The POWER of paying it Backward!

About thirty years ago, I met a young student leader named Chris who joined the student government association I was advising when I was working at the University of Tampa. He was scary smart if not a little rough around the edges but I got a clear glimpse that this was going to be a person of influence and impact! Thirty years later my instincts were proven right but I never expected the impact it would have on me!

You see Chris has become a mover and shaker in the worlds of politics, mass media, and philanthropy. We have been Facebook friends for some time but a couple of weeks ago, he asked me if I would be a guest on a radio show he was producing. I was floored! Why me? Clearly, he was much better connected than I was and could have much more well know persons on the show. His response was humbling to me. He told me that because I believed in and supported him so many years ago, that he now wanted to help me because he was now in a position to do so. He wanted to PAY IT BACKWARDS he said. This got me thinking out loud about how meaningful that was for me and how it can be a powerful practice we can all adopt to impact the lives of others.

In his outstanding book, Intentional Living, leadership expert John Maxwell talks about just how powerful it is when we INTENTIONALLY add value to the lives of others. He tells a great story about a helping a young person who was doing a school project which involved passing along a blue ribbon to someone who had made a significant contribution to their lives. The young leader had chosen John because his content really helped them . . . that young leader wanted to PAY IT BACKWARDS! Of course, in typical John Maxwell style, John not only took the ribbon, but he met with the young person, invited them to appear on stage with him at an event where he was speaking and added tremendous value to them!

The point is this, how often are we waiting for others to do something for us? How would your life be different if you were more focused on what you could do for OTHERS as opposed to what they can do for you?

So how do we do this? How can we develop this life-changing practice of PAYING IT BACKWARDS! Start with answering three basic questions:

• What have you been GIVEN? What experiences, accomplishments, resources, etc. have you been given that make you UNIQUELY EQUIPPED to ADD VALUE to theirs?
•  
• What do you have to GIVE? Everyone has been EQUIPPED with qualities, talents, skills, and attitudes that can have impact on others!
•  
• What can you DO? Inventory what you KNOW you can do and then decide WHO or WHAT you can do it for.

In my case, Chris had access to a show called Finding Your Frequency (I really like that concept!!) where he serves as the executive producer on the Voice America internet network. He used his considerable talents and influence to ask the on-air hosts add me as a guest. Finally, he decided that he wanted to help me because he knew it could assist me to expand my message and reach to a whole new audience. The result was he, along with the show’s hosts Jeff Spenard and Ryan Treasure added tremendous value to me!

When we PAY IT BACKWARDS, it costs a price we WANT to pay!

David Roads states “you were born with the ability to change someone's life - don't ever waste it!” So, here’s a little homework. List 10 people in your life that should make your Top 10 Gratitude List and then think about how you can use your SUCCESS to help them! It can as simple as sending a nice card to a former teacher or a special remembrance to an old friend. Now I am sure when you do this, you are in no way expecting a return just like when I finally learned how to invest in students and later working professionals, I never expect them to return the favor. It’s just how I have chosen to operate. But when we PAY IT BACKWARDS, it costs a price we WANT to pay!

For an audio link to the actual Finding Your Frequency episode on the Voice America, network please see the link below. The other guests include nutrition coach Ken Ludwig and fitness expert Shemane Nugent, wife of the iconic rock star, Ted Nugent.

https://www.voiceamerica.com/episode/98232/living-your-frequency

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

You may be a SUCCESS, but do you MATTER?

“You are already a success, but do you matter?” This is the question marketing guru and author Seth Godin asked at a recent John Maxwell Team certification training I attended in Orlando, FL. This is the same question I have been thinking out loud about (and struggling inside) ever since!!

The question parallels a progression that leadership expert John Maxwell proposes. Essentially, when we start out in our careers, we are focused on SURVIVAL. Let me provide an example. While spending a great weekend with friends who were all college recruiters in early in our careers, we were discussing grown up things like retirement plans, career trajectory, etc. All of a sudden one of us blurted out “Gees, just a few years ago, we were worried about where our next beer was coming from!!” Clearly a great illustration of Survival!

Next, according to John, we achieve SUCCESS. We grow in our careers and move up to larger roles and responsibilities. The problem is, however, that too many of us just stop there. To MATTER in life, we need to move beyond simple accomplishment. We need to step up to SIGNIFICANCE! In other words, we need to work toward something that we will never see completed or a modern-day Pyramid Project as John puts it. Some effort or some enterprise that is NOT for ourselves, that is BIGGER than ourselves, that will OUT LAST ourselves to BENEFIT a new generation.

