General: Best Leadership Blog Nomination

Personal Leadership Insight has been nominated for the Best of Leadership Blogs 2008 award. Please click here (the voting box is at the bottom of that page) to vote for your favorite leadership blog. The voting ends when July ends.



Thank you for voting and thank you for being a loyal PLI reader.

The PowerPoint Show

The images I use for my leadership PowerPoint show can be viewed and downloaded here...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/23898824@N08/sets/72157604142424437/

Enjoy!

PS - The song I use is by Mat Kearney - Won't Back Down.

General: 200 Words To Lead By

This is the Personal Leadership Insight's 200th post. So, here are exactly 200 words to lead by. These are the important ones.


inhale process exhale


soak up life

turn off the noise and just think

hug a loved one for more than five seconds

ask questions I should know the answer to

make eye contact

stop yelling for once in my life


inhale process exhale


call her

say I’m sorry

find out all the details this time

drive a different route

think before I eat

pray before I eat

think and pray before and after bed

stop talking about them

they aren't going to change


inhale process exhale


I'm not as important as I think I am

call people back earlier than later

be bold with my projects and tender with my people

help someone

get out of my little world

things are as bad as I think they are

but it could always be worse


inhale process exhale


stop whining

they just want to know I will be there for them

let someone else take the glory

just learn how to do it

he doesn’t dislike me

he dislikes everyone

she struggles just like me only she has the guts to show it

it will be okay in the end

if its not okay then you know its not the end

General: Breaking Down Personal Leadership Insight

Personal Leadership Insight is the curriculum we teach to thousands of students, educators and business professionals every year. The definition of PLI explains how Expert leadership works.

"Personal Leadership Insight is our understanding of how to positively influence people and situations to create value and growth."

Let's break down this definition to find the meaning behind it...

1. Understanding - Every time we teach PLI in our keynotes and workshops, we are working on the audience's intellectual and emotional understanding of leadership. Our disclaimer is, "This material only works if you do." Improvement in the area of leadership is just like improvement with any physical task. You can learn about golf by reading a golf book or attending a golf seminar, but you can only improve by physically doing it.

2. Positively - Leadership has both a positive and negative effect. By studying and applying the PLI Essentials, you learn how to maximize the presence and the impact of your positive influence. Expert leaders focus on, encourage, expect and draw out the positive.

3. Influence - Leadership is influence; this is the core mechanism that allows leadership to work. Expert leaders are very self-aware of their influence type and size.

4. People - Leadership is a team sport. Leaders come in all different shapes, sizes and personality types. Some are extroverts and some are introverts. However, the constant in leadership is that it involves people. Five out of the ten PLI Essentials are either totally or partially about understanding human relations. Expert leaders love people and love leading people.

5. Situations - Although leadership is primarily about motivating and moving people, there are many instances when a leader's impact is made through their competence in tasks. Expert leaders understand how to maximize their positive impact in a variety of common and uncommon situations.

6. Create Value - Throughout the PLI curriculum we teach leaders how to be more valuable to their organizations (family, friends, business, associations, community, etc.). Expert leaders constantly have their "how can I add value here" radar on.

7. Growth - This final portion of the PLI definition provides context for value creation. Expert leaders invest their emotional, intellectual and physical energy in growing their organizations, people, resources, skills, and influence. Expert leaders understand there is always room to grow and they clearly see how to get there.

General: Student Leader Questions

At a recent FCCLA event, a few student leaders asked these questions...

How do I keep from procrastinating?

• Chunk down your duties into bite-size pieces and move your projects forward one bite at a time. Don't wait to work on something until you can do all of it at once. You will be waiting forever. Do the most difficult things first and use the TCOIN method of spending your time. Take Care Of It Now. If you can do something in two-minutes or less, do it now! (Refer to David Allen's Getting Things Done for more ideas like this one.)

How can I be friendly with people around me that have traits I don't like?

• Focus on common ground you have with that person. How are you the same?
  

How do I get everybody to participate in fundraising events?

• 80% of the work in any organization (particularly volunteer-based) gets done by 20% of the people. Your goal is not to get everybody involved. It is to give everyone the chance to get involved, make it easy for them to do so and then reward and celebrate those that do (your 20%).
  

How do I handle it when I don't have an answer for someone who looks up to me as a mentor?

• People will respect you more when you are honest with them. Therefore, just tell them you don't know the answer, but take steps to help them found out the answer. Just because you don't know something doesn't make you less of a leader. There are literally billions of things you don't know.
  

(There are more to follow...)

