What Would Happen if You Move You or Your Enterprise from “A” to “THE”?

I go to a lot of networking events. Obviously with the purpose to make possible client connections but I often find myself just enjoying the conversations and adding value to other attendees. Often when I ask what folks do, they mention that they work for “A” company or they are “A” _______________ (fill in the role). This got me thinking out loud about how the language we use LIMITS ourselves and what we do. How about a change in paradigm? What would happen if we considered ourselves or our enterprise from “A” marketing firm, financial management company, etc. to “THE” leading tech solutions company or "THE" most customer friendly accounting firm?!?!

"What would happen if you moved from “A” to “THE?"

Now stay with me here a moment and get the contrast:

“A” companies, service providers, account managers, business developers, surgeons, teachers, etc. place themselves in the middle with everyone else. They are the sum average of everyone else doing the same thing. The problem according to entrepreneur Jack Welch, is that “no one pays for average!”

“THE” companies, accountants, attorneys, etc., on the other hand, STAND OUT! They find powerful niches that make them the “go to” organization for their particular enterprise, product or service. Such a change in mindset can be incredibly powerful but it also requires significant commitment and effort. Keep in mind this works just as much on the individual level as it does the organizational.

Do the following activity for me. Write out and fill in the following sentence:

I want to move from “A” ________________ (fill in the blank) to “THE” ___________________ (fill in the blank) and be recognized as such in my industry, community, state, region, nation, etc. (how far you extend this is up to you!)

Now, write out the following:

What would change to become “THE”? What would it look like, sound like, and feel like? How would your life and those around you be different if you became “THE”?

Next, write out what would you and/or your team will have to do differently to become “THE”? What new efforts would this require? What would you have to do MORE of or LESS of? Who else will have to be involved to help you? What energy, effort, or time will be required?

Based upon the above, now draw three boxes on a sheet of paper, label and fill in accordingly:

• WANT: What do you really want to have happen? What is the eventual outcome you are seeking?
• HAVE: What do you currently have in terms of knowledge, time, resources, skills, people, etc. that can move you from “A” to “THE”? I bet you have a lot more than you think!
• NEED: Now based upon the difference between what you eventually WANT and what you currently HAVE to get there, list out what you NEED. What resources, new skills, new abilities, information, etc. is required to fill in the blanks. This will not cover everything you will eventually need but it will get you STARTED!

At this point I need to make an important point. This desire to move from “A” to “THE” is not an indicator of arrogance. Seeking such a level of performance requires humility to realize you and those around you can get better. This requires a constant commitment to excellence and self-improvement. Entrepreneur and author Darren Hardy calls this the ability to just “grind out” the daily disciplines, practices, habits, etc. that you need to reach the pinnacle of “THE”! Besides, most "THEs" probably just think of themselves as "As" if they even think of themselves at all! 

Here is one last tip that might help you. Think about those individuals or organizations that you admire in or out or your industry that are “THE” performers. What do they do differently? How do they approach their life and careers? What do they do to STAY a “THE” performer?

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 email me or 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!

I hope this was helpful to you. Trust me, it was not easy writing this with a 50 lb. dog in your lap!

Yours in Leadership,

Bill Faulkner

Principal Consultant – 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

What you REWARD gets REPEATED!

So here’s my latest “Captain Obvious” moment: As leaders, what we REWARD among our teams gets REPEATED! This life altering revelation hit me the other day when I was at my desk. For some reason, my 1 ½ year old yellow lab named Kaci will sometimes attempt to share my desk chair with me while I am working. Now this was cute when she was a puppy but now that she is over 50 pounds, not so much! Certainly this is all my doing since I reward this behavior by still letting her do this but this got me thinking out loud that the same applies to humans!

Edgar Schein in his ground-breaking work on Organizational Culture points out that leaders can influence and change the culture of an organization by REWARDING what they deem as important. The trouble is that most leaders do not intentionally and/or consciously do this. In fact, we could be rewarding undesirable attitudes and work habits and not even know it! As author and consultant Dr. Henry cloud shares, an organization’s culture is shaped by what we ALLOW or by what we CREATE. So if you do not like what you are seeing in your business, classroom, hospital ward, or even family, that is a you and you deal! The same also goes if you do like what you see.

