Blog - Page 17 of 60 - Wheeler Coaching Systems

Feb

2022

Lessons from Lincoln’s Leadership

The nation was divided. Each side had strong opinions on specific issues thinking they were right and half the nation was with drawing from the union. This was the country Abraham Lincoln had to lead. A man who on the outside did not look like the best person, but on the inside was the exact right person to lead America through this tumultuous time.

Much has been written about Abraham Lincoln and I have only explored a little of the history of his leadership and legacy. Allow me to share three of the many qualities of this man which helped him and can help us be great leaders.

Prepare Thoroughly

In his book Lincoln on Leadership for Today by Donald Phillips he shares a story from February of 1860. Lincoln was asked to speak to the Young Men’s Central Republican Union in New York. He was concerned these New Yorkers may see him as a “country bumpkin” and not qualified to be a presidential candidate. With this thought in mind Philips says he “meticulously researched and prepared what was to be one of the longest speeches he ever gave.”

This was a point in time where his thorough preparation led to a speech that helped unify the Republican party under a common vision. As leaders we can speak from the heart, but our words carry weight and we must prepare thoroughly to take advantage of the opportunities we have to communicate with our team. Our words can either lift our team or bring them down. Take the time to prepare and lift those we lead.

Graciously Hold to Convictions

Many know that Lincoln was a man of faith and that drove many of his personal convictions. He also knew how to live out his faith in a gracious manner. One example is the pressure others were putting on to prohibit alcohol consumption completely. Although he was not a drinker, he voted against it. He willingly spoke out against drinking as “repugnant” and “uncharitable,” but he was careful to explain his issue was not with the people, but the habit. Phillips shares that Lincoln said “’drinkers may just be our [non-drunks] superiors,’ because there is a ‘proneness in the brilliant to fall into this vice.’”

As leaders we must be people of integrity who hold to our convictions but do so in a way that is gracious and respectful of those who think differently than we do. Know where you will hold your ground as Lincoln did on the issue of slavery but recognize where forcing your personal convictions with minor issues may alienate and disrespect. As Patrick Lencioni mentions in his book The Advantage about the culture of Intel, be willing to disagree on some issues, but commit to move together in a direction that will keep you moving toward your goals.

Connect with People

Lincoln was confident in who he was. Even in defeat he was gracious. This created a situation where he was able to build relational bridges with others. His confidence enabled him to surround himself with leaders who thought differently and even disagreed philosophically with him. Instead of being frustrated and alienating people he would seek to connect and bring them closer to himself.

Another example of Lincoln’s strength in connection can be seen in how he spent time among the Union troops during the Civil War. Phillips shares how he would share stories and be among the troops and even take hours to personally shake the hands and thank 6,000 troops. Taking this time not only informed his decisions, but also helped encourage those on the front lines. As a leader take time to be among those doing the heavy lifting to encourage and inspire them.

Which of these areas do you need to focus on in the next week? Are you a natural connector or do you need to grow in this area? If so, check out the Maxwell DISC Personality Indicator as a tool to better understand your personal communication style and how to connect more effectively with those you lead. Lead Well.

Feb

2022

Super Bowl Loss Leadership Lessons

Recently I was watching The Falls of Buffalo which is a documentary on the Buffalo Bills seasons from 1989 – 1993. If you aren’t a football fan you may not know they are the only team in the National Football League to go to four Super Bowls in a row . . . . and lose.

You may wonder what can we learn from a team that never could win the “big one.” Before I go any further may I suggest even though they came up short four times they accomplished something no other team in NFL history has. Going to the Super Bowl four times in a row! Other teams have gone four times or more, but to keep a team working together to get to that level of success multiple years is an accomplishment. Let’s look at a few teamwork principles that can be learned from their experience.

Storming

Football is a sport that can attract some strong personalities and egos. This was quite evident in the locker room during the 1989 season. Personalities were clashing both privately and even in the media as star running back Thurman Thomas at one point complained about their quarterback Jim Kelly. This experience is normal for all teams.

Teams go through four stages and the second stage is storming. During this stage people clash as the roles and expectations get clarified. Both the spoken and unspoken culture are forming. Teams come out of this stage either more divided or unified through healthy conflict. A leader’s job is to help the team navigate this stage in a manner that brings everyone together and their coach Marv Levy was able to do that.

