David Dye's Blog, page 120
June 27, 2016
5 Top Leadership Articles for the Week of June 27, 2016
Each week I read a number of leadership articles from various online resources and share them across social media. Here are the five articles readers found most valuable last week. I have added my comment about each article and would like to hear what you think, too.
Love Is One of the Core Qualities of Leadership (via SmartBriefs on Leadership) – originally: The Simple Truths Behind The 8 Principles Of More Human Leadership by Terry St. Marie
Humility. Trust. Values. Teaching. Accountability. Metrics. Positivity. And…. Love.
Behind the 8 Principles of More Human Leadership are simple truths, and the secrets to the success trifecta – a profitable company, a happy team, and a fulfilled YOU.
My Comment: Leadership is a relationship and St. Marie’s 8 principles underscore that fundamental truth. I’ve long believed in ‘love’ as a leadership value – obviously, we’re not talking about romantic love here, but about the genuine regard and other-mindedness that people have for one another all the time. This is possible even in the extremes…In Winning Well I share how I tried not to terminate employment for cause until I was doing it from a place of compassion – that this really is in the employee’s and the team’s best interest.
Doing It All Yourself by David Greer
Things were tense onboard Van Kedisi. The four of us had sailed that morning from Los Christianos on the island of Tenerife. We were approaching San Sebastian on the island of La Gomera, Christopher Columbus’ launching point for sailing across the Atlantic Ocean. All four of us onboard were working together to spot the entrance channel and the tiny opening to the harbour as we passed massive ferries on the commercial dock. On a sailboat you all have to work together because your lives depend on it. In this instance grounding out on a rock or hitting the breakwater would not likely have cost us our lives, but it would have done serious damage to Van Kedisi scuttling our well laid plans to sail across the Atlantic together.
In the rest of our lives, we depend on other people, yet as humans we often operate as if we have to do it all ourselves. Not only does it limit what we can achieve, we end up burning ourselves out…
My Comment: Greer rightly points out a common trap for leaders: the “If you want it done right, do it yourself” pitfall. If you’ve been down that road you know it leads nowhere. Greer shares some of the common reasons you might fall into this trap as well as how to overcome them and create situations where 1 + 1 = 3.
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Buy the book (click here for Amazon) from your favorite bookseller
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Is Your Leadership Getting in the Way of Profitability? By Mary Kelly, PhD, US Navy (Ret)
Leaders often don’t realize how much of a role they play in the success or failure of all aspects of business growth. Great leaders run profitable companies because they follow great leadership practices. Looking to improve profitability…?
My Comment: Kelly gets to the bottom line (literally and figuratively) in this article – are you helping your team make a business profit or are you getting in the way? Even if you’re leading an internal, a nonprofit, or public sector team, the same principles apply. Kelly shares five ways to make sure you’re helping produce results – and not screwing them up!
Five Outdated Leadership Ideas That Need to Die by Liz Ryan at Forbes.com
We are 16 years into the new millennium and it is time that our leadership practices reflected today’s reality. We are not in the Industrial Age anymore. Our only ability to compete and to win customers is to put the smartest, best-equipped team on the field, and that can only happen if our workplaces are fun and energizing places where smart people want to be.
We have to manage our cultures so that they exalt and bring out people’s talents, not squash them and belittle them. Too many organizations are stuck in a Machine Age mindset. They rule by fear instead of trust. They shackle their employees with stupid rules and policies instead of setting them free to create amazing products and solutions.
My Comment: This was easily the most popular article I shared this week and it’s easy to see why: Ryan takes an uncompromising stance with regard to the contemporary work place and some of the historical (though not necessarily valuable even then) ideas that continue to linger in many organizations.
I would hope that no company and no person needs to be told that managers aren’t better than everyone else, but its insidious and it creeps in when responsibilities begin to confer status. I invite you to read Ryan’s other four ideas an examine whether they linger in you or your team.
What is Your Team Saying Behind Your Back by Karin Hurt
Have you ever talked about your boss behind your back? If you haven’t complained to at least someone…you’re a saint. Call me. I’m sure you’ve got some wisdom we can share here at LGL. For the rest of us… you know… right? Just like you’re complaining about that boss who (you might even like a lot of the time) has behaviors you wish they would improve–SOON. And chances are you haven’t told them.
Here’s the real deal. No matter how wonderful you are, I guarantee you, your team is talking about you (in some way that would surprise you) too.
My Comment: This article from my Winning Well co-author Karin Hurt was another popular one this week. Hurt addresses the reality that people are always talking…and that you have a chance to influence what they’re saying. It includes a fun video from our Winning Well eCourse as well.
David works with leaders to get results without losing their soul (or mind) in the process. Have David keynote your next event or deliver corporate training: Email today or call 303.898.7018!The post 5 Top Leadership Articles for the Week of June 27, 2016 appeared first on Leadership Speaker David Dye.
Book David today for your event, workshop, or training: david@trailblazeinc.com or 1.800.972.582
June 20, 2016
The Problem with Motivating People | David Dye’s Engage! | May 2016
The Problem with Motivating People
Are the Carrot and Stick Dead?
Recently I delivered a Winning Well program to an audience in Saudi Arabia.
In the Q & A following the program, one audience member asked an important question: “David, what you say about Winning Well makes sense and it is a different way to think. I have a question about motivating people: are the ‘carrot and stick’ dead?”
If you’re not familiar with the carrot and stick, they are images that represent two ways people have traditionally tried to motivate others.
The carrot represents incentives. Give people something to pursue…a bonus, a piece of candy, a corner office, and they will perform.
The stick represents pain. When people don’t perform, punish them until they do.
I loved this question because it is both honest and insightful. These styles of ‘motivation’ come naturally to most people. And they do get results…
The Problem With the Carrot and Stick
I discovered the problem with ‘carrot and stick’ motivation early in my career as a high school teacher. You may have seen movies where teachers try to incentivize students to learn by giving them candy for correct answers.
The problem of course, is that when the candy disappears, so does the student’s motivation to try.
And if you ever had a punishment-oriented teacher, you know the problem there: fear, power, and control don’t help you learn. You just do the least amount needed to avoid being punished and you can’t wait to get out of there.
