Category Archives: Leadership

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The Dark Side of Leadership – Three Nightmare Traits (TNT)

Leadership has a dark side.

In the heart, mind, and soul of every leader is a struggle. A struggle between who the leader wants to be and between who their followers need them to be. Most contemporary leadership books, articles, and expositions focus on the positive or bright side of leadership. However, because leadership is composed only of leaders and followers, humans, there is a negative and dark side.

Leaders must lead themselves effectively in order to lead others productively. Leaders that fail in this regard will fade, falter, and fail in the task of directing others. A position does not make a leader. Power does not make a leader. What makes a leader is sustainable character and indefatigable integrity.

“The greater a man is in power above others, the more he ought to excel them in virtue.
None ought to govern who is not better than the governed.”
— Publius Syrus

All leadership is not good leadership. Simply  because a leader holds a position, a title, and authority doesn’t mean that leader is benefiting the organization and its followers. There are traits existent in humans that when exposed in the life of a leader have very adverse effects on those they lead and their organizations.

De Vries (2018) called three of these traits TNT or Three Nightmare Traits. These three traits are leader dishonesty (low honesty-humility), leader disagreeableness (low agreeableness), and leader carelessness (low conscientiousness). Leaders who exhibit these traits inhibit their organizations. Leaders who exhibit these traits frequently will drive really good people away and end up with an organization of sycophants, suck-ups, and shysters.

Leader dishonesty is a trait absent of honesty and humility. This trait reveals the leader to be insincere, arrogant, greedy, manipulative, and immodest. Such a trait is a red flag that the leader could be making unethical decisions that affect the organization. Leader dishonesty is shown to lower the motivation of others who have to work with or for that leader. Dishonesty is a trait that induces, exacerbates, or invites an unethical culture. Once a leader opens the door by sacrificing personal integrity, all manner of unethical behavior can be expected from the rest of the organization.

Leader disagreeableness is the tendency of someone in an organization to be difficult to work with or for. They are often inflexible, aloof, distant, unforgiving, overly critical, and abrassive. They do not have to be loud to do this. In fact often, they sulk, pout, and listen to others poorly. They create environments of unproductivity where they are either ineffective at producing work or negatively impact the work of others. Disagreeable leaders are often driven by the need to control others and situations. This often leads to the frequency of conflicts and the intensity of conflicts. These types of leaders drive others away and are chemistry-killers. Leader disagreeableness leaders to division, decrease in retention, and lowering productivity.

Leader carelessness demonstrates a lack of conscientiousness. This means there is a bent towards carelessness, ignorance, negligence, and impulsiveness. This trait can create a culture of mediocrity and wishful thinking. Ideas and dreams are often espoused without genuine, detail-oriented work done behind the scenes. Because carelessness is a sign of ignorance, these leaders are often not as smart as they want to appear to others. Carelessness leads to poor decisions and drives away high performers. Often, this leadership trait is a sign of passivity or passive leadership. Passive leadership is strongly associated with poor organizational results. Carelessness can also be a sign of passive-aggressiveness.

The Three Nightmare Traits have opposite traits that truly help organizations: Honesty-humility, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. Honesty-humility seeks to do what is ethical and beneficial to others above self at all times. This trait demands the truth and accepts nothing less. Agreeableness is one of the strongest traits to connect and bind teams of people together. It also enhances productivity. Conscientiousness is often found in leaders whose organizations are considered excellent and worthy of emulation.

The solution for leaders that struggle with these is to (a) tell the truth, (b) don’t be difficult to work with, and (c) pay attention to details. These are traits that draw followers in, increase trust, and stimulate growth.

The Bright Side of Leadership

A- Tell the Truth. With so much confusion, deception, and dishonesty in the environment today, it is critical that leaders seek the truth, find it, and articulate it. Truth is absolute and needs to be valued in the life of the leader and reflected in the actions and reactions of the organization. Honest leaders create a culture of integrity where figures, frustrations, and feelings are checked for accuracy before being espoused, fought for or manipulated. Truth is the great equalizer. When organizations inner workings get out of balance, it is most often because truth is viewed as expendable, inconvenient or burdensome. Leaders must be truthful and demand the truth from their followers, especially when it is unpopular or concerning.

B- Don’t be Difficult. Leaders who are disagreeable are difficult to work with and work for. Agreeableness is a positive trait that reduces the degree of difficulty in relationships and how decisions are made. Being agreeable means you don’t have to be right to get it right. It also doesn’t mean you are a passive, weak-willed leader who becomes passive-aggressive towards those you are leading. Agreeableness is born out of humility. A leader who is going to work to be amenable, agreeable, and compatible, must humble themselves to others so that teamwork is not hinder, made more challenging, and stress increased.

C- Pay Attention to the Details. Being a careful leaders does not mean you lack ambition or desire. A careful leaders sees danger, the details, and is good at discovering what really exists. Paying attention to the details is one way that you can discern if a leader is conscientious or not. A leader who frequently neglects, ignores, or passes over the details will change narratives, manipulate facts, and build decisions off of ideas not intelligence. Shortcuts are the fast route to destruction and unproductivity. Excellence is found in the details. Excellent leaders have an excellent grasp on the details that determine outcomes.

Conclusion

Leaders who want to grow others and grow their organizations need to be aware that there is a dark side lurking or active among those who lead. The three nightmare traits (TNT) will explode, implode or retard results and the development of others in the organization if left unchecked. The process in which leaders deal with their dark side will direct the decisions and development of the organization.

 

 

 

 

Reference:

de Vries, R. (2018). Three nightmare traits in leaders. Frontiers in psychology, 9, 319902.

 

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The Question of Culture

Every organization will have a culture. Every leader will be part of a culture. The leader will either carry the culture or be carried by it.

The question of culture is not one of importance. The question of culture is how is it defined and then layered in the organization? 

Culture is huge buzzword in the second decade of the 21st Century. This is largely because so much of our society has changed dramatically very quickly and there have been drastic cultural changes where old norms have been discarded and technology & ideology are forcing new strategies. The need for culture is pressing and immediate. As leaders forge new paths into the new global, digital world, new strategies arise. New strategies often lead to necessary changes in culture (Krishnamoorthy, 2015). Strategy shifts have led to a renewed interest in organizations emphasizing the importance of culture because the need to transform culture to keep pace with external and internal pressures.  There is collective agreement to the importance of culture.

However, what is not as unified is an understanding of what composes culture and how to maintain it.

Culture: Learning & Leadership

Part of the problem in defining culture is things that are hard to measure are often hard to define. How can something as seemingly mysterious as culture be measured? The answer starts at the beginning. Culture always has a founder. Culture is the accumulation of the founder’s beliefs and values transferred into the habits, practices, and behaviors of the people and processes of the organization. Culture does not simply occur. Culture is learned. Therefore, whoever is doing the organizational instruction often holds one of the most essential roles in the entire organization. Examining culture is an examination of what the group has learned or is learning. Someone is always responsible for the learning. Organizational culture fades when learning is absent or marginalized. Leadership is critical because leadership is the key to learning (Schein & Schien, 2016). It is more important for leaders to define their cultural values and beliefs than to talk about the importance of culture. Make no mistake: culture is always the responsibility of the leadership, because where culture goes, the organization goes.

People are always responsible for creating culture. In any successful organization, there is or was always a founder who instituted ideas, principles, and practices that were embraced and adopted at an early stage among a key group of founding members. Those founding members then transferred those cultural elements to an early group of adopters or initial stakeholders. A founder creates a group who learns from the founder or learns together. This group learning is the foundation for organizational culture (Schein & Schein, 2016).

Values: Inspirational & Operational

To create culture in your organization, department, business or team, the leader must identify core values that are essential to both the character and the strategy of the organization. Core values create cultural form for the unique context of the individual organization (Tocquigny & Butcher, 2012). These core values must not only sound good, they must work good. They must embody the principles and tenets of belief of the leaders. Values don’t set organizational direction, they carry the organization in the direction set by the leader. It is ineffective to list core values that no one knows and no one practices. It is unproductive to pick values that are solely aspirational, yet fail to become operational.

Good core values must be a combination of inspiration and perspiration. These values must lift the culture to an ideal state, but also a practical, achievable state. Too many organizations list values they don’t practice and they don’t preach. I have sat with many key leaders of organizations who fail to know their core values or they fail to know how these values are layered into the organization’s processes and procedures. Cultural values must be present in both the people of the organization and the practices & procedures of the organization.

Former CEO of Proctor & Gamble Ed Harness said, “Though our greatest asset is our people, it is the consistency of principle and policy that gives us direction” (Tocquigny & Butcher, 2012). Organizations that are inconsistent with their principles create an unstable culture that impedes the harmony and synergy of the organization. If the followers in the organization are unaware, having to guess or misaligned with values and principles of the organization, the cultural state of the organization will make sustainable progress difficult. Leaders must work relentlessly to embody the values, articulate the principles, and hold others to behavioral accountability. A healthy organizational culture is an organizational multiplier. A leader must do more than talk about culture. A leader must have the character that the culture represents.

