Hovering – the underappreciated leadership strategy.

I dislike the term leadership or management “technique” since it infers something that we do TO others. Instead, I prefer the term strategy since that is an action we do WITH others. This distinction was made evident to me during a recent interaction with my student clients when I was “hovering” around them. This got me thinking out loud that this is actually not a bad leadership and connecting strategy!

Recently, we oriented a new cohort of Executive MBA students who complete their degree by coming to campus every third weekend or so.  Due to my role as their primary leadership and career resource, it is important to me that they know who I am and my commitment to their success. I was sharing with some current students how I used my usual hovering strategy during their orientation week by being a presence during breaks and meals. I see this as what leadership expert and A list speaker John Maxwell calls “walking through the crowd slowly.” My current student clients jokingly call it “creepy!”  At least I hope they are joking!

But this practice and strategy of hovering, allows me to quickly establish a positive working relationship which in turn, helps these talented leaders reach their full potential as they define it. It also allows me to get them on an individual basis. I believe this niched strategy can be applied to leaders in just about any workplace scenario that want to also create positive working relationships. The trick is to hover in a way that doing so is seen as positive and not intrusive. Here are a few ideas to do just that.

Be Proximate but not a Participant:

My student clients attend class either one day a week or every third weekend. Due to the cohort manner in which they progress through a challenging curriculum, they become very close and enjoy seeing each other in light of not being to see each other every day. They also have a lot to catch up on in terms of assignments, upcoming courses, etc. Hovering allows me to be on the periphery in case they have a question, but I am not a fellow student or peer. They have important issues to discuss or questions to settle; thus, it is important that I not interfere or distract them from getting what they need done.

The same is true for leaders. Our team members have a lot to do and we want to show that we trust them to do it well. Even though we would like to be an instant resource or “fixer”, that is not what they need from us and to participate would de-skill them. Management from “walking around” however tells team members we are supportive and available for questions, but we are not and should not be a distraction to their work.

Be Present but not Pervasive:

With my students, it is important to me that I am present and supportive, but I am NOT the main attraction. They are. They are the ones who are sacrificing time, energy, and resources to complete an important degree from a Top 20 business school. Yes, they are times when I am conducting a webinar or on-site workshop but that is a very small part of their experience. The power of their experience lies in the connections they make with each other and the other faculty and staff.

Much like my hovering strategy, being present allows for that quick question, check-in on an ongoing conversation, or that impromptu encouragement. This is what former Campbell Soup CEO Douglas Conant was communicating in his book Touchpoints: Creating Powerful Leadership Connections in the Smallest of Moments. Douglas would share the concept of “impactful interruptions” where impromptu conversations would reveal a lot about how his team was operating or any shared concerns they had. You are not micro-managing or looking over shoulders, but to make sure you are not leaving that impression, you have to do this consistently enough that team members get used to your presence every now and then and know they can take a moment with you or not. It is their choice.

Be Precise but not Platitudinal:

You have often seen my write that leaders who add-value do so in very specific ways. Each week or weekend students are present, I usually have two or three specific follow-ups or congratulations I want to offer. This is to make sure that these specific students know that I have not forgotten about a request or inquiry or that they were on my radar based upon a prior conversation.

The same should be true for good hoverers! Identify two or three team members each week that you can connect with on a specific matter. Loop back to a question or concern they had. Do in-the-moment recognition for a job well done. Celebrate a big life moment such as the birth of a child or their graduation. Again, this takes just a few moments of thought and a running list. What they do not want is just empty platitudes of encouragement but targeted and highly personalized connections.  

As you can gather, the student clients I have the privilege of working with can be a cast of characters but, as has always been the case, I learn more from them than they ever learn from me. So, here is your challenge, try the hover strategy for one month and see what happens. I would bet you will be surprised how much you learn from the people you spend most of your waking life with!

To summarize, I think John Maxwell captures this strategy very well in his recent book, Leadershift. I am paraphrasing John who shares that when doing the Leadership Dance:

• Hover AHEAD of people staying close enough for them to access you and anticipate their needs
• Hover BESIDE people so that you can listen to them and discover the journey they want to take
• Hover BEHIND people so that they know you believe in, with, and, sometimes, for them

Yours in leadership,

Dr. Bill Faulkner

Email = bill@outloudinc.com

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There is no such thing as a Neutral Life!