You can get results from carrot and stick motivation, but it’s pretty limited. People do the least amount to get the incentive or avoid the punishment…and that’s about all they do.
I work with thousands of leaders in all different industries and I’ve never met anyone who said, “If I could just get the least amount of effort from my team, we’d be a success!”
That’s the first problem with carrot and stick techniques – they only get you the minimum effort, and that’s not what you need.
The second problem with both of these strategies is that they require constant energy to sustain. You have to keep rewarding people with treats that aren’t directly related to the work or you have to keep punishing or replacing people. Either option is exhausting and isolates you from your people.
Winning Well
The carrot and stick aren’t dead – they’re just not as effective.
Remember, you don’t actually motivate people. Their motivations are internal. Build an environment that releases people’s internal motivations, talents, and strengths toward the work.
When you lead from a place of confidence and humility while staying focused on both results and relationships, you create a foundation where you can begin to cultivate people’s internal motivations.
You don’t have to push and you don’t have to plead. You’ll achieve excellent results time and again – and that’s Winning Well!
Be the leader you want your boss to be,
David Dye
Creative Commons Alan O’Rourke
The post The Problem with Motivating People | David Dye’s Engage! | May 2016 appeared first on Leadership Speaker David Dye.
Book David today for your event, workshop, or training: david@trailblazeinc.com or 1.800.972.582
June 19, 2016
5 Top Leadership Articles for the Week of June 13, 2016
“There are no wasted words in Winning Well – all “jewels,” clearly organized in an easy to read format, supported by tools, meaningful questions to ask, and compelling stories of real life behaviors. It is the how to resource to treat employees with dignity and respect to not only get optimum results but to also leave a legacy of making a difference in people’s lives because you have encouraged them to grow and be their best.”
-Elizabeth C., Maryland
Get Winning Well: A Manager’s Guide to Getting Results Without Losing Your Soul and help to spread the word!
Buy the book (click here for Amazon) from your favorite bookseller
Review the book on Amazon and Barnes and Noble
Share the Winning Wellwebsite and book with the leaders and managers in your life: WinningWellBook.com
Each week I read a number of leadership articles from various online resources and share them across social media. Here are the five articles readers found most valuable last week. I have added my comment about each article and would like to hear what you think, too.
Influencing People Who Don’t Report to You by John Baldoni at SmartBrief
Maybe the toughest thing in management to do is persuade others to go along with you when you have no authority over them. If you find yourself in this situation, consider these five action steps…
My Comment: People often ask me how they can influence the people they can’t control. My reply is always, “Who do you think you can control?”
(Hint: The answer is no one.) You can’t control another human being. They make their own choices. However, you can influence other people. That’s why I invite leaders not to motivate, but cultivate.
Baldoni’s advice is spot on and includes a video along with the five brief action steps. I would invite you to consider these same principles in all your interactions. Having the ability to fire someone is different than the ability to influence and draw out their best.
3 Hurdles to Implementing Leadership Development by Darleen DeRosa at Business2Community.com
Framed sculptor and plastic surgeon Jack Penn once said one of the secrets to life is to make stepping stones out of stumbling blocks. This is certainly true when it comes to implementing leadership development programs.
You understand the importance of developing employees—after all, it’s a primary focus of your job. But when it’s time to make the case to others within your organization, you’re often met with excuses, concerns about logistics or questions about whether it’s even worthwhile. Here are a few of the most common objections to implementing leadership development and tips on how to respond to those concerns.
My Comment: DeRosa takes a thorough look at the reasons business don’t invest in leadership development and addresses three common barriers: time, cost, and difficulty in measuring results. Honestly, this subject boggles my mind.
Would you ever hire a new employee, give them no training, and send them out to deal with your customers? Of course not! If you did, you would soon be out of business. And yet…over half of managers receive no training before being given responsibility for your most important resource – your people.
As you look for effective, measureable, efficient leadership development, I invite you to check out the Winning Well eCourse. It’s self-paced, delivered online, fun – and features practical tools you and your leaders can put to work right away.
Why Isn’t Every Leader a Servant Leader by Ken Blanchard
My wish is that someday, every leader will be a servant leader. Unfortunately, the human ego can make it difficult. There are two ways we let our ego get in the way of leading with a serving heart and mindset…
My Comment: I began my first book, The Seven Things Your Team Needs to Hear You Say, by looking at what keeps us from leading well. I think it’s a serious question – after all, we’ve been working together and leading one another for a very long time. Shouldn’t we have a better grasp of it than we do? Why is it so rare?
So I was happy to see Blanchard address this question through the lens of ego afflictions: specifically false pride and fear. These twin afflictions cripple your influence – and they are incredibly widespread. I’ve certainly experienced and wrestled with both of them…and I haven’t always won those struggles. He also offers antidotes for both of these universal challenges.
4 Ways to Know if Your Company Has a Successful Culture by Shandra Martinez
The difference between a great and horrible place to work can come down to a company’s culture and can be gauged by how employees engage at work and whether morale is high. This “soft” concept is hard to tie to return on investment or profit, but it is important in attracting the best and brightest talent…
My Comment: Martinez, citing a culture consultant, talks about four qualities to look for in a healthy culture: clear vision, authenticity, respect, and alchemy. I haven’t seen alchemy in these discussions – what she’s getting at is the sense that everyone is pulling their weight and creating something powerful together. I would add a quick reminder: your team has a culture – whether you’ve intentionally created it or not. Is it a culture you want to work in? Will other people want to continue working in it?
U.S. Employee Engagement Slips Below 33% in May by Amy Adkins at Gallup.com
The percentage of U.S. workers whom Gallup considers “engaged” in their jobs averaged 32.7% in May. While still among the better monthly averages on record, May follows two consecutive months in which employee engagement averages remained at or above 33.0% — a rare occurrence in Gallup’s history of tracking the metric.
My Comment: There are a couple different ways to look at this information. Yes, employee engagement is trending up. From May 2011 to May 2016 it’s improved from about 27.5% to 32.7%.
Is that something to be excited about? Perhaps…improvement is good and if the trend continues it promises better quality of work life as well as corresponding increases in productivity.
