High Impact Leaders – Details, episodes & analysis

On this episode, I'm going to focus on how to really develop leaders because it's a major goal for really every organization, no matter the size of your company, and right now is a great time to start planning for your future. 

In fact, if your organization has a culture of internal leadership development programs, you're going to be able to attract new team members as well as retain the top talent you already have. 

So basically in this session we're gonna pull back the curtains and kind of show you how to build your own personal leadership style. We're also going to show you how to tap into the untapped leadership potential that your team may have. 

If you follow these 5 practical steps, you'll be able to increase the productivity of yourself and your company extremely quickly.

Show Notes: Developing Leaders: 5 Steps to Developing Leadership Skills

(https://www.leadersinstitute.com/developing-leaders-the-5-step-leadership-skills-development-process/)

What if you could transform a routine training session into an unforgettable team experience that sharpens your groups skills and leaves a far deeper emotional impact on them.

Well on today's episode, I'm going to reveal a powerful method to make communication, problem solving, leadership skills; make the training for those type of concepts stick with your team way more, and leave way more of a lasting impression. 

And also, there's one really big secret I'm going to share with you that can really help your employee development training be way more effective, better the morale of the whole program, and maximize the genuine enjoyment your students get out of the session.

So if any of that sounds appealing or you want to know that one game changing secret, take a listen!

Show Notes: Soft Skills Training That Actually Works for Today’s Teams

(https://www.leadersinstitute.com/soft-skills-training-that-actually-works-for-todays-teams/)

Happy Memorial Day, everybody, and thanks to all those families whose loved one paid the ultimate sacrifice for freedom.

On this episode, I'm going to show you how to handle difficult employees. There will always be difficult employees in any organization. Even Fortune 500 companies have rotten tomatoes in them. As a leader, your job is to lead a team. Encourage them to do their work. Do their performance reviews, and talk to them when things go wrong. But how can you do that when you don’t even know who you’re dealing with?

This applies to everyone in your team, but more so to the difficult employees. This episode is a Leader’s Guide to common trouble makers in the office and was designed to help you understand your team members, especially the trouble makers.

In many cases, your challenging employee isn’t just trying to make your life more difficult.

Their difficult behavior often reflects strengths you saw when hiring. But some are simply problem employees, and keeping them due to staffing needs is a management mistake. Your first step as a new manager is identifying which is which.

These five common types can disrupt the whole team with negative attitudes or disruptive behaviors. Yet, many bring unique talents that drive success when guided properly. Their bad attitude might stem from passion or ambition misdirected. A clear plan with specific examples can channel their energy into positive change. Not every tough case is a toxic employee waiting to implode.

But some employees consistently show problematic behavior that hurts morale. Retaining them out of desperation risks poor performance across the board. Disciplinary action becomes necessary when efforts to redirect fail. Good management separates those with potential from true troublemakers who harm the team.

You’ll learn to spot these behaviors and act decisively. This episode breaks down the five types, their quirks, and how to handle difficult employees effectively. With the right approach, you turn challenges into wins for the whole team.

Parents know that it takes patience, encouragement, and consistent action to teach a baby to walk. The baby takes one step and the parents cheer.

She falls down, the parents say, “That’s OK. You can do it!”

The baby walks just a few feet, and she’s a champion.

Why don’t we use the same encouragement for our employees and coworkers?

DON’T LOOK FOR PERFECTION RIGHT AWAY. LOOK FOR IMPROVEMENT.

Most managers constantly call attention to the mistakes of their employees. Then they wonder why they must constantly look over the shoulders of their people. The secret to being a good manager is that whatever you call attention to, you get more of.

So, instead of pointing out the mistake, point out the improvement in the right direction.

If we want to build great leaders, we must help build their confidence as they gain experience. Call attention to their successes no matter how small these successes seem to be. When we do that, we are anchoring the positive behavior that they are exhibiting.

Want to change behavior? Try calling attention to someone’s mistake indirectly, and then watch to see how the behavior changes.

When you catch that person doing things the right way, praise the improvement. Chances are that you’ll begin to see this behavior more consistently.

Praise improvements in the right direction, and you’ll build strong leaders around you.

Week #4: Developing Leaders Around You.
Principle #27: Praise the Baby Steps.

One of the best coaches that I have ever been associated with was Coach Gary Gaines, who was the linebacker coach at my college. He also had a book and movie made about him called Friday Night Lights.

