Leadership Lessons from The Story of Tom Rutledge

January 13, 2012 by

LeadershipTom Rutledge is a somewhat hidden hero in the story of Charles Lindbergh’s historic non-stop flight of the Spirit of St. Louis across the Atlantic Ocean in 1927.  Tom Rutledge worked at Wright Aeronautical as an engine builder, starting in 1926. The story goes that when Tom first heard that he was assigned the task of building the engine for Charles Lindbergh he asked to be reassigned because he did not want to build an engine for someone he didn’t know.

His request was denied, and though disappointed, he proceeded to build the engine, despite his displeasure. What impressed me with his story is that he did not just quickly rush through and put it together. Instead he took as much care in the work of building the engine, that he would – had he been building it for someone he knew. His integrity and careful attention to detail produced an engine that resulted in one of the most famous airplane journey’s of all time. There is a valuable leadership lesson in this story.

The Great Leadership Lesson from Tom Rutledge

As I pondered this, I thought about how often as successful leaders, managers, or employees we find ourselves with tasks that cause us much displeasure. Do we just trudge through the unpleasant task and do a “good enough” job, or do we put forth the effort and attitude needed to make sure the task is worthy to be called our best work. Tom Rutledge taught we should perform at out best no matter what the task and no matter our oppinion of the importance of the task.

Leadership Takeaway’s From Tom Rutledge

When faced with unpleasant tasks I suggest the following ideas:

  1. If this were the last thing you were to do in this life, would you want to be remembered for doing it well or doing it poorly.
  2. Imagine a person that you highly respect, someone that you wish you were like, and imagine how they would approach the task.
  3. Make a list of all the good reasons why need to do this project well, in other words, focus on the positive.
  4. Think about the benefit that will result from you doing a good job.

=========================================================================
So, now that you’ve read this article, how are you going to use this information to bring greater value to your unpleasent tasks and leadership situations? What other strategies do you have for dealing with unpleasant tasks?

Please take a moment and share your ideas in the comments section below, share this with your social media friends, and subscribe to receive A Slice of Leadership notices, and occasional leadership advice, articles, tips and freebies.
=========================================================================

Filed Under: Leadership Attitudes Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

The Ultimate Personal Success Plan

December 30, 2011 by

Success PlanThe blogosphere is currently flooded with information on goal setting and New Year’s resolutions, but lets be honest, goal setting is not enough to be successful…you need a plan. At the beginning of 2011 I wrote about my 2011 Personal Success Plan.  I had a many wins and some losses in my 2011 goals, but overall, I am a better person and I achieved a lot more because of my plan. This year I have made a number of changes to help guarantee a successful 2012. The changes are not just aesthetic, but in how I manage my success, execute on the goals, keep motivation, track progress, and hold myself accountable.

Ben Stein beautifully said, “The indispensable first step to getting the things you want out of life is this:  Decide what you want.” This image to the left serves as the basis for stating what you, “want out of life”, or more specifically, what you want out of the year.  I value this document because it serves as a singular focal point to all I want to accomplish in the year (Read on to receive a template for yourself). Each of the parts are important to the success of the whole. I suggest you open up the image in another window to lok at as you read.

The Success Plan

The first part of the success plan is this success plan document. This is a Microsoft Word document that holds everything that is important for defining my goals. I will not use this document for tracking, but for defining and planning. Tracking comes later. Here are the parts of this “defining” document:

1. Annual Vision

I debated on what to call this section, but ultimately decided it was almost like a mini BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal). It was not a definite goal, because goals ultimately define what your overall success looks like.  It is a statement that is meant to define what I will become and what I will look like when I complete all my goals. It serves as the inspiration to WHY I’m doing this and WHAT I will become when I am successful. It is written as if it already happened, setting the mental image and motivation for the hard-work ahead.  My vision statement for 2012 is “2012 was a launching-point for a better future and a better me. I have set positive habits for the future that will make me a better father, a better husband, and a better friend. I have strengthened my professional reputation as an innovative, solid, and proven leader and I have become more spiritually in-tune and financially stable.”

