If you don't like your results, change your equation!
By Mike Moore
Showing posts with label Locker Room Leadership. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Locker Room Leadership. Show all posts
Being The Boss
Be courageous, it's not easy to do the right thing. It takes a large heart filled with love and genuine caring for your people. Remember love holds people accountable to be their best self and to keep improving that best self. You have been given a great responsibility to serve and care for the people who work for you. Give them your best and your business will be blessed and grow. Then you'll be given even more opportunity to care for more people. It's also important to keep in mind your business cannot improve unless your people do.
Go be the boss, someone has to lead if people are to overcome their mediocrity, come together and be part of something extraordinary! You've all seen it and been part of it in your past, now share it and help your company be that kind of place!
Last, remember they're going to challenge you because they want to see if you mean what you say. Be prepared to stand strong and remember as leaders you are the lowest form of behavior you except and tolerate.
Be your best!
By Mike Moore
Leaders Who Coach...Win!
How do I know that leaders who coach, win? Well, my leadership and coaching training started in 1963, at 9 years old, on a Friday night entering a locker room with my father
before a football game. You see, he was a football coach, and because of that I'd already spent time in locker rooms, on sidelines, at practices, in coach's meetings listening to pre-game, halftime and post-game speeches, but this was different, it was the beginning of my father's conscious effort to start teaching me about leadership, coaching, building teams and winning. How did he start teaching me? He asked me what I heard and felt? Did I think the players sounded and felt like they were ready to perform to their peak? I have to say that after that night I never looked at any of my experiences the same. Spending time with my Dad and other coaches was no longer just a perk for being a coach's son, they all became classrooms to learn the science, psychology and subtleties of coaching and leadership. From that night until he passed away in 1992 we talked coaching and I've spent my life studying other great coaches and how they go about building teams and winning. Then, in 1996 I was fortunate enough to spend one-on-one time with one of the greatest coaches in history, John Wooden, talking coaching and leadership. I've been applying the lessons I learned from many great coaches to business and life ever since, along with teaching them to my employees and clients. That's were my knowledge comes from, and where my desire to keep learning started, so let's get down to talking about why leaders who coach, win and how you can too!
before a football game. You see, he was a football coach, and because of that I'd already spent time in locker rooms, on sidelines, at practices, in coach's meetings listening to pre-game, halftime and post-game speeches, but this was different, it was the beginning of my father's conscious effort to start teaching me about leadership, coaching, building teams and winning. How did he start teaching me? He asked me what I heard and felt? Did I think the players sounded and felt like they were ready to perform to their peak? I have to say that after that night I never looked at any of my experiences the same. Spending time with my Dad and other coaches was no longer just a perk for being a coach's son, they all became classrooms to learn the science, psychology and subtleties of coaching and leadership. From that night until he passed away in 1992 we talked coaching and I've spent my life studying other great coaches and how they go about building teams and winning. Then, in 1996 I was fortunate enough to spend one-on-one time with one of the greatest coaches in history, John Wooden, talking coaching and leadership. I've been applying the lessons I learned from many great coaches to business and life ever since, along with teaching them to my employees and clients. That's were my knowledge comes from, and where my desire to keep learning started, so let's get down to talking about why leaders who coach, win and how you can too!
Excellence & The Pursuit Of Peak Performance
You'll have to have a plan to help people improve...Because companies and organizations don’t change and improve, people do!
Recent studies on workplace productivity revealed that companies whose leaders and managers engaged employees by coaching them regularly were 20% more productive and produce 20% higher customer satisfaction. In addition, workplace satisfaction improved and happiness at work become a reality...When all these line up revenue and profits improve dramatically!
A Wake-Up Call...Leadership & Coaching Are More Important Than Ever
Today, we’re in the midst off a more significant economic change than we experienced when we moved from the agricultural to industrial economies.
Globalization, demographics, cultural and technological changes are creating shifts in people’s attitudes, mindsets, lifestyles and how they view success.
