Lead Face to Face

Leaders Embrace Change

As we go through life, seasons change. If you can adapt and embrace the opportunities and changes that come your way, the future is unlimited for you, your team, and your business.  
  
 What is this new season bringing for you?  Chances are you’ve got new goals for your business, and your personal life.  

For me, this is a new season of becoming an author and speaker. It’s just one more addition to everything else I do, and its incredibly rewarding. In the past, my official title was
  Joel C. Small, DDS, MBA
North Texas Endodontic Associates, LLP

But now I can add author, speaker, to my title as well.  
Change is good because it brings new opportunity. My mother, who waited until her 90’s to get her MBA and write a book, taught me that.
 
Winston Churchill said :There is nothing wrong with change, if it is in the right direction.

If you looked at your 5 year plan, what are the changes you’d need to make, to get there? Start preparing today.

22 May, 2011 16:41

I always enjoy the opportunity to speak at the annual American Association of Endodontists meeting, and this past meeting was no exception.

On Thursday, April 14th, I gave a one and a half hour presentation to my colleagues on leadership in a smalll service organization. My presentation is a combination of research conducted by the leading thinkers and researchers in contemporary leadership along with over thirty years of personal observations of organizational leadership. I particularly enjoy the point in my presentation when I pull the research and personal observations together by making it a personal and commonly shared experience with my audience. This is the “Ahaa” moment when we all experience a paradigm shift and begin to understand the power that leadership can have in our personal and professional lives. I love watching my audiences eyes light up and their heads nod in agreement as we collectively see our lives through the eyes of a leader. For me, this is what makes it all worth while. Helping others see the vision, is what brings fulfillment to my life.

As we go through life, seasons change. If you can adapt and embrace the opportunities and changes that come your way, the future is unlimited for you, your team, and your business. What is this new season bringing for you?

Are you engaged?

Being engaged means making a commitment to be there, fully involved in your cause, no matter what it is. By being “all in” you inspire others to do the same. Engagement is an unspoken act that speaks volumes about who we are. It’s also one of the most meaningful ways to show what we value.

When it comes to leadership, (as well as families, and finances, and just about anything in life) the difference between engagement and disengagement is critical. Are you all in?

Page 51. Face to Face.

Hiding in plain sight

The recent news of this year is the highly organized secret mission that led to the murder of Osama Bin Laden.

As it turns out, he was hiding in plain sight.

No matter where you fall on your allegiance to our government, there’s no denying that a mission to search for Americas most wanted fugitive and terrorist required great planning, strategy, and leadership. If you’re going to execute your plan and vision, you must have leadership. You must have soldiers, willing to carry it out. You must be able to lead people who want to follow you, even at the risk of putting their emotions and needs secondary. For the benefit of the team. True leadership is creating this kind of synergy within a culture.

We all have off days.

And when your employee has one, will their negative feelings, or emotions, or fight they had with their spouse, show up in your business? What face will they give to your customer?

Leadership involves the creation of desire.

When they went to get Osama, you’d better bet the team on the ground had a desire to fulfill the mission. They knew what they were getting into, and they were prepared.

How do you create that desire in your team?

Create an empowering culture. Let them make mistakes. Give them authentic power to make decisions and lead them towards your vision. Sometimes the answer is hiding in plain sight. You probably have all the right people on the bus. Now it’s time to lead, empower, and watch them grow.

Happy Mothers day

This post is for you, mom. And for my wife, a great mother, and for moms all over the world.

Happy mothers day. Enjoy it. Relax.

You deserve it.

My mother taught me the essence of true leadership.
Character traits such as integrity, authenticity, compassion, and perseverance. If you work to develop those traits you will naturally become a greater human, and sharpen your leadership skills.

Even into her 90’s my mom has continued to display a trademark of any great leader – lifelong learning. She’s about to publish her first book. She achieved her MBA.

What’s next?

Anything is possible. And that’s what’s so exciting about leadership.

Lead, don’t manage

Leading change is distinctly different than managing it. Say you’ve got a crisis going on with one of your kids at home, or one of your employees at work. It’s normal to react to it, to step in as the problem solver to figure out the solution. That’s managing the crisis. That’s reacting, and there are times in our lives as leaders when its vital.

But leading… Is entirely different.
Leadership is proactive. Its not marketing, missions, or message. The old style of charismatic hype leadership is over. Today people want to be connected. They have to feel ownership, intrinsic value, and a desire to be in your business.

Seth Godin wrote: ” Leadership is now the strongest marketing strategy. Yelling with gusto used to be the best way to advertise your wares. There was plenty of media and if you had plenty of money, you were set. Today, of course, yelling doesn’t work so well.
What works is leading. Leading a (relatively) small group of people. Taking them somewhere they’d like to go. Connecting them to one another.”

I’m inclined to agree with Godin. Lead face to face. Be intimately engaged and fully present. Empower your team. Lead, and if required, step out of your comfort zone.