Posts by: Denis McLaughlin

Denis McLaughlin is the author of the best-selling book The Leadership GPS, which reached Number 1 in Amazon’s Job Markets and Advice, and Top 25 in Team Management and Leadership. Featured in John Maxwell’s “What I am reading, Spring 2013 edition,” The Leadership GPS was highlighted by Kirkus Reviews as “An engaging, unusual business book full of practical advice,” and “Its leadership lessons are on point and lavishly illustrated with stories of great leaders past and present, from Michelangelo to Steve Jobs.” Of the author, Kirkus Reviews says that “McLaughlin’s storytelling format brings each stage of leadership to life.” Denis has held executive leadership positions at several leading banks over the last twenty-five years. Along with his executive responsibilities, he also speaks, teaches, and mentors on leadership both in the workplace and externally. Denis was trained and mentored by some of the most well-known leadership experts today including John Maxwell – International leadership authority, Paul Martinelli – President of The John Maxwell Team, and Bob Burg – Best-selling author and expert on influence and success.

Success follows action; action follows words

action

Leaders who seek success must first seek the right words. It’s been said that the beginning of any journey is the first step. Consider though, that before the first step is taken come the words that commit the traveler to the journey.

The impact of words on success:

Words can commit you to an action. Choose your words carefully or you may find yourself doing what you said just because you said it, not because it was right.

“The first step binds one to the second.” ~French Proverb

Words can convince others to follow your actions. Choose your words carefully as they will set the expectation for others’ actions.

“Think twice before you speak, because your words and influence will plant the seed of either success or failure in the mind of another.” – Napoleon Hill

Words can continue past their intended use. Choose your words carefully as they will outlive the moment and may outlive you.

Remember the words of Mark Twain who said, “Action speaks louder than words but not nearly as often.”

Transformation through Imagination

imagine your futureI am a big fan of HGTV.  My family and I especially like two shows right now: Love it or List it, and Property Brothers.  While each of these shows has a unique premise, they share the common theme of transformation through imagination.

In Love it or List it the transformation begins when a family decides their home needs to be updated.  We watch as they are presented with two options: refurbish their home and stay there (Love it), or refurbish their home and sell it (List if) as they move into a new home.

In Property Brothers the transformation begins when a family decides they want a newer up to date home and are willing to buy a fixer-upper to get there.

Here’s how the transformation on these shows works: Each show starts with a discussion about what specifically the family wants as the experts help them imagine their future residence.

Then the experts show the family what it would take to obtain all they desire in a living space, like investment of money and time, choices between location and price. Next the experts show the home owners options that will fill their settled upon desires.  They use actual home visits and software that shows a vision of what a fixer-upper will transform into.

Once the decisions are made, the experts and the family design and execute the transformation of the family’s imagined living space.

I think I like these shows because they show what I have found to be the secret to a successful transformation – Imagination.

Napoleon Hill described the path to transformation like this, “First comes thought; then organization of that thought into ideas and plans; then transformation of those plans into reality.  The beginning, as you will observe, is in your imagination.”

Here’s why imagination works:

If we only did what we knew how to do we wouldn’t get very far.

“Imagination is more important than knowledge.  Knowledge is limited.  Imagination encircles the world.” – Albert Einstein

It doesn’t matter what you have or haven’t done, your imagination is the window to future possibilities.

“Live out of your imagination, not your history.” – Stephen Covey

Everything that is now common place was once an idea in someone’s head.

“What is now proved, was once imagined.” – William Blake

You will get better at imagining your future the more you do it.

“Imagination grows by exercise…” – W. Somerest Maugham

If: Problems that can change the world

problems are not stop signsWhen I had the thought to write a series of blog posts about small words that can change the world, the first one that came to mind was “If” – here’s why. No sooner did I sit down to begin writing when I questioned if I could write such a series.  Sure there are lots of small words, but how many can I write something meaningful about? I wondered if any of the posts would be captivating, or even interesting.  I pictured readers receiving the email with a new post and asking if I had run out of ideas for posts.

