Leadership Lessons

Most of us are volunteer leaders, not corporate CEO's with golden parachutes.  We choose to lead families, athletic teams, congregations and businesses.  We volunteer to be good examples, work harder than anyone, invest time and money, show up early & work late.  Are we nuts?!  We should probably all be committed! Are you constantly doing the same things and expecting different results?  Insane! Are you committed to doing things the way you've always done, no matter what?  Senseless! Are you sitting back and resting on past achievements?  Demented! Should your leadership be committed to an institution for being senseless? Maybe it is time for your leadership to be committed. Committed to learning new skills. Committed to developing personal relationships. Committed to controlling time (goodbye Farmville!). Committed to being positive. Committed to stepping up. What kind of committed are you?

A few years ago, I went to California with my parents to celebrate my dad's sister's anniversary.  My dad and his sister had only just met the year before and she had invited us to meet the rest of her family and celebrate her 50th wedding anniversary.  She and her family graciously showed us around the area.  Since it was my first trip to the west coast, we went to Huntington Beach to check out the Pacific Ocean.  We stopped at a beautiful cove where I took off my shoes and waded knee deep into the water. I remember how the waves felt pushing against my legs... I remember how the wet sand squished up between my toes... I remember how the sun sparkled against the waves... I remember watching my shoes go out with the tide... Wait!  No!  My other shoes are at the hotel!  50 miles away!  Although I did manage to grab one of the shoes, it didn't bring much comfort watching the other one drift out to sea, well beyond my reach. Leadership ebbs and flows like those waves.  M

Imagine you are in a sinking boat surrounded by sharks.  How do you survive?  Who do you throw out of the boat? Young or old? Wealthy or poor? Self-taught or educated? Female or male? Newest hire or longest tenured? What value does an individual have?  How do you choose? As a leader, sometimes you need to take a step back and look at the people you lead.  You may need to make choices about where you spend your time and resources.  You may need to ask yourself some critical questions: Did I properly train them?  Did I continue to train as needed?  Am I cause for their success or failure? Are they a diamond in the rough?  Are they lazy or angry?  Are they a genuine superstar?  Do I know them well enough to make that judgment? Why did I choose to lead them in the first place?  What are my leadership goals?  Can I truly lead if I don't have a goal? Am I looking at their value as an individual?  Or only at their value to me? Maybe it's time to see the value of everyone y

What you do is important. If you lead a company, a family, a department, a team, a group of friends or a congregation... What you do is important. What you do is reflected in the group you lead.  Do you lead by example, teach others to be successful, support, encourage and recognize accomplishments?  It's easy to get into a slump.  We can feel unappreciated, our feelings can get hurt, we can come up short on our goals, or life can just happen. What you do is important. How we react in tough situations defines us as leaders.  It shows the world what we're made of.  It's the whole "lemons into lemonade" philosophy.  Sometimes it's the small things.  Calling a team member and congratulating them for their accomplishment even when you've missed your goal.  Reaching out to help someone, even though your finances are tight.  Celebrating an anniversary, even if yours went unnoticed.  Choosing not to be bitter, even though you may have every right to be.  Choo

While taking a couple days in Minneapolis with my husband to celebrate our 26th wedding anniversary, I realized... I love my Garmin!  (Yes, I love my husband, too.)  But my Garmin... knows where I want to go and how to get there from where I am.  And Garmin will even direct me in an Australian accent, if I choose! After we checked in to our hotel, we decided to visit one of my favorite stores in the area (IKEA).  We jumped into the car, told Garmin where we wanted to go, and we were there just a few minutes later.  When we left the store, it occurred to us that we still needed Garmin to get back.  It was only 2 roads and about 10 minutes, but we still needed the directions.  Because we were only interested in getting from point A to point B, we never saw the big picture.  Our attention was only focused on the directions, not the journey.  Where was our destination in relation to other destinations we wanted to choose?  Were they close?  Were they far? In these days of Garmin and Goog

A few years ago, I found myself in front of a 100 or so scrapbookers wearing a coconut bra and a grass skirt.  The "tiki" theme that we had chosen dictated the need for my costume.  The fun part was that everyone in the room knew that when I hit the stage in my crazy outfit, someone was going to win a prize! Shouldn't a leader be above dressing silly at a big event?  Never!  Would it help if I mentioned that I did have a t-shirt on under the coconut bra?  And that we all wore Hawaiian shirts the rest of the time?  Or that I've worn a Santa hat, light up necklace, blue hair, pink bowling shirt with matching glow-in-the-dark bowling shoes for other events? So why did I go the extra mile?  Did I have to wear a coconut bra and a grass skirt to give away prizes? No. But did it add to the excitement and the atmosphere? Yes.  It brought a sense of fun to the event and unity among the team.  A large event is a huge undertaking.  Having everyone on board keeps the whole team

It seems that the one thing that you can count is change.  Change for the better, change for the worse, but change none the less.  Change is inevitable.  We all have our own ways of dealing (or not dealing) with change. "When the winds of change blow, some people build walls and others build windmills." (Chinese proverb) Those that build walls tend to view change as happening to them, a victim mentality that causes many to turn bitter.  Others look at change as a force to be harnassed.  A chance to build and grow, a chance for things to be better. There is such a small difference between "bitter" and "better".  It's "I".  I choose my outlook.  I choose my action and reaction.  I choose whether I put the covers over my head or get up and greet the day to see what great possibilities are blowing in. Put your finger in the air.  Which way is your wind blowing today?

Last week, I attended my first auction with my daughter, Kate.  We started the day at the address listed in the paper.  No one was there.  We drove to the auction house.  No one was there.  We called the number on the sign at the auction house.  Disconnected.  We called the auctioneer's number listed in the paper.  No answer.  We called the second number.  He answered!  The auction had been moved to an old store front across town due to the forecast of rain.  Once we finally found it (after a couple wrong turns), we signed up for a number to bid.  The next step was to observe the process.  This was not like the civilized auctions you see on television.  This appeared to be a free-for-all where you followed the auctioneer, placed bids where you had your choice of several items and you could choose multiples!  We were confused for quite some time.  And there were several items that I would have liked that went for crazy prices.  After we thought we had the hang of things, we decided

"There is no 'save the date' card that a crisis is coming.  Be prepared."  Dave Beroth As leaders, we often work, work, work and get caught in day to day activities.  We're rolling along and then wham! crisis.  Crisis looks different for each of us.  Crisis can be personal (birth of a child, death of a family member, change in health, major move, divorce...).  Crisis can be in our leadership (standard operating procedures change, the market takes a dive, followers stop following, our title changes...). All of these things affect our outlook.  Situations become magnified.  We start to be reactive instead of proactive.  We can lose our way. Crisis is inevitable.  It's not a matter of "if", but "when".  As leaders, we need to be extra prepared.  How we handle adverse situations will set a tone and an example to those who look to us for guidance.  If we fall apart, get angry, are constantly on edge, have a bad attitude or quit, those around

Do you suffer from the agonizing effects of ADOS?  Do you set goals, or make a list of "to do's" and never seem to complete them?  Do you ever lie in bed thinking, "there are just not enough hours in the day"?  You may be suffering the harmful effects of ADOS - Attention Deficit... Oooh... Shiny! Now, I am all for a business with flexibility.  The hard part is keeping the "business" in with the flexibility.  So many of us need to accomodate the schedules of others that sometimes we forget that our priorities are important , too.  Keeping schedules, priorities & goals requires discipline. Do you remember when you were young and all you wanted was a particular toy or your first car... and your parents told you that you had to save your money to buy it?  It was all you could think about and all of your money was stashed away for the day when you finally had enough to go buy it?  Discipline seemed simple- you knew what you wanted, and what it took to

In my business, I often hear people refer to themselves as a "consultant for life".  They are committed to meeting minimum requirements to retain this title.  Unfortunately, I have never heard someone refer to themselves as a "leader for life".  Why is that?  Are leader requirements that much greater?  Hmmm...  They do require a more consistent personal business.  They do require consistently training, supporting, recognizing and reaching out to others. Why don't people see themselves as a "leader for life"? It kind of depends on whether you see "leader" as a noun (title) or verb (action). Leadership is a choice.  It doesn't just happen to you.  Some people look to leadership for the short term rewards, so when some bumps in the road happen, they're done.  Sometimes leaders fall back into their comfort zones and keep their title only if it's easy enough.  These are the noun leaders. The verb leaders work through change or adve

While flipping through some late night television, I came across "Clean House: Search for the Messiest House in the Country 4".  Now, without getting into a rant about how people could let their house get so full of "stuff" (let alone letting it be broadcast to the world), I want to touch on one of their underlying issues.  The dad traveled a lot with his job, and every time he came back, he brought his family gifts to show them that he loved them and thought of them often when he was away.  These gifts were contributing to a huge clutter problem and many gifts had never even been opened.  The family was disconnected, because the wife and children really just wanted to spend time with the dad, who had to keep working more to buy more gifts... do you see the problem? This whole situation took me back to a book I read many years ago, "The 5 Love Languages" by Dr. Gary Chapman.  According to Chapman, the 5 are: Acts of Service, Words of Affirmation, Quality