leadership mindset – Page 2 – Doug Dickerson on Leadership

Leadership In A Word: Yesterday

Posted June 17, 2018October 10, 2018
by dougdickerson

Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away, Now it looks as though they’re here to stay oh I believe in yesterday – John Lennon

A word about yesterday

In his book, No Limits, John Maxwell presents a most thought-provoking question that is worth some consideration. He asks: “When was the last time you said goodbye to something that was special that no longer works today?”. It is a truly intriguing question.

Perhaps in our more nostalgic moments, we look back with some degree of fondness and recall a particular time in our leadership journey that was important to us. Maybe it was a particular success or big win that propelled you to where you are today.

But if we are not careful, we can get stuck in a place, time, and mindset that no longer serves us or the people around us very well. We become stagnant and are looking backward to the “good old days” rather to the future. Sound familiar?

Maxwell continues by asking, “Are you willing to let go of some things you love? If not, you’re going to have a hard time being creative and becoming any better than you are today”. Now, that truly is thought-provoking indeed.

Obviously, reading this caused me to think about my own practices, routines, and my mindset. Have I been guilty of this? Am I guilty of this? In what ways is this mindset hurting me?

My reflections led me to these conclusions. Perhaps you will relate. Perhaps you could add to the list. But here are just a few of my observations.

Yesterday’s creativity will not sustain me

Creativity is the life-blood in leadership. The creativity I had thirty years ago when I was first starting my leadership journey may have served me well then, but it has no bearing on the creativity I need to succeed today. The landscape today is much different.

Leadership Checkup: Are you availing yourself of every opportunity to grow and learn new things?

Yesterday’s structure will not carry me

Leadership and management styles have drastically changed over the past few decades. The flow charts of top-down, bottom-up have mostly been replaced by more lateral lines with collaboration as the approach of choice by many.

Richard Branson observed: “People often remark to me that it’s great how Virgin thinks outside the box. They are genuinely surprised when I tell them, “Actually we don’t! We just never let the box get built in the first place.’”

Leadership Checkup: Are you relying on yesterday’s structures to guide you today or are you finding new approaches to new problems?

Yesterday’s attitude will not equip me

The attitude, faith, and mindset I needed all those years ago may have been sufficient at the time, but no longer. Not because I have arrived, but because my goals, dreams, and aspirations of today demand it. Going to a higher level of achievement requires an exchange. And it will be required in your leadership as well. The exchange will be to give up some things from the past that you loved in order to have the growth and success you desire today.

Leadership Checkup: What attitudes and mindsets of the past do you need to let go? Are you still surrounded with people whose mindsets are holding you back?

Quotes about yesterday

“It’s no use going back to yesterday, I was a different person then”. – Lewis Carroll

“What worked yesterday doesn’t always work today”. – Elizabeth Gilbert

“…But this one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead”. – Philippians 4:13

“You can’t have a better tomorrow if you’re thinking about yesterday”. – Charles Kettering

“Yesterday was not your defining moment. The calendar moved forward; why not you?”. – Steve Maraboli

A final word

We gain wisdom, understanding, and perspective from our past, for better or for worse, our past shapes us. While it’s certainly appropriate to reflect on the good things in our past, we must live in the moment and be forward in our thinking. It’s also time to let go of the past with all of its mistakes and failures and seize the moment that a new day brings. The challenge in leadership is to never stop growing, learning, adapting, and applying all that we can.

Please follow and like us:

Winning With People

Posted November 27, 2017
by dougdickerson

A boss has the title. A leader has the people. – Simon Sinek

Writing in The Book of Business Anecdotes, Peter Hay recounts the following story:

In the 1950s, marketing whiz Stanley Arnold was working at Young & Rubicam, where he was asked to come up with a marketing campaign for Remington Rand. The company was among the most conservative in America. Its chairman at the time was retired, General Douglas MacArthur. Intimidated at first by a company that was so much a part of America, Arnold also found in that phrase the first inspiration for a campaign. After thinking about it, he went to the New York offices of Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner, and Beane, and placed the ultimate odd-lot order:

“I want to purchase,” he told the broker, “one share of every single stock listed on the New York Stock Exchange.” After a vice president tried to talk him out of it, the order was finally placed. It came to more than $42,000 for one share in each of the 1098 companies listed on the Big Board at the time. Arnold now took his diversified portfolio into a meeting of Remington Rand’s board of directors, where he argued passionately for a sweepstakes campaign with the top prize called A Share in America. The conservative old gentlemen shifted around in their seats and discussed the idea for a while. “But Mr. Arnold,” said one, “we are not in the securities business.” Said another, “We are in the shaver business.”

