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**31 Days to Becoming a Better Leader**

Anyone can become a better leader with the right information and guidance. Hugh Ballou shares his experience and knowledge from 31 years of leadership coaching and training in this concise leadership tutorial.

Latest Episodes:

Growing Your Nonprofit from the Customer Up May 12, 2021

Growing Your Nonprofit from the Customer Up Interview with Bill Woolsey

With decades of experience in starting and leading ministries, churches and networks, Bill Woolsey now invests his life in men and women who want to reach people for Jesus in new, creative ways.

After serving congregations in the Midwest, he and his family planted CrossPoint Community Church in Houston, a congregation that led his denomination (LCMS) in baptisms for much of the 2000s. In 2009 he led the launch of FiveTwo, a network that helps men and women grow their God-given dreams into ministries and businesses that last.

Bill authored “Seven Steps to Start,” a practical ‘how-to-start’ book written from a front-row seat of over 30 years of outreach experience. He and his wife of 34 years, Julie, have 3 children: Timothy, and his wife, Caitlyn; Abigail, her husband Nick and son, Ezra; and Samuel.

For more about Bill and his work, go to https://fivetwo.com/

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Leadership Challenges in Managing a Land Conservancy Nonprofit with David Perry Nov 24, 2019

Leadership Challenges in Managing a Land Conservancy Nonprofit with David Perry

DAVID PERRY, Executive Director is a Blacksburg native, has been with the Blue Ridge Land Conservancy since 2006, when he was hired as the land trust’s project manager. He became assistant director in 2011 and executive director in 2012. Dave is chairman of the City of Roanoke’s Mill Mountain Advisory Board and a member of the Roanoke Kiwanis Club.

Dave has a master’s degree in park and resource management from Slippery Rock University and a bachelor’s degree in geography from James Madison University. Prior to coming to the land trust, he was employed with the Wicomico County Department of Recreation, Parks and Tourism in Salisbury, MD and as a district executive with the East Carolina Council of the Boy Scouts of America in Kinston, NC. He, his wife and two sons live in southwest Roanoke

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Becoming A Better Leader Monday Momentum 14 Jul 29, 2019

The Pillars for Success

Strategy: Leadership without a strategic framework for an organization will compromise the results, overwork the leadership and teams, and waste time and money. A strategy is a Solution Map defining where the organization wants to be and how to get there. Here are the key elements:

Vision & Mission
Market
Unique Value Proposition (UVP)
Goals

Skills: Leadership, communications, and financial results are all grounded in effective relationships. Creating a culture of high performance starts with the first person (the leader) and is developed with intentionality with each addition to the board, the staff, the committees, the advisors, and the community advocates. Here’s the sequence:

Lead
Learn
Grow
Influence

Team: Teams are essential to the work of any organization. Moving from traditional thinking to a culture of servant leaders will impact the results of the organization. Build the principles for the culture and the skills to lead the teams before inviting the first team member to join.

Competency
Role & Responsibility
Culture Fit
Expectations

Finance: Create an operational budget in which each line item connects to a milestone in the strategy. Also, create a start-up budget from concept to launch. The missing element is the cash flow projection. Make notes on how to create each of these

Start-Up Budget
Operational Budget
Cash Flow Projection

Support: The best leaders, like the top sports figures, always have a coach. The leader’s job is to define and lead the work. Over 90% of the skills and systems are hidden from visionary leaders, especially start-up leaders and early stage organization leaders, however this need never ends. Always having an experienced coach is the essential step for accountability, sequence, skills, discernment, clarity, and referrals.

Mentor or Coach
Team
Mastermind Group
CFO/COO

Keep the Momentum!

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Becoming A Better Leader Monday Momentum 13 Jul 08, 2019

Becoming A Better Leader Monday Momentum 12

Becoming a Better Leader Monday Momentum

Book Resources for Leaders Quotes and Notes from Hugh’s book list: Today’s notes are on The Tao of Leadership, by John Heider This little book is full of useful and counter-intuitive ideas. It’s things we usually don’t consider. Many leaders are way too “hands on” with their leadership in attempting to make things happen, when they should be observing how things happen and guide when necessary. Many times leaders create problems that don’t exist until they intervene. Then we make things worse with our intervention. Keep this little book handy and just read a page or two at a time. Leave time to think. Thinking is good and mostly underrated. Quotes: The wise leader does not make a show of holiness or pass out grades for good performance. That would create a climate of success and failure. Competition and jealousy follow. Force and Conflict The leader who understands how process unfolds uses as little force as possible and runs the group without pressuring people. When force is used, conflict and argument follow. The group field degenerates. The climate is hostile, neither open nor nourishing. The wise leader runs the group without fighting to have things a certain way. The leader’s touch is light. The leader neither defends nor attacks. Remember that consciousness, not selfishness, is both the means of teaching and the teaching itself. Group members will challenge the ego of one who leads egocentrically. But one who leads selflessly and harmoniously will grow and endure. The Paradox of Pushing Too much force will backfire. Constant interventions and instigations will not make a good group. They will spoil a group. The best group process is delicate. It cannot be pushed around. It cannot be argued over or won in a fight. The leader who tries to control the group through force does not understand group process. Force will cost you the support of the members. Leaders who push think that they are facilitating process, when in fact they are blocking process. They think that they are building a good group field, when in fact they are destroying its coherence and creating factions. They think that their constant interventions are a measure of ability, when in fact such interventions are crude and inappropriate. They think that their leadership position gives them absolute authority, when in fact their behavior diminishes respect. The wise leader stays centered and grounded and uses the least force required to act effectively. The leader avoids egocentricity and emphasizes being rather than doing. The wise leader pays respectful attention to all behavior. Thus the group becomes open to more and more possibilities of behavior. People learn a great deal when they are open to everything and not just figuring out what pleases the teacher. How can a good reputation be a hindrance? A good reputation naturally arises from doing good work. But if you try to cherish your reputation, if you try to preserve it, you lose the freedom and honesty necessary for further development.

Keep the momentum

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Becoming A Better Leader Monday Momentum 12 Jul 01, 2019

Quotes and Notes from Hugh’s book list: Today’s notes are on Extraordinary Relationships: A New Way of Thinking About Human Interactions, by Roberta Gilbert This book is about the leadership methodology created by Psychiatrist, Murry Bowen, M.D. His colleague, Roberta Gilbert has taken the writings of Bowen and put them into systems for learning. I have worked with Roberta for about 10 years in seminars and private coaching. I find that this is the most effective and useful leadership methodology I have ever experienced. Before studying Bowen Systems with Roberta, I had developed my own leadership content, so I had trouble getting my head around something like this. Over time I embraced the systems thinking taught by Roberta and found that the two actually compliment each other in the following ways:

Transformation Leadership as I teach it is a system based on a vision and not the autocratic thinking of the leader. The leader is, however the creator of that vision and the champion for that vision. The system is about high performing cultures with leaders on teams. Transformation of self comes first, then transformation of the culture and the organization is possible.
Bowen Systems is about self awareness and discovery to manage self as a leader. In order to be effective the leaders must know self and manage self.

These two methods work well together in the Transformational Leader must manage self to be the influencer for success. Too many times a leader blames others for situations of their own choosing. Quotes: Here are some quotes from Dr. Bowen: You have inherited a lifetime of tribulation. Everybody has inherited it. Take it over, make the most of it and when you have decided you know the right way, do the best you can with it. That which is created in a relationship can be fixed in a relationship. I consider rugged individualism to be an exaggerated pretend posture of a person struggling against emotional fusion. The differentiated person is always aware of others and the relationship system around him. The basic building block of any emotional system is the triangle. One of the most important aspects of family dysfunction is an equal degree of overfunction in another part of the family system. It is factual that dysfunctioning and overfunctioning exist together. Overfunctioning is irresponsible responsibility. It’s ok to have empathy, but one must get out of it quickly. The goal is to rise up out of the emotional togetherness that finds us all. In the history of calming down has anyone ever calmed down by being told to calm down. The human has been slow to learn about his own inner space within his own skull. Thus far we have hardly scratched the surface. All things being equal, the life course of people is determined by the amount of unresolved emotional attachment, the amount of anxiety that comes from it, and the way they deal with this anxiety. The goal... is to rise up out of the emotional togetherness that binds us all.

Keep the momentum

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Becoming A Better Leader Monday Momentum 11 Jun 25, 2019

Leadership Book Quotes

Quotes and Notes from Hugh’s book list.

Today’s notes are on “As a Man Thinketh”by James Allen

One of the three books Jim Rohn said everybody should have is, “As a Man Thinketh” along with “Think and Grow Rich” and the Bible. Each of these books is full of wisdom of the ages and is timeless.

This little book is a short read. Each time I re-read it, I see different things and the things I saw before mean something different. It’s work reviewing monthly.

Even though the book is short, it’s full of profound ideas. The quotes below are some of the passages I have marked.

Quotes:

You are today where your thoughts have brought you; you will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you.

Circumstances do not make the man, they reveal him.

Men are anxious to improve their circumstances, but are unwilling to improve themselves; they therefore remain bound.

A man has to learn that he cannot command things, but that he can command himself; that he cannot coerce the wills of others, but that he can mold and master his own will: and things serve him who serves Truth; people seek guidance of him who is master of himself.

All that you accomplish or fail to accomplish with your life is the direct result of your thoughts.

The more tranquil a man becomes, the greater is his success, his influence, his power for good. Calmness of mind is one of the beautiful jewels of wisdom.

Self-control is strength. Right thought is mastery. Calmness is power.

The outer conditions of a person's life will always be found to be harmoniously related to his inner state...Men do not attract that which they want, but that which they are.

As he thinks, so he is; as he continues to think, so he remains.

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Becoming A Better Leader Monday Momentum 10 Jun 17, 2019

Becoming a Better Leader Monday Momentum

Book Resources for Leaders Leadership Resources: Books, Hugh's Notes and Quotes Quotes and Notes from Hugh’s book list. Today’s notes are on the 2 Napoleon Hill books on my list:

Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill https://amzn.to/2IenAVY
Napoleon Hill On the Air: The Five Foundations for Success, Napoleon Hill transcriptions https://amzn.to/2Z7YZsS

Think and Grow Rich is a classic self-help book which is the basis of much of the teaching coming from self-help gurus in the last century, with Jim Rohn and Bob Proctor being two of the most visible and popular presenters on the wisdom of Hill. It in one of the top selling self-help books of all time. Many other books have been and are continuing to be published thanks to Don Green and the Napoleon Hill Foundation in Wise, Virginia. Hill directs his readers to read chapter 4 every night aloud and to underline passages that impress us to remember and activate his premises for success. Napoleon Hill On the Air is a set of radio interviews by Hill transcribed and also available on Audible. It’s great to hear Hill’s wisdom in his own voice. Hill expands and highlights the themes taught in Think and Grow Rich as well as his Laws of Success and other writings. The combination of these 2 books gives insight into what Hill learned in his interviews of 500 successful business leaders of his time who were introduced to him by Andrew Carnegie. Selected quotes from Hill: Think twice before you speak, because your words and influence will plant the seed of either success or failure in the mind of another. Great achievement is usually born of great sacrifice, and is never the result of selfishness. Desire is the starting point of all achievement, not a hope, not a wish, but a keen pulsating desire which transcends everything. Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit. First comes thought; then organization of that thought, into ideas and plans; then transformation of those plans into reality. The beginning, as you will observe, is in your imagination. First comes thought; then organization of that thought, into ideas and plans; then transformation of those plans into reality. The beginning, as you will observe, is in your imagination. What the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve. Reduce your plan to writing. The moment you complete this, you will have definitely given concrete form to the intangible desire. Every adversity brings with it the seed of an equivalent advantage.

