Lee Ellis's Blog, page 238
July 2, 2017
On this day in leadership history, July 2nd
On this day in leadership history in 1982, Larry Walters (“Lawnchair Larry”) took flight in his homemade airship that consisted of a lawnchair with 45 helium-filled weather balloons attached to it. He stayed in flight for about an hour.
What’s the leadership lesson? If you have an innovative, energetic, creative team of people at work, listen to them and be ready for anything!
Larry Walters – Wikipedia
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June 30, 2017
Leading with Honor Wisdom for Today, June 30, 2017
“Never do leadership alone. Life in leadership is hard. Life in leadership alone is impossible.” – Jimmy Mellado
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June 29, 2017
More results-oriented and relationship-oriented? Be honest with the enclosed list
Are you more results-oriented or relationship-oriented? Be honest with the list below:
Results Oriented
Take charge, decisive
Introverted, focused
High standards, task oriented
Challenging, speaks directly
Logical, organized
Skeptical
Relationship Oriented
Encouraging, supportive
Trusting
Good listener
Gives positive feedback
Concerned and caring
Develops others
The key is better balance with both. Here are 5 Tips:
How do you gain a better balance? First, accept the fact that most of your strengths are natural—we are born with them and naturally out of balance.
Results-oriented leaders need to soften up. It takes intentional courage for a thick-skinned, results-oriented person to be a good leader and do these “people” things that are so important.
Relationship-oriented leaders need to toughen up. Casting a stretch vision and conducting difficult conversations is essential to keep the organization and individual team members moving ahead toward successful execution.
Small changes pay big returns. No matter which side of the balance scales you’re on, adapting new behaviors on your weak side even at small levels will lead to significant improvements.
It takes courage to change. You cannot become a better leader by reading books and going to workshops. You have to change your behaviors; there is no other way.
Take the first step. Do one thing today to move towards a better balance.
To gain more insight, read the entire article on this topic.
Please share your thoughts and wisdom too, in this post – thank you
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June 28, 2017
Watch this clip – “Beyond competency – why character, courage, and commitment sets you apart”
Rather than having fear and trepidation about the concept of accountability, Lee briefly explains the positive aspects of courageous accountability as a means to achieving your goals.
The key is to establish an authentic foundation of character, courage, and commitment so you can build consistency and trust with yourself and others. Please watch and share your comments – thank you
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June 27, 2017
Fill-in-the-Blank – “If I’m honest…”
Fill-in-the-Blank – “If I’m honest, I’m intentionally disciplined in my work focus and habits approximately _____ % of the time.”
Please share your comments in the this post – thank you
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June 26, 2017
Show your honor this summer!
Show your Honor this Summer! Leading with Honor Wristbands in our Online Store remind all of us to lead with character and courage.
Great for Summer Camp programs, work training events, etc.
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June 25, 2017
On this day in leadership history, June 25th
On this day in leadership history in 1868, FL, AL, LA, GA, NC & SC were readmitted to U.S. It took three years for the readmission process to begin after the war ended in 1865.
What’s the leadership lesson? Sometimes after a relationship has ended, it’s time to re-connect. Only you can decide when it’s the right time. But do it with character and honor.
American Civil War – Wikipedia
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June 23, 2017
Leading with Honor Wisdom for Today, June 23, 2017
“Make us to choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong, and never to be content with a half-truth when the whole can be won.” – An Excerpt from the West Point Prayer
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June 20, 2017
4 Summer Leadership Discipline Tips (Amidst the Fun)
Whether you’re a Millennial or Gen Z or a seasoned Boomer, it’s courageously learning to do what we don’t want to do and doing what we know that we should do to achieve our goals.
Here are 4 helpful tips from Lee Ellis to improve your discipline –
Recognize that choices become habits. Whether good or bad, the same choice done repeatedly becomes a habit. It’s just human nature. Be aware of your choices and how they affect your desires and goals.
Protect your character. It will keep you on track and help you make more consistent, daily choices. Download the Honor Code if you need some guidance.
Manage distractions. Whether it’s disabling notifications on your cell phone and computer to scheduling thinking and planning time on your calendar, these small changes can yield big results.
Overcome Procrastination. From simple to serious, we all procrastinate about various things. Try doing a couple of things that you’ve been putting off (or dreading) and see the results.
What are the discipline items that work for you? Please share in this post – thank you
Also, read this month’s blog article on this topic – 4 Defining Steps to Better Leadership Discipline
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June 19, 2017
Results vs Relationships Balance – How to Assess Your Team’s Behavior
As a child, riding a seesaw was fun, wasn’t it? Well, except when you didn’t have equal weight on both sides—then it was just out of balance and someone got stuck in mid-air. That bears the question—is your leadership out of balance? Most likely it is because statistically, more than 85% of the population tilts toward being strong at either Results or Relationships and weak at the other.