“I agree that you are not in the securities business,” said Arnold, “but I think you also ought to realize that you are not in the shaver business either. You are in the people business.” The company bought the idea.

People business. It’s one of the most complex challenges you will face in leadership. And it’s one you’ve got to conquer if you are going to succeed. Unfortunately, you don’t always get to choose those people. In fact, you might at times feel like the person who said, “Sometimes I wish I was an octopus so I can slap eight people at once”.

Since slapping people is out of the equation as a leader, we must reconcile the fact that as leaders we are in the people business. This is our greatest challenge and it’s our greatest reward. Here are a few reminders on how as a leader you can win with people.

You win by winning their hearts

Too often this is where many a leader drops the ball. This is a leadership principle I learned from John Maxwell almost twenty years ago. Maxwell said, “Always touch a person’s heart before you ask him for a hand.”

A good leader will invest relationally with his or her people before asking for their hand. It’s when you’ve made this connection first you open the door to other possibilities and opportunities. But first, win their heart.

You win by investing in your people

When your people know that you are invested in them they will go to great lengths to perform. This investment is not just monetary although it’s included. Winning with your people happens as you empower and equip them to not only meet their expectations but to exceed them.

“Whatever we expect with confidence,” said Brian Tracy, “becomes our self-fulfilling prophecy”. You win with your people when you raise their level of confidence and remind them of their potential and abilities on a regular basis.

You win with people by conceding the spotlight

I’ve said it many times and it’s worth repeating here now. Expressions of servant leadership are found when you concede being in the spotlight by putting someone else in it. And this is how you win with people.

Billy Hornsby said, “It’s okay to let those you lead outshine you, for if they shine brightly enough, they reflect positively on you”. You can only win with people as a leader on this level if you’re secure enough to drop your ego and quit worrying about who gets the credit for what. You win with people when you celebrate your people and their successes.

You win with people when you listen to your people

You win with your people when you learn how to listen. Some of the best ideas in any organization will not flow out of the corner offices, but into them. As a leader you must do as Howard Behar suggests in his book. It’s Not About The Coffee, and “put the time into listening, even to what’s not said…You’ll know what your customers want, you’ll know why the passion is missing from your organization, and you’ll learn solutions to problems that have been sitting there waiting to be picked.”

Winning with people happens when you are more concerned with what they have to say than you are in what you have to say. Your leadership hinges at times on your ability to be quiet and listen.

You win with people when you commit to developing leaders

Your success as a leader doesn’t come when you gain more followers but when you develop more leaders. Simply put, multiplication is the math of leadership. You win with your people by multiplying the number of leaders in your organization.

“A leader is best when people barely know he exists,” said Lao Tzu, “when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves”. And this is the ultimate goal of your leadership and the definitive mark of winning with your people. It’s as you raise them up as leaders and empower them that you win.

Your leadership rises and falls on your ability to win with people. Make it a priority and you will go far.

Please follow and like us:

Being Present: Why It Matters To Your Leadership

Posted September 24, 2017
by dougdickerson

“You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment” – Henry David Thoreau

One of the great challenges in leadership today is having leaders who are present in the moment. It’s a struggle for many leaders. In fact, when was the last time with intentionality you set aside even a small amount of time just appreciate the moment and reflect?

Healthy leadership is essential to your success. But what happens when the pace of your leadership is greater than your ability to be present in the moment? What is the tipping point between activity and action that does more harm than good? Why does being present matter? Here are a few reasons why being present matters to your leadership.

You can put your past in perspective

In order to effectively know where you are and where you are going, it helps to put your past in perspective. What knowledge and skills have you picked up along the way is working? What do you need to let go of? What changes do you need to make today to make for a better tomorrow?

Only being present in the moment allows you the opportunity to reflect in such a way as to appreciate the moment and put your past in perspective.

You can put your priorities in order

It’s when you are present in the moment that you can evaluate your priorities and put them in order.No leader intentionally sets out to mess up their priorities but it happens. Being present in the moment is as much of a priority for you as a leader as anything else you do. If your priorities are out of balance then the decisions you make will have consequences you hadn’t planned for.

Only being present in the moment can you see what corrections you need to make with your priorities. It’s when you are present you can make adjustments.

You can reconnect with your people

A leader not present in the moment is not the leader his or her people need. The unintended consequences can be irreparable if not careful. The graph below highlights the communication issues employees have with their leaders. Take a look at how many complaints there are on the list that could be avoided if only the leader were present in the moment among his or her people.

Being present in the moment puts you where your people need you. Being in the moment is all about leadership at the moment.