Keep the momentum.

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Becoming A Better Leader Monday Momentum 9 Jun 10, 2019

Books Here's my list of the top 10 books to develop and to stay on top as a leader:

Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill https://amzn.to/2IenAVY
Napoleon Hill On the Air, Napoleon Hill transcriptions https://amzn.to/2Z7YZsS
Extraordinary Relationships: A New Way of Thinking About Human Interactions, by Roberta Gilbert https://amzn.to/2MtNF8I
The Tao of Leadership, by John Heider https://amzn.to/2IdLhO9
As a Man Thinketh by James Allen https://amzn.to/2F1JOtF
The Tyranny of the Urgent, by Charles E Hummel https://amzn.to/2IedMeH
Transforming Leadership, by James Macgregor Burns https://amzn.to/2QGtX8e
Master Leaders: Revealing Conversations with 30 Leadership Greats, by George Barna https://amzn.to/2EReb5J
Transforming Power: Stories from Transformational Leaders for Encouragement and Inspiration, by Hugh Ballou https://amzn.to/2IjH4sj
The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow You, John Maxwell https://amzn.to/2MuD51e

Many good thoughts in each of these. I will be mentioning all of these in future sessions.

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Becoming A Better Leader Monday Momentum 8 May 27, 2019

Balance…or Not!

I’m writing a new book. I’m thinking of calling it Adrenaline as a Way of Life. Or maybe I’ll try Time: There Will Never be Enough of It, So Squander What You’ve Got. Here’s a sneak peak at my chapter outline.

Chapter One: E-mergency

Answer all emails at once. Do not delay. Stop whatever you are doing and answer that baby.

Chapter Two: Adrenaline is My Motivator

Save tasks that are “due today” until the last hour, better yet, the last half hour of your workday so you will have the added energy boost of adrenaline to help you complete your tasks.

Chapter Three: Be a Hog

Hog the copier. Put off using office machines until the last possible minute, never mind if your colleagues need them.

Chapter Four: Under-prepare for Meetings/Rehearsals

That way you’ll find out what you’re really made of. Can you fly by the seat of your pants? Are you great at improvisation? Can you fake it in front of a group?

Chapter Five: Don’t Bother Planning Ahead, Wait Until the Last Minute

Careful planning is over rated! Panic provides lots of energy for a task. It’s contagious too, so if you can get other people panicked about a mutual project, just think of all the energy!

Chapter Six: Don’t organize your stuff.

That last minute search for materials provides a great panic push just when you need an extra shot of adrenaline.

Chapter Seven: Run

Don’t walk, run. Run to the workroom, to the bathroom, to your car. Run yellow lights. Heck, run red ones. That gets everyone excited!

Chapter Eight: Do One More Thing

Do one more thing before you leave. That will insure being late.

Chapter Nine: Shallow Breathing

Be sure to keep your breath short and rapid. Mimic panic in your breathing at all times. Remember, you don’t have time to take a deep breath.

Chapter Ten: Run Late

Show up at the last minute, or better yet, arrive late. Increase every one’s anxiety level!

Chapter Eleven: Yell

Yell at everyone when you are running late. If there is no one there, yell at the empty house. Yell at other cars, yell under your breath or right out loud at anyone or anything that gets in your way.

Chapter Twelve: Fast

Eat in the car. Even better, don’t eat at all. Being hungry increases your discomfort level and decreases your functioning level which will force your adrenaline to kick in and do it’s magic. When you do eat, gorge on foods that are bad for you.

Chapter Thirteen: Blame

Blame other people, blame your life situation, blame the traffic, blame the stoplights, blame your mother. Blame anything or anyone you can think of for anything and everything.

Chapter Fourteen: Calendar, Schmalandar

Don’t bother double-checking your calendar for appointments. Better yet, don’t write them down in the first place. If they really need you, they’ll call you.

I wrote this as a joke in a particularly busy season in my life and shared it at a staff meeting as a way of apologizing to my colleagues for my hyper-anxious state of being at work. I wish I could say those things are exaggerations, but they are based on the truth of how out of balance my life was at that time.

This winter, as I enter a very busy season once again, I’m attempting to do things differently. Like taking time daily for prayer, exercise, good nutrition, and Sabbath rest. As an experiment, I’m going to take one workday a month out of the office to be still and pray. It’s already making me nervous but I’m determined to do it to break the habits I wrote about in my “book”.

As I attempt to regain balance in my work schedule, I hope you’ll be encouraged to do the same. May God bless us on our journey

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Becoming A Better Leader Monday Momentum 7 May 20, 2019

Balance: Getting and Staying Centered

In this episode, I’m starting to focus on my “Four Leadership Principles”: Foundations, Relationships, Systems, and Balance. Today we focus on balance. Even though it’s the fourth principle, it’s the one that makes the others work. If we can’t manage our use of time, the musical version of this principle is “Value the Rests.” In music the rests have a distinctive purpose and are not just the absence of sound. They are punctuation. They are a regrouping of energy. They are times used to clarify and cleanse the auditory palate.

Balance has several dimensions:

Work/Life Balance  
Balancing Multiple Tasks and Priorities  
Balance of Self: Physical, Emotional, Spiritual, and Discernment

You may be able to think of other ways balance is important to you and how to define that dimension.

There’s also the internal and external dimension to notice and regulate:

Internal

Mental - Growing in knowledge and experience challenging our intellect  
Emotional - Learning to separate feeling from thinking and being able to fully give and receive love  
Physical- Staying healthy by managing diet, exercise, and the rhythm of life

External

Work- Setting boundaries so work doesn’t encroach on personal life while being effective in productive work  
Family- Being differentiated so we remain ourselves and don’t get sucked into dramas while spending quaility time with family members  
Recreation- Managing use of time by putting recreation and social time on our calendar

When planning for the enterprise you lead, be sure to plan for your life as well. Then integrate the two plans. Balance doesn’t mean that everything is equal. Balance means that we highlight what’s more important and place it in perspective with everything else. Many times we need to consider letting go of something in order or achieve what’s most important to us.

Being centered in this sense is being grounded in solid principles.

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Becoming a Better Leader Monday Momuntum 4 Apr 22, 2019

Becoming a Better Leader Monday Momentum

Transformational Leadership Rethinking Leadership “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” - John Quincy Adams

The definitive leader is a transformational leader. Transformational leadership was birthed from educational systems and the military. The writings of BM Bass and JM Burns are cited in many, if not most, articles on transformational leadership. In the best sense, transformational leaders equip and create community. This community serves the articulated vision by building on the trust created through the integrity of leadership.

Transformational leaders are not intimidated by teams, committees, or boards. Conversely, they lead those groups to fulfilling participation with mutual accountability. Empowering groups to find their creative balance is a model for transformational leadership, not a weakness as many might think. The model requires that a leader think thoroughly through each process. Process builds trust. Process creates community. Process itself is a unifying, cooperative force.

Here are the traits of a Transformational Leader:

The transformational leader:

Clearly Articulates Vision And Goals
Defines Things Others Can Do
Builds Leaders Within Teams
Effectively Delegates
Encourages Boldness
Gives Information And Support
Affirms And Celebrates Competence
Respects The Individual
Avoids Micromanaging
Models What They Preach

Here is an excerpt from my first book on transformational leadership:

Examine the word `transform`. It does not merely mean change - or we would use that word. It is a verb with an expanded vision and is much more transcendent. It implies a deeper, more fundamental alteration of our very form. To transform. The continuing process of transformation begins with the moment of inspiration and continues in us through times of action, rest and reflection. The magic of transformation is absolutely necessary in the world of music. Transformation occurs not only by chance, but also by direct intention - not only from the leader, but from the participants as well. The results are cumulative. Once the sense of ensemble is achieved and experienced firsthand, it can be believed.

So, why are there not more leaders committed to building the sense of ensemble in all that they undertake? Maybe it’s an educational issue for those whom we lead. Maybe it’s a lack of understanding that the concept of ensemble is transferable from musical groups to other groups. Why is that concept so foreign to people? Why does it seem unobtainable? Keep the momentum

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Becoming a Better Leader Monday Momuntum 3 Apr 15, 2019

Managing Self: The Foundation of Leadership Leaders primarily are influencers. In order to influence others positively, we must first influence ourselves, that is, learn to manage our time, our emotions, our work, and our life. I’ve been a student of the work of Murray Bowen for over 12 years and have found it to be the most helpful and profound source of leadership knowledge anywhere. The fundamental concept is Differentiation of Self, which is managing self and understanding self. It’s about understanding ourselves by understanding our family of origin and how that has shaped us. It’s also about how to not be trapped by these influences. Our past is neither good nor bad. It just is. We then learn how to move forward and be present as effective leaders. Here are two themes under the Bowen Concept “Differentiation of Self” which is one of his 8 concepts. There are:

Anxiety
Over Functioning

Anxiety is a trap we set for ourselves, which magnifies everything and moves us into emotional decision making from a thinking based decision process. Anxiety also spreads to everyone else in the culture. We might think that we are good at hiding our anxiety, however others sense it and are effected by that anxiety, even if there’s no awareness of that process. Learning to manage our emotions and staying out of emotional leadership is the first duty of any leader. This does not mean that we can’t care about others and care about their emotions. We must stay out of those emotions, which include worry, empathy, fear, control, and other similar feelings. None of those emotions help the other person and certainly don’t make you a better leader. Emotion based leadership is a downward spiral that leads to an emotional culture. Set the standard and stay balanced. Creating a set of Guiding Principles for decision making is a way to stay grounded or centered as a leader. See Day 4 of 31 Days to Becoming a Better Leader for Guiding Principles and Day 28 for Managing Stress. Create your personal set of Guiding Principles and use those to manage self. Bowen called this “Basic Self.” When we act out of those principles, then this is what he called “Pseudo Self.” As a “pleaser” personality, I want people to like me. When I make decisions that are not allowed in my personal Guiding Principles, then I cause problems and actually people ending up not liking me and certainly not respecting me. I’d rather people respect me for abiding with principles rather than try to make them like me. The top leadership challenge I have experienced in over 31 years of training and coaching leaders, is Over Functioning, that is doing something for someone that they can do themselves. We think that we are being helpful, when in fact people resent what we are doing because they are capable of doing it themselves. The Transformational Leader defines what they can take off their plate and delegate to someone else. I’ll share more about Transformational Leadership in the next Monday Momentum. Join the SynerVision Community for Community Builders and get my program 5 Pillars to Success for free. Go to https://synervisionleadership.org and click on “Join."

