business leadership coach Archives • Living to Lead

Why It is Important to Experience the Full Cycle of Success

February 6, 2019 By Dave Ferguson Leave a Comment

Burnout and boredom.

No matter what your career or leadership level, you will sooner or later (or more likely sooner and later) encounter these two facets of work.

There was an attorney who went into law mainly because his parents urged him to do so. “There is good money in the legal profession,” they said, out of genuine concern that their son would have income security.

A good son, with great respect for his parents, he dutifully went to law school, hated every minute of it, but did extremely well. He graduated and went on to an equally successful career.

Then one day, in his mid-forties and experiencing severe burnout, he realized the hot dog vendor he visited frequently outside his office was happier in his job than he was.

To the shock of many, he quit his job and purchased a hot dog stand.

Not only did he find joy in his new career; he went on to expand the business. In time, he was making more income than he did as a successful attorney. He found work he enjoyed in an unexpected place. And the legal training took its rightful place in his career – it served him as the businessman he had always yearned to be.

In my work as an executive coach, it is not uncommon to work with someone (or a team) who has this type of “burnout in success” syndrome.

Burnout and boredom are the “check engine” lights for leaders at all levels. They indicate that something you are doing in some area is not working optimally, and that something needs to be addressed.

Burnout is an indicator of overload.

It signals a need for you to rest in order to recharge physically, and in other areas as well. Failure to do so is like driving a vehicle without oil, and we all know the consequences that can come of that.

Boredom is an indicator that you need a new challenge.

Its effects are similar to burnout, in that your energy will be low. But the action you need to take is quite different. In the case of boredom, adding something new and challenging to your work will serve to recharge your battery.

As I work with leaders facing these issues, it becomes clear that there is often a combination of both factors going on, and so it requires a time of retreat and then a pursuit of new challenges. This is why I especially enjoy doing leadership retreats. They give individuals and teams the chance to recharge and also reignite their passion for their work.

It is amazing how a little rest, time in nature, and a change of scenery helps clear the mind for better strategic thinking, goal setting, and problem solving.

For this attorney, changing careers was exactly what he needed to do. The passion to lead his own business was so deeply entrenched in his being that nothing else could take its place.

For others, it may not be a matter of changing careers but changing something in their careers that is needed.

Delegating some duties in order to take on ones that are a better fit or taking a different position in the same company are solutions for some.

For many, getting to the “why” of what they do is key. If they are “people-focused” but trapped by success in a corner office, they may do well to purposely leave the office several times a day in order to engage with their team or customers.

Boredom and burnout can hit at unexpected times.

Many leaders find that, after reaching a major milestone in their business, career, or income – at a time they would expect to have high energy – they experience a combination of fatigue and apathy. These are burnout and boredom in disguise.

Therefore, it is important to experience the full cycle of success – develop, launch, and celebrate; then rest, reflect, and seek a new challenge. That feeling of fatigue and apathy is a normal pattern that follows success. It is your indicator to finish the cycle of rest and reflection followed by taking on a new challenge.

Not only is this important for leaders as individuals; it is important for teams. Your team works hard to reach milestones; help them finish the cycle of success before diving full throttle into the next phase of development. The last half of the cycle does not have to be lengthy, but it is necessary. It could be the period of wrap-up after a major project, where your team has time to document the process and reflect on ways to improve it for the future. It could be an administrative day for a business owner or it could even be a day out of the office for a time to think and plan.

This cycle of action plus reflection is healthy for businesses and individuals.

Are you taking time to experience the full cycle of success? Are you allowing your team to do the same?

Dave Ferguson is “The Leaders’ Coach”, an internationally recognized executive leadership coach, speaker, facilitator, and author. Are you interested in talking to Dave about coaching or having Dave speak to inspire and motivate your team? “ASK COACH DAVE” at 704-907-0171 or at Dave@AskCoachDave.com.

The LOYALTY Formula

July 18, 2018 By Dave Ferguson Leave a Comment

It was a tough quarter…again. Sales were down, and expenses were high. One facility required major remediation in order to get back into compliance, a fact which only further exacerbated the problems the company had been having for some time.

At a time when strong leadership was needed to turn the ship around, the CEO was disconnected. He was in his newly acquired office having thousands of dollars of custom cabinetry installed the day a division of over 300 employees got the pink slip.

When his assistant asked what he planned to do about the numbers, he said, “What do you expect me to do?”

It should come as no surprise that within a year, the entire company was dissolved, and thousands of other employees were out of work as well.

Throughout the process, the CEO was questioned as to what was going on and what he planned to do about it. He blamed everything and everyone – from current events, to competition, to stockholders, to his own management team.

