4. Leadership Gold
Leadership Gold
The Best Leaders are Listeners
Understanding people precedes leading them.
Sensitivity toward the desires and dreams of the people
on your team is essential for connecting with and
motivating them. Leaders learn to touch a heart before
they ask for a hand.
Have you ever had your ideas ignored or had your input
fall upon deaf ears? If so, how did you feel as a result?
What are the common barriers that prevent us from
paying attention to what someone else is saying?
5. Leadership Gold
Leadership Gold
The Best Leaders are Listeners
Steven Sample, in his book The Contrarian’s Guide to
Leadership writes, “The average person suFers from
three delusions:
1. That he is a good driver
2. That he has a good sense of humor
3. That he is a good listener.”
We can often hear what is said without listening to what
is being communicated.
6. Leadership Gold
Leadership Gold
The Best Leaders are Listeners
It is no accident that we have one mouth and two ears.
When we fail to listen we shut off half of our learning
potential.
The higher people go in leadership, the more authority
they wield and the less they are forced to listen to
others. However, their need to listen increase more than
ever. The farther leaders get from the front lines, the
more they must depend on others for accurate
information.
7. Leadership Gold
Leadership Gold
The Best Leaders are Listeners
Understanding people precedes leading them.
Sensitivity toward the desires and dreams of the people
on your team is essential for connecting with and
motivating them.
Leaders learn to touch a heart before they ask for a
hand.
8. Leadership Gold
Leadership Gold
Keep your Mind on the Main Thing
Simplicity and focus bring about results. In fact, twenty
percent of your efforts generally yield eighty percent of
your productivity. Be diligent about reducing complexity
and zeroing in on objectives.
Give your time, thought, and energy to a few priorities
instead of trying to be the best at everything you do.
Do you control your schedule or does your schedule
control you? How might you eliminate activities that
detract focus from your main goals?
What causes leaders to split their focus and lose track of
the main thing?
9. Leadership Gold
Leadership Gold
Keep your Mind on the Main Thing
The Pareto Principle (80/20)
What an eye opener this was for me. I realized it meant
that the most productive
20 percent of my activities were sixteen times more
productive than the remaining 80 percent.
If I wanted to decrease the complexity of my life and
increase my productivity, then I needed to focus on my
top 20 percent.
That day in the classroom I realized two things:
(1) I was doing too many things, and
(2) the things I was doing were often the wrong
things.
And that is a recipe for an ineffective life.
Five Decisions that Helped Me Become More Focused
and Productive
1. Some people believe that great leaders have all
the answers. Not true. Successful leaders don’t
know everything. But they know people who do.
10. Leadership Gold
Leadership Gold
Keep your Mind on the Main Thing
2. In any organization, problems should always be
solved at the lowest level possible. If every
problem must be shared with leaders first, then
solutions take forever. Besides, the people on the
front lines are usually the ones who provide the
best solutions, whether it’s on the production
line, the battle line or the breadline.
3. The decision to let others represent you requires
much time and trust. It should not be given
lightly. The person in whom you place that trust
must earn it. However, once you reach that level
of trust with people you work with, you will be
freed up even more to remain focused on the
main things that really matter.
4. I read in the Gallup Management Journal, “The
most revealing discovery [about the great leaders
they studied] was that effective leaders have an
acute sense of their own strengths and
weakness. They know who they are—and who
they are not…”
5. The final major step I took to help me keep my
mind on the main thing was to take control my
calendar. This was not easy for me. I enjoy
helping people, and for the first few years of my
career, other people often set my agenda and
filled my calendar. Then one day I realized that I
couldn’t fulfil my purpose if I was forever
fulfilling everyone else’s.
11. Leadership Gold
Leadership Gold
Keep Learning to keep Leading
The secret to success is found in your daily agenda. If
you do something intentional to grow every day, you will
move closer to reaching your potential. To be a lifelong
learner, get out of a stagnant environment and distance
yourself from people with no desire to grow. Seek places
where growth is valued and surround yourself with
learners.
Name me one single great leader who doesn’t have a
growth plan?
Just one.
12. Leadership Gold
Leadership Gold
Keep Learning to keep Leading
What regular habits have contributed the most to your
professional growth?
Who has taught you the most about influence? Why did
you learn so much from them?
13. Leadership Gold
Leadership Gold
Keep Learning to keep Leading
Do you seek to challenge yourself and get out of your
comfort zone?
Do you feel that you have to have all the answers? I
know I do at times. And sometimes, I think my wife
thinks I must be omnipotent.
14. Leadership Gold
Leadership Gold
Be a Connector not just a Climber
Connectors prioritize the influence of relationships
above the authority of a position. They temper their
competitiveness so that their ambition doesn’t crowd
out relationships. It’s natural for leaders to want to climb
to ladder of success, but unless they make friends along
the way, they’ll end up lonely at the top.
I thought my leadership title made me a leader.
I thought climbing the leadership ladder was more
important than connecting with people
15. Leadership Gold
Leadership Gold
Be a Connector not just a Climber
Climbing and Connecting are not an either/or but a
both/and.
Which comes more naturally to you: the drive for
achievement or the desire for relationships?
If you’re an achiever, how could you be more intentional
about connecting with others? If relationships come
naturally to you, how could you ramp up your
productivity on the job?
