Lawrence Henderson LEAD Training
Faculties and staffs became very important as an executive officer. Since then I’ve become a certified leadership coach and trainer independent through the John Maxwell team. I don’t know if you all have heard of him, he actually has his base here in the [inaudible 00:00:24] area. And where he actually does his 12 stones equip school as well up there. So I’m also an equip trainer as well. Other than that, I’m also a leader and coach and trainer at Lead Up Church, I’m over our small group program, the leadership development training of that program as well. So I’m passionate about leadership because I’ve seen it done wrong, I’ve seen it done right and I’ve seen the effects on either side of it. So I’m excited today about teaching you all and giving you a little education about becoming a leader or becoming a person of influence so let’s get rolling.
All right. Who recognizes that quote at the bottom of the screen? It says “a willingness and desire to serve your community and your fellow man are just as important as academic pursuits.” Who recognizes it? Anybody? You wouldn’t. You wouldn’t. All right, no one? This actually comes directly out of the 2020 vision plan for the university. We’ll get word of that next week [inaudible 00:01:43]. So John Maxwell actually says “leadership is influence, nothing more, nothing less. You influence them to the good, you influence them to the bad. But at the end of the day, if you’re not influencing the people that directly report to you, they’re not following you and therefore you’re just taking a walk. You’ve got no one following you.” So simple, again, influence equals leadership.
So the goal of this training, better understand influence, going to take you through what the bad parts look like and transition you through where you are, potentially at the positional level and then possibly strategically moving you up as the management goes, or depending on where you sit in the university hierarchy. And then how to increase this influence. Again, I must put a caveat in here, this is an hour and a half course. Or, some of you hoping less because you’ve got things to do after this. So this is not the end all be all for leadership, it is development. And it’s constant. So if you’re not continually in a perpetual state of learning, you’re just missing something. So this just gives you little drops in the bucket. A couple tools, couple things that you can take out of here and hopefully implement today.
All right. Who you influence. So everyone in here, people managers, raise your hand. All right. Who do you influence? All right, every single day you have the opportunity to influence your direct reports, whether they want you to or not. Those are the people that the university has entrusted to you and therefore you have an obligation to grow them, to mold them into what you need them to be as a department and then what the university needs them to be to compliment the innovation and creativity level that drives this mission of getting towards that 2020 goal.
How do you influence others? It matters. Are you the type of person that drags people along, whether they want you to or not? You’re going to get it done, I gave you a direct order. That’s my military talking. You’re going to do it my way and you’re going to do it whether you want to or not. Or are you this person? That’s you? Oh okay. [inaudible 00:04:03]
Johnny was speaking.
Okay. Intimidation.
My way or the highway.
There you go. We’re getting there. [inaudible 00:04:32] This one, as you can see, I’m a kind of small guy, so I tried to use this one a lot in uniform. It worked in uniform. But as I’ve learned being out of uniform almost two years now, I have to adjust. I have to be kinder, I have to be gentler and I have to, on occasion, give a hug or two or three. And so intimidation, not a good one. Or, this one. How many of you have said you’ve mastered the art of word? And you can make people think what you want them to think just by saying it a certain way? How many of you thought that was a good idea? Nobody? Nobody’s willing to admit it? Nobody? Okay, got one. Got one brave soul willing to admit it. Manipulation, that’s not the way to go about it. Okay? Again, this right here, it destroys trust, it destroys credibility, and it destroys authenticity, which is necessary for leadership and advancing your team.
Now, in John Maxwell’s book The Five Levels of Leadership, position is number one. Position was given to you by the university. Position with no leadership doesn’t mean you stay there. [inaudible 00:06:01] appointed to you. Your employees didn’t have the option to pick you. In some cases they may have, but like me in the United States Army, I was chosen. I got put in a position and they were voluntold to like me. So position of leadership, level one. All right?
Now we start to build them up. Every day interactions. The exchange between you and your employees. What does that look like? Right? Pause for a second, what does that look like? If you’re not sure, go talk to your employees. Okay? The exchange on a daily basis matters. Because are you actually saying good morning as a drive by? Or are you stopping and actually exchanging dialogue? I heard your mother in the hospital still. How’s she doing? A little empathy. Up until about a year ago I didn’t know how to spell that word. Now I do. Empathy, again start to build that relationship. We’ll get into more of that later.
Now, persuasion. All right, how many of you have Twitter accounts? Not enough of you. [inaudible 00:07:31]. Your students all have Twitter accounts, probably tweeting about you or your employees have Twitter accounts. They tweet about you whether you know it or not. Is the IT manager in here? All right so you’re looking at Twitter accounts? All right so go to him if you did something and your employee didn’t like it, go to him. May be on Twitter or Facebook. So you all need to connect. It’s another way to connect now. If you’re not plugged in, again, all my accounts are very recent. Had to plug in. Didn’t want to, kicking and screaming, but persuasion.