But he failed to accept responsibility for his own actions – or more accurately, a lack thereof.

As a result, he essentially sealed his fate and the company’s as well.

What he didn’t realize was that, just outside his door was a powerful team who could have helped him save the company. But he had failed to engage and connect with his management team and his employees. They had entrusted him with their livelihoods, and he let them down.

One of the 11 essential needs of employees is Loyalty.

It is knowing that leadership “has your back” as they expect you to have theirs. Loyalty generates the kind of security in a company that makes everyone want to succeed, not just for themselves, but for all involved.

And this leader didn’t have it.

How can you as a leader exemplify and inspire LOYALTY with your team?

Listen!

First and foremost, listen to your people at all levels. A good leader will purposely get to know his or her people well enough for them to offer honest feedback and share ideas. If you have a suggestion box, by all means, read the suggestions and act on those which would be of benefit to the company. Honor your people by simply listening, and they will honor you by letting you know if there is something that needs your attention.

Own Responsibility

It is easy to blame others when things go wrong; but a truly effective leader will take responsibility. If an employee makes a mistake, yes, they should be accountable. But the leader should also be accountable for helping the employee evaluate and remedy the situation. The old adage that “everything rises and falls on leadership” has stood the test of time for a reason.

Yield the Floor

Contrary to popular belief, you as the leader are not expected to have all the answers. This should come as a relief to many. The best leaders surround themselves with experts in diverse areas. If there is something you don’t know as a leader, tap into the power of your team and yield the floor to an expert. You will be glad you did! Not only will this solve your problem…you will also gain a bit of that person’s wisdom as well.

Ask Forgiveness

Here’s a news flash – leaders are not perfect. Problems come when we pretend to be. The truth is, we are all learning how to lead together. If you make a mistake, don’t know an answer, or handle a situation in less than stellar fashion, own up to it. Admit it, ask forgiveness, and move forward in a better direction. Many leaders don’t want their people to know they are fallible. But acknowledging that you are helps your people to be transparent and growing leaders as well.

Leave Your Office

It is easy to get trapped in a corner office. People come to see you. Phone calls ring in. Paperwork lands on your desk. These are all things that can keep you behind closed doors when, at times, you need to be out and about. Take time each day to meet a new employee or to go out with another business leader or mentor. As that show, Undercover Boss, reveals: you learn a lot about your company when you leave your office.

Trust

Trust is hard for many leaders. It means you are placing some part of your success in the hands of others, and that is a point of fear. But the thing about trust is that it works both ways. If you hire good people and empower them to do their work well, then trust them to carry out their responsibilities, they will more often than not surprise you with their level of trustworthiness. It is not as much about them earning your trust (as is the common thinking on this matter), but about you trusting them first.

Yoke Up with Your Team

There are times when all hands are needed on deck. You have no doubt been on teams where everyone is scrambling to meet the leader’s deadline – canceling their evening plans to make sure the work gets done. And the leader saunters out of the office at 3:00 p.m. to get a haircut. What kind of a message does this send to the team? A good leader will roll up their sleeves and dive in to help when needed so everyone can leave at a decent hour.

These small habits, regularly engaged, build loyalty. They let your team know you value them, and in turn, they value you.

Do you want a team that “has your back?”

There’s a very simple solution…

“Have theirs.”

The 3-Part Process of Leadership Basic Training

April 5, 2018 By Dave Ferguson Leave a Comment

Featured article by Dave Ferguson in CEOWORLD magazine. Reprinted by permission.

In The 11 Essential Needs of Employees, we noted the top reasons for job dissatisfaction. One of those reasons is that employees are unhappy with management and the way they manage.

This is why the first rung on the Leadership Ladder is “Leadership is a Priority.”

Good leadership doesn’t just happen by appointment.

Granted, there are those who are “natural leaders” to some degree; it is their inclination to take charge. But that doesn’t mean all natural leaders are good leaders. The fact is, some “natural leaders” can be really “bad bosses” if their natural talents are not trained in the right direction.

When an unprepared leader is assigned to a leadership position, it can result in disastrous consequences, leaving unhappy employees in the wake. Unaddressed, it can negatively impact the company’s bottom line.

As a leader of leaders, your main focus must be on training your leaders to be good and effective leaders.

How do you do this?

Here is the 3-Part Process of Leadership Basic Training.

1. Un-train

First, you un-train.

As an Air Force veteran, I can tell you that the first few days in basic training are not intended to be pleasant. They are intended to “un-train.”

We recruits came from diverse backgrounds, each with our own ideas as to how things should be done.

We each brought habits – some good ones, and many bad ones. The first few days were all about tearing down those bad habits – and even some of the good ones – to make room for better habits.

