Got Leaders?

So who's an author whose books I most look out for? Mark Miller is right about the top of

the list. His new book, Leaders Made Here, was just released and I happen to be hosting his blog this week.

So many leadership books talk about theories . . . sorry, dozed off there for a second. Mark writes in a way that keeps your interest and makes it easier to sink in. Want to learn quickly? Tell stories. That's exactly what Mark does. Through parables, he tells leadership stories that strike a cord. Here, we learn about building leaders - not one at a time or as needed - so there's always a leadership pipeline . . . a real culture of successful leadership.

My favorite quote from the book sums it up and goes like this: "A leadership culture exists when leaders are routinely and systematically developed, AND when you have a surplus of leaders."

Got Leaders?

Mark Miller - originally published on GreatLeadersServe.com

What do you talk about at work? Recently, I’ve come to appreciate how many conversations I have every week about leadership issues… dozens, scores – probably thousands of these discussions over the past decade.

What do you believe about a leadership pipeline? Do you think this is something only big companies do? Do you wonder why you don’t have one? Do you want to know the secret to creating a never-ending supply of qualified leaders? Keep reading…

I’m more convinced than ever when it comes to leadership, an organization has only two real choices: Hire leaders or grow leaders. And, over the long haul, I believe the right answer is a combination of the two.

I want to address the more challenging and probably more productive method – Grow your own.  Here are a few questions for your consideration if your current pipeline is not producing enough leaders to satisfy demand.

How do you define leadership? This is the most common mistake I see in organizations struggling to develop leaders. Without an agreed upon operational definition of leadership, creating a pipeline is virtually impossible. What do you want your leaders to be able to do? What character traits are you looking for in leaders? These are non-trivial questions! They represent the foundation for any legitimate attempt to systematically grow leaders.

Who are your emerging leaders? You cannot, nor should you, invest equally in the development of all your people. Targeted and strategic investments will pay the greatest dividends. Where do you place your bet? Emerging leaders. Before you can move forward with this approach, you must know who they are.

What stretch assignments can you give them? After you’ve identified emerging leaders, you can begin to shape their development. One powerful approach is to match individuals with appropriate stretch assignments. If selected carefully, these can be opportunities to test and strengthen future leaders.

What experiences do you want emerging leaders to have? When we think about developing leaders, our first thought is often about the skills of leadership. This is important. However, experiences can add depth to a leader’s resume and contribute greatly to his or her confidence. Experiences can include such diverse situations as working in a union environment, turning around a struggling division, launching a start-up, and more. You decide.

Who can you ask to mentor or coach emerging leaders? I am a fan of mentoring and coaching. There is something that happens in the context of a relationship that rarely happens when we attempt to go it alone. When done well, coaching and mentoring can unlock vast reserves of untapped potential in people. I realize you may not be able to afford external coaching for all your people, but you can assign an internal mentor to guide, challenge and encourage emerging leaders. You’ll be glad you did. Oh, before I finish here, I did promise you the secret to a successful leadership pipeline…Leadership.

You will never find a successful leadership pipeline without leadership. A vibrant process for developing leaders will not emerge spontaneously. When leaders decide to make leadership a competitive advantage and invest accordingly, that’s the day the construction of your pipeline begins.

How strong is your process for growing leaders?

Mark Miller is the best-selling author of 6 books, an in-demand speaker and the Vice President of High-Performance Leadership at Chick-fil-A. His latest book, Leaders Made Here, describes how to nurture leaders throughout the organization, from the front lines to the executive ranks and outlines a clear and replicable approach to creating the leadership bench every organization needs.

Surprise Me!

Chip Bell has done it again! I so anticipate getting his newest book releases in the mail

and his newest, Kaleidoscope: Delivering Innovative Service That Sparkles, was worth waiting for. Chip's writing style of giving us inspiring stories of actual people and organizations getting customer service right makes reading interesting and thought-provoking. Even if you're not in the customer service industry, you'll find this book worth a good read.

Today, I have the privilege of hosting a Chip Bell blog post.