So how can we go about the tough job of shaping the culture you want? Here are a few suggestions:

First decide what is your preferred organizational culture. 

• What do you want team members SAYING, DOING, FEELING, etc. 
• What RESULTS do you WANT?

Next, assess where you think your culture IS in comparison to the above.

• Are you getting the RESULTS you need and want?
• Are your staff members ENGAGED and ENTHUSED about their work?
• Are folks treating each other well and with MUTUAL RESPECT?
• Do they respect you?
• What issues or concerns are you constantly addressing?

Then take an honest look at your answers above. 

• What is working well and what could be a whole lot better? Write that out!

Now ask yourself, how did we get here? 

• Am I REWARDING the RIGHT behaviors, attitudes, etc. that I want REPEATED
• What am I ROLE-MODELING? 
• How can I more obviously reward the types of behaviors and attitudes that help my enterprise grow and progress? Keep in mind rewards do not always equate to money. A lot of research has confirmed that after a certain point, money becomes less of a motivator. Actions such as providing promotions, new responsibilities, sincere gestures of appreciation, asking them to mentor or teach others, etc. become incredibly important to team members.

Finally, MAKE THE CHANGES within that you need to. Remember, in order for things to change FOR you, things must change IN you! 

• Have a frank and open conversation with your team. Share with them what you discovered and what you expect. 
• Ask them what do they believe gets rewarded in your organization. Again, the bottom line are the RESULTS you are after. As leadership guru and author John Maxwell says, “recognize EFFORT but reward RESULTS!”

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 email me or 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!

I hope this was helpful to you. Trust me, it was not easy writing this with a 50 lb. dog in your lap!

Yours in Leadership,

Bill Faulkner

Principal Consultant – 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

LEADERS Keep the Faith!

Should a leader’s faith influence their actions? In a time when some forces believe that societies should operate with freedom FROM faith (i.e. tyranny) versus freedom OF faith (i.e. liberty!), this got me thinking out loud out about the edgier topic of how a leader’s faith plays into their approach to leading others.

Just to be clear, I am not advocating one denomination or even religion over another. It is just my belief that the primary role of a leader, as stated by Kouzes and Posner in their excellent work, the Leadership Challenge, is to provide HOPE to their followers. The only way that can possibly happen is if you have faith in something beyond yourself!

Effective leaders or “Beyond You” leaders have a positive outlook fueled by their faith that things can be better. That situations can be turned around and victory can be snatched from impending defeat. There are many great examples of this but I recently watched two wonderful teleplays on Winston Churchill that highlighted events in his life just before and during the years he lead Great Britain through World War II. This was a man, although imperfect and on the edge of personal ruin, brought himself and eventually an entire nation out of defeat. This was due in large part to his unwavering faith in himself and is beloved county. The same can be true for ALL us. IF we believe in ourselves FIRST, then we can believe in the potential of others. Sometimes there is no good reason to believe that things can turn around, but that is where the power of faith comes in. As leadership expert John Maxwell shares, we can have FEARS but we can also have FAITH! Maybe that is why so many great leaders in governance, business, education, health care, etc. often point to their faith as the impact multiplier that made the difference!

Back to my original question, should a leader’s faith play a part and influence in how they lead? At least for me, the answer is a resounding YES! I admit I am not the best example of a person of faith but here is how my faith has influenced me.

It Helps me Accept More and Judge Less

It Instructs me to Serve by Leading and Lead by Serving

It Cautions me to STAY in Integrity versus STRAY into Selfishness

It Reminds me to be Soft on People but Tough on the Issues as CEO Douglas Conant informs us

It Challenges me to Expect More from Myself than Others Do

It Convicts me to Lead on Principle versus Politics

It Convinces me to LEAD for Long Term impact versus Short Term Gain

Certainly a man of faith is pastor and speaker, Andy Stanley who challenges us to be a Beyond You versus About You leader. In other words, if your leadership is just About You, it will last just long enough to be someone’s bad example. If your leadership is Beyond You, it will far outlast you and have a positive impact on people you will never meet! So keep the faith y’all!

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 email me or 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

Principal Consultant – 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

As Leaders, We Are Either IN DEMAND or IN THE WAY!

