10 Things Great Leaders Do Differently: Continues to Learn and Grow

Las Vegas is home to a couple of University of Wyoming alumni.  I am one and Robert Rippee is the other.  We didn’t know each other in school despite having similar majors but we became fast friends through a common professional connection; his employer and my customer.

During our time together, I have never seen Robert stop learning.  He is a passionate seeker of knowledge and hones his skills constantly.  Conferences, classes, articles, books, sharing with others; Robert is constantly learning.

As some people with Robert’s tenure are fighting to remain relevant, he is on the cutting edge of his craft and considered a subject matter expert in the constantly changing world of marketing.  Beyond his core expertise, Robert has added new levels of knowledge in big data, destination management, luxury brands and content development.  All self-learned through his passionate pursuit of knowledge and growth.  As of this writing, Robert is a widely sought after presenter, consultant  and panelist because of his life-ling learning passion.

Far too often success becomes intoxicating for a leader and the learning stops and stagnates.  A few promotions, a great review, a bonus and a raise will create no impetus for a leader to continue to learn and grow.  That type of leader will often be fighting obsolesce and organizational obscurity.

The effective leader, like Robert, will be in a constant state of learning, growth and evolution.  There will be no need to stop to sharpen a saw blade because it always honed to maximum cutting edge.

Restarting the desire to learn and in some cases, relearning to learn may require you to begin:

  1. Read an article a day related to something you want to know more about and applies to your abilities to lead in your organization. This is one of the great values of social media.  These types of articles are everywhere on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
  2. Start a classic book that challenges your knowledge, vocabulary and comprehension of complex concepts.
  3. Take a class or refresh a skill through some online learning. I know this sounds a bit self-serving but it works.  Stimulates the mind and encourages future learning.

10 Things Great Leaders Do Differently: Encourage, Praise and Appreciate

A senior leader in the convention services industry effortless and constantly delivered “great job” on top of “thank you” in addition to “you got this” on a daily, all the time basis.

Also on the top of her list were creating opportunities for her people to connect socially and receive the recognition they had been lacking during her tenure.  She created rituals for social interaction and celebrations.

She delivered it sincerely, timely and with an unwavering upbeat demeanor that made her the organization’s cheerleader.  The consummate cheerleader.

I always wanted to use one of those tick counters and follow her around for a day or so and see what the daily tally was but never did.  Suffice to say it happened a lot and every day.

And how did her people respond?

With unprecedented production, commitment to quality, organizational loyalty, embracing of mission and a quantum leap in customer service levels.  End game.  It played out over seven years.  Some of her peers ridiculed her for the constant praise, encouragement and appreciation.  Some of her own team members suspected her motives were not good.  But at the end of the day, the results spoke for themselves.

This is one example that we have had the privilege to work with in the past 20 years,  There are hundreds more.  Maybe thousands more.  When leaders put time and effort into positive feedback, thanks and encouragement, the results grow dramatically and pretty quickly.  Toxicity is reduced.  Turnover goes down.  Benefit after benefit.

Great leaders understand this and have for quite some time.  As their peer leaders are working with metrics and working through a politicized corporate culture, the great leaders are investing time and energy in building their team morale and replicating valued behaviors and performance.

Any leader can achieve what she did by adopting a few simple strategies.

  1. Say thank you when someone does something for you or the organization.
  2. Tell people “good job” when they meet or exceed expectations.
  3. Encourage people to grow, stretch, make decisions and take risks.
  4. Do these consistently and beyond the limits of your current comfort level.

10 Things Great Leaders Do Differently: Talk Not Write

John Caparella had a simple rule:  come talk to me.  If you can’t, call me.

That rule came quickly in John’s tenure as he saw in email inbox fill daily with over 200 new notes.  Every day.  Saturdays and Sundays included.  Most were of the FYI variety.  A good chunk were CYA.  A lot more were just diatribes that would have been unnecessary with a five minute phone call.

John’s organization had an ugly little addiction to email and text messages.

To make matters worse, many of those emails were poorly toned and created unnecessary workplace conflicts and misunderstandings.

Shortly after starting to work with John, he began responding to his emails with a single line response to either call him or make an appointment to talk about it.  He also made it very clear to his senior team that his preferred method of communication was face-to-face.  It has the highest information richness and the lowest chance of misunderstanding.

