Orchestrating Success

Orchestrating Success

By Hugh BallouBusinessEntrepreneurshipManagement
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Orchestrating Success episodes

  • OS 82: Bread for the Journey, pt 4 - Relational
    “Be careful the environment you choose for it will shape you; be careful the friends you choose for you will become like them.” - W. Clement Stone
    Hang with the Best!
    Surround yourself with people who will inspire and equip you to do more than you can accomplish alone. The buzzword in some cultures is "team." Team implies a connection as a group - like "choir" or "orchestra." The group is not just a number of people, it's a number of people with something in common. There are formal teams and informal teams - each has a place in your life. Be aware of the formal and informal power structure in organizations so you are not blindsided.
    Build and maintain healthy relationships internally and externally. Both kinds of relationships will impact your leadership. Share your goals. Share your challenges. Share your victories. Share your time.
    Invest in relationships, for they are the basis for effective leadership. Healthy relationships feed us, empower us, create synergy, and are the basis of transformational leadership. Relationships build high performance teams. (See my book Building High Performance Teams.)
    Thoughts about leadership and relationships:
    * Listen: Ask good questions and listen carefully to the answers. Gather appropriate data and then make your best decision based on the data.
    * Focus: Be clear on your vision and make the final decision based on your vision, and not based on the relationship. Establish a culture of collaborative thinking and consensus building. You influence others based on your personal influence. At times, your decision will be contrary to other opinions. This is damaging to the relationship. You are the leader who makes the right decision. That will earn you respect in relationships.
    * Observe: Do not think that silence is acceptance. Only 7% of a message is communicated through words. Look for other messages in body language, tone, facial expressions, and eye movements. Ask for clarification for what you observe in the behavior of others. Affirm individual opinions. Consider the facts. Be true to your vision. Do not let apprehension become opposition.
    * Engage: Involve others in decision-making as appropriate. Some decisions are yours alone. Many decisions that leaders make could be shared. When you invite others to brainstorm options and prioritize solutions, then there is a broad base of support for the decision. You are still in charge. Your team is engaged.
    * Care: Show others that you care about them personally, as well as professionally. Do not confuse caring about the person with making a decision that is best for your vision. You might agree. You might not agree. The relationship remains strong.
    Earn the right to influence others because you have invested in relationship.
     

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    11 min
  • OS 81: Bread for the Journey, pt 3 - Wholeness
    Leaders care for the whole person
    "Body, mind, spirit, voice - it takes the whole person to sing and rejoice." - Helen Kemp
     
    We are complex. We are spiritual beings in a physical body. We are multi-dimensional. Begin today to recognize the wholeness of human being, instead of human doing.
     
    Here's my list of what's important in my day:
    * Prioritize and schedule action items
    * Eat a healthy diet
    * Exercise
    * Rest
    * Study
    * Reflect and evaluate
    * Play
    * Think
    * Journal
    Set apart time for what's important. Put these activities on the calendar. Create a plan and work the plan.
    Here's my plan for today:
    * Talk less and listen more
    * Observe what's happening
    * Respond to what's happening, instead of reacting
    * Be quiet emotionally, physically, and spiritually
    * Be aware of my influence on others
    * Be aware of God's presence in my being
    * Celebrate God's blessing of my life
    * Pray without ceasing
    Wholeness is a lot more than making lists. Making lists is awareness. Making lists opens up the  journey to let things happen. Transformational Leadership is wholeness in leadership. It's less about technique. It's less about ourselves. It's less about making things happen and more about letting things happen. The musical conductor allows the orchestra and choir make music by getting out of the way.
    Wholeness begins with awareness.

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    10 min
  • OS 80: Bread for the Journey, pt 2 - Spiritual
    The Leader's Journey is a Spiritual Journey
    Philippians 4:8  Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.
    Henri Nouwen has influenced my thinking.
     
    Transformational Leadership is about self transformation as well as self development.
     
