Champion Leadership Tip #5 - Throw Out the “Golden Rule” & Lead With Platinum

The “Golden Rule” is a life philosophy taught to many young children in school, in families and in religious institutions. The “Golden Rule” states “do unto others as you would have done unto you.” Or more simply, “treat others as you would want to be treated.”

For general life skills the “Golden Rule” works very well. However, when leading others, or when trying to build a deeper relationship with others in any endeavor there is a higher level of interaction which many call “platinum.”

The “platinum” approach to leadership states, “do unto others as they want to be done unto.” This means leaders need to invest time to get to know the people they lead to understand what is most important to them.

When leaders know the people they lead well enough to know what is most important to them, and how they like to be led, leaders can adapt their style to get the most out of their team members.

The platinum approach to leadership is not a “one style fits all” leadership style, but offers a customized relationship that connects at a deeper level and allows for much greater results. This is because leaders can tap into the motivation strategies of the people they lead, and give them what they need most to be more consistently motivated and develop the skills necessary to achieve at a higher level.

A great example of this is my wife, who is a relatively private person and doesn’t like to have the spotlight shone on her. If she were recognized for an accomplishment on a stage in front of a large audience she would be extremely uncomfortable. But, get her in a one-on-one conversation and directly and specifically tell her to her face how she made a difference or how important she is to the organization she works for, it would light her up. The former would be demotivating and the latter would energize her. It’s important for her boss to understand her personality in this way to be able to get the most out of her in the most positive, supportive manner.

If you’d like even more support in becoming a better leader I encourage you to check out “The Leadership Series.” This is a new product I’ve created with Jim Smith “The Executive Happiness Coach.” Jim and I discuss 7 Essential Leadership Strategies for the 21st Century. It will officially be available on Tuesday, December 15th. All pre-orders will receive access to a Special Audio Bonus Segment “Leading The ‘Millenials” - GenY In The Workplace & What To Do With Them.” This a 50-minute discussion between Jim & I where we discuss the challenges of today’s multi-generational workforce and effectively leading and motivating the youngest generation moving into the world of work.

Champion Leadership Tip #4 - Great Leaders Know It’s All About “Thanks-Giving”

This week is a special holiday week in America as we celebrate all the things in life for which we are grateful. We celebrate this gratitude with a large feast with our closest friends and family.

As we move into the holiday season which starts with the “Thanksgiving” holiday this Thursday, it got me thinking about how great leaders show genuine appreciation for the efforts of those they lead and create situations to recognize those efforts in special ways that connect with their followers.

A little “thanks” goes a long way, as long as it is specific and genuine. Well-done shows of appreciation by managers and leaders can improve employee morale and motivation. They can also go a long way towards replacing the need to continually throw salary raises and bonuses at employees in the hope of improving their morale and motivation.

Studies continue to show that in lieu of appreciation and feeling valued in the workplace employees pine for higher wages, bonuses and benefits, which creates an entitlement mentality and wealthier unhappy and unappreciated employees.

In the spirit of the Thanksgiving Holiday spend time in the next few days working on and implementing one or both of these ideas:

1. Invest a few minutes each day to write down a couple of specific things you appreciate about each of the people on your team. Then, invest just one-two minutes with each individual person to share what you wrote in a face-to-face conversation.
2. In your next staff meeting, open it up by going around the table one person at a time and share “one-thing” you appreciate about each individual on your team (the public show of appreciation will have a huge impact on the overall morale of your team and create a collective and contagious positive feeling).
3. Write a hand-written “Thank You” note expressing your gratitude for the contributions your team member has made. Again, here, be specific as to what it is the team member does to contribute to the effort. Handwritten notes are a lost art in this day of e-mail and text messaging and I guarantee will have a huge impact.

One caveat that I can not stress enough. Your comments must be specific to the individual and not just generic praise. By specific I mean pointing out a specific incident in detail, or a specific achievement that made a difference to the team, the company or helped you as a leader do something different or better.

For example:
“Jim, I don’t know if you realize how big a help it was and what a difference it made last week when you went out of your way to help Steve prepare for his presentation to XYZ Company. I don’t think we would have gotten that contract without the insights you were able to provide to Steve. Thank you for taking the initiative to go the extra mile when you recognized the need.”

Have fun with it and enjoy the process by noticing the reactions and feedback, both verbal and non-verbal, you receive after doing these. If you do, I believe it will become addicting to you and contagious for your organization and will easily begin to improve the performance of your team.

Champion Leadership Tip #3 - To Become a Better Leader, Lead Yourself First

I was attending a regular weekly employee meeting of a new client my first day on the project when the entire group of 15, including the company’s owner, recited in unison the company values. Within 10-minutes of that exercise the company owner, in responding to an issue brought up by a team member, violated about three of the values just proclaimed as being important to the organization.

It was a perfect example of why low employee morale was rampant throughout the organization, and a great thing for me to witness to start my coaching and consulting intervention.

In the realm of leadership and developing an organization with high morale and motivation the strategy of “do as I say, not as I do” is a loser.

The highest value a leader can bring to an organization is “congruency.” Congruency is “walking the talk,” “doing what is expected of others,” and being an examplary role model for the espoused values and behaviors that build the foundation of championship organizations.

My mentor, Alan Weiss, The Million Dollar Consultant, said in a workshop once that people “follow what they see in the halls, not what is written on the walls.”

People follow people they respect. People respect people with integrity. Leaders gain integrity by being the role model and modeling the behavior they expect from those they lead. Its virtually impossible for leaders to hold others accountable to expected values and behaviors when they themselves blatantly violate those values.

Therefore, its time to do a self-assessment.

As a leader are you showing up consistently as you expect others to show up?
Are you fulfilling the values and behaviors to which the organization proclaims its commitment?
How could you be better at leading yourself first? If you were, what message would it send to the rest of your team?

One area I’ve found in which leaders fall short of leading themselves first is procrastination.  Two of my present clients came to me to help them fix the challenges they were facing in their business because they themselves had procrastinated on key issues. Their inability to stop procrastinating caused low morale, and low employee engagement throughout their organizations. As simple as it sounds they needed help to end procrastination.
If this is a challenge for you and others in your company, you may want to download a couple of free chapters and an exercise from my End Procrastination NOW! System, available free at this link.

Champion Leadership #2 - Even an 8-Year-Old Knows It’s About “Belief”

James, an 8-year-old boy, was sitting in the front row of a small class room in which he and 15 other Martial Arts students were listening to my workshop on becoming a Champion Leader.

A few minutes into an exercise in which I asked the students to list people whom they knew that they believed were great leaders, James raised his hand to ask a question. When I recognized him, he asked, “can I put ‘me’?

To which I said, “James, that is an outstanding question and one I’m glad you asked because that may be the most important lesson I am going to teach tonight. Yes, you should put ‘me’ on your list because if you want to be a great leader you must believe you are a great leader.”

As the old saying goes, “from the mouths of babes…”

Do you believe you are a great leader?

You may feel uncomfortable proclaiming yourself a great leader as being braggadocious, or feel you just don’t have the experience to make such a claim.

Get over it!

To become a great leader you must believe you have great leadership tendencies within you, and you do. Own it, take responsibility for it, and look for ways to develop the outstanding leader within.

Believing you are an emerging great leader will give you the empetus to take the steps necessary to develop the skills necessary.

Champion Leadership Tip #2 - Exercise:

Before you move on to the next task of the day upon completing reading this post, write down three experiences you have had in your life that are positive references that you either, a) are a great leader, or b) have the potential to be a great leader.

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CEOs Are “Wusses?” I Agree With Pat Lencioni

In Tuesday’s Wall St. Journal Pat Lencioni wrote an article proclaiming that many CEOs are “wusses,” meaning they are weak when it comes to proactively managing performance. I have one thing to say:

ABSOLUTELY!

I couldn’t agree more.

As many of you know my coaching practice began by helping business owners breakthrough the habit of procrastination. I continue to do workshops where I get uncomfortable, squirming in the seats of business owners and CEOs when the subject of procrastination is broached.

Why are CEOs “wusses” and what do they procrastinate on? You’d be surprised to learn a myriad of things, including as Lencioni points out confronting behavior issues that negatively impact individual and organizational performance. Other procrastination items include marketing, sales, accounts receivables, delivering bad news to employees and customers, and the list can go on.

Not to be flip here but one of the big issues CEOs procrastinate on is the procrastination of their employees. Instead of confronting performance issues, they hope they get better, they hope they get better, they hope they get better. Then, they blow wreaking havoc on the individual and ripple affects are felt throughout the organization impacting the culture for months, if not years.

Here are some resources with more specific articles on some of these issues, if you want to learn more and go a little deeper into this issue. Thank you to Mr. Lencioni for bringing the issue to the fore, I’ll do my part to help CEOs build the skills they need to more positively influence individual and organizational performance and improve workplace morale:

Manage Workplace Conflict to Improve Employee Morale

Stop Procrastination Before It Kills Your Business

How a Champion Culture Gives Your Company a Competitive Advantage

Differentiation in the marketplace is key to sustaining long-term business growth and success. How and where to accomplish that market differentiation so that a company gains a competitive advantage is a question I consistently get from my clients.

There are three primary areas through which a company can gain a competitive advantage in a crowded marketplace. It can be done via a company’s products, its service offerings and the relationships it builds with its ideal customers.

To develop and maintain this elusive market differentiation takes a consistent and comprehensive effort throughout a company. It requires a corporate culture in which creativity, innovation and motivation thrive.

There are five areas on which company leaders must focus to create this culture; what I call a Champion Culture:

C = Commitment
Athletic teams become champions because their athletes are committed to the compelling Vision, Strategy and Purpose of getting to the championship game. In business, companies can create a similar commitment by creating and communicating a compelling Vision, Strategy and Purpose to their team members.

Are your employees committed or just complying with their job descriptions to collect a paycheck?

H = Humility
Athletes become champions because they continually improve as they face tougher competition every step of the way. This means they must be open to regular feedback and continually look for ways to get better.

Does your company culture espouse an environment where learning from mistakes is encouraged and asking for help is seen as a strength?

A = Accountability
There are two components to accountability that create champions, setting clear performance expectations and measuring job performance against those expectations. It works in athletics. But most companies fall short in managing specific job performance accountabilities in order to maintain consistent progress toward agreed upon objectives.

What is your company’s process for communicating specific upfront performance expectations and managing accountability to the desired performance?

M = Motivation
Champions are action oriented. When obstacles arise champions find a way through, over, around or under to stay on track. Procrastination (the opposite of motivation) is not in their mindset or habits. I’m amazed at how many business owners, CEOs and other business professionals have significant challenges with the habit of procrastination.

How motivated is your team? How are procrastination and avoidance issues negatively impacting your company’s bottom line?

P = Preparation
Champions show up prepared. They practice almost every day in-season when not playing games. They review films of their opponents to learn the tendencies, strengths and weaknesses they can exploit. Yet in business, you’ve probably experienced far too many team members showing up ill-prepared. Not enough time is invested in preparing for the work week, the workday, key meetings, and sales presentations.

How can your company raise the bar on preparation to begin functioning as a CHAMP?

Focus on raising the bar in these five strategic areas to create a Champion Culture at your company. Doing so will increase the level of creativity, innovation and motivation applied to differentiating your products, your services and your customer relationships in the marketplace. Thus, giving you the competitive advantage you are looking for.

Curiosity May Have Killed the Cat, But Indecision Kills Leaders

One of the first articles I ever wrote for publication was called “The 3 D’s of Leadership - Decisions, Delegating & Diplomacy.” The more coaching and consulting with business leaders I do the more I’m concerned with the ability and willingness to make the tough decisions.

A lack of will in stepping up to address key issues in their division or their own company, if owners or CEOs, and the stories used to justify avoiding the tough decisions is mind boggling.

In January, in the midst of 50 other business leaders at an introductory version of my End Procrastination NOW! workshop, one business leader of a $20 million dollar company, admitted in front of the audience that his habit of procrastination has cost him personally $5 million over the last 10 years. He is now a client.

Last week I met with the managing partner of another $20 million firm who admitted to me that he has been procrastinating on addressing key issues at his firm, including updating their partnership agreement and marketing initiatives in their own backyard where competition has edged in front of them in key networking organizations, business alliances and Chambers because a decision to make it a priority and to hold team members accountable to following through has not made it to the top of the list.

These are avoidance issues all based in fear. As my hero Bruce Springsteen sings in his 2005 song about a soldier in harms way in the Iraq war, “fear is a powerful thing…fear is a dangerous thing, it’ll take your God filled soul…”

This is 100% procrastination. Procrastination is an interesting term that evokes strange reactions in people. Despite working with many intelligent business owners over the last 7 1/2 years of my coaching and consulting practice I continue to be amazed at the lengths many go to engage in this costly habit.

Procrastination, and this flawed decision-making, action-taking strategy is a killer. It is a killer of success, it is a killer of hopes and dreams, it is a killer of self-confidence, self-esteem and self-worth!

Can someone please explain to me how such intelligent, high level, successful business leaders can engage in this behavior that is killing their business and costing them, their partners and employees millions, if not, billions of dollars worldwide?

Are You Familiar With the “Law of Requisite Variety”?

There is a little known law of success that you do probably know but just haven’t consciously focused on applying. Imagine if you did?

I just posted a new article on my website that discusses the success strategy called “The Law of Requisite Variety.” Read about it here

Love to have your comments after you read the article.

Here's One Great 21st Century Idea to Help Create a Champion Culture At Your Company

Here’s a great blog post from an employer law firm that discusses a new way to provide employee feedback. It will totally transform how annual performance reviews and individual performance feedback is provided, using Twitter. It’s Brilliant and could be the wave of the future if forward thinking companies find a way to  make it work, a must read:

Using Twitter to Manage Performance 

What do you think?

Who Cares If Your Company Is a "Champion Organization?"

Eight weeks into working with one of my clients to help lay the foundation of a Champion Organization at his company he asked me a very provocative and interesting question as I was leaving a recent leadership team session.

He said, “Skip, does anyone really care if we have a champion organization here. You know, our employees, our vendors or customers, is this really worth the effort beyond lowering my own stress level?”

There is only one answer to that question.

The question kind of put me on the spot, what am I supposed to say to that, “no, all the time, money and energy you’ve invested doesn’t really matter at the end of the day.” The only ethical answer I could give “yes.”

But, I can see why he asked the question. When you are in the beginning stages of transforming a negative workplace culture to a Champion culture there are growing pains/ At times when some people respond and others don’t. Everyone is different and gaining buy-in has to be done on an individualized basis. It can see like a daunting task as we move through the process. 

I explained that there are a number of stages that will take time to sink in that have to worked through for various constituencies. Each will have to have a reason to get excited about the initiative, we have to continue to reach deep and tap into the WII-FM (What’s In It For Me) for each individual on the team. It will be more important for some than for others. For the ones that don’t jump on board some time in the not too distant future there will be the equivalent of a major league sports’s trading deadline. 

There is a very low threshold for what is expected in the industry in which this company operates. Over the years the entire industry has developed an approach and a culture in which confrontation and conflict is the norm and expectation. It’s going to take time to change the impression that this company is just like the rest but eventually and not too far into the future, the customers and clients will begin to notice.

Here’s what will make it happen quicker:
1) Company leadership team must be the exemplars of the attitudes, behaviors and communication style we’ve decided are consistent with the image the company wants to put forth;

2) The expectation must be set with all employees and team members that moving forward the new Values/Behaviors are the new culture;

3) Any deviation from the expected behavior from among leadership team members or other employees must be addressed and adjusted immediately (all team members will be held accountable to the same expectations and in the same manner);

4) Training and coaching of individuals to bring their interpersonal skills up to the expected standard may have to be provided.

5) Client, customer, sub-contractors and referral sources should be communicated with at the beginning of each project to set the tone and expectations on the new terms with the new approach, so that they know what to expect regarding the interactions with the company moving forward.  Setting the expectation on the front end and then fulfilling them will go a long way towards building the new belief as to what’s possible in this industry.

By following the five steps outlined above, my client will be setting a new tone and become a leader in its industry for changing the entire culture of that industry, one client and one employee at a time.

I’m working on a very exciting project.

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