The email volume went down quickly for John.  More people came to talk to him and more called to see if he could talk.  Communication actually occurred in a bi-directional and immediate basis, the way it should.  Relationships were strengthened, trust grew and his senior team became accustomed to talking and not writing.

But that is not the end of the story.  Not close.

John’s line in the sand about email caused a huge trickle down affect in the entire organization.  Less email enterprise wide.  More real communication and human interaction which in turn, created higher team member engagement and overall performance.  A very large victory all around.

Effective leaders will always look at communication richness and err on the side of true human interaction above writing emails.  It may have convenience but that is about it.

To work on talking more and writing less, begin to:

  1. Use John’s one liner to call you or schedule a time to talk.
  2. Encourage your team to avoid sending emails and to achieve true communication.
  3. Build trust and eliminate the need for CYA and documenting emails.

10 Things Great Leaders Do Differently: Take Care of Themselves

Self-care is an interesting subject among leaders.  Many want their team to have it.  To balance their life, even encouraging time off.

But unfortunately while espousing a balanced life, those same leaders work 55 to 70 hours a week and live at work.

Dr. Steve Buuck works very hard.  He has to.  As the CEO of the largest private school in Nevada, he really doesn’t have much choice.  Work, donors, athletics, arts, sciences and activities of all sizes and shapes keep him hopping all week with little break during the summer.

But Steve also takes care of himself.  He is no gym rat but he bikes, golfs and walks with his wife.  He is in pretty good physical shape for the work rigor he puts himself through.  But physical activity is only part of the story with Dr. Buuck.

Steve feeds his mind, emotions and his soul frequently.  That becomes of greater care value than the bike rides through the National Recreation Area.  He learns constantly and hones his craft through courses and reading.  He feeds his emotional composition through intentional time with family and complete detachment from the working world.

The spiritual feeding is something often neglected in many leaders but not with Steve.  He is a man of God.  Has been all his life.  His relationship with God is of utmost important to him and he takes care of that daily.  This growth becomes every bit as important as an annual executive physical and cholesterol count.

Effective leaders, like Dr. Buuck, use a holistic approach to self-care.  It is not just working out.  It is not just rest.  It is not just family.  It is not just learning.  It is not just spiritual enrichment.  It is all of those.  All of those and done in doses every day.  A misalignment in these areas is as bad as being a workaholic.

To add a little self-care to your leadership routine, consider:

  1. Spend some time each morning, not reading email but either reading about or connecting with your spiritual life.
  2. Schedule time and activities that serve your physical side. A sports league is great because they take care of the scheduling for you.
  3. Don’t forget the care and feeding of your family and friends. They came with you to the prom and will need a ride home as well.
  4. Close your day with some reading or writing. A great habit that cares for your mind.

10 Things Great Leaders Do Differently: Mentor and Grow Others

Ken Atha is a grower.

Not of flowers, crops or gardens.  He is a grower of people.  And he does it in a very unique way.

Ken is a senior executive for a major United States federal agency.  He is young, aggressive, mission focused and an all-around great leader.  But what stands out about Ken is his passion for mentoring and growing his team.

The easy part to document and write is that he devotes serious time with several subordinate level team members in mentoring their growth.  This part is very traditional and not new ground.  He coaches them, shares information for their career progress and most importantly listens to them.  Ken is a great listener.  Mentoring is not so much about sharing as it is listening and responding when needed.

One differentiating part of Ken’s approach is that he does not limit his mentoring to immediate direct reports that represent the traditional succession map.  He looks for emerging talent at all organizational levels and initiates the mentoring discussions.  There are some risks in this but the rewards far outweigh any potential consequences.

Another huge difference in Ken’s mentoring is that he provides universal opportunities for growth in his entire organization.  He has encouraged using four hours per month for just such activities for ALL team members.  He wants them to grow, seek knowledge, innovate, critically think and share information.  This alone has had a stunning impact on the engagement, creativity and overall performance of his organization.

Do all leaders have an opportunity to mentor?  Absolutely but unfortunately very few do.  Mentoring takes some commitment, a more global view of the organization, a future perspective of legacy and the ability to subordinate daily operational stuff.

If you want to incorporate some growing and mentoring into your leadership arsenal, look at:

  1. Making yourself available. Many leaders are so buried in their office, behind a computer with phone in hand that no one dare to approach them; let alone ask for some mentoring time.
  2. Examine what your true organizational legacy is about. It is not the projects or performance but the people you leave when you are gone (retirement not in a fatal sense).
  3. Seek out those high performing and high potential team members for mentoring. Many will want it but not ask for the opportunity.

