Learning Leadership

Remembering Those Who Sacraficed on Memorial Day

I think it's significant that we take a moment on Memorial Day to think back and thank the individuals who have made the ultimate sacrifices.  These were the men and women of courage who volunteered themselves and sacrificed themselves for our country.

The good things we enjoy today are because of the sacrifices that individuals have paid before us.

I found this poem in my files I thought fit perfectly for today:

Lord, help us to appreciate
The work that others do,
The service given from their hearts,
Their sacrifice for you.*

Take a moment today to remember the individuals who have paid the ultimate price so that we can enjoy what we enjoy today.

*Poem from May 25, 2009 Our Daily Bread published by RBC Ministries.

Notes from Jim Collins at the Chick-fil-A Leadercast (part II)

Here's a few more notes from Jim Collins' talk at the Chick-fil-A Leadercast I attended on May 7th.

Most overnight successes were about 20 years in the making - After 13 years Starbucks only had 5 stores.  Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart took years to get his second store open.  How crazy is that!  Probably the two most recognizable brands in the world took years and years to get up and running.

Think about this as you're trying to get something up and running as a leader.  I often feel discouraged with some of the leadership classes and seminars that I do that seem to take forever to get up and running.

Embrace the genius of "and" - This is something to play with.  Instead of always saying the word "but" or "although" try using "and."

And is a great encouraging word, while "but" and "although" are discouraging words.  They both stop a conversation and discourage further progress.  But "And" encourages things to keep moving forward and to keep going. 

Anytime you use the word "but" it discounts and discredits whatever was just previously said.  If someone says, "Christopher, you're a great leader, but you fail to confront people when they're wrong."  Yes, that person started to give me a compliment, but he just took the compliment away when he said, "but."

The word "and" is best used when generating ideas on new things and trying to solve problems. 

Notes from Jim Collins at the Chick-fil-A Leadercast (part I)

When Jim Collins spoke at the Chick-fil-A Leadercast two weeks ago I took four pages of notes.  I really enjoy that his content is deeply rooted in research and facts.  He shares content that is practical, realistic and action oriented.

Here's part I of some notes I took from his talk:

All good companies have leaders.  But the great companies have a different kind of leader - In Jim's research of hundreds of companies they found that all good companies had good leaders.  But the truly great companies who've stood the test of time and who've made the greatest impact had a different type of leader.

Their leader possessed a quality not apparent in the good companies.  It was one distinct quality: humility. 

Great leaders at great companies possessed a quality of humility that was not found among the good company leaders. 

It seems odd that humility would to have made the difference, but it was.  So remember no matter what you do or accomplish, be humble!

Question: Do you have a method or something you do to help keep yourself humble?  If so, please share in the comments section.

Notes from Connie Podesta at the Chick-fil-A Leadercast

Similar to how I shared my notes and what I learned from the Catalyst West Leadership Conference last month, I plan to do the same with the Chick-fil-A Leadercast over the next couple of weeks.

We had lots of great speakers at this year's Chick-fil-A Leadercast, and Connie Podesta was our opening morning speaker.

I didn't catch all of her talk because I was helping with registration and IT support for our webcast, but here's some good thoughts Connie shared:

Leadership comes out when your life is so far from what you had planned - This might not be specific to the workplace, but I believe it is true.  Leadership is the ability we've got to use when we don't know what to do.  It's what we rely on when we're lost, confused, and having to find out way on our own. 

Leaders learn to lean on their leadership ability when they are outside of their comfort zone (which can be often).  It's how they adapt, grow and become someone who can make it happen in the situation with the resources they have.

We're all on stage every single day of our life - One thing I learned early in my life is that people are always watching a leader.  They are always watching to see if what you do and what you say match up.  It's almost a subconscious thing people do when they see a leader.  They ask, "Are you for real?" "or you a fake?" "Can I trust you?" 

People ask these things and they're looking for ways that you might be a fake and not be sincere.  That's why it is so important for leaders to have a solid character filled with integrity: so that what they say and do match up.

If you'd like more info on Connie Podesta, you can find here books here

What gets rewarded gets repeated

In Saturday's post I told you about a staffer I tried to do something special for as she was leaving our organization.

The point of the post wasn't to "teach" you something, but to give you a picture of how a leader rewards people for their hard work in front of others.

What gets rewarded, gets repeated. 

There's no doubt about that.  When I took the initiative to do all the work to ask the staff to each write her a thank you note, for me to write her a two page letter and to try to have it presented to her in front of the other staff, I was attempting to reward her for the exceptional job she performed while working at United Way.

