Tag: leadership skills

Leadership Skills: 8 Leader Lessons from the Spirit of Saint Nicholas

We like to write blogs that reflect the season. In this blog, our objective is to find leadership skills from the Spirit of Saint Nicholas.
leadership skills
Leader lessons.
Upon researching Christmas and Saint Nicholas, we made an unexpected discovery. We had thought that we would find that Santa had his origins in pagan mythology somewhere in the distant past.
Instead, the trail led us back to the fourth century, to an actual Christian pastor, the Bishop of Myra.
Bishop Nicholas was a kind man who cared for the people not only in his congregation but the wider community.
He began to link up those people with an excess of material goods with those who had too little.
But Nicholas did it in a surprising way: he maintained a double-blind. In other words, the giver never knew who received the gift, and the recipient never knew who gave it.
This marvelous arrangement made it possible for people to escape the conditions usually attached to gifts. What a great idea!
Building on this discovery, these are the leadership lessons we draw from our research:
spirit of saint nicholas
Spirit of Saint Nicholas.

Take great joying in giving without thoughts of receiving

Put your focus on making those around you happy and successful.

Be your authentic self

You must know who you are and who you are not.

 

Build on the power of your team

Your success depends as much on others than yourself. Build effective leadership skills.

 

Don’t take yourself too seriously

Always keep yourself in smiles and laughter.

Don’t pout

Remove all negative thoughts.

 

Always remember who’s naughty and nice

Always help everyone with priority on those who need it the most.

 

Do things that encourage people to believe in you

You must believe in yourself or no one will. Use all types of leadership skills.

 

Reward good behavior and performance

No punishment allowed, focus on more carrots for the best results.
Leaders like Saint Nicholas have, throughout history, conquered adversity and struggled to overcome obstacles, to become the great people we know today.
We all can learn from their stories and how they used their leadership abilities to succeed, and in turn, develop our effective leadership strategies to deal with adversity in society.
leadership lessons learned
Leadership lessons learned.
There are two types of time in our lives: dead time, when people are passive and waiting, and alive time when people are learning and acting and utilizing every second.
Every moment of failure, every moment or situation that we did not deliberately choose or control, presents this choice:
Alive time. Dead time. Which will it be?
Think of what you have been putting off. Issues you declined to deal with. Systemic problems that felt too overwhelming to address.
Dead time is revived when we use it as an opportunity to do what we’ve long needed to do.
Any fool can learn from experience. The trick is to learn from other people’s experience.
Remember, history happens when you least expect it!
 
Please share a leadership story or experience with this community.
 
Need some help in capturing more improvements for your staff’s leadership, teamwork, and collaboration? Creative ideas in running or facilitating a team or leadership workshop?
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to innovating your social media strategy?
Do you have a lesson about making your advertising better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
 
Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find them on G+, Twitter, and LinkedIn.  
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change.  We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. 
  
More leadership material from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Build an Effective Team by Being a Talent Hound
Success Enablers of Highly Creative Leaders
Secrets to Becoming a Remarkably Mindful Leader
Leadership Characteristics That Improve Influence
 

Employee Retention: 7 Simple Things You Can Do to Improve It

To lead is to measurably help others succeed. What is the top way you seek to grow your business? You say growth is not a priority? Not really? But you don’t want employee retention either? That is the route to a slow death.
employee retention
Employee retention.
Check out our thoughts on team leverage.
Have you defined a business growth strategy? You would be surprised how many of our clients say they are happy with their size and therefore don’t have a growth strategy.
That is a big mistake in our opinion. In the life of a business, there are only two options … you can either keep up or surpass your competitors through a business growth strategy or lose market share.
Business growth obviously can be planned in various degrees. If your business is at the size you desire, a minimum or status quo strategy may be the best for you.
In any case, you need to execute some form of a growth strategy to at least maintain the status quo.
We believe that developing and growing your staff should be at the heart of any plan to grow business. If you want to grow business by developing your people, consider these 7 tactics:

 

effective teamwork
You need effective teamwork.

