The Grateful Lead

grateful leadershipI know that throughout the International Leadership Blogathon this year there will be many excellent posts on leadership.  There will be some great thinking on how to lead, and how to follow, and how to manage.  I’m looking forward to reading them and gaining a loads of useful knowledge.

But for this first post, I want to take us on a different path.

— A path that we sometimes forget in our leadership.

— A path that we sometimes forsake in our organization.

— A path we sometimes neglect in our relationships.

Today let’s pause to think of all those meaningful moments,  profound people and  life lessons that have saved us and inspired us and empowered us, and let’s… be grateful.

— Think about that someone who helped you see that darkness is just the absence of light, and be grateful.

— Think about the difficult times when you were frightened, yet someone dared you to do it anyway, and be grateful.

— Think about the moments when you felt beaten down and then someone picked  you up, and be grateful.

— Think about the times you felt yourself become tense and someone helped you find your gentle side, and be grateful.

— Think about the times of when others failed you and someone was there with an extended hand, and be grateful.

— Think about the occasions when someone helped you feel your inner power, and be grateful.

— Think about the special times when you felt you were leading from love, and be grateful.

 Be the Leader who leads with gratitude” ~Lolly Daskal  (Tweet This!)

Thank those who have made a difference in your life: with a note, with a call, with an e-mail, with a text. If they’re out of reach, or if they were passing strangers and you don’t even know their name, thank them in your heart.

The grateful lead.

This is what it means to Lead From Within.

Be the kind of leader who embraces gratitude and extends appreciation to others. The grateful lead with heart.

Have you thanked anyone lately who had helped you in any possible way? Please share with us your thoughts on grateful leadership.

The 2nd International Leadership Blogathon Preview

2nd-Annual-International-Leadership-Blogathon-Todd-NielsenOn March 1st, a large conglomerate of leadership experts, coaches, speakers, authors, and leaders will come together for the 2nd Annual International Leadership Blogathon on http://www.ToddNielsen.com. For 31 days we will read amazing stories, unparalleled experiences, and leadership wisdom oozing from every crevice of the Internet. There are a total of 41 writers for the blogathon, gathered from many countries.

Last year’s blogathon brought an amazing source of wisdom, much of which would be hard to come by collectively on any single blog or book. This year’s articles raise the bar so much higher.

Below are the 41 writers for the blogathon. I’d invite you to read more about them and make sure to sign-up for updates to receive the articles in your inbox every day. Plus there will be some prizes and contests, here and there, throughout the month to win books and some other leadership products.

DATE

AUTHOR

COUNTRY

March 1st Lolly Daskal USA
March 2nd Kate Nasser USA
March 2nd Susan Bagyura USA
March 3rd Dan Forbes USA
March 3rd Chris Lema USA
March 4th Brendan Howe Canada
March 5th Dave Bradley UK
March 6th Martina McGowan USA
March 7th Joan De Winne Belgium
March 8th Kai Roer Norway
March 9th Ali Paskun USA
March 9th Susan Thorn USA
March 10th Susan Mazza USA
March 10th Andy Phillips Colombia
March 11th Heidi Alexandra Pollard Australia
March 12th Lora Crestan Canada
March 13th Ogwo David Emenike Nigeria
March 14th Susan Bowen UK
March 15th John Thurlbeck UK
March 16th T. Hampton Hopkins USA
March 16th Barry Smith USA
March 17th Colleen Jolly USA/UK
March 17th Ray Attiyah USA
March 18th Janine Garner Australia
March 19th Alli Polin Australia
March 20th Frode Heimen Norway
March 21st Kimunya Mugo Kenya
March 22nd Karin Hurt UK
March 23rd Tanvi Bhatt India
March 23rd Henna Inam USA
March 24th Sean Glaze USA
March 24th Jonathan Creaghan Canada
March 25th Peter Sterlacci Japan
March 26th William Powell Finland
March 27th David Hain UK
March 28th Sandro De Silva Netherlands
March 29th Paul Jolicoeur Canada
March 30th Richard Andrews UK
March 30th Tom Shulte USA
March 31st Todd Nielsen USA

 

I can’t wait to take part with all of these great minds, as well as the thousands of readers to create a fantastic leadership event that helps enhance the world of leadership acumen, the world over.