You can lead more effectively

Ultimately, being present in the moment is about more effective leadership. It’s about giving of yourself without all the distractions that come with priorities that are out of order and by being disconnected from your people.

Being present in the moment can be a challenge. Our minds are racing and thinking of a dozen other things that need our time and attention. I get it. But all you have is this moment. And in this moment, you can do something that will impact your leadership in a positive way. Be present.

Please follow and like us:

Start With Low Fences

Posted September 2, 2017
by dougdickerson

“I work on the same principle as people who train horses. You start with low fences, easily achievable goals, and work up. – Ian McGregor

Developing your skill sets as a leader is not an overnight process. It’s something that takes time and commitment. It’s a process.

I liken the process to one of my favorite hobbies – photography. Back in the day of first learning my photography skills things were much different from today. It was all manual. Various photography classes back then taught me the fine art of things like shutter speeds, f/stops, dark rooms, lighting, composition and more. You had to learn the skill in order to be good.

Nowadays with a few hundred dollars, you can purchase a fully automatic camera that takes all the guess work out of it. Ask the owner to switch to manual mode- not to mention the rule of thirds, negative space in composition, etc. and take a picture, most would be at a loss on where to begin.

Here’s the problem. With that expensive fully automatic camera in your hands, it can make you look better than you are. You can have the fancy equipment, but without the training on how to use it, you are creating a false impression.

One of the dangers in leadership is bypassing the learning process and securing the foundational principles needed for growth and maturity. This is why many an aspiring leader never reach their full potential. They rush the process. But with an open mind coupled with the attitude of a student, your leadership skills can be developed and you can rise to the next level.

It’s when you start with the low fences that you earn your leadership stripes. Here are a few low fence concepts worth considering as you think about your future and growth as a leader.

The low fence of humility

There’s a fine line between confidence and arrogance. Aspiring leaders can blur the lines when they think their degree conveys wisdom. Your formal education is your right of passage to your real education. A strong dose of humility is in order starting out and is well worth remembering when you are older. There’s always something new to learn.

The low fence of dependability

There are no shortcuts on the path to proven leadership. It takes men and women who are willing to roll up their sleeves and earn their stripes. If you can’t be counted on in the low fence things of your leadership how can people raise their expectations of you for greater things? It’s in the daily grind that you show yourself dependable.

The low fence of flexibility

Sometimes in leadership, you have to throw out the script. Your growth and sanity as a leader will be tested with this low fence skill in more ways than you can imagine. If you can learn this low fence skill early it will save you a lot of grief later.

The low fence of loyalty

Loyalty is one of the pillars of leadership. All the creative powers in your arsenal of skills will not amount to much if loyalty is an afterthought. Faithfully striving to represent the values, mission, and vision of your organization should be the focal point of all that you do.

The low fence of service

The heartbeat of leadership is service. It’s about adding value. It’s about lifting others up, not tearing down. It’s servant leadership. The beauty of this skill set is that you never outgrow it. But with your growth and development as a leader comes the opportunity to have a greater impact. Develop this skill early while the fence is low. But never forsake it. The more you give and the more you serve, the greater the influence you can have.

Just as low fences are the starting points for training horses, it’s where you begin as a leader. But you are not designed nor destined to stay at that level. You have a higher destiny that you need to walk in. Low fences are where you start, but they are not where you should stay. You must raise the bar.

Please follow and like us:

Four Ruts That Will Sink Your Leadership

Years ago when the western U.S. was being settled, roads were often just wagon tracks. These rough trails posed serious problems for those who journeyed them. On one of these winding paths was posted a sign which read: ”Avoid this rut or you’ll be in it for the next 25 miles!”

Just as the settlers of the old West faced serious problems when traveling roads with ruts, so too will you experience ruts on your leadership journey if not careful.

Ruts. Why is it so hard to break free from them? Intuitively we know that they are not healthy for us. As leaders we ought to know better but too often we fall back on “this is the way we’ve always done it” mentality, not realizing it’s our death-nail.

I believe it’s not so much that we purposefully stay in ruts for the sake of a path of least resistance, but it’s because we settle. Here are four ways you might be in a rut (settling) without even realizing it.

You settle for small victories instead of big failures

I am not suggesting here that it’s an either-or, that you will have small wins or big failures, but ruts prevent us from even daring to do big things. Accepting the same results over and over again without attempting large wins will always keep you down.

When settling on this level you have opted for the path of predictability that stifles productivity. Those who live in this rut will seldom venture off the paths of normal work much less an adventure off the beaten path where fresh ideas are welcomed and productivity flourishes. What are you settling for?