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Becoming a Better Leader Monday Momentum 2 Apr 08, 2019

Define Your Life Goals “If you want to be happy, set a goal that commands your thoughts, liberates your energy and inspires your hopes.” —Andrew Carnegie Now that you’ve defined what you want your life to look like, it’s time to define your achievements in your personal life. Here’s some examples:

I have established a nonprofit foundation to continue giving to charities as a legacy
I have sufficient income to support my lifestyle and to give to charity
I travel when and where I want to go without out worry about funding or available time

Here’s the process:

Get index cards and a marker
Define specific achievements and state them in present tense as already having been accomplished
Group the cards by relevance
Combine similar thoughts for a stronger statement
Title each grouping
Sequence the achievements by importance or feasibility
Transcribe the words onto a document
Read your goals daily

Create these so that the enterprise or enterprises you lead will support your life goals Keep the momentum

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Becoming a Better Leader Monday Momentum 1 Apr 01, 2019

Define what your life will look like before starting or growing your enterprise.

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31: 31 Days to Becoming a Better Leader Mar 31, 2019

Day #31 - Continuing Improvement

Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers. - Harry Truman

Read good books with a highlighter in your hand. Mark the passages that stand out. Put the book away and read others. Come back to this book sometime in the future and have a different color highlighter in your hand. Notice that you highlight different passages than you did previously. You are ready to learn something new that you weren’t ready to learn the last time you read that book. Repeat this periodically to learn new things and to remember what you have forgotten since the last reading.

Gather knowledge and apply the learning. Don’t just acquire facts uselessly. Practice what you learn and take notes in your journal about the results. Review your journal frequently and you will learn from yourself.

Leadership Resources *

Leadership Modules:

The Unbound Leader: Unlocking Your Inner Potential https://synervision.kartra.com/page/unboundleader

Books:

Extraordinary Relationships: A New Way of Thinking About Human Interactions (Roberta Gilbert) http://amzn.to/HuEHlG
Master Leaders: Revealing Conversations with 30 Leadership Greats (George Barna) http://amzn.to/HxjfLS
Boundaries: When to Say Yes, How to Say No to Take Control of Your Life (Henry Cloud and John Townsend) http://amzn.to/HVFjQn
As A Man Thinketh (James Allen) http://amzn.to/MQk1qD
Think and Grow Rich (Napoleon Hill) http://amzn.to/1teERAl
Twist: How Fresh Perspectives Build Breakthrough Brands (Julie Cottineau) http://amzn.to/2cBWjx9
Platform: How to Get Noticed in a Noisy World (Michael Hyatt) http://amzn.to/2cwxAxe
Meeting the Shadow: The Hidden Power of the Dark Side of Human Nature (Connie Zweig and Jeremiah Abrams) https://amzn.to/2UaUYBx
Owning Your Own Shadow: Understanding the Dark Side of the Psyche (Robert A. Johnson) https://amzn.to/2Ey6q4V
Ask (Ryan Lesesque) http://amzn.to/2BNnT9e

Articles:

Conducting Power-Packed Meetings: http://bit.ly/1e1SqeB

Websites:

Bowen Center (Bowen concepts) http://thebowencenter.org
Sponsorships (IEG) http://sponsorship.com
Six Challenges Facing the Nonprofit Sector (Notre Dame) http://bit.ly/2Eb5chG
Five Challenges All Nonprofit Leaders Must Come To Terms With (Forbes) http://bit.ly/2nGYJkb
2011: The Year to Shape Up Nonprofit Boards (FastCompany) http://bit.ly/2Ea4Ovs

Tools:

Evernote http://evernote.com

Videos:

TED Talk, Dan Pallotta, “The Way We Think About Charity is Dead Wrong.” http://bit.ly/29LyJOx
TED Talk, Simon Sinek, “Begin with Why.” https://vimeo.com/108989093

* Links are affiliate links. Proceeds go to my nonprofit, SynerVision Leadership Foundation.

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30: 31 Days to Becoming a Better Leader Mar 30, 2019

Day #30: Have a Coach

I absolutely believe that people, unless coached, never reach theirmaximum potential.

-Bob Nardelli

Why do you need a coach?

Personal Awareness - Locate and address deadly blind spots.
Improve Leadership Skills - We don’t know what we don’t know.
Build Confidence - We need a cheerleader and accountability partner.
Sound Out Ideas - We can solve more problems if we have a confidential advisor to be a sounding board.
Gain Objectivity in Perspective - See how others might see things and get a different take on things.

Successful people have a coach.

Those who continue to struggle try to figure it out on their own.

An effective coach isn’t free. When you pay for the service, you get more value.

I serve as a coach to many types of leaders. It really doesn’t matter what their discipline is, they still lead. Good leadership is good leadership. It doesn’t matter where it’s applied. A leader in charge of an organization must have the overall vision for the organization in mind at all times. The big picture is not clouded by the details of getting to that vision. A coach assists in keeping that perspective. Leaders mustn’t settle into an alternate reality. A coach assists in bringing that reality to the forefront for us.

My particular unique value is in the integration of strategy into performance. Most effective leaders think like entrepreneurs, and not like managers or people that log in hours and go home. We have a passion for something and will accomplish that very special something. Building a road map to success (strategic plan) is the first step. Next is taking that plan and making it become a reality. Both of these activities are more difficult than they appear.

We can’t do our own strategy. Period. We need outside advice on the things we know best. We have subject matter knowledge; however, putting that knowledge into a format for implementation is a separate skill. We are too close to the information to be effective in developing a comprehensive plan. The proper assistance of a coach will help in gaining the clarity of options for your vision and even create a more direct pathway to fully achieving your mission.

In the implementation of the strategy, we struggle, and struggling wastes time and money. Having a confidential advisor who understands the structure of human potential in an organization will bring more value than the cost of the service.

Coaches are different, so interview several and note how you respond to their questions. In my world, coaching is listening and asking the right questions.

If you want to try me out, register for a 25-minute power session and see if it works for you. To get on my calendar, go to http://HughCalendar.com There’s no obligation and no pressure to buy. We must be a good fit for it to work for both of us.

There’s no worksheet for this episode. Refer to episode #23 to learn about the value of having a coach. Having a coach empowers us all to be a better coach.

Next: Day #31 – Continuing Improvement

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29: 31 Days to Becoming a Better Leader Mar 29, 2019

Day #29: Support Groups

No two minds ever come together without, thereby, creating a third, invisible, intangible force which may be likened to a third mind.-Napoleon Hill

Napoleon Hill, in his book Think and Grow Rich, gives many examples of “mastermind” groups. This is another type of accountability and advocacy support. Regular meetings of this team will help you pool the best thinking skills of each member and the result will be greater than the sum of the parts. This is the definition of synergy that Stephen Covey uses in his writings.

When you can combine skilled thinking and customize the output to solve your life challenges, then you are one step ahead of others who are just trying to keep up.

The individuals in your thinking and resource group can be people of like mind from similar professions, or people with different goals but similar leadership principles. You can also choose a variety of individuals from different professions who have different work styles. Your group must, however, be made up of people whom you trust, and with whom you can share your innermost thoughts. Each member of the group must be successful and continuously seeking to be more successful. Choose people whom you want to be around and would like to emulate. They must also believe that one can harness the combined spiritual force to focus spiritual energy on the prescribed goal.

It works something like this:

Choose people whom you respect and learn from those who are successful.
Set the size of the group. 4 to 6 is ideal so that there is time for everyone to interact.
Meet regularly, weekly or bi-monthly, but often enough to be effective.
Set the length of the meeting. One hour works unless a meal is included.
Set a schedule that allows time for each person to share and stick to it.
Each person should talk and share both the good and bad.
Each person should listen and respond to others.
Allow time for group interaction through brainstorming, evaluating, and strategizing.
Appoint a process person to keep time and monitor participation.
Ensure that each member is committed to the common goal.
Challenge each other to stretch because of this group.

Choose a group of people who have similar aspirations. If you are interested in programs that target those in need, choose people in the social services field. If you are interested in attracting donors, choose people with strong financial skills. If you are interested in missions… well, you get the idea.

Make your list of prospects and call them in order of preference. Stop when you have a large enough group to begin. Set your sights high. Choose people who are successful and with whom you wish to associate. After all, transformation begins with a vision. Choose someone who has seen and fulfilled a vision. Transformational Leaders begin by transforming their own lives.

Set a time to meet that will work for everyone and enforce it. Set a timeline for how long the group will exist, and then dissolve the group at the end of that time or recommit to another schedule of meetings. Begin on time, end on time, and keep your schedule. However, life does not offer us challenges in equal doses or in set time allotments. If someone in the group has a large problem or major concern to share, then begin the meeting by negotiating 1 or 2 minutes from several other members to have extra time to work on that individual’s special needs.

This is accountability in high gear! It may not be your style. Push yourself to get out of your comfort zone and share your goals. You will be an inspiration to others.

Next: Day #30 - Have a Coach

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28: 31 Days to Becoming a Better Leader Mar 28, 2019

Day #28: Managing Stress

Stress is an ignorant state. It believes everything is an emergency. -Natalie Goldberg

Stress is our internal scripts telling us lies. We can manage everything if we believe we can. We can manage our own emotions. If stress is an emotion, then it can be managed internally.

Move from feeling to thinking whenever you see that emotions are taking over your being.

Worrying is not a productive leadership skill. Empathy, worry, fear, anxiety, and the like are emotions that leaders can push out of their conscious minds. The conscious mind has a choice. Choose what to think about. Both positive and negative thoughts go directly to the subconscious mind, which has no choice but to receive them. It’s the subconscious mind that runs our bodies. We can choose what to feed the unconscious mind.

Napoleon Hill interviewed 500 successful businessmen introduced to him personally by Andrew Carnegie. He discovered their secrets to success and developed his principles for success. He also discovered that they all had a positive image they could plant in their conscious mind that would offset a negative thought. He discovered that the mind can’t hold a negative and positive thought at the same time. It’s our choice to implant positive thoughts to control how we function. It’s not easy; it’s an acquired skill strengthened over time with practice.

If the leader is anxious, then that anxiety spreads to the others in the culture. If the leader remains calm, then others remain calm. We manage our own emotions, therefore, we influence others to do the same.