That said…another way to interpret the data is that engagement has basically hovered around 30% for the last five years – and that’s simply not good enough. I don’t know a single leader who would be satisfied with 3 energized employees out of 10.
David works with leaders to get results without losing their soul (or mind) in the process. Have David keynote your next event or deliver corporate training: Email today or call 303.898.7018!The post 5 Top Leadership Articles for the Week of June 13, 2016 appeared first on Leadership Speaker David Dye.
Book David today for your event, workshop, or training: david@trailblazeinc.com or 1.800.972.582
June 12, 2016
5 Top Leadership Articles for the Week of June 6, 2016
Join the Movement!
Get Winning Well: A Manager’s Guide to Getting Results Without Losing Your Soul and help to spread the word!
Buy the book (click here for Amazon) from your favorite bookseller
Review the book on Amazon and Barnes and Noble
Share the Winning Wellwebsite and book with the leaders and managers in your life: WinningWellBook.com
“In my never-ending quest for leadership and organizational development tools, I have come across a terrific resource, especially for first-line and mid-level managers, who I believe hold the absolutely toughest leadership positions. Winning Well is chock full of specific examples, tools, advice and guidance and is sure to cover almost any tough scenario that a manager will face. Read it through, and keep it handy to guide you when you need it. The accompanying web site has even more tools and guidance. The authors, Karin Hurt and David Dye, are both seasoned and experienced leaders and are available to meet with your teams for even more learning adventures. Check this one out!” -Julie, Washington D.C.
Each week I read a number of leadership articles from various online resources and share them across social media. Here are the five articles readers found most valuable last week. I have added my comment about each article and would like to hear what you think, too.
Leaders: Who’s Shaping Your Company’s Culture? by Gael O’Brien at Entrepreneur
Can an entire company’s culture be changed? Yes, but it has to be done fairly and transparently. If you haven’t formalized a company code of conduct, get started immediately so that employees stop making up their own rules. Make it clear to employees what needs to change and why. Everyone will need to know what is expected going forward.
My Comment: After I deliver a keynote or workshop, I’m often asked by leaders who are eager to implement what they’ve learned: Is it too late for me? What do I do to ‘start over’?
The short answer is no – it’s never too late to lead. In answer to a question from a leader who used to be ‘one of the guys,’ O’Brien provides a great approach to begin intentionally crafting the culture you want.
Meg Whitman on Why She ‘Runs to the Fire’ by Kerry A. Dolan at Forbes
CEO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise Meg Whitman says her favorite short motto is “Run to the fire.” She’s been in plenty of fires, metaphorically speaking. Most recently, Whitman had to figure out how to boost revenue at Hewlett Packard Enterprise, which split off from Hewlett Packard in November 2015 and sells servers, software and more to businesses.
My Comment: I discovered through my own trials, errors, and challenges that when something is uncomfortable – when I first have that sensation of avoidance…that I don’t want to do it – that is the single most important thing I can focus on. When you allow a fire to persist, it only gets bigger. When you run toward the problems, you distinguish yourself from other leaders who take a more passive role and you discover opportunities to distinguish your team and organization. Great business leaders often turn the persistent challenges that plague everyone into their triumphs and organizational strength.
3 Reasons Your Employees Aren’t Listening to You by Karin Hurt and David Dye at Fast Company
“But I’ve told them!” You’re frustrated. You’ve already explained the new procedures that will improve your team’s work and cut costs, but they aren’t listening. Chances are, they still don’t understand what you want them to do differently or don’t believe it’ll work. “But I’ve told them! I swear I have,” you insist—first to yourself and later to a colleague over lunch. “And I have the meeting agendas where I spelled it all out to prove it!”
One of the most aggravating experiences of being a manager is when your employees don’t listen to you. But how you handle those moments matters. Learn from them and your effectiveness will skyrocket, but if you become so frustrated that you rely on fear and power, your credibility and influence can start to disintegrate.
My Comment: This was easily the most popular article across all my networks this week. Karin and I share three vital ways to ensure you have influence with your team.
Why Millennials Value Company Culture Above All Else by Erin Vaughan at ATD
Have you ever had an employee respond to an email in emoji? Or had one ask what a fax machine was? Was that employee younger than 30? Then you know that sometimes the divide between generations can be wide. Last year, Millennials exceeded Gen Xers as the largest demographic in the labor market, and their growing presence is shaping what it means to do work.
Each generation wants a distinct set of benefits from their employers, and Millennials are no different. Increasingly, employees desire a flexible work schedule, and seek jobs with companies that they think are invigorating and inspiring, according to Fortune. They want to work for an organization that recognizes them as individuals, rather than cogs in the system. But what is behind these trends, and how can you keep up? Let’s take a look at what Millennials want from work, and what you can do to give it to them without upsetting older workers in the process.
My Comment: I’m not a fan of pitting one type of person against another. Every person, personality, generation, gender, background, etc has some kind of strength to offer your team. In this article Vaughan highlights some of the motivations guiding many millennials and offers suggestions on how you can bridge the gaps. I recommend coming to this issue with an open mind. These younger workers have many valuable contributions to make to your team.
Why Leaders Feel Lonely and What They Can Do About It by Napthali Hoff on SmartBrief
One of the most famous American photos was captured by journalist George Tames on Feb. 10, 1961. The picture is of President John F. Kennedy, recently inaugurated, standing hunched over in the Oval Office. From behind, it looks as if he is carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. Kennedy, who had a bad back, was simply reading the newspapers standing up, as he often preferred to do. Still, the image, which the New York Times would later christen, “The loneliest job in the world,” would take on greater significance as Kennedy navigated through the Cuban Missile Crisis and other global challenges.
Loneliness is, in a relative sense, measured in the eyes of the beholder. Some argue that the loneliest professionals in the world are those who toil in isolation, with limited opportunity for interpersonal communication. These include writers, poets and scientific researchers working in remote outposts.
My Comment: Hoff takes a good look at the seeming truism that leadership is a lonely pursuit. He suggests that it doesn’t have to be this way. Yes, leadership can be isolating – but as with many things in life, you can take responsibility to connect with other leaders, stay connected to relationships outside work, and take the effort to reflect on the wisdom available in solitude.
