What’s your preferred leadership style (as a leader or a follower)? There are plenty to choose from, that’s for sure, ranging from tender to tyrannical and everything in between. Consider these five leadership styles and some of their associated luminaries:

• Just Do It! – Task-oriented, walk the talk, take action. (Indra Nooyi, PepsiCo; Jack Welch, GE; General/President Dwight D. Eisenhower)
• Transformational Leadership – A trendy, new-agey way of saying stubborn at times, flexible at others. (Bill Gates, Microsoft; Elon Musk, Tesla; Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook)
• People-First, Always! – Empathetic, inclusive, consensus-building, allows others to succeed. (Sundar Pichai, Google; Sir Richard Branson, Virgin; Mary Barra, General Motors; Basketball Coach John Wooden, UCLA)
• Expect More, Demand More – A maddeningly insistent yet dynamic leader that people both love and hate as a boss. (Jeff Bezos, Amazon; Steve Jobs, Apple; Coach Bill Belichick, New England Patriots)
• Dictatorial – Traditional model of black & white, hard-nosed leadership, leads by intimidation, micromanages, sometimes even ruthlessly. (Larry Ellison, Oracle; Henry Ford, Ford Motor Co.; Rupert Murdoch, News Corporation; Martha Stewart, Omnimedia; Ebenezer Scrooge, banker)

While it’s hard to argue with success, it’s fair-game to favor, if not expect, a leadership style rooted in goodness and compassion when accepting a job or leading a team. It is both a reasonable expectation for a team member and a personal/professional responsibility if you’re the one at the top.

Clearly, much can be learned, both good and bad, by studying varying leadership styles. Wouldn’t it be nice if all leaders were a tidy combination of People-First, Always and Just Do It! Alas, that’s not reality. But … that would be an influential leader.

Speaking of which …

I recently came across an article by David McNally in Training Magazine entitled: The Influential Leader. The premise of the influential leader is “not about what we learn to do to others but what we can learn to be for others – consistently becoming the kind of person others want to follow.”

In it, McNally shares nuggets of insight worth sharing … and emulating.

Ego is best kept in the bottom drawer  – Quoting from the Jim Collins biz-blockbuster Good to Great, McNally says that more than 2/3 of companies led by self-absorbed, bombastic leaders were far less likely to succeed than others. He calls attention to this passage from the book: “the presence of a gargantuan personal ego contributed to the demise or continued mediocrity of the company”. Meanwhile, companies that were able to sustain success over an extended period of time were those being steered by a leader who was “a study in duality … modest and willful, humble and fearless”.

Determining Influence – While charisma is a wonderful asset for anyone to possess, it can quickly go toxic when paired with a lack of personal character. Bernie Madoff of Madoff Investment Securities comes to mind, as does the entire “leadership” team at Enron Corporation.

“Great leadership is ultimately about competence and influence,” McNally posits. “What determines influence (is) the ability to gain others’ commitment to the shared missions and goals of the organization. People follow leaders they believe in – who demonstrate values with which they align.”

When the team sees its leader operating with fundamental integrity, knowing he or she has the individual’s and the organization’s best interests at heart, they willingly and enthusiastically fall in line. As stated earlier, it’s not about doing to others, it’s about being for others. Not unlike The Golden Rule or JFK’s famous line at his 1960 Presidential Inauguration: “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”

Choosing “Right Action” – The foundational book of the Hindu faith is the Bhagavad Gita which is based on the precept of “right action”,  the personal commitment to always do what we know and believe to be moral and honorable. How many times, in the course of the average day – whether you’re sitting at home, sitting in traffic, or sitting at your desk – are we presented with situations in which it’s possible (and sometimes tempting) to take the easy way out and do something less than noble?

When you operate from a “right action” mindset, you stop and consider the effect your decision will have on others and you proceed accordingly. Taking the proverbial high road may make the journey steeper and longer but it’s always the best route. “Right action is often a courageous decision because it might mean taking a stand for what is honest and just,” McNally writes.

Being a nonconformist is something Sir Richard Branson has prided himself on throughout his career – and a rather successful career it’s been! Branson didn’t get there by cutting corners, making easy decisions, or following the pack. He got there by taking “right action” regardless of what others thought.

Business experts’ eyes widened when Branson announced Virgin America would extend unlimited leave – not just maternal leave but an always-available “timeout” for any employee. Many American CEOs (some who’ve never taken more than a two-week vacation in their lives) shook their heads and scoffed at the inanity of such a decision. What about productivity and business efficiencies and overhead and workload and, and, and … ?

