Angie Morgan's Blog, page 33

Being a SPARK

I have two children. 

My oldest, Judge, is a dreamer. When he was in Little League, he was the child in the outfield twirling around and, every-so-often, picking flowers. (Had he had a book with him, he would have plopped down, taken off his glove, and let every ball go by him.)

 

My youngest, Gardner, is a fierce competitor. He wants to win everything – races, prizes, arguments, etc. If there’s not a competition, he’ll create one. The other morning on school picture day, he asked me if I thought he was the world’s most handsome kindergartner. (After reminding him that it’s what’s inside that counts, he wasn’t satisfied. “Mom, is that a yes or a no?”)

 

While being a working mom has its challenges, one of my greatest ones is having the mental energy to be a leader to these beautiful, messy, creative, and demanding sources of infinite inspiration. By the time I’m off the clock at work, I have to show up for them in real ways that add real value to their lives, which can be rewarding … and so exhausting.

 

As a time-starved professional who’s constantly looking for more efficient ways to clean my house, shop for groceries, and do laundry, there’s no shortcut to being a leader to these two little guys. I have to take the time to meet them where they’re at. They’re different. Very different. And there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to leading them. 

 

It takes intentional effort to hold them each accountable to their mistakes in a way that each “gets,” to offer praise to them in a manner that helps them build their confidence, and to schedule our lives to accommodate their own, unique interests … even when they are seemingly, logistically, impossible.

 

Being a leader to my children is like being part investigator, magician, and artist. But it’s also the most fulfilling leadership role I’ve held to date. Nothing warms my heart more than their giggles, or makes me beam with pride like seeing them accomplish something they’ve worked hard at.

 

I like to think of myself as a Spark – a doer, thinker and innovator whose approach to creative problem solving betters the lives of others. I know there are other Sparks out there, who balance so many different roles in their lives and feel empowered because they know their actions directly contribute to someone else’s success.    

 

Courtney, Sean and I wrote SPARK for the dynamic, multi-faceted professionals we’ve met who fill a variety of challenging, yet fulfilling, leadership roles; the parents, volunteers, and ambitious professionals who make the world go around.

 

What unites us all is that we all need support, encouragement and additional sources of inspiration so we have the energy to show up as leaders when it matters most.

 

SPARK details seven leadership behaviors that we’ve relied on to be successful in all the leadership roles we fill. We hope it gives you insight into practices you can adopt so you too can be your best.

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Women’s History Month: Better Together

“My friends have made the story of my life. In a thousand ways they have turned my limitations into beautiful privileges.” ― Helen Keller

When asked to write a Leadership Moment related to Women’s History Month, I quickly agreed. I’ve always found value in reflecting on America’s past and considering what I can learn from leaders who’ve made their mark on this world.

When I sat down to write, I began thinking of those lone leaders who sparked major change or achieved significant feats. The names were quick to come to mind and my interest was to single one woman out and write about her life. I wanted to know how the story of a woman who found herself in a position to achieve such greatness and what inspired her courage.

But the more I thought about this abstract heroine, a question popped into my mind: Did she – whoever “she” was – have friends? Of course, I concluded. Humans are social creatures. We crave community and benefit from connection. Of course she had friends!! 

I thought of “her” friends – that loving group of women who she surrounded herself with, who she perhaps drew courage from. The moment before her big day to either disrupt, challenge, advance, or win, did she hangout with her friends? Did they say to her, “You’re seriously going to do this, right?” Not because they questioned her judgment, but they knew they’d need to be ready to either celebrate with her in victory or comfort her in her defeat.

I then thought about the value of friends, especially in my life. My success wouldn’t be anywhere near what I currently enjoy if it weren’t for a core group of women who encouraged me when I doubted myself, propped me up when I wanted to lay on the ground, made a bigger deal out of my “wins” than I ever did, and told me “I wouldn’t do that if I were you” when I was about to take on too big of a risk.