 Effective teamwork

Your team is your business, quite literally. It is only as good as the weakest link and your ability to provide strong and effective leadership.
You, as a business leader, must be a talent hound for future hiring, be a strong mentor and coach, and continually work to build your leadership skills and a staff that works effectively as a team.
You will need to delegate effectively and continuously rotate your people throughout business roles. Being successful with these tasks and you will be amazed at how quickly your team will develop.

 

Employee retention … leadership skills

What would you say are the most significant leadership competencies?
Are they ones that you continue to hone and develop?  Do they hold the keys to future successes in your business?
Related post: Beware: Characteristics Which Destroy Effective Teamwork
I have been in the military and business world for forty years and often get asked what I believe are the most important leadership competencies.
It takes time and practice to be a top line leader. You are not borne with leadership competencies.
And you are never done developing them.
My experience leads me to this list of 10 business leadership competencies that most successful leaders all share. They rank as the most significant to success as a leader in my perspective.
If you want to be a better leader, work on continuously developing this list of leadership competencies:
Lead with questions, not directions
Continuous learning
Maintain a work-life balance
Boost team self-esteem
No fear of failure
Collaboration
Balanced listening
Foster team players
Inspire and motivate
Have patience
 

Employee retention ideas … organization culture

Organization culture is a very integral part of any business as the best companies pride themselves on their employees, community stewardship, and a stimulating workplace.
This culture is passed on to customers, who are more likely to go out of their way to stop at such businesses instead of a competitor because of the values they share with the company.
You even see the culture in most of their creative marketing.
It’s also important to recognize that culture comes from the people—it is the people. Think about the individuals within your organization—what are their personalities like? Who are they outside of work? What tickles their fancy?
All of these things lend to the culture of your organization, and ultimately your products.
Culture matters … a lot more than you may believe. You can either spend time finding employees who share your organization’s values or deal with managing conflicts that arise due to opposing values.
Ignore culture in the hiring process and all other hiring initiatives will be diminished, if not lost altogether.

Grow your staff … hiring is the key

We believe that one of the most difficult, yet most important elements of any business is the hiring process. The message is simple … some people are better than other people.
More importantly, some people are a heck of a lot better than other people.
During the hiring process, you really must take into consideration many candidate behaviors, attitudes and strengths. Even the person who is the most talented, sometimes they don’t have the right personality and team chemistry to add to your team.
Remember this: hire for attitude and culture mix and train for the skills you want.

 

 Employee retention strategies … effective employee engagement

Are your employees giving your company their all? Do they believe that what they’re doing is important? Do they feel appreciated? Do they show up for work each day filled with passion and purpose?
If so, you should share employee engagement lessons with this community.
A red flag should go up if you answered “no” to any of these questions. Why?
Business owners who aren’t taking care of their employees are missing out on significant cost-savings and profits.
Here are some surprising statistics we found recently. Only 31% of employees are actively engaged in their jobs.
Wow. That fact means that 70% are not that actively engaged. And this is amazing to us.
Highly engaged employees work with passion and feel a profound connection to their company.
People that are actively engaged in helping move the organization forward.
88% of highly engaged employees believe they can positively impact the quality of their organization’s products, compared with only 38% of the disengaged.
72% of highly engaged employees believe they can positively affect customer service, versus 27% of the disengaged.
When thinking about these stats, pay attention to the impacts on business performance. They are truly significant,
talent search mode
Always be in a talent search mode.

Talent search mode

You should always be in a talent search mode, even if you are not yet ready to hire.
Never let your organization be put behind the talent 8-ball, as great talent is rarely available on a moment’s notice.
Some of the best hires we’ve made over the years were people that we spent months, and in some cases, years developing relationships with.

