All posts by MYORBITX

Leadership

Conflict, Leadership And The Leadership Talk

Conflict comes with leadership as the sparks fly upward. If you don’t want to deal with conflict, leadership is not your thing.

Being a leader is not about IF you will tackle conflict but HOW. In fact, no other ability (other than being able to get results) so shapes people’s careers as the ability to deal with conflict.

Conflict and leadership go hand-in-hand because leadership involves challenging people often to do what they don’t want to do. If people did what they wanted, leaders wouldn’t be necessary. Great results don’t drop like manna from heaven. Achieving them involves people having to get out of their comfort zones, make troublesome decisions, and engage in disconcerting new actions. Leadership helps guide and motivate people to do those things.

There are countless books, articles, etc. devoted to conflict resolution. But let me give you one tool that I’ve been teaching leaders of all ranks and functions worldwide for more than 22 years. It’s the Leadership Talk.

Because the Leadership Talk is results-oriented and deals with fundamental human dynamics, it can be an unmatched way to help you deal with the inevitable conflicts you’ll face.

(The many books and many other articles I’ve written on the Leadership Talk can be seen on my website.)

Here are the three essentials you must adhere to in dealing with conflicts and how the Leadership Talk can help you manifest those essentials.

1. Establish a deep, human, emotional connection with the people you’re dealing with. When in conflict, keep in mind that the message is not just the message, the message is the messenger. HOW you deal with conflict and WHO you are in dealing with the conflict are as important, if not more, than WHAT the conflict is. Abraham Lincoln explained the importance of HOW and WHO: “If you would win a man to your cause, first convince him that you are his sincere friend … Assume to dictate to his judgment, or to command his action, or to mark him as one to be shunned and despised, and he will retreat within himself, close all the avenues to his head and his heart; and tho’ your cause be naked truth itself … you shall no more be able to reach him than to penetrate the hard shell of the tortoise with a rye straw.”

The Leadership Talk helps you deal with not only the WHAT of the conflict but also the HOW. It is a clear, practical pathway to winning the hearts of the people you are in conflict with simply because its driving principle is Lincoln’s imperative of convincing the other side of your good will and sincerity.

2. Be guided by and empowered through process. It’s important for your career to have a simple, clear conflict-resolution process to guide your thoughts, speech, and actions. You may not follow it exactly in every case, but it can help you better deal with the countless varieties of conflicts that you’ll come to face.

The Leadership Talk is a powerful conflict resolution process because it engages the human aspects in practical, structured ways. For instance, one of its processes it called the Three-trigger Motivational Process. When you face conflict, you should ask three questions. If you say “no” to your answer to any one of those questions, you can’t give a Leadership Talk. The questions are: 1. Do you know what the audience needs? 2. Can you bring deep belief to what you’re saying? 3. Can you have the audience take action?

3. Stay focused on results. Since leaders do nothing more important than get results, the fruits of how we deal with conflict should be evaluated by whether we are obstructing or promoting results.

In leadership, it’s not enough to resolve conflicts, we must also in the process achieve increases in results. Forget about trying to achieve “win/win.” That can be a tender trap. In fact, in many cases, a win/win objective might impede results by keeping people from going to the next step, the results-generating step.

The Leadership Talk sees conflicts you are engaged in terms not simply of conflict resolution but results generation. Furthermore, its focus is not just about achieving ordinary results but more results, faster results on a continual basis.

Since conflict will always be with you as a leader, you should welcome it as an opportunity to get increases in results. When you’re using Leadership Talks, you’ll find yourself getting those results consistently.

2006 © The Filson Leadership Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

PERMISSION TO REPUBLISH: This article may be republished in newsletters and on web sites provided attribution is provided to the author, and it appears with the included copyright, resource box and live web site link. Email notice of intent to publish is appreciated but not required: mail to: brent@actionleadership.com

The author of 23 books, Brent Filson’s recent books are, THE LEADERSHIP TALK: THE GREATEST LEADERSHIP TOOL and 101 WAYS TO GIVE GREAT LEADERSHIP TALKS. He is founder and president of The Filson Leadership Group, Inc. – and for more than 21 years has been helping leaders of top companies worldwide get audacious results. Sign up for his free leadership e-zine and get a free white paper: “49 Ways To Turn Action Into Results,” at http://www.actionleadership.com For more about the Leadership Talk: [http://www.theleadershiptalk.com]

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Brent_Filson/1911

 

Leadership

Developing A Leadership Culture

Once you move beyond the hype, why is leadership so important? Effective leadership is the differentiating factor between average and great companies. Why? Because most companies are so focused externally on products and customers, they simply do not focus on developing leadership qualities within their own staff. Great companies that develop a strong leadership culture from the board room to the boiler room realize a sustainable competitive advantage.

