High Impact Leaders

This is part four of a six-part series called the Five Steps to Build a Solid Team from the Ground Up. Last week, we discussed how important it is to build trust where your team likes and respects each other. This step is the foundation for building a team culture. If your team doesn't trust each other and doesn't trust management, nothing else that we cover will have any value. This is the foundation.This week, we cover how to deal more effectively with conflicts in the workplace. Early in my career, I taught how to resolve conflicts or even avoid them. However, today, I have a different take on conflict. Over the years, I've realized that conflicts in the workplace are the catalyst that creates breakthroughs. So, in this episode, I'll give you seven simple things that you can do to encourage positive conflicts without harming that solid level of trust that we focused on in the last episode

This is part three of a six-part series called the Five Steps to Build a Solid Team from the Ground Up. Last week, we covered how important it is to create a shared vision and goals for your team. I explained the difference between a corporate vision statement, a corporate mission statement, and corporate values. Each of these has a specific purpose and, if used properly, will help you and your team make better decisions when growing your business.What we covered in step one is valuable because it creates the blueprint for your team. It helps them visualize their purpose and determine whether their decisions align with the corporate philosophy.This week, we cover the second step in the five-step process—building trust and fostering a more cohesive team culture. This step is vital to a healthy corporate culture. If your team doesn't trust each other and doesn't trust management, nothing else that we cover will have any value. This is the foundation.In this episode, I'll give you seven simple things that you can consistently do for and with your team to build trust within your organization and improve communication.By the way, this episode is brought to you by leadersinstitute.com. For leadership or team-building ideas, please visit our website at www.leadersinstitute.comIf you like the podcast's content, please leave me a review on your podcast app and subscribe to the podcast so your phone automatically downloads each episode.

This is part 2 of a six-part series called the Five Steps to Build a Solid Team from the Ground Up.Last week, I gave you an overview of all five steps. If you recall, I mentioned that this five-step process was like building a skyscraper. Everyone wants to visit the Penthouse once the building is completed. But there is a lot of work along the way to make sure the structure is solid. What we covered last week would be similar to the blueprint to building your corporate skyscraper. It's always good to have a clear picture of where you want to go before you start a journey. So if you haven't had a chance to listen to last week's episode, it might be a good idea to listen to that episode before jumping into this one.This week we dive into step one which is about create a shared vision and goals for your team. Going back to our building a skyscraper analogy, this step is like digging a solid foundation. If you try to build a skyscraper but just set it on flat Earth, it will fall over very easily. Your Vision, Mission, and Values are the backhoe digging the foundation of the skyscraper. The deeper you dig, the higher you can build the building.In this episode, I'll explain the difference between a corporate vision statement, a corporate mission statement, and corporate values. Each has a specific purpose. And, if used properly, each will help you and your team make better decisions when growing your business.

Today, we are starting a new six-part series called the Five Characteristics of Highly Effective Teams. Today, I'm going to give an overview of the entire process. Hopefully, as we cover the different steps, you'll see a lot of resemblance to what you are experiencing within your own office. Think of this five-step process like building a skyscraper. Everyone wants to visit the Penthouse once the building is completed. But there is a lot of work along the way to make sure the structure is solid.So, on this episode, I'll give you the blueprint to building your corporate skyscraper. Then, in the next five weeks, we'll go into each step in more detail.By the way, this episode is brought to you by leadersinstitute.com. For leadership or team-building ideas, please visit our website at www.leadersinstitute.com.

On today's episode, I'm going to explore the concept of experience being the best teacher. It is true that people learn by doing. We've actually built our coaching practice on that concept. When a good coach helps someone develop a new skill and the person has a success, his or her confidence will grow. But the concept of experience being the best teacher is also absolutely false. And if you don't understand why, you may be inadvertently lengthening your learning curve when you try something new.So today, I'm going to cover a few things that, once you understand them, will increase your success level pretty dramatically. They are the concepts that helped me go from a broke, really in-debt college kid to a multimillionaire in just a few years.Show Notes: Experience is NOT the Best Teacher (How to Shorten Your Learning Curve.)