Respect, how many of you care whether or not your direct reports actually respect you? Everybody. All right. Kind of fun to know, right? You think they’re going to listen to you, if eventually you think they’re going to trust you, you think they’re eventually going to have to care about you, there must be some level of respect that is developed. Again, going back to position of leadership, respect is not appointed to you, that position was. Respect is an earned right. It’s earned. Go ahead.
I often talk about the difference, a fine line between respect and demonstrating respect because the position does warrant demonstrated respect, right? And so I think what this is particularly is much more along the personal exchange part of it. And that comes with the positional person of leadership demonstrating that respect constantly, as consistently as possible. We’re all human.
That’s right. Modeling good behavior. That’s what you all aspire to do on an every day basis. But again, the position, as she said, the position itself should garner a level of I say reverence because that’s kind of how I see myself. Deity-esque sometimes. But it’s a respect for the actual position. You earned the right to be there, you earned that promotion, you earned that title so yes. But in this respect it’s very relational in that again, there’s an exchange. I respect you as a professional, you therefore respect me and my position as your leader and then again we build dialogue as time moves forward.
All right, how many will I influence? Okay, it’s just not here at the university. It starts at home before you ever even get here. Because how many of you have ever had that horrible conversation at home and then brought it to work with you? Anybody? Nobody willing to admit it. I reserve ours for Tuesday evenings. Tuesday. There is no good TV on, you can’t mess with me so Tuesday is our day. Netflix is all mine after that and then I say sorry for what I said. All right? So pick a day. No, I’m just saying [inaudible 00:10:42].
All right. Twitter account folks, how many followers you got? Who’s willing to say? If you’ve got three or low, three or less, raise your hand. All right. We’ve got two, we’ve got two honest. All right. A thousand or more? [crosstalk 00:10:57] Facebook, twitter. How many? You checking? [crosstalk 00:11:01]
No twitter, because I haven’t even learned it.
[crosstalk 00:11:07] You’ve got six thousand followers? On Facebook.
I’m going to follow you right now.
Wow. All right. Everybody up here? If you have an outside business, get with him. Promote your stuff with his page. All right. He’s got six thousand followers. That’s good stuff. All right. How many do you influence? Is it just your team? That eight to ten people on your team that you’re actually influencing on a daily basis or do you have outside organizations that you’re a part of? Any toastmasters in the room? [crosstalk 00:11:41] A few. All right. Keep track of them now. That’s why you don’t do it. [inaudible 00:11:56]
Who are you influencing, seriously? Have you actually thought about it or is it just a muscle memory thing? You just go about your day, I am who I am, I exist, or the plan and I just do groundhog day all over again. Actually be aware, be cognitive of the actual lives that you have responsibility over. Being a leader is like man [inaudible 00:12:25] responsibility. It should not be taken lightly. Should not be. I referred to a bad boss earlier. My first army company commander. As a lieutenant, bright eyed, bushy tailed, superhero kind of mentality, wanted to save everybody in Iraq. He was one of the most horrible bosses you’d ever imagine. In a combat time. He was bad. We’d thought he would pick up something, like they might die tomorrow, so I’m going to be nice to people. No. He didn’t care. He got his naps in. Made sure he ate. Went to the gym. He gained like twenty pounds of muscle while we were deployed, but he just did not know how to talk to people. So my forty five guys had to come up with an influence strategy.
Well, who knew, six months before that I was prepping [inaudible 00:13:23]. I sat him down, kind of horseshoe style, some of them sat Indian style as you did as a child. Those with bad needs couldn’t do it anymore, so they just held onto their legs. And I said, “I cannot deploy with followers. I need leaders.” Who knows why? Anybody want to take a stab at why? [inaudible 00:13:45]
[inaudible 00:13:45] just be done like that means they’re in a position or else [inaudible 00:13:53] in one area and somebody else control another area.
Exactly.
If one of the leaders fall, somebody has to step up.
Exactly. Two men hit the nail on the head. You’ve got to think about the next man up. There’s no time to flinch, no time to think about it. Everyone knows the mission. Everyone knows the goal. Everyone knows the instinct. Do you have a succession plan on your team? You should lead every single day as if you’re leading other leaders because this just shouldn’t be reserved for you. It’s for them too. Because ultimately, everyone’s going to move up. So why not be training your replacement? How novel of a concept. But when it gets real, life or death are in a balance. It starts hitting home for you. Who’s my next? Who’s my next guy and does he know? Does she know it? All right. Now, it’s not the greatest situation, but we bring it back, and let’s think, how to solve it. We don’t do that. All right. Here in life at the university, you are innovative, creative, raising tomorrow’s future leaders in the industry. Who’s your next, have you identified them? Who has identified at least two or three prospects? Hot contenders. Who’s identified them? Single digit hands. And by the hands, guestimate which generation you’re in.
