Champion Leadership Tip #40 - Leading Is Like Playing the Guitar

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Champion Leadership Tip #40 - Leading Is Like Playing the Guitar

Every time I've picked up the guitar to play or practice this summer I've had to tune it. The varied humidity during the summer months makes the string tensions more varied than    at other times during the year.

Each string has to be adjusted differently. Some are very far out of tune while others just need a slight tweak to get them back.

This morning with the guitar hanging from my neck I looked down at the tuner on the edge of the guitar's body and began to test and adjust each string.

After tuning the second string my focus pulled back slightly and I saw the entire six strings in full view and I recognized them as a unit, a team. And, I realized these were the 'team members' I needed to help me achieve my goal of playing the guitar properly in tune.

I then realized that the act of tuning the guitar is similar to leading a team of people.

Each one is different. Each is different in terms of its size, weight, texture, tension, its strength and the sound it makes. Each one also has strengths in certain situations and weaknesses in others.

Just like the people we lead in organizations.

Some days our people are in tune. Some days they need tuning. Some days they are ready to go and some days they need an attitude or motivation adjustment.

One day last week right in the middle of playing a song, one of the strings broke and I had to replace it with a new string. Sometimes that happens to our team members, too.

In leadership its important to remember that every person on our team is a unique human being with dreams, desires, aspirations, personal frailties and insecurities, but also great strengths.

As leaders we need to learn how to play those we lead. I don't mean in a manipulative, condescending way, but in a way that helps bring out the best in them.

We need to get to know them so that we can help them fine tune their approach, their attitudes, their skills and knowledge so they can help us, in conjuntion with their co-workers/teammates play beautiful music for our organizations.

If you would like to learn the techniques to lead like a champion so you can begin tuning your team into performing like a champion, join me on Thursday, September 9th for a FREE Tele-Seminar titled:

"The 3 Leadership Strategies Champion Organizations Master That Too Many Leaders Take for Granted"

Registration is free but you must reserve your spot in advance to make sure you get access to this call, click here to learn more and grab your spot now.

'til next time, make it a great week!

Champion Leadership Tip #39 - 3 Reasons Why Your Employees Are Not Taking Initiative In Their Roles!

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Champion Leadership Tip #39 - 3 Reasons Why Your Employees Are Not Taking Initiative In Their Roles!

Below are three areas to look at regarding how you and your managers are communicating to them (and with them) and to identify what type of messages you are sending, and/or they are receiving (sometimes communication from managers and leaders in organizations sends mixed signals, causing confusion for employees keeping them from being more motivated and proactive in their roles. In some organizations the mixed signals equate to a labyrinth):

Some Employee Recognition Programs Kill Motivation, Here Are Some Ideas to Do It Right

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This may seem like common sense but, again, as I wrote in Monday's blog post, it ain't all that common!

Feel free to leave your comments on this topic below. What are your most frightening employee recognition stories and your best?

Champion Leadership Tip #37 - A Simple Strategy to Improve Employee Motivation

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Champion Leadership Tip #37: A Simple Strategy to Improve Employee Motivation

Just this past Friday I was inspired by a Twitter Tweet posted someone I'm following who always shares great leadership quotes.

Steve Keating  (who can be followed on Twitter at www.Twitter.com/leadtoday) posted:

"Average leaders make their people perspire while great leaders make them inspired."

His post inspired me that afternoon to create what I am now calling the "Employee Motivation Equation - A Recipe for Team and Organization Success" .

Click the image above to go to a page that explains in more detail each of the components of the equation and why they are important.

Along with this equation I've also created a "Leadership & Employee Motivation Assessment" tool. It is a simple 21-statement checklist you can work through to see how many things you are doing well to motivate your employees and team members, and the areas you need to do better.

To get access to the assessment, complete this form:

If you were consistently apply the above Employee Motivation Equation, worked through the 21-Point Assessment and  combined it with "The Secret 6-Step Formula for Creating a High-Performing Business Team that Gets Champion Level Results," you will succeed in creating a highly-motivated team that could achieve outstanding results.

Check out the Employee Motivation Equation and let me know what you think.

'til next time, make it a great week!

How to Lead Like Apple's Steve Jobs and Create Significant Market Differentiation for Your Company

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How to Lead Like Apple's Steve Jobs and Create Significant Market Differentiation for Your Company

I don't normally offer other articles for you to read but yesterday I read this article on Apple and its CEO Steve Jobs.

The article at FastCompany.com provides outstanding insights into Apple's resurgence and Jobs' unique leadership approach that has made Apple the company to catch in the high-tech world.