Desire Team Failure? Don’t Read This – It’s a Secret…

Team-Leadership-Teamwork-Team-LeadersIf we could amass the volumes of information written about team leadership, teamwork, leading teams, participating in teams,  we could probably fill a stadium full of paper. In my early years I honestly did not pay much attention to the dynamics that exist within teams. While the intricacies of making a successful team can compare in some ways to making an organization successful, they are two different beasts that usually require different leadership skill sets and behaviors. Try leading a team the same way as an organization and one is bound to experience a whole subset of unexpected problems.

When it comes to the dynamics of teams, I have two favorite books, one of which is the Secret of Teams by Mark Miller. The Secret of Teams is a delightful story of a struggling organization that finds that developing high performance teams is the burning imperative for fixing the company. In the story, the team responsible for figuring out how to fix the team problems, goes out and interviews experts in military, sports, healthcare, and other areas. Through these interviews they start formulating a framework to building a high performance team in their organization.

On top of this framework is an umbrella of leadership. It doesn’t matter how good team members are or what skills they bring to the table; if a team leader does a poor job leading, the results will be mediocre. Under this umbrella of leadership lie 3 vital ingredients to make a high performance team: Talent, Skills, and Community. They seem like 3 simple enough principles, but I was surprised by a few aspects of how these principles were described in the Secret of Teams.

Talent in High Performance Teams

A team leader needs to identify the talent needs of the team, both in the present AND the future. Understanding the talent needs and always being on the lookout for talent is important to create results.  It is important to not just look outside the organization for new talent, i.e. recruiting, but also trying to understand the talents of the existing team members, even those that might not be well-known or might not seem like they apply. Mark also teaches that in regard to talent development, a team leader should never compromise on character, competency, or chemistry.

Having the right talent starts with having the right leader.” ~Mark Miller Tweet This!

Skills in High Performance Teams

Similar to talent, a team leader needs to identify the skills needed for success, and understand any gaps that exist within individuals or the team as a whole. Learning should be a huge part of the culture of a team as they strive to learn new skills and close the skill gaps that exist. Team leaders should provide resources to help close skill gaps and help increase the chance of success for the team and each individual.

The real power will be unleashed when your #team members have individual skills and team skills.” ~Mark Miller Tweet This!

Community in High Performance Teams

I have personally seen the positive effects of community in teams, as well as the negative effects when it is missing. I was pleasantly surprised to see Mark include this as a critical ingredient of high-performance teams. This ingredient should be considered just as important as the other two ingredients.  Team leaders need to foster transparency and vulnerability. They need to ensure that the teams invests appropriate time on community– building activities and always look for ways to help the team “do life” together.

Great teams don’t just occur; they are created over time, through hard work and good leadership” ~Mark Miller Tweet This!

Many organizations are moving to a team type of infrastructure and even your organization is not, there are still teams, though you may not call them teams. I invite you to purchase Mark Millers book, The Secret of Teams: What Great Teams Know and Do, digest the information, then create a high performance team in your organization.

Please share your thoughts on leading teams and your experience with the ingredients from Mark;s book below.

Leadership & Management: What Behaviors Are Your Staff Copying from Your Example?

Leadership-Management-Behaviors-ExampleWhen the television show “Undercover Boss” made its premier a few years ago, much of America tuned in to watch the antics. What the show’s producers were probably looking for was a way to entertain the masses while they watched poor “unknowing” bosses do things like clean toilets and flip burgers. Of course in the end, there’s always that pivotal moment when the boss realizes the hard work his staff is doing behind the scenes. He learns to be more appreciative of them and looks at them a little differently than ever before.

What this show failed to capture though, is the importance of great leadership within an organization. Dwight Eisenhower gave a great definition to the word leadership when he said, “Leadership: The art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.” There is not better way to get people to do what you want, then to inspire them and be an example of the behaviors and actions you desire.

