Leadership Comes From Personal Power, Not Authority

“Now tell me, what does it mean to be noble? Your title gives you claim to the throne of our country, but men don't follow titles, they follow courage. Now our people know you. Noble, and common, they respect you. And if you would just lead them to freedom, they'd follow you. And so would I.” – Mel Gibson as “William Wallace” in the movie Braveheart.

It was a very powerful moment in the movie. A discussion between Sir Robert the Bruce, the nobleman with titles and authority, and William Wallace, a common man with no title, but who carried enormous personal power. As a result of that personal power, it was the commoner who commanded the allegiance of his countrymen, rather than the nobleman. William Wallace, the farmer, did far more to demonstrate courage and commitment and leadership than did Sir Robert. And so the followers stood behind William Wallace.

There are many examples of this sort of reality everywhere. I’ve observed it many times in corporate America, where the junior manager commanded more respect and trust than did the senior executive. People would rather follow someone they trust rather than someone they didn’t trust, even if they carried a high rank. Someone with rank or title might not actually have the “leadership capital” to actually lead people. Leadership capital is the ongoing scorecard that we keep on each other. We may not think about it consciously, or even acknowledge that the scorecard exists. But regardless, we all keep it on one another. It’s the scorecard that answers the questions: “Is that person trustworthy? How well do I trust them? Do I trust them well enough to follow their lead?” It’s the leadership capital that gives someone an influence that can far exceed the influence from authority.

There are two main elements on the leadership capital scorecard: character and capabilities. These are what we care about when contemplating the individual. Leadership capital is built first by your integrity. It begins with honesty, fairness, and how well your words are supported by your actions. Your actions must be very closely connected to your words. This is true whether on the corporate ladder, the baseball field, or the field of battle. This is what we mean when we refer to “authentic” leadership. After a time, those around you will take notice that you are trustworthy, and they begin to follow your lead. It won’t matter if they report to you, or to someone else. They may not even work for the same company. They might be a friend or business acquaintance. When you speak, they will listen, and they will follow your lead.

Leadership capital is a precious asset, and can be lost very quickly. We all know well enough that trust takes weeks or months to build, but can be lost in a day from a single incident. Once you have that leadership capital, keeping it means always staying the course of integrity, open communication, and commitment to others. When people begin following you, they will expect your support, and rightfully so. They will have an expectation of learning from you, and it’s the leader’s responsibility to come through. Peter Drucker told us “rank does not confer privilege nor power. It imposes responsibility.” All leaders have a responsibility to those that follow them. Leaders have an obligation to motivate and inspire as they lead. They have a responsibility to support, develop and mentor others. Leaders have the responsibility of developing other leaders. I sometimes call it a “psychological contract”, which is both more delicate and at the same time more powerful than a written contract. In the contract, there is a shared mutual commitment in the pursuit of shared goals. The contract silently stipulates that leadership is built around cooperation, rather than coercion.

The finest leaders will never use their authority or rank. They have all the influence they need by virtue of their leadership capital. These leaders will have created a strong team culture with mentalities of trust and cooperation. The team is well motivated, and they are clear on the goals, and committed to the vision. Rank, title, and authority all become irrelevant, because leaders engage others and earn their followers.

Leadership Comes From Personal Power, Not Authority

5 Reasons Why You Need A Really Awesome Recruiting Process

Measuring the quality of your job candidates (and your employees for that matter) is vital for organizational success and competitive advantage. We are no longer in a manufacturing economy, but rather a service/knowledge worker based economy. This means that human capital makes all the difference toward organizational performance and the ability to compete. Successful hiring keeps the working culture healthy and productive, team performance and creativity high, and workplace turnover low. This translates to employee engagement, and there is enough research that shows organizations with high levels of employee engagement perform well in a poor economy. Getting the wrong people, even if they have the right direction, will never result in building a great company. To paraphrase Jim Collins in Good to Great, you have to get the right people on your bus, and the wrong people off your bus. Then you need to ensure that you have the right people in the right seats. Then and only then can you start your bus moving the right direction.

Here are five reasons why a really awesome recruiting process is necessary:
1. Employee salaries represents a significant part of the operating budget for most organizations, usually on the order of 40% to 50%. Given those numbers, its easy to see that there is a lot at stake in hiring only the best talent. It should be a safe assumption that a reasonable return on the salary investment is expected. It should also be a safe assumption that the recruiting process must take proactive measures to minimize the risk of hiring someone unsuitable for the positions that are open.

2. The labor market is flooded with great talent, and also with poor talent. Separating the producers from the pretenders has never been more difficult. Considering the way organizations have leaned out and reduced headcount, there is even less room for error in the hiring process. Those fewer people on the payroll are now dealing with higher management expectations and need to be more productive than ever. That also means that keeping the culture in a good place is that much more difficult. Hiring for culture fit as well as talent is crucial these days.

3. Turnover creates an insidious cost and impact for organizations, and the issue often is not taken as seriously as it should be by employers. Setting aside the recruiting fees, the costs in lost man-hours can be enormous. The lost productivity associated with interviewing and evaluating a replacement for the position, having temporary help to fill in for the position, and disruptions to the operations surrounding the position, is often overlooked. Then there is the training of the new hire, and then waiting for the new hire to come up to speed and become productive. If the role was a customer facing role, it also impacts the customer service operation, including customer service levels and the customer experience. Conceivably, there could also be additional impact from lost customer relationships if it was a key role in customer service. Impact to customer operations is not only visible, but can quickly translate to lost revenue. All in, published research puts the cost of turnover at 35% to 45% of the annual salary for the given position.

4. The consensus is that there is a leadership crisis in corporate America. Senior executives are now acknowledging the weaknesses in their leadership pipelines in research surveys. This is a significant problem as more and more baby-boomers are retired. Identifying leadership potential should begin at the recruiting stage. High potential individuals, upon hiring, should be identified and put into the leadership pipeline. They also need to be designated as people leaders, customer leaders, change leaders, etc. All of this assumes, of course, that the organization indeed has a leadership pipeline that is formally identified, managed and developed.