If you haven’t identified them, if you haven’t started grooming them, you haven’t started developing them, know that course is coming, but start identifying them. They’ve probably already told you, or they’ve said something that indicates they may be next. Right? Just a little tid bit.
When do you influence? Here you go. We’d say that the previous one said leaders are leaders, but leaders find teachable moments. Early on in your career, before you got the position that you’re in now, how many of you were perfect? Only me? Only me. Just me. Got one, she’s willing to admit. All right. Very modest. Very modest. No. We never were. [crosstalk 00:16:33] Look, they’re having a dialogue up here about how perfect she is. All right.
I’ve seen you in the wellness center.
All right. But, how many of you had a good boss that you could think about, even a bad boss, that identified a teachable moment early on? That actually propelled you to who you are today? Or at least assisted. They dropped a tool or two into your toolbox. Anybody willing to share that story? Yeah, I knew it was going to be you. Go ahead.
She said a lot of personal stuff, hope you caught some of that. But, I’m going to give you all one minute, sixty seconds, to think about three characteristics that helped you develop into what you are today. Just three. You’ve got a minute, you’re on the clock.
Who’s ready to share? Who’s ready to share? [inaudible 00:17:37] All right. Here you go.
Resourcefulness, perseverance or aggravation as the case may be, and creativity slash humor.
Nice. Who else is willing to share?
Ability and take time to listen before you say anything, think gratitude and express it and always be kind because you don’t know where they’re coming from.
Nice. Some good stuff. One more. One more.
Mine’s delayed decision making, a lot of times when you [inaudible 00:18:11], solve the world’s problems. Also getting into the habit of asking the right questions, that’s important. And also the importance of the follow through. So to justify something, make sure you follow through on it. A lot of times, the follow through is more respected than what you told them in the beginning.
So glad you [inaudible 00:18:32] on that. All right. If you follow through, it’s like, listen or hearing. If you can’t follow through, they don’t think you got it. All right. So there’s were some really good ones. So, I hope everyone wrote them down or at least took a mental picture of those qualities and traits.
All right. We break through places as we begin to influence others. Now what do these breakthrough places look like? I kind of mentioned empathy earlier. There’s going to be those moments, there will come those times when you are going to be that person for them. Are you prepared? If you’re not prepared, do you know the resources, whether it’s a person, a place or a thing, to get them support? Tragedy gives us the biggest examples of when to do this in those breakthrough places. How you say it in the followup. Someone has a death in the family [inaudible 00:19:41], but are you that leader who actually knows, “I know I gave them a project. I know I gave them a do out.” Are you the leader that goes to them and says, “do you need help? Do you need additional support? How can I help?”
Because if you’re like me, I would cry. I would feel. I’m joking folks, I cry all the time. You couldn’t tell, could you? I’m early like that. But I feel. I hurt. But it’s those leaders that actually see it in your face when you’re not saying the words. They notice your mood’s changing, it’s those breakthrough places. That team member that just seems overly obnoxious, they’re a know it all. Where’s that coming from? Do you ask the powerful question because their previous boss may have been a box of rocks? And they had to know everything. So now you get them. The know it all. From a place that they had to be. How do you lead that person? You may not be qualified to. Resource yourself. You’ve got all these peers in here that are other leaders. Some of them seem more than others. Leverage the leaders around you to get to these breakthrough places, because again, you begin to build authenticity through helping them in these places. I call it the sweet spot.
When you help them, when you follow through, you ask those powerful questions in these places, those will be the employees who will run through the wall for you. Those will be the ones that you could release the champion for your department, for your team and champion for themselves and begin to build an identity. Because again, they may be coming from a place where they’ve always been told they’re not smart enough, just didn’t get it quick enough. Again, knowing where your people are in their process. Those breakthrough places. Everybody tracking with me?
All right. I like to say as a leader, and a leadership trainer, I’m the catalyst for your perpetual change. Heavy handed, right? Very inspirational. Looks good on the back of a t-shirt too. But, what kind of catalyst are you? What gaps are you bridging? You need to be that. Okay? Who got told that in the interview process before you took your position, that you were going to have to be that person? Who told you? Nobody? All right, we’ve got one. Somebody was honest with her. You have to be superwoman. You got it. You got told you had to be superwoman and wear a cape? All right. I have my t-shirt on under here. I wear it all the time. You have to be all things for everybody, whether you’re qualified or not. But again, don’t do it alone. If you try to do it alone, failure awaits you. We were meant to do this life together.
Leadership, influence, growth – it was meant to be together. It’s why I do track changes, that’s why we track lessons learned, that’s why all those things are archived, for history purposes. That’s why it’s put down in books, like the Five Levels of Leadership or The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. So that we can now pick those things up, we can read them, we can leverage them because somebody out there with 50 or 60 years experience probably wrote a book about it. If it’s not in that book, one of the people in this room lived it. All right? Leverage it. Be the catalyst. Bridge the gap. [inaudible 00:24:10]
That trust word. Pesky, pesky word. Trust, number one on all you guy’s lists, a thing that you need to have. Nobody? Who thinks so? Trust? All right. It’s a technique.
