Learning Leadership

Strength

Leaders need a tremendous amount of strength.

Today's One Word at a Time Blog Carnival is about Strength. 

Strength is what fuels the many other areas of a leader's life. It fuels his character, it fuels his persistence, and it fuels his vision.

Here's a list of what my strength has done for me:

It has allowed me to persist when I didn't feel I could;
It has allowed me to overcome the doubts and discouragements of others;
It has allowed me to dig deep within myself and extract more than I thought I could;
It has allowed me to grow as a man to take an honest look at who I am and what I can do.

Proverbs 24:10 (the book of wisdom in the Bible) states:

If you fail under pressure,
your strength is too small. (New Living Translation)

Have strength as a leader and rest on it.

More Thoughts from Andy Stanley's Talk from Catalyst West

Last week my friend Andrea Aresca shared with me some of his thoughts from Andy Stanley's latest leadership podcast titled, When Less is More.  The podcast is from a talk Andy gave at the Catalyst West Leadership Conference I attended two months ago.

I still find myself thinking about Andy's talk and the many ideas he shared. Those can be read in two parts. Here's part I and part II.

Andrea shared some of his own thoughts which I thought were interesting. It amazes me how two people can listen to the same talk, but hear different things which were significant to them. 

A Day of Hope: A Case Study of Linchpins

On Monday, June 14th I gave a talk at the Modesto Linchpin Meetup to a group of six people entitled, A Day of Hope: A Case Study of Linchpins.

The talk was based on Seth Godin's newest book, Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?

Here's some notes and resources for you:

A Day of Hope: A Case Study of Linchpins

• Outline
• Content
• Audio
• PowerPoint

I hope you enjoy the talk and learn more about how you can become a Linchpin!

Question: Do you consider yourself a linchpin at your work? Why or why not?

Notes from Mark Sanborn at the Chick-fil-A Leadercast (part II)

Here's part II of my notes from Mark Sanborn's talk at the Chick-fil-A Leadercast:

People have no reason to change until we accept them - One thing that I've learned from leading people is that I can't successfully lead someone who I am secretly judging.  I need to always have respect and appreciation for the person I'm trying to lead.  If I don't have that respect and appreciation, I have to find it.  Luckily, I've always been successful to find something about every person which I can respect and appreciate.

I'll accept you where you're at to help you go where you want to go - This is the essence of every leader's job and responsibility.  A leader is responsible to help his people grow and become the person he or she is meant to be.  A leader should foster that growth, development, improvement and life journey so the person can go where they want to go. 

If a leader is able to do this, it's a great feeling.  I've been able to experience this a few times when I've been able to help others to become better.  It's a great feeling.

Mark Sanborn also writes a great blog focused on helping leaders grow.  You can read it http://www.marksanborn.com/blog/.

Notes from Mark Sanborn at the Chick-fil-A Leadercast (part I)

Mark Sanborn was one of my favorite speakers at this year's Chick-fil-A Leadercast.  I'm always amazed at how much quality content he packs into his presentations.  He packs so much in that I find myself writing much of the time that he's talking, it's like I can't write fast enough!

Mark has written some great books, my favorite being You Don't Need a Title to Be a Leader.  It's a great book for anyone who works as part of a team, but who is not the top leader.

A main focus of Mark's talk at the Chick-fil-A Leadercast was about stories and how people are shaped by the stories they have for themselves.  According to Mark we all have a story about ourselves and we see the world through that story.  And as leaders we need to always be seeking to understand the stories of the people we lead.

Here are some key points Mark shared:

How does "working for me" affect someone's story? - This is a question that all followers ask of their leader.  They want to know what their leader is going to provide for them.  What is that leader going to do to help them grow, develop and improve their lives.  Are they going to have to worry about having a paycheck every week, is there benefits going to be sufficient to provide for their family, or is there job going to give them the satisfaction they need in life?

Leaders need to get our of their own heads and into the minds of the people who "work for us" to see if we're giving people what they need as part of their story.

Failure is something that happens to you, not something that you are - Very true.  As motivational speaker, Zig Ziglar says, "Failure is an event, not a person."  Failure is a result of the effort and ability we possess.  But it does not define our identity.

Mark Sanborn also writes a great blog focused on helping leaders grow.  You can read it http://www.marksanborn.com/blog/.

Win a FREE Ticket to Catalyst One-Day in Seattle

If you follow my writing much you've probably read my thoughts from attending the Catalyst West Conference.  It was an amazing conference and I was grateful for the opportunity to attend.

On Aug 26th Catalyst One Day will be in Seattle, WA featuring Andy Stanley and Craig Groeschel.

Here's what you'll learn from attending Catalyst One Day:

Hear Andy Stanley and Craig Groeschel uncover the secrets to creating and sustaining momentum.  Learn about creating systems, environments, and entire cultures that will set the right initiatives in motion and fuel progress.  Whether you need fresh insight for your staff, your church, your business, or yourself, this is an exceptional, can’t-miss opportunity.