Some of us had attitudes. Those were untrained as well…and pretty quickly, I might add.

2. Train

The bad habits and attitudes were replaced with rigorous training for better habits and attitudes. This wasn’t just a matter of positive thinking. It required action…painful, arduous, push-to-the-limits action.

Creating strong leadership habits and attitudes also required repetition. It meant daily practice until the process of what to do was drilled into us so we could carry it out quickly, strategically, and with confidence.

The results of this un-training and training process transformed us from cocky young teenagers to a strong, confident team.

3. Serve

The problem with leadership in typical organizations is that there is no basic training for it. It is simply assumed that a person who is good at his or her job should be able to lead those who do that kind of work, or that someone who is tested and falls within a certain range on an assessment automatically qualifies for a leadership position.

You have an employee who excels in IT, for example, so you make him or her the IT manager. But soon you notice projects are falling behind, and you hear murmurings of discontent among his or her direct reports.

“He used to be our friend. Now he thinks he’s better than us.”

“She did a good job in IT, but as a manager, she’s out of her league.”

Why is it that this stellar employee now fails as a manager?

It often comes down to one issue: They were trained to do a job, but never trained to be a leader.

For them to transition well from being an employee to being a manager, they need to be un-trained on some practices and trained on some new ones.

Before a leader can serve well, they must be un-trained and trained well.

Your organization is all about people – the people who lead, the people they lead, and the clients and customers they collectively serve.

If your leadership team is functioning well at all levels, your clients and customers will be served well.

Are you, as the leader of those leaders, equipping them with the tools and resources they need to do their jobs well?

Leadership Training Resources

Leadership training can take the form of books (at a basic level), workshops, retreats, extended leadership programs, or executive coaching, depending on the needs of the organization and individuals.

Where specific issues need to be addressed, executive coaching can help a leader push through personal or professional obstacles that may be holding them back, or get specific help in dealing with a situation. Executive coaching is also good for strategic planning and accountability, while also offering a confidential sounding board for ideas and issues.

Where teamwork is a component of the leadership training, we encourage group platforms such as workshops and retreats.

Where extensive training for leaders and teams is needed, an extended leadership program will give you and your team time to learn new principles, apply them in the workplace, and then review and refine for best results.

Living to Lead offers all of these, plus an innovative new option where you as a leader can lead your team through a 16-week leadership training program. We provide the tools you can take to your team for learning and application. With this option, you are learning and developing your leadership skills right along with your team. This gives you a chance to get to know your team and generate real solutions and ideas for your business.

To discuss and determine the type of leadership training and team development options that best fit you and your team, feel free to contact me at livingtolead.com/contact.

Time Management vs. Energy Management

September 20, 2017 By Dave Ferguson Leave a Comment

In the old-school “time management” models, it was all about efficiency, about doing as much as possible in the time allotted.

The problem was, it didn’t work. Just as sure as one thing was crossed off the list, two more tasks took its place. It created a “more-more-more, faster-faster-faster” mentality that now has people working seven days a week, day and night.

Sure, they may be getting a lot done, but at what cost?

I can tell you, the cost is high. They are paying for this “efficiency” in loss of true effectiveness and results, life balance, health, and relationships. The effect on companies is not the higher productivity and profit one would expect, but a high burnout and disengagement rate.

This week, I am privileged to be conducting a leadership retreat.

Our goals are related to planning, goal setting, and problem-solving. But first and foremost, there is a need for re-energizing the leadership team.

Like you and your team, this team is giving it all they have to outpace the competition and create profit. The work never stops. But the fact is, the leaders need to stop – just for a short time – to recalibrate. Without this time for re-energizing and recalibration, a team can lose its effectiveness.

How can you re-energize and recalibrate your team?

In their book The Power of Full Engagement, Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz make the case for the fact that “performance, health, and happiness are grounded in the skillful management of energy.”

Success is no longer based on a futile attempt at managing time, but a more effective approach of managing energy.

There is a compound effect that occurs when you have a block of time matched with high energy. The results are measurably significant. Studies have also shown that working longer does not necessarily create massively greater results. In fact, the law of diminishing returns kicks in at some point, creating lower productivity. And yet we as employers demand more and more of a smaller workforce…and more and more of ourselves and our leadership teams as well.

How can you as the leader of a company create a high-energy team that gets results without burnout?

Why should you even care about energizing your employees? Here are a few critical reasons.

To rebuild employee trust. All the downsizing, lay-offs, rightsizing, and re-engineering in recent years has created environments where employees have lost trust.
Employees today must be more self-motivated and self-directed.
As our work environments have become more high-tech, the need for leaders to be more high-touch has developed.
Work environments today must be supportive and foster the desired behaviors and outcomes.
All employees want to feel valued and appreciated for their knowledge, skills, and work.
Leaders have limited time with their employees, so it must be positive and meaningful.