2. Mission Statement

Developing a personal mission statement takes some time, but once you have it, it will serve as a guide for all your actions. I feel it is important to state this on the personal success plan because it is my “code of conduct” and guides me as I execute and as I come to problems throughout the year. Leaving this out leaves a big hole in the plan. My personal mission statement is, “I will not accept status quo and as such will seek after that which is efficient and effective in all areas my life, but never at the expense of my relationships.  I will focus on that which is important versus that which is critical.  I will be teachable and will strive to always learn new things that will help me reach my full-potential.  I will act with Integrity at all times and will treat others as they would like to be treated.  I will look for the good in all I experience, and remember all the blessings that I have been given.” Take the time to develop your own, it will be well worth it.

3. Values (Areas of Focus)

My values are actually listed in 2 places, for 2 different reasons. In my mission statement I actually list values that are important to me. You do not have to do this, but you can. These values are more guiding to my life. Right above my mission statement I list the values that I will be focusing on in 2012. These could be called my areas of focus. My focus’ for 2012 are: Relationships, Spirituality, Intellectual Stimulation, Financial Success, Physical Wellness, Professional Growth, Giving Back, & Renewal. These help me to categorize my lower-level goals into groups that are easier to track and help me to see how everything fits together. The image is meant to remind me that everything contributes to the whole of who I am and who I want to become.

4. Lead Measures (Goals)

Lead measures are something I talk about in detail in my book. But basically they are smaller goals that predict the success of a higher goal. In my case, the higher goal is my annual vision. The beauty of a lead measure is that, assuming you set the right lead measures, when you complete them, you will have accomplished your goal. My lead measures are organized according to my areas of focus. They are all written as if I was in the future looking back. They are positive and stated what I have accomplished, not what I want to accomplish. Kind of the same thing but a mental difference.

5. Vision Board

Below my lead measures is a small vision board with images that remind me why I am doing these goals. I did not change this over last year, because my focus areas are the same. I know a lot of people put a crazy amount of effort into this part alone, but for me it is a mental reminder of the what is important in this plan.

6. The Reward (The Clincher)

This is probably the biggest change to the plan this year. One of the problems I saw with this plan was motivation. The thrill of achievement sometimes just isn’t enough, even for those like myself that are motivated by achievement. So the reward concept was brought in. It took me a while to come-up with a reward that would be motivational enough to keep me going, but a trip to Europe or Asia is what did it for me. There was one other problem with the reward. You see the vision accomplishment could be subjective. I don’t necessarily have to complete ALL my lead measures to accomplish my annual vision. So I am going to have to prove myself to a board of 4 people. I am going to have to keep records and track my progress. My “board” will consist of a financial expert, a business expert, a relationship expert and one other wild-card.  Only a unanimous decision will result in the reward. This is a kind of kick-in-the-rear, motivation also. I have to be a success in others’ eyes, not just my own.

Some Important Steps in Creating Your Success Plan

1. Take time to make sure the goals are right for you and what you want to accomplish. It took me over a month to nail down all my goals.

2. Talk to others about your goals. I have a personal performance partner that spent loads of time questioning me and helping me to narrow and define my goals better. The best thing I did was have a meeting with my wife to talk to her about my goals and get her feedback. Some of my goals changed because of that meeting and she is now vested in my success and we worked out some details to the execution that I had not thought of. Depending on who your goals touch, will determine who you should talk to.

3. Push yourself. I told a friend the other day that I felt like a very small person about to climb a very big mountain.  I am scared of my goals. Once that fear came on, I knew I had pushed my goals far enough to make me a much better person. I know they are all achievable as well. If you are not scared of your goals, you are probably not reaching far enough, and therefore you are limiting your capacity to grow.

Execution & Tracking of your Success Plan

I spent a lot of time setting up the processes to make sure that nothing will prevent me from hitting the ground running when I start. I am using a service at http://www.sendrecurring.com/ to schedule emails and text message reminders to myself and to my wife for certain things we need to remind ourselves to do. Until everything becomes a habit and second nature I want to be bugged about it.

