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This is the third in a series of Leadership Lessons From Star Trek The Next Generation and looks at the importance of initiative.

The STNG Episode concerned was when the Enterprise went to investigate what looked like a large sphere. It turned out to be a huge metal sphere constructed around a Sun. It was of such a vast size it was acting like a black hole and the Enterprise was in danger of being stuck permanently inside the sphere. Geordie LaForge used his initiative and used an old Starship that had become trapped in the gravity well and managed to manoeuvre it to jam open the sphere’s doors. He then beamed back to the Enterprise and they managed to escape the gravitational pull of the sphere. It was this initiative that saved the lives of the whole crew.

Picard has this to say about the importance of Initiative in Leadership:

• Most objectives are achieved by Leaders who are tenacious working through obstacles or even doing an ‘end around’ them.
• Leaders are not a product of the times they live in but what they make of the time they have.
• A team member should only take the initiative when they understand what their Leader is trying to achieve and they have weighed up all the options.
• Too much fear of the unknown is the most paralyzing thing for a Leader.
• Leaders who fail to act are placing too much faith in fate going well for them.
• Leaders who tend to hesitate can quickly make this a habit, this is in fact worse than a less experienced Leader who lacks knowledge and experience.
• Initiative is a direct expression of one’s ambition.
• The difference between insignificant and exceptional results is usually a factor of the enthusiasm and determination with which tasks are carried out.
• Any Leader who feels he must control every action of all his team actually takes away their initiative, we must each develop Leadership not merely imitate it.

This is the second of my post based on the book  Leadership Lessons From Star trek The Next Generation – Wess Roberts Ph. D and Bill Roberts. The second lesson a Leader must learn is Urgency hence the title of the post – Engage. The actual episode should you want to refer back is the one where The Enterprise is docked for a baryon sweep. A baryon sweep will kill all organisms on board therefore the whole crew had to evacuate. However Picard decides he wants to go riding whilst on shore leave so transports back to the ship just before the sweep begins to get his saddle.

Whilst on board the ship he find some terrorists stealing warp engine waste that will make extremely powerful weapons. He gets trapped on board and is in danger of being killed. He gets captured and taken to the safe zone the terrorists have set up. Meanwhile his senior staff are at a reception on the planet and suspect things are not quite right. They are proved correct and held at gunpoint by an accomplice of the terrorists. Through some quick thinking they use the fact that Data is an android and cannot be knocked out, re-jig Geordies implant and knock everyone out in the room. Data can now take control of the situation and stop the sweep in time to save Picard. Picard at the same time was not idle he was causing the terrorists as many problems as possible. End result the Enterprise is saved as is Picard.

The main lessons that Picard enters into his personal log about the importance of urgency are:

• Never mistake Urgency for haste. Urgency should always be deliberate and executed with patience. Consider all the options, this is not delay but diligence.  The best Leaders select the best option to maximize the opportunity at the best time.
• A Leader with a sense of urgency is one with a sense of purpose, their energy is not easily stopped.
• A Leader with urgency learns to master circumstances not become enslaved by them. In fact circumstances will hardly ever stop a Leader with a sense of urgency.
• The best Leaders not only have a sense of urgency but expect it in their senior people.
• Sensing when a decision needs to be made urgently is key to a Leader’s success and that sensing is harder than making the decision itself.
• When Leaders act with a sense of urgency it brings both a feeling of strength and ease, it takes less effort and is usually more effective.

Application to a task is totally within a Leader’s personal control, and the more you apply yourself with urgency the more your will achieve in what you previously thought were impossible deadlines. As I said yesterday this opportunity I am partnered with is fully committed to the concept of Leadership and rewards and recognize those Sponsors who become Leaders first rather than just recruit, recruit recruit.

I recently rediscovered two of the very early books I read on Leadership soon after I had been promoted to a Senior Manager. The Leadership qualities required of a Senior Manager are not that different from those required by an entrepreneur.

Any successful network marketer will have a large network organization. Depending on the type of commission structure your organization can become truly huge, rivaling that of an SME. Where the truly successful marketers have succeeded is they are great Leaders.

Leadership involves management of people if you think you won’t have management issues because you are an entrepreneur then you are not thinking big enough!

The book I am going to reference is, Make It So – Leadership Lessons from Star Trek The Next Generation by Wess Roberts, PhD and Bill Roberts.

The beauty of this book is it is based on a fictional Leader – Jean Luc Picard – set in the future. Not only that if you want to reference the ideas you can actually look at an old episode and ‘get’ the point the authors are making. I reacquired my copy of the book from www.thriftybooks.com and it cost me less that a dollar excluding shipping – even with that is was less than $5 (original price $22).

The first lesson in Leadership is Focus. Dennis Waitley the great American thinker says, ‘focus precedes success’. For those of you who are Star Trek Next Generation (STNG) fans this Lesson is based on the episode where Picard is captured by the Borg and turned into a Bog and becomes Locutus. This was a form of ‘headhunting’ by the Borg because they knew Picard commanded the Flagship of the Federation and would be an excellent person to help them assimilate the human race. Lots of management parallels there!

There was a terrible battle at Wolf 359 where the Federation lost over 90% of the Fleet there and The Enterprise was badly damaged. Locutus proceeded to lead the Borg to Earth to complete the assimilation. This meant that Commander Riker was promoted to Captain and he had to decide who his 1st Officer would be, he chose a Commander Shelby who was not a regular crew member. This decision demonstrates real focus, he knew for the mission to succeed he had to keep his key personnel in their normal duties, this was the wrong time to make wholesale key staff re-assignments. The upshot was this pivotal decision allowed Riker to beat Locutus, return him to the Enterprise beat the Borg and rescue Picard from the Borg Locutus he had become.

Picard provides a summary at the end of each Lesson of his Personal Journal Entries about the topic under review:

• To be effective a Leader must have unclouded vision on the path ahead. This vision means a Leader must deal with all of their priorities but not always in a sequential order. (I have a video on this Blog about a simple system Perry Belcher developed that I use for using colored Post-It Notes to identify priorities, but also re-prioritize ‘on the fly)’. In addition a Leader has to see the consequences of their actions or inactions at once.
• A Leader’s effectiveness is in direct proportion to the amount of focus they apply to their most important tasks.
• Leaders must develop the mental ability to be adaptive and meet any crisis by inventiveness. Poor Leaders stop developing when they have reached a level of success by mere imitation.
• The more successful a Leader becomes the more demands are made on their time. This means they must distinguish between productive and non-productive calls on their time.
• Clarity and persistence of aims reduce greatly the effort it takes to be effective.
• Talented Leaders often fail because they disperse their gifts too widely or waver about when to give them.
• Leaders cannot allow their team to become distracted by misdirected competition.
• If a Leader is not suited to Leadership to begin with, they will succeed at it if they concentrate on enthusiasm and devotion.
• The best way for a Leader to be picked out for future promotion/success is to focus on doing their present tasks well.
• Once a Leader understands the power of concentration is the key to effective success they will ensure to instill this skill in their team members.

By focusing on things that affect your ability to be a great Leader first you will release in yourself and your team initiative, power, innovation and imagination. This is why this opportunity I am partnered with has appointed a VP Leadership, has Leadership levels and awards plus a daily Leadership Podcast. If you want to go big and get rich you must learn to be a great Leader.