High Impact Leaders

In this session, I interview Rebecca Rausch with Neon Lizard Creative (https://www.neonlizardcreative.com/) who is an expert on helping organizations create effective branding based on the core values of the company. In the episode, she gives us a few case studies of some of her clients who have used marketing to increase income during the Covid Pandemic. In fact, one of them started his company in 2020 and built it to over a million dollars in revenue the very first year. She is very fun, and you guys are going to love her. 


By the way, as always, if you like the sessions, don't forget to subscribe to the High Impact Leaders Podcast, and make sure to rate the podcast and leave me a review wherever you download the show. Also, we are publishing lots of new leadership tip videos every week on our YouTube channel. (https://www.youtube.com/c/leadersinstitute) Make sure to subscribe to that as well. 

Looking for the best way to deliver an effective impromptu speech? You will want to master two components. First, you want to reduce your nervousness so your audience sees your response as credible. Then, you want to deliver a credible response so your audience sees you as the expert.

If you are new to public speaking, an impromptu speech is one where you have to speak on short notice. So you won’t have a lot of preparation time. Even seasoned speakers can panic when asked to deliver one of these “spur of the moment” presentations. It makes sense. When we train new speakers, we tell them to organize their thoughts and practice the speech a few times. When someone puts you on the spot and askes you to speak, you can’t do any of these things. There are no note cards. So, impromptu speaking is a solid speaking skill. The better you get at this, the better a speaker your audience will see you as.

In the session, we are going to cover two parts of speaking off the cuff. First, we are going to talk about how to reduce nervousness when someone puts you under pressure. Then the second part is a simple structure you can use to design a compelling speech focused on a single main point. This structure will work in almost every impromptu speaking situation. (We will also give you a couple of concrete examples of how to use the structure.)

For full show notes, visit How to Improve Impromptu Speaking Skills

https://www.leadersinstitute.com/how-to-improve-impromptu-speaking-skills-tips-to-deliver-an-improvised-speech/

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Now that you have your hiring criteria, what questions need to be asked at the interview? Well, in addition to determining the skills needed and the personality needed, you also want to discover one additional thing. Does the candidate mesh well with your company culture?

Here are a few tips to help you start off on the right track.

• Ask the same questions to every candidate. This will let you compare each one using the same criteria.
• In your list of questions, choose some that help you assess the actual skills of the candidate.
• Add in some questions that help you determine their personality.
• Finally, add in questions to help you determine if their values mesh with the corporate values.

In a moment, I’ll give you a sample list of interview questions. First, though, let’s talk about the values part. This suggestion is one of those tips that has absolutely revolutionized how we hire.

Ask Questions to Determine the Values that You Want in a Team Member.

Just before Covid hit in 2020, my executives and I set an audacious goal to quadruple the size of the company. (I know. The timing was awful.) We knew that we would need to hire new candidates to help us get to the goal. We also knew that the company revenue had plateaued a few years ago. I realized that to get to the next plateau, we most likely would need to make some changes in personnel.

One of our team members had a brilliant idea. We have a list of our corporate core values that we live by. Why not score our team members based on each of these core values. To experiment, I and the other two executives scored each other. Not surprisingly, each of us scored pretty high in each of the areas.

Next, we each score every single one of our team members. Interestingly, the team members who scored very high in our values were also the ones who appeared to be the most productive for the company as well. The ones who scored lower were more mediocre by comparison.

The technique worked so well for our current team, that we made it a part of the hiring process. So, in addition to asking questions to determine the skills of the candidate, we now ask questions to help us determine their values as well.

For instance, core value number one at our company is responsiveness. We send out an email asking candidates to go to our calendar and set up a meeting. We automatically exclude candidates who take more than a day to respond.

For full show notes, visit Questions to Ask in a Job Interview

https://www.leadersinstitute.com/a-quality-formula-for-interviewing-candidates-questions-to-ask-in-a-job-interview/

Job Interview Tips to Help You Make the Best Hiring Decision

Over the years, I’ve made some stellar hiring decisions. On the other hand, I’ve also made some catastrophic blunders as well. Eventually, I figured out a system that has allowed me to hire excellent candidates with lower turnover. I had to learn these job interview tips through the school of hard knocks. Hopefully, you will be able to learn from my mistakes so you can create a solid team for your organization.

I organized this session in three (really four) parts. Part one gives you a few tips to help you identify the perfect candidate when you see him or her. The next part offers questions to ask during the job interview. I also inserted a mini-part on questions to avoid during the job interview — (Again, school of hard knocks.) The last part covers how to use the information collected from the interviews to make a good hiring decision.

Let’s start with part one.

How to Know If a Candidate Is a Good Fit for the Job and Company.

Before you start to interview candidates, start by identifying what a good candidate looks like. There have been times in my company where we were growing so fast, that we made hiring decisions based on if the person had a pulse. Some of these rash hiring decisions turned out well. However, this was based just on dumb luck. Other hiring decisions caused big problems and uncomfortable terminations.

Most interviewers scan a candidate’s resume or LinkedIn profile for education, work experience, and references. Obviously, you do want to take these items into consideration. However, none of those things will tell you if the person is a good fit for the position. In addition, none of them will show you if the person is a good fit for your team.

So, before you start interviewing, identify the skills needed for the job. Also, identify the values that you want in a candidate.

• Identify the Skills Needed for the Job Before Interviewing Any Candidates.
• Identify the Personality Traits Needed for the Job Before Interviewing Any Candidates.
• Great Teams Contain Individuals Who Complement Each Other’s Strengths and Make-Up for Their Weaknesses.