5. Great hiring practices (as well as delicate firing practices) builds the brand equity. Poor brand equity can drive up the cost of salaries because candidates will prefer to work in an organization with a good reputation for treating its employees well. Also important to note is that reputation influences the customer market as well. The labor market now pays close attention to the reputation and culture of an organization. Social networking and websites like vault.com and glassdoor.com makes this information very accessible to candidates. They now have the ability to learn what the culture and environment are like within an organization before applying for a position. A company like Google Inc., with its powerful brand equity, will be able to attract a higher quality of talent. That talent will be less focused on salary, and possibly settle for less money just to have the opportunity to work at a company like Google.

So all that being said, how can we do better at recruiting? Many organizations have found the answer to an extent. They are using personality profiles as part of their assessment process to make a more objective data-driven hiring decision, rather than a hiring decision based on anecdotal evidence and intuition. Research shows that hiring decisions based on gut-feel carry a high failure rate, resulting in productivity issues, culture challenges, employee disengagement, and eventually turnover. These personality profiles present quantified values and criteria and make for much better predictors for performance and success. As a result, personality profiles reduce the number of unknowns associated with the hiring decision and add a good deal of quality control to the recruiting process.

The bad news is that there are a confusing number of these profiles, and all too often they are used ineffectively, or altogether incorrectly. Later this week, in our next post, we will discuss how to best approach these personality profiles and how to utilize them most effectively to successfully hire top performing talent.

5 Reasons Why You Need A Really Awesome Recruiting Process

Three Things Leaders Do Better Than Anyone

The worlds most successful entrepreneurs and executives use fundamental leadership qualities to achieve success. It’s important to keep in mind, however, that leadership is not about having command and control over people. Successful people focus on having command and control over themselves. By taking a very honest look at their vision and capabilities, successful leaders take more control of their destiny than most of us even think about exercising.

1. Leaders have strong self awareness.

Success is closely tied to an ability to practically and objectively identify their own strengths and weaknesses. They have a strong awareness as it relates to their performance, their passions, and their perspectives. They evaluate themselves in a brutally honest way and with clarity. That clarity allows them to manage their strengths and weaknesses very effectively. They will adjust their goals and approaches to match. They will seek assistance or self improvement in order to achieve success. They know what they can do, what they can’t do, what they should delegate, and when to seek help. Tied into this self awareness is having strong self esteem, which is not the same as ego.

2. Making the most of mistakes.
We all make mistakes. We are all human. However, some of us do more with our mistakes than others. Mistakes are the most important aspect of the life experience. These are the experiences where we glean our most important lessons. Sure, success is more fun, but we do not learn the most important lessons from success. Mistakes are also a strong indicator that we pushed an envelope somewhere, either in a process, or in people. Pushing and moving boundaries are how we create exceptional results, and ultimately success. Leaders use mistakes to learn and grow and motivate.

3. Adaptable and amenable.
Leaders are never emotionally attached to anything. Everything and anything can be changed and turned upside down when the need calls for it. Comfort zones usually don’t last long enough to actually bring comfort. A leader has an open mind and questions everything, including themselves. This is especially true when things are not working as planned or delivering the expected results. This aspect of leadership makes it possible for individuals and organizations to reinvent themselves as needed. Given the pace of change in the world today (socially, politically, economic, etc), reinventing oneself has almost become an essential function. Success is closely tied to being able to quickly respond to the changing realities in the business and market landscapes.

There are other factors and characteristics necessary for success, but I often find these three are among the most common weaknesses in entrepreneurs and business leadership.
How strong are you in these areas?

Three Things Leaders Do Better Than Anyone

Team Building is not Rocket Science

It is amazing what people can accomplish when it doesn't matter who gets the credit.   –Harry S. Truman

Team building is a critical part of organizational success. You would be hard pressed to find anyone that would disagree with this notion. Regardless, it seems that most organizations have yet to figure out what it takes to successfully build great teams. The good news is that it is really not very difficult. The bad news is that it does require a sustained commitment of leadership.

Get Feedback as if they Were Customers: Think of your employees as customers, albeit internal customers. You need to get feedback from them in order to proactively identify issues and disconnects. Employee surveys and feedback are also a great way of encouraging contributions and innovative thinking. Finally, it reinforces the notion that employees are important to the success of the organization.

Relax the Formal Communication: Try to step away from the formal employee-boss interaction to foster a little free speech. Giving employees reassurance that they can speak frankly about issues that might be interfering with success creates opportunity to be proactive. Encouraging open workplace communication will develop healthy and productive work relationships.

Organize Team Building Events: Taking a day trip out for "R and R" can do wonders for breaking through the ice and developing relationships. Some great places to visit are the local Paintball field, or a sports/entertainment complex. Those centers that have the rock-climbing wall are magnificent. End a day of great team building activities with a late lunch. Give out one or two awards at lunch. I have seen this type of endeavor work wonders for a team. The inroads made at these events translate immediately over to the workplace.

The Team’s Success is Everyone’s Success: Make a habit of vocally and publicly appreciating and acknowledging each other’s efforts. Even small celebrations of jobs well done or projects delivered ahead of schedule build powerful relationships and reinforce motivation. Team members are more incented to stay engaged on the vision, and each other.

Successful team building in the workplace translates into success for everyone, including the organization. But remember, it all begins and ends with leadership.
How is your organization building great teams?

Team Building is not Rocket Science

Managers Need to Be Leaders, Not Managers.

One does not "manage" people. The task is to lead people.
–Peter Drucker

How many times have we seen comparisons between "management" and "leadership"? Warren Bennis, one of my favorite leadership authors, tells us that "management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right thing." But are "doings things right", and "doing the right thing" mutually exclusive? Can’t we have both? Of course we can. More importantly, we need both in order for our "service and knowledge" based economy to be successful. Research already shows organizations will flounder under management, but will thrive under leadership.

