Month March 2023

Authentic Delegation

Steve Keating 3 Comments

Many “leaders” claim to empower their people. Many say they are excellent at delegating tasks to those same people. Funny thing is, their people often don’t know that. 

The reality is that too many people in leadership positions “dump” work they don’t like to do on their people. They give little direction about how to do the task and then, when it’s not done correctly they criticize the person they delegated the task to. 

This reinforces the thinking in the mind of the “leader” that if you want a job done right, you need to do it yourself. 

But Authentic Leaders delegate differently. When they empower their people they provide well defined perimeters for how and when a delegated task must be completed. Then, and this makes all the difference, they get the heck out of the way and let their people go. 

They know there may be a mistake or two along the way. They use that as a learning experience. They do not take the delegated tasks “back” from their people. They coach them towards successful completion. 

If you’re in a leadership position then you must know that growing and developing your people is one of your core responsibilities. Delegation is an essential tool in that development process. Here are just a few of the benefits of Authentic Delegation:

  • Delegation enables a leader to distribute workload and responsibilities among team members, which increases productivity by allowing more work to be completed in less time.
  • Delegation gives team members the opportunity to take ownership of their work and to develop their skills and expertise. This can lead to greater job satisfaction and motivation, which can increase productivity and performance.
  • Delegation requires communication and collaboration between the leader and team members. This can promote teamwork, trust, and a sense of shared responsibility, which can improve overall team performance.
  • Delegation frees up a leader’s time to focus on high-priority tasks that require their unique skills and expertise. This can lead to better decision-making, strategic planning, and overall business success.
  • Delegation is an important leadership skill that requires effective communication, trust, and the ability to identify and develop talent. Delegating tasks and responsibilities can help a leader to grow their own leadership skills and to develop a strong, capable team.

Authentic Delegation is a win-win for both the leader and their team. It enables leaders to focus on high-priority tasks while truly empowering team members. It also improves overall productivity and performance.

If you are an Authentic Leader then you likely already trust your people enough to be an effective delegator. If you’re in a leadership position and don’t yet fully trust your people enough to delegate, then trust yourself. Trust yourself enough to know that you have the skills and ability to coach your people to success. 

The benefits of delegating far outweigh the risks. Those benefits are long-lasting as well. Start small, delegate some low risk easier tasks. It’s likely your people will amaze you with their ingenuity once they learn that they are actually, genuinely empowered to succeed.

Want more of LeadToday? I’m changing things up on my Twitter feed for subscribers. On March 2nd I began publishing two videos each week focusing on an element of Authentic Leadership. I’ll post these videos each Tuesday and Thursday morning. They will be about 10 minutes long so we can get into the topic in a more meaningful way. The investment for subscribers in still only $5 a month. That’s for at least 80 MINUTES of quality video content on leadership a month. 

If you’re interested in taking a look head on over to my Twitter profile page. If you’re not a follower yet just hit the follow button. It will change to a subscribe button and once you hit that you’re on your way. You can cancel at any time you’ve decided you have nothing left to learn about leading the people who you count on for your success. 🙂

Here’s the link to my Twitter… https://twitter.com/leadtoday 

Judgecerning Leadership

Steve Keating 3 Comments

I suppose we need to begin with what the heck “judgecerning” is. Simply put it is the active use of Judgecernment. That probably doesn’t help much so let’s try that again.

Many people would tell you that good judgement is the most important characteristic for anyone in a leadership position. I’d say it’s very important but likely not the most important. More important in my view is integrity. 

It’s a lack of integrity that often leads to poor judgement. People try to cheat their way to success and in their panic to avoid being found out they make a host of poor decisions. Those poor decisions frequently come from poor judgement and that poor judgement might never have been there if not for the lack of integrity to begin with. 

Judgement is the first part of Judgecernment. 

Good judgement comes from being able to discern what people mean when their communication is less than transparent. Discernment requires understanding the “laws” of human, physical and economic nature. Those laws never change and they dictate how people will behave in certain situations. 

A person with discernment doesn’t wonder why someone behaves the way they do. They know that the person is following one or more of those laws. They know that anyone with similar life experiences would do exactly what that person did. 

A leader with good judgement and discernment is said the have Judgecernment. 

Many problems go unresolved because the root cause is not determined. Leaders who lack Judgecernment chase symptoms of the problem. The mistakenly attempt to “solve” the consequences of the problem they have yet to truly identify. 

