Here are some simple thoughts on Managers vs. Leaders. These are thoughts I jotted in my journal this morning while at my hotel in Dallas. I’m at Leadership Network sharing and connecting with some great churches from around the country. These 6 churches represent over 75,000 weekend attenders.
Below are some of my thoughts on Managers vs. Leaders, share your thoughts.
Sometimes it’s easier and makes more sense for me to share my morning thoughts from my journal than it is to write a blog post. Here you go, my thoughts from BWI airport this morning on the thought of: The Question Every Leader Should Be Asking. This could actually be the question every parent should be asking as well. ~dream BIG. think BIGGER.
I have seen the original spoken word version of this video in the past. This new version of the video brings some cinematography and visuals to help tell the story and poses a real question: How Bad Do You Want To Be Successful?
When you want to succeed as bad as you want to breath, you will be successful. Most people say they want to be successful but they don’t want to give up anything. You have to give up something, often times many things to succeed.
Want some inspiration… Watch this video.
Share your thoughts on this video and what it takes to be successful.
Leadership Development is one of those terms that people throw around with ease, often times without embracing the true essence of what it’s all about. The reality is that leadership development is one of the ultimate callings of leadership. Without leadership development, there cannot be the reproduction of more leaders. Without the reproduction of more leaders, the evolution of leadership begins to cease.
The problem with leadership development is the fact that it takes time, creativity, patience, thoughtfulness and too many other descriptive words for a single blog post.
Leadership development requires a leader to focus on the success of those they lead, while simultaneously focusing on the vision of the organization. Those things do happen simultaneously and are not mutually exclusive.
If leaders have a genuine interest and commitment to make sure that those that they lead are successful, that’s development. It requires varied approaches, pushing through struggles and recognition that if individual team members win in their respective role, the overall team wins.
The bottom line is that Leadership Development takes time, energy, focus, putting your arm around a team member and helping them to win. Often times leaders confuse Leadership Development with an event, program or formula. Events and programs are only minor elements to a successful Leadership Development equation. Genuine care, concern and individualized focus on team members’ success trumps a program, event or Leadership Development lip service every time.
Genuine Leadership Development always inspires a deep inner desire for self-development. Talk about a win-win situation. The leader genuinely cares about the development of team members and moreover the team members are inspired to care more acutely about their own development.
Leadership is more than a title, position or a corner office. It’s about propelling the vision of the organization that you are leading while simultaneously helping others win. Remember it’s always easier to get rid of someone than it is to develop them. Leadership is always about making the right decision and a swift decision to fire someone without genuine development, often times is not the right decision.
If you look at Jesus and his Disciples, he kept the vision in focus while simultaneously putting his arm around his Disciples and developing them over time. Development takes time, Leadership Development is Leadership.
I appreciate the founder of Firestone Tires, Harvey Firestone sums up the call of Leadership development. He says, “The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership.”
If You’re Not Developing… You’re Not Leading!
How would you describe Leadership Development? Share your thoughts and experiences?
When it comes to work, life, achievement and success we have always been trained to “Focus On Your Job!” If you want to get better, you need to Focus On Your Job! I would agree that it’s important to give attention and priority to our jobs, as they are the primary source of paying the bills, providing for our families and fulfilling the mission of the organization we have committed ourselves to.
Additionally, I would argue that you “Shouldn’t Focus On Your Job!” What I mean by this is I think it’s equally, if not more important for people to spend time focusing on their dreams and passions. If you only focus on your job and not your dreams, I believe that you can squelch your inner creativity, energy, passion and zeal.
I have always encouraged those that have worked for me to spend time during the weeks and months focusing on their dreams and passions. Sometimes that time would be within the workday and others would be outside of the workday. It’s not a matter of when you give time to your dreams, it’s a matter of giving your dreams and passions some dedicated attention and focus.
As I look back at some of my employees I encouraged to “Not focus On Their Job,” I can see the path of their dreams becoming a reality. Several individuals whom worked for me when I was a young prison warden, are now business owners living out some of their dreams, by operating their own counseling agencies, one of them being one of the largest in the state of Oklahoma.
Theses particular individuals were all super-performers for our organization, while simultaneously spending time focus on the dreams and passions that God had placed inside of them. It was a Win-Win situation. I have seen this play out effectively with many individuals, on several different teams and in numerous types of environments.
I know this may seem like are asking individuals to slight their job or not give their priorities full attention. That’s not the case at all. It’s a simple matter of helping those on your team to be energized, motivated, encouraged, inspired and better by sipping from the inner fountain of their dreams.
Dreams are like stars, although you may never touch them — if you follow them, they will lead you to your destiny.
dream BIG. think BIGGER.
Leadership is an form of art and it’s an art form that almost anyone can learn to some degree. Just because someone learns an art doesn’t mean they will necessarily be good or effective. Think about all of the painters, musicians, communicators, or artists of any sort; although they have learned an art very few get through the threshold of simply being an artist, to being an effective, sought after or compelling artist.
Effective artists of any genre are able do something a little different with their artistry. That same statement is true for The Art Of Leadership... there are many leaders who never realize The Art Art Leadership.
I’m not trying to be the alliteration guy; however I’ve identified 7 thoughts that can help develop The Art Of Leadership. Each of these concepts just happen to begin with the letter “R.”
