The Servant as Leader

The Servant as Leader

by | Mar 21, 2022 | Blog

Robert K. Greenleaf, the founder of the modern Servant Leadership movement, in his seminal writing “The Servant as Leader”, he espoused the simple concept of leaders putting the interests of those they lead before their personal interests. It’s sounds simple but is hard to do in real life because of the conflicting interests we as human beings constantly need to balance. The beauty of putting the interests of those we lead first, is that it ultimately leads to success for the leader as well through the development and accomplishments of those being led. When struggling with making tough decisions, think of what’s best for the people you lead first and have the courage and wisdom to take that decision while having the confidence that it is also in your long-term best interest as well! 

Responsibility Reflection Exercise

by | Feb 8, 2022 | Blog

Introduction

The purpose of this exercise is to have the participant reflect on their beliefs regarding the causes for when they don’t have the success they desire in their lives and making the changes needed to get there. This is intended to be completed on an individual basis but could be shared with a trusted individual to validate the participants perspective or provide suggested changes.

Process

Instruct the participants with the following steps without providing much guidance beyond what is provided.  You don’t want to influence their responses such that they alter how they write them down initially with regards to taking 100% responsibility.

  1. Reflect on a current project, goal or relationship in your life that is realizing less than the success you desire.
  2. Write the top three to five reasons you believe why this situation is less than successful.
  3. Review the reasons you’ve written down and look for wording that indicates or demonstrates not taking 100% responsibility for the results – look for wording that is blaming others or making excuses
  4. Rewrite the reasons stated in a manner as actions where you “take 100% responsibility for the results” and not blaming others or making excuses – write these actions in a way that states the positive condition you want to exist and not the absence of a negative condition
  5. Begin incorporating the actions into your daily meditation, goal affirmation and action items

Examples

Reason: My marriage is strained because my wife doesn’t listen to me and understand my needs

Action (Positive Condition): I need to communicate more effectively with my wife, so we better understand each other’s needs

Action (Absence of Negative Condition): I need to communicate more effectively with my wife, so we have a harmonious relationship

5% More Responsibility Exercise

by | Feb 8, 2022 | Blog

Introduction

This activity can be completed by as little as two individuals or groups of up to five to six individuals. The purpose of this exercise is to get people to recognize where they are not taking 100% responsibility in key areas in their life and how they can change that. This is a great exercise for introducing the concept of taking 100% responsibility without overwhelming them.

Process:

        1. Divide the participants in equal groups in a range from 2 up to 6 participants – have participants sit in a circle or facing each other if in groups of 2.
        2. Have the Responsibility Stems that you want to work on displayed on a flip chart or one per page on a PowerPoint slide.
        3. Have the participants complete the Responsibility Stems one at time by going around the circle in a clockwise manner – Have them state the entire Responsibility Stem and then adding their words to complete the sentence.
        4. Demonstrate the process by completing a sample Responsibility Stem while providing multiple answers.
        5. Continue going around the circle until all participants have had multiple chance to complete the Responsibility Stem – this may require 2-5 minutes per sentence.
        6. You can use multiple sentences depending on the most important topics that need to be covered.
        7. Have the participants reflect on their responses for completing the Responsibility Stems and determine what adjustments they need to make to accomplish their desired results for each of the topics covered.

 

Example Sentence Stems & Responses*

If I were to take 5% more responsibility for my life and well-being….

•I would exercise 30 minutes a day
•I would only eat fast food one time per week
•I would meditate more often

If I were to take 5% more responsibility for the attainment of my goals….

•I would do five things a day to get me closer to my goal
•I would spend an extra hour a day in action rather than watching TV
•I would share my goals with family and friends and ask for accountability

If I were to take 5% more responsibility for success in my relationships….

•I would plan quality time with my kids and put it in my calendar
•I would have a date night every week with my spouse
•I would talk less and listen more

*These sentence completions are based on the work of Nathaniel Branden, Ph.D.

Take 100% Responsibility for Your Success

by | Feb 8, 2022 | Blog

It’s mid-January and most people are off and running into the new year and many are already struggling with keeping their weeks old new year’s resolutions. What’s happening, are they hitting serious roadblocks, are the resolutions too difficult to keep or perhaps is it the person’s approach to achieving the goals they established? Let me share a very simple yet powerful concept that will have a profound impact on the success you realize in life.
The reason most resolutions or goals are not achieved successfully usually has very little to do with how the goal itself is written. It most often has to do with what happens when we run into roadblocks or hurdles along the way. Do you make excuses or blame external circumstances, or do you look in the mirror and except responsibility for your results? The most successful people in life take 100% responsibility for their success. Let me provide a quick example. It’s raining outside and the showroom traffic is very light to non-existent. One salesperson stands and looks out the window wondering how he’s going to reach his goal for how many cars he needs to sell this month. Another salesperson decides to start calling all her customers that she sold cars to the previous year to see if they’re still happy, to see if they’re interested in trading their car in soon and to see if they know someone that is shopping for a car. One salesperson will blame the weather for not reaching his goals and the other salesperson is taking responsibility for reaching her goals. Which person do you want to be?
Start taking 100% responsibility for your success in life and realize a better life!

