BradCo Consulting Ltd.

Common sense for the art of leading!

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Overwhelmed…

When things get tight it seems we always are expected to do more with less…not less with less.  This can lead to that uncomfortable feeling of being overwhelmed.  While this one post won’t be able to address the cause here are a couple things to help deal with the symptoms…

JUST START

The start is what stops most people.  Just pick something & accomplish it.  Whether you start with something you don’t care for or something you love, just getting it checked off the list will help create some momentum.

TOUCH IT ONCE

Try not to touch anything twice.  Open that email, do what you need to do & move it on.  Don’t wait until later, trust me, we all forget & hold up progress when we wait.  This is your anti-procrastination tool.  Sometimes done is better than perfect!

These 2 simple but powerful behaviors will inspire teammates…because together is better!

Vision

“A very great vision is needed & the man who has it must follow it as the eagle seeks the deepest blue of the sky.”  -Crazy Horse, Sioux Chief

One of the best things a leader does is help you find purpose in your work, helping connect your “why” with a compelling vision.

Your “why” is based on past experiences, is objective & rarely changes.  A vision is subjective & based on a preferred future state. A vision creates focus, grabs our attention, clarifies & is results oriented.

When eminently capable people share a common vision connected to their “why” motivation is endless. Huge vision coupled with the right size tasks will have everyone making meaningful progress. What’s your vision about 5 years from now?

Try this vision-casting exercise: You’ve planned a party & it’s amazing! It’s (date) & today I am… What are you celebrating? Who’s there? Why are they there? Describe the atmosphere, the energy, the cause for celebration, everything!

What feelings come over you?

How has your future self changed?

What can you do today to step into that future self…

Best,  Karl
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Crazy Horse, Sioux Chief

Crazy Horse information by Legends of America

Worrying

Worrying is a habit.  Do you have it?

First, check out “Getting to the bottom of your worrying-and how to let it go” by Gordana Biernat for some great insights!

We all have dreams, aspirations & goals. It’s healthy to be in a growth mindset but not at the expense of getting meaningful things done today.  Making zero progress toward your preferred vision of the future is demotivating. Focus on the task at hand, like the mantra of former NFL head coach Marty Schottenheimer.

The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.  Sure…how?

Second, check out “How to stop worrying & start living” by Dale Carnegie. His concept of living in Day-tight compartments suggests to live each day to its fullest until bedtime, get some rest & go again the next day.  Easy to say, hard to do.  Here’s his help…

Get the facts about what you’re worrying about; write them down, decide what you can do about it & get busy doing those things. Getting “lost” in the activity helps & progress on some issue you’ve identified is moving away from the problem.

“Don’t count the days, make the days count!”  -Muhammad Ali

He famously didn’t count repetitions until the one’s when he was getting tired because those were the one’s that really counted. This habit created breakthroughs in his training for consistent growth.

If just talking about this makes you even more anxious, listen to what Brene’ Brown has to say about that here.

The fact is, tomorrow isn’t promised.  A great Cherokee proverb says it this way…

“Don’t let yesterday use up too much of today.”

Best,  Karl
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Productivity

Most of us start out the day with great intentions to get lots of meaningful stuff done. Often, these great intentions get thrown off track by things we didn’t anticipate or plan for & we get half of our “to-do” list accomplished. Here’s a fairly well-known plan from Peter Bregman for more success.

We can’t manage time, we’ve all got 24-hours, no more & no less.  What we can manage is our focus & how we use our time.  Take 5-minutes at the beginning of each day to make a plan.  Block out time for each of the main tasks you’d like to accomplish & then get into it!

Set an alarm to alert you every hour & take 1 minute to go over what you’ve completed in the last hour, review your plan & the progress you’ve made or where you’ve gotten off track.  Refocus on your priorities & dive in again!

The plan in short…

-5 minutes in the morning to solidify your plan

-1 minute each hour to review & refocus

-5 minutes at the end of the day to review how it all went & begin the next days plan

18-minutes can be the little bit of structure & discipline we need to get more done & finish with more satisfaction every day!

Find out more about this concept & Peter Bregman’s book here!

Get 3 Unconventional Strategies for Boosting Workplace Productivity here!

