LeaderCast

Live, Love and Lead Like Jesus

A Leader Must Have Vision

Leaders need to have vision to avoid being in a fog

Photo by Philipp Klinger (No sun anymore on Cape Cod)

A leader’s primary objective is often simply to lead and direct people. But it is vital to recognize other aspects a leader must also focus on. One such important area is having a vision. Having a vision means planning ahead, it means having a goal or idea for the future. It means that there is an overriding objective that the leader is trying to attain.

Every leader, no matter what occupation they have or role they play should be working towards their objective. Having a vision gives reason for their leadership.

A vision can look like a variety of things. It can be a soccer coach’s goal of reaching the final with his team, or the CEO’s goal of making 100 million dollars.

What long term goals do you have that you should be focusing on? What is your vision for the people you lead?

Leaders need to be constantly setting, and evaluating their vision and goals for the future. They should be planning their long term vision, along with several mid-term type objectives, and a bunch of short-term goals.

Setting a range of goals will help you, and the people you lead, focus and stay on track with what you are trying to do. Be sure that any short-term goals match up with your vision.

Once you have a plan and vision, it is important to communicate it to those who are following you. Be enthusiastic and get them onboard with you. Don’t keep them in the dark about what your plans are and what you want to do, let others know and they will probably be even more willing to follow.

The Importance of Short Term Goals

Photo by Kevin Steele

You may be great at putting together a lofty vision that encompasses your long term goals, but what are you doing to reach them? Do you have steps and short term goals to help you reach your final objective?

Long term goals are great, but as long as you don’t have a step by step plan for getting there, you probably won’t get there. Setting several short term goals that lead you to accomplishing your final objective is the best way to stay focused and on track.

In a great book I was reading called Axiom by Bill Hybels the author said that he uses a six by six rule for planning and accomplishing short term goals. He puts together a list of short term tasks and goals that he needs to do and then narrows it down to just six key tasks to do that will also work towards his long term vision. He then gives himself just 6 weeks to do each of the six short term goals. Once the six weeks are up, it’s time to put together a new list of short term goals.

This method of organizing and then giving yourself a specific amount of time to accomplish your short term goals is a fantastic way to boost your effectiveness. You will also feel much better about your long term vision because you are taking manageable steps towards reaching that vision.

Is it time for you to stop being frustrated with long term goals, and focus on six specific short term goals for six weeks? Get something done now, and write down what your short term goals are. If need be, you don’t have to make it six goals in six weeks, you can tailor it to fit what you are doing. The important thing is to start doing something now to ensure you reach your long term vision in the future.

4 Great Roles for Every Great Leader

A short clip on the four roles of a great leader.

5 Questions That Help You Succeed

In What Areas can a Life Coach Help me?

photo by Héctor de Pereda

The Arenas of Life

These are just a few of the areas in which people live their lives. You may feel a need to hire a coach to help you set and achieve goals in one or more of life’s “theaters of operations.” Or you may need to learn to balance the conflicting needs and opportunities these areas of life present. Read over this list, and consider whether you are living to your full potential in your life. Note: This list is not meant to be exhaustive; you may need help in other areas as well.

What Does A Life Coach Do?

Photo by Alex Layzell

So maybe you are feeling a little skeptical about the whole ‘life coach’ thing. What does a life coach really do?

Life coaches actually can take on a number of roles, depending on your needs and the type of coach you are working with.  Here are seven typical roles of a life coach.

1.  Sounding Board. Sometimes a life coach will simply be there as a sounding board to help you weed out unimportant or ill advised activities and focus on the best items. Many top CEO’s employ personal life coaches who help them stay on track and focus on their goals and the goals of their company. You might need a life coach to help reorganize your life, or tweak certain aspects of your life.

2.  Ask Questions.  Most Life Coaches are great at getting to the heart of the matter.  Using questions instead of simply giving information they often lead the person being coached to the answers that they really need.

3.  Fresh Perspective. Often you just need someone with different eyes on the situation to give you an outside perspective free from the emotional attachments that you carry in your situations.

4.  Accountability. Many times just knowing that I am going to meet someone who is going to ask me a question is enough to get me off my backside to accomplish whatever it was.  Just today I met with a couple of the guys that I work with and we set out goals that we wanted to accomplish in he next 7 days.  Most of them were personal, some were business but I am sure we will do a better job of meeting those goals this week then we did last week because we know we are going to be asking each other about them at the end of the week.

5.  Life Purpose. If you are wishy washy on your reason for being on the planet the right coach can help you.  My friend and author Stephen Blandino (http://stephenblandino.com) first turned me on to Life Purpose coaching about 5 years ago and I have been enjoying doing it with lots of people over the years since then.

