Being a Leader of Influence

Writing recently on LinkedIn, Dr. Travis Bradberry from TalentSmart identified nine habits found in leaders who are influential. They include:

1. They think for themselves - They form their opinions carefully using facts rather fads, what's trending or what's most popular.

2. They graciously interrupt - They regularly ask "Why?" and "Why not?"

3. They inspire conversation - They challenge others to explore new ideas and to think differently.

4. They leverage their networks - They add value to others by providing advice and know-how.

5. They focus only on what matters - They hone-in on the important and ignore the trivial.

6. They welcome disagreement - They are more about the end result rather than being right.

7. They are proactive - They don't wait, they anticipate and act.

8. They respond rather than react - They respond with a result in mind rather than being driven by emotion.

9. They believe - They believe in themselves and in the power of other people.

Leadership Quote of the Week

A leader is one who sees more than others see, who sees farther than others see and who sees before others see.  Leroy Eimes, author and leadership expert

Understand Who You Serve

Perhaps no organization is better at understanding those they serve than Disney. At Disney collecting and analyzing data to understand their guests is called Guestology.  Disney's Guestology data includes both demographics and psychographics. While demographic data like ages, family size, hometown, etc. are important, it's the psychographic data that really helps Disney create their magic.

Disney breaks it psychographic data in four parts, called compass points. They include needs, wants, stereotypes and emotions. Disney is constantly asking itself:

- What do guests need?
- What do guests want?
- What stereotypes or preconceived notions do they bring with them?
- What emotions do they experience?

What impact would it have on your campground if you asked these questions about your campers?  How could you use this type of psychographic data to better serve them?

The Vital Few

The Pareto Principle says that 80% of our results come from 20% of our activities. The principle, also known as 80/20 rule or "the law of the vital few" has proven remarkably accurate since economist Vilfredo Pareto first identified it in 1896.

As a leader 80% of our impact comes from a "vital few" 20% of our interactions with our staff.  The same goes for our interactions with campers. There are those few moments when what we do makes a big difference.

Stephen Covey in his book 7 Habits of Highly Successful People suggests we need to focus on "putting first things first."  These are the 20% activities that have significant leverage in impacting those we lead and our organizations. They are the "Not Urgent But Important" tasks that Covey suggests are critical to being effective as a leader.

How do we identify these critical activities that lead to big results?  Covey suggests the following types of activities are the "vital few" that offer a high payoff for the investment of our time.

• Planning
• Prevention 
• Relationship building
• Recognizing new opportunities
• Planning 
• Personal rest & recreation 

According to Covey, investing in these types of activities results in vision, perspective, balance, control and few crises. 

Ten Common Mistakes in Giving Feedback

Where's Your Leadership Spot?

Max Levchin who cofounded what became PayPal takes an interesting approach to leading his current organization. Like most of us who lead organizations he spends several hours a day in his office doing very focused work. Each day, however, he also tries to spend several hours sitting on a bench across from the bathrooms his staff use. Why this location?

Levchin believes his job as CEO is to "get other people to do their best work in service of a shared goal." In order to do this he needs to connect with people, not just through e-mails and in meetings, but on-on-one. From his bench outside the restroom, Levchin can connect with virtually of of his staff who at some point in time pass by. For some it is a quick "how are you doing" while in other cases there are longer conversations with a staff member who joins him on the bench. By being on the bench, Levchin makes himself accessible to everyone regardless of position. Anyone who works in his company can have a "I wanted to tell you" or "I wanted to ask you" moment with the CEO.

Is there a place at campground that can be your leadership spot? Where can you hangout where you're accessible to everyone at campground, both campers and staff?  How can you set up our schedule to spend some time each day in this spot connecting with those that pass by?

Leadership Quote of the Week

"When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it." Henry Ford

Don't Ignore the MIddle

In most organizations, including campgrounds, outstanding performers make up about 25% of the staff while poor performers account for another 25%. In the middle are the other 50%. These are the staff members who day after day diligently go about their work and consistently meet the campground's expectation. Occasionally they excel and occasionally they disappoint but for the most part they do what is asked of them.

As a leader it's easy to get caught up in focusing on the top and bottom 25% and to ignore the middle 50%. The top 25% stand out and are easy to notice. The bottom 25% demand our attention as we repeatedly are forced to deal with the consequences of their poor performance. Those who quietly do what needs to be done, day in and day out, are easy to forget.

Why do we as campground leaders need to focus on the folks in the middle?

1. They are the people who make the campground run.

2. They have the greatest potential for growth.

3. Investing in the middle produces more top performers and what campground couldn't use more great staff.

4. Raising the level of performance in the middle has the most leverage in raising the overall performance of the campground.

Do the Worst First

On most of our daily to-do lists there is a task or two we dread. It may be an uncomfortable conversation or phone call that needs to happen. It may be a boring task that we just can't get excited about.

Unfortunately the mental fatigue and unneeded stress of procrastinating take a toll. It has a negative emotional and physical impact. It reduces our effectiveness in doing the tasks we choose to do instead. In addition, as time passes, the task may become harder as the situation goes unresolved.

We can increase our effectiveness as leaders if we choose each day to do what's hardest first. Look over your to do list and make what you're dreading the first thing you tackle. Reduce your stress by doing what you're avoiding. Get it over with and move on.

It's Always the Leader

Becoming a Better Leader

Jack Zenger, CEO of one of the world's largest leadership development organizations, recently reported the results of research on leaders who made dramatic improvements in their leadership. Here are the behaviors these leaders used to turn around their performance.

• They improved their communication effectiveness.
• They made an effort to share their knowledge and expertise more widely. 
• They began to encourage others to do more and to be better. 
• They developed a broader perspective. 
• They recognized they were role models and needed to set a good example. 
• They began to champion their team's new ideas. 
• They learned to recognize when change was needed. 
• They improved their ability to inspire and motivate others. 
• They began to encourage cooperation rather than competition.

Leadership Quote of the Week

There is only one way to avoid criticism;

do nothing, 

say nothing, 

and be nothing. 

Aristotle

Culture Trumps Strategy

"Culture trumps strategy" has become a popular axiom in today's management literature. The belief is that having a strong, intentional organizational culture is more important to success than pursuing the right strategy.  The best organizations are not those who always make the right strategic decisions. The best organizations are those that are made up of staff who share a commitment to a common set of goals and embrace the same core values.

How do you create a strong organizational culture in your campground?

1. Identify and articulate what your organizations believes. Have a clear, written mission and core values.

2. Hire staff who buy into your mission and embrace your core values. Make values an important component of your selection process. If one of your values is putting the needs of guests first, hire staff members who value serving others and are willing to put the needs of others before their own.

3. Integrate teaching your mission and values into every aspect of staff training. Every topic in staff training should be linked to your mission and values. Teach not only what to do, but why it's done a particular way at your campground.

4. Lead by modeling your mission and values. If you want it to be part of your organizational culture, it must be part of how you and your leadership team lead your staff.