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.

Help wanted. Experience required

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“So let me get this straight. To get this job, I need to already have successful experience in what the job requires. But if no one will hire me, how will I be able to get the experience I need to be qualified for the job?”

Has someone said this to you in an interview? Have you ever said this during an interview? It certainly is a troublesome, circular problem that is difficult to solve.

Here are some tips for managers and applicants that find themselves in this apparent no win situation:

Managers

You are given a set of goals and approval to hire a team of people with which to accomplish those goals. Your first instinct is to fill your team with only proven performers; people who have successful experience in the exact roles you need to fill. I call this method of evaluating applicants, “Been there, done that, got the T-shirt.”

Managers who use this method pass up on new and uniquely talented applicants because they are only looking for people with the exact same experience, in the exact same role, in the exact same industry. This leads to repeating the exact same solutions in an ever changing world – not exactly a formula for long term success.

Managers who want long term success should instead look to hire people with a history of successful experience in diverse areas. These types of employees have demonstrated a history of hard work and adaptability that will allow them, and the team, to remain successful over the long haul.

When talking about computer hardware and software design Steve Jobs said, “The broader one’s understanding of the human experience, the better design we will have.”

Applicant

You are new to the job search having just graduated from college. Or maybe you landed your first job and are looking for ways to get that promotion. I am probably not the first one to tell you that experience does matter. Your experience may be limited, but rest assured, you do have experience; and you can get more.

First about your experience. In coaching young job and promotion seekers about their resumes and interviewing I find a common misperception: Experience that isn’t directly related to the type of job being sought should not be included – that is just wrong. Every new role you are seeking will have some element of responsibility that you have not done before. Certainly you should point out where your experience does match the requirements. But even more important is to highlight your diverse experience in adapting to new environments and taking on new challenges. Show that you are someone who can learn and grow beyond your current experience.

So you come to the interview with only the experience you have. How can you get more?

First the obvious, do more yourself. As Harold Geneen said, “In the business world, everyone is paid in two coins: cash and experience. Take the experience first; the cash will come later.” Take the lateral job move, volunteer for new assignments. Do the work now and when the opportunities come you will be ready.

Second, surround yourself with people who have been where you want to go and ask questions. As Voltaire said, “Is there anyone so wise as to learn by the experience of others?” You don’t have to make all the mistakes yourself on the way to experience. Fast track to successful experience by having mentors.

Remember whether you are the manager interviewing applicants for an open position, or the applicant yourself; while some level of experience is important, diverse experience is essential.

Hope – It’s not what happened, it’s what’s going to happen.

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Every day we deal with success and disappointment. We often spend time wringing our hands over what didn’t work instead of investing our time planning to repeat what did work. Hope is not just a wish that things might somehow work out. Hope is something deep inside that points us forward to reach for what we know can be.

How does hope work? Why does hope work? Read on for the three reasons you should hope.

Hope doesn’t leave. Hope isn’t a passing thought, or something you have to earn. We were made to hope for a future, therefore you already have hope and will always have hope – you just need to tap into it.

Hope is not a dream but a way of making dreams become reality.

Hope doesn’t quit. It doesn’t matter how many times you fall down, hope never throws in the towel. Hope doesn’t guarantee success at each step, but it enables you to take the next step towards success.

“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

Hope doesn’t look back. Hope only works in one direction – forward. There is no reverse, in fact there isn’t even a rear view mirror, only an enormous front windshield so you can see all of the possibilities.

“A whole stack of memories never equal one little hope.” – Charles M. Schulz

Remember, hope isn’t concerned with what happened, only what’s going to happen.

The Three C’s of Leadership Success

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How can you achieve leadership success? Bill Walsh, former head coach of the San Francisco 49ers said, “The score will take care of itself.” His teams were known for focusing on the basics and not the score. This advice coming from one of the winningest NFL head coaches in history.

You too can achieve Leadership Success by following these three C’s:

CLARITY
Why are you in that position, at that company, at this time? What is your purpose? What are you going to accomplish? How are you going to get there?

Have it-You have to know what you are supposed to do. Without clarity of purpose you cannot lead.

“More important than the quest for certainty is the quest for clarity”- Francois Gautier

Write it-A dream remains a dream until it is written down into a goal. You aren’t really committed until you put pen to paper.

“Your mind, while blessed with permanent memory, is cursed with lousy recall. Written goals provide clarity. By documenting your dreams, you must think about the process of achieving them.” – Gary Ryan Blair

Speak it-A leader has to lead other people to achieve their goals. Unless you can communicate your purpose you will lack followers.

“Take advantage of every opportunity to practice your communication skills so that when important occasions arise, you will have the gift, the style, the sharpness, the clarity, and the emotions to affect other people.”- Jim Rohn

COURAGE
We all have fears that can keep us from moving forward. What is your fear? What has been holding you back? Move forward.

Admit it-Fear is a normal emotion. You can’t deal with it unless you admit it’s there.

“Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear” – Mark Twain

Face it-The more you think about fear the stronger it gets. Stop thinking and start doing.

“Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.” – Dale Carnegie

Conquer it-All your fears won’t disappear, but you can succeed anyway.

“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.” – Nelson Mandela

CONSISTENCY
Find something that works and do it right – over and over.

Try It-Success comes from consistently trying. Don’t just take my word for it, test it out yourself.

“For the novice runner, I’d say to give yourself at least 2 months of consistently running several times a week at a conversational pace before deciding if you want to stick with it. Consistence is the most important aspect of training…” – Frank Shorter

Do it-Once you see the positive results, keep doing what got you there.

“Success is more a function of consistent common sense than it is of genius.“An Wang, the founder of Wang Laboratories

Achieve it-Like Bill Walsh said, “Let the score take care of itself.”

“In baseball, my theory is to strive for consistency, not to worry about the numbers. If you dwell on statistics you get shortsighted, if you aim for consistency, the numbers will be there at the end.” – Tom Seaver

Teamwork: Sacrifice is the name of the game

sacrifice-quotes-and-sayings-780Baseball playoff season is here.  I love winter baseball.  Only the best teams remain; the ones that made the sacrifice to earn their place in baseball history by making the playoffs.  Teams that made it this far are already a success in my book.  These players sacrificed their time, energy, focus, knowledge and skill so the team could reach this pinnacle of their sport.  Every player chose to give of themselves to reach this goal.

Sacrifice is such a part of the game of baseball that it is part of the official rules.  Rule 10.08 is titled Sacrifices.  This section details the rules on a sacrifice bunt:

The official scorer shall score a sacrifice bunt when, before two are out, the batter advances one or more runners with a bunt and is put out at first base… sacrificing his own chance of reaching first base for the purpose of advancing a runner or runners.

The sacrifice bunt is the ultimate in teamwork.  A player intentionally sacrifices his chance at adding to his personal record solely to advance another player forward in an effort to help the team win.

Women’s soccer great Mia Hamm defined teamwork like this, “I am a member of a team, and I rely on the team, I defer to it and sacrifice for it, because the team, not the individual, is the ultimate champion.”

All teams, whether in sports or business, rely on teamwork to succeed.  And teamwork only works when the members of the team are willing to sacrifice for each other’s success, and for the success of the team.

“Great achievement is usually born of great sacrifice, and is never the result of selfishness.”  – Hill, Napoleon

Beginning a new job. Three challenges that are really opportunities

Start-again-new-beginning-picture-quoteIt’s the first day on a new job.  You may have a new boss, new peers, or a new team. You may have arrived in this place for any number of reasons; some of them good, like a promotion, and some reasons not so good, like your company lost a major contract. Either way you are beginning something new and you are uncomfortable.

Each new beginning brings its own challenges. I challenge you to think of them as the beginning of new opportunities.

“The beginning is the most important part of the work.” – Plato

Three new job challenges that are really opportunities:

You have a new boss who doesn’t know you or your capabilities. You are beginning to work for a new boss.  You feel like you have to prove yourself all over again.  Relax, if you were great and successful before, you will shine again. Take heart, if things didn’t quite work out on your last job, now is your chance to shine.

Here is a simple formula for beginning to be successful in your boss’s eyes:  They key to being a successful employee isn’t doing what you think is right and hoping the boss likes it, it’s about finding out what the boss thinks is right and doing that well.  Remember, the boss sets the vision for the team.  The job of the team members is to work together to accomplish the vision that is set for the team.

You are on a new team and your peers don’t know or trust you yet. On your old job you had chemistry, you knew how to work together and who to trust, and they trusted you. Or maybe, your old team never had that kind of teamwork.  Now you are beginning your new job and the trust just isn’t there.  What can you do?

Here is a simple formula for beginning to establish trust between your peers:  The key to successful teamwork is to focus on understanding your role on the team and executing that flawlessly. Trust will naturally grow from there. Do your job in a way that helps the team and each of your peers achieve success.

You have a new team to manage that you haven’t worked with before. Your new team wants to know why you are here.  Every team wants to be successful and yours is beginning to wonder if you can lead them there.  It doesn’t matter if you have done this well before or not, you are starting fresh on your new job.

Here is a simple formula for beginning to lead successfully: The key to successful leadership is to achieve the purpose of your team by consistently delivering small successes for each member of your team. Each person needs to see proof that the team can be successful while at the same time seeing that they can achieve personal success.

I hope you give these simple formulas a try when you are beginning a new job. They have always worked for me.

Leaders: Follow the discipline of positive discipline

imageWebster’s dictionary provides several definitions of discipline:
-A branch of knowledge or learning
-Training that develops self-control, character, and efficiency
-Treatment that corrects or punishes

Too often we seem to focus on the third definition of discipline in a negative light and punish those who “mess up” in a effort to “teach them a lesson.”

Positive discipline removes the word punish from consideration and considers discipline an end to end process for leaders to bring out the best in their teams.

Jim Rohn has a great definition, “Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment.” It’s the way you achieve your goals.

The three outcomes of positive discipline:

Positive discipline provides direction. Taking a positive discipline approach to accomplishing goals requires planning the steps to success. Is everyone on your team clear on what they are being asked to do and the deadline?

