LEADERSHIP RESOURCES BLOG

This is a two-part Chamber Academy session presented by the Omaha Chamber of Commerce and Leadership Resources. Sessions take place on January 25 and February 8.

Leadership is the art of inspiring and empowering people to see and understand the company vision and perform in a way that leads to results. Management is the science of getting the job done efficiently through people. It involves coordinated processes, controls and the execution of tasks and projects to accomplish the organization’s mission. Both are important to the growth and success of an organization.

Join us for this two-part series designed to help you further understand these concepts and leverage them to improve your leadership skills and build your company. Facilitated by Dan Sedor, EVP of Implementation.

January 25 | 3:30 pm to 5:30 pm | Leadership versus Management

• Discuss the key characteristics of leadership and how these differ from the tasks of management
• Discover the impact of vision, mission and purpose on goal achievement
• Learn how to leverage effective management to increase results in your company

February 8 | 3:30 pm to 5:30 pm | Responsibilities of Leadership

• Learn about the three responsibilities of leaders
• Assess your own leadership skills and behaviors
• Explore attitudes and behaviors that create a high performance culture

Cost Pre-registration (registration fee covers both sessions)
$39 for members
$49 for non-members

Register online through the Omaha Chamber Website
Questions? Call 402-423-5152. Hope to see you there!

Process Overview:

The Strategic Leadership process is a monthly executive level development program that prepares individuals to become more effective leaders in their organizations. We specialize in the long-term nature of development – creating successful habits and patterns of thinking. This allows you to clarify focus, refine skills and measure progress throughout your leadership journey. Long-term development also increases the rate of return from your investment and provides you with the opportunity to deeply impact the culture of your organization.

By combining specialty content, mentoring opportunities, one-on-one coaching and peer accountability groups, the strategic executive leadership process delivers high level results and proven strategies for achieving desired outcomes.

Development Components:

• Clarity of Focus, Extreme Dream, Goals, Development Needs
• Content Review
• Specialty Content (Vignettes, Workshops)
• Guest Speakers
• Business Case/Advisory Board
• Practical Skills
• Experiential Activities
• Progress Reports and Metric Tracking

Process Details:

• Program kicks off Friday, February 10 at 8:00 a.m.
• Meets monthly
• Each session lasts approximately 4 hours
• Bi-Monthly coaching (monthly coaching available as well)
• Classroom facilitation
• Renews on a yearly basis
• Program Sessions to be held at Leadership Resources, Lincoln office

To enroll in this program, or get more information, please fill out the contact form or call a Leadership Resources associate at (402) 423-5152.

Buy the Big O! Show – Leadership and Productivity Tips

Thank you for joining us at the Buy the Big O! Show on October 12 at the CenturyLink Center.

During the mini workshop sessions, Development Dan and Productivity Patty shared many insights about leadership and productivity. Hopefully you found these discussions to be challenging and inspiring. We would like to share the full content of these presentations with you on this webpage – click on the links below:

• 10 Effective Leadership Behaviors
• 10 Most Common Time Wasters

Let us know if you have questions or would like to know more about Leadership Resources and how we can help you acheive your next level of success. Thank you for joining us and have a great day!

The Leadership Resources Team | 866.820.8410 | info@LRsuccess.com

10 Effective Leadership Behaviors

1. Self-motivated and goal-oriented

• Positive outlook on life. They know they are in charge of their own destiny.
• High Achievers – high level of energy, continues to raise the bar; always looking to improve

2. Ability to Dream and Cast Vision

• Anyone can steer the ship, but it takes a leader to chart the course. Vision is defined as the ability to see the whole trip before leaving the dock. A leader will also see obstacles before others do. A leader sees more, sees farther, and sees before others. A navigator (leader) listens – he finds out about grassroots level reactions. Navigators balance optimism with realism. Preparation is the key to good navigation. “It’s not the size of the project, it’s the size of the leader that counts.”

3. Decisive and Action Oriented

• You can’t steer a ship that isn’t moving forward. It takes a leader to create forward motion.
• Not too quick to decide, but after carefully weighing the options, they quickly make a decision and move forward

4. Manages his/her time well

• Leaders are short on time – they make the most of it. They plan, prioritize, and organize. They spend their time on their highest payoff activities and delegate the lower priority items to others. They avoid time wasters and procrastination.

5. Handles problems/crises effectively

• Puts their own egos aside to resolve the situation
• Concentrates on what’s best for the individuals/organizations involved
• Demonstrates respect for others

6. Empowers and believes in other people

• Only secure leaders give power to others. Mark Twain said, “Great things can happen when you don’t care who gets the credit.” Another point to ponder… “Great leaders gain authority by giving it away.”
• Values other people’s opinions
• Rewards good work with praise

7. Trustworthy and Acts with Integrity

• Foundation of trust – competence and character + transparency
• Willing to admit shortcomings/faults, mistakes
• Honest and ethical in business practices

8. Keeps Learning

• Read a book a month for the rest of your life
• Keep up on business information/trends = ability to be innovative and current with society

9. Ability to balance personal and professional success

• Professional athletes know that if they give 100% all the time, they will not improve their performance, in fact, they will achieve lower results!
• Personal enjoyment, fun, family time are all vital to the success of a leader
• What one thing will you incorporate into your leadership to help you balance personal and professional success?

