Servant Leadership

There are lots of buzz words that get tossed around the business world.  The vast majority of them are used for a season and then tossed aside in place of trendier phrases that get regurgitated over and over by people seeking to look smarter than they actually are.

Servant Leadership is not one of those phrases.  Servant Leadership is an approach to life and management that pays tremendous dividends creating stronger more cohesive teams. 

Google the term and you are sure to find multiple definitions.  One of my personal favorites comes from Mindtools.com and paraphrased by me that states “...as a servant leader, you’re a servant first...giving support needed to meet goals, participate in decisions, building a sense of community leading to higher engagement, trust and stronger relationships...”

I encourage you to check out the site, but listed within are 10 characteristics of a good servant leader.

Listening - more than anything being a good listener creates opportunities to engage with people on your team at a much higher level than constantly speaking over them or formulating your response prior to hearing their statement(s).

Empathy - having that baseline knowledge of where your team is coming from and being able to share in their feelings allows you to lead more effectively.

Healing - within the confines of a corporate setting, this probably isn’t as relevant, however I know groups that share in each others pains and celebrate each others victories leading unity amongst the team.

Awareness - this certainly can piggyback empathy.  Having the foresight to be aware of the needs of your team gives you an edge in leading the team as you serve them.

Persuasion - did you know that as you serve your team having the ability to persuade them to a certain set of ideas or concepts becomes increasingly easier.  The same can be said of your team, their ideas and concepts can persuade you as leader to see things the way they do leading to better outcomes regardless of whose idea it was to begin with.

Conceptualization - having the ability to see the idea and articulate it, or allowing the team to do it on your behalf.

Foresight - one of my favorite concepts.  I try to always have the foresight to stay out of my own way and allow other peoples ideas to come first before my own.

Stewardship - being a good steward of resources is critical to success.  Whether the resources are financial or the time and talents of those you lead, being mindful and respectful of that will always lead to better outcomes.

Commitment to the growth of people - if I’m the smartest person on the team, I’m on the wrong team.  Always be on the lookout for your replacement and invest into that person when you identify them.

Building community - a good team is a community.  Serve your team well and community will follow.

As 2018 winds down and 2019 gets revved up, I seek to be a better servant leader to the individuals and businesses I am fortunate enough to serve.  Your time and talent invested in the team you lead will always pay dividends far in excess of the expenditure.

Take that time, I promise you that you will not regret it.

(Did you know you can get Monday Morning Minute delivered to your inbox every Monday morning?  Go to PSCoachTN.com and register to have Monday Morning Minute waiting for you each Monday as you start your work week.)

The Power of Great Leadership

Would you mind if I took a minute or two and bragged on some of the best leadership I’ve been honored to be a part of?

This past weekend our church, World Outreach Church (WOCHURCH.org) in Murfreesboro, TN hosted its 3rd annual “The Polar Express Experience”.  This show features close to 100 or more teenage singers, dancers and actors who create a show that the entire community lines up to attend.  

The show has grown so large, that this year the decision was made to have 2 shows, a 3:30 matinee and a 6:00 evening show.  In total well over 4,000 people found their way to campus this weekend with their kids and loved ones to take part in the event.

The show is just one component of a much larger experience in that there are activities for kids of all ages all over campus.  This year featured “snow”, ice skating, cookie decorating, Christmas card making, photos, story time, train rides and much much more.  It was a massive undertaking that involved hundreds of volunteers all offering of their time and talents to contribute to the event.

My wife and 2 kids along with myself had roles to play leading a team that was responsible for getting maps into the hands of all visitors to the campus.  Us along with about a dozen other team members covered different entry points throughout the campus making sure everyone coming to visit knew where to find the various activities. 

One of the many things that makes our church so special is simply this.  When you offer up your time and talent to be used in a volunteer role, staff members are trained to make sure that areas you serve suit the talents you offer.  In other words, they want you serving in a role you enjoy, not simply a role that needs to be filled.  This simple approach by the leadership team and filtered down through all staff insures that there will never be a person doing a role they don’t want to do simply for the sake of volunteering.

Sounds simple enough, doesn’t it?  But yet in practice and reality it isn’t that simple, and beyond that our church goes and complicates the matter even more by then adding an additional layer.  Volunteers who demonstrate the leadership skills necessary for leading a team of volunteers are then encouraged not only to lead, but lead in the direction they think best.

In other words, leaders are empowered to lead.  And the book titled, “We do it this way ‘cause that’s the way its always been done” is shredded by new innovative and thoughtfully creative ways to use ones time, talent and skills.

