The Five Practices Of Leadership
Filed under: Goal Setting, Leadership Callling, Leading Change, Leading Churches, Personnel Development, Servant Leader
I am constantly reading new materials on leadership and occasionally I review great books from the past. One of the all time classics is The Leadership Challenge by James Kouzes and Barry Posner.
This very exhaustive book centers around these five simple but very powerful practices:
Model The Way-Find your voice by clarifying your personal values and set the example by aligning actions with shared values.
Inspire a Shard Vision-Envision the future by imagining exciting and ennobling possibilities and enlist others in a common vision by appealing to shared aspirations.
Challenge The Process-Search for opportunities by seeking innovative ways to change, grow, and improve and experiment and take risks by constantly generating small wins and learning from mistakes.
Enable Others to Act-Foster collaboration by promoting cooperative goals and building trust. Strengthen others by sharing power and discretion.
Encourage The Heart-Recognize contributions by showing appreciation for individual excellence and celebrate the values and victories by creating a spirit of community.
Leading By Storytelling
Filed under: Leadership Callling, Leading Churches, Vision Casting
Every leader is constantly trying to find new and creative ways to communicate the culture of their organization both internally and externally. I have found not better way than storytelling.
The simplest definition of storytelling is when you can link existing personnel, ongoing programming and outstanding performance then you have a story to tell. This will allow you to reinforce core values and celebrate success by acknowledging over and above situations that give credit to your people and remind everyone of what is really important.
In essence if you have no stories to tell then you are not performing in critical areas. The good news in most organizations there are character driven people that are doing an outstanding job. The bad news is their stories are not being told.
I have never seen this work informally by just asking people for outstanding results during a meeting or telling a few stories during annual meeting. This will probably require formalizing this entire process to create a system where stories can be routinely asked for and submitted to someone who can evaluate them and then find appropriate platform for communication.
This must not feel like a monthly performance review system where everyone is checked against their numbers. It needs to be like what happened great in your area this month that would encourage everyone in the organization to know.
The formula is simple existing personnel + ongoing programming + outstanding performance = Success. The only missing piece is telling the story.
Separation From Crowd
Filed under: Core Values, Customer Service, Leadership Callling, Personal Development
I really don’t like average, maintainence, mediocere, or status quo. I like over the top, excellence and the absolute best that can be done. Simply reason for me I am a Christian what else can I do in response to all that He has done for me.
The last place you normally look for greatness is at a fast food business. Most of the time the core values are price and speed without any serious thought for high end customer service. The one major exception for me is Chic-Fil-A where I always see a culture that values people over pricing and not a common get you out the door mentality.
I have been a regular customer at one fast food place lately and about once a week I have interaction with this one person who is always very friendly and makes sure to call you by your name as you leave with big thank you. Now that was all just nice because he was reading my name right off my debit card and that was more than usually get but still not really big deal.
That was until yesterday when I pulled up and he was in parking lot going home and I spoke to him about leaving so early. Then he did it, a major nice response with my name right where it has always been and no debit card in his hand. Wow, now I am impressed and big fan because he was going way beyond what is expected and taking it to max not at Ritz Carlton but at a hamburger stand.
In the impersonal high tech fast paced world we live in today you can really make a major impression by simply being nice to people and going the extra step to personally connect. It always has been about giving that last 10% of effort that separates greatness from simply good.
Next time I go back I am going to get his name and remember it. He has really inspired me and set the bar where it needs to be and I really hate just being one of the crowd. I want to be like Him!!!!!!!!!!
Don’t Shoot The Messenger
Filed under: Leadership Callling, Personnel Development, Servant Leader
Every leader likes to hear good news. We all want to be positive people who inspire others through our can do attitude. If we are not careful though we will surround ourselves with team members who will start to tell us what we want to hear and not what we need to know.
When you create a culture within your organization where the truth can be told you must not make the mistake of reacting every time you hear bad news or something negative. If you do, you are shutting yourself off from critical information that you must know and you have created an environment where your best people will eventually leave.
Jack Welch calls the lack of candor the biggest dirty secret in business. Avoiding conflict and hoping things will get better is the formula for failure especially in the realities of the new economy.
I am not talking about chronic negative whining people who never really want to solve the problem. They should not be tolerated within any organization because they are a cancer to your creativity and morale.
So the next time that person walks into your office who you know is drop dead loyal and they need to talk about a problem that must be addressed be grateful and listen they have got your back.
Busyness
Filed under: Family Ministry, Leadership Callling, Life Balance, Personal Development, Time Management
I always recieve the highest evaluation scores when I speek on the subject of how to set personal priorities for own life. The major point of my presentation is that we are all overscheduled because of the wireless connected culture we live in today and we must find a way to say no to many of the things that are robbing us of the priorities we care about the most.
I use a time matrix diagram developed by Stephen Covey that divides all of our daily lives into four quadrants that are based on the two variables of urgency and importance. Everything that is urgent demands some action immediately and the things that are important may not.
If something is urgent and important then it should be done. It could be a doctor’s appointment personally or a major project at work that is due this week. Hopefully for most of us at least the majority of our day should be spent in this category.
The next area is all the things that are urgent but not important. The blackberry is screaming for attention, the inbox is full and there are meetings on the schedule. The problem here is that we have assumed that because something is urgent it must be important.
Another very unproductive area includes the things that are not urgent but they are not important either. The danger here is that when we get home in the evening we want to run away and hide with hours of meaningless T.V. or surfing the net.
The single most important category is the things that are not urgent but very important. This is where family, friends, faith and all of our important relationships reside. Most of the time our family and our friends will not demand our immediate attention but if we neglect them long enough they will move into the urgent category and we will all suffer the consequences.
