Category Archive: Personal Leadership

Leadership Demands Authenticity

Posted by on May 1, 2009

There are many generational issues that have to be resolved between the Baby Boomer generation of existing leaders and the Next Generation workforce that is coming onto the scene.  The old positional power model of simply telling everyone what to do and they automatically follow with no desire for involvement in the process is gone.

Potentially the single greatest leadership quality new leaders are looking for from those in positions of responsibility is authenticity.  They place a high value on working with people that are real and genuine compared to others who like to play mind games.

A leader must know who they are personally and what they believe are the core values for themselves and the organizations they lead.  Then when the hard decisions must be made and there are many of them today, everyone on the team will trust their motives instead of questioning them.

Jack Welch placed a very high value on authenticity for his top leadership team.  In his book Winning he wrote, “Leaders can’t have an iota of fakeness.  They have to know themselves-so that they can be straight with the world, energize followers, and lead with the authority born of authenticity.”

There is nothing better at the end of a long day than to look back and know that all your actions were consistent with your character.  No more playing games just keeping it real.

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Promises We Make

Posted by on April 30, 2009

We all struggle with the commitments we make either to ourselves about eating a healthier diet or to someone else about something we said we would do and simply forgot. When we want to take our commitment to the next level we start making promises.

A promise is defined as a declaration that something will or will not be done and there is assurance given and an expectation created.  Promises should be reserved for the top priorities and the people we care about the most.

One promise we should all be willing to make to the people that matter is that I will carefully listen to what you have to say.  As Stephen Covey said in Seven Habits of Highly Effective People we should first seek to understand the other person before we ask to be understood.

Our motives are no longer to show how smart we are, win the argument or avoid pain.  We sincerely want to understand what the other person is thinking and feeling to the point we acknowledge their value as a person.

Listening involves time and a willingness to be patient until we have embraced all that the other person wanted to share.  Think of at least one person in your life today that you really care about and make a promise that I will lay down my agenda for the benefit of someone else.

Are you listening?

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I Incorporated

Posted by on April 29, 2009

Many of us have some type of leadership responsibility at work.  We are involved in setting goals, identifying priorities, problem solving and even casting vision.  Over the years we develop a skill set that enables us to do all of these things and more.

There is a lot of culture shift taking place in the corporate world from the old days of working with one company your entire career to now almost viewing yourself as a free agent always looking for best situation. 

There are many good aspects to this new reality and some that are not.  This shift in expectations should never excuse us from coming to work every day and performing with excellence regardless of how long we stay in one place.

The important truth for all of us to realize is that we are The Leader and The C.E.O. of our own life.  We have a responsibility to lead ourselves before we can effectively add value to other people.

We need to take this same skill set that has served us well at work and start applying the same disciplines at home.

 What are the priorities and goals that you have for your life that are based on your core values?

Are they written down and do you evaluate your progress just like you would on any project at work?

 Do you have a vision for where you want your personal life to be in one, two, and even five years down the road?

Someone has well said, you will be the same person five years from now that you are today except for two things, the books you read and the people you know.  That is great advice for any new C.E.O. including you.

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The Window and The Mirror

Posted by on April 28, 2009

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.

 

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Leadership Demands Courage

Posted by on April 27, 2009

A legend from India tells about a mouse who was terrified of cats until a magician agreed to transform him into a cat.   That resolved his fear until he met a dog, so the magician changed him into a dog.  The mouse-turned-cat-turned-dog was content until he met a tiger—so , once again, the magician changed him into what he feared.

But when the tiger came complaining that he had met a hunter, the magician refused to help.  “I will make you into a mouse again, for though you have the body of a tiger, you still have the heart of a mouse.”

Courage is defined as the quality of mind or spirit that enables a person to face difficulty, danger and pain without fear.  In the economic environment we find ourselves in today there are many things that we could choose to fear.

What we desperately need today are leaders who possess the character to make the hard calls that will help us move through this crisis and into a brighter future.  In this day when the pace of change seems to be moving at the speed of light there will seem to be a new danger around every corner.

When Jim Collins describes the type of leaders that led their organization to greatness they possessed two key qualities.  They are individuals with extreme personal humility and an unwavering resolve to do whatever must be done to produce the best long term results, no matter how difficult.

Great leaders are certainly human but on the inside they possess the heart of a lion and not of a mouse.

 

 

 

 

 

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Definition of Balanced Life

Posted by on April 24, 2009

All of us feel like we have too many things to do and not enough time to do them.  We have priorities in many different areas: our career, family, relationships, entertainment, faith and own personal life.  We also fulfill many roles as employees, fathers, husbands, wives, mothers, and friends just to name a few.

Somehow we have developed this concept that true happiness and success comes when all of these areas and roles are in perfect balance.  It is as if they all have equal percentages of our time, energy and passion.

Realistically we all know that is an impossible goal to accomplish. Our career alone demands a ever growing disproportionate amount of our time and if you have a newborn child in your house all bets are off including time to sleep.

To me a balanced life means that all of these areas as well as our different roles will constantly be changing in the amount of resources they demand.  The critical factor is not to let anything that is important in your life be totally neglected to the point that you are now failing in that area because all of the other things have drained you to the point you have nothing left to give.