I think one of the most valuable things for me and in the different leaders or mentors that I work with, is knowing that they had my back. So that if there was anything that went wrong or just a human error, that I knew that my boss or my leader had my back and would work with me through it instead of just one and done. So for me, having that trust in the leader who I’m working for makes a huge difference.
Wow. So, no bus drivers? Nobody’s a bus driver leader? Not going to back up over you? Drive forward. Back up again. Make mush out of you. Say you were incompetent? So you’re incompetent, don’t have a job, because they didn’t resource you properly? All right? Trust. They’ve got to know you’re in it with them. They’ve got to know you’re in it with them. Good, bad, indifferent. I used to have an incoming speech that I used to do to all my incoming command and my soldiers that I used to say, I’ve got one person [inaudible 00:25:44] that I’m responsible to, I’m married to her, she carries my last name. But the rest of you, I will cover you. I will cover you as long as you cover me.
I put the accountability back on them. Don’t set me up. You’ve got to give me something to work with. If you say you’ve done your job, you say you’ve done what you’re supposed to do, every single day, I got your back. The moment you fall off that cliff, I’m not falling with you because integrity for me, you get into that in ten ways, but integrity for me, can’t compromise. And again to me, it goes hand in hand with trust. Lack of integrity, [inaudible 00:26:36] I trust you or not, it’s a written rule for me.
Where do you influence? Back to all those likes, back to all those followers who you are influencing. Where are you doing that? Are you just doing it here? The army, love them. Love them to death. They’ve kind of got this all wrong. I used to see some of the most hardcore army non-commission officers when they were at work in uniform and their kids didn’t listen. Their kids ran around crazy [inaudible 00:27:21]. It was almost to the point, you could’ve seen that child in a grocery store line and you wanted to take them from their parent and shake them. Sit down somewhere. And you would look, they just cussed me out earlier today. Wow. Why are you harder on me than the family you live with? That you actually have responsibility to raise? But you’re holding me to a higher standard than your own family. And they’re going to be somebody’s hellions when they’re in school, when they’re in public, in the community. How many of you know people like that? Don’t raise your hand. Don’t raise your hand.
Not incriminating anyone in the room. Don’t do it. I got one, he almost did it. All of us have those people in our minds that really, leaves a lot to be desired, where are you influencing? How many volunteers, outside of here, how many volunteers are in the room? Volunteer at Habitat for Humanity, Covenant House, different places? In Atlanta, probably is one of the largest metropolitan areas for that type [inaudible 00:28:37]. I mean, they’ve got every organization under the sun, there’s an ocean that’s that close to here and they’ve got Save the Whales typed stuff. It’s crazy. [inaudible 00:28:47]. From tree hugging, to everything else they’ve got. Get involved, in your communities. That’s another way to show your employees and people that you’re actually leading, that you’re leading by example. You’re modeling good behavior. Okay?
Inside [inaudible 00:29:07]. All right? We’ve said this one. Leadership [inaudible 00:29:09]. True statement? Our influence with others is usually not in all areas? I was at a convention a couple of months ago, a John Maxwell convention, where he said when he wrote the 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, he didn’t possess all 21. So the guy wrote the book. What he said next was probably one of the most profound things that he could say again, leading together. What he did was he hired a staff that completed the 21 where all their leadership traits overlapped. So again, he found a way to bridge his gaps. By hiring the right people whose traits and qualities filled in where he was lacking. And so he had a phenomenal monster staff, across industries, marketing, coaching, leadership development, public speaking. He himself, over 30 years as a pastor, now on the secular side, trying to bridge the gap and train leadership aside from his religion.
So, he could go out, and he understood, I can’t have a room full of pastors, but I’m trying to bridge the gap between industries. So, he went and got them. And as a byproduct, some things happened. Naturally. But, the intent was, I need the best in their industries, and I’m not. So I need to go get them to fill out my staff. Again, start to think about, get those wheels turning. Who on your teams right now can start to bridge your gaps? How do you know what your gaps are? We’ll get into that a little bit later. All right.
Responsibility. You got told that in the interview. Your position comes with a certain level of responsibility. Maybe one, two, three or 50 things. All right. Positive or negative. All right. Where are my positive folks at? Five? Just five? That’s all I’ve got? HR? See who you need to learn from. See a climate survey coming your way. All right. Our influence can grow. It’s not a static thing. Courses like this, it’s a start. But you have to keep this training rolling. You’ve got to keep it rolling. Lifelong learning. That’s what you all aspire to be in here at such a great university. People with positive influence add value to others. Wow. Add value to somebody.