Surprise Me! by: Chip R. Bell

How would you like receiving a birthday present without any wrapping or colorful bow...just a Post-it note on the present with handwritten: “Happy Birthday?”  What would an Easter egg hunt be like if the location of all the eggs were clearly marked with a red flag?  How exciting would a treasure hunt be if some else did if for you and just brought you the bounty?

Customers today live in an over-stimulated, highly entertained world and love surprise. Unfortunately, we have so automated, programmed and managed surprise that it is now assumed when it was once upon a time enchanting.  Remember a time when a front desk clerk, rental car agent, airline gate attendant, merchant or waiter enchanted us with an unanticipated value-added something.  It had a neighborly, old-fashioned feeling when we got an extra.  The mechanic fixed something broken while servicing our vehicle and wrote “no charge” on the invoice.  We heard words like, “It’s on the house” or “we’ll comp it!”

Then, the world of unexpected extras pretty much came to an end.  Easily blamed on the tough economy, the shift was more subtle.  Extras were not actually taken away, they were managed away.  The extremes of a “no variance” philosophy from TQM and Six Sigma got pushed way beyond its rank and pay grade requiring the frontline to hand over their spontaneous generosity to the computer.  Now, the computer, not the gate agent, decides if you get that first class seat upgrade based on your frequent flyer status and seat availability.  Getting upgraded to the concierge level at a hotel is a  computer-driven decision based solely on availability and affinity program status and not the judgment call of the desk clerk.

And, the customer, robbed of that Jack-in-the-box feeling of surprise, has simply built the expectation of an extra into their criteria for satisfaction much like the cleanliness of a hospital or the security of a bank.  Value-added has become value-assumed and no longer a loyalty-creating value at all.  Proof that it has become a given not an extra is how easily the customer is disappointed when he or she fails to get what was once presented as a true surprise.

It is time to bring back the trust and authority the frontline needs to be both generous and ingenious.  If the Ritz-Carlton can trust a housekeeper to responsibly spend up to $2000 to make sure a guest leaves happy, the waiter can be trusted with the decision to comp a dessert for a loyal customer. Employees who can successfully manage a family budget, juggle soccer, tutoring and baseball practice schedules, and shop for groceries can figure out ways to surprise customers without jeopardizing the unit standards or the bottom line. 

Turning ho-hum service into a compelling story customers are eager to share requires bringing back a setting lined in trust; a place filled with joyful innovation.  It takes leaders who are as courageous as they want their employees to be creative. It calls for leaders in search of invention, not obedience.

Chip R. Bell is a renowned keynote speaker and the author of several national best-selling books. His newest book is the just-released Kaleidoscope:  Delivering Innovative Service That Sparkles. He can be reached at chipbell.com. 

Get Up and DO

It's so easy to get into a rut. Especially when you're in between jobs. The worst

thing that you can do is sit and wait. But sitting at a computer, day after day, applying for jobs is not going to get you by. You have to be more active.

Sitting and waiting for something to happen is going to weaken you. It will weaken your skills, your knowledge, your ability to interact socially, and most of all your motivation. You have to get up and get moving.

I'm currently in between jobs and was falling down that hole. I did two things to help me stay towards the top, allowing me to feel better about myself and my outlook of things to come. The first is volunteering.

Volunteering is actually good for you. It provides physical and mental rewards. It helps you gain other types of professional experience. And the biggie - YOU make a difference.

The other thing I did was . . . I got a job. It isn't the type of work I'm looking for, nor making the money I need, or even has the possibility of continuing. But it is pulling in some money and keeping me busy. Plus I'm able to help out a friend (grateful to that friend). Cleaning boats is not a career choice, but it's keeping my mindset in the work world. It also shows me how lucky I am to be here and reminds me of the successes I've had.

So if you're out of wack and in that rut, get out and DO. It's quite the pick me up.

Out of the Question

This could be the 2016 winner of best leadership books - Out of the Question: How

Curious Leaders Win, by Guy Parsons and Allan Milham.  Two words in the title sum it up - Question and Curious.

