In This Issue:

• Power and Leadership
• Profile
• Woman Talk
• Managing Diversity
• Management Tip of the Month
• Book Nook
• Ethics Dilemma

LEADING EDGE SEMINARS

Click here for information on our 2007 seminar series, including "Leading in Turbulent Times" and "Strategic Diversity."

PROFILE:
Barry Cinnamon

Each month we will profile someone in the business, non-profit or government sector who has shown superior leadership or management skills. If you know someone who should be profiled, please send the person's name, title, organization and contact information to edgeline.

NAME: Barry Cinnamon
TITLE: CEO
COMPANY: Akeena Solar, Los Gatos, CA

Barry Cinnamon is a long-time advocate of solar power and a widely recognized solar power expert. He is an active member of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group and President of the California Solar Energy Industry Association.

What is most exciting about your current role?
I’m enjoying the rare opportunity to work in an industry – solar power – that offers a terrific solution to both our energy and environmental challenges. Moreover, I work with a great team of people at Akeena Solar and in the solar industry in general.

What is your biggest challenge?
Keeping up with the growth in the industry. It’s critical to us that we maintain a high level of customer service amidst this growth. We also strive to reduce the total installed costs of solar power with efficient operations and new technology.

Briefly describe an experience that taught you a lot about leadership or management.
Akeena Solar is the fourth company that I founded. In the other three, I followed the textbooks, drawing on sound business and financial principles. With Akeena Solar, I had no business plan, no investors, no aspirations for growth – and basically no idea what I was doing. Friends told me I was crazy getting a Contractors’ License and climbing up on roofs. Looking back, it is the passion that I had for this business that made a huge difference.

Describe someone who is a hero to you, or mentor or role model?
Public policy is important to the nascent solar power industry. We are trying to change the way people get electricity, and experience policy resistance from fossil fuel providers and utilities. Carl Guardino, CEO of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, has been influential to me as a guide in how to shape public policy for the solar industry that is favorable to both business and community interests.

What two or three traits or qualities will leaders need to be successful in the future?
A sense of humor, honesty and intellectual curiosity.

What are three tips you would offer to aspiring managers and leaders?
- Never send out that tough e-mail without sleeping on it first.
- Hire positive and optimistic people.
- Trust your gut.

---

Barry Cinnamon

Born: 1958, New York

Education: BS, Mechanical Engineering, MIT and an MBA in Marketing, Wharton

Also worked at: Bureau of Electronic Publishing, Allegro New Media, Software Publishing Corporation, Andalay

Family members: Three children

Favorite quote: "What we have here, gentlemen, is a failure to communicate." (From the 1967 movie “Cool Hand Luke”)

Favorite book: "How To Be The Head Of A Major Corporation In Roughly A Week," Dave Barry

Movie you found inspirational on the topic of leadership: "Tin Men"

Management Tip

When making a decision, the following three questions may help with moderation and balance. First, are you being too patient or too quick? You don’t want to rush to closure, nor does it help anybody if you take forever. Second, are you being too flexible or too firm? Is it time to stand or time to move? Third, are you being too ruthless or too compassionate? Leaders need to care about their people, yet also make tough decisions that may negatively impact some of them. —Rebecca Kuiken

Constructive use of power requires skill and judgment

By Rebecca Kuiken

The skillful exercise of power is a critical component of leadership. When used in a clumsy or heavy-handed manner, “power corrupts” — creating a demoralized team or a fear-based environment. When a leader “gives his or her power away,” the resulting vacuum can provoke an overly politicized workplace, a lack of business results and greater anxiety among employees.

One way to conceive of power comes from Warren Bennis, professor at the University of Southern California and widely-regarded as a pioneer of the contemporary field of leadership studies. He says power is “the basic energy to initiate and sustain action translating intention into reality, the quality without which leaders cannot lead.”

What does this basic energy look like? You may exercise power through personal habits — expressing gratitude, mentoring and affirming accomplishments. You may exercise power through tasks such as providing information, lending resources of budget, personnel, and space or giving assistance (particularly undertaking unwanted tasks!). You may exercise power through inspiration when you are involved in tasks with a larger significance for your unit, customers, or society.

A good leader exercises good judgment in where she/he directs power and energy. You cannot be all things to all people. Frequently people uncomfortable with power have trouble setting priorities. Instead, they scatter their energy across dozens of small inconsequential tasks. What do you say “yes” to? What do you say “no” to? When you choose your issues and priorities, and hire key people on your team, these decisions shape the bedrock for all else.