 

References:

Krishnamoorthy, R. (2015). GE’s culture challenge after welch and immelt. Harvard Business Review.

Schein, E. &  Schein, P. (2016). Organizational Culture and Leadership, 5th Edition. Wiley.

Tocquigny, R., & Butcher, A. (2012). When core values are strategic : how the basic values of Procter & Gamble transformed leadership at Fortune 500 companies (1st edition). FT Press

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Improvement: Dream Big, Step Small

You may dream big, but success is not the dream. Too many people get stuck on the dream and the dream never materializes. Success is a series of small steps or improvements that make the dream or vision a reality. Success is more a measurement of growth than anything else. Growth is an unyielding commitment to improvement. If you want to succeed as a leader, a follower or in your organization, then your focus and your efforts needs to be fixed on continuous improvement.

What is growth?

Growth is simply sustained improvement over time.

Those who fail to improve never arrive.

The key word in our definition is improvement. Improvement is gain by degrees or increments. To improve, things must become better or the quality must increase. Improvement is a statement of quality and is born of a spirit or attitude of excellence. The most excellent people and the most excellent organizations are composed or driven by an attitude of continuous improvement. This means the internal machinations and the external deliverables are always under review and always under construction. Those who fail to improve never arrive.

The spirit of continuous improvement is revealed by Sheldon (1897), “There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.” Who you are is not who you need to become. Becoming is superior to being. Becoming recognizes that you are not done growing and there is room for improvement.

Improvement takes humble conviction. Leaders and followers who truly make an impact on others, their organization or their environment do so with the humble conviction that they must get better. Information does not equate to improvement. Just because you have knowledge of something does not guarantee a change or transformation. Improvement is not knowledge it is transformation.

Improvement must be sustainable. If you change for growth too quickly, then you will outgrow your foundation. This principle applies to leaders as well as organizations. Every good thing that grows well over time has a solid foundation. Without a solid foundation of morality, integrity, and virtue what is being built will become too heavy and either collapse or crumble. We see this played out in the lives of leaders and organizations all the time. There is simply no substitute for integrity. Integrity’s offspring is  sustainability.

Don’t improve for the splash. A splash is noticeable, dramatic, and short-lived. A splash attracts attention but carriers very little momentum. Without organizational or personal momentum, energy is never captured and energy is quickly lost. Learn how to ease into the shallows one step at a time. These small steps are how you grow by degrees or increments. Dream big, but step small. This allows you to learn your environment, learn what opposes you, and learn your self. Sustained, incremental growth that garners little attention and draws no attention often seems like not a dramatic enough impact is being made. But, good growth is not always dramatic. Good growth is a result of daily habits. A runaway train is dramatic, but the end results are devastating. A forest fire is spectacular, but the end product is depressing. A tornado is powerful, but its outcome is destructive.

Improvement requires measurement. All growth goals that you have as a leader or for your organization must be more measurable than they are aspirational. Vision is important, but most visions are not measurable. The mission is measurable. The mission is composed of a series of goals. Goals guide growth. A leader without goals lacks guidance. An organization without well-communicated goals will meander like a river being driven where forces take them. A leader without goals will wander. The problem with a wandering leader is the leader’s replication and duplication are impaired. It’s hard to make followers when you aren’t entirely sure where you are heading or when you will arrive.

Improvements and Necessary Endings

Improvement doesn’t mean you get what you want. Often, a stuck or struggling leader or organization needs to remove, remodel or reorganize before improvement can happen. Often, improvement is simply addition by subtraction. However, this kind of improvement is a difficult form of improvement because there can be actual pain or perceived pain there. I remember years ago, I had a leader who was not growing. I had tried everything I knew after frequent meetings and counseling sessions to get the leader to improve. This leader would nod his head in agreement, yet never change his behavior. Eventually, after sustained poor performance and no improvement, I had to have a difficult meeting to set the date to part ways. Instead of improving between the meeting and the departure date, this leader demonstrated he had an unwillingness to improve under my leadership in our organization and became even more resistant. Consequently, the day of his departure was rapidly moved up. It was a painful departure. But, it was a necessary ending for our organization to improve. Necessary endings are often the catalyst for much-needed improvement. 

Dr. Henry Cloud (2011) wrote,  “Without the ability to end things, people stay stuck, never becoming who they are meant to be, never accomplishing all that their talents and abilities should afford them.” Some endings are not only necessary, they are past due. Like a library book long overdue, there are some relationships, actions, habits or processes that need to die, stop or end, in order, for improvement to occur. Leaders often have a hard time of letting go. But, leaders committed to improvement allow for every chance for betterment. When improvement does occur in a reasonable timeframe, then the leader is harming the individual and the organization by allowing the lack of improvement.

Improvement requires a culture. Culture is the key driver of organizational health. Organizational health facilitates organizational growth. If your organizational culture is not a culture that embraces improvement and rejects mediocrity, then yours will be an organization that fails and falters in its growth trajectory. Failure for an organization to grasp the importance of culture will result in the organization becoming a victim of it (Schein, 2010). Culture is more important than anything else in an organization (Schneider, 2000). Culture is more important than leadership,  followers, and what is produced or served. Culture is the glue that holds an organization together. Organizations that demonstrate continuous improvement have it wired into their organizational culture.

True success is a series of small steps of improvement. Improvement is a relentless commitment to getting better and ensuring that those in the organization believe and act in a way that proves true. Improvement is never accidental. Improvement requires intentionality, patience, and effort. Few things improve quickly and dramatically, unless you are in the midst of a crises. Organizations either fade slowly or improve systemically. Leaders who take the responsibility to improve, will strengthen their influence, grow their results and meet organizational goals.

 

 

 

 

References:

Cloud, H. (2011). Necessary endings: The employees, businesses, and relationships that all of us have to give up in order to move forward. Zondervan.

Schein, E. H. (2010). Organizational culture and leadership (Vol. 2). John Wiley & Sons.

Schneider, W.E. (2000). “Why good management ideas fail: the neglected power of organizational culture.” Strategy & Leadership. Vol. 28 No. 1, pp. 24-29.

Sheldon, W.L. (1897). What to believe: an ethical creed. Ethical Society of St. Louis.

 

 

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Development is Difficult: What Leaders are Facing Today

If development was easy, then you wouldn’t be reading this article. The reality is that development is difficult. The desire to develop self and others is real and most leaders will acknowledge it is part of their responsibility. However, the process of moving forward down the path of development is never as straight forward or as simple as it seems.

Development is a walk. It is a walk with others. There are times on this walk where you want to run, but you have to slow down. There are times where you are running and wish you were still walking. There are uphills and downhills and turns and twists that come at unexpected times. There are interruptions, disruptions and distractions on this walk. Development is a walk down a path with a bad map and missing signs. The only way to develop is to keep walking and stay on the journey. Development is not a train ride where you get on at one station and get off at the next and somehow in the process of the train ride you magically transformed, grew and developed. No development is a walk where growth happens not just one step at at time, but one series of steps at a time day-after-day, season-upon-season.

There are no easy days with development. There are good, rewarding and fulfilling days, but in real development, there is nothing easy about it. Anything easy means a lack of resistance. Development or growth is a process that is the revelation of one level of resistance after another. Development is a process by which change is demanded and growth the outcome. People change slowly and growth takes time.

Development is growth by degrees. A degree is a fractional measurement that is most often invisible. Leaders, especially, young leaders want to see their growth and chart their development. This often leads to great frustration both for the young leader looking for development and the senior leader facilitating development. Objectives, tasks and skills can be charted, but maturity cannot be. The difficulty with development is that much of it is invisible. You can’t chart when someone matures. You can only see the maturation when the pressure increases, a decision needs to be made or in a conversation.

Development is difficult because growth is not a guessing game. Too many young leaders treat development like if they can just guess the right answer it will make them the right leader. Leadership is never a function of guessing the right answer, but a function of knowing the right answer. I ask the young leaders I work with questions all of the time. I am not only looking for the right answer, I am looking for the right thought process, critical thinking and drawing conclusions.  I am looking for them to say they don’t know when I know they don’t know, instead of trying to guess the answer. Many young leaders inhibit their own development because they want to appear smart or possessing the right answer, so they will guess the answer or try to sound like they know what they are talking about. Development is not a guess, a hope or a wish. Development is not a game of chance. When individuals guess to appear right or sound good, they are missing the mark of development. Because, they are trying to convince themselves and the one doing the developing they are further along than they really are.

