Seriously, just lead from where you are!

In my work I hear all the excuses for not leading with incredible intention. I am not old enough. I am not skilled enough. I do not hold a big title. My response, when it comes to making an impact, is that none of that matters!

Obviously, I love working with all kinds of leaders at various stages in their careers. But I do have a special affinity for younger leaders or what I call Emerging Influencers!  This certainly includes Millennials, but we are now starting to see GNext appear. The problem, however, is that younger leaders believe that due to youth, inexperience, or being from a historically underrepresented segment that they believe they are not yet an influential leader. This got me thinking out loud that A) my experience has proven time and again that is not true and B) that it is incredibly important that ALL of us need to lead from where we ARE!

Everyday we read or see stories about influencers that hold no or little authority take the social/media world by storm. They capture our hearts and attention due to their bravery and passion. Malala Yousafzai is the young Pakistani girl who was shot by the Taliban (that was closing schools for girls in that region) for publicly advocating for the right of girls to receive an education. Now she speaks all over the world at the highest levels of influence to advocate for her cause. You can read her story in the international best seller, I Am Malala. Jess Ekstrom created the Headbands for Hope brand that now raises hundreds of thousands of dollars for juvenile cancer research. When she started, she had no corporate backing, just friends helping her make attractive headbands from out of her home to provide to young girls who lost their hair due to the effects of treatments. Here near where I live in Florida, a young man named Denis Estimon who immigrated from Haiti as a young child started an organic movement called We Dine Together that makes sure no child sits alone at lunch in the often too harsh social realities young people experience at school.

Again, none of these Emerging Influencers held a corporate title or were some Reality TV darling (they probably couldn’t even vote when they started!). What they did have, however, is influence but not in the way we normally think about it. Those who research such things, understand that there are several different kinds of influence but I highlight three types below:

Positional Influence – this is simply influence we gather because of what a role we occupy. Holding a title in an organization in no way guarantees leadership effectiveness or influence but it does allow us to shape our environment because we have been given the authority to do so.

Technical Influence – is based upon what we can do. This is influence we gain due to the simple fact that we have learned to do something especially well. For example, being an excellent software coder or program project manager affords us a certain degree of influence or notoriety because others seek our expertise and defer to our judgement.

Referent Influence – is based upon who we ARE! As in the examples above, these Servant Leaders have influence due to the quality of their character and the pureness of their motives. This is where you can ALWAYS lead! This is why people that on the surface appear to have no formal authority in reality influence hundreds inside an organization or even thousands more outside of one!

So, no more excuses. Lead where you are to everyone around you. This is called 360⁰ Servant Leadership and it . . . is . . . mighty! As a 360⁰ Servant Leader you lead “up” by meeting the needs of those in authority above you such as a boss or their boss. You lead “across” by being a resource and encourager to colleagues and co-workers. You also lead “down” to clients, students, patients, and anyone else in your charge by offering the best service, expertise, and/or care that you can. 

The 10 Day Challenge –

I would like you to do something for me. In the next ten work days (see, I am even giving you the weekend off!), I want to you to do something outside of the job or role description that will intentionally ADD VALUE to those in your 360⁰ orbit. Write a note or make a notation in your phone where you:

List the NAME of the person you are going to add extra value to.

Summarize what you are going to do.

Give yourself a date for completion.

Is this an incredibly cheesy challenge? Yes, yes it is! But just may be one of most powerful things you do. I would love you to email me at the address below and let me know how this went for you! If I was Oprah, I would give you a Porsche for doing so but since I am not I will highlight your story in a future blog if you would like.

If you follow my blog, you know that I believe everyone should have a Leadership Platform. That one thing that you lead on, lead for, or lead toward. You do not have to have it all figured out, just lead from where you are. I promise you, it will be more than good enough!

As always if I can help you and the people you associate with Get Better, Be Ready and LEAD OUT LOUD, I invite you to visit my website below and see if any of the training or coaching experiences I offer can provide an impact.