“If someone wants to go off for a month and travel the world, they can go and do it,” Branson told Forbes magazine. “They’ll work that much harder when they get back. It doesn’t impact the company.” Branson also criticized America’s standard 2-3 weeks annual vacation at a recent Adobe Summit, a highly popular digital conference featuring leaders from the world’s most beloved brands. “Treating people with flexibility, as humans, like you’d treat your own children comes back to the company many times over.” Branson’s courageous decision made absolutely no business sense and, at the same time, made absolutely perfect sense. “Right action” can be very powerful indeed.

Some want to lead, others are happy to follow – Also from the Bhagavad Gita, “Whatever a great man does, ordinary people will do; whatever standard he sets, everyone will follow.” This is perhaps the most important thing for a principled leader to remember. You set the tone. You are the role model. You are being closely watched. Your actions will trigger others’ actions. Be the kind of person you yourself would be proud to call “my boss”.

The leadership style I prefer to emulate is People First, Always! I’m sure I have my moments when I fall short but I assure you my heart is in the right place 100% of the time. I hope you feel the same.

Choose to be an influential leader because “doing the right thing” will never go out of style.

CONCLUSION

Be mindful of your personal leadership style and course-correct, if necessary. If you lead a business, team or organization, people will emulate you so be sure to set the right example.

Cheers,

The post Is It Time To Take A Fresh Look At Your Leadership Style? appeared first on dynami.

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I am positively convinced we need more positivity in our lives. Do you agree?

In a 24/7/365 news cycle, it’s tough to escape today’s torrent of negativity — the Carnival sideshow masquerading as the U.S. presidential election … racial tensions rising to 1960s levels … a handful of cops going too far … homegrown terrorism … negative jobs reports … an economy some say is growing and others say is shrinking.

Yikes, I want to go back to bed!

One need only turn on television news, pick up a magazine, roam the radio dial, read a newspaper, or scroll through your overnight social media notifications to realize, as Don Henley sang, “This is the end of the innocence”.

Can we get a do-over, please?

Negativity has even crept into what’s heretofore been known as “a gentleman’s game”.

On the eve of the recent Ryder Cup Matches – America vs. Europe over three days at famed Hazeltine National Golf Club – the brother of the reigning Masters champion and member of the European team, let loose a stream of vitriol towards Americans in a magazine article, laying a world of hurt and embarrassment on his brother Danny Willett, England’s top golfer.

A red-faced Willett took exception to his brother’s remarks, apologized to U.S. Ryder Cup Captain Davis Love, III, and promptly went 0-3 in his matches as the Yanks bested my Europeans 17-11. If Peter Willett’s article was intended to be a fire-‘em-up, pre-match pep talk … it failed miserably.
We are most certainly witnessing the demise of positivity … or are we?

I saw on social media last week that well-known Texas super-preacher Joel Osteen released his most recent book, Think Better, Live Better – A Victorious Life Begins in Your Mind, putting forth the notion that erasing negative thoughts and replacing them with positive thinking will allow you to live a more satisfying, prosperous life.

Madison Avenue and Corporate America also seem to have taken notice and are taking action.
Two century-old U.S. corporate giants – Chevrolet and IBM – teamed up to promote Chevy’s Find New Roads global campaign by calling people’s attention to their own positivity (or lack thereof) in social media postings.

The two companies launched a global digital campaign last month – one day after “International Day of Positive Thinking” on September 13^th – that allows participants to obtain a positivity score based on their social media posts; specifically, their Tweets and their Facebook postings. (I promise to share the link with you.)

Users are asked to enter the positivity site via their Twitter or Facebook accounts. Within 20 seconds, IBM’s super-computer “Watson” uses natural language processing and machine learning to analyze an individual’s social media posts then spits out a score.

This activity is different than the fun-but-silly Buzzfeed quizzes that pop up on your Facebook page (i.e., What state should you live in? … What Harry Potter character are you? … What ’80s tune is your theme song?) It’s not elementary, my dear Watson. There’s actually some back-end, algorithmic (if that’s not a word, I just made one up!), analytical thingy that does seem to have some legitimacy to it.

Watson not only reads the words but interprets them contextually, providing a surprisingly detailed personality snapshot and scoring individuals on a 0-200 scale with 112 being the current rolling average.  (The average score fluctuates up or down as more people visit the site.) It also identifies each person’s most positive — and least positive — posts, as well as their most frequently used positive words and Emojis.

It’s really quite intriguing!

But more importantly, Watson’s scoring and feedback gives you pause and allows you to take a fresh look at the “you” you’re sharing with the world on social media. Are you a grumbling, grouchy malcontent or do you skew more Little Mary Sunshine? Granted, we can’t bury our Pollyanna heads in the sand and ignore today’s realities but maybe we can do our own individual parts and quit contributing to global whining and negativity.

