Monthly Archives: July 2017

Creating a coaching culture

Creating a coaching culture with Jen Roberts of Difference Consulting



One of the things that we need to think about is the future of leadership.

Traditionally, organizations have reserved coaching for people at the top levels. They use them as developmental tools to help leaders grow and the overall organization to grow.

But our job as leaders is to get the very best out of the workforce that we invite into our organizations to help us be successful. And often we don’t invest in their growth and development at the more junior levels. We just hope that when they come to us with their existing skillset, they’re going to help us be successful.

And we know that hope isn’t a strategy.

A couple shows back we had New York Times Best Selling Author Kevin Kruse on the show and had a great discussion about the importance of employee engagement. And one of the best ways to engage your employees is going to be to coach them, to invest in them, to show them that they are the cornerstone not only to your success as a leader but to the organization’s success as well.

The days of command and control and leading from positions of authority are over. And we now need to invest in and coach our workforce to get the very best out of them. When we get the very best out of them, they are satisfied. When they are satisfied, they are engaged. When they engaged, they become more productive.

The end result is that they deliver the very best experience to our clients and customers.

Today I’m very excited to welcome back Jen Roberts, the president and founder of Difference Consulting, a company specializing in helping companies build, develop and leverage the unique talents of their own people and teams internally through strategic consulting, executive coaching and proprietary leadership development programs. She is a member of the Forbes Coaches Council, an accomplished author, and you can read her stuff on such websites as Forbes and the Association for Talent Development.

We had a really great show with Jen a few weeks back, and we’re excited to have her back with us today.

On today’s show:

  • What are some of the typical behaviors that managers employ to drive engagement in performance today?
  • Failing to provide training and development isn’t intentional
  • The differences between mentoring and coaching
  • Why is it important for senior leaders to create a coaching culture within their organizations?
  • People join companies, but they leave managers
  • What are some of the benefits of fostering a coaching culture?
  • Autonomy leads to a feeling of ownership
  • Tips to developing a culture of coaching
  • How to find out more about how Difference Consulting can help set up a coaching culture within your organization

Links:

 

When we talk about building a coaching culture within organizations, it’s really about companies focusing on building amazing managers and giving them the skills to be able to create environments where their employees love to work and can really perform at their best.

What are some of the typical behaviors that managers employ to drive engagement in performance today?

Typically, manager approach employees in a kind of ‘command and control’ approach.

It’s not because they want to display their authority or power in their position necessarily, but because of the speed of business. We are moving so fast and organizations are growing so quickly in size and complexity that they’re just trying to keep their head above water.

Often managers unintentionally become their own worst enemies in the way that they approach their employees. So rather than creating a coaching environment, it can often be more of a dictatorial style or management.

The speed of business often leaves managers with a lack of time, which means that they are often not able to develop and coach the workforce. As leaders, it’s our job to free up those folks to take care of our most precious resource: the workforce.

When you think about the word “leadership”, by definition it is simply an interaction where influence occurs. This influence can be positive or negative, with minimal or maximal impact.

So in order to create a coaching culture within an organization, we have to take focused action to develop leaders who choose to use their power to influence and impact others in a positive way.

Leaders often underestimate the power of their actions and the influence on their team members. And then they end up using it ineffectively.

Failing to provide training and development isn’t intentional

Leaders are operating in crisis mode. People in the workforce will tell you that they don’t have enough hours in the day to do their own work, much less direct the work of their employees.

With the best of intentions, it is easy to overlook the development and training of critical thinking skills that allow them to then work more autonomously.

Some of the biggest pitfalls that Jen sees in the work she does with organizations:

  • Leaders unintentionally undermine other managers’ decisions, which can have a detrimental impact on their credibility.
  • If they’re working on a high stakes project that isn’t being completed fast enough, they will jump in to help before allowing the workforce to find the right path themselves.
  • They often perpetuate a risk-averse environment – there is an unwritten rule that ‘failure isn’t an option’ because the manager is being judged in terms of their performance through the performance of their employees.
  • A lot of managers don’t delegate effectively, making themselves a bottleneck rather than empowering their team to take action autonomously.