Poor leadership skills can ruin team morale. As a manager, you hold more power than you might think. Obviously, you can hire and fire your subordinates. You can also promote them… or not promote them. You may also have the ability to approve a raise. If not, you at least have the ability to conduct the annual review.In essence, your leadership skills and moral compass have a direct impact on their career. Even if you treat everyone fairly, your impact on their lives is unmistakable. This is why having a great boss is the number one wish of most employees. They often rank this above more vacation time and a bigger paycheck.However, some managers can inadvertently destroy the confidence of their employees. When this happens, it can permanently damage morale. Low morale then creates poor employee retention.Even the best executives avoid committing these bad leadership behaviors.Full Shoe Notes: 5 Ways that Poor Leadership Skills Can Harm Morale (and How to Fix Them)

Today I'm covering part two of a two-part series on updating your resume and LinkedIn profile. Last week, I covered how you want to customize your resume for every company (and every interviewer) that you apply to.If you just send out a generic resume to hundreds of people, you'll likely just be disappointed with the results.This week, though, I'll cover how to do better research before you go on the interview and also how to update your LinkedIn profile.Create a Stunning LinkedIn Profile that Proves You Are the Expert.Once a potential employer receives your resume or application, he or she will scan it quickly. Then, the person with Google you. So as important as the resume is to a good first impression, your internet activity is even more vital. For most of us, our LinkedIn profile will rank toward the top of any internet search. So spend some time making your appearance on LinkedIn inviting to a prospective employer. This episode covers a few simple things you can do to update your LinkedIn profile in 2023.Show Notes: How to Update Your LinkedIn Profile is 2023

Government reports are saying that unemployment is still very low. However, I'm starting to see more and more layoffs from really big companies. In fact, Business News Daily reported that layoffs are continuing to pile up at a rate that is approaching the way they were in the early days of the pandemic.So, this week, I'm going to cover a few ideas on how to update your resume just in case you are one of these folks who are looking for a  new employer. If it is time to dust off the old resume or CV, use the strategies that I cover today.Before we get to the technical stuff, though, we will show you how to avoid falling into the most dangerous resume trap out there. (Here is a little hint… Your resume should never be about YOU.)Instead, you want to focus on the problems that you have helped employers solve. If these prospective employers know that when they hire you, they will have fewer challenges to deal with, you will put yourself at the top of the hiring list.Instead of Making Your Resume a List of Accomplishments, Make It a List of Problems Solved.Don’t get me wrong. Your resume should absolutely be about you and your accomplishments. However, if that is all that you highlight, you will miss out on a great opportunity to set yourself apart from your competition. Human beings tend to all have a few things in common. Most of us are pretty self-centered. We all have problems. We also all have challenges that we have to deal with. Well, guess what. Your prospective employer isn’t a title or a company. The prospective employer is an actual human being. The prospective employer has challenges and problems.So when he or she makes a hiring decision, the main thing they want to know is the following…Will hiring this particular person help me solve problems or will hiring the person cause more problems?Often, we assume that the prospective employer will read our qualifications and automatically conclude that this qualification will be of benefit to the company. By the way, most prospective employers are smart people. So many actually will do this. However, if you do this step for the employer, you make that person’s job easier.So if you do this simple step, you now present yourself as someone who can make the job of the employer much easier. That is huge considering the main goal the prospective employer has. The way that you are presenting your information to the employer is making his or her job easier. You are a problem-solver.Show Notes: How to Update Your Resume in 2023

A couple of weeks ago, I covered a few ways to communicate more effectively to build more teamwork. This week, I'm going to go into more detail about a specific type of communication -- constructive criticism. Just last week, I had one of my team members ask me to give her specific feedback about how she could improve.The moment she asked for this, I had the quote from Somerset Maugham playing in my head. He said, "People ask you for criticism, but they only want praise."So, I thought it might be a good time to go into more detail about what constructive criticism is and how it differs from destructive criticism (or just criticism.) You might be surprised that the type of criticism has little to do with how it is delivered, the tone you use, and your body language (although, each of those things plays a part.) It has more to do with something we've covered extensively in previous episodes. Show Notes: The Difference Between Constructive and Destructive Criticism

Make Yourself Indispensable as a Leader in a CrisisKnowledge is vital to getting ahead, but it’s just the ticket to get into the game.  What you DO WITH the knowledge is much more important to your success.  The most highly sought after skill in business is not accounting, or engineering, or computer skills – it’s public speaking.   Folks who reach the highest level of every institution typically know less about the day-to-day operations than the newest employee. However, they tend to excel at leading and motivating people.  The very best leaders in any organization are not the people who grow their own stature.  They are the people who grow other leaders.Once I figured this out, I realized that just about everything that I was doing to get ahead was absolutely wrong.To Be a Great Leader, Teach the People Around You Secrets to Success.For instance, I used to work from early morning into late in the night to make my productivity high for the company.  I was working really hard, but I never got promoted.  The reason why was that I was so productive, that the manager couldn’t afford to promote me.  If he did, he’d have to hire two people to replace me.  Don’t get me wrong, though.  I’m not saying sluff off and you’ll get promoted.  Instead, I started to teach the people around me how to do what I was doing to increase their own productivity.  Many hands make light work. When the next promotion came around, I was the obvious choice.  In my early days, I always wanted to make myself look good and make my “competition”, my coworkers, look bad.  I figured that was an effective way to get ahead. Instead, that just made my coworkers mistrust me, and when I needed their help, it was very challenging to get it.  After the leadership course, I realized that people who build up their coworkers are seen as “natural” leaders. So I took a different approach with remarkable results.Show Notes: Leaders Have Senority When Times Get Tough.