And remember, negativity, flipped, is simply an absence of positivity.

Every day, we have the opportunity to make a conscious decision to be happy and positive (regardless of the curveball today tosses your way) … or we can choose to view the world as broken, hopeless and negative. What we choose is what we share with others. And what we share can be contagious.

So you see, changing the world for the better one positive thought at a time is a responsibility we can all own. And if you think it’s impossible to commit to positive thinking and face the world each day in a positive way, remember the word “impossible” really means “I’m possible”.

September 13^th each year is “International Day of Positive Thinking”. My question is: Why isn’t this everyday? Think about it.

Conclusion

Being positive or being negative is a conscious choice made daily. Your outlook begins with a single thought which leads to an action which leads to positive benefits or negative consequences which affect the world. Choose to be positive. It’s that simple: Choose to be positive.

Cheers!

P.S. – True confessions: I scored 141 (Whew!) on the Chevy Global Positivity System, and was told my five most positive words used in social media posts were: great, enjoying, fun, love, and beautiful. Watson also said my top three personality traits are: outgoing, sociable, and altruistic. I like this Watson guy!

To discover your level of positivity, click the link: http://www.findnewroads.com/, enter the site, and give the results some thought. You might just discover something very important about yourself. And maybe you, too, can help change the world one positive thought at a time. Commit to positive thinking!

The post How Positive Thinking Changes… EVERYTHING! appeared first on dynami.

Ugh.

Anybody who knows me knows I seldom sit still. Not that I don’t want to from time to time but with a wife, two active kids, a business to run, an often hectic travel schedule, training for half-marathons, and the periodic escape to the golf course, it can be hard to find that sliver of “down time” in the schedule.

I’m sure many, if not most of you, can relate.

So the morning of September 8^th rolled around and I was due for some “quality time” with my new buddy, Dr. Angelo DiFelice, Jr., of Resurgens Orthopaedics. I wasn’t dreading the actual scope procedure which would be handled on an outpatient basis. I was dreading the days afterward of being mostly immobilized while practicing targeted cryogenics on my left knee. (I could never be a contestant on American “Idle”.) Years of wear and tear — literally, a tear — had taken their toll.

But I knew the surgery had to be done and no time is a good time so an uncharacteristically irritated me grabbed my “Let’s get on with this” attitude and headed out the door.

Then something happened.

Upon arrival at the Resurgens location in Roswell, GA, my entire demeanor shifted. It began when I took notice of the physical environment which can rightly be described as “palatial”. The waiting room was clean and comfortable, and included snacks, beverages, WiFi, and a variety of magazines — from the current month, mind you – to keep you occupied. How often does that happen?

And the staff … wow!

The lady who greeted me and handled my check-in was warm, friendly and professional. The nurse who prepped me was great. The anesthesiologist couldn’t have been better, explaining the process of how I would be transported, on cue, to Dreamland and back. And Dr. DiFelice is, as they say, “a cut above” … pun intended.

Clearly, the culture at Resurgens is one of “people first” — making sure the patient (the person) feels comfortable, cared for, informed and valued. This was not at all what I had expected. But you can bet your bottom dollar I appreciated every moment of the experience. On a 5-star scale, it was a solid 6.

I share this story with you because it strikes me that it’s not just “the little things” that matter, it’s perhaps the tiniest of “the little things” that can be the difference between a negative and a positive customer experience. Whether you’re an orthopedic surgeon, a meeting planner, a landscaper or the dude selling brake shoes over a counter somewhere, there’s always room for human connections, those moments when you can make the other person feel special and appreciated.

Many people work in thankless jobs. What they do is important but the people they serve often dread the interaction — the plumber who shows up to fix a major leak … the dentist whom you dread only slightly less than the drill … the flight attendant who really does care that your seat belt is buckled and that you’re safe … or the accountant who has to break the news you owe the Fed more money.

Even these folks are capable of creating human connections that put forth a “people first” vibe.

No matter what you do, where you work, or whom you serve, there will always be opportunities to relate better to customers; to let them know they matter. And when you seize these “people first” opportunities and violate expectations in a pleasant and memorable way, you receive the greatest gift of all … a smile of appreciation.

Isn’t that why we all do what we do? It should be.

Cheers!

PS – Following my surgery, the folks at Resurgens sent me home with a snack because they knew I hadn’t eaten since 11 o’clock the night before. And they called twice on the day after my surgery to make sure I was doing well. Remember, it’s the tiniest of “the little things” that make the difference between a negative and positive customer experience. And, yes, the knee is progressing very nicely. Thanks for wondering!

Related Post: What I Learned From Disney – The Guest Experience

The post How My Knee Surgery Made Me Rethink Customer Service appeared first on dynami.