Lee Ellis's Blog, page 135

Coaching Clip – Leadership Growth Advice with Newton’s Laws

Inertia and entropy. Two of Newton’s laws that are dangerous for any leader who wants to grow and innovate. How do you break the power of these laws in everyday life and work?

Lee’s new 5-minute Leading with Honor coaching clip this month shares a couple of examples and his advice on conquering them for the greater good of your personal development and your team.

(video won’t play? Click this link to watch.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The post Coaching Clip – Leadership Growth Advice with Newton’s Laws appeared first on Leading With Honor®.

Webinar Free Replay – How to Be a Resilient Leader During A Crisis

Webinar Free Replay with Lee Ellis and Commander Mary Kelly USN (ret) on the topic of “How to Be a Resilient Leader During A Crisis”.

Please watch this recent online event with our compliments, and post your comments and feedback below –

Purchase your copy of Leadership Behavior DNA that they mention during this interview–available in the Leading with Honor Store or Amazon.com.

 

The post Webinar Free Replay – How to Be a Resilient Leader During A Crisis appeared first on Leading With Honor®.

Coaching Article – How Innovative Leaders are Breaking Newton’s Laws

Everywhere I turn I hear people talking about the need to increase performance via new processes and/or raising employee engagement. Great ideas, but change and growth must start with leaders first, and that’s a nasty proposition for many leaders who have done the same thing for most of their careers.

For the last four decades, my work has focused on teaching, coaching, selecting, and training leaders.  Everyone wants to be successful as a leader, but to grow we must overcome inertia and entropy. Say what?!?

Here’s a common example of what I mean. Pause and think about how successful you’ve been to keep your New Year’s Resolutions. Now you get it. And you know why I’ll always have a job to help leaders and teams grow.

Newton’s Laws of Inertia and Entropy

Newton’s first law says a body at rest will remain at rest until acted on by some outside force—that’s the definition of inertia. In human behavior, that’s what happens when we get set in our ways and say, “That’s just the way I am” or “That’s how I’ve always done it.”

In his landmark book, The Road Less Travelled, psychiatrist Scott Peck took a slightly different but similar angle referring to Newton’s second law that can also be translated and related to human behavior: without an infusion of energy and good management, things go downhill. Entropy occurs which results in decay and falling apart.

“The status quo in work and leadership is fleeting. By law, situations will naturally get worse if we don’t change (grow) to get better.” [Tweet This]

Watch my short 3-minute Leading with Honor coaching clip, and react and comment –

(If the video does not play, click to watch here.)

Leadership Application

Now, let’s apply this idea in leadership. It’s only through intentionality and effort that we get better, and that’s the rub—it ain’t easy. In coaching leaders, too often we encounter people who don’t want to grow. They may not say it directly, but their attitudes and mindsets make it clear.

One CEO told me that he had some people in executive roles that just didn’t want to grow. They had made it clear that change is not for them at this point in their life and career, so he recognized that he had to act and give them a choice to grow or leave the company.

So, what do leaders need to do?

Clearly, the change that it takes to overcome inertia and entropy is the battle to conquer the fraternal twins of insecurity—pride and fear. We must choose to believe in ourselves and shift our mindsets to learn and adapt our behaviors. This growth process is best done in community with the leader setting the example.

Though focusing on strengths is great for your early career, over-using them as a leader can become a struggle that undermines your influence.*

“To grow as a leader, work on the balance of using your strengths while being aware of your struggles and learn how to adapt your behaviors in the moment to operate more effectively.” [Tweet This]

In our training and development work, we scientifically focus on natural behavior to help leaders grow. Here are two quick Leadership Behavior DNA examples.

The Reflective Thinker Style Group. With strengths of being task focused, organized, detailed, accurate, reserved and working best alone, this leader struggles with engaging and connecting with others, giving positive feedback, coaching their people. Instead they like to come in the office and shut the door so they can do their work.
The Engager Style Group. This person is social, enjoys people and loves to share stories and just chat. They are optimistic and enjoy encouraging others. But this leader struggles with staying focused, giving clear direction, finishing projects, meeting deadlines, and holding people accountable.

Respectively, how do each of their natural talents impact workplace energy and morale? You can see that using their strengths more is not going to make things better. They must leverage their strengths to adapt and behave differently. Here’s one of my past leadership coaching examples.

I was coaching a CEO who was a fine man and great at getting results, but he had been with the company for a year and hardly knew his team. He told me, “Being relational is just not me. I don’t do that well.” So, we adapted his strengths to create a spreadsheet to help manage his struggles. We listed all his people across the top and then in column one, listed seven specific things he could do to build a relationship and encourage each one. His job was to get those boxes checked off, and he became more relational by adapting his strengths to manage his struggles.

Here are 7 practical ways to immediately begin to grow –

Believe in yourself. Courageously set aside your doubts and fears and any underlying pride.
Assess to gain self-awareness. Gain insights—use assessments, and objective feedback, so you know what needs work.
Plan. Develop a simple plan on how you will adapt. For example, pick two areas of struggle.
Be humble—go public. Let others know that you are working on these two areas of growth.
Practice. List specific situations in which you will adapt (maybe use a spreadsheet).
Be accountable. Ask for feedback on successes and missed opportunities.
Courageously commit to the long haul. Coach yourself; it will probably never become completely natural.

