Leadership Fitness in 5 Minutes with Gary Slyman

How many people does your leadership impact?   Let's quantify that today.   Think of the best leader you have? What impact did they have on you? When did you talk about those leaders?   Think of the worst leader you had? Did they have an impact on those around you? Where did you talk about them?   What is the impact you are having. Are others talking about you positively?    Think about your direc...

This week as we take time to honor veterans, thank them for their service, thank their family and check out some incredible service organizations that have made a difference in the lives of veterans. Woody Williams Foundation - Gold Star Families The COMMIT Foundation - helps veterans and spouses transition from the military to the civilian world with purpose Freedom Makers Virtual Services Freedo...

November, the great American month!   Election day, Veterans Day, USMC birthday, & Thanksgiving!   Let's talk about Election Day!.   In 1845 Congress passed a law that election day would be the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.    Each state ran their own elections and it was affecting each others results, Congress decided to do something about it.   Listen to learn more things tha...

How do you handle events that occur in a toxic workplace or events that could could cause a toxic workplace?   Think of these three principles.   Control:   who can you control? You can control yourself, and your reaction. Depersonalization: what does this mean for the larger organization? The One Thing: what is the one thing that if I did it would make everything easier?   ("The One Thing" book b...

If you could improve your performance or the performance of your team by 20-25% by stopping and doing something would you do it?  Having a regular reflective process can do that for you.    Do you have reflective process?   When should you have it and how should you have it?   The end of the day for about 15 minutes.   How should you go through this reflective process? Think of these three things....

You don't know everything. As leaders there is pressure to know everything. Do you know too much? Or act like you know too much?   Let's look at three areas where you can check yourself. Culture Growth Respect The "Advice Trap" by Michale Stanier is a great resource. He suggests to stay curious longer. Review the above areas, how are you doing?

Your success as a leader is tied to action in these three areas. Vision Values Strengths Vision- you want to move from fuzzy to detail. What action needs to be taken to build a more detailed vision.   Values - they should drive you. Look of your vision, what is driving you to seek that?   Strengths - what if you could work 75% of your job using your strengths? Take actions to see if you can do tha...

Do you want to love what you are doing, stop doing the things you're good at. Think to yourself as we go through the following areas: Is this work only I can do? 1. Meeting 2. Managing Projects 3. Independent Contributor Your role as a leader is to set the strategic direction. Stop doing the things that others can do and focus on what only you can do.

How are you doing? We are three quarters of the way through the year. Let's check in. 1. Your Goals 2. What to Stop Doing 3. Key Relationships How are you doing? Think about you as a leader and someone you are leading. How are you goals? Where are you? Have you achieved them? Have you celebrated them? Any adjustments? What are some things you need to stop doing? Sometimes we become more effective...

A case study in derailing behavior and three considerations to stop it from happening.   Purpose Team Norms Understanding depth and breadth of your interactions.     How do you stop derailing behaviors?   Does everyone on your team understand your purpose? Is it a topic of conversation and at the top of the mind.     Do your team norms allow someone on your team to stop a derailing behavior?   Whe...

Crisis Leadership:   Columbia Space Shuttle Disaster Case Study   Understanding organizational behavior as a leader might help you stop a crisis from ever occurring.   Retired Admiral Harold Gehman Jr. chaired the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) that investigated the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, here are a few things he found.    When an organization is under stress, it does the f...

Crisis Leadership:   NASA Case Study   We currently have a front row seat of NASA's crisis with the Starliner mission.   Early June NASA launched the Starliner spacecraft to the International Space Station. They were faced with immediate problems. They have decided to bring back the spacecraft unmanned.   Their eight day mission has become eight months as they crew stays at the International Space...

How do you ensure your organization is learning, especially after a crisis?   Every crisis large and small has an opportunity to learn.   Do you just identify the lessons or do you learn from them?   Are you a learning organization? Think about yourself, your team, your organization and your industry. Build in a culture of learning with a debriefing cycle. You might never have a big crisis, if you...

How to be a Crisis Leader during Recovery Phase.   I have en executive client that started working with me just two weeks after her home was destroyed by a tornado.   Let me walk through how she has been an incredible example of how to lead during the recovery phase.    Think about yourself and your team.   What do you need to focus on?   Analyze crisis from multiple dimensions. What is team or pe...

You are now a crisis leader!    What do you focus on in this third phase?    Early Warning Preparation/Prevention Damage Control & Containment   What do you focus on?   Here are some questions to ask.   What is the degree of the crisis?   Is this a crisis for your team? Or organization? Or your industry?    Define it. What type of crisis is it? Does it need to be contained?   Usually financial, re...

If you're a leader you have a crisis coming your way? Can you prevent it? Can you prepare for it? This is phase 2 out of 5 in crisis leadership. Crisis Leadership: Prevention & Preparation Think of your yourself, team, and your organization.   What would be a crisis for your team? I walk through a few common ones.   A common one I see is a single point of failure for the capability on her team. Al...

If you're a leader, you have a crisis coming. Are you ready? Let's talk crisis leadership. In the book "Prepared Leader" the author talk about 5 phases of crisis leadership. Early warning/Single detection Preparation & Prevention Damage containment Recovery  Lesson learned and reflection Today I will talk about early warning and single detection. Let's walk through an example and see how you can w...

It's July! How are your annual goals going? Let's check in! Leadership Financial Overall Team Development Think about yourself and your organization. Think about January and think about what your goal was, and where you now?   Are you way ahead? Do you need to adjust? Go back to your mission.

Crisis Leadership: How prepared are you to be a crisis leader?  3 areas you can look at: 1. Trust 2. Values 3. Predict & Practice How do you build trust? Do people come toward you or away during a crisis? Define your values and practice them every day. Values are really important. You can predict problems that might arise, people, money or a business plan. Practice building trust and embracing you...

Triggers & Burnout   What messaging or signals are your triggers telling you about where you are on the path to burnout?   Burnout it's out there, it's a syndrome that has been out there for a while.   I'm going to connect the dots between burnout and triggers.   Triggers   - any impulse that causes you to take action   Burnout - 1. physical and mental exhaustion 2. cynicism about work lack of eff...

4th of July by Numbers Committee of 5 that was tasked with writing the Declaration of Independence. Thomas Jefferson was the primary author of the writing the rough draft. Adopted and voted in on July 4th, 1776 12 of the 13 colonies voted yes, New York abstained, but eventually adopted it. It was signed on August 2nd.   56 individuals signed it, two didn't sign it. The oldest signer was 77 years o...

Every industry has seasons. How much of an expert are you at the seasons your industry has? Think about the different seasons of YOUR industry. We will focus on you and the expertise you need. What are the specifics for your industry and your team? What are the metrics to measure by? How do you define success? Preparation. What are you doing to prepare for each season? How are you working through...

Do you need a coach or a mentor?   Are you a coach or a mentor?    Are they different? YES!   Let's build clarity around that.   Mentoring, think about knowledge, experience and advice. When you are getting mentored it is from someone usually senior that has been there and done that.   Coaching, think no or little advice, a partnership, a coequal relationship, thought provoking process to maximize...

Have you been a good investment to your organization?   How do you know? How have you been measuring your return on investment?  In the business world we are all about return on investment. Can you measure yours? Let's take a look at ways to measure your ROI. Let's look at the formula to calculate. 

Do you want to measure how well you have developed professionally this year? Take inventory of you behavior changes. How do you know? Measure your behavior changes. They will tell you how well you have progressed. Think of yourself and those you lead as I walk you through these examples. What were some of your professional development goals you set for this year? Measure yourself. What behavior ch...