David works with leaders to get results without losing their soul (or mind) in the process. Have David to speak at your next event or corporate training: Email today or call 303.898.7018!
The post 5 Top Leadership Articles for the Week of June 6, 2016 appeared first on Leadership Speaker David Dye.
Book David today for your event, workshop, or training: david@trailblazeinc.com or 1.800.972.582
June 5, 2016
5 Top Leadership Articles for the Week of May 30, 2016 and Bonus Video
Take a look at the bonus video after this week’s articles:
Winning Well When You’re Overwhelmed.
Each week I read a number of leadership articles from various online resources and share them across social media. Here are the five articles readers found most valuable last week. I have added my comment about each article and would like to hear what you think, too.
The 7 Deadly Sins of Managers: What They Do to Make Employees Quit by Kevin Sheridan
We have all witnessed it. Some really well-liked, productive employee suddenly tenders his or her resignation, or maybe just doesn’t show up for work one day. The workplace quickly becomes abuzz with rumors of why the person quit. If the rumors are accurate then the reason most often lies with the newly resigned employee’s manager. After all, there is a whole heck of a lot of truth to the old adage that “Employees don’t leave companies, they leave managers.” And here are the 7 Deadly Sins that managers commit to cause these resignations. Sadly, all of these can be easily avoided.
My Comment: You can’t argue with any of Sheridan’s deadly sins. If you want to make people leave – do these things. If you want them to stay and be more productive – don’t. That said, I’m always one to ask: we know these things. We’ve known these things for a long time. Why do we still have to have these conversations? I mean really, we have to remind ourselves that keeping our word is important if we want people to trust us? And yet, we do. I’d love to hear your thoughts on why so many struggle to do what we know works.
Workplace Conflict: How Do You Deal With the Stress and Not Blow a Fuse? By Ollie McAninch
Sometimes things can get fraught in the workplace. Many workplaces are a strange melting pot of people from different backgrounds, forced together in a bid to meet the aims and ambitions of a company, and their own ambitions. It’s perhaps to be expected that people thrown together in this way might well disagree about things, especially if under pressure. A disagreement is fine, but if it festers and grows into a dispute then it can harm a business.
My Comment: McAninch identifies important and obvious contributors to improve workplace conflict, but he omits what, in my mind, is the most important: Teaching people how to do have healthy productive conflict. When I am in an executive role, I provide these tools to everyone in the organization. No one is born knowing how to give and receive healthy feedback or have a productive disagreement. These are skills that must be learned. Hire them if you can, but make sure everyone can do it. (A great resource to help with this is Shari Harley, the author of How to Say Anything to Anyone)
“The valuable information, insights, and counsel Winning Well offers — in abundance — provides what is best viewed as a cohesive, comprehensive, and cost-effect system with proven methodologies that can help almost any organization (whatever its size and nature may be) to establish and then nourish a workplace culture within which personal growth and professional development are most likely to thrive.” -Robert Morris, Dallas, Tx
Get Winning Well: A manager guide to getting results – without losing your soul today!
Engaged, Satisfied Workers First Line of Breach Defense, Willis Notes by Rob Lenihan
Technology is critical in combating data breaches, but a recent report by Willis Towers Watson P.L.C. notes that focusing on workplace culture can be the first line of defense against cyber attacks. The report, published this month, found that employees working at companies that are breached scored poorly in training, company image and customer focus. The study looked at more than 400 companies and more than 150,000 IT.
My Comment: The report discussed in the article describes some pretty awful behaviors (eg: an employee selling their password). As with so many areas of work: customer experience, innovation, and yes, security, motivated, energized employees improve things immensely.
When Is It Okay Not to Develop? By Dan McCarthy
Here’s a question I often get from managers: “I have employees that doesn’t want to be developed. They just want to come to work, do their jobs, and go home. Development isn’t for everyone, right? I can’t force them to develop if they don’t want to!”
My Comment: I love McCarthy’s answer: ultimately, if you let people off the hook for development for any reason, you’ve let them run the risk of being expendable and unemployable and that it’s okay for your team to be less-than-optimal. Great answer. Connect the development to the reasons why it matters and help them understand it really is part of the job – not an indulgence or option.
Real Leadership Potential: 15 Ways to Spot Great Leaders by Mary Kelly, PhD, US Navy (Ret)
In our latest book, Why Leaders Fail and the 7 Prescriptions for Success, we identify characteristics people need in leadership positions to be successful. We look for successful leaders when we make hiring decisions, but the unquantifiables are tough to judge from a resume or even from an interview. How do we hire for success? How do we hire good potential leaders who are also great team players?
My Comment: First, I highly recommend Kelly’s book, Why Leaders Fail. It is full of many practical ideas with examples taken from so many different real-life scenarios that you’ll definitely improve your leadership and influence as a result. This article has a great list of leadership behaviors to cultivate in yourself and to look for in those you either want to hire or promote into leadership positions.
Bonus Video
Click the image to hear my thoughts on Winning Well when you’re overwhelmed.
David works with leaders to get results without losing their soul (or mind) in the process. Have David to speak at your next event or corporate training: Email today or call 303.898.7018!
The post 5 Top Leadership Articles for the Week of May 30, 2016 and Bonus Video appeared first on Leadership Speaker David Dye.
Book David today for your event, workshop, or training: david@trailblazeinc.com or 1.800.972.582
May 22, 2016
5 Top Leadership Articles for the Week of May 16, 2016
Do you have your copy of Winning Well: A Manager’s Guide to Getting Results Without Losing Your Soul?
We need your help to spread the word!
Buy the book (click here for Amazon) from your favorite bookseller
Review the book on Amazon and Barnes and Noble
Share the Winning Wellwebsite and book with the leaders and managers in your life: WinningWellBook.com
Each week I read a number of leadership articles from various online resources and share them across social media. Here are the five articles readers found most valuable last week. I have added my comment about each article and would like to hear what you think, too.
5 Evidence Based Tips To Mental Toughness by LaRae Quy
Growing up on a cattle ranch in Wyoming, I learned to survive by being scrappy enough to make-do and hungry enough to keep moving. Department stores were big buildings in places 100 miles away, and if a rattlesnake came between me and where I wanted to go, guess who came out on top?