In a way, my actions were showing our staff "if you work hard like she did to add value to our organization, I will reward you in this way too." 

I did what I did because it was sincere, honest and heartfelt.  I meant every word I said to her and every word I wrote in her letter.  And I hope that displayed a positive model for the rest of our staff about how they will be treated when they do an exceptional job at our organization.

What to do when an exceptional staffer leaves your organization

Yesterday was the last day for one of our staffers at United Way.

We decided to have a potluck lunch for her as we do with most of our employees.  But this staffer did an exceptional job for us during her tenure at United Way.

I didn't want to just send her away with the normal thing we do for all employees regardless of how they worked.  I wanted to do something special for her.  Something memorable.

On Wednesday I went around the office with a box of thank you cards and gave a thank you card to each staff person and asked, "Please write a thank you note to (the staffer's name) letting her know you appreciated her hard work and say something kind to her."  Every single person I asked to write a note did write her one.

I personally hand wrote her a two page letter thanking her for her service and affirming the great character qualities she had.  I put it in the stack of thank you cards, then we wrapped all the cards together with my letter and I asked someone to give it to her at the potluck. 

I was unable to attend the potluck because of a prior commitment, but I know it was a special day for that woman.  I know she'll go on to have many other jobs at different organizations with different people, but I hope she will always remember our staff and how we sent her away with kind words of appreciation and gratitude.

She truly did an outstanding job at our organization for the time she was there and I wanted her to know just how much we appreciated her.

Leaders Possess Self-Control

This is my late submission to the One Word at a Time Blog Carnival.  Today I write about how Leaders Possess Self-control.

Leaders possess self-control because they:

Know who they are,
what they stand for,
what they can do,
what they can't do,
who they can control,
who they can't control,
they can control themselves, therefore are more able to control others,
If they can't control themselves, how can they expect others to control them?

Studying Habits and a 30-Minute Question (from Jason Womack)

On my way back from the Catalyst West Leadership Conference I stopped to spend some time with my good friend Jason Womack.

I always enjoy my time with Jason cause we get to talk, dream, share ideas and support each other in our mission to serve people.  Every time we meet I bring some thoughts to share with him based on my experiences, what I'm learning, and how they relate to the work he does with helping people be productive.  In turn, I always ask him a few questions and he teaches me something in the process too.

My goal with the Learning Leadership Blog is to share what I'm learning with you that will help you as a leader.  Here are two things I learned from my time with Jason.

1. Anytime I have a habit on cruise control that's when I need to study it - When we have a habit that we do for the sake of doing it, that's when we need to study and evaluate if it's what we should be doing. 

You can probably relate to this at your own organization.  If you're like me, you always here people at your organization say, "What we normally do is . . ." or "What we always do is . . . " or "Last year we did it this way."  That's one thing that really gets under my skin.  Yes, I realize this is how we've done this project or task for years, but so what!  Who cares how we did it last year.

Let's change it, let's improve it, let's make it better.

Whenever we have habits that we do because we've always done them, that's when we need to take a look at them and see if they are worth continuing.  One of the best ways to do this is to get outside help to look at these habits.  We need fresh eyes who can look at what we do, why we do it, and see if it's vital to the work we do.  That's why it's so good to have professional consultants, mentors, coaches, and to solicit feedback from peers.

2. Ask the 30-minute question - I really liked this idea Jason shared with me about meetings.  If you have a meeting which is scheduled to go for one hour, take a break at 30 minutes into the meeting to ask, "Are we halfway done?"  What a great question to ask to make sure the discussion is on task and to redirect it if it needs to change.

Jason is always sharing content on his blog about helping people be more productive at work and at home.  I suggest you give his blog a read and see what you can learn and apply to your own life.

Notes from Andy Stanley at Catalyst West Part II

Here's part II of the notes I had from Andy Stanley's talk at Catalyst West last month:

Great leaders don't make all the decisions - One of the great ways you enable others in your organization to lead and grow is to allow them to make decisions.  When you allow them to make decisions, it gives them responsibility and authority.  Responsibility and authority will grow a leader because it's his own reputation on the line.  No one else's. 

Decisions should be made at the lowest level in the organization chart as possible.  The senior leader, executive vice president, CEO, or executive director doesn't have to make every decision. 

One principle I employ as a leader in the middle of our organization is that I always try to make a decision I think I can be made without consulting my leader.  If I think I know what she will say when I ask, then I make the decision on her behalf.