Development is difficult because it is personal.  People are unique. If you are in the process of developing others, a “one-size-fits-all” approach will never work for everyone. People are individuals. This means they receive, process and believe information differently. What confuses the matter even more for those desiring to be developed is the fact that there exists an abundance of information. Literally, a young leader desiring to develop can get lost in a maze of information or drown in a sea of data. Development is not a check-list. Development is more of a check-up. A check-list is something the individual can check off themselves. A check up involving a physician is an assessment given by a professional trained in examining another for deficiency. I try to have check-in’s and check-up’s with those I am developing. This is where I sit and ask questions. I am trying to get the younger leader sitting across from me to unravel their heart and mind, so that they can begin to become more self-aware of where they are sufficient and where they are deficient.

Development is difficult because it involves the truth. The truth can be painful. You don’t become a stronger leader by lifting light weights. You become a stronger leader by encountering the truth and learning how to handle it. The truth can be hard, harsh and heavy. Too many leaders in the development process avoid the truth as if it will somehow hinder the relationship or cause growth not to happen. Truth avoidance is one of the surest indicators of a lack of development.

Growth will never happen without the truth. Now, the delivery of the truth is what often has to be worked on. But, when you deliver the truth you do so simply, humbly and without conditions. I used to work with a phenomenal leader who was incredibly analytical, strategic and goal-oriented. However, this leader would often run rough-shod over the subordinate leaders. I could see extra stress when it was unnecessary all because this leader was so driven he would tip the environment from positive to negative because the objectives were in danger of not being met. I finally just had to tell him, “There are times that you get entirely too focused on the objective and forget about all the people you are leading to reach that objective. Your team doesn’t enjoy working with you during these times. Your speech turns negative, you stop making eye contact and you are very short with your people. You must change this behavior and create a positive environment.” He said, “Ouch, okay.” He began to work on it and even engaged several on his team to help him when he started getting that way. His development was sparked by a difficult conversation. Difficult conversations are often the catalyst for leaders who are stuck in their development journey.

Development is difficult because it requires awareness. You cannot fix what you are aware of. You also cannot fix what is diagnosed incorrectly. The first step in development is self becoming aware of what needs change. Others can tell you over and over again, but until the light of self-awareness dawns, self-development will be absent. I have sat with many young leaders who I will address a concern or issue and they will immediately say, “I know, I know.” Knowing and doing are two different things. In fact, if you say you know about an issue and have not taken steps to begin the process of change, then you know very little. We live in a day and age where information abounds, but self-awareness is lacking. Development is always first self-development. No one can fix you. They can present you with tools, resources and enlightenment, but only you can make internal adjustments. There will never be self-development until there is first self-awareness. Awareness leads to action. So, if action is absent, awareness is often absent.

Development is difficult because discipline is involved. There will be no true or lasting development without discipline. Discipline is not only the element that guides you to growth, but it is the element that will sustain your growth. No one grows well without good discipline. But, discipline is painful. Development is painful. This is why so many people talk about development and growth, but so few actually develop and grow.

Years ago, I had one of my top leaders stuck in his development. He was aware that there was an element of his leadership that was absent. In fact, every time we sat down and talked, this particular element always came up. His inability and unwillingness to step into an uncomfortable and painful part of his job and leadership was not only hindering his development, but affecting our organization. Eventually, the pain of not changing exceeded the pain of the change and he began to implement elements of discipline into his routine that began to reduce the discomfort and pain one day at time while gaining traction towards his own development. His discipline drove him to development.

Development is difficult because the journey is life long. There are no short-cuts on this journey. There is no fast-forward and no fast-track. Its a long, often tiring journey. In the development process, it’s never over. So, development can not only be tiring, but exhausting. But, development is also highly rewarding. There exists a deep, internal fulfillment when you grow yourself or when you see others grow. Any parent intrinsically knows this to be true. When my children could walk on their own two feet, spell their own name, tie their own shoes, ride their own bike and eventually drive their own car, I had a deep sense of satisfaction because I could see their growth. This was deeply rewarding for me, their parent. As a leader, the same sense of fulfillment exists in the development process of others. I have the same sense of fulfillment when my leaders learn new things, make better decisions, impact the organization and live a more productive life. When those who you are trying to foster development in begin to get it for themselves, it is rewarding and fulfilling for you.

If development was simple and easy, then we would never lack for great leaders and great followers. But, that is not the case. Development is difficult, painful and often cloudy. The abundance of information, pressure and voices make the climate today more challenging than in the past. But, development is a noble, worthy and critical pursuit that all leaders must engage first for themselves and then for those they lead. A leader is not an effective leader unless he or she is actively promoting the development of those they lead. Leaders must lean in and do the difficult work and walk of development. The price of development is a high price, but valuable things always come at a great price.

“I think you can accomplish anything if you are willing to pay the price.”

-Vince Lombardi

 

 

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How to Set Yourself Apart as a Leader

There are leaders everywhere. But, there aren’t great leaders everywhere. A great leader doesn’t need recognition or reward to be considered great. What a great leader needs is simply great effectiveness. Great effectiveness comes from great accountability which comes from the drive from a leader to set themselves apart from who they were in light of who they can become.

Leadership is not equal, because effectiveness is not equal. What you see in sports is simply that one leader can get something out of players that another did not or one leader sees something in a player that another leader missed. All too often, a coach comes in and replaces a truly effective leader only to not get any where near the same results. The solution is suddenly to get new players. Then, those players don’t get the results the coach or manager wants then the coach is sacked. Then, the cycle of effectiveness starts over. If you truly want to measure leadership, then measure effectiveness. Don’t measure effectiveness of promise, but effectiveness of production. What you produce is ultimately the measure of how you lead.

There are several ways to set yourself apart as a leader.

1) Out work every one else. Hard work in our society used to be the norm. That is no longer the case. A work ethic is taught and modeled. Work ethic starts in childhood. Children who aren’t made to work will not grow up to be adults who love hard work. Children who have parents who don’t model working hard rarely grow up to be hard working adults. But, work ethic is the measure of energy given to complete a task combined with the values one holds while completing that task. If you want to set yourself apart, out work everyone else. Simply, arrive earlier and stay later. Put the work in outside the actual job to become more effective at your job.

2) Be your own toughest critic. Most humans don’t like criticism especially when it involves what they are producing. But, if you want to set yourself apart from others, then learn to be hard on yourself. Don’t give yourself passes, excuses or liberties. Learn to be tough on yourself, so when others criticize you or your work, you can accept it as merely objective, learn from it and move on.

3) Have impeccable integrity. Integrity is the measure of authenticity in your life. Today our world is filled with duplicity and deception. Great integrity ultimately means great trustworthiness. The most effective leader ever, Jesus, said, “Let your ‘yes’ be ‘yes’ and your ‘no’ be ‘no’.” Simply, be a leader whose word means something, who is incredibly consistent and who doesn’t flip flop when communicating direction or decision. Impeccable integrity creates great bonds of trust.

4) Get out of your feelings. Emotion clouds an effective leader from making the best decisions. I am not advocating to never have or show emotion, but a truly effective leader must learn to master their emotions. This means you must learn to control your emotion. Every emotion you have is not the right emotion at the right time. Just because something feels right doesn’t make it right. Leaders who lead by feeling will discount their effectiveness because allowing your feelings to lead means feelings are first and others are second. Feelings will always rise to the top until you push them to the bottom. I have seen many developing leaders leave the organization because they couldn’t get past their own feelings of superiority, inferiority and not feeling appreciated.

5) Have the best attitude. Negativity is a stench that no one wears well. The problem with negativity is that humans are by nature drawn towards the negative. The average person has to work not to be negative. To really separate yourself from your peers or increase your leadership influence, then have the best attitude. I am not advocating blind positivity, but rather measured and consistent positivity. The best attitude is a combination of where a calm spirit meets an energetic soul. When things get difficult remain positive. Don’t pollute the air with negative speech or negative talk. When you hear negativity in your environment cut it off. Negativity spreads but so does positivity, but there are fewer positive people around so it constantly seems like a battle with negativity. However, it is more likely that teams will follow a positive leader than will ever follow a negative one.

6) Take the blame, share the credit. Ineffective leaders always want to be recognized and get credit for what they are doing. But, effective leaders have learned to take the blame and share the credit. Taking the blame as a leader is not just the noble thing to do, but the right thing to do. A leader has elevated responsibility and elevated accountability. Today, many leaders just want the responsibility without the accountability. A leader is not only known by the results they get, but also the people that they produce. If you want to increase effectiveness, then share the credit when things go well and they by-product is you will increase your loyalty among those you work with. To share credit, you have to give credit. Find those on your team who deserve some recognition and give them the credit.