The more I thought of relationships, the more I wanted to focus on women – not a woman. I have zero doubt that behind every successful trailblazer, there is a fierce army of women saying “If you fall, I’m going to catch you. If you grow tired, I’ll take your place.”

So, in the spirit of Women’s History Month, I want to focus on you, me, and other women and really celebrate “us.” There’s great power in our relationships – that is, if we use it. We have the ability to form the foundation of courage others can draw from. We can create a safe place where women can retreat when they fumble. We can be the reason great ideas transition into action. We can be that friend whose support comes without conditions.

We first, though, have to show up.

Let’s face it – friendships in this day and age can be challenging. Speaking for myself, during the workweek, I have little time for my friends. During the weekends, unless you have kids and we all can do something together, then us “getting together” likely doesn’t happen. Relationships – outside of our family – can be difficult to nurture.

Yet, that doesn’t replace the fact that we need friends – and our friends need us.

My call to action this Women’s History Month is simple, and even self-directed: Let’s make a point to recommit to our relationships. It’s not that difficult:

Start scheduling fitness classes with your girlfriends – at least once a week


Coordinate a play date and invite the other mom to hangout while the kids tear your house apart


Call your friend and commit one day, each month, for the rest of the year where you two can grab lunch or happy hour together


Call a friend out of the blue and catch up – re-spark that relationship!


Make an introduction between two women in your network – be a friend matchmaker and encourage relationships among all the cool people you know

Then, standby and let the power of relationships develop.

Let’s not forget that women have supported other women throughout history. We have been, and will be forever, better together. Through our relationships, we can achieve great things. And through our friendships, we can help other women flourish.

Looking for a way to connect with woman leaders? Consider hosting a book club with Leading from the Front. Check it out here!

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Leading from the Front Paperback Release

“What if we were to write a book on the leadership principles we learned in the Marine Corps?”

Courtney and I asked ourselves that very question more than a decade ago. During that time, she was a practicing attorney and I was working as a sales rep in the pharmaceutical industry. We had both experienced several situations where an ounce of leadership – when demonstrated by management – could have gone a long way. We had realized that not everyone gets access to leadership training and knew that if more people did, our world would be comprised of stronger, more capable leaders.

The idea to write a book came relatively easy to us. Writing the book, however, did not. We thought it would be a fun, after-hours project. While it definitely needed to be written in our spare time, the process wasn’t fun at all! It was painstaking to craft an outline, select stories, and unify our voice in a manuscript. Once we had a pretty good working draft, we needed to get a publisher. Again, not an easy process. We were fortunate that we found an agent who believed in us, shared in our vision to inspire greater leadership in our world, and wanted to represent us. Our agent also encouraged us to write our book for women leaders because they were least likely to turn to the Marine Corps for leadership inspiration.

When Leading from the Front launched in 2006, our greatest hopes were that our friends and family would buy the book and slowly help us build our sales. Much to our surprise, the market responded immediately because we met a need. Women professionals craved new ideas on how to advance their career, strengthen their leadership skills, and build greater influence in their professional environments. Leading from the Front was also written in narrative and women appreciated not just receiving advice, but hearing – through stories – how the guidance was (or wasn’t) demonstrated.

We’re excited to share that Leading from the Front has been released in a paperback version with an updated cover. We’re honored our publisher, McGraw-Hill, wants to support women professionals on their quest for leadership development and they’re featuring our work to do so.

If you haven’t yet, please check out Leading from the Front – it also makes a great gift for:

Emerging women leaders
Young women entering into the workforce
Mentees seeking greater leadership inspiration

We appreciate your support and all you do for leaders in our world.

Keep Leading from the Front.

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Meetings Re-imagined

If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be “meetings.”– Dave Barry

Meetings. We hate them because too often they’re time wasters spent on issues that could be quickly resolved over a phone call.

There is, however, one type of meeting to look forward to: the running* meeting. A meeting where there is no prepared agenda, and — thankfully — no PowerPoint.