Know and Fulfill Your Role

Leadership expert John Maxwell describes the Law of the Niche in his book The 17 Indisputable Laws of Teamwork. This law states that “all players have a place where they add the most value.” Like I mentioned these Bills teams had strong personalities but they knew and fulfilled their roles. During the 1992 Wild Card playoff game starting quarterback Jim Kelly hurt his knee and Frank Reich stepped in to rally his team back from a 32-point deficit to beat the Houston Oilers.

He is one example of an individual fulfilling his role at a critical time to help the team. When team members embrace their role and fulfill their role to the best of their ability for the team great things happen. For this to happen team members must have clarity on their role, buy-in to the vision, and value the team more than their individual accomplishments.

Support

One of the most fascinating lessons from this era of the Bills is the support they had. After their first Super Bowl loss kicker Scott Norwood was miserable because he felt he lost the game for his team. While watching this documentary you heard the support of his teammates who recognized many mistakes factored into their loss and not just his missed kick.

Not only did he receive encouragement from his team, but upon return to Buffalo the crowd of community members chanted his name to hear from him. The community of Buffalo was still behind him and was not blaming him. When a team has this kind of support from one another and from the community around them it ignites a passion to keep persevering and fuels them for the type of success necessary to have a four-year record of 59 – 19 and reach four Super Bowls in a row.

Maybe your team has had some continual setbacks. You may have had to adjust personnel and strategy as the Bills did, but where is your team performing well? Is your team in a stage of storming? Do you need to give them clarity on their roles or are they fulfilling their roles to their highest ability? What kind of support do you need to provide them as a leader? Need help creating an environment to assess challenges you are facing? Contact me to discover how I can come alongside you and your team to help them continue to thrive.

Feb

2022

Culture – What Makes It?

“Culture is how we think, act, and interact inside our organization.”

Chris Goede (Executive Vice President of Corporate Solutions, John Maxwell Enterprise)

Years ago when I was a strength and conditioning coach, I was talking with my boss and he said: “You have the hardest job on staff. You have to be the master psychologist.”

I had to inspire hundreds of athletes to see the value in participating in the off-season work that did not involve touching a ball or swinging a bat, racket, club, etc. That was one challenge, but over time I saw a different and at times greater challenge.

I could create a culture of hard work, focus, and dedication when I was with them, but if the culture their coach created was different, I was fighting uphill. Maybe the team you lead is collaborative, but you feel you are fighting upstream against an organizational culture that is completely siloed. In this post let me break down culture into three areas you can evaluate, design, and possibly even influence within the larger organization.

People

I jokingly say often “where two or more people are gathered, there will be problems.” That is part of life. Whether two people, twenty, or two-thousand people create a culture. This is one area we need to evaluate. In his book Good to Great, Jim Collins discusses how great companies first get the right people on the bus and then figure out where to drive the bus.

Imagine you lead a professional soccer club. You get on the bus clear about where you are going and who you are playing and then you look. The managers, athletic trainers, and coaches are all on the bus, but only a couple players are there! You will get destroyed in your game. We must take time to evaluate the people on our team determining if they have the right character, skills, teachability, and capacity. The people will create and sustain the culture.

Process

The people are one part, but culture is also created by process. Process in this sense is “how we do things around here.” Every team has both an unspoken and spoken way of doing things. For example, maybe a written expectation is that people take notes on client calls in a certain system. The reality is no one checks or references those notes, so people rarely take them. This lack of inspecting the process that is expected has created a culture that is less effective than originally intended.

The way we act and think can be influenced by the processes in place within our team. Maybe your office door is open, but when people come in to talk with you they get treated as if they are an interruption. The intention is open communication, but the action says the opposite. Evaluate your processes and systems and check if they align with how you intend your culture to function.

Results

I was watching the end of the Cincinnati Bengals first playoff football game recently and the announcer said the stadium had over 66,000 people in attendance which broke the record attendance from 2007. What caused this newfound culture of excitement?

Results.

