Friday, September 18, 2009

Put Research in YOUR Leadership

I recently commented on a blog, asking the author if he had any research behind his opinions. Here’s his response:

No, it's not a hypothesis, this isn't a classroom, I'm not an academian, and I don't do research. I blog about my experience in the real world; that's really all I'm even marginally qualified to discuss. If it rings true, try it. If not, don't. Some companies even pay me for it. Go figure. clip_image001

What do you think of his answer? Let me ask you a few other quick questions:

  1. How much time, money, effort… do you spend trying other peoples’ ideas in an attempt to improve your situation (i.e., conducting your own "experiments")?
  2. How do you know their ideas will work for you?
  3. Is there a way to increase the probability that all your time, money, and effort trying new ideas will result in success?
  4. If so, how?
  5. In 100 years, you’re probably going to be dead. Since you’re going to be dead for a very long time, how many grains of sand (i.e., precious minutes of your life) should you let slip through your hourglass because your tried ideas without any evidence to predict success?
  6. Is it my ethical obligation as an educator to teach ideas that research predicts will work, thus honoring your grains of time?

Here are my answers:

  1. For most people, organizations, and governments… A LOT.
  2. Most of the time, you don’t.
  3. Yes, but the approach only increases the probability you get results. There’s no guarantee.
  4. Try only those ideas that have some science to back them. The essence of science/research is prediction. And aren’t you really predicting things will get better as a result of trying something?
  5. Zero
  6. For me, yes.

Thank you.
Be eXtraordinary as you pursue what is true,

Dave Jensen
http://www.DaveJensenOnLeadership.com

P.S. The web-based eXpansive Leadership Method (XLM) Assessment is based on my analysis of research covering 171,000 leaders. Within minutes of completing your assessment (which takes less than 20 minutes to fill out), you can download your highly personalized profile - a comprehensive, 21 + page report and customized action plan in PDF format. Go to: http://xlmassessment.com/ to read about the 360 assessment.

2 comments:

Sarah Antonelli said...

"No, it's not a hypothesis, this isn't a classroom, I'm not an academian, and I don't do research. I blog about my experience in the real world; that's really all I'm even marginally qualified to discuss. If it rings true, try it. If not, don't. Some companies even pay me for it. Go figure."

Oooo...this shouldn't be put on a resume.

I would imagine this happens often, that we listen to and even offer our suggestions without any research.

I'm glad you shared this. Now, I want to stop and think about how much effort am I putting into backing what I suggest.

We value our experiences, which are always good. What I've come to realize, though, is that our life experiences are biased; not one of us gets the whole picture.

I've been reading John C. Maxwell's books on leadership and he really hits the point home that we trully need others to succeed. We need other's realities and "research" to put a reality check on what we're learning from first hand experience.

Dave Jensen, Leadership Expert said...

Hi Sarah,

Thanks so much for your comments. We should all be carefully of what we put out there, especially if people are following our lead.

I haven't read much of Maxwell's popular works, but I know he sells a lot of books. I hope he too applies the predictive power of research.

Thanks again,
Dave