Learning Leadership

Learnings from The Three Laws of Performance

One of my mentors recently recommended that I read The Three Laws of Performance written by Steve Zaffron and Dave Logan.

Here's the key take away's I learned from speed reading the book:

• What is being communicated causes most of the problems - Most of the time problems don't just arise from no where. Usually problems are created from what we communicate, and what we fail to communicate.
• Make it easy and simple - People are able to apply things they understand and that are simple to learn. However, making things simple and easy isn't always easy. It's hard work and takes time to take things that are complex and make them simple. In the end, the effort is worth it. Any person who is a successful speaker or writer knows the effort and time it takes to make things simple and applicable.
• Leaders determine what others experience by their own communication and how they "frame" certain things - Leaders are the filter of what others experience by what they communicate or what they fail to communicate. One of the things I noticed about President Obama was how much and how often we communicated in the first 100 days of his presidency. Every day in a different area of the country he was communicating about the current state of our nation and what his administration was doing to fix things. 
• Out past determines our future - Often what has happened in our past positions us for what we do in the future. Unless, we have something extremely drastic that changes our future and causes us to make a shift in our life.

Confidence of a Leader and his People

While working on some content for an ebook I’m writing, I came up with this passage about confidence and thought it might be relevant to leaders.

Here it is:

An average leader has confidence in himself,
A good leader inspires people to have confidence in their leader,
A great leader inspires people to have confidence in themselves.

Great leaders are able to see their own potential, see the potential of others, and they are able to draw that potential out of them.

As a leader it’s not enough to just have confidence in yourself, it’s not enough to inspire your people to have confidence in you as their leader, but you’ve got to be able to inspire your people to have confidence in themselves.

What will matter in 2010?

As many of us begin to think about 2010 it's not easy to paint a picture of what it will will look like.

In December of 2008, who would have imagined the type of year we had in 2009? My guess: very few.

Most leaders barely know what's going to happen in their lives day to day. To think we'll know what 2010 looks like is a challenge.

Author Seth Godin has put together a great piece of work that features more than seventy great minds sharing what they believe 2010 will look like. It's a free ebook entitled, What Matters Now.

Leaders are always thinking about and seeing the future, and this ebook will help.

A Slightly Different Meeting

As someone who leads several meetings a month, I used to always view my meetings as a place where people would come to support my program, my ideas and my vision.

After four years of this process I’ve realized something slightly different.

When people come to my meetings I need to see how I can support their ideas and their vision. My role as the leader is to serve and support their fresh ideas and perspectives about helping.

I used to think people came to my meetings to help me, but now they come to my meetings so I can help them.

Who can you thank today?

On the desk in my home office I have a note card that says, “Who can I thank today?”

It’s a simply question/statement that reminds me to always think about who I can say thank you to. Naturally as a leader there are many people close to me who dedicate their time and effort to my vision of helping people. They volunteer for car washes, fundraising teams and attend many events.

Here’s a list of the many people I try to regularly say thank you to:

• My two mentors
• Volunteers
• My friends
• Donors
• Family

As you work throughout your day, simply ask, “Who can I thank today?” It’s a simple question that will help you remind others that you’re thankful and appreciative about the work they do.

Let the Strongest Leader Go First

On my Thanksgiving trip to visit family in Alaska I spent some time with my dad snow mobiling on the miles and miles of trails near their home.

As my dad and I rode from trail to trail, we embarked an a trail which hadn't been ran on since a fresh six inches of snow had fallen the night before. If you're a snow mobile rider, you know it's tough to ride a snow machine in fresh powdery snow. It's super easy to get stuck, to get buried, and to have to dig your way out can take quite a while.

As we embarked on the new trial, it was obvious this would be a tough one to get through successfully. The fresh snow was deep, and the trail started with a steep beginning that felt like we were traveling straight up.

My dad was on the fastest and strongest snow machine of the two. Mine was a little older, slower, not as strong and a little more sluggish when it came to pressing on the gas.

As we embarked on the new trail, it was obvious that dad had his snow machine floored and was giving it almost full gas. As he blazed a groove up the trail, I followed right behind driving in the grooves of his path.

It was obvious to me that I was only able to make it up the hill and up the new trial because he had blazed a path for me which I could follow. His snow machine was stronger, faster and better equipped for the tough terrain ahead, and if I would have attempted in on my own, I would have gotten stuck.

This is also true for leaders, I know that I'm not always the strongest and most effective leader. So sometimes I need to see other people blaze a trail for me that they can easily follow. I need to have someone who is out in front of me who is stronger, faster and better equipped to deal with what is ahead in our work world.

Often we need a big strong leader to be out in front blazing the trail.