Like a young boy imitating his father, employees will also follow your example.  They want to follow your example, and they need you if they’re going to properly understand how the organization functions. Leaders have far more power within their organizations than most realize. If your staff see you cleaning toilets, they will see the importance of cleaning toilets. They might not enjoy it anymore than you do, but they’ll see the importance of it. If they see your actions align with your your words and instructions, they will understand the importance of that instruction. If they see your constant focus on improvement, they will understand the importance of it

Unfortunately the same is true on the flip-side of leadership.  Bad habits that are exemplified by leaders, will often be duplicated by staff. Do you ignore customers but expect your staff to treat them wonderfully? Do you talk about cutting expenses, but then fly first class everywhere?

Bad habits that are exemplified by leaders, will often be duplicated by staff.” Tweet This!

Sometimes it takes an outsider’s insight into your leadership style to find ways that you can improve.  A mentor or coach, can offer guidance with an outside perspective. Without a mentor, no business owner can be as successful as they want to be. I have seen leaders do horrible things, that they had no clue they did. An outside perspective can help you see what you don’t.

When is the last time you did the work of someone a couple levels under you? You should try it. You’ll get valuable insight into what your employees go through each day. Even more though, you’ll show them that you want to understand, and that what they do is important.

Please share your thoughts and leave a comment below.

Molding Future Leaders: 4 Tips for Mentoring Young Professionals

Leadership-Mentoring-Young-Leaders Here on ToddNielsen.com, we often discuss how we can develop leadership qualities within ourselves and within organizations. Established leaders, also have an obligation to pass the baton and help develop leadership in others. This, more than anything, is the hallmark of good leadership. Just as John Quincy Adams once noted, “If your actions inspire others to learn more, dream more, do more, and become more, you are a leader.” If you have young people in either your professional or personal life, lift them up and in so doing, inspire an entire generation of future leaders. Here’s how:

1. Impress upon your young charges the importance of constantly learning.

Perhaps the most important key to future success and personal fulfillment is developing a desire to constantly learn new things. If you are an employer and you supervise young people, give them tasks that require learning and applying new skills. Encourage them to learn outside of work, to learn for its own sake and enjoyment.

2. Put them in situations in which they have to make serious decisions.

Good decision-making skills are another important element in leadership. Of course, you can talk all day about the qualities inherent in strong leaders, but it’s important to put young people to the test so they can actually begin practicing leadership skills. If the young people in question are your employees, put them in a situation in which they make serious business decisions. Guide them through the process of decision-making, and show them how each decision requires compromise and give-and-take.

3. Emphasize loyalty and humility over personal gain.

If there’s one thing that many leaders in the financial industry learned, it’s that greed trumps responsibility to your clients and the common good. We often talk about ethics in leadership, but we all too often only pay it lip service. Talk to your young future leaders about the importance of loyalty and service. Financial greed never pays off, doing the right thing does.

4. Be the best example you can be. Actions speak louder than words.

Being a good example is the most effective way to mentor young professionals. That means always being aware that you are being watched by young people who look up to you. Never take shortcuts, own up to your mistakes and otherwise be the person you want others to see you as.

Inspiring leadership in younger people is by no means easy. But as a current leader, you must develop a vision for long-haul sustainability for your current enterprise and society as a whole. This can only be done by investing in young people. Soon enough, they’ll be running the world.

“Being a good example is the most effective way to mentor young professionals.” Tweet this!

Have you led young professionals? What tips do you have? Please share your thoughts and comments below.

Personal Leadership: It’s All About the People, Stupid!

Personal-LeadershipIt’s been reported that Henry Ford once said, “Why is it that I always get the whole person, when what I really want is a pair of hands?” While Ford may have only wanted to hire sets of hands to run his assembly lines, the only way to do that was to hire the people attached to those hands: people with complex baggage, personalities, and expectations.

One of the important elements of personal leadership is to lead the people within your team. After all, if there are no people to lead, then there is no leader! I have worked with lots of leaders that absolutely HATE dealing with people. Many leaders just want to tell their people the goal, and then expect them to just go out and create amazing success without any guidance, coaching, managing, or …leading.

Part of being a great leader is to master the art of valuing the people you work with, while at the same time holding them accountable for the results. By creating a culture where people are valued, we can be more effective in achieving desired results. In other words, people are not just means to an end, but must be valued for their contributions and perspectives. This does not mean they need to be coddled or sheltered.

