Category : Leadership

5 Groups of leaders

• Robert Mitchell
• February 12, 2018

There are 5 groups of people.
Sponges: Sponges in this text are negative. I mean these type of people are sponges, they are takers. They probably don’t have a job and are relying on the government or family members for support. They are hitchhikers in life, freeloaders. They might come across as very friendly but this is their way to manipulate people.
If they do have a job, they are constantly shirking their responsibilities. They are victims, nothing is their fault, they are “unlucky” and they blame others for their misfortune. They make terrible team members and even worse bosses. If you have had the misfortune of working for one you know what I mean.
If they are a boss, they didn’t earn it. They inherited it through family or friends or someone made a big mistake. They will not do the mere minimum that their leadership position requires of them. Their whole team will be soured by them. When it comes to the vision or the mission of the team they only see what’s in it for them.
When it comes to giving they are like an old mildewing sponge dripping foul spoiled water that they have soaked up from other’s hard work. You don’t want to be in this group. We should strive to be rivers not reservoirs!
Sap Suckers: Sap Suckers are just as the name implies. They are joy killers, Debbie Downers, negative Nellies. They might have a job and they might even be a good worker but they destroy more than they create. They will cost you more than they produce. They will run off great employees or team members and they will cost you customers.
They sow dissention and create negative drama on the team. If they are in leadership everyone will hate to be around them. They will have earned their leadership role because their superiors saw that they were good at their job. What they didn’t see was how bad they were with people. Turnover will be high. They will drain the very life and energy from the team. They will take all the credit and cast all the blame.
They will find fault with everything you do for them and the team. They will offer little or no training. When it comes to the team’s vision and mission all they will see is problems. Everything is impossible. They see a sand trap at every hole. They will tell you everything that is wrong with the company or team. If fault finding were an Olympic sport they would earn a gold medal.
Survivalist: A survivalist sounds great but it really is not the group you want to be in. They do just enough to survive. They are selfish. It’s all about them and what they can get. They are hand to mouth and very short sided.
They are driven by fear and if they are in a leadership role they lead with fear. They have a scarcity and poverty mind set. They tend to be good at their job, they will do whatever it takes to win.
There is only one person on their team and it’s them. If they are the boss and in a leadership role they are task masters, they will drive with a hard hand. When it comes to the vision or mission of the team they only focus on what the can do and what will bring them the most reward.
Their name should be sole survivor, for they are only interested in themselves. They offer no training and they can only see what is in front of them. To them “seeing is believing”. They spend most of their energy on doing the bare minimum to survive. They take short cuts and really don’t care about the team or the team members. Honestly, their only agenda is their own. They don’t give a second thought about you or the company or the organization.
Successful: I know you’re thinking, wow, successful finally a positive group. Not so fast. This group puts success over people. They are short sided and will do anything to succeed. To them “the sale” is more important than the employee, company and even the customer. They strive for immediate gratification.
They are good with others. Good at manipulating them to do what is needed to succeed. They put their agenda a head of the team’s. They see people as objects and replaceable.
They often get promotions and are usually very good at what they do so they are in leadership roles. They see the talent in others and exploit them. They cannot see the untapped talent in others. When it comes to the vision and mission of the team they only see what is probable not what is possible.
They will never take risk and bet on others. Their motto is “if you want the job done right do it yourself”. Their success, as great as it may appear is short lived and never rises to their full potential. The team is always handicapped because of them. They offer little or no training and they think the word loyalty is a word for weak people.
Low achievers will thrive around them because they will stroke their ego but high achievers will either leave or be fired. They get frustrated when others don’t work as hard as they do. They don’t realize that, people won’t do things for the reason you want them to do it, people do things for the reason they want to do it.
Significance: Yes, this is the group you want to be in. Even if you are a new leader, you can start in this group. All the groups are all about attitudes! You have control over your attitude. You can choose to be a sponge or a freeloader. You can choose to be a Sap Sucker or a hitch hiker in life, a free loader. You can choose to be a survivalist or a success and use and manipulate people for your benefit.
Or you can choose significance. Significance driven people put others ahead of themselves. They want to be a part of something bigger than themselves. They are givers. They believe that their talents were given to them by God and what they do with them is their gift to God.
They believe they are here to serve, not be served. They believe it is better to give than receive. They want to be rivers not reservoirs. They put the team’s agenda ahead of their own. They make excellent leaders. Retention is high, moral is high and people want to work with them.
They build a bridge between the team member and the team’s vision and mission. In other words they find out what the team member wants and desires and connect it to the team’s mission. When it comes to the team’s vision and mission, they see what’s possible.
They see untapped talent in their team members and they want to draw it out. They don’t want to hold their team members back, they want to help them grow into their full potential. They set the example for all to follow. People work for them because they want to not because they have to.
They get “their significance” through helping others. They value the customer over the sale. They value the finished product over the return. They value people over anything else. They feel good about themselves when they help others feel good about themselves.
Training is a high priority to them. They are a little slower at attaining success but it is ever lasting. Their motto is “if you want the job done right hire someone better than you to do it”! And another moto is “believing is seeing”. They see the vision. They see what is impossible today is possible tomorrow.