In this new book, Guy and Allan discuss the difference between Knowing Leaders and Learning Leaders.  Knowers know what to do and how everyone should get there.  Learners are open, creative, and foster collaboration.  Which one do you think is more effective?

Today’s workforce is nothing like that of the past.  The, my way or the highway days are over.  Try that with your younger workers and see how long they stick around.  Leading with curiosity brings out questions and collaborative learning.  Just because you may be in a leadership role doesn’t mean you have all the answers . . . although we see many people who still think that.

I love the section on the Power of the Pause.  Yes, pause.  I don’t have enough fingers and toes to count how many “leaders” I’ve known who never pause during a discussion or planning session.  They always have THE answer - immediately.  How many times have we run into that and ended up reworking?

I recommend this book to anyone who wants to take themselves and their teams to the next level.  Read this book and use it and you’ll probably end up multiple levels ahead.

The New Social Learning

Things are not always as they seem.  They’re not as simple as they seem.  And social learning is no different.  Social learning is of course nothing new.  But how it’s accomplished is always changing.

 We’re not just talking Facebook and Youtube.  The New Social Learning: Connect. Collaborate. Work, by Tony Bingham and Marcia Conner, shows us how to capitalize on the people, tools, technology, and practices in order to increase engagement and collaboration.  In this book you will read about organizations that have transformed meaningful social learning into advantages over other organizations.

Don’t do what most people do and just focus on the tools.  How can they be used to your advantage?  People have a great desire to make a difference.  Learn here to facilitate the growth in the way people learn.  See how you can learn to “work outloud” to build learning relationships.

Share this book with your training, marketing, and HR departments.  Heck, all departments.  And don’t forget the leadership team.

The Genius of Opposites

Opposites attract, right?  Sometimes in better ways than others.  Understand how introverts and extroverts can

work together and you’ve got a winning team.  We know that opposites have differences . . . duh.  The key is to understand what those differences are and enrich those different skills to understand and appreciate the other.

Jennifer Kahnweiler’s new book, The Genius of Opposites: How Introverts and Extroverts Achieve Extraordinary Results Together, shows us how to work, together, with someone who is our opposite.  This is a five-step plan to grow a cohesive partnership.  Conflict can be a good thing and Jennifer uses some excellent examples of famous opposites to explain.

Being an introvert myself, I found this book compelling and strengthening.  With the information, examples, tools, and techniques included in this book, it would make a great series of lunch and learns for your leaders and team members.

I'm pleased to have Jennifer Kahnweiler as my guest blogger today.

Email: a Multiplier of Misunderstandings?

When was the last time you came back to your office and listened to 100 voicemails?  More likely you responded to the many emails in your inbox.

I reached my saturation point a few weeks ago after I realized that I had not one live conversation all day.  That is an energy drain for an extrovert.  The real tipping point came during a back and forth email dialogue with an introverted work colleague.

As our email tennis match proceeded, I could see the misunderstandings multiply.  I wrote him an email to ask for a five minute phone call to clear up the issue.  He wrote back, asking me if we could “settle it on email”.  “No way,” I thought.  “It would take more time to write each other again that it will to talk.”

So, a bit nervously, I picked up the phone and dialed his number anyway.  We had a brief conversation in which he explained his position and we discussed several viable options.  The matter was resolved in four minutes.

I know that, as an introvert, he prefers to communicate via email.  As an extrovert, I agree — most of our communication can be handled that way.  I also believe that a personality preference is not a prescription for every situation.  There are times when we need to be able to ask each other questions, dig a little deeper, and listen to a person’s voice tone to better understand their point of view.  We also need to clearly express what we mean.

To what degree should the situation drive the communication mode?  How much do you moderate your preferred style to accommodate others?

Originally published 2/6//2009 on JenniferKahnweiler.com.

