...For Stepping Up to Your Leadership Potential
Information becomes even more powerful when you begin to share it with others. By referring to what you have read, you increase your retention of the information making it even more valuable. We hope you find value in today’s information and will continue to come back for more. If some area of leadership is not covered here, please drop us a comment and let us know as we will continue to refine and add to this tremendously useful resource.
Many of you know how passionate I am about developing leaders. I am so delighted to be launching my new program that focuses on Family Leadership! Imagine creating a Family Board where you and your children discover how to:
This is the same process I used with my own family and we have been holding our Family Board meetings since 2002. The results I have experienced… have given our sons a strong foundation for their futures. They are independent and 
successful young men achieving their goals. We all gained more from our Family Boardroom experience than we imagined! Please check out my newest program by visiting FamilyAbundance.com
Reason #85 out of my leadership ebook, 101 Reasons To Be A Passionate Leader: Why Developing Your Leadership Is Critical Today! is one of my favorites. And represents a necessary leadership competency that can be challenging pushing leadership development to the uncomfortable zone.
C.K. Prahalad, Distinguished Professor of Strategy at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business shares the following with his MBA and executive education participants:
“…Managers must remember that they are the custodians of society’s most powerful institutions. They must therefore hold themselves to a higher standard. Managers must strive to achieve success with responsibility.”
Here are a few of his remarks:
• Be concerned about due process. People seek fairness – not favors. They want to be heard.
• Learn to relate to those who are less fortunate.
• Expect to be judged by what you do and how well you do it – not by what you day you want to do.
Do you know how you are contributing to others?
You are in a leadership position. You lead an organization or business, you manage employees, you direct teams, you provide feedback, you engage in conversations with people everyday. Do you know what kind of impact you are having on others?
The last few days I have been reflecting on this question for myself. My own leadership coach asked me… “to create who I am in life, who I want to create myself to be… newly, recreate it” she said. So I created Who I am is Loving Inspiration, Peace and Contribution. Wow, quite a creation for me as a powerful and passionate leader to step into. (Isn’t amazing what we say sometimes?) And then she said, “Now live into it.”
So I began to observe where I was being Loving Inspiration, Peace and Contribution.
That afternoon I picked up my college alumni magazine and read how one of my classmates had been awarded the Distinguished Alumni Award for rescuing a failing bank and revitalizing a community here in Michigan. In reading the article, it was clear that David had a very successful leadership career and was making a difference that was publicly being honored. My wandering mind had me thinking about the other leaders out there, who make a difference for one employee, one client, one family member, one person at a time. They touch someone positively in a keen way at a critical moment in their lives and are not awarded or honored in a public way. This happens every moment… people who connect with people have an opportunity to make a difference.
Over the next few days, I heard my clients and my family say things to me like:
“You are an inspiration to our family; you have given us so much.”
“I always feel so good after meeting with you. I came in all upset and I leave feeling peaceful.”
“What you said yesterday when we talked on the phone made a difference for me. I handled that situation with more confidence.”
Was it because I was “looking” at contribution that I heard these comments with new awareness? With a renewed appreciation?
It did make me realize how often we minimize our contributions to others, how we busily go about our days not acknowledging whether we are making a difference in those we lead and interface with. As a part of your on-going leadership development, I urge you to take a moment. Right now is good… and take a look for yourself. Are you listening to others and getting present to how you are contributing to them? You may be amazed at what you learn. And… you may just find yourself feeling honored, re-energized, recommitted to leading and contributing to the people around you.
Title: Living CONFIDENTLY! Coaching
Location: Webinar
Description: Be empowered to Lead and Live Confidently every day – join our group coaching program starting July 12.
Start Date: 2010-07-12
Start Time: 8:30 am EST
End Date: 2010-09-13
In answer to the question, “what is trust?”, this is a quote by Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric, “[Y]ou know it when you feel it.”
When I read this in Speed of Trust, I immediately could relate. There is this rumbling, anxious feeling when no trust is present. I hesitate. There is a open, connected feeling when trust is present. I share. Over the last few months, probably as a result of the experiences I had at the organization which virtually crumbled in front of my eyes, I have had a keen interest in trust and its impact. Looking at myself, others and organizations, I have been listening, reading and discussing this topic of trust. Even last Sunday at church, the message was about trust.
Learning how to create trust in a low trust world, as Stephen M.R. Covey speaks about, will help us navigate with more confidence and will make an enormous difference in both our personal and professional life.
For you and I as individuals, Covey explains that both character and competence are necessary. Effective leaders today must know how to balance character and competence. Effective leaders must model trust and show trust. When most of us think about character, we think of it in terms of being a good or sincere person, being honest and having integrity. This is how most of us would describe trust. Yet after reflecting on Covey’s writings, I began to understand how trust is a function of character and competence. Covey explains how both are vital:
Character includes your integrity, your motive, your intent with people. Competence includes your capabilities, your skills, your results, your track record. And both are vital.