As a kid I learned a lot about mental toughness. When I joined the FBI, I learned even more. My defensive tactics and firearms training drilled one thing into me: never choke when faced with an obstacle that looks bigger, meaner, or uglier than you. In other words, always be game-ready so you can have the mental toughness to rebound from disappointments and missed opportunities. Our coaches trained us to have a hardiness for enduring the downside of a situation.
My Comment: As a leader, you need a healthy dose of perseverance and mental toughness if you’re to succeed. Quy provides five great tips to help you develop the grit and mental toughness that will help you navigate the thorniest of circumstances.
Former CEO of $33 Billion Company Shares the Greatest Leadership Insight He’s Ever Had by Richard Feloni
… During his stay in St. Louis, he met with 12 or so route salespeople, the truck drivers who deliver and sell products to customers, to discuss merchandising. “They all started raving about this guy named Bob at the end of the table,” Novak told Business Insider. The salespeople took turns laying on praise, and when Novak looked at Bob, he noticed he was crying. He asked Bob why.
“And he said, ‘You know, I’ve been working in this company for 47 years, I’m retiring in two weeks, and I didn’t know anyone felt this way about me,'” Novak said.
My Comment: I appreciate Feloni’s description of this CEO’s reflection about his entire career and that the best leadership insight he ever had was how powerful recognition is. You get more of what you celebrate and encourage – less of what you criticize and ignore. For greatest impact, make your recognition specific (about what they did and why it mattered), meaningful to the individual, and relevant to the work and purpose.
How to Move Beyond “You’re Either With Us Or Against Us” by Jane Perdue
“Remove people from your life whose beliefs, ideas, and values aren’t aligned with yours. Make no compromises here.” Wow. That passage from a book a local businessman had written and asked me to read stopped me cold.
As that position was opposite from mine, I wanted to explore his view in more detail. From his perspective, however, there was nothing to discuss. So, true to his beliefs, he removed me from his life because I was unwilling to accept the rightness of his position.
In scanning the business and political horizon, I see this exclusionary polarization happening too often. The proverbial wagons are circled within a “tribe” of believers. There, everything is reduced to black and white or right and wrong, and it’s either “you’re with us or against us.”
My Comment: In this important article, Perdue provides perspective that is incredibly valuable in life and business. There is a difference between ‘weeding your garden’ of people whose negativity or caustic attitudes suck the life out of you and people who simply have different ideas or values. In fact, if you isolate yourself from other beliefs, ideas, and values, you can’t possibly lead well or have the most successful business.
In Winning Well we discuss the importance of leading from humility and actually inviting people to challenge your thinking. As Wrigley Jr. said: In business, if two people agree, one of them is unnecessary. Good ideas thrive in an atmosphere of healthy challenge.
How Great Leaders Value People by Marcel Schwantes
Organizations of all sizes and industries are reimagining work cultures in this relationship economy. It’s all about the people. Consequently, servant leadership quickly is becoming the preferred practice for some of the biggest and best companies in the world.
My Comment: Schwantes provides a great primer on how leaders value people through awareness, responsiveness, respect, trust, and belief. Start here to build your influence right away.
The Real Cost of Mean People in Business by David K. Williams
One of the most important things a CEO can do to create a happy, healthy work environment is to choose and uphold employees who are kind, considerate team players. As Entrepreneur contributor Will Stanley explains, culture is “made up of the work and values of every employee. Each new hire can contribute to sustaining or eroding that culture.” Most employees are team players, but every once in a while, there is an employee who hogs resources, belittles coworkers, and is, well, just plain “mean.”
My Comment: From gossip, to ill-health, and lower morale, the impacts of mean people are legion. Perhaps the most damaging impact of all is the message you send by failing to address these behaviors. When you tolerate the garbage, you tell your performers and the people who treat others well that: you. don’t. care. Accountability isn’t about beating up people who behave or perform poorly. It’s about valuing the ones who do – and your behavior either says you do…or that you don’t. (And PS: no high performer is worth their bad behavior. The culture you create impacts everything.)
David works with leaders to get results without losing their soul (or mind) in the process. Have David to speak at your next event or corporate training: Email today or call 303.898.7018!
The post 5 Top Leadership Articles for the Week of May 16, 2016 appeared first on Leadership Speaker David Dye.
Book David today for your event, workshop, or training: david@trailblazeinc.com or 1.800.972.582
May 15, 2016
5 Top Leadership Articles for the Week of May 9, 2016
“David and Karin show you how to practically put the soul back into our businesses and organizations. They remind us what matters most with guidelines that are simple, easy to read, and possible to implement no matter what stage your business or organization is in. If you put these principles into practice, hard work won’t seem so hard anymore.” –LaQueta, China
Do you have your copy of Winning Well: A Manager’s Guide to Getting Results Without Losing Your Soul?
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Buy the book (click here for Amazon) from your favorite bookseller
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Share the Winning Wellwebsite and book with the leaders and managers in your life: WinningWellBook.com
Each week I read a number of leadership articles from various online resources and share them across social media. Here are the five articles readers found most valuable last week. I have added my comment about each article and would like to hear what you think, too.
Winning Well with Karin Hurt and David Dye by Dan Rockwell
Did you catch this? Easily the most popular by a wide margin, Dan Rockwell (aka The LeadershipFreak) interviewed us about Winning Well. Highlights from this video interview include:
00:35 – Leaders manage and managers lead.
2:10 – Confidence and humility.
4:22 – Results and relationships. How to avoid being a user or a pleaser.
7:45 – What’s winning well? Blending the bottom line with the human spirit.
9:03 – Leaving a legacy.
10:45 – Leaders work way too hard.
11:24 – Three steps to delegating where nothing falls through the cracks.
13:45 – Having tough conversations. The I.N.S.P.I.R.E. model.
Getting to the Other Side of Discouragement by Caitie Whelan at Lead Change Group
Let’s talk about discouragement, shall we? If you and I sifted through the dustbin of history, I bet we’d find a whole bunch of great books, ideas, companies, hopes that wound up there because someone got discouraged. I’d have some stuff in that dustbin. Maybe you would, too. And, you know, I think I’ve had enough of that. I’m done with being outdone by discouragement.