10. Greater Than Yourself – They Train other leaders

• It takes a leader to raise up a leader. Followers can’t do it, and neither can institutional programs “It takes one to know one, to show one, to grow one.” The potential of an organization depends on the growth of its leadership.
• A leader’s lasting value is measured by succession. “Leadership is the one thing you can’t delegate. You either exercise it – or abdicate it.”
• Recognizes that they are on the “stage” at all times

10 Most Common Time Wasters

• Lack of self-discipline
• Can’t say no
• Messy Desk
• Unplanned meetings
• Trying to do too much
• Failure to delegate
• Visitors
• Failure to plan
• Managing Crises
• Phone, e-mail, fax, etc.

What is your biggest time waster? How has this time waster impacted your life/results?

What are some ideas to reduce/eliminate this time waster?

Leadership Resources would like to welcome Darcy Michalek to their Omaha team! Darcy has been a long-time friend of Leadership Resources and has recently come on board to contribute to business development in the Omaha market.

She is passionate about leadership and helping other people achieve their true potential. She brings with her many years of business experience. She and her husband currently own two hair salons in Omaha and several convenience stores throughout western Nebraska.

Darcy is the president of Enterprise Business Group where she helps people buy and sell businesses. She is an affiliate of the Business Brokers Network, which is America’s largest network of business brokers. Joining Leadership Resources was the final piece to the puzzle as far as services to business owners. Now, in addition to her business brokerage and valuation services, she can also offer specific resources that business owners need to transition their business, including strategic planning, leadership development and assessments.

“It just makes sense to be able to offer these additional leadership services to my clients,” Darcy explained. “I believe in long-term leadership development and look forward to contributing to the growth of Leadership Resources in the Omaha market.”

Boyd Ober, president of Leadership Resources, is excited about Darcy coming on board. “Darcy has a wealth of experience and knowledge that will be beneficial for both our team and our clients. We’re glad she decided to join our team.”

Throughout the course of the day, you’re likely to get hundreds if not thousands of emails. Before you know it, your inbox looks like a disaster area. You know should keep up the best you can, or you’re likely to drown in the sea of messages. As a result you become glued to your smartphone, hoping to open, answer, forward or delete what you can to avoid the pile up.

Bad idea.

If there’s one thing psychologists have learned as they’ve studied human behavior, it’s that we achieve better results and more excellent results when we focus. Translation . . . you can’t perform at your best when you’re constantly distracted or drowning in email messages.

To end the fight with email, consider the following tips:

• Be ruthless about what gets through your email filter. Unsubscribe from newsletters, offers, RSS feeds, etc. that don’t provide helpful information or resources. Don’t give out your email address until you know how companies might use your information. Also consider setting up a “junk email” that you can give to solicitors.
• Build “email windows” into your schedule. These are pre-scheduled time periods in which you are devoting to composing, returning and processing email. This allows you to focus on the task at hand and do one of three things: do it, delegate it, or delete it.



• Email only during the work day. The people you’re corresponding with come to expect certain behavior from you. If you email back and forth after the work day is over, you’re basically telling them, “it’s ok to correspond with me after hours.” If you want to respond to email after work hours, set it to be delivered the next day so the timestamp is still during working hours.
• Teach those around you to use a “parking lot.” Instead of firing off an email every time they have a question or comment, a “parking lot” encourages employees to keep a list of items that need addressed. Once that list reaches 4 or 5 items, they can schedule a quick phone call or short meeting with you to go over those items.
• Turn off email on your smartphone. Yes, it sounds crazy. But just because you get can email on your phone doesn’t mean you should. If you find that you’re checking your email at the dinner table, the grocery store, red stoplights or in bed, you might be taking it too far. Try going offline with your phone for a while. You might find that you’re more focused and productive. You might also send the message that people need to call you in order to discuss something important. Your family and friends will appreciate your undivided attention as well.

Leadership can be stressful. But effective leaders use stress as a constructive force rather than allowing it to become a destructive one. Stress occurs when conditions produce awareness that some action is required to satisfy a need, to solve a problem, or to prevent some undesirable result. Without constructive stress, motivation would be at an extremely low level, and very little would ever be accomplished. Adopt the attitude that stress is a challenge to your creativity — a welcome opportunity to perform well. Adjust your language to reflect this attitude. Constructive stress inspires people to act, to achieve, and to utilize more of their full potential for success.

Stress becomes destructive when the pressure to act cannot be met, or when one believes it cannot be met. If the perceived need to act requires more time, more money, greater skill or productivity than the individual can supply, the force of stress becomes negative. The result is physical or psychological damage — or both.

Even more damaging than the physical toll of stress are the psychological effects.

Continuing stress destroys the thrill and excitement of achievement because no accomplishment ever seems good enough. The resulting dissatisfaction with personal productivity causes a breakdown in relationships with people at work and at home. Undue stress hampers decision-making effectiveness, decreases personal productivity, and blocks creativity.

