learning experience?  Why was it so good?  How can it be recreated?
4. Leverage your learning style.  Are you visual?  Tactile?  Do you need to talk it through with someone?  Do you prefer to step back and reflect?

That means that leaders must demonstrate initiative for their own development.  We cannot afford leaders who wait to be “trained.”  We need leaders who know what they need to learn and why they need to learn it.   They also should have a sense on how they prefer to learn.  Then a facilitator will help them to achieve it.  In other words, their learning experience will be guided.

The Guided Learning Experience (aka GLE)  is a new approach to a blended-learning solution that we’ve been delivering at the Oration Group for over 3 years.  Our focus is always on creating a learning process rather a learning event.  The foundation is in collaborative learning:  Collaborating with both fellow learners and with the facilitator.

Here are 3 tips for leaders who want to take more initiative for their learning:

1.  Identify what you want to learn and why.  (You might learn more but set a minimum.)

2.  Identify where, when and why you will apply the new skill.

3.  Identify others who are good at what you want to learn:  Observe them and ask them how they got so good.

JUNE 9 at 1:00 pm Eastern Time — we’ll be host a free, interactive webinar on Developing Leaders Virtually in a GLE.   As the old newspaper boys used to say, “Learn all about it!”  It’s going to be an exclusive group of folks and will be highly-interactive.  Here’s the link to our Events page.  I hope to hear your voice on the 9th!

LOVERSHIP is The Word for the Oration Group this month. (Yep, we created that word…and I know Valentine’s Day was last month but we can still be loving!) “Leadership is an affair of the heart” is the sentence that ends my favorite leadership book — The Leadership Challenge.

When all is said and done, we are emotional creatures and leading means being willing to acknowledge and express feelings.  I went on a yoga retreat in December and one take-away from it was to ask myself the question “What is the loving thing to do?” Don’t worry — I’m not talking about romance, for heaven’s sake. I’m talking about the qualities we generally use to define love: Respect; Understanding; Compassion. Those are, certainly, qualities we seek in a leader.

It really gets interesting when we are in a virtual environment, doesn’t it?  For the leader who is leading virtual teams, expressing feelings demands some thoughtfulness.  It might be listening more attentively and speaking more carefully and authentically.

Here are 3 simple tips to create more “lovership:”

1. Respect others by letting them finish their thought. Before you speak, you might even ask “Is there more?” Give the gift of your full attention–it is priceless and unusual these days.

2. Understand others by telling them, in your words, what you believe their concern to be. Acknowledge the feelings that were unsaid. “It sounds like your biggest concern is…”

3.  Be compassionate by identifying with the predicament of another.  Before you offer your solution or critique, ensure that the listener is really ready listen. It might make sense to choose your battles and just let some things go.

This 18 minute video is well-w0rth your time.  David Brooks says so many beautiful and important things but one to share today is this: “People learn from people they love.”  I think I love David Brooks!

Training Journal has published my article on it in the March issue. It is called “Picking Up the Pieces: The Guided Learning Experience.” The Guided Learning Experience is our “blended learning on steroids” and sometimes is entirely virtual. The article explains it and provides three brief case studies.

Let me know what you think!