Empowerment is an “If, Then” Proposition.

Like any good leader, I try to empower my team members. This means providing autonomy, encouragement, occasional course corrections, but, overall, asking them to take their work and run with it. From time to time, however, I find myself in a situation where one of my team members presents more problems than solutions. This got me thinking out loud that EMPOWERMENT is an “If, Then” proposition.

In other words, IF I empower a team member THEN they need to DO SOMETHING with that! Similarly, IF you get empowered by a supervisor or leader, THEN you have an obligation to not waste that opportunity! I see the act of EMPOWERMENT as a loan versus an entitlement. Essentially when you empower someone, you are loaning your influence, authority, and vision. I jokingly tell my team that I will micromanage to the point that you LET me or that I HAVE to. In other words, I am happy to provide you with the authority you need to do your job without my constant management as long as A) you take that job and run with it and/or B) you do so in a way that is innovative, risk mindful, and results oriented.

Many times I hear managers say, “I just hire good people then get out of their way.” Actually, that is not leadership, it is an abdication of responsibility. That does not mean you should do their job for your team member, but it does mean you coach, course correct as needed, look out for mission creep, and offer feedback that will help them improve as leaders.

So if you are empowering or get empowered, be mindful of the following:

• Have clear expectations of what you are empowering or are empowered to do.
• Play to win versus not to lose = expect or demonstrate initiative and just start.
• Expect or be solutions focused and results oriented.
• Check in from time to time to make sure everything is on the right path
• Set or be sure of metrics of success.
• Reflect on lessons learned, skills gained, capacities developed, etc.

If I can help you and the people you associate with Get Better, Be Ready and LEAD OUT LOUD, I would invite you to visit my website below and see if any of the training or coaching experiences I offer can provide an impact! Also, as a bonus, if you go to my Out Loud Strategies website (www.outloudinc.com) and enter your contact information, I will send you a FREE guide to establishing a mentoring initiative program in your organization! Such an initiative would be critical in order to add value to your organization!

Yours in Leadership,

Bill Faulkner

Co-Founder – 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

It’s More Important to GET BETTER than to FEEL BETTER!

Last week, I wrote that I was involved with this year’s L2 – Live2Lead simulcast event sponsored by the John Maxwell Company. It was an amazing event but it got me thinking out loud about what leaders should be considering when selecting content to GROW more effectively.

Author and leadership expert John Maxwell often stresses that motivational speakers help you FEEL better but motivational teachers or facilitators help you GET better! I agree with this 100% and was taught this early on when I was starting out in my own training career. I remember the first time I saw my now friend and mentor, Rick Miller from the Center of Applied Leadership. He was and still is amazing in how he connects and presents to an audience. As my relationship with Rick grew both personally and professionally I realized that every time he trained or spoke to a group, he always left with something tangible and usable. Literally and figuratively, you had something in your hand at the end of the day! Now my virtual mentor, John Maxwell, reinforces the same approach. He always leaves you with something. Even during the L2 event, PowerPoint slides and event journals where available so that you could have something that helped you improve versus just a bunch of “warm fuzzes!”

Now don’t get me wrong, I enjoy listening to motivational speakers. There is a time that their content is needed, however, they can help you feel good and inspired but do you remember why a few days later? When selecting content for your own leadership growth, you should be very mindful of the time you have available and the growth goals you desire. While not an exhaustive list, here are a few things to consider.

• Who or what has the speaker led in the past?
• What is their own track record in working with their own teams and that of others?
• Have they researched and studied their subject?
• Can they communicate it effectively so that it is, according to training expert Michael Allen, meaningful, memorable, and motivational?
• Can you readily apply what you are learning to your current leadership situation?
• Is their content “sticky”? In other words, does it stay with you long after the event is complete, the video over, or the book read?

