How to Build Your Leadership Construction Projects

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Under Construction

Construction projects are fascinating. I’m a guy and like many can watch a construction site for quite a while and see what’s going on, even though I have nothing to do with the industry.

I was sitting in a coffee shop about halfway up one of the many towering office buildings in Dallas, Texas and out the window watched a construction project in action. One of the tall tower cranes was working. Since I was inside, I couldn’t hear anything, I could just see it work.

Equipping and Supplying the Project

Sleekly and silently the crane would swing around counter-clockwise and then stop. The cable and hook would lower all the way to the ground. Someone would attach some heavy machinery or a large metal bin to the hook and then signal. The hook would raise with its payload to about 5 stories high. Then, the crane would swing around clockwise, again silent and sleek, until it was over top of the building in progress. Then, cable, hook, and payload would lower the top floor of the building and deliver it’s cargo.

These cranes serve a very necessary and distinct purpose on these multi-story projects. Without one, carrying all the equipment and material up to the top levels becomes a very unwieldy and time-consuming project. So the crane helps everyone work more efficiently and effectively and saves the company time and money while increasing productivity.

The Leader as Tower Crane

Leaders serve similar roles. Good leaders often go about their work silently and smoothly, looking for where they can help others be more effective and productive by equipping them and supplying them with what they need. A good leader serves a very necessary purpose and if they are truly effective, their work is critical because they increase productivity, save time and money, and do things no one else can do.

[snaptweet]Great leaders do the things that no one else can do.[/snaptweet]

Lonely At the Top?

BTW, years ago I read a news story about those tower crane operators. They are usually stuck up there for hours, since climbing up an down can be very time-consuming and tiresome. As a result, they take of all their functions up there; eating, toilet, etc. The crane operator remarked that you can feel very isolated and even a little lonely up there on many an occasion.

Leadership is a role that can often make you feel isolated and lonely, especially if your leadership becomes more managerial instead of empowering. To prevent that, spend more time equipping and empowering your people. Even more so, spend time growing other leaders so you don’t feel so lonely at the top.

What do you do to serve as the tower crane for your team? Are you supplying and equipping them with what they need? How can you be more empowering? What leaders are your growing today?

Learning the Key to Success

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New World Order

There’s no doubt about it, we live in a complex world. And in this global economy it is important to be flexible; to be able to quickly respond to the changing demands of our society and our economy. Adapt to change or else. It’s the reality of the new economy – grow or die.

There is nothing in between.

The Learning Organization

The best way we grow is through continual learning. Peter Senge, in his book The Fifth Discipline, advanced the principal of the Learning Organization. Basically, a learning organization is one that engages all the members of the organization in continual learning. They recognize that as everyone learns, the opportunities grow through greater knowledge and capability. These companies invest in their people to move them and the organization forward.

Benefits of the Learning Organization

The result is a more empowered organization, one that is flexible enough to adapt, developing a mindset of creative solutions; it’s been proven that the more we learn the more creative we become. Employees collaborate more, there is improved employee morale, they are more productive, and you create an ongoing legacy, so that when the inevitable happens and someone moves on to another role, there is someone ready to step up into that role.

[snaptweet]Sustained success and profitability come from intentional continual learning. There is no substitute or shortcut.[/snaptweet]

How do we get started on becoming the learning organization we desire to be?

Just think DIME:

DAILY – Growth has to occur on a daily basis. I often talk about being a 1%er and this is what it is all about, growing yourself by just 1% a day. That doesn’t sound like much, but over time it compounds and at the end of a year you have grown yourself over 365%. As the saying goes, by the mile its a trial but by the inch its a cinch. This does not necessarily have to be formal learning every time. It could be something as simple as having the team reflect back on the day and talk about lessons learned.

INTENTIONAL – Too many times we chase the next SHINY OBJECT; the seminar announced in a mailing, a book or video someone recommended we get, without really knowing whether it meets our needs or the needs of the organization. Chasing the shiny object is not a growth plan, its a random series of events. We have to be more intentional about choosing the growth path that best meets our immediate needs.