Personal leadership is all about relationships with those you lead. Simply learning the names of one’s team-members is not sufficient to building a strong team of committed workers, although it s start.  By learning their values, skills and dreams, you learn how they see themselves within the organizational structure.  Instead of simply evaluating their work, seek opportunities for them to provide feedback on the organization.  Take care to listen, and see if you can incorporate their ideas.

As you demonstrate that you value the contributions of your team-members, you will find that they are more likely to think outside of the box.  They may see things you may have missed, and you may discover a wealth of skills and abilities you have previously missed.  As morale improves, so will productivity and results. Creating a culture of creativity and excellence will require you to view people as ends, not simply as means to an end.

What ways have you found to lead the entire person, instead of just hiring a pair of hands?  What are some of the complexities of leading people with their personalities, perspectives, and personal baggage?  Please leave a comment below to continue the conversation.

The 2nd Annual International Leadership Blogathon

International-Leadership-Blogathon-Todd-NielsenHold onto your seats, because this March is going to be a thrill ride through the world of leadership in the 2nd Annual International Leadership Blogathon. Last year I held this event and it was phenomenal. The nuggets of wisdom from all over the world were inspirational and enormously valuable for any leader. We had leadership experts from every corner of the globe take part; and the buzz on social networks still continues to this day for many of the articles.

This year is going to be better than last year’s event. My platform is triple the size of last year, so news of the blogathon and the articles will get out everywhere to help drive discussions. We are going to give away prizes this year, mostly leadership books, to help drive engagement and attract more readers, and my website is way cooler 🙂 than last year.

What Is The International Leadership Blogathon?

Ok, so imagine leadership writers and experts from all over the world gathered together to share their leadership wisdom with the world. The experience and lessons of working with different cultures and organizations helps to fuel an avalanche of knowledge that is not easy to come by.

So what I do is get around 30 experts from every possible country I can, and they each write an article between 400 to 1,200 words that explores some aspect of leadership. Last year we had many different topics and my heart lit up every time I read a new article. I mean, how often do you get to hear the inner thoughts on leadership from someone in Kenya, India, The Netherlands, New Zealand, the U.K., Japan and a bunch of other remote locations? It’s awesome! Subscribe now, and get ready for the flood of leadership wisdom to enter your inbox.

Awesome, the 2nd International Leadership Blogathon begins in March! ” Tweet This

Who Can Write For The International Leadership Blogathon & Why Should You?

Well, let me address the why first. Usually the best reason to write a guest post is to receive valuable backlinks to your own site from a reputable domain, to help grow your own platform, and get your knowledge in front of a bunch of people that might not know who you are. My site has an excellent Alexa rating, I get a lot of traffic, and I have a huge social network in which I will be broadcasting all of the articles – every single day. I’ll will also setup a private Facebook group for all the bloggers to collaborate, and I have a special surprise to rock your social world and help make sure all the articles are shared among all the blogger’s networks.

So who should write? Well anyone throughout the world that has leadership knowledge, that they want to share with the world. But there are some qualifications:

  1. You must be able to write in English
  2. You need to be able to write 400 to 1,200 words in good grammar and punctuation. We will help out as much as we can, but last year I spent way too much time re-writing articles that had great messages but were written poorly. So reach out to others that know English before submitting your article.
  3. You have to have a Twitter account and actively participate on social networks. You do not need to have a big following.
  4. You must be willing to commit to sharing all the articles on social networks and not just your article.
  5. You must be able to enter and edit an article in WordPress. My assistant will setup all the approved bloggers up on this site to submit their article.
  6. The post needs to be all original work from the author, and CANNOT be shared on another site. (Google does not like that)
  7. Your topic needs to be related to leadership or a leadership subtopic. Ask below in the comments section, or send me a message if you are unsure about your topic. It could also be about the intricacies of leadership in your country of residence.
  8. Your article needs to be in the system before March 1st, 2013.  We need to time to get everything setup and organized.
  9. You need to love leadership and want to engage with other writers by commenting on articles and helping to drive more discussion.