Part 8 The Third R in Leadership

• Robert Mitchell
• January 18, 2018

Restore

As humans we are fractured. Many people are broken and bruised. As a leader you have the responsibility of helping in the restoring process. Restoration is one of my favorite words. It means to bring back to the original state.

What is our original state? Wholeness. And that’s what the word integrity means, “to be whole.” For us to help others be whole we have to be whole ourselves. When I talk like this in the business world, I sometimes get negative feedback. Leaders tell me that they are not running a rehabilitation program. And even though they are right in the fact that they are not in the “rehabilitation work”, they are in the people business.

And people need to be restored. People need to feel good about themselves. As a leader it is our job to help them feel good about themselves. We are responsible “to our team not for our team.” John Maxwell. Mary Kay said, ” imagine everyone has a sign around their neck that says ‘MMFI’, make me feel important.” If you want to be successful, make people feel important. If you want to be a successful husband, make your wife feel important. If you want to be a successful employee, make your customers and supervisors feel important. If you want to be a successful leader, make your team members feel important, everyone of them!

When you truly connect with someone and you want them to perform a certain task, like leading a team discussion or a team meeting, wouldn’t it be nice to know they have a fear of public speaking? Most people do. I have helped so many people overcome that fear. You really bond with someone when you can help them overcome something like that.

When we help people grow, when we help them overcome things, we help ourselves and our organization. Let me say it like this. Your business will grow when your people will grow. And your people will grow when you grow. Your business grows to the extent that you grow.

John Maxwell in his book The 15 Invaluable laws Of Growth says “growth is not natural and you have to grow intentional.” Then he asks the question “so you have a plan to grow?” I ask the question “what do you plan to grow into?”

I say all this because if your people are going to grow, you will have to grow first. If your people are going to be whole and restored, you will have to be whole first. “Such as I have I give to you.” You can’t give something you don’t have.

                                          Real

What does it mean to “be real?” it means integrity! As I said integrity means whole. I am talking about being “the real you.” If you’re going to create a great team, you’re going to do it by raising up a team of leaders. A team of leaders that get results. A team of leaders that reproduce not only your abilities but theirs as well. You can only do this if you walk, lead and live with integrity.

Integrity is a construction word. If the steel in the bridge is not the specific grade that the engineers ordered, it will be said “that the bridge’s integrity is compromised. The opposite of integrity is hypocrisy.

Being a hypocrite is not being the real you. The word hypocrite is an old Greek word and was used to describe actors. Actors that wore masks in the ancient Greek plays. A hypocrite is someone that wears a mask and “pretends” to be someone else.

Your integrity and your wholeness is one of the most important attribute of your leadership’s tool box. Actually its one of the most important things in your life’s journey and your own personal growth!

The Apostle Paul said that “the real you is the hidden man of the heart.” This real you is the best version of yourself. Some people taunt their flaws and claim them as “their real self.” This might be their real self but it is also their broken self. We need to be our real whole self. Not our hypocritical broken selves.