10 Things Great Leaders Do Differently: Work Until Its Done

Never really took the time or had the chance to tell my dad that he was one of my leadership heroes.  Was not the right time or I thought he would always be around to tell.

The one unwavering leadership characteristic that my dad modeled consistently was work ethic.  When there was work to be done, he did it.  Day of week, time of day, personal plans; none of that mattered.  The work had to be done.  You could never guarantee the work would be there tomorrow.  Used a mantra about crops in the field.  I use that to this day.

Please don’t get me wrong, I am not advocating becoming a workaholic or anything close.  As a kid, I resented my dad not being around much and missing much of life.  It probably contributed significantly to his demise.  What I am advocating is a single-mindedness of purpose and focus towards significant work events and projects.  That passionate application of purpose and vocation is a powerful force when connected to life balance and understanding of the need for overall health (physical, mental, spiritual and emotional).

Effective and successful leaders in the modern working environment share this singularity of focus and purpose.  They work a project and push things until they are done.  There is no giving up.  There is no calling it a day.  There is the recognition that tomorrow might not bring the same opportunity and that there is a crop in the field.  If you have ever seen the face of someone fire walking, you have seen the face of singular focus and drive to completion.

This focus and passionate pursuit can also not be sustained indefinitely.  Rest, fun, personal balance, attention to learning, self-examination and soul restoring activities must also be mixed in but effective leaders will do so gracefully and without much thought.  It is a part of their routine and their being as a leader.

To create higher levels of the Git Er Done type of focus and work ethic, consider:

  1. Removing, eliminating and delegating routine tasks that don’t mean much to the overall success of the organization.
    Challenge your own commitment level to the mission, vision and values of the organization.
  2. Reconcile how your project or other work products contribute to your legacy as a leader or team member.
  3. Build systems of task shifting (30 minute changeovers) to insure freshness and passion renewal.
  4. Watch your work, life, emotional, spiritual, physical and mental balance. Listen to your mind, body and heart for signals that you need to walk away for a bit.

10 Things Great Leaders Do Differently: Value People Above Policies

Today I have the great luxury of celebrating one of our own.

Katie Meeks is a rule breaker.  Not even sure she acknowledges that rules exist.  Not the kind of rule breaker that will end up in front of a judge for bad driving but the kind that challenges paradigms and boundaries associated with how work is done and how value is created.

She works outside.  Sometimes in a chair.  Many times in a hammock.  Regularly takes play breaks with her kids.  Pets her dog when there is a bit of down time.  Her office space looks a bit more like a personal retreat than a traditional office.  Katie’s hours are when she wakes to when she is done for the night.

But beyond the methods, there is extreme value.  Innovation and creativity is at an off-the-charts level.  Productivity is high.  Quality of work rocks.  And all for the singular purpose of inspiring others and helping other people learn and grow.  It is truly a scene of a rebel with a cause.  A very good cause.

The point of this is not to celebrate Katie but to point out that the bounds of traditional working policies and practices don’t always fit.  In fact, they rarely fit.  The best leaders are those that will consistently challenge policies for the benefit of people.  When they do that, engagement, production, quality, service and overall performance soar.  Without it, it will be the same old and tired performance of yesterday.

For further proof, take a serious look at the organizations that embrace this philosophy.  Zappos is a big rule breaker.  They have corporately challenged every traditional paradigm about working policies and it has paid off in spectacular fashion.  Google is the same way.  Nordstrom’s was the pioneer in this area by allowing and encouraging policy breaking when a customer would benefit.

As a leader you can stir some of your inner rebel by:

  1. Ask about your organization’s policies that don’t make much sense or provide any benefit to people. Propose substitutes and changes.
  2. Use your discretion in policy enforcement to help others achieve flexibility and higher levels of satisfaction.
  3. Throw away the damn policy manual (or delete it from the shared drive/welcome to 2015) and trust your very talented people to do the right thing.

10 Things Great Leaders Do Differently: Converting Vision to Action

One of our very first customers back in the mid-1990’s was Cashman Cadillac.

A family owned luxury automobile dealer that was run by Tim Cashman.  He ran a tight ship and one that was highly engaged before engaged was a thing.  They were successful and highly respected in the community and by customers.

