A Truly Great Leader
Today, we honor and pay tribute to Martin Luther King, a timeless leader who, even today, is a role model for our next generation of leaders. If you truly look at it, MLK exemplifies all the traits and characteristics that we need in leading today’s very complex and difficult world.
Inspires
He inspires other to action. Martin Luther King didn’t have a “I Have a Plan Speech”. No, he had a “I Have a Dream Speech” that touched, energized, and mobilized millions, even in a world without social media.
Energized
Dr. King energized his followers by connecting with them, not communicating to them. Even today, I don't believe we would see him using Twitter or Facebook as his main source of connection. He would invest the time to go into the communities, churches, and homes to directly and authentically connect with them. Meet them where they are and understand who they are, all of which creates energy and personal commitment.
Facilitated
MLK facilitated a movement and social change, he didn’t control it or direct it. He was there to enable it and facilitate the actions and activities required through others. He didn’t demand people comply with him, he engaged them and supported their efforts, he didn’t micromanage them.
Developed
And finally, Dr. King developed others and cultivated the right environment to lead the change he so vividly saw and desperately wanted. He knew he couldn’t do it alone, so he invested time, poured into, coached, and mentored those leadership skills and character traits he naturally exhibited.
Today, we honor and pay tribute to Martin Luther King, a leader we hold up each day to so many as a true role model leader for yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
Cornerstone Learning is a performance and leadership consulting organization that has worked with clients all over the world. Our focus is working with individuals and organizations to create performance solutions that deliver top-tier results by inspiring, enabling, and developing employee-led, leader supported, and organization enabled performance. We are able to successfully deliver this through multiple products and services such as employee surveys, online training, performance assessments, and performance coaching. The goal at Cornerstone Learning is to assist our clients in developing a dynamic and customized blue print to deliver role model organizational and personal performance.
The 2017 Houston Astros: A Blueprint for Success
Congratulations to our hometown Houston Astros!
It has been over 55 years in the making, but 2017 calls the Houston Astros World Series Champions! And what an amazing impact the team has had on a city in the midst of recovering from Hurricane Harvey. In fact, the city went from flooding with over 40 inches of rain to over 1 million people flooding the streets of downtown Houston to welcome their world champions home.
So, what was the formula for the Astros success? (By the way it is a very similar formula used by the Chicago Cubs to win the 2016 World Series!) A formula that even Sports Illustrated recognized that, if followed, predicted this World Series win back in 2014 by putting the Astros on their cover claiming them the 2017 World Champs. They followed a blueprint for performance success that we use with our clients, Employee-led (player led), Leader Supported (manager guided) and organizationally enabled.
For more information on our ELO model for performance, please download our whitepaper here.
The quest for this 2017 Championship began over 55 years ago but really accelerated when Jim Crane, the current owner, purchased the Astros in November of 2011 and began to enable success. He first hired Jeff Luhnow from the St. Louis Cardinals in December 2011 to be his General Manager. Jeff’s formula for success truly mirror’s our organizational model for our client’s performance, Employee-Led (player-led), Leader Supported (Manager support), and Organization Enabled (Astros ownership and GM). You cultivate a purpose driven culture, enable success by investing in your talent, providing that talent with the right and best resources, and support them with leadership, not management, that develops the leader in everyone in the organization regardless of role or position, from an MVP player to a groundskeeper. The players will tell you, the goal each day did not focus on winning, the focus was on making each other great. If each of us will do that, then success and winning is the natural result.
Jeff then further enabled the organization by hiring A.J. Hinch, a leader that promotes and cultivates the very culture Luhnow was trying to develop. A.J. inspires, brings energy, connects with, and develops each and every player. He doesn't direct, control, or manage his players. He supports them and shows confidence in them even when they struggle. He knows and relates to each and every player, understanding that each brings a unique and special talent and contributes in different ways.
The right talent, guided by the right purpose, supported by the right leader, enables the right success.