So how do we do this? How do we insure that we MATTER? Obviously since I just spent last week being poured into by John Maxwell himself, I will pull from one of his latest and greatest books, Intentional Living. In order to achieve significance in our lives we need to do four things that are easy to write about but hard to practice. Intentional Living is organized by these 4 principles:

WANT to Make a Difference – first we just need to have the desire to look beyond ourselves and attempt something that will last long after us. Now this seems simple but too many leaders focus so much on their success that they forget to consider what’s it all for? Do YOU want to make a difference?

DOING Something that Makes a Difference – just wanting to talking about making a difference is not sufficient. We have to bridge the gap between KNOWING and DOING! We need to activate our desire with action. What is it you want to DO? I bet many of you already engage in worthy works. I know friends and former students that organize food pantries, assist with refugee resettlement, work in animal advocacy, etc. and I am so proud and amazed at their efforts. They took thoughts and created a reality that is benefiting so many! What do you want to DO?

With OTHERS that want to Make a Difference – I often say that no one does anything great alone. To achieve and provide significance, you must “enroll” others as Seth encourages. We need to find other like-minded individuals that care about what we care about and want to work alongside you to make something better! The best way to do this is just start sharing your passion. Talk about it, post about it, Instagram about it, etc. whatever it takes to bring attention to what you care about it. Such passion will be contagious. In the words of theologian John Wesley, “Get on fire and the world will come watch you burn!” Who can help you create significance?

At a TIME that Makes a Difference – you have often heard that timing is everything. The same is true for attempting to do anything significant. Has someone else already addressed what you are passionate about? Are others ready to join you? Do you have the resources and/or capacities to start (notice I did not say finish . . . just start!). Timing is always tricky but don’t let that be a barrier to starting.

The point is this, if you want to achieve significance, you must find your platform. Mine is providing lessons for now that produce leaders for life! What is yours? I know you have one, you just need to want to make a difference by doing something that makes a difference with others that want to make a difference at a time that makes a difference!

For more information about Seth Godin and is blog and continuing education opportunities visit: www.sethgodin.com . Also, if this blog was of value to you, please share it with others! It is my passion to help you get better so that you can help others do so too!

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 (and still walking both roads!),

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 are ALWAYS communicating whether we know it or not!

According to research by the Carnegie Institute, 85% of our success in life depends on our ability to Lead, Communicate and Negotiate. Accordingly, in his great book Building the Bridge As You Walk On It, Robert Quinn shares that as leaders we are “constantly communicating about ourselves. Everything we say, everything we do, everything we wear, etc.is communicating something about us.” Now that is enough to give anyone pause (not to mention a thought that can keep me up at night!) and has me thinking out loud about the impacts of communication in our leadership and personal lives.

Gallup also addresses this in that when describing how communication impacts building customer intimacy or brand affinity. With EVERY interaction with a team member or client, we either INCREASE or DECREASE our level of engagement with them . . . such interactions are NEVER NEUTRAL! This means that with EVERY communication including phone calls, in-person meetings, texts, emails, social media, invoices, etc. our “influence stock” is either going up or going down! Stated another way by my great mentor Rick Miller, everything we do as leaders and organizations either underlines or erases everything we say or consider important. The point is this, we ARE constantly communicating about ourselves as leaders thus; are either highlighting or diminishing our personal/organization brand and its promises with EVERY interaction big or small.

So, if we just think about this for a moment, our communications, verbal or otherwise, takes on greater importance due to its huge implications in our ability to lead others, conduct business, and influence. With that in mind, John Maxwell in his outstanding work, Everyone Communicates – Few Connect, proposes three critically important communication COMMITMENTS we should make to leverage our communication and interactions to their upmost value.

Commit to Know Yourself – First, this involves being constantly and consciously aware of HOW and WHAT we are communicating to others. We need to be authentic and sincere as to what we truly believe and consider important. We must make sure our words and behaviors match. Trust me, we aren’t fooling anybody when the opposite is true!

Commit to Know Your Audience – I have often shared that leaders are AMPLIFIED PEOPLE in that our words take on greater meaning and impact due to the fact that others are listening to us. It is important to communicate to the needs and preferences of your audience and not the other way around! Communicate what you want them to KNOW and what you are asking them to DO in language they can understand and appreciate.

Commit to Know Your Stuff! – It is important that as leaders, we know what we are talking about using the best information available to us. Nothing will lower our stock with a follower or customer more than just “winging it.” Honesty and accuracy will trump sounding authoritative every time. If something arises you are not sure about, then just admit it but then commit to finding the answers and loop back. I promise your credibility will not suffer but in fact, will increase!