Business leaders at all size companies, in all industries and even leaders of non-profit organizations can learn things in this article to lead their organizations in ways that can differentiate them from their competition in the marketplace.

You can enjoy the article, "Invincible Apple: 10 Lessons From the Coolest Company Anywhere" at this link.

Make it a great weekend!

Champion Leadership Tip #31 - The 3 Critical Conversations Leaders Use to Manage Performance

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Champion Leadership Tip #31 - The 3 Critical Conversations Leaders Use to Manage Performance

Business leaders must become more like athletic coaches in terms of performance management.

With two new clients and two prospective clients this week my discussions with all four evolved into a serious discussion around performance management.

In my 9 years of helping business leaders improve the motivation and performance of their employees I have found few that do it well enough to get results and build a high-morale, high-trust and highly-motivated work environment.

My clients have found great success in transitioning away from their annual performance review process.

A more effective performance management process is to begin tracking the three distinct types of discussions they have with their individual team members:

• Issue Based Discussions
• Performance Based Discussions
• Career/Future Based Discussions

• Issue Based Discussions
  These are discussions that only take place as specific issues arise in the general work environment or between individuals in the work environment. They are usually related to problems or decisions that have to be made, or have been made in the very recent past that are impacting the work environment or the team or company results.
  
  
• Performance Based Discussions
  These are discussions that are primarily centered around the actual job performance of an individual, including the results they help achieve in relation to the expectations, how they contribute to the overall company results and the results of the teams they work on. These discussions, in most organizations are the annual or bi-annual performance appraisal/review.
  Sometimes, in high-performing organizations, these discussions also occur as debriefing sessions after projects for evaluation purposes.
  
  
• Career/Future Based Discussions
  These are the frank discussions between the leader and their team member, during which future aspirations and opportunities are discussed along with the professional and personal development needs the individual needs to focus on to move towards those aspirations. These should be taking place at different levels no less than once per year and ideally, twice per year.
  
  LEADERSHIP EXERCISE:
  This week, do this self-evaluation:
  
  1. Take a look at how effective your performance appraisal/review process is functioning in doing two things, 1) consistently improving individual and organizational performance, and 2) developing your people for career evolution and succession planning.
     
     
  2. Identify the percentage of time you invest in each of the three type of employee performance discussions. If you are like most leaders, you spend a significant amount of time in "Issue Based," a limited time, like 1-2 times per year in "Performance Based," and virtually no time in "Career Based" discussions.
     
     
  3. Commit to investing more time in Performance Based and Career/Future Based discussions.

Providing frequent feedback, and how to do it more effectively to improve overall individual and organizational performance, is just one of six steps in the "Secret Formula for Creating a High-Performing Business Team that Gets Champion Level Results." At this link you will learn more about, and be able to download, a free white paper report that outlines the "Secret Formula."

Champion Leadership Tip #28 - Build Trust to Improve Teamwork, Pt. 4

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Champion Leadership Tip #28 - Build Trust to Improve Teamwork, Pt. 4

The fourth and final piece in this series to help build trust to improve teamwork is going to focus on creating a culture of accountability.

The reason why teamwork in athletics works is because athletics at every level offers a culture of accountability.

Every athlete is consistently evaluated on their production and performance against the specific performance expectated of them.

The reason why a culture of accountability builds trust is that all team members know that each is charged with specific performance expectations and will have to answer for their individual production.

This approach works to create equilibrium throughout an organization because without it performance is uncertain and thus the equilibrium goes out of balance as it is difficult to know whom to trust to follow through and get the job done.

At last Friday's "How To Create and Lead a Championship Team" workshop we talked a lot about accountability and how for a lot of default leaders (leaders who have to lead a team because of the job they have but are not experienced leaders and whom did not aspire to lead others, per se), holding others accountable is challenging.

To hold others accountable a leader must have high levels of self-esteems and self-confidence, and be a strong communicator.

A culture of accountability begins with a leader setting specific performance expectations for each individual team member and providing feedback, both positive and constructive.

That's it 'til next time...

 

 

 

 

P.S. - To review the first two parts of the "Building Trust to Improve Teamwork" series, check out these two links:

 

Part 1 - "Build Trust to Improve Teamwork"

Part 2 - "Build Trust to Improve Teamwork"

Part 3 - "Build Trust to Improve Teamwork"

Champion Leadership Tip #26 -Build Trust to Improve Teamwork, Pt. 2

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Champion Leadership Tip #26 - Build Trust to Improve Teamwork, Pt. 2

Last week I defined "trust" in the workplace and provided an exercise to get started on evaluating the level of trust on your team and in your organization.

