20 Things to Do to Keep From Being an Accidental Leader, Part I

Strategically Create the Life and Work Worthy of your Talents, Giftings, Education and Experience

1. Take A Behavioral Style Profile to learn your strengths and weaknesses.  Contact me for more information.

2. Take a Strengths Finder to compliment the Personality Profile

3. Interview your parents, assuming you have a good relationship with them, and ask them what they saw in you as a child, i.e., the strengths they perceived in you that would translate into a career, or other direction for your life

4. Ask 5 friends what they see you’re good at and one thing they see you might work on for greater success

5. Deal with any and all childhood issues that could be showing up as blind-spots, limitations or weaknesses.  This is KEY to your progress.  Ask me for more information if this intrigues you, as I have a workshop that could get you started, and would gladly tell you about my experience with it

6. Learn to use the 24 hr. Rule, to get over a crisis, disappointment, or a “win”, and keep yourself moving forward. (I’ve written on this in past posts, and will write on it again this week.)

7. Begin a “Gratefulness Journal” and write every day of at least 5 things you are most grateful/thankful for.

8. Take a class on “Time Management”, creating systems for every area of your life and work

9. Create your own personal “Mission Statement” and choose 5 to 8 values by which to base, and use as a plumb-line,  all the major decisions you make life

10. Once a year go on a week or month long “Negativity Fast” where you allow family and friends to fine you if you say anything negative about yourself, others, or circumstances.  You’ll be amazed at how cleansing this is!  Take it up a notch and add not listening to any negativity as well!

11. Determine from now on to make decisions based on living out your values and Mission Statement.

12. Find a mentor.  Look for 2 people you admire in different aspects of their life, and then ask them if they would consider mentoring you.

13. Create some form of self imposed accountability for yourself.

14. Learn to be a better communicator, especially in the area of listening.  Most leaders get into trouble more by not listening than by talking.

Stay tune for the rest of the list of 20things, and how to get some help accomplishing these in the next post!

What are the Necessary Elements You Need, as a Leader, to Attract, Motivate, and Keep the Most Talented Employees?

The Gallop organization discovered that the employees who rated the questions below more positively , had a company with much higher levels of productivity, greater profit, higher retention and more satisfied customer service.

To build a productive, collaborative, positive climate, the questions below will guide your actions toward retention. Find a way to keep your pulse on how your employees are “really” doing, will take some tact, and even some investigation. Those on their way out won’t as readily or honestly share how they’re doing. They won’t want to tip you off. Be creative, but not sneaky in your effort to learn the answers to these questions.

1. Do I know what is expected of me at work?
2. Do I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right?
3. At work, do I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day?
4. In the last seven days, have I received recognition or praise for doing good work?
5. Does my supervisor, or someone at work, seem to care about me as a person?
6. Is there someone at work who encourages my development?
7. At work, do my opinions seem to count?
8. Does the mission/purpose of my company make me feel my job is important?
9. Are my co-workers committed to doing quality work?
10. Do I have a best friend at work?
11. In the last six months, has someone at work talked to me about my progress?
12. This last year, have I had opportunities at work to learn and grow.

At Starbucks, they are ingenious in the way they gather this kind of information. They conduct “skip level” interviews. This alone elicits a natural accountability, as they do it often enough that those who work at Starbucks, and both my children have been “shifts” at Starbucks, know their actions will be disclosed to the powers that be, hence some of why you have positive, friendly employees that are known as partners, and truly treated as such.

MONDAY MORSELS for Leaders-What Made 3% of the Yale Graduating Class of 1953 Worth More Than the Remaining 97% Put Together?

With one perfectly honed skill, the skill of goal setting, the 3% become extremely wealthy. Below is the case study from 1953 that magnifies the imperativeness of effectively incorporating three steps in the goal setting process to be successful:

In 1953, Yale University did a study on goal setting. They went to their graduating class and asked them three questions:

1. “Have you set clear, specific goals?”;
2. “Have you written them down?” And;
3. “Have you created an action plan to accomplish them?”

They learned that only 3% had done all three steps. Then, they went back to this same class 20 years later and interviewed the surviving members. They learned that the 3% who had set clear and specific goals, had written them down, and then created an action plan to accomplish them, were worth more than the remaining 97% put together who hadn’t. Need I say more?

Today’s Leadership Action Plan: Set three goals today around developing your leadership. Create one long range goal, one short range goal, and one goal that you can meet within 6 months. Remember that it takes 21 days to form a new habit, or 21 days to undo one. Follow the steps listed above, adding one last element to ensure your commitment to leadership development. Tell someone what will motivate you either positively or negatively, and then stick to it. For instance, I had one client that wouldn’t buy a new pair of shoes until she went one full week utilizing a new skill, thus reaching her goal-positive motivation. Another client had to pay me $200 extra, if, for one week, he didn’t fulfill his goal-negative motivation. Whatever motivates you, hold yourself to it by placing yourself in accountability. Make a demand on yourself by making it a big enough deal that you’ll genuinely put yourself up against the wall to be accountable, thereby accomplishing your goal. And, if you take me up on this, please let me know. I’d love to follow your progress!

Now, if you already know that you’re someone that has tried to do this before, and it hasn’t worked, or that you know you just won’t do it, but you truly want to, you just need assistance. Why not try coaching? What if it works? What if it’s finally your key to setting your goals, as well as finding the motivation it will take to follow through and reach them? Is it time to place yourself into accountability? Then don’t wait. Contact me today, and you could receive one free session worth $175. Helping people fulfill their goals and achieve success is not only one of my specialties, but one of the favorite aspects of the work I do. Either way, here’s to your success!