It almost sounds downright revolutionary.  AND IT IS.  And each and every week hundreds of people give of their time and talent in a volunteer role seeing their role within a much bigger picture that seeks to truly make the church a better place.

My challenge for the week is simply this.  Within the leadership roles you have, are you confident enough in the team you lead to allow them to run free and truly innovate their roles within the organization you’ve established.  Are you bold enough to allow them to be themselves and bring their true talent and skill to work with them to make for a better team.

It’s not an easy concept, but if you’ve surrounded yourself with a team of brilliant people - why not give them that latitude.  

Steve Jobs, founder of Apple once said, “It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and tell them what to do; we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.”

World Outreach Church in Murfreesboro TN gets it.  Granted their hiring involves volunteers versus employees, but why couldn’t your company adopt such an approach and allow it to flourish?

(Did you know you can get Monday Morning Minute delivered to your inbox every Monday morning?  Go to PSCoachTN.com and register to have Monday Morning Minute waiting for you each Monday as you start your work week.)

10-Cents Per Lap

I love to drive.  From the youngest of ages that I can recall, I wanted to drive.  It didn’t matter what it was, if it had 4-wheels and a steering wheel, I was all in.

I remember 1 summer before I was old enough to drive, I negotiated a deal with a neighbor to mow his lawn and mine using his riding mower.  This was long before iPods & iPhones, instead I would cue up a CD on my portable Sony CD Walkman and settle in for a couple hours of mowing.  It was fun, it was relaxing, and at the end of the summer the owner of the mower actually gave me a couple of bucks for my efforts all summer.

During that same summer I ended up spending the weekend at a friends house, and seeing he had a riding mower I asked if I could ride on it even offering to mow the lawn for him.  He declined the offer for me to mow, but did tell me that for $0.10 a lap, he would allow me to ride the mower around his yard.  

At my young age it seemed like a fair proposition, so off I went riding the mower, stopping at the conclusion of each lap to give him a dime.   Twenty-nine years of friendship later, we still chuckle about that weekend, but more than the $0.10 per lap he collected from me, I think there is a lesson to be gotten from the experience.

Doing what you like in life takes an investment.  Be it an investment of time, money or self.  Doing the things you like requires that you give of yourself and your resources.  

Be it family, career or hobby - they all take an investment that will see you accomplish the goals you’ve set forth for yourself in life.  

Coasting through life is not a life I want to live.  I like the challenges, I like the need to invest in myself and others.  I love the fact that as a Coach I get to invest my time and energy into others.  Seeing others succeed at the things they’ve set forth for themselves always brings a sense of pride and accomplishment.

Being intentional and strategic in life is necessary to success.  Working with a Coach is a great way to invest in yourself, and a great way to guarantee success.  

I have found in life that the things I invest my time and energy into always seem to end up better.  Nothing worthwhile in life comes easy, and be it running around the yard on someone else’s tractor or seeking that next advancement at work - without your intentional investment I promise you success will not follow.

In the interest of nostalgia, I’m going to do something fun this week.  I’d like to offer a 1-hour consultation for only $0.10.  This is an extremely limited offer, I’m willing to invest my time into helping you finish 2018 strong and to kicking off 2019 at full speed.  

Private message me through whatever social media platform you are reading this through, and take a minute in that message to tell me 1 or 2 things you’d like to see accomplished in your life during the next 13 months.

For the rest of you, as you start this week take time to invest in the things you want to accomplish, I promise you that that investment will pay dividends.

(Did you know you can get Monday Morning Minute delivered to your inbox every Monday morning?  Go to PSCoachTN.com and register to have Monday Morning Minute waiting for you each Monday as you start your work week.)

Thanksgiving Is...

Thanksgiving is the holiday I most look forward to each year.  Regardless of all the stuff encountered throughout the year, being able to stop, reflect and be thankful for the things that have occurred is not only good for the soul - but a great way to gain perspective.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving and being thankful - I thought it would be good to take a few moments in this weeks Monday Morning Minute and reflect back on the year that is quickly drawing to a close.

I am thankful that I have a wife who loves me.  I have an awesome wife named Geta (pronounced Jetta like the car) who has stuck by me through both good and bad.  Throughout each season of life, we’ve learned to lean on each other, to trust each other, to learn from each other, and to love each other more.  I am amazed that I get to spend my life with her, and each and every day I look for ways to fall more in love with her.  Without her, I am nothing and my life would be a wreck.