All these mistakes, while done with good intentions, will not allow the workforce to learn and grow to become more autonomous.

The differences between mentoring and coaching

Mentoring is really more about a leader sharing his/her experiences and observations. It’s more of an advisory position rather than asking empowering questions that help them come to a solution which will, in turn, apply to future problems in the future.

When you’re coaching an employee you are helping them maximise their potential and find ways to be able to solve problems without a manager having to be involved each and every time.

Why is it important for senior leaders to create a coaching culture within their organizations?

It’s hard to get the best people now. And once you’ve hired your team members, it really takes great managers to keep them happy and engaged.

So failing to develop those managers throughout the organization can create a large growth barrier.

Once businesses grow in size and complexity and with the global nature of business these days, it’s increasingly important to develop managers’ skills and help them drive autonomy and innovation within their teams.

Previously in the near past, we have been focused on being very lean operationally. More and more managers now are being promoted with little or no formal leadership development before moving into the positions. And moral and engagement have suffered as a result because these managers aren’t great at what they do – it takes great managers to keep people engaged and happy.

In a recent Gallop pole, 85% of disengaged employees felt that they didn’t receive enough coaching.

People join companies, but they leave managers

It is so important to give managers those skills to create a happy and engaged workforce. Because poor management leads to good people leaving organizations.

When you think a company that does this exceptionally well, you think about Google.

They have explored this topic before and applied all their data analytics capabilities to their people decisions. When they looked to solve some of the engineering problems that they had, they learned that what people were looking for was periodic one-on-one coaching. When their employees were asked, that was considered key to becoming a good leader and engineer.

What are some of the benefits of fostering a coaching culture?

The biggest initial benefit is that managers have better self-awareness, they are more effective in their individual communications with their team members and other managers.

It can give those managers a common framework and language that builds cohesion and alignment within the leadership team.

Ultimately for the employees, what it creates is a workforce that focuses on solutions rather than problems. You have leaders, managers, and employees at all levels that own part of the business and are personally invested in its continued success. And that allows managers to extend greater trust to their employees to work more autonomously – which we know is important because we have teams that are physically separated and you don’t have the manager in meetings face to face.

Autonomy leads to a feeling of ownership

With the right training and development, you allow your employees to make autonomous decisions, which creates buy-in and develops a sense of ownership of the company or project.

The type of leadership culture you create doesn’t happen by accident. It happens because you are intentionally focused on reinforcing behaviors so that they get perpetuated throughout the environment.

So having the top leaders of an organization go first and start by modelling those types of behaviors, generates that buy-in and an environment where people feel safe in practising those types of skills where it may not have been the case in previous management generations.

Tips to developing a culture of coaching

  1. Be intentional about creating a people development strategy that aligns with your company’s core values and your organizational goals. When you have that strategic alignment in place it becomes much easier to drive those behaviors and reinforce them because there is a process and framework in place.

It can be really helpful to partner with an external consulting firm that specialises in teams creating these strategies.

  1. It starts at the top: training senior leaders and managers on how to model those coaching behaviors so that they can then empower managers to take action.

Start by teaching senior leaders some coaching basics like listening or asking empowering questions to their management members or building buy-in.

At Difference Consulting, Jen’s team offers a proprietary 5-step communication model that they help leaders work through. They guide those leaders to coach their most respected and valued team members – and as those top influencers within the organization gain traction by being coached, they become more open to learning and modelling those same types of coaching behaviors within their own teams.

  1. Educate the managers on the benefits of coaching within their own leadership teams.

You need your managers to be bought into the process.

  1. Create a plan of accountability – and follow up.

Culture change initiatives don’t happen overnight. It takes some time to take hold. Create a plan of accountability to ensure the implementation of the plan and then to evaluate the program for continuous improvement opportunities.

Most importantly, it’s best to start with the top leaders within the organization because when employees see them practice the behaviors that they are expecting further down the chain, then it helps them to be bought-in.