Best,  Karl
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Title Image from Getty

Storytelling

“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”  -Maya Angelou

Did You Know: The U.S. is the only country that has dual identity in its mythological heroes.  Superman & Clark Kent; Batman & Bruce Wayne; Wonder Woman & Diana Prince. These powerful stories (and yours) turn “tacit” information into “explicit” information making it accessible for others. Stories pass down knowledge, inspire us to act & connect with the essence of what it means to be human.

Dr. Diana Wong from Sensei Change Associates says:

Leaders who excel as storytellers can build high quality connections. Their stories and more importantly the process of telling stories can inspire others to great heights. The best stories come from critical moments that allow us to see beyond the obvious, go from ordinary to the extraordinary and surprises that tickle our sensibilities. We are always composing stories as our lives unfold on a daily basis. Capturing the stories to create meaningful narrative is a sense-making process within ourselves. Then storytelling enables us to share the sense-making in building meaningful relationships.

Silent & Listen use the same letters & make up the remaining element to storytelling. But that’s for another post 🙂

For additional resources, check out the Story Center!

Best,   Karl
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What I learned from being fired

During our almost 50 year working lives we experience many ups & downs.  Whether it’s a challenging assignment, colleague’s personality or difficult boss they always exist. Work “nirvana” is hard to find. When we look back on these trying situations it’s often who maintained dignity through it all that we remember.  Who dealt with the adversity the best?  Who came out better for it in the end?  How did they grow?

Since the age of 13, when I got my first paycheck for some kind of work, there have been many wonderful challenges & learning opportunities.  For the most part, I’ve been lucky in that the jobs have not been about the money.  Of course that was a benefit but it was who I worked with & the growth afforded through hard work that I fondly reflect upon.

Recently, one of those assignments came my way due to a lack of personnel with the right experience.  It featured a lot of diverse tasks to prepare a team for a difficult assignment involving advanced training, remote communication, outside agency networking/coordination & team building.  After months of painstaking detailed work my bosses felt I had not asked the right questions, sweat the small stuff enough & let too many “balls drop”.  In a one-way conversation…I was fired.

This hit me hard.  I’d never been in this situation before, ever.  Even with this personal set-back, the team was off & running.  They had the resources needed to get the job done & had all dealt with changing variables out of our control the best way possible.  Their adaptability was impressive!  But why had this happened?  I’d done all anyone could do in my position, or so I thought.  It seemed my best wasn’t good enough.  Needless to say I was devastated.

Moving On

We are all secondary players in everyone else’s world.  Anything people say is a product of where they are in their lives, not ours.  There isn’t just one world there are 6 billion understandings of it.  It’s hard not to take what others say personally, especially if they are in charge but we have to try.  We must understand the reality they live with to begin to understand what they’ve presented to us.  Without this step we can’t move on, adjust expectations & learn from what’s happened. After this realization we can begin to figure out more in-depth takeaways objectively.  In pondering the situation further here are my discoveries about the workplace & my part in it…

Culture of Comparison

When the environment is one of placing blame you can cut the pressure with a knife.   Blame wants, even demands some sort of revenge.  This often promotes a sense of the “Lone Ranger” syndrome throughout the workplace.  One that focuses on whoever screws up least gets ahead & is seen as being the most successful.  This way of evaluating people is shortsighted, creates unwanted stress & promotes competition over collaboration.  This is largely a product of transactional leadership stemming from an intense “management” focus toward people.  When “blame avoidance” is commonplace employees develop coping mechanisms which lead to straying from who they really are & disconnectedness from the special things they bring to the enterprise.  Second guessing your every move & looking over your shoulder creates emotional stress that degrades effectiveness.  There is such a thing as too much success & can lead to over-confidence, complacency & destroy our self improvement. None of us knows everything & displaying humility no matter how much experience we have can go a long way.

Coaching Culture

Remember what Zig Ziglar says; “Failure is an event, not a person.” Creating a culture of collaboration takes intentional focus on leading people & managing stuff.  There is a distinct difference & both are needed to be truly effective.  When we focus on fixing the process & coaching our people everyone constantly learns, bureaucracy boundaries are lifted & things get done.  We don’t manage a team into battle they deserve to be led!  It takes courage to give away our control to teach others how to “run the business”.  If our leaders are forced to assign someone a job they might not be well suited for, taking the responsibility to help them through it becomes paramount on our “to-do” list.  Letting them flounder alone means we’ve failed them.  We all face situations where we simply need a job done but when we aren’t engaged in their success reactionary management results.  We hold them accountable only when things have gone wrong instead of working with them & having their back.  Accountability has to go both ways to work effectively; re-directing when events don’t go quite as planned & figuring out who’s responsible for success large or small.  Help more, judge less!

