Good morning from Good Spirit Lake Resort, just outside of Yorkton, Saskatchewan. I trust your week has been as filled with adventure as mine has been.

I'm here teaching at a credit union directors' conference. This afternoon and this evening I'll be working with a group of directors on the role of the board in governing large corporate change. As luck would have it, a collection of articles I grabbed from my desk as I left for the airport had one that speaks, not so much to directors, but to managers and leaders in changing environments. (It's called "The Work of Leadership", By Ron Heifetz and Donald Laurie, and was originally published in December 2001, and republished by Harvard Business Review OnPoint in late 2008.)

I was struck by one paragraph this morning, "Followers want comfort, stability, and solutions from their leaders. But that's babysitting. Real leaders ask hard questions and knock people out of their comfort zones. Then they manage the resulting distress." What a powerful image.

Now I've been reading Heifetz's work, and he was a teacher of a teacher of mine, so I hold him in high regard. I would rather have the two final sentences read, 'Real leaders ask hard questions of themselves and their followers, and knock themselves and their followers out of their comfot zones. Then they mangage the resulting distress.' ('m perhaps not going to be hired as an editor for Harvard Business Review!)

All to often, I fear, especially in changing environments, we leaders assume that leadership is something we do to other people. The key to successful leadership we know though is that leadership is something we do with ourselves and with other people. Heifetz and Laurie do get this at a very deep level, calling on all leaders to a "learning strategy", and closing the article with an enigmatic, "One can lead with not more than a question in hand." wht I take away is that leadership is as much about me learning as it is about creating an environment where my team is learning. It is through learning together that the real change happens.

My this week be filled with learning adventures for us all!