Many of the concepts of modern management were first created back during the Industrial Revolution, when we first developed industry and manufacturing and factories. Foremen were in charge of managing those factories, including the machines, equipment, resources, schedules, and the factory laborers. The foremen would soon find out that the factory workers did not like being managed as if they were machines, and so the workers resisted. The results were labor strikes and the creation of labor unions. Well that is no surprise. And it’s no surprise that unions still exist today.

It's now the year 2011, almost 200 years after the Industrial Revolution, and far too many managers still have an Industrial Revolution mentality in carrying out their duties. Yet our economy no longer depends on machines and manual labor for production. Service and knowledge is what our economy produces, with 80% of our Gross Domestic Product coming from people. Production comes from workers who provide services and expertise, as opposed to machines and factories. But our management mentality has not progressed with the times. Instead of adapting to a different economy, management behaviors reflect the thinking of the 19th century. We have not made the leap towards leadership.

Here are some simple realities:
Machines and operations are managed.
Projects and resources are managed.
Objectives and goals are managed.
Tasks and deadlines are managed.
Time is managed.
Finances are managed.
A business is managed.
Things are managed.
But people? People must be led.

Leadership is what we respond to. People do not want to be managed. This is especially so with the modern-day workforce. We are not wired to respond to management. People are far more complicated than a factory machine, and require much more maintenance. People have needs, as Abraham Maslow articulated way back in 1943. People need job satisfaction, challenge, belief in a mission and an opportunity to contribute to that mission. We want continuous training, development and mentoring. We want opportunity to grow and advance. We want to be inspired and motivated. We want to trust our manager and be led by them. Salary and benefits are secondary priorities to us. There are enough HR surveys that tell us the same thing. In these surveys, workers indicate that work environment and job satisfaction are just as important, if not more important, than salary.

Leaders recognize and develop other people’s abilities, and capitalize on those abilities. They ultimately inspire exceptional performance and results. Success, for any organization of any size, is tied to leadership, not management. Managers need to let go of their Industrial Revolution mentality, and start adopting the leadership attitude. Managers need to stop acting like managers and start leading people.

So are you managing people? Or are you leading people?

Managers Need to Be Leaders, Not Managers.

Great Teamwork Comes From Conflict

Creativity comes from a conflict of ideas.
 -Donatella Versace

Humans dislike conflict. Some of us go to great lengths to avoid conflict at all costs. Too often we think it is destructive, or at least counter-productive. We often assume that disagreement means that there is discord. But the reality is that conflict is vital toward creating exceptional solutions and performance. Effective conflict also creates understanding and mutual cooperation along the way. Conflict is vital in business, as well as life. Conflict is the most important phase of communication, and it is when communication can be most productive. It is when resolutions occur and solutions are created.

Ideally speaking, conflict within a team arises when there is a difference in ideas. This is certainly ideal because a team with a balanced member culture will have varying or even conflicting ideas on how to approach and solve challenges. What is not ideal is when all team members always initially agree on all issues. That suggests that the team is not fully considering and testing all available scenarios, options and approaches.

Below is a great YouTube video called “The Secrets to High Performing Teams”, summarizing research performed by Assistant Professor Kristin Behfar at the University of California, Irvine. The video was produced by and hosted at http://www.docuthesis.com/. It is a magnificent piece for anyone that is a part of a team or leads a team in life or business (that means most of us).

Great Teamwork Comes From Conflict

Four Barriers to Team Success:

The following are four frequent barriers to high performing teams. Make sure these are not affecting your teams.

1. Unclear definition of success.
Teams need direction. Professional sports team have crystal clear direction in the form of the World Series, or Super Bowl, etc. However, business teams often have only a moderate clue of what their ultimate goal is. Often, they form their own assumptions based on opinion and conjecture. If a team is to perform well, they need direction, and they must be clear on what success looks like. And success must be specific and measureable, i.e., reducing waste or errors by x%, or increasing level of service by x%.

2. Unproductive conflict or non-conflict.
The best teams thrive on conflict, and have adapted to make conflict work for them. A lack of conflict suggests that ideas may represent path of least resistance, or lack of creativity and innovation. Lack of conflict may also suggest that the team is in a comfort zone, or worse, apathetic. If the ideas and approaches within a team are never coming under challenge or scrutiny, it could very well be a safe assumption that there a significant lack of contemplation and due diligence in the team’s decision making. Again, conflict needs to be healthy, and team members must focus on the messages in the conflict, and NOT the emotions.

3. Lack of culture.
Challenging the entrenched and outdated approaches usually entails some sort of risk. And it requires commitment. Innovation means challenging the comfort zone of the team, and possibly those outside the team. If the culture of the team and of the organization is not one to support any risk-taking, status quo wins out. The culture must be comfortable with and even committed to changes, and making the appropriate changes that increases likelihood for team success. The culture must also be focused on the common agenda, rather than any individual agendas.

4. Lack of leadership.
Every team needs leadership, and not just from the manager on the org chart. In every successful team, leaders emerge by default. A leader that gains the trust of the other members will lead through their own personal power, and does not need authority to lead successfully. Think of a team captain of a sports team. A team captain is designated by his/her peers after demonstrating a trustworthy commitment to the team and its members. Without leadership, the team flounders like a ship without a captain.

Great teams are not impossible to build. How great is your team?

Four Barriers to Team Success:

Mastering Excellence

Being in the midst of the NFL playoffs reminds me of the importance of excellence, and the mastery of excellence. Achieving success in sports, as well as life and business is all about mastering excellence. Excellence is not just about skills, or talent, or even execution. It’s also about having the right attitude, specifically commitment, confidence and persistence.