    What you put in your mind...
    What feeds your thoughts...
    What music (etc.) you listen to...
    Forms who you are.
    We eat daily to sustain our bodies...
    What other daily routines are important?
     
    I trained for a half-marathon. I needed a daily routine. It was important to train my body every day. I committed to a minimum daily requirement so I could meet my goals. If I didn't feel like it, I did it anyway. The discipline of the daily routine is essential to success.
    There is value in a daily spiritual discipline, as well. Transformational Leadership begins with self transformation.
    I read short articles, chapters, blog posts, and email messages from thought leaders whom I respect. It helps me stay focused on my personal discipline and personal growth. Here are some of my daily readings:
    * Richard Rohr: https://cac.org (https://cac.org)
    * Seth Godin: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/
    * Henri Nouwen: Bread for the Journey
    * John Heider: The Tao of Leadership
    * Roberta Gilbert: Extraordinary Relationships (and several others)
    * The Daily Lectionary (different from the Common Lectionary for Sundays and Holy days)
    * Random selection from my other resource list
    This seems like I'm spending a lot of time on unproductive activity every day, however, I find the time spent provides me with focus and inspiration for my day. The result is that I am much more productive. I still run weekly and spend time reading and writing. Writing this blog and making it in a podcast helps me clarify my thoughts and develop new programs.
    This week's blog series is called Bread for the Journey, inspired by Henri Nouwen's book by the same name. This book, one of many he wrote, is short articles for each day in the calendar year. I partner the reading with The Tao of Leadership, by John Heider. Both journals are a spiritual journey from a Christian perspective.
    As the Philippians selection tells us, we must feed our spiritual selves with spiritual thoughts. What we think - we are.
    This blog series includes the following posts on Bread for the Journey:
    * Spiritual
    * Nutritional
    * Physical
    * Relational
    * Wholeness
    What is your spiritual journey? Enjoy!

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    13 min
  • OS 79: Bread for the Journey of Personal Care
    “Perhaps we shall learn, as we pass through this age, that the 'other self" is more powerful than the physical self we see when we look into a mirror.” ― Napoleon Hill
     
    Bread for the Journey of Personal Growth
    The next series of sessions is about balance for leaders in the area of personal growth.
    Today, I'm launching a series of episodes on personal growth and personal development. Once might call this "capacity building." When leaders stop working self, skills get stale and leadership becomes less effective.
    I will share my own routines and personal disciplines in as transparent a manner as I can hoping that sharing my journey, along with the successes and struggles will help others in their own journey.
    I work on self as a personal passion by reading, listening to other podcasts, attending seminars and developing collaborative programs and events with others with complimenting and contrasting skills and different experiences. I also grow with each client engagement. I find that there's an opportunity to learn from many people, if I only pay attention.
    The struggle that many (me included) have is in judging the value of what others are doing as a self-proclaimed "expert." Taking off the "expert" or "teacher" or "mentor" hat and putting on the "student" hat make a huge difference for me.
    There are many areas needing development, and I can only focus on a few, therefore it's important to let go of the many to fully embrace the learning of the few. Prioritization is critical.
    One of the many books worth reviewing over and over, is the classic by Napoleon Hill, "Think and Grow Rich." It's valuable with the wisdom of great leadership. It's valuable for the stories. It's valuable because of the information that's available if the reader will dig for the secrets not reveled to the causal reader.
    This category is my fourth leadership principle, "Balance." Or in musical terms, "Value the Rests."
    The journey starts with the next episode and continues for each day a week.
    Enjoy the journey inspired by the book, "Bread for the Journey," by Henri Howen.
     
    * Nouwen, Henri J. M. (2009-03-17). Bread for the Journey: A Daybook of Wisdom and Faith (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0060663596/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0060663596&linkCode=as2&tag=httpwwwhughba-20)(http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=httpwwwhughba-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0060663596) (p. 44). Harper Collins, Inc.. Kindle Edition.
     