If you want to know more about finding your leadership platform, I would direct you to Leading Out Loud: Strategies for Raising Your Leadership Voice! available on Amazon.com. Also, I a happy to announce that I am now offering a two-part Servant Leadership Training. The first part is a fun and interactive introduction into what Servant Leadership is and the impact it can have and the second part provides an Action Plan to create and activate a Servant Leadership culture curriculum within your organization. Please feel free to contact me for a no obligation inquiry.

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 Leaders there are many burdens you should not carry except for one!

An ambitious young lady once asked a lonely elder, "What is life's heaviest burden?" The elder responded by saying, "To have nothing to carry."  This haunting quote by author Rick McDaniel got me thinking out loud that as leaders we carry more baggage than we probably should in bearing the burdens of others. The problem is that when we do so we may neglect carrying the ONE burden that we should ALWAYS carry.

Now if you have been reading my past 5 or so blogs, you may be thinking that “isn’t carrying the weight for others a hallmark of a selfless Servant Leader?” Let me respond by sharing the answer to that is a definite . . . maybe!

You see I believe there are many unhealthy burdens that we keep carrying around. Burdens of regret over lost opportunities, missed relationships, and poor actions or mistakes on our part that will weigh us down if we keep carrying them. We also weigh ourselves down by holding onto grudges, unfair treatment, toxic people and situations, as well as envy of the success of others. Such burdens may have served you then, but they do not now. Best to just let them go because I promise you those people, situations, and things let you go a long time ago.  

The one burden that I believe that leaders should carry, however, is that one great work that you are needed to do because no one else but you can do it! Now I don’t expect anyone to carry the burdens of the world on their shoulders alone. All the injustice, discrimination, and corruption around us will not be rectified by one person, but it will be by one person at a time! That’s the point I am trying to make here. You and I cannot change everything, but we can impact something. And that is the ONE burden you should always carry!

Now I know in this day and age of celebrity supported hash-tag and wristband movements, it seems that anything we normal people could do would not make much of a difference. Granted, such big movements start important national conversations but don’t ever think doing one great work is only limited to those “go big or go home” campaigns. What I am encouraging you to do is to go big at home!

I hope at this point you are saying to yourself, “OK, that does not seem too unreasonable, but I am not sure what that ONE great work is.” I would respond by sharing three questions that leadership expert and author John Maxwell often teaches around this topic of becoming leaders of significance. In fact, I encourage you to write down some answers to the following questions and see if a pattern emerges.

What do you cry about? Of all the things that trouble you in your life, work, or community, what impacts you the most?

What do you sing about? What brings you joy and happiness in terms of when good things happen to others?

What do you dream about? If you could have your part of the world the way you wanted it, what would it look like, sound like, or feel like?

How did that go? I bet something started to take shape in your heart and mind. To help you refine your one great work, I want to share an abbreviated process on finding your leadership platform from my book, Leading Out Loud.

VISUALIZE –This is the first step in raising your leadership voice. Effective leadership begins with “what ifs” as opposed to just “what is”. Think about the following:

• What would the impact of your efforts be like?
• What difference will it make in the life of others?

CRYSTALIZE – How can you communicate your leadership platform more clearly?

• What IS the MAIN idea?
• Why is it important or matter?

STRATEGIZE – Now that you have a firm vision for what you want to do, think strategically about how you want to go about sharing and doing it.

• Who can help you?
• What resources do you have now and what will you need?

VOCALIZE – Once your efforts start to gain traction it is critical to capitalize on that momentum.

• What system or process can help you keep your leadership platform front and center with those that can help or impact?

REALIZE – The next stage of the process is to realize your progress. Again, do not waste your energy and effort on people who are not supportive. Think of ways to create “buy-in” from important stakeholders.

• List three important individuals or groups that you can enroll to help you.
• List two specific ideas that you can provide them to help cascade your message or cause.
• Commit to one way you will sustain the momentum of your leadership platform.

I hope the above was both helpful and encouraging. I am not asking you to change the world, just challenging you to impact your part of it! The most impactful Servant Leaders I know are ones that concentrate their efforts on what they can influence. Their home, their business, their part of the organization, and/or their local community. If you are burdened to go bigger, then good for you but it all starts at home. 