Vince Lombardi, the Brooklyn-born legendary head coach of the Green Bay Packers, and the person for whom the NFL Super Bowl trophy is named after, said this: “The quality of a person’s life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field or endeavor.”

So the question becomes, no matter what your chosen field or endeavor, how do you master excellence? Ask any genuine leader how they achieved exceptional success, and they will agree to the following three ingredients for excellence:

1. Taking the Right Attitude.
The right attitude is a decision you need to make every day. Your attitude not only affects you, but it affects the people around you. There are two ways you can look at virtually everything in your life. A pessimist focuses on the difficulty in the opportunity, and the optimist focuses on the opportunity in difficulty. Frederick Langbridge reinforces the different views of an optimist and a pessimist in the following quote, “Two men look out the same prison bars; one sees mud and the other stars.”

Your attitude affects your body language and your behavior. People who are optimists come across as strong, confident and motivated. People who are pessimistic appear weak, or unwilling, and they often do not appear to have their "act together". A positive attitude creates self motivation, and that motivation is very contagious. It helps build your leadership capital with those around you. Having a strong positive attitude reinforces your capability to  face any challenge and create the right outcome for yourself. Your attitude is a direct factor in your ability to master excellence in whatever you choose to pursue. And here is something all leaders know: Only one person is in charge of your attitude, and that’s you.

2. Being Goal Oriented.
Know what you want, why you want it, and define how to achieve it. Defining personal and professional goals will create a road map for your success. It is not enough to have a dream. In order to bring dreams to reality you must have goals with defined action steps. Action is what makes things happen and being goal oriented is an empowering process. As you achieve things from your list, you get that great feeling of accomplishment, and that starts to build a powerful momentum. That momentum adds to your motivation and attitude and to your capabilities.

3. Attention to Details.
Attention to detail is critical to mastering excellence and it will make you stand out in comparison to others (remember that you are always being compared to your peers). Attention to detail means nothing goes unnoticed. It means you do nothing less than 100 percent. It means paying attention to how you dress, how you behave, how you communicate, how you carry yourself, how you take care of your surroundings, how quickly and efficiently you follow up, and how you treat others. This is how leaders emerge from the rest of the group and how business owners separate themselves from the competition.

You have the ability to be excellent at whatever you pursue or endeavor, and being excellent is a choice that is completely within your control. Decide today to raise your level of success by taking the right attitude, by being goal oriented, and by paying attention to every detail. Excellence and success go hand in hand.

Mastering Excellence

The Difference Between Decision and Action

"When all is said and done, more is said than done."
- Lou Holtz, former coach of the Notre Dame University football team.

"Five frogs were sitting on a log. One decided to jump into the pond. How many were left?"

Did you think four? Think again. The age-old quote doesn’t say one jumped in; it says one decided to jump in. There is a big difference between deciding to do something and actually doing it.

Decisions are useless unless we follow up with action. Only action will bring us any likelihood for success. In fact, the etymological meaning of "succeed" is "that which follows", and success is what follows action.

In the military, soldiers learn "Ready, Aim, Fire". But in life and business, we see a good deal of "Ready, Aim, Aim, Aim…" Once a decision is made, it is time for action.

Theodore Roosevelt said, "In any moment of decision the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing." If we do the wrong thing, at least we can learn something from our mistake. But inaction teaches us nothing, other than regret. Sometimes the cause of inaction is the fear of failure. But the reality is that we learn more by trial and error than by sitting and doing nothing. Nothing risked, but nothing gained. Peter Drucker told us "People who don't take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year. People who do take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year."

The founder of Atari Computer, Nolan Bushnell, summarizes the importance of follow up: "The critical ingredient is getting off your butt and doing something. It's as simple as that. A lot of people have ideas, but there are few who decide to do something about them now. Not tomorrow. Not next week. But today. The true entrepreneur is a doer, not a dreamer."

So, don't sit up and take notice, but get up and take action, for the secret of getting ahead is getting started.

The Difference Between Decision and Action

Year-End Reflections

As we turn our sights toward 2010, it’s time to reflect on how your progress is going and how are you going to achieve your objectives. A number of significant events have taken place in our global environment that may be forcing you to look at your life and business much differently than you did a year ago. Take some time to reflect on the following questions and honestly evaluate where you are, where you are going, and how you plan to get there.

Did you achieve your 2010 objectives?

If you have not achieved your 2010 goals, what is standing in the way?

Are your marketing activities generating the necessary results?

Are you working with enough clients to achieve your goals?

Do you enjoy working with the clients you have?

What are your goals and key objectives for 2011?

Are you looking to expand into any new markets? Why or why not?

Careers and business are not just about numbers, activities, strategic plans, objectives, and revenue. All of these things are important and in many cases critical to build a sustainable living, but they are only one-half of the equation. The other half of the equation is you. Your personal ability to grow requires honest reflection. Look at yourself and your experiences this year with as much objectivity as you can. Reflect on you and your contribution to the success of your business.

What did I learn – new skills, knowledge, insights, etc? (List them all.)

How have my newly acquired skills, knowledge, and insights contributed to the success of my business?

What did I accomplish? (List all your wins and achievements.)

How did those wins or accomplishments impact the success of my business?What would I have done differently and why? (Be specific and honest with yourself.)

What were the most significant events of the year thus far? (List the top three.)

What did I do right?

What do I feel particularly good about?

What was my greatest contribution?

What were the fun things I did?

What were the not so fun things I did?

What were my biggest challenges, roadblocks, or difficulties? (Be specific.)

How am I different this year than last?

What will I do differently for 2011? (Be specific.)

For what am I particularly grateful?

Feel free to add additional questions that may provide meaning for you.

As you can see, it is very difficult to ignore the power of the I’s and the my’s in those questions. You are a critical component to the success of your business and an honest, objective evaluation of where you are could be the difference between success and failure. Your ability to achieve your desired goals and build a sustainable business begins and ends with you. There will always be outside forces generating obstacles or pushing and pulling your business in different directions. The most powerful asset you have is you. Make a commitment to honestly evaluate your contribution as a business asset and make the commitment to reinvest in yourself and grow. The success of your business depends on it!