I am thankful that I have 2 amazing kids, Ethan (12) and Ellie (9).  They both are smart, caring and loving kids who put up with me.  Ethan challenges me daily, but I do my best to stop and step back and recognize that he is a lot like I was at his age - I welcome the challenge but enjoy the breaks!  Ellie is my student, she loves to learn, she loves school (which I hated), and she is always seeking new ways to learn.  I love watching her process new information.  I am always amazed at how she does stuff, she is left handed and I am not - and how she manages to get anything done being left handed is beyond my comprehension.  I tried my best to teach her how to hold a golf club correctly, took my brain way too many minutes to try to figure that out for her.  But for both Ethan and Ellie I am so thankful that God has blessed us with them.

I am thankful for the opportunities I have as it relates to work.  I’ve never really had a job, and even when I did I always treated it as if it was my own.  I am so thankful I get to do the things I get to do.  I am thankful for the people I have been able to work with, to coach, to inject myself into their lives.  More importantly than that, I am thankful that the wisdom, advice and counsel I have to offer is wanted by others.

I am thankful for the country we live in.  Without getting political I am thankful for the leaders God has put in place to lead this country.  You don’t have to agree with any/all of them - but you do have to respect them and recognize that there is a God in Heaven who put those people in place and He commands us to pray for them - yes - that includes the ones we don’t like or agree with.

I am thankful that I serve a God who sent his son Jesus to die on a cross for my sins.  I am thankful that despite who I am, that God loves me - and He loves you too.  If you do not have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, do not let another day go by without starting one.  I am thankful for our church, World Outreach Church in Murfreesboro, TN.  If you don’t have a church home, World Outreach is a great place to be and they would be honored to have you refer to them as your church home.

The truth is, I could go on and on listing things I am thankful for as I know you can as well.  The wisdom I offer this week is simply this, take a few minutes and reflect back.  I promise you that even if you are walking through a tough time of life that you can find things to be thankful for.  

Be intentional and take a few minutes and be thankful for the many blessings you have in your life.

From my family to yours we wish you a great Thanksgiving.

(Did you know you can get Monday Morning Minute delivered to your inbox every Monday morning?  Go to PSCoachTN.com and register to have Monday Morning Minute waiting for you each Monday as you start your work week.)

Why I Coach...

I’ve always had a mentor in my life.  I remember from a very young age always having an older wiser person in my life who poured into me wisdom and knowledge that ultimately made me a better person.  In high school, I met a gentlemen named Larry at our church.  Larry had a vacation house in the area but lived full time in New York City.  A friendship ensued and from that relationship I learned from him.  When it came time to apply for college, Larry penned a letter of recommendation that to this day still sits on my desk.

Later in life Gary became a prominent part of my life.  Both in friendship and in mentorship, Gary walked life alongside me teaching along the way, and there have been others as well - all making me a better person, and I truly believe more effective in my role as coach to others.

I coach for one simple reason.  I love the engagement with others, meeting them where they are in life and partnering with them as they seek to achieve the goals they have set forth for themselves in life.  Each and every opportunity is different, my approach to coaching is simply this:  Meeting you where you are and taking you to where you want to be.

I don’t believe in a one size fits all approach, different people need different things.  When I meet for the first time with a new client, I listen to them talk.  What are the things they want to see accomplished.  What are the objectives they thing they can achieve from using a coach.  I strive to see if the skill set I have is a correct fit for them. I don’t ever want to take money from a client just for the sake of earning money - I want their investment in me to be one that is of highest benefit to them.

I do have a foundational approach to my coaching style, but those tools are brought in as needed and relevant.  No 2 clients are the same, therefore my approach is never cookie cutter.  I want each coaching session to relevant to the client, I want the take aways to be tools that can be put into effect immediately, not something put into storage until a later time because they aren’t there yet.

When meeting with business clients I adapt the same approach.  I add one additional element in that I seek to make the coaching I provide revenue neutral.  I want the value I add to an organization be reflected in increased sales and productivity - in essence when I partner with a company as their coach I seek to pay for myself through the value I bring.

Here are 2 things I can tell you as fact:

1. Everyone can benefit from using a Coach, be it Life Coach or Business Coach.  There is a true benefit to be had by using a coach to better yourself or your business.  

2. I will never engage with a client if I don’t think I am the right fit for their goals and objectives.  I will always spend an hour of my time on the front end to really get to know and understand a prospective client before engaging them as their coach.  This investment of time pays massive dividends in that both the client and myself knows for sure that we are right for each other.  

