In the YMCA, many of our CEOs are fully consumed on a daily basis with the demands of running their Y. This presentation will give them the opportunity to take a step back, reflect, and address several key areas of their leadership that are vital for navigating the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. The four main topic areas are: Values: Finding the North Star of your Personal Leadership Philosophy. Purpose: Harnessing the Wind in the Sails of Purpose. Culture: Adjusting the Invisible Rudder that is Steering your Ship. Relationships: Sharpening your EQ Skills to Inspire and Motivate your Crew.

1. Leading Into The Future
2017 Illinois Executive Retreat
1
October 16-17, 2017

2. 2

3. Introduction, Overview
Main Topics
1. Values: Find the North Star of your personal leadership
philosophy
2. Purpose: Harnessing the wind in the sails of purpose.
3. Culture: Adjusting the invisible rudder that is steering
your ship.
4. Relationships: Sharpening your EQ Skills to Inspire
and Motivate your Crew

4. The Tides of Change
Values in Leadership
• Boomers: Command and Control
• Millennials: Transformational Leadership that Inspires

5. The Tides of Change
Purpose
• Currently: Vision and Mission statements
• Future: Purpose that inspires

6. The Tides of Change
Culture
• Historically: Uniformity, respectability, conformity. Think
IBM: blue suits, white shirts.
• Recently: Growing awareness of the importance of
positive culture.
• Future: Being proactive about creating a healthy culture.

7. The Tides of Change
Relationships
• In contrast to many organizations, the Y has a highly
relational work environment.
• How to improve supervisor – staff relationships.

8. Values
The Changing Perception of Value
• Organizational value is no longer defined by how much
money a company makes but rather how much good it
contributes to society.
• In the Y we don’t “make money”, so what value do our
members and community see?
• Gym and Swim?

9. Values
Values That Define Our Leadership
• In order to provide value to our members and
communities, we need to examine our own personal
values as leaders.
• Value stems from values.

10. Values
Personal Leadership Philosophy
• The way we see ourselves as leaders.
• Guides our actions, our behaviors, and our thoughts.
• We can change who we are as leaders by changing our
philosophy of leadership.
• Alignment of our philosophy and leadership style is
critical.

11. Values
Personal Leadership Philosophy
• Defining your personal leadership philosophy involves
several steps:
1. Identify your top leadership values.
2. Reflect on some key areas of your leadership style.
3. Put into writing several statements that express
what you do as a leader that demonstrates your
values.

12. Values
Worksheet
• Refer to the Leadership Philosophy Worksheet
• Choose a partner at your table.
• Step 1: Identify your values; share
• Step 2: Answer questions about your leadership; share
• Step 3: Describe your leadership philosophy; share

13. Values
Takeaways
• What did you learn about yourself, your values and/or
your leadership style and philosophy?

14. Purpose
Vision / Mission versus Purpose
• Vision and Mission statements are still very common.
• Focuses on WHAT an organization does. Often these
statements are vague.
• Example:
• “Provide safe, secure, customer friendly, affordable
transportation services, and facilities that promote the
(city name) experience.”

15. Purpose
Vision / Mission versus Purpose
• Most mission statements are inward-focused. “This is
what our company / organization does.”
• It’s informative, but that’s about it.
• However, today’s customers and employees are looking
for a purpose with these elements:
1. Specific
2. Customer-centric
3. Outward-focused
• “This is what we are doing for someone else.”

16. Purpose
Vision / Mission versus Purpose
• Let’s return to our earlier example: “Provide safe,
secure, customer friendly, affordable transportation
services, and facilities that promote the (city name)
experience.”
• What if we had a purpose statement that said something
like this:
• “Safely and affordably connecting you with the people,
places and adventures that your heart desires.”

17. Purpose
Purpose
• Purpose is powerful. It appeals to our inner need as
humans to contribute to the greater good.
• We know from neuroscience that emotion creates a
strong motivational factor for people, which in turn,
promotes action.
• Purpose aligns people’s behaviors around something that
makes a difference to others.
• This is true especially for Millennials and Generation Z
staff.

18. Purpose
Purpose
• Your purpose needs to be relevant for your staff.
• The Y’s mission statement:
• “To put Christian principles into practice through
programs that build healthy spirit, mind and body for
all.”
• This is informative and outward-focused, but it’s not
something that staff necessarily relate to.

19. Purpose
Purpose
• Think about your Y, your community, and the needs that
exist. The purpose at your Y might be different than the
purpose at the Y an hour away, or across town.
• Make it specific and member-focused.
• Example: “At the (name) Y, our Early Childhood
Education Center staff are helping to develop young
minds to be the thought leaders of the future for the
good of our community, our city, and the world.”

20. Purpose
Worksheet
• Refer to the Purpose Worksheet
• Step 1: Take time to answer the questions
• Share with your table one relevant purpose you’ve
identified for you Y, and challenges with aligning your
current activities with this purpose.