Year-End Reflections

A Concept of Leadership

Throughout the years, volumes have been written which list and elaborate upon the characteristics of leaders. You need only check the literature on the subject to discover that there are many characteristics and combinations of characteristics as there are leaders. With all of their differences, however, leaders do have some fundamental similarities.

1. Successful leaders have mastered the art of self leadership and authenticity. Authenticity conveys genuine, reliable, trustworthy leadership.

2. Successful leaders have taken time to crystallize a personal vision of the future which will become the foundation or cornerstone for a shared vision. They are able to attract as well as inspire commitment among the people whose collective effort will make this vision a reality.

3. Successful leaders understand how to align and maximize resources to realize a vision. The leader’s role is to create alignment between vision, strategy, structure, processes, and people with focus on attracting and maintaining a loyal customer base.

As a leader, you must be many things to many people. First, you must have the ability to create a compelling vision. If your vision is to motivate people, it must take them to new levels of achievement. Then, you must be able to develop and implement the strategies that will guide people toward the vision, analyze the alternatives and possibilities, and set goals that will drive the organization to sustained success. To do this will require that you are able to function successfully in several areas. The first is your role as a visionary.

Leaders who are able to involve people in realizing a compelling vision provide a beacon for the future and a standard of excellence. Vision plays an important role in developing a winning organization. A compelling vision can play an important role in developing a winning organization. A compelling vision can motivate and empower everyone in an organization to seek higher levels of performance and achievement. People want to do a good job because realizing the vision is important to them. A compelling vision is inspiring and it is energizing. It provides an image of a better future that causes people to drive themselves to higher levels of achievement.

In the final analysis, you can’t really force people to be motivated. You can only create an environment in which people are motivated. A vision will release creative energies to successfully attain the desired results. It provides a reason for change and exploring possible uncharted waters with enthusiasm. It gives meaning to work and it encourages innovation. Individuals recognize the importance of their personal contribution to the overall whole. Vision helps everyone realize that their best interests are served by the success of the entire organization.

Vision alone is not enough however. Look for a future post on the Leader as a Coach.

A Concept of Leadership

The Business Value of Developing Trust

Trust is one of the primary essentials to the success of any team.

Outstanding teams will inevitably deliver exceptional performance when the element of trust is present and strong within the culture. Trust is, of course, the belief that those who you depend on in your team will meet your expectations. When trust is present, your team members will work effectively together, share information freely, share challenges and mistakes, admit lack of knowledge, and commit themselves to the success of the team. It’s easier to build trust when working in the same physical environment because you will be exposed to many visual clues. Researchers say that people often take less than four minutes to make a trust judgment based on someone’s voice, body language, and words. However, in today’s business arena, there are times where a team is functioning remotely and developing trust can never be forgotten or pushed to the wayside.

When people fail to work well together, it is often because there is no trust. When there is no trust, there is fear and suspicion, and these are a major deterrent to innovation and results. Without trust, the best and brightest ideas never surface. Even worse, when there is fear and suspicion, commitment goes away. Commitment and fear are almost mutually exclusive.

Trust can never be mandated, as it must always be earned. There must be honest, complete, and open communication delivered in a way that fosters mutual respect. Your employees must feel free to ask questions with the confidence they will receive support and the necessary information. Each employee must also feel free to openly express his or her thoughts and feelings. There can be no hidden agendas or clandestine activities. An effective leader must become an expert at ensuring that everyone is kept informed and feels that they are in on things.

In his book, Building Productive Teams, Glenn Varney introduces what he calls the Trust Cycle as a means of showing how leadership can prevent cynicism and establish trust. The Trust Cycle shows “Trust is developed from adequate to total information so that the individual can influence or make decisions, which builds more trust.”

There are many factors and behaviors that build trust, and even though developing trust is a very individual experience, research has shown there are some common factors which help create an environment of trust. Trust can be enhanced when a leader focuses on building strong relationships with and among the team. Review the following categories and concepts as it relates to your department, team, or business unit. What can you do to build stronger relationship and deeper trust within your team? How will it impact the overall results?

Results: All team members are focused on and produce results, exceed customers expectations, meet delivery times, and measurable results are documented.

Integrity: Team members can be trusted to mean what they say when they say it, show commitment to the team, do what they say they will do, communication is essential, and behavior is in the best interest of the team.

Change: Team members are willing to change and adapt, open to other view points, and are flexible.

Empathy: Putting yourself in a team member’s shoes and showing care and concern are culturally sensitive, and sensitive to the impact of all decisions.

Trust is difficult to gain, but easily lost. Building trust requires consistent and ongoing commitment from management. It requires executive sponsorship in the form of authentic leadership. There is no room for missteps.

The results are worth it.

The Business Value of Developing Trust

Why Great Teams Create Competitive Advantage

Every business has the ability to create real competitive advantage. All you need are great teams.

I am asked constantly what it takes to create competitive advantage, and not just from clients. Just about everyone I come into contact with is looking for the elusive answer. “How can I set myself apart from my competitors? How can I take business away from them?” The answer is easy: competitive advantage is created by people. Capable people put into strong teams. The internal behaviors of your organization are how companies set themselves apart from the competition. The attitudes, the level of commitment and motivation, and the resulting culture are what create competitive advantage.

I sometimes get blank stares when I give inquirers that answer. It’s not the answer people expect, and often not the answer they want. The “people” answer involves culture, and rah-rah, and touchy-feely, and that makes many managers and business owners uncomfortable. They would rather hear that the answer is buying into new technology, or re-arranging their office or store, or changing vendors. But consider that your competitors all have the same access to technology, the same access to vendors, and the same access to facilities as you do. The only difference-maker is your people, and the team culture, and how well that culture is able to innovate and think creatively. It’s how deeply the teams are committed to push the product envelope, the quality envelope, and the customer-service envelope. It’s how well your teams are positioned to connect with the customers and the markets you compete in.