As I explore this aspect of trust by asking “Who do I trust?, Why do I trust them? and What inspires my confidence in them?” and “Who trusts me?, Why do they trust me? and What is it about me that inspires their confidence in me?,” I really understand how character and competence are intertwined. In my role as an executive, I recall many times, when I had an employee who was of good character; however, I would not trust them to do a particular project because they lacked the set of skills or track record of results to effectively handle it. I also recall situations when an employee had a track record of results and yet they left me feeling suspicious of their motives and I questioned their honesty. Covey further explains that,
Character is constant; it’s necessary for trust in any circumstance. Competence is situational; it depends on what the circumstance requires.
Understanding and being more aware of these aspects as a foundation for trust will certainly make a difference as I lead and continue to build the necessary relationships for my success, my business success and the success of my team. As many of you who have worked with me know, I place a high importance of really defining and communicating your leadership values (character) as well as knowing your strengths and accomplishments (competence). So take a moment to ask yourself these questions: Who do you trust? Who trusts me? How is my character and my competence affecting my relationships? It is worth your time to do so!
This month’s Conversations With Leaders program was held March 11, 2010 with leadership expert, Robert H. Holland, CEO of Vistage Michigan, also known as part of Vistage International, a chief executive leadership and network organization.
The interview was full of rich content on how managers and executives in an organization must participate in the selection and hiring process to ensure the right candidate is selected for the right position.
Bob spoke about the four critical factors any hiring manager and their boss’s manager must consider in the candidates they are reviewing for an open position. The four factors are Experience, Talent, Culture and Time Span. Of these four factors, Time Span is the most critical and Experience the least critical. Bob’s provides a great overview of this concept in the interview. He also made some great recommendations on the preparation the management team must do to avoid the high costs of a poor fitting hire.
For a short time only, a complimentary replay of this interview is available – Hiring The Right Person
Are you taking the difficult, I-don’t-want-to-deal-with-it issues head-on?
No longer brushing them under the rug but instead placing the issue square in the center of the table for discussion. It means not shying away and instead being genuine and direct about issues that may be affecting people’s hearts and minds. Jim Collins in his book, Good to Great, states, that good-to-great companies infused their decision making processes with “the brutal facts of reality.”
He further shares that Pitney Bowes executive Fred Purdue was quoted as saying “My job is to turn over rocks and look at the squiggly things, even if what you see can scare the hell out of you.” Are you talking about the ‘scary squiggly things’ that might impede your or your organization’s future? Claim your copy of my ebook by signing up for this free gift, 101 Reasons To Be A Passionate Leader: Why Developing Your Leadership Is Critical Today!
Are you dealing with your own career issues? Are you looking at your personal and professional life balance? Are you performing with the level of confidence that will drive your success? Take a look at my upcoming Leadership Coaching Program starting soon… Living Confidently!
Title: Living CONFIDENTLY! Coaching
Location: via Webinar
Link out: Click here
Description: Check out our 8-week group coaching program empowering you to live confidently everyday! ONLY a few seats left – Register NOW!
Date: 2010-03-15
In a recent presentation I attended by Stephen M. R. Covey, author of Speed of Trust, he shared the three reasons why trust is is the #1 leadership competency needed by leaders today:
1) Trust is the currency of today’s collaborative, global economy much like money fuels the economy. Trust fuels connectedness and is vital to the leaders who are playing in the global markets. Covey shared that 1000 people participating in a global conference were asked to identify the biggest challenge the world faced. The #2 most common challenge identified was the global financial crisis and the #1 challenge the world faced was a crisis of trust and confidence.
2) Trust affects everything. Trust affects performance. Covey explained that where an organization had high trust, performance was multiplied. If there is low or no trust, all strengths of the organization are viewed through the lens of “I do not trust this person.” A Watson Wyatt study of high trust organizations found a 286% total return to shareholders in high trust organizations. Covey specified how in the area of strategic planning, high trust won’t rescue a bad strategy but will create an environment in the organization for discussion on the strategy. In contrast, low trust will derail a good strategy for the environment is one where they can’t talk about it.
3) We are operating increasingly in a low trust world. All types of organizations are experiencing a shift – media, churches, business , government. And, society generally is living in a low trust environment as recent studies show only 34% of people in the US believe people can be trusted. There is a crisis in trust.
Wow, it is one thing to sense the shift and quite another to have studies validate the feeling as being more common. Having just come from an organization where low trust was rampant, I fully understand the impact it has on an organization, its clients and the employees and their families. As a leader it was frustrating yet so necessary to stay focused on empowering one employee at a time to deal with the low trust environment. In coaching the executives, it was demanding that they deal with their own self trust and dig deep to stabilize the environment, by dealing with credibility issues, having the straight talk discussions, creating transparency… For this organization, unfortunately the crisis of trust was deep and could not be overcome resulting in massive layoffs and a total dismantling of services for clients who had come to rely on them. The impact of low trust is still being felt.
Thankfully, Stephen continued to talk about what a leader can do to create trust and the huge advantage it provides for the leader and her stakeholders to navigate confidently in a low trust world. Over the next several weeks, I will explore this critical leadership skill more fully and the effective techniques that Covey shared in building trust. Check back to see how you can build this leadership competency for yourself and your team.