Inspirational author H. Jackson Brown, Jr. says it this way, “Talent without discipline is like an octopus on roller skates. There’s plenty of movement, but you never know if it’s going to be forward, backwards, or sideways.”

Positive discipline provides inspection. Successfully achieving your goals through positive discipline requires that you regularly check in to make sure that everyone on the team is on track.

Peter Drucker, world renowned management expert, coined the phrase, “What gets measured gets done.” If you don’t know that there is risk in achieving your goals, you can’t take the right actions to succeed.

Positive discipline provides correction. Yes there is correction in positive discipline, but in a positive way.

John Wooden, the great college basketball coach said, “A coach is someone who can give correction without causing resentment.” This doesn’t just happen. It takes a positive discipline approach to working with your team so they trust that you have their best interest at heart. Wooden goes on to coach us on how to build up this trust, “Seek opportunities to show you care. The smallest gestures often make the biggest difference.”

 

 

Leaders with humility succeed

newton standign on the shouldersLeaders with humility will succeed in their career.  Humility allows people to listen to, and learn from others who have been where the are going.  Humility doesn’t mean you doubt your ability, it means you respect the ability of others.

C.S. Lewis once said, “Humility isn’t thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less.”

Here are three reasons why leaders with humility succeed:

Leaders with humility succeed  because they are open to learning from others.  Great leaders realize that there is very little they do well that they didn’t learn from someone else.  Learning from others is a strength of great leaders.  Will Rogers once said, “A man learns in two ways, one by reading, and the other by association with smarter people.”

Leaders with humility succeed because they gain knowledge and wisdom from every encounter.  Each person can learn and grow if they will determine to learn from the success of others. Bill Nye said, “Everyone you will ever meet knows something you don’t.”

John Maxwell, the great leadership expert, uses a set of seven questions when he talks to successful leaders:

  1. What are the great lessons you have learned?
  2. How has failure shaped your life?
  3. What are your strengths?
  4. What is your passion?
  5. Who do you know that I should know?
  6. What have you read that I should read?
  7. What have you done that I should do?

Leaders with humility succeed because they surround themselves with people who know more than they do.  Great leaders know that they can’t know everything.  If you want to be the best, then hire the best in every area. Leaders with humility don’t need to be the smartest person in the room; in fact it is a requirement that they are not.

Malcolm Forbes, former publisher of Forbes said, “Never hire someone who knows less than you do about what he’s hired to do.”

Leo Iacocca, Chrysler’s former CEO said,  ”I hire people brighter than me and then I get out of their way.”

 

 

 

 

 

Leaders: What steps do you take when success seems to be a thing of the past?

steps to successYour team used to be a success.  Every project was delivered on time and under budget.  Team morale was high and you were the “Go-To Team.” You don’t know what happened but success now seems out of reach.

Here are three quick fixes that you may be tempted to try:

1-Just do more of what you are already doing.  It might not be working now, but maybe more of the same will bring success.  Grow more, spend more, centralize more, decentralize more.

2-Just ignore any negative data and amplify the positive data.  And if you don’t really understand the data find away to make it positive.

3-Just do something big and bold:  change the entire leadership team, launch a bold but untested strategy, dive into a radical transformation, roll out a hoped-for blockbuster product.

In his book Why the Mighty Fall Jim Collins shared stories of companies that tried these quick fixes.  You can tell from the title of his book that these companies did not achieve success.  Quick fixes never work for long term success.

“The elevator to success is out of order.  You’ll have to use the stairs…one step at a time.” – Joe Girard

Here are three steps that you should take to return to success:

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Leaders: All the world’s a stage. And all the men and women are merely players.

working together team spirit images wallpapers quotesThe title of this blog post is borrowed from William Shakespeare’s play As You Like It. Leaders can learn a lot from the works of William Shakespeare. Their comments on society, then and now, are full of insight. This particular quote is an introduction to a scene where the character bemoans the futility of life when he goes on to say, “and all the men and women are merely players…”

Let’s take a closer look at what wisdom leaders can obtain from Shakespeare’s words; “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women are merely players.”

In the theater there are three main players: the writer, the director, and the actors and crew. Each of these three players is integral to the successful outcome of the play. The writer is the visionary who sees the end before the beginning begins. The director implements the vision and seeks to make it a reality. The actors and crew bring the play to life.

Shakespeare’s words might have been meant to say that any one player, if only focused on their part, would see themselves as merely players – not connected and not integral to the bigger stage of the world. The job of leaders is to make sure that all players know their roles and that all players know the importance of their roles in the success of the entire team.

Here are some tips for leaders on the importance of each of the three player’s roles in any successful venture:

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Every successful leader was once a diamond in the rough.

focus on your strengthsDiamonds are a naturally occurring mineral, the hardest mineral known today.  All diamonds start as carbon in its most basic form.  Only after mining, cleaning, and cutting are they ready to be used in industrial tools or polished into beautiful jewelry.

Just like the diamond in the rough, everyone is born with the potential to be a leader inside of them, but that potential needs to be set free.  Michelangelo once said, “Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it.”

Here are the three steps to bringing forth the leader inside of everyone on your team.

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