Great teams create products and services that connect to customers at an emotional level. They create products and services that exceed the expectations of the customers. Great teams will take a customer transaction and turn it into a pleasing buying experience. A customer experience that is positive in every aspect is how the organization develops a relationship with the customer, a relationship based on credibility and trust. That relationship results in a loyal customer, one that recommends your products and services to friends and family. The organization then sees customer growth, revenue growth, and long-term success.

The notion that team cultures provide competitive advantage is not new by any means. Many organizations have created exceptional success this way, such as Johnson & Johnson, Toyota, Disney, Google, McDonalds, and General Electric. These companies have achieved success by creating teams that performed at levels far beyond what is typical. This is also how small companies outgrow their competitors and become world class market leading companies. Every large Fortune 500 organization started out a small business, and created great teams that were committed to the vision and focused on creating excellence.

Are your teams committed and focused?

Why Great Teams Create Competitive Advantage

Good Listeners are Hard to Find

Have you had a conversation recently with someone whose attention appeared to be somewhere else and not really listening to you? Did you ever have a conversation with someone where you really felt like the person you were talking with was engaged in the conversation and was really interested in what you were saying? These are two very different experiences aren’t they?
 
We know when we are being paid attention to. The other person’s body language, eye contact, and tone of voice are focused and inviting and surrounding distractions seem irrelevant. Every one of us can remember a meaningful conversation and what it felt like to “be heard.” Being heard is something everyone thrives on. We all want to be heard, and we all want our issues to be validated. This is especially so for members of your team or staff. This is double-especially so for customers.
 

Emails, voice mails, text messages, and the limit of 140 characters on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter are the very common forms of today’s communication. Technology has given us the ability to share ideas with anyone, at anytime, and anywhere in the world. Our global environment requires this technology to be successful, and it will foster continued innovation and efficiency.
 
However, the true essence of business is built around people and the future innovations that people can and will inspire. It seems these days that the technology we’re surrounded by exists for the purpose of inspiring communication and collaboration. Communication and collaboration is what usually needs to efficiency, innovation, and overall success.
 
While I am quick to admit that the advances to communications and the speed at which we can communicate are necessary, I also see that it often adds to our dysfunction. Our society has become inundated by communication overload, and so we take departures from good manners in trying to absorb and address it all.
 
Take a step back and evaluate your listening ability and techniques. Do any of the following apply to you?
• Check and answer email while talking on the phone (personally or professionally).

• Respond to texts while in a meeting or at your child’s soccer game.

• Watch your children IM or text while doing homework or at the dinner table.

• Spend time updating your Facebook wall instead of reaching out to someone meaningful and having a real conversation.

• Engage in a conversation with an employee, while you shuffle papers and respond to a receptionist call that Mr. Smith is on line two.

If we are honest with ourselves, we are all guilty of one if not many of these listening infractions. We get caught up in the crazy and scattered pace of life. Let’s take a step back and remind ourselves that good listening is essential to effective communication, and here are some simple habits that can improve our listening ability:

Take time to listen. Stop, take a deep breath to clear your mind, and really listen to an employee sharing ideas or to how your son’s day at school unfolded.

Be attentive. Put the world on hold and pay 100% attention to the person talking with you. They believe what they have to say is important and so should you.

Listen with an open mind. Don’t be judgmental. Listen to everything the person is communicating and before judging the value of the information, ask questions to better understand the scope and depth.

Listen for feelings. People repeat those things that are important to them. Listen to what is said but also to how it is said. Feelings often speak much louder than words.

Listen for retention. While listening, summarize the highlights of the conversation in your mind so you can play it back to the person with whom you are talking. It will help you implement the important details later, and it will send the important message that you were really listening.

Finally, listen to others like you want to be listened to … you will be astounded as to how much more you will get accomplished and learn if you stop and really listen. And, you will be amazed how much you miss if you don’t!

Good Listeners are Hard to Find

Creating Personal and Professional Success

All too often, we let ourselves get stuck in a professional or personal position where goals are pre-defined for us. Unfortunately these may become comfort zones for us, and then we are reluctant to challenge those goals. The result is frustration where no one feels fulfilled and the goals often are never reached. However, sometimes developing a successful business does not come easily or in a time frame that is initially envisioned. This is not only frustrating, but often creates self-doubt. Research shows that one of the key factors to achieving success is the commitment to a plan and persistence to see it through.

There are a set of common sense principles, that if followed will provide significant outcomes toward your personal and professional success. These eleven principles will give you some additional direction in creating a balanced, successful life. As you continue to read, challenge yourself to identify which principles if implemented will take your business and life to the next level. Success, accomplishment, and life balance are right around the corner if you choose to do something about it. It is up to you to “carpe diem” – seize the day!

Earn trust by giving it. We live in a cynical world and it is becoming commonplace for people to want to see “it” before they believe “it.” Trust in the business world is critical, and you can build trust by being a person of your word and encouraging people to trust you by trusting them.

Take responsibility for your actions. Do what you say you are going to do! Admit it when you are wrong and take corrective action immediately. Make sure your actions are consistent with your values, and remember actions will always speak louder than words.

Get the facts before making a decision. Take the necessary time to collect the facts in order to make the best-educated decision. However, do not overdo it—too much information can cause paralysis by analysis, which causes inactivity, and inactivity causes failure.

Go the extra mile. Decide to make a difference! Go the extra mile for your customers, your family, and yourself. The little things always matter and they will add up to a stronger business and better relationships.

Put first things first and last things not at all. Use your “must do” and “should do” lists effectively. Focus on the activities that will impact your business and life goals—let the rest go. Simplify your world by knowing what is important to you and prioritize accordingly.