A good leader sees power as an abundant resource and shares it freely. When you give decision-making authority to a team member, it doesn’t lessen your power. Instead, it multiplies the overall power and effectiveness of your team. Strong leaders know this is true. Weak leaders are fearful of sharing. When you grow and develop the people around you, they become more powerful, and you make a strong investment in the overall leadership of your organization. Good leaders provide opportunities for others to contribute and frequently challenge them to achieve their potential.

A good leader is not afraid to exert power independently. A quick decision is needed and there’s no time for consultation. A crisis emerges and someone must take charge and give orders. It is a mistake to think that collaboration is the only power tool in the toolbox. Sometimes it is important to draw upon one’s formal position and authority, with its ability to offer rewards and punishments. It is important to guard against overuse and under-use of this more directive style.

A good leader models clear ethical standards. A strong and effective moral compass helps leaders avoid becoming intoxicated with power for its own sake. There’s a big difference in viewing the people in your organization as partners in a shared purpose, or pawns for your personal ambitions. Organizations come to mirror their leaders, and power that promotes perks at the expense of the community soon deteriorates.

As you envision your own work, here are questions for your reflection and assessment:

— How comfortable are you with your own power? What issues would you need to resolve in order to achieve greater comfort?
— Who are your role models for the constructive use of power? What are some ways that these people were helpful? What do you find in them that are not helpful?
—What fulfilling paths for expressing power do you have in your current work? What paths are absent and how important are they to you?

Rebecca Kuiken, staff consultant for Leading Edge Associates and managing editor of Edgeline, has more than 20 years experience leading churches and community organizations.

WOMAN TALK: Follow Your Dreams

By Dinah Eng

When it comes to creating a successful life, Cynthia Richmond believes in following your dreams – literally.

Richmond, a behavioral therapist, speaker, and author of “Dream Power, How to Use Your Night Dreams to Change Your Life,” is an expert on dream interpretation. She says our nocturnal adventures in dreamland not only give us information on issues we need to work on in our lives; they can also be used to help create the lives we want to live.

“Everybody dreams every night, and we sleep one-third of our lives, so dreams are important, and can help us in many ways,” Richmond says. “They help us to solve problems, manage stress, and give us creative mini-vacations in the middle of our sleep.”

Richmond says dreams have inspired many famous people in their work, such as Frederick Banting, who discovered insulin as the result of a dream, or Dmitri Mendeleyev, who dreamed the complete periodic table of elements in 1869. Paul McCartney dreamed the melody and lyrics to the song “Yesterday,” she notes, and Jack Nicholas took 10 strokes off a tournament score after dreaming of a new way to grip his golf clubs.

“All we have to do to remember our dreams is to make a point of programming ourselves before we go to sleep,” Richmond says. “Tell yourself to remember your dream when you wake up, and start writing them down when you wake up.

“Female executives, or anyone, can use their dreams to solve their problems or advance their careers. Write out an important decision, instruct your subconscious to dream on it, and whatever you dream, interpret it as an insight about the decision. Our dreams help us to see how things could be if we make this choice or that choice in our dream state.”

Richmond says recurring dreams are a sign that our subconscious is trying to deliver a message that we haven’t figured out yet. While many people would prefer that disturbing dreams just go away, Richmond says the way to make them stop is to figure out what they mean.

“A dream is disturbing in order to get your attention, but the meaning probably is not that disturbing,” she says. “The language of dreams is specific to the dreamer, so the meaning of things differs from person to person. If you were raised in the city, a chicken might mean dinner to you. If you were raised in the country, you might think of a chicken as a pet.”

Common symbols that often show up in dreams include a street or road (which represents your life’s path – note whether it’s curvy, bumpy, or straight); roses (which are associated with love and romance, signifying that romance is coming to you, or a friendship is blossoming into love), and birds (which symbolize the need for freedom).

“Some people dream more when they’re under stress,” Richmond says. “Others may dream more when they’re on vacation and can relax. Most of us dream in color most of the time. If you dream in black and white, or sepia tone, it may be an indication that you’re dreaming of something from the past.”

Richmond says she began studying the meaning of dreams when she noticed that her patients found it helpful to have their dreams analyzed. Dreams link the subconscious with the physical reality of our lives, she says, and insightful interpretations can lead the way to creating a happier future.