Finally, A.J. enables success by letting his players lead, not controlling them. He is there to guide and support, not to micromanage them. The players go out each day with their task to contribute to a larger more meaningful purpose, to make each other great! And when new talent is added to the roster throughout the year, it is the culture and players that lead the way to guide and ensure success of each and every member of the Astros organization. The right talent, guided by the right purpose, supported by the right leader, enables the right success. The Houston Astros followed a very familiar blueprint for success; Employee-led, Leader Supported, and Organization Enabled. Want to know how this model for success might work in your organization? Click here to find out.
Congratulations to our Houston Astros, 2017 World Series Champions!
Cornerstone Learning is a performance and leadership consulting organization that has worked with clients all over the world. Our focus is working with individuals and organizations to create performance solutions that deliver top-tier results by inspiring, enabling, and developing employee-led, leader supported, and organization enabled performance. We are able to successfully deliver this through multiple products and services such as employee surveys, online training, performance assessments, and performance coaching. The goal at Cornerstone Learning is to assist our clients in developing a dynamic and customized blue print to deliver role model organizational and personal performance.
A Blueprint for Personal Performance
As we shift to leading our performance not waiting to review it, it is important to have a blueprint that guides our personal growth process. Your blueprint starts with establishing a firm foundation of greater organizational, situational, and self-awareness.
Organizational Awareness
How connected and aligned are you to your organization and departmental purpose? Do you clearly understand the vision and mission that you and your team are striving to achieve? Are you exhibiting the values set by your organization you serve daily?
These are critical questions that we need continually clarity and become growth opportunities for all of us.
Situational and Self-Awareness
As you gain greater organizational clarity it is important to enhance both your situational and self-awarenesses. How you respond to circumstances both in your control and out of your control is often the difference in contributing to a positive outcome or creating a negative result. Having actions and activities that enhance your situational awareness is imperative to gaining greater influence and impact. Knowing your strengths and acknowledging your developmental opportunities and actually working daily to stretch and grow both your personal capabilities and capacity are key to gaining greater self-awareness.
With your foundation created, now build your growth framework by establishing actions and activities that develop both your personal and technical eligibility and enhances your behavioral suitability. Don’t forget the behavioral development since studies have shown that 80-85% of success in a position is behavioral, not technical. As you continue growing both your eligibility and suitability also focus on identifying your true potential and make time each week to cultivate and accelerate your future.
80-85% of success in a position is behavioral, not technical.
Stretch your personal growth, dream bigger, reach further than you ever thought possible and most importantly don’t give up on development!
This blueprint for performance, once completed, will serve as your performance connection guide to assist you in leading your monthly 10-15-minute ongoing performance connections that we will discuss next week. If you would like more information on leading your own performance as well as a structured blueprint to help guide you, please check out our online course, Leading Performance, out on October 24th!
Upcoming Posts
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OCTOBER 17 - The Performance Connection
OCTOBER 24 - Leading Performance Overview
Leading Performance Release Date
October 24, 2017
Cornerstone Learning is a performance and leadership consulting organization that has worked with clients all over the world. Our focus is working with individuals and organizations to create performance solutions that deliver top-tier results by inspiring, enabling, and developing employee-led, leader supported, and organization enabled performance. We are able to successfully deliver this through multiple products and services such as employee surveys, online training, performance assessments, and performance coaching. The goal at Cornerstone Learning is to assist our clients in developing a dynamic and customized blue print to deliver role model organizational and personal performance.
Model for Performance Success - Clarity, Alignment, and Accountability
To lead your personal performance there are three core building blocks that lead to sustained performance success.
Clarity, alignment and accountability are critical to performance success in any environment or endeavor.
In fact, if you consistently gain and provide both clarity and alignment it becomes much easier to ensure accountability.
Lets start with the clarity.
You can achieve greater personal clarity by:
- Periodically reviewing and updating your formal job description.
- Identifying and documenting your personal purpose, vision, and mission.
- Each day review your key priorities and actions.
Now lets focus on your personal and organizational alignment.
How truly aligned are you?
Do you know...
- Your managers description of your role and their expectations?
- The purpose, mission, and vision of your organization and department?
- The key priorities of your organization and team?
Finally, are your personally accountable?
It would be very easy to lack some accountability if you lack any clarity or alignment from the above exercises. The key to enhancing your accountability will be to gain more clarity and alignment. In addition, measure yourself against these key accountability elements:
- Do you or have you placed blame or made excuses recently?