This is an enormous leadership challenge because it’s affecting everyone, from leaders themselves, to employees and customers.
Leaders often suffer from economic 'Normalcy Bias’ (It hasn’t happened before so it’s not happening now!) during economic transitions.
Remember all solutions, just like all problems, are temporary. So, don’t be defensive or defend the status quo. Be prepared to keep changing to improve.
People's definition of success and motives for working are shifting and changing. Disengagement is one of the most serious shifts and is a challenge for leaders never before faced to this extreme.
Opening The Door To Success In The ’New Economy’
Opening The Door To Success In The ’New Economy’
It won't be enough to just stay ahead of your competition, you’ll need to keep up with your employees and customers. The best way to do this is to stay connected, engaged and coach people to instill an ‘employee first leadership’ culture that will produce a 'customer first company’!
Don’t get caught waiting for a recovery...Instead, engage and coach people to create your new standard of success.
Good News
Even though things are changing rapidly people's human nature hasn't changed. So, what makes people happy and fulfilled really isn't different and leaders who coach can produce extraordinary results in this ’new economy'!
Engaging, Coaching & Leadership...The Keys To Improvement
The key to improving your business, and in some cases the key to your survival, will be more leadership and management engagement than at any time in the past.
Remember, the latest studies show companies who's leaders and managers increase employee engagement by doing regular coaching are 20% more productive and have 20% higher customer satisfaction.
Both these results create significant increases to revenue and profit!
Remember, human nature doesn't change just the conditions we face keep changing.
Leaders who coach are change agents who stay ahead of the changing conditions.
People still want to belong to something bigger than themselves and be a part of something extraordinary. It's a leaders job to give them that opportunity...It's your job to make it a reality!
Leaders Who Coach Always Have A Higher Purpose
Leaders Who Coach Always Have A Higher Purpose
Leaders who coach always have a higher purpose that brings people together and keeps people energized and focused!
People don’t want to just work for economic reasons! In fact, people are never be their best just working for money, perks or promotions.
So, Let's Talk About Coaching
Sports teaches us many lessons that can be applied to life and business…The first and most important is that it's not about really about the score, it's about learning to compete with ourselves to become our best! The second is that although we keep score and the prizes go to the winners, the winners are the ones who focus on the game not the score!
So, just like athletes, actors and musicians your employees need to perform to their peak for your business to improve…Because remember, companies don’t really improve, people do!
Since we know that even the best athletes need coaching to be their best, how much more do your employees need coaching to be their best?
Leaders Don’t Make Rules & Policies, They Set Standards
Leaders Don’t Make Rules & Policies, They Set Standards
As a leader you are the lowest form of behavior you accept or tolerate!
Hold everyone accountable to meet the standards.
The best standard is to keep learning, growing and improving!
People don’t come together by chance, teams don’t win without coaches!
Leadership requires toughness and a hard edge at times if you’re going to do what’s best for people.
Always Be Coaching...The ABC’s Of Leadership
Engage, Connect, Communicate… Attitude is everything!
People won’t work like teammates unless a leader acts like a coach and holds them accountable to act like teammates.
People don't become teammates until they hold each other accountable to be their best.
Leaders who build teams are the leaders who set standards,coach attitudes, teach skills and manage actions.
Coaching is the key to individual peak performance, creating winning teams, teamwork, productivity and customer satisfaction.
Leaders and managers who coach also attract and retaining top talent by helping that talent perform to their peak.
Great Business Leaders, Like Coaches, Manage The Air
That’s right they create an atmosphere that produces good team chemistry, teamwork and superior individual effort!
Coaching is all about instilling and managing people’s attitudes, because attitudes, produce the actions, that generate the results.
Coaching is about instilling a performance culture by making learning, growing and improving, your attitudes, skills and actions, to become a likable, trustworthy expert, who's helpful, caring and courageous, everyone’s mission. In fact this is the standard great coaches set!
Happiness and workplace satisfaction grow when people are challenged to be their best while working in pursuit of worthwhile goals.