7) Be the most appreciative. In a self-centered world, very few people express gratitude. Gratitude is thankfulness and to be thankful you have to actually do something that reveals you are thankful. This means you actually say ‘thank you’ to those around you, you write a ‘thank you’ note or send a ‘thank you’ text. To be thankful, you have to actually train yourself to see what is positive, what is helpful and who is putting forth the effort. It is important to tell those who you are leading that you appreciate them. It is not enough for you to just think “Well, they know I am thankful.” To increase your effectiveness as a leader, you must show them that you are actually thankful.

8) Wear humility well. No one wears pride well. Arrogance like a bad attitude stinks. But humility is a fragrance that everyone wears well. Most leaders struggle with pride. It’s part of what has helped them succeed. However, their drive and passion, can easily be replaced by self-assurance and arrogance, which is distasteful and ineffective. Humility on the other hand is a beautiful trait that leaders must discipline themselves to practice at all times and in all situations. Humble leaders serve better, lead better and look better than proud leaders. A humble leader has learned to get their own ego out of the way so they can see others and see decisions with greater clarity, which increases their overall effectiveness. Humility also means if you fall you are much closer to the ground and it a much less painful drop.

9) Be a life-long learner. Never feel like you have arrived. Always take the attitude of one who is just starting out. When you get some praise or acclaim push it away and drive yourself to continue to learn. It is easy to have to learn when you are starting out. But, as you gain more leadership influence and leadership ground it requires much greater intentionality to continue to learn. Taking the attitude of a student, puts the leader in a position to be a better listener. Good learners are good listeners. Leaders who are poor listeners decrease their effectiveness. Leaders who are good listeners make better decisions and can read people and situations better. Students also study. It is important to do not do what you think is best, but study your organization and learn what success looks like in your organization, but what you think it looks like.

10) Get really good at the details. Too many leaders skip over the details because they are focused on “the bigger picture.” This is a mistake if you want to increase your effectiveness. Excellence is found in the details. It’s the small things that determine the consistency of the big things. Too many leaders see themselves as visionaries and “big picture” people, yet they have never disciplined themselves to know the details and uphold them. Vision is important, but vision is not the key to excellence. Desire is also not the key to excellence. Your vision and your desire may paint great dreams, but they do little to increase your effectiveness. Attention to detail is a critical trait that has immense power to multiply a leader’s effectiveness.

These ten things are not a comprehensive list, but they will most certainly increase your effectiveness as a leader if you begin to practice as many of them as possible with as much consistency as possible. Great effectiveness requires great responsibility. And great responsibility comes at a price.

“The price of greatness is responsibility” – Winston Churchill

 

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Every Slow Period is a Time to Refine

Every Slow Period is a Time to Refine

February 10, 2022

by Alex Vann

I remember 20 years ago when I became a business owner. The business started hot, but quickly, my sales disappeared and I was filled with disappointment. The weather was rough. The business was tough. And I didn’t know a soul. There was never any profit for the rest of that time in that business, so I just sunk lower. I started looking at all that I didn’t have and, eventually, all that others had. And, then even worse, all that I left behind. I had left a stable job with stable income in the town I was from. Until, I had a breakthrough mentally: God placed me here, so stop looking around for what I didn’t have and start focusing on what I do have.

God had given me a gift: time. Time is a treasure and you only have so much of it. You can lose it, waste it or you can redeem it. When you see time as a gift, you will be much more intentionally to use, spend and invest your time where it will do the most good for the most people. I had the time to review my soul, my self and my systems. Often, we don’t slow down enough to use our time well enough. When a slow down comes, suddenly, much of your time or your organization’s time becomes more available.

Slow periods can be incredible growth periods. 

Slow periods are times to examine what you actually have, not what you don’t have. When times get slow, use your time to narrow your focus, take away what you’ve allowed that shouldn’t be there and begin to look to add what you want to see in the future. In slow times, you don’t look to the future for comfort, you look to the future for preparation. If you use an axe all day to chop wood, then the next day and the next day for many consecutive days over a long period of time, something subtle happens that you don’t realize until you slow down: the axe became dull. Fast, busy seasons cause organizations and leaders to lose their sharpness. A slow time is a time to sharpen your axe. A clean blade means you expend less energy, so you become more productive. A dull axe means you have to use more energy to get the same result, eventually causing the results to plateau. Slow times are times to sharpen yourself, which leads to greater growth.

Slow Times are Periods of Refinement

Refinement doesn’t mean you relax. Relaxing means you slacken or loosen your grip, energy or effort in favor of a more comfortable position. Rest is different from relaxing. Rest is when you intentionally withdraw your energy in an effort to replenish your energy. Rest is also a time to settle. When you live in anxiety, worry and fear, you are being driven and it will be very difficult to experience true rest. Organizations and leaders are living with perpetual anxiety and constant worry. Rest is part of the rejuvenation that your body, soul and mind need that creates space that pushes those negative aspects away.

Slow Times are a Test

To refine something in the ancient times it was to put in a crucible. The crucible was the refining pot. The purpose of the pot was to draw away the impurities from what was pure—it separated the bad from the good and the weak from the strong.

“Remove the dross from the silver, and a silversmith can produce a vessel” Proverbs 25:4

Be a peoplesmith. Slow times give you times to refine yourself and your craft. There are no craftsmen and craftswomen without producing an actual craft. To be a smithy, you must have material (resources), get rid of the dross (refinement) and produce the craft (results).

The Slow Times Make the Stuff Stick Out

There is no hiding in slow times. When it’s slow, stuff sticks out. Slack people, uncleanliness, bad habits, poor stewardship, unproductive systems, ill-discipline and a sloppy organization really comes to light. Volume covers a multitude of sins. Volume is not an indicator of being a good steward. In fact it is easier to be a poor steward in higher volumes because it’s easier to overlook waste, sloppiness and disorganization.

Slow Times are Times to Show Appreciation

Thank God for the slow period. Slow times give us a chance to take inventory of what we need versus what we accepted. This is a great place to start to show appreciation. Be thankful for what you have and who has helped you. Appreciation has a way of unlocking things in our lives, leadership and organizations. This is the time to get back ahead in your plans, your preparation and your energy. This little lull is a God-given rest for many. Use it wisely. It’s too easy to hit the panic button. Don’t do it. Hit the praise button, slow your thinking down, slow your decisions down and start trimming away the fat.

Use Slow Times to Break Bad Habits

Busy drives you to bad habits. Survival reinforces particular habits. Slow times are times to break bad habits and refine and retrain. Sometimes this is your mind and your body. Sometimes this is your team and your systems. Sometimes, this is simply your mindset. Busy can drive your thought process to be lopsided and tainted. Slowing down mentally can allow you to rediscover healthy thought processes.

In times of refinement first, take a careful inventory. Second, begin to remove what doesn’t belong. And third, replace with what is necessary. Lean muscle is strong muscle. Bad habits make you weak. They weaken you individually and they weaken you organizationally. Use the slow times to eradicate bad habits by starting new, good habits. Make your systems, people and process as lean as possible. Then, press into your people. Get your focus off of what you don’t have or what you project you won’t have. Fixated on unpleasant things produces one thing: a mind fixated on doom. Don’t live in doom. Refine your field and prepare for the next season when it will bloom.

Don’t Watch the Clock During a Slow Season

Before there were GPS’s in cars and mobile phones in cars, to drive on a trip you had to have a map and patience. There was no countdown clock until you next turn or your next arrival. All that existed was the clock in your parent’s head and staring out the window wondering, “Are we there yet?” There is no clock on a season of refinement. It lasts as long as the reset or revival takes. Don’t try to rush your refinement, simply try to squeeze as much juice as you can out of those lemon rinds and organize all that you can. Spending your time wondering and obsessing over “Am I there yet?” is punishment both to you and to those you lead. You will get there when you get there.

Don’t Squeeze Tightly on What you Can’t Control

Life is simple: there are a few things you actually control and many more things you have very little to no control over at all. Slow times remind you that there is much you don’t control. Relax your grip and slow down your grind.  Perhaps you need to rediscover why you started out on your journey in the first place. Perhaps, you need to re-surrender your calling to Almighty God. Perhaps, you simply need to learn that you aren’t in control. God showed me during that really slow season when I started my business that he can grow my field (business, life, relationships) far better than I can on my own. My job is to work the field. The scope of my responsibility is to work the field by enlisting fellow laborers and trusting that God will send the increase. Until such a harvest comes, prepare yourself, prepare others and prepare for all that God might do.

Slow Times Reveal Your Faith

Max Lucado said, “Faith is the conviction that God knows more than we do about life and He will get us through it. God is still in control.” As a Christian, I firmly believe that God is in control. As a human, I often live like that God is not in control. Slow times reveal the measure of faith you are really living with. You need very little faith when you aren’t in a test. Slow times really reveal how much you actually believe what you say you believe. If you have built a good system, with good people and have good processes, then have faith that things will get better. Perhaps, your slow time is really just a test of your faith after all and your faith is really being refined. The Apostle Peter had these words for some tough times of those he was leading nearly 2,000 years ago, “These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed” (1:7).

