Category: Leadership

Small Irritations – The Legacy of Flies

Nothing rouses me to determined resolve like the catastrophe of a fly in the house. I stalk from room to room crouching – whacker at the ready.

You know you’re rich beyond belief when the day’s biggest irritation is a musca domesticain buzzing in the kitchen.

We recently bought a four-pack of fly whackers. (Another sign of wealth.) You can’t have too many implements of execution for flying rodents. One waits in the kitchen, and one is at the ready in my office. Two spares in the closet provide peace of mind. Sometimes I take a spare whacker on the back deck to prove my prowess by assassinating foolhardy antagonists.

A fly’s legacy is the stain it leaves when you kill it. I tried to prevent their legacy with gentle whacking, but I usually just stunned them. They shook it off, laughed, and flew away.

The only thing more infuriating than a fly in the house is feeling them laugh after escaping the fly whacker. It emboldens them.

Life truth: A dead fly’s legacy is less infuriating than a living fly’s buzz.

I’m proud to say that I’ve knocked flies out of the air with my fly whacker. I flail at them like I’m caught in a swarm of hornets. Kapow! Then I leap on them before they get away. I feel like a man when I knock a fly out of the air and kill it.

Killing flies is like meditation – I wouldn’t know if the house was burning down. Nothing is more satisfying than outsmarting a fly.

Small irritations become big distractions. Or, maybe they bring out our best.

What small irritation might you solve quickly today?

What small irritation should you let go?

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Roosters, Peacocks, and Leaders Who Smell Like Sweat

Pretending success is easy deceives your team and destroys your highest points of influence.

Let people smell the sweat.

Pretending success is easy feeds the lie that you can sip margaritas while making meaningful contribution.

Effortless success offends potential.

Unglamorous stories:

Tell people how you fell in the dirt when the race ended, not how you cruised over the finish line. Victory without sweat is cotton candy.

Unglamorous stories – you might prefer to forget – are your highest point of influence. We want to know what you learned when your face was in the mud.

The only connection between “glamor” and “leadership” is L, A, and R. The only connection between “glamor” and “management” is M, G, and A.

The thing that makes you glorious is getting up after falling on your face. The ridiculous idea that magic pills solve problems insults aspiration and dilutes resolve.

Roosters and peacocks:

The leader who never sweats wears a mask.

Aren’t you sick of rooster-leaders crowing about easy success? Aren’t you tired of peacock-leaders who flaunt their feathers and hide their weaknesses?

Roosters and peacocks want to fix you because they’re so glorious.

Frauds offer easy success to impress novices and take money from the gullible.

When someone wants to know how you achieved success, they really want the secret to winning without effort. But easy success rots the soul.

Splash the sweat:

Everyone who makes a difference – over the long haul – smells like sweat.

Tell sweaty stories about your journey. Gullible novices find purpose when you show them there’s something more than glamor to leading.

Beginners learn they need others when you talk about getting up with a muddy face because others helped you.

Unglamorous stories mean most when told with gratitude and optimism.

What struggle helped you learn to lead more effectively?

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What do you think is the essence of leadership?

What are foundational strategies for learning to lead or lead better?

After more than 30 years in leadership development, I’ve focused my clients on the irreducible minimums: the most important actions that improve leadership effectiveness. What follows are some of the foundational ideas I’ve identified. This list can serve as both an agenda and a reminder if you refer to it periodically.

1. Leaders determine how to get people & organizations to improve.

2. Leaders are meant to be agents for organizational change.

3. Leaders are people who, if their authority was taken away, could still achieve results.

4. Leaders continually grow through study and introspection.

     – Learn, unlearn, re-learn.
     – Study how you feel about what you do and what would make you more effective.

5. Leaders focus on how best to use their time and energy, and the time and energy of others.

6. Leaders spend 50-75% of their day focusing on the top 3-4 items in their business.

 

7. Leaders not only do things right, they do the right things.

 

8. Leaders use future focus and strategic anticipation; they expect the best but plan for the worst.

 

9. Leaders achieve excellence by investing additional time and energy if it makes the product, service, or outcome noticeably better for their business.