Make sure the objectives and goals are clearly communicated so they can be pursued effectively.
Leaders Who Coach Pay Attention To What Matters Most
You cannot lead from 30,000 feet…You must be connected!
People are our greatest asset…Then lead like you mean it! People before profits, isn’t just a cliche’, it’s the best way to improve profits!
Leaders who coach know people are spirit, mind and body, so they serve them in that order!
Leaders who coach must be change advocates, fully engaged, self-aware, empathetic, not perfectionists, whole life focused, curious, grateful...Coaching is an act of love!
Attitude matters because when frustration is allowed to linger, it leads to indifference which causes disengagement. Coaching attitudes produces exceptional actions and extraordinary results.
Don’t Get Caught Up Watching The Scoreboard (Reacting To Results)
When you manage results you're too late to lead, you’ll only be able to manage the chaos and confusion to a mediocre end!
The score will make you relax when you're ahead and panic when your behind.
Keep the focus on learning, growing and improving everyone's peak performance!
Excellence only happens for those who are obsessed with improvement.
A leader who coaches must be a compass always pointing towards improvement.
Watch the players, set the standards and coach the things you control and the score will take care of itself!
Nothing Improves Until People Improve...Don’t Wait, Get Started
You can get results or make excuses but you cannot have both!
Stop watching the scoreboard and start coaching.
Connect, communicate and engage by coaching attitudes, teaching skills and managing actions daily!
Find your higher purpose that'll keep you and your employees fully engaged, energized and focused!
If you believe people are your greatest asset...Then act like it, live by it, lead like they are!
Never miss a chance to build trust and the relationships that follow will make you rich!
Become a servant on a mission to get everyone learning, growing and improving, their attitudes, skills and actions, to become likable, trustworthy experts, who are helpful, caring and courageous and watch your revenue and profits improve!
My Hope For You, My Challenge To You
I hope you've had and have the mentors, coaches and leaders in your life that I’ve been blessed to have in mine. I would also challenge each owner, executive and manager to not just go to work but go to work to be a leader who coaches and mentors those they work with each day.
In The End, Leave A Legacy
Will you say I wish I had, or I'm glad I did? If you’re a leader who coaches and mentors, you'll be a leader who makes a positive difference, helps people breakthrough to become their best and you'll leave a legacy or excellence!
By Mike Moore
A Leaders Success Rest In The Hands Of Average People
Many, including Dr. Covey, have waxed eloquently about hiring passionate, exceptional, people. This is a myth unless you are only hiring a very small group of people with unlimited opportunities for them
to learn, earn and grow. Otherwise you will only hire and retain these types of people until they become your leaders or your competition because they move up or move out to pursue their dreams.
 |
| These people become your leaders or competition. They move up or move out to pursue their dreams! |
So, even when you hire them you will only have them for a short time in the position they were hire to be passionate about. Keep trying to hire the best but the best needs to be defined for each position.
One of the reasons this myth keep perpetrating itself is that it sounds good to most leaders. You see most leaders think every wants to be like them, extraordinary. Most people don't, even though they can be, they don't have the will or emotional intelligence to be above average without strong mentors and leaders. This is why leaders who can coach, teach and manage people are so vital to any organizations success!
If you are leading more than a small group of people many will be average thinkers who are more interested in seeking comfort and the easy way than in being extraordinary.
This is a statistical fact, the majority of people will be average or below, especially if they aren't being coached, mentored and influenced by an effective leader.
Leadership is the key to moving a group of average people to create extraordinary results, but it is not done by expecting everyone to be exceptional. The best leaders understand they must put the right people in the right positions and then inspire and teach them to be a little more than average. A group of people all perfuming 10%-15% above average will produce extraordinary results. This is a leaders greatest challenge and the reason leadership is so vital to any group of people success.
Getting average people to come together and become teammates only happens when someone becomes a coach! This is the reason leaders who coach people continually are the most effective, and companies who teach manager how to coach and become leaders will grow and sustain their success!
