There is no room for excuses in a culture based on leadership, sadly, in ours, there is.
In our culture it is acceptable to “not have the time because I’m swamped” or to “just be too busy” to make sales calls, to face challenges directly, to be on time for appointments, to change when it is necessary, or to simply get the job done.
To make up excuses means giving up and abandoning responsibility. A company full of employees that at every level only make up excuses generates apathy, and passiveness and detachment kill leadership.
True leaders don’t tolerate excuses because these excuse no one. There is no such thing as a valid excuse for being late, for not contacting a client, or for not changing to improve a company.
However, excuses have become acceptable, are seldom questioned, and have turned into a cycle where effective feedback and leadership coaching are not welcomed.
Contagious leaders and their staff never focus on excuses; instead, they have an unobstructed vision, meaning they focus on a clear picture of the desired outcome. In their case, it is very rare that a distraction or excuse will become more important than the desired result.
But, how do they do it? Well… contagious leaders generate engaged and productive employees who in turn create involved customers.
Here we give you the 3 strategies that contagious leaders use to permanently ban the excuses cycle from their organizations or departments:
1. They commit to their company or department’s leadership goals and vision. They get passionate about them, believe in them, and visualize the result. This brings more excitement than thinking up excuses.
If an excuse clouds their vision, they acknowledge it and find the way to get rid of it.
2. They practice vibrant communication every day. Contagious leaders believe that the attitude of employees and customers is a result of communication, because when one feels involved and understands the direction the company is taking, in other words, when one writes, speaks, and lives in that direction, one makes better and more productive leadership choices.
3. They practice meaningful permission mentoring. They offer their staff thoughtful and straightforward feedback, they speak out their people’s greatness, and extend a helping hand to get people out of the excuses cycle.
Show your concern if you perceive the cycle of excuses in your organization because it is a sign of defeat, and instead… make your team remember the Nike leadership slogan: JUST DO IT! Every good leadership speaker and coach does…
Outstanding leadership is now manifesting through one of the oldest forms of communication, the handwritten note.
Writing personal thank you notes expresses how you feel about aspiring leaders and their value to your company. The hidden message behind a written note of praise is that “I truly appreciate you.”
Handwritten notes can greatly help you create a leadership culture within your organization and their benefits are huge. These notes are remembered, and they produce a feeling of distinction and individuality on the one who receives it.
John Hersey, renowned leadership speaker and coach, has heard from people who, after several years, still remember that special thank you note they received from their supervisor or CEO. Such a small, but personal touch can truly leave a lasting impression and positively impact someone’s life.
Some leaders state that it is easier to email, and maybe it is, however emails are impersonal, cold and hollow. Emails are the electronic version of a Post-It note. It is like buying plastic flowers for an anniversary; it is a gesture, but a very superficial one.
Still, other leaders say it is easier to delegate the task to their secretary or assistant, and again, perhaps it is, but in this case you are better off not sending anything.
Hersey recommends a leadership program called ‘Recognize Five’. In this program, every week or month you identify five team members within your organization or department who deserve praise for something they did or said. Handwrite a short note to each one of them detailing what they did, how it impacted the company, and say something in appreciation, then, send it to their home address.
The result of a handwritten note is increased morale, production and loyalty, which in turn bring about higher leadership retention. The costs of a first-class stamp and five minutes of your time are a low price to pay for such a positive outcome.
Each week, we will be highlighting (or “spotlighting”) someone we think demonstrates the actions, thoughts and mindset of a Contagious Leader. This week’s spotlight is on Jeff Eschliman.
Jeff Eschliman, Director of Construction for Maracay Homes in Scottsdale, Arizona, has been a student of Contagious Leadership since 2005. He recently reached out and asked me to connect with him on LinkedIn. I agreed, mentioning in a return message that I was looking forward to getting to know him better. He took this as a green light and sent me the following email through LinkedIn; “I’d love to buy you lunch some day and get more insights into Contagious Leadership. I just received the book (Creating Contagious Leadership) and I’m looking forward to diving in.”
That’s initiative!
During our lunch Jeff mentioned he has been practicing Recognize 5, our program for the Habit of Involved Recognition. We immediately invited him to do a video interview that will be shared with other Contagious Leader Coaching Club members.