10. Leadership is the pursuit of more, better, faster and different.

11. Leaders:

     – Dare to be different
     – Make sure they are asking the right questions
     – Search for all the right answers
     – Learn to act on incomplete information
     – Are willing to make more mistakes and try new things

12. Leaders recognize that decision-making is dangerous if you don’t have enough information.

13. Leaders follow the adage “if it isn’t broken, make it better.”

14. Leaders create a sense of urgency. Ask, “What’s next?”

15. Leaders constantly ask themselves and others what has been done to add value to the organization.

16. Leaders make the system conform to the people, not the reverse.

17. Leaders don’t make essential change an option to their team.

18. Leaders realize that performance is achieved through coaching, training and practice.

19. Leaders know that training is a necessity and that training is teaching people how to do what they are not already doing.

20. Leaders recognize the importance of setting goals that are not easy to achieve for the employees.

21. Leaders look for ways to make what they do each and every day matter for their business.

22. Leaders recognize that change is an indisputable good condition and:

     – Make change (improvement) a necessity
     – Make the desired outcome of change clear
     – Involve people in how change will take place
     – Sell the benefits of…

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Over the past several months, as we’ve all negotiated and navigated our way through the Coronavirus pandemic, one thing has become exceedingly clear:

If you’re going to survive, you must adapt.

If you’re in leadership, it doesn’t take you long to learn that lesson. But decades in, some leaders forget. Some feel like they’ve reached the end of the road, achieved all they want or need to achieve, and they suddenly find themselves relearning old lessons—only this time, the lessons cost more to learn.

That’s certainly been the case for some leaders this year. They’ve been caught flatfooted in the face of Covid-19, their lack of growth and development suddenly on display for everyone to see. Whether its through bad decisions or a lack of leadership support, times like the past few months reveal the truth that leaders who stop learning stop leading.

Since the opening lines of my 2018 book Leadershift, I’ve spoken passionately about the leadership deficit, how we need to raise up more and better leaders to create a better world.

I’ve shared this message all over the globe, and our Enterprise has seen tremendous response, but our voice alone has not been enough to turn the tide. Now, with everything that’s happened in 2020, it seems as if the world itself is calling out for everyone to step up to the plate and lead the way.

That’s why today I am excited to share one of the biggest announcements in our Enterprise’s history:

For the first time ever, Live2Lead—our annual leadership development event—will be virtual!

I am excited to bring you this news, especially since yesterday we just completed our first-ever virtual International Maxwell Certification for The John Maxwell Team. With our largest single attendance for an IMC, the choice to go virtual was continually confirmed and affirmed by the comments and interaction we saw between attendees. Now, we are building on that success to bring you Live2Lead!

Our team has worked diligently to bring this event to your home or office, your laptop or phone, and they’ve done so because this year it is critical for more leaders to invest in themselves and developing the leaders around them. They are convinced that 2020 is the year for leaders of all stripes to answer the world’s call to lead.

Whether it’s through Alan Mullaly’s message of how strategic leadership rescued the Ford brand from bankruptcy; in Kat Cole’s message of how the chaos and circumstances of life honed her heart and hustle in leadership; through my discussion with Steve Harvey about the need for men and women capable of communicating clearly to mobilize a generation to greatness; or through the urgent and practical teaching of my friend, Craig Groeschel.

Our global crisis is revealing unending opportunities for each of us to answer the world’s call to be agents of change for the good, and Live2Lead will echo and amplify that call.

That’s why today we’re bringing back…

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How to Not Be a Complete Idiot in Your Next Meeting

A great meeting is a work of art. A lousy meeting is a train wreck. Lord, give us more artists.

4 things to never say about the people upstairs.