Transformational Leadership

We get the results of what we reward at work.  If you encourage management above leadership you’ll get the environment you’ve promoted.  You’ll get “led” by successful ladder climbers instead of authentic leaders.  Kouzes & Posner in their book “The Leadership Challenge” state people primarily look for honesty, forward-looking, competency & inspiration from their leaders.  These four concepts speak to the foundation of what it takes to transform an organization. They are what we need to do as leaders to take our companies past what the science of management says is possible.  Honesty builds trust, forward-looking provides vision, competency commits us to learning the trade not just the tricks & inspiration engages everyone’s personal power position; the diversity of workforce advantage.  This isn’t easy stuff, it’s complicated because people are involved not just machines, but it’s essential.  These concepts also mean everyone is free to challenge processes, discuss ideas openly, take risks & re-define themselves everyday.  Make mistakes faster, learn quicker, improve “you” genuinely!

Honesty without tact is cruelty!

When we deliver feedback of any kind it’s an extension of how we deal with relationships.  The disappointments of yesterday can’t be more important than learning from what has happened & sacrificing the likelihood of success today.  The essence of leadership is trust.  To build it properly workers have to feel the feedback they are getting is “feeding forward” for positive development.  We all want to be led by someone we can trust right?  Nobody is perfect or free from hypocrisy. When we are surviving the workplace instead of engaging with it even simple things become difficult.  Taking responsibility for the job we’ve been assigned comes first, then figuring out how we are going to get it done with our innate skills/abilities.  Judging how someone has dealt with problems through your lens creates an adversarial relationship at best.  We can’t make the decisions others would make we can only control how we adjust to changing conditions.  If we want our people to do exactly as we would, we end up having to do everything ourselves & nobody learns anything.  This is micro-management in reverse. Workers falsely feel as if you trust them but your second guessing makes them freeze instead of act.

In looking back on my situation, there were some definite situations I could have handled differently.  To be fair, I didn’t actually lose my job, just eventually moved into a different role.  The disappointment of not being able to share in the overall team’s success has been damaging in many ways personally (mainly credibility & competency).  Had I done my best to keep leadership informed?  I did work like a “lone ranger” in a sense feeling like everything rested on my shoulders.  I didn’t take time to ask for help or inform my leaders of potential issues.  I did seek out help from experts & learned a ton.  The reverse mentoring I received was invaluable.  Had I done my best to get work done through others?  I was hesitant to give away too many tasks but what I did ask others to do they tackled wonderfully.  I could have trusted them to do more!  Did I do my best to develop positive relationships?  I believe so with the exception of the leaders above me.  With all that was on their plate I hadn’t given them timely communication about our challenges. The other internal/external relationships gained continue to serve us well & I’m proud to have been a small part of fostering them.  Had I done my best to maintain dignity & grow?  Initially I retreated inward, was angry at the way things were handled & became a distant disengaged employee.  After some mentoring sessions I began to get back to my old self & learn from it all.  Being disappointed is OK but resenting others actions is damaging.  This is easier to say than do if we take our contributions seriously.  Overall, I feel as if I took the high road to preserve my own dignity & have learned that rebuilding trust is very hard.  However, it’s a 2-way street & this situation has fueled my personal leadership development most of all.

We all know the way work works is changing.  Technology is making most management aspects easier to handle; big data, logistics, etc.  This makes adapting our approach to leadership paramount to hire, retain, develop & coach our people.  Great leadership can & does make the key difference in all facets of our organizations.  Hopefully you never find yourself in the same predicament I found myself in.  Hopefully your model of being the boss you want to have permeates where you work & creates the right environment for trust.  I know each of us can do it & more importantly the people are counting on us to deliver!

All the Best,

Karl
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Getting from “me” to “we”

People are the most precious resource inside any company…duh!  They are the most wonderfully dynamic, creative, adaptable partners for accomplishing literally anything.  We can surmise people are most productive when they’ve been given the chance to grow & progress.  In that spirit, one of the topics that comes up often in conversations is the transition from individual contributor to serving others.  In some careers, it happens pretty fast & our awareness can be the key to getting off on the right track.  Whether you’ve just become a supervisor or lead a division, your everyday focus begins & ends with others.  Why does this transition surprise us?  What can make it easier?