General: Take a Deeper Bite of PLI Via Del.icio.us

If you are a regular reader of the Personal Leadership Insight blog, you are already aware of our Del.icio.us tags. If not, please peruse the PLI Del.icio.us Tags in the right hand column.

Del.icio.us is a social bookmarking system where I share other PLI-relevant web pages. I read 40+ blogs per day and as I come across a post that is related to one of the PLI essentials or just leadership in general, I "tag" it. These tags are tracked under the PLI Del.icio.us Tags section. Here are our current numbers:

Total PLI Del.icio.us Tags (as of Sunday morning, October 28, 2007): 369

By PLI Essential:

Vision: 12
Integrity: 25
Innovative: 59
Wise Judgment: 24
Service Minded: 16
Goal Processing: 35
Skill Assessment: 29
Emotional Maturity: 29
Fostering Relationships: 37
Masterful Communication: 98

Finally, if you are a teacher, trainer or speaker and use the Personal Leadership Insight system to teach leadership, I highly recommend you leveraging the depth of the Del.icio.us tags to add additional power and learning to your PLI teachings.

General: Remarkable Leadership Book!

Kevin Eikenberry has crafted an extraordinary new leadership development book, Remarkable Leadership.  When you purchase it today on Amazon.com you will receive over 50 additional bonus leadership development items from Kevin and partnering vendors.

Kevin sent me an advance copy of Remarkable Leadership last week and it is chock-full of tangible and relevant leadership tools and strategies. 

"Kevin accurately reminds us that whatever our job title or position, we are all leaders—and all have the potential to become truly remarkable. His belief in us and our ultimate success is real and can be read on every page. This belief is inspiring and empowering—as you read these pages his belief in you will build your own belief, an important ingredient in any successful learning journey."

 

- From the Foreword by Jack Canfield, author of The Success Principles

I interviewed Kevin last week to provide you some insight on his leadership philosophies before you invest in the book today...

1. Was Remarkable Leadership written more to reinforce and deepen people's current beliefs about leadership or to persuade them to adopt a different and new viewpoint of leadership?

The only belief I wanted to reinforce is I want people to see it is possible to be who they are and be a remarkable leader! If that requires some persuasion for some readers, I hope I succeed.

2. If you could, please describe the basic difference between Jill and Tara and what caused their different paths?

Jill and Tara are two characters I introduce in the second chapter when I was talking about how leadership development really happens in most organizations. Actually I don’t think there is much difference between them – as I wrote about them in the story both are smart, talented and ambitious. The differences in their development had more to do with the organizations they were in and how each treated leadership development. My hope is that with this book, anyone can be more successful in their own leadership development, perhaps even in spite of what their organization offers.

3. Do you feel this is just as much a personal development book as it is a leadership development book?

I really do Rhett. I personally have some trouble separating personal development from professional development – not because I’m a work-a-holic or place all of my focus on my professional pursuits but because any development in any area of our life has the chance to improve our results, satisfaction and enjoyment in other parts of our life as well.

4. If you could sum up in two to three sentences the core difference between a normal leader and a remarkable leader, what would it be?

First, a remarkable leader as someone who is continually working to become a more effective - continually learning and improving. Second, they recognize that remarkable leadership is not about the technical skills of forecasting, budgeting and technical knowledge of the work, but really about how they engender trust, build relationships, develop others, communicate more effectively—all of those other skills that we really think of when we think of great leaders that we've worked with in the past. That’s a remarkable leader.

5. What are some tips and strategies for being able to recognize the differences between the four communication styles you mention on page 66?  i.e. - what are the simple signs to recognize each one?

There are many different communication and personality style models and I’m sure most everyone reading this is familiar one or has a favorite. What I tried to do in the book is outline some basic styles. Giving signs to recognize each one would make this a very long interview! Let me sidestep just a bit and say that the key to effectively communicating with others is to mirror their communication style – so that you are meeting their needs and communicating in ways that best match their needs.

6. Why do so many people today not "get" the likeability factor you discuss on page 82?

I think many people wish it didn’t matter. I’ve heard people say something like this many times, “In a perfect world it wouldn’t matter if people liked me- I could be valued for my skills.” Guess what? It isn’t a perfect world. To be as successful as possible, as a leader or otherwise, we must be likable. Thinking anything else is denial.

Get introduced to Kevin and Remarkable Leadership and then invest in the book today.  It is worth it.

General: Survey for 07-08 State CTSO Officers

If you are serving as a State CTSO Officer for the 2007-2008 term, please click here for a short 10-question survey. This information will be used privately as research for our upcoming book, The Unmade Leader. Thank you in advance for your input and for serving as a State CTSO Officer.