For additional details, visit https://www.leadersinstitute.com

For full show notes, visit Questions to Ask in a Job Interview

https://www.leadersinstitute.com/a-quality-formula-for-interviewing-candidates-questions-to-ask-in-a-job-interview/

Small Businesses are always looking for new lead generation ideas, but many of the things that entrepreneurs do before they even make their first cold call or before they attend their first business card exchange practically ensure that they actually fail in the Lead Generation department.  Folks say that “Experience is the best teacher,” but that is really only about half right. In fact, “Someone ELSE’S experience is the best teacher,” because they have already made those mistakes. Learn from their mistakes, and you get to a higher level of success in a much faster time frame.

In this episode, we cover The Top Ten Small Business Lead Generation Mistakes that Entrepreneurs Make (and How to Avoid Them).

For full show notes, visit Top Ten Small Business Lead Generation Mistakes

https://www.leadersinstitute.com/top-ten-small-business-lead-generation-mistakes/

In this session, I interview Don Markland who is CEO of Accountability Now. Don't miss a second of this interview, because Don gives a few of his really simple secrets to help you accelerate the growth in your company. Don has a background in sales and marketing, and he has worked with some huge companies like Amazon and AllState growing multinational sales platforms. You are going to absolutely love the discussion that we have.  Growth (personally and professionally) is a mindset. Don gives a few tips to start thinking like the most successful people think so that you can get what most successful people have.

For more details about Don, visit https://www.accountabilitynow.net/

Create a Stunning LinkedIn Profile that Proves You Are the Expert.

Once a potential employer receives your resume or application, he or she will scan it quickly. Then, the person with Google you. So as important as the resume is to a good first impression, your internet activity is even more vital. For most of us, our LinkedIn profile will rank toward the top of any internet search. So spend some time making your appearance on LinkedIn inviting to a prospective employer. Here are a few simple things you can do in 2021 to improve your profile.

For full show notes, go to https://www.leadersinstitute.com/how-to-update-your-resume-linkedin-profile-to-set-yourself-apart-from-the-crowd/

Want to show the world your expertise? In this session, I’m going to show you how to update your resume. We will also cover how to update your LinkedIn profile to show future employers that you are an expert in your field. Before we get to the technical stuff, though, we will show you how to avoid falling into the most dangerous resume trap out there. (Here is a little hint… Your resume should never be about YOU.)

Instead, you want to focus on the problems that you have helped employers solve. If these prospective employers know that when they hire you, they will have fewer challenges to deal with, you will put yourself at the top of the hiring list.

Host Doug Staneart, CEO of The Leaders Institute. Full show notes at

Show Notes: How to Update Your Resume

Mission vision and value statements are said to be very important to the success of a company. In fact, business consultants often start with the mission, vision, and values when working with new clients. They do this for a very simple reason. Creating (or updating) these statements can drive the organization in a new direction.

Many of us use the mission and vision interchangeably. However, the two statements are distinctly different. The Mission Statement focuses on where the organization is right now. In contrast, the Vision Statement creates a picture of the organization’s future.

The values of your organization, though, are probably more important than even the vision and mission. These values are the criteria that you use to make decisions within your organization.

If you wanted to take a trip in a car, the vision would be the destination. The mission would be the vehicle. Finally, the values would be the directions or the road map to get there. So, you can see that each of the three is important to get to the end goal. Without the destination, we have no way of knowing if we are moving toward our goal. In addition, without the right vehicle, the journey will be more challenging. Then, of course, without a map, your journey can have a lot of wasted effort.

For full show notes, visit https://www.leadersinstitute.com/mission-vision-and-values-template-and-examples/

We often have to present to tough audiences. And, more often than not, the purpose of the speech is to persuade. Whether we are trying to sell a product or service, or just a good idea, persuasion is important. In this session, we are going to cover a simple three-step process to help you persuade tough audiences. First, we will talk about human nature and how persuasion works. Then, we will talk about the actual three-step process that works very effectively.

Human Incites to Be Aware of Before Trying to Persuade Others.

Before we talk about techniques and skills needed to persuade others, let’s start with how human beings are wired. There are a few common traits among all people that are pretty important to remember. Often, when we fail to persuade audiences, it is because we are going against human nature.

When I was younger, I lived in Boulder, Colorado for a summer. To stay in shape, I would job up the mountainside. Jogging up a mountain is really challenging. I had to work against gravity. However, what made the process worthwhile is that the way back to my apartment was really easy. What most people do to persuade people is like jogging up the mountain. The process that we will cover later goes with human nature. It is like jogging downhill. That is much easier.

People Like Other People Who Agree With Them. They Dislike People Who Disagree With Them.

This sounds pretty obvious, but you would be amazed how often people use an argument to try to persuade others. When we start our persuasive message by proving to the audience how correct we are, we can experience unfortunate consequences. You see, when we hear other people talking about how right they are, we automatically assume they are telling us that we are wrong.

In the early days of Standard Oil, John D. Rockefeller had great business sense. His partner, Samuel Andrews, knew how to refine crude oil into kerosene. New oil companies popped up every month. Rockefeller knew that all the oil found would need to be refined. Andrews knew how to refine it. Their partnership grew quickly.

Eventually, another engineer figured out a better way to refine the crude, though. Andrews felt slighted. He took the change personally. In a heated discussion with Rockefeller, he threatened to leave the company. The next morning, Rockefeller gave him a one-million-dollar check for his 16% of Standard Oil. The new engineer didn’t persuade Andrews. Andrew felt slighted. He left the company in anger and missed out on billions of dollars in the process.

For full show notes, visit A Simple 3-Step Process to Help You Persuade the Tough Audience
https://www.leadersinstitute.com/a-simple-3-step-process-to-help-you-persuade-the-tough-audience/