This is the time to inspire and be inspired!

Whatever your belief system, this time of year is an opportunity to inspire and be inspired! So many good intentions and opportunities to serve are present during the Holidays that it got me thinking out loud about how this season inspires me and how I can share that gift of inspiration.

First of all, this season of lights and awe inspires me in so many ways:

• It inspires me to slow down.
• It inspires me to treasure my time with family and friends.
• It inspires me to give more and get less.
• In inspires me to appreciate the blessings I have and reevaluate the things that I don’t really need.
• It inspires me to express thanks for those who sacrifice for us so that we can live in safety and freedom.
• It inspires me to think back in gratitude
• It inspires me to think ahead in anticipation.

What does this time of year inspire you to think about, feel, and act upon? I encourage you to use this time to slow down some. Invest in yourself and those that you care about. Use this time to inspire yourself to do more, become more, and share of yourself more.

It has been another incredible year for me. I published my first book, worked with some great teaching partners, added value to others, and invested significant time in my own faith development. None of this would have been possible without the support of so many people. I especially want to thank those of you who have read my blog and shared this content with others.

As my Secret Santa gift to you, I want to share the gift of inspiration! When I win the lottery, maybe I can add some cash to the deal but for now, I hope you like it! Anyway, whereas this is not your typical holiday fare, it is a true story of how we have the ability to help each other’s dreams come true!

Created by filmmaker Nirvan Mullick, this gift of story is about a boy named Caine he met in East Los Angeles one summer day. Caine would spend his summers at his dad’s auto supply store where, with the help of some boxes, tape, and his incredible imagination, he created an amazing arcade of games. The problem was that since most of the business was drop shipped, very few visitors would come to the store, leaving Caine’s games unplayed and unenjoyed. What happens next can be discovered in the video link below!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faIFNkdq96U

I wish you all the joy and peace this Holiday season has to offer along with the most successful of New Years. I will be back after the first of the year with new blogs and ideas that I hope add value to 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, especially when it comes to creating organizational values that stick! I am also pleased to announce the launch of my first book, Leading Out Loud: Strategies for Raising Your Leadership Voice! available on Amazon.com. 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 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

For more information on the John Maxwell Team, please visit

http://www.johncmaxwellgroup.com/williamfaulkner/

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

Your Enterprise NEEDS Tough Customers!

I will be the first to admit, I can be a grumpy bear consumer! It would seem in this era of technology and easy access to information systems that internal offices of an organization can speak to each other to resolve customer issues. The answer to that is nope! Or that if you offer an email customer support option, that someone would actually respond to that inquiry? Not surprisingly, the answer is not so much! The problem is that something that once was a small problem now escalates to a bigger problem to some poor person you can finally get on the phone that had nothing to do with creating a problem in the first place! I recently received a general inquiry on the business networking site, Alignable, where a business owner was asking about how they could recover from a bad customer experience and review. This got me thinking out loud that instead of being grumpy, change the paradigm and use such an instance to help your enterprise thrive!

I get it. You try to do a good job and you still receive a customer, client, etc. complaint. It may be unfair, but you still need to have some sort of response. As a Performance Coach, I would suggest that when such issues occur, triage the interaction with this tough customer experience in three areas of inquiry that I will explore further below:

WHAT Happened?

First and foremost, instead of just assuming the customer or client was wrong, find out in detail what happened.

• What are they specifically unhappy about?
• Was the issue with the entire product or service or just part of it? If part, which part?
• When in the “purchase to delivery” process did they become dissatisfied?
• When and how did the customer attempt to reconcile the issue?
• What was our response when they did so?
• Why was that insufficient?

WHY Did This Happen?

Once you have detailed information from the customer (and yes, you should personally call them!) and the team members who were involved, deconstruct the issue to find out why the issue occurred in the first place.

• Did we negotiate expectations on front end in terms of time, scope of work, functions of the product, conditions of the service, etc.?
• Did we check in with customer often throughout the entire purchase to delivery process to see if they were happy with their choice to purchase from us and the eventual product or service they received, or did we just move on to the next potential purchase?
• Did we respond immediately when a complaint was forwarded?
• If so, what did we do?
• If not, why not?
• Did we verify the product was in good working order and complete before we delivered?
• Did we make sure the service provided met the client’s expectations shortly after they received it?
• Did we record their response?
• Is there an issue with the quality of our product whether we created it or received from a vendor?
• Does our level of service exceed expectations of both the client and the marketplace?
• Did we over promise and under deliver?

