I really don’t like average, maintainence, mediocere, or status quo.  I like over the top, excellence and the absolute best that can be done.  Simply reason for me I am a Christian what else can I do in response to all that He has done for me.

The last place you normally look for greatness is at a fast food business.  Most of the time the core values are price and speed without any serious thought for high end customer service.  The one major exception for me is Chic-Fil-A where I always see a culture that values people over pricing and not a common get you out the door mentality.

I have been a regular customer at one fast food place lately and about once a week I have interaction with this one person who is always very friendly and makes sure to call you by your name as you leave with big thank you.  Now that was all just nice because he was reading my name right off my debit card and that was more than usually get but still not really big deal.

That was until yesterday when I pulled up and he was in parking lot going home and I spoke to him about leaving so early.  Then he did it, a major nice response with my name right where it has always been and no debit card in his hand.  Wow, now I am impressed and big fan because he was going way beyond what is expected and taking it to max not at Ritz Carlton but at a hamburger stand.

In the impersonal high tech fast paced world we live in today you can really make a major impression by simply being nice to people and going the extra step to personally connect.  It always has been about giving that last 10% of effort that separates greatness from simply good.

Next time I go back I am going to get his name and remember it.  He has really inspired me and set the bar where it needs to be and I really hate just being one of the crowd.  I want to be like Him!!!!!!!!!!

Every leader likes to hear good news.  We all want to be positive people who inspire others through our can do attitude.  If we are not careful though we will surround ourselves with team members who will start to tell us what we want to hear and not what we need to know.

When you create a culture within your organization where the truth can be told you must not make the mistake of reacting every time you hear bad news or something negative.  If you do, you are shutting yourself off from critical information that you must know and you have created an environment where your best people will eventually leave.

Jack Welch calls the lack of candor the biggest dirty secret in business.  Avoiding conflict and hoping things will get better is the formula for failure especially in the realities of the new economy.

I am not talking about chronic negative whining people who never really want to solve the problem.  They should not be tolerated within any organization because they are a cancer to your creativity and morale.

So the next time that person walks into your office who you know is drop dead loyal and they need to talk about a problem that must be addressed be grateful and listen they have got your back.

I always receive the highest evaluation scores when I speek on the subject of how to set personal priorities for own life.  The major point of my presentation is that we are all overscheduled because of the wireless connected culture we live in today and we must find a way to say no to many of the things that are robbing us of the priorities we care about the most.

I use a time matrix diagram devleoped by Stephen Covey that divides all of our daily lives into four quadrants that are based on the two variables of urgency and importance.  Everything that is urgent demands some action immediately and the things that are important may not.

If something is urgent and important then it should be done.  It could be a doctor’s appointment personally or a major project at work that is due this week.  Hopefully for most of us at least the majority of our day should be spent in this category.

The next area is all the things that are urgent but not important.  The blackberry is screaming for attention, the inbox is full and there are meetings on the schedule.  The problem here is that we have assumed that because something is urgent it must be important.

Another very unproductive area includes the things that are not urgent but they are not important either.  The danger here is that when we get home in the evening we want to run away and hide with hours of meaningless T.V. or surfing the net.

The single most important category is the things that are not urgent but very important.  This is where family, friends, faith and all of our important relationships reside.  Most of the time our family and our friends will not demand our immediate attention but if we neglect them long enough they will move into the urgent category and we will all suffer the consequences.

The only way to find time for the things that really matter is to stop doing so many of the things that really don’t.

All of us have them but the real question from a personal and professional leadership standpoint is what should we do about them?  In the old days of positional leadership everyone was encouraged to work on improvement in every area so they could be the best overall leader possible.

Of course if our weaknesses are in the character area we must do whatever it takes to eliminate the wrong attitudes and negative behavior.  Beyond that spending a major amount of time trying to gain some small advantage in any area where you have no skills or passion is basically a waste of time.