My Comment: If you’re human, you’re going to be discouraged at times. Everything won’t go your way. Your ideas won’t work the way you had hoped. Circumstances make things difficult for you. Whelan reminds us to have a process to help us get back up and carry on.
Think Positive and Achieve by Naphtali Hoff at SmartBlog on Leadership
One of the biggest challenges for leaders, particularly newer ones, is to remain positive in the face of inevitable setbacks. So many things happen that can derail us from what we are trying to achieve, such as changing market conditions, weak sales figures, low worker productivity or morale, and more.
Leaders who begin with great optimism and energy could easily lose the wind from their sails and spiral into a downward funk when they start to experience obstacles, setbacks and self-doubt. Compounding matters is that many of us can be overly harsh and unjust to ourselves, in a way that we would never be with others. This can cause stress and despondency, resulting in lower self-confidence.
My Comment: The impact of a sincere, positive leadership attitude is hard to overstate. In fact, the belief that together we can have a better tomorrow than today is at the core of leadership. Hoff shares several methods to help you maintain your positivity, even when things aren’t going your way.
Symbolic Leadership: What Do You Stand For or Where Do You Sit? By Julie Giulioni
Sandra described the past week of headaches associated with a systems conversion that took place in the call center in which she works as a customer service representative. She outlined the many hiccups and problems they encountered, the way data dropped out of fields and calls that were habitually misdirected. She described the 14-hour days that would likely go on for another week or so, the intensity of the customers’ expectations and management’s scrutiny. When I responded empathetically about how miserable it must have been, Sandra surprised me with her response: “No, it was awesome!” And she went on to explain why…
My Comment: Recently I spoke with some leaders who were frustrated that their executives kept talking about building a positive culture with healthy relationships, but then behaved as they always had (which wasn’t in line with this kind of culture.) Giulioni shares a great positive example of symbolic leadership – your words don’t matter if they’re not aligned with what you do.
Do Your Motivations Undermine Your Ability to Lead? By Mary Schaefer
The CEO’s comments described what motivated him, or other executives. He didn’t have a clue about what motivated the majority of employees. What’s the problem with that? The problem is this person and his compatriots made decisions that affected my life and the lives of tens of thousands of other people. He had no idea what we were about or what was important to us. His obliviousness or lack of concern for the impact of his decisions on employees eroded his credibility with me.
My Comment: Why do your employees do what they do? If you don’t know, it can severely curtail your credibility – especially if you claim to know and then insert your own motivations. Schaefer shares a very common scenario where her CEO demonstrated a clear disconnect from his employees by doing exactly this. The result is eroded trust.
David works with leaders to get results without losing their soul (or mind) in the process. Have David to speak at your next event or corporate training: Email today or call 303.898.7018!The post 5 Top Leadership Articles for the Week of May 9, 2016 appeared first on Leadership Speaker David Dye.
Book David today for your event, workshop, or training: david@trailblazeinc.com or 1.800.972.582
May 8, 2016
5 Top Leadership Articles for the Week of May 2, 2016
Do you have your copy of Winning Well: A Manager’s Guide to Getting Results Without Losing Your Soul?
We need your help to spread the word!
Buy the book (click here for Amazon) from your favorite bookseller
Review the book on Amazon and Barnes and Noble
Share the Winning Wellwebsite and book with the leaders and managers in your life: WinningWellBook.com
Each week I read a number of leadership articles from various online resources and share them across social media. Here are the five articles readers found most valuable last week. I have added my comment about each article and would like to hear what you think, too.
Employee Engagement Ideas: Cut the BS by Ted Bauer
“I wouldn’t necessarily call ’employee engagement ideas’ top of mind for most decision-makers and senior business leaders. For some, employee engagement ideas are crucial. In fact, if you watched last night’s episode of Silicon Valley (Season 3, Episode 2), there’s a whole sequence where the new CEO of Pied Piper tells the old CEO (Richard) that they need gluten-free waffles and other perks because those perks get you the talent. I think a lot of Bay Area CEOs probably think that way, and a few others here and there. But in general, I think revenue growth and KPIs tend to overwhelm employee engagement ideas on the daily to-do lists of the people that can actually drive business change.”
My Comment: In Winning Well we talk about playing the game, not gaming the score. This article has great examples of the latter. Bauer’s perspective, and I completely agree with him, is that you’d better not talk about employee engagement with your employees unless you and any managers you lead, are committed to actually engaging your employees. I’ve seen the damage this does in company after company. My perspective is that employee engagement is a byproduct of healthy leadership and management. If you really care about engagement, focus on leading well. Engagement will take care of itself.
Four Myths Most Bosses Believe About Employee Engagement by Stephanie Vozza at Fast Company
Engaged employees are more productive, have higher job satisfaction, and are more focused on customers, according to a Gallup study. But what exactly does “engaged” mean? Boston University professor William Kahn coined the term 25 years ago, but there still isn’t a widely accepted definition. What does exist, however, is a lot of frustration and myths surrounding the idea, says Rodd Wagner, vice president of employee engagement strategy for the consulting firm BI Worldwide and author of Widgets: The 12 New Rules for Managing Your Employees As If They’re Real People.
“Once in a while, you will hear someone say he’s ‘engaged’ or ‘disengaged’ at work, but not often,” he says. “Even after two decades of HR using it, it’s not part of the natural vocabulary among employees and, it’s now safe to say, it never will be.”
My Comment: The myths Vozza describes are well worth reading and internalizing. Among them is the idea that drives leaders to build policies around the worst employees. As a leadership speaker and consultant I see this frequently. Here’s the problem: when you build policies for worst performers…you tend to only have worst performers.
This Minor Work Habit is Burning You Out for No Good Reason by Scott Eblin at Fast Company
There’s an epidemic no one talks much about because it’s rarely seen that way. Even so, it makes no distinctions from one industry to the next; I’ve seen this bad habit infect the ranks of Fortune 500 companies in technology, retail, manufacturing, health care, pharmaceuticals, hospitality—you name it. The good news, though, is that it’s easy to diagnose. In my experience of working with managers and executives, that starts by asking a single question: “How many of you send out emails from home at night?” Nearly everyone raises their hand.