At any given time, we all see a news story about some person of note passing away. Sometimes their deaths or unexpected and sudden while others are after a long life. Inevitably pundits or just history weigh in on the impacts of their lives. The prevailing themes are either positive or negative and sometimes a little of both but never neutral You never hear a commentator state the he or she was just an OK person who led their lives straight down the middle! Either he or she had a positive impact or they did not. This has me thinking out loud that there is no such thing as a neutral life!

As leaders, I believe this is even more so and no one is waiting until you are put on permanent waivers to tally your stats! Your impact is being evaluated right here and now by more people than you can possibly imagine. Now this may be a little tough to hear in a modern society that more and more does not want to acknowledge that there are “absolutes” such as good and evil, right and wrong, pizza and tacos. Trust me, there still is and the fact that some want to convince us otherwise is my case in point. Besides, such thinking goes against even the natural laws of the universe. Electrons eventually are either positive or negatively charged. I am simply proposing the same works for our leadership. At any given moment in time, we are either adding value or we are not, we are either helping or hurting, we are either part of the problem or an element of the solution. There is no time or room for middle ground for leaders.

Obviously, it is my hope and intention to ensure my leadership stays on the positive trend line and I hope yours does to but, hey, you do you! So how do we make sure our leadership is not stuck in neutral and is in drive? I believe some of the encouragements below may be of help.

Understand Your Orbit! I recently heard author and pastor Byron Peters share that we need to consider the orbit of the people in our lives. Think about it this way and do some quick math with me. First, count the number of people that you lead (this could include family, friends, colleagues, clients, as well as direct reports). Take the example of the number of people that eventually report to you. Let’s say that is 50 people. Multiply that number by the average number of hours you could interact with them in a given week (assume a 40 hour work week), multiply that by the number of weeks of interaction in a given year (assume 50 active work weeks a year) and this equals over 100,000 hours of potential influence a year! So, the big question is, what are you actually doing with that influence? Think about this, consider the fact that the average person has around 338 Facebook connections and around 300 on LinkedIn, what can you do with that kind of influence and orbit?

Establish Your Intention.  Author and leadership expert John Maxwell often share that people who detract from others often do so without malicious intention. They are just not paying attention and thus commit errors of omission. However, leaders who do add value to those around them do so with purpose and deliberate decisions to do so. They actively pay attention to the people around them and consider how they can add value in a very customized and individualized way. This is not easy by any means. It requires a renewed commitment each day to do this. Have you made such a decision? Could tomorrow morning be the day you change the trajectory of your leadership? I always share that where you end up is much more important to than where you started. Even if to this point you have not been as focused on your orbit as you could be, it does not matter. I have often heard it said it may take some time to alter the destination of our journey, but we can change direction at any given moment.

Challenge Others to Commit. Leadership never happens in isolation which is another reason why there is no possible way to lead a neutral life. There are just too many people around us influencing and being influenced by us. I once read the greatest gift you can give someone is your positive example. As my previous example above demonstrates, you have more influence than you thought. Use that influence to encourage others to understand the impact of their lives and leadership. Help them get unstuck and lead in the light! Make it part of your meeting agendas to celebrate positive leadership wins. Ask followers commit to adding value to just one-person next week but in a very individual manner.

We do not leave a legacy; we live it day in and day out. We have the ability (and I would add, the responsibility) to improve the lives of those around us. Don’t waste these moments and opportunities to do so. It does not even have to be some grand gesture. I have heard story after story by my students and clients over the years about how just one high impact person provided just one simple encouragement which launched a lifetime of achievement and success. Sometimes that’s just all we can give, but often that is more than 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 contact me.

Yours in leadership,

Bill Faulkner

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

Email = bill@outloudinc.com

Visit our website at: www.outloudinc.com

For more information on the John Maxwell Team, please visit

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

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It’s time for some Reckless Leadership!

