Motivation: When Common Sense is Wrong

Photo by Wally Gobetz

Leadership Lyrics?

Don't look back / A new day is breakin'

Even if you've never heard Boston's classic rock lyrics, you're probably familiar with the popular advice: "Don't look back". Advocates of the "don't look back" philosophy will tell you to keep your eye on the vision, always look forward, forget about the past, etc. etc.

There are times where this is good advice, but...

On the Mountain

I live in the State of Colorado, right on the doorstep of the beautiful Rocky Mountains. I love hiking our majestic peaks, but I'm a big guy and some of these mountains are a real challenge.

Near the top where the air is thin, it might take me an hour or more to cover a mile. At times, everything in me says to give up, to go home...that I made it far enough. But I've found a secret that keeps me going. It's simple and powerful and you can do it.

Turn around and look down the mountain.

The power of the view beneath me is that it shows me what I've done...what I've already proven capable of. If I can get that far...certainly I can make it a little farther!

Sometimes, looking back is exactly what you need to do.

The Power of Looking Back

When you encounter frustrations and periods where you are overwhelmed - those times when you doubt if you'll ever accomplish your vision, I suggest you turn around.

Take some time to look at where you've been - what you have done, how you have grown, positive decisions you've made, and what you have learned.

If you've come this far, I know you can go a little farther.

Moving On

You're not looking back to linger in the past. 

You're looking back to take note of your own strength...to stand a little straighter...to be reminded that you've overcome obstacles.

With this fresh perspective you can look to the future and take one small step.

One step. That's all. So small you can't possibly fail to take it...

Then one more.

Take care,

David M. Dye

If You Would Like to Read More:

You Don't Have to Be a Genius to Motivate Others

Succeed With Your Critics

The Only Way to Grow

One Word to Freedom

Get Out of Your Way

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David shares twenty years experience teaching, coaching, leading, and managing in youth service, education advocacy, city governance, and faith-based nonprofits. He currently serves as Chief Operating Officer for Colorado UpLift and enjoys helping others discover and realize their own potential.

Book Review: Encouraging the Heart

Do you want to build a team with ownership, hope, results, and pride? If so, the subject of today's book review will help!

Encouraging the Heart: a Leader's Guide to Rewarding and Recognizing Others by James Kouzes and Barry Posner is a follow up resource to The Leadership Challenge.

For those familiar with Leadership Challenge, this book, Encourage the Heart, is an expansion on one of their five fundamental leadership practices.

At the core of Kouzes and Posner's leadership framework is the notion of influence founded on credibility. Leaders influence others and a leader's credibility is fundamental to their ability to influence. Leaders can develop their influence through five leadership practices including Modeling the Way, Inspiring a Shared Vision, Enabling Others to Act, Challenging the Process, and the subject of today's book review: Encouraging the Heart.

I appreciate the authors' emphasis on Encouraging the Heart as an aspect of leadership credibility. Leaders have a tremendous opportunity and responsibility - leaders can extend dignity, respect, and worth and genuinely make the world a better place.

Encouraging the Heart challenges leaders to care about their people, while maintaining focus on the team's ultimate objective: results. From the beginning, the authors emphasize that part of truly caring about your people is to set clear standards and expect the best. These are expressions of dignity and worth.

With that foundation, Encouraging the Heart challenges leaders to pay attention, personalize recognition, tell stories about success and values, celebrate together, and to be an example for others to follow.

The authors cover their material with many real life stories that add to the case and leave the reader motivated and ready to engage their team. I appreciate that the book concludes with 150 practical ways to encourage others with a variety of options for each of encouragement practices the authors recommend.

I strongly recommend Encouraging the Heart for leaders who want to grow in their care of people and for those who recognize that encouragement is not their strongest gift. Some people are born encouragers - if you're not one of them, this book is for you!

Happy Reading!

David M. Dye

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David shares twenty years experience teaching, coaching, leading, and managing in youth service, education advocacy, city governance, and faith-based nonprofits. He currently serves as Chief Operating Officer for Colorado UpLift and enjoys helping others discover and realize their own potential.

Are You Throwing Away Influence?

Photo by kanko

Every day aspiring leaders have multiple chances to increase their influence, but these opportunities are often ignored.

These vital missed chances speak volumes about the leader and their sense of entitlement or ignorance of others. It can be an epidemic of lost leadership!

You can reverse the trend and increase your influence if you simply:

Show appreciation.

That's it! Effective leaders understand that no one owes them a thing. Even a parent taking care of their child, while clearly right and moral, is still optional. Leaders consistently take advantage of opportunities to demonstrate their appreciation for others.

People give their best effort when they want to do something. So go ahead - show some appreciation.

• Say thank you. Regularly. Whenever anyone does something for you...can we ever express enough gratitude?

