Skill Assessment: Doers, Throughers and Spewers

In my extensive time spent around leaders and teaching leadership, I have noticed there are three distinct types of people in this world - Doers, Throughers and Spewers. Understanding which category you fall into might provide some valuable insight into improving the value of your leadership footprint. Let's take a closer look at the pros and cons of each.

Doers

These are the Type A personalities that range from the glory-seekers to the servant leaders. They are interested in getting things done. Doers see a problem, opportunity, or challenge and they take action. Some for personal gain; some for the betterment of the greater cause. Their intentions matter in some conversations, but not this one. What matters here is not why they are in the Doer category. What matters here is how they came to become a Doer and the trail they leave behind.

The upsides of the Doers are pretty self-explanatory. They get things done. They make things better (most of the time.) Doers fail a ton, but mostly because they try a ton. Being a Doer doesn't make one right or better. It simply makes them productive and contributive (yes, that is a new word.) Many of the world's greatest and smallest solutions are a result of a Doer taking action.

The cons of the Doer are a little more complicated to explain and sometimes complex to understand. Many of the downsides of a Doer's actions are a result of a Doer taking action when...

1. They didn't have all the information necessary to make a decision.
2. They didn't have the right information needed.
3. They made a decision when it wasn't their place to do so.
4. Their decision cause them to sacrifice something more important (often times a relationship).
5. It wasn't the right time to take action.
6. And the list goes on...


Throughers

The Througher is defined as someone who simply passes through situations, events, opportunities, challenges and relationships in their life without exerting any extra effort to improve or add value.

The main pro of the Througher is they don't rock the boat. They don't disrupt any preexisting leadership/decision-makers structure.

The main con of the Througher is they don't rock the boat. Sometimes the boat needs to be rocked. Sometimes all a problem or challenge needs is a Througher to stop and do something about it. A common phrase we use in many of our programs is that the problem in many organizations is not the negative vein or the poor decision makers. The problem of most broken organizations is good people who, for whatever reason, don't step up and take action. These people are the Throughers. Most Throughers are in this category because:

1. Fear.
2. They think their opinion, information or help isn't valuable.
3. They are comfortable where they are and they know (rightly) that many times if you talk about a problem or offer a solution, you will more than likely be asked to do something about it - which leads to more work.
4. They don't know how to help.
5. They don't want to find out how to help.
6. And the list goes on...


Spewers

The Spewer (as you probably guessed from the name) is the worse of the three. The Spewer is defined by their negative attitude and unfortunate tendency to spew said attitude on everyone around them. They love to gossip, chat and advertise about how bad things are.

You wouldn't think there would be any pros to the spewage (another new word) of a Spewer, but there are a few...

1. They bring attention to problems.
2. They can actually provide motivation to a Doer simply by making them mad or annoyed.
3. They validate the importance of the Doers and show Throughers a way to get involved.
4. And the list goes on...

Yes, there are quite a few negatives of a Spewer. Here is the short list...

1. They don't take any positive or constructive action.
1. Unpleasant to be around. (Yes, there is a tie for first place here.)
2. They actually block the creation of positive solutions by killing the motivation, spirit, and ideas of Doers and Throughers.
3. They have a tendency to make things worse by delaying or damaging the constructive action of others.
4. They highlight the negative and make the problem or challenge larger than it actually is.
5. And the list definitely goes on and on and on and on...

So, you need to decide where you live - in Doerville, Througherland or Spewer City.

Doers, keep at it. You help more than you hurt.
Throughers, find a place to help out. You are needed somewhere.
Spewers, there is a better way. Find it.

Good luck.

Skill Assessment: The Benefit of Getting Leadership Training at a Young Age

Leadership training at a young age, especially in the formidable teen years, is life-changing for many of the students we work with. The reason is because they get ingrained with positive habits that serve them so richly throughout their life - in and out of leadership positions.

I was reading an article by Bob Costa in the Wall Street Journal today about the impact Tim Russert (recently deceased NBC journalist and broadcaster) had on him and his career. Bob mentioned a conversation between Senator Pat Moynihan and a young Tim Russert after Tim told Moynihan he didn't think he had what it took to be a journalist. Tim was born in Buffalo, attended college in Ohio and was feeling overwhelmed by his Ivy League peers...