Judgecernment provides the opportunity to uncover and understand the actual problem and it’s root cause. Furthermore, it helps enhance the solution to the problem so that once solved the problem stays solved. 

Often, judgecerning leaders determine multiple solutions to a problem. Their Judgecernment helps them evaluate those multiple options to select the one with maximum impact. 

Leaders with Judgecernment are never left with the choice of two bad options. When faced with a choice of two options with poor outcomes judgecerning leaders find or even “invent” one or more additional options. They keep creating options until they have one with a much more positive outcome. 

Good judgement often comes from making bad decisions. Discernment comes from the patient study of the laws of human nature. The physical laws of nature. The economic laws of nature. Understanding and following those laws will lead to unparalleled success in every area of your life. There’s an old song that says “I fought the law and the law won.” You might want to keep that song in my when it comes to your leadership efforts. It may take a while but the law always wins in the end. 

Becoming a Judgecerning Leader takes effort and time. It’ll likely require sacrifices and dedication. But… the rewards are incredible. As with everything else in life, the choice of whether or not you’ll invest that time and effort is completely up to you. I hope you choose well. 

Want more of LeadToday? I’m changing things up on my Twitter feed for subscribers. On March 2nd I began publishing two videos each week focusing on an element of Authentic Leadership. I’ll post these videos each Tuesday and Thursday morning. They will be about 10 minutes long so we can get into the topic in a more meaningful way. The investment for subscribers in still only $5 a month. That’s for at least 80 MINUTES of quality video content on leadership a month. 

If you’re interested in taking a look head on over to my Twitter profile page. If you’re not a follower yet just hit the follow button. It will change to a subscribe button and once you hit that you’re on your way. You can cancel at any time you’ve decided you have nothing left to learn about leading the people who you count on for your success. 🙂

Here’s the link to my Twitter… https://twitter.com/leadtoday 

Leading With Courage

Steve Keating 1 Comment

The rewards that come with Authentically Leading people are many. While the tangible rewards are good it’s the intangible rewards that are great. The potential to have a life-long positive impact on the life of another person drives Authentic Leaders to expend a part of themselves in service to others. 

But Authentic Leadership is not without it’s challenges. 

Helping another person reach their full potential means Authentic Leaders will sometimes need to instigate difficult conversations. They cannot hide from occasional confrontations. They do not dump tough decisions on to other people. 

Many people in leadership positions lack the courage required to have those confrontational conversations. They believe they can hide from the consequences of tough decisions by not making them. 

Authentic Leaders possess the steadfast courage to have compassionate confrontational conversations. They do not shirk from their responsibility for making the tough decisions. The type of decisions that lessor leaders fail to make. 

So do you have the courage to Authentically Lead? Keep in mind that courage is not the absence of fear. Courage is possessing the mental and morale strength to persevere. It’s taking action despite that fear. 

Authentic Leaders see their people as individuals, not mere assets or resources. They see them as people who they want to invest their time with. They do not see them as employees that they must spend time on developing. 

It is that “investment in people” mindset that helps them summon their courage when the need for difficult conversations arise. It is the knowledge that nearly every decision will have some type of impact on the people they lead. That is what pushes them to make and act on decisions as soon as they can. They know that not making a decision IS a decision and it’s almost always the wrong one. 

If your goal is to be an Authentic Leader then you must be willing to make wrong decisions at times. Every leader gets some decisions wrong. The most effective leaders get more decisions right than wrong. You must be willing to confront an underperforming team member. Allowing them to underutilize their strengths is a disservice to them. It can negatively impact your entire organization. When you think about it that way it may be a little easier to realize that you do in fact possess the courage to lead authentically. 

The only question that remains at that point is are you willing to invest your time and talents for the betterment of other people. If you are nothing can stop you. If you aren’t then you’ll never truly be a leader. 

The Trap of Lazy Communication

Steve Keating 1 Comment

There are a lot of ways a leader, people in general actually, can cause communication to go sideways. Perhaps the biggest is simply not communicating often enough. Assuming people know what you’re thinking and therefore you don’t need to communicate much, is often the fatal flaw of what could have been a successful leadership tenure.

Another huge mistake is assuming that simply because they delivered a message it was received. Believing that what you said is the same as what other people heard has caused more problems then we could ever list here. World War One was basically started over a miscommunication. If you have ever been part of a conversation where the other person said “well you said this” and you responded with a “no, I didn’t say that” then you have been involved in a miscommunication.