• Celebrate accomplishment. Take time to acknowledge the things you want more of. If someone does an exceptional job, but it doesn't seem to matter to you - you're much less likely to see it again. Even the most internally motivated like to know they've done well.

• Find out how people like to be acknowledged. Some prefer a quiet thank you in private. Others are motivated by public recognition. Still others by an afternoon off, or lunch on you, or a dinner with their spouse. There are many ways to encourage and thank others - just be sure to do it in a way that matters to them.

• Celebrate values. If someone lives out an organizational value - even if the outcome isn't what they hoped - honor them. Tell the story! 

• The five bean technique. This one has been around a long time, but is a great system for developing a personal habit of encouraging others. Place five beans or other small objects in one pocket. Each time you encourage someone for something meaningful, transfer one object to your other pocket. Don't leave for the day until you've got all five objects transferred. Several weeks of this and you'll be a regular encourager!

How do you show appreciation for your team?

For more, read: It Never Gets Old

Thanks for reading,

David M. Dye

If you know someone who would benefit from this post or the entire blog, please retweet, like, share, +1, or email it on. Thanks!

Subscribe today or join the discussion at: http://davidmdye.blogspot.com/
Twitter: @davidmdye
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David shares twenty years experience teaching, coaching, leading, and managing in youth service, education advocacy, city governance, and faith-based nonprofits. He currently serves as Chief Operating Officer for Colorado UpLift and enjoys helping others discover and realize their own potential.

15 Tips Every New Leader Needs

Photo by cobalt123

If you're new to leadership or a veteran looking to build on a strong foundation, here are 15 tips to get you started. Each of these is something I learned early in life and I hope they are helpful to you on your journey!

1. Your first job is to build your replacement

Leaders invest in others. If your goal is to change the world, you simply can't do it on your own. Leaders build leaders. In addition, you cannot assume more responsibility if you're the only one who can do what you're doing.

2. Never believe your own press release

Success can easily turn sour if you start to assume all the good things you hear about yourself or your organization are automatic...that things will go well because they have in the past. Enjoy accolades when they come, but remember the work it took to get there. That work usually takes place where no one sees it.

3. People don't argue with their own information

It is critical to involve stakeholders in problem solving. We are all more likely to implement solutions into which we've had input.

4. All of us are smarter than one of us...(sometimes)

Crowd-sourcing has demonstrated this one in many ways. No one person has all the answers or knows all the facts. I say (sometimes) because crowds can also make pretty dumb decisions. Your job as a leader is to set clear criteria and a vision of what we can accomplish. Leaders help all of us to be smarter than one of us.

5. The greatest are the least

Humility is fundamental to leadership success. Humility can take many forms, but at its core:

humility says "we are both human beings with value"
humility says "I know enough to know I may be wrong"
humility says "I'm here to help"
humility says "Come and do this with me" not "go do this for me".

People intuitively know if you think you are better or more valuable than they are. No one follows that.

6. We, not I

Leaders say "we", not "I". It's not about you, it's about the team.

7. Bring people with you

Once I was leading a group of fifty or sixty people from outside an arena through doors, around the concourse, and down to a bank of seats on the arena floor. We each put a hand on one another's shoulder and I set off. When I got to the chairs, however, only three people had made it with me. I had gone too fast and the entire team did not arrive. I was a great scout that day - I found the chairs. But leaders take people with them.

8. No responsibility without authority

This one I learned very early in life. I was the oldest of six and was asked to make sure the house was clean by the time my father returned home. I was given responsibility...but I was 12 - not a lot of authority there. Effective leaders try only to take responsibility where they also have or can create authority. Likewise, leaders do not give responsibility without also giving authority to go with it.

9. Say Thank You

No one has to do anything for you.

They choose to.

Acknowledge it!

10. Apologize

When you're wrong, own it, apologize, and make it right.

11. Flowers bloom in their own time

As a child I would be so eager for the first spring roses or peonies to bloom that I sometimes "helped" them along. I would pry open the green leaves covering the blossom and try to coax the interior petals into the semblance of a flower.

Of course it ruined the whole thing.

Flowers bloom when they are ready and you cannot force them. People also have natural seasons and you can frustrate or lose good people by moving too quickly. Sometimes you have to go slow to go fast.

12. Honey, not vinegar

An early leader of mine was fond of saying, "you can catch more flies with a teaspoon of honey than a barrel of vinegar". Generally, encouragement and kindness (honey) are more effective leadership tools for drawing people in and helping them to grow. Criticism and anger (vinegar) are effective for tearing something down.

13. Learn everything you can in the time available

You'll never know everything about anything...but effective leaders use the time available to get as much relevant information as they can before making a decision.

14. Protect people's dignity

Extend worth to everyone. Celebrate their contribution to the world. Do not partake with those who detract from another's dignity.

