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5 Things Strong Leaders Can Handle

Posted by on October 12, 2016

Leaders used to draw a lot of significance from being the smartest person in the room with all the answers. That position allowed them to be more directive in their leadership style because everyone else was there to simply carry out the plan. Now with such a high value being placed on collaboration, these key things posted by Forbes must be a part of a leaders approach:

“Here are five things strong managers — confident people who are not afraid to hire competent and honest team members like you — can handle easily. They aren’t afraid to have human conversations at work. They aren’t afraid to be taught by somebody who works for them.”

Great Leaders Take Responsibility And Give Credit

Posted by on October 7, 2016

I have always been an Alabama football fan since the days of Coach Bryant. One of the things I always appreciated about him was when we lost a game he always took the responsibility in the press conference and never cast blame toward the players or officials.

According to Jim Collins in his best seller Good to Great all great leaders do the very same thing. His team noticed this pattern in all of the very successful leaders and they called it the window and the mirror effect.

All great leaders would look out the window and give credit to other people and not themselves when things were going well. At the same time, they would look in the mirror to assume responsibility for failure and never blame bad luck or someone else when things went poorly.

The comparison companies did just the opposite. These leaders would look out the window to blame someone or something when they experienced negative results. When they did get it right they would look admiringly in the mirror and take all the credit with great fanfare.

We all need to apply this lesson on a personal level. It is always easy to justify our bad behavior when we can use what someone else said or did to hurt us as an excuse. Assuming personal responsibility for our attitudes, words and actions is the first major step in becoming a leader who is driven by character and not by the fading recognition of the crowd.

Categories: Leadership Development Organizational Culture Servant Leader | Comments Off on Great Leaders Take Responsibility And Give Credit

The 5 Phases of Project Planning

Posted by on October 5, 2016

One of the most recognized experts in the field of productivity is David Allen. He is the author of many books but probably is best known for Getting Things Done. I personally use Nozbe the software developed with his planning strategy as a framework.

The reason I like his approach is that in our day of many complicated business planning models he just keeps it simple. When a project is very large and complicated with many moving parts bring on Project Manager with all the charts and spreadsheets.

However, most of the things that we need to get done must start with the core principles of basic planning. If what we are doing cannot be defined in these simple steps then maybe it does not need to be done at all.

For every task that would be large enough to fit into the project category there are five key phases:

Defining purpose and principles
Outcome visioning
Brainstorming
Organizing
Identifying next actions

We must take the time to clearly define What we are doing and Why. Then we need to see that the end result will be better than our current reality. Once the vision is set, then we need a comprehensive plan on How to get there and Who is responsible for every major action item. Finally, and probably most important, what are the specific goals that need to be accomplished by the next meeting?

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The Number One Priority In Hiring

Posted by on September 28, 2016

I have hired a lot of people over the years from working in the corporate world to being involved with several different non-profits. I ultimately take all of the factors involved and put them into one of two major categories, character or competency.

Competency is the possession of the skill set, experience or aptitude to do a particular job with excellence. This can be accessed through a variety of performance evaluation tools and talking with references.

Character is the sum total of the moral and ethical qualities of an individual that is based on their core beliefs about life. This takes quite a bit longer to evaluate and many times references will give you only one side of the story.

I make sure I am able to spend a lot of informal time with the person so that I can eventually move beyond the interview script and hear their heart. I also never hire a key person without meeting their spouse.

The priority of evaluating this part of the person must take first place over all other qualifications. As a matter of fact, character has moved to the top of the list in the corporate world.

The first test in hiring anyone at General Electric under the leadership of Jack Welch was the character quality of integrity. He wrote, “people with integrity tell the truth and they keep their word. They take responsibility for past actions, admit mistakes, and fix them.”

Someone has well said, your ability may help get you to the top but it will be your character that will keep you there.

Categories: Leadership Development Staff Development | Comments Off on The Number One Priority In Hiring

6 Habits Of Trustworthy Leaders

Posted by on September 26, 2016

Trust is a hot topic and for all the right reasons. If you and your team have it, great things can be accomplished. Without it nothing gets done well. There are clearly things you can do to make deposits into your trust accounts and this Fast Company post lists some key ones:

“Do the people in your office trust you? Maybe not as much as you think they do. Consulting firm EY released its Global Generations 3.0 research which found that less than half of full-time workers between the ages of 19 and 68 place a “great deal of trust” in their employer, boss, or colleagues. Another recent survey from Globoforce’s WorkHuman Research Institute found that 80% of employees trust their colleagues, but only 65% trust senior leaders in their companies.”

Don't Light Your Own Fire

Posted by on September 23, 2016

We all understand that light is used in the Bible as a picture of truth, wisdom and understanding. It is important to daily walk in the light and not in the darkness which represents confusion, deception and lies.