By Mike Moore
What Leader Do To Lead
BE TRUSTWORTHY
Be accountable...Take responsibility! Create and support an open, positive, risk taking environment. Have the courage to be open, honest and direct. Don't send messages, say what you mean and mean what you say. Focus on solutions, not fault finding or assigning blame. See unwanted results as an opportunity to coach and teach to improve individuals and the organization. Don't be defensive. You don't have to have all the answers...Just help people find them.
BE EXTRAORDINARY...REJECT MEDIOCRITY
Set and raise standards...Keep raising the bar. The lowest form of behavior you allow defines who you are as a leader. Blur the lines between job assignments...The mission is everyone's job. Don't allow average attitudes, thinking or behavior. Assign and monitor all work to teach and coach using specifics situations. Hold people accountable...Starting with yourself!
BE CARING...DO WHAT'S BEST FOR PEOPLE
Coach attitudes, teach skills and manage actions to help people learn, grow and improve...Don't overreact! Make people more important than results and manage people's attitudes before they become actions that produce poor results. Don't accept or allow average thinking or behavior...Reject mediocrity! Care enough about the person to challenge them to do what they don't want to do, that will help them grow, improve and become the best they can be. Be a servant, do what's best for people don't just try to please them.
BE AWARE...PAY ATTENTION
Make people more important than things, results or accomplishments. Make taking time for people a priority to validate and show your respect for them. Ask people's opinions...Pay attention and listen. Reward extra effort...Pay attention. Make people feel important...Pay attention and pay complements. Don't avoid conflict, it will serve you and the people you care about, but be kind, compassionate and respectful. Listen to people to validate them and their efforts, growth and accomplishments. Did I mention pay attention? Be mindful that people will treat each other and your customers the way you treat them.
BE A CHANGE AGENT
Be a change advocate...Lead the change. Encourage others to embrace change! Ask people how they and the organization can improve. Question everything...Never except or settle for the status quo. Make learning, growing and improving the primary goal. Hold people accountable to change so they'll learn, grow and improve...When they don't or won't, then, change your people.
By Mike Moore
5 Keys For Leaders Who Coach
Every leader needs to be aware of the traits and relationships that instill the attitudes, inspire the actions and increase the skills of the people they are responsible to lead. Below are five key traits of leaders that will unlock your people power and help you become a great
TRUST
It takes more than being honest to be
trustworthy. Honest is a first step but being open and direct in your
communication is also necessary. In addition, if you have to be asked more than
once to get something done you aren’t trustworthy. If your people are going to
trust you and therefore believe in you, they need to know they can depend on
you.
STANDARDS
A leader needs to set high standards and then hold
people accountable to meet those standards. People want to be part of something
they can be proud of. When standards aren’t set and people aren’t held
accountable, good people become discouraged and leave your company. Without
high standards and accountability, you’ll be left with only mediocre performers
who don’t like to be held accountable or take responsibility.
CARE
To lead effectively you’ll have to choose to
care enough about your people to coach their attitudes, before they become poor
actions, which produce unacceptable results. Stop focusing on things and focus
on people. You cannot lead things, only people, and if you want things to
improve, people have to improve first.
VALIDATION
Make time for your people. The excuse, “I’m to
busy”, isn’t good enough. Pay attention and listen to them to validate them. In
addition, they usually know more about your business than you think they do and
often more than you do.
CHANGE
Don’t just embrace change! Be the champion for
change. This will keep people motivated, energized and renewed. Managing change
keeps veteran employees from becoming complacent, helps people keep learning,
growing and improving and ensures your business will remain relevant to your
customers.
By Mike Moore
Employee First Leadership
The customer is always right. How far off course did we go following this mantra? I think most people in business and sales can explain what this philosophy was intended to produce and yet we've all witnessed the unintended consequences and damage this has
done to the buyer and seller relationship.
This attitude came from our desire for instant gratification which never generates the best results. Do whatever it takes to make sales became the strategy in the, 'Just win baby! and 'Just Do It!' age of business. To win today, the mantra needs to shift to, 'Just Do It Right', but first let's look at the unintended consequences before we talk about how to become the leader who can reverse their effects.
