Why Leaders Are Learners – Part I

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Leaders Open Doors

This past Friday, Oct. 10, was the inaugural L2:Learn-Lead event that was simulcast around the world. I had the privilege as a Founding Partner in the John Maxwell Team to be a host for the one of the simulcast locations. While many were in attendance, many could not make it or did not make it. I wanted to share with you some of the great content and knowledge shared with us at this fantastic event.

John C. Maxwell was the first (and last) speaker. In his first talk, he shared ideas from his new book Good Leaders Ask Great Questions. Here are some bullet points I gleaned:

Leaders make great connections through questions
Leaders open doors through questions, sometimes doors that would not have opened any other way.

You are only a few questions away from achieving your dream!

Questions let you direct the conversation.

John Maxwell encouraged everyone to find great people who do what they want to do or are what they want to be. He mentioned getting his start the same way and listed some questions for you to ask great people to truly learn from them.

What is your greatest lesson?
What are you learning now?
What has been your greatest failure?
Who do you know that I should know?
What have you read lately?
What have you done that I should do?
How can I add value to you?

Learning to ask questions helps leaders get answers. They help us to DISCOVER! We discover the concerns others have, we discover what things they care about, what their dreams are. When we know these things, we can help them grow and from that our influence grows. Then we can lead them more effectively.

In the next post, I will outline some points from Linda Kaplan Thaler. In part 3 it will be from Tim Sanders talk, and then finally in part 4 the second teaching by John Maxwell.

What are your thoughts about leaders and questions? Have you used questions effectively? What are some questions you ask consistently?

How to Be a “With Me” Leader

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Bringing People Alongside You is Crucial

Years ago, Stanley Ott wrote a book called The Joy of Discipling. If you are faith-oriented, I recommend it. Not a long book but definitely a powerful one.

In the book, Ott describes the premise of discipling (teaching or guiding) others is through a “With Me” approach. Bringing them along with you but also walking along with them; for the journey is not for one person but for both of you. Along the way, both of your grow.

As a leader, your objective is not to be out front; it’s to be beside. It’s not to say, “I have all the answers“; it’s to say “Let’s find the answers together.” It’s the challenge to bring them along with you on your journey, yet at the same time exploring their journey as well.

That’s critical because if the relationship only benefits you, the other person is gonna lose interest. A leader helps others get where they are going while also showing the way to where that person is going. It means you have to care for them, want to know their life story. It means wanting to know where they have been and, even more so, wanting to know where they want to go. And at all times, being a leader requires having someone with you. Otherwise, all you are doing is taking a lonely walk.

[snaptweet]”If you think you are a leader and there is no one behind (or beside) you, then you are just taking a walk!” -John Maxwell[/snaptweet]

So the objective is to always have someone with you, even as you learn. Discovery as a team or group is so much more productive and rewarding.

Who are you bringing beside you? Are you helping them on their journey, or just dragging them along on yours?

How to Have Work Worth Celebrating

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Labor Day Means No Work?

This week we celebrated Labor Day! Our family went out in the boat and went to a little island on the Indian River for swimming and a picnic. (NOTE TO SELF: When you put on the sunscreen, don’t forget your face!). Overall, a great time!

I did a little research to see about the purpose of Labor Day. According to the Department of Labor, the purpose of Labor Day is a yearly national tribute to the contributions that workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country. In other words, it’s a chance for those who work hard throughout the year to sit back a little bit and celebrate the importance of the contribution they have made to making this country what it is today.

Work That Deserves It

There are some though that don’t put forth that effort all the time. They sit back and wait for things to come to them and wonder why they don’t get the success they want. I keep a poster up on my wall in my office to remind me of this. It’s a quote by Maya Angelou that simply says,

Nothing works unless you do

So if you want that success, you have to put forth that effort first.

Here’s some key things to remember to work towards achieving your success that are going to help you throughout the rest of the year.

BE IN THE MOMENT. When you are at work, be at work. When you are home, be at home. Focus on giving your best to the moment and you will be more productive and more effective in every situation.
REFUSE TO ASSIGN BLAME. Many people want to contribute their lack of success to the economy, the administration, any number of things. But ultimately you have to take responsibility for your own success. If you do that, you can overcome any obstacles in your way.
WORK YOUR 1%. We have talked before being a one-percenter; you have grow yourself by 1% a day to be the person you want to be and achieving the success you want to achieve.
SETTLE FOR NOTHING LESS THAN YOUR BEST. How you do anything is how you do everything! When you put forth your best effort in every situation, success is naturally going to follow.