I’ve got two crazy pups. We adopted them. I add value to their lives. How do I know? I just come home. That’s all I do. Just come home. They show me. We love you. No. Who do you add value to? Think about that. Any mentors in the room? All right. About 25 percent. Look for those mentor mentee opportunities. You all going to have a formal program. Look at outside orientations. Coaching sessions. Inspiring others. Big Brother, Big Sisters. It’s a great organization. I’m a big brother, I have a little brother. He’s a rockstar. I tell him that, he acts like it. I also got a bigger one, 15. He’s in the Atlanta Boys Choir. Wow. He added value to my life by telling me that. And then, [inaudible 00:33:21] when I went to see him perform. Wow. If you would’ve seen him, you would’ve judged him, you wouldn’t have said singer. You wouldn’t have, I’m telling you. I did it. I projected it onto him. I said, this kid has maybe one or two traits. One or two. Yeah. And he’s doing it [inaudible 00:33:44]. When he said, Atlanta Boys Choir, been singing for six years, well all right.
He was the chameleon at school. He’s playing as if he’s not somebody outside of that. I have no clue what type of kid he is. Soloist. Singer. So how do I add value to that? Give him goals. He doesn’t have a father in his life. Somebody’s going to have to hold him accountable. Add value to people.
Okay. So, ten ways. I’m going to fly through them. Integrity. Pop, it’s my word. I may not be able to spell it right now, but it’s a good one. It’s stable. If you don’t got it, get some. Get some integrity. It’s all been through. Move mountains. As long as they trust you, they know you’re bomb. They will continue to follow you.
Nurture. Men, say it with me. The word’s nurture. Say nurture. [crosstalk 00:34:58]. All right. It’s not natural for us to nurture. All right. It’s a stereotype.
It’s not a cultural-
It’s not a cultural – thank you for that. Thank you. But, it’s not an innate ability for us, to nurture and cultivate things. So of you, who has a green thumb, men? Green thumb? We’ve got the gardener. [crosstalk 00:35:35]. Green or brown. You have to nurture relationships. You have to nurture your people. Who didn’t sign up for that? Nobody? Nobody signed up for getting all the [inaudible 00:35:51]? Nobody? That wasn’t in the job description? Yeah. It’s all there. It’s all there. Jack of all trades, anything else that falls into that category. [crosstalk 00:36:09]
So, faith. Does anybody know what faith in [inaudible 00:36:13] is? To lead them into the future. Do you have faith in their ability to do their job? Who in here says no to a couple of employees? Don’t raise your hands. You hired them.
No we didn’t.
Oh, [crosstalk 00:36:31]. We’re getting emotional. I hit one. You’ve got to be able to trust. Release some power to them. No. You’ve got faith in your team. A lot do not. That’s good. Sometime there are [inaudible 00:36:56] issues. Those generations [inaudible 00:36:59]. Outside influences. All right, faith. Do they have faith in you?
All right. Who said listener? All right. Everybody listen up. We’ve got some talkers already, they’re skipping this part. You’ve got to listen to people. Okay. Eye contact. Wow, what an adult thing to say. Eye contact when you’re talking to people. So some of you have all been a little uncomfortable as I look around the room. It’s okay. But eye contact. Make sure you’re in. Make sure I’m getting to you.
Powerful questions. That got said. Now. Just asking questions. It’s okay. Asking the right questions is the key to the safe. So, those are going to look different for each individual employee. Do not lump them into one category. Everyone processes information differently. Okay. So ask those questions.
Where are my married folks in here? All right. Look at that one real close. Especially if you’re a wife. Look real close. Husbands, you with me? All right. Don’t interrupt. When you’re talking to your employees, or anyone else, let them get it out. Let them get it out. [crosstalk 00:38:26] Okay. So how many of you deflect and change questions? It’s technique. You do it and get out of arguments. Don’t like confrontation. Don’t change the subject. It’s being talked about for a reason. Listen. Hear why it’s being talked about. Hear why it’s important to the person actually saying what they’re saying. Don’t change the subject.
Emotion. Empathy. All these E words that I didn’t know existed. Have a little emotion in this process.
Responsive listening. Now, I’m doing some marriage maintenance because I think it’s important coming up on year 13 of marriage. So we’re doing, we’re in marriage maintenance counseling. And we get this responsive listening thing, saying I statements. What I hear you saying to me is this. It applies to your team. So if you get it wrong, they can reiterate what it is. Don’t assume you got it, because again, we all process information differently, right? So what you hear is the sky is blue, and maybe the sky is gray. It’s blue. Okay. So, responsive questioning. I didn’t quite catch what you were saying. Can you reiterate that for me? All right.
Understanding. Again, we’re all brought up differently, unless there are any brothers and sisters in here.
It doesn’t matter, their perception of how they were brought up is different even within siblings.
I’m telling you, that’s where I was going.
My brother never met my parents.