It’s time for some Reckless Leadership!

Lots of times when we hear the word “reckless”, it is thought of being ill advised, inappropriate, or against the norm. Now I don’t know about you, but I have been known to do some things what would be considered a bit reckless though more on the ill advised but not illegal side of the tracks just to be clear! Anything from zip lining, SCUBA diving, or crawling around a pitch dark abandoned nuclear missile silo come to mind. Here’s the thing, it was during some of these more reckless experiences is when I felt keenly alive, learned about my capabilities, and/or found a lesson in the experience I could share with others. This has me thinking and asking out loud, what if we were a little more reckless with our leadership?!

Church leader and leadership author, Tommy Kiedis, shares that a life of faith and leadership was never meant to be safe or comfortable. In fact, just the opposite.  A life of leadership involves sticking your neck out and making things better by challenging the status quo. It means speaking up when everyone else is hesitant to do so. It means taking the risk of empowering your followers to do and be their very best.

The challenge is that during this time of rampant toxic workplace cultures, elected officials acting like children, and just a general lack of using any kind of filter between thoughts and works said out loud, we are experiencing a crisis of principled leadership. In fact, the Ken Blanchard company’s research on workplace environments reveals that 70% of employees point to their supervisor as the leading cause of workplace stress. This is substantiated conversely but Gallup’s research that shows the number one factor that leads to positive workplace cultures rest with the quality of leadership present in that environment.

All this points me to that it is time for men and women of courage to become reckless in their leadership because as leadership author Tim Elmore shares this new normal of toxic leadership has become commonplace but is still by no means acceptable. It’s time to go against the grain and do the right thing, the bold thing, the lifting the human spirit thing such as:

Reckless Leadership is BOLD – I recently read an article entitled, “How did we get so small?” Essentially the author was questioned why humankind is more and more adverse to attempt big things. Ancient civilizations build huge stone monuments, in the 20^th century we put men on the moon and built tunnels under the sea. Luckily, reckless leaders like Elon Musk are helping us dream big again. To figure out cost effective ways to explore other planets. We need bold and audacious leaders in the workplace to try big things. To push institutions to set aside the old command and control leadership approaches and start to maximize the human capital available to us to solve big problems.

Reckless Leadership is EMPOWERING – If you hire capable people, then be reckless enough to let them do their jobs! You can certainly provide expectations and direction, but if you continue to monitor all their actions, then what’s the point. What did you gain besides just your own ideas? Why not use the full potential of thought, action, and energy that comes from a team running on all cylinders! Conversely, there is nothing more empowering than to make such decisions with them! Will it take more time, yes it will. Will it result in a different outcome or way you would do it, probably. I promise you, however, you will create a team member that wants to stay with you and do their best for you. Just consider your own preference. Would you rather things done with you versus to you?

Reckless Leadership is CATALYTIC – NOW is when we really need leaders to be reckless. To raise valid questions. To evaluate our own words and actions. To take the bold step of asking our stakeholders their perceptions and be ready for the “ouch” moments that may come with the answers you get back. To start movements that will transform communities and organizations where all are lifted and NO ONE is marginalized. To move beyond the sandbox of partisan politics and actually try to solve worthy problems. Catalytic reactions, however, need time and fuel. There is a requirement of vigilance that comes with being reckless.

It is a sad commentary that leaders who want to be and do the right thing are considered reckless or out of the norm, but that is where we are right now. Trust me, I know I am asking a lot and that all of this is much easier blogged than done. Just start with you and your team. Just start with the internal course corrections you need to make. Enlist trusted colleagues to take the journey with you. That is how this starts and how things start to turn around . . . with just small acts of reckless leadership!

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 contact me.

Yours in leadership,

Bill Faulkner

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

Email = bill@outloudinc.com

Visit our website at: www.outloudinc.com

For more information on the John Maxwell Team, please visit

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

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Never underestimate the power of “just enough”!

I believe that one of the reasons that people do not attempt to find their leadership voice is that they are afraid it will call upon them to do great things, big things, life changing things . . . . and sometimes that is true. But I was thinking out loud the other day that often it is the small things leaders do that make the biggest impact. The “just enough” things!

