Orchestrating Success

You do not lead by hitting people over the head — that’s assault, not leadership. - Dwight D. Eisenhower

The Musical Conductor as Leader

(https://hughballou.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/feature_orchestra4-300x167.jpg)The musical conductor is my example of an effective leader, especially when it comes to this topic of push vs. pull leadership. The conductor is perceived by some as a dictator. That’s not true. It’s not possible to make anyone do anything with a little white stick. The conductor is a person of influence who brings the music out of the participants. As musicians develop a higher functioning, they attain what’s called “ensemble.” Instead of giving up individual skills, the musicians attain an extra level of excellence in becoming an ensemble. This is an example of “pull” leadership.

Push Leadership

Here are some examples of push leadership:

* Ordering people to do things

* Using the power of position

* Leveraging compensation

* Criticizing through performance reviews

* Micromanaging

Push leaders make people do things and create negative feelings, damaging the culture of collaboration. They manage by fear, creating relationships that are not amicable.

Pull Leadership

By contrast, here are some examples of pull leadership:

* Creating mutually shared values and guiding principles together

* Appreciating the work and the individual

* Mentoring

* Cheerleading

* Modeling

Pull leaders create a culture of cooperation, inspiring individual initiative and collaboration, and creating an “ensemble of excellence” in a higher-functioning team.

We have been taught that the leader is the expert and knows what to do, and that delegation is a weakness in leadership rather than recognizing that it’s a strength in leadership. We don’t need to have all the right answers; we need to have good questions that inspire and motive the team to think, solve problems, and grow.

Facilitating meetings is somewhat like conducting a musical rehearsal. The leader guides the process, makes adjustments in the process and performance, and drives to previously defined outcomes. The leader creates the space for others to function upward.

Rather than striving to always be right, it’s important for the leader to ensure that others are always right. Creating the space and the process for others to grow is a primary goal of pull leadership.

Mentor, teach, encourage, and inspire others, and everyone wins.

Leadership is influence!

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Creating Balance with Time

In previous posts, I have encouraged you to plan your day by planning your work. In order to accomplish the most, it is important to put everything into logical order; however, do not get so focused on the order of your day that you don't notice the big experiences that come into your life. There are two Greek words for time that apply here:

Chronos (Χρόνος) - Chronological or sequential time; and

Kairos (καιρός) - The right or opportune moment.

Imagine that a good friend has come to visit you. Your friend says that he or she would like to fix you a gourmet meal but, before preparing the dinner, a trip to the grocery store is in order. So, you get in the car and go to the store. Once you arrive at the store, you go to the produce area to get a bell pepper. Next, you go to the dairy section for some heavy cream. Then, you realize that there are some additional vegetables that are needed, so you go back to the produce area - at the far side of the store! Next, you remember that you need orange juice for the next morning. The next item is beef for the dinner - a totally new section of the store. Finally, you go to the center of the store to get rice and spices.

In this process, you have visited every section of the store multiple times! Since there was no order to your shopping, you have spent far too much time and energy shopping for the necessary items. If you had taken a few minutes to make a list and group the items by sections of the store, you could have saved a lot of time and possibly a lot of frustration.

Does this remind you of an unorganized day at work? Do you know people who live like this every day and plan each workday this way? How much more effective could you be if you just spent a small amount of time planning your schedule and grouping similar activities? A small investment in planning nets big results in effectiveness! This is an example of chronos - chronological time: planning activities in sequence and in chronological order. Very important.

However, you can focus so much on being efficient in your use of time and other resources, that you are not aware of how God brings opportunities into your day. This reminds me of the old saying about a person in the church: "He (she) is so heavenly minded that he (she) is no earthly good!" This means that an idealistic view of life sometimes interferes with the spontaneous.

Balance as a Paradigm Shift

God brings us unmerited favor with opportunities and options that we least expect. Be open to these surprises in your life. If we are so busy in God's work, we sometimes are not aware of God's working in our life.

Be efficient in planning the best use of your time. Be attentive to God's work in your day.