Also, it is critical to align your strategy with your company’s core values and goals. When you’re following an alignment framework, it shows people the value of what they’re doing and why it is important to the company achieving its goals.

Organizations with strong coaching cultures really demonstrate that they value their employees and supporting them at all levels.

How to find out more about how Difference Consulting can help set up a coaching culture within your organization

Visit the Difference Consulting website and schedule a complimentary discovery call.

There is also a free framework tool to begin getting started.


Confessions of a Serial Salesman by Steve Nudelberg

Confessions of a Serial Salesman, Interview with Author Steve Nudelberg



This week’s guest has to be my favourite of all. He’s my Cuban coffee in the morning that gets me going.

We invited Steve Nudelberg back onto the show to talk to us about his new book, “Confessions of a Serial Salesman: Rules of Engagement for Leaders and Influencers,” and what we can learn from it.

Steve Nudelberg is a serial salesman & entrepreneur. As a product of his entrepreneurial spirit, he developed On the Ball – a company that focuses exclusively on sales & business development. Inspiration for the company name was derived from the feedback Steve received from business associates, claiming that he was always ‘on the ball’.

Super excited for what we can learn from Steve this week, so let’s dive right in.

In this week’s show:

  • The importance of relationships to success in sales
  • “Growing to Greatness”
  • How to build relationships
  • Rule number 1 from Steve Nudelberg’s book
  • What other rule in the book gets the most traction?
  • What are people going to learn from reading “Confessions of a Serial Salesman”?
  • Where to get “Confessions of a Serial Salesman” on presale

Links:

Steve describes “Confessions of a Serial Salesman” is a way to live your life. He is a student of the game and has been in sales for 40 years, and in putting together this book he gathered the best of the best from the industry to create the ultimate process for successful people.

Steve is proud to have had his son write the foreword for the book – who has lived his life by this process and has seen tremendous success in his career as a college football coach.

The importance of relationships to success in sales

What is the difference between a good business relationship and a good relationship? None.

People who focus on specific aspects of the process of selling are generally the least successful, observes Steve. Especially today when everything is so transparent – people buy you long before they buy your product or service.

If you don’t get along well with a prospect in your first interaction, you’re going to struggle to do business together. But when you do make those good connections, sales is a lot of fun – because the richness is not just the sale, it’s the long term relationship and opportunity to help other people to be successful.

In many relationships, you may not end up getting a direct sale, you may just be a friend or a resource to them. And that can lead indirectly to a sale down the line through referrals. Strong relationships are central to that.

“Growing to Greatness”

In this era of many young people struggling with self-confidence, how do men and women grow great as Steve talks about in the book?

In a world where so much of our work life and even personal life is online, young people aren’t getting hands-on, face-to-face sales experience with retail or sales veterans.

The president of Steve’s company is 30 years old and started in the company at the age of 23 as an intern to learn on the job. That form of training is critical, practical learning that takes time and patience and can’t be replicated with any form of online training.

It is a slow path to mastering the craft.

The way people are being trained now – both young and old – is often in a transactional mentality. The relationships method of selling requires a different kind of training, the basics of which are discussed in Steve’s book.

If you are targeting the C-suite, not having those relationship skills is going to stifle your career progression as those soft skills that have to be learned through experience, are critical to success.

How to build relationships

Learning about people before you meet them gives you the opportunity to find common ground that can be a topic of conversation when you meet.

The longer you are able to have a conversation and enjoy one another’s company without mentioning your product or company, the more likely it is that you are going to be able to do business together.

Finding out where someone went to school, what their interests are, what their sports teams are, you are able to find shared passion and become ‘their guy’, as Steve puts it.

Rule number 1 from Steve Nudelberg’s book

Rule number 1 in Steve’s book, “Confessions of a Serial Salesperson,” is “wake up early.’

Most successful people wake up early, says Steve. Of course, early means different things to different people. But he gives the example of a client he did business with who would send him emails at 3 A.M.