I have been blessed to have a career that allows me to work with and, hopefully, impact others in a very positive way. I will admit that I often get caught up in the “grand gesture” as a metric of leadership success. That time when I did that big thing, that life changing thing (and thankfully, there have been a few of those!). But more often than not, when I hear from a former or current student or client, they often refer to that small thing that made a big difference. A small favor here, some extra time there, a small inconvenience on my part or just a simple encouragement. To be honest I probably did not give it much further thought but the point is that I did just enough to help that individual get to the next level. Once there, another leader would do a little more to help that person keep moving on and up. See how this works? Your doing just what you can do is more than enough to help an individual reach their eventual goal or success!

Now you may be thinking, how could all these small things done by a number of people create such eventual impacts, that seems just so random? On the surface, you may be right but when you drill down on the following three-part equation, it makes sense.

Success is Collaborative – many of us have no idea as to the true reach of our leadership. A segment of Cheryl Bachelder’s great book, Dare to Serve, demonstrates this. These days, we spend more time with our work relationships than we do our own families. Think about the number of colleagues or direct reports you have and how many hours a week you spend with them. Then multiply that number by 50 weeks per year and you will be shocked. So. let’s say you have a team of 20 X 40 hours a week X 50 weeks per year, that gives you 40,000 hours of leadership reach!  That is a lot of time for collaboration. A lot of time to do small favors, quick guidance, an email of encouragement, or some just in time learning. ALL of this happens in the small day to day collaborations we experience but all that adds up to thousands of hours of direct assistance!

Success is Sequential – in the book, The One Thing, by Gary Keller (of Keller-Williamson Reality) and Jay Papasan, the authors propose that focusing on one thing at a time leads to big results because success is sequential. This is true for how we learn, grow, and succeed. We learn and are equipped by one leader that allows us to proceed to the next level. There, another leader further equips us for the next thing and so forth and so on. Your unique just enough contribution, doing what you could when you could, empowered someone else to proceed. I guarantee if you think about it, you can trace back your current success to a series of past events and people that enabled you to be where you are now!

Success is Cumulative – our success in life is made up of many different components. It was not just one person, or book, or class. Success is a cumulative combination of many things. A favor here, a small promotion there, or time with an encouraging person. It all starts to add up! We collect the skills, knowledge, and qualities that have been provided to us in some form or fashion. When all of that is combined, you get the capable person you are today! Even better this cycle of “just enough” leadership repeats itself time and time again.

You see, we are all part of each other’s success equation. Or at least we can be if we want to be. It does not take much, just enough to add to the progression of opportunities we gift to each other. I can honestly say that any success I have had in life is due to the help of other people. Some of their contributions were big and some were small but in the final analysis, it ALL mattered and it all made an impact. I encourage you to never doubt the power of just enough leadership. It will not take much, so what are you waiting for? Do you need my permission? Fine, you have it. I am licensed in Georgia, Florida, and North Carolina to provide such dispensations!

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 contact me.

Yours in leadership,

Bill Faulkner

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

Email = bill@outloudinc.com

Visit our website at: www.outloudinc.com

For more information on the John Maxwell Team, please visit

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

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

(Your Name Here) Inc. You already have a personal brand, but is it the one you want?

In my experience, I have never known of a business or university that does not obsess over its brand. The larger the organization, the more it spends on crafting, maintaining, and protecting its brand and reputation. In my training and coaching work, I certainly encourage an organization to pay attention to its brand, but you may have never considered that such strategies apply to you as an individual leader, contributor, or applicant. In other words, you already have a brand, whether you realize or not. What I am asking you to think out loud about is it the one you want?

In Robert Quinn’s great book, Building the Bridge As You Walk On It, he both reminds and challenges us that we are constantly communicating about ourselves. Everything we do, say, post, wear, etc. communicates volumes about who we are, what we can do, and what is important to us. Even if you do not fully realize or even want to believe it, you are your brand 24/7, 365 days a year. So, for (Your Name Here) Incorporated is the brand you projecting the one you want? Is it accurately capturing what you want others to know about you? Are you shaping and controlling your personal brand or are you leaving it to chance, the opinion of others, or the whims of social media? I can guarantee you a Fortune 500 company (or even a just fortunate to have the doors open business) is not leaving such an important element to chance, so why are you?