I am expecting a lot of interest this year. So if you are interested in writing, please fill out the form below and submit it ASAP. I look forward to a successful blogathon, I know my readers will love this content and it will be a hugely successful event.

[Form id=”10″]

Woohoo, I just signed-up to write for the 2nd International Leadership Blogathon” Tweet This

 

This is going to be an exciting event with wisdom oozing from all over the globe. Stay tuned for more information. Please share your thoughts below. Also what kind of articles are you hoping to see?

Do You Suck at Setting Goals? Stop Sucking on this Key Principle of Effective Leadership

Targets-Goals-LeadershipThe story has been told of the young man who took his archery set out in the field behind the barn. After carefully taking aim and launching his quiver full of arrows at the barn wall, he walked up to the barn, took a can of red paint, and painted targets around each arrow. Celebrating his excellent marksmanship, he entered a local competition and was soundly defeated, unable to hit any of the targets.

Leaders often find themselves in crisis management, reacting to the situations around them (i.e. Firefighting). Often this is because of a lack of clearly communicated goals and objectives. If we as leaders do our job first and then paint targets second, it’s bound to look as though we succeeded (even if we didn’t accomplish anything of value). If we properly paint our targets first, we will have a much better chance at achieving  our goals.

Effective Leadership Understands the Value of Goals

A key component of effective leadership is to identify and communicate the key goals and objectives of the organization.  Here are some tips for setting goals:

  • Mission Driven: Goals should clearly fit into the overall mission and purpose of the organization.  Team members need to understand how their responsibilities fit into the larger picture.
  • Measurable: Goals should be specific and quantifiable.  Nebulous goals leave employees uncertain of their success and always hoping that they are on track with your expectations.
  • Attainable: It is OK to reach for the stars, but if it is impossible to reach, we’ll achieve nothing more than to maintain the status-quo.  However, you want to make sure that your team members know that the goals are attainable, and that you will support them in accomplishing the goal.
  • Controllable: The best goals are the ones in which we control the outcome.  Instead of setting a goal to grow your customer base by 10 new clients; set the goal to contact 40 potential clients,  make 30 presentations, send 30 care-packages, etc… By setting the right small steps, you can practically guarantee the success of a higher goal, i.e. closing 10 clients. Completing the goal is entirely within the realm of your control, as it doesn’t rely on the potential customer’s response.

Communicate your goals often, and be sure to support your team members and celebrate their successes (no matter how small).  Incorporate team members in the creation of these goals, so that they have ownership in the process. You might consider reading up on SMART Goals as well.

Continuing The Conversation on Developing Effective Leadership Through Goals

The Ultimate Personal Annual Success Plan for achieving your goals is meant to help individuals create greater success in 2013 and it really is an awesome format for defining, tracking and achieving greater success. Get it before the price goes-up. For organizations please check out my workshops and consulting.

Have you successfully changed the culture of your organization through effective goal setting?  Have you ever fired first and painted targets second? Please share your thoughts below.

Naked, Wet …and Getting an Education at “Shower University”

Shower UniversityFor more than a year now I haven’t had a commute. I don’t miss the commute, but recently I had a realization – a longing even, for something I did enjoy while commuting… listening to books. I used to read & listen, through an insane number of books and I loved it. Learning and growing is something core to my motivation. With no commute this last year, I have missed that aspect greatly.

In my own Ultimate Personal Success Plan, one of my goals is to read more, but I just have not found the time. No matter how much I finagle with my schedule, and no matter how early I got up, I just wasn’t been able to dedicate enough time. There is always something to fill the gap. That was until I created “Shower University,” oh yeah, things were changing now!

What I realized is that I have at least 30 minutes every day when I have down-time. This down-time was when I showered, got dressed, and groomed myself each day. I realized it was the perfect time to educate my mind, while my body was in autopilot. I came across the Water-Resistant iShower BT Shower Speaker and fell in LOVE WITH IT! It easily connects via Bluetooth to my phone, where I can stream all by Audible.com books. I also have a waterproof pad, similar to the Aqua Notes – Waterproof Notepad so I can jot down ideas or thoughts while I am learning.