General: How to get the most out of this leadership blog

After spending a week speaking and training in Chicago, we have had a large influx of new readers to the PLI Blog. So, for those of you new to the PLI world here are four ways to get the most out of this blog...

1. Go to the March 1, 2007 post (http://pliblog.yournextspeaker.com/2007/02/general-what-pli-is-and-what-pli-is-not.html) and get a basic understanding of what the Personal Leadership Insight structure is all about.

2.  Go to http://del.icio.us/pliblog and develop your Personal Leadership Insight.  The PLI structure is based around our ten essentials of leadership: Vision, Integrity, Innovative, Wise Judgment, Service Minded, Goal Processing, Skill Assessment, Emotional Maturity, Fostering Relationships and Masterful Communication. Almost every post in this blog is based around one of these essentials. However, I also read 40 blogs everyday and I use the del.icio.us social bookmarking system to "tag" every web page I read that adds value to one of our essentials. This collection is up to almost 300 tags now! The PLI Blog Content Tags is your way of accessing these additional valuable resources and they are sorted and organized by the PLI essentials. So, if you are coming to this blog to get goal setting advice, read all my Goal Processing posts and click on the Goal Processing link under the PLI Blog Content Tags in the right-hand column to learn even more!

I hope you are getting tremendous value from reading the PLI Blog regularly. Please forward this blog to your five closest associates. Also, please visit my speaking blog for tips from a professional speaker - http://speak.terapad.com!

General: Big "Switches" From FCCLA Conference

Big "Switches" from our most recent youth leadership conference...
(Switches are leadership traits that literally turned a leader's ability to
influence others on or off.)

• Ultimately, learning how to be a good leader is the same as learning how to lead a good life.
• If something is important, you will find the time and energy. (Leadership is important)
• Your focus determines your attitude. This is why you should focus on the positive - think about it.
• Once you stop thinking about yourself, you free up your thoughts to focus on others.
• You can reach the Expert level of leadership (Entry - Emerging - Engaged - Expert) when you choose to recognize you have influence, choose to use that influence for positive, focus on your followers and risk big to create value.

General: 100th Post - 100 Ways to Know You Were a Leader Today...

This is my 100th post on the Personal Leadership Insight blog. Wow! Since starting this blog I have seen the birth of my second beautiful daughter, sold our house in anticipation of building our dream home, and drowned my beloved video iPod in a sad pool of rain water. So, in recognition of the 100th post, here are the 100 ways you know you are a leader...

You know you were a leader today if you...

1. Were thinking more about others than yourself

2. Invested time influencing others

3. Made someone smile today

4. Made someone smile yesterday

5. Made plans for making someone smile tomorrow

6. Solved a problem

7. Solved a problem for someone else

8. Wrote down a dream and turned it into a goal

9. Did one thing today to move you closer to your goal

10. Acted in accordance to your values

11. Helped someone else live up to their values

12. Didn't force your values on someone else

13. Created something new

14. Improved something old

15. Overcame your fear

16. Did something even though it wasn't your job

17. Made a smart choice

18. Reversed a bad choice

19. Learned from a mistake

20. Helped someone without letting them know

21. Took personal responsibility today

22. Learned a new skill

23. Made a small adjustment to reach a goal

24. Practiced patience

25. Did something you loved to do today

26. Helped someone else do what they love to do

27. Took time to think about your strengths

28. Engaged your strengths

29. Took time to NOT think about your weaknesses

30. Stopped doing something that made you weak

31. Thought about how you could improve your work environment

32. Acted on that thought

33. Thought about how you could improve your home environment

34. Acted on that thought

35. Thought about how you could improve your community

36. Acted on that thought

37. Recognized the challenges in front of you

38. Decided to spend more time discovering the solutions to those challenges

39. Recognized the negative side of something

40. Decided to focus on the positive

41. Held your tongue

42. Didn't complain when everyone else was complaining

43. Didn't complain about others complaining

44. Made time for play

45. Made time to reflect

46. Made time to laugh

47. Made time to learn something new

48. Made time to read

49. Made time to think

50. Made time to pray

51. Encouraged a stranger

52. Encouraged a friend

53. Called someone you hadn't talked to in a year

54. Talked with a parent

55. Listened to your parents

56. Talked with your children

57. Listened to your children

58. Talked with your spouse

59. Listened to your spouse

60. Followed up with someone you met yesterday

61. Said thank you

62. Said please

63. Said no to something you knew you couldn't do

64. Said no to something you know you couldn't do great

65. Stopped doing something you weren't doing great

66. Made eye contact with someone important to you

67. Made eye contact with a stranger in conversation

68. Prepared before a talk

69. Asked questions before a presentation

70. Asked questions during a presentation

71. Asked questions after a presentation

72. Used specific language during a talk

73. Used simple language during a talk

74. Used visual language during a talk

75. Helped others close the gap between what they knew and what they didn't know

76. Turned your anxiety into enthusiasm by simply thinking about it differently

77. Listened actively

78. Spoke with respect

79. Played politics the right way

80. Worked hard

81. Listened to great music

82. Watched and learned from a child

83. Stopped doing something that you knew was hurting your integrity

84. Rebuilt trust with others

85. Cancelled a meeting that you knew was a waste of time

86. Called your mentor and chatted

87. Mentored someone else

88. Were totally authentic

89. Did the most important things on your to do list first

90. Did the most difficult things on your to do list first

91. Cleaned out your inbox

92. Called someone back sooner rather than later

93. Called your mother

94. Made the connection between being a leader and a being a good person

95. Forwarded this list to three important leaders

96. Saved this list to read again next month

97. Read John Maxwell or Malcom Gladwell or Seth Godin or Zig Ziglar or the Bible or Dale Carnegie or Brian Tracy or Jefferey Gitomer or Harvey MacKay or Stephen Covey or Norman Vincent Peale or Tom Peters or Max DePree or Marshall Goldsmith or Marcus Buckingham or Ken Blanchard or your favorite author(s)

98. Thought about yourself as a leader

99. Acted upon that thought

100. Made today a story you can be proud of

General: The Uphill Journey

Hit the green play button to play and/or right-click the song title to download this grand finale song from my leadership guitar keynote "The Uphill Journey!"

Uphill Song, by Rhett Laubach [2:22, 5.5 MB, Mp3]

General: What PLI is and What PLI is Not!

Personal Leadership Insight is not only the title and focus of this blog, it is also the monicker we developed to describe what it is we teach and speak/write about at YourNextSpeaker and TRI Leadership Resources. PLI does not encompass everything we do, but it does give us and our clients and potential clients a common language to discuss training and development needs for individuals and organizations. The curriculum itself is framed by the PLI Essentials - the ten leadership capacity areas that everything we teach falls under. Vision, Integrity, etc.

Basically, PLI is a wholistic approach to leadership development. What PLI is not is a wholistic approach to leadership effectiveness. This is to say that to be an effective leader does not require one to be great at all of the ten essentials. Because of the wide swath the essentials take on leadership abilities, this is nearly impossible. What PLI and its unique framework does provide is a roadmap for leaders who need to recognize or have already recognized a development need or a strength need in the realm of leadership. One or more of the PLI essentials speaks to the core ability you need to have as a leader to be productive.

Our goal is to provide you with some insights into how that can happen for you and is happening for others.

[Click on the label below to see all posts for that Essential...]

General: Be a Leader-in-Gear!

Are you a Leader-In-Waiting or Leader-In-Gear?

A leader-in-waiting is in.
A leader-in-gear is involved!

A leader-in-waiting seeks comfort.
A leader-in-gear seeks challenges!

A leader-in-waiting says I am the best I will ever be.
A leader-in-gear says we can be better let’s go there together.

A leader-in-waiting has dreams in his head.
A leader-in-gear has goals in her pocket!

A leader-in-waiting wants to be a leader.
A leader-in-gear has decided to be a leader!

A leader-in-waiting ends up somewhere.
A leader-in-gear ends up somewhere on purpose!

A leader-in-waiting doesn’t want to start.
A leader-in-gear doesn’t want to quit!

A leader-in-waiting thinks about self.
A leader-in-gear thinks about others!

A leader-in-waiting wishes and hopes.
A leader-in-gear wishes and hopes and then does!

Download PDF Version

[Click on the label below to see all posts for that Essential...]

General: Understanding the Pitfalls of Missing Links

[Click on the image to view a larger version. Print the larger version for best read.]

The Personal Leadership Insight Blog is built around our ten PLI Essentials. As you peruse through the posts, you will find each post discusses one of the ten. For deeper study into each Essential, click on an Essential in the PLI Tags list in the right-hand sidebar.

[Click on a label below to see all posts for that Essential...

General: Ten Mission Critical Traits of a Leader

The Personal Leadership Insight curriculum is structured into ten PLI Essentials: Vision, Integrity, Innovative, Wise Judgment, Service Minded, Goal Processing, Emotional Maturity, Skill Assessment, Fostering Relationships, and Masterful Communication.