When you reach that point and we all do from time to time we must reprioritize our lives so that everything important gets its slot on our calendars.  This will mean that something else will have to get less or be eliminated all together.

Believe it or not sometimes we need to not go to the new latest and greatest parenting conference and just stay at home and play with our children.  Life can be crazy and its demands will change with each new day.

When you have the character and courage to assume the responsibility of leading your total life you will make sure that nothing major falls through the cracks.  Enjoy your day!!

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Walk The Talk

Posted by on April 23, 2009

Ultimately everything we do outwardly is driven by all of our inner attitudes about what is important and what is not.  If our actions are not what they should be we must first change what we believe to be true before we can see bad habits broken and new good ones take their place. 

I think the most important attitude you must draw from everyday is gratitude.  The media is almost totally focused on all that we are losing in this down cycle.  The pain is real and there are significant problems that must be solved.  However, almost all of us still have plenty to eat, a nice place to sleep and friends and family that care about us.  Think about what is really important today and be grateful.

The second important thing to me is hope.  As we deal with the reality of lost jobs and endless bad news we must have a picture of a better day ahead.  Hope fuels a positive attitude about life when the majority of people are negative.  We may not be able to change the global economy or Wall Street but we can change ourselves. 

Finally we must be people who are committed.  Your passion about life is what will move you beyond the pain of the present.  The promises we make and keep to ourselves and the people we care about the most is the sum total of who you really are as a person.  If what say you believe is not moving you to act everyday then you really did not believe it after all. 

Remember the old saying, what you do speaks so loudly I cannot hear what you say.

 

 

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Personal Crisis

Posted by on April 20, 2009

When negative things are happening in your life and you feel like you are in a deep hole and cannot see how to get out there are three key personal leadership disciplines that will help you get your positive momentum back.

The first is perspective.  When things are not going well today it is very important to put the present in the context of the long look that includes both the past and the future.  All of life both the good and the bad tend to run in cycles.  You cannot choose many times the circumstances about what happens to you but it is your responsibility to choose how you respond to them. 

Adversity in life will either make you a better person or a bitter one and that choice is within your control.  The key thing about your past is you must learn from it but never live in it.  Failure never has to be final unless we let it.

The same is true about the future.  You can choose to watch the news 3 hours a day and live with fear, worry and doubt or you can be grateful for what you have and face the future with hope and a positive attitude. 

The second personal leadership discipline in dealing with change is priorities.  The one incredibly good thing about a down cycle is that it always forces us to separate what is important in life from what is not. 

We must start by not asking the question what have I lost but what do I still have?  I would encourage you to write down everything that is still in your life that is important and when you see it all you will be amazed by how blessed you really are.

Someone has well said the tragedy of life is not that it ends so soon but we wait so long to begin it.  Regardless of your age or stage of life this dramatic period of change we are all going through is the perfect time for you to decide how you want to spend the rest of your life.  If you need some help get a life coach to walk through this process with you.

The third discipline to deal with change is to be proactive.  When some people face dramatic change they choose to live in denial as if this is not really happening to me.  On the other extreme others know the change is real to the point of becoming emotionally depressed about their new state of life.

I must assume personal responsibility to change myself first and start leading myself by making good daily decisions before my life can begin to turn around in different direction.  The only way to do that is to do what you can with what you have right where you are and do it today with all your heart.

 

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Just Don't Do It

Posted by on April 9, 2009

Just Do It is a phrase that has come to represent the cultural mentality of an entire generation of Americans. The sheer discipline that is represented in those three words has pushed many of us to do things that otherwise we would have walked away from and left undone.

In my life the major point of application is in the area of physical fitness. When it is cold and dark outside most of us do not want to jump out of bed and go for a nice run when the temperature is in the twenties and the wind is blowing. In some small but very effective way, thinking about Just Do It can make the difference between turning over and getting up.

An even bigger problem for most of us is the daily discipline of learning how to say No. Everyday all of us will have more to do than we can possibly get done. It happens at work, at home, with friends and hobbies.

The real secret to success in life is in knowing on a daily basis what to say No to and walk away. The real tragedy of life is when we look back and realize even though we have been incredibly busy we have done so many things that were really not important at all.

I don’t know about you but the Just Do It mentality has pushed me beyond my limits too many times. I do not want to waste my time, energy, passion and relationships on things that do not add value to others.

I encourage you to just pick one thing a day for a week that you can say No to so that you can have the time to find your bigger Yes.

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Passion

Posted by on April 8, 2009

One of my favorite definitions for passion is a strong or extravagant fondness, enthusiasm, or desire for anything.  For most of us we could think of several things we are passionate about, family, friends, health, recreation, career and our faith.

As we enter into this week and take a few moments to reflect on The Passion of Christ I hope we do not miss His incredible grace in our lives.  For many of us we will go to church this Sunday and celebrate Easter and the resurrection.

My sincere desire for my life is that my passion for Christ goes far beyond my passion for anyone or anything else in this life.  The only way I know that is true on a daily basis is to make sure that the things that I am doing are important to Him.

I must not settle for mere religion when I have been called to a meaningful relationship.  Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.

 

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