Instigating Leadership

What does it take to instigate leadership? Merriam-Webster defines instigate as to goad or urge forward: provoke. The Free Dictionary ads to stir up; foment. Synonyms include incite, stimulate, inspire, induce, start, encourage, influence. (These include selections from Collins Thesaurus of the English Language, and WordNet 3.0.)

Here in the Lead Change Group, we talk about instigating a character-based leadership revolution. We didn't start the revolution. We believe it's been underway and it is global. We simply want to urge it forward, provoke others to join and, as our mission statement claims, encourage, energize and equip one another to lead change, first in ourselves, then others and our communities.

So we have a group of people here we call Instigators. These are people who have made a commitment to encourage, energize and equip each other to lead change. We want to see the world change. We know change must begin with us. So we've set out to make that difference.

Today, I'd like to tell you about 2 instigators. Sometimes we interview these folks in our newsletter. If you're not getting the newsletter, you can sign up here. Meet Chip Bell and Bethany Connor.  Each actively instigates the leadership revolution.

Chip Bell (member profile, @ChipRBell LinkedIn) has authored 19 books. His latest book just came out titled The 9 1/2 Principles of Innovative Service. Chip's writing is challenging and inspiring. He encourages you with practical ways to serve others differently. The book slants toward customer service, but in reality, it applies to a number of ways. Consider the Purple Principle. Purple is the color of royalty. Chip explains principle 5 Elevate The Class, ""Purpling' is a deliberate rebellion against plain vanilla service." Instigators like Chip rebel against "plain vanilla" every day. Check out all of his books here.

The other featured Instigator for September is Bethany Connor (LinkedIn profile). She just published her first book, Cherished: One Woman's Journey to Love and Be Loved. This book is an open, transparent sharing of Bethany's life journey and how she has transformed her desire to be "in control" of her life in to a desire to be a genuine and authentic leader. Her launch week is next week, September 16 - 21, 2013 and you can sign up to be a part of it here, or you can pick up a copy of the book on her website.

Do you want your leadership to make a dent? Surround yourself with people like Chip and Bethany. Deliberately place yourself around people who, simply by the way they live, challenge you to lead differently, serve differently and live differently. What can you do this week to serve as a living challenge and put yourself in a position to be challenged by someone who will instigate your leadership revolution?