Jeff Eschliman is a true Contagious Leader for a number of other reasons:
In an industry that has been hard hit by the economic challenges of recent years, Jeff works at staying positive
He continues to build his inventory of talents for the future by practicing the leadership habits he learns.
He faithfully practices Recognize 5 week in and week out without expecting accolades from the employees he works with or his superiors.
He has recent;y committed to deep and lasting changes in his personal life in the areas of fitness and exercise.
Yes, Jeff Eschliman is a true Contagious Leader, our Contagious Leader of the week. He is also our new friend.
If you would like to nominate someone, feel free to send us an email by clicking here, and we would love to consider them! Please tell us a bit about them and what makes them Contagious in their leadership.
Each week, we will be highlighting (or “spotlighting”) someone we think demonstrates the actions, thoughts and mindset of a Contagious Leader. This week’s spotlight is on Deanna Brown.
Close up of Deanna Brown's winning pose at Copper Classic, Las Vegas
I met Deanna about a year ago. She was teaching a weight lifting class at my health club. She was precise, inspiring and committed to help us get results. Class was over and Deanna was explaining to another instructor her diet for an upcoming competition. My interest was heightened and I started hammering her with questions about her workout routine, food choices and how she packed it all in…wife, 40 something mother of three with the youngest 13 years old, working at 3 health clubs and a personal trainer, meeting with her trainer once or twice a day and cooking, cleaning…yipes!
There was a time she didn’t work out. She gained weight with each pregnancy and slacked off on her good eating habits. She weighed in at 200 pounds! Take a look at her picture again. She has come a long way!
An interesting story, perhaps even inspiring, but what actually makes Deanna a Contagious Leader? She made a decision to get back in shape, got in action, set a goal to compete in the 2010 Copper Classic in Las Vegas, and let nothing interfere. She has unobstructed vision, nothing is an obstacle for her. 1st competition and Deanna came in 2nd place. She’s amazing!
If you would like to nominate someone, feel free to send us an email by clicking here, and we would love to consider them! Please tell us a bit about them and what makes them Contagious in their leadership.
Each week, we will be highlighting (or “spotlighting”) someone we think demonstrates the actions, thoughts and mindset of a Contagious Leader. This week’s spotlight is on not one, but two contagious leaders, Curt Dunham and Peggy Fiandaca.
Curt Dunham and Peggy Fiandaca with Eppy (their sweet black and white baby) are our Contagious Leaders this week. They are masters at looking to each other’s strengths so they can be engaged in life in a big and exciting way. Behaviorally speaking, they couldn’t be more different. Kurt is steady, dependable and persistent with a fabulous attention to detail while Peggy is more of a Driver (aggressive competitive and results oriented) who is optimistic and loves to engage with others. They each ‘do their thing’ together and life is great.
Peggy and Curt continue to grow Partners for Strategic Action, Inc., their 17 year old planning firm by creatively pursuing challenging and innovative projects in the area of community sustainability and smart growth planning. They aggressively explore and establish collaborative relationships with visionary leaders addressing complex community development issues. Recently they also started Lawrence Dunham Vineyards in Cochise County, AZ focused on hand-crafted, estate-grown Rhone varietals.
Check out: www.lawrencedunhamvineyards.com Their philosophy of winemaking is to choose the right location, select the perfect vines, and meticulously manage the vineyard, letting nature do its magic with as little intervention as possible.
If you would like to nominate someone, feel free to send us an email by clicking here, and we would love to consider them! Please tell us a bit about them and what makes them Contagious in their leadership.
Yes, it is no longer enough to see someone’s resume to know if he or she is the best person for that meeting planner or assistant’s job.
Long gone are the days when people were rotated through a position to find a match, or when a competitor’s star player signed on for the big bucks only to fail miserably in meeting very high expectations.
A bad hire today implies such high costs, that the future of a company may very easily be in the hands of the person in charge of hiring the best candidate for the job.
Today, you have to look beyond the resume when hiring a leader, because normally that piece of paper is more filled with air than a hot air balloon.
Presently, you have to hire leaders by measuring their cultural compatibility. Instead of regarding only a certain set of skills, first you have to consider the person’s behavior and attitude towards the meeting planner’s environment.