I finished the first blog post in the series on small words that can change the world – it’s about the word “If.”  You can decide if I made the right decision.

If: The problems. We have all heard that nothing worth having in life comes easy.  That sounds good to say when you already have something, but it’s still a bitter pill when you are striving to achieve something new.  When you are facing challenges in your life, the word “if” is a magnifier of all the potential problems.  “If” is what might happen that will cause you to fail.  “If” is the roadblock that might keep you from finishing.  If you believe the problems and obstacles that come with “If” are inevitable, you won’t even start.

If: The possibilities.  The fact that problems may come is not new and not only a reality for you.  Retired General and former Secretary of State Colin Powell said, “Leadership is solving problems…”  You will have problems and you should expect to succeed anyway.   Therefore, the “Ifs” in your path are good things.  They raise your awareness of what might happen and if you don’t deal with them they could derail your success.  As Robert Schuller said, “Problems are not stop signs, they are guidelines.”

So go ahead, let those “Ifs” flow.  Get it all out in the open and figure out how to succeed in spite of the potential problems.  Like Albert Einstein said, “Intellectuals solve problems, geniuses prevent them.”

 

Leadership: If you want more – give more

you can have everything you wantHow can leadership be about giving more to get more.  Early in my career I had two questions about this when my mentors shared this philosophy with me. First, I questioned whether I would get more by giving more – would this actually work?  If I focused my efforts on giving more than I received how could that end up as my success?  From an accounting point of view, if more goes out than comes in that gets recorded as a loss.  Second,  “Let’s assume that it did work,” I said. “Isn’t my success the wrong reason to give more?  After all helping others it is just the right thing to do.”

Then I heard the great Zig Ziglar say, “You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help enough other people get what they want” 

I confirmed this concept does in fact work, and not just for you as the leader.  This concept works for everyone on your team, your company, the shareholders, and the community.  Giving more to everyone around you than they can give back is the path to success.

Here are the three areas of leadership where you can get more by giving more:

If you want to be successful, ensure the success of others. Your success is nothing but the cumulative success of every person on your team.  The sooner you realize this the closer you are to success.  Think of the football coach.  His success is absolutely defined by how well his assistant coaches coach, how well his players play, and with what level of expertise everyone on the team performs.  His job is to find and lead the best people in every position.  No matter where you lead, your success depends on the performance of everyone around you; your job as the leader is to do everything you can to ensure their success.

If you want to be recognized, recognize others.  Everyone likes to hear “Good Job!” And every leader should praise their staff – that is the minimum. You should also recognize the accomplishments of your team to others – after all they did the work.  This activity will bring more well deserved recognition to your team, and spread the word about their potential for future opportunities.  This will also highlight your accomplishment in building and leading a strong team.

If you want to be promoted, promote others. You cant do more until what you do is being done by someone else – it’s a simple as that.  Strong successful leaders strive for more responsibility, and opportunities to make a greater impact.  If that’s you, then working with your team to get them ready to take your job is a sure way to get yourself ready for the next opportunity.  It also gives the strong successful leaders on your team the same chance to take on more.

So Leaders, if you want more  – give more.  It’s just like Bob Burg said in his book, The Go-Giver, “Your true worth is determined by how much more you give in value than you take in payment.”

 

 

Release: The most important word in leadership

releaseAt some point you have taught your leaders enough, and they are ready to be successful on their own. Your team will never reach their best unless you take off the training wheels and release them to try.

Releasing control is easier than you may think. It’s just like when your child rides their bike for the first time without training wheels. You run next to them, holding onto the back of the bike until they get up enough speed, then you do it…You release the bike and they ride as you encourage them with every turn of the wheel.

A successful leader must release his team to succeed on their own. 

In my book, The Leadership GPS, we follow Brian Alden as he builds a team of successful leaders only to release them to become leaders on their own.