I’m an expert!

How come the journey to learning everything we can about what we were hired to do doesn’t make the transition to lead easier?  Shouldn’t our “street credibility” be enough to get people to follow us?  If it were as simple as being the expert where we work in (whatever field) to make a successful transition, we’d have awesome leaders everywhere.  Fact is, it’s not easy.  Moving from individual contributor to getting things done with & through others takes intention.  Our degree of insecurity can be our downfall.

Self-Control vs. Self-Discipline

Marshall Goldsmith says in “Triggers“, “We are professionals at what we do, amateurs at what we want to become.”  The self-discipline we used to become great at anything is essential to creating desirable behaviors necessary for any life achievement.  Conversely, we can get in our own way when our self-control allows for undesirable actions.  We’re all probably good at one of these.  Maybe you have great self-control & avoid damaging behaviors but lack self-discipline to attain desired goals.  Or the reverse may be true. If you’re blind to these just ask those you work with, they already know & can help you focus on balance.  Awareness is the key as we look inward to move forward.  We can’t be all things to all people but we can be the best version of ourselves.  Or as Tom Rath says; “You can’t be anything you want to be but you can be a whole lot more of who you already are.”

Situational Leadership

Hersey & Blanchard state in their leadership theory leaders should develop a hyper-awareness of their followers.  The varying degrees of their readiness to accept coaching/mentorship changes constantly.  Recognition & acceptance of this endears them to their leaders.  Leaders should be adaptable to match followers acceptance level for the situation at hand.  Our flexibility to say & do the right things others need remains the key to displaying the authentic courage to care compassionately.  Peter Drucker states “…our mission in life should be to make a positive difference not to prove how smart or right we are.”  When any of us simply maintains a compliant facade around a leader we don’t respect it depletes us.  Coping in a “be safe” environment destroys effectiveness.  We can & we must strive for a “feel safe” culture so communication can build understanding & trust can rule.

Either you’re in or you’re in the way!

While we might try to motivate others we often fall short.  It’s my belief that if someone isn’t intrinsically motivated to put their effort toward any endeavor there’s little anyone else can do to change that.  Leaders will probably become drained quickly when attempting to change someone’s mind that’s not ready.  This often leads to the negative alternative of “pushing” to improve rather than the more positive “agricultural” growth mindset.  If instead leaders create an environment where everyone’s “stories” are enabled, a healthy learning culture emerges.  Listen, learn then lead!

Parenting

There are so many parallels to leadership in all aspects of parenting. We want to provide better opportunities for our kids than we had.  We help them develop a good foundation for right/wrong.  We help them know themselves so they can discover talents naturally & pursue their passions.  The biggest thing being a parent helps with is the alignment of say & do.  You can’t say one thing and do another around your kids, they’ll catch your inconsistency fast!  If we’re leading & value being on time we certainly can’t be late anywhere.  It’s the same with adults, our behaviors show them alignment of our values is true & not just what we say.  Figuring out your platform for leadership begins by identifying your values/beliefs & acting on them with authenticity.

“To be everywhere is to be nowhere.”  -Seneca

The secret to focused concentration is elimination.  We need others to accomplish amazing things for the world.  Coach the people, fix processes & let go the let them go!

Peter Drucker “Half the leaders I have met don’t need to learn what to do.  They need to learn what to stop.”

Find your “happiness” level

Climbing the ladder seems like the way to go.  But when we get where we think we ought to be is the ladder leaned up against the right place?  Getting that seemingly glorious title, position or responsibility rarely matches the vision we had for it.  If our motives are mis-aligned it can end up in authority by position & people will do what you say because they have to.  They’ll work for your money.  If your motives are true they give you their blood, sweat & tears by bringing their whole selves to work everyday.  Find your right seat on the bus & stay true to your values, your strengths will help you determine where you should sit to serve others in any enterprise.

Leaders say “We” not “I”

When we find ourselves at the crossroad of getting away from personal contributions & focusing on supporting others our language has more weight.  Patrick Lenioni sums it up this way…”It’s my hope that we won’t talk about servant leadership in the future because there won’t be any other kind!”

“God will not have his work made manifest by cowards.”

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

At the end of life, we won’t be measured by our accumulation, we’ll be celebrated by what we did for others.  You’ll never see a U-Haul behind a hearse!  If you love what you do, give it away, gift it to others, they’ll follow you for it & become leaders themselves…which has always been the point!