“My life mission is to help people become all that they can be, to find their life purpose, and live it,” Richmond says. “Dreams are one of the ways I believe God talks to us, whispering in our ears to protect or to warn us. Dreams are a communication between the invisible spirit world and our conscious world, and I love being a facilitator in helping that process to happen.”

Richmond is currently collecting dreams for her next book and offers a free interpretation of any dreams that she uses. Contact her at Cynthia@DreamPower.Net.

MANAGING DIVERSITY: When a Racial Incident Blows Up

By Jacqui Love Marshall

When we read about racial incidents in the news, we are amazed that people can still be so diversity-challenged in 2007. It’s painless to judge people you don’t know personally, or to wax philosophical from afar. It’s more challenging to manage an incident that takes place in your own backyard.

No company is invulnerable to racial incidents – from an offhand remark in the elevator to a physical confrontation at a company picnic – and they can ignite emotions like a wildfire. The company’s response is carefully scrutinized and can have long-term impact on morale, performance, recruitment and retention. A levelheaded, sensitive approach, a sense of urgency and some common-sense strategies are in order:

- Begin with the facts: Before you react, document actual accounts of the incident as quickly as possible. Talk to the principals and get first-person accounts. When possible, talk to credible eyewitnesses to compare details. Besides gathering accurate data, convey a sincere desire to get to the truth.

- Seek differing perspectives: Discreetly seek input from credible persons within relevant racial groups. Utilize diversity councils or affinity groups, if they exist. Your probe may uncover deep-seated histories or feelings. Unearthing hot-button issues could avert future incidents. Don’t avoid this effort for fear of intensifying a situation or appearing weak to employee groups. This step can strengthen diversity understanding between employees and management.

- Develop immediate and long-term strategies: How intense has the impact been? Is it a first-time situation where someone uses a racial slur towards another, or perhaps something more severe where manager has repeatedly made racial remarks about subordinates? While both incidents may require disciplinary actions, the biased manager’s actions may require multiple strategies. Take timely action on inappropriate personnel behaviors and develop long-term strategies to address systemic issues. Use the incident as a springboard to initiate training, re-issue a policy or launch a program to address diversity companywide.

-Communicate broadly: Don’t let rumors drive a crisis; communicate quickly with all employees, in writing, a face-to-face forum or both. If the incident violates company policies and values, employees want assurance that management has taken fair, firm action. Explain why certain behaviors are unacceptable.

- Follow through: Employees rightly complain when management promises and then fails to address an incident. If your response to a racial incident is multi-staged, issue updates on the initiative’s progress. Circle back to an offended party or groups to see if the incident has been resolved.
As long as we juggle free speech with tolerance and inclusion, racial incidents will happen. The value of diversity is in how we handle them. Be sure your company’s response rings true and clear.

BOOK NOOK

ETHICS DILEMMA: Handling Conflicts of Interests

Jerry Ceppos will answer questions about ethical issues every month. Along with two others, he received the first Ethics in Journalism Award of the Society of Professional Journalists. Write Jerry at jceppos@aol.com. Tell him if you don't want your name used.

Q. I serve on a non-profit board. Friends and relatives, and, yikes, fellow board members, always seem to be offering their services to the board – for a price. Most public for-profit companies forbid such conflicts. What should I do?

A. Last year I resigned from the board of my favorite non-profit because we gave a small contract to a board member. I suggested that we seek bids from other companies, acknowledging that our board member had more knowledge and had offered a good price. Only one other board member agreed. That sobering experience leads me to make these suggestions:

1. Before a crisis arrives on your doorstep, write a code of ethics.
2. Adopt this language for the code. It's from Board Source, a treasure trove for non-profits:
"Should an organization contract with a board member for professional services...? Attorneys, accountants and other professionals can contribute valuable expertise to a board. Due to the potential for conflict of interest, their contributions should be voluntary. At the very least, a board member who is associated with a firm competing for a contract should abstain from discussion and voting in the selection process. If a competitive bidding process results in the selection of that board member's firm, he or she should disclose the affiliation and abstain from voting on future board actions connected with that firm's contract with the organization."

Edgeline is published the second Tuesday of each month by Leading Edge Associates, a consulting firm engaged in management training, organizational change, succession planning, executive coaching, diversity and media. Rebecca Kuiken, managing editor of Edgeline, can be reached at (408) 960-9472.