Ways to handle stress:

Think About the Importance of Your Goals- See the future in full color HD. It’s a picture of your success. You don’t have time to worry when you are heading toward your goal.
Address Stress Directly- Stress has many causes. One certainly is conflict. Many leaders avoid conflict at all costs. This is wrong. Approach conflict immediately and directly while remaining calm. You’ll be surprised how much more you can accomplish when remaining calm.
Find a Quiet Place and Breathe- This sounds simple. It is simple. Be quiet and breathe deeply. In with calm air, and out with anxious air. Breathing helps bring calm to your spirit.
Exercise- Yes, sweat is great for stress. Find a place to exercise and don’t be shy. Move and change your location. Move away from your desk for a change of pace and find an aerobic routine.
Sleep Enough- I need 8 hours of sleep every night - no exceptions. When I sleep, I’m better at managing my emotions. To stay emotionally balanced and physically healthy, get enough sleep.
Count Your Blessings- Remember what matters, and maybe what caused the worry is not important after all.
Focus on Your Faith- I read Christian scripture for feeding my spiritual self. This gives me hope and strength for my day. Whatever your faith is, practice it each day.
Surround Yourself with Competent, Positive Framing People- Talk to people who have a good outlook on life. Share openly and listen to their comments. It’s important to have others around us.

Leaders are always working on self. We never reach a plateau and stop growing.

Next: Day #29 - Support Groups

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27: 31 Days to Becoming a Better Leader Mar 27, 2019

Day #27: Managing Time

Lack of direction, not lack of time, is the problem. We all have twenty-four hour days. –Zig Ziglar

This is a funny title, because we can’t manage time! We can, however, manage our use of time. We all have the same amount of time every day. Not all of us use it wisely or even to our best interest.

My definition of a leader is a 3-part definition. A leader is a person who:

Gets things done - it’s not activity, it’s accomplishment.
Knows how things get done - either you know or you figure out how.
Influences others - basically, a leader is an influencer.

Here’s my list for getting more done in your normal day:

Stick to your goals

After all the time and energy you spent defining goals and then setting monthly milestones, please honor those as commitments to your own success.

Manage priorities

In the book The Tyranny of the Urgent, by Charles Hummel, we learn now ordinary and unimportant tasks become urgent. It’s better to manage urgent things as important items in life, rather than tending to unimportant things that have become urgent because we didn’t prioritize them. Set priorities to be able to tend to important items with your full attention when they are not urgent and stressful.

Define what not to do

You have created a plan for your work in the system I have defined in this series of podcasts. If you know what you are supposed to be doing and understand the importance of those accomplishments, then active the word “no” for yourself and others. This leaves time to deal with unexpected priorities that come up from time to time. It’s interesting, however, that fewer unexpected urgent things come up when you are managing the priorities.

Use your calendar

Plan activities on your calendar when you need to be physically present, including the to-dos in your office. Those are the “nows” of the day. Those don’t include the time between each “now” and the time after each “now” to take notes and time-activate decisions and actions. Plan your day in 25-minute segments with a 5-minute break to move your body. Sitting all day is deadly for your health.

Eliminate distractions

Playing music in the background is a major distraction for me. I am a musician and the music grabs my attention. When conducting a musical ensemble, I have realized that when I move my hands in conducting, even that ordinary, necessary, and expected movement takes brain power. I lose about 40% of my ability to hear because some of my brain is focused on the movement of my hands.

Some leaders claim that they can get work done in a coffee shop. I find the people very distracting. I do my best work in a quite place with no views to tempt my imagination. When taking frequent breaks, I can enjoy a view, cup of coffee, or exchange with others for stimulation.

Learn the art of delegation and USE it

I have already spoken about delegation. I have not suggested strongly enough that it is essential for any leader. When leading a nonprofit, engage volunteers. They have a passion for what you are doing, so let them realize that passion and help you achieve the organization’s goals.

Have an accountability partner

This is not your spouse or best friend…Find a person who will tell you what you need to hear and not just be nice.

Care for self

Be sure to get plenty of sleep and exercise. An alert mind is a high-functioning mind and one that’s less tolerant of time-wasting activities. Pace yourself and schedule breaks to walk around. You must move. Sitting is not healthy.

Next: Day #28 - Managing Stress

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26: 31 Days to Becoming a Better Leader Mar 26, 2019

Day #26:Hiring Staff and Consultants

Having the wrong person is worse than not having a person at all. - Hugh Ballou

It’s possible that I took the above quote from someone, but I can’t find a source for it. It’s so true, however. We hire someone for a position because we need someone by a certain time, and we hurry the process, making a quick judgment without the proper attention to the process and to the signals they send. We need to listen carefully with our eyes and ears to precisely worded questions.

The person working with us or our organization represents our organization. The brand image is at stake with each person representing us. We hire for skill and skip over checking to see if that person fits the culture we have so carefully nurtured. A proper search process takes time and energy and requires focus on the critical success factors.

Here are some basic concepts for finding the right person:

Clearly define what is expected - describe the basic duties.
Isolate the exact skills needed for performance and bullet point those skills.
Define the character and personal traits needed - leadership skills, communication skills, analytical skills, etc.
Develop an application form to include the information needed and ask for a résumé.
Read both the application and résumé, highlighting things that jump out to include those items in future questions for the applicant.
Search online to see what shows up, especially on social media.
Schedule the first interview and include other decision-makers, but not too many people.
Develop open-ended questions to reveal how the applicant sees reality, solves problems, thinks creatively, understands the nature of the work and culture, and how they approach and deal with conflict.
Define the scope of work, commitment hours and energy expected, and salary and benefits.
Determine if there’s a desire on both sides to move forward with the process toward a decision for engagement.
Make the offer in writing.
Define a start date.
Sign an employment contract or other type of agreement.
Begin the assimilation process with a defined mentor or point person.

This is a very important process that many organizations have not mastered or even developed a sufficient level of competency in applying to the decision.

Next: Day #27 - Managing Time

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25: 31 Days to Becoming a Better Leader Mar 25, 2019

Day #25: Evaluations

If you are building a culture where honest expectations are communicated and peer accountability is the norm, then the group will address poor performance and attitudes. - Henry Cloud

Evaluations are how we examine the progress or value of a program or activity and/or job performance. Frequent evaluations help to determine whether or not we leaders and our teams are on track for a predetermined objective.

Evaluations serve many purposes and show up in many forms. The leader must decide what to evaluate and the meaning of that evaluation. Once the evaluation is done, then the important decision is what to do with the data.

What to evaluate:

Team or board performance - self-evaluation is very revealing and mostly productive.
Employee performance - the annual review is destructive and dysfunctional. Establish continuing evaluations.
Yourself - get a peer group to provide you with feedback and not just a group of “yes” people.
A strategic plan or any plan.
Any process, event, performance, or individual.

First, the leader decides:

What to evaluate.
How often to evaluate.
Why the evaluation is necessary.
Who does the evaluating.
How the data will be used.
The process used in the evaluation.
The rules of conduct in the evaluation - is criticism expected?

Here’s a simple format for use in group evaluations of themselves, events, plans, or activities:

Affirmation and Measuring the Good - What did we do well? or What went well? (What to KEEP.)
Identifying the Underperforming Areas or Activities - What needs changing? or What needs upgrading? (What to STOP.)
New Things to Consider - Brainstorming things or activities we didn’t utilize before (What to START).

Next: Day #26 - Hiring Staff and Consultants

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24: 31 Days to Becoming a Better Leader Mar 24, 2019

Day #24: No Job Descriptions

A job description is a form invented by HR departments to validate their job. It has taken form as a list of tasks, which is a form of micromanaging.- Hugh Ballou

I love to borrow the quote from a colleague of mine that the Job Description is an invention of the HR department, which is the department of Human Remains. That’s not very flattering. HR professionals are important watchdogs for compliance in organizations. In fact, organizations without this department are in jeopardy of breaking the law. So, it’s really not a joke. It’s just bad practice.

Having no document is worse than having a bad document, however, not much worse. Having a checklist of tasks is the document I have mostly seen. It’s not a document that inspires high-performing team members to do their best.

A new best practice for my teaching is developing a “Position Description” for a specific job or position within an organization. The elements of this document are also the checklist for hiring employees, consultants, or board members. It’s a description of an area of performance with specific exceptions clearly defined.

Here are the elements for a Position Description:

Title of the Position
Describe the Position in a Few Words
Competencies Needed
Role and Responsibility
Culture Fit - Alignment with values and principles
Performance Expectations - updated monthly or quarterly

What’s important here is that a person has a performance track. You, as the leader, guide them on that track. The role and responsibility might be “to create and implement…” or “to manage…” It’s a very specific track for their work, but not defining every single thing they are expected to do in that job. If the right person has been engaged for the right match in performance, then let that person define how he or she will accomplish said deliverables over time. Point people to end results, and not to activity.

Next: Day #25 - Evaluations

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23: 31 Days to Becoming a Better Leader Mar 23, 2019

Day #23: Avoiding Micromanaging: Coaching and Mentoring

A coach has some great questions for your answers; a mentor has some great answers for your questions. - Anonymous

The most deadly activity I see, and the most common as well, is micromanaging. It’s the “BOSS” syndrome. Telling people what to do isn’t effective in today’s world. Learning to delegate is one of the most difficult skills for today’s leader to master. We have seen others show up as BOSS and command the space by telling everyone everything to do. Once the BOSS leaves, people typically do whatever they please and accomplish just enough to get by. What happens when the leader isn’t present is the test of true leadership.

My definition of BOSS: when you spell is backwards, you get “Double SOB!” This doesn’t inspire a high-functioning culture.

Delegate and assist in the completion of the tasks. Here’s what’s required for effective delegation:

Clearly define the desired end result.
Provide information for achieving that result.
Provide needed information along the way when asked.
Respect the individual.
Mentor as necessary for subject matter expertise you have.
Set time-activated report times with specific results.
Get out of the way.

Don’t confuse coaching with mentoring.

Coaching is mostly asking questions and assisting the team member in increasing their own leadership skills. A coach never provides answers or tells anyone what to do.
Mentoring is providing specific information and skills for achieving something. The mentor is a subject matter expert and knows not only what they want accomplished, but also the information and skills to do it. The mentor is primarily a teacher.

If you didn’t notice, the last bullet point in delegation is … “Get out of the way.” Leaders often get in the way and limit the performance of team members.

Next: Day #24 - No Job Descriptions

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22: 31 Days to Becoming a Better Leader Mar 22, 2019

Day #22: Flash Meetings

The longer the meeting, the less is accomplished. -Tim Cook

Flash meetings are a methodology that I didn’t invent, like most of the stuff I teach, and is likely not a common enough practice for many people to be aware of either.

A flash meeting is like the name implies - it’s short and, hopefully, over in a flash. Many times, the meeting is conducted with everyone standing. People are less prone to wasting time when standing.

The purposes for the flash meeting methodology are the following:

For you as leader to stay apprised as to what’s happening at all times;
For the different group members, company leaders, committee chairs, etc., to stay connected with others in the organization to maximize effectiveness;
To expand a shared responsibility in the culture;
To set a pattern for regular communications;
For you as leader to have a chance to connect any variances in performance before they get too far out of control;
To manage expectations, lowering the potential for unnecessary conflict;
To lighten the workload for each team member by realizing others bring value to the work of every other team member;
To build relationships within the team.