7 Ways To Develop The Art Of Leadership:
What do you think? Share your thoughts on any of these thoughts or how you have seen them carried out.
As a leader it’s important to set the tone for your team or organization, especially as it relates to handling difficult or crisis situations. If the leader wigs out, stresses out, worries or has a heart attack during high stress or crisis situations; there will always be undertones of that stress transferred to the rest of the team.
As you can imagine running a prison presents the daily opportunity for high stress, crisis and potentially life & death situations. During my tenure as a young prison Warden, I realized that Most Leadership Stress Was Self-Induced. I had the personal choice of whether or not I allowed events or people to stress me out. I would watch the previous Warden get stressed out by the most trivial things. Realizing that it was up to me, I developed philosophy and mindset to handle these potentially high stress or crisis situations.
The philosophy was simply this, ”There is nothing that we can’t begin to fix in 5 Minutes and 5 Phone Calls.” I trained my Chief of Security and my Officers to not sweat the small stuff and embrace the fact that crisis situations will happen… it’s not about the situation it’s about how you handle the situation.
If there was a full-blown prison riot the process within the first 5 Minutes would be to make the following 5 Phone Calls:
This mindset puts all situations, including crisis situation into perspective. The bottom line is that we will face problems and potentially stressful situations on a regular basis. It doesn’t matter if the problem that we face is work related or personal, what matters is there is the beginning to a solution around the corner. Stop Wiggin’ Out, Tell Your Boss To Stop Wiggin’ Out and embrace the fact that every situation, including Life & Death one’s can begin the “fixing process” in 5 Minutes and 5 Phone Calls.
Once a leader comes to the realization that Most Leadership Stress Is Self-Induced, they can embody Albert Einstein’s version of 5 Minutes and 5 Phone Calls. Einstein says it this way, “Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler.”
It’s not that serious, STOP STRESSING!
What do you think? Share your thoughts on “5 Minutes & 5 Phone Calls” and your personal experiences with how leaders handle stressful situations.
I’ve always been intrigued by leaders, coaches and teams that use the phrase “Surrounded By The Best!” You would think this would be an obvious or natural response for all leaders “I Want To Be Surrounded By The Best!” The reality is that many leaders desire to be the best and surround themselves with mediocrity.
The word best is an illusive term; however it’s defined as – being of the highest quality, excellence, the best work, desirable etc. With that definition in mind, a leader should always strive for the best. It’s also important for leaders to understand that they are ultimately responsible for developing their team to be the best.
If you look at sports teams that have a tradition of winning and being the best, you will find a head coach that surrounds himself with the best assistant coaches in the business. You will also find a program where everyone in the country is trying to recruit and hire those assistant coaches. Why? It’s simple, just as the definition states: they are high quality, desirable and the best.
I remember visiting with an executive level leader of an organization and he was talking about his senior leader’s philosophy as it relates to their leadership team. His senior leader has a desire to be surrounded by the best and said it this way, “I want guys on my team who are high capacity, high quality, I want the best. I want guys on my team whose phone rings from people outside of our organization. I want the guys that other guys want.”
I shared a post early this over a year ago titled – The Best Leader that outlines OU Head Football Coach Bob Stoops’ leadership and the sending out of 7 head coaches in the last 7 years. As I look at the current College Football AP Poll, I notice that Bob Stoops has 1 Coach that was under his leadership tutelage in the top 10 and himself: Bo Pelini (#10 Nebraska) and Bob Stoops himself (#1 Oklahoma).
If you want to be Surrounded By The Best, you must embrace these three things:
Anyone can be the best with hard work, commitment, dedication, learning, leading and having the willingness to be Surrounded By The Best. dream BIG. think BIGGER.
Share your thoughts on Surrounded By The Best.
Anytime you talk about winning or competition whether it is in sports, workplace, school or amongst siblings; there always seem to be people who adjudicate themselves as not being competitive. They settle for the cop out of, “I don’t compete or win because I’m not competitive.” I have seen this in the workplace and in sports from the little league level to corporate executives. I have also seen great coaches take individuals from, “Not being competitive, to being natural winners.”
I love the way one of the greatest football coaches of all-time, Vince Lombardi talks about winning. Lombardi says, “Winning isn’t everything, but the will to win is everything.” Winning starts inside, with a desire and a will to win.
God wants us to win, He is our Coach and the Bible is our playbook.
Stop being in the business of settling as a non-competitor. You are a competitor; you are a winner, you are more than a conqueror and if God is for you, who can be against you.
God Wants You To Win, Find The Desire… Be A Winner!
I don’t know the answer really should be a common response that we give if we are challenging ourselves and getting out of our comfort zones. Unfortunately, we don’t often give that response for a few of reasons:
Over the years, I have learned to appreciate the fact that I Don’t Know The Answer. As a matter of fact, not knowing the answer can be a sign of health for a leader and a team.
There is one caveat to the “I Don’t Know The Answer!” response. You must have an appropriate follow-up to that response that sounds something like, “I don’t know the answer, but I can direct you to someone who does.”
Do you know all of the answers? Maybe it’s time you take new risks, charter new territory, break new grounds and not have all the answers.
Do you have a question? I may not know the answer but I can direct you to someone who does.
Sometimes the most brilliant answer that one can have is… ”I Don’t Know The Answer!”
Share your thoughts on peoples unwillingness to say, “I don’t have the answer.”
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