Minimize destructive stress with these ideas:

1. Set Goals

Clearly-defined goals and a written plan of action for both your work and personal life give you these stress reducing benefits:

You always know where you are going and, therefore, feel little fear of the unknown.
Obstacles are not perceived as threats because you have anticipated them and planned how you will handle them.
Making choices is simplified because your goals serve as criteria.
A written plan of action for achieving goals provides ready-made decisions regarding specific actions to take. Overall organizational goals and plans simplify the leadership of people. They specify the actions and activities needed and who is responsible for each one. The plan of action for achieving the goals of the organization provides standards and procedures for measuring individual and organizational productivity. You and your team members know automatically whether productivity is adequate. There is no need to wait until the end of the month or quarter and suddenly find that goals were missed.

2. Identify Priorities

One of the most effective ways to choose which activities you will perform is to evaluate their cost. Determine the value of one hour of your time based on your annual income.

When you know how much your time is worth, you have a better standard for choosing items of work you will perform personally and those you will delegate. Just as you would not be willing to pay a hundred dollars for a cup of coffee, you should not spend a hundred dollars worth of time accomplishing a five-dollar task. Compare the cost of your time to the worth of the activity involved.

Another approach to establishing priorities is to evaluate the contribution each activity will make to the achievement of organizational and personal goals. Focus on activities that make major contributions to moving you and your team members closer to your goals.

3. Prevent Burnout
Unless you handle stress constructively, burnout is likely. Burnout is brought about by unrelieved work stress and results in extreme emotional exhaustion and dramatically decreased productivity. Prevention, of course, is the preferred way of handling burnout. And, it is just as vital to prevent burnout in your people as it is for yourself. Effective leaders are positive role models; they handle stress constructively to prevent burnout.

Identify specific sources of stress, then plan and carry out appropriate actions to minimize or eliminate them. Common sources of stress include:

• work overload
• excessive time demands
• unanticipated or unrealistic assignments or deadlines
• interpersonal conflicts

4. Keep Your Perspective
Remember why you made the effort to clear out the stress producing mind clutter of old attitudes, old work habits, and old problems. Strive to enhance your enjoyment of life and your productivity by keeping all areas of your personal and business life in proper perspective.

The specific method or process for developing or training varies with what is to be taught, the learning abilities of the people involved, and their prior experience. This basic approach can be followed as a general outline for instruction on any type of training or development:

Explain what is to be done and why.

• Tell team members what the task involves and why it is important. Answer any questions in a friendly, positive manner. Point out how the individuals will benefit. If they can expect to receive higher pay, increased job status, or become more valuable to the organization in some other tangible way, tell them so. Describe to them how their efforts help reach the organization’s goals. Remind them that by receiving further training and development, they can better meet their personal goals for increased responsibility and greater compensation.

Explain the major steps.

• Break down the task into steps that are easy to understand. Provide a written description and guidelines in addition to your verbal explanations. Providing a written procedure saves you and the team member time later in answering questions. Written procedures also demonstrate your confidence in the abilities of your team members to follow written instructions, to answer their own questions, and to learn independently.

Have the trainee explain to you the procedure.

• Encourage the trainee to “talk through” the procedure. This helps you and the trainee to identify any misunderstanding about the procedure. When all the trouble spots are eliminated and trainees can accurately and confidently describe the procedure, they are ready for the next step.

Demonstrate the procedure.

• Teach one step at a time. Demonstrate what to do by performing the activity, explaining as you work, while they watch and listen.

Remember that people learn differently.

• Nearly all learn best by watching the successful performance of the skills you are teaching and then by actually performing the skills themselves.

Help trainees to perform the procedure.

• When you first allow the trainee to perform the procedure independently, remain available as a resource. Avoid assuming too much responsibility. Remember, you are there to help the trainee succeed.

Evaluate progress.

• Praise satisfactory performance and point out ways to improve still more. Always emphasize what a person does right. Show what could be done better, and ask questions that lead the trainees to expand their understanding of the process and to develop the knowledge to perform correctly. Give major attention to the aspects of the performance you want to be repeated. Wrong behavior will then be eliminated, and good performance will take its place.

Provide a tracking system.

• Set up a method of tracking performance. Always inspect what you expect. This approach encourages people to become accountable for their own success and adds to the respect they feel toward you as a good coach and mentor. As soon as possible, put learners on their own to perform with only routine checkpoints. Let them know you have confidence in their ability. The efficiency and effectiveness of nearly every task in any organization can be enhanced by providing a written procedure for it. Written guidelines require careful analysis of a task, a description of the best way to do it, and a tracking system for determining how well the task is being done. Use a tracking system to enable people to measure their success so they can assume responsibility for their own continuous improvement.

Remember that you can never transfer years of knowledge and skill directly to another person. If you assume a condescending, impatient attitude, people quickly detect it and cannot do their best. Use the advantage of your expertise to facilitate the learning experience of the other person.

You are constantly teaching, training, and developing other people. Every time you give someone an assignment, or tell a person what to do, how to do it, and when it must be completed, you use some technique of instruction. By becoming more aware of these everyday opportunities for training and development, you can turn informal instruction into powerful learning experiences.