The Leadership Bottom Line

In early August I began a four-part series discussing what people are looking for from their leaders. Last week I posted a portion of my newsletter from a few weeks ago discussing the second pillar - showing compassion. Below is an excerpt from one of my earlier newsletters that began the series and discusses the first pillar.

Building Trust - the Bottom Line
PILLAR #1

In a recent interview I was asked what I considered to be the bottom line of effective leadership. Without hesitation I responded that it is building relationships of genuine trust with those who are following us. From experience I have learned that people from whom I’ve won trust will follow me even if they are not sure where we are going.

Last month I referred to Gallup’s book called, Strengths Based Leadership. In their extensive research to determine why people follow, they discovered four main reasons, the first of which is trust. In Kouzes and Posner’s book, The Leadership Challenge, their research established that the trait most people are looking for in a leader that they would willingly follow is honesty – i.e. a person they can trust. My experience and the research agree. Trust is a solid foundation for significant influence.

How does a person establish and maintain trust? Although a hard question to answer definitively, here are some keys:

1. Be trustworthy - This seems obvious, but this is where many people fall short. Do you keep your word? Are you a promise keeper or a promise breaker? Is integrity a word people would use to describe you? Read more...

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Can Leaders Show Genuine Compassion?

The following is an excerpt from one of my recent newsletters. In this edition I discuss the second of the four most consistent things that people look for in their leaders - showing compassion.

Great Managers Care

Of all the soft skills this one is probably one of the hardest. As leaders, we are taught to keep the lines between business and personal very clear. Showing compassion can tend to push us across that line pretty quickly.

Research is showing, however, that the great managers really do care. And employees are responding very positively to that kind of attention. Here are a some of the benefits of showing genuine compassion as reported by Gallup:

1. Employee loyalty - they are significantly more likely to stay with the organization


2. Substantial productivity increases - getting more done with the same resources


3. Greater employee engagement - they are much more involved in the mission of the organization at a meaningful mental and emotional level. This (along with great productivity) is important because Gallup has also been able to show a direct link between employee engagement and company profitability.

Here are a few, simple ways to show that type of compassion:

• Make simple, casual inquiries about the person's home/family life - and really listen to the answer.


• If you see that the person isn't feeling well, give them permission to go home and rest.


• Send a hand-written note of support and encouragement to the family during tough times.

Read more...

Sign up for my free monthly newsletter entitled, "Growing Leaders for Growing Organizations."

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What Gets Talked About Gets Done

A number of years ago I had a CEO who was a turnaround specialist say to me, "What gets talked about gets done." That is something I have remembered ever since.

In other words, what we as leaders talk about consistently is what people realize must be important. If the boss is that focused on it, everyone figures there is a reason for it and starts thinking and moving in that direction, sometimes even unconsciously.

Recently, I had this confirmed again in a book I am reading called, Master Leaders by George Barna. In it one of the leaders was quoted as saying that in his work with Doug Conant, CEO of Campbell Soup Company, Doug had said that "the most important thing he does as a leader is to share the mission and vision of Campbell Soup Company wherever he goes."

One of my former employers/mentors used to say, "I know they've got the message when they're rolling their eyes at me because they've heard it so many times before. Until then it's not enough." He called it over-communicating. It worked.

Leaders need to communicate clear, consistent, compelling messages to their constituents. If they don't stay focused and keep the organization moving toward a clear target things will get fragmented very, very quickly.

So, what have you been talking about lately to your folks? What verbal drum have you been beating? Is it focused on the thing that is most important to your organization's success? If not, it's time to change your tune.

Seize the day!

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October newsletter & more

Click here to see my October newsletter. In it I continue the series I began in August about what followers are looking for from their leaders. Last month's issue focused on building trust. This month's issue is about showing compassion.

Visit the Resources page at my website to see all of my archived newsletters, videos and recent webcast.

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Some Great Quotes

Here are some great quotes I came across recently in George Barna's new book called Master Leaders. In all cases he is quoting another well-known leader he is interviewing around the question of "...what have been some of the great discoveries, the "aha" moments, that have shaped your thinking about what it means to be a leader?"

"I came to realize that really I can't change anybody." (Don Soderquist)

"I have found that successful leaders are much more aware of their subjective, emotional responses than you would expect." (John Townsend)

"I have discovered...how little I can do by myself and how much I can do through others." (Sam Chand)

"I have come to think of leadership as the mobilization of people toward a shared objective. And that mobilization requires the leader to first listen in order to learn, in order to lead." (Barry Black)

Some things for you to think about. What have been some of your greatest discoveries or "aha" moments that have shaped your thinking about leadership? Please comment and join the discussion.

Who are you learning from? Who do you spend time with and glean from so that you are growing as a leader? King Solomon, in the Proverbs writes, "He who walks with the wise becomes wise."

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Reading With Purpose

I was working with my coach last week on putting together a reading plan. I love to read and learn new things and I am constantly struggling to find more time to read. So, I decided I needed a plan to become more intentional. Hey, that's sound like what I try to get my clients to do. Imagine that.

There were a couple of interesting takeaways for me from that coaching session that I thought I would pass along to you.

First, my coach asked me what my motivations were for reading. An obvious one for me is my love of learning. But, what else came out of that interchange was very interesting to me. Here are some of my other motivations, ones I hadn't thought of before:

1) The more I read, the better resource I will be for my clients.
2) If I am consistently reading I will be more informed of current events and have a more consistent flow of new ideas and insights. This will help me come to the dinner table with some interesting things to talk about. I have been looking for ways to get better at initiating meaningful conversation around the table.
3) My wife loves to read and reads about ten times faster than I do. She is also great at staying abreast of world events and things going on in the culture. We both really enjoying talking with one another. The more I read the better prepared I will be to have interesting things for us to talk about together. We never lack things to talk about, but the more well-read I am the better partner I will be in those interactions.
4) I love to do public speaking. One of my weaknesses in this area is story-telling and the use of analogies. I have a hard time coming up with them. The more I read, the more stories and analogies I will be exposed to, so I will have a larger inventory to draw from.

As I keep these all in view, I think I will be much more motivated to follow through on my plan because I am more aware of all the benefits I stand to gain.

The second insight that came from my coaching appointment was that I decided to break up my reading material into categories. I am a slow reader by nature. However, because I read slow and have a good memory, I tend to remember most of what I read. As we discussed this concept further I became aware that there are certain books/articles that I read just for fun, and am not interested in the full content. These are the kinds of things I could just skim and be satisfied. So, I have created two different categories:

1) Stuff I want to consume, learn & apply
2) Stuff I wasnt to skim and glean from

I still have more work to do, but this progress and insight has already been helpful.

What motivates you to read? How will those motivations affect your reading habits? Do you have different ways you could categorize your reading to help you use your time and energy more efficiently?

Click here to sign up for my free monthly newsletter. I would be honored to be added to your reading list. And remember, readers are leaders and leaders are readers.

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What a Week!

Last week was a whirlwind, but all in all, a good one. I was on the road to Ft. Wayne IN for a 2-day conference and then back to Lombard IL for another 2-day conference, both sponsored by the Christian & Missionary Alliance - Midwest District. At both conferences I had the privilege and opportunity to present another, even more-compressed version of my Conversational Leadership program. As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago the folks at Ronald McDonald House Charities Int'l Conference really enjoyed the workshop. More importantly, a number of them commented that they were heading back to the office with tools they could begin using immediately.

This last week the pastors and ministry leaders who attended the conferences had some very similar comments. They were also able to identify, very clearly, how the principles I shared could impact their relationships at work and at home. I am very encouraged that people are walking away from these events with real-life tools they can use right now. That is incredibly important to me. I want all my listeners/trainees to walk away with immediate value and with resources that will bring them value over time.

This Wednesday I get another opportunity to compress the program even further. I will be doing a 30-min. webcast at 2pm CDT for an organization called Stratos Four, a digital media company based out of Cedar Rapids, IA. I hope you can join us. Click here to register for the event. I would love to have you there!

I think I have learned a valuable lesson over the last few weeks. If we are delivering something of real, innate value to our customers, then the amount of time we have does not limit our ability to bring value. It does limit the amount of value we can deliver in that space of time, but our ability to deliver value is not eliminated just because we don't have a multitude of hours.

This reminded me of a brief encounter I had with another client where, in a matter of 5 minutes, I had communicated the bottom line of this program. He walked away with three solid nuggets he could apply right away. That was tremendously encouraging.

So, what do you have to offer those in your sphere that is of real value? How could you slice and dice it, while retaining it's essence, that would allow you to deliver it in smaller, or larger chunks, without diluting the bottom-line for the customer? Stretch your thinking on this one and you will be surprised what you come up with.

Seize the day!
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