Jennifer B. Kahnweiler, Ph.D., Certified Speaking Professional, is a bestselling author and global keynote speaker known as the “champion for introverts.” In addition to her latest book, The Genius of Opposites, she has written two bestselling books about introverts (Quiet Influence and The Introverted Leader), which have been translated into 14 languages.

Soft As A Brick and The Anatomy of Peace

The Anatomy of Peace, by The Arbinger Institute . . . what a great new (revised) book, for business

AND personal life.  I hear a lot about trying to separate work and home and the more I hear and read the more I’ve come to realize that it’s impossible.  This book will help with that balance.  After reading, you’ll look at everyday things and people so differently.  We cause conflict.  We hold on to conflict.  But we also have the ability to solve conflict.  It all comes from within and how WE relate to OTHERS.  We can’t sit back and wait for someone else to take the first step.  Be proactive and read this book and learn from deep within about the person that you can, and should be.

Today I have the honor of hosting Sam Whitney, Client Solutions Manager at The Arbinger Institute, with a great lesson for us all.

Soft As A Brick

Some time ago I worked as a trainer for a fairly large organization. As a trainer I had to coordinate with employee supervisors in order to obtain training topics and schedule training. One of my supervisors was not helping me; in fact he was sabotaging my trainings. And, it seemed clear, he was doing it on purpose. He would “forget” to schedule the sessions, not give me proper topics, and then undermine what I was saying during the training sessions. I was very close to making a formal complaint and I was hopeful I could get him fired.  I had been working with my training supervisor for months looking for a solution to all the problems he was causing me. I wasn’t treating him poorly, and I felt I was doing a great job as a trainer; I had no clue as to why he was being such a problem.

Soon the book The Anatomy of Peace fell into my lap with a recommendation that it might help solve my problem. My first reaction was “I don’t need this, I just need to get this supervisor out of my way.” But I was wrong. As I read the book I was impressed how the ideas challenged me to get outside of my own way of seeing. This was really hard for me to do because it forced me to see this supervisor as a person. There was one line in the book that changed the whole game for me, “We invite in others the very behaviors we say we hate.” When I read that I realized I needed to be responsible for my contribution to the problem I was having. I was finally able to see how I was actually provoking negative behavior from this supervisor. It turns out the way I was going about scheduling was not working for the supervisor; it was hindering his own scheduling. I was also training in a way that was not taking into account what the employees needed and what the supervisor needed. I found out that he thought I was the problem.

I decided to have a meeting. In this meeting I told the supervisor all the things I was doing that I thought were getting in his way or making his life harder. He was impressed and after discussing both of our needs and objectives we saw that neither of us was worthy of firing. We both were trying our best but had been blind to how we were affecting each other.

From that moment on our work changed dramatically. Training's improved. We held them more often and with better topics. The employees benefited, sales increased overall, and the company was able to see improved engagement from its employees.

Here at Arbinger we have a saying about The Anatomy of Peace—it’s about as soft as a brick. It hit me hard when I needed it most.

Sam Whitney is Client Solutions Manager at the Arbinger Institute, the organization-author of the bestsellers Leadership and Self-Deception and The Anatomy of Peace, which teach concepts and models designed around the idea that seeing people as people can dramatically impact the results we achieve in organizations, in relationships, and in the world. Click here to learn more.

The Treasure in Books

"There is more treasure in books than in all the pirates loot on Treasure Island

and best of all, you can enjoy these riches every day of your life."

This is one of my favorite Walt Disney quotes.  A lot of quotes we see, no matter who they come from, tend to be just soundbites.  But they're just comments with little actual meaning and left up to the reader to interpret.

But this quote leaves little to figure out.  Reading is important.  It's important all the way through school . . . and beyond.  Anything you want to learn more about is probably in a book.  The Internet can be a great resource, but it doesn't take the place of a great book.

Whether we're trying or not, learning never ends and we all need to feed that learning.  I'm always talking about this with leaders.  Things change, people change, cultures change, and there are a number of author's out there that keep up on these changes for us.  All we need to do is pick up a book here and there.