Steve asked him why he got up so early. The client’s reply was that most people consider early to be between 5-6 A.M. and so he figured if he woke up an hour earlier than them he would outwork them by 30 hours per month – another week of work every month over his competition.

Consistently being the first in his clients’ inboxes since that moment has proven to be a huge asset to Steve throughout his career. It says to people who he is and what he is.

There are also very few interruptions early in the morning, which allows him to be very productive.

Steve now wakes up without an alarm between 3-4 A.M. every day. Not everybody has to do this, but even adding 30 minutes to your day, every day, will benefit you tremendously each month.

What other rule in the book gets the most traction?

Rule number 21 – Tell Me Something Good.

This is the number 1 takeaway for many people that Steve has delivered his presentation to on this subject.

People are programmed to meet each other with the phrase, ‘hey how are you?’ The response to this question is often very negative as they share their problems with you. And you then have to move from a negative start to the conversation to a positive one.

Steve asks, why do that? He’s reminded of the Chaka Khan song ‘Tell Me Something Good,’ and instead starts the conversation on a positive note. It’s a fantastic conversation starter that gets things off on the right food in the right frame of mind.

You want to be able to make people feel good enough that every time they see you they want to be around you so they can feel that good every time. – Chris Cebollero.

What are people going to learn from reading “Confessions of a Serial Salesman”?

The book contains 27 rules of engagement for you to try and see how they work for you.

The two greatest validations of this system are Steve’s son who at 30 has been one of the fastest rising college football coaches and the president of his company who started with him when he was 23.

The greatest athletes in the world have coaches to help them see blind spots. The book is a system based on Steve 40 years of experience in the business that provides a structure to help you observe those blind spots and guide your actions as you develop through your career. It’s a toolbox to deal with the day-to-day rejection of being a sales person and be successful.

Where to get “Confessions of a Serial Salesman” on presale

You can sign up for the book at Nudelberg.com.


Maureen Metcalf's Strategist Competency Framework

How not to be the Flip Phone of Leadership with Maureen Metcalf – the Strategist Competency Framework



In the next 20 years, 10 thousand people a day are going to be retiring.

One of the challenges we have in organisations today is that we have not equipped the leaders to lead the workforce. Now as the old guard starts to leave the business and the new generation comes through, how are we going to prepare ourselves as the next generation to be the leaders of that workforce.

In collaboration with today’s guest, Maureen Metcalf, we gave this episode a tongue in cheek name: Don’t be the flip phone of leadership.

One of the things she’s going to share with us is her Competency Framework to avoid being that flip phone of leadership.

Maureen is the CEO of Metcalf & Associates, a renowned executive advisor, author, speaker and coach who brings 30 years of business experience to provide high-impact, practical solutions that support her clients’ leadership development and organizational transformations.

Maureen designs and teaches MBA classes in Leadership and Organizational Transformation.

She hosts her own international radio show focusing on innovative leadership, and she is the author Innovative Leaders Guide to Transforming Organizations, winner of a 2014 International Book Award.

In the show this week:

  • The Flip Phone of Leadership
  • What does the future of leadership look like?
  • The Strategists Competency Framework
  • How does this Strategists Competency Framework help us as leaders?
  • How to learn more about the Competency Framework and Maureen Metcalf

Links:

 

The Flip Phone of Leadership

Maureen has worked with leaders for a number of years trying to transform organisations. ‘Trying’ because the success rate varies between organisations.

What Maureen has seen are well-intended, skilled leaders moving forward with transformations, but often were not changing themselves at the same rate as they were changing their businesses. So that they became the problem.

She watched them launch programs and then be exited.

What we offer as leaders, our skill, is leadership. And if we are not staying current in how we lead, we are likely to get left behind. Much like the flip phone.

It’s therefore very important to focus on our own professional development.

What does the future of leadership look like?

Maureen has worked with Mike Morrow-Fox and Susan Cannon to look at how leadership has evolved over the centuries and define the competency model for what we will need going forward.