So as you start this week, and more importantly start the wind down of 2018 and the ramp up of 2019, I encourage each and every one of you reading this to engage a coach.  Plan to finish 2018 strong and start 2019 purposeful, intentional and deliberate in what you want to accomplish.

If I am fortunate enough to be engaged by you, I would be honored to work with, and walk alongside you as you accomplish the things you seek to do in 2019 and beyond.

Seeing you succeed is why I coach.  

Your success is my success.

(Did you know you can get Monday Morning Minute delivered to your inbox every Monday morning?  Go to PSCoachTN.com and register to have Monday Morning Minute waiting for you each Monday as you start your work week.)

P-A-S-S-I-O-N Tell Me What It Means To You, Actually Don’t Say Anything

This idea came to me a few years ago.  I was going some consulting on a small start up business focused on children.  The business was the creation of a married couple, and the wife declared herself and her role as sales & marketing.  Truth be told, she was neither good at sales or marketing, but for a season she was allowed free rein in her attempt to drive and increase sales.

It wasn’t until a meeting wherein the obvious was brought to the attention of all, that while she was currently filling the role of sales & marketing, the reality was there were much more competent and experienced people who should have been filling that role.  When I raised this fact with the team, her immediate was response was to get defensive, and then explain how passionate she was about sales & marketing.

Passion.  Its turned into such a toss up word, it is used by everyone everywhere.  A few weeks ago I had an associate tell me how passionate they thought I was in my coaching, I actually stopped them and told them how much I hated that word.  

Here’s the thing.  It is my opinion that if you need to tell others what you are passionate about, you probably aren’t that passionate to begin with.  If others don’t see that drive and intention about the thing it is you think you are passionate about, do you really have passion?

When a person eat, sleeps and drinks a particular thing, others take notice and realize that a true passion exists - and they don’t need you to tell them about your passion.  

I am unapologetic about this topic, and yes, I would expect some push back about the subject - perhaps I’m tainted by people I’ve been around who have cheapened the word - but in the end I’ll stand by my opinion and be ready to defend it.

Alternatively I offer the following.  If you are so deliberate and intentional about a skill or talent or field of work or charity, be so intentional and deliberate that others around you can’t help but know where your passion lies.  Let others identify the passion you hold and allow them to identify it in you.  

There are many things in life I enjoy, but few I am truly passionate about.  But if my passion matches or exceeds any verbal expression, I won’t have to say a word because my actions will scream it so loudly everyone else will see it and recognize it.

So go and have passion, no need to tell anyone - I promise you they will see it in you.

(Did you know you can get Monday Morning Minute delivered to your inbox every Monday morning?  Go to PSCoachTN.com and register to have Monday Morning Minute waiting for you each Monday as you start your work week.)

It's the Masks We Wear

I spent yesterday at an event our church puts on as an alternative to Trick or Treating.  Tons of candy, games, prizes and literally every inflatable bounce house within a 50-mile radius come together each year to serve the community and 20,000 of our friends.  The event is awesome, and yesterday was no exception as my oldest volunteered at the event while my daughter ran around with her friends enjoying the activities.

This time each year, millions of kids put on masks and don costumes intent on making others believe they are someone or something else.  Their intent is simple, fool others into believing they are who they pretend to be.

It makes me think of the opening lines of an old song, “The Stranger” by Billy Joel.

“Well, we all have a face

That we hide away forever

And we take them out

And show ourselves when everyone has gone”

As I walked around yesterday keeping an eye on my daughter and her friends while they ran around and had fun, this idea of a mask kept coming back to me overlaid by the lyrics to The Stranger.

The fact is, I think there are a lot of people out there who put on a mask each day to simply get through the day.  I think there are a lot of people who want more out of their lives, but don’t know how to get what they are looking for so instead they slump into an existence that isn’t on par with what they imagined their life could be.

Billy Joel said it best in the opening 2 lines, “...we all have a face that we hide away forever...”  Why hide that face from the world.  Why not let the true you shine free.  I met with a potential client last week who was stuck in a rut.  He was very introverted and admitted that he struggled engaging with people he worked with and as such his career path and trajectory had stalled. 

In our limited time meeting his potential was on full display for me to see, but in talking with him I realized that within his current environment he had simply hidden the very things that made him special and unique.  He was in effect wearing a mask each day at work that he hid behind.

In other words, in accepting his own introverted nature, he had become complacent and content to stay where he was content to not challenge himself or his environment to extract more.  I don’t yet know if I will be hired by this client, I sure hope I am because I know I can help him reset his direction in life and allow the talents I saw on display during our brief time together to shine and become apparent to others.