I have a sister, she’s in the middle. She claims she never met her parents either. Processing differently. So, understand how they’re processing information or at least try. Some things you can’t dive into. You’ve got to know when to cut it off. And know which road you’re not going to go down. Because it may be a one way street. Okay. Know what those conversations look like. Know the indicators for those conversations, that they’re not going to be one sided. And whether or not you actually need to apply some understanding to it. Okay. Those are those hard leader decisions. All right. I’m taking this, gather information, follow up. Okay. This is what I found out. This is what you found out. Now we can talk about it and then potentially understand where they’re coming from. Okay.
What does this look like? Grow yourself, grow your people, grow your organization. Which in total, involves everybody. How many of you have all done 360 assessments for your annual evaluations? It’s part of the process here, performance. [crosstalk 00:41:45] One of my good friends, she told me about, they actually had a 360 workshop, live workshop, in person workshop where she sat in the middle of the room, she had two layers of employees, and it was rapid fire. And she was able to answer and reply her thought process behind certain decisions that some of them thought were horrible, but she was adult enough to have her notepad ready to start writing down how they move forward. So the inside layer was personal to her. How are you not assisting us, how are you not feeling? The outside layer had everything to do with the organization. So our goals, our mission statement, our vision. We just don’t get where you’re coming from. And so after it was done, what they didn’t know, was each of them would get a turn. Yeah. Light bulb moment. They didn’t see it coming. But she modeled it. She sat there, she took it, showed them her three pages of notes, and then each person was next, peer reviewed. Peer reviewed. Accountability.
Now, she gave them an out. If you’re not there, where you can receive constructive criticism, because some of us aren’t, I’ve just been able to do it as of last week, I know myself, tell me you like me and cut that off. Just stop right there. But some people can’t take it. She identified them. But, she also didn’t let them participate. If you can’t take it, sit over there, grow, develop, take notes, and see what your other teammates are modeling for teammates. After it was over, she had them do a climate survey about the exercise. How many of you know she got raving reviews after that? Huge game changer. First time done in her department. First time ever that a leader was authentic enough to sit in the middle of that and just get pinged from all sides. Okay.
How many of you all have done the Myers-Briggs? What about ESTJs? ESTJs, nobody? Anybody in here feelers? Is? Interpersonal? In the army, I was an ESTJ. Straight leader. I’m in charge, superman type stuff. Out of the army two years later, I took it again, oh my god. I got feelings. I got like eight different categories now. I can bridge the gap between a lot of different places. [inaudible 00:45:00]. I talk to people now without telling them what to do. No. You’ve got to know. You’ve got to know. And they should know. How many of you know if you deploy people in the right way, you have job satisfaction [inaudible 00:45:20] movement in some people, but it becomes an enjoyable workplace when you know where everybody’s coming from. Now, those assessments aren’t end all be all. How many of you heard about Birkman? The Birkman is an exhaustive version of the Myers-Briggs. It’s on steroids. You get a book after your assessment, they actually have Birkman translators that will sit you down, and say, this is your bible of who you are. I was a really deep person apparently. I needed to be outdoors a lot. And I just needed people to do whatever I said, not too far off.
But I had an adventure side [inaudible 00:46:04]. So know who you are, know who they are, and then know where the organization’s going. So you can deploy them properly. All right. How many of you all have gotten lost via GPS? Everybody, one time or another. Update didn’t happen? You just got lost. If you don’t know where you’re going, how do you expect to get anybody else there? It’s the law of navigation. Now, some of us innately have that ability to forecast, to see things, it’s called discernment. You discern certain things, you have an innate ability, gut feeling, but navigating is what gets people to follow you. Because people have got to know you know where you’re going. Or at least get a couple bullet points on it. You’ve got to get there somehow. At least get directions from someone. Okay. You’ve got to know how to navigate. Or you’re never going to be able to right the ship. It’s going to be a boat tossed in the wind. Okay.
Another way. Connect. I heard a quote one time. You can’t correct until you actually connect. It was relationship [inaudible 00:47:29]. How many of you over the years have had a boss, that was very authoritarian, but they’d come in and stay like that and never cared to even learn your last name? They just knew you were on the books and you had to do your time? Anybody? Didn’t know your kids names, your husband, your spouses name, your dog’s name, your cat’s name? Didn’t know anything about you? They put you out on PTO, didn’t know why. You’re in the hospital. It’s paid time off, got surgery. Something. Oh [inaudible 00:48:06]. Everybody else on the team knew, but you. All right. Are you connected to your people? Now, categorize. Don’t be nosy. Any noseys in here? Nobody? [inaudible 00:48:32].
You just happened to know the employee [inaudible 00:48:35]. Someone to tell you some of their desires.
You’ve got to know how to filter that stuff too. Like dump it. Who’s been dumped on? Anybody been dumped on? Everybody? Oh gosh, people are uncomfortable sometimes. And you’ve got to connect at some point. Okay.