Still another mistake is thinking that effective communication is a 50-50 proposition. If you do your part to talk and listen well and the other person does their part to do the same then you’ll always have successful communication. But let’s look at that another way, each of you giving 50% effort will result in crystal clear communication? Really? 

The most successful communications happen when both parties accept 100% responsibility for the success of the communication process. Both parties choose their words to help the other person understand exactly what they are trying to say. If one side of the communication is trying to use “big” words to sound more impressive then they are limiting the success of the communication. I’d rather be thought of as a simpleton who communicates very well than a genius who can’t get their point across. 

Both sides of a communication must listen intently, lingering on the words of the speaker until they are 100% certain they understand the message they were intended to convey. If not, it is the listener’s responsibility to ask for clarification. But…it is also the speaker’s responsibility to ask the listener if they “got it” before continuing the conversation. That’s the 100-100 proposition of effective communication. 

These “rules for clarity” also apply to written communication. Don’t assume because you wrote something with one meaning in mind that your reader will interpret it in the same way. Remember, readers can’t see your body language. They can’t hear your tone of voice and they have no idea how hard your hitting those keys on your keyboard. 

Here’s a pretty darn good rule for effective written communication. NEVER send a text or email while you’re angry. One night’s sleep can make for a much more measured response and a response that you’re much less likely to regret. 

So here’s the thing about this entire post. I’d be shocked if there is anything in this post you don’t already know. That’s the case with most of my posts. The question is, as always, are you using what you know? Do you often skip some, or most, of those “rules for clarity?” Do you assign 50% of the responsibility for successful communication to someone else? Are you assuming that because you said it “they” heard it? 

It’s easy to get lazy in our communication with other people. That laziness often puts us in a hole that can be hard to get out of. Don’t dig yourself a hole. Think a few seconds before you say it or write it. Listen to it with the other person’s ears. Read it with their eyes. Put yourself in their shoes and ask how you would reply if someone said that to you. AND BE HONEST WITH YOURSELF ABOUT THAT! 

Effective communication is the heart of successful relationships. Be they business oriented or very personal in nature, the best communicators have the best relationships. Always been that way and I suspect it always will be that way. 

Think about it. 

Want more of LeadToday? I’m changing things up on my Twitter feed for subscribers. On March 2nd I began publishing two videos each week focusing on an element of Authentic Leadership. I’ll post these videos each Tuesday and Thursday morning. They will be about 10 minutes long so we can get into the topic in a more meaningful way. The investment for subscribers in still only $5 a month. That’s for at least 80 MINUTES of quality video content on leadership a month. 

If you’re interested in taking a look head on over to my Twitter profile page. If you’re not a follower yet just hit the follow button. It will change to a subscribe button and once you hit that you’re on your way. You can cancel at any time you’ve decided you have nothing left to learn about leading the people who you count on for your success. 🙂

Here’s the link to my Twitter… https://twitter.com/leadtoday 

Don’t be a Bully

Steve Keating 13 Comments

So…this is one of those posts that Social Media experts would tell me not to write. They tell me to “stay in my lane” which means I should stick to writing about Leadership and occasionally Sales. I’m certainly not supposed to write about personal stuff. But I started this blog to say what I want to say so here we go. 

This is a post about bullies and Down Syndrome. 

I’ve done a bunch of quick research on the subject of bullying and I don’t like what I’ve found. Bullies start young and if they are not taught the error of their ways early, they carry their bullying ways into adulthood. Sadly, many don’t learn the error of their ways early.

Kids bully other kids who don’t fit in. Bullied kids can be different in many ways. Surprisingly, at least to me, very talented kids are frequently bullied. Kids with few friends and kids with unique physical characteristics get bullied too. Kids of different races from the majority can be bullied and kids with religious and cultural differences are often bullied. 

Illness and perceived disabilities cause bullying too and that is often some of the worst bullying. And that’s what motivates me to write this post.

I’ve always known bullying happened and I’ve always known it was wrong. I’ve stepped in on occasion to stop bullying when I could but then I went about my day. Now I wish I’d have done more. I wish I’d done more because Daisy Jaymes has made everything different. 

Daisy Jaymes is a very special 18 month old girl who happens to be our granddaughter. She is a bright eyed inquisitive kid. She’s also an escape artist who refuses to be slowed down or told that everything within reach is not a toy. She has an incredible smile and at only 18 months her amazing personality is already on display. Daisy also has one another thing most kids don’t have, she has an extra copy of Chromosome 21. That makes her special in sooooo many ways. It also results in Down Syndrome. 

