Blog - Page 35 of 60 - Wheeler Coaching Systems

Jan

2020

The Positive Power of Social Media

I typically stay off social media because it eats up time and primarily use it for business purposes, but I recently did something out of character for me. My wife encouraged me to share with people about my new book When I Am Afraid on Facebook. She understands all that better than me, so I listened to her.

I was blown away.

I try to be sensitive about my faith and don’t want anyone to feel forced to believe what I believe or be that “pushy” guy. This book is impacted by my faith and I shared in my post a little about my entrepreneurial journey from fear to trust. Usually I only hear about the negative aspects of certain social media platforms, but this caused me to experience the positive power of social media in a unique way.

Caring

After I made my post many friends commented and congratulated me. These were people I know and have interacted with not just “friends.” I must confess I did not expect the outpouring of encouragement. (I think I learned though that much of the world must be on Facebook on Sunday night at around 8:45 PM EST.) This was encouraging because I knew they were genuinely happy for me amidst being afraid to share.

Connecting

While in the middle of this experience I also connected with a man from India who is doing great work for people in that country. While responding to the encouraging replies of friends, I also was getting to know a man who serves women and children with HIV in India. In the middle of this I was realizing the power social media has to create an environment to connect with people across the world in a way I never thought.

Community

A friend of mine saw the post and asked me to share it on his private group page. Once I figured out how to join the group and share my original post, I experienced the power of community. My friend has been building this community for a year or more and this small group gathered around and helped support our family.

As part of sharing about this book my wife and I are offering it as a gift to anyone who gives $50 or more to support our family trip to Mexico to build a couple homes. This is what my friend got excited about. He rallied his tribe to help get momentum to raise money for this family adventure.

Now I am still not a huge fan of social media because of the amount of time I can potentially waste, but I now see more clearly the positive power it provides. What does all this have to do with leadership though?

If leadership is influence, then anytime we are sharing on social media we are potentially influencing somebody so the question is are we using this tool to add value to others or take it away? As leaders let’s add value to others and create momentum for good with these platforms. When we do, we can create positive transformation and, in the process, live out leading well. If you utilize social media, what is one way you can use it today to add value to the world? Share below. Lead Well.

Jan

2020

Leadership Lessons from MLK Jr.

Go into any major city and you see his name on a street. Not only did he live a life of great character, but he serves as an example of leadership during turbulent times.

This past year I read the book Martin Luther King Jr. On Leadership by Donald T. Phillips. Not only was this an excellent book to gain a new perspective on this time period, but also he highlighted key leadership principles from his life.

“The greatest channel to peace . . . [involves] talking about problems. . . For as long as we have men, we are going to have differences. And it seems to me we can disagree without being disagreeable.”

Martin Luther King Jr.

Handling Team Conflict

During King’s life there was tremendous turbulence surrounding civil rights. Not only were there differences in the nation, but consensus was not always the norm within his team. As a leader he created an environment conducive to debate and discussion. A key to this was his role.

As the leader he asked many questions and according to Phillips attempted not to take sides. Leaders who feel they have all the answers close themselves off from learning and getting to the best idea. When all participants in the team dialogue in a healthy manner then the best solution is more likely to surface.

Lead People by Listening

Phillips describes the march on Selma and discusses how King sought to be one of the people among the march willing to experience all they were experiencing. What made him do this? King understood effective leaders must understand the people. We understand by listening to their needs and experiencing life with them.

Leaders limit their effectiveness if they hide in the office or isolate themselves from those they lead. Leadership is a people engagement process. As a leader one must interact, listen, and set plans, goals, and strategies according to the needs they learn.

“In order to maintain their position out in front, and to remain effective, leaders must also often follow the direction of others. In short, they must lead by being led.”

Donald Phillips

CIO

No, I am not talking about Chief Information Officer. Leaders provide information, but Martin Luther King Junior was a Chief Inspiration Officer. He understood that leadership was more about inspiring people than organizing them and giving them direction. This is most clearly demonstrated when he shared his dream with thousands before him while at the Lincoln Memorial.

Leaders have dreams and that dream is fueled by passion and that passion is contagious. Some will love the dream and join and some will not. The inspiration must be in us and when we allow it to overflow from us people will be attracted to us and join in fulfilling the dream.

These are only a few lessons learned from this legendary leader. How are you doing in these areas? Are you inspiring those you lead . . . are you personally inspired? How do you handle your team? Do you listen and encourage productive conflict? Want an objective evaluation of your team and leadership? Contact me to discuss a facilitation of The Leadership Game to open communication and increase leadership discussion in your organization. Lead Well.

Jan

2020

Learning from a Leader in the Service Industry

I was at Starbucks sitting across from the president of Indianapolis area 2019 best place to work Renovia. Now this man had not always been in this position. He had assumed multiple roles in the organization, but now has the privilege of leading it.

As I always do when I meet with leaders, I ask what their top three leadership principles are.

For Matt Rolfsen, like many good leaders, those principles are embedded within his organizational culture. One way he keeps the values in front of his team is by the entire team reciting them together every Monday.

In order to further clarify these values, he has provided three behaviors for each value. I would suggest this practice solidifies the expectations concretely within the minds of everyone in the organization. Now let’s look at what the key leadership values are for this leader.

Authenticity

Matt is in the service industry and in every way modeled this value during our conversation. He did not exude any air of superiority. He sees his organization as a family and encourages everyone to “do life together.” One way people this occurs is through serving in the community and going to Mexico to build homes.

Matt transfers this authenticity by sharing the bigger cause. When leading he helps his team understand his motives behind what he does. When those you lead understand your why and your actions align with the why, they will follow wholeheartedly. Appropriate authenticity is contagious.

Empowerment

Many organizations believe emporwerment is important so I asked more questions to understand Renovia applies empowerment principles. First, each employee describes what success would look like for them through their success profile. This is combined with an Individual Development Profile where employees determine on an annual basis what they want to work on.

To take the development profile deeper team members set and review goals on a bi-weekly basis. During this process if goals are not achieved, they discuss what is holding them back and look for strategies to move them forward. These combine to create a culture of open communication.

Businesses Don’t Grow, People Do

Not only is this a culture of authenticity and empowerment, but also a culture where growth is valued. Matt is not worried about his people growing to a point that they may eventually leave. (I would suggest this is a testament to his faith as one of his values is that this ultimately is God’s business.)

Renovia demonstrates this value of growing yourself by providing an optional company competition called “The Pursuit.” With this tool, team members are given points for participating in growth activities and recognized when they hit certain “levels.” As the people grow, so will the business.

As we finished, I asked Matt for one final leadership nugget he would like to share and he said:

“True leaders step up and do the job before you have the position. Be in the game and don’t sit on the sidelines.”

How do you need to step up as a leader? Do you need help thinking into your leadership priorities? If so, contact me for a complimentary 30-minute thinking partner session. In the meantime, lead well!

Jan

2020

Producing in the New Year

Often I serve organizations by facilitating a mastermind or leadership roundtable. One of my favorite resources to use is leadership expert John Maxwell’s book Developing the Leader Within You 2.0. This is an excellent tool to help people grow into the best leader possible.

At the beginning of the process we discuss the idea of priorities. The new year has begun and maybe you set some new goals. If you are like many of us some of those resolutions have already been broken . . . you know the eating habit ones.

How can we avoid the frustration of not accomplishing our goals in this new year? We cannot control everything, but maybe these three ideas will help you stay on the path to accomplishing your vision for this new year.

Stair Step

If you had the goal of climbing Mount Everest would you try to accomplish that in one day? Of course not! The climb is a process of many days and strategic stops to recover and acclimate. The same is true of accomplishing our vision for this year.

When people climb Everest they can utilize multiple stops to camp and adjust. If you are like me the idea of slowing down is not appealing. I set a goal and I want the result . . . yesterday. Unfortunately, that is not how it works. In order to keep ourselves going, set benchmarks along the way.

Think of your vision. What are some of the steps that you will need to take to get there? Write them down, celebrate when you accomplish it and then keep climbing.

80/20

During the mastermind groups I referenced earlier, we discuss the 80/20 principle. You may be familiar with the concept. As you look at your day/week/year what is the 20% of work that accomplishes 80% of your results?

Maybe you lead a team. Who are the few people that accomplish 80% of the work results? What can you do to develop them or help them find their few they can develop as leaders?

Take a minute and look at what doesn’t serve you well in helping you reach your vision. Maybe the task can be done better by someone else, delegate it. Maybe it does not need anyone’s attention . . . get rid of it. Take a hard look and focus on the 20% this year to move you toward your goal.

Do It Now

Years ago I heard John Maxwell share how he learned to overcome procrastination. I will not go into the details of the story, but the bottom line was creating a simple habit. Every morning when you wake up tell yourself “Do It Now” fifty times and then do the same before you go to bed at night.

Implement this habit for thirty days and watch how it reprograms your thinking. The great challenge to accomplishing our vision is not ability or desire, but simply taking a little bit of action every day.

Three ideas. None of them earth shattering, but each require effort and discipline. Which of these will you implement today? Do it now! Maybe you need a group to hold you accountable to your growth this year. Contact me and let’s talk about starting a mastermind with your team. You are resourced to accomplish your vision this year go do it and lead well!

Dec

2019

Laziness as a Leadership Strength?

It killed me to write that title as this goes against everything I naturally think, but stay with me for a minute.

I was taking advantage of the unseasonably warm December weather and removing the Christmas lights earlier than normal. I really did not want to pull out my adjustable ladder and set it up so I grabbed my quick folding three step ladder.

In all the years of hanging the lights I had never used this ladder because I thought it would take longer. I was wrong! Not only could I move the ladder quickly, but with a little creative thinking I avoided needing my clunky adjustable ladder at all.

Midway through this process of taking down the lights I realized being lazy served me well in this instance. Before I go further let me clarify that nothing replaces hard work, persistence, and quality work, but maybe laziness aligned with high standards has a role in leadership. Additionally, if leaders proactively engage the “lazy” people on their team they may find the following hidden strengths.

Creativity

At times the lazy people around us may not be complete bums, but are more relational and creative. They value spending time with people and building relationships a little more than completing tasks. This could be a strength because assuming they still value high quality work, they will find creative ways to accomplish the work in as little time as possible.

Leaders value quality and want to be successful. Could there be someone on the team who appears lazy, but is very creative? They will create innovative ways to accomplish the work so they can also quickly engage in other available opportunities.

Efficiency

No leader wants to waste time on an initiative and those perceived as lazy want to get the work accomplished as quickly as possible. I didn’t want to spend a lot of time taking down the Christmas lights, so I chose the ladder that was quicker to set up and move, but still get the needed results.

As leaders if we provide clear expectations and a clear vision of what the final product should look like then we equip those who are “lazy” with the parameters to efficiently get results. The leader simply must get out of the way!

Teamwork

We have all experienced a project we must but did not want to do. We all want hard workers, but sometimes they try to do everything and fail to involve others. This is where laziness becomes a strength. If the lazy person focuses on what he or she does well and builds a supporting team to get the work done creatively and efficiently in all the other areas he or she does not excel in, then the results are better. Multiple minds working together create a better result.

As I said before I am not advocating laziness as a habit, but slowing down to what may feel like a lazy pace or tapping into those less driven individuals can potentially be beneficial. Who is a “lazy” person that may be a hidden leader on your team? How can being “lazy” occasionally help you become a better leader? Comment below.

Work hard, stay disciplined, allow a little intentional laziness and lead well.

Dec

2019

The Greatest Leader?

He had a unique birth and was raised in a service-oriented career. There was nothing special about his life and how he was raised.

As a young man he humbly obeyed his parents. One day they could not find him because he was learning from the older people around him. Instead of being a typical modern twelve-year-old, he explained what he was doing and obeyed his parents.

You may think how a person with this upbringing could do anything significant. He spent the last three years of his life serving people. While he traveled the country, he shared principles that were universally true and showed love and compassion to all those he encountered. He even had an “executive team” of twelve.

These twelve ordinary individuals were constantly mentored so they also could become great leaders. Some of them were hated because of their professional careers and others were in common careers like fishing or carpentry: respectable, but nothing glamorous.

His influence grew and he became a problem.

Was he trying to start a rebellion or political revolution?

No.

He questioned the established leaders of the day especially those in faith circles and exposed their hypocrisy. He modeled a different way of leading to those who followed him.

One day before eating he knelt down and took off his outer garment. He proceeded to go around the room and wash the dirty covered feet of each member of his inner circle. This was a visual example of his leadership and the kind of leadership he expected of others. He served before seeking to be served.

This man’s life touched at least 10,000 others, but that number shrunk significantly as no one was around when it looked like the end for him. He was killed, and then he was buried, but something happened.

Those who were with him. Those closest to him. They followed his example. Eleven of these twelve men modeled the following traits.

Boldness

These men who walked with this man continued sharing his message even though for many of them it cost their lives. They shared in front of those who could and would ultimately take their lives.

Service

These men modeled the same type of service they experienced. They did not shy from helping those in need regardless of who it was.

Sacrifice

To share this message of hope and a greater purpose was not free of difficulty. Surely, they had to leave those they cared the most about. Some of them gave up lucrative careers in order to spread the message.

In case you didn’t figure it out, this leader was none other than the meaning behind the Christmas season. Jesus.

Wherever you land on who Jesus is/was is not the point of this blog. But, as his life demonstrated, when a leader models the way and lives the way it becomes contagious. Our example as leaders at work and home will do more to develop leaders around and among us than any words we say. What needs to improve and grow in your example as a leader? Need help thinking into it? Contact me for a complimentary thinking partner session. Lead well.