The only thing I insist upon is if you lead, that you lead ON, FOR, or TOWARD something, therefore your one great burden may be:

• To raise great kids.
• Teach valuable lessons.
• Run a business that adds value to others.
• Restore a patient back to their family.
• Help others in need.
• Give young people valid reasons to feel good about themselves.

The list is endless, but you only have to pick ONE!

The world may never know your name, but it will experience your positive impact! I believe we were designed to do one great thing in fair trade for the air we breath and the happiness we get to experience. It’s a small burden to carry for the privilege of leading others.

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. If you want to know more about finding your leadership platform, I would direct you to Leading Out Loud: Strategies for Raising Your Leadership Voice! available on Amazon.com. 

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

Trust me, Millennials will not put up with horrible boss shenanigans!

The Millennial cohort (those born after 1985) makes up around 40% of the American workforce. That puts them in the majority compared to Gen X and the Boomers. Whereas each generation has their unique characteristics, I believe one that is unique to Millennials is that they have no patience or tolerance with poor leadership. This got me thinking out loud that I might want to warn the multi-generational workplace of that fact!

I have been fortunate enough to have spent my entire career working with, mentoring, teaching, and leading Millennials so I am not one of those haters who believe this is an entitled generation with no motivation or work ethic but there is some work to do. According to Gallup, 55% of Millennials are not engaged in their work (about 10% less than the national average when accounting for all generations in the workplace) yet 60% are currently open to new opportunities which is well above combined cohort average. Now you may think, “So what?” The “what” is that such job-hoping costs the U.S. economy hundreds of millions of dollars each year. Not convinced? Just consider the fact that it costs on average $10,000 to on-board a grocery store clerk. If you have never done so, you may want to ask your HR department how much it costs your organization to advertise for, interview, on-board, and train a new team member.

There is one primary thing we can do, however, to reverse and improve such trends. You guessed it, be a better leader. Better yet, be an incredible Servant Leader! A few years ago, I had the pleasure to attend a symposium on Millennials in the Workplace at the Gallup corporate campus in Omaha, Nebraska. The research and content presented was the result of a massive workplace cohort study the Gallup researchers had completed on patterns, preferences, attitudes, etc. and was incredibly thorough. According to the massive study, the results demonstrated that the primary factor that explained most of the variance related to workplace engagement was the quality of leadership received. Further, the study identified 6 Leadership Behaviors preferred by Millennials which included:

• Providing Purpose in terms of both the business and social value of the enterprise
• Professional Development opportunities to grow and improve skill sets
• Providing a Coaching style of supervision where leaders demonstrate a clear personal and professional interest in their team members
• Provide On-Going Feedback as to their progress and areas for development versus just the normal annual performance evaluation ambush
• Focus on Strengths were team members are allowed to do what they do best
• Encourage Work/Life Integration where social and service opportunities are part of the employment experience

Look at the list again and see if anything is familiar in terms of my last few blogs. These behaviors are what intentional Servant Leaders do. Such leaders are still directing efforts in a very intentional, results driven manner but they are also developing their teams in very deliberate and fulfilling was as well!

Now you certainly don’t have to take my word for it. You can just keep supervising others in the traditional top-down, heavy handed, horrible boss shenanigans way but it will be to your undoing. You see, unlike past generations that just put up with such toxic leadership because we thought we had to, I can promise you Millennials will not. They will challenge you, they will leave you, and they will destroy on social media if you really tick them off! Just read some of the more interesting reviews on Glassdoor.com.

To this I say, good for them. Now I am not advocating chaos in the workplace, but the simple fact is that Millennials are much more aware of workplace legislation that protects employees from such abuses and they have no qualms about accessing such support. Even at a more fundamental level, Millennials know there is a better way of leading; they simply just want to be lead in that way. I recently had the opportunity to attend a training sponsored by the Ken Blanchard Company where they shared some data from one of their workplace studies. The study revealed that when given the choice, 65% of the respondents would prefer a better boss to a significant raise. Now if that does not tell us something about the need to change how we are leading others I do not know what will.