Senator Moynihan said, "Tim, don't let them intimidate you. What they know, you can learn. What you know, they'll never understand."

This is how I feel about the impact of the leadership training young students receive through student organizations, particularly the Career and Technical Student Organizations we work with (FBLA, FFA, TSA, SkillsUSA, HOSA, DECA, FCCLA and BPA).

The leadership experiences these students go through are so extensive and challenging, they literally shape and mold them into new people. They gain communication skills, time and people management strategies, positive verbal and non-verbal cues, and critical thinking skills that many of their peers may never fully understand.

If you are a student reading this, keep going to leadership conferences, pursuing leadership positions and studying leadership material. If you are a parent, business leader, or community member reading this, encourage this in the students you know.

On Tour: May 16 - OKC to Pullman, Washington

I will be traveling and speaking solid from May 16 to May 30. During this period my posts will be about what I'm learning, what I'm saying and how I'm saying it....

LEARNING:

Sitting on my first of seven plane rides on this trip, I read a piece in the May 16, 2008 The Week magazine about some recent research indicating that human intelligence can be just as much a function of development as it is about genetics. I.e. - it is possible to get fundamentally smarter. You and I aren't "stuck" with the IQ we have today. We can improve it through mental training. Good thing for some of us!

This particular study showed significant gains in the participants' fluid intelligence - their ability to solve problems, use abstract reasoning and be quick on their feet. Particularly as leaders and communicators, those three tasks are critical to our effectiveness. If you are going to add anything to your life development list this week, add "find out how to improve my fluid intelligence."


SPEAKING:

I also was able to put together my flow for my 30-min. keynote tonight in Pullman to the 3,000+ attendees at the Washington FFA State Conference. While planning, I focused on including personal stories, unique ways of talking about age-old topics, bringing everything back to the client's expectations of my content and including humor, serious points and a touch of audience interaction. Should be fun.

Skill Assessment: Scaling the Elevator

I had a great meeting yesterday with Steven Menzel, Director of the International Association of Character Cities for Character First, a character growth organization here in Oklahoma City. We chatted about a range of topics and training leaders popped up. Steve's father was a policeman, Steve is ex-military and he works for a character company. Needless to say, he had some great insights on leadership and leadership development. Here is a quote from Steve that is an interesting way to think about your influence growth journey...

"Leadership development, any skill development really, is just like walking up a down escalator. It is challenging, frustrating at times, hard work and when you stop exerting effort you immediately start going downhill." Steven Menzel, Character First

Skill Assessment: Attention Ladies - Sharpen Your Communication Skills

Click over to my speaking skills blog for a link to a phenomenal communication skills book for women.

Skill Assessment: The Five Seeds at the Core of DECA Chapter Engagement

This is a special post for the DECA organization. DECA is a student organization for students in high school interested in pursuing careers in marketing, entreprenuership, finance, hospitality, and marketing sales and service. I speak at their events throughout the year and this post is specifically designed to help DECA students and chapter advisors understand how to grow their DECA chapter.

At the Chapter Management Academy at National DECA’s ICDC each year my company, YourNextSpeaker, LLC, works with 300 of the best chapter leaders in the nation. The following five tactics have helped these great chapters leaders understand how to get and keep their chapter membership engaged. This is not about membership recruitment. It is about membership involvement. These strategies are built on the precept that 20 really engaged chapter members make a more effective chapter than 120 “half-way there” chapter members.

Seed 1 - Focus on the Cause, not the Condition

We begin with the understanding that you and your chapter probably have the same problem that many other chapters have – low chapter member involvement. Task number one is to correctly identify the cause of the problem. In our leadership trainings, we do an activity called Balloon Toss that clearly demonstrates the importance of this step. The object of the leadership experiment is for a team of 6-8 individuals to keep 10-15 balloons in the air and in motion at the same time. The balloons are fed to the team one at a time, the balloons can't be tied together and the team members must keep one hand behind their back the entire time. After the first round of competition is over, we discuss how to improve their chances of success during the second round. We begin this by discussing possible answers to the question, "What was the main reason you were not able to accomplish your goal?"

The leaders normally begin to list conditions, instead of causes. They say things like too many balloons, we could only use one hand, we didn't have a good plan, etc. These are true, but most of the conditions they list are unchangeable within the constraints of the activity - just like most of the conditions you are faced with in your chapter are simply facts of the system and unchangeable. If the leaders get bogged down in discussing conditions they handicap their ability to recognize a cause or to make any real improvement in their strategy for round two. The primary cause for not achieving their goal of getting all balloons in the air at once was that the balloons were out of control. Once the leaders recognized this primary cause they were better able to creatively discover the best strategy for getting all balloons in the air at once!

Your task as a chapter leader is to step back and look at where you and your chapter have your focus. Is it on unchangeable conditions or solvable causes?

Seed 2 - Leverage Your Personal Power

Chapter engagement cannot just be of interest to the chapter advisor or leadership team. It must be of interest to all chapter members. At a recent conference, one of the advisors told us about a student who isn't a positional leader in her chapter and still has played a huge role in getting members involved. She does this by…

1. Being genuinely enthusiastic about the chapter and most everything going on in her life. This pulls the students in and creates energy within the individuals and within the chapter.

2. Encouraging her peers to help the chapter in small ways. This creates obligation and an opportunity for her peers to add meaning to their life by serving the chapter.

3. She makes it "ok" to be a part of the group, which is not the opinion held by most of the school. This social connectiveness meets a huge need they have in their life that they would fill anyway somewhere else.

Seed 3 – Know the Difference Between Groups and Teams

Nothing great can happen in your chapter, especially something mission-critical like membership engagement, if your leadership “team” is really just a leadership “group.” Following these steps will turn your group into a team.

1. Teams have an identified, trusted leader that enthusiastically gains the respect of the team.

2. Teams have an identified, specific goal that everyone is working towards. This goal is team created, not leader created.

3. Teams have an identified and agreed upon system for decision making. Go to the March 24, 2007 post to learn eight solid strategies for team decision making.

4. Teams make and revisit big, unique memories. This strategy also plays a huge role in creating and sustaining engaged members. Go big or go home.

5. Teams are comprised of individuals who are able to do something they love to do to help the team.

Seed 4 - Keep Commitments

Doing what you say you will do is the engine that drives all chapter activities. It is a meaningful aspect of membership engagement because it allows for momentum to happen. It is also a small way for everyone in the chapter to make a big difference. Commit to these commitment-keeping strategies…

1. Know when to say no. Don’t say yes if you know you really don’t want to do something and/or don’t have the time to do something.

2. Stick to a list of priorities.

3. Over-promise and over-deliver.

4. Gain clarity on all time and duty expectations.

5. Apologize when necessary.

6. Remember that you aren’t what you do once. You are what you do repeatedly.

7. Respect people’s time and show up early. Early is on-time. On-time is late. Late is left!

8. You make time for the important things. You have time to shower, eat, and text message don’t you?

9. If you add a commitment, take one away. Unless you are superman or superwoman, you can’t be great at everything. DECA is important. Trim down your other “non-critical” time consumers.


Seed 5 – Be a DECA chapter Torchbearer

One of our most popular leadership keynotes/workshops for student and professional elected leaders is called Torchbearers. We actually invest full days helping leaders understand how to tap into, retain and share with others the passion they have for their organizations. Review the list below to see if you qualify as a Torchbearer for your DECA chapter...The DECA Torchbearer Seven Defining Qualities…

You are thirsty for helping your DECA chapter grow.

You own a strong allegiance to your DECA chapter.

You value and foster relationships within your DECA chapter.

You gain part of your identity from your DECA chapter (you include your DECA chapter involvement when you introduce yourself to people.)

You have a clear understanding of your role in your DECA chapter.

You know and believe in your DECA chapter’s core values.

You speak positively about your DECA chapter and its leadership and members.

Fostering Relationships: Three Ideas for Bringing the Best Out of Others

As you read this post, you might wonder, "why the forks in the pictures?" People are like forks. They can be used for good or bad based on the hands they are in. Also, I have a new keynote slide show titled "The Fork." It makes fork-related leadership points: the eating fork, the tuning fork and the fork in the road.

If you are in charge of leading others, the following list highlights three practices to maximize performance.


You need to decide whether or not your people are in the right job. Knowing this requires an intimate understanding of the person and the job responsibilities. My mother was a high-level leader in a hospital for years. A lady worked for her that was a hard worker, but consistently under-performed. Mom found out she was in the wrong position. This lady was an introvert and was working in a very social position. Once mom placed her in a more solo position, she thrived. She was able to give her best because her best was asked of her. When you have people in the wrong type of position, they are asked to engage a weakness every day. Only when people are asked to engage a strength can they perform at a high level.

You also have to make job placement about the table, not the person. It's about the position and the behaviors they demonstrate in that position. Don't make it about them personally. Talk about the duties of the job and what it takes to succeed in it. This will result in everyone being able to keep a non-personal point of view. There are enough reasons for personal squabbles in the workplace - whether someone is in the right position or not doesn't have to be one of them.


This decision is about clarity and expectations. People can naturally give their best when they know what their best should look like, feel like and move like. As a leader, you have to decide what "an amazing job" is for each individual. You then have to put language to it and get them talking about it. Get things out in the open. Keep an eye on their progress and then guide them through the gap between average and amazing. This is where high level leaders and performers live.

Once you get the gap between average and amazing identified, work with your team on getting one percent closer to amazing. Start small. Start with one skill. One process. One job. Figure that out, perfect it and then move on to another. Before you know it, you and your team will be much closer to amazing than average. Just make sure you, nor they ever feel like amazing has been reached. This can be just as dangerous as never reaching for it at all. (See my post on the dirty little secret of high performers.)


I did a post a few months ago about the difference between MySpace leaders and YourSpace leaders. To bring the best out of others, you have to care about them. You must have a genuine interest in seeing them personally and professionally succeed and then communicate this by asking questions, learning what is good with them, what is a challenge for them, etc. These interactions need to be positive in nature, even when helping them improve. Again, make it about the behavior or the job, not the person. Always coach up (here are a few suggestions on coaching strategies) and look for the good. The bad will reveal itself immediately. The positive is sometimes more elusive to find. It is your job to recognize the positive and emphasize it daily.

Skill Assessment: Personality and Presentations

A few weeks ago I did a post on my Authenticity Rules blog about how your personality impacts your presentations.  If you lead workshops, trainings or give speeches, go check it out...

How Does Your Personality Impact Your Presentations?

Skill Assessment: Where is Your Focus?

Leaders are constantly interested in improvement. Making things better drives their thinking, their value system, and their behavior. However, you can't change something (for better or worse) unless you can measure movement.

So, how can you measure how far you have progressed on the road to being the most effective leader you can be? Try thinking about that in terms of what your primary focus is every day. There are four options:

1. Focused on Growing Self. You feel your primary task in the area of leadership is learning. Knowledge aquisition. Understanding and applying the basic principles. What is this world all about? If you are here, your focus is on where you are headed and what you need to get there. Your satisfaction is derived from closing your knowledge gaps. Your confidence comes from other people acknowledging your learning.

2. Focused on Knowing Self. At this stage, your learning is sharply directed inward. You spend your disposable leadership development energy on becoming keenly self-aware. Where are your talents, strengths and abilities most needed? Where do you fit in the world? Your satisfaction is derived from closing the gap between where you are and where you think you should be in both your personal and professional leadership initiatives. Your confidence comes from achieving goals.

3. Focused on Knowing Others. Leaders in all areas of life reach a point where relationships are paramount. Not only in terms of personal importance and satisfaction, but also in terms of achieving their leadership initiatives. If you are at this point in your journey, you are primarily focused on understanding how to get the most out of others, how to deal with the challenges of working in teams, etc. If you are here, your focus is on your relationships and the impact they are having on your journey. Your satisfaction comes from developing healthy relationships. Your confidence comes from seeing those relationships create value for everyone involved.

4. Focused on Growing Others. The pinnacle of leadership is being focused on growing the leaders around you. Taking your finely tuned leadership abilities, your knowledge of self and your knowledge of human nature and assisting in, encouraging, and actively participating in the development of others. If you are here, your focus is simply on helping others navigate their leadership journey and doing so is the ultimate satisfaction. Your confidence is on auto-pilot at this point.

Two keys when thinking about your leadership journey using this metric:

Key 1. These are progressive; they build on the others. At focus level four, you are primarily focused on growing others, but you continue growing/knowing self and knowing others.

Key 2. If you are struggling with the focal point of a level, the first place to look for a remedy/answers is the focal point of a previous level. So, if you struggle with knowing others, you need to start with growing and/or knowing yourself.

Skill Assessment: How Do You Do "I Don't Know?"

Effectively managing what we don't know is an important part of positively influencing others.

There are two forces at work here:

1. I don't know something that I need to know.

This is what David Allen calls an "open loop" - something we know needs to get done that is unfinished. Too many of these and our stress goes through the roof. The powerful part of closing knowledge-based open loops is, unless you forget it, that loop is closed for good. Once you know something, you know it forever, regardless of whether you have retained the ability to access it or not.

The next time you are faced with a situation where you can learn something you know you need to learn, stop and take time to close that loop.

2. I know there are literally billions of things I don't know.

"Effectively smart" people are those people who leverage their knowledge for meaningful good. A big part of their effectiveness comes from their ability to simultaneously juggle three dynamics:

• Knowing they don't know everything about everything.


• Being okay with and actually frank about this fact (because another part of their effectiveness is derived from their specialty knowledge - being really, really smart about a handful of subjects.)


• Being able to not worry about the things they don't know, focus on the things they do know and surround themselves with people who can fill in the blanks.

Skill Assessment: The Little Things Make a Huge Difference

A few of my college buddies and I took a golf weekend trip to Scottsdale, AZ. We golfed 72 holes in 48 hours. We had a great time. Scottsdale is widely known as a golfing mecca. The courses were all beautiful and well worth the green fees.

However, the hospitality varied from some of the best I've seen at a golf course to leaving us wondering what grapefruit did the service training. One great example was on the last course of our trip and it demonstrates what can happen when an organization drops the ball in assessing and sharpening its customer-touch team's key skills.

The beverage cart came around and the lady asked us if we needed anything. We replied we would like her to take our picture. She quickly and shortly shot back, "OK. Are you going to get anything else?" It is difficult to transmit voice via text, but she did not act happy about this and did not have a smile on her face.

She took the picture and went on her way and received zero tips. All she had to do was to say something to the effect of, "I would love to!" Maybe put a smile on her face. Maybe even had some fun with it. Not only would she have received a tip for her services, we would have been more inclined to order something from her (resulting in more tips.)

It is amazing how the little things make a huge difference - especially when it comes to interpersonal relations. One little smile, a hop in her step and her results would have been totally different. This little tale is yet another testament to the fact that companies, organizations and associations need to make absolutely certain someone is watching to make certain the little things are working right.

Skill Assessment: The Dirty Little Secret of Big Performers

Think of three wildly successful individuals in three significantly different fields...

A B C

Think very specifically about why your brain connects the concept of "successful" with each person...

? ? ?

Think about the nature of these characteristics. Do you perceive them to be in the skills, talents, or attitudes category....

Skills Talents Attitudes

Chances are your big performer A, B and C had very different reasons why they are successful and chances are almost as good those "success attributes" fall under different categories. The lesson here is that successful people seem to be very unique in terms of how and why they are high achievers...

The dirty little secret of big performers is they do have two very important "somethings" in common.

1...

Regardless of industry, position, personality, market conditions, expertise, training, talent, skill or attitude, big performers are willing to do the small, non-sexy, gritty, "down in the trenches" tasks the average or under performers either don't want to do or don't think they should have to do. Big performers are in a never-ending battle with entitlement.

2...

Big performers don't see themselves as "big performers." They see themselves as growing performers. They are constantly getting better, learning, stretching, risking, pursuing and running. Big performers are in a never-ending battle with complacency.

Skill Assessment: Buckingham's Myths

Marcus Buckingham released a DVD set recently titled "Trombone Player Wanted." It is about strengths, which is what Buckingham is all about. He highlights three myths that need to be replaced with three truths. As you read these, think about how you have developed in your life and what the traditional thinking is about growth through strengths/weakness analysis...

Myth #1 - As you grow, you change.

Truth #1 - As you grow, you become more and more of who you are.

Our basic make-up will be the same at 4 years old, 34 years old and 84 years old.

Myth #2 - You will grow in your weakest areas.

Truth #2 - You will take fantastic leaps of growth in your strongest areas.

77% of parents say they would spend more time with their child helping them in a class where they have an F than in a class where they have an A.

Myth #3 - What the team needs is for everyone to put the team first and the individual second.

Truth #3 - The best teams are full of individuals who bring their strengths to the team and those strengths compliment each other.

There is an "I" in win.

Skill Assessment: Very Weird Bathroom Routine

I have got serious issues for two specific reasons... 

1.  I have a very weird bathroom routine that provides a key insight to why my personality is tailor-made for my work.

2.  I am sharing this routine on my blog.

Basically, I always have to have something to read in there (the water closet, the head, the john, etc.), but I am never in there long enough to read it.

You might be thinking this just makes me a guy with good plumbing.  But, as a professional communicator and advice giver, I am called to look for the glacier and not just be satisfied with the iceberg.

This very weird bathroom routine illustrates that I am a constant learner (I always have a book, a magazine, the Wall Street Journal or my Blackberry notes function in front of me in situations when most people are just doing nothing) and I streamline my time as much as possible because, like you I'm sure, I always have more to do than I have time to do it. 

Both of these traits play perfectly into running my own business and in being a professional communicator.  How about you?  Is your personality a strength or a weakness in relation to the important tasks you are called to do with your projects?  If you haven't put language to your personality traits yet, go visit the bathroom and think on it for awhile. 

Skill Assessment: What were you built to do?

Makes you think about how many of us are and aren't doing what we're built to do.

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

Skill Assessment: Understanding Motivation

I speak over 100 times per year in the student leadership training market and have been every year for the last 15 years. A fellow trainer/speaker who has been making a huge difference for years is Mike Smith. This is a video on his web site about understanding motivation. Great content and very engaging delivery! Enjoy.

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

General: Grant Me Leadership...

God grant me...


Vision to see opportunity.

Integrity to be what I say.


Innovativeness to create value.

Wise Judgment to choose right.


Service mindedness to be significant.

Processed Goals to live purposefully.


Emotional Maturity to act with control and grace.

Skill Assessment to engage my strength.


Fostered Relationships to experience the richness of life.

Masterful Communication to bring clarity into an unclear world.

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

Skill Assessment: Doing Leadership Right!

If you want to see how raising emotionally and socially healthly children is done right, look no further than the 18 middle schools surrounding Riverside Middle School in Carson, Iowa (30 minutes east of Omaha, Nebraska.)

I just spent an amazing two days with some of the best 10-14 year olds and some of the best teachers and parents I have ever had the opportunity to know.

These students were ready and willing to listen, to have fun, and to learn about leadership. They were respectful, fun-loving, attentive, creative and hard-workers.

Thanks, Riverside for being one of the best groups I have worked with in a long, long time! And remember what we learned...

1. Leadership is about focusing on others
2. Getting excited about doing leadership will change your life
3. Treat people more like Jeremy and less like Shawn
4. Dead dairy is bad and leadership is not the same as being good
5. Wobblycootins are there to help us have fun, not to keep us from having fun!

Link to newspaper article

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

Skill Assessment: Torchbearers

One of our most popular modules for student and professional elected leaders is called Torchbearers. Review the list below to see if you qualify as a Torchbearer...




The Torchbearer Seven Defining Qualities…

1. Thirsty for personal and professional growth
2. Strong allegiance to organizations*
3. Values and fosters relationships within and without their organizations
4. Self-assure and gains partial or full identity from organizations
5. Self-aware of how they play a role in moving their organizations forward
6. Intelligently optimistic about the future
7. Effective communicator (public and private)

* Organizations are defined as any entity that brings people together for a common cause (family, neighborhood, community, business, professional association, state, nation, religion, etc.)

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

Skill Assessment: Train Your People!

The PLI Essential of Skill Assessment is defined as the ability to act upon a clear understanding of your and your organization's core strengths and challenges. Basically, this means knowing and doing what you are great at. There are a few reasons why this simple dynamic of high performers does not happen regularly in most organizations...

1. Most people have never identified their core strength.
2. Most people don't really care or don't see why they should identify their core strength. Give me a job. Pay me. Let me go home.
3. It is definitely an art form for organizations to be able to match up their talent pool, with qualified applications and their job openings. The companies who do this effectively have invested a large amount of time getting this one thing right - the hiring and placement and training of staff.

However, even when people are placed in positions where they can engage their core strength, they still must be trained on a regular basis - especially when something changes. Here are two examples that happened to me TODAY!

Wal-Mart - The local Wal-Mart has recently changed their store layout and it is hilarious watching the customers (like me) find things now. However, it is FRUSTRATING to no end to watch the Wal-Mart Associates walk around lost. What a great opportunity to exceed expectations by investing less than an hour (which is probably all it would take per group) and have your people up to speed on the new layout. Or at the least, print out a schematic that they could keep in their back pockets when asked a question. It reminds of the time last October when we walked into a brand new Target in Colorado one hour after it opened. The Target staffers were absolutely clueless. But the store did spend a fortune on a magician, a juggler, free food, a huge outdoor banner. Unfortunately, none of the staffers knew where I could purchase a magic kit, some balls, crackers or duct tape.

Dillards - My wife, daughters and I visited Dillards today to get some shoes for the little ones. The store installed new cash registers over the weekend and it literally took three associates, two customer service folks, two manuals and twenty minutes to figure out how to run my debit card as a credit card. Their excuses were plentiful, but none of them helpful. (Turns out the button they were told to push - the "slash" button - was supposed to be the backslash, not the forward slash button. What do you think the chances are none of those five people wrote that little gem down for the next shift?)

[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...

Skill Assessment: Building People, not Ships

The PLI Essential of Skill Assessment is not only about understanding and developing your own skills, for leaders it is also about understanding and developing the skills of others. A friend of mine, Jack Myrick, understands how to do this effectively. A few years ago he was a regional supervisor for 6 Sonic Drive-In stores. Everything was going smooth, but in a stretch of about 90 days things tanked. His best employees left and his remaining crew were undermotivated and underperforming. He was working 100 hour weeks and Jack knew something had to change.

So, he sat down and put 5 leadership principles on index cards and worked hard to fulfill their calling every day with his people. Within 6 months, his stores were setting records for sales. Feeling the need to share what he experienced, Jack wrote a leadership parable explaining the 5 leadership principles and the effect they can have on people.

His parable is called Shipbuilder. It is only 112 short pages and is a quick and powerful read! I won't give the 5 parables away, but my favorite line from the book is that the secret to great shipbuilding is to recognize that, as a leader, your job is not to build ships, but to build people!

Click here to get yourself a copy of the Shipbuilder.

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

Skill Assessment: The Experiences Lever

Since ancient times the lever has been used to move physical objects farther with less effort. Much has been written about the value of education vs. the value of experiences regarding our ability to be successful leaders. Certainly this debate will go on for many years to come.

However, I believe our experiences provide a type of leverage that many types of traditional education paths do not. For example, my experiences have been heavily influenced by student organizations; both in high school and college. Consequently, that is where I spend a majority of my time training and speaking. I see thousands of students every year increasing their leadership potential because of their grand experiences in these organizations.

Here are logos of just a handful of student organizations out there that are providing an amazing avenue for students to build up their experiences lever. If you are a parent or mentor of a student, learn more about these. If you are a student, sign up today!!!! They will change your life. Comment below if you want to know more...

Of course, the most powerful lever is the combination of both education and experiences, which all of these organizations provide since they are directly tied to some sort of educational institution.

So, the question is, what experiences do you need to add to your repertoire to accomplish meaningful significance as a leader?

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

Skill Assessment: A STEEP Hill to Climb

As you think about your career goals this month, consider the STEEP model of deciding where you should put your efforts. Our best life can be found in our careers when we are able to align...

• Our skills (what we have learned to do)


• Our talent (what we do naturally well)


• Our experience (what we have been doing)


• Our education (what we have been taught)


• Our passion (what we love to do)

To make a list of all five areas is a considerably large project to undertake. But once you do, you can discover that your best life is being lived now or you might find hidden opportunities!

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