Thinking Out Loud!: June 2017

Sunday, June 25, 2017

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/

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Sunday, June 18, 2017

Do you even have a moral threshold?

I love college sports. I love the pageantry, the effort on the part of the student athletes, and the way it can unify both a college and a community. What I don’t like is when things “come off the rails” in terms of scandals, misconduct, and controversies caused, often at the hands of those coaches and staff charged with keeping the program on the right course. This is clearly a failure of leadership and has me thinking out loud if the individuals responsible for this malfeasance even have a moral threshold in the first place!

Just in case you don’t follow college sport news, in the past few weeks two major athletic programs have had allegations made against them by the NCAA in terms of specific violations. The University of Mississippi’s football program has been cited for academic fraud, inappropriate booster involvement, and certain players receiving special benefits not allowed under NCAA rules. At the University of Louisville, there have been allegations that the director of basketball operations knew of strippers and prostitutes being present during times when prospective recruits were hosted on campus. In each case, the head coaches and athletic directors have disavowed any direct knowledge of the incidents.

I guess the question for me is how accurate are pronouncements? Granted, they may not have known about the first incident, but patterns of repeated behaviors are hard to hide. In this day of social media and smart phones that allow the instant sharing of information, events, etc., secrets are almost a thing of the past. It still amazes me how a politician, celebrity, or sports star thinks that their words and deeds will not eventually become public! They are either just that arrogant or just that clueless.

But back to the point of this week’s blog. If you are leader, YOU set the moral threshold. You may not like it or it may be inconvenient for you to believe it. Too bad! Your words, actions, statements, etc. set the culture of your team, school, business, organization, etc. If you follow this blog, you have often seen me quote author and consultant, Dr. Henry Cloud who states, “Cultures are created by what we ALLOW and by what we CREATE!” So, if something happens and/or if you do not like what you are seeing, that is a YOU and YOU deal. In the final analysis regarding the two recent news stories I referenced above, it was the head coaches job to set the moral threshold of their team for BOTH their staff and players. Even better, it was their supervisor’s responsibility to do so. Even still, the ultimate responsibility rests on the President of the institution. I have had the pleasure to work for several great college and university presidents and I knew full well their expectations of me as a junior to more senior staff member and I ACTED accordingly versus to the contrary.

So back to my blog title, do YOU even have a moral threshold? Have you ever thought about what is and is not appropriate conduct among those involved in your enterprise? If not, why not? If so, great, but does EVERYONE know what your expectations are? Here’s the thing, I am sure that you are a leader of integrity that holds yourself to high standards on a consistent basis but it cannot end there. You can’t just assume that your down line team members are as well. They may be in some areas but not in others. As in the examples provided above, I bet in certain segments of their lives, those responsible for facilitating such misconduct are normally decent people. But sometimes values and priorities come into competition with each other. For instance, the value of integrity with the priority of recruiting/retaining the best class of players possible.

It is EXACTLY those times when such priorities collide that your team members know WHAT WINS! In other words, let’s assume you constantly communicate to your team the importance of doing business ethically but all of a sudden one of your team members has the opportunity to make sale of such proportions that it would change the trajectory of your enterprise, however, it would require a bending of those principals, what wins? Do they know what to choose (or what the threshold is) AND that they would be rewarded for doing so? That’s a tough call but it can be made easier if you would CONSIDER, RECORD, and then SHARE the following:

What are YOUR moral and ethical “non-negotiables” or absolutes?
In the gray areas (where, unfortunately, most issues and situations reside!), what values and principals “win out” among ALL others? In other words, what should everyone in the organization DEFAULT to in light of tough choices?
How will team be assured they will not be censured or punished for making the tough calls that align with your organization values?
How WILL you CONTINUALLY communicate what is important for EVERYONE, EVERY DAY, and ALL THE TIME in terms of your moral threshold?

One more thing to consider. As a leader, you have a responsibility to set the moral threshold but you also have the obligation to involve others in the discussion. You can always have veto power but as the old leadership maxim goes, people support what they help create!

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

Sunday, June 11, 2017

Effective Leaders are “Warrior Monks”!

This week I had the opportunity to present to the Southeast Florida Apartment Association with my friend and teaching partner, business coach Frank Lind. SEFAA is comprised of property managers and associated vendors that work in the incredibly competitive south Florida apartment and home rental market. We had a great time and the focus of my presentation was on helping attendees discover their personal leadership style. This required them to turning off their normal leadership “autopilot” and introduce helpful information into the awareness of these usually very busy professionals. This got me thinking out loud that as leaders, we increase our effectiveness when we become “Warrior Monks”!

Let me explain further. Warrior Monks are special individuals throughout history and cultures that combine the discipline of martial skills with intellectual and spiritual study. Examples include Shaolin priests from China, European Knights Templar, and the Sohei who are Japanese Buddhist monks. If you need a very modern example, think of the Jedi from the Star Wars franchise!

In terms of the practice of leadership, it is my belief that the most effective leaders combine the attributes of continual study and growth of their skills with decisive action and focus. Specifically, leader warrior monks practice the following:

Deep Reflection – much like the warrior monks of old that would spend as many hours in meditation and contemplation as they would in physical training, effective leaders take the time to reflect upon their actions AND words to determine what worked well and what could be done better. They also study and consider the words of other thought leaders in leadership to see what concepts can be integrated into their practice and personal style. Ken Posner, co-author of The Leadership Challenge, in a recent webinar suggested the following 4 areas to consider:

Lessons – others have learned from you
Ideals – your personal values that are apparent to everyone you meet
Feelings – that you leave people with
Evidence – that what you are doing is making a contribution to others and the enterprise

True Devotion – warrior monks are incredibly devoted to both their own development as well as those around them. One monk is certainly a formidable opponent but when they combine their efforts with other like-minded officiants, they multiply their effectiveness! Warrior monks were also known for their acts of charity to strangers they would encounter in their journeys.

Intentional Replication – just like warrior monks, effective leaders replicate themselves. They INTENTIONALLY seek out candidates that they believe have the ability and willingness to grow as leaders and mentor them. Just like Obi Wan did for Luke Skywalker, effective leaders do not hold back information for fear they will be replaced or bested, they pour into their young apprentices teaching all that they know.

Decisive Action – the result of all this study, self-discipline and commitment is a leader who has equipped themselves to be ready when the time and situation calls for action. They have reflected on past experiences to inform new situations. They have devoted themselves to being prepared and have built a network of individuals who can assist them. They have made themselves better by helping others become so.

So, what would you add to my list? It probably depends on who you are and what you do but the point is this. To maintain our effectiveness in the day in and day out grind of making decisions, sharing recommendations, and guiding others, we need to be filling our own tank. As leadership expert John Maxwell shares, “you can’t give what you don’t have.” We need to turn off the auto-pilot and add to our awareness of who we are, what we are doing, and how we are impacting others through both our words and actions.

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