When a Leader’s Good Intention is a Bad Idea.

Recently, I had the opportunity to watch the 2015 movie Everest which loosely depicts the 1996 climbing disaster in which 8 climbers from two parties attempting to summit Mt. Everest perished. In one scene of the movie, the lead guide allowed a lagging climber to attempt the summit of Mt. Everest even though a weather window was quickly closing. This got me thinking out loud about how sometimes as leaders, a good intention can be a bad idea.

The movie starts out with the lead guide (played by actor Jason Clark) for outfitter, Adventure Consultants, gathering an international party of experienced climbers who wanted to attempt to climb Mt. Everest in 1996. The guide was an experienced professional and knew full well the dangers of attempting to climb the highest peak in the world. In fact, in one scene you hear Clark tell the climbers that he was responsible for their safety in both the ascent and the descent from the peak.

Things start out well but as the climbers near the peak, the lead guide is informed by base-camp staff that a massive blizzard is quickly approaching the summit. Based upon that information, he starts the party climbing early in the morning of the final ascent due to the fact the weather window will close quickly as the day progresses. Whereas most of the climbers are successful, the movie depicts the guide postponing the descent in order to allow a lagging member of the party to reach the summit. This decision would prove to be disastrous in that a powerful blizzard quickly closed in and trapped members of the party above the safety of their base-camps.

The leadership lessons here are numerous. The film depicts an experienced leader who suspended his good judgement to allow a paying client to reach the summit. Hall knew that conditions would deteriorate and that the success of one lagging client was not worth the safety of an entire party. Unfortunately, this was not the case in that he allowed a good intention to overshadow his judgement. Granted, many of us will never face such life and death circumstances but I believe the story is a cautionary tale for leaders. Here are some of the learning points from the tragic events depicted by the film that we should all take to heart.

• Rely On Your Experience – you have more life and leadership experience than you think. You have been a witness to your and the action of others that have taught you many lessons.

• Trust Your Judgement – I believe most people have pretty sound judgement and plenty of common sense. Don’t let others sway you when the best decision is clearly before you.

• Tune In To Your Instincts – your intuition is a product of both your conscious and subconscious thoughts working in tandem. Clearly if you gut is telling you something, listen closely. Your subconscious is constantly processing information that you are not even aware of. The more your exercise your intuition, the stronger it becomes.

• Believe In Yourself – finally, have faith in yourself. Make the best decisions you can based upon your best information and most important priorities. History is full of examples of leaders who made the courageous or unpopular decision even when others close to them urged them not to.

As a side note, whereas some of the surviving members of the 1996 expedition will argue some of the events as depicted, Everest as film has a solid cast and is beautifully filmed in a variety of locations. Even with my spoiler alerts, there is a lot to see and learn! You will gain an appreciation of those who choose to risk it all for their dreams.

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

The Toughest Thing for Leaders to do? Stick to the Essentials!

There is just no getting around it, Leaders are busy people! You are prone to action and activity which is great. The big question, however, is are you really getting done what is ESSENTIAL to get done versus what is just on your To-Do list? Accordingly, leadership expert John Maxwell often warns us to not confuse ACTIVITY with ACCOMPLISHMENT. This always gets me thinking out loud about how do we really focus on what is important and strategic versus what is really just peripheral.

Productivity expert Michael Hyatt explains this trap of “business” is an easy one for leaders to fall in to. Being busy becomes a corporate “merit badge” where we think we are proving our worth by coming in early, staying late, working weekends, postponing vacations, etc. We are checking a lot of things off our To-Do list but are those things the most ESSENTIAL in accomplishing what we REALLY need to in order to grow our business, improve as a professional, build healthy relationships, etc.?

Melissa Balmain from Success Magazine shares great insight from Greg McKeown, author of Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less. According to McKeown, there are some key steps in helping us focus on what is really ESSENTIAL.

• First, take a PERSONAL RETREAT DAY once a quarter. Make sure to get some place out of the office or home where you will not be tempted to be distracted by technology. This may involve (gasp!) getting outside in nature. I bet there is some kind of state or national park near you to do this!

• Second, now that you are uncomfortably outside (!!), pick your TOP PRIORITY for the quarter. A great question to identity that is “What would I do if I could do anything?”  Then ask and identify to yourself what is getting in the way of that? What social or work pressures are getting in the way of what is truly ESSENTIAL?

• Next, once you are picked your QUARTERLY PRIORITY, plan a ROUTINE around accomplishing that. The trick is to then MAINTAIN that focus by asking yourself weekly questions such as, “Is this the RIGHT ROUTINE?” or “What do I need to ADJUST?”

• Finally, each day ask yourself two more questions. 1) What is the MOST IMPORTANT thing I can do today to move my FOCUS or ESSENTIAL forward? and at the end of the day ask 2) How did I spend my TIME today? or Were the CHOICES I made today helpful in moving me forward?

McKeown shares one more incredibly profound insight. Each of us has an ESSENTIAL MISSION in life and we are given just enough time to fulfill it but we have to STAY FOCUSED!