Empowerment. How many of you have actually released some of your authority to some of your top employees to make decisions on your behalf or your team? How many of you do that? Good. Because you trust them. Some parts your possibly developed in to get to that point. Everybody’s not going to get there. Let me help you with that. Everybody’s not going to get to that point where you release anything to them. Some of them will actually tell you they never want any responsibility outside of their position description. How many of you have heard that? One of the hardest things for me, coming from being an army officer is being an individual contributor, because somebody told me to turn my switch off and keep it off. I can’t do that, it’s in me. I woke up like this. Anybody listen to Beyonce? Boss. You empower others to do more and be more. That’s how you also start identifying succession plans. Or for other potential departments. Don’t be stingy. Cross level experience. I’m sure HR has told you that once or twice. Identify those people who can cross level. Go to other places. Have potential. Identify them, empower them, do more to be more.
All right. Because we’re at an institution of higher learning, I thought I would throw some stats at you. About ten percent of it is true. Hold onto it. 80 percent of leaders attract followers. Be producers. He gave them to me. I got told to lead them. There you go. That’s the types of teams that I’ve worked on since I’ve been out of the army. Had no desire to be a team, just want them to come to work and do their job. I’m in that gray zone, the 20 percent. I need a little bit more. Hold my hand, be my friend, give me something to do. I’ll get bored just following. Especially if you’re not that good at it. Anybody got a boss right now, that you could take their job, don’t raise your hand. Do not raise your hand. Some pressed your hands against your legs. Don’t raise your hand. Do not do it. [inaudible 00:51:49] It’s okay. Been there. Done that. Okay.
Here’s the one thing about this one. Some of them may not be able to butt out. They’re super enthusiastic about work. They love being here. They’ve got to have it, the moment you give them some more string. They’ll drop the ball. Or, they’ll just sit. Some of you all are thinking about certain people right now. You didn’t ask them if they wanted it, you just thought they wanted it. You projected on them. You thought they were like you. Everyone wants to progress. And we get people managing. No they don’t, folks. No they don’t. Let them be them. We need them. We need that aide. That’s how stuff gets done. They do their job. Get paid. The universe is perfect. All right. Then, you go here. How many of you have that one or two people that are constantly asking you questions, probing you for more information, trying to grow their [inaudible 00:53:08]? How many? All right, he has two hands up, so he has a lot. It’s constant. All right. You’re attracting other leaders, how many of you all put yourself in positions to attract those other leaders, by being, modeling good behavior? Everybody in the room should definitely raise their hand. You’re already in the position. It’s been given to you. You’re attracting potentially other leaders, or that at least should be the expectation that you have with your employees.
Now this one. Multiplication. This is the game change for the 2020 vision, in the strategic plan, strategic [inaudible 00:53:55]. Five percent of leaders reproduce leaders. They produce them. It’s multiplication. If I impart wisdom into you, you impart wisdom in two, those two multiply two, three. All right. The number gets bigger. Do not be a hoarder of information from the leadership perspective. Yes, leadership can be learned. That’s why its progressive. You can’t stop at your first workshop, your first certification, your first degree. It has to be constantly moving and getting better. How many of you all identify some folks in your head right now? That you’ve been sowing into? Anybody?
I didn’t hear the last thing you said.
How many of you have identified a person that you actually sow into constantly? Okay. Somebody that you’re growing. Somebody that you’re grooming. Someone you’re preparing for the future. You said you were a mentor earlier. And you have employees, shame on you for not identifying yourself as a mentor. As a person of influence of every person you manage live. That was given to you. [inaudible 00:55:33] responsibility.
So. Use the time left, I’d rather look at the clock. How much time left? All right, recap. So, did you all gain something [inaudible 00:55:53] about influence? I’m doing my own little personal survey. Who gained something? Anybody? Five people. Thank you for that. Thank you for your participation. Ten ways to increase your influence. [inaudible 00:56:08] if you didn’t pay attention throughout. And my personal favorite, who remembers my personal favorite?
Integrity.
Okay. Who can give me the definition for integrity?
It’s my personal definition, but how I behave when nobody’s watching.
All right.
Should be the same way when everybody’s watching.
For being brave enough to say it, I’m giving you a John Maxwell-
I’d like you to give it to somebody else, because I already have it.
You have it?
I have it, thank you.
Who wants one? All right. He raised his hand first. I have another opportunity for that. [crosstalk 00:56:44]. That Intentional Living book is one of John Maxwell’s latest books. Really phenomenal book, a lot of stories in it, little nuggets.
Okay. So, how do you influence others? Who’s willing to give examples of how you’re going to influence others once you leave here?
