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Category Archive: Church Scattered

How Trust Accelerates Success

Posted by on August 15, 2018

Every day we have limited data to use to evaluate people and situations before we reach conclusions and make decisions. It is critical when working with your people to be able to place trust in that gap both ways. The team needs to be able to trust the leaders and the leaders must believe in the team. This Forbes post is a great read:

“Trust is one of the hottest topics in today’s global conversations. Whether we’re talking about so-called fake news or benchmarking a company’s reputation for integrity and ethics, the importance of trust to an organization or business is undeniable.

It may seem obvious that a misuse of trust is bad for a company’s bottom line. We’ve read enough about data leaks, shareholder deception and corporate scandals in the news to understand how a company can damage its reputation and relationships through bad behavior.”

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What Busy Leaders Really Need From Their Spouses

Posted by on August 8, 2018

My passion is to help develop leaders so they can fully integrate their personal and professional lives. This is not about balance but the willingness to be a great leader in every area of your life. If you don’t develop the ability to lead yourself first and then at home you can forget reaching your potential at work. This post by Andrea Williams was excellent:

“With divorce rates hovering between 40 and 50 percent, experts spend countless hours discussing the reasons why so many Americans can’t make their marriages work. Arguments over money, sex, and kids are perennial fire starters. But there’s another issue that is critically important—especially for husbands and wives with demanding careers.”

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5 Ways To Avoid Burnout At Work

Posted by on August 6, 2018

The constant stress that we all deal with everyday in many ways is caused because of the almost constant connectivity we have with data. Yes, a major part comes from work but also from the media and many social platforms we chose to engage with the rest of the day. The solution is a combination of emotional intelligence and leadership development. This Forbes post is helpful:

“Everything’s going great at work. You’re operating on all cylinders, moving quickly. You’re saying yes to everything, taking on all the projects, and it seems like nothing can stop you.

Until one day, it hits you like a ton of bricks. Exhaustion and stress prevail, and you’re completely fried. You are officially burned out.”

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Nine Steps To Develop Leadership Discipline

Posted by on August 3, 2018

Great leadership is a combination of having the discipline to execute daily on major priorities while at the same time keeping one eye on your market and competition. Operational excellence is demanded but you must create a culture where strategic innovation can thrive. The Forbes Coaches Council always delivers:

“Business leaders have a tough job. They must manage themselves, lead others and keep the organization heading in the right direction. They are ultimately accountable for the organization’s success. With this comes stress, fear and other emotions that can get in the way of leadership discipline.

Working with CEOs and entrepreneurs, I have the joy of working with some fantastic leaders. I see and experience their wins — their satisfaction of doing a good job. With that, I hear and see the personal struggles, the burden of people issues and the overall frustration that comes with leading.”

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3 Rules For Successfully Leading Other Leaders

Posted by on July 30, 2018

Human capital is the most important asset any organization has to make a difference. The company or team that can attract, train and retain the best of the best will accomplish great things. The leadership skill set required to lead these high potential leaders is different than leading front line management. This Forbes post is worth the read:

“Many of us get to manage others at some point. If we’re lucky, we’ll get to manage leaders who manage others. This adds a different dynamic.

When presented with this opportunity, leaders shouldn’t assume that the ranks will blindly follow them given their placement on the org chart. Sure, you’ve worked hard to climb the corporate ladder and earned your leadership position. But make no mistake; carrying this attitude too far when making hiring decisions can backfire.”

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Take A Break: Save Your Job, Marriage, Life

Posted by on July 27, 2018

I am doing some deep research in hopes of writing a book on work life integration. It is clearly a top of mind for all executive leaders and this post Rodger Dean Duncan had some great insights:

“It was Warren Buffett who said “the chains of habit are too light to be felt until they’re too heavy to be broken.” The sentiment perfectly describes the creep in both the amount of time people work and the locations where work is done. It’s an insidious pattern that fools people into believing that more hours worked automatically translates into more productivity.

Aaron Edelheit refuses to buy that myth. In The Hard Break: The Case for the 24/6 Lifestyle he makes a strong case for taking a weekly hard break or Sabbath. He’s not talking about just lounging all day. He advocates “doing something different that will allow you to test your brain and to potentially achieve some higher insight or understanding.”

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How To Build A True Following As A Leader

Posted by on July 25, 2018

The greatest need I see for leadership development among my clients is to learn how to effectively lead others without positional authority. I have seen a consistent pattern where leaders are ranked higher in all skill areas on 360’s by their direct reports than by their peers or corporate shared services partners. If you don’t build relational trust and sincerely want to invest in others you are in trouble. This Forbes post was excellent:

“Leadership is hard enough. Why make it harder trying to be all things to all people, hustling to be someone you’re not?

In reading Dr. Brené Brown’s book, Braving the Wilderness: The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone, my mind went to my clients and when they lead with their authentic leadership style. I’m always amazed by the freedom many of them feel when they let go of who they “should” be and show up as they are, creating a greater sense of belonging with their team.”

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You're Never Going To Be Caught Up At Work

Posted by on July 24, 2018

I will never forget the days when best practices productivity told us to plan every minute of our days for maximum effectiveness. The primary discipline then was stick with the plan and make sure you got everything done. Today, I block at least 20% of my day as open for new inputs that I know are going to blow up my best planning for the day. This HBR post helps take the guilt away:

“Most people I know have a to-do list so long that it’s not clear that there’s an end to it. Some tasks, even quite important ones, linger unfinished for a long time, and it’s easy to start feeling guilty or ashamed about what you have not yet completed.

People experience guilt and its close cousin shame when they have done something wrong. Guilt is focused internally on the behavior someone has committed, while shame tends to involve feeling like you are a bad person, particularly in the context of bad behaviors that have become public knowledge.”

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Great Leaders Are Confident, Connected, Committed And Courageous

Posted by on July 20, 2018

If you are in a significant leadership role and you hate conflict, then you might want to either move down into management or seek development. If you need the approval of the crowd then you will avoid the hard choices that will eventually lead the organization to failure. This HBR post delivers a clear message:

“In 25 years of working with leaders to do all the above, I have found a pattern that I share in my new book, Leading with Emotional Courage, consisting of four essential elements that all great leaders rely on to rally people to accomplish what’s important to them. To lead effectively — really, to live effectively — you must be confident in yourself, connected to others, committed to purpose, and emotionally courageous.”

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Rethinking Work-Life Balance: Whose Time Is It?

Posted by on July 18, 2018

Almost all executive coaches have some type of inbound form to identify areas that clients want to address during the coaching relationship. Without fail in the last 11 plus years, everyone’s form I have read has some form of work-life balance identified. Everyone is struggling with the problem and we don’t know how to fix it. This post by Tom Brand was helpful:

“Digital technologies are changing how we work as much as when we work. For many of us, the idea of the strict 9-to-5 workday is dead. Yet many companies and managers continue to operate under this outdated business model that requires employees to be on-site from morning to evening, five days a week.”

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