Like the parent with the bike riding child, release your leaders to run the meetings and projects and make decisions. Stay close by their side to remind them of all that they’ve learned, and encourage their leadership skills. Before you know it, they will be racing ahead of you.

Diverse ideas: All of us are smarter than one of us.

diverse peopleFor a leadership team to be successful you have to all be focused on the same goal – but there are multiple paths to each mountain.  Some leaders surround themselves with other leaders who could be mistaken for their mirror images and don’t get the benefit of diverse perspectives.  When this happens, every new challenge has only one solution: the ones we already know.

Each individual is limited by their own knowledge and experience in their ability to offer solutions to problems.  But each person has a diverse set of strengths formed by their abilities, knowledge, and experience.  When people with diverse strengths are brought together, the ability to offer multiple solutions to problems becomes possible.

In my book, The Leadership GPS, we follow Brian Alden as he fills his team with leaders who have diverse perspectives and he finds that success comes much easier. Brian learns that he doesn’t have to be the one with the best answer; he just needs to find the right answer.

An ancient Japanese proverb sums this up well: “All of us are smarter than one of us.”

Success comes from a habit of hard work

HabitVince Lombardi said, “Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.” How does winning become a habit? Sarah Knowles Bolton, a press correspondent and author of the late 1800s, wrote several books that summarized the lives of successful people: statesmen, artists, and scientists, to name a few. In her research she found that “The victory of success is half done when one gains the habit of hard work.”

In my book, The Leadership GPS, Brian Alden is building a new team and needs successful leaders.  His grandfather, Michael Tennyson, teaches him that, “Leaders with a history of success have developed a habit of working hard to achieve their success.”

 

Learn from past mistakes, yours or other people’s

mistakesFred Brooks wrote about his experiences managing systems development at IBM in the book The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering. In his book, he reviews many common software mistakes that he witnessed and even made himself.

The book coined what is known as “Brook’s Law,” which states “Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later.”

Brooks discovered this law when he made the mistake of adding programmers to a project falling behind schedule, then concluded that it delayed the project even further. Using this and other examples of mistakes he witnessed in his career, Brooks is quoted as saying, “Good judgment comes from experience and experience comes from bad judgment.”

In my book, The Leadership GPS, Michael Tennyson, teaches his grandson Brian Alden, that those who have learned from mistakes – their own or others’ – are in the best position to lead.

What are you doing to prepare yourself for leadership?  Making some mistakes on your own is inevitable and one way to learn; but learning from the mistakes of others is the easier route. 

Set Your Leadership Vision In Motion

Dont shout vision, live itWhether you are starting a new team, or just became the leader of an existing one, things will be different for this particular set of people on the team.   They might all buy into the goals you set, but your vision for how to achieve those goals will be unique and new.  It will take time to establish their trust in your vision.

The best way to establish the trust you need to lead the team, is through success.  And the best type of success is that which consistently delivers many small successes for each team member.

Don’t just shout your vision from the top floor; live it on the office floor. – Denis G. McLaughlin

For your vision to be effective you have to set it in motion. These early successes are called Quick Wins.

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Leaders: Listen First and Maximize Second.

listen first and maximize secondIf you are a leader who has the passion to maximize everything and everyone, that is a great strength and a great calling. People need leaders who are in their corner, always encouraging them to be their best. In the spirit of wanting to help everyone succeed, they offer their opinions freely.

Leaders that see so much potential in every person and every situation should know that if they aren’t careful their actions can come across as being critical.

In my book, The Leadership GPS, Brian Alden learns a hard lesson about being critical while trying to maximize the success of his situation.  He freely offers his opinion before he knows all the facts. This experience stays with him and guides him through his future successes.

If you are one of these passionate leaders, and want to avoid having a hard lesson of your own, here’s what you should do.  When you really feel that passion to maximize someone or something, before you offer your opinion, follow the advice of Blaine Lee who said,

“Before you attempt to set things right, make sure you see things right.”

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