I am also aware though, that as our time together concluded the mask he wore was put back on.  He was returning to the world he knew, a world wherein his true personality, his true talents, his true skills - the complete package of who he truly was - currently remains hidden from those he finds himself around on a daily basis.

In our meeting we discussed how coaching would be of benefit, offering skills to allow his personality to shine and stand out from those around him.  We identified specific goals he wants to accomplish while briefly discussing the hard steps and social discomfort he would experience in getting to where he wants to be in life.

His ultimate success will start however when he, like millions of others retire their costumes and masks this week and return to just being themselves.  For my potential new client, it is time to take off the mask and let the world see him for who he is and what he can offer.  But I know he is not alone, we all wear figurative masks that we hide behind.  

So the challenge is simple this week, identify those masks and retire them once and for all.  Don’t be ashamed of who you are, and yes, I know that this can be difficult for some.  But it is within challenge that we truly grow, so challenge yourself this week - I think you will be surprised by the results.

(Did you know you can get Monday Morning Minute delivered to your inbox every Monday morning?  Go to PSCoachTN.com and register to have Monday Morning Minute waiting for you each Monday as you start your work week.)

The $1.6 Billion Dollar Question

Stop and think for a minute and ponder the following.  For the last few weeks millions upon millions of otherwise sane and logical people have stood in line to tender their hard earned money for the chance at the opportunity to win what is now the largest jackpot ever in a government run lottery game.  The odds are stacked against the players, 1 in 330 million or some astronomical number like that.  I think you have a better chance of getting struck by lightning than you would winning the lottery - but honestly who wants to get struck by lightning.

Here is the part that fascinates me, and within that I believe a lesson in life emerges.

Ask anyone of the people standing in line waiting to buy a lottery ticket what they will do if they win.  The depth and detail of the answers are amazing.  The thought that has gone into planning should they win is often times very detailed and specific.

They know the house (or houses) they will buy, they know the cars they will drive,  They know the vacations they will take.  They know who they will share their winnings with, and more importantly know exactly who won’t be benefitting from their new found wealth.

In a lot of cases an exit strategy from their job is part of the tale. I always chuckle when I’m told how they will quit their job and what they will tell their boss.  I always enjoy the really descriptive tales that include telling their boss where to go and what to do when they get there.  I mean, come on, I guess if you win the big prize you’ve earned the right to tell off a person or two.

But let me change up the inquisition for a moment shifting it from lottery winner to career planning or family planning. Often times you’ll hear crickets long before the requisite Ummm or well that is typically followed by a “I don’t know.”

So you ask more specific questions.

What steps are you taking at work to move yourself forward or advance yourself?

What steps are you taking at home to engage your family in a plan that sees your family accomplishing more?

When challenged with what to do with a grand prize they will never win, a full and complete answer emerges, however when asked to define the steps taken to better ones life in the circumstances they have the ability to affect, normally stone cold awkward silence is tendered in place of an actual plan.

Here is what I can tell you.  Intentional people make plans for their lives using the circumstances of their lives as the tools and/or reason why they don’t want to stay stagnate.  Instead they choose to move their life forward to a different level than they are currently at.

Much like the person you interview in line waiting for their chance to part with hard earned money on a pipe dream called the lottery, intentional people can outline the who, what, where, when and how they intend to achieve the goals they have set forth for their lives.

In the interest of full disclosure I will tell you that I did buy a lottery ticket even though I know I won’t win.  However, let me poise this question to you this week.

In your life, is your lottery plan better thought out than your life plan?

Sure, we’d all love to win the lottery - and granted a fantasy that involves instant riches is fun to dabble in for a minute - but the truth is none of us will win the lottery.  

Here is the better bet though, a plan that takes into account the things in life you can control, moving you forward to achieve the goals you can achieve using the life you have been given.

Knowing you only get one spin on this thing we call earth, why not be intentional planning the things you can control.  I’d hate to get to the end of this thing looking back at ones life knowing that we didn’t accomplish the things we wanted to accomplish because of not winning the lottery.

So why not spend some time this week making a plan that you can win. 

Need help? 

Working with a Life Coach can help set you on a path for success.

And in the end, when you achieve those successes you can look back on a life well lived - even if you never picked the winning numbers. 

(Did you know you can get Monday Morning Minute delivered to your inbox every Monday morning?  Go to PSCoachTN.com and register to have Monday Morning Minute waiting for you each Monday as you start your work week.)