The next and most important thing is I let my personal performance partner or accountability partner know about my goals. He will push me, make sure I am on track and not let me waiver. I will be sending reports to him on a weekly basis and we talk on a weekly basis via phone on the goals.  We also email each other on a daily basis regarding important weekly and daily goals or things we are struggling with. I am doing the same for him. This type of relationship is really important to the success of a plan that pushes your comfort level.

Success PlanThe last thing I needed was a system of tracking and measuring my progress. Everyone has to do what is best for them on this.  Some people like to track things on paper, not me. I am in front of the computer most of the time, I prefer typing and I like charts and graphs and percentages and other hard data to look at. I thought about using Excel, but it was going to be too much of a pain. I use Outlook all the time, and while I will be using it for task management and calendaring, it is not good for managing goals and running reports. I ultimately settled on a software program called Goal Enforcer (http://www.goalenforcer.com/).

Goal Enforcer is a mind map based program that’s sole purpose is Goal Management. There are a couple reasons why I chose it. First is because it allowed me a quicker method of inputting (or really importing from excel) my goals. When all my goals are broken down into daily tasks and weekly tasks and unit based tasks I had 3,448 tasks for the year just involving my success plan.  That does not include other things I do. Using excel I was able to knock all the goals into a spreadsheet in a couple hours and import that into Goal Enforcer.

Success PlanGoal Enforcer  integrates with Outlook tasks and beautifully setup all my tasks for the entire year on the appropriate days. It also imports from Outlook, so I can complete my tasks in Outlook and it will update Goal Enforcer.  It also allows me to email a report from within and save it to a remote location, which is good for me as I travel a lot.

Because I have some sub-goals that are daily, resulting in 366 circles under a task, I will not be using the mind-map very much. Instead I will be using the tree view. The tree view allows me to quickly click tasks that are done, update the percentage, if it is that type of goal, and easily add notes or logs to the task. I will be using this daily and weekly in my planning sessions. I can also attach files or website links to a task if I am using another type of log or agenda for something. It is reasonably priced and you can get a free demo and purchase it from http://www.goalenforcer.com/.

Another thing to prevent barriers was I systematized and created processes and checklists for various tasks such as my daily planning agenda, my weekly planning agenda and my social media strategy.

This was a long post and a lot to take in, but I believe there is not anything more important to do for your success, than to develop your own 2012 Personal Success Plan.  I would love to hear your thoughts in the comment section.

If you would like a blank 2012 Success Plan to work your own plan, subscribe the the Slice of Leadership list on the top-right side of this page. I am happy to provide my Daily Planning Agenda, Weekly Planning Agenda, and Social Media /Personal Branding Checklist for those that would like a copy. Just subscribe and request it in the comments below.

I hope that everyone has the most successful year in 2012 that they have ever had.

Filed Under: Personal Success Plan Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Revitalize – Getting Things Done Through Aligned Execution – Part 1

August 13, 2011 by

A couple of posts ago I mentioned that I had written a book.  I started writing the book in July of 2010 and finished it in April of 2011.  The book is written as a business fable and describes a methodology that I developed to solve one of the most mystifying problems that organizations experience.  That problem is the ability to get everyone’s activities in an organization aligned to help achieve the top-line goals of an organization. 

I have often pondered about why there are so many businesses that fail, why small business are more likely to fail then succeed and most importantly, why there are so many small businesses that never seem to progress beyond their plateaus that leave them at the same place for years and years.  The concepts in the book are not revolutionary.  In fact they are the basic building blocks of business. But it is how they are organized that is different. 

Below I have pasted the introduction to the book as well as some of the reviews I have received.  The reviews have been phenomenal. I actually had to go back to a few of the reviewers and ask if they were telling the truth.  I already have verbal orders for the book from CEOs that want it for everyone in their company and I have received invitations to speak and conduct workshops on the process.  Of course I have to get the baby published first.  It is in the hands of a great agent, so keep following me and I will let everyone know when it is available.

Introduction

    In the book Execution, by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan; Larry Bossidy wrote, “Leadership without the discipline of execution is incomplete and ineffective. Without the ability to execute, all other attributes of leadership become hollow.”