Take a look at some of these author's writings and build your loot:  Mark Miller, Bill Treasurer, Julie Winkle Giulioni, Lee Cockerell, Cheryl Bachelder, Ken Blanchard, Chris Edmonds, Kevin Eikenberry.  Now get out there and pick up a book.

Powerful New Leaders LiveCast - FREE

If you're a new leader, a leader of leaders, or responsible for leadership development in your organization, STOP.  Because what I'm about to announce is for YOU.

Over 5 years ago, Kevin Eikenberry and Guy Harris introduced the Bud to Boss Workshop.

Just over 4 years ago, they released the bestselling book, From Bud to Boss: Secrets to a Successful Transition to Remarkable Leadership. Since then they've influenced thousands of leaders and organizations with practical approaches to becoming a more competent and confident leader.

And now they're announcing a powerful, new event: The Bud to Boss Video Livecast. This content-packed, free event will provide insight, information and inspiration for anyone interested in creating more effective leadership skills.

Taking place on April 17 from 1–4 pm ET, attendees will:

• Have an opportunity to submit questions that will be answered during the Livecast by best-selling authors, Kevin Eikenberry & Guy Harris.
• Hear a one-on-one interview with Cheryl Bachelder, CEO of Popeyes® Louisiana Kitchen, Inc., discussing her leadership transitions and successful leadership in general.
• Listen to targeted interviews with expert leadership authors and practicing leaders discussing and addressing the concerns of new leaders, and providing valuable insight for all.
• Earn valuable giveaways, prizes and more!

To learn more and to reserve your free seat, visit the website here.

Believe me . . . it WILL be worth your time.

Trial to Prevent Error

This is a lesson about finding out the hard way.  I had the brilliant idea to record a computer training session on WebEx and then convert it to .mov or .wmv to import intoCamtasia for editing.  Seemed like a pretty easy process.  Except it didn’t work!

                        

After multiple attempts at converting, with the WebEx converter, I decided to look up the issue on online forums.  I didn’t see anything positive.  I then asked a couple of people I work with if they had ever tried to convert WebEx video.  They had . . . and it didn’t work.

Now this isn’t meant to be a WebEx bashing session, but if I had tested it out first, I would have realized that I should have recorded right to Camtasia instead of trying to convert the WebEx recording.  I could have saved myself a lot of time AND rework.  Now I have to go back and have the person who performed the training do it all over again.

Not a great outcome, but a great lesson in making sure that I try new things out ahead of time, no matter how good it sounds.

What's In It For Me?

The first thing that adults in training ask themselves is, "what's in it for me?", or WIIFM.

When designing or presenting courses for your employees, always keep this in mind.  Whether they're actually verbalizing it or thinking it subconsciously, it's still on their mind.  It's the main motivator for most of the things we do.  It helps us to translate an external need into an internal one.  The WIIFM for training could be anything from becoming a better employee, getting a raise or promotion, or . . . just getting done and completing the test.

For the most part, we like the familiar and are uncomfortable with change.  But our brains like novelty, not memorization.  We resist meaningless stimuli.  So any time that we can integrate the information we're gathering into something useful, we're getting that WIIFM.

As adults, we have many experiences to fall back on.  Use that to your advantage when facilitating your employee classes.  Set the tone early.  You don't have to actually state (and I would recommend not) that "the WIIFM for the class is".  But instead of letting them use the get done and test reason, take a couple of minutes to state the objectives/reason for the class and discuss the positive outcomes of attending. Motivated adults seek out learning because they have a use for it.  Get them thinking about why they're REALLY there.

Your Leadership Life Map

Today, I have the pleasure of welcoming Dr. Kathryn Cramer as my guest blogger. Her recent release of Lead Positive: What Highly Effective Leaders, See, Say, and Do, was one of the easiest to read and implement leadership books I've read. I highly recommend you running out (or to your computer) and getting your own copy.

YOUR LEADERSHIP LIFE MAP: DISCOVERING YOUR MIGHTY CAUSE

What is your mighty cause?  People crave a greater sense of purpose, and being able to

link your goals to a noble and mighty cause is inspiring.

