Five Leadership Gifts from 2011

Photo by Mrskyce

In the spirit of the season, here are five posts from 2011 which I believe you will find helpful.

1. Prepare Today

This powerful guest post from Wally Bock is poignant on two different levels. First, it is a guest post for leadership blogger Dan Rockwell who recently suffered a terrible accident and now faces a lengthy recovery. Second, it features the story of Bishop Hanns Lilje, a man imprisoned in World War II Nazi prison camps. He is quoted in the post: "“When they knock on your door, it’s too late to prepare.”

2. Our Deepest Craving

I frequently write about how important it is for leaders to demonstrate gratitude and appreciation. Kevin Eikenberry offers a strong message in this vein, beginning with a quote from William James: "The deepest principle of human nature is the craving to be appreciated."

3. Ten Time Management Tips

This post from Gayle Thorson is oriented toward busy nonprofit communicators, but the advice is straightforward and helpful for any developing leader.

4. The Top Ten Lies Leaders Believe

Earlier in the year before his injury, Dan Rockwell posted this excellent list of traps leaders can easily fall into.

5. The Science of Creating the Perfect Mentor: An 8-Step Process

Scott Dinsmore of Live Your Legend emphasizes the importance of mentors in your leadership journey. I appreciate this post because it reinforces how to find the right people to help you and how you can care for them in turn.

I hope you enjoy these posts and benefit from them as much as I have!

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.

Stop Leading in Circles!

Photo by Rogiro

Do any of these situations sound familiar?

• You deal with the same problem over and over.
• It's been a long time since you saw any real team progress toward results.
• You feel stuck.
• For a while now, when you talk with your support network, you just end up shrugging your shoulders in frustration.

If any of these resonate, I would encourage you to do just one thing:

Begin looking for a leader who has succeeded in doing what it is you are trying to do. When you find them, offer to buy them lunch, build a relationship, and learn from them.

I've worked with many emerging leaders who either try to do everything on their own, without advice or wisdom from others, or who exclusively get advice from people who are just as stuck as they are. It takes  humility to admit to ourselves and to someone else that we don't know how to do something.

But it's essential.

Effective leaders and managers consistently find mentors or coaches who are farther along the journey and who have demonstrated ability.

If you're stuck "leading in circles", get help! You have amazing resources at your fingertips (remember to look for demonstrated ability!):

• Your own leaders and managers.
• People in other departments / teams in your own organization - stay positive and solution-focused.
• People in your industry.
• People outside your industry with similar responsibilities.
• While you're looking, use other learning resources including books, articles, and blogs.
• Professional coaches. Whether face to face or online, look for demonstrated ability - not just opinions. 
• I am also available to help - let me know if you would like to talk! 

Wherever you go to learn, make the effort to break the circle. Remember Einstein's definition of insanity: "Doing the same thing, over and over again, but expecting different results."

Good luck!

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
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/davidmdye
****
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.

Nine Ways to Access the World's Best Leadership Resource!

Photo by Tela Chhe

Many emerging leaders and managers don't take advantage of one of their best, most effective, and readily available learning resources. Lacking this resource, many never will increase their influence.

Recently, I posted about the vital role a focus on results plays in effective teams. Staying focused on results requires leaders and managers to regularly evaluate both the environment (external conditions) and processes (internal conditions) impacting their teams. This learning is a key responsibility of leaders and managers.

You may have heard the old saying that "leaders are learners". I might modify it slightly in keeping with the theme of this blog: Effective leaders and managers incorporate learning into everything they do.

Even so, ongoing learning is a challenge for many of us. If it is not given regular attention, learning easily takes a back seat to today's urgent issues. It is easy, and sometimes accurate, to claim as so many do - "I don't have time to read or take a class."

I suggest that one way to overcome these obstacles is take advantage of the most effective textbook or classroom you will ever have. The good news is that you have complete and ready access to this resource. This amazing resource?

You.

Or more specifically, your experiences.

Leaders and managers can increase their competence and credibility by intentionally soaking up all the lessons available in their own experiences. There are many ways to do this:

1. With every project or activity your team does, automatically include a review. What worked? What didn't? Do we know why things worked or didn't work? What would we do differently next time? I think of this as institutionalizing learning. Make learning unavoidable!

2. Mentors and coaches. I've never met anyone who couldn't benefit from having one more mentors to help them make sense of their experience. Sometimes the lessons in our life are not immediately obvious to us. So get help!

3. Make it safe for people tell you the truth. I discussed this topic in a 6 Ways Not to Walk Naked Down the Street. Ensure you know the truth.

4. Apply what you learn. Our life is the best laboratory we have. When you learn a new leadership or management concept from a book, a seminar, a blog, your own reflection, or a mentor - apply it! Too often we hear a great concept, put it in our mental "great concept file" and never use it.

5. When you don't know, ask. I frequently observe newer leaders experience a conversation they did not understand, but fail to ask questions because they don't want to "look dumb". Ultimately, we all have to learn. If someone thinks you're dumb for asking questions...they're the one lacking intelligence.

6. Spend time with effective leaders (in real life - not television or movies). If you can, watch them in action. Think about how you would handle the same situation.

7. Make it automatic. Blogs like this one allow you to subscribe via email and automatically receive material you can apply. You look at email every day - does what you're reading have a ready application to a situation in your life?

8. Take time for reflection. Yes, this one includes the word "time". There simply is no way to learn and incorporate knowledge into your mind and habits without giving your body time to absorb it. This is a principle in every area of life.

9. Be patient. Learning takes time. Increasing the pressure on yourself to be "perfect" will only prevent you from learning what life has to teach you here in this moment.

How do you ensure you learn all your own life has to teach 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!

Subscribe today or join the discussion at: http://davidmdye.blogspot.com/
Twitter: @davidmdye
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/davidmdye
****
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.