The Five Most Important Questions You Will Ever Ask About Your Organization

Peter F. Drucker (1909 - 2005) was arguably the most influential person in business management and leadership during the 20th century. His ideas and teachings are the foundation for many leadership success stories throughout the world. The Leader to Leader Institute (formerly “Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management 1990 - 2002) published this book to primarily help nonprofit organizations. The questions asked, concepts discussed, and examples given in this book can be applicable to anyone in a leadership role.

• What Is Our Mission?

• Who Is Our Customer?

• What Does the Customer Value?

• What Are Our Results?

• What Is Our Plan?

The answers to these five questions do not need to be complex, but should be well thought out. For example, if your mission is too broad reaching how will you be able to focus in on the right customer? If your mission is too complex, how will you measure the results? I have heard and read from many leadership coaches and consultants that you mission statement should be brief (no more than 10 words) and clear.

After clarifying your mission, then you will get help in discerning, just who is your customer. You might find it interesting to read about the best way to define you customer. There are primary and secondary customers. How do you ensure you are serving your primary customers most effectively? How do you know that they see the value you are trying to provide? The rest of this book takes the reader through a logical progression in evaluating how to best serve your customer, provide the desired results, and plan for the future.

This is one more book that will be kept in my personal leadership library. I plan to refer to the instructions and guidance on a regular basis. For anyone reading this post and interested in leadership growth, you will find a wealth of insight into leadership principles that are worth implementing in your own life.

How Successful People Think

Over the years John C. Maxwell has written and published a number of books on leadership. His insight and ability to share is second to none! In How Successful People Think, he delivers great insight and understanding into the realm of thinking like a leader.

This book systematically takes the reader through cultivating, engaging, harnessing, employing, and utilizing different types and ways of thinking to help us learn how to be better leaders. When reading the material, you should be able to see how it applies to your own life and figure out how to take steps towards implementing the habit of intentional thinking into your life. Using the lessons and ideas taught in this book will help you become a better version of who you have been created to be.

I highly recommend this book, as well as the others I have reviewed thus far in 2019. These reviews, and other posts can be found on my LinkedIn profile. Feel free to read any of the posts and provide me with any feedback you believe is constructive.

This week, I am updating my vision, mission, and other items on my personal website (www.toddrthomsen.com). I intend to continue my progression through leadership and management books, as well as sharing and showing ways to practically apply what I have learned.

The Three Signs of a Miserable Job

Patrick Lencioni is quickly becoming one of my favorite leadership authors. Not everyone enjoys the leadership fable format. One of the values I find in leadership fables is that the reader gets to absorb a scenario in how to potentially implement ideas being conveyed.

If you are a leader, it is incumbent upon you to ensure those in your care feel relevant, have measurable goals/targets, and feel as though their personal lives and professional contributions are valued by you. This last of these values can be misconstrued. In the book, Patrick Lencioni uses the term “anonymity” to describe an attitude a leader can have towards subordinates. When we feel anonymous in whether or not our contributions are known, we are less likely to continue our striving for excellence. Provide feedback to recognize the behavior you want to re-enforce, get to know what is important to those in your care, show that their lives matter. This is not a challenge to figure out how to become great friends with those you lead. It is a call to ensure you are providing public recognition for individuals who are performing their job well.

The ideas are simple, but not easy to implement. It takes hard work, attention to detail, and consistent patient follow up to implement and carry through on these ideas. As I have seen in my own leadership experience, it is easy to get lost in many other task and duties. There are a myriad of demands on a leader’s time. If an individual can pause, reflect, and focus on these three aspects of leadership it will go a long way to bring success to the individuals in your care and the organization as a whole. Many leadership experts will teach that if the employees are well cared for, they will in-turn care for your customers and your business. Give the people you lead a reason to be passionate about and excited for the time they spend in your care.

What Got You Here Won't Get You There

A few days ago, I was standing in line at the Jacksonville International Airport to board a flight. While waiting for the boarding processes I was reading this book. I had already finished 75% of it and was convinced that I had indeed picked up a jewel of a book on leadership and self-development. Then, out of nowhere, a kind lady who is a leadership expert/consultant encouraged me with a few words about how much this book affected her leadership journey.