Authentic communication, what I call “saying it with soul” is about meaning what you say–and saying something meaningful. When you can speak soulfully about your values and your personal investment in the vision, your mighty cause, it builds trust and commitment. It lowers the bar for your team to get on board.

Your Leadership Life Map

It is not as difficult as you may think to discover the mighty cause underlying your vision for your organization. Using the Leadership Life Map tool from my upcoming book Lead Positive: What Highly Effective Leaders, See, Say, and Do, you can start by identifying patterns in your leadership path about what most motivates and inspires you.

For example, when I worked with my client Matthew, an operations manager, to develop his Leadership Life Map, we discovered that his deepest passion was from mentoring others, not efficient operations. Getting results was of course rewarding, but his greatest satisfaction came from watching people grow and excel.

From there, it was a short step for Matthew to identify his noble cause of employee growth and to link it to his organization’s vision of higher performance. His ability to speak soulfully about his dedication to this noble cause did more to inspire those he served than a powerpoint presentation on operational improvement goals ever could.

Download the Lead Positive Leadership Life Map tool here.

The Leadership Life Map exercise, which I have provided here as a free resource from the Lead Positive book, asks you to:

•  Map the chapters of your life as a leader
• Identify the major life-shaping forces in your leadership career
• List your most significant leadership experiences–positive and negative–and the key assets you used or noticed in others

Once it is all laid out, you can begin to identify themes and patterns regarding your leadership values, your mighty cause.

Kathryn D. Cramer, PhD, is passionate about possibilities and potential. Emmy-winner, business consultant, psychologist, and author, Dr. Cramer has written nine books, including the best-selling Change the Way You See Everything. She created and has dedicated her life to asset-based thinking (ABT), a way of looking at the world that helps leaders, influencers, and their teams make small shifts in thinking to produce extraordinary impact. Her latest book, Lead Positive: What Highly Effective Leaders See, Say & Do (Jossey-Bass, 2014), shows leaders how to increase their effectiveness through her revolutionary mindset management process, Asset-Based Thinking.

Follow Kathy on Twitter @drkathycramer and connect on Facebook.

Lead Positive

Kathy Cramer’s recent book release of Lead Positive: What Highly Effective Leaders

See, Say, and Do, had me from hello.  I don’t often spend too much time reading introductions prior to getting right into the book, but this time I found myself captivated.  Just from those first few pages I could have put the book down and been happy – but I was intrigued.

Within the first short page, she sets the tone with a quote that I’m going to find myself using (with acknowledgement of course) often, “When you Lead Positive, you offer a competing vision of the future by reframing problems into possibilities and appealing to a higher sense of purpose”.

The concepts of this book are so simple to understand and to put into play.  You’ll want to read it with a highlighter so you can go back to review and share.

Positive leaders aren’t as plentiful as one would think.  Many talk the talk but don’t quite walk the walk.  Using Kathy’s ideas will help you walk the talk.  Using asset-based thinking (I’ll leave that for you to read about), you will learn to use the Lead Positive framework of,

·         See – ‘zeroing in on what is working, strong, and possible’

·         Say – ‘speaking to the mind, heart, and spirit’

·         Do – ‘starting a positive ripple effect’.

Using the self-assessments throughout the book will help you and encourage you to better your own positive outlook and leadership ability so it can be passed on to and through others.  It’s a great playbook to use with leadership training or for refocusing your own leadership talents.

Would You Rather Keep the Rules or the People?

This week I'm happy, and honored, to relinquish my blog to guest bloggers, Beverly Kaye and Sharon Jordan-Evans, the authors of the newly revised book, Love 'Em or Lose 'Em.

If innovation is so important, why is it so hard to support? Why is it so easy to say no before saying yes? Why is it easier to see if there is a precedent for what an employee wants to do?