The unintended consequences...
If the customer is always right, then the employee is always wrong. Imagine going to work and knowing you will always be wrong...Very demoralizing.
A dysfunctional relationship between buyers and sellers occurred during, 'The Customer Is Always Right' age. Buyers became much too entitled and salespeople focused on making a sale, not doing what's best for the buyer or making customers.
The focus on making new sales, not customers, caused buyers to feel that salespeople were more concerned about the transaction than they were about them or the outcome they wanted. Mistrust grew between buyers and salespeople. Both sides didn't trust the others intentions.
Salespeople, customer service and executives became afraid to tell buyers no, walk away or look for a better opportunity to do good business. Business is all about connecting with people who can help each other and it needs a healthy trust between buyers and sellers to grow and be profitable.
People were actually treated poorly. Employees were abused and buyers indulged to the point they became spoiled, non-compliant buyers who couldn't be satisfied, sold at a profit or become loyalty customers.
Employees began to not trust their own companies. The belief that the company really didn't care about them or the buyer grew. They started to feel that the company only cared about making a profit. Don't get me wrong, leaders need to make sure their company is profitable or they won't be around to care about people. However, if people are their company's greatest asset then they need to act like it.
The phrase 'Do what's best for the buyer' was, and in most cases still is, interpreted as, 'Do whatever they want' to get them to buy or go away if they are complaining.
We intended to improve customer service by pleasing the buyer. Instead, spoiled consumers soon had no loyalty. This reduced their buying decision to the lowest price which usually didn't result in what was best for the them, creating more dissatisfaction. This became a vicious cycle and war broke out between buyers, sellers and companies.
We talked about customer satisfaction, spent millions on surveys and customer retention programs while our intention and focus to make new customers (sales), offended our existing customers.
None of this is part of a good business plan which created many unrealistic expectations that could not be met.
Business historians will surely look back and write about how foolish 'The Customer Is Always Right' age of business was and the mess we made of business relationships during this period. We chased short term gains and created long term disaster!
Now it is time for the 'People First Age of Business' and the good news is that the results can be the longest most sustainable economic boom in history.
To lead your business to a healthy, profitable and sustainable place your people will need to
be more important than your customers. That's right, 'Employee First Leadership' starts with your people, then you can create a 'Customer First Company'. When employees are happy, energized and challenged they are better prepared to make and keep customers by doing what's best for them, not just selling them, but truly serving them.
be more important than your customers. That's right, 'Employee First Leadership' starts with your people, then you can create a 'Customer First Company'. When employees are happy, energized and challenged they are better prepared to make and keep customers by doing what's best for them, not just selling them, but truly serving them.
'Employee First Leaders' do what's best for the people who work for them, and then ask them to always do what's best for the buyer to make them a customer.
A 'Customer First Company' makes customers, not just sales. Doing what's best isn't always what the buyer wants but what's in their best interest. This holds true with your employees as well. What's best for them isn't always what they want but it's a leaders responsibility to serve people, not please people. Serve your people and ask them to serve others and make customers and your sales, revenue and profits will increase. In addition, you'll create long term sustainable growth.
I knew an uneducated man, a high school drop-out, who ended up owning a car wash. He left for lunch one day and left his son in charge. When he returned from lunch he found his son at the booth taking new customers money. The line of cars to wash grew longer. They seemed busy with lots of new customers and the son was happy. The son felt good as he talked with the new customers waiting to get their cars washed and the line continued to grow. The father took the son aside and explained that it's easy to take people's money but the most important part of the business was to keep them coming back. He further explained that it only happens because of perfectly washed cars.
He made the point to his son to stay focused getting the cars washed and keeping the line moving. I said he was uneducated, I didn’t say he wasn’t smart. The memory of this event comes to mind even when I am working with large corporations, industry leaders and multi-million dollar companies.