 

Change agent

I am a big believer in adaptation and change.
You should always seek to be flexible and keep several alternative paths in front of you. Always be on the lookout for ways to reinvent ways for self-improvement.
Our most favored quote on change and adaptation is from Charles Darwin:
 
 It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.
 
Just remember to substitute success for survival and you will have a very valuable tip.

 

The bottom line

 

Never be done with your hiring and building your staff. Remember that life is a continuous learning experience for you and the team.
It is the foundation of business growth.
Team building and talent development takes work and a consistent process, but you will be pleasantly surprised the impact it will make on your business.
  
Do you have a hiring or team building experience to share? A question or comment?
 
Are you devoting enough energy to build a growth team?
 
Need some help in capturing more improvements for your staff’s leadership, teamwork and collaboration? Creative ideas in running or facilitating a team or leadership workshop?
 
Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options to scope your job.
Call Mike at 607-725-8240.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy continually improving your continuous learning?
Do you have a lesson about making your learning better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
 
Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find them on G+, Twitter, and LinkedIn.  
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change.  We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed at how reasonable we will be.
  
More reading on mentoring  from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Beware: Characteristics Which Destroy Effective Teamwork
The Story and Zen of Getting Things Done
Lessons Learned in LIfe … Class Contiues Daily
Are You Looking for an Extraordinary Fast Track Career
 
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Learn the Leadership Skills That Are Essential for the Future

It may be hard to think about the future when the present is so challenging, but in times of great change and uncertainty, it’s more important than ever to stay several steps ahead in your preparation. This is especially true with leadership skills.

Leadership skills

That’s the funny thing about the future.  It’s never as fantastic as we hope nor as horrible as we fear.  The one thing that’s for sure is that times will change and we will have to adapt. While there is no way of knowing exactly how that change will play out, we can identify trends, make common sense judgments about where they lead, and prepare for them.

These are the skills you should be cultivating now to be successful as a leader for the future.

The building of transparency and trust

Leaders of the future will need to be fully authentic and transparent. Even when the news is bad, people want to know what’s really happening. In an era when the trust will be crucial, leaders who are consistently open and genuine, regardless of the circumstances, will engender that trust.

Positive attitude toward change

Leaders of the future will need to be optimistic by nature and positive about change because everything around us is likely to remain uncertain and complex for some time to come. Leaders won’t have the luxury of allowing themselves to become overwhelmed or immobilized; they must maintain an optimistic mindset as things around them remain unsure.

The flexibility that embraces ambiguity

Leaders of the future will need to be agile and flexible—able to create quickly, risk passionately, pivot immediately, and move on from failures, taking in the lessons of each experience in order to keep moving forward. The future will bring ambiguity, and the best teachers will be creation, risk, failure, and experience.

Communication for clarity around the complexity

Leaders of the future will need to cultivate the ability to see through complexity and complications, to make sense of messy situations filled with contradictions, to cut through superficial concerns, and communicate the essence of the issue at hand. Their clarity will help them lead people to better things that most people can’t yet perceive.

Appreciation of diversity

Diversity counts.

Leaders of the future will need to genuinely appreciate diversity and embrace its value at every level. In a time of uncertainty, constructive engagement happens best when leaders bring together people with different backgrounds, expertise, and knowledge.

Seeing the good within the bad

Leaders of the future will need to develop the skill of learning how to turn crises and challenges into opportunities. Preparation and nimble thinking will keep teams and organizations out in front of events, so they’re ready to offer solutions at the moment.

Ability to undertake massive disruption

Leaders of the future need to access their inner determination to achieve and their willingness to make massive changes in their teams, their organizations, their industries—even themselves.

It is difficult to know what lies ahead. But whatever form the future takes, successful leaders will be those who know how to act with courage and clear intent in an authentic and engaging way that will create trust among their people—those with the imagination, integrity, and agile intelligence to make truly great things happen.

The future holds both challenges and opportunities. Are you listening to the signals today and developing the skills you’ll need to lead in the times ahead?