This is based largely on developmental psychology. If we think of Jim Collins’ reference to Level 5 Leaders, he describes a leadership hierarchy. When Maureen draws this out, she draws a series of concentric circles so rather than going up the ladder, she looks at expanding capacity.

In this way, you don’t lose what you started with, but as you go up through levels of the organisation, you continue to develop in various ways.

As the world becomes more interconnected, we begin to outsource various functions of our business and so are partnering in more significant ways with companies based all over the world.

This often means to make changes within our organisation, we are having to collaborate with a number of partners where in the past we would walk down the hall and tell our CFO to change something.

This requires a different skillset from leaders of today and going forward.

The Strategist Competency Framework

There are 7 competencies that Maureen highlights we should have as strategic leaders, and they are:

  1. Professionally humble
  2. Unwavering commitment to the right action
  3. 360-degree thinker
  4. Intellectually versatile
  5. Highly authentic and reflective
  6. Able to inspire followership
  7. Innately collaborative

1. Professionally humble

This is more about getting it right than being right.

It is about being committed to the mission and vision of the organisation, rather than about individual success, promotion, bonuses, recognition etc. It’s about keeping your ego in check.

When you work with a leader who is committed to this vision, the workforce is more engaged and equally committed to the vision of the company.

If you’re more interested in being right than getting it right, more ego driven, you will not be open to experimenting and making necessary changes to drive success in the business.

2. Unwavering commitment to right action

Unstoppable and unflappable when on a mission.

Often as leaders, we are told to do things that are painful. When we do things that mean people we care about will lose jobs. For any good human being, this is painful but is necessary at times for the good of the organisation.

None of us can do this alone. It is important to have a great support network around us to keep us on track.

3. 360-degree thinker

Having a balcony view.

Companies are so interconnected that when we make a change to something that would seem minor, we need to understand how that change is going to ripple through the organisation. We need to speak to our stakeholders and partners and get their perspective on how these changes will impact all aspects of the organisation and its partners.

4. Intellectually versatile

Interest, expertise, and curiosity beyond the job.

To folks that are busy, this may seem counterintuitive – ‘how can I make time to do other things?!’

Maureen gives the example of a gentleman in a CEO forum she is a part of. He reads historical biographies. So when in discussions, he can pull from ‘what did Lincoln do?’ for example, and integrate that into what he is doing today.

Another example is that Maureen was in an African drumming group – despite not having any knowledge of African drumming or any natural sense of rhythm! She mentions the leader of the group who would bring Maureen back into rhythm with the group if she went off beat – without removing her instrument. She feels that leaders in business should be the same – bringing people back into sync with the organisation, without removing their responsibilities.

5. Highly authentic and reflective

Not constrained by personal appearances, but highly focused on person and behaviour.

This is the ability at the end of the day or of a meeting, to look back and what we have done and evaluate it correctly to establish where we need to change and grow.

Some people believe that because they have a C-level job title, they are fully baked. The idea of being reflective and authentic is the awareness that we always have to be growing and confronting situations in which we are not comfortable.

6. Able to inspire followership

We talk about leadership a lot, but less about those that follow us – either because they have to because we pay them, or in some cases by choice.

This is the ability to connect with people at all levels of the organisation, create a vision, and then implement that.

So it’s the ability to understand and manage change, being able to defuse conflict, etc.

Facebook is a great opportunity to connect authentically with people from the full spectrum of your workforce and facilitate normal conversations that allow you to connect.

7. Innately collaborative

Welcoming collaboration in a quest for novel solutions that can bring a better output that we would have working solo.

As leaders, we are working across organisations, borders, and boundaries of all kinds. We can no longer know everything we need to know, which means we have to be willing to collaborate and bring in multiple perspectives. We have to be willing to change how we think about things depending on the information we are given, rather than being rigid in our direction.

This is where having a good mentorship network can be of great benefit. It gives a platform for advice, but also a sounding board for ideas that are created by listening and pulling in information from all these varying sources. (This feeds back into the 360-degree thinking mentioned earlier).