My Comment: I have struggled with this ‘always on’ mentality both as an employee, as an executive, and as a business owner. Eblin makes the point – and I COMPLETELY agree with him – that much of the pressure to be this way, comes from us, not from our boss. Yes, they may send email after hours. But that doesn’t mean you need to respond to it. Just stop. You’ll be healthier, more alert, and have more energy for what really matters. (And you’ll set a good example of health for your team as well.)
From Team Building to Team Bonding by Julie Giulioni
How much does your organization spend each year to hire, train, support and bring together the right team? How much time is invested in off-sites, ropes courses, style profiles, and other events designed to build team cohesion and results? How happy are you with the outcome?
Most organizations invest heavily in activities designed to build teams and support the results they are capable of delivering. But team-building is just a stop on the road to your ultimate endgame. Consistently delivering superior results, quarter after quarter and client after client, demands going farther. It demands team-bonding.
My Comment: Giulioni makes a great point – the real gelling of a team and the accompanying trust, problem solving, and confidence you need for high performance come from actually working and succeeding together. She shares three critical steps your teams can do together to give them the best chance to team-bond, not just team-build.
Dynamic Leaders Ask for Help by John Keyser
In my work as a leadership coach, speaking with hundreds in business and studying numerous surveys, it is clear that many senior managers have become isolated. We spend most of our time together with our other senior execs, in endless meetings and, when not in meetings, captured by our smart phones. We are in continual contact with each other – and we are way too removed from the core meaning of our work.
How can we break through that isolation and remember our sense of purpose? We can start by putting our smart phones in our pocket and walking out our office door and off the executive row. Let’s go to the source of our company’s productivity and purpose: our people.
My Comment: One of the most powerful moments in my own leadership journey was when I felt stuck, alone, and overwhelmed. As I sat at my desk, wondering what to do, it dawned on me that I had an entire team of smart people who would be happy to weigh in and think through the issue with me. We did, and we succeeded together. You shouldn’t have all the answers, but you do need to ask the questions.
David works with leaders to get results without losing their soul (or mind) in the process. Have David to speak at your next event or corporate training: Email today or call 303.898.7018!The post 5 Top Leadership Articles for the Week of May 2, 2016 appeared first on Leadership Speaker David Dye.
Book David today for your event, workshop, or training: david@trailblazeinc.com or 1.800.972.582
May 1, 2016
5 Top Leadership Articles for the Week of April 25, 2016
Do you have Winning Well: A Manager’s Guide to Getting Results Without Losing Your Soul?
Help spread the word!
Buy the book (click here for Amazon) from your favorite bookseller
Review the book on Amazon and Barnes and Noble
Share the Winning Wellwebsite and book with the leaders and managers in your life: WinningWellBook.com
Each week I read a number of leadership articles from various online resources and share them across social media. Here are the five articles readers found most valuable last week. I have added my comment about each article and would like to hear what you think, too.
2 Things Organizations Must Do To Win the War for Talent by S. Chris Edmonds on SmartBlog
Is your organization a great place to work?
To know for sure, you’d need information like the percentage of employees that are highly engaged and highly productive, information about the degree to which employees trust their bosses and peers, information about whether employees’ ideas and efforts are consistently validated, and information about how many talented, engaged employees leave your organization every month.
What drives talented people to join your organization or to stay with your organization? Ultimately, it’s not the perks. It’s the people and the meaning of the work.
My Comment: Money gets people in the door. How much effort they make and the quality of their contributions depends on other factors. As Edmonds notes, perks aren’t the driving force there. They are icing on the cake…but you have to have a good cake before you add icing!
5 Key Elements of a Strong Corporate Culture by Christine VanCampen at Utah Business
Building a strong, healthy corporate culture is quickly becoming a necessity for companies to find success in today’s job market. Employees want to feel like their jobs matter and work for a company with values similar to their own. Smart employers know that in order to entice and retain top talent, they not only need to have competitive pay and benefits, but also need to create an environment where people actually enjoy coming to work.
My Comment: Culture is the latest corporate buzzword. Even as its popularity increases, there is increased misunderstanding of what it entails. As with Edmonds article, VanCampen points out that adding ostensibly ‘fun’ activities does nothing to improve a culture where fundamentals are lacking. (In fact, it makes it worse because people are insulted.) VanCampen shares five strong fundamentals to build a healthy, attractive culture in your workplace.
Inspiring Others, Smarter Communication by Chris Laping on SmartBlog
Laping discusses his loyalty to his favorite salon. He loves his haircuts because the salon team make him feel like he matters. And the real reason they’re able to do is they treat each other the same way.
To be clear, there isn’t some fancy, disingenuous mission statement hanging on the wall that says, “We provide unparalleled guest experience!” The bottom of the receipts don’t advertise customer service surveys proclaiming, “Our customers are always right … tell us how we did.” Thankfully, there also isn’t any salon standard that awkwardly forces the team member to say, “Thank you,” for no apparent reason. Instead, it’s a genuine human interaction that expresses, “You matter.”
My Comment: Laping rightly points out that if only customers are the only human beings who matter (and not employees as well), ultimately the customer experience will suffer. Great leaders genuinely care about people, communicate it, and those people, in turn, can care about their colleagues and customers.
15 Essential Leadership Books to Grow New Leaders by Sean Glaze
Summer is near.. and that means it is time to find a few leadership books for summer reading…
The idea is a simple and accurate one: Readers become leaders. And its converse is an important lesson for those who find themselves in the position to influence and lead others on a team or within an organization: leaders should be readers!
My Comment: This is an excellent list of leadership resources –with a few you might not traditionally find in that section of the bookstore. I’m honored to find Winning Well as suggestion #5!
You Do Not Need the Answers. You Need the Right Questions by Shawn Murphy at Switch and Shift
If your company culture sees questioning as a problem, it falls on you to correct that. Yes you. Regardless of your position. Put your title aside. You can lead a cultural change; one that values questions even more than it values answers.
