Showin'Up

One of my impactful mentors, Dr. Mike Moses, was fond of admonishing us as developing servant leaders that "90% of it is showing up."

That assertion of Dr. Moses has proven true time and again since I first heard him say it some 25 years ago. 

Why does showing up prove so impactful for us as servant leaders? It affords us opportunity to...

• CARE - for the people doing the work.
• ENGAGE - with those who are engaging with our stakeholders. 
• LEARN - about what's happening in and around the organization.
• OBSERVE - the processes, workflows, successes, champions, bottlenecks, etc. 
• LISTEN - to the concerns and comments of both internal and external customers.
• SHARE - with the team the good things and good people that make our work meaningful. 

On second thought, Dr. Moses may have missed the calculation a bit. Perhaps "showing up" represents closer to 100% of our success. 

TeamDream

What fun it is to play on a high performing team!

What if we had the power and ability to shape the performance team of our dreams. What would those team members look like?

• Curious
• Relational
• Self starting
• Not risk averse
• Systemic thinker
• Emotionally intelligent
• Intrinsically motivated
• Socially intelligent
• Outcome focused
• Team oriented
• Collaborative
• Energetic
• Creative
• Fun

Perhaps we do have the power to shape the team. 

Perhaps it begins with the way we post the job and conduct the interview. 

Perhaps it begins with us knowing what we're looking for before we put the hook in the water.

We can begin today...

Activation

Most of us wish we could be and do better.

Some of us even go to the trouble to think about ways we can be and do better.

Yet, nothing happens on the wings of wishing and thinking about.

When we take action to try different behaviors, adopt new habits, abandon old habits, alter comfortable practices, change concretized ways.........................we begin to move the needle toward betterment.

The wishing and thinking are the top of the line up. The action is in the clean up position. 

Time to step up to the plate.

Problem&SolutionComplexity

Complex problems seem not to have simple solutions.

Complex problems require multiple and combined engaged minds to craft workable solutions.

Collaborative attempts at applying efficacious solutions to complex problems is messy, time-consuming, confounding, and often frustrating work. 

Those that drop problems on our door step thinking otherwise................are usually not all that interested in finding solutions. Neither are they often the ones to sign up for the difficult work required to craft and attempt to deploy those evasive solutions. 

Picking our team wisely makes all the difference in the world. 

SlippedGear

From time to time, someone on the team slips out of gear. For a variety of reasons a good and proven performer sometimes, somehow, someway, disengages.

What causes folks to slip out of gear? A variety of possibilities exist. They might be... 

• Dealing with personal crisis
• Ill
• Feeling devalued
• Want something they're not getting
• Deem they're being marginalized or pushed out

How we respond can make a lot of difference on whether or not our teammate RE-engages with us. We can...

• Show we care, without being intrusive
• Let them know the Team is not as strong without them
• Give them some space and time
• LISTEN carefully...to what they say, what they don't say, what we see

To be sure, performance matters. Sometimes, however, we can allow performance to slip out of gear for a bit in order to allow our valued Team member to slip back into gear.

Whether or not we rescue or recover our valued Teammate depends on the relationship we nurture with them.

Wishing-vs-Aspiring

 "Wish" and "Aspire" are both verbs that hint at some eventual improved state. However, they imply very different things.

If we "wish" for something, it suggests that we're victims, somehow at the mercy of circumstances (of all kinds and varieties). To "aspire," on the other hand, implies intent and action on our part. 

"Wishing" might make us wealthy if we win the lottery. "Aspiring" will make us wealthy(ier) as result of purposeful decisions and work on our part.

Some interesting questions for those of us who ASPIRE to reach the best versions of ourselves:

• How well aligned are my aspirations to a worthy and lasting purpose?
• To what degree am I redirecting ALL the resources at my disposal - both tangible and intangible - toward achieving those aspirations?
• How much clarity am I using in articulating my aspirations?
• In what meaningful ways am I monitoring and tracking my movement toward accomplishing those aspirations?

Getting better. Every day. On purpose.

Not the work of sissies...

InfluencePeddling

Authoritarians ply their trade in directives and compliance, rules and regulations. 

Leaders that choose to be non-Authoritarian operate on from a different mindset, and their teams achieve higher levels of performance and efficacy of deployment. These wise leaders understand that what team members do when the boss is NOT in the room or at the work site is much more important than what happens when they are.

The wisest leaders I know are excellent influence peddlers. They make a strong case for high performance, ethical behavior, lofty and ambitious goals. Then they pull others into the work by providing the resources, training, recognition, praise, and compensation that "influences" rather than "demands" the desired outcomes.

Time to polish up on our influencing skills. Then peddle as fast as we can.