Regardless of the time invested and the seminars attended if you are not creatively wired then you probably never will be.  If you are not gifted at project management then just working at it harder and longer will not produce significant results.

For the maximum amount of return and to make the largest impact you must prioritize working in the areas of your strengths.  This is where you are naturally strong and your passion fuels what you do every day and not your job description.

There are many different types and styles of effective leaders.  What you must determine is what do I uniquely bring to the table for the leadership assignment I have been given that sets me apart for this specific role. 

You may be a nine or ten in only one particular aspect of leadership but if you know what that is and you primarily stay in your strength zone then your ultimate impact will be incredible.  Most people are not willing to pay the price to be a ten at anything they had rather spend their time working on their weaknesses.

The one word that best describes the leadership model of the last century is positional.  Most of the major decisions were made at the top and the role of the team was to merely execute the plan.

When you move to the new models of leadership today the one word that best describes these styles is participative.  This simply means the team is involved in helping form the priorities and strategies in addition to execution.

When hiring a leader for the old model you found the best person that fit the job description.  Then the team would adjust to the style of the new leader.

Today situation leadership is the key model in these highly participative team dynamics.  It is now the responsibility of the leader to shift his or her style to the needs of each team member and the chemistry of the team as a whole.

The needs of the team members and the team as a whole will shift based on their competency and commitment levels.  These levels will always change depending upon the task or project at hand and that is the whole point of validating the need for situational leadership.

If a person has very low competency based on lack of experience then a more hands on directive approach is needed.  On the other hand if there is high commitment and high competency then the leader should shift to delegation.

The poor communication that is produced by misalignment between leaders and followers is the major factor in decreased productivity within our organizations. 

I freely acknowledge that this post is not going to be for everyone.  However, if you are a growing Christian and working in the corporate world it may be exactly what you need to hear.

As we mature in our relationship with Christ we start to see things the way He does and not the way the world does.  Most people at work are motivated by power, pleasure, position and pride.

Even for us as Christians we get caught up in what kind of car we drive, the clothes we wear and the houses we live in.  Our success status can even be defined by where we are in the leadership ladder at church.

When we grow to the point of real spiritual brokenness we move beyond success to significance. This means that we realize that the only lasting thing that really matters at work are the people and not the profits or performance reviews.

 For the first time in our lives all the things that used to be important no longer motivate us in light of eternity.  We often ask ourselves a thousand years from now will this really matter.  Now we have moved from Success to Significance to Surrender.  The old juice is gone.

Now your career has become your calling.  No, you do not need to quit your job and go to seminary because you are headed for Africa.  You need to live your new Christian life right where you are with reckless abandon for the glory of God.

Every leadership expert that I have read in the last five years understands that the most important asset for any organization is the people who are on your team.  If you have not transitioned from the industrial age to the information age in how you are leading your people you will not be able to compete in the new global economy.

Good to Great makes the point about getting the right people on your bus and making sure you get the wrong ones off.  There is also a priority on verifying that everyone is in the right seat on the bus.

This is where the Peter Principle can create blind spots within your organization.   Just because someone has been a very effective employee in the past does not mean they can continue to be effective in the future.

The natural tendency is when someone does a good job they eventually assume even greater responsibility.  They were the best customer service representative you had when your company started and there were less than one hundred accounts.

When the company reaches three hundred accounts then other customer service representatives are brought on board and now your best practices representative just became a manager of other people.  After all they deserve the job because they have tenure, expertise and loyalty to organization.

There is only one major problem; they are not gifted or passionate about managing a customer service department that one day will grow to over one hundred employees.   These once great team members who are no longer effective have been promoted beyond their capabilities and that is why they are failing.

Never assume that because someone is great in one discipline they can naturally transition to leading others in the same area.  If you do not watch this one very carefully you run the risk of a dysfunctional customer service department and tragically loosing a once great employee in the process.

One of the most important character qualities of effective leaders is courage.  It is the ability to act in the midst of adversity and seemingly difficult circumstances.