What I mean by this is this. We have all heard of “wolves in sheep’s clothing.” And we all can agree that it means a bad person pretending to be good. Usually it is referring to a con artist. Someone that is pretending to want to help you but in reality they want to take advantage of you.

First of all let me say I don’t believe that there are “bad people”, there are people with bad habits and actions. It helps me believe in people when I think about their better selves are hidden in their hearts. My goal is to draw that better self out.

To me it is not a matter of “wolves in sheep’s” clothing as much as it is sheep in wolves’ clothing. What I mean is the real you is good but the outward you, not so much. Your real hidden you is full of faith, boldness, goodness, confidence, kindness, love, patience and peace. The outward you is clothed with doubt, fear, corruption, insecurity, cruelty, anger, impatience and anxiety.

Just look at the synonyms of the word goodness; goodness is what is in your heart.

Friendliness, generosity, good will, grace, graciousness, honesty, integrity, kindness, mercy, morality, righteousness, rightness, superiority, virtue, advantage, benefit, benevolence, honor, humanness, kindheartedness, kindliness, merit, nourishment, obliging, quality, rectitude, uprightness, value, wholesomeness, worth and ethically.

Now look at goodness’s antonym or opposite, this is what might be on your outside or your behavior.

Corruption, dishonor, cruelty, dishonesty, evil, immorality, meanness, disadvantage, handicap, hindrance, loss, indecency and wickedness.

The Apostle Paul said that we need to “clothe our outer man with our inner man.” We need to take all the goodness in our hearts and then let that be our outer actions.

Some people are like a dormant fruit tree. They have the life of the fruit inside them but they are dormant. They do not have any fruit on their branches. I believe we have goodness in us and when we become whole or have integrity or become our real selves we will behave “good”!

There is a concept: Be Do Have. Usually we as humans get things backwards. Like we think its seeing is believing, no it’s believing is seeing. We think its emotion = motion, meaning “I will feel it first then do it.” No it’s motion = emotion. Meaning “I will do it then I will feel it.” We think it is take and I will receive. No it is give and you shall receive. We think it is talk, talk, talk and be interesting and people will follow us. No its listen, listen, listen and be interested in others and people will follow you. We think to be great we will be served but really we become great when we serve.

We think it is, Have Do Be, or Do Have Be. No it’s Be Do Have. We think if I just had a better, job or spouse, I could do more and then I could be happy! We think if I had more money, a better education, I could do more and then I could be happy. We say “if you pay me more I will do more and then I will be a better employee.

It’s BE DO HAVE! Be more and you can do more and then you will have more. Be the “you” that you already are in your heart and you will do good things and then you will have the desires of your heart!

Be the real you! I share with people all the time when it comes to public speaking, “just be you!” in other words most people are trying to be someone or something else when they speak in front of a group. Just be your true self!

Our team has to be restored to their true real self before they can reproduce the results we want. And before they can be restored and whole we have to be. We have to be restored to our true real self before we can reproduce the results we want.

Part 7 The Third R in leadership

• Robert Mitchell
• January 16, 2018

The gurus and masters of the olden days knew that each person had their own truths and their own gifts and “the teacher” should “draw as from a well” from their students. I have read that the word coach, originated in the fourteen hundreds. It was used to describe “taking someone from where they are to where they want to be.”

Of Course they were talking of a physical carriage drawn by horses. The word was later used to describe a person, a coach, which would help “take someone from where they are to where they want to be.”

Education means “to draw as if from a well.” this is where we get the word tuition and then we get the word intuition. I hope you can feel where I am going with all this. I want you to visualize ancient monks hundreds of years ago telling their students “grass hopper the answer is within you” like the old Kung Fu show used to say.

Think about the words, apprentice, journeyman and master craftsman. In times of old a young fifteen year old boy would become an apprentice, let’s say of a Master Carpenter. The Master Carpenter was not a Master Craftsman until he created a Master Piece. Then a young boy would move in with him and become a member of his family for around 3-7 years. The young apprentice would be paid in food and logging and would work for the training.

When the lad was trained and was accepted and certified as a carpenter he became a Journeyman. This meant he could “take a journey” and work for himself or another “Master.” He could not yet employ another but he could work for payment. When he created a “Master Piece” he would be considered a “Master Carpenter” and then he could apprentice a young man or he could hire a Journeyman and pay him. Wow!