Here is the good news. It is my belief that when you do make a sincere effort to be that Servant Leader we all wish we had, not only will Millennial team members stay with you, they will want to spend time with you, learn from you, and exceed your performance expectations. In my humble experience, Millennials do not provide their loyalty easily but when they do, it is incredibly rewarding because you know you will never fully deserve it.

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. Please do not hesitate to contact me if I can be of service to you!

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

8 Questions You Do Not Want to Ask About Your Leadership (but probably should anyway!)

The quality of answers we get in life depends on the quality of questions we ask! If you have been following my blogs these last few weeks (http://outloudinc.blogspot.com/), you know I have been proposing that the only way we are going to turn around toxic and unsafe workplaces, hospitals, schools, non-profits, etc. is if we ALL adopt a Servant Leadership lifestyle. When we do so, we will drastically reduce the negatives such as bullying, harassment, and discrimination and increase the positives such as motivation, quality, and innovation.

So how do you know if you are really a powerful Servant Leader? That got me thinking out loud that I should provide some key questions that we (and especially me!) should continually ask ourselves and others about our leadership. We probably do not want to do this because we may not like the answers we receive but for the benefit of others and our own improvement, we probably should anyway!

Adopted from John Maxwell’s newly released book, Developing the Leader Within 2.0, which I will highlight further, he proposes 8 powerful questions in the chapter The Heart of Leadership: Serving People. For the purpose of this blog I have amended somewhat and divided them into two categories: 1. Questions we should ask ourselves and 2. questions we should ask others.

4 Questions to ask YOURSELF

RESULTS = What can I do to ADD VALUE to Others that will help us obtain the RESULTS desired?

(As I have written about previously, Servant Leadership is focused on results but ones that are mutually agreed upon and stated clearly and continuously. Leaders that add value to others do with great intention. When is the last time you sat down and thought about what opportunity, gesture, praise, etc. you could provide to a member of your team or a co-worker?)

STRENGTHS = What do I do BEST that Allows me to SERVE Best?

(Trust me, I know you do a lot of things well but what are your strengths that really makes an impact in the life of others? Think about what you do best that gives you outstanding results in terms of leading and serving others. Everyone one of us has gifts and talents but they are of no use until they are given away.)

EXAMPLE = Does my Service to Others INSPIRE them to Serve Others?

(One of the best ways to know if you are effectively modeling Servant Leadership is to look around and see if others are copying your example. Look around this week, what do you see? The greatest gift you can give someone is living example of what it means to be of value to someone.)

EVALUATION = How do I KNOW I am Serving Others EFFECTIVELY?

(As Robert Greenleaf would often share, one of the best metrics to determine if you are serving others effectively is to determine if their lives are better, more fulfilled, more successful, etc. as a direct result of their interactions with you! Again, take a look around. Are the people around better, wiser, or happier with you in their life?)

4 Questions to ask OTHERS

ADDING VALUE = What can I do to help you SUCCEED?

(You may have some very good ideas about this, but people define success differently which is why you should be asking this and all these questions to not just those that work for you but to colleagues, supervisors, and other stakeholders. What do they need from you that will make their lives better, easier, or less stressful?)

EVERYDAY = What do You Need from me DAILY?

(As much as anything, leaders need to be consistent in their habits, attitudes, values, and expectations. There is nothing worse than having the type supervisor where you never know who you are going to get that day! I am sure my own team members would wonder if they are getting Crazy Bill or Even Crazier Bill each day! Seriously, Servant Leadership is not a “one-off”. Everyday, we need to affirm to others that our desire as leaders is to help them succeed.)

IMPROVEMENT = What can I WORK ON that will Help Me Serve You Better?

(Even the best Servant Leaders can improve. In that the hallmark of effective Servant Leaders is that they work to expand their capacities so that they can lead, work, and serve to their highest potential! Leadership is not a one-size fits all proposition. The people you work for, with, or work for you deserve your best so work to be your best!)

BLIND SPOTS = What is it LIKE to Work with Me?

(Wow, what a great question John Maxwell proposes. I “double dog” dare you to ask the 360⁰ circle of influence around you this question. In fact, I would love it if you would email me the date, context, and reactions your get when you ask folks around you this question. This will take a lot of moral courage but the results you obtain will be worth it. In fact, I will bet that even asking others this question will propel your leadership to a whole new level in their eyes!)