Accentuate the positive. Focusing on the negative will always net negative results as well as make everything seem incredibly challenging. Focusing on the positive will unveil new possibilities and opportunities that will directly link to your goals … and it just feels much better.

Center your life on specific goals. Specific, measurable, attainable, realistically high, and time trackable goals are the key to success and the fulfillment of your purpose.

Devote yourself to lifelong learning. What goals have you established to exercise your brain muscles? If you are unclear about the answer to this question develop those goals now! Develop goals that will force you out of your own comfort zone—it will be a liberating and exhilarating experience.

Discover and follow your calling. We refer to it as discovering and following your passion. Understanding your passion is critical to your success and living a life of balanced fulfillment. Living your passion is not the impossible dream; however, it will always require focused commitment and the desire to be the best you can be.

Concentrate on what you do well. Everyone has been given specific and unique gifts. Determine what yours are and maximize them. Do not try to be somebody else—work on being the best YOU! Listen to others, learn from others, but follow your unique direction.

Pour a solid foundation of hard work. Nothing worthwhile is ever easy. Hard work is essential for a successful business. Hard work is required for success in personal relationships. Hard work is required for any kind of worthwhile goal accomplishment, however, some of the hardest work I have had to do, I enjoyed the most.

So which of the eleven principles did you make a written note to address as it relates to improving your business, your life, and your current level of accomplishment? One of them, half of them, all of them … the number you selected is irrelevant. The commitment to take action is the most important step of all. Success in life is a continuous and evolutionary process. There really is no destination; there are only self-imposed limitations. Every day provides new challenges and if you are looking in the right places, life also provides the necessary solutions.

Creating Personal and Professional Success

Building a Successful Team

Everyone in an organization plays an important role in its overall performance. From mail room to board room, every individual must contribute to success.

It’s no longer enough to be good, you must be exceptional. It is no longer enough to have satisfied customers, you must seek to develop a loyal and delighted customer base. It’s no longer enough to maintain. You must be aggressive, responsive, and quick. Your challenge is getting everyone on your team or in your department committed and focused on achieving organizational success. As an effective team leader, your role is to build the best, strongest, most productive team possible. One that can meet and overcome the adversity that surrounds it. Your team or department’s results, or lack thereof, will be a direct function of the cohesiveness of your team.

Creating a winning team begins with creating a culture in which your employees are encouraged to challenge, to question, to create, and to innovate. Surround yourself with the best people the organization has to offer. Don’t limit yourself by focusing only on people with seniority or rank. Bring people into the team as they are needed based upon their expertise or abilities. Beware of hiring your friends or drinking buddies, as this could be a recipe for disaster.

The ideal team should be led by different types of mentalities, so you get a blend of perspectives. For example, some team members will naturally focus on people issues (feelers), while others will focus on short term tasks and objectives (doers), and still others focus on strategy, vision, and long term planning (thinkers).

Create a culture where people are encouraged to be their best and perform their best. As the goals or projects dictate, you may want to involve multiple team members in different aspects of the project as needed. Furthermore, it may not always be necessary to involve everyone from beginning to end. Always be sure; however, the goals are specific and that they are aligned with the vision, values, and strategies of the organization as defined by management. Alignment must also occur between the department’s activities and its outcomes. If continuous improvement is to occur, your team needs to focus on continuous improvement in all areas. Therefore, measurements and expectations must be developed and reviewed regularly. Get team members involved and delegate ownership of processes and challenges which rightfully belong to them.

The momentum of the team keeps a project going so the probability of success is enhanced. A team’s collective power is much greater than that of any one individual. A sound team culture means the whole effort exceeds the sum of its parts!

Building a Successful Team

Key to Success: Persistence

“Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”
- Calvin Coolidge

Persistence. Determination. Will. Perseverance.

Attitude.

These are key difference makers between individuals and teams that succeed, and those that do not succeed. A persistent mental attitude is powerful. Military commanders work to develop this sort of mentality into their recruits throughout basic training, because they understand its potency on the field of battle. That same potency also benefits every successful person and organization.

In Jim Collins’ book Good to Great, the corporate leaders that took their companies to exceptional levels of success were analyzed to identify the characteristics these leaders all shared. Jim Collins referred to this group as “Level 5 Leaders”, and there were two traits shared by all of them. One of these was a very strong will and persistence.

As a country, the U.S. gained a sense of persistence after the 9/11 tragedy. As a world leader we knew it was necessary, though it did not change the intensity of the horror, the sadness, or the trauma the events caused.

Martin Luther King, like many historical heroes, was persistent in order to share the power of his vision—no matter what amount of ignorance or violence stood in his way.

The NASA program exists today because its members have been persistent through many setbacks. The Kennedy administration had a vision and a goal to put a man on the moon. Many thought that vision was grandiose and unachievable. But in 1969, the vision became a reality. Later, NASA would see its most tragic setbacks with the losses of the space shuttle Challenger and the space shuttle Endeavor.

Captain Chesley Sullenberger was piloting US Airways flight 1549 when immediately after taking off from New York’s Laguardia Airport, a flock of geese left his airliner without engine power. His persistence kept Captain Sullenberger focused on his emergency procedures, and he successfully landed his powerless aircraft into the Hudson River, saving the lives of all 155 passengers and crew.

These are all examples of exceptional people who were persistent and achieved amazing results in extreme situations. However, I would submit to you that their persistence is required in everyday life and business. I believe that every person involved in the above examples always demonstrated persistence. However, we saw their real capability because they were faced with adverse, challenging, life, or vision threatening situations.

We are all currently faced with unprecedented changes, many of which many are out of our direct control. Recovery and regaining success in life and business will come because of our conscious decision to be persistent.

Make the commitment now to do what is necessary to make your personal life and your professional life successful. Look at each of your challenges as an opportunity for success. Use your talent, experience, and education to your advantage. Develop a plan that leverages your background and experience. Review your every plan and your mix of activities and make sure they are the right activities. Reach out for assistance as often as needed.