I say this because if you become a true leader, you will mentor, coach, teach and lead another. And when you do it, it will be because you have mastered communication. You will have mastered listening. You will have mastered intuitively asking the right questions and drawing out of your students their gifts, talents and their truth.

People have seven needs as I see it. This is what makes us all so similar. It is how we meet those needs and the priority they have in our lives that make us different. I am not listing these needs in the order of their importance, like I said everyone places these in different priorities and meets them differently.

1. Solid ground or consistency. Things that stay the same and never changes.
2. Varity, the spice of life, change.
3. Connections.
4. The feeling of importance.
5. The need to learn.
6. The need to grow.
7. The need to give.

When you begin to learn your team member’s needs and how they want to meet them and in what priority they place on them you can build rapport. I listed those needs from the least to importance to me.

If you are a leader and you know the needs of your team players, or if you’re a team member and you know the needs of your leader and other team members and their priorities , you will know how to connect with them. If you can connect with them you can influence them in a positive way to help themselves and the team.

These things I know for sure; we can help ourselves by helping others, we can grow ourselves by helping others to grow. Zig Ziglar said it best “you can have everything you want in life if you just help enough people get what they want.”

Part 6 The Third R in Leadership

• Robert Mitchell
• December 30, 2017

Communication is one of the most important attributes in a leader. Like leadership, I believe communication can be learned. They are both learned skills that with proper coaching and mentoring you can learn.

The first thing I want to say about communicating is that it needs to be a two way street. It is not a monolog it is a dialog. What your team member has to say may be more important than what you have to say, but only if you listen. A low level leader does all the talking and very little listening.

When you listen and really hear someone you make them feel important. Which is good because they are important. Conversely when you don’t listen they feel unappreciated and undervalued.

When you choose to listen to people it is because you value them and you respect them. You are not necessarily listening to learn something from them but about them. Listen not just hear. When you listen, you listen with your eyes, your ears, your mind, your attention and with all your heart.

As a coach and a mentor I am trained to ask questions. I intuitively ask the right questions. Intuition is a great gift to have while communicating. When you ask the right questions you “draw as if from a well” from the listener.

You will learn “their truth.” What I mean by their truth is what is important to them and what fits for them. One time I was playing cards with my grandson, he was 8 at the time. I wanted to help him in a game called speed. In this card game it is all about “speed!” I was going to give him a suggestion on how he could be more efficient and speeder.

Instead “of telling him” what to do, I instinctively asked him what he might do to be faster. His answer shocked me. I was hoping he would say to move his cards closer to him so he could grab them faster. That is what I thought he needed to do.

He said “we needed to buy smaller cards that were less sticky!” he said his hands were smaller and that the cards were “not slippery!” I was stunned, then he said “and I probably should place them closer to me.” We went out, bought some smaller slipperier cards. He played better and he felt like his input mattered! And it did!

In management I have always heard managers say that you need to get the other person to “come up with the answer on their own so that they can own it.” And then they say that you are supposed to direct them to “the right answer.”

I think this is a mistake. I think in times of old, seers, mentors, coaches and gurus used to tell their students that they needed to “own their truth.” And modern day managers thought it meant we were supposed to come up with the truth, the right answer and manipulate our subject or student, our mentee, our employee to see “our truth” and think that it was their own and that they came up with the answer on their own.

The gurus and masters of the olden days knew that each person had their own truths and their own gifts and “the teacher” should “draw as from a well” from their students. I have read that the word coach, originated in the fourteen hundreds. It was used to describe “taking someone from where they are to where they want to be.”

Part 5 The Third R in Leadership

• Robert Mitchell
• December 29, 2017

Report

Reporting or messaging is very important to our reproducing the results we want for our team. What is the REASON for your team? Why was it created? To know someone’s destiny or to know an organization’s destiny we need to know why it was made in the first place.

What is your mission? What are your core values? What is your vision or your vision statement? What is your team’s purpose? We need to know this because we need to communicate this to the team and the team leaders and our customers.