"Each of us has an ESSENTIAL MISSION in life and we are given just enough time to fulfill it!" - George McKeown

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

Sooner or Later, EVERYONE is Extraordinary!

President John F. Kennedy once stated that “to be courageous is sooner or later an opportunity this is presented to all of us.” Like many people, the date of 9/11 stirs up many emotions in me. Sadness for those who lost so much that day and continue to do so. Anger at those who perpetuated those acts of pure evil and barbarism. Disappointment in those that now want to minimize the events of that fateful day in order to meet some cynical political or social agenda. But as I think out loud about it, what I mostly I feel immense pride. Pride in how so many “ordinary” people became extraordinary that day and many days after.

"To be courageous is sooner or later an opportunity this is presented to all of us." - President John F. Kennedy

We have all heard the stories but it is important to remind ourselves now more than ever how police officers, firefighters, and other first responders (previously viewed as a mundane profession by many) became something much more that day. How members of the military answered the nation’s call and reassured us they did then and continue now to “stand watch” over all of us. Finally, pride in acts of incredible sacrifice and courage by “ordinary” citizens.

You see, if the history of this event teaches us anything, it is that EVERYONE and ANYONE has the opportunity to be extraordinary. Just think about how many millions of hours of service to others have been inspired by the events of 9/11! How many lemonade stands to high profile foundations were created with the intention to make things better for those directly impacted. How many young people entered their professions as a result of a selfless sense of duty. All of this has moved millions of people from the ordinary to the extraordinary category. I bet you are one of them!

So how can we continue to honor both the event and subsequent response to 9/11 and continue to be extraordinary? I suggest that as leaders, we make the following commitments:

• Commit to lifting up others who need our help
• Commit to supporting those in professions that protect us and ensure our freedoms
• Commit to acting on your beliefs even when unpopular to do so (many of paid the ultimate price for your ability to do so!)
• Commit to believing that you a more than “just a” but you are “the” in life of someone else

Finally, commit to leading out loud NOW and not delay doing the important thing, the noble thing, the inspiring thing . . . the thing that moves others to want to join you!

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

The Essentials of Attracting Millennial Talent

Millennials are CONSUMERS of the workplace. This is one of the definitive research findings shared by Gallup during its summer conference on Millennials in the Work Place and Life Space. The implications of such a statement are profound and has me thinking out loud about how organizations and corporations will need to approach recruiting and retaining top talent.

The Millennial cohort now comprises 38% of the workforce which makes them the largest cohort now working. Among the research, there is general agreement that this the most technologically connected generation who depend on social media and on-line resources for just about every aspect of their daily lives. From purchasing (e.g. Amazon), transportation (Uber and Lyft), to hotel stays (Airbnb), the list is endless with emergent technologies debuting daily.

When it comes to the job search, the expectations of how to obtain information similar. Millennials will use the web to research a company, obtain reviews from other sites, and connect with social media to learn first-hand about experiences from new hires. The issue is that most companies and organizations that want top talent are lagging in terms of how to use their portals to both INFORM and ATTRACT.

According to Gallup scientists, here are some of the essential considerations that must be incorporated into any recruitment strategy:

• Omni Channel and Omnipresent – millennials expect to be able to learn about a prospective employer using the tools they are comfortable with (i.e. video, ALL social media platforms, websites, etc.). Further they want  to both apply for jobs and know their status in the search process or the status of their application through automated messaging, application portals, etc. and that all such information is current. Further, they want to be able to find that information on multiple platforms such as their phones, tablets, computers, etc.
• Value-added - millennials do not need to hard sell (they have been marketed to their entire lives and are very savvy consumers!). They want to find information about what the organization does well in terms of their marketplace competitiveness and where they do good in their community. An organization that just communicates their WHAT but not their WHY will be disadvantaged.
• Growth Potential – millennials want to know ON THE FRONT END how they can benefit FROM and add benefit TO a potential work place versus just waiting to find out this information after they have been hired.
• Positive Experience – from start to finish, millennials respond best to a very personalized experience. Even if they do not proceed through the selection process, organizations that make efforts to complement their credentials, time on task, etc. leave more of a positive impression. Going the extra step of encouraging future applications and providing free career development modules will earn an organization a lot of “social credits”. Unfortunately, most companies rely on terse, automated messages that just communicate that their credentials and experience was not sufficient. There are a variety of review websites where such negative experiences are widely shared among millennials and can quickly hurt a company’s brand image.

The point to remember is that millennials view the application process as a “mutually selective” process where they are evaluating the prospective organization as much as they are being evaluated!

Leaders and companies that attend to the points above will be much better positioned in the “talent war” to come as older cohorts start to retire out of the work place. One great example of how an organization to utilize technology to attract talent is to develop or outsource informational videos that appeal to this cohort. Recently I met a representative from an innovative group called Sizzle. This group of innovators will produce recruitment and brand image videos for a client that remind you of college recruitment videos! See an example below:

https://www.gosizzle.io/example_video

I have no connection to this group other than I think they have a great approach that will only be replicated by other organizations. For more information on how I can assist your organization in reviewing current efforts on this topic and aligning generational efforts, I urge you to go to my website link below and click on THE STUDIO tab!

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