Even in difficult situations such as ending someone's employment, extend dignity. There is never a reason to belittle or make someone feel small. If you do, you will lose credibility as well as lose the person and their network.

15. Stay healthy

Your health - physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and social - is the foundation from which you lead. If you are not leading yourself, you cannot effectively lead others.

Most of these are lifetime practices - some I've made a habit and others I continue to work out each day.

Be patient with yourself and focus on just one thing at a time - don't try to pry open those flower petals!

Take care,

David M. Dye

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David shares twenty years experience teaching, coaching, leading, and managing in youth service, education advocacy, city governance, and faith-based nonprofits. He currently serves as Chief Operating Officer for Colorado UpLift and enjoys helping others discover and realize their own potential.

Get Out of Your Way

Photo by Jeffrey Beall

Secrets. Of. The. Universe.

When I taught high school students, we often talked about "secrets of the universe" - those enduring, but not always well-known, principles of success. You can ignore them if you want, but they're still out there.

One such "secret of the universe" goes something like this:

Causes produce effects. When we focus on effects, rather than causes, we trip ourselves up.

Some examples of this principle include:

• You gain respect by being respectable, not by focusing on others giving you respect. (Cause: being respectable, Effect: respect)
• You become trusted by being trustworthy, not by focusing on wheedling secrets out of others. (Cause: being trustworthy, Effect: trust)
• You pass classes by truly learning the content, not by focusing on grades. (Cause: learning, Effect: grades
• You make friends by being a friend, not by focusing on how many friends you have. (Cause: being a friend, Effect: friends)
• You live by savoring life, not by focusing on being not-dead. (Cause: living, Effect: life)

Effective leaders and managers understand that real influence requires credibility and that real credibility is developed through authentic commitment to people, competence, and results.

Many leaders limit their effectiveness because they focus on the effects of leadership: achievement, influence, reputation, image, power, accomplishment, respect, security, etc.

However, all of these are effects. They are outcomes of an authentic focus on being a role model, sharing vision, building a team, encouraging others, and solving problems. Leaders cannot lead effectively while focused primarily on their own image.

In the short term, authentic leadership can feel risky...when faced with an opportunity to invest in their team or to immediately look good to others, many leaders take the path of immediate gratification. In the long run, however, when the problem is too big they won't be able to rally a skilled and committed team.

This is a basic life lesson, but one it is easy to forget in the middle of leadership and management challenges.

How do you maintain your focus on "causes" and not get caught up in "effects"?

For more on this topic:  It's Not About You

David M. Dye

If you know someone who would benefit from this post or the entire blog, please retweet, like, share, +1, or email it on. Thanks!

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David shares twenty years experience teaching, coaching, leading, and managing in youth service, education advocacy, city governance, and faith-based nonprofits. He currently serves as Chief Operating Officer for Colorado UpLift and enjoys helping others discover and realize their own potential.

Keep It Flowing

Photo by Catherine V

I am writing this sitting beside a Colorado mountain stream. The air is crisp, the water cold and clear, and morning sun shines through the willow and aspen leaves until they almost glow.

Rivers and streams are something of a minor miracle to me. Perhaps it’s because I’m a native of Colorado, an arid state where water is a precious resource and nearly every stream in the state originates high in the Rocky Mountains. What amazes me is how the water keeps flowing. To look at a river is to see millions of individual drops of water that originated in a cloud, or a melting snowfield, or burbled up from some subterranean spring. And these rains, snowfields, and springs happen out of sight, over and over again in sufficient quantity to fill this river. It’s beautiful…and amazing.

I think of motivation like these mountain streams. Effective leaders and managers maintain a flow of motivation and encouragement throughout their teams. If you’re new to these roles, it can sometimes feel like this job is something only you can do, that you’ve got to provide all the positive energy and motivation for your team. But you don’t. That would be like one rain cloud hovering over this river to keep it full of water.

In a healthy team, motivation and encouragement come from every person being empowered to work from a place of personal vision and energy. Water flows because it’s water…and in healthy teams teachers teach, builders build, gardeners tend and cultivate, writers write, nurses care, chefs cook, pilots fly, and so on. Each person can become a source of motivation and encouragement.

Creating these teams is work – the real work of management. Ensure people are aligned with their vision, that they are not unnecessarily burdened with junk that keeps them from being effective, and equip them with skills to communicate, resolve conflict, and be leaders themselves.

How do you keep motivation flowing?

David M. Dye

If you know someone who would benefit from this post or the entire blog, please retweet, like, share, +1, or email it on. Thanks!

Subscribe today or join the discussion at: http://davidmdye.blogspot.com/
Twitter: @davidmdye
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David shares twenty years experience teaching, coaching, leading, and managing in youth service, education advocacy, city governance, and faith-based nonprofits. He currently serves as Chief Operating Officer for Colorado UpLift and enjoys helping others discover and realize their own potential.