I am a huge NASCAR fan because a) I am from the Southern U.S. (so that makes it almost obligatory along with obsessing over college football!) and b) I once lived in beautiful Concord, North Carolina which is home to the Charlotte Motor Speedway. I recently heard NASCAR commentator Pat Patterson make a comment that eventually a NASCAR driver will either be IN DEMAND or IN THE WAY! He was talking about a driver’s eventual results and performance on the track which got me thinking out loud that as leaders we are always under the same scrutiny.

To explain this concept a little further, Pat was explaining that in a professional driver’s career that they will either continually improve to the point where they are IN DEMAND by fans, corporate sponsors, media, etc. or they will plateau and become a member of the “also ran” club where they rarely win, get noticed, and just ride in the pack and get in the way of the faster drivers. To be clear, leadership is NOT about doing things just to be noticed but I believe that unless we continually improve our skills and capacities as leaders, then we start to become IN THE WAY of our teams and endeavors.

Here are some differences between the two:

IN DEMAND -

• Take Responsibility
• Continuously Improve
• Empower Others
• Innovate
• Are Sought for Their Advice and Knowledge
• Create More Leaders

IN THE WAY -

• Take Credit
• Plateau their Skill Level
• Micromanage Others
• Work by Formulas
• Are Approached for their Permission
• Collect Followers

You can begin to tell the difference between the two states of leadership by looking at this list above and it is important to note this can happen to any leader regardless of their age, time in the job, etc. In fact, the best leaders I have observed were ones well into their careers that had developed great instincts as to when their teams needed them to STAY INVOLVED or GET OUT OF THE WAY! This does not mean they disengaged from their teams, rather the relationship changed from directing to coaching. This was empowering to their direct reports in that they could have the freedom to excel and the leader had the freedom to innovate and think “next steps” which kept them always IN DEMAND!

The great news is that everyone of us has the ability to always stay IN DEMAND but it requires a process. Staying IN DEMAND requires us all (especially me!) to:

Assess where we are in the In Demand versus In the Way spectrum

Determine where we need to improve

Develop a growth plan accordingly and

Repeat the cycle as needed.

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 email me or to visit my website below and see if any of the training or coaching experiences I offer can provide an impact and help you stay IN DEMAND! 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

Principal Consultant – 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

Success = What You DO = What You ARE!

I recently read a quote by author and speaker Simon Sinek that that proposes “people don’t buy what you DO, they buy WHY you do it!” This got me thinking out loud about how important it is that what we DO is in alignment with what we ARE!

Far too often, I believe people try to compartmentalize LIFE and WORK. Said another way, too many of us are in occupations that are simply a means to fund what we do with our time when we are not at our place of work. According to the Gallup organization, such a dichotomy may be more generational but that is changing. Based upon their recently released report of How Millennials Work and Live, this 20 – 35-year-old cohort prefers that their work and life are integrated versus balanced! They are searching for workplaces where their social, emotional, and fulfillment needs are met.

Too be honest, I think this generation is on to something very important! We spend most of our day in the workplace; thus when we have the opportunity to work at something that reflects our values, strengths, and passions, we are just that much more successful! Our work becomes a reflection of who we are and our clients, customers, co-workers, and leaders sense our enthusiasm. We believe that what we are doing makes a difference in the lives of others and/or their work and that passion rises to the surface! I bet you can tell the difference. Interactions are that much more positive, service is just that much better, and results are just that much more impressive! I go to a lot of networking events and to be honest I have to dial down my enthusiasm when I start talking about what I do because I think it creeps people out when I get on a roll! For those who have ever heard me speak or train, you know what I am talking about!

So here are a few questions to determine if what you DO and what you ARE align:

Do you look forward to going to your work every day?

Does your work give you a sense of pride and accomplishment?

Do you believe that what you do makes the impacts you desire?

Do you have friends at your place of work?

Are you proud to tell others what you do?

Now granted, not every day is a great day and you should take some time away from the job to recharge. It is my great hope, however, that your answer to the above is a big “Yes!” If you are unsure, then it is never too late to “change lanes”.Try one more simple activity provided by consultant Derek Dempsey. Grab a sheet of paper and draw a vertical line down the middle. One the left hand side, write down the things you like to do and on the right, the things you love to do. Your best DO/ARE fit will be those things on the right hand side!

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 email me or 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

Principal Consultant – 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