If you are really interested in seeking to pull back the covers of your own blind-spots and address personality issues that are preventing you from excelling, then pick up this book and read it from cover to cover! Marshall Goldsmith brings years of leadership coaching experience and his PhD in Organizational Behavior Studies to this book that is easy to read, essential to absorb, and a must to implement.

In this book, you will see 20 bad habits that can and should be broken. Most will not need to address more than 2 or 3 habits, but many of them correlate and all should be part of a self-evaluation. When reading about these bad habits and how to overcome them, do not project upon others. Do all you can to avoid the temptation of thinking that some of these apply to someone else in your circle of influence. Use the insights provided to evaluate yourself and how you can improve.

There are many great books on leadership and personal development. This book is one that I will stay in my personal library for the foreseeable future. I recommend you consider the same.

The Dichotomy of Leadership

Jocko Willink and Leif Babin team up again in another great book on leadership! In “The Dichotomy of Leadership” we get to learn about real life examples of how these ideas and concepts can and should be implemented. These are principles that apply to business and personal relationships, not just on the battle-front.

Jock and Leif go through a variety of ideas and help us understand the balance needed. For example, when is it best to mentor and under which circumstances to we simply need to fire someone? How about the idea of being disciplined but not rigid? That can be an area where it is tough to find balance.

If you see that you have room to grow in leadership, and your focus is not on having the right job title or corner office, then you will find this book full of information and insight that you will review and reference for years to come.

The Go-Giver Leader, A Little Story About What Matters Most in Business

Bob Burg and John David Mann have written a series of leadership books that focus on the idea of serving others as a primary means of growth and demonstration of leadership skills. As a leader, the primary focus should be around how to remove obstacles and difficulties for those in your care. A leader serves others, giving them accolades and credit with accomplishments while taking responsibility for mistakes and short-falls.

In The Go-Giver Leader, the authors guide us through a difficult decision, with high expectations for a positive output, and how someone may grapple with coming to the right conclusion. Being a leader who is humble and seeking to serve others does not mean that you are to be a push-over or feel as though you are unable to stand up for what is right. It does mean that a leader should set aside their pride and preconceived notions in order to sort through tough scenarios and make the right decisions. A strong, humble, courageous leader will ask for help when needed and seek out counsel of individuals who display characteristics worthy of emulation.

Like most stories that seek to drive home valuable lessons, The Go-Giver Leader does show a somewhat controlled set of circumstances, but still conveys the necessity to pay attention to areas of life that make leaders well rounded. It addresses home life, friendships, mentoring relationships, and making tough decisions that may go against your own notion of what you think others want you to do.

Silos, Politics, and Turf Wars - A Leadership Fable

If you are striving towards excellence in the work place, there will be times when you get to experience individuals who focus on, “What’s in it for me”, or “How does this help my team”. Task and duties are often segregated into areas or expertise, which makes sense and creates efficiencies. However, there are times that leaders need to pause the focus on their own area of responsibility and rally around a bigger thematic goal. This thematic goal may or may not be focused on your area of operation, but it is crucial that you help the organization to pursue the tasks outlined to meet the thematic goal.

You may be asking, “What is a thematic goal, and how do I define one?” Patrick Lencioni brings clarity on three main leadership concepts (thematic goals, defining objectives, and standard operating objectives), how they work together, and using them to rally leadership around key growth initiatives. Whether that growth be gaining market share, rebuilding name recognition, introducing new products, or any other over-arching goal, the concepts in Silos, Politics and Turf Wars can be implemented to help overcome internal corporate issues that often pull companies apart.

The concepts taught in Silos, Politics and Turf Wars have a lot in common with Measure What Matters, which I reviewed on September 2nd, 2019. Both books help leaders to avoid pitfalls that pull us away from our primary purpose and goals. I am sure all who read these books, with the goal of learning about themselves, will benefit greatly.

Measure What Matters - How Google, Bono, and the Gates Foundation Rock the World with OKRs

Measure What Matters

OKRs…what are they? How do you use them? Do they really work? In this book, John Doerr helps us understand how to go beyond the great management tool of “Manage By Objectives” (aka MOBs), and use Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) in achieving what Jim Collins calls, “Big Hairy Audacious Goals” (aka BHAG).