Many times in our life we find ourselves in a position of asking God for specific light or guidance in a major life decision. We sincerely want His will and we completely trust His plans for our life. The hard part is when the light does not come and we find ourselves sitting in the darkness of not knowing what to do.

The great danger in waiting on God is that many times we will try to light our own fire because we so desperately want to move forward. We can justify this because the path we have chosen to walk is a good one and surely this is something God will bless. When we do this the scripture says that eventually all our manmade fires will go out and we will be in a far darker place than where we began.

The darkness that comes from lighting our own fire is the result of not being patient and trusting God’s perfect timing. The end result is feeling alone with fear and doubt as your constant companions.

The darkness that comes from waiting on God is the result of His wanting to reveal things to you about yourself that can only be found in a dark place. Even though the future may not be clear the present is because you are finally aware that He was with you in the darkness all along.

Waiting with Him is always better than walking ahead without Him.

Categories: Personal Leadership Spiritual Growth | Comments Off on Don't Light Your Own Fire

The Incredible Power Of Living In The Moment

Posted by on September 21, 2016

Many of us will lose some of the greatest blessings in life because we are not able to enjoy the life we already have today. Someone has well said that,” the measure of our peace of mind is determined by how much we are able to live in the present moment.”

Two mortal enemies that tend to rob us of the potential for today are the failures and pain from our past or the worries and fears about what may happen in the future. Mark Twain once said, “I have been through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened.”

We tend to live under the false illusion that one day I am going to get my priorities in order and then I will be able to do what I want and need to do. Happiness is always in the future tense because we never take the time to decide what is really important and what is not.

Every day we must say no to something because we live in a highly stressful world that demands more of us than we can possibly accomplish. The only way to consistently say no to the wrong things is to first know what you should be saying yes to on a daily basis.

One of the major yes things should be I want to live everyday with a grateful spirit and a peaceful mind so that I can really see what is good about my life. Then I can concentrate on getting the things done today that are important and before today is done I can make sure to enjoy the moment.

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5 Ways Effective Leaders Manage Their Emotions

Posted by on September 19, 2016

I try to assess situations based on facts not feelings. However, there is not a week that goes by that emotions don’t win and the negative results sometimes can be devastating. It hurts the team and it clearly causes me to loose trust as a leader. This post by Fast Company is well worth the read:

“Soft skills have garnered increasing attention in the workplace over the last 20 years. In fact, emotional intelligence is one of the fastest growing job skills, according to a report by the World Economic Forum.

Ironically, those are the very skills hiring managers say the latest crop of college graduates lacks as they’ve focused on honing their technological prowess. Yet managing our emotions effectively in the workplace is a major component of success for all of us.”

How To Decide Every Day What’s Next?

Posted by on September 16, 2016

This phrase became the mantra on the award winning series The West Wing. After every serious issue that had to be dealt with no matter how long the conversation or difficult the task the president would always ask what’s next?

That is a very good question that all of us have to answer each and every day regardless of whether we realize it or not. Inherent within the question is the intention to find the most important things on our must do list and place them at the top.

Most of us allocate a considerable amount of time to plan our weeks and certainly each individual day with pre-determined goals and priorities. However, in today’s wired culture we are constantly receiving new information throughout the day that must be processed.

David Allen is recognized as one of the nation’s leading experts on time management and personal productivity. In his book Getting Things Done he list four key criteria about processing new information that help him to answer the what’s next question:

Context—A few actions can be done anywhere but most require a specific location or having some productivity tool at hand, such as a phone or a computer. These are the first factors that limit your choices about what you can do in the moment.
Time available—When do you have to do something else? Having a meeting in five minutes would prevent doing many actions that require more time.
Energy available—How much energy do you have? Some actions you have to do require a reservoir of fresh, creative mental energy while others need more physical horsepower.
Priority—Given your context, time, and energy available, what actions will give you the highest payoff? This is where you need to access your intuition and begin to rely on your judgment call in the moment.

Categories: Leadership Development Pastoral Leadership Personal Leadership Productivity | Comments Off on How To Decide Every Day What’s Next?

The Value Of Significance In Life

Posted by on September 13, 2016

We all need to ask ourselves what we really want out of life. For many, it is success and all the outward benefits and rewards that come from achievement in the corporate culture of our day.

I will never forget an interview that I saw with Tom Brady after he had won his last Super Bowl. After he talked about all the fame and fortune he had achieved, he then made the following statement, “there has to be more to life than this.”

There is and it is called significance, which is all about adding value to other people. I have talked with a lot of people near the very end of their lives.

The common denominator for all of these conversations is that when it is all said and done all that really matters is have we made a difference in the lives of other people.

Today if we are not careful, we are in danger of reducing all of our important relationships down to a few words on a voice mail message, likes on social media or a picture attachment to a text message.

Can someone be professionally successful and realize personal significance at the same time? Absolutely.

Everyone who has accomplished both has come to the critical understanding that professional success is only the means to the end of having personal significance through helping other people.

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