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    8 min
  • OS 77: Interview with Tom Poland on Getting the Correct Marketing Message
    Tom Poland is a Marketing Mentor who started his first business at age 24 and has gone on to start and sell four others, taking two of them international. In that time he’s managed teams of over 100 people and annual revenue of more than 20 million.
    These days Tom’s thing is “Leadsology: The Science of Being in Demand” which is a blended learning program that gives professional advisors a model for generating a flow of high-quality, inbound, new client enquiries into their businesses almost every week of the year.
    Over 2000 business owners across 193 different industries and 4 continents have been through his programs and many have gone on to add millions to their earnings and their testimonials are available on his website.
    Tom’s work has been published in 27 countries and he’s also shared international speaking platforms with the likes of Michael Gerber of E-Myth fame, Richard Koch from the 80-20 Principle, Brian Tracy and many others.
    Find Tom at http://www.leadsology.guru (http://www.leadsology.guru)
     
    Here's the transcript from the interview
    Hugh Ballou: Greetings, welcome back to Orchestrating Success: Converting Your Passion to Profit. Today, this session, we are going to focus on your message. How do you really let people know what your superpower is? I am recording this in the evening in Virginia, and my guest for the interview is drinking his morning coffee in Australia. Tom Poland, welcome to the podcast.
    Tom Poland: Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, depending on where the heck everyone is. It’s morning here tomorrow.
    Hugh: It’s always interesting making appointments with people. I’ll call you at 2:00. Okay, what time zone?
    Tom: Which 2:00?
    Hugh: In your case, it’s Thursday here, but it’s Friday where you are.
    Tom: Correct, yeah. Coming up on 20 past 8 in the morning.
    Hugh: It’s 6:18 pm here in Virginia. Tom, you and I connected somewhere. You graciously invited me to this small group encounter that we had a week ago, a video session where you taught us some things about marketing. You taught us about our message. You taught us about quite a few things. I took a whole bunch of notes, and then you gave us one of your books. Tell us who you are, what is your superpower, and how did you develop this? How did you get where you are today?
    Tom: Great questions. Tom Poland. I call myself the chief leadsologist at Leadsology. Presently, I live near the beach in Castaways Beach in a place called the Sunshine Coast in a place called Queensland, Australia. It’s about nineteen hours’ drive north of Sydney. A pretty long way up the coast. Australia is like the US. It’s quite a big country. The difference is 80% of it is desert here.
    Back to what I am doing. My superpower is lead generation. I work with people who are marketing the invisible, people who have an idea, a service. Most of what we’re going to talk about will apply to people who have physical products as well, whether you are making sandals or you are a New Yorker acquisition consultant. The principles are the same. How you apply them is a little different depending on whether you have something that’s invisible or something that’s physical. The magic is around setting up four separate lead generation systems.