Here’s the basic pattern for a regular (I suggest weekly) flash meeting:

Start promptly at the time scheduled (don’t wait for latecomers to arrive);
Have a visual posting for proceeding with the set of deliverables scheduled for review;
Set the reporting order and move directly through that order;
Ask each person to stick to reporting and not providing lots of data or discussing minor details, unless those details add value to the report;
Each person acknowledges the completion of the previous set of deliverables, or asks for assistance in solving problems that prevented the completion of those deliverables, and then shares the deliverables for the next meeting;
Share what’s needed from others on the team and ask what others need;
Rotate through the entire group with the same reporting pattern;
Once the reports are complete, set individual meetings between group members or yourself and others to manage details or to mentor. Don’t provide harsh or major corrections in the group; save that for individual conversations.

Flash Meetings:

Keep them short and frequent - daily or weekly, if there’s enough to accomplish.
Have a visual with deliverables posted and to record new deliverables.
Lead the meeting by letting team members report.
Let the accountability for results reside with the group members; if that isn’t effective, then meet individually with people not performing up to exceptions.
Keep the work focused on the organization’s goals and monthly milestones.
Enjoy the relationships and celebrate success whenever appropriate.

Meetings are focused on outcomes, build relationships, create team energy, and build the influence of the leader.

Next: Day #23 – Avoiding Micromanaging: Coaching and Mentoring

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21: 31 Days to Becoming a Better Leader Mar 21, 2019

Day #21: Team Action Planning

When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached, don’t adjust the goals, adjust the action steps. -Confucius

This is the step for making things happen. It’s the integration of strategy into performance. The team goes into action with the steps they have created, that they now own, you have approved, and all is transparent.

In this step, the accountability mechanism isn’t you. The accountability now rests with the team members themselves. Peer-to-peer accountability is stronger than top-down process management. You can have both, but you don’t need to be the daddy or mommy of the group. Let them manage the mutual accountabilities. It’s their performance that matters.

If the team doesn’t perform, it becomes quite evident as to where the problem lies and with whom the issues rest. In this model, everything is transparent.

Here’s the process:

Gather the team - Convene a session for the purpose of creating an action plan to achieve a monthly milestone under a short-term goal for the year. If you haven’t set monthly milestones yet, it’s time to do that. You can do both in a single session.
Create a working space - I use a storyboard sprayed with repositionable mounting glue and paper from the printer cut in half. The paper will stick to the cardboard you get at the art store or office supply. It’s a 36x48” tri-fold black report board.
Print out the Short-Term Goal you are working on and place it on the board.
Print out the current milestone for the month. Plan ahead for the upcoming month.
Brainstorm a list of to-dos (action steps) to reach the milestone.
Combine ideas that are practical for one step and create a new note.
Place the items on a board with the header, “Action Item” or “Action Step.”
Write the name of a “Responsible Person” for each item.
Define an Action Date - start date, draft date, completion date, phase one completion date, etc.
Transcribe the notes and send them to the group.

Tips:

You facilitate the process and team members create the content.
Appoint a person to transcribe the notes.
Do not allow cell phones or computers.
Set the next meeting before you adjourn.

Using the process empowers the team for action, sets accountabilities, highlights opportunities for coaching, and creates momentum.

If the team sets the action items, there should be action dates each week moving toward the milestone. The weekly reporting exposes uncompleted tasks that limit your progress.

By the way, keep your name off of any action that someone else can do so you can supervise.

Now, get out of the way and let them perform.

Next: Day #22 – Flash Meetings

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20: 31 Days to Becoming a Better Leader Mar 20, 2019

Systems

Day #20: Meetings

Meetings are at the heart of an effective organization, and each meeting is an opportunity to clarify issues, set new directions, sharpen focus, create alignment, and move objectives forward. - Paul Axtell

The Agenda is the enemy of productivity in meetings.- Hugh Ballou

Bad meetings are a killer of team empowerment. - Hugh Ballou

Here’s the module where I explain why a meeting agenda is the enemy of productivity. The agenda is a checklist of activities. I already have enough activities in my life. I’m looking for results in every activity. Therefore, focus on outcomes. Meetings either empower teams or kill team energy. It’s our choice which one we support.

Instead of using the old tried and untrue pattern of creating a meeting agenda, choose to define the desired outcomes for the time together using “deliverables.” The deliverables are specific achievements, or goals, for the session you are conducting. As Steven Covey has defined, “Begin with the end in mind.” In this case, define what you want to walk away with having completed in the time of the meeting.

Here’s a pattern for planning a meeting:

Overall Purpose– If you have an ongoing project or are meeting continuously, define the ultimate objective of the team and/or organization. This helps the group to keep perspective for the journey.

Deliverables for This Session– Define what you will accomplish in this one meeting. Be specific. When you come to the end of the time, everyone knows that the goals for this time have been reached.

Off-Limits for This Session– Groups get into the weeds or go down a rabbit trail that isn’t productive. It’s important to define what will be accomplished in this session and it’s also helpful to define what the group will not do! For example, to define the details of any initiative would be appropriate when setting major directions or defining projects. Do the details between meetings and report back.

Background– List the “givens” or the facts surrounding what you are working on. Do not assume that everyone has the same data. List things that you think are obvious, even if those facts are just perceptions. This helps to eliminate time wasted debating things.

Learn to facilitate group process, especially running meetings. Leaders influence others. Leaders ask good questions. Leaders let others on teams utilize their expertise. Leaders build high-performance teams. Effective meetings create a “New Architecture of Engagement™”that defines the culture.

Next: Day #21 - Team Action Planning

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19: 31 Days to Becoming a Better Leader Mar 19, 2019

Day #19: Team Performance Covenant

Making covenants is an expression of a faithful heart; Keeping covenants is a expression of a willing heart. - Bonnie D. Parkin

What a covenant is:

Merriam-Webster: a written agreement or promise usually under seal between two or more parties, especially for the performance of some action.

It’s important to create an operational profile of how team members function within this particular leadership container. To set up this process, ask team members to think about another group they were a part of, and to think specifically about what challenges they experienced in that group, such as how they wasted time, what set up conflict, whether each member had a chance to weigh in on ideas, if it was a safe place to disagree, or other factors causing dysfunction or limiting effectiveness. They can also identify systems or customs from other teams that worked really well. People must have a vision of how they work together that’s specific to the team, and that we don’t assume anything is normal. Each team has some different patterns.

Here are my process steps for creating a team covenant:

Start with each team member making an “I promise…” statement.
Share the statements with others by posting.
Look for common ideas that can be combined.
Transcribe the list and walk away for a few days.
Reconvene and review the list.
Ask if there are any points that everyone can’t agree on.
Convert to “We promise” statements and transcribe. Attempt to limit the number of points to 10-15.
Post the covenant points at each meeting and verbally review one by asking, “How are we doing with this one?”

This is different from the list of guiding principles. Principles are what we apply to decision-making. Covenant is how we function together.

Next: Day #20 - Meetings

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18: 31 Days to Becoming a Better Leader Mar 18, 2019

Day #18: Getting Team "Buy-In"

Great teams do not hold back with one another. They are unafraid to air their dirty laundry. They admit their mistakes, their weaknesses and their concerns without fear of reprisal. - Patrick Lencioni

Patrick Lencioni’s 5 Dysfunctions of a Team:

Dysfunction #1: Absence of Trust
Dysfunction #2: Fear of Conflict
Dysfunction #3: Lack of Commitment
Dysfunction #4: Avoidance of Team Accountability
Dysfunction #5: Inattention to Team Objectives

To have a high-performing team, each member must have buy-in. All of the five dysfunctions above can be addressed with the following steps.

The buy-in begins with strategy. The leader (that’s you) holds and communicates the vision. It’s also your duty to forecast the future by defining the long-term strategic objectives. Now it’s time for the team to be engaged with the planning process.

It’s the notion of the leader (remember, we’re been taught things wrong and have inherited systems that aren’t working) to do all of the planning, and then hand out the plan with implementation details to the team.

Here’s where we cut them off at the knees…they have expertise, they have value in skills and as a person, they can solve problems and think creatively, they are subject matter experts, they have varying implementation skills…and so forth. So, why in the world do you think you have to create the entire plan in a vacuum?

When team members create the plan they own the plan and they bring accountability to the plan.

Develop Healthy Process:

Relationships becomesProcess

Process createsTrust

Trust formsCommunity

Community buildsRelationships

Team process:

Guidelines - Let the team define their own rules of engagement or working process guidelines.
Goals - Set team goals for productivity and satisfaction.
Action Plans - Create action plans to support the company goals as a team.
Consensus - Learn and teach consensus.
Power Meetings - No more boring meetings, which is the number one killer of power teams (Day #20).
Communicate - Communication is based on relationship and not on data.
Celebrate - Set aside time to celebrate milestones accomplished.
Lead, lead, lead - That’s you.

Next: Day #19 - Team Performance Covenant

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17: 31 Days to Becoming a Better Leader Mar 17, 2019

Day #17: Corporate Culture

Culture eats strategy for breakfast.- Peter Drucker

Here’s a process for establishing a high-functioning corporate culture for any type of enterprise. If you are starting a new venture, it’s better to focus on the culture from the beginning, since it’s much more difficult to go back and correct habits that have already been established. It’s difficult anyway since people are accustomed to a top-down, autocratic, tell-me-what-to-do type of arrangement. This establishes a culture, in which each person shows up as a leader in their various roles and at the level of their responsibility.

Leadership is an individual skill. It’s also a culture of high-performing individuals. In music, when the choir or orchestra learns the notes, then we work together to develop a synergy we call “ensemble.” This higher state of community comes through intentionality and rehearsal with everyone in the group paying attention and focusing all their efforts on the group functioning. No individual gives up their skill, however, that skill is merged with the skill of others to create a higher performance standard.

Here are my steps in developing a high-performing culture:

Be clear about values and principles - Since you have already defined the organization’s values and principles, it’s time to communicate those. Every person must understand and embody both of these. Team members, such as staff, committee, or board, can continue to fine-tune the operational guiding principles with your guidance. Every principle must meet your approval, however when the team adds even one principle, then their ownership of the concept is solidified.
Develop a team covenant - A covenant is not a contract. A covenant is a promise we give to one another. In this step, the team members articulate how the interdependence of the team is important to the team’s ultimate success and sustainable success. In Day #19, I provide the format for developing a team covenant.
Focus on relationships - Leadership is based on relationships. Communication is based on relationships. Always value the individual and work on relationships.
Meet regularly, but always with purpose - In the podcast about conducting power-packed meetings (#20), I provide a very different model for conducting meetings. It resembles how a conductor leads music rehearsals. It’s the key to developing the team’s high-functioning culture and the way to developing a fine-tuned ensemble.
Develop action plans in teams - There’s a synergy, along with mutual accountability, when teams create action plans together. It’s a “New Architecture of Engagement™” for erasing the lines that create silos and territories within companies. Creating the plans together is a collaborative activity and, in that process, leaders discover ways of working together by defining what each of them needs from others and what they share with others.
Meet with multiple teams to compare and collaborate - If the organization is large enough, the leaders of the different teams need to meet frequently to look at the cross-disciplinary opportunities for the work. In this step, we erase other lines that separate people within organizations.
Model what you want to see in the team - The pace of the leader sets the pace for the team. The integrity…the work ethic…the engagement…the attitude… Get the picture? The team is a reflection of the leader.
Coach for Success - In Day #23, I go into more depth about coaching. The leader needs to be a leadership resource, forming the culture and growing the engagement. Coaching is a specific skill, so master that skill. The goal of coaching is listening and asking good questions, and not telling people what to do.