21. Purpose
Takeaways
• Sharing of some specific, relevant purpose statements.
• Are there any changes in the way things are done that
need to happen in order to accomplish your specific
purpose?

22. Culture
Definitions
• “… the invisible rudder that is steering your ship.”
• Other ways to define culture

23. Culture
Elements of Culture
• Instinctive, repetitive habits
• Emotional responses
• Patterns of thinking, behaving and feeling
• “The way we do things around here”

24. Culture
Importance of Culture
• When culture is healthy, your staff feel good about
advancing the Y cause and the purpose of your Y
• “An emotional energizer that you can’t get anywhere
else”
• When culture is unhealthy, it leads to confusion, fear,
and a lack of commitment to the movement and/or to
your Y in particular.

25. Culture
Importance of Culture
• “Culture eats strategy for breakfast”
• What does this mean?
• In reality both are important, but an organization with
winning culture will always out-perform those with
strategy only

26. Culture
Beginning to Adjust the Rudder
• You can’t simply decide one day to create a new culture
in your Y and then it happens.
• Culture cannot be changed like strategy.
• However, the first step in changing culture is recognizing
the need for change, and making a commitment to doing
what it takes for that to happen.

27. Culture
Beginning to Adjust the Rudder
• To change culture, you first need to begin to change
behavior.
• What are the behaviors that would have the greatest
impact on what you do at your Y?
• Examples:
• How you interact with your members
• How you run meetings
• How you hold staff accountable

28. Culture
Beginning to Adjust the Rudder
• Look for key staff, the “early adopters” who would be
excited about these changes
• Your staff should feel good about these new behaviors –
tap into the power of emotion
• Make it easy and measurable – what are simple,
practical steps that can be taken on a daily basis?
• As these behaviors are lived out, other staff will begin to
see the positive change and will want to start doing
those things as well

29. Culture
Adjusting the Rudder at Your Y
• Refer to the Culture Worksheet
• Choose a table partner
• Step 1: Answer the questions
• Step 2: Share with your partner the following:
• How you would like to see the culture changed
• The critical behaviors needed
• Practical steps to implement

30. Culture
Takeaways
• What are some critical behaviors that you identified that
would have great impact in your Y if your staff began
doing them consistently?
• What are some practical steps that would engage those
behaviors?
• How to celebrate successful behavior change and
practical actions that result?

31. Relationships
The power of Emotional Intelligence
• Sharpening your EQ Skills to Inspire and Motivate your
Crew
• What is Emotional Intelligence (EQ / EI)?

32. Relationships
The power of Emotional Intelligence
• Five components:
1. Self-awareness
2. Self-regulation
3. Motivation (beyond money and status)
4. Empathy for others
5. Social skills

33. Relationships
The power of Emotional Intelligence
• Daniel Goleman made the connection between EQ and
business leadership.
• The most effective leaders have a high degree of EQ.
• IQ and technical skills are important and will get you in
the door.
• But EQ is the essential condition of leadership.
• Without it, a person can have the best training, lots of
smarts, lots of ideas, but he/she still won’t make a
great leader.

34. Relationships
The Dynamic Nature of EQ
• IQ generally cannot be improved
• EQ can be developed and improved. It is a skill that can
be learned and exercised.

35. Relationships
Improving your EQ level
• Reflect on your own emotions, how you respond to
certain situations that “push your buttons.”
• Ask others for perspective.
• Begin to be observant. Self-reflection is a critical skill to
learn as a leader.
• Use “the pause” to help manage emotions.
• Explore the “why” of others going through certain
situations.
• Learn from criticism
• Practice, practice, practice.

36. Relationships
Raising the Level of Your EQ
• Refer to the Relationships – EQ Worksheet
• Step 1: Reflect on your own emotions – do this
individually
• Share with your group
• Step 2: Think of who you could ask for perspective.
Once you have them identified, think of a specific time
when you were in a highly emotional state. Write this
down and take it back as homework for when you
return.
• Share the person and the situation with your group.

37. Relationships
Raising the Level of Your EQ
• Refer to the Relationships – EQ Worksheet
• Step 3: Be observant
• Step 4: Use “the pause”.
• Discuss with your group some specific situations where
using “the pause” would be very helpful for you.
• Step 5: Explore the “why” – homework

38. Relationships
Raising the Level of Your EQ
• Refer to the Relationships – EQ Worksheet
• Step 6: Learn from criticism
• Discuss with your group what this will look like for you,
and what might be getting in the way of that happening.
• Step 7: Practice. The ultimate homework!

39. Relationships
Takeaways
• What did you discover about your own EQ?
• Which of the steps will be easy to do when you get
back?
• Which of these will be difficult for you and why?
• How can you begin helping your staff to also increase
their EQ levels?

40. Wrapping Up
The Four Key Areas of Leadership
• Your personal Leadership Philosophy
• Purpose that is relevant, specific, outward-focused
• Culture – the behaviors and actions that need to change
• EQ – Being honest and vulnerable so that you can
improve the essential element of great leadership

41. Wrapping Up
Final Takeaways, Questions