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I’m Done with Development

Growth Over Development

I have stopped doing development. I have stopped talking about development.  I have stopped “developing” people. I don’t talk about development and my leaders aren’t allowed to talk about it around me. I have started talking about one thing and one thing only: growth.

Andra’s Story

I once had a young man who worked for me named Andra (Ahn-drey). He had an awesome smile, great sense of humor and a strong work ethic. Everyone (including my family and I) loved Andra. He was the kind of guy that laughed at himself, laughed at your jokes and still got his work done. Andra didn’t know where he wanted to go or what he wanted to do with his life. After a few months on the job, Andra stopped growing. In fact, he thought he was doing better than he was. We had some tough conversations, some job reassignments and, eventually, a distinct challenge to either grow or go. See, life is not about potential or development, life is about growth. Andra had to grow, but he was stuck. Andra had a special place in our hearts, but his performance was not where we all (including Andra) knew it could be. Andra decided he was going to grow. His attitude, his effort and his discipline changed. He made no more excuses and began, to not only get results, but hold others accountable. Andra grew into leadership. And he kept growing. He accepted each challenge and eventually landed a job at the sheriff’s office. I could not be prouder of Andra, because Andra chose to grow for himself and it benefitted those around him. Good growth always has a benefit or byproduct for those around y0u. Andra’s story is not one of development, opportunity or potential, but growth. And growth is what is missing from so many leaders’ stories today. Seemingly, there is plenty of “development,” but very little, real growth.

The Impossibility of Development

I find that development now is practically immeasurable, unreachable and, largely, a piece of organizational jargon. Development has become a catch-all term for a generation that doesn’t know how to grow. Development started as growth. But, somewhere in a sea of sea of self-importance, self-centeredness and a lack of self-awareness, development became the leader’s responsibility and not the followers. Simultaneously, the timeless principles of growth have been cast to the side in favor of an endless self-identification and emotion. Development, by today’s standards, has become an almost unsolvable puzzle that is simply escalating the frustration of both the leader and the follower, the teacher and the student, & the mentor and apprentice.

The Leader’s Job is Not Development

It is not the leader’s job to develop people. It is the leader’s responsibility to create an environment of both challenge and encouragement that fosters an arena for growth in the lives of the followers. No one can make another person develop. Development is always individual and it’s always personal. Now as a leader, you will need more leaders. But, before you need leadership development, you need personal growth. Growth is the elevator that takes you higher, improves your perspective, widens your thinking and deepens your understanding of others. Growth is what is missing from so many development programs. Growth is never a box to check or an assignment to finish. Growth is the distance you have gained over time from one point to another. Growth is where your muscle, your fortitude and your resilience are born. Growth is not a promotion. Growth paves the path for promotion. You can get a promotion and not grow at all.

Modern development has become largely irresponsible and immeasurable. It is irresponsible because somewhere in the last few decades development shifted from personal-responsibility to another’s responsibility. When I went to my dad at 16 years old to tell him I was going to quit working at Chick-fil-A, he said, “You want out of the dish room? Then work your way out!” He didn’t say, “Alex you should go ask your boss for a development plan and if he doesn’t respond, then quit because he doesn’t value you.” The reason that it has become immeasurable is because society has created a system where everybody can win and no one can lose. Success for me at 16 years old was simply getting out of the dish room making $4.25 an hour. Success for me was my first raise was $0.15 up to $4.40 an hour. The metrics of success have changed, and thus, instead of teaching people how to win we started talking about development. This subtle shift is the reason why there are so few people truly growing into leadership. Because, I stayed, suffered and sweated, I found success, because I grew into it.

Leaders are not Developed, They are Grown

We must back up or we are shortly going to find ourselves in an even greater vacuum of leaders. Leaders are not developed, they are grown. Development means very little any more, except as a leader, it is now your responsibility to see that everyone, at every time and for every position gets their individual developmental needs met. This is untenable, unrealistic and, frankly, impossible. It is the responsibility of the follower to grow as a leader, not the leader to develop the follower. The leader must create an atmosphere that accelerates and refines the growth process. Development has become invisible and intangible. Growth is visible and tangible. You can mark, chart and track growth. Development has become all things to all people and thus it means very little. Growth is real and undeniable.

Leaders aren’t developed in a crib, they are grow in a contest. Leaders have to be able win or lose. And they can’t all win. Losing is the pallet for self-reflection and self-assessment. We need teachers not nursery workers. The reason there is so much immaturity in our work force is that we have coddled an entire generation of should-be leaders by giving them nothing to win by working for it and allowing them advancement without sacrifice, commitment or suffering. Failure is one of strangest and greatest teachers of God Almighty for his humble creatures. Failure places you against you and you against others. Failure if viewed with objectivity is a lens that can actually clarify where you need to grow and why you need to grow. Without failure, there is no real or sustainable growth. Organizations that eliminate failure are actually retarding growth and devaluing victory. Life is a contest and the best leaders grow out of great contests.

Jack Welch’s Principle of Differentiation

The first error is teaching followers that everyone can be a leader. That is false. Everyone will not and cannot win. We have lost the principle of what Jack Welch called “differentiation.” Listen to what Welch said, “But differentiation is all about being extreme, rewarding the best and weeding out the ineffective. Rigorous differentiation delivers real stars—and stars build great businesses.” I strongly suggest you and your leaders read “Jack” by Jack Welch. Yes, everyone is equal in value in God’s eyes, but not everyone is equal in gifting, skills and abilities. Real stars require the polish of conflict, the rub of challenge and the shine of victory.

We may pretend not to like this statement, but all we have to do is look no further than professional sports to see how true this is: Home run hitters, strike out pitchers, long distance shooters, really fast runners, goal scorers, touchdown throwers, and trophy winners all make more money or longer periods of time than those who do not have those skills.

Welch continues, “They say that differential treatment erodes the very idea of teamwork. Not in my world. You build strong teams by treating individuals differently. Just look at the way baseball teams pay 20-game winning pitchers and 40-plus home run hitters. The relative contributions of those players are easy to measure—their stats jump out at you—yet they are still part of a team.”

Mediocrity: The Erosion of Excellence

If you want to erode excellence, then treat and compensate everyone the exact same. All you will get is mediocrity. People need something to work for and something to win. They need to feel the pain of defeat and the frustration of failure. Some of the greatest teachers on the earth are the invaluable elements of pain and frustration. Because, both of these allow a man or woman to measure their ability against their desire and see the truth of where they really stand and where they need to grow.

I’m Divorcing Development and Going Back to Growth

Development is now becoming impossible to measure, because development is now in the eyes of the beholder. However, growth is entirely possible to measure. The measurements of growth are set by the leader not the follower. I’m divorcing development and going back to growth.

I have simply had too many young, growing leaders demand that “I develop them.” Well, I’m done. I’m more than happy to help them grow, but I cannot meet an ever-moving target of their own design of what their development should look like. The Bible says the leach says “more, more” and that is exactly what development has become. There is simply too much information, too little adversity combined with too much impatience to meet the “more, more” modern expectations of development.

So, I’m going back to growth. I’m going to do what I’ve always done, and I’m going to reset the expectations of those in my organization: “I will help you grow, but your development is your responsibility.” I will meet, track and chart growth. I will not try to meet a moving end line that only sucks up my time and my leaders’ time and leaves both of us feeling used and unappreciated.

I will tell my followers, “I am here to help and see them grow, but their personal development is on your their shoulders not mine.” Development is now being demanded as if it is a follower’s right to demand from a leader —- it is not. Development is time-consuming, costly and difficult. It is a privilege. Most people no longer understand or accept that. So, it’s time to hearken back to whence we came: growth.

Growth and Effort

The great equalizer for a lack of anything (skills, talent or ability) is effort. Growth is always directly related to effort. There are other factors as well of course, but the driving force in growth is effort. And what I see and what I find, is that many young aspiring leaders are simply unwilling to put up or even match the kind of effort needed to actually produce growth.

I believe, growth is a distance measured over time. And I believe, development has become a position to be gained as quickly as possible. Most good growth requires time. Time demands effort and patience. You cannot jump to growth, but you can jump to a position. This is why development is much more attractive than growth. There are no shortcuts to success. But, many in today’s generations believe that they deserve success quickly, can already do your job and if you cared about them you’d spend all your time developing them.

The principles of growing people haven’t changed in thousands of years of human existence, but our access to information has. In fact, the younger generations, not only have more access to information than you, they know how to use and manipulate it better. Today’s younger generations are better informed on how to lead people, but poorer prepared to actually lead them because they are largely untested and immature (lacking mature growth).