How does this Strategist Competency Framework help us as leaders?

Maureen points to research that showed that leaders that were successfully able to transform large, complex organisations, consistently tested at strategist level, or worked with consultants that did.

So the benefit to a leader is that if you are running or transforming an organisation, you will benefit significantly from demonstrating not only the behaviours but also the mindsets behind them.

How to learn more about the Competency Framework and Maureen Metcalf

You can read more at Metcalf-Associates.com. There are a lot of resources there free of charge.

If you are interested in working with Maureen, you can reach her via email on maureen [at] metcalf-associates.com or go to the Contact Us section of her website.

Otherwise, you can find her on Facebook Page.


'Service', and the Ethical Leadership Framework with Chad Weinstein

‘Service’, and the Ethical Leadership Framework with Chad Weinstein



Today we bring back one of our favourite guests, Charles A. “Chad” Weinstein, to continue our series on an ethical leadership framework.

We’ll be discussing the fifth segment of the framework, “Service”. We’ll recap on the first four segments in a moment, but first, here is a little background on our guest today:

Weinstein is president of Ethical Leaders in Action, LLC., and author of Thinking Aloud: Reflections on Ethical Leadership. Ethical Leaders in Action (ELA) provides leadership development, education, and strategic consulting services to public safety, health care, and business organizations. Weinstein is a frequent presenter at conferences, seminars, and events.

He is community faculty member of the Metropolitan State University School of Criminal Justice and Law Enforcement. Weinstein also serves on Mixed Blood Theatre’s Board of Directors.

Weinstein’s formal education is in ethics, but his experience – and orientation – is as a business practitioner. He recognized early on that while most of business ethics is concerned with constraining bad behavior, its failures in that respect continue to make headlines. He believes that our ethical traditions are much broader, teaching and urging us to work and live in ways that are both meaningful and productive.

Ethical leadership is the critical factor. Weinstein’s work is primarily oriented toward helping leaders foster that broader sense of ethics and effectiveness in their work, in pursuit of ELA’s mission: Empower ethical leaders to achieve extraordinary results.

In this week’s show:

  • A recap of the first four pillars of Charles’ ethical leadership framework
  • Service in a nutshell
  • How does Service fit in with all the other virtues in the ethical leadership framework?
  • How does Justice correlate with Courage?
  • Virtues tend to have moderate points between extremes. So what would the extreme of Service look like?
  • Is the virtue of Service all about will or skill?
  • What skills or abilities are involved in being of service?
  • As leaders, how can we cultivate a culture of Service?
  • What are the challenges to exhibiting the virtue of Service?
  • A summary of Chad’s ethical leadership framework
  • How to find more information on Chad and his framework

Links:

A recap of the first four pillars of Charles’ ethical leadership framework

Today we’re covering one quality or virtue that makes us more effective as ethical leaders: Service. This virtue works as part of a framework of five qualities:

  • Courage
  • Competence
  • Creativity
  • Clarity
  • Service

By building these qualities in ourselves like muscles, we can become more effective at bringing out the best in others.

If we are Courageous as leaders, we know we are willing to do what it takes even when leading is scary or difficult.

If we are Creative, we’re committed to making things better when that is the right thing to do.

If we are Clear, we have a vision and direction, we use data effectively and we are understanding the challenges put in front of us.

Service is the commitment and ability to do something for someone other than ourselves. It is one of the qualities that we cultivate to become more effective as ethical leaders over time.

Service in a nutshell

Service can be broken down into components.

  1. The quality of altruism: Is it important to you to give to others and make the world a better place?
  2. The capacity for empathy: It’s important to be able to put yourself in other people’s shoes and understand their perspectives.
  3. The quality of justice: People that are committed to Service are also committed in part to making sure that people’s rights are protected, that human beings are treated with their due respect.

On the note of justice, Chad refers to a lesson his Dad taught him:

Respect is fundamental. It is what you accord other human beings. Never confuse respect with affection or admiration. You get to choose who you like and admire, but you don’t get to choose who you respect.