It is my belief that as leaders, solo/intra/entre/preneurs, or professionals ready for that next level, we have to think of ourselves as a corporate entity, in other words, (Your Name Here) Incorporated. And like any major corporation, you must be intentional about crafting and building your personal brand in three main arenas:

Brand Aspiration – Brand aspiration is the brand you want but may not necessarily have at the present time. Essentially, if you aspire to be something, it is because you are attempting to influence something (i.e. team members, potential clients, or prospective employers). To determine what you aspire to be or influence, reflect on the following questions:

• How are you attempting to influence your market?
• How do you know when you are successful?
• How can you expand your influence?

Once you know the answers to the above, you can start to expand your influence through my adaptation of the typical sales funnel. I use an inverted Pyramid of Influence to encourage you to start with networking and other efforts so that your targets even have KNOWLEDGE of you – just basic name recognition. Once they know of you, how can you demonstrate that you are RELEVANT to their needs or problems? Are you experienced in what a potential new employer is looking for? Do you offer a service or skill applicable to a particular industry? Next, how can you prove there is a direct ADVANTAGE to working with or hiring you? Do you post helpful information, are you recognized as an expert through internal and professional association presentations? Do current or former clients act as brand ambassadors for you by referring you to others? Finally, if you pay close attention to all the above, you should then be making critical CONNECTIONS that allow you to influence and impact others.

Brand Status (Identity) – there is a great deal of content out there related to strategies for discovering your Brand Identity. Brand Status or Identity is essentially a real-time snapshot of:

• What you KNOW
• What you can DO
• Who you ARE

as a leader, contributor, and/or potential applicant or provider. Time and space do not permit a deep dive as to how to craft an elevator pith or brand statement, but try this quick exercise to create your IMPACT STATEMENT. In other words, what is your personal/professional life intention?  

Provide at least 3 responses to the questions below. Next, within those responses, circle the BEST or MOST CONSISTENT answer.

• What do you VALUE?
• What do you do BEST?
• What do you want to be KNOWN FOR?

Using your answers, craft a short IMPACT STATEMENT that will provide a FOCUS to your powerful personal/professional intention. Just to provide an example, where I land on this exercise is a focus on Learning, Problem Solving, and Helping Others Be Successful; thus; my statement reads - “I learn and teach valuable lessons that help solve worthy problems so that others can be successful.”

Brand Affinity (Promise) – lastly, your Brand Affinity is your Brand Promise. What you commit and promise to BE, KNOW, and DO every day and all the time. This is a promise or collection of promises you keep for your team, your clients, and your current or future employer. A word of caution, you need to be confident and crystal clear on these promises because when you make a promise, you create an expectation. When you keep a promise, you solidify a powerful and influential brand for (Your Name Here) Incorporated! To help you identify those key commitments that will capture your Brand Affinity, wrap your thinking around the following and then consistently act upon the answers.

What do I have the “bandwidth” to do really well all the time?

What do other people come to me for time and again because they know I will always deliver?

What do people seek my counsel on or for?

What am I always asked about because I know a lot about it?

What can I do that not many others can?

What do you feel most responsible for?

What would help other do even if you never got paid for it?

Your personal brand shows up in a lot of places. It appears on your resume or CV, your LinkedIn or other social media pages, in what others say about you, and what you say about yourself. The way you control the message is based largely on how you carry yourself, how your treat others, how you approach your work, and how you invest in your continued personal and professional development.  

I understand that you may be uncomfortable promoting yourself, but this is not about shameless self-promotion. It is about serving others well and the only way they will know that you can, is to present a very accurate but visible message. It is you we are looking, hoping, and waiting for. All I am asking is that you make it easier for the rest of us to find you!

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 contact me.

Yours in leadership,

Bill Faulkner

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

Email = bill@outloudinc.com

Visit our website at: www.outloudinc.com

For more information on the John Maxwell Team, please visit

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

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

As a leader, your words are heavier (make sure they are worth their weight in gold!)