Intentionality of purpose in creating a high-performing culture, along with mastering the skill needed, is the only way to build an excellent corporate culture.

Next: Day #18 - Getting Team “Buy-In"

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16: 31 Days to Becoming a Better Leader Mar 16, 2019

Day #16: Group Dynamics and Conflict

Peace is not absence of conflict, it is the ability to handle conflict by peaceful means. - Ronald Reagan

In human emotional systems, we see the good, bad, and ugly of others in good times and in times of stress. We show up like we showed up many times like we did and do in our family of origin. We have developed behaviors and responses over time, and sometimes are not aware of these behaviors or responses. This is not a judgment of good or bad. It is just recognition of reality. We are influenced greatly by our family of origin.

In learning about ourselves, we learn about how we influence others. If a leader is anxious, then that anxiety is contagious and spreads throughout the team. If we remain calm, then others respond calmly or limit their emotional state and might be able to limit their responses. Leaders influence others by their state of being.

Over the past 10 years, I have been studying the work of Murray Bowen, M.D. His work as a psychiatrist with families is important to leaders in any field. His body of work is referred to as Bowen Family Systems. Eight concepts guide our thinking and our discovery process of learning about ourselves. We learn to manage ourselves.

Groups are like families. We behave like we do in our family. We respond to others and they respond to us as we do and did in our family or origin. Learning about ourselves takes us out of responding emotionally and into thinking about group emotional systems and discovering our role in that system. We impact the system.

Learning about ourselves isn’t changing who we are. It’s discovering how we can manage ourselves. If you review the podcast about Guiding Principles, you will discover how personal guiding principles help us to manage ourselves. To manage conflict and other group dynamics, we must understand ourselves and what guides our behavior.

Here’s a list of the eight Bowen Concepts and how those are useful in observing group dynamics.

8 Concepts of Bowen Family Systems

Triangles– Triangles exist when there are three people in a relationship. Triangles are neither good nor bad - they are. Anxiety moves around the triangle.
Differentiation of Self– Strong grounding in personal guiding principles in which a person does not depend on the approval of others for decisions makes a differentiated person. Each person in a group's emotional system thinks for themselves, rather than opting into the will of the group in what’s called “group think.”
Nuclear Family Emotional System– The basic family unit is where we learn patterns and behaviors. By observing our family, we learn about ourselves and gain abilities to observe other emotional systems.
Family Projection Process– We all inherit problems and strengths from our parents who have projected their fears and hopes onto us. Observing these patterns frees us to be independent and function in basic self.
Multigenerational Transmission Process– We all possess learned behaviors that have been taught to us knowingly and unknowingly through multiple generations.
Emotional Cutoff– This is where we avoid or minimize contact with people with whom we have unresolved tension.
Sibling Position– Bowen continues the research of Walter Toman on the patterns of sibling position. Being aware of our position, as well as the position of others in our emotional systems, provides insights on behaviors.
Societal Regression/Societal Emotional Process– There are parallel patterns in society and family systems.

Observe how these concepts enlighten your ability to observe the behaviors of others and your behaviors. We don’t change the behaviors of others. We change our behaviors and others respond to us.

Next: Day #17 - Corporate Culture

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15: 31 Days to Becoming a Better Leader Mar 15, 2019

Day #15: Team Agreements

Unless both sides win, no agreement can be permanent.- Jimmy Carter

Leaders set up problems in many ways. One clear way we set up conflict in teams is by assuming that everyone knows what you want and you know what they want. There is a personal satisfaction factor in working together. When we don’t clearly define our overall expectations with the position description and overall satisfaction, we create conflict.

We have conflict in every group. Conflict is a sign of energy and creativity. We never solve conflict. We manage conflict. We principally manage conflict by managing ourselves. The leader must approach conflict calmly and directly, addressing the facts and engaging the other person or persons in dialogue about the differences in expectations and involving them in problem-solving. Failures are then a learning opportunity. Our job as leaders is to address the issues directly and promptly. I’ll talk more about this in the next session.

Much of the conflict arises in groups due to the lack of a clear understanding by everyone of what’s expected. I learned about creating agreements from the “Revolutionary Attorney” Stewart Levine. He’s the expert in creating mutually beneficial agreements. There are 10 steps in his model for creating agreements. They can be found in his book, The Book of Agreement: 10 Essential Elements for Getting the Results You Want.

In this book, Stewart teaches you how to create agreements that keep conflict at a minimum and make conflict manageable when it does happen. We have conflict. We manage conflict. Being a leader means you deal with it.

Stewart’s agreement format ensures that everyone is on the same page, so to speak. After we discuss all the points 1-9 and we arrive at point 10, Agreement, then we know we all are in alignment and we have an agreement.

Here are the elements for agreement:

Intent and Vision
Roles
Promises
Time/Value
Measurements of Satisfaction
Concerns and Fears
Renegotiation
Consequences
Conflict Resolution
Agreement

As you see, there are topics on his list that most leaders never consider exploring. Having a direct conversation with a partner, employee, or board member is a discovery process and a clarification process. It’s the leader’s job to listen with eyes and ears and to listen for intent in addition to content. Skipping this step sets up an unnecessary conflict.

Lead from the front and not from the back, trying to catch up when you didn’t cover what’s important and needed for a healthy group process.

Next: Day #16 - Group Dynamics

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14: 31 Days to Becoming a Better Leader Mar 14, 2019

Day #14: Roles & Responsibilities

However you envisage your role in life, all you can do is perform it as best you can.

- Brian Aldiss

The price of greatness is responsibility. - Winston Churchill

It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and tell them what to do. It makes more sense to hire smart people and train them enough so they start telling you what to do.

- Steve Jobs

Defining roles and responsibilities is key to understanding what individuals will do and accomplish inside any leadership container.

A role is not a job title and is certainly not the same as a responsibility. A role is a general nomenclature, and a responsibility is a specific results-based language. Roles come with responsibilities.

Job titles might come with a specific role. One person has a title, however several people might have the same, or similar, roles in the organization. Several people may have the same role, but a different discipline within that role - IT, design, analyst, etc.

Responsibilities define specific accomplishments or results. Individuals are responsible for their outcomes and are mutually accountable to others on the team independently, with a mind on the interdependence of the work. One person’s accomplishments impact the work of others on the team. Even though each person is responsible on their own, there’s an impact on others in meeting or not meeting deadlines or other expectations of quality and/or quantity.

In the old model of a “Job Description,” the practice has become making a list of tasks to complete, which is a form of micromanaging. It’s better to define the results of the work than to define the activities intended to achieve results. Each person needs to utilize their specific skills in accomplishing their deliverables.

Remembering the Steve Jobs quote at the top of this section, it’s important to empower team members to think on their own, using the best thinking skills, such as creative thinking, problem-solving, cognition, memory, and originality. These are all parts of J L Guilford’s Structure of Intellect theory. We want to measure more than mere IQ.

Here’s the process:

Define the goals
Create skilled teams
Develop position descriptions
Define monthly milestones
Implement action planning
Teams create actions
Members are accountable
Measure progress weekly

You are the leader and not the doer. You define and manage processes and lead people. Over-functioning by the leader (doing the action plans for them) results in the under-functioning of teams.

Lead, and don’t do. That’s your role and responsibility, your duty and delight.

Next: Day #15 - Team Agreements

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13: 31 Days to Becoming a Better Leader Mar 13, 2019

Relationships

Day #13: Team Competencies

Don’t tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results. - George Patton

You have created your strategic plan, right? If not, stop and go back to doing it now. It’s important to have the end in mind before starting the journey. Be sure that you are on the right pathway and have laid down the tracks for the journey.

In the template you got when you purchased the action guide, there’s a title for each component in the strategic plan. One of those titles is “Competencies.” If you want to accomplish your goals, then inventory the skills needed to make those goals happen.

Are you seeing how important having a strategy is for getting to where you want to be…for how you make your vision become reality? It’s what I call, “Paying the upfront cost.” This upfront cost is far less than the backend cost when you have to undo things that were done in error and backtrack to where you started and begin again, which is a waste of time and money.

In this action guide, there’s a template for recruiting team members for any type of group. You can certainly make your template and use it for boards, committees, staff, advisory groups, and other types of teams.

Down one side of the page, you list the specific skills needed and draw a line down the middle. On the other side, you list the names of potential candidates for the particular group. The skills list is numbered. Go down the list of people identify the skill they bring to the organization and put the corresponding line number by their name. Some names will have more than one number. Prioritize the people with the most needed competencies and begin to make an offer to join your team.

Here’s the outline for the process:

Describe the position - on a staff, it might be something like marketing director, and on a board of directors, it might be treasurer, etc.
Identify the specific role and responsibilities for that person - to create and implement marketing strategies that will increase our revenue by 25% with no increased costs, as an example for a marketing director.
Determine if there’s a culture fit - review your values and guiding principles and see if they match the candidate’s values and principles. This step is often skipped with dire consequences.
Establish the performance expectations - describe what this person will accomplish in a specific period of time. This element gives an opportunity for mentoring and correcting along the way.

Assimilating and leading a high-performing team means that you become a high-performing leader.

Next: Day #14 - Roles and Responsibilities

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12: 31 Days to Becoming a Better Leader Mar 12, 2019

Day #12: Personal Growth Plan

Income seldom exceeds personal development.- Jim Rohn

Jim Rohn influenced many, many high-income earners in his lifetime. He almost always said to work on yourself harder than you work on your business. The older I get, the more I resonate with that statement.

I constantly hear from entrepreneurs, especially, that they have read about leadership and want to focus on something important, implying that leadership isn’t as important as “getting things done.”

Let me be clear: NOTHING HAPPENS WITHOUT LEADERSHIP.

We have been taught leadership incorrectly and we have inherited systems that aren’t working. It’s time to reframe leadership and work on our skills to lead the organization we are responsible for taking forward to the fulfillment of its mission.

Hugh’s four leadership principles will empower you to lead any type of organization more effectively.

Here are my principles, expressed in general principles and in a musical conductor’s terms:

Foundations: Know the Score
Articulate your vision
Know your plan
Build your skills
Relationships: Hire the Best
Create good relationships
Learn to delegate
Be the influencer
Systems: Rehearse for Success
Conduct effective meetings
Evaluate constantly
Correct as needed
Balance: Value the Rests
Work and rest
Have a life
Always pace yourself

These principles are how a Transformational Leader influences and transforms ideas into results and people into high-performing cultures.

