I was asked to speak recently to another leadership team asking me to answer the following question, “You speak about alignment often… that’s great but how do we get ourselves aligned?” Below is an outline of my response: 1. Serve. There’s much talk nowadays about servant leadership but what is it? It is primarily a mindset each player embraces to do what needs to be done in service to the team and the mission. So here’s the basic question I need to ask myself: “Do I understand our mission and what am I doing to contribute to its success?” If that’s too abstract, start by actually and concretely serving others. Buy your team member a cup of coffee on your own dime, not the business. Go support your colleague’s son or daughter by watching that next soccer match, or find a way to be that person who cheers everyone up!

If there were no problems to solve, no one needing help, and perpetual justice – there would be no need for moral and effective leadership. That’s not our world. We need leadership that solves problems, works for the good of all, and is willing to personally sacrifice because that’s what it takes. Phil Eastman, a friend and leadership consultant defines moral and effective leadership this way: “Leadership is the ability to move a group of people through non-coercive means to an end that is in the long-term best interest of everyone.” I highlighted four key words: ability, non-coercive, end, and long-term. Ability Has to do with the on-going skill and work of communicating a compelling vision and keeping everyone focused on how their work contributes to its success. Non-coercive Describes the spirit of volunteerism. The leader leads from a sense of calling and the team members engage willingly, not by

If I haven’t confessed it before, I’m sorry. I believe hiring is one of the most difficult responsibilities of leadership, and this difficulty arises for many reasons. Let me list several, even though I may not comment on each one: First, those hiring are often inexperienced and have little respect for the task. Additionally, many believe they have good intuition. Moreover, our society continues to design job descriptions for superheroes. Applicants also have varying levels of self-awareness and sometimes lie to themselves, even unintentionally. Furthermore, those hiring have been burned in the past and now have heightened awareness. But instead of getting educated, they create new experiential principles they hope will protect them from getting hurt again. One such principle is the commitment to hire and promote from within. Here’s what I like about the idea of hiring from within: Most of the onboarding has already been accomplished. There is

If you’ve been an employer for any length of time, you have been humbled by the task of hiring. I have. When we hire the wrong people, we expose our organization to loss. The wrong person can cost your endeavor thousands of dollars, wound your team morale, negatively impact your customers, and create a culture of distrust. The list of possible grievances only gets darker and more devastating. That’s the bad news. There is good news. When we hire the right people, it changes everything. Typically, profits increase, morale goes up, trust breeds an increase in speed of operations, and the overall level of performance improves paving the way for a more professional organization. We should approach the hiring process with humility and skill. When we lack humility, we recklessly bring just about anyone on the team out of either desperation or because we are deaf to wisdom’s warning. We

I’m a huge Peter Drucker fan. I’m a student. Though he has gone to be with the Lord, I still pull down two of his works I hold most dear. They are classics in my mind: The Effective Executive and Managing the Non-Profit Organization. I’ll get back to Drucker in a moment but first allow me to set up this blog post. I’ve made some serious mistakes as a leader. Yes, my history is filled with many wins but the mistakes compete for space in those recurring memories. In some regards, I am a perfectionist so I’m always failing in one way or another. I do not recommend this trait of perfectionism because it’s not good for you or those in your life. I’m working on a better balance in this regard. Details of the past (wins and losses) fade but the principles are captured for life. One such principle

This coaching moment is for the achiever. The go-getter. The person who believes in goals. There are Three (3) Tools You Need for Your Next… Year, season, journey, challenge, goal. Whatever you want to call it, you will need three tools. These tools are a way of thinking. They are tools for collaborating, and individual questions you need to answer. They will provide focus, alignment, energy, and ownership. Just as important, these three tools will keep you from taking shortcuts, looking for quick fixes, assuming, and simply fooling yourself. As a bonus, these three questions will keep you from chasing after the wrong questions. WHAT The first question is the starting place. It’s the first tool. Here it is. WHAT exactly do you want to accomplish? The correct answer is not a long list of goals. It is probably not the first thing that comes to mind. One of the