This will be our message. This will be our brand. We need to know what our message, our brand and our purpose and we need to know it with clarity. Clarity is power. If you are going to “stay on message” we need to know what that message is.

What is your message? It will be found in your purpose. The reason for your existence as a team or company or and organization. What are your core values? You don’t need to invent your core values you need to identify them. They are in the heart of your organization and will be found when you know the purpose of your mission.

Core values, mission statements, vision statements, philosophies, traditions and guiding principles should all be clarified and then communicated to and through the team. They must be written down!

Role

Before a team member can truly understand the message and the vision of the organization they need to be clear about their role on the team. What is their role? What is their title? What is their mission, their vision, what is their purpose for the team?

Before they can take on a worthy role for the team, they must know who they are. What are their strengths? What are their gifts, their talents, what is their personal vision? What is their purpose? What is their race to run? What is their calling?

As a team leader you need to know this so you can place them in their strength zone. No one will be successful if they are not in their strength zone. Their gifted area. The “B” team can beat the “A” team if the “B’ team is in their strength zone and the “A” team is not! John Maxwell’s high school’s basketball coach used to have the A team scrimmage the B team. He put the B team in their regular positions and he placed the A team members in a position they were not good at. The B team would win! What is your team member’s position? That is where rapport comes in. That is why connecting and listening are so important. We need to know our team member’s strengths so we can place them in the right role.

Before you can help your team find their role and their strengths, you need to know your role and your strengths. Role is the first R in leadership. You have a role, great. It was probably given to you and you have probably earned your title or position, your role. The good news is you have a title, that bad news your title does not make you a leader. John Maxwell says “leadership is a verb not a noun.” Leadership is not a role or a title. This is what this whole message is about, leadership!

What are your strengths? What is your race to run? What is your purpose, not just on the team but in life itself? What is your mission? What are your gifts and talents? As a true leader you must know these things. When you do, a true leader surrounds themselves with people that are stronger in some areas than they are.

Find your weakness and then find other’s strength and then place everyone accordingly. A true leader will not be insecure of other people’s strengths. They welcome them. When I say weaknesses, I am not talking about character flaws.

              Rectitude verses Reputation

When I use the word rectitude, I really mean character, but rectitude starts with an R. Rectitude means good behavior, or character. Character is more important than reputation. Reputation is who people think you are and character is who you really are.

I hope your character matches your hidden man of the heart. Your real you. Your integrity you. If it doesn’t you can change that instantly. I believe we can improve our character flaws by changing our attitudes.

The apostle Paul said “to be transformed (changed) by the renewing of your minds.” We can change our world by changing our thinking. I believe we can change our lives, change our character behavior and change our attitudes, from bad to good. I don’t believe we can change our gifts and our talents. We either have them or we don’t. I do believe we can improve on the gifts that we have.

We need to practice and hone in on our gifts and talents and make them skills. But stay in your strength zone. Improve the weakness of your strength don’t try to make strong your weaknesses. Unless your weakness are in your character, improve them.

Break out of your comfort zone but don’t break out of your strength zone. What I mean by this is if you are complacent in your strengths, you are in your comfort zone. Break out of that and stretch yourself into new skills and strengths. But don’t leave your strength zone and try to get “good” at something you are not called to do and you have no gift for.

I could spend all my time and money trying to sing or golf or be a great swimmer or an artist or a thousand things that I am not gifted in. But I would never get much better at them. But if I spend all my time improving on what I am gifted in, my improvements will be exponential!

Once you become whole, living life from you heart and true self, you have integrity, and once you know your strengths you can help others find theirs. And then you can help your organization with theirs.

What is your race and purpose and gifts and talents and strength zone? What are your team member’s race and purpose and gifts and talents and strength zone? And what is your organization’s race and purpose and gifts and talents and strength zone?

Part 4 The Third R in Leadership

• Robert Mitchell
• December 29, 2017

Restore

As humans we are fractured. Many people are broken and bruised. As a leader you have the responsibility of helping the restoring process. Restoration is one of my favorite words. It means to bring back to the original state.