Courage flows out of our core values as individuals because they give us clarity when we are in the midst of conflict and confusing situations.  When you believe you are doing the right thing for the right reason then you can make good decisions.

It takes courage to pay the price to change the culture of any organization because you know there will be resistance.  However, when you know it is the best interest of the people involved you can act with conviction because you know they will be benefited when the transition is complete.

It takes courage to admit you were wrong and did not make the right decision.  When people know you are keeping it real it will not cause them to respect you less but just the opposite they will trust you more as leader.

It takes courage to terminate an underperforming employee that is liked by everyone and who does not want to go.  You must believe that it will benefit your team and that it is ultimately for their good to get them to a place where they can be successful.

It takes courage to walk away from all the good things that you could be doing to concentrate only on the best things.  Leaders with courage can say no with emphasis although all the rest of the world is saying yes.

Leaders have always been evaluated based on the two extremes of the tasks that must be done compared to the relationship skills involved in motivating the people who will actually do the work.    The theory was some leaders are born project managers and others are great in customer service.

In the old industrial age model of the last century based these either high task or high touch leaders were placed in jobs that maximized their strengths and overlooked their weaknesses.  So if someone could always hit their numbers but had higher rate of turnover they were viewed as someone who was not too good with people but they could always get the job done.

Today in the more highly participative style of leadership that is required to be successful in the 21^st century it is an absolute necessity that all leaders prioritize their people skills so they can positively interact with wide range of constituencies. 

Marshall Goldsmith is one of the top Executive Coaches in the market. His latest book What Got You Here Won’t Get You There is a great read for all leaders who want to reach their maximum potential.  He identifies twenty habits that can completely destroy your influence as a leader.

The amazing thing that he confirms for all of us is that the most critical problems related to executive leadership have very little to do with core industry specific competency or even the expected qualities of productive leadership.

The overwhelming majority of smart, disciplined, experienced and passionate leaders are failing in the one major area of basic people skills.  They do not relate well to their superiors, peers, subordinates and sometimes even customers.

They do not listen, make negative comments about people when they are not in the room, and always tend to punish the messenger when bad news is delivered just to list a few.  Almost always these potential fatal flaws are obvious to everyone but the leader who does not even see them as an issue.

An absolute priority for any effective leader today is to establish a culture within their organization where the truth can be told and they will get the relational feedback they need or these extremely negative blind spots will never be revealed and the organization or team will fail.

There is nothing worse than being involved in either personal or professional planning meetings and really think you have come up with some great ideas that really need to be done only to realize later nothing lasting changed.

The critical missing link between the planning and development process to actual execution is taking the time and energy to discipline yourself to set realistic but attainable goals.  This process does take time but quite frankly if something is not important enough to invest in developing specific action steps that will help you accomplish your goals then it probably was not worth thinking about in the first place.

When I evaluate personally and professionally where the breakdown occurs it usually centers around these principles involved in effective goal setting.

These are the five critical things I have learned over the years:

1. Write It Down—if it is not important enough to write down in your personal planner, computer task manager or enter into your cell phone to do list then it will almost always never get done.
2. Check Your Resources—do you realistically have the time, energy, knowledge, skills and commitment to make this happen?  It may be the right thing to do but this is the wrong time to do it.
3. Make It Clear—you must be very specific about what you want to accomplish and how you are going to do it.  It cannot be I just want to lose weight; it needs to be twenty pounds over next six months by exercising an hour day five days a week from 6:00 a.m. to 7:00 a.m.
4. Develop Your Plan—strategy is the realistic intersection of resources and commitment.  There is a big difference in walking one hour five days a week and training for a marathon.   The strategy must fit the goal so you will not come up short or burn out on the other extreme.
5. Evaluate Your Progress—this is where the rubber hits the road and you must start by building in short term wins to maintain momentum.  When you fail or make some mistake know that it is a necessary cost to pay to reach anything in life that is worthwhile.

When we get to the end of our lives it really will not matter how many things we talked about doing but how many things we actually did.