The PRICE of Your Leadership.

Leadership and personal development expert John Maxwell shares that “the SOUL of your leadership lies in your values.” I would extend that and propose the PRICE of your leadership is acting on those values in a consistent, uncompromising manner! 

I was thinking out loud that the character of our nation has moved from one of moral focus to moral relativism. No one wants to be held accountable any more. From professional athletes to reality TV stars, there is no moral center. In fact I saw a great meme the other day that stated: When Miley Cyrus gets up on stage, half naked, and licks a hammer, she calls it “art” or “music”. When I do it, I get asked to leave the Home Depot! (To be clear I have never done this, just stating an example . . . let’s don’t start that rumor!). So moving quickly along, the reason for this lack of moral clarity is that often we are not clear on what our values REALLY are.

Do a quick activity for me. List you top 3 Values. Now ask yourself the following questions:

1.    What would your life be like if you did not have them?

2.    What would your relationships be like?

3.    How would you conduct yourself professionally?

I would bet most of you would respond that life without these values would be shallow, meaningless, full of drama, and disappointment. You would be right. So let me ask you one more question.

4.    If we know of such outcomes, why do we sometimes act in a way that is antithetical to the values we say we hold so dear? (and I include myself in that question!!)

The point is not to guilt anyone, the point is to raise our awareness. The PRICE of courageous leadership is to both KNOW and ACT upon our values everyday, all the time. This is not easy. In fact look at your top 3 value list again.

Are you willing to be INCONVENIENCED for these values?Are willing to be INTERRUPTED for these values?What will you SACRIFICE for these values?Are you willing to PAY the ultimate PRICE for what you believe and hold dear as the best of us have done?

It all starts with what you believe is most important because when leaders act upon their values, it draws people to them. I believe people genuinely want to follow leaders of integrity. It’s you they are waiting for!

As always, if I can help you and the people you associate with Get Better, Be Ready and LEAD OUT LOUD, I would invite you to visit my website below and see if any of the training or coaching experiences I offer can provide an impact! Also, as a bonus, if you go to my Out Loud Strategies website (www.outloudinc.com) and enter your contact information, I will send you a FREE guide to establishing a mentoring initiative program in your organization! Such an initiative would be critical in order to add value to your organization!

Yours in Leadership,

Bill Faulkner

Co-Founder – Out Loud Strategies

Independent Coach, Speaker, and Trainer with the John Maxwell Team ^TM

Email = bill@outloudinc.com

Visit our website at: www.outloudinc.com

Feel free to “LIKE” our FB Page www.facebook.com/outloudinc

Change The Way You LEAD, Change The Way You SUCCEED!

Even challenging leaders can get stuff done! I was following with interest the saga surrounding a former athletic director. Whereas I have no first-hand knowledge, press reports do not paint a flattering picture! This got me thinking out loud about what effective leadership really is and what success really means.

Now on the task side of things, leaders that struggle can accomplish. They set goals, state expectations, make decisions, implemented strategy, and do many of the things good leaders do to a certain degree of success. On the other hand,some leaders fail in the relational side of leadership which can be much more challenging but in so many ways is far more important! Can you have one without the other? Sure you can and it happens every day but at what cost and for how long? Yes, a leader can do many things but if the cost is a scorched earth of hurt feelings, resentment, and strained or broken relationships, then it is a pyrrhic victory at best!

What if we as leaders started to change our paradigm of what success really means? I propose it should certainly mean getting the important things done and done extremely well. But it should also mean that your team members, partners, vendors, and clients feel energized, supported, and valued while you are all doing it. Any success I have had in my life would not have been possible without other people. As John Maxwell states. “No leaders is truly successful unless a lot of people want them to be!” 

The point is, success can be a “both and” versus “either or” scenario!

With that “end in mind” as Steven Covey encouraged us to hold close, then it calls for us to lead differently than maybe the way we had before. It calls us to do some of the following:

• Demonstrate Care first then Candor when giving feedback
• Asking more and Telling less
• Striving for Win-Win Solutions as opposed to Win-Lose
• State Expectations Clearly and Constantly
• Recognizing Effort that aligns with Goals or Expectations
• Keeping Faith vs Keeping Score
• Focusing on Significance more so than Compliance

I know this is aspirational and much easier said than done (trust me, I learned these lessons the hard way!) but I firmly believe there nothing to lose and everything to gain by changing how we lead to obtain the success we and our followers want. In an earlier blog, I wrote about living versus just leaving a legacy. How would you like you to be thought of at the end of the day?

As always, if I can help you and the people you associate with Get Better, Be Ready and LEAD OUT LOUD, I would invite you to visit my website below and see if any of the training or coaching experiences I offer can provide an impact! Also, as a bonus, if you go to my Out Loud Strategies website (www.outloudinc.com) and enter your contact information, I will send you a FREE guide to establishing a mentoring initiative program in your organization! Such an initiative would be critical in order to add value to your organization!