What is our original state? Wholeness. And that’s what the word integrity means, “to be whole. For us to help others be whole we have to be whole ourselves. When I talk like this in the business world, I sometimes get negative feedback. Leaders tell me that they are not running a rehabilitation program. And even though they are right in the fact that they are not in the “rehabilitation work”, they are in the people business.

And people need to be restored. People need to feel good about themselves. As a leader it is our job to help them feel good about themselves. We are responsible “to our team not for our team.” John Maxwell.

When we look at those seven needs, what areas do your team members need help in. in other words sometime our needs turn into fears. Sometimes something as common as desiring stability becomes a fear.

When you truly connect with someone and you want them to perform a certain task, like leading a team discussion or a team meeting, wouldn’t it be nice to know they have a fear of public speaking? Most people do. I have helped so many people overcome that fear. You really bond with someone when you can help them overcome something like that.

When we help people grow, when we help them overcome things, we help ourselves and our organization. Let me say it like this. Your business will grow when your people will grow. And your people will grow when you grow. Your business grows to the extent that you grow.

John Maxwell in his book The 15 Invaluable laws Of Growth says “growth is not natural and you have to grow intentional.” Then he asks the question “do you have a plan to grow?” I ask the question “what do you plan to grow into?”

I say all this because if your people are going to grow, you will have to grow first. If your people are going to be whole and restored, you will have to be whole first. “Such as I have I give to you.” You can’t give something you don’t have.

                                          Real

What does it mean to “be real?” it means integrity! As I said integrity means whole. I am talking about being “the real you.” If you’re going to create a great team, you’re going to do it by raising up a team of leaders. A team of leaders that get results. A team of leaders that reproduce not only your abilities but theirs as well. You can only do this if you walk, led and live with integrity.

Integrity is a construction word. If the steel in the bridge is not the specific grade that the engineers ordered, it will be said “that the bridge’s integrity is compromised.” The opposite of integrity is hypocrisy.

Being a hypocrite is not being the real you. The word hypocrite is an old Greek word and was used to describe actors. Actors that wore masks in the ancient Greek plays. A hypocrite is someone that wears a mask and “pretends” to be someone else.

Your integrity and your wholeness is one of the most important attribute of your leadership journey. Actually its one of the most important things in your life’s journey and your own personal growth!

The Apostle Paul said that “the real you is the hidden man of the heart.” This real you is the best version of yourself. Some people taunt their flaws and claim them as “their real self.” This might be their reality but it is also their broken self. We need to be our real whole self. Not our hypocritical broken selves.

What I mean by this is this. We have all heard of “wolves in sheep’s clothing.” And we all can agree that it means a bad person pretending to be good. Usually it is referring to a con artist. Someone that is pretending to want to help you but in reality they want to take advantage of you.

First of all let me say I don’t believe that there are “bad people”, there are people with bad habits and actions. It helps me believe in people when I think about their better selves are hidden in their hearts. My goal is to draw that better self out.

To me it is not a matter of wolves in sheep’s clothing as much as it is sheep in wolves’s clothing. What I mean is the real you is good but the outward you, not so much. Your real hidden you is full of faith, boldness, goodness, confidence, kindness, love, patience and peace. The outward you is clothed with doubt, fear, corruption, insecurity, cruelty, anger, impatience and anxiety.

Just look at the synonyms of the word goodness; goodness is what is in your heart.

Friendliness, generosity, good will, grace, graciousness, honesty, integrity, kindness, mercy, morality, righteousness, rightness, superiority, virtue, advantage, benefit, benevolence, honor, humanness, kindheartedness, kindliness, merit, nourishment, obliging, quality, rectitude, uprightness, value, wholesomeness, worth and ethically.

Now look at goodness’s antonym or opposite, this is what might be on your outside or your behavior.

Corruption, dishonor, cruelty, dishonesty, evil, immorality, meanness, disadvantage, handicap, hindrance, loss, indecency and wickedness.

The Apostle Paul said that we need to “clothe our outer man with our inner man.” We need to take all the goodness in our hearts and then let that be our outer actions.