The list of potential challenges for kids with DS is long. We’ve nearly lost Daisy a couple of times in her first year but now she’s doing great. She appears to have been spared, at least for now, many of those potential challenges. But the one thing I often worry about is not on the list. 

As our precious Daisy Jaymes continues to grow and gets old enough for school I worry about her being bullied because she is isn’t a typical kid. She may be smarter than other kids, she may excel in areas where other kids are average but she will most definitely have some challenges to overcome. She will look different and she may talk a little different than most kids. 

That doesn’t make her or other kids with special needs any less of a human being. They aren’t stupid. They aren’t contagious. They aren’t anything except a kid with some different circumstances than other kids. Like all kids. Thinking that kids with DS are less than other kids, in any way, is a form of bullying and it might be the worst bullying of all.

So in this, National Down Syndrome Awareness Month take a few minutes to learn about the amazing people, kids and adults alike, who God has blessed with an extra copy of a chromosome. That extra copy makes them extra special but worthy of being treated only like every other person. Which is all they really want.

Want more of LeadToday? I’ve changed things up on my Twitter feed for subscribers. I recently began publishing two or three videos each week focusing on an element of Authentic Leadership. I’ll post these videos each Tuesday and Thursday morning. Sometimes a bonus video pops up at other times during the week. They will be about 10 minutes long so we can get into the topic in a more meaningful way. The investment for subscribers in still only $4.99 a month. That’s for at least 80 MINUTES of quality video content on leadership a month.

If you’re interested in taking a look, head on over to my Twitter profile page. If you’re not a follower yet just hit the follow button. It will change to a subscribe button and once you hit that you’re on your way. You can cancel at any time you’ve decided you have nothing left to learn about leading the people who you count on for your success.

Here’s the link to my Twitter… https://twitter.com/leadtoday

Learn to Earn

Steve Keating 1 Comment

I’ve frequently said that one of my greatest strengths is that I’m pretty much average in almost every way. Almost. There are a couple of things I do that most people simply don’t do. They could, they just don’t. That’s why I can often exceed the expectations of others despite my being average.

One of those things is that I’m up hours before other people. I am also fortunate to be able to read quickly while retaining most of what I read. I write almost as quick as I read, a blog post like this takes maybe 15 minutes to write. Those things combine to help me do the one thing that has helped me succeed more than any other, they help me to always always always be learning. I give myself time, very early in the day, that other people choose to not give themselves. I use much of that time to learn. 

By 6:00am I’ve read two or 3 newspapers, perhaps listened to a podcast, watched a TedTalk or read a magazine or two. I’ll look at what the overseas stock markets are doing so I’ll know whether or not it’s a good idea to peek at my 401k that day or not. Plus it’s in that timeframe that I write this blog two days a week and make my Principles of Leadership Videos for Twitter. 

All this before most people are even thinking about getting themselves out of bed. That allows me to accomplish more than my average cohorts even if I’m below average the rest of the day. 

So I don’t cut people much slack when they tell me they don’t have time to do this or that. I know for a fact that what they are lacking is not time, it’s priorities. 

Most people quit learning at 18 or 22. They may pick up some extra skills on the job, they may learn some stuff through osmosis but the vast vast majority of people stop their formal education the last day they walk out of school. 

You cannot reach your full potential without constantly learning. Knowledge compounds over time. The more you learn the more you will learn in the future. The more you learn the better your choices will be. Better choices lead to better outcomes and far fewer negative consequences. 

Better outcomes and fewer negative consequences lead to higher incomes and lower expenses. Success boils down to what you know and how you use what you know. 

It makes little difference how far you got in school, you can and should still be learning. You need to fire up those study habits from whatever grade you finished and start studying again. Make time to study. Make time to learn. Make time to earn. Make time to succeed…in every area of your life. 

I run into a whole lot of people who are smarter than me. But they don’t know as much as I do. I see many people who have the potential to far surpass any of my accomplishments but I know they are very unlikely to. They are comfortable with what they know. They may not know it all but they are very confident that they know enough. 

Truth be told not knowing something causes very few problems when compared to “knowing” something that just isn’t so. Consistent learners are always challenging what they “know” to see if it is in fact accurate. 

People who keep learning keep rising. Average people who keep learning and using what they learn will consistently outperform above average people who have stopped learning. 