What Do We Do DIFFERENT as a Response?

Once you answer the above, as a leader, you know have the powerful opportunity to use a negative experience and turn it into a positive one. Just like when the Dominos Pizza CEO used costly commercial time to admit their product quality had diminished, telling the story of how you responded can be incredibly instructive and motivating to your team and influential to your potential market!

• What processes or procedures prevented outstanding service or product quality?
• Are team members empowered and trained to replace or resolve issues versus put clients on the “check with my boss” merry-go-round?
• Are the right people doing the wrong job?
• What has become endemic in our systems and procedures that create customer dissatisfaction and what do we need to change as a result?
• If our enterprise has become so cumbersome that it prevents us from resolving customer and client issues in a nimble and highly personalized manner how can we can we and where do we need to alter it?
• How will we change how we deal with customer issues the next time it happens?
• Has the quality of our products and/or services declined to the point where we no longer competitive in the consumer social media court of opinion?
• If so, why are we still in business?

Now I bet most of your customer and client interactions are usually pretty good. The issue becomes, as author and speaker Paul Martinelli shares, when we “get careless or simply could care less!” All of this comes down to the leadership you are providing to your team and enterprise in terms of the culture you have created. In earlier blogs, I have shared the path to excellence lies in two things: Getting it Right in the first place and Making it Right when you don’t! Sure, tough or demanding customers are not the most fun part of your enterprise, but they can offer an excellent barometer in terms of when quality has slipped or service has become lacking. Further, they can help identify blind spots in your enterprise that you may not have known existed or emerged. If you did not get it right on the front end, then making it right is an excellent strategy (if not the only one) to retain a customer but also have them become a brand ambassador. I am often more impressed by the sincere apology and over-the-top response when things go wrong than the initial purchasing process! Your clients will be too.

The path to excellence lies in two things: Getting it Right in the first place and Making it Right when you don’t!

Leadership expert and author, John C. Maxwell, shared during a presentation to the United Nations that followers ask three questions:

• Do you care for me?
• Can you help me?
• Can I trust you?

It is his belief that if you can answer those three questions in the affirmative, then you are a leader of value. I completely agree and would even go as far to say that if you can answer those same three questions (whether verbally asked or not) in the affirmative to your customers and clients, then not only do you deserve to stay in business, you have earned the right to have it grow and thrive!

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, especially when it comes to creating organizational values that stick! I am also pleased to announce the launch of my first book, Leading Out Loud: Strategies for Raising Your Leadership Voice! available on Amazon.com. 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 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

For more information on the John Maxwell Team, please visit

http://www.johncmaxwellgroup.com/williamfaulkner/

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

Congratulations, you are now a national role model . . . seriously!

At the risk of adding one more element to the “national crises” carousel, I believe the crises du jour is a role model crises! Hollywood and the broadcast news mediums are imploding with reports of sexual harassment and misconduct among its top celebrities. The personal and domestic violence allegations against professional athletes are compounding. Don’t even get me started about the charges of corruption and misconduct among career politicians on both sides of the political spectrum. Finally, and most regrettably, the US space program, once an inspiring combination of bravery and innovation, has become a shell of its former glory and now our astronauts have to hitch rides on other country’s vehicles. All this has me thinking out loud about if there is anyone left to look up to?

Now granted, I do believe there are still good and honest individuals in all the streams of influence I reference above. The problem, however, is that when the top leaders and notables in those industries fall from grace, it brings down the entire institution. We think that if those individuals who have reached the pinnacle of success in their fields of endeavor can’t get it right, then what does that say about the entire institution they represent?

As I was taught to do as a young professional, however, if you are going to identify a problem then you need to generate a solution. So here is my solution . . . YOU! That’s right, you the average Joe and Joan citizen who go to work each day, put forth your best effort, and do it all in an ethically responsible way. You are now my official hero. Seriously, they ought to make trading cards with your picture because you are our last, great hope to make society a more just, innovative, and responsive one. In fact, I would go as far to say that you are the only who deserves it because until the culture of professional athletics, entertainment, media, and the government decides to change, the individuals who are part of those establishments are not worthy of ANY kind of recognition or admiration.