The point is this, we ARE constantly communicating about ourselves as leaders thus; are either highlighting or diminishing our personal and organization brand and its promises with EVERY interaction big or small.

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 SPEAKING FOR IMPACT training program that will help both novice and experienced leaders increase their speaking and 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 (and still walking both roads!),

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

Last Lap, Last Second = Principle of FULL EFFORT!

To be honest, I am not a big fan of professional sports in that I prefer college efforts for a variety of reasons. But this time of year, however, I channel my inner southerner (after all, I was born in Georgia and went to college in North Carolina!) and focus on NASCAR. I do this because it is exciting to watch and appears to be the last professional sports arena where 1) the fans are viewed as an asset and not an obligation and 2) the athlete drivers still understand that they are role models to young people and have NOT ABDICATED THEIR RESPONSIBILITY TO DO SO (seriously, don’t get me started on that)! The opening race of the season is the Daytona 500 where the winning driver led just one lap! This got me thinking out loud about the value of FULL EFFORT!

To set the stage, the Daytona 500 is not only the first race of the NASCAR season is also the biggest! It is full of pageantry, celebrities, patriotism, and incredibly loud cars! Essentially it is like playing the Super Bowl or Game 7 as the first game of the season as opposed to the last. The winner of the race was Kurt Busch and whereas he is a former Cup Series champion and competitive in most races, the ONLY lap he led was the FINAL lap but that was all he needed to win the race! This is similar to the recent Super Bowl win of the New England Patriots in that the only second they led the ENTIRE game was the last second they scored to win the game!

Clearly, there is a lesson here for ALL of us on both the INDIVIDUAL and ORGANIZATIONAL level as to the value of FULL EFFORT and holding to the belief that it is not over until it’s over! FULL EFFORT, however, is not solely a matter of will. It requires some key components that MUST BE PRESENT before the game even begins or the race even starts.

Resource Management – if you are not familiar with the sport, NASCAR cars operate at the highest tolerances possible and are often driven to their mechanical and safety limits. Driver Kurt Busch and his #41 race team had to carefully steward their car, tires, and other equipment resources so that they could be in a position to win when it counted. The same is true for us as leaders. Regardless of our enterprise, we must be STRATEGIC and TACTICAL stewards of the resources we have available so that they are present and available when we most need them.

Talent Management – a race team is more than just its driver. It has a host of key leaders and staff who play critical roles; from the fabricators and engineers that build the cars to the pit crew and crew chief that support the driver on race day. Along with these key personnel are marketing and competition directors that make sure the significant financial needs of a race team are met. Just like a race team, we need to make sure we have assembled the best TALENT we can but we also nave to ALIGN that talent to meet our enterprise goals and aspirations.

Energy Management – as peak performance consultant and author Jim Loehr proposes, success is more of a condition of ENERGY MANAGEMENT versus time management. Just like any top athlete, we must pace our efforts so that we have what we need when it most counts. This requires us to equip ourselves, build our capacities, renew and recharge our personal, spiritual, and physical energy, and balance our lives as best we can so that when that crucial moment comes, we have the energy to push us over the finish line!

Opportunity Management – legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden often stated, “there is no such thing as luck.” “Success”, he would go on to say “is when PREPARATION meets OPPORTUNITY!” Clearly Kurt Busch waited for his opportunity. He used his driving skills to avoid accidents and “save his car” for the end of the race. His his crew chief Tony Gibson used great strategy to make sure they would be in a position to win as the race came to a close. Again, the lessons are obvious to both individuals and organizations in that we need to do all the hard work on the front end so that we are PREPARED when the right OPPORTUNITY presents itself at just the right time!

So, the bottom line is this. Operating on the principle of FULL EFFORT takes a great deal of pre-thought and effort. It requires us to sacrifice short term advantages for long term benefits. As individuals and organizations, we must be willing to do what others do not so that we take the checkered flag at the end of the day! Granted, I may be just a bit too enthused that the NASCAR season has started but you guys are all leadership rock starts so you get the point!!

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 to add value to your organization!

Yours in Leadership (and still walking both roads!),

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

If your ORGANIZATION was an animal, which would it be?

We have all heard the worst interview question in the world, “If you were an animal, which one you would be” but after watching my new PBS obsession – Spy in the Wild – there may be something to this! If you have not seen the series, essentially researchers have ingeniously disguised small cameras as tree stumps, rocks, or even artificial animals (my favorite is a spy bush baby!) and placed them in natural habitats to observe animal behavior. Social psychologists have often drawn parallels to animal behavior to that of humans which has got me thinking out loud about how certain human organizations resemble animal groups in terms of behaviors, interactions, ways of operating and solving problems, etc.