But Tim had a dream and a vision.  He wanted to have the world’s largest Harley Davidson dealer that would become a destination of sorts.  Motorcycles, clothing, accessories, repair and evening dining.  From Cadillacs to Harleys.  Do you suppose people gave him a little grief about his vision?

Tim converted his vision to action.  Not overnight and not alone and not without input and assistance from others.  He took on a partner in the venture.  He ceded control of the Cadillac operations to a trusted leader.  He listened.  He learned about the Harley product.

That pre-work then turned into buying land, building a magnificent building, partnering with the manufacturer, hiring team members with shared vision and eventually opening his visionary location.

Effective leaders like Tim are able to not only have a vision but to turn it into action and result.  Perhaps not perfect and not as quickly as desired but the action and the end result came and came spectacularly.

I would make the case, to some people chagrin, that visions are cheap.  The real value comes when input is sought, planning occurs and the visions become real.

As a leader, you can turn your visions into reality by:

  1.  Documenting what you see and sense. This is a huge reason many visions never see fruition.  Write down, in any form, what you want to do.
  2. Begin slowly to bring others into the vision. Seek input, ideas and guidance from a small circle of trusted people.
  3. Note the largest milestones and actions. Avoid getting into the weeds and minutiae as those will change a hundred times over.  There is time to deal with the details and now is not it.

10 Things Great Leaders Do Differently: Make Others Feel Important

In 1990, I moved my family from Phoenix to Las Vegas to work for Kenny Guinn at PriMerit Bank.  Dr. Guinn had a great reputation as a good man and a good leader.  I didn’t really know how great of a leader until much later.

We both left the bank after just a few years.  It was the run and shoot offense of mergers and we were one of hundreds consumed by a megabank.  Dr. Guinn went on to run a major utility, lead UNLV as their president, serve as interim school district superintendent and serve two terms as governor of the State of Nevada.  I started a small training company.

Somewhere near the end of his second term as governor, I ran into him in the Reno airport.  I was waiting for a flight to depart and he had just arrived.

He remembered me.  Called me Timmy.  One of just a couple of people allowed that latitude.  We talked for over thirty minutes.  He asked about my boys.  Said he had read about my business.  He made me feel like the most important thing he had going on for that half hour.

I would bet you have had a similar experience with someone.  That rare leader that makes it all about you and not about them.  It’s not that they don’t speak.  They respond but they also redirect the subject to you.  To them, you feeling important is how they feel important.

As a leadership characteristic, nothing could be more engaging.  It generates a deeply rooted personal loyalty that cannot be measured or valued.  People remember those moments when you made it about them and their view of you skyrockets.

Can any leader make someone else feel important?

Absolutely and you should and here is how:

  1.  Ask about others.
  2. Remember important details about your team members.
  3. Don’t spend a lot of time talking about yourself.
  4. If it is important to them, make it important to you.

10 Things Great Leaders Do Differently

You have seen it, probably dozens of times, if not more.

The leadership “it” factor.  Some leaders just have “it”, use “it” and we can’t really ever describe what “it” is or how to describe “it”.

This set of articles will delve into ten traits that great leaders display that set them apart from other leaders.  It is a set of skills, characteristics and competencies that go beyond the standard learnings and move into a symbiosis of leadership, heart and soul.

The leaders that are cited and mentioned are real people with great success stories.  None of them are perfect but each project and use a set of characteristics that make them exceptional and successful.  They also are very genuine and caring people that do not use these skills because someone told them to.  They use them because they are the right thing to do and they fit each of them perfectly.

So we get to look at some successful leaders and their ways to success who we can’t possibly relate to or emulate?  No, each of the characteristics are easily modeled and can be added to anyone’s leadership tool kit.  These people are famous generals, athletes or rap stars.  They started out just like me and you and used these skills to build their success.

First out of the gate, we will examine making people feel important, encouraging and praising others and converting vision to action.  From there, valuing people, persistence, mentoring others and taking care of themselves will be center stage.

Please take a look at each of these characteristics and see how you can begin to add them to your leadership skill set.  Each of them works and works well.  It will be up to you to start working them into your already solid set of skills.

10 Things Effective Leaders Do Differently:

1. Make People Feel Important
2. Convert Vision to Action
3. Value People Above Policies
4. Work Until Its Done
5. Mentor and Grow Others
6. Take Care of Themselves
7. Encourage, Praise and Appreciate
8. Talk Not Write
9. Continue to Learn
10. Challenge Themselves and Others