So now that I have appointed you to this new national role, how can you maximize your potential as a billboard worthy role model whose words and deeds are ones the rest of us should emulate?  Trust me, there is no pressure here. You can handle your new-found role in the national spotlight walking in your sleep!  But just in case you need some reminders, here are a few recommendations:

Realize Your Value

Recently a former student leader of mine, Chris Conlan who serves as an executive producer for Voice America, encouraged me to apply to have my own show on this network. After I submitted the application, I started to worry about who I would have as guest on the show. I did not worry about that for very long because I was able to quickly answer the question with the names of the quality people in my life that deserve to have their stories told. They are not rich or famous, but they are healers and educators, activists and philanthropists, innovators and millennial motivators. They have and add such value and you do to. You are worthy of being someone’s role model because you have earned the right to be! By the way, if you feel I am worthy of it, I would love your vote to have my own show on Voice America so feel free to visit to get an idea of my intention and the nature of the show http://contest.voiceamerica.com/contest/1/entry/6 .

Understand Your Impact

I once heard it said that even the quietest person can influence over 10,000 people. Now in this age of social media, I would 10X that! I bet you have no idea of how many people you positively influence on a day to day basis. That great example spreads like a social contagion from the people you directly influence to those they know and subsequently influence. And so it goes. Your impact spreads far beyond you in both time and distance so get it right!

Decide Where You are Taking the Rest of Us

The first two steps in becoming a national role model discussed above occur almost subconsciously. You just do what you do because that is what you do! In the spirit of transparency, I got that great quote from one of my former team members, Dr. Jene Kapela who, herself, is a great role model and started her own consulting and volunteer vacation firm - https://kapelaleadershipsolutions.com/.

This third step, however, requires a new level of personal awareness. If you buy into the fact that you have and add value which, trust me, you do then I would encourage you to take a good hard look about where you want this new level of national prominence and influence to take the rest of us. What do you want your leadership to actually DO? I once explained to a former student that I believed she had the potential to be one of the strongest leaders the campus had ever experienced. I don’t think she believed me at the time but my “oh so prophetic pronouncement” did come to pass! A couple of years later we were talking about an issue she was involved in and I asked her where did she intend her leadership to take others. Like you, I do not think she ever thought of herself in that light or even considered the question. Eventually she understood that when you are a role model, everything you do, say, post, etc. has impact - one way or the other.

The point is this, there is no such thing as a “neutral” role model. You are constantly influencing people for good or ill, so you need to decide where you want to take us. To be clear, this is not arrogance, it is merely a fact. This fact, however, can be life changing (if not life cringing!) because when you understand this, it will:

• Influence your decisions
• Color all your conversations
• Define the nature of your relationships
• Impact your actions
• Shape your legacy

I started this week’s blog with a bit of melodrama, but it is concerning to think that institutions that were once trusted and revered are now suspect and reviled. Our communities are desperate for women and men of integrity so why can that not be you? I know this is a bit of a scary proposition but why not you? Just step up, speak out, and lean in! It is you we are waiting on. In fact, if you need some further inspiration, watch this great video produced by Leadercast. https://vimeo.com/album/2019306/video/94980342

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, especially when it comes to creating organizational values that stick! I am also pleased to announce the launch of my first book, Leading Out Loud: Strategies for Raising Your Leadership Voice! available on Amazon.com. 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 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

For more information on the John Maxwell Team, please visit

http://www.johncmaxwellgroup.com/williamfaulkner/

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

As a leader, if you have to coerce it, you don’t deserve it!

Can the entertainment industry become even more sleazy? For years, movies and television shows have gleefully created content that pointed out the foibles and hierocracy of others, especially if it involved leaders in certain faith traditions or political persuasions. Now, it has finally come out that high roller producers, “A” list actors, leading politicians, and even presidential candidates have been accused of coerced sexual contact. Equally distressing is that their allies in the media and entertainment industry have attempted to spike such stories or not address them due to some misguided allegiance to the alleged perpetrator’s because they were industry friends. This got me thinking out loud about what has we as leaders can learn from such tragic events.