What makes him such a great coach is that he is a very mild-mannered person, but when he caught someone doing the right thing, he enthusiastically called attention to it. I still remember specific plays that I made in college because Coach Gaines would always give an immediate pat on the back. Then later, when we reviewed the film, he would show the great plays over and over again so that everyone saw them.

The other strength that Coach Gaines had was the way he made corrections and pointed out mistakes. Rather than saying, “Staneart, you missed two tackles,” he called attention to the mistakes as a team. The TEAM missed six tackles. He let us save face.

In the few years that I played for him, he developed three players who played professional football and one who has been an all-pro every year he played.

MOST MANAGERS CALL ATTENTION TO MISTAKES

Most managers use what Ken Blanchard calls the “Leave Alone, Zap” method of coaching. They leave their direct reports alone until they make a mistake, and then they come by and “Zap” them to make corrective action.

This type of management style makes it to where the manager becomes the merchant of death in that the only time the direct reports get coaching is when they get hammered.

A better way of managing and coaching people is to look for the things that they are doing right and reinforce those things.

Show encouragement and help them strengthen those things that they are already doing well.

If we catch people doing things wrong, their focus is on the mistake. If we catch people doing things right, their focus is on their success. We get more of what we focus on most.

Week #4: Developing Leaders Around You.
Principle #26: Catch People Doing Things Right.

https://www.leadersinstitute.com/daily-leadership-tip-26-catch-people-doing-things-right/

Daily Leadership Tip #25 is to Recognize the Potential in Others and Help Them Achieve It. This is Week #4 in our Daily Leadership Tips Series. The focus this week is on building other leaders.

For the past 20 years, The Leader’s Institute ® instructors have helped people gain confidence in becoming effective leaders by pointing out strengths in our class members that they may not even recognize in themselves.

William James, the father of modern psychology, said that in a person’s entire lifetime, he will only tap into 10% of his potential. Psychologists call this untapped potential our “blind spots.”

OUR JOB AS LEADERS IS TO HELP MINIMIZE THE BLIND SPOTS IN OTHERS

When we recognize potential in others, we need to encourage them to tap into that potential.

My files are full of letters from managers who came into their own shortly after getting that first big promotion.

OFTEN, BEING RECOGNIZED BY A LEADER IS THE CATALYST FOR NEW LEADERSHIP.

All they needed was someone to believe in them. A boss, mentor, or supervisor saw potential in them. Then, the confidence that they had grew even more dramatically when others see this confidence in them as well.

Don’t discount people because they have a few rough edges. Instead, look for the strengths that they have and help them grow even more in those areas.

People tend to live up to the expectations that others set for them, so set your standards high and encourage others to reach them.

Week #4: Developing Leaders Around You
Principle #25: Recognize the Potential in Others and Help Them Achieve It.

https://www.leadersinstitute.com/daily-leadership-tip-25-recognize-the-potential-in-others-and-help-them-achieve-it/

One common trait of great leaders is that they build other leaders along the way.  Zig Ziglar said for years that if you help enough people become more successful, you can’t help but become successful yourself.

This is true in our families, in our work environment, and also in our recreation.

For instance, one of the reasons Phil Jackson became one of the most successful basketball coaches of all time is that he was increasingly enthusiastic about the success of his players. 

Michael Jordan believed that this was so important, that he refused to play for any other coach.  Jackson has 8 NBA Championship rings as a coach.  And in 1998 after his sixth championship, he told Cigar Aficionado Magazine, "It's normal for people to want more credit for success than is due them, yet the reality is that our championships were won on the court by Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, the other players and the coaching staff.” 

Three years later, he had moved to a new team, this time without Jordan and Pippen,

Did he take credit this time? Nope. In fact, just the opposite. He told USA Today, "It's incredible to be in this position as a coach," said Jackson. "Everything revolves around the team and the staff… I've been in the right spot and fortunate enough to have players who put me in this position.”   

Great players are attracted to Jackson because he builds great leaders, and you can too if you are as enthusiastic about their success as you are your own.

Week #4: Developing Leaders Around You.
Principle #24: Be Enthusiastic about the Success of Others.

https://www.leadersinstitute.com/daily-leadership-tip-24-be-enthusiastic-about-the-success-of-others/

This is Week #4 in our Daily Leadership Tip series. This week we are covering seven ways to build leaders. Principle #23 is to Keep Promises, Even Small Ones.

A person who breaks his word on little things is also likely to break his word on bigger things too.