“What is effective communication?”If you’ve ever worked on a team that had a crazy amount of chemistry, you already know the answer. Everything they touched was gold, they produced more than any other team combined, and they had fun doing it.Unfortunately, you know that that is not the norm. Most teams have people you don’t like, that one person that doesn’t do anything, one person who shows up always talking about their personal life, one person who thinks they’re better than everyone else, and you have to try and make it work.So, what’s the difference between those two teams?I would say it all comes down to how they communicate!Good communication skills are at the heart of successful team building. A survey conducted by the Project Management Institute (PMI) reported that one out of five projects are unsuccessful due to ineffective communication. This underlines how essential communication is within a team, where each member must understand not only their role but also the roles of their team members, the team’s objectives, and how their collective efforts contribute to these goals.Effective workplace communication goes beyond merely exchanging information – it’s about understanding emotions and intentions behind the information. Two studies by Watson Wyatt Worldwide were performed in 2003 and 2005 to identify which communication practices deliver the best return.The studies confirmed what we’ve all suspected: good internal communication correlates to higher levels of employee engagement and lower turnover rates. This statistic underscores the importance of addressing poor communication issues if the common goal is team cohesion and enhancing overall team performance.Show Notes: 5 Key Elements of Effective Communication

My topic this week is Christmas Team Building Activities to Build Morale and Fun at Work... And I know what some of you are thinking... Doug, it's August. My kids just went back to school. Football season hasn't even started yet. Why on Earth are you covering Christmas stuff right now?I used to agree with you, by the way. I'm the guy walking around department stores in October saying, "Halloween isn't even over yet, and there are already Christmas decorations out... Why?"However, this episode is a little different. I'm going to cover how to organize team-building activities for Christmas and end-of-year parties. And if you haven't started organizing those types of parties and meetings yet, you are probably already behind the curve.Many of these activities will take weeks (sometimes months) to prepare. So, if you are a solo-prenuer or run a small business, you can skip this episode. But if you manage a team of people, you'll want to pay attention because the tips on this episode can help create a stellar end-of-year activity for your group that builds camaraderie and fun.Show Notes: Start Organizing Your Christmas Team Building Activities Now

Last week, I covered a few meeting tips to help you run more efficient and effective meetings. So on this episode, I'm going cover a very cool group problem-solving technique that will help you and your team solve really challenging problems very quickly and with a consensus from the group. What we've found using this process over the years is that once the group comes up with a perfect solution to the problem at hand, the solution is obvious. There is no need to persuade part of your team to want to implement the solution.This simple process is responsible for more of the big technological breakthroughs over the years than any other. I think you'll really like the process and get phenomenal value out of it.Show Notes: Group Problem-Solving Techniques for Meetings

For the next couple of weeks, I will cover a few meeting tips. This week, I'm going to start with a few tips that will make your meetings more interesting (basically less boring,) help you and your team be more productive in your team meetings, and how to make the whole process more efficient.Next week, I will give you a few tips on how to run problem-solving meetings. That specific type of meeting has the highest potential for things to go off the rails. So, make sure to come back next week, where I'll give you a very simple process that will help you solve any challenge as a group, get the group to have a consensus on the solution, and help you implement a series of breakthrough ideas in your industry. The process is very powerful!Tips for Leading More Efficient and Effective Meetings.The tips in this episode are strategies I have collected over the years from class members who swear by their effectiveness. I hope they work for you as well.Show Notes: Tips for Effective Team Meetings

If you are like most people, you probably believe you are a great listener. The problem is that everyone else that you have to deal with needs to improve their listening skills, right? The truth is that this often-used term has two parts — “Listening” and “Skills.” We often overlook the second part. Skills are those strengths that we develop through consistent focus over time.When I was a kid, our little town had a community center with a basketball gym. I wasn’t a member, by my best friend was. He went there three to four times a week to play ball with other kids. One weekend, I spent the night at his house, and he invited me to go to the gym with him. I spent 10 minutes or so practicing a few shots. Some other kids arrived, and we were divided into teams. Within the first couple of trips up and down the court, I realized that I had the least skill on the court. (Just as an FYI, I never did develop this skill.)My point is that the other kids were much better than me at basketball because they practiced. I didn’t.People who are effective listeners are effective listeners because they practice. You can be a good listener as well with just a little practice, yourself. In fact, listening is one of the most important skills in leadership development. If you want to be a great leader, the first step is to develop good communication skills. And the easiest way to do that is to develop active listening skills.Show Notes: How to Improve Listening Skills in the Workplace