    I wish that every leader could have that quote ingrained in their memory. I have had the privilege of meeting with thousands of business owners and leaders in various capacities and situations over the years. Many of them that I have met are stuck in a cycle of constant ineffective commotion. A commotion filled with busywork and all the myriad things, both big and small, which are required to run an organization. These leaders work countless hours, yet don’t really get much done to move their organization forward. All this busywork is “critical” work that must get done; but none of it helps the company progress toward becoming a bigger, better, and more profitable entity. When a leader is stuck in this cycle, the staff is sure to follow. This can continue for years until people wonder what they have accomplished with all their hard work.

    The ability to execute and get one’s staff dedicated, aligned, and moving in the same direction should be the study and focus of all leaders. I think sometimes we are so focused on getting every ounce of performance out of ourselves and others that we forget to lead them, we neglect to manage them, and rarely take the time to properly plan for our success.

    This book will guide you through a straight-forward process: a flexible methodology that allows organizations or teams to get their actions focused and their goals accomplished, all while remaining in alignment with organizational objectives.

    Though the process is simple in nature, it will take vision, focus and creativity to implement. I hope you will accept the challenge to follow this process through to completion and achieve great things as a result.

Okay. Let’s revitalize!

Praise for Revitalize

    “I would highly recommend Revitalize – Getting Things Done Through Aligned Execution. This book gives a solid foundation and systematic process for organizations to step out and jointly get things done more powerfully in their life and work. The way that organizational focus, alignment, and execution are woven throughout the story provides a clear path for organizational success.” 

~Kris Cavanaugh (Author of Stuck to C.E.O., Speaker & Coach | Atlanta, GA) Website

—————————————————-

    “I’ve probably read hundreds…perhaps thousands of business books. I’ve invested over $250k into seminars, books, audios, and other continuing education since I started my company; yet it didn’t all crystalize for me until I read Revitalize. Your book gave me the framework to execute the vision that has existed only in my head. It took the “what ifs” and “somedays” and “hopefullys” out of my world and replaced them with absolute certainty. Now I know there IS a way to absolutely guarantee success…and it is simple. Thank you!”

~Pamela Viveiros (CEO/President, ThinkTech Computers | New Bedford, MA) Website

—————————————————-

    “Revitalize – Getting Things Done Through Aligned Executiondoes a better job of explaining how to align behavior to goals than all of the hot-shot speakers I’ve heard over the years, and more importantly, it is done in such a simplified way that individuals at every level can understand the process to make significant organizational improvements.”

~Tim Shea (CEO, Alpha NetSolutions, Inc. | Millbury, MA) Website

—————————————————-

    “This is a work that can empower the reader with the concepts and inspiration to make the changes necessary to grow and prosper in our difficult economy. Revitalize is exactly what the doctor ordered to bring anyone back to business and life health.”

~Jim Camp (Author of “Start With No”, Founder of The Camp Negotiation Institute | Dublin, OH) Website

—————————————————-

    “Revitalize combines important information on execution and organizational alignment with a critical life topic of urgency. Primo Levi once said, ‘If not now, then When? If not us, then Who?’ This book brings a personal change story into significance by reminding us that we must take action not tomorrow, not next week, but today to execute and begin our organizational transformation and change journey!”

~Louis Carter ( Author, CEO & Founder, Best Practice Institute | West Palm Beach, FL) Website

—————————————————-

“Revitalize-Getting Things Done Through Aligned Execution is by far one of the best business books ever written! The use of the story was a powerful way to demonstrate the importance of developing purpose, vision, core values and goals for any business and personal life! The methodology taught in this book is simple to understand yet innovative in structure. If followed, success is guaranteed!”

~Arvee Robinson (Master Speaker Trainer, International Speaker, and Author | Upland, CA) Website

—————————————————-

    “In looking back through my 30 years of business experience, college, continuing education, and my personal library of hundreds of business books, I find no one has better able to explain the concepts of mission, vision, value and BHAG better than Todd Nielsen.  I found the story to be riveting and filled with business lessons and practical examples of how to apply these intertwined concepts. Many business owners believe the success or failure of their organization is up to fate.  Revitalize breaks through that myth and gives you hands-on, practical tools that can be immediately implemented to make any initiative successful.  As a business owner, I look forward to formalizing these processes in our organization to ensure our future success.  I wish I had this book many years ago!”        