You settle for popularity instead of principles

One way in which your culture suffers is when you get caught up in popularity contests and the appeasement of opposing voices. At the end of the day either your values and principles mean something or not. As a leader you must give a compelling reason to follow a compelling vision. Those who belong will stay and those that leave will be doing you a favor in the long run.

This rut is about low expectations and the type of culture you will settle for instead of the one you create that raises the bar and benefits everyone.

You settle for a fixed mindset instead of a growth mindset

The fixed mindset is all about staying on the same path like the wagon for the next 25 miles. It embodies the “we’ve never done it this way before” mentality that stunts growth.

This rut is about mediocrity being acceptable instead of embracing a growth mindset that taps into the potential and skills of everyone and daring to believe that the next 25 miles will be unlike anything ever experienced before. The growth mindset rejects the status quo and puts everyone on a new and challenging path toward success.

You settle for followers instead of leaders

Anytime you settle for a culture of followers instead of a culture of leaders you will always be behind the curve and in a rut. Your goal should never be to develop a tribe of loyal followers but rather an army of engaged leaders who are all-in with the vision, values, goals, and purpose of your organization.

Ruts are harmful because too often we are in them without realizing it. We’ve grown so comfortable with the ruts and how we have adapted to them that any deviation from it becomes unfamiliar territory.

Here’s the bottom line– unless you get out of your rut the view will never change, nor will your future.

℗ 2017 Doug Dickerson

Please follow and like us:

Developing a Leadership Mindset

Posted January 5, 2017
by dougdickerson

“You can change your mindset” – Carol S. Dweck – Mindset, The New Psychology of Success

In her highly acclaimed and recommended book Mindset , Carol S. Dweck lays out four foundational statements to gauge whether you have a fixed-mindset or a growth mindset.

Here are the statements ( Answer T or F to each one):

Your intelligence is something very basic about you that you can’t change very much.
You can learn new things, but you can’t really change how intelligent you are,
No matter how much intelligence you have, you can always change it quite a bit.
You can always substantially change how intelligent you are.

Statements 1 and 2 are fixed-mindset statements. Statements 3 and 4 reflect the growth mindset. “Which did you agree with more? You can be a mixture, but most people lean toward one or the other,” states Dweck.

Over the years I have come to know that leaders have a mindset that sets them up for success or failure even before that leadership journey begins.

The mindset you embrace sets the tone for your leadership style, success, and the influence you will have. What mindsets or characteristics will hold you back? Which ones will cause you to succeed? Here are a few.

The mindset of your attitude

In leadership, your attitude is your best friend or worst enemy. It’s one of the most contagious characteristics of your leadership style. It will cause people to rally around you and your vision or it will turn them away. The attitude mindset of the leader will be the benchmark for the rest of the organization. You can’t expect the attitude of your people to be good if the one you showcase is bad. Eventually, you will have to change your attitude or your people will change their address. (I wrote about attitude in the workplace here).

What kind of attitude are you projecting? Do you only focus on the negative? Do you only see what your people are doing wrong as opposed to what they do well? How does your attitude inspire, encourage, and motivate your colleagues? Is your attitude worthy of emulating?

The mindset of your perceptions

One of the basic foundational leadership lessons I learned many years ago from John Maxwell was in how he sees other people. Maxwell said he always looked at people and saw a “10”. It was his way of helping others get in touch with their potential and set them up for growth and success. Were all of the people he labeled as a “10” truly a 10? Of course not. But the perception he put into play was one that emphasized unlimited growth and possibility in the people he believed in–even when they may have only been a 4, 5, or a 6 in reality.

What are the perceptions of the people you lead? Do you instill confidence in your people that reflects a 10 even though they may only be a 5? If known by your people would your perceptions give them a reason to be optimistic or discouraged? What changes do you need to make in your perceptions of other people or personal changes that would cause you to be a better leader in general?

The mindset of your personal growth and development

Every successful leader I know has one thing in common- they never stop growing.The older I get the more I realize how much I don’t know which is humbling. (I wrote about the things I wish I had known years ago about leadership here). You can have a fixed-growth mindset that Dweck writes about or you can have a growth mindset that will make all the difference in the world to your leadership. The mindset you choose, feed, and nurture is the one that will win out at the end of the day.

What are you doing on a daily basis that contributes to a growth mindset? As a whole, does your organization have a fixed-mindset or a growth mindset? What fixed-growth mindsets do you struggle with the most? What changes do you need to make to develop a growth mindset?

Developing a growth centered leadership mindset is the beginning of a leadership journey that begins by believing it is possible.

I am booking leadership training events for 2017. See the tab at the top of the page for more information.

Please follow and like us: