“Your number one and irrefutable goal is to focus your leadership on
the development and sustainability of relationships.” (p. 2)

Read the Coda starting on page 181 first. You’ll understand Dan Pontefract better as well as the “why” behind his refreshing work. He reminds us that people matter most. Each of us possesses a backstory, but we also have various issues we are dealing with at any given moment… (p. 183).

Leadership Excellence Course attendees often include phrases corresponding to Dan Pontefract’s lesson, or chapter titles:

• Be Relatable
• Play for Meaning
• Stay Present
• Remain Curious
• Embrace Change
• Dare to Share
• Command Clarity
• Commit to Balance
• Champion Others

when composing a Personal Leadership Philosophy (PLP). This review showcases one peril, one takeaway and one story from each chapter lesson – hopefully inspiring our own stories, and refinements to our PLP.

Be Relatable

You operate with two personalities: one for work and one for outside of work (p. 9). Aircrews asking for doctors aboard during medical emergencies don’t care if a physician is on the clock or not. Same with leaders. Empathize with others. Use your head, heart and hands to better appreciate peers and team members (p. 21). Pontefract offers three types of empathy (pp. 12 – 13): cognitive, emotional and sympathetic. Consider sympathetic empathy as this requires action building on the other two forms.

Play for Meaning

You come to work for the money, not the meaning (p. 29). Chances are, if we’re doing this, we’re also chasing other’s definitions of success and accomplishment, driven by a scarcity mindset. Reflect on and decide your short-term and long-term working life achievements. Capture the behavioral changes needed to accomplish each of them (p. 39). Keeping a leadership journal is an underrated activity, probably because we falsely attach importance to merely being busy. Pontefract asks “Whom Am I Serving?” (p. 31). Years ago a dear friend lamented his poor decision to leave his wife. My advice to him was to do just this, discover who he was serving.

Stay Present

You believe that things are just happening so fast these days, there’s just no time to plan. There is only one work ethic, and that is being “on” all the time (p. 51). Pontefract keenly notices senior leaders have a tendency to look for “efficiencies” first rather than behavior improvements (p. 48). We’ve all heard “do more with less” before. Consider energy management instead, which captures both behaviors and priorities. Analyze your calendar and determine where you can block off time to dedicate to undisturbed, focused work. Be consistent (p. 61).

Remain Curious

You learn only as much as you need in order to do your job. You’re not interested in learning much else (p. 75). It’s genuinely creepy meeting someone who doesn’t read. Pontefract has challenged his thinking and knowledge level in many ways, leading to a lifelong learning approach (pp. 65-66). That is an example of an abundance mindset taking advantage of the limitless knowledge surrounding us all.

Embrace Change

You believe you do not have the time to embrace change because you are too busy doing your “real job.” (p. 95) This brings to mind several “Networking and Leadership” webinars this year. Pontefract has reached a similar conclusion. It has developed an army of colleagues and contacts I can call on at a moment’s notice for assistance. My network has become my net worth… (p. 93). Stay positive, open, flexible and patient when change inexorably arrives at your doorstep (p. 103). Pithy words during a pandemic.

Dare to Share

My favorite chapter lesson. You hoard information, especially new information because that’s how you think you can get ahead (p. 113). This was the prevailing mindset/culture years ago in the military/government environment encapsulated by the term Need To Know. Pontefract reminds us: Whether there are individual, team or departmental biases, they can become a massive problem in our efforts to share information, data and knowledge with others (p. 110). Does your work environment encourage sharing? Are your meetings safe places to do this? Offer up your experience to colleagues in the organization. Be a mentor, or at least someone who shares their knowledge (p. 119).

Command Clarity

You believe your future success depends on demonstrating how busy you are today (p. 130). Notice a pattern here? The bane of the professionally busy. In Navy SEAL Jeff Boss’ Navigating Chaos, he finds that sharing knowledge is the real source of power. It’s not about us. Block out time in your calendar to become more strategic with your thinking and to make better decisions. Reinforce how time is linked to the stable mental mood that nurtures clarity (p. 137).

Commit to Balance

If people want coaching, you think they should join a sport or get a gym membership (p. 147). A favorite leadership course expectation is replacing prior definitions of coaching (typically both evaluative and negative) with a positive, energizing performance coaching approach. Pontefract calls out Microsoft, prior to Nadella and Hogan as not a coaching organization, nor did it listen to or generally recognize its people (p. 142). Create the conditions where you will commit to balance. In doing so, you will diversify, include, flex, recognize, coach and trek (p. 159).

Champion Others

You have to be a different person at work, more thick-skinned. Comes with the territory of being a leader and getting people to follow orders (p. 170). A companion to the relatable lesson before, consider how authentic we are (not) when describing or modeling two personalities to different audiences. Sounds exhausting. Pontefract calls out The Case for Humble Expectations: CEO Humility and Market Performance (Oleg Petrenko), demonstrating greater shareholder returns. Hold the door: no matter your age or tenure, it’s your duty to care and help others (p. 179).

Summary

Dan Pontefract reflects on Seneca’s essays on tranquility:

“Believing in yourself and trusting you are on the right path,
and not being in doubt by following the myriad footpaths
of those wandering in every direction.” (p. 122)

A timeless reflection during our chaotic times.

Dan Pontefract generously provided a copy of his book for review.

JE | November 2020