Here’s my list for maintaining a personal growth program:

Read Constantly: All the best leaders I know or know of are avid and faithful readers many of them reread books and articles with a highlighter that’s a different color than the original marker. They find that different passages are jumping out to highlight because they are ready to learn the next thing.
Hang Around Winners: The old saying is, “If you want to remain broke, then hand around broke people.” Associate with people who are successful and learn from them. They can also learn from you. Make sure that the people you hang with are smarter (by your opinion) than you feel you are.
Hire a Coach: There’s nothing better than having a paid confidential advisor who asks you difficult questions and assists in exposing your blind spots. We can’t find those blind spots alone. You might need a different type of coach for different stages of your personal growth.
Keep and Open Mind: I love the old saying, “The mind is like a parachute. It has to be open to work.” Be open to different ideas than yours. Consider conflict and disagreement a creative tool rather than a personal attack. Lack of awareness is the biggest barrier to success in my view.
Never Stop Learning: Work on yourself constantly even more than you work on your business, either for-profit or for-purpose. There’s no ultimate arrival point for leadership development. The more we learn, the more we discover we don’t know. It’s difficult when we don’t know what we don’t know.

Join the online Community for Community Builders to support your leadership growth at http://NonprofitCommunity.org

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11: 31 Days to Becoming a Better Leader Mar 11, 2019

Day #11: Skills and Gaps

The greater our knowledge increases, the greater our ignorance unfolds. - John F. Kennedy

The popular narrative on leadership is to focus on “Strengths” and “Weaknesses.” As you might have come to expect, my calling is to change the paradigm by changing the language. Many of us don’t think that we are “weak” just because there’s a particular skill that’s not at the top of our competency list. And being transparent and open about defining weaknesses is not a particular passion for me or for some other leaders I know.

For example, I’m a visionary and I develop concepts. I write about those concepts. My passion is not in editing or proofreading my documents. That’s a piece I can delegate and have done so for over a decade. That works for me because I can focus on what I do best. I can do the editing, however, that’s not where my passion is and it’s certainly not my top skill. I delegate this task to a person on my team who has editing and proofreading as a top skill and likes doing that task. Delegation is a leadership skill and is certainly not a weakness as some may have been led to believe.

Just because I don’t do some things at the highest level does not mean that I am weak. I let go of things others can do to focus on things that only I can do.

When I interviewed Cal Turner for my podcast, “Orchestrating Success,” his story of empowering his leadership team at Dollar General spoke to me loudly. I use his example of effective leadership in keynotes and workshops. You can find that on the podcast, “Orchestrating Success, Episode 15” where you subscribe to this podcast. Or read the transcription on my website at https://hughballou.com/podcast-15-legacy-interview-with-cal-turner-jr/

Take inventory of your skills (competencies) and rate each one with a number from 1-10, with 10 being a perfect score. Define which of those need to be your priority for growing (remember that learning is a life-long journey) and which should be delegated. I suggest that any skill with a score below 5 should be delegated unless you want to grow that particular skill.

Make a list for yourself and then get feedback from a peer - not your team…yet. It will be good to use yourself as a model when you roll this process out to your team members. It’s helpful to realize that we don’t need to be good at everything. And it’s good to talk to team members about this particular thinking. Team members should have an awareness of building their skills and realize that they don’t need to master everything they think they might be expected to do. If team members have nobody to delegate to, then this is a chance to develop collaborations in the team.

By the way, your strategy defines the competencies that are needed to complete the work. Pay attention to which of those belong to you.

Here’s my perspective… “Nobody is perfect. But parts of me are excellent.” I go with what’s excellent.

Next: Day #12 - Personal Growth Plan

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10: 31 Days to Becoming a Better Leader Mar 10, 2019

Day #10: Accountabilities and Metrics

If you are building a culture where honest expectations are communicated and peer accountability is the norm, then the group will address poor performance and attitudes.

- Henry Cloud

As previously noted, having a plan is essential to the fulfillment of a vision; however, having a plan is not insurance for achieving the vision. As the old saying, in its corrected form states, “The proof of the pudding’ is in the eatin’.”

Here’s where good intentions get set aside and we set up standards for excellence. This begins with the leader (that’s you!). Transforming an idea into results means transforming interested individuals into a high-performing culture. The ultimate and most critical transformation begins and continues with the leader.

Let’s define what I mean by metrics and accountabilities.

Metrics

This is a tool for measuring performance, for example, how many donor presentations have been made in a month, or what percentage of the people or organizations completed a donation versus those that did not donate. Metrics are broad measures of success. A KPI (Key Performance Indicator) is a deeper measure of who made a presentation to what type of person or organization, over what period, etc. Both of these are standard procedures in many, but not all businesses, and few, if any nonprofit organizations.

Accountabilities

Fundamentally, accountability is a willingness to accept responsibility for one’s actions as an individual or an organization. Nonprofit boards are accountable for the organization’s finances and governance. All decisions on contracts and budgets rest with the board. The staff is accountable to the board. I teach that board members, staff, and committee members are accountable to each other and ultimately to the board. Too many nonprofit leaders want to make all staff and volunteers accountable to them, when, in fact, it’s more productive if the groups share a mutual accountability and interface with the leader, who guides the process and sets the desired outcomes.

In organizational work, just like in corporations, much of the accountability process is empowered by face-to-face meetings. Members of any group share weekly or monthly deliverables with the group. Every member of the group realizes that even though they each are independent in responsibility for their deliverables, there is interdependence between all members of the group. If one falls behind or fails, then it impacts the work of others.

The action plans to reach monthly milestones for completing the annual goals are created in a team setting with transparency and interactivity, with each person understanding how their mutual effort impacts the success of each other. Team members make a commitment when setting deliverables to the others on the team. In the successive meetings, it becomes obvious who is making progress and who isn’t making progress.

It’s the leader’s role to interface with each team member between meetings to mentor, correct, encourage, or assist, as needed. Building relationships is key to this process.

Also, micromanaging anyone completely takes away the desire of those whom we lead to take responsibility for their work. The difference between network mentoring and micromanaging is 180º. They are exact opposites.

Define the desired outcome, allow the team members to create the action items under your guidance, stay in touch between meetings, and use regularly scheduled meetings as reporting sessions and not work sessions. You will need work sessions, just not all the time.

By the way, everyone looks to the leader to model accountability. Work on your plan more than that of others. Be sure that you set the standard and that the standard is high.

Next: Day #11 - Skills and Gaps

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09: 31 Days to Becoming a Better Leader Mar 09, 2019

Day #9: The Performance Secret – DVDs

Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment. - Jim Rohn

We define magnificent vision and mission with incredible objectives and powerful goals, and then we sit back and go, “Wow!” It seems so big that we feel overwhelmed.

We just defined how to begin breaking down those bigger results into achievable steps. Here’s the genealogy:

Long-Term Objective - 3-5 years
Short-Term Goals - 1-year or less
Milestones - 30-day benchmarks
Action Plans - Weekly to-do lists
Now, the special secret - Hugh’s answer to feeling overwhelmed - the DVD

What’s a DVD, anyway?

Daily ValueDeliverables

3 baby steps per day
Very small actions
Stated as accomplishments
All related to the goals

This one step will ensure your success more than any other one. Just think…if you define three small accomplishments per day, that’s 15 per week and 60 per month.

If you completed 60 baby steps per month, how much would that impact your overall success?

What if you installed this system into the culture you are responsible for leading?

Do the math…60 completed DVDs per month times 10 team members…now you are leading a high-performing team!

Next: Day #10 - Accountabilities and Metrics

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08: 31 Days to Becoming a Better Leader Mar 08, 2019

Day #8: Plans for Action

Strategy is a commodity, execution is an art.- Peter Drucker

This is where the “rubber hits the road,” as the saying goes. Once you complete your strategic plan and define your long-term objectives and short-term goals, what you have is simply a piece of paper with words. It’s a plan, for sure, but nothing happens without leadership.

Your vision is only as good as its implementation. Your implementation depends on you and the team you lead. Certainly, the leader can’t do it all, so it’s up to the leader to develop the skills to lead the team. Moving ideas into statements of accomplishments, and moving from the starting point to the desired outcomes, is where effective leaders stand out from everybody else.

Here’s what I know…when 100 people have an idea, only 3 of them do something about it. Out of those 3, about 10% will succeed. “Why?” you ask. My response is that most visionaries don’t reach out to get mentoring or coaching from an accomplished expert to ensure their success. Just because a visionary has an idea, even if it’s a great idea, there’s a gap between concept and performance. I call that leadership. It’s not something you read about in a book and then master on your own. It’s a well-rehearsed skill built over time with support from a mentor and/or coach.

I insert this sermon about leadership at this point because we are at a critical point in the process, in which there’s a 90% failure rate…right here…moving from concept to performance. In Day #12, the Personal Growth Plan, I’ll share ideas for building your skills for success and define the value of a mentor or coach. We can’t see our blind spots, so we need a skilled advisor to help identify and deal with those.

Action Plans are the key to manifesting ideas into results. There are three critical points to an action plan:

Specific Action - to do something…start with “To”
Champion - who will do it, or see that it’s done…a specific person
Action Date - start date, next step date, completion date…accountability begins here. There might be several dates in the process.

The skilled leader defines the outcomes clearly (you’ve done this in creating goals) and then works with the team to identify the key steps to achieve the outcomes. In between the short-term goal of 1 year or less, and the action plan, are 30-day milestones. Break the annual goal into 30-day steps, and then define what will be done weekly to accomplish those milestones.

Too much work? The answer varies with the question: How successful do you want to be and how soon do you want success?

It’s up to you. Effective leaders work with a plan, so team members know what to do and how to be engaged.

Next: Day #9 - The Performance Secret - DVDs

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07: 31 Days to Becoming a Better Leader Mar 07, 2019

Day #7: Long-Term Strategic Objectives and Short-Term Goals

Obstacles are what you see when you take your eyes off of your goals. - Henry Ford

With each module in this podcast, we drill down into the parts of organizational leadership. It’s crucial that you, the leader, are focused on outcomes and not on activities.

Without goals, there’s a lack of coordinated activity.
Goals allow each person to push the boat in the same direction.
Too many goals may be detrimental and even cancel each other out.
Once goals are written, the action plans can be developed.
Rather than circular activity, we create a linear track that’s a lot more efficient.

Here are some definitions:

Long-Term Strategic Objectives

Definition of the long-term objectives for the organization:

Three objectives are enough
A future arrival point expressed in present tense
The vision is for 3-5 years completion

Short-Term Goals

One major goal for each long-term objective:

Also, a specific objective expressed in present tense
The vision is for 12 months or less completion
One goal for each equals 3 goals (one exception is that you might have 3 goals for the organization you lead and one personal goal)

Short-Term Objective/Benchmark/Milestones

A list of 30-day objectives (benchmarks) to accomplish the 12-month goal

Action Plan

A list of actions needed to accomplish each 30-day objective. There can be weekly action items that support each 30-day objective/benchmark/milestone.

Goals not written down are dreams that seldom are realized and certainly not realized to their ultimate effectiveness.

This process takes time, however it saves more time (and money) in the long term. It’s well worth it.