Sometimes I am just amazed by what I hear leaders say. Sometimes client will share with me an interaction and I am just incredulous that a grown-up person actually said that in their outside voice. I once heard that a leader’s words weigh a thousand pounds which has me thinking out loud that we need to make sure our words are leveraging people up and not weighing them down!

Let’s face it, whether you like it or not or whether you want to believe it or not, when you are in a leadership role, your words simply carry more weight. Our words and other communications have more influence and are amplified thus the whole premise of my theme of Leading Out Loud! We need to understand that often our teams have a difficult time distinguishing between a mandate or just a suggestion. This is why Jim Collins in his book Good to Great, encourages us to specifically state what is a “soft opinion” or a “hard statement”. Very often a leader may think they are just thinking out loud or brainstorming an idea all of sudden find their teams scrambling to implement an idea that was originally meant to be just an idle thought.

The simple fact is that leaders who are effective are so because they effective communicators – there is just now way to divorce the two. They communicate to their teams in both written and verbal formats in a way that allows their teams to not dread an email or voicemails from you. Crazy as it sounds, they actually look forward to interacting with you! There are thousands of books, articles, podcasts, etc. focused on executive communication but allow me to provide 3 simple rules of thumb:

KEEP IT CLEAN – now I am in no way advocating a “thought police” mentality but you have to admit that modern vernacular has gotten a bit casual these days. I believe that teams respect leaders who have the self-control and emotional maturity to not resort to four-letter words when things get tense, or they are frustrated. Further, such discipline can go a long way to insure and model appropriate team interactions so that there is never a question of harassment or bullying. Besides, you’re not twelve anymore. I think it is time for our words to evolve out of highschool.

KEEP IT NEUTRAL – this does not mean that you cannot have an opinion about work related matters. In fact, as a leader you should have some definitive thoughts about vision, strategy, and execution. When it comes to very personal issues such as religion or politics, however, this is a domain where you need to tread very carefully. These areas are very personal to individuals since they reflect their core values. As a leader you need to respect that and ensure team members respect their peers. We need to make sure that no one on a team is marginalized for their beliefs. All forms of diversity are important including the diversity of beliefs and the pluralism of ideas.

KEEP IT POSITIVE – as Kouzes and Posner share in their seminal work, The Leadership Challenge, one of the most important jobs of a leader is to create hope. There is nothing worse than having a leader who is constantly critical. They may think that is an effective strategy, but it really has just the opposite effect of discouraging team members from doing their best work because they nothing they do will ever be good enough. Granted, if a team member’s performance is suffering you need to address that, but you also need to make sure you are not the cause of it! Even on the organizational level, it is vital that leaders remain hopeful especially when challenges are mounting. It may not seem like much, but time and time again one of the key elements of victory or defeat is a hopeful and positive attitude. Hope can truly be an “odds beater”!

Even in today’s faster than light world of digital communications, words still matter. In fact, I would propose that they matter even more since now you can never take them back due to the fact they are stored indefinitely and shared instantaneously. How many times how you read that a celebrity or politician had to “walk back” a statement with a completely disingenuous “this was taken out of context” rationalization?

The point is as leaders, our words carry weight. Every moment of every day we therefore have a choice. We can intentionally use our words to weigh people down OR we can use them to leverage people up. In fact, I would go so far to say that if we are not doing one, we are doing the other because there is simply no such thing as a neutral interaction! I know that many of you have hearts of gold and you are leading for all the right reasons, now just make sure your words are too!

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 contact me.

Yours in leadership,

Bill Faulkner

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 3 groups of people you are trying to lead (and who to focus on!).

I know you guys are probably tired of hearing me say this, but I truly value my work as a coach and trainer due to the sphere of people I get to do it with. The main reason is that they challenge me to always be thinking and learning based on their requests and questions they ask of me. Recently I was co-facilitating with my supervisor a Gallup StrengthsFinder workshop for a group of executive students and at the end, one of the participants asked us “Who is this content directed to or for?” WOW, what a great question so that got me thinking out loud about an answer!