The last time the Bengals had a playoff victory was in 1991. When our team is getting results people want to be a part of it. As leaders what are the results we want people to get excited about? Is it simply numbers? If so, what do those numbers represent and how can you create a scoreboard around that? Create ways to genuinely recognize and celebrate the results you get. When those results support people and processes that are important to your culture, make everyone aware.

I hope this has helped stir your thinking on how to intentionally form your culture. Maybe you need some help evaluating your team in a fun, interactive, and organic way. If so, let’s discuss how I could serve your team by facilitating The Leadership Game to open up communication around topics like this. Which of these areas do you need to intentionally develop starting today? Let me know. Lead Well.

Jan

2022

Training Lions or Feeding Goldfish

I was reading something recently that looked at how Jesus selected his inner circle. Now I am a person of faith and that may not be your thing, but stick with me because I think we can agree that Jesus was a great leader.

This was tied to a story where Jesus was walking along and asked one of the most hated types of people to be part of his inner circle: a tax collector. As I read the note with additional application thoughts the author suggested good teams are built with lions and not goldfish. What does that look like?

We have a few fish who swim all day and eat a little. When we feed them they swim up to get the food, eat a little and return to swimming. Not very exciting. That would be like watching people dig dirt all day. They do the work well, but it is not very exciting. As a leader if you have followers they do their job well, but may be more like goldfish. Lions, on the other hand, are very different.

Different Personalities

A healthy team consists of people with who think differently. Multiple factors contribute to our unique perspectives, but one of the most impactful can be individual personalities. Some people are aggressive while others are more reserved. Some are task oriented while others are more people focused. This natural hardwiring will influence the perspective people bring to the team.

Leader, may I encourage you to learn how to embrace the differences. I know it feels a lot easier to surround ourselves with people who see the world as we do and think as we do and just “get us,” but in the long run we hurt our team. Examine the personalities on your team. Is there an analyzer, a driver, a peacekeeper, and an extremely relational person? If you have each of these then you have a greater chance of a healthy team . . . as long as everyone is headed the same direction.

Different Strengths

Throughout our lives we develop different strengths. Some strengths we identify early on while others may have developed through experience. Maybe taking the lead comes natural to you and you have been that way since you were young. Maybe you have always asked lots of questions. Other strengths you may have developed through your professional experience. If someone on yo

ur team was previously an engineer they may have a strength in seeing the details and solving complex problems.

As a leader evaluate your team and find their strengths both professionally and personally. Take time to determine with your teammates where you can leverage their strengths. When this occurs the individual and team both thrive.

Willing to Initiate

We can’t see either the personality or the strengths of fish when we feed them. When training lions I have a feeling each one has unique personalities and strengths. One clear difference between a fish and a lion can be seen in their approach to being fed.

A goldfish will wait until its owner drops in the food and then go get it. A lion is a hunter! A lion will prowl around looking for its food. A lion will wait for the perfect opportunity and attack its prey chasing it down until it catches it and has it’s meal. A lion has an agenda while a goldfish waits on its owner.

A team of lions will not be easy to control, but an effective leader does not control his or her team but influences them. As a leader of lions take time to understand the individuals on your team and when they initiate in ways you may not have preferred create time to communicate openly to assure you are both going the best direction for the team and maximizing the individual’s strengths.

Want to understand your team members personalities so you can lead them more effectively? Contact me to discover how I can help your team or go here to invest in a Maxwell DISC Personality Indicator to understand your style. Lead Well.

Jan

2022

Prioritize for Success

While working with organizations I have led leadership roundtables using John Maxwell’s book Developing the Leader Within You 2.0 as a basis for our conversation. Typically, on the first day after defining what it means to be a leader, we discuss priorities. This is always a beneficial and practical conversation that challenges everyone.

Entire books have been written on this topic by multiple authors and I will highlight a couple in here. Below are some simple steps you can apply so you can be even more focused in your leadership.

Assess Your Time

For years I was in an environment where bells and clock timers dictated my day so we were efficient. I don’t know if that environment or my natural wiring makes the tool I am about to share naturally easy for me. I learned about “the fifteen-minute miracle.” What you do is take a sheet that blocks the entire day in fifteen-minute intervals and track your time.

Write down everything you do on this document to see where your time is going. After you fill it out take a few minutes to ask yourself two questions:

Where are you spending your time?
How is this moving me toward my ultimate goal?