Intrigued? Learn about the running meeting in this Runner’s World article.

*Are you more of a walker than a runner? This guidance still applies!

Read the Article Here

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“I’m Sorry, But…”

Excuses only satisfy the person who delivers them.

I can remember the early days of Marine Corps training. These aren’t fond memories: Sergeant Instructors barking orders, endless sets of pushups, never-ending formation runs, and the constant sensation of feeling dirty, sweaty and smelly. There’s something else that happens during training that’s seldom talked or written about – a tight restriction of your vocabulary.

Your Sergeant Instructors make it very clear from Day 1 that you aren’t allowed to refer to yourself in first person – you can’t say “I” or “Me.” When asked a question, you can say “Yes, sir,” “No, sir,” “No excuse, sir,” or “This Candidate doesn’t know but will find out, sir.”

So, if you’re standing in formation during rifle inspection, and the Sergeant asks you why your weapon is dirty, you might want to say: “Seriously? You don’t know? We were out all day doing tactical exercises in the mud. We just got back from training and you expect my rifle to be clean? Seriously?”

But you can’t. The correct answer to that question is: “No excuse, sir.” During training, this is maddening because every missed expectation or mistake has an explanation. But when you’re done with training and go into the Corps, excuses and explanations can frustrate the situation, waste time, and even cost lives.

I didn’t appreciate growing up in a “no excuses” culture until I left the military and transitioned to the private sector. What was immediately surprising about this new environment was how frequently the phrase “I’m sorry, but …” was used as an excuse for poor performance, such as:

I’m sorry I’m late, but my previous meeting ran over.
I’m sorry you didn’t get the right delivery, but our shipping person is new.
I’m sorry that the payment didn’t arrive, but our AP just doesn’t know what they’re doing.
I’m sorry you’re not happy with your customer service, but that’s how we do things around here.

You’ve likely been on the receiving end of an “I’m sorry, but …” Annoying, right? You might have even delivered one recently. (Hey, I’ll admit it – I recently caught myself running late to a dentist appointment and offered up this shoddy excuse.)

The goal for each of us is to get away from offering excuses and get to the point where we do the hard work, which is being accountable for our performance and understanding what we can do differently or better next time to get to a more optimal result.

Demonstrating accountability to the above situations can look like this:

The next time you have a tight schedule, tell the meeting planner that you have a hard stop at the top of the hour and that you’ll need to get to your next appointment.
Check in with the shipping person and share with them the information about the recent wrong delivery. Ask them what you could do better next time to avoid the screw up.
Talk to AP about the payment and its due date and see if there’s anything you can do to ensure the payment is made on time.
If customer service isn’t meeting expectations, figure out how you can change the way things have always “been done around here.”

In SPARK, we have an entire chapter dedicated to accountability. Not only can you learn more about how to demonstrate it, but also understand some of the psychological and physiological barriers that make it hard to be accountable during times that matter most. We also will provide you with resources for understanding where accountability can serve you best in your life.

At Lead Star, we’re on your side. We’re committed to supporting you on your leadership journey.

Become an Accountable Leader

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In Honor of Those Who Serve

A few years ago Jim, my friend and mentor, shared his concern about his teenage son, Jimmy. He seemed to lack direction and was resistant to the guidance Jim was offering. Jim was at a loss on how to reach him and I could tell his angst was keeping him up at night.

A few months later, when I saw Jim at an event and asked about Jimmy, he beamed with pride. He shared that his son made the rather bold decision to join the Army. Jim shared that while this seemed out of character for Jimmy, he had high hopes that the Army would give Jimmy a sense of purpose.

Jim was right. Over the past several years, I’ve heard about how the Army played a very deep, and important, role in Jimmy’s life. Through service, Jimmy found direction, camaraderie and fulfillment. The work Jimmy was doing felt significant to him and he was honored to serve our country. Jimmy thrived in the Army, rising to the rank of Staff Sergeant at an accelerated pace. Each time I saw Jim, he’d let me scroll through his phone to look at pictures of all the cool things Jimmy was doing.