What’s wrong with being out of balance?
The idea of balancing results and relationships is nothing new, but if we assume that character is the foundation of leadership, then there should be an inner motivation to accomplish the mission (get results) and take care of the people (build relationships). If you don’t get results, you can’t be truly successful in your work or justify your purpose and if you don’t take care of your people, some will quit and leave and some will quit and stay. In either case, it’s not a viable situation. So in the long run, balancing a concern for people with accomplishing the mission is crucial to success.
“So in the long run, balancing a concern for people with accomplishing the mission is crucial to success.” [Tweet This]
Identify your natural bent.
How can you know and what can you do about it? Begin by examining the two sets of attributes below and deciding which list of behaviors best describes your “natural” talents. This indicates your natural leadership style and predicts the direction of your tilt as well as the area in which you need to work to improve your balance. The Leadership Behavior DNA Report can also assess exactly where you and your team members fit on this seesaw to improve team dynamics.
Which one are you?
Results Oriented
Take charge, decisive
Introverted, focused
High standards, task oriented
Challenging, speaks directly
Logical, organized
Skeptical
Relationship Oriented
Encouraging, supportive
Trusting
Good listener
Gives positive feedback
Concerned and caring
Develops others
Now, how do you gain a better balance?
First, accept the fact that most of your strengths are natural—we are born with them and naturally out of balance. To get better, we have to change by learning some new personality talents (behaviors). You don’t need to give up who you are, what you have and you don’t need to reinvent yourself. Rather, you augment your strengths by adapting new behaviors that will make you more effective. The way you do this is to intentionally learn a few behaviors in your weaker area that bring you more in balance. The reason this is so hard is that it’s not natural, and therefore often feels very awkward, sometimes hokey and even phony.
“You don’t need to give up who you are, what you have and you don’t need to reinvent yourself. Rather, you augment your strengths by adapting new behaviors that will make you more effective.” [Tweet This]
Results-oriented leaders need to soften up.
If this is your style, just the idea of softening seems anathema; but developing good interpersonal skills is what’s needed to make you a better leader. You know it—you just don’t want to go there. For example, learning to patiently listen, really understand, and then affirm the ideas of others can feel very scary. For some, the needed skill might be learning to give specific, positive feedback. These “soft” skills would be as easy as breathing for many relationship-oriented leaders; but for the tough rational results group, it can be terrifying—they feel out of control and way out of their comfort zone. It takes intentional courage for a thick-skinned, results-oriented person to be a good leader and do these “people” things that are so important.
Relationship-oriented leaders need to toughen up.
If you’re someone whose style is naturally, highly relational you will need to identify a couple of behaviors on the results-oriented chart to work on. Quite often this is learning to be more decisive and more direct in giving guidance and setting standards. Casting a stretch vision and conducting difficult conversations is essential to keep the organization and individual team members moving ahead toward successful execution. It may be intimidating, so plan out what you are going to say and then courageously deliver your message; it’s the only way for you to gain a better balance and be the leader you want to be.
Small changes pay big returns.
No matter which side of the balance scales you’re on, adapting new behaviors on your weak side even at small levels will lead to significant improvements. Over time they will become easier thus facilitating even further change for the leader.
“You cannot become a better leader by reading books and going to workshops. These are great ways to learn but when it comes down to actual growth, you have to change your behaviors; there is no other way.” [Tweet This]
It also takes courage to change. You cannot become a better leader by reading books and going to workshops. These are great ways to learn but when it comes down to actual growth, you have to change your behaviors; there is no other way. You have to give up some of your old habits like dominating or withdrawing and engage others with a more balanced leadership style, and you have to do it under the daily pressures of life and work. That’s what it means to lead with honor—having the courage to do what you know you should do.
Take the first step.
Well now that you’ve read this, you likely already know what you need to do to gain a better leadership balance and be the leader you want to be. What are you going to do differently? Who will you engage as your support team to encourage and support you in your growth? As you make progress balancing on the leadership seesaw, help others to gain a better balance, too.
LE
Assess the Natural Behaviors of Your Team
[image error]Knowing the natural leadership behaviors of your team is the smart way to lead. With this valuable information, unity, productivity, and performance increase dramatically giving you the strategic edge in the marketplace.
Learn More about Leadership Behavior DNA and Contact Us for customized proposal.
Read More about Leadership Balance
[image error]After surveying hundreds of leaders about President Abraham Lincoln’s leadership ability to achieve great results amidst unbearably difficult circumstances, there were some tangible leadership attributes that rose to the top in Lee’s research.
The Leadership Balance Case Study examines the unique results vs. relationships balance of this famous presidential leaders in U.S. history. Download your free copy.
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