First of all, regardless of gender or sexual orientation such conduct is unacceptable. Those individuals accused used their authority or ability to grant access to take advantage of others. Instead of doing so out of kindness or that it made just good business sense to advance a talented individual, these individuals threatened, manipulated, or coerced. It turns out such practices were well known but legal remedy never pursued out of fear of losing roles, access or favor. If there is any good thing to come from all of this, it is that such awareness has reached the national conversation.

Am I a perfect leader? Far from it.  But I would like to think there is a better idea. A better way to lead others. Whether we want to admit or not, if you are a leader with any level of responsibility, you can use your position in a coercive manner, even with the best of intentions. How do we guard against such unhealthy leadership?

Understand Your “Can vs Shoulds” – I have often told my own team members, just because you CAN do something, it does not necessarily mean you SHOULD. As a former Dean of Students, it was quite overwhelming the influence I had on the daily life of the students who attended the university. I had the authority to decide where students lived, the activities they could engage in and even whether or not they could remain a member of the campus community if they violated the code of conduct. Such authority required me to carefully weigh the interests of the student as compared to the interests of the institution and it was important that I shared with my own staff that such considerations applied to them as much for me.

Be Very Clear On What is Non-Negotiable – As leaders we have the responsibility to set the moral and ethical climate of our organizations. Truly, your team members do as well but if you hold a position of authority, you have to go first and set the bar and exceed it constantly. This requires you to be very clear about what your own moral threshold is and what you refuse to compromise, especially when there is an advantage to do so. The next critical step is to have a discussion with your team about such expectations. If you are not sure how to do this, feel free to contact me and I can share a process I have used. I think you will find that once others understand you are serious about leading with integrity, then they will understand you do not write blank checks on your values. You see when everything is negotiable, then everything is for sale, including your integrity!

Avoid Compartmentalization – I was having a conversation with a former supervisor who has become a trusted mentor and friend. We were discussing how normally bright and intelligent people can make such poor decisions as I have illustrated above or in past blog posts when it comes certain lapses in ethical judgement. We assumed the individuals involved came from solid backgrounds and educations, but when faced with making decisions that gained them or their organizations unfair advantage, they sold out their integrity. Where we landed was that these individuals compartmentalized their values. Whereas they were probably loyal friends, good parents, and generally nice people, they chose to sequester their poor conduct from the rest of their lives. I don’t know about you, but when I mess up, nothing in my life is right until I make it right. Now whether or not such mental compartmentalization is because of a legitimate psychological condition is another dissertation or another day but it does provide us with a cautionary tale.

The bottom line is this. If you have to coerce others to get the results you want, you are simply not doing it right and any success you gain from it will be undeserved. It is always better to accomplish things with people versus to them.

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, especially when it comes to creating organizational values that stick! I am also pleased to announce the launch of my first book, Leading Out Loud: Strategies for Raising Your Leadership Voice! available on Amazon.com. 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 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

For more information on the John Maxwell Team, please visit

http://www.johncmaxwellgroup.com/williamfaulkner/

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

Lead Like a Spy!

I think one of the best creativity exercises leadership trainers and facilitators can do is to borrow ideas and concepts from disparate industries to better inform leadership practices and performance. In listening to a recent NPR podcast, Planet Money, hosts Sally Helm and Kenny Malone were taking a programming break from their usual experts in the field of money and finance and welcomed guests who may or may not been CIA agents to discuss how we can improve our personal safety. This got me thinking out loud that about how to apply such spy training to improve our leadership abilities!

To be clear, this does not mean stalking our team members to see if they were really sick the day they called out or placing listening devices in the break room to eavesdrop on employee conversations. Rather, it is using the same training that keeps agents effective and alive to make us better at leading others.

One of the agents they had on the show was describing an incident when he was accosted on a subway while working in an undisclosed location. Essentially, he shared that CIA and other intelligence operatives are trained to evaluate situations and pursue subsequent actions using the D.A.D.A Method. As leaders, aren’t we are also constantly tasked with evaluating events and making decisions, albeit not as life threatening? So maybe a little bit of secret agent training would benefit us as well!  I will explain the decision-making model the agent was trained to use along with how I applied to my own decision making regarding a crises situation.

