Happiness Delivers

Doing research for a client, I cam across a fabulous resource at LexBlog - http://www.lexblog.com/ .
I ask for information and was promptly answered (same day, in less than 2 hours) and given time for an appointment to get even more details.  The call was awesome, and even better was the alignment I found between my company and LexBlog.
On their Please Advise page - support and service blog, I found a post from July all about Delivering Happiness and the Zappos.com/Tony Hsieh story.  If you have been reading my blog here, you know Delivering Happiness is one of my all-time favourite reads - to the point where I even toured the Las Vegas office.
We had a great discussion on the phone about the book and the tour and how companies are built through culture that resonates all the way to the last word.  It was wonderful!  Kevin O'Keefe - you are on my list of favourites - thanks for what you have developed!

Do You Question?

One thing that we do as leaders is question.  We question everything. And that is good....to a point (you knew that was coming didn't you).

I say good to a point because sometimes our questioning can be seen as lacking trust, micro-managing or appearing to take over.  Think about how you question, who you question (same person/group all the time or not) and why you are questioning.  Sometimes providing the explanation to 'why the question' can clear up to issue and get you your answers.  By thinking it through first though, you may eliminate the question completely.  After all, you put people in place to handle the objectives provided - right people in the right place doing the right work, right?

Right Foot, Left Foot

Which foot do you start with when you walk or run?  We tend to favour a specific starting point. And it goes with the saying 'put your best foot forward', well is that the right foot or the left foot.
When we learned how to walk, it goes in order, one foot at a time, right?

What does all of this have to do with leadership?  Feet in leadership? 

Absolutely - people follow leaders  - this is usually an action that takes place with your feet. 
Leaders need to 'walk their talk' - give action to their words.
My favourite is LBWA or CBWA (Leading by Walking Around or Coaching by Walking Around) - getting out into the trenches and being with the team, encouraging, supporting, eliminating roadblocks...and the rest.
So which is it, right foot first? Left foot first?  Best foot first?
And how do you show others how to do this too?

What is Potential?

Pretty Woman is one of my favourite movies.  I know, not very 'leadership-like', but I love a Cinderella/My Fair Lady story complete with knight in shining armour (and not bad looking either)  I like the story because it is about finding your way -- not the way most of us choose, but you know, stuff happens.

There is a line that Kit says that seems to stick with me "Carlos says you have a lot of potential" - it's the word potential that really hits me.

And when we apply this to our lives at work and our leadership, we too, have a lot of potential.  What we do with it is the key.  Polish it up, stretch it to new ground, learn new skills, listen more, enable more...it's all about how we develop ourselves, but more importantly about how we develop those around us.  There is a lot of potential out there.  As leaders, we can harness it and make change happen for the better.

Leadership DNA

So....what are you made of?  What can you say, comprises you, or your leadership?
How do you know that what you have is what it takes to be a leader?

Leadership DNA is a project that I have been working on for a while.  It has been living in the back of my mind - germinating - so to speak.  It has come to light in the form of a series of half- day workshops that will begin in the Fall of 2011 in my local market.  But this is not a commercial, more of an introduction to what has been developing and why.  (If you would really like to read more about it go to my website http://www.solsticegroupcoaching.com/ and look at 'Leadership')

I have discovered (and I don't usually write about myself, but I am today) that leaders come in all shapes and sizes, experiences and inexperiences, and -as if you didn't already know - a variety of interests and ideologies that make them up.  At the same time, they seem to all be focused on one particular outcome - that the service of others - their company, their team, their community, comes before their ego.

I have also discovered that there is a lack of understanding about leadership - what it is, what it can do, how it can influence and connect with others.  All off the leadership traits are personal and reflected outward in a manner that creates a positive and motivating environment. 
It is sharing what you know. 
It is providing value without further intention.
It is being yourself and responsible for your actions, accountable to the world around you.

Look at yourself - what do you think?