So, if this journey is so hard, why should you engage in it? Because the payoff will be worth it:

higher performance, increased innovation, and a better workplace
more positive energy
greater trust
higher influence
greater flexibility
better collaboration
more effective use of the best talents of others

If you engage in this battle, a little change will give great victories. These are two laws that you will be rewarded for breaking. So, go for it and kick Newton’s butt.

LE

[Tweet this Article]

Learn How to Lead Based on Differences

[image error]

Every human is unique — and the best leaders know why this might be an advantage. Learn how embracing different talents and abilities, both our own and those of others, can lead to more effective leadership and success.

Grounded in statistical research and supported by data from millions of clients and more than 45 years of workplace experience, Lee Ellis and Hugh Massie reveal their personal stories and experience on how they’ve successfully helped organizations achieve their goals by applying practical insights on human design.

Order Your Copy

Additional discount available for bulk orders.

“…There are few that have made significant strides on making ‘knowing yourself’ operational and real as Lee and Hugh have in this marvelous book. Reading this book is a compelling adventure. If you follow the path, you will change for the better!” – Richard Boyatzis, Co-author of the international best seller, Primal Leadership and the new Helping People Change

“This is the book that I have longed for during my decades in managing talent. Having seen the positive impact of DNA Behavior on my teams, this is a must-read for leaders who desire to build strong teams by accelerating natural talents in an authentic and lasting way.” – Belva White, CPA, MBA, Vice President for Finance & Treasury, Emory University

 

 

*The problem of leaders overusing their strengths is historically clear.

In Winston Churchill: A Biography, Piers Brendon expressed it this way:

“Churchill rose to this challenge with incomparable vigor and self-confidence. These characteristics were precisely the ones to which he owed both his failures and his successes as First Lord. [younger days]

For as Admiral Bacon said, ‘Churchill’s vices were simply his virtues in exaggerated form. Dash became rashness. Assurance became cocksureness. Churchill’s overflowing energy was difficult to harness. His overwhelming faith in himself closed his mind to the opinions of others.’”

Famous psychologist Abraham Maslow used this powerful analogy.

“To a man who only has a hammer, everything he encounters begins to look like a nail.”

 

 

The post Coaching Article – How Innovative Leaders are Breaking Newton’s Laws appeared first on Leading With Honor®.

On This Day in Leadership History, August 30th

On this day in leadership history in 1963, the “Hotline” between Moscow and Washington, DC, went into operation.

What’s the leadership lesson? No matter how challenging or strained the relationship may be, honorable leaders choose to engage and communicate for the greater good of those around them. You can do it too.

Washington-Moscow Hotline – Wikipedia

 

 

 

The post On This Day in Leadership History, August 30th appeared first on Leading With Honor®.

Last Chance! 99 Cent Offer

Last Chance! Get the award-winning Leading with Honor ebook for only 99 cents as one of Amazon.com’s featured Kindle Monthly Deals for the month of August.

Purchase your copy on Amazon.com

 

 

The post Last Chance! 99 Cent Offer appeared first on Leading With Honor®.

Free Webinar Replay – “Hiring the Best Talent”

Free Webinar Replay – in this latest game show-style online event, Hugh Massie and Lee Ellis presented several hiring scenarios and how DNA Behavior’s 8 Factors clearly reveal the best choices. Watch and hear in-depth, exclusive insight on how to hire and promote others using behavioral insights.

Two special offers were mentioned in this online event:

– Download a free sample of the Leadership Behavior DNA book.

– Purchase the Leadership Behavior DNA book in our Online Store or Amazon.

Click to watch below—no registration required.

 

The post Free Webinar Replay – “Hiring the Best Talent” appeared first on Leading With Honor®.

Leading with Honor Wisdom for Today, August 28, 2020

“Fear stifles our thinking and actions. It creates indecisiveness that results in stagnation. I have known talented people who procrastinate indefinitely rather than risk failure. Lost opportunities cause erosion of confidence, and the downward spiral begins.” – Charles Stanley

 

 

 

The post Leading with Honor Wisdom for Today, August 28, 2020 appeared first on Leading With Honor®.

What’s Your Leadership Tilt? Find Your Balance Inside

What’s your tilt? We’ve surveyed hundreds of leaders about their greatest leader, the most important natural behaviors beyond character and hard worker were a balance of both Results and Relationships. Where do you tilt on the results and relationships scale?

Check out the free infographic below, and please tell others about it!

 

 

The post What’s Your Leadership Tilt? Find Your Balance Inside appeared first on Leading With Honor®.

Leadership Mentorship – Lee Ellis True Story

Want to know the most natural ways to be a leader mentor? Lee shares a very personal part of his mentorship journey from one of his past leaders, Col Dick O’Grady USAF (Ret) (1937-2018). Please also post your mentorship tips too –

 

 

 

 

The post Leadership Mentorship – Lee Ellis True Story appeared first on Leading With Honor®.

Latest Recommendation from Lee’s Bookshelf

The Latest Recommendation from Lee’s Bookshelf – “Encouraging the Heart: A Leader’s Guide to Rewarding and Recognizing Others” by James Kouzes and Barry Posner.

All too often, simple acts of human kindness are often overlooked and underutilized by people in leadership roles. Advising mutual respect and recognition of accomplishments, Encouraging the Heart shows us how true leaders encourage and motivate those they work with by helping them find their voice and making them feel like heroes.

Learn More on the Good Reads website and read reviews.

If you’ve read this book, please jot your comments in this post below – thank you

 

 

The post Latest Recommendation from Lee’s Bookshelf appeared first on Leading With Honor®.