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October 2004

ANNOUNCEMENTS

HAVE YOU SEEN THE ARROW IN THE FED EX LOGO?
Look Hard. When you see it, you will see why it is such a terrific logo.

Herb Rubenstein Consulting HIRED TO PROMOTE NOVA RAY, INC. PRODUCTS

Herb Rubenstein Consulting has been hired by NOVA RAY, Inc., www.novaray.com, to help promote the company’s world class, underwater robotic surveillance and investigation systems. Over ten years in the development stage, these remotely operated vehicles solve challenging problems faced by many nations, ports, commercial seagoing vessels, ocean/sea based platforms and submerged structures. Allowing the camera’s “eye” to go where humans can not go, Nova Ray’s technology expands the reach of human protection and investigation into our vast oceans, seas and lakes. The industrial, environmental, defense, scientific and energy related breakthroughs that are possible from Nova Ray’s products are just starting to be realized. For more information about Nova Ray products, you can contact the founder and president, Marc Geriene, marc@novaray.com, at 425-825-0654 or 206 331-2667 or contact Herb Rubenstein at herb@herbrubenstein.com.

Herb Rubenstein Consulting BEGINS WORK ON THE BOOK:
THE NEW LEADERSHIP ERA: THE HANDBOOK FOR DEFINING YOUR ROLE IN THE 21ST CENTURY

Through our work on leadership development, and my role as a member of the Board of Directors of the International Leadership Association, we at Herb Rubenstein Consulting have made a unique discovery: The New Leadership Era is upon us. Therefore, I am writing my second book entitled, The New Leadership Era: The Handbook for Defining Your Role in the 21st Century. This book will have an Introduction by former Governor Richard Lamm, and a Foreword by Dr. Howard Prince, former Dean of the Jepson School of Leadership and currently Director of the Center for Ethical Leadership of the LBJ School of Public Affairs. The book will go far beyond describing the nine or ten modern leadership theories and the ninety brands of leadership currently on the market. It will show in ten years there will be many times the number of “leaders” than existed just ten years ago.
The outline of the book is as follows: The New Leadership Era: The Handbook for Defining Your Role in the 21st Century

Foreword by Dr. Howard Prince, Ph.D
Introduction by Richard Lamm

Chapter 1: The New Leadership Era: The Imperative and the Opportunity
Chapter 2: Explaining Leadership: Theories, Practices, Styles and Brands
Chapter 3: Leadership of Organizations - The Role of Leaders of Leaders
Chapter 4: Leadership and Change
Chapter 5: Leadership, Entrepreneurism and Enterprises - The Role of Boards of Directors
Chapter 6: Leadership and Ethics
Chapter 7: Leadership, Culture, Gender and Race
Chapter 8: Leadership and Information Technology
Chapter 9: Leadership: Your Guide to Freedom and Personal Responsibility
Chapter 10: Leadership, Lawyers and the Legal Profession
Chapter 11: Leadership, the Health Care Industry and the Health Care Professions
Chapter 12: Leadership in Politics and Government
Chapter 13: Leadership Failures: Summary of Examples, Lessons Learned and Solutions
Chapter 14: The Long Run Implications of the New Leadership Era
Chapter 15: Conclusion: Your Role in Creating and Sustaining The New Leadership Era

This book will describe, as no other book has before it, how major social, technological, political and educational trends will shape the coming explosion in the number of “leaders” who will help shape the 21st century.

The New Leadership Era: The Handbook for Defining Your Role in the 21st Century will take a historical view of leadership (sources of leadership power and the evolution of the means to implement leadership). It will also show that in the past to be a “leader” a person usually needed a strong organization and significant financial capital behind him or her. Now things have changed permanently. Leaders will come from all walks of life and there will be many more of them than history has ever seen.

Profound shifts in technology, economics, politics, and in society will cause “leadership” (defined as either the power/ability to influence others or the ability to create and fulfill worthwhile opportunities by honorable means) to be distributed and expanded in countries and societies to many more people than was ever possible or even desirable before. One good example of what is already happening is that Boys and Girls Clubs of America now have 32,000 board members! I used to be Chairman of one of the local Boys and Girls Clubs. The YM and YWCA’s have similar huge numbers of board members. Leadership opportunities are cropping up minute by minute and currently there is no book that is documenting and supporting this revolutionary dynamic in society.