6.  Goal Attainment. Do you have goals out there that you just can’t seem to reach.  Maybe you have been thinking, dreaming and planning about some of them for years but can’t seem to get forward progress.  The right coach can give you the traction you need to make your dreams a reality.

7.  Priority Discernment.  Taking the time to get away can often give you the discernment that you need to figure out what you should be focusing on.  When that doesn’t work a few pertinent questions can often be all that you need to set you in the right direction.

Life coaches are really exactly what their name suggests; people who coach others as they go through the various challenges and distractions of life to help you get the most out of the life that God has given you.

The basic function of a life coach is to help you take the next step in life, to help you make the best use of your time and energy. And when you employ your time and energy effectively and efficiently in the right direction, you are suddenly able to accomplish great things of lasting value.

If you claim Christ as Lord and want a life coach I urge you to look for a life coach that has the same values as you.  It’s not hard as there are many Christian Life Coaches out there.  I have had three formal life/leadership coaches in my life and the results have always been wonderful.  If you have had a life coach please leave a comment and let me know what the experience was like for you.  Also feel free to recommend any great life coaches.

What Should I Look for in a Life Coach?

Photo by massagetherapyfoundatio n

If you know that you need a life coach then the next step is to figure out what type of coach will be right for you.  If you are not sure whether or not you need a life coach you can check out the Do I need a Life Coach post?

First, write out and define your needs and goals and what areas you would need coaching in. Do you need help with a business? Do you have personal strengths or weaknesses that you want help with? What areas of your life do you feel you are neglecting to succeed in? Find your top need or goal and use that as a guide when searching for your life coach.  You will probably find spill over between your areas of life that you need coaching in.  That is completely fine.  You want to make sure if you are looking for specific areas of growth that you coach has that knowledge.

Take a quick look online at some of the different life coaches.  Some people do fine with meeting with people online.  Others really prefer meeting face to face.  I myself enjoy both.  I am able to envision the person.  One time someone was asking about a mutual friend and I mentioned that I had just seen her a few months back.  When they asked about it further I realized that her brother had handed me his cell phone and we talked for 45 minutes while the group I was with was shopping.  I was thinking I had met with her in person when in reality it was a phone call.  If you really need to be face to face with someone do a search for Life Coach and your city.

Thankfully many coaches offer a free trial session.  I would recommend trying out at least one session with someone just so you know what the experience will be like.  When it comes down to deciding who to choose you’ll need to depend on your strengths.  Do you generally do best when you make a logical decision?  Then maybe you want to line up the pros and cons of a couple of coaches.  Can you trust your gut to be right most of the time?  Then go with your gut.

Finally, take action.  Choose a coach or at least a trial session with a coach and make an appointment to get started.

Do I Need a Life Coach?

Photo by Bob and Nadia

At various points in our lives we all face distractions, we all experience disappointments and we all get lost doing meaningless things. At these times it is sometimes necessary, even imperative, to get the help of someone to coach you back to where you want to be. Maybe you are doing OK but you want to do better

Have you been getting swamped with ‘good’ things and while missing out on truly great things? Do you feel like you are not meeting your goals, or are wasting your life on unimportant goals and activities?

Take a minute and ask yourself this, Am I accomplishing anything of lasting value? If you just ignore these feelings of inadequacy and lack of accomplishment, you might start facing more serious problems like burnout and disappointment with life.

Getting the guidance, support and suggestions of a Life Coach might be just what you need if you feel like your life is out of balance. It often helps to get someone who can objectively look at all the things one might be doing and suggest certain things to do more or less of.

Many people ask what the difference is between a Life Coach and a counselor is. A simple way to look at is
<– Counselor | Coach –> A counselor helps you look back and fix the problems from your past. A coach helps you to figure out where you want to be and how to get there. The right coach can help you transform your life and making it a truly transformational experience.

If you feel like you simply aren’t accomplishing anything of lasting value, it might be time to take a step towards your goals by looking into getting a life coach who will help steer you in the right direction. Maybe you are in beginning a career transition and you want to make sure you are making the right decision. All of these and more are great reasons to find a life coach.

If you are eager to move forward and accomplish more and more of the right things in life a coach might be just what you are looking for to help you get more out of life.

The U.S. Army’s 11 Leadership Principles

photo by Torley

Leadership in the military is vital for completing the mission. The military has become known for its development of great leaders. Many presidents were also military men, and a large quantity of other influential people began by serving in the US Military. The US Army put together 11 principles for its leaders to follow. These are valuable principles that every leader, both military and civilian, can learn from. Here are the 11 US Army Leadership Principles and their application to civilian leadership.

1. Be tactically and technically proficient – In whatever business or profession you are in, aim to be the best, or at least have a good understanding of it. If that means doing a little studying, so be it, as long as you set an example of proficiency.