This past Saturday, I opened Facebook and saw a post from Melissa, Jimmy’s sister, who shared a picture of her brother. He had a big smile on his face. I couldn’t help but smile back at his image. A few seconds later, though, I was in disbelief as I read her post. It was a memorial, sharing the horrific news that Jimmy had been killed in an attack the previous night while he was deployed overseas. For the next few minutes, I sat there and cried for my friend and his family’s loss. I spoke with Jim the next day. There really are no words to offer to comfort someone who’s just lost a child. All I could really offer were my prayers and thoughts.

As we wrapped up our conversation, Jim asked me to do a few things. First, to hug my boys and remind them how special they are to me. He also asked me to visit the next time I’m in Texas so we could look at pictures of Jimmy and celebrate his life. Finally, he asked me to get more engaged with how we – as a country – can end our wars.

I share this sad news today, on Veterans Day, so we can all pause for a second and think about our service members, including Jimmy – an all American boy who found his way in the Army and paid the ultimate sacrifice. I also ask that you do one more thing. Heed the last piece of advice Jim gave me. While I don’t yet have the answer to how I can best engage, I’m committed to honoring my promise. Veterans Day shouldn’t just be a time for reflection and gratitude. It should also be a day of action where we recommit our intentions for bringing about peace both at home and abroad.

Listen in as Veterans tell their War Stories: a series of intimate conversations between combat veterans of America’s wars, perhaps offering some insight into the experiences that shaped their lives.

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How To Say “No”

You have achieved a certain level of success by your ability to say “Yes.”

Yes, I will work on Saturday
Yes, I will take on more than my share of work
Yes, I will serve on an additional committee

This strategy has worked really well for you. After all, look at the result? While saying “Yes” has put you in a position of influence, too many “Yes’s” could also lead to your demise.

When we obligate ourselves to too many projects or aggressive deadlines, we can quickly find ourselves over-committing and under-delivering. Suddenly the quality of our work suffers because we do not have an unlimited amount of time and energy to dedicate to our obligations. When our quality suffers, our credibility is impacted.

Perhaps it’s time to start thinking of ways that you can begin to say “No.” “No” doesn’t mean never. Often it means “Not now.” Here are a few ideas on how you can begin to start saying “No”:

When your manager comes to you and you are already overwhelmed, ask for a priorities-based conversation. Perhaps they do not have a clear view of what is already on your plate. They can help you shuffle projects to ensure that work projects have a realistic deadline.
When your colleague comes to you and asks you to serve on an additional committee, don’t say “Yes” right away; rather, say, “That sounds great. Let me think about it.” Buying yourself some time can make it easier to circle back to the individual to say “No … not right now.”
If a client asks you to deliver work beyond the scope of the project, without any additional compensation, before you say “Yes” to accommodate them, have the courage to say, “Let me revisit the agreed upon proposal and we will see how this fits into our original agreement.”

It is also important to have an understanding of what projects, priorities and events are in front of you. We often commit our time without understanding what our future looks like. This knowledge helps us plan properly and ensures that we do not take on more than we are capable of delivering.

Leaders have to guard their credibility with their lives. Our credibility puts us in a position of influence – it is this quality that determines whether or not we are a go-to person in our environment.

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7 Tips for Professionals Seeking to Be Professional

I’ve had some great guidance throughout my career. I recognize not every professional gets insight into the do’s and don’t of the working world, which is why I’m sharing a list of some helpful behaviors I’ve learned that serve as great guideposts for career etiquette.

Here are 7 tips for professionals seeking to be professional.