The virtue of service hinges in part on a fundamental recognition that all human beings have value.

How does Service fit in with all the other virtues in the ethical leadership framework?

All these virtues are interrelated. For example, if you are being Courageous in a given scenario, but not Competent, you could be about to make a big mistake. So you can’t operate from just one of the virtues within the framework to be an effective leader.

Service mixes with all the other qualities to guide what we’re doing.

How does Justice correlate with Courage?

Chad believes they go together like hand and glove. One of the reasons that injustice exists in the world is because there is a lack of courage to stop it.

When we understand what is right, fair, or just, it may be very difficult to act in accordance with that awareness. And that is where courage comes in.

Virtues tend to have moderate points between extremes. So what would the extreme of Service look like?

The Greeks strongly believed in the doctrine of the mean – that what was right was in between the extremes.

You could say with Service, how could you have too much of it? Chad believes you can.

One way would be if you are acting from Service to the point that you deplete yourself. You have in essence demonstrated an excess of the virtue of Service. It becomes unsustainable and self-defeating.

Similarly, we can be so motivated by Service that we can forget some of the other virtues that are a part of the framework. For example, in an attempt to be helpful we can venture into an area where we’re not competent instead of finding someone who is.

Is the virtue of Service all about will or skill?

Chad believes strongly that all of the virtues involve both will and skill.

In this instance, there is more will than skill. But nevertheless, there is skill involved.

For example, some people are unable to listen to the desires and requirements of the people they are looking to serve. So despite the best intentions to display the virtue of Service are not able to effectively deliver it.

It is primarily about having the desire and commitment to providing Service, but you also have to be good at it to some degree.

What skills or abilities are involved in being of service?

First of all, we have to know ourselves, our strengths and our shortcomings.

Secondly, we have to understand the people that we’re working with.

We also need to invoke the virtue of Clarity. To have a vision for what we’re doing and why.

And we may need some of the fortitude of Courage to push through even when it gets hard.

The ability of Service meshes with all the other virtues in the framework.

What are the challenges to exhibiting the virtue of Service?

A perception of scarcity can be a real barrier in our ability to be of service to others. Feeling as though we don’t have enough resources or time to meet our own needs, and this can bar us from giving that time to the service of others.

Another challenge is our lack of connection to other people. It is easier to be of service to someone we know than someone we don’t. It can be very difficult to reach across differences, distances, cultures, communities to really be of service to others.

As leaders, how can we cultivate a culture of Service?

It’s important to maintain and reinforce a sense of purpose within your organisation. Leading by example and staying true to a vision statement and your purpose as a business to serve others.
Sebastian Junger wrote a great book recently called ‘Tribe’ in which he looks at how the experience of veterans can help all of us see the benefits and the power of feeling connected to a group of people. He points out that in some respects in our society, we don’t have adversity that pulls us together. He looks at examples of how having a common challenge pulls groups of people together in ways that we don’t tend to see otherwise.

Obviously, as leaders, we don’t want to be going out and creating crises, but through our actions, we can create conditions where people pull together for the common good.

A summary of Chad’s ethical leadership framework

Ethical leaders are people who bring out the best in others and empower them to make a positive difference in the world. Differences both large and small.

To do that we need some skills and commitments. And drawing on the Greek perspective for character development, we call those skills and commitments virtues; qualities within us that we can cultivate in order to be the person who brings out the best in others.

Again, those virtues of ethical leadership are:

  • Courage
  • Competence
  • Creativity
  • Clarity
  • Service

We build those virtues by being aware of them, by guiding our actions in accordance with them, and by reflecting on our experiences and learn from successes and failures.

This is something you can best achieve by forming relationships with others, helping them to observe their achievements and correct their failures and vice versa.

How to find more information on Chad and his framework

Chad would be happy to engage with any of our listeners at any time. You can find more on his website, or by phone:

www.ethinact.com

(+1) 651 646 1512