Orchestrating Success

Everything should be as simple as it is, but not simpler.- Albert Einstein There are at least 200 working days a year. If you commit to doing a simple marketing item just once each day, at the end of the year you've built a mountain.- Seth Godin (http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2012/09/the-simple-power-of-one-a-day.html)* Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your...

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I - I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.” ― Robert Frost Choices are very important in leadership. Making the wrong choice costs money and potentially damages the organization. The burden is on the leader for making effective and wise choices. Not making a decision is a choice. Sometimes, paralyzed by the gravity of the choice, l...

The point is not to take the world's opinion as a guiding star but to go one's way in life and working unerringly, neither depressed by failure nor seduced by applause. - Gustav Mahler   Thinking versus Feeling is Transformational Leadership Leaders lead. The question is…do we lead with our brains or with our hearts? In my studies in Bowen Family Systems, a profound paradigm for leadership by mana...

Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren't used to an environment where excellence is expected. - Steve Jobs As a musical conductor, I... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“I believe in equality for everyone, except reporters and photographers.” ― Mahatma Gandhi We hear lots of noise in conversations and in the media about striving for equality of gender, nationality, and race - equal opportunity - equal rights - equal pay, etc. Recently in Blacksburg, Virginia, in a session called “Dialogue on Race,” a young African-American presenter used the phrase “Diversity of...

Leaders, Set Your Standard of Excellence You must have control of the authorship of your own destiny. The pen that writes your life story must be held in your own hand. - Irene C. Kassorla One of the most common problems I encounter, when working with leaders to build results and create effective teams, is described in the statement, "My people just don't do what I need them to do." I suggest that...

Hidden Goals Don't Work 5th of 5 (http://transformationalstrategist.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Running-400.jpg) Set your goal.   Share your goal.   Accountability is energy. We think that being accountable to someone might bring us criticism if we fail. We don't want to look bad. We don't want anyone to judge us poorly. When we set a goal and share that goal with someone, it might be frighteni...

Focus on the Outcome 4th of 5 Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. - Thomas Edison     You want to quit. Focus on success. Do not quit. This simple concept is very difficult. Along the trail, there are many opportunities to quit - don't quit. On the pathway to success, there are many opportunities to quit - don't quit. Focus on th...

If I miss a day of practice, I know it. If I miss two days, my manager knows it. If I miss three days, my audience knows it. - André Previn   Running to Be Fit 3rd of 5   The first rule is to set your goal. Then begin at once preparing for success. Rehearse for success in everything you do - you are forming good habits that will influence your success and your life. I set my goal on finishing a ha...

Setting Goals is the Key to Success 2nd of 5 (https://hughballou.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Running-360-Goals-300x180.jpeg) At the root of all success is a vision and intention. We must learn to set achievable goals. I lead teams. I lead meetings. I teach leaders to lead. I can see the end result, because I have defined it clearly. I set a goal to be in shape. I have expressed the goal in term...

Commitment is everything. I decided to begin training for a 5K road race when I was 48 years old. I had trouble running from one driveway to the next one. This was a major change in my life, however, I was committed to succeed. Two years later, I had finished over 50 5K races and was training for a half marathon. My commitment was to, #1 not finish last, and #2 to finish without stopping. I accomp...

I have been traveling around the country presenting Nonprofit Leadership Excellence Workshops (http://synervisionfoundation.org/summit/workshop/). In many instances, I’m asked what to do when a board, or members in general, are resistant to change. The phrase, “We’ve never done it that way before!” is often repeated. Change is a fearful thought if other changes in life are too stressful. Change is...

Reverse Paradigms - Script vs. Story   (https://hughballou.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/CEO-Space-International-300x238.png)CEO Space SNAP: Super Networking Accelerated Potential The SNAP is a great networking tool created by Berny Dohrman and Bob Proctor 25 years ago to empower people to connect with more people in less time. It's basically a modified elevator speech, in that it's short, precis...