 

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Life is divided into three terms - that which was, which is, and which will be. Let us learn from the past to profit by the present, and from the present, to live better in the future. - William Wordsworth

(https://hughballou.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Profit-Compass.jpg)Here's what I found online when I asked for a definition of "profit":

Simple Definition of Profit

*

: to get an advantage or benefit from something

*

: to be an advantage to (someone) : to help (someone)

*

: to earn or get money by or from something

Are You Focused on Money or Results?

Traditionally, leaders, especially social entrepreneurs running a business, charity, or religious institution, are driven by passion and purpose. Many want to "save the dolphins" without building an infrastructure to accomplish their worthy mission…that's focusing on passion.

Many entrepreneurs are in business to achieve financial gain…that's focusing on money.

Successful leaders have a balanced approach to success. They provide value to others and receive income as a result of the value given.

Looking through this lens of balance allows a leader to review the classics, such as Napoleon Hill's "Think and Grow Rich" and learn something very different...it's not about money. Even Hill stated that financial wealth is at the bottom of his list of the attributes of wealth, because it was the least important of the traits.

In James Allen's classic, "As a Man Thinketh," he noted that we don't attract what we need, we attract what we are.

How do you define success? Does your team reflect your philosophy?

Your culture is a reflection of your leadership.

Kurt Francom currently lives in Woods Cross, Utah with his lovely wife Alanna. They are blessed to have two children (girl and boy). He enjoys drawing caricatures and editorial cartoons, basketball, reading, and college football. Kurt has served as a full-time missionary (California Sacramento), an elders quorum president, executive secretary, bishopric counselor, high priest group leader, bishop and 1st counselor in a stake presidency.

More Information at https://leadinglds.org (https://leadinglds.org)

Interview Transcript

Hugh Ballou: This is another version of Orchestrating Success. I have Kurt Francom on here. Kurt and I are passionate about leadership, and we discovered each other on LinkedIn. We went back and forth and had a conversation, and we decided we wanted to share information with our mutual audiences. Kurt, welcome to Orchestrating Success.

Kurt Francom: Hey Hugh, it’s a pleasure to be here. I love talking with other podcasters because people just don’t understand the struggle. I celebrate your success with the podcast.

Hugh: People find me, and I don’t know how they find me but they do. You and I come from a similar background. I served mainline Protestant churches for 40 years and rallied people in music ministry, creating ensembles. In my church in Atlanta, Georgia, I was a staff person. You do leadership in the LDS church. In big Presbyterian Methodist churches, it’s a paid position. I discovered that 90% of my job as music director was music, and the rest of it made music possible. I learned to create systems and influence people. I’d love to swap stories with you, but before we go on to the questions and digging into your knowledge base, tell our listeners about yourself. I prefer for my guests to speak about themselves rather than me trying to read a boring bio. Talk a little bit about your background and why you’re doing this.

Kurt: Sure. At the end of the day, I’m just a typical Mormon boy from Salt Lake City. I grew up in a city just outside Salt Lake City called West Valley City. Born and raised in the LDS church. Jumped through the typical Mormon hoops. Served a mission in Sacramento, California. I had the opportunity of learning Spanish because it feels like Northern Mexico there some days. I had the great pleasure of serving among the Spanish-speaking population there and sharing our message. After my mission of two years, I came home and a few years later got married.

I was dumped in church leadership. I don’t mean that in a negative sense. In the LDS church, in the Mormon faith, it’s all lay ministry. Whether you are a Ph.D., plumber, or mechanic, anybody in the local congregation or ward can be called as the bishop or the presiding priest of that area. I moved into an area that was in the inner city of Salt Lake and had no inclination or desire to necessarily lead the congregation. But a few years into that, I was called in at the age of 28, which most bishops serve when they are in their late 30’s, early 40’s. They asked me to be the bishop at 28 years old and to preside over about 500 people in the Salt Lake area in our ward. I knew nothing about leadership. I had served with other bishops. I had been an elder’s quorum president over a smaller group of some of the priesthood men. There I was expected to stand and be a dynamic leader and meet with individuals and counsel with them and recommend professional therapy or counsel them on maybe a difficult marriage they are in,

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Todd Tresidder’s background includes:

* B.A. in Economics from University of California at Davis

* Member of Economics Honors Society and Deans List

* A ser...