MISTAKES – Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Give your employees permission to go out and make mistakes without fear of punishment. It is from our mistakes where we are going to learn some of our best lessons about how to move forward.

ENGAGED – Get engaged with this learning process. Encourage your employees to engage with one another so that not only do they learn from their mistakes but also from the mistakes of others. This can significantly shorten the learning curve and allows us to move forward at a much quicker pace to become the dynamic learning organization that is prepared for the future.

How are you learning? How often? How do you determine what you have learned? Share your comments below.

The Leadership of Always Seeing Possibilities

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Thinking Possibilities

As leaders, one of the most important things we do is think. We think about our followers, about mentoring and growing other leaders, about the future of our business or our team.

Our thinking becomes dangerous when we start thinking in terms of limitations. When we think in absolutes. When we think with what’s called a “Lack Mentality”.

It’s been proven time and time again; limited thinking leads to limited results.

When we think in possibilities however then answers and solutions come to us.
Ken Blanchard once said,

If you want to go places you have never gone before, you have to think in ways you have never thought before.

Possibility thinking leads to the creative. It opens up new avenues and new solutions and allows you to be a more effective leader for your team.

Solutions Through Possibilities

If you ever saw the movie, Mr. Holland’s Opus, starring Richard Dreyfus as music teacher Glenn Holland you would see an excellent example of this. Mr. Holland is trying to write music and dreams of creating a world renown piece. To pay the bills, he takes on a job as a high school music teacher and faces challenge after challenge with the students and even his own child, who is born deaf.

Where others saw absolutes and insurmountable circumstances, Mr. Holland instead looked for possibilities. His passion for music and his desire to share that passion with others led him to think of unique ways to make things happen and achieve success. He finds creative ways to reach students and inspire them and even devises a way for his deaf son and other hearing impaired people to enjoy music through lights.

The end result was the lasting impact that Mr. Holland had on the people he influenced. He led them places they didn’t think they could go.

How We Can

As a leader, the responsibility we have as well is to lead people where they don’t necessarily think they can go. To do that, we have to be willing and prepared to explore possibilities and seek creative solutions in pursuit of our vision.

[snaptweet]When our vision and our passion join, we see hope. But when we think HOW WE CAN instead of “CAN WE”, then we create possibilities to bring our vision to reality.[/snaptweet]

Here’s some things to help open you up to possibilities:

Be a positive thinker – Many think positive thinking is just sticking your head in the sand, but actually a positive thinker looks for possibilities. They look for how they can get the best out of every situation.
Remember WHY and HOW – Question things a lot. Ask questions like “how can we be more effective? How can we serve our customers more efficiently? How can we improve our profitability?”
Avoid the Impossible Thinkers – The consultants and experts that tell you it can’t be done, that its impossible to reach your goals or objectives. There are always possibilities and we want to look for those instead of what we can’t do.
Think “AND” instead of “OR” – We limit our thinking by creating exclusionary choices. We can do this or have that. Why not look at how can we do this AND have that? How can we improve customer service AND increase profitability? Thinking that way helps us come up with creative solutions that are more effective for our organization.

What possibilities will you open yourself up to today?

Is Your Success Recipe Balanced?

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Recipe Disaster

One of the things I like to do to relax is cook. A couple of years ago I decided to make a special treat for everyone and I wanted to make a Caramel Flan for dessert. Now I had never made one before and so I had to find a recipe and follow it closely. One of the ingredients in the recipe was one cap (capfull) of Vanilla Extract. Well, I misread the recipe and thought it said one cup of Vanilla Extract. I thought that was extraordinary but the recipe must be right. So I had to run to store and buy more vanilla and added one cup of Vanilla Extract to the mix.

Well, as you may guess, the result was horrible. The smell and taste of the vanilla was so overpowering that no one could eat it and we had to throw it out!

I had the right ingredients but I didn’t have them in the right balance.