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    45 min
  • OS 76: Leadership Skills, Words Are Power
    Words, words, words. Our society is full of words: on billboards, on television screens, in newspapers and books.... With so many words around us, we quickly say: “Well, they’re just words.” Thus, words have lost much of their power. * - Henri Nouwen
    Transformational leaders choose words carefully.
    In a column that I wrote to choral conductors about words, "5 Dumb Things Directors Say to Their Choirs," I pointed out the some of the customary things directors say to choirs are not only unnecessary, but those words might be damaging.
    Here's a summary of that article and my suggested change in language to make a difference:
    * "Circle the Note" - Usually when a choir misses a note or nuance in the music. Well, there's already stress about missing that note or cue, so why add more by telling singers to make a mark in the music with no meaning. Remedy: if they are singing too loud, or missed in interval, or too high, etc. make a mark that informs them about what to do.
    * "Watch the Director!” - This is really dumb! They already know to watch the director, so give them a reason to watch. Remedy: record yourself and watch the video to see if you want to look at yourself. Remember that nonverbal communications can be stronger that words alone.
    * "Speak the Text" -Â This can be difficult when speaking text is different that singing vowels separated by consonants. We ask people to internalize bad habits, and then criticize them for doing what we asked them to do. Remedy: Create a process of awareness for getting a desired result that doesn't create a bad habit.
    * "You are Singing Too Loud"Â - How loud is it and how much too load is it? There's no point of reference. Remedy: Try saying you are singing one dynamic level too loud, take it down a notch. We need to give the facts and then the desired action to fix it.
    * "Why Did You Sing the Wrong Note?” - This is toxic! People are not intending to sing the wrong note and using the word "you" sets up a defensive response. Remedy: Point out the error and give specific corrective actions. Stick to the facts and don't defame or criticize. Err on the side of giving grace in that there was no malice of intent.
    Words build up...
    Words tear down...
    Carefully-chosen words facilitate effective communication. Although communication is fundamentally based on relationship and is not really about talking, words are important. Choosing words is a primary leadership skill.
    The right words cut through the noise of the busy world of media, networking events, sermons, and children.
    Poorly-chosen and badly-placed words can produce the opposite of the intended result.
    Critical, thoughtless words can destroy or damage relationships.
    Too many words negate any message and close communications with the receiver (not called a listener because the person has tuned out the noise).
    Words without action expose a fake. Words without follow-through expose a lack of integrity.
    One negative expletive displaces over 37 affirmations.
    Carefully- and thoughtfully-chosen words build effective relationships and fortify healthy teams.
    A leader's words can:
    * Show caring
    * Provide affirmation and support

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    14 min
  • OS 75: Amazing Workplace with Linda Ruhland
    Interview Transcription
    Hugh Ballou: Greetings, it’s Hugh Ballou. My guest today is a long-time friend and colleague, Linda Ruhland. Linda has a lot of superpowers. She’s got some unique gifts. Not alone from those gifts is her wonderful, pleasing personality and her wisdom for things that aren’t common in life. I have enjoyed working with Linda over the years and have enjoyed her insights into things that challenge other leaders. Linda, welcome to the podcast today.
    Linda Ruhland: Thank you, Hugh. I am very honored to be here. It is a privilege to be among the people you have interviewed because I have been following your podcast for a while. There are some pretty impressive folks who have shared this stage.
    My company, Spirit of Success, is something you are familiar with. We have worked together for a long time now.
    Hugh: Yeah, yeah. I prefer not to do these dry introductions for people, so I’m going to let you go ahead with that track. Tell us about Spirit of Success, and tell us about Linda Ruhland and how you’ve developed this skill and got you to where you are now.
    Linda: Okay. Spirit of Success was an inspiration a few years ago. Basically, we’re coming out of a tough economy back in 2010, and that continued. We slowly came out of what people are often now lovingly referring to as the new norm. From that, I wanted to see what could happen to really jumpstart us in terms of business and inspiration and, with all the change we have going on in society and in the workplace, what doesn’t change. From my point of view, the idea was that the spiritual drive, the commitment that we have, the energy we have within us, is the one unchanging factor. That is where the name came from.
    Since that period of time, I and a group of colleagues, friends, and associates have put together ideas on a website or two, one of them being spiritofbusinesssuccess.com, where we discuss success stories, and solve or at least share ideas on solving problems of common issues with regards to business and workplace issues that advance business, based on where we go with those in the shoe tips.
    Hugh: You have a new book out. I know something about this book.
    Linda: You are in it.
    Hugh: Yeah, I’m in it. What prompted you to want to put a book out? There are lots of books out. What’s the specific niche? What’s the title of the book? What’s it all about?
    Linda: The title of the book is Amazing Workplace. And the workplace of course with business is where everything comes from. It’s where success is really evolving from. It’s no big secret. If you look at some of the Gallup findings, 70% of people are disengaged at work. You couple that with the fact that 51% of the people who are at work are looking for other jobs and contrast that with the fact that we are in a declining job market and new business start-ups are declining. We have horses going in the wrong direction.
    Hugh: Wow. That’s not one problem; that’s a series of problems. Let me recap that. The Gallup poll, and they have been doing it for years,