Growth is always measured in the test. The Apostle Paul, arguably one of the world’s greatest leaders and builders of a worldwide organization (the Church) said regarding leaders, “And let them also be tested first; then let them serve as deacons if they prove themselves blameless” (1 Timothy 3:10). Followers who aren’t tested by adversity and prove themselves aren’t worthy to be leaders. It is simple. Modern development has failed to adequately test the novice, immature leaders.

Tell them the Truth

Finally, growth requires the truth. Modern development has made it too easy to ignore the truth, excuse the truth or confuse the truth. If you want to see people grow in your organization, then you must tell them the truth, especially when it is offensive to them. You have to be willing to hurt their feelings, make things uncomfortable or upset their plans because you love them and want to see them grow up. The truth is always offensive to error. Error, and much of it, is found in inexperience and immaturity. Relentless pursuit of the truth and relentless speaking of the truth will create an environment where growth is the only option. I tell every person that I hire in our final interview process, “Growth is not optional: you will either grow or you will go.”

Regarding truth, the Bible says in Proverbs, “Buy truth, and do not sell it; buy wisdom, instruction, and understanding” (23:23). Real growth requires real truth, not your truth, his truth or her truth. If the people in your organization do not want to hear the truth, then they have no business working for you. If you need help knowing when to let people go, then you need to read the book “Necessary Endings” “by Dr. Henry Cloud.

Prepare a Table

In order to help someone else grow you have to first feed yourself. Others grow best out of your overflow. The problem today is that so many leaders are empty. Empty, either because, they have not learned to feed themselves or because they are so run down, they have nothing left to share. A chef does not make food to not share. The chef makes food to share. But, the chef has to learn how to select the food, prepare the food and present the food so that others may partake out of his mastery. Prepare the table, prepare the fare and then, invite others to eat with you.

This is what every leader should be doing: learn how to feed yourself so that you have food to share with others and a time and place to share with them. The point of investment is to produce a return: both in yourself and others.

You must water plants in order for them to grow. You are the watering can. You are the hose. You are not the water. Share with what you have learned. Share with what you possess and create an environment that is rich for others to grow in.

Finally, there is no growth without a test. If you want strong leaders, make strong tests. Growth is a high bar you either measure up to or you don’t. If you want growth, don’t lower the bar. If you want leaders, grow disciples. Growth is hard work. Growth is never quick and never easy. Good growth takes time, truth, repetition, individual effort and a skilled teacher. Good ole fashioned growth will never be beaten by modern development.

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Results and How to Get Them

Results are the outcome of your efforts. The majority of people want better results, but most aren’t willing to put the work in and increase their effort to get their desired result or better. The best results are hard to get.

It’s not enough to want, strategize and dream of great results. The greatest results are most often a product of your greatest efforts. You want better results at work, then increase your effort and involvement. You want better results in your relationships, then invest more and give more effort. In life, you make a grave mistake when you take results for granted or expect them to happen just by wishful thinking. Great results require great work. And great work is growing increasingly rarer and rarer.

Michael Jordan, the greatest basketball player to ever play the game that I’ve ever seen, said, “I’ve always believed if you put the work in, then the results will come.” Everyone wants to get the results they want, but not every one knows how to get those results. Jordan was not only supremely talented, surrounded by an outstanding team, but he was also legendary in the work he put in to get the results he wanted. Jordan was transcendent. He didn’t rest on his talent or his opportunity. He maximized his results by putting the work in.

Coach Roy Williams, who was Jordan’s assistant coach under the hall-of-famer and coaching legend Dean Smith, said that Michael told him as a freshman, “I’m going to show you. Nobody will ever work as hard as I do.” Michael Jordan, who famously got cut one year from his high school basketball team, would go on and win championships in both in college and professionally. Jordan would say, “I don’t do things half-heartedly. Because I know if I do, then I can expect half-hearted results.” One of my favorite scriptures is what the Apostle Paul wrote, “Whatever you do, do with all your heart as to the Lord and not unto men” (Colossians 3:23). If you are half-hearted, then you will most certainly never give maximum effort nor achieve your greatest results.

I have been developing as a leader and developing leaders for nearly three decades and one thing has been consistent: those who put the work in with their whole heart always get better results than those that don’t. I can trace those who I have worked with and those who have worked for me who have gone on with really successful careers even at young ages and they have all worked harder than everyone else in the organization. I am not talking about simply showing up for work. I have seen some really faithful people who show up day-after-day and absorb pressure-upon-pressure, yet still not get the results that those who reach elite results do. Why? Simply showing up to work and putting in the work is vastly different.

Showing Up to Work vs. Putting in the Work

Showing up to work is what people who want a paycheck and a promotion do. There are really faithful people who show up to work. But, this mindset is one that does the minimum required. People who show up don’t ask a lot of questions and don’t do a lot more than what is expected or required. Those who show up typically do want more, they just aren’t willing to push themselves to do more work. They live on the expectation that others are supposed to advance them. This is an error. This is small-minded thinking. People that just show up will never be the best or get the best results–someone else will.

Those that put the work in do things that most others do not or will not. They also think and prepare differently than the majority of their peers. I will outline somethings that I have learned and observed by those who have had achieved the greatest results and what kind of work they put in.

What Do Those That Put the Work in Have in Common:

Failure doesn’t define them. I have seen many developing leaders become disenfranchised when they didn’t get the results or the promotion they thought they deserved or had earned. To those who get the greatest results, failure doesn’t define them. Failure is part of the process. The mindset of those who get the best results is that it is not a choice between either failure or success, but that failure is part of the path to successful results. Early success in anyone’s life can be a great distraction or hindrance to sustaining future results. In fact, it is really hard to sustain early success. Failure is a tremendous teacher, because failure leads us to humility. Thomas Edison, the inventor of the light bulb, famously said, “I have not failed. I have just found 10,000 ways that don’t work.”

In Possession of Humility. They posses more humility than most. If you want to get great results learn to have great humility. This is where so many leaders take the wrong turn. They seek to elevate themselves instead of lowering themselves. Humility gives you a circumspect or wider perspective. The greatest learners are the most humble people, because they have a teachable spirit and a willingness to learn. Proud people have a very narrow perspective and do not heed well the counsel or instruction of others. Humble people will work harder than proud people because nothing is beneath them. A proud person is above things and their position limits their effort.

-More Prepared than Others. They are the most prepared person in the room. Most people fail to get great results because they aren’t prepared to get great results. I have seen over and over again that those that get the best results are the most prepared people in the room. They don’t just collect information, they investigate how to use the information. Information is neutral. Preparation is positive. You must first get the information and then you must learn how to apply what you have learned. Otherwise, the information is useless. Some people mistakenly think that possessing information means they should get results or they should get promoted. They are wrong. It is the people that prepare, study, dig, investigate, discover and then apply the information that get the best results. These people are not just prepared with information, they are prepared to act on the information.

-Work with a Fire. Your work has a rhythm to it. Because work costs energy, all people that work have to create a rhythm in order to use and renew their energy. Those that get great results have an internal fire burning inside of them that boosts their level of energy. This fire is often called passion. This fire, this passion is deep within a person, but not buried. It burns within them. Now, they have to be careful not to burn others by it, but they don’t find something they are passionate about and then work. No, they are assigned a task and they are passionate about getting the results. These leaders set goals and set a fire to get their goals, even when they don’t like what they’ve been given to do. This fire is what sustains them so much longer, so much earlier and so much later than when others peel off, quit or run out of gas.

When Michael Jordan arrived at Chapel Hill, North Carolina as a freshman on the Tar Heels basketball team, he pulled James Worthy aside after a 2 and a half hour practice and asked him to go back to the gym and play some one-on-one. Jordan did this by his own admission because James Worthy, a future NBA champion with the Los Angels Lakers, was the best player on the team. Jordan knew that if he could learn from Worthy, he could ultimately beat him and become the best player on the team. Worthy would recount that once Jordan arrived, “I was the best player on the team for about two weeks.” Jordan approached not only had a desire to learn from the best, but a fire to ultimately beat the best. Working with a fire is working with urgency. Most people simply lack the fire, the urgency to do the extra work required in getting the best results.

Robert Lewandowski who plays striker for Bayern Munich in the German Bundesliga this season broke a goal-scoring record that stood for nearly 50 years when he scored his 41st goal of the season in May of 2021. Lewandowski was asked about his technique of taking shots. He responded that “I do everything fast.” Lewandoski’s response demonstrates that he has an ultimate urgency when he trying to score goals. Leaders who want to get results and set records must have an urgency that most others lack.

Make Necessary Adjustments, Not Excuses. Those who get the greatest results eliminate excuses from their journey. An excuse is a response that relieves one of responsibility. An adjustment is an acceptance of responsibility with a necessary change. An adjustment is a needed change to produce a more favorable result. Results are always the product of a series of adjustments. The best results are never born from excuses. Think of adjustments like a combination lock. In order to open the lock, the right combination in the right order has to be executed. If you don’t get the series right, you will never open the lock. Opening a combination lock is a series of small adjustments. Sometimes, the adjustment is to back up, start again or move in an entirely different direction.