Some people are like a dormant fruit tree. They have the life of the fruit inside them but they are dormant. They do not have any fruit on their branches. I believe we have goodness in us and when we become whole or have integrity or become our real selves or we clothe our outer man with our inner man we will behave “good”!

There is a concept: Be Do Have. Usually we as humans get things backwards. Like we think its seeing is believing, no it’s believing is seeing. We think its emotion = motion, meaning ‘I will feel it first then do it.” No it’s motion =  emotion. Meaning “I will do it then I will feel it.” We think it is take and I will receive. No it is give and you shall receive. We think it is talk, talk, talk and be interesting and people will follow us. No its listen, listen, listen and be interested in others and people will follow you. If you want to be great b e a servants and if you want to be first be last!

We think it is, Have Do Be, or Do Have Be. No it’s Be Do Have. We think if I just had a better, job or spouse, I could do more and then I could be happy! We think if I had more money, a better education, I could do more and then I could be happy. We say “if you pay me more I will do more and then I will be a better employee.

It’s BE DO HAVE! Be more and you can do more and then you will have more. Be the “you” that you already are in your heart and you will do good things and then you will have the desires of your heart!

Be the real you! I share with people all the time when it comes to public speaking, “just be you!” in other words most people are trying to be someone or something else when they speak in front of a group. Just be your true self!

Our team has to be restored to their true real self before they can reproduce the results we want. And before they can be restored and whole we have to be. We have to be restored to our true real self before we can reproduce the results we want.

Part 3 The Third R in Leadership

• Robert Mitchell
• December 29, 2017

Relationships

That’s why relationships are so important. Whether it’s your top performers or your low performers that you have to replace, how you treat people will determine your results. 85% of our success is the results of our people skills and how we are in our relationships. The sad thing is that 85% of the training in most organizations focus on professional skills not people skills. We are training people to fail.

When you have a role as a leader people have to follow you. When you treat people with respect, follow the Golden Rule, replace those you have to with compassion and add value to your employees or team members, they will want to follow you. When they want to follow you, you will get the results you desire. When you get results people will want to follow you even more because people like to follow a winner.

Role: People will follow you because they have to.

Relationships: people will follow you because they want to because you care about them and they will help you get the results you desire.

Results: People will follow you even farther or is it further because you are creating a winning team!

John Maxwell says, “You can like people and not lead them, but you can’t lead them if you don’t like them!”                               

                          Reproduction

It is easy for most high achievers to get results no matter the team. Wherever they find themselves they will rise to the top. But they will never reach their true potential until they have a leader that does four things for them.

1. Gives them a role (and authority and empowerment)
2. Allows them to build relationships with their team.
3. Reward them as they create results for the team and team members.
4. Give them a platform to reproduce themselves.

Reproducing yourself requires you to not only get results for your organization but get results for your team members. To reproduce yourself, you need to start to develop your people. You need to help them grow.

At first they follow you because they have to because of your role. Then they want to follow you because you build a relationship with them and they realize you care about them as a person. As you produce results for the team they follow you because you are a winner. If that is as far as you go it will be a dismal shame.

When you start to pour into them all the time, energy and talent you poured into the organization they will follow you farther. They will begin to produce the results that you used to produce. The big difference is now you have a whole team producing for you not just you yourself.

Would you rather have a hundred present of your results or eighty present of your results times the members on your team? Wow the bigger the team that you develop the more results. You begin to reproduce expediential. No more addition. Three plus three is six. Three times three is nine. 3³ is twenty-seven. When you develop your team members individually and when you help them grow into their full potential your results will grow expediential.

Rapport

Building relationships is really building rapport, building trust, building friendships, it is really building a listening ear and a caring heart. John Maxwell says “people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. “ And “touch a heart before you ask for a hand.” He says “you can like someone and not lead them, but you can’t lead them if you don’t like them.” On rapport he says “walk slowly down the hall.” What does he mean by that? I think he means take time to meet with your team and know who they are. Ask yourself “what are their goals and what are their needs, what and are their desires, what are their talents and gifts, what is their purpose and what is their potential?”

I believe as John Maxell says “leadership is influence nothing more and nothing less always has been and always will be.” I believe leadership starts with respecting people. Loving people and valuing people. I believe leadership begins when you begin to listen.