1. I don’t know what the people upstairs are thinking.
2. I doubt we can do it, but we have to try to keep the people upstairs happy.
3. We’re going to fail. Maybe the people upstairs will learn to stop asking us to do stupid things.
4. The people upstairs don’t get it. But we have to try anyway.

Middle management requires loyalty to the people upstairs when you’re with the people downstairs and loyalty to the people downstairs when you’re with the people upstairs.

3 things to never say to the people around the table.

1. “Trust me.” Anyone who says trust me isn’t trustworthy.
2. “I don’t know anything about this, but here’s what I think.” No one cares what you think if you don’t know anything.
3. “That’s stupid.”

2 things to do when you don’t know what to say.

The person running the meeting asked for your thoughts and you don’t have any. Now what? You don’t want to look like an idiot.

1. Ask about timelines, deadlines, and priorities.
2. Add to another person’s idea. “Mary’s input made me think about….”  

7 tips for thriving in meetings:

1. Talk less if you’re a talker.
2. Contribute more if you seldom talk.
3. Stay engaged. Look at people when they talk. Take notes.
4. Stay on topic!
5. Use people’s names. Make a map of the people around the table when you’re in a meeting with people you don’t know.
6. Focus on getting things done.
7. Clarify responsibilities.

1 neglected agenda item:

Work on the way you meet.

At the end of your meeting ask, “What’s one thing we could do to make our next meeting more efficient?”

What would transform meetings into works of art?

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Photo by Peter Boccia on Unsplash

On my podcast this week, I shared something with Mark Cole and our listeners that I don’t often share publicly. As I look around at our world today, there’s a certain feeling that comes over me, one that I don’t experience often, and I can’t help but bring it to you as we talk about the need for leaders who build bridges.

That feeling is “leadership sadness.” Given the struggles that our world is going through right now, it saddens me to see men and women in leadership positions and roles who choose to lead by pushing people apart rather than by bringing them together. I see too many leaders leaning into the things that separate us, stoking fear over hope, or leaders who simply shrink back from the moment and allow the darkness to swallow them instead of lighting candle to fight it.

This is a time of darkness. But there is reason for incredible hope.

We have the tools necessary to turn this moment into an opportunity that helps change the world around us. We need are leaders who believe that, leaders who learn and live good values in order to lift the people around them. We need leaders who will step to the forefront of the moment and say, with passion and enthusiasm, “If you knew what I know…” and then proceed to offer words and actions that inspire and ignite hope.

So how can you and I be that kind of leader? How can we step into this moment and be a difference maker instead of a division maker?

Here are four signs of a leader of hope:

They Dig for Gold While Others Dig for Dirt

This is an easy one to tackle, especially during a presidential election year. We’re often surrounded by attack ads and smear campaigns that seek to bring out the worst about a potential elected leader, and illustrate how things will only get darker if they’re elected. It’s a race to the bottom where no one wins. Divisive leaders aren’t afraid to tear things down and allow fear to run freely.

On the contrary, leaders of hope go looking for what’s good in others and in the situation around them. They believe the best of people and believe the best of our future. Leaders of hope inspire others to seek out what’s true, noble, good, praiseworthy, and inspiring. They paint a picture of a more brilliant tomorrow that everyone can see themselves in.

They Live Out Good Values While Others Live Out Emotions

This may come across a little harsh, as emotions are something everyone must wrestle. But while we all feel various emotions, divisive leaders put emotion at the center of their leadership, creating instability and uncertainty that only amplifies the chaos around them. When leaders lead from a place of emotion, they are at the mercy of those emotions changing—for better or worse—and so are…

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With proven systems, frameworks, and guidance, you can join other successful business owners as you scale your business, reap the fruits of high-performance, and spend more time on the things that matter most.

Learn More

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Stop Asking Boring Questions – 3 Ways to Ask Questions People Love to Hear

You don’t need to be Einstein to ask questions that lift flagging spirits and ignite vitality.

Lousy questions are tyrants. Good questions invite interesting answers. But great questions disturb the domestic tranquility.