Take Ownership of the Outcome. Finally, those who get the greatest results are those who are willing to own the outcome from start to finish. This quality is really what separates those who dream from those who do and from those who wish from those that do the work. When you are willing to own the outcome, you are willing to put your name, your effort and your reputation on the line. Ownership means you have made yourself not only responsible, but accountable. Ownership is part responsibility, part activity and part accountability. You don’t have to be the actual owner to take actual ownership. My goal my entire career until I became my own boss was to make my boss look good. I discovered that if I took ownership without taking possession or perk, then I worked harder, worked longer, and ultimately, got better results. I am not proposing that you have to be a workaholic to get the results that you want. But, you will have to put in more work and take more ownership if you want to see the greatest results.

You can work really hard for a long time and still not always get the results that you desire or need. You have to be patient, focused and resilient. Our world has a multitude of distractions and attractions that will very easily steer you off course. Discipline is required to stay the course of great results.

Proverbs 13:23 says, “In all toil (work) there is profit, but mere talk leads to poverty.”

If you want profit or the positive outcome you are seeking, then put the toil, the work in. Those who just talk will have a poverty in their results that is active and ever-present. They will talk about what could be or what they think they can do. Those who “profit” will speak of what they have done or what they will get done. Those who profit will be believed by others because they have results. When you get results, others listen.

Do you want a bigger voice or a better seat at the table?

Then, go get better results!

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Effort is the Great Equalizer

Talent doesn’t advance alone. Effort is the equalizer of success.

If you think that just because you are the most skilled, the most talented or the most gifted, that you will automatically advance or progress or get the promotion, then you are sadly mistaken. Talent is important. Skills are important. Giftedness is important. But, effort is more important. What you lack in those areas, make up in task knowledge and effort!

Effort is the great equalizer in regards to talent, skills and giftedness. It is true that not all people are not equally gifted, not naturally skilled and not automatically talented. It is true in a classroom, on a field or in a board room that there are disproportionate levels of skillfulness and talent around you at any given time. But, there is one equalizer that will level your chances in the classroom, workplace, pitch, field or office and that is effort.

If you want to advance, give greater effort. 

But, first understand what effort is and what it is not. Effort is your commitment made and your energy sustained over time. Before you can sustain your energy you have to invest. A little bit of exercise makes a little bit of difference. A great amount of exercise will have a much greater difference. Think of effort like exercise. The more effort you give, like exercise, that is sustained, regimented and consistent will produce the greatest amount of results. Too many developing leaders or aspiring individuals think that one performance one day either on the field or on the job is enough to get the recognition or advancement they are looking for. Or they think that because they are more talented or more skilled, then they deserve to advance. Most people want to advance, but very few earn it. Effort is how you earn advancement.

Great effort takes time. 

To give the effort, you have to put the work in. To put the work in, you have to commit the time. Great effort takes great commitment. To commit means to bind to a certain course of action. Think of giving effort like bonding or connecting yourself to something–put with a sense of permanence. Effort is super glue. So if you aren’t super-glued to what you are committed to, then your effort will decrease over time. The advancement or progression that you are looking for most often takes time. The exception is that a person can show up and have mastery immediately. The rule is that to learn, progress and develop you must invest time. This time requires effort sustained. Time means you will have to wait. Most people see waiting as a waste of time. Those who advance see waiting as an opportunity to improve. Every day that you are waiting for what you are working for is an opportunity for you to get better, do better and get better results.

Four Phases of Effort: Preparation, Mentality, Energy & Action 

Phase 1 – Preparation.

Waiting is not wasted time if  you invest while you wait. Waiting is not resting. Resting is different than waiting. Waiting is the period of time or season from when you enter until you exit. A rest is a pause. To prepare you must work as you wait. To prepare you must train and hone your skill set, refine your results and improve your ability. Things left alone don’t improve themselves. Set goals, targets and objectives that will enhance the advancement you are looking for.

Alexander Graham Bell who invented the telephone said, “Before anything else, preparation is the key to success.”

Graham Bell who would eventually go on to found the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) which still is in existence to this day, filed his first patent for the recording of the human voice a mere two hours before his rival, Elisha Gray, tried to file one of similar design. The bottom line in this illustration is that Alexander Graham Bell was simply more prepared than his rival. Prepared people find more success because they are ahead of others.

The reasons don’t matter, the excuses don’t matter, because the most prepared people increase their likelihood of success and advancement. If opportunity is the door, then preparation is the front porch. Preparation is all the work, all of the time and all of the energy you are willing to invest in pursuit of your goal. Success is discovered on the march of preparation.

Phase 2 – Mentality.

Your mentality is not just the attitude of your mind. It is also the power of your mind. If you have a weak mentality, then you have weak mind power. Your mind is powerful if you train it to be so. Mentality is formed over time and through conditions. The highest performers on your team, in your organization or in your office always have the strongest mentalities. You have to have great mentality because to accomplish anything of substance, to find any success, you will face adversity. Adversity is not only an assault on your physical capability, it is often even more of an assault on your mental capability. Developing a strong mentality is like climbing a ladder of mental discipline and emotional self-control.

Without a strong mentality you will never overcome strong challenges. Strong challenges crush weak mentalities. 

A weak mentality comes from allowing the wrong thoughts to dominate your thinking and from allowing emotions to run out of control in your mind. Emotions are a part of our lives and our thinking, but they must be checked as they appear. True, some emotion can help our mentality, but in moments of our greatest challenge it’s not the emotion that will carry us through, it is our mentality.

In 2019, in the Champions Leagues quarter finals, Liverpool FC was down 0-3 to Lionel Messi led Barcelona FC. Jurgen Klopp’s Reds would have to score 4 home goals and maintain a clean sheet to overcome the hole they had dug for themselves in the first of the two-leg quarter final. By 10:10pm that night, the Reds achieved the improbable and Klopp described his team as “mentality giants.” Riding the momentum of that game Liverpool FC would go on and win the Champions League title.

A mentality giant or someone with a strong mentality is someone who can withstand incredible odds, adversity and pressure, while giving or increasing their effort to produce even greater results. A mentality giant is someone who controls their emotions and controls their thoughts. They exert incredible mental, physical and emotional focus. They have the ability to narrow down the urgent from the critical and the distracting from the important. A mentality giant is practices a patience and endurance that his or her peers lack. Therefore, a mentality giant will achieve more even if it takes longer or is a more difficult path.

Phase 3 – Energy.

Energy is from two Greek words and remains nearly unchanged after thousands of years. The Greek words are “en” meaning “in, within” and “ergon” meaning “work.” Thus, energy is, literally, translated “work within” or “the work within.” This is what really separates those who wish and those who achieve: the amount of energy willing to be given to a particular job, task or responsibility.

Energy comes from within you and it is both physical and mental.

Energy is the ability for your body and your mind to produce into your limbs. Energy is both biological and psychological. In order for a human body to expend energy and utilize the “work within” sleep, rest and diet must be regulated and regimented. Too many individuals are too careless with how they rest, when they sleep and what they intake into their bodies. We live in a day and age where we have very little excuse for not being able to make wise choices regarding the nutritional intake of our bodies.

Secondly, rest is critical to giving and maintaining maximum effort. Rest is often over-looked, but the body and the mind need rest. Staying up into the wee hours of the morning mindless binge-watching or scrolling hour-upon-hour of social media feeds will never allow your mind to rest. In fact, it actually hijacks the mind and keeps it awake without truly being alert. This state is what I call the zombie mind: awake, but not alert; moving, but without purpose. Rest also gives your body the proper amount of time to recharge. Your entire body must sleep. You cannot sustain permanently and perpetually the same, continual usage of motion and energy. You will crash. You will burn out. And it will not end well. Rest is not a vacation–a total disconnection. A rest is a purposeful pause before continuing. A vacation is a hard stop before you begin again.

There can and will be no great efforts without great energy.

There is a third type of energy that is often overlooked. This is because it is the most misunderstood. This is spiritual energy.  Spiritual energy is the deepest type of energy. It affects the essence of who a person is: the soul. It can only be replaced and replenished by the spiritual and drained by that which is hostile and detrimental to the soul. The Apostle Paul wrote, “Finally, be strong in the Lord and the power of his might” (Ephesians 6:10) meaning the source of this spiritual energy/power comes from the Lord.

Phase 4 – Action.

Effort is action. To get to action the other three parts needed to be harmonized and synchronized. Effort is more than just what you think about. Effort is what you do about what you think. Effort is the fruit of your preparation. Your actions dictate who you actually are, not who you think you are. What you do is your effort. Many people today think they are giving great effort without actually doing anything.

Effort is action with sacrifice.

Now, what is sacrifice? 