Again, as leaders you live incredibly busy lives. Accordingly, it is important that you get the most out of your leadership growth and development investment in both time and money. I encourage you to:

Choose wisely

Grow tremendously

Share what you learn abundantly

If I can help you and the people you associate with Get Better, Be Ready and LEAD OUT LOUD, I would invite you to visit my website below and see if any of the training or coaching experiences I offer can provide an impact! Also, as a bonus, if you go to my Out Loud Strategies website (www.outloudinc.com) and enter your contact information, I will send you a FREE guide to establishing a mentoring initiative program in your organization! Such an initiative would be critical in order to add value to your organization!

Yours in Leadership,

Bill Faulkner

Co-Founder – 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

Great leaders are Intentionally Different!

This week, I had the great opportunity to be involved with the L2-Live2Lead leadership development simulcast event. Featuring several great speakers, the host and keynote was John Maxwell talking about his new book (though it is more like a movement!) on Intentional Living. This got me thinking out loud a lot about whereas some leaders, though they are really just the people that hold positions, are indifferent but GREAT leaders are Intentionally Different!

Essentially, John was saying that there are phases in the development of a true leader that moves them from success (which is personal) to significance (which is other oriented). These phases follow:

Desire to Make a Difference – this is a time of personal leadership awakening when we decide we want to make an impact far beyond our immediate social, personal, and professional setting. We want to lead into our “why”!

Putting Thought into Action that Makes a Difference – actually taking those noble and good thoughts and putting them into action! Focusing on some worthwhile purpose or cause.

With Others – determining that no one does anything great alone and understanding that to expand your reach, you need to bring others along for this meaningful journey.

At the Right Time – knowing that there is never an optimal time for the planets to align so you might as well start NOW!

Again, very few of us lead this way! But the best of us, do so. So what do YOU want to DO, with WHO, and WHEN? I believe that leading with this level of intention and intensity is the essence of Leading Out Loud!

If I can help you and the people you associate lead with intention and LEAD OUT LOUD, I am credentialed and more than happy to lead a mastermind group on John’s new book, Intentional Living: Choosing a Life that Matters! I would also invite you to visit my website below and see if any of the training or coaching experiences I offer can provide an impact! Also, as a bonus, if you go to my Out Loud Strategies website (www.outloudinc.com) and enter your contact information, I will send you a FREE guide to establishing a mentoring initiative program in your organization! Such an initiative would be critical in order to add value to your organization!

Yours in Leadership,

Bill Faulkner

Co-Founder – 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

Extend Personal Maturity to Professional Maturity.

One of my favorite quotes from pastor and author Andy Stanley is that leadership requires us to be “the grown-ups in the room!” More and more I value this in staff, colleagues, etc. This got me thinking out loud about when or why some staff members are and some are not. To me, it comes down to the difference between PERSONAL MATURITY and PROFESSIONAL MATURITY.

You see personally mature people may be skilled enough and smart enough to function in any given work environment. They are old enough chronologically to be there but what happens when things become stressful? What about when there are disagreements? How about when they are not equipped to do the job and they start to discover what got them there is no longer sufficient to keep them there? There has been several times in the past where I have inherited staff (probably the most awkward thing that can happen to both of you!) that had been in the environment long before me. The issue was their job was originally X but then it became Y plus Z in terms of skills and new requirements. The reactions have been mixed. Some rose to the occasion while others did not. The point is, you may be leading or working with a personally mature person but are they professionally mature?

Professionally mature people have the advantage and abilities to not just function but to thrive in any given work environment. They are calm under pressure and can, according to the emotional intelligence crowd, recognize when they are becoming stressed or irritated but channel those emotions appropriately. They remain calm and meet their responsibilities. They pay attention to detail and act professionally regardless of how they feel. They get into problem solving mode versus just problem identification. They respond well to the demands of new or additional job responsibilities and think proactively versus retroactively. They anticipate needs and opportunities versus play catch-up. Finally, they keep a positive attitude and tone in their dealings with their own teams and colleagues. Perhaps the best examples of these types of professionals are pilots, medical staff, first-responders, and military leaders.