Somebody much smarter than me, I don’t recall who but there’s this thing called Google where you can look it up, once said, “if you’re willing to learn no one can stop you. If you’re not willing to learn no one can help you.” 

I’ve already learned some stuff today but it’s still early, I’m sure I’ll be learning more before the day is done. Will you join me? Not only today but tomorrow and the next day too. You’ll be surprised how much you still have to learn once you commit yourself to learning everyday. But other people will be even more surprised and that’s what makes learning so much fun. 

Want more of LeadToday? I’m changing things up on my Twitter feed for subscribers. I have started publishing two videos each week focusing on an element of Authentic Leadership. I’ll post these videos each Tuesday and Thursday morning. They will be about 10 minutes long so we can get into the topic in a more meaningful way. The investment for subscribers in still only $5 a month. That’s for at least 80 MINUTES of quality video content on leadership a month. 

If you’re interested in taking a look head on over to my Twitter profile page. If you’re not a follower yet just hit the follow button. It will change to a subscribe button and once you hit that you’re on your way. You can cancel at any time you’ve decided you have nothing left to learn about leading the people who you count on for your success. 🙂

Here’s the link to my Twitter… https://twitter.com/leadtoday 

The Problem with Rewarding Mediocrity

Steve Keating 1 Comment

This could be the longest post I’ve ever written if I actually listed all the problems with rewarding mediocrity. But in the interest of time I‘ll just talk about the biggest one. 

First of all, Authentic Leaders do not, ever, reward mediocrity. They hold their people to a high standard. Not an unreasonable standard but one which will require their people to push themselves from time to time. 

Lessor leaders and people who merely occupy a leadership position often do reward mediocrity, even if it is unintentional. They can’t push themselves so the standards they set for themselves are not exactly high either. Since they accept their own mediocre results they are more willing to accept them from others as well.

But that does not benefit anyone. Not the supposed leader. Not the people they supposedly lead. Not the organization where they are working. It especially does not benefit people who already possess the desire, energy and motivation to push themselves towards greatness. 

Those people will only tolerate watching the mediocre performance of others being rewarded for so long. Soon enough they take their efforts somewhere else. When mediocrity is consistently rewarded in an organization it results in many of the organization’s top performers heading for the exits at the first opportunity. 

Years ago when I was working with the Dale Carnegie Organization we had a company we were working with that was concerned about the disparity in the pay between their top performing salespeople and their poor performing salespeople. So they decided to put all of their commissions into a pool and divide them evenly between all the salespeople. 

Their thinking was that it would build a greater sense of team. They believed that the salespeople would hold each other accountable for greater effort. They were certain it would make their sales organization much more collaborative. 

We tried to dissuade them from this plan. They were convinced it was a great idea. They could not have been more wrong. A plan like that looks good a paper, I could understand why they thought it could work. But plans made in a vacuum hardly ever survive their first contact with air. 

When the company’s leadership introduced the plan the poorer, mediocre salespeople were thrilled. The top performers were dead set against it. I don’t know anyone who couldn’t have predicted that response from the people working their butts off to succeed. 

Within weeks of the plan being implemented not a single salesperson who had hit their quota in the past 24 months remained with that company. Mediocrity had been rewarded and mediocrity was all that remained. 

If you’re going to Authentically Lead your people you’re going to have to figure out, often by directly asking, what motivates them and then use that information to encourage them to push themselves forward. 

You’ll need to hold everyone accountable to the standards of excellence that lead to success. And you can only reward the people who meet those standards. 

When you reward mediocrity you will get more of it. If you reward it often enough then one day you’ll wake up to discover that mediocrity IS your new standard of excellence. Except you, and your team, will be a long ways away from true excellence.

Want more of LeadToday? I’m changing things up on my Twitter feed for subscribers. On March 2nd I began publishing two videos each week focusing on an element of Authentic Leadership. I’ll post these videos each Tuesday and Thursday morning. They will be about 10 minutes long so we can get into the topic in a more meaningful way. The investment for subscribers in still only $5 a month. That’s for at least 80 MINUTES of quality video content on leadership a month. 

If you’re interested in taking a look head on over to my Twitter profile page. If you’re not a follower yet just hit the follow button. It will change to a subscribe button and once you hit that you’re on your way. You can cancel at any time you’ve decided you have nothing left to learn about leading the people who you count on for your success. 🙂

Here’s the link to my Twitter… https://twitter.com/leadtoday