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Tina Erwin is a retired US Navy commander, who worked 20 years for the Submarine Force, serving in a variety of leadership positions, including first female instructor in the history of the US submarine school, one of the fist female exec officers for a submarine training facility and she served as assistant Chief of Staff for Force Physical Security, anti-terrororism and law enforcement for Commander Submarine Force US Atlantic fleet, responsible for the safety of over 100 billion dollars in submarine assets.

More at https://TheKarmicPath.com (https://thekarmicpath.com)

Interview Transcript

Hugh Ballou: Greetings, welcome to Orchestrating Success: Converting Your Passion to Profit. I have a special guest today. She is one of the team of leaders in an organization called The Karmic Path. Tina, tell us who you are and a little bit about you, and then a little bit about The Karmic Path.

Tina Erwin: Thank you, Hugh. Thank you for having me on your show. I am absolutely delighted to be here. I spent 20 years in the military. I am a retired naval officer. I retired at the Commander level, and I worked for the submarine force for 20 years. When you discuss conducting, I play seven different instruments, none of them particularly brilliantly, but I really love music and I wanted to see what I can learn. I was in a band, so I understand conducting. If you don’t have a strong leadership, then everybody stays out of tune or out of sorts. The metaphor of conducting is really quite brilliant. I did work for the submarine force. I retired in 1992, and I started on a very different path. That is where The Karmic Path comes from. I learned that I have certain, for lack of a better word, psychic abilities. I had to learn how to use them for the greatest good, how to help other people, and what was the karma attached to that. I took what I learned in the military and translated it into metaphysics. Now what we’re doing with The Karmic Path is teaching the physics of metaphysics. That is a nutshell.

Hugh: That is brilliant. I have experienced- Dogs are a lot more psychic than we give them credit for. And children. We knock it out of children as they grow up. The smart ones like you stay attuned. We are born with a lot more sense in this area than we realize. As we get older, as we learn to trust that, that we can be more in tune. It’s more of a spiritual realm than a physical realm.

Tina Erwin, I didn’t say it before. Spell “karmic.”

Tina: K-a-r-m-i-c. Karmic.

Hugh: Tell us what karmic means.

Tina: If you drop a pebble in a pool, the action of dropping the pebble is an action, and the ripples that come out of that pool are the reaction. Karma is the law of action and reaction. It doesn’t discriminate. It doesn’t have a bad day. It always is. If you drop a rock in a pool, depending on the size of the rock, it will immediately and forever determine the exact size of what the ripples would be in perfect balance. If you take an action, whether you are an employee or you are the CEO, you are going to create a reaction in proportion to the action you took. If you summarily fire someone, there will be a reaction. As a leader, you have to determine what kind of reaction you want.

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Transcript of the Interview with Jackie Lapin

Hugh Ballou: Welcome to Orchestrating Success. This is Hugh Ballou. This episode is a...

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Brandon Allen is coach, speaker, strategist and founder of New Work Revolution. Allen's mission is to bring the human element to every work environment. He has coached hundreds of small business owners, the federal government and done corporate training to assist leaders to come to new levels of understanding around how to connect and impact people around them. Brandon is the host of the New Work Revolution podcast and the creator of the Strategic Business Forum workshop series. When not transforming lives, Brandon spends time in Salt Lake City with his wife and four daughters.

More about Brandon at http://www.newworkrevolution.com (http://www.newworkrevolution.com/)

Interview Transcript

Hugh Ballou: Greetings. Welcome to this version of Orchestrating Success. My guest today is long-time friend and a very capable individual, Brandon Allen. Brandon lives in Salt Lake City. He has worked with very high-level thought leaders who have been mutual friends. Brandon, I guess we met eight to ten years ago. We haven’t really spoken for a few years. I’m really glad to be reconnected. I am going to throw it to you to tell people a little bit about you, why you are doing this current business, and what brought you to want to do this.