So the big question becomes, how do we lead ourselves and others to Professional Maturity? Here are a few suggestions:

• IDENTIFY the areas that need to be worked on (i.e. attention to detail, managing emotions, new skill development, etc.).
• Create a GROWTH PLAN that will address areas of both STRENGTH and DEVELOPMENT (i.e. mentoring, workshops, self-study, job shadowing, training, practice and simulation, etc.).
• Set METRICS for improvement (from X to Y by when?).
• MONITOR progress in meeting those growth goals.
• RECOGNIZE and REWARD improvement.
• REPEAT!

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 visit my website below and see if any of the training or coaching experiences I offer can provide an impact! Also, as a bonus, if you go to my Out Loud Strategies website (www.outloudinc.com) and enter your contact information, I will send you a FREE guide to establishing a mentoring initiative program in your organization! Such an initiative would be critical in order to add value to your organization!

Yours in Leadership,

Bill Faulkner

Co-Founder – Out Loud Strategies

Independent Coach, Speaker, and Trainer with the John Maxwell Team ^TM

Email = bill@outloudinc.com

Visit our website at: www.outloudinc.com

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

The PRICE of Your Leadership.

Leadership and personal development expert John Maxwell shares that “the SOUL of your leadership lies in your values.” I would extend that and propose the PRICE of your leadership is acting on those values in a consistent, uncompromising manner! 

I was thinking out loud that the character of our nation has moved from one of moral focus to moral relativism. No one wants to be held accountable any more. From professional athletes to reality TV stars, there is no moral center. In fact I saw a great meme the other day that stated: When Miley Cyrus gets up on stage, half naked, and licks a hammer, she calls it “art” or “music”. When I do it, I get asked to leave the Home Depot! (To be clear I have never done this, just stating an example . . . let’s don’t start that rumor!). So moving quickly along, the reason for this lack of moral clarity is that often we are not clear on what our values REALLY are.

Do a quick activity for me. List you top 3 Values. Now ask yourself the following questions:

1.    What would your life be like if you did not have them?

2.    What would your relationships be like?

3.    How would you conduct yourself professionally?

I would bet most of you would respond that life without these values would be shallow, meaningless, full of drama, and disappointment. You would be right. So let me ask you one more question.

4.    If we know of such outcomes, why do we sometimes act in a way that is antithetical to the values we say we hold so dear? (and I include myself in that question!!)

The point is not to guilt anyone, the point is to raise our awareness. The PRICE of courageous leadership is to both KNOW and ACT upon our values everyday, all the time. This is not easy. In fact look at your top 3 value list again.

Are you willing to be INCONVENIENCED for these values?Are willing to be INTERRUPTED for these values?What will you SACRIFICE for these values?Are you willing to PAY the ultimate PRICE for what you believe and hold dear as the best of us have done?

It all starts with what you believe is most important because when leaders act upon their values, it draws people to them. I believe people genuinely want to follow leaders of integrity. It’s you they are waiting for!

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 visit my website below and see if any of the training or coaching experiences I offer can provide an impact! Also, as a bonus, if you go to my Out Loud Strategies website (www.outloudinc.com) and enter your contact information, I will send you a FREE guide to establishing a mentoring initiative program in your organization! Such an initiative would be critical in order to add value to your organization!

Yours in Leadership,

Bill Faulkner

Co-Founder – 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

Change The Way You LEAD, Change The Way You SUCCEED!

Even challenging leaders can get stuff done! I was following with interest the saga surrounding a former athletic director. Whereas I have no first-hand knowledge, press reports do not paint a flattering picture! This got me thinking out loud about what effective leadership really is and what success really means.

