Leadership Fitness in 5 Minutes with Gary Slyman

This week as we take time to honor veterans, thank them for their service, thank their family and check out some incredible service organizations that have made a difference in the lives of veterans. Woody Williams Foundation - Gold Star Families The COMMIT Foundation - helps veterans and spouses transition from the military to the civilian world with purpose Freedom Makers Virtual ServicesFreedom Makers - virtual service company that offer virtual assistants that are all military spouses. The Headstrong Project - help veterans and their families that are caring for there veteran with PTSD Cohen Veterans Bioscience - knocks down barriers for mental health services for military veterans, their families and their children Project Opportunity - no cost services to educate, build your business plan and start up a business as a veteran

November, the great American month!

Election day, Veterans Day, USMC birthday, & Thanksgiving!

Let's talk about Election Day!. In 1845 Congress passed a law that election day would be the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.

Each state ran their own elections and it was affecting each others results, Congress decided to do something about it. Listen to learn more things that affected this decision and how we arrived at the current day.

How do you handle events that occur in a toxic workplace or events that could could cause a toxic workplace?

Think of these three principles.

1. Control: who can you control? You can control yourself, and your reaction.
2. Depersonalization: what does this mean for the larger organization?
3. The One Thing: what is the one thing that if I did it would make everything easier? ("The One Thing" book by Gary Keller

How do I know if this will turn into a toxic workplace? Follow your gut, review the above and be professional throughout it all.

If you could improve your performance or the performance of your team by 20-25% by stopping and doing something would you do it?

Having a regular reflective process can do that for you.

Do you have reflective process?

When should you have it and how should you have it?

The end of the day for about 15 minutes.

How should you go through this reflective process? Think of these three things.

1. A guiding question (I suggest a positive question; What worked well?)
2. Identifying the gaps (how far can we close the gaps)
3. Lessons learned

Let's go through an example.

You don't know everything. As leaders there is pressure to know everything. Do you know too much? Or act like you know too much? Let's look at three areas where you can check yourself.

1. Culture
2. Growth
3. Respect

The "Advice Trap" by Michale Stanier is a great resource. He suggests to stay curious longer. Review the above areas, how are you doing?

Your success as a leader is tied to action in these three areas.

1. Vision
2. Values
3. Strengths

Vision- you want to move from fuzzy to detail. What action needs to be taken to build a more detailed vision.

Values - they should drive you. Look of your vision, what is driving you to seek that?

Strengths - what if you could work 75% of your job using your strengths? Take actions to see if you can do that?

Do you want to love what you are doing, stop doing the things you're good at. Think to yourself as we go through the following areas: Is this work only I can do? 1. Meeting 2. Managing Projects 3. Independent Contributor Your role as a leader is to set the strategic direction. Stop doing the things that others can do and focus on what only you can do.

How are you doing? We are three quarters of the way through the year. Let's check in. 1. Your Goals 2. What to Stop Doing 3. Key Relationships How are you doing? Think about you as a leader and someone you are leading. How are you goals? Where are you? Have you achieved them? Have you celebrated them? Any adjustments? What are some things you need to stop doing? Sometimes we become more effective when we stop doing some things. Where are you with key relationships? We can't do it alone. Who are your key relationship?

A case study in derailing behavior and three considerations to stop it from happening.

1. Purpose
2. Team Norms
3. Understanding depth and breadth of your interactions.

How do you stop derailing behaviors?

Does everyone on your team understand your purpose? Is it a topic of conversation and at the top of the mind.

Do your team norms allow someone on your team to stop a derailing behavior?

When your team is interacting it goes beyond the person they are interacting with.

Crisis Leadership: Columbia Space Shuttle Disaster Case Study

Understanding organizational behavior as a leader might help you stop a crisis from ever occurring.

Retired Admiral Harold Gehman Jr. chaired the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) that investigated the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, here are a few things he found.

When an organization is under stress, it does the following:

1. Go into self-protect mode.
2. Trivialization of what the problem is

Think about your organization and how it might be present there or in your industry?

What are the lessons learned?

1. Be observant. How are your leaders dealing with threats to the organization?
2. Be a bureaucratic warrior. What are ways to solve problems where your voice is heard?
3. When you're fighting this battle, don't make it personal? Make it about the mission.