How do you truly energize your employees? Here are four ways.

What and how you communicate with your employees is just as important as what you pay and give them.

Well-informed employees are good and productive employees, simply because they feel involved. The positive effects of communicating vital company information to employees are huge. Employees who are “in the loop” are energized and feel like a vital part of the organization.

Involving your employees in decisions that affect them will result in overall better decisions.

The collection of employee suggestions is one of the best ways to involve employees and to energize them in the process. Their suggestions can not only help the company but also themselves, by improving working conditions and giving them a measure of control over their jobs. If a company carefully reviews employee suggestions and quickly implements the ones with merit, management is sending a message to employees that they are valued. In contrast, an unattended suggestion box sends a clear message to employees that they are not being heard – and this will de-energize your team.

Training employees is essential for their long-term relationship with your company.

The best companies recognize that teaching employees pays long-term dividends. When employees are given opportunities to learn and better themselves, it can electrify an otherwise stagnant workforce. Just the ability to break out of their day-to-day routines can be very energizing in itself.

Creating new and interesting challenges can keep employees out of a rut.

These new challenges can reenergize them and restore enthusiasm. If you want your employees to feel excited about coming to work, you have to create interesting new challenges. And by the same token, be sure to recognize their efforts in meeting these challenges. Take time to celebrate the wins with your team before diving into the next challenges. This creates a cycle of renewable energy.

From Millennials to Baby Boomers, people today are looking for much more than a paycheck when they go to work. They are looking for purpose and fulfillment. Many employers still don’t get this, and it shows in their production and turnover numbers.

My suggestion is to give your employees a chance to make an impact, not just a job. Energize your team, and the results will come as a welcome side-effect.

For more ideas on how to energize your employees, get the Emotional Intelligence Matrix.

Three Ways to Effectively Deal with PEOPLE Issues

August 23, 2017 By Dave Ferguson Leave a Comment

I had an interesting conversation with a business leader once. He essentially discounted the need for coaching because (he said) he was in the business of manufacturing a certain product and not in the PEOPLE business.

With all due respect, he was missing the entire point of his business.

We are all in the same business – the PEOPLE business.

Ultimately, it is not about your product and process. It is about the PEOPLE you work with, and the PEOPLE you serve.

We have all had days when our course was changed – for better or for worse – by an encounter with just one person. Stop at the coffee shop on your way to the office and receive stellar service with a smile, and your day is off to a great start. (Granted, some of that can be attributed to a good cup of coffee as well.)

But stop at that shop and get in line behind a cranky customer being served by an unpleasant clerk who hates their job, and your day will suddenly take a turn to the dark side. The caliber of your day is very much determined by PEOPLE.

As a leader, think about how your PEOPLE set the tone for your business.

And consider for a moment that you are also one of those PEOPLE.

• What happens when clients visit your office or call on the phone?
• Are your customer service representatives trained, encouraged, motivated, and empowered to provide the best experience possible with every customer encounter?
• How well do your teams work together? Is there collaboration…or rivalry?
• Are your product development teams focused on the desires of the PEOPLE you serve?
• How would your team rate your leadership? Do you “have their back” as much as you expect them to have yours?

It is clear.

We are in the PEOPLE business.

If there is a problem, it is very often a PEOPLE problem.

Now here’s the good news: The solution is also PEOPLE.

Here is a quick way to determine if you and the PEOPLE in your organization are part of the problem or part of the solution.

Take a look at the PEOPLE in your organization, including yourself. Which attitudes do you see? Any pilot will tell you that attitude determines altitude. With the right attitude at every level in your organization, your company can soar.

Attitudes don’t just happen. They are practiced.

How do you overcome the problems in your organization?

1. Determine the issues beneath the problems.

Very often, PEOPLE issues are tied to unmet needs. In a previous article, we talked about the “11 Essential Needs of Employees.” I urge you to read it if haven’t already. It is a powerful lesson. By meeting these needs, you can create a team of solution-focused PEOPLE in your organization.

2. Work with your team to actively practice the solutions – to be Positive, Encouraging, Onboard, Pleasant, a Leader, and Engaged.

Show me a leader who practices these attitudes and instills them in his or her team, and I will show you an outstanding organization. There is an added benefit. Leaders and teams who express the solutions mindset generate a loyal customer base who reflect those attitudes as well. It becomes a win-win situation.

3. Focus on the PEOPLE.

In business, focus is key. Process and products are catalysts. But the real focus – the one that truly determines your success – is PEOPLE. Are you focusing on the PEOPLE you serve and the team who serves with you?