Without a doubt, these are some tough questions. But in the asking and listening to the answers, you can change the trajectory of your life and leadership. Ann McGee Cooper and Duane Tramwell in their article, From Hero as Leader to Servant as Leader, share that the heroes of the new millennia will be servant leaders, quietly working out of the spotlight to transform the world. The world is desperate for heroes and role models. I encourage you to ask these tough but revealing questions and use the answers to be the leader we all wish we had!

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 an independent coach, speaker, and trainer for the John Maxwell Team, I am authorized to provide training and/or a 6-week virtual mastermind study of Developing the Leader Within You 2.0. This new work from John is a significantly updated version of the first title and one that I assert is probably the best general purpose Leadership Handbook currently available. Please do not hesitate to contact me if I can be of service to you!

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

The 8 Qualities of Powerful Servant Leaders that You ALREADY Have!

Recently, I have been on my soapbox about the disease of toxic leadership that has become epidemic in our businesses, agencies, and organizations but that the cure was a pivot to a revolutionary style of leading others called Servant Leadership. This got me thinking out loud that perhaps if I described what the qualities of a Servant Leader were, then you may be more inclined to embrace Servant Leadership since chances are you already are one! Or, that you can be if you are strong enough.

Based upon Robert Greenleaf’s ground-breaking 1977 book, Servant Leadership: A Journey into the Nature of Legitimate Power and Greatness, I believe there are eight essential qualities that differentiate a Servant Leader from a traditional, top-down or transactional leader. Further I believe the YOU have them inside of you, but you have to release and further develop them. I have modernized (or Billified!) some of the terms, however, based upon Greenleaf’s work and some of my observations, the eight qualities include:

Self-Awareness – Servant Leaders have keen insights as to how they are feeling and responding at any given time. They are very aware about their areas of strength and talent as well as those that need to be developed. This allows you to everyday implement, what leadership expert and professor Ken Blanchard labels, a recalibration of both your motives and actions toward the advantage of those you lead. Leaders who lack such self-awareness are prone to be self-obsessed and self-deluded.  

Listening (Present) – Greenleaf states that great leaders listen to others. I call it being present with them which goes beyond simply listening but really understanding the person or people you are leading. Such understanding could include their hopes, concerns, motivations, eventual life and career goals, etc.

Growing Others (Equipping) – I believe that one of the most important jobs of a leader is to equip others to do and be their best. In fact, Greenleaf stated for any organization to function at its maximum, it must develop its members and then release them to do important work. Equipping can cover many things but must include the attitudes, knowledge, and skill sets team members need in order to be successful in your specific organization.

Empathy (Proximate) – Servant leaders lead with a great deal of empathy which I define as understanding with action. Servant Leaders get proximate to their stakeholders so that they can not only understand their hopes, fears, and aspirations but then also actively act upon that understanding to make people and situations better. In order to do so, Servant Leaders know they cannot lead from behind a desk. They know they must talk face to face with those that they lead in their natural habitat, not some nice quiet office.  

Stewardship (Resource Management) – Servant Leaders are great stewards of the resources they have available to them. This certainly includes the human wealth in their organizations but also the facilities, equipment, reputation, and other assets. Servant Leaders value all of them and “spend” them strategically in the service of others.

Conceptualization (Defining the Reality) – leadership expert John Maxwell often shares that the primary job of a leader is to define reality. This essentially means that leaders very clearly articulate the vision, mission, purpose, and values of the enterprise and understand they can delegate many things but not those. Further, Servant Leaders do not hold back in sharing the good, bad, and ugly of the current status of an organization even if it may be costly to do so in terms of reputation, market share, and morale. Servant Leaders understand you cannot be anything you are not, but you can always be more than you are!