He was explaining 'Employee First Leadership' without knowing it. It's always more important for a leader to spend their time with the people who make customers because customers come back and send other people to your business ready to become new customers. In addition, word of mouth spreads virally in the social age and allows 'Customer First Companies' to establish their brand and grow faster.
This is 'Employee First Leadership' and it works for all businesses and organizations. Make the people who serve your customers more important than new sales and your business will prosper and grow.
By Mike Moore
Avoid Mediocrity By Overcoming Your Nature
When you wake up in the morning you have an expectation or intention for your day. Your expectations and intentions are the first choice you make that begins to separate mediocrity from extraordinary. What are your intentions or expectations for the day ahead? I've asked individuals and groups, large and small, this question over the past two decades and the overwhelming number one answer is, “I want to have a good day”. When I ask people to define a good day, the definition is, “A day with little to no problems or hassles”. When I ask them how many days a year this intention or expectation is met, they usually answer, “None”. Yet, they wake up each day and repeat this behavior without changing their expectation or intention. The vast majority of people start each day with an unrealistic expectation or intention, that when not fulfilled, makes them frustrated, upset and unhappy. When we set expectations that aren't met, we are usually disappointed.
Managing your own intentions and expectations drives your daily emotions and state-of-mind. People who become mediocre focus on their circumstances and not their solutions. This makes their circumstances the driver of their emotions. This puts their emotions, or state-of-mind on a roller coaster ride of peaks and valleys that sabotages their ability to create the results or life they want.
First, let’s look at why people set an intention or expectation of no problems, no hassles and no worries, and defined this as a good day. When we wake up each day we have a choice to make, “Better or Comfortable”. Our human nature seeks comfort before improvement and is satisfied to be comfortable. We don't want to be average but have to choose to do things we don't want to do if we want to be extraordinary. We don’t wake up each day driven to be better human beings or to make things in our life better. So, the challenge is how to overcome our human nature and stop sabotaging our own lives.
When we define a good day as no problems, no hassles and no adversity and then meet the first problem of the day, how do we react? If you said, “Frustrated” you'd be right. Your expectation or intention has set you up to be frustrated. Not the best state-of–mind to handle life or work problems. This pattern of behavior begins a downward spiral of poor emotions. These emotions make you less capable of handling the next problem. Maintaining this emotional cycle may even make you avoid, withdraw or quit trying to overcome the obstacles in your day. The end result of this is mediocrity, at best.
This new definition can help you make a better first choice as you wake up each day. Define a good day as one where you find, meet and overcome problems and adversity. Yes, you need to wake each day looking for problems. Problems to solve that will help people. Just a note...You shouldn't be looking to make problems...that won't make for a better life. You need to look for and find existing problems, and then help solve them. If you are part of a problem, stop complaining and start finding solutions. This definition will help you to stop avoiding conflict and endure difficulties with the proper emotional state-of-mind. Armed with this new definition, when you find problems, you will be eager to meet them head-on and won't become frustrated. You'll become an overcomer and not a victim of your circumstances.
Adversity and problems are the obstacles that stand between where you are and the results or life you want. The first step to overcoming adversity and problems is to develop an attitude or emotional state-of-mind that can overcome the obstacles. Our attitudes are most affected by our intentions and expectations that create our daily choices and allow us to choose to be better rather than comfortable. This thinking will even start to help you embrace change and stop fighting to hold on to a status quo that may be keeping you average as well.
Redefine a good day, expect problems and hassles. Become an overcomer, a solution finder, and then you'll begin to experience a, 'Good Day'...everyday. This cycle of behavior will make your life is a journey of solutions that serve others and rewards you with the results and life you want.
A final thought for leaders...You are responsible to teach, prepare and help people set expectations that will allow them to live and work towards a better life. Helping people understand how their expectations and intentions are empowering them or sabotaging them is a good first step.
Change your expectations, to prepare for the hassles of life, to increase your happiness and improve your results. Expect more of yourself and less of others...These is one of the top traits of leaders, peak performers and the extraordinary.
By Mike Moore
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