In fact, there are 4 criteria that are crucial when hiring or promoting someone to a meeting planner or assistant’s job:
Attitude
It is not easy, but is a must, to identify a “can do” leadership attitude. This requires observation, open-ended scenario questions, and self-confidence demonstrations.
Behavior
This one also requires lots of observation and assessment, because it impacts everyone within the company.
You have to decide if you need an aggressive, results-oriented, fast-paced leader, or a stable, dependable, and caring one; this based on what the meeting planner or assistant’s job requires, not on your personal preference.
Competencies and cultural compatibility
Every job needs a given set of competencies. Define the competencies and behavioral attributes that best fit the position and see which candidates have them.
The candidate who best fits the competencies needed is the most compatible with your company.
Skills
You should hire a skilled meeting planner or assistant, but do not make his or her skills the decisive factor.
Most candidates will be able to learn most skills; however, not everyone is capable of changing or learning a new leadership attitude, behavior, or competency.
A leader should develop a system that measures a combination of these 4 criteria to find the right candidate.
This process is so vital that many companies hire a renowned leadership speaker and consultant to guide them through it as well as to help them design the right behavior, values and competency assessments, to conduct email and face-to-face interviews, and to thoroughly analyze resumes when hiring and promoting individuals, all of this in order to lower the chances of making a bad hire.
Permission mentoring is the habit of ripening aspiring contagious leaders. It is a crucial step in becoming such a leader, who literally learns from example, and one that must be tackled correctly to be able to get the best out of the person being mentored.
According to a top leadership speaker, here’s how to get into the permission mentoring habit successfully:
Ask permission
Always ask people if they are interested in being mentored. Never assume everyone wants to become a leader, because this is not true.
Some individuals are not interested in becoming contagious leaders, and some others may not be interested in being mentored by you, and this is fine, everyone is entitled to choose what works best for them; thus, it is only wise to make sure you are investing your time in people who truly want what you can offer them.
The good thing is that a very powerful force is activated when you ask and someone says yes, a new level of commitment arises, and the results are remarkable; in other words, a new individual is born.
Create parameters
Your mentoring must have well-defined and approved boundaries. If the goal is for the employee to become a contagious leader, focus on the habits such a person requires and reach an agreement as to what is expected.
Before beginning the mentoring program, ask the employee to self-assess each habit, and compare it to your assessment. Talk about the progress you both expect to see, and establish time limits for each session and for the totality of the program in a way that lets you both get the best out of it.
Focus the parameters on activities and behaviors instead of on results, because the first are the ones that will guide the person towards the desired result, while many outside circumstances can affect the second.
Schedule uninterrupted time
There should be a time exclusively devoted to discuss, review, measure, and offer feedback. Honor the process, and your commitment to being a contagious leader and a mentor, by giving it meaningful time. Never allow the person to feel forgotten or neglected.
Employ involved recognition
A mentoring program is a great opportunity for you to practice the habits and qualities of a contagious leader.
Keep an eye on your attitude, focus on the person’s strengths, and employ involved recognition as much as possible. Pay attention and identify as many opportunities as you can to recognize the actions and behavior of the person you are mentoring.
This is key to strengthening the confidence in their ability to become contagious leaders, and will teach them how to use it themselves.
Never stop measuring
Your job as a contagious leader is to develop many other contagious leaders, and you have to make sure the persons you are mentoring are moving in the right direction.
You must keep track of how each one of them is doing and of how many you have at a certain stage of development, so as to be able to control and anticipate when these individuals are ready to move on.
One of the easiest ways to promote a contagious leadership culture in your company is to be constantly aware of the obstacles that hinder it.
Intelligent leaders work on eradicating the conducts and actions that discourage the behaviors of contagious leaders in order to make the good arise by itself.
Here are 4 wise and simple strategies to stop energizing the contained and to start turning your company’s ways into contagious leadership ones:
Stop praising erroneous behaviors.
True contagious leaders are congruent; constantly, in every decision they make.
Let’s say a director whose style emulates that of a tyrant, who cares only about the bottom line, who is three-times divorced because work is his religion and expects it to be everyone else’s, gets promoted to vice-president. What do you think is being praised here?