I constantly hear leaders complaining about others in the culture that they lead and focusing on how to change the behaviors of others in order to change the outcomes. The leadership methodologies that I support and champion are Transformational Leadership and Bowen Family Systems. The synergy in those two separate methodologies is about the leader changing self. In Bowen Systems, when the leader...

Leadership Skill of Discernment The culture of compromise is often accepted as the price of mass. But in fact, this is the crowded road to popular acceptance, and it works far less often than the compromisers believe it will. - Seth Godin* Ours is a world where we are saturated with information, which we are expected to absorb and respond to, often instantly. Not only must we respond, but the expe...

Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal. - Henry Ford So, it’s not going as you planned? You are doing too much and your team is accomplishing too little. The work is more intense and the income is down. It’s difficult to see anything but obstacles. It might be time to reframe those obstacles and attempt to define a way forward. Those obstacles can become...

One of the biggest traps I experience with clients is that leadership is a term not universally understood and that leaders don’t know how to lead. We have been taught that leaders must have all the right answers and know what to do. That paradigm sets leaders up for problems. No one person knows every right answer or every right tactic. We have teams to fill in our gaps. The trick is to know how...

Responding vs. Reacting We want to identify and solve problems instantly, when, in fact, we are not really sure what the problem really is. Our reaction is to solve problems and to move ahead, rather than creating a process to respond. Responding is a thinking state, while reacting is an emotional state. Making emotional decisions is the default of an ineffective leader. Making thoughtful decision...

Leadership Perspective: Reverse Paradigms, Intervening vs. Observing Podcast Transcript Your job is to facilitate and illuminate what is happening. Interfere as little as possible. Interference, however brilliant, creates a dependency on the leader. - John Heider*   Managing self is the leader’s first responsibility. Managing group process is next. Setting the example is a primary foundation for d...

“When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen.” ― Ernest Hemingway Recently, I created a post about listening (https://hughballou.com/podcast-57-leadership-skills-listening/). As a musician, I have learned to listen, however there is listening, and there is listening with intention. We often listen without really listening for intent. We listen to form our response, or prejudge th...

Reverse Paradigms,Mindset of BOSS versus Influencer The notion of being a boss as an effective leader is far gone. Once when I had a team, they gave me an official “BOSS" card. I was a card-carrying boss. The card pointed out that boss spelled backwards is “Double S O B.” Funny! But it’s not funny. Pressuring team members and dictating what to do is not effective in today’s work environment. Here...

Abe is a husband, father, business owner, business professor, and financial services provider.  He is the owner of The White Hart Cafe in Historic Downtown Lynchburg, Blackwater Coffee inside River Ridge Mall, City Place Food & Co. in Wyndhurst, and teaches Nonprofit Management at Liberty University.  He works full-time for Northwestern Mutual helping his clients plan for retirement and manage ris...

Secret vs. Confidential “Don’t confuse “strict confidentiality” with “keeping employees in the dark.” Private is useful. Secretive is deceptive.” ― Stacy Feiner   The Difference in Secret and Confidential Secret is withholding information for power.   Confidential is privileged information.   Knowing the difference separates good leadership from bad.   In my ebook, Creatingg Healthy Teams: Prevent...

You do not lead by hitting people over the head — that’s assault, not leadership. - Dwight D. Eisenhower The Musical Conductor as Leader (https://hughballou.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/feature_orchestra4-300x167.jpg)The musical conductor is my example of an effective leader, especially when it comes to this topic of push vs. pull leadership. The conductor is perceived by some as a dictator. Tha...

Creating Balance with Time In previous posts, I have encouraged you to plan your day by planning your work. In order to accomplish the most, it is important to put everything into logical order; however, do not get so focused on the order of your day that you don't notice the big experiences that come into your life. There are two Greek words for time that apply here: Chronos (Χρόνος) - Chronologi...