This book is a great resource for helping the reader understand the value of and how to implement OKRs. John Doerr is clear in sharing that we should not expect to be great at setting our OKRs the first time around…nor the second, third, or any other of the initial attempts. It will always be a “work in progress”. Objectives are typically an overall, measurable goal. Key Results are the smaller steps, still being measurable, practical, and causing us to stretch. The Key Results should be short term (perhaps monthly or quarterly), while the Objects are more long term (annually, 2- year, etc.) .

Take the time to read this book, if you are seeking to be better at achieving results that will help you reach the BHAG that is set before you. There is also a website built around the ideas shared in this book. Go check it out, “WhatMatters.com”

Fred Factor 2.0 - New Ideas on How to Keep Delivering Extraordinary Results

Fred 2.0 - New Ideas on how to Keep Delivering Extraordinary Results

A little while back, I typed up a review of “The Fred Factor”. It is the story of a postal carrier in the Denver, Colorado area, named Fred Shea. Fred is a man who has taken the idea of excellence in service and applied it to how he cares for those he serves on his carrier route. I recommend reading “The Fred Factor” as a precursor to “Fred 2.0”.

In this sequel to “The Fred Factor”, Mark Sanborn shares real life stories of individuals in various jobs with varying levels of responsibilities, and how they are providing service that goes far beyond any ordinary expectations.

There are also many practical tips to help the reader adjust their mindset to finding ways to build habits into our lives that lead to extraordinary results in the service we provide to those around us. The ideas and tidbits shared in “Fred 2.0” apply to all facets of our lives. Whether we are in service at work, volunteering, or serving our family; we can all benefit from taking these concepts and putting them into practice.

Are You Taking Initiative?

Image courtesy of Tavarro

As you begin reading this, I would like to start with a question. How many of you consider yourself a leader? This is not a question about your title at work or your status with a volunteer organization. In life, do you consider yourself a leader?

Let me ask this another way. How many of you are a mother or father, an aunt or uncle, a sister or brother, or a a coworker with others? Maybe a more simple way to ask is, how many of you have breath in your lungs, a heart that pumps blood through your veins, and can communicate with others? If you fit any of these descriptions, then someone is looking to you for leadership.

One part of successful leadership is taking initiative. Here are a few key points on how leaders take initiative.

1) Leaders know what they want - If you are going to be effective, you will need to know what you want. When an opportunity presents itself, you need to be prepared. There is no guarantee that things will turn out the way you desire, the only way to have a chance, is if you are prepared.

2) Leaders push themselves to act - Leaders are not waiting for others to provide motivation. They understand that motivation can be fleeting. Leaders have drive and determination to keep moving towards their goals.

3) Leaders take more risk - A principle point in leadership is that you are moving into territory or areas of action where others may have not gone before you. A leader will take the risks that others have not, and then will bring their cohorts along as the leader demonstrates success is achievable.

4) Leaders make more mistakes - By the simple fact that leaders are taking more risks, they are at least twice as likely to make mistakes as well. So long as there is movement, mistakes can be corrected and overcome. Getting yourself moving in the right direction can only happen if you are actually moving. Do not let the mistakes stop you from the next opportunity.

If you need help in improving initiative, here are some ideas:

1) Change your mindset - Do not let fear of mistakes or the worry of messing up stop you from pursuing initiative

2) Do not wait for the opportunity to knock - Be preparing yourself now for your future opportunity. Many will tell you that luck is simply being prepared with the right opportunity is presented. Be reading, studying, learning, and practicing.

3) Take the next step - There are ample opportunities, if you know what you want and are preparing yourself to take initiative, to start taking on responsibilities for the next role you desire. Whether that be in your place of employment or through a volunteer organization.

Taking initiative comes more natural to some individuals. If you are one of those who gets uneasy taking initiative, work through your discomfort with small steps. Provide feedback in meetings where you would normally stay quiet, find someone who is where you want to be and take them out to coffee or lunch from time to time to glean insight and knowledge from them. Most people like to talk about themselves and the areas of strength in their own lives. Ask questions, seek insight, and make the decision to move forward with the knowledge you gain.