Feb 25 2013
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ABC's of Leadership

Leadership is: You

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It starts with YOU

“Mastering others is strength. Mastering yourself is true power.” – Lao Tzu

John Maxwell says “The first person you must lead is yourself.”

In his January ’13 leadership podcast, A New You Resolution, Andy Stanley says, “before you know where you are going you must first know who you want to be.”

So what does all this mean for you? If you are going to successfully lead others, you must first know what kind of person you want to be, lead yourself in personal growth, and then in turn lead others.

There has been much written on self-improvement and it doesn’t seem advantageous to re-hash what has been exhausted in other realms. Rather, I want to recognize some indicators that we might need some self-improvement and growth.

Ask yourself these four questions:

1. Am I the smartest person in my circles – John Maxwell says,” if you’re consistently the smartest person in the class, you’re in the wrong class!” You need to graduate yourself and allow yourself to become the listener rather than the talker.

2. Am I around other people that are growing – If your immediate circle of influence isn’t growing, it is a good indication that you aren’t either.

3.  Am I a know-it-all – It has been said, the more I learn and know, the more I realize how much I don’t know. If you have a sense of “I’m the smartest guy in this place,” chances are you don’t know half of what you think you do.

4. Am I investing in myself consistently – It is very possible to have little hubris when it comes to your abilities, but to still be found wanting in some areas. If you do not have a personal growth plan, I highly suggest you get one.

Obviously this list isn’t exhaustive, but if you can answer yes to even one of these questions, chances are you have room for growth. If you need a place to start John Maxwell’s 15 Laws of Growth is a great starter’s mark!

What other questions would you add to the list?

What is it that you do for personal growth? 

Feb 24 2013
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ABC's of Leadership

Leadership is: Xanthocyanopsia (-si″ah-nop´se-ah)

Free image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Free image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

“Rubix cubes are easy when you’re colorblind.” – Unknown

Xanthocyanopsia: ability to discern yellow and blue tints, but not red or green. [Dug deep for this one!]

I was talking with a leader of an organization recently, and they were in need of hiring a person who could creatively take them to the next level when it came to creating sold out followers. Their processes have been effective thus far, however they could not sustain the current growth factor the way they were structured. What’s more, aspect of the organization had been the “baby” of the leader, but he knew in order for the organization to grow he had to step away from what he enjoyed doing to do what only he could do for his organization.

Most leaders struggle with this concept. They have started a business, club, church, etc. and in the early stages they were able to execute the tasks which they enjoyed. As the organization increases however, the leader becomes responsible for the overall growth and health of the organization, and has need to step away from the specific nuances of tasks that can, and should, be delegated. If a leader can not give up that “baby,” it creates a lack of focus for them because they will constantly be taking time away from “leader specific tasks” to work on a task that should be delegated to a capable individual. 

When there is a lack of focus the natural result is a lack of productivity. When we try to be good at many things we end up being good at nothing. The task we once enjoyed becomes a frustration because we can’t give it the time to make it great, or we give too much time to the task, and in the process we leave undone the imperative tasks of our organization.

In Timothy Ferriss’ 4 Hour Work Week he discusses the Pareto Principle where 20% of your work produces 80% of your results. Good leaders not only recognize the tasks that only they can do, they recognize the tasks the that yield the best results. They become colorblind. They focus on what is pertinent to their organization’s success, and they ignore (aka: delegate) the rest.

Which tasks are you holding onto that you need to delegate?

Which tasks are yielding your best results? (don’t delegate those)

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Feb 23 2013
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ABC's of Leadership

Leadership is: Winning

Celebrating wins is guarding against failures

“A champion needs a motivation above and beyond winning” – Pat Riley

It is possible to turn winning, experiencing success, into a habit; unfortunately, the same is also true for losing. In today’s world the difference between winning and losing is the same difference between having a job and finding yourself unemployed.

If we want our teams to develop a habit of winning, as leaders we must consistently do these three things:

  1. Recognize wins – Wins come in all shapes and sizes, and we must allow our idea of what a win is to change with our circumstances. We can simplistically define a win as any action or result that moves us towards our goal. When we start to define wins this way, we will be able to recognize more of them.
  2. Celebrate wins – Recognizing a win is only the first part of making winning a habit. Our next step is celebrating the wins. When someone’s actions moves us closer to our goals, celebrate it. Celebrations can be as simple as publicly praising them in front of the team, writing them a thank you card, bragging on their work and effort.*NOTE: You get more of what you praise, be sure to celebrate moving closer to the goal rather than the specific action. If you praise the specific action you will get more of that action, not necessarily actions moving you towards the goal.
  3. Create wins – Sometimes we have team members that are struggling to win, or even worse, struggling to believe they can win. When we create wins for team members we help cultivate their habit of winning. Creating wins can be done a number of ways. Here are a couple of ideas: Allow that team member to take the final step that completes a project, and then brag about their finishing touches; Set them up with an easily achievable task. This isn’t cheating, this is helping them establish the momentous habit of winning.

Few people are motivated enough to reach their goals on their own, let alone someone else’s goals for them. If our teams are going to consists of winners we must help cultivate a winning mentality.

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Feb 22 2013
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ABC's of Leadership

Leadership is: Vision

Vision casting is more than saying what you see

“It is a terrible thing to see and have no vision.” – Helen Keller

Dreams, Goals, and Purpose are all necessary when pursuing a desired result; however, all of these are useless if they aren’t encompassed by a compelling vision!

A simple way of thinking about vision is:what could and should be, but isn’t there, yet!

Extraordinary leaders see what isn’t there, figure out how to get there, and then communicate the vision in such a way that others can attach themselves to that vision and get there with them.

According to John Maxwell‘s “The 360* Leader”

Here are 8 ways to be an effective vision caster! (or if you’re Andy Stanley, a “visionier”) Continue reading →

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Feb 21 2013
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ABC's of Leadership

Leadership is: Understanding

Is a lack of communication and understanding acceptable to us?

A point of view can be a dangerous luxury when substituted for insight and understanding. – Marshall McLuhan

As leaders it is easy to get caught up in our tasks. We desire for our team members to know and understand what it is we need and want from them, and if we aren’t careful we won’t give them a second thought unless something involving them is hindering our own process.

Once, I asked for a consistent weekly meeting with my leader to give direct reports and to stay on the same page (have understanding). They responded with, “I didn’t think you were that immature that you need me to hold your hand.” To be honest, my relationship with that leader lost some of its luster that day. From that point on, it felt like a lack of understanding and communication between us was acceptable.

So you don’t lose your shine, here are 3 steps to winning over your employees by Inc. Magazine: http://www.inc.com/3-steps-to-winning-over-your-employees.html

When we don’t communicate for mutual understanding with our team members it is a recipe for disaster! In reality, lack of communication and understanding will drive away your high performers. I’ve written about some habits of effective communication here and here.

Carl Robinson, from Advanced Leadership Consulting, has a great list on more of what drives away great performers here: http://leadershipconsulting.com/why-great-employees-quit.htm

In order to be effective, understanding leaders, we must practice these 2 habits:

Continue reading →

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