Great questions build relationships, open windows of insight, and enhance self-knowledge.

3 ways to ask questions people love to hear:

#1. Ask about something in their office.

1. Where was that picture taken?
2. What did you do to earn that trophy?

Always ask follow-up questions that tell people you’re listening and interested in learning more.

#2. Ask about something they mention.

Someone might say, “I watched a movie with my daughter last night.” That’s your cue to ask about their daughter. “Oh, how old is your daughter?”

Set the stage for a personal question by revealing something about yourself.

“Oh, I have a 10-year-old son. How old is your daughter?”

#3. Ask questions that highlight strengths.

After pleasantries, raise your eyebrows a little and say, “So tell me, what are you good at?” The follow-up to this question salutes people, especially new acquaintances and builds instant raport.

“I bet you are good at that. I’d love to know how you got so good at that?” If you’re uncomfortable using “love” just say, “So tell me, how did you get good at that?”

When you know someone, try a personalized approach to highlighting strengths.

“I notice you’re really good at leading meetings. What advice do you have for leading great meetings?” (Replace ‘meetings’ with any skill you notice about someone.)

Be interested in others if you hope to be a leader of impact and influence.

What questions do you love to hear?

What questions do you love to ask?

Bonus material:

12 Leadership Development Questions Any Leader Can Use Today | Leadership Freak

12 Questions that Expose the Real Problem | Leadership Freak

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Advertising and marketing have been infected with a serious virus: hyperbole.

I get messages everyday from people who promise they can help me crush it, make massive gains, offer an epic product, achieve awesome impact, etc. 

Whatever happened to the philosophy of “underpromise and overdeliver”? Seems to me this hyperbolic marketing is the exact opposite.

There are many problems with this kind of marketing jargon, but here are some of the biggest:

1. They are difficult if not impossible to define. What is the difference between being competitive, highly competitive, and crushing it? Next time someone says they can help you have massive impact if you retain their services, ask them exactly what they mean.
2. Many making these grandiose claims don’t have any evidence that they are crushing it. How can they help you do something they likely haven’t accomplished?
3. There is no way to quantify success (see #1). If you can’t measure it, you can’t prove you’ve achieved it. “Better” is not “massive” and “improvement” isn’t “crushing it.”
4. Most offer no guarantee. Saying you can do something for a client and actually doing it are two different things.

So why do so many marketers and solopreneurs resort to this silliness? I’m guessing, and am pretty confident, that they are trying to set themselves apart. What they are doing is identifying themselves as copycats who have read the descriptions of others and think they must make similar claims or be left behind. In essence, they are joining an undifferentiated group of exaggerators.

What is the alternative? Consider the following:

1. Find a way to capture attention that is different but believable.
2. Quantify results. Instead of “massive results” offer a measurable percentage increase.
3. Offer social proof: clients who are willing to give testimonials with specific results attained.
4. What makes your process different instead of what makes your results similar.
5. Skin in the game, whether that is a guarantee or a percentage of increase or improvement.
6. Use a thesaurus and master the use of different words to communicate your message accurately.
7. Offer something free before your client has to buy. Prove your worth with a small, easily-delivered sample.
8. Relate specifically to your client or at least your client’s marketplace. Nobody can help everybody get better. Pursue a niche where you have the best results.

Hyperbole, exaggeration and cliches put off readers and prospects. Be believable, create value that is valued, and you won’t need to exaggerate to win business.

 

Mark Sanborn is an award winning speaker and Leadership Expert in Residence at High Point University, the Premier Life Skills University. For more information about his work, visit www.marksanborn.com. 

For  a free assessment and information about The Classic Fred Factor online training and a unique opportunity to license the training, go to www.FredFactor.com.

 

Author: Mark Sanborn

Mark holds the Certified Speaking Professional designation from the National Speakers Association (NSA) and is a member of the Speaker Hall of Fame. He was recently honored with the Cavett Award, the…

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