When we set down to figure out what makes great leaders great, we knew it would be almost historically and statistically impossible to shave that list down a workable/teachable number. However, we did our best (and recruited the help of our network of hundreds of peers, mentors, friends, family members, random people standing in line at the post office, etc.) to create an inclusive list of the general development and skill related areas that effective leaders must work on. Today we look at the PLI Essentials within the context of their connection to a specific mission critical trait...

Vision - Extraordinary leaders see opportunities... average leaders see threats.

Integrity - Extraordinary leaders admit mistakes... average leaders admit nothing.

Innovative - Extraordinary leaders discuss solutions... average leaders discuss problems.

Wise Judgment - Extraordinary leaders ask for help... average leaders make isolated decisions.

Service Minded - Extraordinary leaders seek to be significant... average leaders seek to be successful.

Goal Processing - Extraordinary leaders act on purpose... average leaders act accidentally.

Skill Assessment - Extraordinary leaders leverage their strengths... average leaders defend their weaknesses.

Emotional Maturity - Extraordinary leaders think then do... average leaders do then think.

Fostering Relationships - Extraordinary leaders put relationships before results... average leaders put results before relationships.

Masterful Communication - Extraordinary leaders listen for the sake of others... average leaders listen for the sake of self.

[Click on the label below to see all posts for that Essential...]

General: PLI Essentials Primer

I had the cool opportunity to present back at my alma mater tonight, Oklahoma State University. I only had 20 minutes at a banquet so I couldn't get through as much content as I wanted to, but the following is what I would have said if I had a full 60-minutes.

If you are new to the PLI Blog, this will also serve as a primer for the structure of Personal Leadership Insight - the ten PLI Essentials...

[The following is structured like this... PLI Essential -> Why your team needs it from you -> Small piece of advice on how to improve your effectiveness in that Essential area.]

• Vision... Clarity... Examine your morning routine
• Integrity... Inspiration... Be Honest
• Innovative... Have a Voice... Have a mechanism to capture ideas
• Wise Judgment... Authenticity... Stay in contact and in spirit with a mentor
• Service Minded... Appreciation... Do something for someone that they can't do on their own
• Goal Processing... Final Scores... If you can do something in under 2 minutes, take care of it now!
• Skill Assessemnt... Placement... Hire people for their strengths, not their experience.
• Emotional Maturty... Optimism... Practice Intelligent Optimism - Recognize challenges, work on solutions. Understand weaknesses, capitalize on strengths. Have many reasons to complain, simply choose not to.
• Fostering Relationships... Belonging... Nurture all three layers of your relationships. Layer 1 is your family and friends. Layer 2 is your peers and casual acquaintances. Layer 3 is people who you know of, but who don't know you.
• Masterful Communication... Clarity... Actively listen to others and give them the gift of your attention.

[Click on the label below to see all posts for that category..]

General: Oklahoma wins Miss America Back-to-Back!

Congratulations to Lauren Nelson on becoming Miss America 2007! Lauren is from Lawton, Oklahoma and attends college at the University of Central Oklahoma in my hometown of Edmond, Oklahoma.

Also, congratulations to my business partner Jonathan Smith. Jon coached Miss America 2006, Jennifer Berry (also from Oklahoma), and he coached Lauren.

Learn more about Jon's communication coaching business...

Books to Develop Your PLI

This blog will periodically contain books I am reading, have read, and/or utilized in our leadership trainings.

Season of Life, Jeffrey Marx
This book is for men to develop their Emotional Maturity. It is about how to be a man built for others, instead of a man built for self.

Winning with People, John Maxwell
First of all, if you don't read Maxwell, you are short-circuiting your depth of leadership understanding. Winning With People provides simple tactics for Fostering Relationships. You should also get his 25 Ways to Win With People.

How to Say it for Women, Phyllis Mindell
I encourage any woman who desires to increase her leadership potential to study this book. Every woman I have told about this book thanks me for showing them a great tool for developing their Masterful Communication.

What are you reading to develop your leadership skills?

[Click on the labels below to see all posts for that Essential...]

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The PLI Structure

The Personal Leadership Insight curriculum stucture provides a look into the areas of concern for leadership development. There are 10 PLI Essentials...

1. Vision
2. Integrity
3. Innovative
4. Wise Judgment
5. Service Minded
6. Goal Processing
7. Skill Assessment
8. Emotional Maturity
9. Fostering Relationships
10. Masterful Communication

[Click on the label below to see all posts for that PLI Essential...]