A Remarkable Interview with Kevin Eikenberry

This morning it is my great pleasure to share with you a conversation I just had with Kevin Eikenberry, author of the newly released Remarkable Leadership. I first discovered Kevin's writing in 2006, and since then I have voraciously devoured all he has written on leadership, and helping people reach their full potential. 

I know you will love this edition of Jubilant Learners Speak Up!

Benjamin Bach: Kevin, what is remarkable leadership?

Kevin Eikenberry: Remarkable leadership is the result of the actions of remarkable leaders.  While my book talks about 13 competencies that, at a high level, remarkable leaders exhibit, that is too much detail to answer your question. In short, a remarkable leader is someone who is continually working to become more effective - continually learning and improving. 

Remarkable Leaders also recognize that remarkable leadership is not about the technical skills of forecasting, budgeting and technical knowledge of the work, but really about how they engender trust, build relationships, develop others, communicate more effectively—all of those other skills that we really think of when we think of great leaders that we've worked with in the past.

That’s a remarkable leader – a continual learner who focuses on the work of a leader and not just the
technical aspects of the work.

BB: A common myth I hear repeated alot is '...but I'm not in a leadership position.'  How can people lead if they aren't a "leader" by title?

KE: I believe we can all lead through our actions.  We lead through behaviors consistent with our values.  We lead by

being accountable. We lead when we serve Customers with care and respect.  We lead when we listen.  We lead when we make a difference. 

All of us can do these, and 100 other things I could have listed – it doesn’t require a title on the wall of our cubicle or on our business card. We are all in leadership positions if we choose to be.

BB: What role does learning play in leadership?

KE: I believe it is the foundational skill of the any effective leader. All leaders want their teams to be continually learning and growing. The best way to encourage that in others is to model it ourselves.  Nothing can be more powerful.  Beyond that though, on a personal level, leadership is a complex business and if we hope to be effective at mastering even some of those complexities we must continually be on a conscious path of learning how to be more effective both for ourselves and those we lead.

BB: What teachers, speakers and writers have most influenced you?

KE: This could be a long list!  The answer I gave someone at an event last week relating to books was this:  The Bible, The Greatest Miracle in the World by Og Mandino and See You at the Top by Zig Ziglar.  I could of course add many more to that list, but after further review, I don’t think I’d change that top three. The list of teachers would certainly include my parents, my wife Lori and children Parker and Kelsey, and many of our clients over the years.  I also was influenced by a few wonderful teachers at both the high school and college level. 

In retrospect the thing I learned from them and from some of the leaders I worked for in industry was that they modeled service.  Remarkable leaders serve others.

BB: How can I become remarkable?

KE: I believe there are five things that anyone must do to accelerate their personal progress towards remarkable:

Believe – you must believe that you have the capacity to be remarkable (you do!)

Recognize and remind – you must recognize the unique strengths that you bring to the world and continually remind yourself.  When you believe and recognize you have  a chance to do the next step …

Actualize through action.  You must take action; action to learn, to try and to use.  Without the input of energy into action, no growth, progress or results can occur.

Gratitude – being Remarkable isn’t about ego – quite the opposite. Highly self-actualized people – further down their path towards Remarkable – realize their abilities and are grateful for them. When you truly believe and recognize your potential how could you be anything but grateful?

Serve – remarkable people use their gifts, talents and wisdom to serve others.

That is a snapshot Benjamin.  For more detail, here is a link to an 11 minute piece on this topic I gave to a group in late August : http://tinyurl.com/2nv44e

BB: What would the world look like if we were all Remarkable Leaders ?

KE: The world would be a better place.  People would be using the skills they have been given, they would be continually learning and the results we would actualize would be, well, remarkable.  Remarkable leaders make a difference in the world, when everyone is doing that… the world will be an even more amazing place than it is today.

BB:  Thanks so much Kevin, this was remarkable !  For more on Kevin, please visit his great website, www.kevineikenberry.com. 

Benjamin Bach helps people retire rich through smart real estate investments. He lives in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada with his family and is dedicated to lifelong learning.  He was recently honoured with the Gold Award for Favorite Realtor in town, and credits this to all that he has learnt from leaders like Kevin, Phil Gerbyshak, and Rosa Say - just to name a few.  You can subscribe to Benjamin's ezine here - FREE to JJLN readers!

You can find out more about Benjamin at his blog at http://www.benjaminbach.com and reach him by email @ benjamin(AT)benjaminbach. com - he loves to hear from his readers!

Comments

[Steve Sherlock]

Ben, well done! Right to the point. Nice work!

[Rosa Say]

Mahalo Benjamin and Kevin! I am reading Kevin's book now; it has been a terrific companion on a biz trip I am on currently, and I can't help think about the leaders I am currently interacting with through his lens (of the five things that anyone must do to accelerate their personal progress towards remarkable) ... helps me debrief as I usually do, but from another fresh perspective.

[Joanna Young]

Thanks for sharing this interview - I was really interested in the way so many of the themes we've been discussing here were running through Kevin's approach - like courage, contribution, being the leader even if that's not your title...I know this wasn't deliberate, just interesting the way the strands come together like this

Joanna

[tim]

Benjamin!

Superb interview. I assisted Kevin in his book release and have distributed a copy of Remarkable Leadership to all of my student leaders. Kevin even sent us all "I AM REMARKABLE" bracelets to wear!

I will pass this interview on to my student leaders because it gives some great additional info from Kevin about the why's and how's of the book.

[Benjamin Bach]

Thanks Tim
I am wearing my I AM REMARKABLE bracelet now !