To answer the second question, take time to discern this next tip.

Decide What is Important

A couple tools exist to help with this. One that many people I work with find useful I first encountered through Stephen Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. The urgent/important grid. I won’t discuss that here because I covered it in a previous blog. The second tool I found in Rory Vaden’s book Procrastinate on Purpose where he discusses the procrastination funnel. This tool helps you filter through your tasks to determine if you should eliminate, automate, delegate, act or procrastinate on the task.

You may wonder why would you procrastinate on purpose? The task may need to be done, but not immediately. If we do it later then we will be able to focus on higher priorities now. Combining the urgent/important grid with the procrastination funnel will set us up for the final step to help us prioritize effectively.

Know Your Top Two

Years ago the pareto principle was introduced. This idea explained how 20% of the work gets 80% of the results. Now that you have assessed your time and determined what is urgent and important narrow it down to two. If you look at what you have today, this week, this month, or this year what will get you the most return on your time. What are the two things that will get you eighty percent of your results? Focus on those two things and be confident you are investing your time in the right place.

Hopefully these tips were helpful. Take time now or today to apply these tips so you can lead yourself and those around you with more focus and effectiveness. Need a tool for this? Go here for a free downloadable resource to help you assess, decide, and focus to your top two priorities. Lead well.

Jan

2022

Martin Luther King Jr. Leadership Part III

For the past couple years on Martin Luther King Day I have highlighted principles from Donald T. Phillip’s book Martin Luther King Jr., On Leadership. (You can see the previous posts here and here) King was a tremendous example of a transformational leader we can learn many lessons from.

Since I have been focusing on goals and growth over the past couple weeks, I thought I’d explore what Phillips learned about how King approached goals. Phillips stated:

“A detailed plan of action, accompanied by specific goals, serves to mobilize people toward the future. It provides much-needed context and purpose for members of the organization. It helps unify people, motivate them, focus their talent and energy.”

There is a lot to unpack in this statement and I will focus on a few ideas.

Detailed Plan of Action

“We need a chart. We need a compass. Indeed, we need some North Star to guide us into a future shrouded with impenetrable uncertainties.”

Martin Luther King Jr.

King understood he could provide all the vision in the world and have a dream, but without a plan to help them chart the course he would only inspire.

Leaders are people of action.

Leaders navigate for their people.

Leaders are like the captain on the ship out at sea navigating the course into the unknown. They see where they want to be, but they must also provide a path for the people around them.

I would suggest at times the course may simply be the next step. In times of constant change and turmoil as leaders have experienced in recent years it may be impossible to chart a long-term plan so plan as clear and far as possible the next best steps.

Specific Goals

Have you ever tried shooting baskets on a backboard with no rim attached? Your motivation fades quickly. Just like the hoop provides a specific goal and motivates people playing basketball, specific goals provide a target for those you lead. Part of Martin’s philosophy around goal setting was:

“Find something that is so possible, so achievable, so pure, so simple . . . so basic to life that even the [extremists] can’t disagree with it all that much.”

I know I have encouraged us to focus on growth over goals and I still mean that. Goals give us a target and the challenge is to enjoy the process of pursuing and learning while pursuing the goal. When leading a group, find a goal that is clear, simple, specific, and resonates with as many people as possible. This clarity helps with the final idea.

Context and Purpose

“In any movement, you have to have some simple demand around which you galvanize forces.”

Martin Luther King Jr.

King let those he led know they were not entering an easy battle as he laid out the plan and goals for their march on Birmingham. He recognized he had to have a clear plan and goal that would give people the answer to the most important question:

WHY?

When those we lead know the leader has a clear plan with a reasonable goal their confidence increases. Their resolve increases the more they agree with the goal. As a leader take the time to know your plan and your goal for what you want your team to accomplish. As the team understands these, many will be strengthened to continue to march with you toward accomplishing the goal.

What is your plan and goal for your team over the next week, month, year? Is it clear in your mind so you can clearly communicate it to them? If not, take time to get it clear today so you can accomplish together what you are seeking to accomplish. Need help thinking into this? Contact me for a no cost to you coaching session. Lead Well.