Foresight (Vision) – Servant Leaders are visionary leaders but I that is why many people believe they cannot be an empowering leader because they lack some grandiose vision for their organization or their part of it. The simple truth is that having a compelling vision does not have to be some earth shattering epiphany. In fact, a compelling vision can be as simple as making sure one classroom has all the supplies it needs for a year. One community has safe drinking water. One child is saved from human traffickers. One business is big enough to give someone else a job. All is takes is for you to develop the habit of seeing “more and before” others do according to author, John Maxwell. That “more and before” often takes the form of what you believe to be the preferred future state for your organization and those that it serves.

Persuasion (Influence) – it is my firm belief that if you start to master the above qualities, you cannot help but be persuasive and incredibly influential. I know that that the term “persuasive” carries the baggage of really meaning “manipulative” but Greenleaf did not see it that way. He shared that effective leaders use their persuasion to convince rather than coerce. Such a style of leadership is what researcher and author Jim Collins refers to as a Level 5 Leader. A leader that is both incredibly humble and incredibly competent because they are so tuned into their people and their talents that she leverages those for the success of the organization or enterprise. People do not have to follow Level 5 Servant Leaders, they want to!

Now I know that all of the above is much easier described than done. Trust me, there is nothing easy about being a Servant Leader. It takes incredible focus and intention to be one. You see it’s easy to bully but it’s harder to serve. It’s easy to push others down than to lift them up. It’s easy to lead in the old way because it takes significant moral courage to lead in a more empowering way.

Here’s the thing. I KNOW you have these qualities with you! You can master all of this. You just have to make the decision to develop them. Leadership has been described in many ways, but I have often heard it said that leadership is a choice. You and you alone can determine the type of leader you will be. So what’s it going to be? Are you going to embrace the qualities described above or are you going to lead using old and outdated methods and attitudes? That choice will not only define your leadership, it will define your entire life! As pastor and speaker Andy Stanley shares, if your leadership is all about you, it will last just long enough to be someone’s bad example. On the other hand, if your leadership is all about others, its positive effects will last long after you are gone!

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. 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

What you think you know about Servant Leadership is probably wrong, and that presents a problem.

In my last blog, I highlighted Simon Sinek’s work on how toxic and negative workplaces are taking a significant emotional and physical toll on employees all over the world. The solution I stated, was a new and better kind of leadership. That kind of leadership is Servant Leadership. The idea of Servant Leadership has been around in one form or another for millennia but its lack of adoption has me thinking out loud about why so few leaders, managers, CEOs, owners, and supervisors are willing to adopt this incredibly powerful and empowering approach. The reason, I believe, is that too many people do not know what Servant Leadership really is and that ignorance perpetuates unhealthy leadership and organizational cultures.

Originated in the 1970s by corporate icon and later college professor, Robert Greenleaf, Servant Leadership is still today, a radical but desperately needed alternative to traditional top-down leadership methods. I will take us on a deeper dive into Servant Leadership in later blogs but essentially Servant Leadership flips the traditional organizational pyramid from where the leader has historically been on top with managers, staff members, then clients/customers on the bottom to where the leader is on the bottom elevating team members and the eventual end-user to paramount importance. Sounds pretty good, huh? The problem is that when most people think about Servant Leadership, they have the wrong idea about what it really means and is intended to do. Below I have outlined some of myths of Servant Leadership and the reality this life-changing leadership paradigm presents us all.

Myth #1 – Servant Leadership Means Subservience – even according to Robert Greenleaf himself, this is NOT the case. Servant Leaders still have to lead in powerful and decisive ways, the difference is they lead by putting the needs of others before their own. I think leadership guru John Maxwell says it best when often shares that high performing leaders do not think less of themselves, they just think of themselves less!

Myth #2 – Servant Leadership Lacks Expectations and Results - Sinek describes in the 

culture of the United States Marine corps where the most junior enlisted eat first at meals and the most senior, general officers eat last. These high-ranking officers still lead and expect results at incredibly high levels, they just know that in order to complete their mission the team members in their charge must be taken care of first, even if that means they must go hungry, lose sleep, etc. in order for that to happen.