Wes Zimmerman, author of Perception of a Difference, put it very clearly when he wrote, "It has been my experience that people possessing high integrity are honest in little things and big ones. They are honest with themselves. They tend to think about what they are going to say before they say it. Above all, they do these things consistently. Their consistency earns my trust."

In contrast, when someone breaks a promise, even a little one, it shows their character.  They will tend to shade the truth and quote things out of context. 

Once this character flaw is noticed, it is very difficult to gain back that trust that is lost.

When promises, even little ones, are kept consistently over time, the leader develops a level of trust with the people that he or she interacts with.

Brian Tracy, a famous speaker and trainer says that, “The glue that holds all relationships together -- including the relationship between the leader and the led is trust, and trust is based on integrity.”

So, if you want to strengthen your integrity and build solid trust with your team, make sure to keep your promises.

Week #4: Developing Leaders Around You.
Principle #23: Keep Promises, Even Small Ones.

https://www.leadersinstitute.com/daily-leadership-tip-23-keep-promises-even-small-ones/

Continuing in our Daily Leadership Series Challenge, this week we will cover 7 ways to Build Leaders. The principles in the next section can help build the levels of trust and respect from others…

Many of this week’s principles will help you gain the trust and respect from people around you. As the levels of trust and respect increase, your influence over others will grow. The trust and respect will result from the “Win/Win” relationships that you have already built by using the earlier principles.

1. Establish solid trust before offering advice.
2. Keep promises… even small ones.
3. Be enthusiastic about the success of others.
4. Recognize the potential in others and help them achieve it.
5. Catch people doing things right.
6. Praise the baby steps.
7. Go out of your way for people.

Leadership Principle #22 – Establish Solid Trust Before Offering Advice.

The term “constructive criticism” is an oxymoron.

Think about it… When was the last time someone gave you constructive criticism and you responded with the following?

“Thank you so much for pointing out that mistake for me! If you hadn’t said something, I would have just continued to screw that up. Thank you so much.”

I know, I’m being a bit sarcastic, but it proves a point. Anytime we criticize someone, that person will always hold some resentment against us.

Can we point out the mistakes of others without resentment? Yes, but we must have their solid trust, and they must know that our only concern is their welfare.

EVERY RELATIONSHIP HAS VALUE.

Picture your relationships with others as a check registry. Anytime you have said something positive to or done something positive for the person, add a deposit into the account.

Anytime you have said something negative to or done something negative against that person, register a withdrawal.

When we use the principles in the book, we build a positive trusting relationship with people, so we have a positive balance in this account. However, if we have violated these principles, then our relationship bank account may be way overdrawn.

We’ll probably need to make more deposits before trying to influence these people or change their behavior.

Week #4: Developing Leaders Around You.
Principle #22: Establish Solid Trust before Offering Advice.

https://www.leadersinstitute.com/daily-leadership-tip-22-establish-solid-trust-before-offering-advice/

In our modern society, the art of giving people a sincere compliment has gone the way of the vinyl record or the Model T. You come across them occasionally, but they are few and far between.

I have asked hundreds of different audiences across the country why they think that we don’t give as many compliments as we probably should (or receive the number of compliments that we probably deserve.) In response, I have heard every answer under the sun. But what I find most often is that we are mainly too self-centered and too busy to take the time to give a sincere compliment to our fellow human beings.

A GOOD COMPLIMENT IS THE OPPOSITE OF FLATTERY

There is also a negative connotation about giving compliments to people. We think of people who give compliments as brown-nosers or kiss-asses. In the modern era, we have confused a sincere compliment with flattery. To most people they are one and the same.

In addition, men are also less inclined to give compliments to female coworkers out of fear of being accused of harassment.

With all these challenges to overcome, most people just don’t bother to compliment one another now. It’s easier just to keep to ourselves.

A GOOD LEADER CAN USE COMPLIMENTS TO SET YOURSELF APART FROM THE CROWD

You can compliment people on what they have. A compliment like this would be something like “Nice tie.”

You can compliment people on what they do. “Thanks for turning in the report early,” is an example.

However, each of these types of compliments has a chance of being seen as insincere.

However, if you give the people around you a compliment based on a strength of character that you notice in them, they will always see the compliment as sincere.

Give them a strength-centered compliment and their confidence will grow. You will also be well thought of by that person.

Week #3: Gain Enthusiastic Cooperation.
Principle #21: Give Strength-Centered Compliments.

https://www.leadersinstitute.com/daily-leadership-tip-21-give-strength-centered-compliments/