The lesson in this is to look for efficiency in all you do and look for ways to be creative, or accomplish more in the “down times” of your day. Execution sometimes requires being creative with your time and resources. Learning and growing likewise might require creativity. So use your creativity to find time to learn and become a better leader. All great leaders are staunchly dedicated learners.

All great leaders are staunchly dedicated learners.” Tweet This!

Here are a few Audible.com offers I found. I’m a huge fan.

Special Offer – Get Your First 3 Months at Audible for $7.49/month!

Try Audible Now and Get A Free Audiobook Download with a 30 Day Trial. Choose from over 100,000 Titles.

Have you done anything to bring about more learning, growth, or greater execution in your life? Please share below.

The Ultimate Annual Personal Success Plan – Get It NOW!

The Ultimate Annual Personal Success Plan Todd NielsenSuccess Plan – The last couple months have been a whirlwind of activity, especially surrounding the Ultimate Annual Personal Success Plan. I’m happy to say that the plan is finally completed, and it ROCKS! The Ultimate Annual Personal Success Plan is a Microsoft Excel Workbook that is meant to not only help define your goals, but it will help you to align, track, measure, and execute on the plans to reach your annual goals and dreams.

I had planned on creating 12 posts around the content of the Ultimate Annual Personal Success Plan, but with 3 pending book deals, the chaos of the holidays, and other end of year madness, plus the desire to create greater value for you – I changed the plan. I’ve also been planning to offer the e-book for a couple months, but have become disenchanted with that idea; because honestly, I felt it wouldn’t be very valuable for you.

The new tool, plus the videos below are much more powerful than any e-book. The 5 Videos below are meant to explain how the plan works, and what you need to do to create your own. You will want to watch these short videos and then scroll down to learn how you can get the Ultimate Personal Success Plan Excel Tool.

If you are ready to download the success plan and want to come back and watch the videos later, scroll down below the videos, to get started!

The Ultimate Annual Personal Success Plan Training

The following 5 videos are meant to explain, “The Success Plan,” and “The Tool” together. It will take more time than reading a blog post to get through these, but we are talking about a tool and system to help you reach all of your goals for the year, so take as much time as you need to set yourself up for success. You can  refer back to these videos anytime after getting the tool to refresh your memory.

Video 1: Define Your Goals

Video 2: Monthly Planning

Video 3: Weekly Planning, Tracking, & Review

Video 4: Dashboard & Notes Report

Video 5: Wrap-up & Extending the Tool


Success Plan Triple Lines

How to Get the Ultimate Annual Personal Success Plan

Success Plan Triple Lines

Those that have seen and used this tool over the last couple of weeks, have told me that giving it away would dilute its value. I’d rather have a few people achieve their goals with my tool, then have thousands of people download an e-book that just sits around on their hard drive.

What I have decided to do is to sell the Ultimate Annual Personal Success Plan Excel Workbook for $79.95, but provide a HUGE Subscriber Discount of $50.00 to reward my subscribers that have been awaiting the eBook. So this amazing tool will only cost $29.95 for subscribers …at least until the end of January 2013. 

I cannot provide this kind of discount forever because it will be too much work for us to handle the volume and support at such a low price point. So this deal ends on January 31st 2013. On February 1st, 2013, the discount will be reduced or eliminated for subscribers. So don’t delay! If you are already a subscriber you should have received a discount code, if you have not subscribed, type your name and email below and a discount will be emailed to you right away.

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I’ll Be Your Personal Performance Partner and Coach + Receive The Success Plan for FREE! (Read Below)

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Need More Information about The Ultimate Success Plan?

Here are other posts I have written on the topic:

The Ultimate Annual Personal Success Plan – My Confession, A Lesson Learned, & A Super Cool Sneak Peek
The Ultimate Annual Personal Success Plan – Part 4 – Goals, Vision, Focus
The Ultimate Annual Personal Success Plan – Part 3 – Define Your Focus Areas
The Ultimate Annual Personal Success Plan – Part 2 – How High Are You Aiming?
The Ultimate Annual Personal Success Plan – Part 1 – Let’s Get Started!

Still need more information? Leave a comment below, leave me a voicemail to the right, or send me a message here. I’m dedicated to your success and pray that I can be of service to you; in order to make 2013 the best year ever.