What ways do you make sure your work is successful? Comment below.

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How to Jump-Start Yourself By Learning Through Others

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Welcome Aboard, Thrill-seekers and Danger-lovers!

Much of my background is as a professional trainer. Early on I learned the value of learning through others. Where did I get started on that?

The Jungle Cruise!

That’s right! This is Jungle Paul!

Working at Walt Disney World while in college at UCF found me on the one ride in the park where my personality fit to a “T”. Standing up with a microphone and making a fool of myself for 10 minutes at a time, eight hours a day, was right up my alley. I was not Skipper Dan by any means, but I loved the schtick! I was trained and watched and learned from my trainer. I spent time learning through others; what they did well and what they didn’t do well that I could improve upon.

By learning through others I became good enough that they assigned me as a trainer on the ride. I had even more passion for that and poured myself into creating the best training experiences I could.

Jungle Trainer

One of the techniques we applied was a standard formula for the training business:

Tell me how it’s done
Show me how it’s done
Help me to do it
Allow me to do it on my own

Notice the key there. We didn’t just throw them on the ride and say, “Okay, talk!” We explained and demonstrated first. In Boy Scout training, this is called EDGE (Explain, Demonstrate, Guide, Enable).

They watched and learned how to do it right by learning through others. They absorbed a model to help them do it right. It allowed them to confidently believe they could do it too. This saved them some of the pain of doing it wrong consistently until they finally get it right.

[snaptweet]No matter what you do, learning through others do can help.[/snaptweet]

This is especially true when you pick the right people to learn from. Find people who excel and study them. Read books about them if they exist. Interview them if possible and ask about failures more than successes.

[snaptweet]It’s in failures where the greatest lessons are learned.[/snaptweet]

Take what they do well and add your own flavor to it. Take what they learned from their failures and design ways to avoid it yourself. Save yourself some pain.

Who can you study today to help you become better at what you do? How will you apply their failures to your life? How will you apply their successes?

Comment Below.

Saying NO in the Face of Amazing Opportunity

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Taking Work as it Comes

When you work for yourself opportunities to earn money are precious. Anyone who doesn’t think that way doesn’t last long in business for themselves.

The challenge comes in deciding what to take and what to refuse. I have heard many advise to take everything, especially when money is tight. One of the popular quotes cited lately by Richard Branson concerns opportunity:

If somebody offers you an amazing opportunity but you are not sure you can do it, say yes – then learn how to do it later!

The interpretation by many is to simply take every opportunity that comes along and then figure it out. Yet, that’s not really what Branson is saying here. You need to emphasize the word amazing in that; for it is the amazing opportunities we don’t want to pass up as they don’t come very often and are usually the launching points for greater things.

What’s an Amazing Opportunity?

How we define an amazing opportunity is what makes a difference. An opportunity for steady work, or to increase our reach, or increase our income significantly is not necessarily an amazing opportunity; especially if it takes us into areas that don’t speak to our strengths.

[snaptweet]We are most significant when we embrace the amazing opportunities that utilize and challenge our strengths.[/snaptweet]

Anything else not only is second best, but threatens to compromise everything we have worked towards prior to that.

Saying No to the Amazing Opportunity

That doesn’t always make it easy.

Earlier this week, I was presented with an opportunity to lead training on a course in Social Media for Business. I had nothing else income generating going that week in question and my first impulse was to say, “why not?” It’s important to note that while I blog (as you can see here), have a Facebook fan page for both my company and for the L2:Learn-Lead Orlando simulcast event, post frequently on Twitter, have a LinkedIn page, and a Google+ page; I am not what you would call a “social media expert”. It would have been a significant and sharp learning curve to overcome to be considered authoritative enough to teach a course on it. It’s not my area of strength.

[snaptweet]I have a policy that I stick with what I am good at and try not to pretend to be good at something I’m not.[/snaptweet]

NO is sometimes the best answer

It speaks to my integrity with myself and others and to my core values. I never want to present myself as an expert on something I’m not and just as important is I don’t want to spend my time trying to be good at something I’m not and neglect getting better at my areas of strength.

I turned the job down. As I said, I’m not a social media expert but fortunately I know people who are. So I was able to refer them to someone who was able to meet their needs and provided an “amazing opportunity” for someone else.