The thing you are no good at is someone else's opportunity to shine - Very true, if I'm guilty of one flaw as a leader (there are actually many flaws I have) it's that I do too much.  I don't delegate enough to others, and as a result I don't allow others to shine.  I don't allow them to shine through and show what they are great at.

When a Leader decides not do something and either delegates it or decides to leave it untouched, it gives someone else an opportunity to shine.  It gives someone else an opportunity to make something happen, to make a difference and add value to the organization in a way they might not have done before.

When you are in your sweet spot, you can't get enough - When you and I as leaders find the area that we're strong (our sweet spot), we love it!  We love to do what we're good at! 

Mine is leading and writing.  I love to work with people in a meeting, one-to-one, and to focus on working towards a common goal.  I love to lead people to places we've haven't been together. 

I also love to write.  Give me a pad of paper and a pen and I'm a happy man.  I'm ready to rock and roll for hours.  Giving me a pad of paper and pen is like giving a 5 year old a box of crayons and a roll of poster paper.  I'll have fun all day.

When a leader finds his sweet spot, he loves it and can't get enough.  That should be your sign to stay there and do as much of it and you possibly can.

I'm just curious, but what's your sweet spot?  Please leave a comment below and share!

Notes from Andy Stanley at Catalyst West Part I

By far my favorite talk at the Catalyst West Leadership Conference was Andy Stanley.  Man, so many of the talks he gives feel as if the talk was developed exclusively for me.

Here's a few thoughts from Andy:

Only do what only you can do - This is something I could take a week just to think and chew on.  What is it that only you can do at your organization?  I know there are things I've been doing in my life that I can have someone else do.  It's natural for us as leaders to want to do everything.  We most likely have high energy, want to help people, and want to make it happen.  We also have a tendency to think we can do tasks and run projects more effectively than others.  As effective leaders we need to only do what only we can do.

When I do things I don't do well, things don't go well - As a leader, we're given strengths and weaknesses for a reason.  We need to focus on utilizing our strengths for the greater good, and we need to do everything possible to avoid our weaknesses.  And when we do tasks and projects that are in our weak areas, things don't go well.  The result is most likely going to be weak.

My fully developed strengths are worth more to my organization than my marginally improved weaknesses - It's a fact of life that we all have strengths and weaknesses.  And it's up to us as leaders to discover what our strengths are, then we need to find ways to focus on those strengths.  We should do nothing else but focus on those strengths to develop them, improve them and make them better.  We're going to improve much faster with our strengths than we will ever improve our weaknesses.

Interviews from the Chick-fil-A Leadercast

This past Friday some volunteers and I led an effort to host the Chick-fil-Leadercast here in Turlock, CA.  The event was amazing!  The caliber of speakers and leadership principles shared were great to learn.

The event cost $65 to attend out our location and $199 to attend at the live site.

However, you can watch some free interviews from the event here, www.chick-fil-aleadercast.com

Enjoy some free leadership interviews from Jim Collins, John Maxwell, Chip Heath and Mark Sanborn.

Attend the Chick-fil-A Leadercast in Turlock, CA

Over the last four months I've been working to coordinate our local Chick-fil-A Leadercast site in Turlock, CA at Enclave Community Church.

This is a great event for anyone who leads a team of people, works as part of a team, or works with people in any way, shape or form.  This will be my fourth year attending this leadership event and the speaker line up is the best it's ever been.

Here's a list of this year's speakers:

• Jim Collins - Author of Good to Great, How the Mighty Fall, and co-author of Built to Last
• Tony Dungy (Pre-Recorded) - Retired head coach for the Indianapolis Colts
• John C Maxwell - Leadership expert and best-selling author of The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership
• Steve Uzzell - Award-winning corporate photographer and former staff member of National Geographic 
• Mark Sanborn - Best-selling author of The Fred Factor 
• Connie Podesta - Expert in the psychology of human behavior and leadership development
• Jim Goodnight - CEO of SAS Institute, Inc.
• Ed Bastian - President of Delta Air Lines
• Ben Carson - Neurosurgeon and Professor of Pediatric Neurosurgery at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom
• Chip Heath - Author of Made to Stick, Columnist for Fast Company, and Stanford Professor

The Chick-fil-A Leadercast will be held this Friday, May 7th.  Over four hundred sites across America and Canada will host this amazing event.  If you'd like to attend with us here in Turlock, CA please contact me (christopher.lynn.scott at gmail dot com) directly.  If you live anywhere outside of Central California, you can find a site near you.