The premise is that organizations have unique cultures and cultures are formed, according to consultant and author Dr. Henry Cloud, by what is ALLOWED or CREATED! Whereas not an exhaustive list, here as some prototypical organizations that I believe are common in human habitats!

Chimp Congress – seriously, this is what a group of chimpanzees is called! Chimp groups are characterized by high drama and high emotions. There is a lot of innovation and care within a chimp congress but members can be easily distracted by interpersonal issues. Disputes, resource allocation, and other rewards eventually regulated and refereed by senior members when they begin to tire of the shenanigans!

Wolf Packs – as you can imagine, this is a group made up of predators! Just imagine a rabid group of sales professionals! Pack members have learned the value of cooperation and will skillfully orchestrate their movements and processes to pursue their prey. The problem becomes, however, is that when resources become scarce or they become bored, they will turn on each other to weed out the weak!

Horse Herd – like many herd animals, they consider themselves to be prey. This produces a flee or fight mentality with the “flee” or conflict avoidance usually the standard operating procedure! A herd of horses are led by a dominant leader with little thought as to what they are doing or where they are headed. The reliance on the leader is absolute and independent action is discouraged. The herd will protect weaker members often at the expense of themselves or their efforts. Leadership transition is competitive but open only to internal members.

Meerkat Colony – meerkat colonies are extremely tight knit where compliance and conformity is valued. This creates a social structure where everyone cares for everyone else but the goal is just survival. Subsequently, the colony plays “not to lose” and keeps a low profile in a very competitive environment filled with competing meerkat colonies and predators.

Dolphin Pod – a group or “pod” of dolphins is comprised of complex and fluid social structures. Much like a tech start up, membership in the pod is dynamic with members coming and going as they seem fit or see an advantage. The pod will often “self-regulate” punishing or rewarding members as the pod decides. Leadership is less pronounced and is distributed due to the transient nature of members and tasks. Like members of a start-up, dolphins are highly intelligent and communicate in a highly efficient manner; thus, can innovate quickly.

Much like animal groups, human organizations are a product of their surrounding environments and personal characteristics. They form and operate based upon their function in the kingdom of the marketplace! Unlike our animal friends, however, human organizations are not doomed to their fixed, Darwinian style of evolution. Human organizations can change and adapt to BOTH look after the welfare of their members AND compete effectively in their respective arenas.

So, what type of organization does your enterprise resemble? Back to Dr. Cloud’s assertion that cultures are created by what the leadership ALLOWS or CREATES. So as a leader, if you do not like what you see or hear when you take a good, honest look at your organization, that is a you and you deal!

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 to add value to your organization!

Yours in Leadership (and still walking both roads!),

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, free us from the tyranny of AVERAGE!

It is my belief that the worst thing that can happen to an individual, organization, or even a society is the average becomes acceptable, or, worse yet, a goal! The other night while sitting in a restaurant, I was so overcome by the insidious nature of average that it prompted me to post my feelings about it on my personal Facebook page! My friends were probably scratching their heads wondering what has got into Bill this evening!! Luckily my meal was not average but what got me thinking out loud about this topic to the point I let it interrupt a perfectly nice evening?

What got me on this tear was reading an article by Robert McLemee writing for Inside Higher Ed.com. He was profiling a documentary on Netflix that highlighted the life and times of self-help guru James Arthur Ray who became infamous after clients tragically lost their lives in a sweat-lodge experience. McLemee later went on to point out the hazards of self-improvement quoting psychologist Sven Brinkman who teaches at the University of Aalborg in Denmark. Brinkman in his book, Stand Firm, proposes such self-help and improvement efforts are pointless and that we should “rejoice in our limitations” and that there is dignity in “acknowledging our limits”. Obviously, this was percolating in me for almost a week until I could no longer keep it in!

Now I love my higher education colleagues, but sometimes they we can be a cynical lot (much like hipsters but without the skinny jeans!). The professorate, often driven by data, has an overwhelming “prove it to me” mentality and thus, often dismiss the notion that the self-improvement movement and positive psychology has done a lot of good for a lot of people. To be fair, those of us in the industry can be a little “pie in the sky” ourselves. The whole “if you dream it, you can achieve it” phrase needs to include the second half of the sentence, “but whereas dreams can come true, they don’t come free!!”. We often forget to let our clients and audiences know they are going to have to earn the life they want!