All the best,

Karl

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Your Leadership & Culture

These days we don’t have to look far for articles on how to positively affect workplace culture. The founder of Southwest Airlines, Herb Kelleher, was once asked by an employee if they could serve sandwiches on their flights. He responded by asking if that would help them become THE low-cost airlines in the industry? It didn’t so they don’t! Every great leader believes their leadership can make a difference in their organization & helps keep everyone focused on their vision of what that looks like. The bottom line is…Does YOUR leadership have a positive impact on organizational culture?

First, we need to bring awareness to the influence you can have. In his Ted Talk, Drew Dudley asks how many of us aren’t comfortable calling ourselves leaders? Why not? He says we’ve made leadership into something maybe someday we’ll deserve but every day we do amazing things that make us leaders. It’s possible these impactful moments can change someone’s life & we won’t even be aware of them. In contrast, bad drivers aren’t aware of the negative impact they’re having on those around them. It’s not that they have some sort of moral defect it’s just they don’t have the awareness of it in those moments.

We have to allow ourselves to embrace these powerful & influential moments. Drew also adds that we are willing to celebrate birthdays where all we have to do is not die for 365 days but we don’t allow ourselves to celebrate all the good we do. So, how do we get focused on the massive potential our leadership can have?

Global Influence!

Jordan B. Peterson gives us the global leadership formula. If our life expectancy is about 30,000 days or 80 years we are likely to have the opportunity to know about 1,000 people. If those 1,000 people each know 1,000 people then we’re up to 1,000,000. If those 1,000,000 people each know 1,000 people then we’re up to 1,000,000,000! There are only about 7.5 Billion people on the planet so in just 3 steps our influence can have a massive reach. The ripple effect either supports a healthy culture or detracts from it, like the bad driver. Here are some thoughts on how we can connect our leadership influence to a positive culture.

What’s rewarded is repeated

We have perfectly organized to create the behavior we are experiencing. What are the systems & processes we have in place that are driving these behaviors? This goes deeper than what gets measured gets accomplished; it deals with removing negative barriers to performance & connecting with the intrinsic social drivers for success. It’s also supported by our recognition/evaluation programs & how we manage them. Do they encourage a growth mindset through effective coaching or a fixed mindset focused on continuity? Leadership is doing the right things, management is doing things right so the key is to reward the right things. A great example of this is Chick-fil-A. Do they have better people? Of course not, they have access to the same employees any other company has. It’s their chosen culture that supports the environment of the people in it. They are clear about their values, realize them through their actions & we feel it each time we interact with any member of their team. They know unequivocally you can’t grow good grass without good soil!

Follow out of Curiosity!

Colin Powell says he learned everything he knows about leadership from a crusty old sergeant while he was in infantry school as a lieutenant. This is my go-to example & is worth repeating for sure! He was asked in an interview at the White House many years after that experience “how do you define key characteristics of effective leadership that allow you to be an advocate for good?” Before they could even finish the question he quickly answers “trust”! He continues to explain the sergeant tells him that he’ll know he’s a good leader when people follow him if only out of curiosity. He says it’s the best definition he’s ever heard because what it says is that they trust him. They’ll follow you up the steepest mountain & around the darkest corner because they know you’ll get them through it together. Regardless of the situation, the trust you earn will carry you through it. The environment you create around you matters & matters a lot!

We know people tend to leave bad leadership, not companies. It’s the “death by 1,000 papercuts” syndrome. Again, these bosses (probably) don’t have some moral defect they just don’t have awareness of how their actions are affecting others. You have the right to “feel” safe at work, safe enough to bring your whole self every day! If you find yourself coping just to “be” safe it’s time to figure out why. Leader might be your title but your leadership is defined by your behaviors!

Gripes go up!

Another great tool that can positively affect the culture, especially on teams, is the concept of complaints going up. There’s a great scene in the movie “Saving Private Ryan” that’s a great example of this. The squad is trecking through the countryside & one of the members begins to complain about their mission. He states that he doesn’t understand why they are all risking their lives to save one guy. This doesn’t rattle Tom Hanks character & this makes the other guys wonder if he agrees with the mission or not. Another member says he has thoughts on their situation & Tom Hanks character encourages him to continue with his thoughts. By hearing the member out Tom Hanks character is asked about his opinions on their situation. He responds by saying he doesn’t gripe to them he complains to his superiors & up it goes.