 

Notes from Erwin McManus at Catalyst West

Below are some good thoughts on leadership from Erwin McManus at the Catalyst West Leadership Conference:

Our gift to the world is to help people have meaning in the world - What a great gift we can give to someone when we come alongside them, assist them, and help them to live a meaningful life. 

Our world is so messed up at times and it messes up the people who live in it.  We have commercials and ads bombarding us day and night telling us what we should want out of life.  How we should want money, fame, sex, and other things that are shallow and meaningless. 

As leaders it's our job as a secure, centered person is to help people have a life of meaning.  We need to show them how they can live a life that has eternal value, that will leave a legacy for the good work they have done long after they have passed away.

There is a lot of pressure on leaders to be someone they are not - If you're a leader, I'm sure you feel this.  You know that there is pressure from the people "below you" and "above you."  The people above you want you to be more results focused and to hit your numbers and to do good work.  The people below you just want a piece of you.  They want to feel that you took the time to get to know them and support them. 

Leaders are always being pulled in different directions to become someone who is different.  Leaders in the nonprofit sector are pulled to be someone different to their board of directors, to their staff, to community constituents, and to people who volunteer their time. 

I believe another area of pressure comes from media.  Anything a leader does is scrutinized by media for every little decision and word said.  I'm convinced that political leaders don't script their speeches because they want to say the right things, they script their speeches because they are afraid they'll say something wrong.  If they say something incorrectly, they know the media will eat them alive.

Our culture confuses fame and greatness - Yes, as a leader I've learned that fame means nothing.  Just because someone knows my name and is familiar with me, doesn't mean I'm great.  If I did care (which I don't) that someone knew my name, it would be that they knew it because I did some good work in our community and in the world.  I would hope they knew me because I had made a difference in their life and others.  Many people are famous, but it doesn't mean they are great.  It doesn't mean they have done anything great in the world to have helped people.

 

Notes from Scott Belsky at Catalyst West

Scott Belsky spoke twice at Catalyst West.  He spoke in the labs on Wednesday and on Friday for the main session.  Below are some key thoughts on Making Ideas Happen which I felt were relevant to share with you:

It's ideas that solve problems - Very true!  When a problem arises, we usually don't have a solution yet.  It takes people and ideas to solve problems in the world.  Once we have ideas which have potential to solve problems, then we have to make those ideas happen!  We've got to find a way to implement them so they can be used to solve the problems.

People leave organizations because they don't feel well managed - Very true too!  Many times people leave an organization because they feel their potential and passion will be used to a greater extent at another organization. 

Yes, pay, benefits and work environment might play a factor in why people move from one organization to another, but they are only byproducts of someone who doesn't feel well managed.  If a person feels well managed in an environment where they are using their strengths to make a difference,  very rarely will they leave a company.  When a person is well managed and led, they will sacrifice pay, benefits, and other things in order to keep working for an effective leader who manages them and their talents well.

Measure a meeting in action steps - If you have a meeting and there are no action steps determined that need to be done after the meeting, then you shouldn't have had the meeting.  I think you can take this a step further and know that the more action steps that need to be taken after a meeting, the more productive the meeting was.

Share Ideas Verbally - I like this a lot!  I like the idea of sharing ideas verbally for two reasons:

1. It gives me feedback on the idea, &
2. It gives others an opportunity to make the idea happen

If you train yourself to share your ideas you will also allow others to not just give you feedback to help make the idea happen, but it will allow others to keep you accountable on an idea.  So if you share with a friend that you have an idea to start a blog in a week, the next time you see that friend she will probably ask you, "So, how's the blog coming?"  And that will help you stay accountable to that idea to help you make it happen.  Using this example again, it will also allow her to help you get that blog up and running in case you need help, and it will help you realize if it's even a good idea to start a blog.

Leaders Talk Last - If you're like me, you might need to hear it again: Leaders Talk Last.  When gathering in a meeting with people to discuss ideas or problems, the leader should speak last.  Allow everyone to get out what they are feeling and what they know.  Cause if you start talking without giving your people a chance to share what they feel and know, they probably aren't going to listen to you anyway.  The entire time you're talking they are going to be thinking in their ahead about what they want to say.  So when you gather with your team, talk last!

Develop Others Through Appreciation - If there's one thing I feel people need more of in the work world today it's more appreciation.  So many people feel like they just go to work to do a job, and go home.  Very few leaders are engaged enough with their people to acknowledge their hard work and effort.  When you let someone know you appreciate them, they feel good.  They feel that what they did made a difference and that it mattered.