This week I want to identify a couple of key ways to begin building or re-building trust to improve results.

Leaders must take the lead in building trust throughout their organization and in individual teams.

Trust starts with clarity. Without clarity neither side in a relationship has confidence in where they stand. This means each person in the team relationship must be committed to specific and clear communication, otherwise, mis-understandings will occur causing a breakdown in trust.

One area leaders need to invest time in is ensuring specific communication is an expectation in their organization and is one of its core values against which performance is measured.

The place to start is to define "specific communication." What does it sound like? How will team members know they've been communicated to with specificity and when they are being specific.

This is vital and it is a very elusive communication challenge. Many times, even when we believe we are being specific we may not be. Other times leaders because of low self-esteem purposely communication with a lack of specificity, thus creating their own negative, low morale, low motivation workplace.

I recently published two articles that provide examples of how elusive specific communication can be and some suggestions to begin communicating with greater specificity.

You can find those articles here.

For Part 1 of  "Building Trust to Improve Teamwork" go here

Champion Leadership Tip #25 - Build Trust to Improve Teamwork, Pt. 1

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Champion Leadership Tip #25 -Build Trust to Improve Teamwork, Pt. 1

This weekend I've begun putting together the details for my May 14th full-day workshop titled, "How to Create and Lead a Championship Team."  

Putting the outline together I've been reminded about how important "trust" is to building a successful team. (To learn more about that program and to get an early registration discount visit www.ChampionBusinessTeams.com)

As a leader of others it is vital that you are able to influence them in a positive manner so that your team can move consistently towards its goals. In order to influence your team members in this way, your team must be built on trust and a high-trust environment mut be in place.

The breakdown of trust is the downfall of athletic teams over the course of a long season as a team experiences more losses than wins.

The breakdown of trust also is preventing most teams, and individually employees, in both the business and non-profit world from performing at higher levels.

Therefore, the next couple of Champion Leadership Tips will be focused on building trust in the workplace.

The first step is to define it. I think its important to define trust in two ways, and both must be present in order for trust to be present:

1) Having the belief that the person with whom I am working will do what they say they are going to do and is capable of doing what they say they can do at a level that meets or exceeds expected performance standards, and

2) Having the belief that the person with whom I am working has the absolute best interests of myself and our organization at heart when taking action and making decisions in fulfilling their organizational role.

Team Trust Exercise:
Identify the members of your team and write their initials down the left margin of a sheet of paper. Then grade your level of trust on a 1-10 scale (10 = extremely high trust) with each team member based on the above two definitions.

Next time we'll discuss ways to begin increasing the trust between you and your team members, and between team members themselves.

'Til next time, make it a great week,

 

 

 

 

p.s. - For Part 2 of "Building Trust to Improve Teamwork" go here

 

 

 

As Aspiring Champions We Have to "Sweat the Small Stuff!"

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As Aspiring Champions We Have to "Sweat the Small Stuff!"

I had to go to Barnes & Noble tonight to pick up the Sports Illustrated 2010 Major League Baseball Preview edition because a colleague suggested I read the story about the Philadelphia Phillies' Roy Halladay.  It was suggested because Halladay's story, I was told, fits with my Champion metaphor for business (I'll write more about that at a later time).

On the way out of the store I noticed a display of books in the "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff" brand, which has a slew of versions of "Small Stuff" books.

The sub-title of the original "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff" book is "And It's All Small Stuff."

Now I have to admit I've never read any of the books, and also admit I probably should because on the surface its a much needed life philosophy since soooooooo many people make mountains out of molehills and disaster fantasize to the point of complete dysfunction.

However, I also believe that it is counter to my philosophy of being a Champion in business and life.  Champions sweat the small stuff. Champions become Champions by focusing on and sweating the fundamentals. It's all about attention to detail and diligently following through on the details.

But, as with most things in life its all about balance. Too much of a good thing or too much sweating the small stuff leads to dysfunction.

It is one of the great paradoxes of success in all aspects of life and business. And, the Champions in business and in life will be the ones that can effectively navigate those paradoxes.

So, to add to the 'small stuff' that we all have to sweat are those paradoxes.

Those that excel at mastering the paradoxes of life (this is just one of them, another is balancing the old paradoxical adages "look before you leap," but "he who hesitates is lost.") raise the likelihood of becoming Champions!

Are you sweating the small stuff to create a Champion Organization with the right balance so as to not drive your team members crazy?