How the Budweiser Frogs Illustrate the 3 C’s of Leadership
The skills and behaviors of leadership are accessible to anyone with average intelligence. Being smart helps, but it isn’t necessary.
Effective leadership is challenging, but the next step usually isn’t complicated. The challenge is taking it.
(click the image to see the commercial)
3 C’s of Meaningful Leadership:
The Budweiser commercial from 1995 illustrates three dynamic skills that lead to meaningful leadership.
Connect:
One frog is a boring bud. Three frogs sell beer. (You really should watch the commercial.)
- Isolation limits effectiveness.
- Standing aloof dilutes influence.
Leaders need others. You’d look foolish running a meeting in an empty room.
Consider yourself ‘one of’, not ‘one above’. A leadership role doesn’t make you better than the people you work with.
The more you work-with the more effective you become.
Distance is ignorance, fear, arrogance, or all three.
Connection is as simple as:
- Genuine curiosity.
- Belief in others.
- Supporting people when they challenge themselves.
Contribute:
Each Budweiser Frog contributes.
Contribute-to if you aspire to connect-with.
Contribution enhances meaning and strengthens connection. Perhaps you aren’t contributing-TO because you’re worried about the contribution OF others.
Who are you fighting-for? Ineffective leaders fight-for themselves.
Stop fighting-with and start fighting-for those imperfect others on your team.
Never use the imperfection of others as reason to disconnect, stand aloof, and complain.
Conform:
Conformity is the channel for meaningful contribution.
Think of individual musicians in an orchestra. Each brings their individual contribution in conformity or alignment with others.
You cannot do your own thing – in isolation – and contribute to something bigger than yourself.
A clear goal – along with talent, alignment, and humility – enables healthy conformity.
What leadership lessons might you see in the Budweiser Frogs?
What skills help leaders connect, contribute, and/or conform?
Good morning Dan;
Todays blog is great advice for Team building or being a good team player. Thats certainly not to say we all have to be like minded. But a ‘Maverick’ attitude can often be destructive to teams.
Your advice evoke a thought that I constantly remind myself when working with others while brainstorming important issues, ” there is but only one good reason to comment when in a meeting or otherwise addressing others – ( NEVER speak up unless your making something better for someone, or, something). To me, that is the true essence of a team player.
Cheers my friend
SGT Steve
P.S. misya Dan we need to reconnect!😉
Thanks SGT Steve. Good seeing you here. Happy New Year.
The rule of “Only open your mouth to make something better,” is one of the best and most important. Many of us would have less to say. 🙂
Let me know when you’re in the area. Cheers
Will do Dan. “Keep on keepn’ on!”
I learned if you are in a meeting or having a conversation and all you are thinking about is what you are going to say next? Then you are not really listening to the conversation going on. Its not about you its about what is going on. Oh and you can always tell when someone is doing it, their eyes start to move, they stop looking at you. At that point I just stop talking to them. Don’t just be a Bud be a Wiser team player.
So Dan, my challenge continues to be this one, “Supporting people when they challenge themselves.” What do you do when people (no matter how hard you push, prod, support) are only there to just go thru the motions and are not (even after many years) interested in challenging themselves. I seem to see so many of those people these days (internal and external), a number of us older grizzled types refer to them as the “lost” and they just do not want to be found.
This idea was everything to me “Who are you fighting-for? Ineffective leaders fight-for themselves.” I have worked for both types and the ones who fight for themselves only have left terrible carnage in their wake.
I dare few would/could take the Bud Frogs and make a leadership post and deliver usable advice. As always, well done.
Thanks Dan.
Cheers!
A supportive team is useful in making a leader connect, contribute and conform.
On you could make the connection between the Budweiser frogs and leadership. Great article!
Jon