The only way to find time for the things that really matter is to stop doing so many of the things that really don’t.
Integrity
The battle for our personal character is won or lost based on our integrity. This means that there can be no hypocrisy between what we say we believe is important and what we actually are doing on a daily basis. It is more than simply walking your talk becasue your talk is based on truth and core values that add value to others.
It is the keeping of promises and commitments to ourselves and then to others. When you have it people can trust you because they know you are genuine, real and authentic.
Integrity is demonstrated in personal relationships with other people in two critical ways. One is that we maintain confidentiality when dealing with others in matters where discretion is important. Instead of using other people’s failures to get what we want we help them to get what they need. In essence we never use their acknowledged weakness to hold it over them to get them to act in a certain way and we would never betray their trust by talking to other people.
We also make sure that we never fall into the trap of saying negative things about other people publicly that we have not first talked with them about privately. When people hear you saying bad things about people who are not in the room, they know one day they will not be in the room either. Being critical of other people in public never helps them and it creates a culture of positioning people in conflict with each other.
If something is not important enough to say to another person privately then it is certainly not important enough to criticize them openly in front of other people.
Weaknesses
All of us have them but the real question from a personal and professional leadership standpoint is what should we do about them? In the old days of positional leadership everyone was encouraged to work on improvement in every area so they could be the best overall leader possible.
Of course if our weaknesses are in the character area we must do whatever it takes to eliminate the wrong attitudes and negative behavior. Beyond that spending a major amount of time trying to gain some small advantage in any area where you have no skills or passion is basically a waste of time.
Regardless of the time invested and the seminars attended if you are not creatively wired then you probably never will be. If you are not gifted at project management then just working at it harder and longer will not produce significant results.
For the maximum amount of return and to make the largest impact you must prioritize working in the areas of your strengths. This is where you are naturally strong and your passion fuels what you do every day and not your job description.
There are many different types and styles of effective leaders. What you must determine is what do I uniquely bring to the table for the leadership assignment I have been given that sets me apart for this specific role.
You may be a nine or ten in only one particular aspect of leadership but if you know what that is and you primarily stay in your strength zone then your ultimate impact will be incredible. Most people are not willing to pay the price to be a ten at anything they had rather spend their time working on their weaknesses.
Situational Leadership
The one word that best describes the leadership model of the last century is positional. Most of the major decisions were made at the top and the role of the team was to merely execute the plan.
When you move to the new models of leadership today the one word that best describes these styles is participative. This simply means the team is involved in helping form the priorities and strategies in addition to execution.
When hiring a leader for the old model you found the best person that fit the job description. Then the team would adjust to the style of the new leader.
Today situation leadership is the key model in these highly participative team dynamics. It is now the responsibility of the leader to shift his or her style to the needs of each team member and the chemistry of the team as a whole.
The needs of the team members and the team as a whole will shift based on their competency and commitment levels. These levels will always change depending upon the task or project at hand and that is the whole point of validating the need for situational leadership.
If a person has very low competency based on lack of experience then a more hands on directive approach is needed. On the other hand if there is high commitment and high competency then the leader should shift to delegation.
The poor communication that is produced by misalignment between leaders and followers is the major factor in decreased productivity within our organizations.
Leaving Legacy
Filed under: Core Values, Family Ministry, Life Balance, Marriage, Personal Development
The real question is not will you leave a legacy but what kind will it be? An even more important question is what do you want it to be?
It is amazing how proficient we have become in establishing clear and attainable goals in the business sector. We can break down our plans into daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, annual, and beyond to ensure that we accomplish what we have determined is important.
I am convinced the reason we do not give the same amount of passion and excellence to our private lives is that we have never taken the time to define what is really important. This lack of prioritization leads to a hope it all works out mentality that would not last for one week in the hit your numbers or else corporate sector.
Most people I have talked with over the years will tell you that in the end the personal part of their life that includes family and friends is really more important to them than the public part. If so, then why this huge disconnect?
It all goes back to understanding Covey’s time matrix in Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Almost everything in our public lives fits into the urgent category. They demand that we respond even though many of the things we do every day are not really important at all.
The people we care about the most fit into an important category that is not urgent. Ball games, piano recitals and dates with your spouse will not scream in your face but they are the things that make up your legacy.
Don’t wait for the heart attack or cancer, have the courage to take a major time out and define in very specific terms what really matters so that in the end you will leave this world a better place than you found it.
Peter Principle
Every leadership expert that I have read in the last five years understands that the most important asset for any organization is the people who are on your team. If you have not transitioned from the industrial age to the information age in how you are leading your people you will not be able to compete in the new global economy.
Good to Great makes the point about getting the right people on your bus and making sure you get the wrong ones off. There is also a priority on verifying that everyone is in the right seat on the bus.
This is where the Peter Principle can create blind spots within your organization. Just because someone has been a very effective employee in the past does not mean they can continue to be effective in the future.
The natural tendency is when someone does a good job they eventually assume even greater responsibility. They were the best customer service representative you had when your company started and there were less than one hundred accounts.
When the company reaches three hundred accounts then other customer service representatives are brought on board and now your best practices representative just became a manager of other people. After all they deserve the job because they have tenure, expertise and loyalty to organization.
There is only one major problem; they are not gifted or passionate about managing a customer service department that one day will grow to over one hundred employees. These once great team members who are no longer effective have been promoted beyond their capabilities and that is why they are failing.
Never assume that because someone is great in one discipline they can naturally transition to leading others in the same area. If you do not watch this one very carefully you run the risk of a dysfunctional customer service department and tragically loosing a once great employee in the process.