So where am I going with all of this? Essentially, I am saying that if we begin to accept AVERAGE as the norm and LIMITATIONS as fact, then we are doomed as organizations, business, and societies. Sadly, though, I believe there are many out there that desire such a state. A state where merit and achievement is minimized so as to not make people uncomfortable. Where either everyone gets a prize or no one does! Such a mentality of mediocrity, however, becomes a prison of the spirit.

As humans, we are meant to strive, to achieve, to reach beyond ourselves. How else will we better ourselves and those that we lead? Simply put, the culture of average limits potential. I think about the U.S. space program as a prime example. What was once an incredible incubator of new technologies, materials, methods, and science not to mention a source of courageous role models for our nation’s youth has now been reduced to our own astronauts having to hitch rides to the International Space Station on Russian vehicles. The future and it promises of a better world will NOT be built on average!

So how do we guard against this culture of average. One thought is to be constantly asking yourselves and your colleagues some challenging questions like:

• Is our work currently EXCEPTIONAL or just ACCEPTABLE?
• Are we constantly putting forth our BEST EFFORTS or just relying on MINIMAL PERFORMANCE?
• Are we operating as who and what we are NOW as opposed to where we WANT TO BE?

To wrap this up, I would ask you to look at this week’s blog title. Grammatically, I am making both a statement but also a REQUEST. Leaders (and you know who you are!), we need you to save us all from average! As author and speaker Chris Baez-Brown shares, “autopilot may be efficient, but it is no place to lead from!”

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 to add value to your organization!

Yours in Leadership (and still walking both roads!),

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

Where are YOU in the CYCLE of Leadership Growth?

How people develop and grow is an incredibly complex process that encapsulates their family history, personality, culture, life experiences, and many more factors all weaving their way throughout the flow of their life. Currently I am teaching a master’s level class on human development and it has got me thinking out loud how such processes can inform how we grow and progress (hopefully!) as leaders.

Essentially, much like how we develop our own unique identities, how we continue to grow and evolve as leaders follows a similar cycle. I use the term “cycle” since it infers that the process can repeat itself several times throughout our leadership life span.

Naive

Just like as children, we are initially unaware of our own complexity. As we begin our leadership journey, we usually do not think about it very much. We get placed or volunteer for a leadership role and proceed based upon our best ideas and efforts. At this point in the cycle, ignorance is bliss and either we do great or we struggle. I know I have made many leadership mistakes not because I wanted to, but because I did not know any better!

Crises or Awakening

At some point in our leadership journey, we either hit a wall or become inspired to do even better! If you are like me, it usually went the “hit the wall” direction! I realized that the leadership style, approaches, behaviors, were not sufficient in leading myself and others where we needed to go which created a crisis in my leadership that often had a negative impact on those I was attempting to lead.

On the other hand, some people experience early success in their leadership efforts. This can be a powerful motivating factor that encourages the leader to increase their knowledge, skills, etc. in how they can be even more effective as a leader. They become “awakened” to their leadership potential and want to get even better.

Response

Based upon the earlier experiences of either Crises or Awakening, we then have some sort of response. Such responses can range from:

• Denial – we feel any leadership failure as not that bad or not our fault thus we continue with our ineffective leadership practice
• Confusion – we realize something’s not right but are unsure as to how to fix it.
• Development – we make an INTENTIONAL effort to correct our earlier and/or ineffective leadership practice OR become motivated to do even better in our leadership. Either way, we begin to develop by design by building our leadership capacities through reading books, observing effective leaders, attending seminars, asking for feedback, reflecting on leadership interactions, etc.

Synthesis

The next phase of the leadership cycle is Syntheses. This is the phase where we take what we have learned and experienced to a certain point in our leadership life and combine all of this into a coherent and stable leadership practice. At this point we have a clear philosophy of leadership and know what we value. We also begin to share what we have learned in the hope of replicating new leaders.

As I mentioned earlier, this is a CYCLICAL process. As we change roles or take on new and expanded responsibilities, it requires us to repeat the CYCLE of Leadership Growth. Hopefully as we gain experience and mature as a leader, we quickly know what we don’t know and make the needed course corrections. The trick is to regularly ask yourself:

• Where am I in the CYCLE?
• What do I need to do next?

This will take courage, though. Leaders often like to act more than reflect! But keep in mind this is part of the necessary hard work of growing and flourishing as a leader!

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 to add value to your organization!

Yours in Leadership (and still walking both roads!),

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