Seeking Balance

As an entrepreneur, as a small businessman, and as a leader we make those choices for balance on a daily basis. We recognize the importance of balance but it is very hard to achieve.

We need to keep things in perspective and understand first of all that you are never going to achieve perfect balance in our lives. There are always going to be things that happen daily that tip the scale one way or the other. No matter how good our plans are, life will get in the way of our quest to achieve balance.

What’s important to us is progress, not perfection.

Right Ingredients, Right Mix

A key to making progress is having the right ingredients in the right mixture.

The right skills in the right quantities
The right knowledge and information we need to make good decisions
The right spirtual foundation
The right team members around us
The right environment

Again, understand it will be a continual struggle. We want progress and not perfection. You will make balance choices each day and the scales will tip first to one side and then the other. The real balance is in the choices of how we spend our time and where it is most important to spend it now. Being consistent with those choices will help move us towards balance.

[snaptweet]

Don’t try to balance your life; work, home, church, community, friends. Instead, try to be consistent. Consistency seeks its own balance.

[/snaptweet]

Here’s a few things that will help you along towards making progress on achieving balance:

Establish priorities in advance – when your priorities are clear, decisions about where to spend your time become easier.
Gather an effective team – Without the support of people around you, you tend to view yourself as indispensable. When you do that, leaving work becomes harder to do. A good team gives you confidence.
Seek wise counsel to give you perspective – We all need someone to take our blinders off and see other points of view.
Find an accountability partner – Someone to help hold your responsible for your commitments. Someone who is preferably not your spouse or business partner.

Have you achieved balance? What things do you do on a daily basis to balance you life?

Nurture The Success Around You

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The Animal Nature of Nurture

One of the benefits of living in Central Florida is all the attractions around here. One of the attractions, of course, is Sea World. Sherry and I love to watch the animal trainers work with the animals at Sea World. It’s really interesting how they can do so well with it. There seems to be a very special relationship with the animal and many a trainer will tell you exactly that.

Recently I discovered how they are able to work with them so effectively. When an animal trainer is going to work extensively with an animal, it is critical during a developmental time that the trainer spend one-on-one time with the animal.

They will feed the animal
They make physical contact
They talk to the animal and encourage it.

This nurturing, one-on-one time allows the animal and the trainer to build reciprocal trust. The reciprocal trust and the nurturing that allow the trainer and animal to be able to work together effectively and safely.

The Human Nature of Nurture

As humans, we aren’t any different. We need nurturing ourselves.

We are all desperate for people to recognize that we are significant
We want them to recognize that we have an impact.
We want them to encourage us
We want them to guide us.

We all need that.

Giving Nurture

The flip side is that we all have the ability to nurture other people, it doesn’t come out naturally. It has to be intentional and it has to be developed over time.

Why would I want to bother to do that in a business environment or as a leader?

When we are able to nurture people, we are able to connect with people. When we can connect with people, we can build our influence with them. When you can build our influence, then you can help them get the most out of themselves. That’s what we want to able to do as a leader or businessperson: get the most out of others.

[snaptweet]”People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”[/snaptweet]
John Maxwell

Here’s some things you can do to build those nurturing relationships:

COMMIT TO PEOPLE – you have to be committed to their development. It doesn’t mean you are an enabler, it doesn’t mean that you take over their lives; it simply means that you provide the circumstances and that you are committed to helping them help themselves if they are willing to take the steps to go in the right direction.
BELIEVE IN PEOPLE – If you don’t believe that they can become better or that they can achieve greater things, then you are not going to be able to get anything out of them because that belief will show through. Whether you believe they are worthless or believe they are worthwhile, it will show through in everything you do.
GIVE WITH NO CONDITIONS – Pour yourself into them and do it without setting any conditions. A lot of people thing that giving is a reciprocal thing; I do something for you and you do something for me. No conditions here. Go in and pour yourself into them simply because you want to see them get the best out of themselves. You will benefit in the long-run but you can’t go into it with the expectation of a tradeoff because there isn’t necessarily going to be one.