Have you been asked to do more in your organization? When asked, did you respond, "How will I do that?" A hallmark of today's corporate organization is to do more with less. I'm no longer surprised when clients, at the beginning of new projects, quake and squabble about human resource allocations. Clients now devote less time locating funding for initiatives than for assigning human resources to new projects. Clients may recognize a huge multi-million dollar improvement opportunity and they fret about asking others to dedicate time to the initiative. In some ways, the responses are the creation of today's lean, and sometimes mean, organizational forms. The search for resources forces new leadership questions and effects leadership development.

In the times of lean there are several elements for leadership consideration. Among the leadership considerations are three factors: advocacy, invitation, and orchestration. Executives and managers alike, based on our coaching experiences, struggle equally with these issues. Traditional executive development, with a focus on MBA learning or strategy to the exclusion of everything else, fails to shine a beacon on any of these important issues relative to "working" an organization. Recognition of these issues contributes to the development of personal and organizational performance.

Advocacy, invitation, and orchestration are three personal and organizational skills for success in the realm of performance culture. Advocacy means that leaders represent employees. They understand that business is always about something more than a number - people make the numbers. Advocacy facilitates any equation building or result in an organization. Invitation, the next skill, is the real ability to enlist others in an organizational effort. Today's environments require a combination of charisma and real promise in the assignment of new work. As such, charisma and promise are cornerstones of personal and organizational leadership development. The third skill, orchestration, is the ability to read the music - to see the next note. Failure in this arena results in lack of leadership resolve.

As you navigate projects and important organizational issues, what are you doing to develop these skill sets? Corporations are often on a steady diet that burns and reduces costs, continually. To survive, and to do more, requires leaders with the new skills sets of advocacy, invitation, and orchestration. Rising and recovering organizations from complacency requires the exercise of these new skills. We look forward to discussing and to working with you on these issues.

On Monday, it's Detroit. If it's Wednesday, it must mean St. Louis. Before arriving home late Friday, there are countless meetings, a constantly buzzing Blackberry, and too many calls and emails unreturned. By the way, what happened to the conference call and your daughter's birthday? We've commented frequently on travel and leadership in the past, seeking to discover how do increasingly mobile leaders successfully blend work and life. Here are five strategies:

1. Accept the fact that you are not superhuman. I've yet to meet a person fortunate enough to be born with a giant "S" on their chest. However, we also work with many people who are always responding to more responsibility. You know the adage, "If you want something done, ask a busy person." The secret of these busy people is that they are successful at expanding their networks, and therefore their influence. Step one is to pay attention to your networks.

2. Find an inner-source of strength. While it's true that successful blend occurs as a result of our relationship with others, successful work-life blenders also have an intrapersonal source for refreshing, renewing, and replenishing energy reserves. What's that reserve for you?

3. Mow. Your lawn grows because you cut it regularly. You maintain it. Discovering successful blend requires the skill of letting go. Let go of your worries, or try reducing them in some way. Throw away what you don't need. Unpack the box that's been unopened for a year. The failure to mow the lawn results in some form of strangulation. Something similar occurs in human experience. Pay attention to your balance by regularly removing clutter from your life.

4. Find a new perspective; open a new vista. Ruts get in our way of success. I have observed managers miss the leadership threshold because of repetition. They become so comfortable with a working approach that they fail to open up new possibilities for themselves and others by taking risks. You're already familiar with "If you've always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always gotten." Here's your chance to find greater balance in your life by changing your perspectives.

5. CEOs come and go in organizations, but in your life, you only have one for a lifetime - you! Remember that you are the CEO of your life. Build a Board of Directors or an Advisory Board to assist you in life. Make sure you cultivate and love those relationships to produce superior lifetime returns.

If any of these five steps seem difficult for you, take heart to the message. Several responses are possible, and we're working with leaders on these issues. We offer workshops designed to assist leaders and others with developing work and life blend. Stay tuned for our upcoming workshops.

Exhilaration. Joy. Passion. Engagement. When you last encountered a leader, what were you feeling? Did your feelings include any of those listed? In the presence of leaders, human ability and spirit is encouraged. We feel better about ourselves; we're encouraged to become more. We have a renewed, if temporary, capacity to act. This natural psychic expansion occurs in the presence of great leaders. How can we, as leaders and leadership developers, extend the feelings that create a bias for action? We need to create better programs and more opportunities for others to interact with leaders.

Think of the leaders in your organization. If they're similar to executives in other organizations, they share a common crunch with the clock. Executives may be pressed for time and it's probably unreasonable for us to expect that leaders can free more time for more meetings. But maybe we've sheltered corporate leaders too much. Maybe our protection of their time contributes to the increasing cynicism and suspicion of corporate leaders. As a leader, or with your leaders, try to discern how much time that you are spending on development activities. What's a reasonable amount of time for development for a senior executive leader in your organization?

The feelings identified in the first paragraph aren't necessarily shortchanged in leadership development programs. We can design situations and settings that facilitate close encounters with leaders in informal and relaxed settings. We can do this while minimizing the drain on executive time. We need to consider how to develop intimacy with leaders so that we ignite others to greater action. The leadership crisis and shortage demands our attention to the development of diverse strategies that bring more people into leadership.

Some organizations actively manage executive calendars for top talent and high-potential development time. Other organizations create one-to-many mentoring programs, designed with a focus on learning as opposed to meeting. The careful blend of individual and programmatic focus on leadership development contributes to one-on-one development. The new one-to-one activities in leadership development expand opportunities for leaders and organizations to make worthwhile personal and organizational contributions. Success in the one-to-one endeavor requires an ability to enlist others; that's an exercise of personal leadership!

Too often our focus is narrow in leadership development. We worry about getting someone ready for the next assignment. We think in terms of the next six months or the next year. Gone are the days of 15 year development timelines. However, the focus in leadership development is often provincial. The provincial focus arises from a scarcity mentality. It's justified by the statement, "Why should we prepare leaders for other organizations?" When you hear this or similar questions, it's likely you're in the presence of a great manager! Leaders respond, and make us respond differently.

Our communities are often in short supply of leaders. Organizations of substance can contribute to the development of community leadership capacity in significant ways. Here are four strategies:

1. Have your organization's top talent meet with leaders from different walks of life. Instead of spending their development time with leaders from the same organization, have them meet with leaders in the arts, in education, or in politics. Get them exposed to others who are exercising leadership beyond the confines of your organization's walls, regardless of size.

2. Encourage others to serve their communities; create real possibilities for service. Many community organizations can benefit from the vitality of young leaders - these organizations need the energy and skills that youthful leaders bring. The benefits and returns to your organization are enormous. You create more "interesting" people and build new reservoirs of civic pride.

3. Find out the interests of your top talent and high potential leaders through the development of individual value propositions. Finding out what makes these leaders "tick" enables the opportunity to bridge corporate leadership to civic leadership. Find real work that combines board service and hands-on service. It's likely that new opportunities in this arena will expose developing leaders to more of the world around them.

4. Explore this topic in earnest this year. Find someone you admire who is involved in the community and talk with them. A balanced person not only makes a contribution to his or her family and organization, but also contributes to their community. Find someone who models community leadership and consider how you, or your organization, can encourage greater community involvement of leaders.