~Diana L. Spurgus (President, MBA, MCP, CPA, CITP – BSSI, Inc. | Lancaster, OH) Website

—————————————————-

    “Revitalize – Getting Things Done Through Aligned Execution, provides the ideal framework for businesses looking to improve their bottom line.  It simplifies the execution of strong solid business principles, and inspires the reader into action.  Revitalize, reinforced where our company needs to make improvements and left me motivated to put things into action, now.”

~ Wendy Panor (Operations Manager, The Digital Architects, Inc. | Stevensville, MD) Website

   —————————————————-

“I highly recommend Revitalize – Getting Things Done Through Aligned Execution to anyone wanting to improve the outcomes and productivity in their company or personal life.  It is a quick read and explains the principles and concepts well.  The story shows how all the pieces fit together in real life situations to create synergy and exponential growth or change.  A real treasure in my business book library.

~ Doug Hulme (President, Consolidated Business Systems | Denver, CO) Website

   —————————————————-

I’d love to hear your thoughts.  Comment below!

Filed Under: Revitalize Book Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

From Bud To Boss – Transitioning to Remarkable Leadership

February 15, 2011 by

LeadershipI recently had the chance to review a pre-release copy of a book by Kevin Eikenberry and Guy Harris, called From Bud to Boss: Secrets To A Successful Transition to Remarkable Leadership.

I found the book to be one of the most detailed and functional books I have seen on the topic of transitioning oneself from an employee or manager to a real leader.  I had the opportunity to interface with Kevin and get some more information about the book.  Following are some of the questions and answers I received.   By the way, today happens to be the launch day of From Bud to Boss and they have some great gifts and contests running.  This is all listed at the end. 

——————————————-

Who will benefit from reading your book? (or Who should read this book?)

(Kevin)  – There are really three groups of people who will benefit the most from this book.  The first, as the title implies, are people in the transition, or have been living through the transition from being a peer to delivering a performance evaluation!  The second group is people who want to prepare themselves proactively for the role of leadership.  These people are anticipating or planning for their first leadership role.  The last group is more experienced leaders who are preparing or helping new leaders to be more successful.

The first section of the book is specifically about the transition, and the other five sections deal with the most important competencies to focus on building leadership competence and confidence.

What are the Remarkable Leadership Principles?

(Kevin)  – This book contains the ” Remarkable Principles” also mentioned in the book  Remarkable Leadership.  These are bite-sized truths that summarize pieces of the text, but they do much more than that.  They stand alone, informing all of us leaders of important and in some cases, profound truths about the work of leadership and what is most important about it.  Here is an example from Chapter 41 – “The single biggest reason to set goals is that they improve your chances for success.”  This reminds readers of an important principle, and we hope spurs all of us to act to not only set goals more often, but be successful in helping others set them as well.  After all, who doesn’t want greater success in some part of their life?

What was your first leadership experience? What training/support did you receive in the transition?

(Kevin) – My first leadership role was on our family farm and related business.  Often when people were hired to a specific task or season, I was responsible for supervising them.  In many cases (as is the case for many who will read the book) I was much younger than those I was leading.   I didn’t have any formal training.  Dad didn’t give me any book to read.  He was an example and role model.  We did talk about how things were going and answered questions.   He would have been the first to tell you he wasn’t the perfect leader, yet he was extremely supportive and aware of the need to coach others.

What are the core skills people need in order to make a successful transition to leadership in their organizations?

(Kevin) – Beyond the skills and strategies of the transition itself, we believe there are five big competency areas that need to come first, and we built the book around them.   They are:  change, communication, coaching, collaboration and teamwork, and commitment to success (everything related to goals and goal setting).

These aren’t the only competencies of leaders but we believe they are of prime importance for two reasons.
1.    They are highly important and complex skills to learn
2.   When someone first becomes a leader these skills take on a very different meaning or level of importance in their work and life.