Sacrifice is what you are willing to give up, let go of or even let pass by in the pursuit of what you are after. Sacrifice is something that is popular to allow others to do today, but not actually do yourself. Two of my daughters play very competitive soccer. The most competitive teams in our state play a couple hours away. When we made the decision to not just play travel soccer, but actually travel to train and practice with a travel team, each girl and both mom and dad had to count the cost of the sacrifices we were going to make individually, relationally and as a family. We wanted to make sure we (the parents) and each girl knew the full sacrifice, the full cost they were going to have to make.  Then, together we laid it all on the table for discussion, conversation, prayer and then the decision. Then, we took action. We took the step and kept on moving. The hardest step is not the first step, but he first correct step in the right direction. We often take steps, but they are the hard step, the right step or the costly step that will create the path to success.

Sacrifice is the cost you pay and keep paying while you pursue what you are after. There is no great effort without great sacrifice. This is the path to action: measure your movements, count the cost and then act.

Summary: 

Without a sustained effort, the results, the success and the progress that you would like to see will never simply occur. You don’t have to be the most talented to get the greatest results. But to discover the most success you can achieve, then you must give the greatest effort. Effort is composed of preparation, mentality, energy and action.

“Whatever you do, do with all your heart…” Colossians 3:23

 

 

 

 

Questions for Discussion or Introspection: 

  1. Why do organizations often value talent over effort? Can you think of a situation in your organization or team where effort equalized talent?
  2. What can be challenging about the preparation phase of effort? How can you prepare better in your organization or team? How do you think that might help?
  3. How do you strengthen your mentality? What hinders you from having a stronger mentality? How do you know when you have a strong mentality?
  4. If energy isn’t equal, then how can you have more energy to achieve better results on your team? What are barriers to spending or giving your energy wisely?
  5. Why is sacrifice so challenging? When is a time you sacrificed for something you wanted? What was it? What results did you achieve?
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How to Get Promoted – Common Mistakes Young Leaders Make

Do you want to get promoted?

Most people do!

Yes, most people who are working want a promotion. A few don’t, but the majority of the young leaders that I have worked with for over 25 years all desire promotion.  Promotion is a good thing. But, it’s not the only thing, biggest thing or defining thing of your life. Promotion comes and goes. It can be a sign of growth, development and advancement. Simply, promotion means advancement, progress and development. It is something that most ambitious young leaders really desire and work hard for…or they think they are working hard for.

Sometimes what or why we want promotion is actually for the wrong reasons. There are some common mistakes and misunderstandings about promotion. A better understanding of what promotion is and isn’t will allow you better to prepare for it.

What is Promotion?

Promotion is More than Recognition

Promotion means more than recognition. Yes, recognition is a part of promotion, but if you are immature, all you are working for is recognition. Recognition comes and goes and it goes more often than it comes. Work with a purpose, work with a passion and work to get results. Don’t work for recognition. If you do you will be sorely and frequently disappointed. Promotion is good. Don’t make promotion about recognition. Make promotion about results. Learn how to get the best results, teach others how to get the best results and promotion is a door that will not be too far in your distant future.

Promotion is Not More Important than Accomplishment

The famed business leader Peter Drucker says, “Promotion is not more important than accomplishment.” Promotion is not an accomplishment. It may feel like accomplishment. But, in reality, accomplishment is more powerful, more lasting and more impactful than a promotion. Accomplishment is what you achieved, what you’ve done and the results you’ve gotten. Accomplishment is not what you think you can do, but what you have actually done. Work to accomplish things. Don’t work to get promoted. Accomplishment is more meaningful than promotion.

Four Elements of Promotion: Potential, Impact, Accomplishment & Humility

Many young leaders and even veteran team members think “I deserve a promotion.” But that is because they are mentally measuring or having someone other than the boss tell them about their potential or their perceived impact. Potential, alone, does not merit a promotion.  Perceived impact, too, does not merit a promotion. Perceived impact is the difference you think you are making to others or the organization. Real impact is a difference validated by those in authority over you. Potential plus real impact plus accomplishment puts you in the conversation for a promotion (if one even exists).  There is no guarantee for promotion. The fourth and most important element is humility. I simply will not promote someone in my organization who lacks real humility. If you think you are humble and say to others that you are humble, you probably are full of pride and lack real humility. Humility is the force multiplier for promotion and simply why many who have climbed get stuck. Promoting a person full of pride, absent of real humility, will have devastating affects on the organization, moral and others.

I encourage my young leaders to work on personal development and personal accomplishment and then when the time is right, the opportunity will open. This is where the humility enters in–you don’t demand, you wait. Patience takes humility.  I simply have seen too many young leaders with lots of potential but their potential is paired with impatience, a lack of real impact and very little accomplishment. I’ve seen too many young leaders miss out on their potential promotion because they left, quit or checked out too early.

Four things you need to get in the conversation for promotion: potential, real impact, real accomplishment and humility.

Why do we want to be promoted?

We want a promotion for one of several reasons. The first reason is we may want to make more money. We assume, with a promotion comes more compensation. Secondly, we may want a promotion to have more authority or control over what we or others  are doing. Thirdly, we may want a promotion so we can be viewed or view ourselves as successful. Fourthly, we may want a promotion because we believe we have earned it or deserve it, even if we are not sure what comes next or what a promotion means. Fifthly, we may want a promotion because we believe we could do a better job leading or directing than the person “above them”. Finally, we may simply want a promotion because we feel stuck or un-engaged in our current role or position.

  1. Don’t view promotion as climbing a ladder.

Promotion is not climbing a ladder. The problem with climbing a ladder is eventually you run out of rungs of the ladder. Then, where do you go? What do you do? Promotion should not be viewed as climbing a ladder, because you will simply be focused on the next rung, as opposed to make the place where you are at the most effective and most productive that it can be. Promotion is more like an opportunity. View promotion as more door than ladder rung. A door you walk through. A rung you step on, hold on to and eventually leave behind. Sometimes, you simply aren’t ready to walk through the door. A door you can only be partially certain what lies behind it and what it opens to.

View: Promotion as a door that opens versus a rung you climb on.

2. Don’t think of promotion for more money.

Life is not about making money. That being said, you need to have a proper view of money. You need money to live. This is one of the reasons why you work. I like making money. But, I believe you have to develop a proper perspective of what money is and what it is not. I believe that money is simply a tool or a resource that allows a skilled individual to leverage the tool or resource in a way that creates opportunity, freedom and discovery. However, if you just want to get a promotion to get more money, then you are basically a mercenary. A mercenary is a soldier for hire. Mercenaries have no loyalty except to their wages. They are not loyal and not very trustworthy, because they lack commitment because they are always in a pursuit of more compensation. Truly successful leaders who gain promotion are not in it “to make money”. They are in it to make things better, make lives better, make things more productive and more effective.

View: Promotion is the opportunity not to make more money but to make elements of your job more effective and more productive.

3. Don’t think of promotion as an arrival.

Too many individuals think if they can just get promoted to the next level they will have “made it.” Listen, while you are on earth, there is more to learn, more to do and more to grow in. Promotion is not an arrival. Promotion is not a destination. Many individuals will work really hard to get promoted and then once they gain the promotion they feel as if they have arrived. Another way to say they have arrived is “entitlement.” Entitlement is the belief that you are owed or deserve something. Instead of working hard, they make others do the hard work. They abandon the practices and principles that got them promoted in the first place. This is why many young leaders get promoted and then get stuck. They unintentionally start thinking and working like they have arrived. It is often evident to every one but the one who got promoted. Promotion is not an arrival it is a step in your growth and it should encourage you to keep learning and keep discovery. Entitlement kills both growth and opportunity. Avoid it at all costs.

View: Promotion is simply one step on your journey of self-discovery and growth.

4. Don’t view promotion as the ultimate sign of recognition.

If you want to be a great leader, stop worrying about recognition. Rather, put your focus on the results over recognition. Recognition is cheap, but results are not. You want your boss to notice you? You know what bosses notice: results! Too many young leaders think that when the boss’s eyes are on them they need to perform. They are wrong, it is more critical to perform and get results when the boss’s eyes are not on them. The boss knows, because the boss knows the business and the business is measurable by results. Promotion should be an acknowledgement of results, not recognition. Some results are harder to get than others. The young leader desiring promotion needs to put their head down, accept that life isn’t fair and you can’t be anything you want to be and get to work. More than getting promoted, young leaders need to learn patience and resilience. You are not more valuable because you get promoted. You will have more responsibility, more pressure and more demand for your time if you get promoted. Most people are ready for what comes with promotion. This is why compensation rises with promotion. Because more is expected and their is greater risk & pressure as you are promoted. Many young people think a promotion means less work and more money. They are grievously wrong. As you rise pressure and risk rise. This is why those who are “higher” in the organization have more liberty and greater compensation.