Make it right to be a contagious leader.
In order to develop contagious leaders you have to commit to doing it.
Just decide that contagious leadership is the right way to go, decide that it is ok to be a leader instead of just a manager, and embody that decision every single day and in every single thing you do.
Before you know it, your behavior will become… contagious.
Get personally involved in the process.
Developing a contagious leadership culture project cannot be delegated; you have to be deeply involved in the process if success is your goal, even though this may not be your only role.
In order for such an initiative to work, you must be a contagious leader yourself, you have to honor and reward contagious leadership behaviors and examples, and you should teach others to become such powerful leaders.
This is basic, because the contagious leadership approach implies a big cultural change for the majority of companies, and it doesn’t work hands-off, as management does.
Select a CLO- Contagious Leadership Officer
Give a hand-picked someone¾as advised by in the lines of a leadership speaker and advisor¾ a meaningful title, a big office, a lot of money, and unlimited authority to put into action, measure, and honor success all the way through your organization.
So many of us long for the “good old days” when the good guys finished first. It seems as though those days have been replaced by all the “bad boys” winning the big games and gaining all the notoriety and huge pay days. Well, we have news for you; the good old days may still be with us.
We recently traveled to Baltimore to visit relatives and participate in a fund raiser for the Baer School, which Bev’s sister Debbie Kastendike, her uisband Graham and their sons Eric and Christopher and his wife Ashley are deeply involved with. The plan was to have an affair at the Legends of Sport Heroes right near Camden Yards where to Baltimore Orioles still play. A special treat would be an appearance by Joe Flacco, Quarterback for the Baltimore Ravens. With all the controversy about and around “star athletes” these days I wasn’t so sure that the QB’s appearance was anything worth getting all excited over. Boy, was I wrong!
Joe Flacco impressed each of the 200 people there, including the biggest doubting Thomas of all, me.
Joe Flacco and the Kids of The Baer School
Joe and more Kids
Eric Kastendike, Joe Flacco and Christopher Kastendike
Joe Flacco and Ashley kastendike
Joe and another Baer School Charmer
To watch him was to learn about him. He began quietly, appearing a bit shy at first. Then as we entered the room where the kids were he began to be more lively. For the last picture above he actually asked if the little girl would like to have a picture taken. He didn’t presume she wanted the shot, nor did he walk away relieved that he avoided yet another inconvenience. No, he asked if she would like a picture.
Most of these kids had no idea who Joe Flacco is, nor did they care. They only knew that he enjoyed being with them, paying attention to them, talking with them, smiling with them. They loved him for that and so did the delighted people that came to help the Baer School.
That night, we all saw a side of Joe Flacco, and perhaps other “star athletes” that made us revisit our attitudes toward all athletes. Perhaps they are not all thugs and bad boys. Perhaps a few, like Joe Flacco, are really good guys that just dress up like athletes and happen to get paid a lot of money for doing so. This doesn’t make them bad. In fact, it just helped prove a really important point for all of us. Despite what the world may look like from time to time, good guys really do finish first.
Passion Counts, it sells, it inspires and people respond to passion. So, if you are not naturally passionate how does an aspiring leader get passionate. The 3 E’s of a Passionate Leader are:
Jeff Eschliman, Director of Construction for Maracay Homes in Scottsdale, Arizona, has been a student of Contagious Leadership since 2005. He recently reached out and asked me to connect with him on LinkedIn. I agreed, mentioning in a return message that I was looking forward to getting to know him better. He took this as a green light and sent me the following email through LinkedIn; “I’d love to buy you lunch some day and get more insights into Contagious Leadership. I just received the book (Creating Contagious Leadership) and I’m looking forward to diving in.” 
Curt Dunham and Peggy Fiandaca with Eppy (their sweet black and white baby) are our Contagious Leaders this week. They are masters at looking to each other’s strengths so they can be engaged in life in a big and exciting way. Behaviorally speaking, they couldn’t be more different. Kurt is steady, dependable and persistent with a fabulous attention to detail while Peggy is more of a Driver (aggressive competitive and results oriented) who is optimistic and loves to engage with others. They each ‘do their thing’ together and life is great.
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