I mean seriously, I (and I bet a number of leadership thought leaders and authors) have never considered that question before. We have more leadership speakers, coaches, books, videos, pod/vid casts, and curriculums than any other time in history yet I believe not many of us have considered who or for what audience is all this content directed toward or for what purpose.

As I was pondering the answer it occurred to me that the 20-60-20 Rule of organizations may apply here. This concept is loosely based on the Italian economist Pareto’s Principal of the 20-80 rule that postulates that 80% of our results are derived from the first 20% of our efforts. Such an idea has been extended to the idea that 20% of a workforce produces 80% of the results, revenue, etc. Therefore, in any given organization:

• The Top 20% of a team are the joiners, true believers, early adopters, and motivated.
• The Bottom 20% of a workforce are what I call C.A.V.E. Dwellers (colleagues against virtually everything!) and are negative, complacent, and non-productive.
• The Middle 60% constitutes the muddled-middle and are the untapped potential of an organization. They are ABLE but need to be well led in order to be WILLING!

This concept of the 20-60-20 rule has had some research validation and if you review Gallup’s research on workplace engagement, it aligns accordingly with 15% of employees very engaged, 15% of employees actively disengaged, and the remainder not as engaged.

With all the preceding being said, I believe most leadership content and training content for leaders and managers is directed toward helping them lead the middle 60%. If you look at the more recent leadership literature with its emphasis on vision, connecting, persuasion, including, coaching, and other high-touch management techniques and strategies, it is about moving the undecideds that have huge potential to the engaged or true believer side of the bell curve.

As leaders, we must be strategic in terms of where and how we direct our efforts in terms of our teams. If you think about it, such efforts such as motivation, work enhancement, and persuasion are not needed for your top 20%. We just need to maintain those relationships, because that group is so self-motivated that they do not need to be “supervised”. Inversely such high-tough leadership efforts are often wasted on the bottom 20% of team members since it does not matter what you do since they will still be unhappy and unproductive. This is where we need to bring resolution to the relationship by[WF1]  candid conversations focused on fit, attitude, and if the right person in wrong role scenario is at work.

This leaves the middle 60% to direct our efforts and such relationships need to be nurtured. In tech industry leader Kim Scott’s book Radical Candor, she classifies this large group of middle performers in two groups:

• Higher Growth/Lower Performance Trajectory
• Higher Performance/Lower Growth Trajectory

In other words, they are either performing very well but are not as deliberate in seeking growth or work enhancing opportunities OR they are focusing on high growth efforts, but their performance is not quite up to par. In either case, this is the sweet spot of most leadership content since the vast majority of it presents so many great strategies, mindsets, and techniques to address. Again, this is where “radical candor” becomes so important in helping move the middle to the positive side of the bell curve.

Let’s face it, as a leader you only have so much bandwidth to spend on leading. If you have read any of my previous blogs, I make it clear that effective, next level leadership is tough and requires an enormous amount of emotional and physical energy as well as time. Again, that is why we need to become more strategic in terms of how we spend it.

As leadership author and athletic performance expert Jim Loehr states, leadership success is more about energy management than time management. I truly want all people to be successful but the squeaky wheels in the bottom 20% can, if we let them, overwhelm our time and energy. Often, it is not that they are incompetent or ill intentioned, they are just not in the right field or role. We should do what we can to help them but eventually they have to make a choice as their fit and satisfaction in their current role. On the other hand, we need to make sure we are giving the top performers what they need but often they do not need much from us. They are so equipped and aligned in their roles they will continue to flourish where they are (if they are happy there then leave them there!) or they will eventually move on to other roles and challenges (and help them do that!).

The bottom line is this, decide who you need to invest in and use all the great advice, tools, strategies and your own great judgement available to you! I encourage to complete an “audit” of everyone on your team and decide where they line-up in the 20-60-20 categories. Then decide what action steps you need to take to maximize your team.

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 contact me.

Yours in leadership,

Bill Faulkner

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

Email = bill@outloudinc.com

Visit our website at: www.outloudinc.com

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

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