“We thought we had the answers, it was the questions we had wrong.” -Bono
My Comment: Insecure leaders feel they have to have all the answers. Leaders who are secure in their strengths and who bring out the best in their teams are able to ask meaningful questions that help everyone contribute to solutions. Murphy covers this ground with the addition of several poignant quotes and an excellent list of ten ways you can increase your appreciation of questions.
Over-Led and Under-Managed by Dan Rockwell aka LeadershipFreak
I love the feedback look Rockwell describes: Successful leadership creates management challenges. Successful management creates leadership challenges. Chaotic organizations are over-led. Stagnant organizations are over-managed. Warren Bennis put it this way, “Failing organizations are usually over-managed and under-led.”
My Comment: I’ve long maintained that effective frontline and middle level supervisors must both lead and manage if they want to succeed. That message and the tools to do it are at the core of Winning Well. Rockwell provides a good look at what happens when an organization or team is either over managed or over led. If you see yourself in either list, it’s time to focus on a few tools from the other column.
David works with leaders to get results without losing their soul (or mind) in the process. Have David to speak at your next event or corporate training: Email today or call 303.898.7018!The post 5 Top Leadership Articles for the Week of April 25, 2016 appeared first on Leadership Speaker David Dye.
Book David today for your event, workshop, or training: david@trailblazeinc.com or 1.800.972.582
April 24, 2016
5 Top Leadership Articles for the Week of April 18, 2016
Winning Well: A Manager’s Guide to Getting Results Without Losing Your Soul is available now! Winning Well is more than a book – it’s a movement to transform how we work. Here’s how you can join us and help:
Buy the book from your favorite bookseller (click here for Amazon).
Review the book on Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Share the Winning Well website and book with the leaders and managers in your life: WinningWellBook.com
Bonus: Check out this #WinningWell Rap about the pitfalls of working for a “Gamer” Manager. (I love the moment at 0:37).
(Click on the picture to play video)
Each week I read a number of leadership articles from various online resources and share them across social media. Here are the five articles readers found most valuable last week. I have added my comment about each article and would like to hear what you think, too.
5 Quick Steps to Make Your Half-Baked Idea Sound Much Smarter by Lily Herman at TheMuse
Ever notice that when you’re in a meeting or a team brainstorm, you’re often hit with a stroke of genius, only to sound like a rambling maniac when you actually try to explain what you’re thinking to everyone in the room?
My Comment: Being able to articulately communicate your thoughts and ideas is critical to your leadership as well as being viewed as a strategic thought partner by other leaders. Herman offers practical ways to help you quickly hone in on our idea, discover its merits, and how to communicate it effectively.
The 10 Best Ways To Hire For Customer Service (And Almost Any Other Job) by Shep Hyken at Forbes
It’s not just the application, interview and hiring that brings you the best people. It’s also what happens just after they are hired. It’s the onboarding process, the training, the short-term reviews and more.
My Comment: This is a great article to help you hire the right people. As the title says, the analysis is through the lens of customer service – Hyken’s specialty – but the principles he articulates in ten thoughtfully shared points apply to successfully hiring for anything. Yet, these principles are often ignored – then leaders are upset when people won’t perform as they had hoped. Read this one, internalize its message: you’ll boost your hiring success and minimize your headaches!
Understanding the Power of Expectations by Tanveer Naseer
Who wouldn’t want to work for a boss who recognizes our innate potential and provides us with the guidance and support to help develop that potential? Unfortunately, it’s a rare occurrence to work for a boss who encourages the growth of their employees. There is a gap between what we expect from those in leadership positions and what we actually experience working under their guidance…
My Comment: Through the lens of a conversation with his daughter, Naseer provides a heartfelt look at what workplace leadership can be…and what it so often is not. He looks at how we are often complicit in perpetuating this gap, and what you can do to make it better. At this point, it shouldn’t be a surprise that people want to work for leaders who see their potential and want to help them achieve it. What is more challenging is how to make that a reality across the modern workplace.
Don’t Be a Leader of Stupid Rules by Chip Bell at Lead Change Group
When Alexander II was the Czar of what is now Russia in the mid 1800’s, he looked out of his palace window and observed a soldier guarding an area of the palace lawn that appeared to be little more than empty space. “What is that soldier guarding?” he asked then-Ambassador Otto van Bismarck. Bismarck asked the captain of the guard for a reason for the sentry’s post. He learned only that the soldier was following a long standing order at the palace. It was the 1800’s version of “We’ve always done it that way!”
Policies and practices, appropriate at the time of their creation, can assume a permanent life of their own. As circumstances change (which they always will), the “givens” that govern enterprise must be examined and questioned.
My Comment: Who can’t identify with the ‘stupid rules’? The useless policies that might have made sense (if even then) and perpetually waste time and motivation. Bell offers great suggestions to help you identify where these kind of rules might be limiting your organization and how you can overcome them. In my leadership workshops, I invite participants to identify their ‘stop doing’ list. Before you can add in productive behaviors, you’ve got to make room by eliminating what’s not working for you.
Why Leaders Fail by Mary Kelly & Peter Stark
Thousands of leadership books tell you how to be a great leader. Far fewer books delve deeper into the surprisingly common mistakes managers, CEOs, and supervisors unknowingly make that derail their success. Using real scenarios and examples collected through their combined years of leadership and management expertise, Mary Kelly and Peter Stark pinpoint the 7 most common reasons leaders fail. They also describe the 7 prescriptions for success, complete with 49 recommended actions.
Technically, this isn’t an article – it’s an announcement of a fantastic new leadership book that proved popular with my followers this week. The book is authored by the power duo of Mary Kelly and Peter Stark.
My Comment: I’ve read Why Leaders Fail and highly recommend it. It ranges across a variety of leadership pitfalls and the recommendations are very strong – and, most importantly – actions you can take regardless of your position in a company. Happy Reading!
David works with leaders to get results without losing their soul (or mind) in the process. Have David to speak at your next event or corporate training: Email today or call 303.898.7018!The post 5 Top Leadership Articles for the Week of April 18, 2016 appeared first on Leadership Speaker David Dye.
Book David today for your event, workshop, or training: david@trailblazeinc.com or 1.800.972.582