There are important societal reasons for this huge and important transformation in the world regarding leadership. This huge expansion in leadership roles and responsibilities is taking place for the following reasons:

First, the education/knowledge/skills needed to be a leader can be gained today by a very broad group of people through volunteerism, on the job training, action and classroom learning, grass roots experience, plus the creation and distribution of courses through the internet and IT/multimedia tools that can give an individual strong leadership skills and aptitude. Before the internet, before the explosion of entrepreneurism, small businesses, the proliferation of nonprofit organizations, and before the “free agent” nation that Tom Peters talks about, it was very hard to get the training, education, knowledge and experience to be a good leader. Now, it is easier. There is more incentive for people to strive to become leaders, and in many societies there is less risk (personal, physical and financial) in seeking to become a leader. Therefore leaders can “pop up” in a relatively short time frame, rather than arrive at a leadership position through 20 years of working for the same organization to rise to the top.

Second, leadership opportunities are becoming much more plentiful with the growth of more organizations, more democracies, more decentralization in all organizations and the ease of creating new organizations to address specific market, social or political needs. This is happening not only in advance, developed nations, but all over the world.
Third, one barrier in the past to “leaders” sharing power and authority was their unwillingness to let go of their control. This is certainly still true today. However, more and more, as leaders of today become the leaders of leaders tomorrow, once they see themselves in that role of leading leaders, rather than micromanaging followers on a minute by minute basis, they will be more willing to let go of trying to manage the “small tasks” so that they can create platforms for their organizations and lead at a macro level. While many micromanagers will never give up their stripes, this book will pave the way so that leaders who allow greater independence and leadership at lower levels of their organizations will quickly be able to see the rewards that will come to them by promoting and supporting the creation of strong leaders throughout their organizations.

Fourth, leadership opportunities would be limited without the great explosion of information technology, without the internet, and without the improvement of agricultural capabilities allowing for less of people’s time devoted to subsistence activities throughout the world. These changes are leading the way toward an explosion of leadership opportunities.

To review, several key forces are greatly expanding the number of “leaders” and the number of potential leaders in the world. These forces include:

• Greater distribution of education today and an even broader distribution of education worldwide over the next two decades
• The advances in IT and the ability of one person to communication with millions of others
• The rising standards of living in the world
• The reduction of barriers to start and lead businesses, nonprofits
• The greater openness of societies that allows people to get themselves into “leadership positions.”

These forces will contribute to the exponential multiplying of leadership roles, opportunities and participants much more broadly than ever before. Our book, The New Leadership Era: The Handbook for Defining Your Role in the 21st Century will change the entire concept of “leadership” from an elitist concept to a more democratic, more broadly based concept and will be a call for people all over the world to begin to get trained, get the experience, devote the time and energy, and accept the duties and responsibilities that “leadership” requires in the 21st Century.

The book will document how all of these social trends are combining in a way the book will show people who are currently leaders how to become “leaders of leaders” and show people who may not think of themselves as leaders, that they have a new opportunity of becoming a leader in the future. The book will show people that it is certainly worth the effort for them to attempt to become a leader, both in terms of what they might be able to contribute to or receive from the world by doing so, and how they can improve their own “human capital” by striving to become a leader.
Herb Rubenstein Consulting is currently thinking hard about the economics and the distribution aspects of this book. We would appreciate any suggestions you might have in this regard. I do not have any bulk purchasers in mind yet, but I am thinking along those lines as companies and nonprofit organizations (like LifeNet, Inc., Volunteers of America, Boys and Girls Clubs of America, YWCA and United Way) that want to have more “distributed” leadership throughout their organizations, could buy our book for many of their employees to help promote this goal. Other organizations might want to sell our book, including associations like ASTD (70,000 members), SHRM (140,000 members), the Society for the Leadership of Change.

I will be talking with agents and publishing houses and request your suggestions in this regard. Herb Rubenstein Consulting has made arrangements, if necessary, to publish this book in early 2005 by Herb Rubenstein Consulting Press, with the cover created by Information Experts, Inc., if this strategy appears to be the most appropriate given our goals for the book. This book will be part of the Herb Rubenstein Consulting strategy to support the development of its new courses on Leadership for Lawyers, and Leadership in Information Technology and expansion of its work with Boards of Directors.