Make the commitment to be persistent… it’s the difference between success and mediocrity.

Key to Success: Persistence

Leaders Take Charge of Change

“If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.” ~ Maya Angelou

The times are unprecedented and uncertainty is everywhere. From high gas prices at the pump to high level politics in Washington DC, everything is vastly different from just a couple of years ago. The resulting negativity is also unprecedented, and coming from everywhere and everyone.

Talk to the average citizen and the feedback will not be rosy. But we make things worse for ourselves because of how we are used to “giving in” to status quo. We escalate our own frustrations by defaulting to the position that all of the circumstances are beyond our control and/or influence. Some of the circumstances are indeed unchangeable. Our armed forces are trained to adapt to their environment in order to survive. Civilians need to do the same, whether they are business owners, CEOs, or just an average citizen. Failure to adapt is often the root cause of both business failures as well as personal failures.

Maya Angelou’s words resound with a realistic common sense. When circumstances are dictated by forces outside of your circle of influence, adapting might mean an attitude adjustment. Frustrations, anger, resentment, and all the other negative emotions will only serve to slow down finding an alternate approach or solution. Leaders will adapt their attitudes and hence will facilitate adapting their approach so they can maximize their results.

Leaders exhibit a positive attitude that leads to positive behavior. They do not let anything stand in their way—circumstances within their control or circumstances beyond their control. Attitude is a state of mind and if you are focusing your life on negative aspects, you will experience negative results. Leaders focus their attitude on the positive and will naturally lead to positive action, and positive action will lead to far better outcomes. Rather than focusing on what cannot be accomplished, leaders will focus on what can be accomplished.

Your attitude plays a role in everything that you do from your interaction with the global community, to your business, and to the people that surround you daily—your peers, clients, family, and community members. Leaders recognize the role attitude plays and this key to their achieving success. Do you want to be known as the highly successful person who exhibits an impeccable attitude of positive behavior or the neighbor, dad, wife, husband, mother, or business owner that exhibits a dark and dismal attitude? With whom would you want to interact? With whom would you want to do business? The answers are fairly obvious as most people prefer to be associated with positive and optimistic individuals.

Here are ten questions that if answered honestly will demonstrate whether your actions reflect an attitude of a leader and highly successful individual, or if your actions represent the doom and gloom of a pessimist. Take a moment and address each statement with one of the following answers.

No, I do not do this.
     or
Sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t, or
     or
Yes, I do this consistently.


(Remember, honesty keeps you from fooling yourself!)
1. I take full responsibility for how my day turns out.

2. I am confident that I can succeed at whatever I do as long as I simply take the right actions.

3. I spend time visualizing tremendously rewarding success instead of picturing failure.

4. I maintain a positive expectation of every action I take.

5. I look for the best in every situation and the opportunity in every problem.

6. I focus more of my time on seeking solutions rather than staying absorbed in the problem.

7. I see myself as someone who is capable, enthusiastic, and committed.

8. I speak in a positive, powerful, and uplifting manner.

9. I persist with passion until I succeed at whatever I do.

10. I embrace change, and love to learn and grow from new ideas and experiences.

If you answered yes to every one of the ten statements, congratulations, you have the leadership qualities of a highly successful person. However, if you had to answer just one question with sometimes or no then you have room to grow, work, and develop. Just about everyone will have room to grow and develop. This should not come as a shock to anyone, as keeping a positive frame of mind is now more of a constant challenge than ever.

Change is here to stay. The things that are changing around us today will be fixed, repaired, modified, and replaced by other changes in the future. The only thing that is guaranteed is change will continue to accelerate and come at us faster and faster. However, the key to successfully navigating change is determining the focus of your attitude!

The choice is yours, so choose whether you focus on what can’t be accomplished, or what can be accomplished.

Leaders Take Charge of Change

The Power To Change Your Fate

Peter Drucker said “The best way to predict the future is to create it.” We all have the power to create our future state of success. Unfortunately too few of us actually put that power to good use.

In any endeavor, coaches and consultants look to define the current state of an individual or business, as well as the future state. The future state is what success looks like, and the intended outcome or deliverable. Both the current state and future state our influenced by our view of the world. Our perception of reality means everything, and it encompasses everything as well. Perception is not just how we see things visually, but also our decision-making and bias patterns. Perceptions are influenced by our belief system, our past experiences, our upbringing.

As I've written in the past, you are in control of you, your attitudes, decision-making, thought patterns, and your emotions. And you are in control of your barriers. As a matter of fact, many of our barriers are self-imposed. This is both good news and bad news. The good news is that we are already empowered to take down the barriers, but we often fail to. We forget that we are empowered, and we fail to realize that the barriers and limits are self-imposed. These are the habits of thought that most often prevent success.

I often hear people complain that they are not moving up the ladder, or their business is suffering, or their lives are unfulfilled. Yet the can't say why success is evading them. Many people might say their lives or businesses aren’t functioning very well but they can’t identify what is wrong. The root of the problem is usually our habits of thought working against us. Our attitudes are doing us a disservice. If you fall into this category, start a daily diary. Keep it with you wherever you go, and document every thought about yourself that pops into your head. Keep this diary religiously, and review it after a month. What do you see? Many unhappy thoughts? Go through the diary carefully, and you will see patterns emerge. Those unhappy thoughts will usually fit into one or two categories. These are the areas that will need your focus to create improvements. , you will see your negative thoughts fall into specific categories and these identified categories will become the focused areas in which you can commit to improve. Once these areas have been identified, you can engage a process to help create the best action plan for improvement.

 

Create within your mind your reality and the reflection you want to see. Believe in yourself. Believe in your ability and business acumen. You have value. You have a set of experiences that no one else has. Be confident in who you are and commit to be the best you can be!

The Power To Change Your Fate