Data – first, as secret agents and leaders, we must gather data. What is the nature of the threat or the situation? I remember one time when I was a Dean of Students for a small university in North Carolina. One evening I received a phone call from one of my team members that where was fire at one of our Residence Halls. I quickly jumped into my car and headed back to campus but along the way, subsequent phone calls changed the data. What at first was a 3 Alarm fire in one of the Residence Halls turned into some of the landscaping outside the hall burning. The next call informed me that, no, it was just some of mulch in the plant beds burning. By the time I arrived on campus, what was initially presented to me as a huge fire turned out to be just a cigarette smoldering in the ground outside the entrance to the building. As leaders, it is critical we take a moment and obtain the best data we can first before launching into action or even over/under reaction!

Analysis – Once data is obtained, we have to analyze the data as to the serious of the threat or situation. What are the various threat scenarios being presented at the time? How bad or good is it? In my example, a fire in a residence hall is very serious so you want to know how big, localized, etc. the fire is. Obviously, as the data set changed, my analysis of the situation changed as to what my next steps and instructions would to the team would be. 

Decision – both leaders and spies must develop their ability to make decisions. There are always alternative and, at times, competing courses of actions available to us; thus, we have to use both the data presented and our analysis of it to make the best decision we can. It may not be the most textbook “correct” decision but our goal is to deal with situations as effectively as we can. This also speaks to how much we train team members to make good decisions when they encounter certain situations and empower them accordingly. In the situation regarding a possible structure fire, the student leaders who helped us manage the residence halls, were trained to respond to situations and take action as needed without wasting precious time to check with a supervisor first to get approval.

Action – at some point, leaders must take action. It may not be the best or complete course of action, but people and situations demand we do something! According to leadership scholar, Dr. Ron Heifetz, when leaders demonstrate they are taking some kind of action, it has the effect of releasing a “social pressure valve”. When stakeholders and team members know you are aware of a situation and are actively responding to it, it provides a level of reassurance. Granted, that reassurance last only as long as you continue to make good or better decisions. In the example I have shared, even though my team members and student leaders had the situation well in hand, they appreciated the fact that I cared enough to drop what I was doing and respond to their needs as quickly as I could.It is important to note the operative in the podcast shared that with much use and practice, the 4 steps of the D.A.D.A. Method occur almost subconsciously and in a matter of seconds. Just think about when you are driving a car on a busy interstate highway. You constantly take in data on weather, traffic, road conditions, etc., analyze that data for any potential threats of obstacles and distracted drivers or opportunities to avoid traffic, make decisions on where to direct the vehicle and then take actions that will get you to your destination as quickly and safely as possible. We do this constantly while driving without even realizing we are doing it.

So, the next time you are facing a decision that needs strong leadership, lead like a spy and respond to situations like they have been trained to do! While you are at it, maybe pick up a sharp new outfit and carry a pen that takes pictures – just to capture office group pictures, of course!

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! In fact, I am launching a new SPEAK FOR IMPACT training program that will help both novice and experienced leaders find their platform and increase their communication skills! 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 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

For more information on the John Maxwell Team, please visit

http://www.johncmaxwellgroup.com/williamfaulkner/

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

Three Powerful Questions Leaders Must Answer.

This week, I would like to present a more multi-media blog. I am writing this while in Austin, TX and watching the devastating effects of Hurricane Harvey on local TV channels. Thousands of people have been impacted and I urge you to support the recovery in any way you can. In difficult times, we need leaders who are willing to solve problems and make things better without the normal concerns of who gets the credit for doing so. Too many people need help NOW and this is no time for partisanship or division. This tragic event got me thinking out loud about how we as leaders can become part of the solution and transcend politics, beliefs, and agendas. How can we as leaders demonstrate a more powerful and healing type of leadership?

Inspired by John Maxwell’s core questions he proposed to a session at the United Nations, I offer a short video filmed earlier this year when I was presenting to the Southeast Florida Apartment Association. Please click on the video below and after I want you to reflect in the following ways:

Three Powerful Questions a Leader Must Answer.

1. Can you honestly and sincerely answer each question in the affirmativ 
2. If not or not completely, why? What do you need to change in order to do so?
3. If so, how do your people know?