The phrase “be a leader’ has become cliché and truly mythical in nature. There are countless books to tell you how famous people successfully led and give you tips to lead in the same way. Authors and publishers sell millions of books, tapes, and CDs every year but do little to help anyone actually lead. The inability to successfully convey conceptual leadership ideas and put them into practice is the crux of the problem with today’s how-to leadership books.

In a society where image is everything, we tend to apply the leadership tag only to those individuals who are dynamic communicators, great motivators, and have the gift of persuasion. We automatically assume that individuals with a skill that we admire are great leaders.

How many times do we assume that just because a 19 year-old-college athlete has a deadly three-point shot that he is by default a great leader? We often assume a player lacks leadership ability when he does not have an outspoken personality. When players of this type are interviewed about their leadership for the team they always reply, “I lead by example.” The reality is that every team needs at least one outspoken leader to motivate and rally the team. However, every player on the team should lead by example within their role. A team with average talent will often beat a team with superior talent when everyone utilizes their innate leadership ability in combination with their skills. Teams with strong top to bottom leadership are unselfish, communicate better, and will always put team goals ahead of their own agenda. The key is both basketball and leadership skills must be developed.

The same holds true in business organizations. We find a super worker that does his job exceedingly well and then assume he can become the outspoken super-visor or super-manager. The super worker is promoted and is placed in a sink or swim leadership position without anyone really knowing if he can even float. Some people are gifted to lead by leading others while others are gifted to only lead themselves. Both types of leaders influence and impact those around them but in different ways. Every organization should develop a strong blend of both.

The capacity for leadership exists in everyone, but most people never take the time to develop it. Leadership is determination, courage, confidence, and the ability to get results.

Positive leadership assumes that goals can be accomplished, the job can be done, the problem can be solved, and the obstacles will be overcome. A leader creates his future and drives the future success of the organization. The return on investment in productivity and profitability by developing your staff’s potential could be incredible. When employees consider themselves leaders, they exhibit a positive attitude, take ownership, and accept accountability for their decisions and actions.

Developing a leadership culture where everyone is expected to be a leader in whatever position they hold will improve decision making and communication, increase profitability, lower absenteeism, and enhance customer service.

Decision making and communication are improved when everyone works together with the common goal of helping the organization reach its strategic goals. Absenteeism and turnover are minimized when employees feel a sense of ownership and self-fulfillment.

Profitability is maximized when management and staff work together with the single objective of making the organization a success. Customers hear, see, and feel the commitment and enthusiasm whenever they come in contact with your staff.

Leadership is interwoven into the fabric of an organization and affects everything a company does and the decisions it makes. Just as effective leadership will lift an organization to the next level, ineffective or poor leadership will cause an organization to under-perform and be ineffective. That is why leadership within an organization is truly cultural and not a fad or program of the month.

Imagine a dynamic, energetic, flexible organization that strives for continuous improvement. Imagine a staff where everyone cares and takes as much ownership in the success of the company as the executive leadership team.

A leadership culture does not happen by accident, and it certainly is not developed overnight. Otherwise, someone would have written a book to tell you how to create a leadership culture in three easy steps. A leadership culture is built over time with a strong senior management commitment to developing the potential of its management and staff.

A leadership culture where everyone from the board room to the boiler room leads will differentiate and set your company apart from the competition providing competitive advantages that lead to long-term profitability.

Mike founded TouchPoint Advantage [http://www.touchpointadvantage.com] in late 2005. TouchPoint Advantages works with businesses to help them think and plan strategically and individuals to help them achieve their dreams by maximizing their potential.

Organizations find their unique competitive advantage and individuals take their career and their life to the next level. We help both make their vision and dreams a reality.

Mike is an active public speaker and writer on leadership and related topics.

[http://www.touchpointadvantage.com]

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/R._Mike_Booth/28004

 

Leadership

The Quakers, A Sword, And The Leadership Talk

William Penn (1644-1718),founder of what would become the state of Pennsylvania, was on the receiving end of a succinct Leadership Talk that still reverberates down the centuries and into your everyday leadership challenges.

In his youth, Penn became an ardent Quaker. When he asked George Fox (1624-1691), the founder of the non-violent religious sect, if he should continue to wear a sword, a standard part of the dress of Penn’s aristocratic class, Fox replied, “Wear it as long as thou canst.”

Fox’s reply not only illustrates a principle of Quakerism but also a principle underpinning a leadership process I have been teaching to thousands of leaders worldwide during the past 21 years: the Leadership Talk.

Get the Leadership Talk right, and it can boost your job performance and career in many ways. But you can’t get the Leadership Talk right unless you understand this principle.

What is a Leadership Talk? You can understand it by first understanding “the hierarchy of verbal persuasion.” The lowest levels of the hierarchy are speeches and presentations. They are methods for communicating information. The highest level, the most effective way for a leader to communicate, is through the Leadership Talk. The Leadership Talk not only communicates information; it does something much more: it helps the leader establish deep, human, emotional connections with the people they’re talking to, enabling them to be much more effective.

As to the principle: it goes right to the heart of Fox’s reply to Penn. Fox ardently believed that every human has an “inner light and spirit.” The Quakers were guided by that light which they believed came directly from God. They refused to bow to authority and endorsed pacifism. Implicit in Fox’s reply was that it was Penn’s choice, not any mandate from Fox or anyone else, that governed the situation.

The Leadership Talk recognizes that leaders do nothing more important than get results; and the best results happen not when leaders are ordering people to go from point A to point B, say, but when they are having them want to go from A to B. Instill “want to” in others is what the Leadership Talk does. That “want to” cannot be mandated; it is the free choice of the people. In other words, great results happen in the realm of free choice of the people you lead.

The Leadership Talk creates an environment conducive to people exercising free choice. In order to create this environment, you must first ask three questions about the people you’ll speak to.

(1) Do you know the needs of the people? (2) Can you bring deep belief to what you’re saying to them? (3) Can you have the people take action?

If you say “no” to any one of these questions, you can’t give a Leadership Talk.

Asking and answering these questions many times daily throughout your career with people of all ranks and functions will help you create a fortunate environment of free choice leading to great results.

Let’s see how these questions played out with Fox and Penn.

DO YOU KNOW THE NEEDS OF YOUR AUDIENCE? Fox’s reply went to the heart of Penn’s needs. Penn was the scion of an aristocratic family who in his youth had powerful religious experiences. Penn’s needs were clear: He wanted to live by the imperatives of those experiences, which were deeply and personally felt. Fox’s spiritual revelations, to use a Quaker saying, “spoke to his condition.”

CAN YOU BRING DEEP CONVICTION TO WHAT YOU’RE SAYING? George Fox certainly spoke with conviction. Penn described Fox in his journal as “…. plain and powerful in preaching, fervent in prayer … a discerner of other men’s spirits, and very much master of his own.” He added that Fox was able to “speak a word in due season to the conditions and capacities of most, especially to them that were weary, and wanted soul’s rest …. valiant in asserting the truth, bold in defending it ….” The two met when Fox was being jailed frequently for his beliefs. Coming from a man holding such deep convictions and being repeatedly jailed defending them, the words “Wear it while thou canst” deeply impressed William Penn.

CAN YOU HAVE THE AUDIENCE TAKE ACTION? The next time Penn saw Fox, he was not wearing his sword. He said, “I wore it as long as I could.” He would never wear a sword again. After he joined the outlawed and persecuted Quakers, he was exiled from English society, thrown out of Oxford University, and arrested several times. Yet he never wavered from promoting and living by the Quaker ideals. That action, NOT putting on his sword (sometimes the best action is no action) when all of social convention cried out that he should, was made all the more notable and instructive because it came from his own deeply-felt urging.

Mind you, don’t mistake the Leadership Talk principle of free choice as some psychological delicacy. I’m talking results here. Leadership is all about getting results. The principle does and should have practical functions. The point is those functions are best manifested in environments of deep, human, emotional relationships. Such relationships can most effectively be established by your being open to and trusting in the choices people make. Guided by the principle of “Wear it as long as thou canst”, you can markedly improve your leadership effectiveness.

2006 © The Filson Leadership Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

The author of 23 books, Brent Filson’s recent books are, THE LEADERSHIP TALK: THE GREATEST LEADERSHIP TOOL and 101 WAYS TO GIVE GREAT LEADERSHIP TALKS. He is founder and president of The Filson Leadership Group, Inc. – and for more than 21 years has been helping leaders of top companies worldwide get audacious results. Sign up for his free leadership e-zine and get a free white paper: “49 Ways To Turn Action Into Results,” at http://www.actionleadership.com. More about the Leadership Talk: [http://www.theleadershiptalk.com]

PERMISSION TO REPUBLISH: This article may be republished in newsletters and on web sites provided attribution is provided to the author, and it appears with the included copyright, resource box and live web site link. Email notice of intent to publish is appreciated but not required: mail to: [brent@actionleadership.com]/>

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Brent_Filson/1911

 

Leadership

Unlocking Organizational Value Through Leadership

For more than two decades, in many ways, in many forums, with thousands of leaders, I’ve taught that organizational results are limitless.

Those leaders who don’t understand this don’t understand the soul of leadership. When I say “soul”, I don’t mean it in a religious sense, but in a human sense, and not as a static entity but as a fundamental process that manifests the value inherent in all organizations. The soul of leadership is that which triggers and guides the best organizational activities to achieve the best results.

However, there is another soul at work here. It is the leadership soul of the individual leader. Again, I am not using the word in a religious sense but in a human sense, and as a fundamental process that manifests the human value inherent in each individual leader.

The leadership soul of the leader is that inner strength and commitment an individual draws on in order to carry out the activities of the soul of leadership.

Mind you, I am not counting angels on the head of a pin. The difference between the soul of leadership and the leadership soul of the individual leader is not a philosophical fine distinction. The difference may not be readily apparent, but it is manifest, and it is decisive. It’s a difference most leaders and their organizations are not aware of — to their detriment.

The soul of leadership looks outward, the leadership soul of the individual looks inward. Working in tandem, both outer and inner directed activities can notably increase the effectiveness of your leadership. When both the soul of leadership and the leadership soul unite, great things can happen.

That’s where limitless results come in. Most organizations have far more value locked up than their leaders realize. Those organizations consistently fail to tap the deep reservoirs of their members motivation, talent and skills. After all, most members of most organizations want to do well. In fact, in each organization, the members, naturally and collectively, represent an on-rushing current of ardent commitment to succeed. However, through misguided leadership, leadership that is tyrannical and micro-managing, leadership that coerces rather than motivates, that current can be blocked, impeding results.

The blockage occurs when leaders focus exclusively on ordering the establishment of surface drivers such as sales and marketing activities, logistical dynamics, organizational strategies and tactics, financial strategies and tactics, human resource undertakings, and the like — what business schools teach.

Clearly, the surface drivers are necessary in realizing the value an organization possesses, but they’re not sufficient. In focusing exclusively on the above drivers, leaders often neglect the deepest and most important realm of all, the realm which largely determines the success or failure of the organization, the realm of human relationships — what business schools don’t teach.

For example, I’m sure you’ve heard of the classic case of the railroads of the mid-20th century neglecting to understand they were in the transportation business and losing out to airlines in the passenger market. Railroad leaders did a fair to middling job of dealing with sales, logistics, administration, etc. But their hierarchical, top-down management structures and culture that viewed their employees much like rail cars to be pushed and pulled here and there, probably prevented them tapping into the immense collective value of those employees. If the employees had been empowered, motivated and unleashed, they would have brought a richer vision of market dynamics to railroads that could have forestalled their decline.

On the other hand, I know of a company that has consistently tapped into the strengths of its employees. In the 1930s, they were in the tea bag business. However, they didn’t see themselves in the tea bag business but in the materials’ business. As markets kept changing, their offerings kept changing and today, their tea bag paper products have morphed into hi-tech thermoplastics. They couldn’t have done it without tapping into the value of their employees.

There are many ways to unlock value in an organization. Those are not the purview of this article. The main point I’m making is about the leadership soul of the leader and unlocking its value.
Just as the results-potential of organizations are limitless, so the interior of each leader is a limitless world of value.

To unlock the value within an organization, leaders must unlock the leadership value within themselves.

What is this leadership value? It is the value you have simply being a human being. All human beings have a powerful capacity for transformation because they possess an innate capacity to direct a strong sense of determination and action in whatever direction they choose.

Furthermore, humans also have an powerful capacity to form and manifest deep, transforming relationships. And it is in the on-going transforming of relationships that you find and unlock the leadership value within yourself.

How do you unlock the value inherent in your organization and in yourself? Fortunately, there is a simple, powerful tool to do that. I call it the Leadership Imperative: “I will lead people in such a way that we not only get results but grow as leaders and human beings.”

Make this principle live in your daily actions, and you’ll be unlocking and unleashing great organizational value — as well as great value in your career and your life.

2006 © The Filson Leadership Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

PERMISSION TO REPUBLISH: This article may be republished in newsletters and on web sites provided attribution is provided to the author, and it appears with the included copyright, resource box and live web site link. Email notice of intent to publish is appreciated but not required: mail to: brent@actionleadership.com

The author of 23 books, Brent Filson’s recent books are, THE LEADERSHIP TALK: THE GREATEST LEADERSHIP TOOL and 101 WAYS TO GIVE GREAT LEADERSHIP TALKS. He is founder and president of The Filson Leadership Group, Inc. – and for more than 21 years has been helping leaders of top companies worldwide get audacious results. Sign up for his free leadership e-zine and get a free white paper: “49 Ways To Turn Action Into Results,” at http://www.actionleadership.com

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Brent_Filson/1911

 

Leadership

Making Your Leadership Your Life

Companies facing global competition are expecting more from all employees, more initiative, more innovation and more results.

Critical to meeting these expectations is leadership. The word “leadership” comes from a old Norse word meaning “to make go.” Leadership is needed in organizations to make things go, to muster and coordinate direction, ardent commitment and resource alignment.

Working with thousands of leaders of all ranks and functions during the past 21 years, I’ve seen that most leaders deem leadership as exclusively an on-the-job dynamic. They don’t see it as a life dynamic.

Companies seeking more from their employees must promote leadership that delivers more, and that leadership can only deliver more if it is effective both on and off the job.

If you don’t make your leadership your life and your life your leadership, you diminish both your leadership and your life.

The reasons are simple. The best leaders establish a deep, human, emotional connection with the audience. Why is that necessary to achieve organizational results? Leadership isn’t about getting people to do what they want to do. If people simply had to do what they wanted to do, leaders wouldn’t be needed. Instead, leadership is about getting people to do what they don’t want to do and be totally committed to doing it. These people have a good chance of achieving a lot more results, achieving those results faster, and achieving “more, faster” on a continual basis. One may tyrannically order people to get results, but the effectiveness of such leadership is not as consistent nor as substantial as having people make the free choice to get results. And people will make that free choice mainly in an environment in which deep, human, emotional relationships are developed.

Look at the leaders in your life. I’m sure you’ve been at the receiving end of both the tyrants and those with whom you’ve had deeply beneficial relationships with. Weren’t you more likely to go all out for those leaders who promoted an environment in which those better relationships flourished?

Clearly, that’s an environment one should seek to establish in one’s life as well. The relationships you develop as a leader can be similar to the relationships you should develop in your life outside your job. In my many seminars on the Leadership Talk, I have seen people use my processes outside their job, with their spouses, friends, and children, etc.

There are many values that should be promoted in our lives: trust, honesty, integrity, coming through on commitments, fairness, tenacity, tolerance, and more. Let’s “trust” as one example.

I believe we should live a life of trusting others. I call it “living in trust.” Of course, trust can be taken too far, and we may open ourselves up to be deceived and betrayed. My wife says I often trust others too much; and certainly I have paid in many ways over my life for such a propensity. But I believe that even though we may be deceived if we trust too much; we will nevertheless suffer more if we don’t trust enough.

Living in trust means extending trust without conditions until that trust is clearly betrayed. And then, depending on the circumstances, we may continue to extend trust even if it is betrayed. For when it is betrayed, we may not necessarily be the poorer for it. We may indeed be the richer; for without trust, we cannot establish deep relationships.

My view of trust in life can be extended to leadership. Leadership is about getting continual increases in great results. To do that, leaders must engender trust in the people they lead. In fact, great results can’t accrue without strong bonds of trust established between the leader and the people.

I’ve often said that it is better for a leader to have bought the Brooklyn Bridge for a nickel rather than to have sold it for one. People will not be led by you to do extraordinary things unless they trust you; but they won’t trust you unless they know you are taking the risk to trust them. In fact, many organizations get into trouble when the people don’t trust or stop trusting their leaders; and when their leaders stop trusting them.

So, trust operates both in our lives and on our jobs as leaders and must be cultivated both on and off the job.

There are many other values that should be manifested in both the life one leads and the leadership one manifests. The point is that when you make sure the leadership traits you carry out on the job are the very traits you live by in your life, you enhance the quality of your leadership and your life.

2006 © The Filson Leadership Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

PERMISSION TO REPUBLISH: This article may be republished in newsletters and on web sites provided attribution is provided to the author, and it appears with the included copyright, resource box and live web site link. Email notice of intent to publish is appreciated but not required: mail to: brent@actionleadership.com

The author of 23 books, Brent Filson’s recent books are, THE LEADERSHIP TALK: THE GREATEST LEADERSHIP TOOL and 101 WAYS TO GIVE GREAT LEADERSHIP TALKS. He is founder and president of The Filson Leadership Group, Inc. – and for more than 20 years has been helping leaders of top companies worldwide get audacious results. Sign up for his free leadership e-zine and get a free white paper: “49 Ways To Turn Action Into Results,” at http://www.actionleadership.com For more on the Leadership Talk: [http://www.theleadershiptalk.com]

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Brent_Filson/1911