2. Know yourself and seek self-improvement – know your capabilities, but don’t stop there, try to improve on your skills and strengths. Learning is a lifelong task that you should continue no matter what you are doing.

3. Know your soldiers and look out for their welfare – this applies to anyone under you. Take time to get to know them and look out for their health and wellbeing. They will notice you genuinely care about them and probably perform better.

4. Keep your soldiers informed – tell those you follow you what your plans are, accept their insight and suggestions, make them apart of the planning. When someone has a role in planning, they take greater responsibility in its execution. Don’t keep people in the dark about things.

5. Set the example – in everything you do you must do it well and set a good example. You never know what kind of an effect you might have on those under you and one small poor decision might mean the loss of their respect and desire to follow you.

6. Ensure the task is understood, supervised and accomplished – make sure you give clear instructions, ask for feedback on what your followers think you said. Have patience if they don’t quite get what you are trying to communicate. And, of course, supervise to be sure a task is completed, but do it in such a way so that you aren’t hovering above people ready to jump on them when they make a mistake.

7. Train your soldiers as a team – create community and teamwork. Help everyone work together. Take time to do team building exercises. When a group of people work as a team, they work much more quickly, and effectively.

8. Make sound and timely decisions – this one is up to you. You need to make decisions and stick with them. Don’t shy away from making decisions, but look at the options and then make the best choice.

9. Develop a sense of responsibility in your subordinates – part of this is simply sharing responsibility with those under you. Delegate certain jobs and small tasks. Let others oversee certain activities. In this way, you will be training up new leaders.

10. Employ your unit in accordance with its capabilities – don’t overstretch or overuse those who are following you. Everyone has limitations, find what the limitations of your followers are, and then try to avoid exceeding them.

11. Seek responsibility and take responsibility for your actions – ultimately you are responsible. If something good happens, you are responsible, and if something bad happens, you are also responsible. Taking responsibility for things is a key trait of a leader, and fatal flaw if neglected. Be sure to always take responsibility for not only your actions, but also those of anyone under you.

These are powerful principles that could radically change the way you lead. Take some time to evaluate your own leadership and compare to see where you are doing well, and where you are lacking. The object of all of this is to be the best leader you can be. Now go and be a leader.

7 Traits of a Poor Leader

Many have written on what it takes to be a leader, on what qualities a leader must have, but what are the qualities of a poor leader? How can you tell when you or someone else is a shoddy leader? There are a number of key qualities and characteristics that define substandard leadership. Here are the 7 main qualities of a poor leader.

The first, and possibly the most debilitating characteristic of a poor leader is a poor relationship with God. A healthy relationship with God is like the first building block in a large building. Without it, the entire building will eventually become unstable and fall in a great heap.

Overtly prideful leaders will begin to overlook things because they begin to believe that they cannot fail, that they are perfect and all others need to change. They become obstinate and won’t accept council or suggestions.

Self-interested leaders only care about themselves. They will push difficult or monotonous tasks on to others and try to avoid anything that they don’t want to do. They are selfish and seek only to please themselves. They might also see everyone else as insignificant.

Obsessively concerned with every detail; Leaders with this quality will waste time on trivial matters and confuse and frustrate people under them by trying to make everything just like how they want it. They micro manage and concern themselves with every little detail. They blow small inconsequential issues out of proportion and don’t understand how to delegate.

Poor communication skills and little feedback is another characteristic. Leaders with this flaw will never let you know if you are doing well, only if you are performing below their standard. When you do perform excellently, these leaders will only tell you that you accomplished what was expected of you. They may confuse people by setting different goals and rules at various times or by being unclear about certain issues. These leaders often will rely on other negative attributes to help them lead and may even focus on other people’s weaknesses to help make them feel better.

A Leader who creates strict rules and regulations and proceeds to expect everyone else to follow them while not abiding by the rules themselves has the next serious flaw. These leaders make big deals out of small infractions and punish people senselessly. They use the numerous rules to substitute for their lack of leadership experience or skills. They set a poor example for the people following them and may even choose favorites who are exempt from the rules.

Anger, deceit, and poor moral character are the final qualities of a bad leader. These leaders will use any method to succeed, even if it means breaking the rules, or hurting others. They will also rely on anger to coerce people into following. Their poor character will show, although they probably will try to cover it up with lies. This may be the worst trait a leader can have.

Leaders who lack leadership skills will often rely on these negative attributes to help them lead people. They will substitute anger in for patience, micromanagement in for delegation, and so on. These people are not leaders at all; they are simply people telling others what to do and using authority given them to enforce it. Don’t be a bad leader, take what you have learned from here and try to lead well.

Now go, and don’t lead like this.

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