You listen to learn, help, build rapport and because you find people interesting. You seek to understand first and then to be understood. You put others ahead of yourself. Your biggest question is how can I help you?

People have seven needs as I see it. This is what makes us all so similar. It is how we meet those needs and the priority they have in our lives that make us different. I am not listing these needs in the order of their importance, like I said everyone places these in different priorities and meets them differently.

1. Solid ground or consistency. Things that stay the same and never changes.
2. Varity, the spice of life, change.
3. Connections.
4. The feeling of importance.
5. The need to learn.
6. The need to grow.
7. The need to give.

When you begin to learn your team member’s needs and how they want to meet them and in what priority they place on them you can build rapport. I listed those needs from the least to importance to me.

If you know the needs of your team players and you know their level of importance, you will know how to connect with them. If you can connect with them you can influence them in a positive way to help themselves and the team.

These things I know for sure; we can help ourselves by helping others, we can grow ourselves by helping others to grow. Zig Ziglar said it best “you can have everything you want in life if you just help enough people get what they want.”

Part 2 Third R in Leadership

• Robert Mitchell
• December 24, 2017

                                                                                                      Respect

Another crucial R is respect. In order to be a high level true leader that gets results for the team you have to respect people. When I say have too, I really mean you should want to. If you have to, something is wrong with your attitude. If you don’t respect people you will never be a leader and an influencer nor will you achieve lasting results. All the results that you will appear to achieve will be short lived.

When I say respect people I should say, “Be not a respecter of persons.” This is a bible saying that means not to value a CEO more than a Janitor. Don’t value someone that can help you more than someone that you perceive cannot help you. Some team members and people maybe more qualified, more experienced, bring more to the table, add more to the bottom line and may out preform others and they may be more important to the team than others. They just aren’t more important than others as a person.

No matter the person’s prestige or pedigree all people should be treated with the same respect. Even when you replace someone on the team, it should be done with integrity and respect.

                                                                                                    Replace

   Replace is another crucial R in leadership. Everyone you replace or fire should have seen it coming. Your communication should have been so crystal clear that they should have known that their performance was not meeting your guidelines and standards. Replacing low achievers is important. You are establishing a clear standard when you do.

When you truly respect people you will treat them with another important R and that is rule, as in the Golden Rule! How would you want to be treated if you were not performing to the desired standards? Would you want someone to mentor, coach, train and communicate the standards of performance to you. Would you want to receive a warning and have a clear understanding on what you need to do to stay on the team? I would.

Sometimes you are the one to be replaced. I mean you as a leader you need to be on a new team. A lot of leaders have leaders that they report to. If you are a leader and you report to a leader, you need to be aware of the fact you might be at a higher level of leadership than your current leader. If they are insecure and they do not allow you to play at your top performance, you might have to make a proactive change and leave. Don’t let your “love for the team” hold you back, like I have done.

One of my core values is to never criticize a company, organization or a person that I am drawing a paycheck from. I worked with a low level leader that constantly criticized his company and leaders. He did not value or respect his leaders or his team. I had to leave the team.

Whether you “get fired” or you realize your time and talents and energy should be spent on another team. You need to ask yourself if your current team, company, organization or your leader shares in your core values. If they don’t and you feel you can’t influence a change, you need to leave.

If you as a leader do not have a platform to reproduce yourself and share your core values with your team, you need a new team. You will only get limited results for your team and you as well as your team will never reach your full potential. Even though you love and help your team, your results will be a drop in the bucket compared to what you can do.

Don’t think about the team and people you have to leave behind, think about the team and people you can truly help. As a leader you need to follow leaders that have a passion to allow you to be empowered to help your team. Even if that means that they work their way out of a job. True leaders are always looking for their replacement. True leaders surround themselves with leaders that excel in areas that they don’t.

True leads care about their team and their members more than their role, title, position or their credit. True leaders find their significance in getting results for everyone involved. True leaders don’t want to be interesting they are interested. True leaders feel important when they make others feel important. True leaders feel empowered when they empower others. Low level leaders feel empowered when they have power over others.