No matter the organization structure, people have different responsibilities & need to have communication channels open. Everyone has their own meaning they bring to work. Gripes soften as they go up but in a positive culture, it’s everyone’s responsibility to communicate how things are going. Package your thoughts with a solution, present it tactfully & keep moving forward!

A high percentage of companies suffer the same fate…they go out of business. Your ability to create winning teams, design systems & processes for manageable growth & create a learning environment are all keys to your success. Successful leaders know you can’t manage a team into battle you must lead them. The goal is to inspire a positive culture & nurture a culture of leadership!

All the best, Karl

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What’s personality got to do with it?

How does it feel to be in a position you aren’t particularly suited for?  In a workshop several years ago a young lady was experiencing some negative feelings & felt trapped.  She loved the company but not her role & couldn’t find a way to transition.  After a few discovery lessons, she found out why & within 6 months was on a new path. Her new journey could begin with better balance.  There isn’t work & life there’s just life.  How we choose to use our time/talents is only our choice.  In finding personal wisdom we free ourselves to follow our own path!

In a previous post (A Values Exercise) I took a portion of a professional development class I’ve delivered many times.  This offering will focus on another aspect…personality.  We often hear from our parents, teachers & mentors along life’s journey that we have the ability to be anything we want to be when we “grow up”. Is this true, can we?

In preparing the slides & discussion points for the class a book was recommended; “Strengths Finder 2.0” by Tom Rath of the Gallup Organization.  He starts out with this premise…

“You can’t be anything you want to be but you can be a whole lot more of who you already are!”

Needless to say, this concept really challenged my thoughts & those in attendance. This concept can seem to limit some & comfort others.  If you’re an “if you can dream it you can achieve it” person you might initially dismiss this thought.

After some initial discussion, we begin by writing down something that we have a true passion for.  Think about it & write it down.  It can be skydiving, hair/make-up, cartooning, fitness, mountain biking, baking, flying…anything you can imagine.  We tie our discussions & discoveries back to our individual passion items throughout the session.

Next, we discover some personality type characteristics through various assessment methods available.  The focus is less on the delivery type & more on individual results. What our results inform us is important & can open a deeper understanding of what makes us “tick”.  Discovering how our personalities & passions are interconnected makes for some “a-ha” moments.  What are the things you can’t do?  What part of your day includes true “passion” areas?  How would your quality of life be altered if you spent more time engaged in them?

10,000 Hour Rule

In Malcolm Gladwell’s book, “Outliers” he coined the 10,000-hour rule.  This has made its way into our vernacular & can be instrumental in expressing our “value” proposition to enterprises we wish to make an impact with.  Finding an opportunity to spend time working on a passion (curiosity) area can be tricky but as we discover, people always seem to find time for things that are important to them.  It’s natural, we just don’t stop to think about when/where/how we’re doing it.  Gladwell gives us this equation…

Natural Talent(s) + Time Invested = Strength

There are many takeaways here.  We can’t escape our DNA!  Learning to accept ourselves & others for who we are is vitally important.  It becomes the true diversity of our families, where we work & play.  We should be asking ourselves not what we want to “be” when we grow up but what we want to “do”.  Where can we make the most impact in the world?  There is no wasted effort!  In developing our innate talents over time we are able to focus our efforts on consistently delivering impact.  What company doesn’t want this?

Opportunities for “Growth”

We often hear this over our almost 50-year working lives.  Our leaders sell these new opportunities to us for many reasons.  Some positive & some not.  After all, companies need people to do stuff & if you’re one of the dependable ones you’ll get the nod.  As flattering as it might be, these might be great for our development & maybe they won’t.  If you truly know yourself, your talents & passions you’ll be better equipped to take advantage or pass.  Money, position or title should be the last considerations.  How effective is a collective “workforce” when people are putting their effort in some area they aren’t suited?  If employee engagement keeps things moving forward then we only have ourselves to blame when we take a position that works against our DNA.  However, seeking out opportunities that “stretch” us in new/different ways is always a great learning position.  We take the best of ourselves into every job we accept, in or out of our personality/passion area.  It’s all we have.  We can’t do a job like someone else, we do it our way in partnership with other functions of the business.  Hire the best you can in each area & develop them compassionately.  When this growth is encouraged people will naturally combine their talents for the good of the team & everyone wins!