Don’t Make the Typical New Year’s Resolutions Mistakes!

by | Jan 4, 2022 | Blog

When the calendar flips from December to January, it’s a great time to establish goals for all that you want to accomplish in the new year. There are the typical lose weight, relax more and increase my wealth type goals which are all fine but the biggest mistakes that most people make in establishing ‘New Year’s Resolutions’ are they aren’t attached to a long-term vision and or they aren’t balanced across all facets of their lives. You can easily avoid these two mistakes by starting with creating a personal vision of what you want your life to be like in the future. This vision will then be the ‘guidepost’ or ‘North Star’ for creating goals that are motivational and enriching to help keep you on track.

As a Certified Jack Canfield Success Principles Trainer, I’m happy to provide Jack’s Vision Exercise as a free download to assist with this process. This tool will help you create a balanced vision across seven key areas of your life that will be the foundation for your annual goals. Don’t be afraid to make this a bold and audacious vision so it provides the necessary motivation for you to work towards achieving that compelling future vision of your life. Then establish annual goals that align and move you closer to realizing your vision. The final tip for success with the vision and goal setting process is for you to share your vision and goals with a trusted person or persons in your life. Someone who you can count on to be positive and supportive. This simple step of sharing your vision and goals will provide many benefits for you as you begin the journey of realizing the life you desire.

Please take the first step to realizing a more fulfilling life and download the free Vision Exercise tool now.

Best wishes for a happy, healthy, and successful new year!

Trust and Empathy are the Foundation for Effective Coaching

Trust and Empathy are the Foundation for Effective Coaching

by | Aug 14, 2019 | Blog

If you are a sales manager, you know firsthand the challenges of maintaining the right mix of elements for a healthy sales environment that delivers results. One of the key components is the ongoing development of your sales team through your own coaching skills. There are many aspects of coaching that set outstanding coaches apart from mediocre coaches and it all starts with setting a foundation built on trust and empathy.

Many coaches make the mistake of focusing primarily on the numbers and never build a strong enough personal relationship with their team members to be truly effective coaches. I recall working with a very well-respected and to large extent well-feared manager. His nickname was ‘The General’ as he was always very serious and always focused on the task or mission. No one wanted to be the recipient of his inquiries into why you didn’t have the parts necessary to support the production build for that day. The questions were direct and left no wiggle room for avoiding the painful truth. At the core, the questions were problem-solving based and not personal attacks, but it rarely felt that way especially when you got ‘the eyebrow’. When ‘The General’ heard something that didn’t make sense, he would oftentimes give you a look with one eyebrow lowered and one eyebrow raised that signaled he wasn’t buying what you were selling. Your goal then became to change topics or end the inquiry as quickly as possible. Almost always the discussion included suggestions, that most often felt like directives, for fixing the problem but they got lost in the pressure of the questioning and ‘the eyebrow’. During an off-site team building session with the plant leadership session, we did an exercise where we sat with every other team member in a one on one session to share feedback with each other. I knew ‘The General’ cared about the development of his staff and his motivation was to build the capacity in others to be proactive in putting in place systems to drive long-term improvement. I had this insight from reporting to him for a couple of years and we regularly had discussions about the development of each of the team members. The problem was none of the team members knew that he really cared about their individual growth and development especially when getting ‘the eyebrow’.

My feedback during our one on one session focused on him letting his people know that he cared about them as I knew he did and try to connect with them on a more personal level. The one line I recall specifically saying to him was “no one cares how much you know until they know how much you care”. I could sense my words struck a nerve with him and he took my comments to heart. Over the next several months, a different side of ‘The General’ gradually appeared and resulted in him being even more effective as one of the leaders of our senior leadership team. He made an effort to connect with his direct reports and peers on a more personal level, he began to share his dry sense of humor more often to everyone’s surprise and delight but most importantly, he in his own way conveyed the message that he cared for others on a personal level.

Trust begins to develop when employees understand that the person providing the coaching is truly vested in employee’s best interest and not the coach’s best interest. People are smart enough to detect when someone is using their positional authority to get them to ‘buy-in’ to their idea or worse, trying to manipulate them into doing something that is best for the coach. People need to know the coach really cares about their own personal growth and performance before they will truly open up and accept the coaching being offered.

Empathy is just as important as trust in that the coach must demonstrate a human side so the employee knows the coach cares for them as a person. Demostrating empathy as a leader doesn’t mean accepting poor performance or saying “it’s okay” or feeling sorry when someone’s performance is not up standard. Feeling sorry for someone is a form of sympathy or pity and high-performaners are not interested in receiving sympathy. Being empathetic is simply acknowleding the other person’s feelings or their human sides when discussing their performance. High performaners do want to know that they effort, contribution and they as individuals are appreciated.

Getting back to ‘The General’. What happened over time is the people began to ‘trust’ that ‘The General’ cared about them as much or more than he cared about making quality engines that day. They knew he was vested in what was best for them and not what was best for him personally. That increased trust led to reduced fear and better coaching conversations. He also opened up on a more personal level, was more empathetic and connected on a personal level better than in the past. The results were noticeable in both the relationships with and the performance of the people that reported to him. ‘The General’ became even more well-respected and was not nearly as well-feared yet no one still wanted to get ‘the eyebrow’.