Yours in Leadership,

Bill Faulkner

Co-Founder – Out Loud Strategies

Independent Coach, Speaker, and Trainer with the John Maxwell Team ^TM

Email = bill@outloudinc.com

Visit our website at: www.outloudinc.com

Feel free to “LIKE” our FB Page www.facebook.com/outloudinc

Are You INVESTING in Others OR Just HELPING Them?

As a Leader, Are You INVESTING in Others or Just HELPING Them?

Recently, I was conducting a peer mentoring training with a great group of young adults. Let’s just call them the Epsilons. We were talking about what Mentors really do and I introduced the concept that mentors INVEST where some leaders just HELP. We started thinking out loud about the differences between the two. Here is where we landed (and many thanks to them for their insights and ideas!):

Leaders that just HELP:

• Do so as a “One-Off”
• Solve a Problem
• Go for Breadth
• Help others Feel Good
• Do so when it is Convenient to them
• Hope they added value

Leaders that INVEST:

• Do so for Long Run
• Change a Life
• Focus on Depth
• Are Honest with others
• Are Willing to be Inconvenienced for others
• Add Value based on a Premeditated basis

You can easily start to see the difference! Now there is nothing wrong with helping others, but it is when we invest in others, we start to change lives. As speaker and writer Dr. Tim Elmore shares, “there is no Live Change without Life Exchange!” In other words, impactful or significant leaders go beneath the surface and expend the extra time, effort, and energy with those they lead. Leadership in this case is no longer transactional, it is intentional. Without a doubt, this is a deeper, harder but much more relevant style of leadership.

Don’t get me wrong. This is something that took me a long time to realize in my own leadership journey and looking back, it is clear to me now those leaders who were investing in me and those who were not. Obviously I am still working on this but what I do know is that when I do, my relationships are fuller and richer. Yours will be too!

So this week, I encourage you to think about those individuals in your sphere of leadership. Who do you need to INVEST in? Who would benefit the most from your efforts to intentionally add value to them? I would love to hear from you how it went!

As always, if I can help you and the people you associate with Get Better, Be Ready and LEAD OUT LOUD, I would invite you to visit my website below and see if any of the training or coaching experiences I offer can provide an impact! Also, as a bonus, if you go to my Out Loud Strategies website (www.outloudinc.com) and enter your contact information, I will send you a FREE guide to establishing a mentoring initiative program in your organization! Such an initiative would be critical in order to add value to your organization!

Yours in Leadership,

Bill Faulkner

Co-Founder – Out Loud Strategies

Independent Coach, Speaker, and Trainer with the John Maxwell Team ^TM

Email = bill@outloudinc.com

Visit our website at: www.outloudinc.com

Feel free to “LIKE” our FB Page www.facebook.com/outloudinc

Hi There Leader, Let Me Introduce You to Yourself!

In his book, Sometimes You Win, Sometimes You Learn!, John Maxwell tells us that challenges and setbacks introduces leaders to themselves. Seeing that John’s current major client is the entire country of Paraguay, I have a feeling he knows what he is talking about! He goes on to say that challenging experiences do not create character, it reveals it!

This got me thinking out loud about certain challenging situations the truly test our character (not to mention our patience!) and lift the curtain on who we really are! Here are just a few of the common challenges that I think many leaders face:

• Balancing Life and Work
• Personnel Challenges in the Workplace
• Creating Buy-In
• Maintaining Competitive Advantage
• Focusing Efforts and Energy

Along with those, we also have to deal with “life stuff”:

• Personal Losses
• Health Issues
• Financial Stress
• Relationships (enough said!)

You see the point being, lots of time those of us in the leadership development world love to talk about how great leadership is and something we should all aspire to. Granted, it is and we should, however, the fact of the matter is leadership is hard. Leadership can be frustrating. Leadership often tests us.

In fact, I offer a seminar called the Challenge-Side of Leadership because I think it is important to equip leaders to face the tougher parts of being one. Here are a few things that I believe can help when you are a leader in challenge:

• Choose a POSTIVE Life Stance
• Embrace and Develop your CREATIVITY
• Embrace the VALUE of Bad Experiences
• Make GOOD CHANGES after Learning from Bad Experiences
• Take RESPONSIBILITY for your LIFE

One of my favorite leadership affirmations is the following from Dr. Martin Luther King that appears on a marker on the Washington DC Mall that commemorates his famous “I Have  A Dream” speech:

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”

So how are you measuring up these days? What is the most pressing challenge you are facing? What are you learning about yourself in terms of how you are dealing with it?

As always, if I can help you and the people you associate with Get Better, Be Ready and LEAD OUT LOUD, I would invite you to visit my website below and see if any of the training or coaching experiences I offer can provide an impact! Also, as a bonus, if you go to my Out Loud Strategies website (www.outloudinc.com) and enter your contact information, I will send you a FREE guide to establishing a mentoring initiative program in your organization! Such an initiative would be critical in order to add value to your organization!

Yours in Leadership,

Bill Faulkner

Co-Founder – Out Loud Strategies

Independent Coach, Speaker, and Trainer with the John Maxwell Team ^TM

Email = bill@outloudinc.com

Visit our website at: www.outloudinc.com

Feel free to “LIKE” our FB Page www.facebook.com/outloudinc