- Are there issues/problems either in your control or out of your control that just continue to drift where you have not intervened?
- Do you accept responsibility no matter what the circumstance might be to make positive things happen?
It is imperative to take control of our performance, don’t leave performance success and the measure of that success up to anyone else. Begin leading your performance today by gaining and achieving greater clarity, alignment and accountability, the core to performance success.
And don't forget to sign up for the latest Cornerstone Learning Online Course, Leading Performance! Out on October 24th!
Upcoming Posts
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OCTOBER 10 - Blueprint for Individual Performance
OCTOBER 17 - The Performance Connection
OCTOBER 24 - Leading Performance Overview
Leading Performance Release Date
October 24, 2017
Cornerstone Learning is a performance and leadership consulting organization that has worked with clients all over the world. Our focus is working with individuals and organizations to create performance solutions that deliver top-tier results by inspiring, enabling, and developing employee-led, leader supported, and organization enabled performance. We are able to successfully deliver this through multiple products and services such as employee surveys, online training, performance assessments, and performance coaching. The goal at Cornerstone Learning is to assist our clients in developing a dynamic and customized blue print to deliver role model organizational and personal performance.
Leaders Define Success, They Don’t Dictate
While having the privilege to work with great leaders at every level, every day, I've noticed one trait that transcends all the best leaders is the ability to continually define and align to success. If people constantly demand and dictate success they might achieve success but at a cost of resentment, resistance, and reluctance.
However, if you look to define the success you want then people can align to that success and are more likely to be committed and engaged in achieving that it than just being compliant to the demands of the day. Some examples are: Success for your part of the organization in 2017, development goals for you and your team, or even what success looks like coming out of the meeting you are about to attend. Defining success for even the most simple parts of your day can lead to greater results.
So, do you and those around you know what success looks like? If not, here is your opportunity to lead with clarity.
-Ken
Cornerstone Learning is a performance and leadership consulting organization that has worked with clients all over the world. Our focus is working with individuals and organizations to create performance solutions that deliver top-tier results by inspiring, enabling, and developing employee-led, leader supported, and organization enabled performance. We are able to successfully deliver this through multiple products and services such as employee surveys, online training, performance assessments, and performance coaching. The goal at Cornerstone Learning is to assist our clients in developing a dynamic and customized blue print to deliver role model organizational and personal performance.
UBER and Wells Fargo; Success, but at What Cost?
UBER and Wells Fargo are both paying a steep price to get success right.
It is well documented the growth and financial successes each organization has achieved over the last several years. Unfortunately, it is also well documented the high price in negative publicity, legal action, and in retooling their respective organizational cultures and values each are having to pay to sustain that success.
Like UBER and Wells Fargo, many organizations spend a substantial amount of time and money on developing and cultivating business models and the bottom line results but often lose sight of how that success is being achieved. In the end, it will be how success is achieved that will define your organization and stand the test of time.
In the end, it will be how success is achieved that will define your organization and stand the test of time.
Does your organization currently spend more time on developing technology, processes, and bottom line results than cultivating an environment of transparency, respect, and trust?
Is there a lot of talk about teamwork and personal accountability but daily actions throughout the organization reflect an environment of placing blame, making excuses, and pointing of fingers?
Are people leaders in your organization directing, controlling, and managing people versus inspiring, creating energy, facilitating, and developing them? Focused on the organizations bottom line regardless of what the people and morale cost might be?
You certainly can’t ignore the tremendous growth and financial successes of UBER and Wells Fargo, but don’t ignore the environment and culture that is creating and supporting that success.
Too many organizations are paying way too high a price to get success right!
Is yours?
Cornerstone Learning is a performance and leadership consulting organization that has worked with clients all over the world. Our focus is working with individuals and organizations to create performance solutions that deliver top-tier results by inspiring, enabling, and developing employee-led, leader supported, and organization enabled performance. We are able to successfully deliver this through multiple products and services such as employee surveys, online training, performance assessments, and performance coaching. The goal at Cornerstone Learning is to assist our clients in developing a dynamic and customized blue print to deliver role model organizational and personal performance.