Never disparage your boss. I learned this one from a mentor. I came to him complaining one day about my boss and he shared that this was just a bad habit to get into. When you gossip about your boss to others, it does more damage to your career than you think. It shows to others that you lack loyalty. If you disagree with your manager, there are better, more constructive ways to manage this relationship than by talking bad about them behind their back.
Don’t be the first in the buffet line. If at corporate events or routine lunch lines, you jockey to get to the buffet first, what you’re unintentionally showing to others that you’re looking out for #1. When I was a Marine, the guidance I received that the most senior person onsite eats last – the privilege of eating first in line always goes to the most junior person. It communicates that you’re prioritizing their well-being. Gestures like these don’t go unnoticed.
Show up at a meeting prepared. If you want to communicate your respect to others, show up at meetings prepared and focused. Be rested, engaged, know the agenda, review any read-ahead materials, etc. This might seem like a small thing, but it makes a big difference. I facilitate meetings all the time – the most prepared individuals always make a strong, positive impression on their colleagues. If you want to be a standout, this is a simple discipline to embrace.
Don’t sit when being introduced to someone. When you’re introduced to someone, stand up, shake their hand, look them in the eyes and express your gratitude in meeting them. It’s the little things that make a great first impression. (I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen this one violated, which kills me because it is just so easy to do!)
Don’t waste your manager’s time … or others, for that matter. We all value our time. You don’t like your time wasted and others don’t like theirs wasted, either. If you have a meeting with your manager, show up prepared. Don’t waste their time by being disorganized and/or rambling on. Have an agenda and know what you want to communicate and what questions you’d like addressed. Be intentional with how you want to present yourself with your manager in a face-to-face setting. You likely don’t see them often – make your moments with them impactful.
Kill the “yeah, but’s” …. No one likes to be in a room with someone who constantly says, “yeah, but …” and then tells you why an idea won’t work. Any criticism without a recommendation is really just complaining. If you feel strongly about something to offer criticism, find a way to champion your thoughts and offer a solution. I’ve always found it useful to replace “yeah, but” with “yeah, and.” This forces me to add to the conversation in a constructive way.
Thank You cards never go out of style. If you really want to express your gratitude to someone, skip the email and write a handwritten note. This simple gesture can create a very positive impression. People don’t forget those who take the time to go above and beyond to express their appreciation.

These 7 habits can really help shape your professional reputation – I’m sure you’ve got a few habits that have served you well, too. I’d love to hear about them. Email me at amorgan@leadstar.us.

Sign up for your free copy of Angie’s new book, SPARK: How to Lead Yourself and Others to Greater Success, to learn 7 key leadership behaviors for success. 

Reserve Your Copy

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5 Strategies to Make Leader Development Successful in Your Organization

When Courtney and I launched Lead Star 12 years ago, we were clear on our mission. We were setting out to inspire greater leadership within businesses and organizations. At the time, we had a book, a speech, and a few workshops that could be tailored to our clients. Fortunately, our offerings led us to many impressive clients that had a true need for leadership development.

Through these amazing relationships we realized that we were more than trainers – we were partners who were advising executives on how to grow and develop leaders throughout their organization. What’s more, we were vested in the success of our clients so much so that we put tremendous effort into understanding the true needs of the organization and how these connected to business outcomes. We were using data to drive development decisions and then creating programs that were culturally relevant and authentic to our clients.

Our work has led us to some conclusions related to learning and development that will help any organization seeking to position itself for future success:

Leadership development needs to be democratized. It isn’t just for senior managers; it needs to happen at every employment level, beginning at onboarding. When every employee feels empowered to lead – whether that’s themselves, their team, or the enterprise – the organization is more nimble and results happen faster.
Executive buy-in is key.Whenever learning is introduced into an organization, executives need to demonstrate the behaviors they expect of others. A surefire way to undermine leadership development is by introducing it only to a select employee population, such as mid-level managers. If employees who are receiving leadership development don’t see the behaviors they are learning reflected among their executive team, they lose motivation to grow and develop.
One-day workshops don’t work. If a new client calls us and asks us for day training, we usually turn down the offer. We don’t provide one-day events if it’s not connected to a greater organizational strategy. What happens outside of the classroom is significantly more important than what happens in a classroom, which is why most one-day events are ineffective. Our programs leverage the 70-20-10 model, which reinforces that organizations need to support a variety of learning methods within their cultures in order for training to “stick.”
Consultants aren’t forever. The most effective organizations don’t rely upon consultants to do their training and development forever. They strive to be leader-led, which means that their managers walk the walk and talk the talk as it relates to leadership. Our goal is to set up our clients for success by equipping managers with the capability to train and develop within their organization so learning is more impactful and lasting.
Development isn’t an expense; it’s an investment. When training and development is treated like an expense, it’s tactical – a communication course here, a coaching course there, and an executive offsite without any focused purpose. When learning is considered an investment, the result is a planned, intentional learning journey organizations can take together to align efforts and drive results.

Today, we partner with businesses and organizations to help them build out their cultures so they can tackle the tough issues that have the potential to stall growth:

Succession planning – to ensure their talent pipeline is strong enough for the future.
Strategy and goals – when these are misaligned, it causes organizational confusion, frustration and inefficiencies.
Retention challenges – talented, capable people are on-demand. Many businesses dedicate resources to “save” their low–performers, while overlooking opportunities to engage their high-performers.
Employee engagement – to ensure everyone is contributing to their fullest potential. We also help businesses identify “Sparks” – hidden talent within their ranks who have the power to transform their businesses and lead them through change.

We strive to work with clients that have the will and commitment to make their people their top priority. If you believe your organization would benefit from a focused leadership development experience, let’s talk. We’re as excited to learn from you as we are to work with you.

Learn More About Our Services

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Your Character: The Congruence Between Values and Actions

Writing a book isn’t an easy process. It can even be downright maddening, especially when you toil over a paragraph because the words aren’t doing justice to the emotions you’re trying to describe.

Then, of course, there’s the pressure. When we sold the proposal for SPARK, we were ecstatic that we landed a great publisher, but we were also in awe of the deadline we were up against. Like any writing team, we knew we had to get going – a natural question was “Where to start?” It took us a nanosecond to agree that the first SPARK behavior we were going to introduce was character.

A leader’s character is the basis of trust with others. If you don’t believe someone has sound character, then you don’t trust her. When trust is absent from a relationship, there is no relationship.

Most professionals aspire to be people of sound character – but often have trouble defining it. I like to think of character as a manifestation of our values. Values are principles or qualities that are important to us, like fairness, family, humor, freedom, justice, humility, faith or adventure. Our values are deeply personal, and we’ve been developing them our whole life. They’ve been inspired by our families, religion or a powerful experience, like the loss of a parent, the birth of a child, or a significant accomplishment.

Our values are critically important for us – they help us understand ourselves better, know our priorities, and help us make decisions. When they’re absent in our life, or are out of reach, we find ourselves living inconsistently with our intentions. We can find ourselves in a compromising place, one in which people don’t know who we really are, therefore aren’t willing to put their trust and confidence in us.

As I write about values, are you wondering, “What are my values? Are they active in my life?” If so, you’re not alone. Many professionals feel that they don’t spend enough time thinking about the principles and qualities that matter most to them. When you receive your complimentary copy of SPARK, we’ll give you concrete examples on how you can explore this critical concept. We’ll also provide you resources that will allow you to reflect on your values, as well as tools to help you spark a conversation about values in your professional environment.

At Lead Star, we believe that anyone has the ability to be a leader – a person who influences and inspires. We’re so committed to this belief that our work isn’t just for managers. Our work is for anyone who’s seeking to make a positive difference for themselves, for others, and the organizations they are a part of.

Being a leader all starts with you and your willingness to go on a leadership development journey. With SPARK, we’ll give you a roadmap. We’re proud to be on this path with you.

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