Now on the task side of things, leaders that struggle can accomplish. They set goals, state expectations, make decisions, implemented strategy, and do many of the things good leaders do to a certain degree of success. On the other hand,some leaders fail in the relational side of leadership which can be much more challenging but in so many ways is far more important! Can you have one without the other? Sure you can and it happens every day but at what cost and for how long? Yes, a leader can do many things but if the cost is a scorched earth of hurt feelings, resentment, and strained or broken relationships, then it is a pyrrhic victory at best!

What if we as leaders started to change our paradigm of what success really means? I propose it should certainly mean getting the important things done and done extremely well. But it should also mean that your team members, partners, vendors, and clients feel energized, supported, and valued while you are all doing it. Any success I have had in my life would not have been possible without other people. As John Maxwell states. “No leaders is truly successful unless a lot of people want them to be!” 

The point is, success can be a “both and” versus “either or” scenario!

With that “end in mind” as Steven Covey encouraged us to hold close, then it calls for us to lead differently than maybe the way we had before. It calls us to do some of the following:

• Demonstrate Care first then Candor when giving feedback
• Asking more and Telling less
• Striving for Win-Win Solutions as opposed to Win-Lose
• State Expectations Clearly and Constantly
• Recognizing Effort that aligns with Goals or Expectations
• Keeping Faith vs Keeping Score
• Focusing on Significance more so than Compliance

I know this is aspirational and much easier said than done (trust me, I learned these lessons the hard way!) but I firmly believe there nothing to lose and everything to gain by changing how we lead to obtain the success we and our followers want. In an earlier blog, I wrote about living versus just leaving a legacy. How would you like you to be thought of at the end of the day?

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 visit my website below and see if any of the training or coaching experiences I offer can provide an impact! Also, as a bonus, if you go to my Out Loud Strategies website (www.outloudinc.com) and enter your contact information, I will send you a FREE guide to establishing a mentoring initiative program in your organization! Such an initiative would be critical in order to add value to your organization!

Yours in Leadership,

Bill Faulkner

Co-Founder – 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

Are You INVESTING in Others OR Just HELPING Them?

As a Leader, Are You INVESTING in Others or Just HELPING Them?

Recently, I was conducting a peer mentoring training with a great group of young adults. Let’s just call them the Epsilons. We were talking about what Mentors really do and I introduced the concept that mentors INVEST where some leaders just HELP. We started thinking out loud about the differences between the two. Here is where we landed (and many thanks to them for their insights and ideas!):

Leaders that just HELP:

• Do so as a “One-Off”
• Solve a Problem
• Go for Breadth
• Help others Feel Good
• Do so when it is Convenient to them
• Hope they added value

Leaders that INVEST:

• Do so for Long Run
• Change a Life
• Focus on Depth
• Are Honest with others
• Are Willing to be Inconvenienced for others
• Add Value based on a Premeditated basis

You can easily start to see the difference! Now there is nothing wrong with helping others, but it is when we invest in others, we start to change lives. As speaker and writer Dr. Tim Elmore shares, “there is no Live Change without Life Exchange!” In other words, impactful or significant leaders go beneath the surface and expend the extra time, effort, and energy with those they lead. Leadership in this case is no longer transactional, it is intentional. Without a doubt, this is a deeper, harder but much more relevant style of leadership.

Don’t get me wrong. This is something that took me a long time to realize in my own leadership journey and looking back, it is clear to me now those leaders who were investing in me and those who were not. Obviously I am still working on this but what I do know is that when I do, my relationships are fuller and richer. Yours will be too!

So this week, I encourage you to think about those individuals in your sphere of leadership. Who do you need to INVEST in? Who would benefit the most from your efforts to intentionally add value to them? I would love to hear from you how it went!

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 visit my website below and see if any of the training or coaching experiences I offer can provide an impact! Also, as a bonus, if you go to my Out Loud Strategies website (www.outloudinc.com) and enter your contact information, I will send you a FREE guide to establishing a mentoring initiative program in your organization! Such an initiative would be critical in order to add value to your organization!

Yours in Leadership,

Bill Faulkner

Co-Founder – 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