If you want to submit some of your writings (and be cited or acknowledged in the book) or want to recommend the writings of others to be reviewed during our research phase for this book, please submit the writings or links to the writings to herb@herbrubenstein.com before December 1, 2004. Also, if you want to be notified by email when the book becomes available, please let me know. Finally, if you know of any association, organization, or company that may want to bulk purchase or sell copies of this book, please forward this information to me as well.

Thank you in advance for your interest.

ARTICLE

Best Friends Foundation, Inc., the character education and abstinence oriented program directed to youth in the United States, is now seeking applicants for the position of National Program Manager for the all girls, 5th-12th grade Best Friends program. See the job description below and for more information on the position, and to send resumes, please contact Dawn Carter, Office Manager, DCarter@bestfriendsfoundation.org or contact me herb@herbrubenstein.com You can gain additional information on this position from Best Friends and their new address as of November 1st:

Best Friends Foundation
5335 Wisconsin Avenue, NW
Suite 440
Washington, DC 20015

www.bestfriendsfoundation.org
202.478-9677

National Best Friends Program Manager
Position Description

Summary

The National Best Friends Program Manager is responsible for the implementation of the replication of the model Best Friends program in communities outside the Washington, DC metropolitan area. This position provides technical assistance to school systems that are operating or wish to operate a Best Friends program. The National Best Friends Program Manager is responsible for the successful operation of the Best Friends replication sites throughout the United States. This position reports to the Director of Programs and the President.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the central contact point for all calls and correspondence from replication sites requesting advice, information, and materials from the Foundation. Forward requests to the appropriate Foundation staff member and track action to ensure that a response has been made in a timely manner. Also keep the President informed of the status of calls and correspondence in need of response from the Foundation.
• Monitor the distribution of Best Friends curriculum materials and merchandise to the replication sites.
• Coordinate with the Finance Director the monthly inventory report of necessary curriculum materials, merchandise and other requisite items for national sites.
• Work with the Finance Director to offer technical assistance to national sites in regards to troubleshooting merchandise and curriculum materials back orders.
• Coordinate the duplication, distribution, tracking and collection of the pre and post surveys for national sites. Collect accurate attendance rosters and student departure forms included with each school’s collected pre / post surveys.
• Develop strong communications and working relationships with replication site school districts, program staff and school principals to ensure the quality delivery of the program and report problems and successful cooperation to the Director of Programs and the President.
• Manage the planning and execution of Best Friends Foundation National Training. This may be in the form of a single national conference or several smaller regional conferences.
• Maintain a networked national database of all Best Friends program participants, administrators and coordinators.
• Maintain all files and correspondence with replication sites, ensuring that documents are properly filed (electronically and hard copies).
• Prepare travel itineraries, make travel arrangements and package items needed for national program site visits. Keep a file of all site visit report submissions and follow up on information reported.
• Monitor replication site programs through frequent communications and site visits to ensure adherence to the terms of the License and Participation Agreement, making recommendations to replication site personnel on needed improvements and keeping the Director of Programs and the President apprised of problems and success.
• Provide information about replication sites on a regular basis to the Foundation’s Newsletter editor for inclusion in Foundation publications and press announcements.
• Provide general assistance and counsel on the operation of curriculum components and discussion of curriculum topics to replication sites.
• Manage national Program Department interns.
• Publicly represent and promote the Best Friends Foundation as a speaker / presenter.
• Teach curriculum sessions in the Washington, DC metropolitan area schools as assigned.
• Manage the national Best Friends program budget in coordination with the Finance Director.
• Contribute to the development of Best Friends curriculum and materials.
• Keep the President and the Director of Programs fully apprised of the progress of each replication site; bringing any legal, ethical or potential public relations problem to their attention.
• Introduce communities to the Best Friends curriculum, talking to educators, community leaders, media, parents and girls.
• Publicly represent and promote the Best Friends Foundation as a speaker / presenter.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Requirements

• BS/BA major in Education/Human Services/Policy or related field desired
• 5+ years experience working in direct service related field
• Current driver’s license
• Supervisory and management experience
• Excellent written and oral communication skills
• Computer skills including word processing

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