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April 20 - June 24, 2021
1. What does it really mean to “connect with yourself”? It means knowing and liking who you are.
2. Learn to walk slowly through the crowd. When you are out among your employees or coworkers, make relationship building and connecting a priority. Before getting into work matters, make a connection.
3. Good leaders are good communicators.
“You can do what I cannot do. I can do what you cannot do. Together we can do great things.” —MOTHER TERESA
if you’re alone, you’re not leading anybody,
Only if you reach your potential as a leader do your people have a chance to reach their potential.
1. DO THEY HAVE HIGH INFLUENCE WITH OTHERS?
2. DO THEY BRING A COMPLEMENTARY GIFT TO THE TABLE?
3. DO THEY HOLD A STRATEGIC POSITION IN THE ORGANIZATION?
4. DO THEY ADD VALUE TO ME AND TO THE ORGANIZATION?
“As iron sharpens iron, friends sharpen the minds of each other.”
5. DO THEY POSITIVELY IMPACT OTHER INNER CIRCLE MEMBERS?
IDENTIFY . . . CULTIVATE . . . RECRUIT
NEVER STOP IMPROVING YOUR INNER CIRCLE
A leader’s potential is determined by the people closest to him.
Hire the best staff you can find, develop them as much as you can, and hand off everything you possibly can to them.
1. Do you know who your inner circle members are? They are the people you seek out for advice, turn to for support, and rely on to help you get things done.
2. Great inner circles do not come together by accident. Effective leaders are continually developing current and future inner circle members.
How do they do it? They spend extra time with them strategically to mentor them and to develop relationships. They give them extra responsibility and place higher expectations on them. They give them more credit when things go well and hold them accountable when they don’t.
3. If you lead a larger staff, then not everyone who works for you will be part of your inner circle.
When should you transition to a smaller inner circle, a sort of team within the team? When your immediate staff numbers more than seven When you can no longer directly lead everyone In the volunteer world, when others besides paid staff should be in the inner circle
“The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it.” —THEODORE ROOSEVELT
To lead others well, we must help them to reach their potential. That means being on their side, encouraging them, giving them power, and helping them to succeed.
Leading well is not about enriching yourself—it’s about empowering others.
The number one enemy of empowerment is the fear of losing what we have.
What if I work myself out of a job by empowering others, you may ask, and my superiors don’t recognize my contribution? That can happen in the short term. But if you keep raising up leaders and empowering them, you will develop a pattern of achievement, excellence, and leadership that will be recognized and rewarded. If the teams you lead always seem to succeed, people will figure out that you are leading them well.
“It is the nature of man as he grows older to protest against change, particularly change for the better.” By its very nature, empowerment brings constant change because it encourages people to grow and innovate. Change is the price of progress. That’s not always easy to live with.
Self-conscious people are rarely good leaders. They focus on themselves, worrying how they look, what others think, whether they are liked. They can’t give power to others because they feel that they have no power themselves. And you can’t give what you don’t have.
The best leaders have a strong sense of self-worth. They believe in themselves, their mission, and their people.
Only secure leaders are able to give themselves away. Mark Twain once remarked that great things happen when you don’t care who gets the credit.
“Great leaders gain authority by giving it away.” —JAMES B. STOCKDALE
To push people down, you have to go down with them.
Enlarging others makes you larger.
1. How would you characterize yourself in the area of self-worth?
2. Are you someone who believes in people?
3. If your natural inclination is to build and hold on to your power, then you must experience a paradigm shift to become an empowering leader.
But he didn’t push himself the same way, being barely capable of passing the physical test required of paratroopers. Nor did he display the high level of competence he demanded from everyone else.
Great leaders always seem to embody two seemingly disparate qualities. They are both highly visionary and highly practical.
Great leaders always seem to embody two seemingly disparate qualities. They are both highly visionary and highly practical.
Mission provides purpose—answering the question, Why? Vision provides a picture—answering the question, What? Strategy provides a plan—answering the question, How?
The leader’s effective modeling of the vision makes the picture come alive!
Good leaders are always conscious of the fact that they are setting the example and others are going to do what they do, for better or worse. In general, the better the leaders’ actions, the better their people’s.
1. FOLLOWERS ARE ALWAYS WATCHING WHAT YOU DO
Followers may doubt what their leaders say, but they usually believe what they do.
2. IT’S EASIER TO TEACH WHAT’S RIGHT THAN TO DO WHAT’S RIGHT
“Leaders tell but never teach until they practice what they preach.” —FEATHERSTONE
3. WE SHOULD WORK ON CHANGING OURSELVES BEFORE TRYING TO IMPROVE OTHERS
As a leader, the first person I need to lead is me.
4. THE MOST VALUABLE GIFT A LEADER CAN GIVE IS BEING A GOOD EXAMPLE
RANK CHARACTERISTIC PERCENTAGE 1 Leading by example 26% 2 Strong ethics or morals 19% 3 Knowledge of the business 17% 4 Fairness 14% 5 Overall intelligence and competence 13% 6 Recognition of employees 10%8