In this week's episode, I'm going to re-cover a topic that has become the second most downloaded episode we've ever released. The topic was on impromptu speaking or speaking off the cuff. And this episode has two parts, although I think I'll be able to cover the entire content in one episode. So, for the first half, I'm going to give a few of my best tips on how to reduce nervousness and panic when someone asks you to speak out of the blue. And then, in the latter half, I'll give a simple three-step process to help you design an entire persuasive presentation off the cuff in just a matter of seconds. It is one of those closely held secrets of great presenters. And folks who can do this are highly esteemed by their audiences.Enjoy the episode on how to improve your impromptu speaking skills.Show Notes: How to Improve Impromptu Speaking Skills

In this week's episode, I interview Amy Maybury, who is a senior instructor for The Leaders Institute. She has been doing a lot of custom workshops about how to empower your team and keep from falling into the trap where we try to micromanage.So if you manage people or want to someday manage a team of people, she has four really simple steps that will help you help your team to grow. The steps also help you keep morale higher and to implement new ideas in the marketplace more efficiently.Amy began her career in retail. Her first job out of school was as a manager in a department store. Then, she progressed into senior management for that company, first as a regional manager and then by owning and managing her own stores. Now, she travels around the country, teaching leaders how to manage their teams more effectively. Show Notes: Empower Your Team without Micromanaging (https://www.leadersinstitute.com/empower-without-micromanaging-4-steps-to-empower-your-team/)

Small business lead generation can be tough, time-consuming, and expensive. But it doesn’t have to be. Once you identify who your top target audience is and what problems they have, you can get potential clients to contact you when they need help.Every small business is the proverbial “Needle in the Haystack,” so small business lead generation is critical to an entrepreneur’s survival. And the better your sales team gets at lead generation, the faster your small business will grow into a big business. You need to create a strategy for finding new leads that become new customers.Remember, it is a lot easier to turn a prospect or lead into a customer if the lead calls you versus when you call them. It cracks me up when I hear titles of articles, seminars, or books about how to “Make Effective Cold Calls” or how to “Warm Up Cold Calls.” Below are a few best practices that each is a great way of generating leads without an email list, a newsletter, or really, without ever having to make a cold call.However, just like we covered in How to Network at Business Networking Events, business-to-consumer sales and business-to-business sales are totally different. So, developing qualified leads for consumers is totally different than generating qualified leads that are other businesses. So, as we go through the process, I’ll give examples of each type of lead generation strategy.Here is an easy-to-follow, step-by-step process for Small Business Lead Generation:Before You Spend Time or Money on Small Business Lead Generation, Identify Who Your Target Market Is and What Problems They Have.Create Brand Awareness by Posting Your Solutions to These Problems in Blog Posts and on Social Media Platforms.Catalog Your Small Business Success with Case Studies and Sharing Customer Successes.The Generate New Customers for Small Businesses, Focus on Referrals and Repeat Business.If You Have to Cold Call in the Digital Age, Call to a Targeted List Who Already Knows You.

On this week's episode, I interview Joe Rare, who is the CEO of Level 9 Virtual. Joe is a fascinating guy who created multiple multimillion-dollar companies during the pandemic. And the focus of the interview is on how business owners need to focus only on the parts of their companies that generate revenue. And they should outsource everything else. Joe tells about how he created his first company before most young people finish getting a degree. Then, how a few years later, he invested everything in real estate prior to the big market crash and lost everything. So, a lot of his wisdom comes from his experience, and he is a great storyteller who makes the learning very fun.If you are building a company or want to build your own company someday, make sure to bookmark this episode!To connect with Joe or find out more about Level 9 Virtual, visit his website. (https://www.level9virtual.com/discovery-call-calendar)

This week is part 2 of the two-part series on how to find new customers at business networking events. Word-of-mouth advertising is one of the best ways to build customers. And, if nothing else, it is, by far, the cheapest way to find new customers.Last week, I covered a few networking skills to show you how to increase your sphere of influence. We talked about how networking is NOT selling. Instead, it is helping the people you interact with solve problems. And since most of the people you meet at business networking functions are there to promote themselves or their companies, if you help them do that, you become more influential within that group. People will want to interact with you.This week, I cover how to pick the right business networking events to attend in order to find your best potential customers. In the first part of today's session, I explain the three types of people who attend the networking events. Those three types are (1) companies that sell to consumers in a regional area, (2) companies that sell to small businesses, and the last are (3) companies that sell to other companies. People who work for each of these types of companies will want to attend totally different types of business networking events. Otherwise, you'll likely just be wasting your time.Show Notes: How to Find Customers at Business Networking Events (https://www.leadersinstitute.com/increase-your-sphere-of-influence-how-to-network/)