Peter Drucker asserts that we are all good at just a couple of things.  If we focus continually on all the aspects of our personality/talents/gifts in which we are lacking it leads to insecurity & disengagement.  He also states that it is our responsibility then to become “effective” in the areas we have true potential.  No matter the outcome of any test we can all become effective.

There are many resources available to provide insight into who we are, here are a few…

Four Lenses of Temperament

Strengths Finder

Myers Briggs

DISC Personality Test

Gary Smalley Animals Test

Understand Myself from Jordan B. Peterson

It’s difficult to lead others without understanding ourselves first.  The ability to communicate effectively with those we lead encourages them to do some self-discovery of their own. Mastering ourselves is the hardest & most rewarding thing we can accomplish in life.  We owe it to ourselves & those we lead to thoroughly understand the unique aspects of who we are.  It’s the beginning of unlocking our leadership superpowers.  The most rewarding journey is to discover how we can leverage them in service to others!

All the best,

Karl
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*Thanks QuoteFancy for the Steve Jobs image!

Rocks in your backpack!

While attending a leadership development course a few years ago, a funny thing happened.  My rental car came with one of the old style GPS units that stick to the windshield.  It certainly came in handy as my international cell phone didn’t work.  The first time I used it to find a restaurant.  The ladies voice came on with directions.  “Turn Right”.  “Proceed to Turnaround Drive!”  That’s funny I thought then she said it again.  “Turn right on Turnaround Drive!”  Well, “Turnaround Drive” didn’t exist & there wasn’t a road there.  Now what?  Maybe it just needed to catch up with the satellites.  Eventually, there was a road & I got dinner.  Every time I went in that direction she told me the same thing…too weird.  After the second time, my mind started to wonder if the GPS unit was trying to tell me something.

turn-around-sign.jpeg

Was my life direction headed the wrong way?  Did I need to “turnaround”?  If so, what direction should it be?  Was the leadership development class the right decision?  Is it in line with where I want my life to go?  Hard questions, necessary for sure.

Rocks in Your Backpack

A mentor once told me to get rid of the rocks in my backpack.  Interesting way of compartmentalizing the unnecessary emotional baggage we carry around.  The beliefs we attach to what “should” have happened only get in the way of the good we can do in the future.  Work through the emotions, learn what you can & focus on doing your best the next day.  It all begins in our mind.  We can’t control it, we can only develop a healthier kind of detachment, a new perspective on how thoughts come & go.  It’s our conscious choice to attach meaning or value to them.  Keep only what reinforces your true self & let the rest pass as part of a healthy active mind.

Day Tight Compartments

In Dale Carnegie’s book “How To Stop Worrying and Start Living“, he introduces the concept of living in “day-tight compartments”.  A great way of looking at our efforts each day toward the life we want to lead.  When we do our best each day, live our truth & keep a learning mindset, we can look at ourselves in the mirror each night with a feeling of satisfaction.  We did all we could do that day.  Get some rest & start again tomorrow.  Simply getting busy “doing” will help keep the worry bug away.  After all, when we worry we have to suffer twice (at least).

Time or Energy

Everyone has a different way of approaching each day.  If you are a time management person, this may resonate.  Heard this way of thinking about our time from a speech a few years back.  Here’s the 2,10,5,7 rule…

-2 hours upon waking for self-improvement & organizing your day

-10 hours facilitating others success through working inside our strengths

-5 hours family/friends connection time

-7 hours of sleep

Structure helps & is a must.  No matter if you lean toward time management or prefer an “energy” focus, some structure will benefit your constant improvement.  Your daily “plan” speaks volumes to the dedication you have to your life goals.

Two Leadership Surprises

The secret to concentration is elimination.  The less you do the more you can accomplish.  What?  We can’t give away what we’ve been asked to do, can we?  This isn’t always intuitive but it’s true.  When we delegate our weaknesses it creates opportunities for others to develop their talents.  When we work in our strengths it projects how everyone can bring value to the enterprise & grow in a positive direction.  This wise approach leads to increased individual/team engagement, retention & builds trust.  High performing teams have realized not only connection but the extension of their collective abilities.

So, what about those rocks in my backpack?  Still working through getting over the ugliness of past events.  They are part of my narrative but don’t have to define me.  The journey to learn from them before throwing them out can be painful but if you’re a real leader you must listen & learn from them.  People are counting on you to be at your best & how we deal with life’s trials/tribulations is often the measure of who we are.

All the best!

Karl

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