Blog - Page 25 of 60 - Wheeler Coaching Systems

Mar

2021

What The Gambler Taught Me About Leadership

When I was a kid my parents had a record by the late Kenny Rogers and I remember them playing the song The Gambler. I had this song queued on my music list because I played it for my boys when Kenny Rogers passed away. One particular morning I was listening to it while warming up for my workout and I noticed this song is about much more than a game of poker. This song teaches us about leading ourselves.

A Train Bound for Nowhere

I heard this first stanza in a way I never had before. I always thought they were sitting at a poker table. They were two men lost in the haze of life staring out the window maybe trying to figure out their purpose. This can feel like our lives as we lead ourselves and others.

At times we feel like we are on a train bound for nowhere or simply running the rat race of life. We are looking for purpose. Maybe the business is struggling, the boss is on you more than usual, you aren’t meeting your numbers or life at home is even more stressful. Sometimes we need a gambler to speak wisdom into our lives just like happens in this song.

I Can See Your Out of Aces

As they begin talking, the gambler can tell something is on his mind. If you are out of aces in poker you are in a hard place. (I assume since I’ve never played poker) He was down on his luck and life was not going well for this man on the train.

I’ve heard it said that there are no two good days in a leader’s life. My guess is this man had been experiencing many days that weren’t going well. He was soothing his pain with whiskey in hopes to make it better. When you are all out of aces and down on your luck who or what do you run to? Does it help you lead better or hurt your leadership?

Learn to Play it Right

As I listened to this part I was seeing things I’d never seen before over the years. The gambler wasn’t giving advice on how to play poker as much as how to deal with life and adversity. If you know this song you are familiar with how much of the rest goes. One of the pearls of wisdom the gambler drops is:

“The secret to survivn’ is knowin’ what to throw away and knowin’ what to keep.”

In leading ourselves and others we constantly make decisions on what to persevere through and what to let go of. At times we have to keep the cards we are dealt and persevere to the other side in order to fulfill our personal or professional vision. Other times we must let go of the habits, hurts, or ideas that don’t serve us and/or those we lead.

Just like the poker player doesn’t know what to keep and what to throw away the same is true for us. How can we speed this process? Surround ourselves with other leaders to help us increase our collective wisdom and learn from those who have gone before us as the gambler taught this man.

Has leading got you down? Is there something you need to “throw away” or something you want to throw away, but need to keep? Are you losing the self-leadership battle and need someone on your side to help you identify what to push through and what to let go of either personally or strategically within your organization or team? Contact me for a thirty-minute thinking partner session at no cost to you. I can’t help you with poker, but I can help you think into your results for more focus and effectiveness. Lead Well.

Mar

2021

Collaborative Leadership

I was talking with a community leader who sold his business and moved into serving his community in local government. During our conversation we discussed the value and challenge of collaboration as a leader. This idea of collaboration is similar to a concept Peter Senge brought forth in The Fifth Discipline . . . a learning organization.

When people form in a group they go through multiple stages and one question that arises is whether they will we have the humility to listen and learn from one another. Peter Senge says:

“The discipline of team learning involves mastering the practices of dialogue and discussion.”

Imagine a football team preparing for the upcoming week’s game. They have all researched the opposing team and are now at the table discussing strategy for the upcoming game. As they go around the table each coach has their perspective. While listening and discussing they collectively create a plan. This is the easy part. Game day arrives and now the head coach is making decisions in real time and must balance the following tension this community leader and I discussed.

Collaboration

During the game, like in business and multiple forms of leadership, at times we can slow down and discuss ideas with one another. Other situations require rapid ideation and decision making. When is a collaborative environment helpful to the leader?

While talking with this community leader he suggested when the best decision is unclear we need to gather input from others. Leadership decisions vary in complexity. For example, going for a first down when it is 4^th and 1 yard to go versus 4^th and 4 yards to go are two different decisions. The coach needs more information to get clarity. Similarly, as a leader of an organization or team you may need more ideas and input to determine the best path. When time permits and the answer is unclear leaders collaborate with a deadline. The deadline prevents decision avoidance by continual discussion.

Information

Sometimes collaborating is neither necessary nor beneficial. The football coach who is faced with a fourth down situation with 10 yards to go and 70 yards from their endzone most times will not need to collaborate with the rest of his staff. . . . punt the ball. What is the difference?

In situations like this the leader has clarity. Maybe he or she has experienced this situation, or the answer is obvious, and collaboration will not be an effective use of time. If the organization has not sold a specific product for a year, then it may be obvious this product needs to be removed from development. I would suggest evaluating the implications of a decision before informing without collaboration. Seek out someone who thinks differently than you in case you are missing something and when necessary return to group collaboration so you can make the best decision possible.

Most Important Question

As leaders we make many decisions. When we were talking this leader emphasized the importance of seeing the other side of any issue. We easily get caught in our perspective and fail to see from the side of those being impacted by the decision. The most important question to ask in any decision is: what is right for the community/group/business/people? When we put that question at the front of our thinking we will know how clear the decision is and the level of collaboration we need to engage in.

How are you at collaborating with your team? Do you not have a team yet and need a thinking partner to help you see a different perspective as you make decisions? Contact me for a no cost to you thinking partner session to help you think into your key decisions. Lead Well.

Mar

2021

Leadership Thinking

Lately I have been listening to an outstanding program leadership expert John Maxwell created on How Successful People Think. I have read the book once, but the first time I read something I only mildly retain it. While I listen to John teach and his CEO Mark Cole challenge me with application ideas, it has been even more valuable than reading the book.

As I’ve been working through this, a few areas came to mind that are important for leaders to focus their thinking. These are not the only areas. John mentions eleven areas, but here are three you may want to consider reflecting on in your leadership either at work or home.

Hopeful Thinking

“Hope is about goals, willpower, and pathways. A person with high hope has goals, the motivation to pursue them, and the determination to overcome obstacles and find pathways to achieve them.”

Casey Gwinn Hope Rising

Reading this quote recently shifted my thinking on hope. This is something deeper and more action oriented than just thinking positively. As leaders we must see the positive in every situation, but what those we lead really need is hope.

These three ideas: goals, motivation, and drive are present in what Jim Collins called a Level Five leader in his book Good to Great. I think of the inspiring football coach whose team is down by a touchdown with a minute left and he calls his team to the sideline. He is positive, has a path to pursue, and the determination to overcome the obstacles in front of him. He inspires his team with the plan and the hope it will be accomplished.

As leaders at both work and home we must have hope and be dealers in hope to those we lead.

Purposeful Thinking

To inspire hope we must have it personally. How do we get hope? Purposeful thinking.

John calls this “big-picture thinking” in How Successful People Think. I will refrain from diving into the many great principles he shares. What I will suggest is that as purposeful leaders we need to know why it matters.

Many people have two questions constantly on their mind.

The selfish question: “what’s in it for me?”

The purpose question: “why?”

As leaders who want to give hope, we must answer both of these questions. We have been asking these two questions since we were young. One more directly than the other. Answering “why” helps people understand the reason behind what they are doing. The second question can be the more difficult question to answer.

I worked with athletes for years and could tell them why they needed to lift weights and how it would benefit them, but the second question was more difficult. I needed to understand what was important to them and help them see how the “why” tuned into the “wiifm” question. If they could see how getting stronger and faster would help them get more playing time along with helping the team, then they have hope in suffering through the workouts. Maybe they even eventually enjoyed the experience.

Strategic Thinking

John provides a great process of how to think strategically in the How Successful People Think program so I will not cover that here. Allow me a moment to suggest why this is so important.

In his classic book Think and Grow Rich Napolean Hill shares multiple secrets on becoming “rich.” One is having an organized plan. Depending on the stage of your leadership, your organization, or size of your team this plan may vary in complexity. A strategic plan does not have to be fifty pages thick. Quite honestly that may be too confusing to implement and remove hope from your team.

You have the purpose which reinforces hope so how do you move forward? That is the one question strategic thinking answers. As the leader you are strategically thinking when answering the question “how can we . . .?”

Remember the football coach? If he gives the team hope but forgets to tell them the next play, then everything is pointless. Strategy is informed by your goals and purpose and at first may be the next step such as make fifty sales calls over the next number of days.

The strategy will grow in complexity but remember not to get attached to the plan. As we all have learned in the past twelve months, the plan WILL have to be adjusted so take the next best step to keep hope alive and move toward the purpose.

Which of these areas of thinking do you need to work on? Comment below and let me know. If you want to take a deep dive into the same program I have been working through go here and you can invest in it yourself. If you want a thinking partner to help expand your leadership thinking, contact me for a thirty-minute thinking partner session at no cost to you. Lead Well.

Feb

2021

A Female Business Owner Leading in a Male Dominated Industry

I was sitting in the lobby discussing leadership with Lauren Taylor the CEO of a third generation family owned business in the Indianapolis area. We began by discussing the top leadership principles that guide her. (insert link to blog) While learning her leadership principles I recognized I was with a strong woman in leadership.

The industry she serves could be considered a male dominated industry. After learning that during our conversation I asked her what principles she has learned as a woman in leadership in a male dominated industry.

See Opportunity not Oppression

As a young millennial female small business leader she could see herself as a victim when asked to serve certain roles or she could see opportunity. Opportunities have arisen for Lauren to serve in board roles and instead of sitting quietly in the corner she looks for opportunities to speak up. She is not trying to push an agenda but be a voice for those she represents in the opportunity she has.

Find Your Gifts and Use Them

Regardless of gender we all have unique gifts and abilities. I continually remind youth of this principle when I provide my youth leadership training. Lauren highlighted the natural gifts many women have like improved observation skills (they know to move the milk in the fridge to find the thing hiding in the back unlike us men), in tune with the “vibe” of a room, and often can multi-task well. Use these natural abilities to serve your team and lead them in a way others may not be as capable.

Know Your “Shtick”

Just as everyone has their own unique gifts and abilities, they also have their own unique story. In any organization the high performers have a “why”. Maybe it was the experience with the product or service. Maybe the value they see in the product or service. Whatever your reason for why you do what you do, let it come through which will make you shine and perform to your fullest potential. During our conversation Lauren said:

“Don’t worry about how you will be received, just be you.”

She models this by using her kind, but direct approach in a way that adds value to others. She encourages other people, especially women, to be themselves and lead from that authentic self.

Ride the Wave

As you are being your true self and not worrying about what others think you may make waves. Lauren sees two potential results as you make waves: ride it to the top or crash down. This is a woman who seventeen years ago took over a business that was in bankruptcy and in a few years turned it around. She knows the wave and the risk of failure. Sometimes to make waves she suggests, you have to rock the boat otherwise you won’t move.

Leadership is about change and change creates “waves.” I would suggest we be intentional, other-centered, and strategic in our waves. As we wound down this conversation, I asked her what she would like to say to female leaders. She stated there are different types of hard, but the journey is always hard and enjoy it. More profoundly she said this:

“The path to something greater lies in the valley of surrender and sacrifice . . . it never gets easier.”

The path of achievement as leadership expert John Maxwell states is “an uphill climb.” This climb requires even more persistence and perseverance for some than others. Of these areas mentioned, which of them do you need to grow the most in? Did you find this valuable? Please share it with others you think would benefit and if you want to get these directly to your inbox sign up for a free ebook today. Lead well.

Feb

2021

Tom Brady QB G.L.O.A.T.

I realize I am behind on writing this and that the excitement or frustration has somewhat subsided, but I needed time to think on this idea. I have lived in Colts territory for over two decades so to even write the title feels like betrayal. You may be looking at it and saying “you spelled it wrong.”

Actually, I didn’t. Greatest Leader of All Time. Notice I am not saying greatest ever, but specifically as a quarterback. I’m not discussing whether or not this is true, but challenging us to consider three leadership lessons we can glean from this experienced professional quarterback.

Mindset

If you know anything about football you recognize any good quarterback is a leader, but not all last long. Why? Their mental approach. I found an article discussing Brady’s early years at the University of Michigan (I think I just threw up in my mouth since I’m an Ohio State fan 😊).

I digress. In his early years he was seventh on the depth chart. That means there were six people in front of him before he would get a chance to start. This also meant is he got only 2 out of 50 reps in practice.¹

This could be crushing for many quarterbacks, but he allowed the question “how can I prove myself” lead to an investment in himself. He spent time with a psychologist to help his mindset. That time led him to shift his focus from the number of reps to making every rep the best you can.

Stop focusing on the number of reps and start focusing on making every rep the best you can.

What would happen if as leaders we shifted our focus from creating more opportunities and worrying about the “next thing?” Instead, focus on giving the best we can to what is in front of us. That could shift us from an anxious mindset focused on what we can’t control to a confident mindset focused on what is within our control.

Talented Teammates

Wise leaders understand what leadership expert John Maxwell states in his book The 17 Indisputable Laws of Teamwork as the law of significance:

“One is too small a number to achieve greatness.”

In an interview leading up to Super Bowl LV, after answering a few questions, Brady requested other teammates be brought up for interviews. He understood he may get the attention and be viewed as the team leader, but the reality was he had many talented teammates around him who would make success possible.

If he did not have talented receivers, running backs, defensive players, offensive lineman, and an experienced coaching staff to lead the team they would be limited in what they could accomplish. Some leaders say it is lonely at the top. Maybe because some of the ultimate decisions fall on the leader, but great leaders surround themselves with a talented and capable team so they can together carry the burden and fulfill the vision.