When your employees come to you with new ideas, concepts, or rule breakers, they want to hear “You’ve got a point” or “Let’s give it a try” or “Maybe that will work.” They want you to (at least occasionally) go to bat for them – to truly advocate for the change they want.  What prevents you from doing that?

Are You Boxed In?

You have no doubt been asked (probably more than once) to think “outside the box.” How ironic that most managers feel like the box has been handed to them (often by their bosses) and that they are supposed to think and act inside it. The box typically feels fairly rigid, as if it were made up of concrete walls—the rules. But with a shift in thinking, your box can be composed of different materials, each with unique properties. Here is an example:

This box has walls made of four materials.

Concrete. This wall represents rules that are truly rigid. It cannot be broken, pushed, bent, or shattered. “You must have a medical degree to practice medicine in this hospital.”

Glass. This wall is strong and sturdy, but if you hit it just the right way with just the right instrument at the right time, it will break. It represents the rules that may seem unbreakable but actually can be broken. “A woman will never be CEO of a major corporation.”

Rubber. This wall is thick and strong, but it has some give to it if you are willing to push hard. It represents rules that might be pliable. “We all put in a 40-hour week, from eight to five, five days a week.”

Vapor. This wall is made up of our beliefs, assumptions, and perceptions about the rules. “People will never fly.”

If you examine the rules you operate by, you will find that few of them are truly concrete. They just feel that way. The most formidable aspect of the box is often the vapor wall. Your beliefs and assumptions— or the company’s—often prevent you from questioning the rules. They may also keep you from hearing your employees’ questions.

Try this:

·         - The next time your employees question you about the rules (about their jobs, the organization, or the work at hand), stop before you say, “It can’t be done.”

·        - Check to see which wall is holding you (and others?) in the box. 

·         - Unless it is truly the concrete wall, work with your employees to bend or break the rules. Test the vapor wall and the beliefs that box you in. Evaluate new ideas fairly before you discard them.

Your talented people want you to recognize their good ideas and innovative solutions, and they want you to support their questioning. You will increase the odds of engaging and keeping them if you allow them to question the rules about their jobs, the workplace, and even the business.

Beverly Kaye is the Founder of Career Systems International. Sharon Jordan-Evans is the President of the Jordan Evans Group. This blog post is based on concepts from Love ‘Em or Lose ‘Em: Getting Good People to Stay by Beverly Kaye and Sharon Jordan-Evans. This bestselling book provides twenty-six strategies to keep talented employees happy and productive. In addition to updating and revising all information for the fifth edition, the authors have included more international stories and statistics. Available January 2014 on Amazon and in bookstores everywhere!

Hacking Leadership - Book Review

“The best way to approach personal and professional development is to

always stay in the learning zone.”  This is one of my favorite quotes from MikeMyatt’s new book, Hacking Leadership: the 11 Gaps Every Business Needs to Close and The Secrets to Closing Them Quickly.

As the title eludes, Mike talks us through the 11 gaps in leadership that you need to close – hack – in order for you to succeed and to bring your organization to the forefront of its field.

Continuous learning, or specifically a lack of, has been a leadership pet peeve of mine for years.  Mikes book actually exposes many more.  For instance, the Purpose Gap – the need for passion and following in the footsteps of past great leaders.  The Culture Gap – courage to create a culture of leadership, checking the arrogance, and not playing the diversity card.  The Talent Gap –developing trust and loyalty and effectively reducing turnover.

All 11 gaps in leadership challenge you to stop and take a serious look at yourself.  It’s practical, insightful, and pretty simple if you take it seriously, as you should.  You’re going to want to have a highlighter and a notepad handy as you read because you’ll find numerous concepts that you’ll want to develop yourself, and share with other leaders.

If you’re in any leadership position – or aspiring to be in one – Mike Myatt’s book is a great place to start your advancement.

Mike Myatt is a leadership advisor to Fortune 500 CEOs and their Boards of Directors. Widely regarded as America’s Top CEO Coach, recognized by Thinkers50 as one of the preeminent leadership thinkers globally, he is the author of Leadership Matters…The CEO Survival Manual, a Forbes leadership columnist, and is the Chief Executive Officer at N2growth. His new book, Hacking Leadership (Wiley) is in bookstores everywhere.