What do you think is the biggest gap in training new leaders?

(Kevin)  – I think there are two gaps.   First, most new supervisor/leader training doesn’t talk at all about the issues of the transition. How do I lead the people I am friends with?  How do I deal with the team members who applied for and wanted the job I received?  How do I maintain and manage those expectations?  How do I build relationships with my new peers, new boss?  And much more.

Second, while there is lots of great training available publicly and inside of organizations, it is often available later than would best help the new leaer, and far too often doesn’t focus enough on application.  Learning can’t happen just by attending class (or reading a book for that matter) we must take that new knowledge and use it.

——————————————-

I think Bud to Boss is one of the most detailed and practical guides I have seen on developing leadership and refining one’s leadership skills.   I highly recommend you pick-up a copy.  You can buy From Bud to Boss at Amazon and other online retailers.   After you buy the book, you need to go to Kevin and Guy’s website and community and register your purchase. (http://launch.budtobosscommunity.com/#getstarted) By doing so you will receive a boat load of free gifts and be entered to win some great prizes.

As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts and comments below.

Filed Under: Remarkable Leadership Tagged With: , , , , ,

Planning Your Personal Success with a Personal Success Plan

January 31, 2011 by

A few months ago, I looked at the New Year fast approaching, and was driven to start the year running.  I did not want to just create the normal annual resolutions that many tend to make, including me, but I really wanted to create something that had some teeth, had an element of accountability and execution and would really help me to achieve greater success in 2011.

I have received great feedback from this and have even had a few business consultants ask me if they could use the format with their clients.  I think it is important as leaders that we are not only leaders of our organizations, but leaders of our own life’s as well.

This idea of becoming leader or CEO of your life, was one of those, “Why did I not think of that” moments.  Kris Cavanaugh, wrote the book, Stuck to CEO, her “specialty” and primary message in the book and her practice is to help people become “CEO of their Life”.  I will be doing an interview with Kris sometime in the next few months.  Please check out her website and get to know her.  She is a wonderful person.

This success plan was inspired from several things I have read, heard or seen, with the main ideas coming from, Who’s Got Your Back, by Keith Ferrazzi.

Let me describe what I have done:
On the lower left-hand side, I have placed my personal vision statement: “I will not accept status quo and as such will seek after that which is efficient and effective in all areas my life, but never at the expense of my relationships.  I will focus on that which is important versus that which is critical.  I will be teachable and will strive to always learn new things that will help me reach my full-potential.  I will act with Integrity at all times and will treat others as they would like to be treated.  I will look for the good in all I experience, and remember all the blessings that I have been given.”

I placed this on the document because it is something I need to remember and keep in focus, every time I plan my schedule and look at this document, which is at least daily.  If you do not have a personal mission or vision statement, start working on it, no matter what your station in life is.

In the top-left I have placed a diagram with all the elements that I feel are important to a well-balanced life.  They are in order clockwise by personal priority.  You have to figure out what are the most important elements for balance in your life.

The right side of the image is the “meat”.  This is in order of personal priority as well.  Here I have placed actionable items that I feel must be accomplished in order to “claim” success in those areas.  I have put a LOT of thought and I requested feedback from those important to me before I finalized on these.  This is the part that takes some effort and deep thinking. It is important to get feedback from those close to you and those that will be honest and look through the reasons why you may be putting some things down.

In the bottom-right, I have placed images of things that tie back into my goals.  There is much research on the value of imagery in fostering motivation and goal achievement.

Now onto the execution side of this; the key to this are several accountability partners.  I meet with one each week and another every other week.  Each of my accountability partners is genuinely concerned about my success and they call me out when I am doing something that is not in alignment with my goals.

I also look at this daily and weekly when I do my planning.  In addition I have printed out and laminated a few copies, one to keep with me in my portfolio binder and one that is shrunk down and serves as a bookmark while reading.

Even though the year has already started, it is never too late to plan out your success.

I would love to hear your comments, if you would like a Microsoft Word copy of this document to edit for yourself, please leave a comment, share your thoughts, and I will email you a copy.

Filed Under: Personal Success Plan Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,
«Previous Page