Credibility

Up until this most recent Super Bowl victory I was reluctant to consider the G.O.A.T. idea for Tom Brady because I thought it may just have been the coach and players in New England. The true test of a leader is putting him or her in a new environment to see if they get similar results. Brady did that.

Coming in though I think it may have been considerably easier than when he came to New England because of this last idea. Credibility.

Back in June Bruce Arians highlighted this credibility in an article by observing when Brady talks, his teammates listen.³ He didn’t say exactly why, but surely five Super Bowl rings has something to do with it. Possibly Brady’s credibility created greater commitment from his team and was a key to their success this past season. As Kouzes and Posner state in their book The Truth About Leadership:

“Only credible leaders earn commitment, and only commitment builds and regenerates great organizations”

As leaders we must be credible. We may not walk in the door with Tom Brady credibility, but the best way to build it is by matching our actions with our words. That will build credibility, trust, and ultimately influence.

What about you? How are you doing in these areas as a leader? Do you need to strengthen the team around you? Maybe you have credibility gaps that need to be filled or possibly you need to invest in getting someone to help you with mindset as Brady did in college. Need help with your team or your self-leadership? Let’s talk to discover ways I may be able to come alongside you. In the meantime, lead well.

Feb

2021

Love in Leadership?

Since this past weekend was Valentines and some of you men reading this may be in the dog house because you forgot or didn’t do enough or . . . . I thought I’d reflect on how love could be relevant in our leadership.

Stick with me a minute and if you really want to go deep into this author Gary Chapman wrote about The Five Languages of Appreciation. I’m not going into that here. As I thought of this idea three words came to mind on how we demonstrate love and appreciation at work.

Patience

I thought I’d start with the most challenging one, at least for me. This impatience is visible in how I hate repeating myself. Leaders must repeat themselves though. I once heard a leader say “vision leaks.” By the nature of being the leader, we often are the most excited about where we are going. We constantly think about this vision and then we get in front of our team and they seem to forget!

This is vision leaking. If the team is performing well that demonstrates they care, but they are caught up in their tasks. This can try our patience because everyone gets off course and needs redirection. We may even question whether we are leading adults or immature children from time to time. Be patient and trust they are still on board with the vision. Who did you and I thrive under the most? A demanding and overbearing leader or a patient one?

Not Easily Angered

Tensions rise as conflict occurs in the meeting. You start to feel the heat creep up your neck and are ready to blow, but instead you say “let’s take a five minute break.” Conflict should occur in meetings in a healthy way, but at times that conflict can get out of control and turn into posturing and politicking. What do we do?

First, identify if our anger is because we must BE right. As the leader if we have to always be right instead of seeking what is right or best for all . . . anger is not far behind. Put the team in front of our ego. Second, have a clear plan. What is the purpose of this meeting and what are the objectives? Clarity will help create healthy expectations and reduce the possibility of unhealthy anger arising.

Tough

Ok, the first two were calming now I’m saying “tough”? Sometimes love must be tough. I’ve had patient leaders, but they were also willing to be firm and honest. Tough love is the ability to speak the truth with candor and care. In their book Crucial Conversations Patterson, Grenny, et. al. put it well:

“To succeed in crucial conversations, we must really care about the interest of others – not just our own.”

When we are demonstrating tough love we have the crucial conversation about something the other person needs to hear. We may not want to discuss it, but for their benefit and the sake of the team discuss it with honesty and care.

When you look at these three areas which do you need to grow in? Over the next three weeks focus on one area and adjust how you communicate and lead with a focus on that area. Let me know how it goes. If you want someone to come alongside you to help you or your team grow in your leadership contact me and let’s discover how I may serve you. Lead Well.

A Train Bound for Nowhere

I Can See Your Out of Aces

Learn to Play it Right

“The secret to survivn’ is knowin’ what to throw away and knowin’ what to keep.”

“The discipline of team learning involves mastering the practices of dialogue and discussion.”

Collaboration

Information

Most Important Question

Hopeful Thinking

“Hope is about goals, willpower, and pathways. A person with high hope has goals, the motivation to pursue them, and the determination to overcome obstacles and find pathways to achieve them.”

Casey Gwinn Hope Rising

Purposeful Thinking

Strategic Thinking

See Opportunity not Oppression

Find Your Gifts and Use Them

Know Your “Shtick”

Ride the Wave

Mindset

Talented Teammates

Credibility

Patience

Not Easily Angered

Tough