MONDAY MORSALS for Leaders

It takes true dedication to achieve transformation!  90% of people who attend seminars see NO IMPROVEMENT in their lives. The same goes for reading self-help books, listening to tapes/CD’s or even to a sermon for that matter.  And why is that?  Because you have to implement what you’ve learned.  It must be linked to the listener’s life and experiences.   Knowledge alone does virtually nothing.  An example I heard once, was that in this day and age everyone knows it is bad for your health to smoke, but for an avid smoker, that fact doesn’t change their habit!  Humm…think about it.  On top of that, although we spend 55% of our time listening, the sad thing is that 70% of what is said gets screened out, or misunderstood.  So, is it effective for one to spend the majority of time at a workshop listening, or would it be better spent engaging the hearer in activities that will ingrain a lesson, searing it into their mind for future reference? Humor, stories and skits aid in this process.  But for a new skill, competency, or attitude to become route, you must provide some form of action plan with accountability.  This can be done in the form of coaching, or even with an accountability partners.  (For more information on coaching, see the tab on the main page of this web-site)

My father, Dr. Don Barnes, was a professor of secondary education at the University of Arizona.  This meant that if you were going for your doctorate in education, he was one of two professors you would have had.  His passion was to actually have his students “achieve learning” so that they would be better equipped to be a principals, administrators, or teachers.  I learned from him the value of engaging people in the learning process, by encouraging them to discover, banter, negotiate, and observe for themselves, ultimately applying their learning experiences to their life.  As a leader or manager, we tend to want to take the easy way, and just “tell” our employees what to, or not to do. And, in some instances this may be necessary.  In meetings though, we can bore them to death, as we drone on, leaving them clueless in the end as to the purpose of the meeting in the first place.  Next time you have an important point to make, or change to initiate to establish, be creative, facilitate the learning process.  Asking questions and leading a discussion takes work, but believe me, they’ll own the answer and outcome considerably more! Now to do this, you can’t be the “answer” man/woman, but must allow them to think they came up with the solution on their own.  And, they just may surprise you, and come up with a better one than you were thinking of.  You won’t receive the credit, but the organization/company will benefit from their greater commitment, involvement, and contribution.  Here’s to you dad, thanks!    Sue

Become the Leader You Aspire to Be

Can you think of a person, currently or from history, that exhibits/exhibited the kind of leadership you admire and want to emulate? This is someone who has become what you want to be, and accomplished what you want to achieve. The next step is to research the steps they took to acquire the character, skills, qualities, and lifestyle you aspire to have. Next, pay the same price they paid. Defer your gratification from today to be like them tomorrow.Imitate the steps they took, to become that same kind of leader. Like the quote, “Do today what others won’t so I can have tomorrow what others don’t.”   This all appears so simplistic, but it’s a plan. You might say it is a strategic plan, with an undeniably profound impact. So why don’t we do it? What keeps us from actually paying the price and getting it done, to go the full distance? Is it figuring out just who that person is? Or learning what they did? Is it conflicting priorities in your life? You would think with all the motivational books, tapes, CD’s, and DVD’s out there on this topic, that it wouldn’t be that difficult. These are the very kind of questions I thrive on exploring in my own life, as well as in the lives of my clients: Discerning the barriers to success; the walls that block progress; the system that transforms random puzzle pieces into steps of action that become a routine part of life; while holding people to the fire to do what they need to do, in order to become the person they want to become. It is a tight-wire act I live, as an Executive Coach, walking the fine line between giving grace and encouragement, and acting like an Olympic coach and making them pay the consequence they negotiated with me ahead of time, when they don’t attain their goal. That goal could be anything. I had one client that wasn’t motivated by money, or consequences, but she was motivated by SHOES! Therefore, this became the reward we established that she could go out and buy once she reached her target. Accountability in this process is the quintessence of coaching. And, when that goal is met, the one that is taking someone one step closer to being like the person they aspire to be, the feeling of fulfillment is one we celebrate together. Have you thought of getting coaching for yourself? Why not check it out, and sign up for a free session to explore your life plan, and the goals that will get you where you want to go, to be who you desire to be. It’s free, and you can do it in the comfort of your home on the phone. Believe it or not, most of my clients prefer phone coaching. They can do it from anywhere, saving the time it would take to drive. I look forward to hearing from you today.

The Mistakes of Michael Jackson Like That of Many Leaders

COULD YOU FALL INTO DEADLY DECEPTION?

John McKee wrote an interesting blog posting regarding the similarity of  the deadly mistakes Michael Jackson made to that of leaders in other roles.  And, John’s right, leadership is not a “king of the universe” suit you have put on because you’ve “made it” that makes you superman, invincible, able to leap tall buildings while giving you the deceptive right to live life out from under the moral perimeters that keep us safe from self deception.  The question I ponder is, how can we as leadership coaches, consultants, psychologists, and professionals reach the man/woman in the suit, once they’ve reached that illusive quality of “influence’ over others and put the suit of self importance on.  A question I believe we need to continually ponder as we ourselves could be at risk of being bigger than life ourselves.  There are two requirement of clients who choose to work with me, 1. be willing and 2. be teachable.  I need to be reminded that I too need the same, along with a good mirror and accountability to those who won’t allow me to get away with this “king of the universe” mentality John speaks of.   No matter how great, how accomplished, how endearing or mesmerizing a person may become, they are still just people who are tempted to believe the accolades of others who need and want an idol.