Military Leadership

In honor of those who have served in our United States Military and who I have served

with, I'm going to take this post opportunity to share some military leadership quotes:

The day Soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help them or concluded that you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership.

General Colin Powell

Leadership: The art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.

General Dwight D. Eisenhower

The art of leadership is saying no, not saying yes. It is very easy to say yes.

Prime Minister Tony Blair

Leadership and learning are indespensible to each other.

President John F. Kennedy

Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without the strategy.

General Norman Schwarzkopf

Men make history, and not the other way around. In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still. Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better.

President Harry S. Truman

Leaders Need to Learn

That's right . . . learn.

Like I used to tell all of my young Sailor's who would get discouraged with setbacks and lacked ambition - success is like a video game.  You have to know which buttons to push and when.  If you get knocked down you have to figure out which way is the better way to get ahead.  In other words, keep learning as you're progressing.

This learning doesn't stop when you become a supervisor, director, or even a CEO.  Part of good leadership includes continued learning.  No one can ever get to ANY level and say, "I now know it all".  But how many leaders have you ever had that had just that mentality.  I've had "a few".

 Jim Rohn once said, "The book you don't read won't help."  Makes sense, doesn't it?

Make a habit of reading books - any subject you're interested in is out there and just waiting for you.  Read trade magazines or blogs.  Go to local seminars or complete online courses (there are a lot of free ones out there).  There are so many resources out there for you to learn from.  There's no reason why you shouldn't be taking advantage of them.

"No time", you say?  Wrong answer.  Make time.  A blog only takes a couple of minutes to read.  Start by finding a couple that are published by notable "experts" and go from there.

You're never going to know it all - realize it and believe it.  You need to keep learning.  Google "leadership blogs" and/or "leadership books" and get started now.

Get Noticed In A Noisy World

Recently, I had the honor of being chosen as one of 100 people (out of 800 candidates) to be a part of the Launch Team for Michael Hyatt’s new book, Platform: Get Noticed In A Noisy World.


Michael Hyatt is Chairman of Thompson Publishing, the 7th largest publisher in the U.S. His blog, called Intentional Leadership, is ranked #1 in the leadership category.

Anyway, back to the book. The premise of this book is that just having a good idea for writing a book, getting a record contract, gaining funding for a startup business, or anything creative for that matter, is not enough. Just having a good – even great – idea doesn’t get you in the door anymore. What a life changer this book could be to a lot of people. Now I’m not just saying that because I’m on the Launch Team. The Launch Team is formed, in part, to get good honest feedback.

These days you need to have a “platform”. Michael gives you a step-by-step guide on how to build that platform. He shows you how to use an online presence to build your brand and gain connections. If you want to be heard, people have to be listening. “People like you and me can get noticed and win big in an increasingly noisy world.”

Many books on similar subjects give you a lot of fluffy page fillers. Platform gives you the to the point information that you need. According to Michael, there are three things that building your platform provides:

• visibility,
• amplification, and
• connection.

In order to be visible, you have to have a stage – Blog, Twitter, Facebook, etc. In order to be amplified, you need to be able to be “heard” above the crowd, especially through social media. In order to be connected, you have to be able to engage your fans, customers, and supporters.

I could go on and on about all the great – and usable - information that’s in this book (personal responsibility, elevator pitches, online media kits, building your home base, generating online traffic, brand monitoring, etc.), but you’ll get more out of it by reading it yourself.

Just remember, whatever your “product” is, it has to be good – it has to WOW. One of Michael’s favorite quotes, by David Ogilvy, is, “Great marketing only makes a bad product fail faster.”

Platform will be released on May 22nd. But don’t order the book prior to that! That's an odd thing to say, isn't it? But if you wait to order the book the week of May 21st he'll give you $375.98 worth of extra FREE products. You can sign-up to be notified here: http://michaelhyatt.com/platform.