I would invite you to email me or to visit my website below. More importantly, there will be many on-line opportunities to donate time, effort, materials, and funds to support Hurricane Harvey victims so please help out as you are moved to do so. If nothing else, keep the residents, brave first responders who stayed behind, national guard units, and others that will be assisting the recovery in your thoughts and prayers. I am sure it will be much appreciated. 

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

Is Your Leadership about Taking Pictures or Painting Portraits?

Recently, I had an opportunity to have a conversation with the directors of a relatively new leadership program for students at a major university. During those conversations, they were lauding the completely results-focused nature of their efforts. In fact, only the results of their chosen developmental intervention mattered. Now I have no issue with focusing on results but it did get me thinking out loud about why their approach had to be such an either/or proposition? I believe as leaders, we should be more focused on painting portraits than just taking pictures!

Allow me to explain further. When we take pictures, we are just capturing the “what is” or the current state of affairs. In other words, the current results or level of functioning of individuals or organizations. Now that is all well and good and is important to do so but leaders should also paint portraits of “what could be!” That is literally and figuratively the beauty of those that paint. Painters can take the ordinary and make it extraordinary. A true work of art! Something that inspires and awes.

I believe that if we want better results from those we lead, we must inspire others beyond just their immediate level of performance. As much as team members want to know where they stand, they also want to know where they can go! Accountability is important, but so is inspiration and that is where a leader can have huge impact. As leaders, we are called upon to create “word pictures” of not only what is but what can be! We do this through our words, our actions, and our example.

Sam Adeyemi is a young minister in Nigeria that has built a congregation of over 25,000 and has launched even more churches. He points out that leaders have the opportunity (and I believe obligation) to lift up and inspire others to:

• Help them believe they are more than they think they are.
• That they can do more than they think they can do.
• Have more gifts and talents than they think they have.

You cannot do that if you are just focusing on the “what is.” Back to my original question, then. Is your leadership about taking pictures or are you also painting portraits? As you are building a culture of accountability are you also creating an environment of enthusiasm and expectation? Is your leadership nimble enough to do both? I believe that people, especially young people, want to be inspired. They want to know that great things can still happen for them and others even in a cynical world. They want to know that they can impact others and situations. They want to know that there are still great opportunities available to make things better!

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! In fact, I am launching a new SPEAK FOR IMPACT training program that will help both novice and experienced leaders find their platform and increase their communication skills! 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 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

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http://www.johncmaxwellgroup.com/williamfaulkner/

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Just One Leadership Response to Charlottesville, VA

I hope this blog finds everyone doing well. I have been “radio silent” for a few weeks due to an exciting new development that I will share next time. But now is not that time. Like millions of Americans, I have been struggling with the tragic events that recently occurred in Charlottesville, VA where a deranged individual drove into a crowd of people that were counter-protesting the presence white supremacists in that community. After all the shock, anger, and frustration, I started to think out loud about what should be the helpful response to these events. I rarely comment in national affairs in that I prefer to help who I actually can, where I can, and how I best can. But after all the righteous indignation and condemning is done, what is left?

Allow me to present a few thoughts that some of you are going to like and some may not. Fortunately, I recently attended the incredible two-day Global Leadership Summit simulcast with incredible speakers that helped inform some of these ideas. In responding to such an event and other tragedies of violence, I believe that as leaders we need to practice the following:

Self-Response – like me, I am sure your Facebook feed blew up with the thoughts and impressions of others. Whereas these comments were the valid opinions of others, it struck me that we cannot point out the hate of others while denying our own. As leaders, we have to be very clear about our own biases and prejudices before we can highlight that of others. If you are going to claim the moral high ground, you should be very clear that your position is defensible and you do not engage in the same negative rhetoric you accuse others of.

Other-Response – According to juvenile offender advocate Bryan Stevenson, we have to get “proximate” with others we do not understand or not necessarily want to spend time with in order to influence them. Sure, you may not always impact a hardliner on either side of the spectrum, but the goal of leaders and leadership is to influence and enroll others to what is right and honorable because we are never going to shame or insult our way to changing hearts and minds. If you are truly sincere about affecting positive change, you should be willing to listen to the perspectives and concerns of others to include them in that change. Remember the old leadership maxim that people support what they help create.

