Leadership Gold

Lessons Learned from a

Lifetime of Leadership

Leadership Gold

Leadership Gold

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Document Revision

Revision Date 2/7/2015

Table of Contents Leadership Gold 3

Lessons from a Lifetime of Leadership 3

The Best Leaders are Listeners 4

Keep your Mind on the Main Thing 8

Keep Learning to keep Leading 11

Be a Connector not just a Climber 14

The Library Effect 17

Influencing Communication Styles 17

Leadership Gold

Leadership Gold

Lessons from a Lifetime of Leadership

Leadership Gold

Leadership Gold

The Best Leaders are Listeners

Understanding people precedes leading them. Sensitivity toward the desires and dreams of the people on your team is essential for connecting with and motivating them. Leaders learn to touch a heart before they ask for a hand.

Have you ever had your ideas ignored or had your input fall upon deaf ears? If so, how did you feel as a result? What are the common barriers that prevent us from paying attention to what someone else is saying?

Leadership Gold

Leadership Gold

The Best Leaders are Listeners

Steven Sample, in his book The Contrarian’s Guide to Leadership writes, “The average person suFers from three delusions: 1. That he is a good driver 2. That he has a good sense of humor 3. That he is a good listener.”

We can often hear what is said without listening to what is being communicated.

Leadership Gold

Leadership Gold

The Best Leaders are Listeners

It is no accident that we have one mouth and two ears. When we fail to listen we shut off half of our learning potential.

The higher people go in leadership, the more authority they wield and the less they are forced to listen to others. However, their need to listen increase more than ever. The farther leaders get from the front lines, the more they must depend on others for accurate information.

Leadership Gold

Leadership Gold

The Best Leaders are Listeners

Understanding people precedes leading them. Sensitivity toward the desires and dreams of the people on your team is essential for connecting with and motivating them. Leaders learn to touch a heart before they ask for a hand.

Leadership Gold

Leadership Gold

Keep your Mind on the Main Thing

Simplicity and focus bring about results. In fact, twenty percent of your efforts generally yield eighty percent of your productivity. Be diligent about reducing complexity and zeroing in on objectives. Give your time, thought, and energy to a few priorities instead of trying to be the best at everything you do.

Do you control your schedule or does your schedule control you? How might you eliminate activities that detract focus from your main goals? What causes leaders to split their focus and lose track of the main thing?

Leadership Gold

Leadership Gold

Keep your Mind on the Main Thing

The Pareto Principle (80/20) What an eye opener this was for me. I realized it meant that the most productive

20 percent of my activities were sixteen times more productive than the remaining 80 percent. If I wanted to decrease the complexity of my life and increase my productivity, then I needed to focus on my top 20 percent. That day in the classroom I realized two things:

(1) I was doing too many things, and (2) the things I was doing were often the wrong

things. And that is a recipe for an ineffective life.

Five Decisions that Helped Me Become More Focused and Productive

1. Some people believe that great leaders have all the answers. Not true. Successful leaders don’t know everything. But they know people who do.

Leadership Gold

Leadership Gold

Keep your Mind on the Main Thing

2. In any organization, problems should always be solved at the lowest level possible. If every problem must be shared with leaders first, then solutions take forever. Besides, the people on the front lines are usually the ones who provide the best solutions, whether it’s on the production line, the battle line or the breadline.

3. The decision to let others represent you requires much time and trust. It should not be given lightly. The person in whom you place that trust must earn it. However, once you reach that level of trust with people you work with, you will be freed up even more to remain focused on the main things that really matter.

4. I read in the Gallup Management Journal, “The most revealing discovery [about the great leaders they studied] was that effective leaders have an acute sense of their own strengths and weakness. They know who they are—and who they are not…”

5. The final major step I took to help me keep my mind on the main thing was to take control my calendar. This was not easy for me. I enjoy helping people, and for the first few years of my career, other people often set my agenda and filled my calendar. Then one day I realized that I couldn’t fulfil my purpose if I was forever fulfilling everyone else’s.

Leadership Gold

Leadership Gold

Keep Learning to keep Leading

The secret to success is found in your daily agenda. If you do something intentional to grow every day, you will move closer to reaching your potential. To be a lifelong learner, get out of a stagnant environment and distance yourself from people with no desire to grow. Seek places where growth is valued and surround yourself with learners.

Name me one single great leader who doesn’t have a growth plan?

Just one.

Leadership Gold

Leadership Gold

Keep Learning to keep Leading

What regular habits have contributed the most to your professional growth?

Who has taught you the most about influence? Why did you learn so much from them?

Leadership Gold

Leadership Gold

Keep Learning to keep Leading

Do you seek to challenge yourself and get out of your comfort zone?

Do you feel that you have to have all the answers? I know I do at times. And sometimes, I think my wife thinks I must be omnipotent.

Leadership Gold

Leadership Gold

Be a Connector not just a Climber

Connectors prioritize the influence of relationships above the authority of a position. They temper their competitiveness so that their ambition doesn’t crowd out relationships. It’s natural for leaders to want to climb to ladder of success, but unless they make friends along the way, they’ll end up lonely at the top.

I thought my leadership title made me a leader. I thought climbing the leadership ladder was more important than connecting with people

Leadership Gold

Leadership Gold

Be a Connector not just a Climber

Climbing and Connecting are not an either/or but a both/and. Which comes more naturally to you: the drive for achievement or the desire for relationships? If you’re an achiever, how could you be more intentional about connecting with others? If relationships come naturally to you, how could you ramp up your productivity on the job?

Leadership Gold

Leadership Gold

Be a Connector not just a Climber

Do you find that you can’t mix business and personal?

Leadership Gold

The Library Effect

Influencing Communication Styles

Leadership Gold

The Library Effect

Influencing Communication Styles

Leadership Gold

The Library Effect

Influencing Communication Styles