Brandon Allen: Absolutely. Thanks for having me, Hugh. It’s always great to talk. When I think about the genesis of my career, I spent a decade in the corporate world. I was the COO of an Inc. 500 company. After working with a large company but also smaller companies, I got a real big insight into what does it take for a small business to scale and get to the next level? How do they get out of their way so they can really grow and get to that next level? I started a consulting company at the worst time you could start a consulting company, in 2008. Right in the midst of a financial crisis, I decide that’s the time I’m going to start a business. But since then, I’ve worked with hundreds of small business owners, thought leaders, and brick and mortar businesses, helping them get to the next level, grow, feel more confident in what they’re doing, have more freedom in their lives. I do some federal government work and consulting. I’ve done it in Utah and New Mexico for the federal government. I still do a lot of corporate training and government training. People ask me what I do. I say I’m a coach, speaker, and strategist. Ultimately, I am a person of deep curiosity. I love to connect people with people and people with ideas. I’m always curious about the world around me, and I use that curiosity to help other people get more curious about what they’re doing as well.

Hugh: Wow. Since you and I last talked, you launched this business. We’ve talked incrementally but not about your business. The title that I see is New Work Revolution. Talk about that. What does that mean, and why did you choose that title?

Brandon: The idea behind New Work Revolution is about humanizing work, putting the human element into work. We could talk about systems. We could talk about processes. We could talk about an ideal customer. We can talk about all these different strategies and plans on paper. All those things are meaningful. All those things matter. But if we get the human piece wrong, none of it works. There is an African proverb that says, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”

New Work Revolution is about breaking the bonds that really tie people down. There are two facets to this.

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Feed Your Spirit, Feed Your Body

Music did not reveal all of its secrets to just one person. - Ralph Vaughan Williams

 

Learning from the Best

Change the word "music" to leadership...to nutrition...to anything you choose. It's still true.

I have learned about nutrition from many people. Many people spend their time learning about nutrition and health. On Saturday mornings, I listen to The People's Pharmacy on my local NPR radio station. I learn a massive amount of stuff every week. Here's the link to their site: http://www.peoplespharmacy.com (http://www.peoplespharmacy.com/) You can get podcasts of their programs for free. Why wouldn't you want to listen to a program where experts share the latest knowledge about nutrition and health?

Leaders are healthy and eat with care because they know that their diet will impact their ability to perform sooner or later.

Dr. Kulreet Chaudhary, M.D. has had a massive influence on the thinking and dietary discipline for me and for my wife. Here's her profile on her site at http://drkulreetchaudhary.com (http://drkulreetchaudhary.com) - Integrative neurologist Dr. Kulreet Chaudhary discovered a beautiful side effect to the eating and lifestyle tools she gave her brain patients–spontaneously shedding excess pounds. Excess weight is a result of the body being in a toxic, inflammatory state. If your body is not prepared or ‘primed’ for weight loss, you will fight an uphill biochemical battle. Our bodies tell us what we need for nutrition, if we know how to listen to the messages.

An article in Psychology Today discusses how food affects our brain. Almost everything you choose to consume will directly or indirectly affect your brain. Obviously, some things we consume affect us more than others. Read the article HERE. (http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/your-brain-food/201010/how-does-food-affect-our-brain)

If we know that a healthy diet helps us function at a higher level, then why do we eat things that compromise our functioning?

Transformational Leadership is moving our functioning to the highest level.

Why don't we do it?

 

Comments, please...

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Effective Leadership and Physical Fitness Resonate

Take care of your body. It's the only place you have to live. - Jim Rohn

 

We eat to care for our body nutritionally. Bread is feeding our body. Exercise is like bread in that it sustains health.

Care for your body - exercise. Research has proven how sitting most of the day is detrimental to the body. We must move in order to remain healthy.

Effective leaders are fit. That's it. We must be fit in order to be at our best.

When I blogged about running and leadership, I was influenced by my own writing. I was now accountable to my readers for what I had committed to do - to be fit and to run daily. I then began sharing my running times and distances on social media. Since I have over 275,000 people who follow me on social media, I am motivated by the accountability of what I have committed to do.

Recently, I discovered this infographic about how dangerous sitting is to our health:

(https://hughballou.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Sitting.jpg)

How much more effective can we all be if we just commit to exercise?