You know, I think one other thing, this was a really good session. I’ve really enjoyed it, and I think one of the things that I’ve really taken out of it is the mentor role and setting expectations to. So I work with a lot of students and mentoring them through their research process, but I never thought about setting it up as from an expectation process. If they need to know what I expect from them, and then also, what they should expect from me. And taking these leadership principles and then applying them to my role as a mentor with these students in going through the research. Because in reality, it’s actually bigger than just advising them on how to do a research project. So especially as students who are going to be future chiropractors, I need to help them become leaders in the field as well as just doing a research project. So for me that was really good, and I appreciated your insight.
Thank you for that. That was self-indulging and she gets the book. Here you go. I appreciate it. All right. Putting principles into action. She just modeled that, learned that, how she’s going to implement it. Who got some takeaways? Some actionable items? Anyone? Takeaways? Anything you’re going to put into action, whether it’s an assessment or anything like that? Okay.
Now, something that you will all receive later in the fall will be a course called Leaders Develop Leaders. Okay. So, this is you training, developing, empowering you. The person to fill your seat. And the person to fill everyone’s seat. It’s all about [inaudible 00:59:13] and growing people. Developing people. That course is coming. All right. So. Who knows and has seen the quote at the bottom? [crosstalk 00:59:25]. Everybody should raise their hands. The only thing I didn’t do was stomp my foot. This belongs to you all. It belongs to you all. [crosstalk 00:59:39]. No expectation in return. All right. It’s from you all’s 2020 vision. Go to the website, the document that’s out there for your reading. All right. Know where you all are going. So. Questions? Comments?
Would you suggest, or maybe you can give some insight in terms of how do you develop a leadership succession or mentor or how do you go about that process, institution wide?
Institution wide?
Yeah, if there’s not one in place.
Again, first you’d have to have a funnel of potential. And so, basically that looks like, from where you sit, so if you haven’t been developing anybody, [inaudible 01:00:33] so you’ve got to start identifying and targeting those people to be that succession plan. Or what your candidate pool will look like from a recruiting perspective with HR. What’s out there? What are we doing as a part of 2020 vision to identify not only student growth, but employee growth, and how people [inaudible 01:00:55] and what those programs already look like. So I would first thing get into HR, to see, because they more than likely already have a program in place to identify those potentials, and it’s coming through performance evaluation and they’re potentially filling a [inaudible 01:01:10] with potential candidates already. From a leadership perspective, identify those ones early that can be in a mentor program or identifying themselves early by saying “I want to be next.” And then [inaudible 01:01:21] that process with development, improvement, and coaching and things like that. That’s what I would do. Next question?
Hello. My question revolves around empowerment and connecting through communication. And I think when we communicate as managers or staff who will communicate up to the manager, some of the issues that I see include one, how to be able to present in an engaging and empowering way, how to be able to work with someone who may have wonderful intellect and skill and ability but how they communicate information, even if they’re questioning which you’re trying to guide and motivate and challenge them to do. So, one of my questions really revolves around, as managers it’s almost like we have to have a variety of communication styles, encouragement skills, empowerment skills, with 15 maybe 12 to 15 different people. And if you could tell us, or give us a little tip, of how to deliver information that will be received as growth and development instead of I’m afraid, you intimidated me, I’m scared I’m going to lose my job and that’s what really what, I shouldn’t say everyone doesn’t think that way, but I think most people especially in higher education, come from a good place. And we want to change, we want to empower, we want to make a difference. So communication and how its delivered and received, that’s an area that I look at certain people who I manage where some assistance would be something to ponder.
Yeah. Shameless plug, I have a course I do how to manage conflict and confrontation. Communication as an opportunity, not something that should be avoided. Okay. In managing conflict and confrontation, again, knowing where people are coming from and you being assertive enough to have the conversation to ask the questions. Again, modeling behavior. Modeling that you’re talking to them from a learning place, not from a positional place, not telling you what to do, but I want to know from your perspective. Okay. Again, a lot of times, how conflict, how those underlying things develop in a team, is because nobody’s willing to talk about it. Same thing with relationships, if you’re not willing to talk about it, how will you get better? How will you work through it? Somebody has to be first. Because you’re in the position, you always have to be first. Because you can’t let things fester. Because when bad behavior, when bad things happen, and you let it fester, it grows and corrodes your production. And then you start seeing the adverse effects of that. And most of it is those nonverbal things, they’re eating away at your team because nobody’s willing to have that conversation. And it’s from an assertive place. It’s that E word from earlier. Having empathy. Empathizing with people, having a little bit of humility. It goes a long way.
Now let me help you with something. Humility isn’t thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less. Okay? So again you’re in that position as a humble servant leader, trying to get us down this road towards mission success. Or right into it. All right. There are courses out there. Fred Prior gives a good one. John Maxwell gives a good one. And Lawrence Henderson gives a good one too. Any other questions? Any questions, concerns?
All hearts and minds are clear? Ready to get the day started? Ready to attack it.[crosstalk 01:05:48] All right. Thank you all. [crosstalk 01:06:05]