United-Response – all this leads me to the next point. We live in a time of incredible polarization socially and politically. Unfortunately, I believe some people like it that way. Playing the “us” versus “them” game validates our beliefs, attitudes, and actions. When we believe someone is wrong or somehow “less than”, it gives us “permission” to treat them in a less than respectful manner. Politicians and pundits don’t divide us, we do a pretty good job doing that to ourselves. Trust me, I know people and their opinions can be frustrating but the bottom line is that it takes more effort and courage to be a uniter than a divider. The question is, which do you want to be? What do you want to unite people around?

Courageous-Response – speaking of courage, we should pay attention to the words of Gary Haugen. Gary heads a non-profit, international organization that seeks to abolish the slavery and exploitation that still occurs in developing nations as well as the child sex trade. His work is incredibly dangerous so he has earned the right to speak about bravery and leadership. In his comments during the Global Leadership Summit, Gary recognizes that being brave is hard but to not let fear stand in the way of knowing the right thing to do and actually doing it. But like fear, courage is contagious. When addressing a difficult issue, bring a community of courage around you. As leadership guru John Maxwell shares, no one does anything great alone.

            

Again, I do not expect you to agree with everything I write here, but the fundamental question remains, do you want to make things better though your leadership? Do you earnestly desire a just and united society or just one that meets a no-compromise criterion?

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 contact me. I would also encourage you to keep the Charlottesville, VA community as well as those directly impacted by these recent events in your thoughts and prayers.

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

A leader’s honor can’t be taken but it can be relinquished!

Honor. That is a word you do not hear much these days. Years ago, a person’s honor or personal integrity meant everything to them. History is full of brave men and women who valued their honor above all else . . . even their own lives. Sadly, we live in a world that has become so cynical that people mock or are at least suspicious of the individual that strives to live honorably. I was recently thinking out loud that the good news is that your personal sense of honor can never be taken away, but the bad news is that you can relinquish it!

Allow me to explain further. I believe that the leader who has intentionally developed the habits and made the tough choices to become an honorable person, will keep that part of themselves forever. It does not mean that they are perfect, it just means that they continually live their lives and make decisions based upon what is honorable. Even when they make a mistake, they do the honorable thing by admitting their error and make whatever corrections are needed. The ONLY way, then, that you can lose your honor is if you let it go or relinquish it.

You see to stay a leader of integrity, we cannot take our sense of honor for granted. For honor to remain it must be maintained or it will dissipate. We see this time and time again. The leader in business, government, education, etc. that starts out their career with so much promise, so much potential, somehow loses their way and make career ending errors. Worse yet, instead of owning up to their actions, they rationalize or attempt to cover up their poor decisions.

For Honor to Remain, it must be Maintained!

So how can we maintain our honor? Jim Loehr, peak performance expert and author of the great book, The Only Way to Win, emphasizes that to Improve in this area of our leadership, we need to build our “Character Muscles”. This requires us to confront our Character Weakness and confront our Character Imbalances (e.g. we emphasize winning over integrity). Even in our quest to achieve success we can still build and strengthen our sense of honor. When we do relinquish our honor, it is because we have not focused on building the habits, attitudes, and life choices that build our capacity to live and lead with an ever-growing sense of personal honor. According to Dr. Loehr, we have to work on this EVERYDAY. Collapses of honor often come one inch or one small compromise at a time.

I agree that of all the things we can educate on, the most important form of training for leaders is in the honor spectrum. It is FOUNDATIONAL to everything else. If our sense of honor is weak or easily relinquished then our enterprise will eventually fail. We have seen this time and time again.

So, as always, I have a few questions for you to reflect on:

• What does being an honorable leader and person mean to you?
• What behaviors, attitudes, and words distinguish between those that hold their honor and those that do not?
• What do you do well and what can you improve upon in terms of this aspect of your leadership and life?
• What expectations do you have for others in terms of their sense of honor?
• Who are you or can you influence through your sense of leadership?

In the words of journalist Walter Lipmann, “A man has honor if he holds himself to an ideal of conduct though it is inconvenient, unprofitable, or dangerous to do so”. Carrying yourself with a sense of honor is by no means easy but it far outweighs the alternative!

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! In fact, I am launching a new SPEAK FOR IMPACT training program that will help both novice and experienced leaders find their platform and increase their communication skills! 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 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

For more information on the John Maxwell Team, please visit

http://www.johncmaxwellgroup.com/williamfaulkner/

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