Next: Day #8 - Action Plans

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06: 31 Days to Becoming a Better Leader Mar 06, 2019

Day #6: Strategic Plan

Success is 20% skills and 80% strategy. You might know how to succeed, but more importantly, what’s your plan to succeed? - Jim Rohn

The words “Strategic Plan” strike fear into the hearts and minds of entrepreneurs. It sounds restrictive, cumbersome, time-consuming, and many other things. Many think that having a written strategic plan limits their creativity when the inverse is true. A strategic plan is a container for creativity. Once you have identified the roadmap, then the energy and creativity can focus on implementation, not struggling with what to do next.

It’s time to stop spinning our wheels, so to speak.

At SynerVision, we have created a proprietary road map that we call, the Solution Map.

It’s defining where we want to be at some point in the future (typically 3-5 years) and then defining how we will get there.

In this series of podcast sessions, I will give you ideas on the various components of the road map. If you purchase the action guide for the program, then the outline will be yours in summary form. Consider purchasing the action guide. It’s a workbook with all this content and some forms for implementation.

You need a strategy for the following reasons:

You stop spinning your wheels trying to figure out what to do next
You have a clear pathway for implementation to share with your team
You have a platform for team engagement
You have organizational goals to share with team members responsible for areas of responsibility to create department or project goals in support of the organization’s goals
Your investors, donors, sponsors, or customers understand that you have a plan that will create value with their money
t is a reference for your financial team members to create a budget and spending plan that will support the work 
It clarifies the skills needed to accomplish the mission 
t provides a structure for the marketing team member to build a solid marketing plan to generate income 
It gives the leader (that’s you) a format for leading the people and getting results

Pay the upfront cost. Spend time now to create the plan. It’s far less expensive than having to retrace steps and doing things over. If your work is important, then don’t waste time creating a structure for success.

Next: Day 7 Long-Term Objectives and Short-Term Goals

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05: 31 Days to Becoming a Better Leader Mar 05, 2019

Day #5: Organizational Vision and Mission

Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others. - Jonathan Swift

An essential part of successful strategic planning was in creating our core values and guiding principles. Now everything we do must be in line with those.

Next in importance is the development of our Vision and Mission Statements. I realize that everyone teaching strategic planning is not on the same page with definitions of these, however concepts are similar.

Vision: the Concept

Define who you are and or what you are doing. Describe the reality of your organization in the future expressed in present tense. It should be short and memorable. Stakeholders can say the vision easily from memory.

Some Samples:

Rise Against Hunger: We are eliminating hunger in our lifetime.
Goodwill: Every person has the opportunity to achieve his/her fullest potential and participate in and contribute to all aspects of life.
Oxfam: A just world without poverty
The Nature Conservancy: To leave a sustainable world for future generations.
Habitat for Humanity: A world where everyone has a decent place to live.

Mission: the Application of the concept

Define how you will achieve the vision. This is a tactical statement so the listener or reader will understand the pathway to achieving the vision. This can be longer and even use bullet points if that’s good for highlighting steps in a process.

Some Samples:

Rise Against Hungeris driven by the vision of a world without hunger. Our mission is to end hunger in our lifetime by providing food and life-changing aid to the world’s most vulnerable and creating a global commitment to mobilize the necessary resources.

American Museum Of Natural History: Discover, interpret, and disseminate through scientific research and education – knowledge about human cultures, the natural world, and the universe.

Best Friends Animal Society: End the killing in America’s animal shelters and create a time when there are no more homeless pets. We do this by building community programs and partnerships all across the nation.

Steps for creating vision and mission statements:

Convene the stakeholders (board, staff, founders, and others passionate about the organization) and give each person a marker and half sheet of paper - listen to day 3 for using a storyboard. Allow everyone to have input to the creation of ideas and in the sorting process to follow.
Talk about the work we are doing or will be doing, basically its storytelling.., This will help people to remember why they have chosen to be a part of this mission. Ask them to capture key words or phrases on the papers - remember, print BIG, use fewer words and more than one word. Capture the concept. 
Share all the ideas by placing them on the sticky storyboard. Then ask the group to highlight commonalities in the ideas.
Create a list of the key concepts in a new set of papers on a new board or new area in the same board. Fine-tune the language.
Assign at least 3 people to work on creating and wordsmithing a statement to bring back to the full group for review and approval

Tips:

Give it some time. Rest and time away from the project allows time for reflecting and thinking.
Don’t consider stopping with the first to tenth draft. Consider revising it over a couple of months, if possible.
Share the statement with others who are not a part of the organization and get their comments on clarity and purpose.
Adopt a final version, but remain open to reviewing the statement annually.

Next: Day 6 Strategic Plan

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04: 31 Days to Becoming a Better Leader Mar 04, 2019

Day #4: Guiding Principles

It’s important to define our core values as we begin to plan for our future and the future of the enterprise we lead, however, these values are static. They might be single words or short phrases that are open to interpretation in different ways by different people. For example: Integrity is one. It’s a word. What do we do with it now? How do we apply that word to decision-making? Does the word mean different things to different people?

Therefore it’s important to define how we’re going to utilize our core values. We put those values into statements of application, in other words, how will we apply the value of integrity?

One example is we treat all people with integrity. Another example would be all decisions are based on the integrity of our core values and the integrity of our organization.

Penn Mutual’s guiding principles: Penn Mutual is committed to maintaining a culture that produces a legacy based on respect, trust, and doing the right thing.

Penn Mutual’s guiding principles lead with “Acting With Integrity, we have the conscious intention to do the right thing.” They stated, “Each of us has a personal responsibility to conduct our business honestly, ethically, and with respect.”

The full guiding principles are outlined below:

Acting With Integrity

We have the conscious intention to do the right thing.

Respecting One Another

We see each other’s distinctiveness as a valued asset.

Focusing on Relationships

We foster meaningful connections with others.

Sustaining Our Legacy

We are trusted guardians for what we promise.

A Shared Sense of Belonging

We evoke our place as part of a larger world that we influence and that influences us.

It is no coincidence that doing the right thing is at the core of Penn Mutual’s culture, the cornerstone on which they conduct each of their interactions.

In my work of Orchestrating Success in my coaching work for business or nonprofit leaders, I use these three fundamental principles for coaching:

My Guiding Principles as a Leadership Coach

Coaching is 90% listening
Coaching is responding with thoughtful questions
Communication is based on relationships and not merely on information, so I’m always working on relationships.

I have other personal and organizational guiding principles as well. Each person representing the organization must be in alignment with values and principles. We all represent the brand identity.

Guiding Principles are the core of a high-functioning culture. Without them, leaders are setting up unnecessary conflict.

Next Day #5 Being clear on what we do and how we do it: Organizational Vision and Mission Statements.

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03: 31 Days to Becoming a Better Leader Mar 03, 2019

Day #3: Organizational Core Values

Core values are the fundamental beliefs of a person or organization. These values dictate behavior and can help people understand the difference between right and wrong. Core values also help companies determine if they are on the right path and fulfilling their goals by creating an unwavering guide.

Take inventory of your personal values to be sure that you are in alignment with the organization’s core values.

This is also key for any team members - staff, boards, committees, volunteers, and other stakeholders. Developing the list of values using index cards or half sheets of copy paper (full sheets cut in half). Use a chart pad marker so the ink doesn’t bleed through. You can print core value statements on pieces of paper or index cards and sort them on a dining room table. If you have several people, I recommend purchasing “Storyboards” from an office supply company - that’s a report board, tri-fold 3x4 black surface. Purchase a can of repositionable spray mount and spray the boards until they are tacky enough to hold the papers. The boards are the focus of the group’s activity. You will use these boards again for other team planning sessions.

The advantage of using the boards over chart pads is huge. The person printing on a chart pad or whiteboard must turn around and write on those surfaces turning their back on the group. This creates a vacuum in activity an throughout a planning session amounts to a lot of unproductive, downtime, which sucks the energy out of the room.

If you use the half sheets of paper and the storyboards, then each person prints on the sheets. You place those sheets on the boards. They are repositionable, so they can be sorted for relevance or grouped by topic and positioned for priority. It’s a continually interactive process, which builds team synergy.

So, here is the routine for defining the core values of an organization.

Don’t start with a list of values from a consultant or expert - those aren’t your values and might limit your ideas. Make your list and make it as long as you like
Ask participants to define what values or beliefs attracted them to the organization and, inversely what values, if missing would be a deal breaker for their participation. Direct them to “Print” those values on the papers or cards
Collect all the cards and place them on the storyboard
Ask if there are duplicates or ideas similar enough to combine for strength
Group value by relevance
Give each group a name
You have your core values, along with nuances defining those values more completely

Transcribe these onto a document and share with the group. This will then be a part of your overall strategy.

Building a high-performing culture is based on common values and decisions are based on guiding principles, which I cover in the next session.

Next session #4: Guiding Principles

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02: 31 Days to Becoming a Better Leader Mar 02, 2019

Day #2: Personal Life Vision

A dream is the creative vision for your life in the future.- Denis Waitley

Set your personal life vision to protect yourself from getting sucked into the vortex of running an organization at the expense of quality of life.

Define the life you want first, and then develop the organization that will support your quality of life. We often think we can ultimately get to that quality of life if we work really, really hard…but all too often, we have developed such bad habits and have overfunctioned so much, that we seldom get to reap the rewards of those benefits.

Define your core values which are the fundamental beliefs guiding your thoughts and actions and attract like-minded people to you and to your work. Add values that, if those are missing, anything more is no deal. Write those down and review them weekly. Alignment with values is crucial to your success.

In the next session, I will provide you with a process for thinking of values for your organization. You can use that same process for your own values and then teach that process to everyone in your organization.

Core values are the foundation of your culture, however, they are single words that leave a lot open to interpretation. We tend to write them and then file them away and forget about them. Ideally, everything you do in life will reflect your personal core values.

Here are some areas to consider when developing your own personal list of core values:

Religious beliefs affiliated with your religion;
Being a good steward of resources of time, talent, and money
The belief anchored in family and family values
The value of relationships over outcomes
Dedication to living a healthy life with diet, exercise, and sleep
Discipline of managing priorities to balance life/work/play, etc.

Next, set up your plan for your life with your ultimate life goals…define life at some point in the future in writing. Read it daily and commit to making it happen. Focus on what you desire and not on what you fear.

Build on your personal values, and write out a vision for your life. Define what people will say about you at your memorial service after you are gone, or what’s inscribed on your tombstone. I do not think that it would say, “He regrets not working more days during his life.” Write your vision statement.

Write your mission statement defining how you will show up and what you will do in your life to bring value to everyone, especially to yourself.

Consider creating a journal. Write your values, vision, and mission statements, and then keep a journal of your life.

If your life has value, then write about that value.

Next: Day 3 Organizational Core Values

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01: 31 Days to Becoming a Better Leader Mar 01, 2019

Everyone can learn to improve their skills to lead an organization or to fully utilize a vision and mission. Nothing happens without effective leadership. Many wrong ideas keep leaders from success. In this step-by-step series of podcasts, everyone can learn from Hugh Ballou's 31 years of leadership work.

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