The price to attend this One-Day is $107 if you register before June 17th, but you have a chance to win a FREE ticket here!

The Catalyst guys and I have teamed up to give away one free ticket to one of my readers.

Here's the criteria to enter:

1.  Leave a comment below with your Twitter name, Facebook page, and/or website

2. a) Retweet this message: FREE ticket from @ChristopherLS to @CatalystLeader's One-Day Conference in Seattle, Aug 16th. Details, http://ht.ly/1WaHb

or

2. b) Post a link to this blog post on your Facebook page, MySpace, blog or personal website

This is a chance for someone to attend this great One Day event for free.  So please help spread the word and encourage people to attend.

Deadline to enter is Monday, June 14th at 9pm PST.

On Tuesday, June 15th we'll choose a random commenter for the ticket.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

If you'd like to read more of what I learned from attending the Catalyst West Leadership Conference, you can go here.

Please share your tips for writing, editing, publishing and marketing a book

My first book entitled, A Day of Hope: Leading Volunteers to Make a Difference in Your Community will be published on August 3rd.  The focus of the book is about our work with A Day of Hope to inspire and teach others to do a similar project in their community.

Since this is my first book to be published I wanted to see if any of my readers have suggestions for:

• Writing
• Editing
• Publishing
• Marketing

As a rookie at writing a book I'm naturally a little lost in the process and am having to learn as I go along. 

I'd love to hear your ideas, feedback and support for how to reach as many people as possible with this book.

Please leave your thoughts in the comments section below. 

Notes from Tony Dungy at the Chick-fil-A Leadercast (part II)

Here's some more notes I took from Tony Dungy's interview at the Chick-fil-A Leadercast in May.

A good coach transmits his belief in his players - One of the greatest things a leader can give to his followers is his belief in them.  I've been able to serve more people and help more people because there have been people in my life who have believed in me more than I believed in myself.  One who comes to mind is my mentor, coach and friend Steve Elliott.   His belief in me and my ability as a leader has encouraged me to help more people and serve more people than I probably ever would have done on my own.

I didn't catch all of it, but Coach Dungy shared this poem at the conference which I thought was very meaningful:

I believe in you, we can make it happen, this is my team, and we're going to get it done.

Character is caught and taught - This firms up the belief that most of us realize that people watch what you do more than they watch what you say.  But they will do both, and you can mold your team and your players' character by modeling the character you want them to have and by affirming that character with words.

Family is #1 because that's what is going to be with you for the rest of your life - I need to focus on this one a little bit more.  Because leaders are so visionary, they often can get so focused on doing great things and making a difference in the world that they forget their family who is at home wanting their attention and love too.  This is a tough line to draw because leaders are required to spend so much time at work, and that work can begin to consume us and become the main priority in our lives.

God has put you where you are for a reason and you impact more people than you think because people benefit - While at my toastmasters meeting I heard a woman say, "Its not where you are, it's where you are meant to be."  It was pretty profound, especially for me since I often have feelings that I should be doing more and helping more people.  But God always has us where we are for a specific reason, and our job is to do the best to serve and help those people.

Notes from Tony Dungy at the Chick-fil-A Leadercast (part I)

One of my favorite elements of this year's Chick-fil-A Leadercast was Tony Dungy.  Mr. Dungy was interviewed by Mark Sanborn, and it was an awesome interview.  I only wish it could have been longer.

Here are a few significant thoughts Coach Dungy shared in his interview:

The challenge is take players who have potential and help them become what they are capable of - My job and your job as a leader is to help the people we lead to reach their potential and be successful.  It's a challenge and it's not easy.  In fact, it's quite difficult.  But that's our job as leaders.

A team needs a goal to strive for - People want a big goal to shoot for and to strive for.  A big goal that a team is working towards motivates the team and causes them to work together. 

I honestly believe that people are most happy when they are working towards a goal.  I remember I was working for an organization where we had a leader who didn't really cast vision for our organization.  I remember often thinking:

"What's the point of all this?"
"Where are we going?"
"What are we doing this for?"
"What are we shooting for?" 
"What do we want to become?"

It was a frustrating time because we didn't have a goal to strive for which meant we were bored!

Focus on incremental progress even if it's not showing - This is an important principle for leaders and other workers to realize in our instant gratification culture we live in right now. 

Progress takes time. 

If you're a golfer you know that when you want to make a swing change, sometimes you have to get worse before you can get better.  When a golfer wants to make a slight change to improve his swing, he often starts to make the change and the results often get worse because he is doing something he hasn't done before.  But over time, the golfer will start to see progress and his game will start to improve as a result of the work he was doing.

Leaders who are trying to make progress need to realize that just because they can't see any progress, doesn't mean it's not happening.