Innovation upsets people

When you innovate often it upsets the old way of doing things, old suppliers, old practitioners, and other people who have skin in the old game.

You can be liked by everyone or make a real difference.

It’s unlikely you can do both.

Spend less than you earn.

Some people upgrade their lifestyle every time their income increases (no matter what their income is).

As a result, they never build any wealth.

If you spend as much as you earn, you will never have any left over.  

If you spend more than you earn you will be in debt – forever.

How much should you spend?

Be Vulnerable

An ego-driven leader never wants to be wrong, so he pretends he knows stuff he doesn’t, avoids subjects, and fakes his way through.  The thing is – he’s not fooling anyone.  And he will never learn something he pretends to know already.

Instead, be vulberable.  Ask questions.  Don’t be afraid to say “I don’t know” or “You are way better at this than I am.  Can you teach me?”  By asking questions and staying open, you can learn and get better.  People will want to tell you things, correct you, and help you.  

Besides that, your people will feel good they are being asked, and feel important.

Being vulnerable does not mean being less effective.  It’s about becoming more informed, being more authentic, and working with others well to get the job done.

How is your team's morale these days?

“The level of morale is a good barometer of how each of your people is experiencing your leadership.” – Danny Cox

The leader is responsible for how the team feels about being here and doing this.

The better they feel, the better they will perform and the fewer problems you will have.

How does your team feel?

Trust in Leadership

High trust teams go faster and farther with a lot more ease.

Do you trust your team?  If you don’t, they won’t trust you.

Do they trust you? 

Are you trustworthy?

Loyalty in Leadership

A leader must be loyal to their team.

Imagine a Little league coach of the worst team in the league telling his players “you suck!”

Or talking trash about them…or undermining any team member for any reason…or keeping secrets that affect the team or team members.

If you are the leader, and they are your team, you must be loyal.  If you aren’t, then they aren’t, and soon you will have no team.  You will have completely failed as a leader.

Work to make it better, yes.  But be loyal along the way.

Courage

Leadership takes courage; courage to run to problems and have difficult conversations.

Recently I had a tough week.  I had to have a bunch of difficult conversations in the same week.  I got grounded first – I’m proud of my actions and what I have done and who I am being.  I have good intentions.  I just have to say it…

It helps a lot when you are maintaining your integrity and treating everyone well.  When you have to have a tough conversation you aren’t apologizing or speaking from a position of weakness (although sometimes you do have to apologize).

If you hide out from the tough stuff because you don’t have the courage to face it, it will only fester into something bigger.

Be courageous. 

Not wreckless courageous, but measured, smart, and well-intentioned courage.

Conviction of a leader

Do you really believe in what you are doing?

Why?  Are you doing it for the “right reasons”?

There are many businesses that are doing what they do to make money.  There is nothing wrong with making money.  But if you don’t really believe in what value you are producing for whom, your work will feel meaningless, and it will be impossible to meaningfully enroll others. 

Do you believe in your mission?

Leaders must be fair

People have their fairness antennas up all the time.  

If they think a leader is playing favorites for any reason, they will feel they have no chance to be judged fairly on their own merits – and they will either perform poorly in response or leave.

A leader must be fair.

Are you fair?

Authenticity in Leadership

It’s hard to be one kind of person and another kind of leader.

If you’re putting on an act, people know it, and they won’t respond very openly, knowing they are being toyed with.

Authenticity is valued in a leader.  Of course, this assumes you are not hiding anything; that you are a person worthy of being the leader in the first place.

Are you authentic?