Myth #3 – Servant Leadership is an Abdication of Responsibility – nothing can be further from the truth. In fact, Greenleaf stated that one of the most telling metric of whether or not someone is a powerful Servant Leader is if the team members in their care are better, wiser, happier, and better equipped to use their talents and skills to their maximum ability. In addition, one of the most important roles of a Servant Leader is to cast a powerful and compelling vision for a better future. That kind of leadership takes an incredible amount of ownership and responsibility. Simply put, Servant Leaders know they are responsible for the people and situations they lead, NOT the other way around.

Myth #4 – Servant Leadership is Differential to the Group – Servant Leaders intentionally discover and know the strengths and abilities of those they lead and put them in roles where their talents can be leveraged to meet or exceed the vision for their enterprise. I cannot tell you how many horror stories I have heard in my practice and networking conversations about horrible bosses who guard their positions tightly and intentionally limit the potential contributions of their team members so that they will not be eclipsed. Servant Leaders on the other hand, are incredibly mature and emotionally secure individuals. They recognize the skills of their teams and set them loose! This is not easy to do in current organizational climates but those that are fearless enough to lead in such innovative ways experience tangible and hard-dollar results such as increased productivity, lower staff turnover, increased client/customer satisfaction, and greater market share. Servant Leaders do not differ to the group, they empower the group!

Myth #5 – Servant Leadership is Morally Relative – once you start to read Robert Greenleaf’s book, Servant Leadership: A Journey into the Nature of Legitimate Power and Greatness, you quickly learn that this approach to leadership requires certain moral imperatives. Servant Leaders carry the values of the organization and make sure they are embedded in EVERYTHING it does. Again, this requires Servant Leaders to exhibit moral courage as much as competence, business acumen, risk taking, etc.  Servant Leaders must be willing to hold themselves accountable along with everyone else associated with the enterprise whether it be a business, hospital, school, college, non-profit, or government agency.

Here’s the thing. Except in some of the most disturbed and insecure individuals, most managers and leaders do not consciously decide that he or she will be a bad boss that day. Trust me, there have been a number of times in my career where I exhibited selfish leadership and it was not until after some intentional soul searching and reflection that I discovered how poor it was. I did not intend to be a bad manager, it was just they way I thought one did things or what the culture of the organization demanded.

But here’s the other thing, just like the mantra of my company, we can and have to Get Better and Be Ready! Once I finally gained insight into my negative leadership behaviors, I make the personal investments and changes necessary to get better and do a better job next time. This required me to take a good hard look at my leadership and decide I wanted to be ready to lead better regardless of the prevailing culture of the organization. This does not mean I get it right all the time, it just means I know there is a better way of doing things and treating those in my care and that I constantly work to improve as a Servant Leader.

As I mentioned, we will talk more about Servant Leadership in next few blogs but when we avoid adopting the powerful approach of Servant Leadership because we lack a clear understanding of what it is and is not, that presents a problem. It causes a problem in our relationship with bosses, colleagues, and our own teams. It causes a problem in obtaining the results we are after because we are too busy cleaning up after our mistakes. It causes a problem for those we lead because they have to bear the burden of poor leadership. This eventually leads to the entire enterprise being hampered because we are so busy dealing with internally issues that we are not focusing on growing our enterprise. This is what Stephen M. Covey calls the “Trust Tax” on our efforts in that when leadership is ineffective, it creates additional costs to our organizations in terms of staff turnover, low employee engagement, etc.

The bottom line is this. Servant Leadership is not for the faint of heart. It requires a whole new level of emotional, physical, spiritual, and cognitive energy that we have never had to expend before. Are the results worth it? Yes, they are. Who does not want a more energized workforce or better served customers, patients, citizens, and students? Who does not want to part of an organization that is truly of value and that it is valued by everyone attached to it? I hope you will follow along with me for the next few weeks where I will share more about Servant Leadership and how some of the best leadership thinkers and doers are getting incredible results.

As always if I can help you and the people you associate with Get Better, Be Ready and LEAD OUT LOUD, I would invite you to email me or to visit my website below and see if any of the training or coaching experiences I offer can provide an impact. 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

Better Leadership Through Chemistry!