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    35 min
  • OS 74: The Art of Significance with Dan Clark
    The Art of Significance with Dan Clark
    Hugh Ballou: It’s Hugh Ballou. Welcome to this special edition of the Orchestrating Success podcast. My guest today is my dear friend, Dan Clark, who is a very impactful speaker. He is a primary person of influ...

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    1 hr 7 min
  • OS 73: A Culture is a Reflection of the Leader, Pt 4
    I once saw a reporter stop a man on the street and ask him what he thought about apathy and indifference. He responded with, “I don’t know and I don’t care!"
    A friend once told me, humorously, that I should be sincere whether or not I meant it. Funny, but not funny. I know people who might have this as an internal script. They tell me one thing and proceed to do another one. It’s almost like they give me an answer to “please” me and do what they were planning to do before.
    In my list of Transformational Leadership traits, the transformational leader:
    Clearly Articulates Vision And Goals
    Defines Things Others Can Do
    Builds Leaders Within Teams
    Effectively Delegates
    Encourages Boldness
    Gives Information And Support
    Affirms And Celebrates Competence
    Respects The Individual
    Avoids Micromanaging
    Models What They Preach
    Attribute #10, even though last, is crucial. The leader is primarily the influencer. It’s critical that the leader model behaviors and functions that will influence others in the system. Leadership is a system and the leader sets the standard.
    Not only is it critical the the leader model integrity and ethics, it’s critical to be authentic. All too often, leaders behave in ways not consistent with their inner values and not in line with their personality. Authenticity inspires authenticity.
    When planning to go public with Dollar General, Cal Turner, Jr., went to his leadership team and asked them to step in in areas that were not in his skill set. He claimed the vision and asked the team to provide the skills needed to achieve that vision. He was authentic in sharing that he had inherited his job as President and Board Chairman, and didn’t get it because of a unique skill set. His transparency allowed others to fill in the gaps and work together in achieving the vision that Cal had articulated.
    After sharing that story with me, Cal told me that he viewed leadership as defining personal gaps and allowing others to fill those gaps. His authentic approach to leadership opened up opportunities for others to engage.
    Some leaders would rather pretend that they knew all the answers and could dictate all the actions when, in fact, they don’t and can't. The response might prove to the leader that he or she is wrong. This is not only a waste of time, it’s damaging to the relationships within the team.
    Here’s my short list defining authenticity in leaders. Authentic leaders:
    Focus on the Vision and Not on Themselves - Allowing the team to focus on outcomes and not on pleasing the leader builds team synergy and collaboration.
    Share Honestly - Telling the truth and telling the truth always, no matter how bad, builds trust. Leadership is founded in relationship.
    Communicate - Sharing the vision and specific objectives in writing and checking for understanding creates two-way dialogue. The culture of high performance creates an organizational chart that consists of overlapping circles and not lines with hierarchy.
    Value People - Considering the individual means knowing them and understanding how they think, and knowing their passions for the common work. Treating people as expendable does not build trust. Leading with trust and care for the individual trumps leading by fear any day and most especially in the long-term.
    Get Out of the Way - Authenticity is delegating and getting out of the way. This is way different from assigning tasks and forgetting about the tasks until the due date. Delegation is not managed by micromanaging. Delegation is working out the action items collaboratively and then mentoring the person and the process, building relationship and trust.
    The authentic leader is the respected leader.

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    10 min

About Orchestrating Success

From the publisher's feed

Converting Passion to Profit is a podcast by Hugh Ballou, The Transformational Leadership Strategist teaching leaders to convert their ideas into income. Each session is packed with practical concepts…