The human body is wonderous in its creation. In fact, according to leadership researcher and author (not to mention YouTube sensation!), Simon Sinek, leadership is not only a social phenomenon, it is a biological one as well. He goes on to identify the body chemistry that has direct impacts on how we lead and function in organizations. This has me thinking out loud about how we as leaders not only have an emotional impact on those we lead, but a physical one as well.

In his book, Leaders Eat Last, Sinek describes the 5 key substances the body produces in response to various situations. The personal effectiveness chemicals are endorphins, which provides us the ability to work hard and persist, and dopamine, which allows us to set goals and incentivizes accomplishment due to how it makes us feel. The group effectiveness chemicals are serotonin that provides a sense of well-being when we please others and oxytocin which helps us experience love and affection for those we work and live with.

Whereas all the above is great, the positive effects can be negated by the release of cortisol. Cortisol is released when we experience a threat or fear. It provides us with that boost of adrenaline that powers our “fight or flight” response. The problem is that cortisol is not designed to stay in our system due to the stresses it causes on the body and its eventual health.

So, what does all this have to do with leadership? Essentially this all has to do with SAFETY or what Simon Sinek calls the Circle of Safety! Leadership guru John Maxwell shares that the first job of a leader is to define reality. I agree but I believe the second job of leadership is to help the people you lead feel safe. Safe from harassment and bullying. Safe from prejudice and intolerance of different cultures, races, genders, and beliefs. Safe from unreasonable and humiliating job demands. Safe from unhealthy competition and toxicity in the workplace. Safe from feeling jobs will be lost over inconsistent and arbitrary criteria.

You see, when those negative conditions are present, we are constantly in a state of fear and anxiety that triggers a continual drip of cortisol that hampers the release of the positive chemicals and compromises our immune system. So, for you toxic leaders that think its funny to degrade a co-worker for your own advancement or pit team members against each other under the mistaken impression that such a strategy will get bigger and faster “results”, you are literally slowly harming others. When leaders and managers allow or create a toxic environment they unleash emotional and physical consequences that impact the health and emotional well-being of others.

Now I am sure most of us understand the ethical and legal reasons why we should have safe workplaces, but I bet few of us have ever considered the physical reasons of why that is such a good idea! I know I did not. But I certainly know now that as leaders it is our job to create a Circle of Safety where the only threats we experience in our organizations are external and definitely not internal. In light of that new understanding here are some suggestions to ensure the more beneficial body chemistry is flowing in the workplace or your organization.

Provide Safety – as I said, this is job two of a leader. As leaders, we need to make sure the environment is not only physically safe, but mentally and emotionally as well. This is accomplished by stating clear and mutually agreed upon expectations in terms of job performance, interpersonal interactions, positive recognitions, investment in team member success, etc. along with clearly stating what negative behaviors are not acceptable and will not be tolerated in the organization.

Provide Connections – as much as we love to promote our own unique identities, biologists tell us that we are still at our core a tribal species. The cooperative practices that have allowed us to survive in our early hunter/gatherer groups are still hard-wired into us. People have an innate need to be around others. As a leader, make sure to provide social time among your teams. This is so important that Gallup in their Q12 assessment has found that having a close friend at work is a primary indicator of a positive and engaged work place. Even if you have part of your workforce telecommuting, make sure they are getting face-to-face time and not just SKYPE time!

Provide Support – there have been a variety of studies that show that emotional support and connections have a more powerful impact on employee retention than money alone. If your people mess up in a non-malicious fashion, help them work through it. As Campbell Soup CEO Douglass Conant shares, when errors occur, he is tough on the issue but soft on the people! When team members know that they can fail sometimes without harsh censure, they will be free of the fear of trying something new or innovative.

Provide Reasons – nothing unites a group of people more than accomplishing something hard. Something, as Simon Sinek describes, that “outsized” their resources and assumed capabilities. Nothing gets the right chemicals flowing than when a leader tells their teams over and over again how their individual contributions make a difference in the life of an organization and, more importantly, in the lives of others.

To make sure all the above is present, it requires a different kind of leadership that I will be discussing in future posts. A type and style of leadership that I believe is not well understood but has the potential to transform the very fabric of families, schools, businesses, and communities.

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. 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. It may just help you get the right juices flowing! 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