Month: March 2018

Because of the Summit, Leader Discovers 4 Ways to Stop Wishing and Start Leading

Posted on March 14, 2018 by - Because of the GLS, Business, North America, Stories, Supervising People, Team Building

Are you looking for ways to improve your career, jumpstart your team or develop a work culture that produces growth in your organization?

By attending The Global Leadership Summit, Martin Flores, enterprise solutions architect for Intel, was not only encouraged as a leader when he felt like giving up, but he was also equipped with the very tools that helped him accomplish new career goals and elevate his team to produce more growth than they thought possible.

For six years, I worked for managers who had diminishing management styles, making it extremely difficult for career growth and opportunities, Martin explains. They took credit for other people’s ideas and accomplishments and did not offer coaching, mentorship or career development. During that time, I was attending the Summit and learned a different approach to leadership.

Martin credits the Summit and what the Holy Spirit prompted in him with becoming the leader he wished to see in his organization. The results were far greater than he imagined. These are the four ways Martin stopped wishing, and started leading, which ultimately led him to the new leadership position he’s in today:

  1. Update your career development plan

The 2013 GLS changed everything for me! I stopped wishing and hoping for changes in our leadership and I changed my career path from an individual contributor technical engineer and decided to return to management. I updated my career development plan to focus completely on management and leadership and shared it with my managers. This informed them of the direction I was going to pursue in their organization.

  1. Lead by example

I hit the ground running. Since there was a lack of leadership and employee development in our department, there were several managers struggling to manage their teams. I volunteered for a management position leading a team of three. This created opportunities for me to lead by example, and be the leader I wished to see in our organization.

My dream and vision was to be part of a high-performing and high-morale organization. I wanted us to become healthy and thriving, full of employees who felt valued, supported and connected to their work. I had worked in great organizations before and I wanted to experience it again. So I began focusing on developing my employees’ careers and their skills. As a result, their morale improved, communication and trust increased and our performance grew. While other managers were struggling, my team was soaring. So I offered to help solve some critical issues in another engineering environment.

  1. Clearly communicate a plan of action

I shared my ideas for solving the critical issues with my manager, which was a struggle, because my manager was more focused on how the issues reflected on his career than on the fact that a new approach from a thriving team could solve our problems. There was a lot of tension and I even contemplated quitting working for my manager. But I prayed about it and I decided to wait and see if the issues continued.

I wondered if things would get bad enough for him to ask for help. Three days later, there were catastrophic test failures. This time the issues were escalated by other engineering managers, and hit the inbox of two of our VPs, which then made it back to my manager. He reached out for help, and it was time to resolve this ASAP. I explained the process and the timeline for a temporary fix until we could solve the core issue. It was time to act.

  1. Build a high performance team

The temporary fix worked for a few days, but then began failing, which led to panic and frustration within upper management. Collaboration was key. I assigned my two most experienced engineers to investigate the issue based on a key item I discovered was failing every night. They met with other engineers and within one hour, they had the missing information we needed to solve the root cause of the issues. Two weeks later my team successfully resolved it!

Later, I volunteered to take on managing another engineering team, and they became high performing within six months. God multiplied my opportunities and sphere of influence when I sought His guidance to lead by example. I was managing eleven employees and a year later, I started to lead a third team with a total of 21 employees under my leadership. I took the same approach with each team to focus on their career development. Building a high performance team makes all the difference in your organization!

 

These four steps take faith and perseverance—it’s all worth it in the end

During the years when I managed these teams, my employees received the best performance reviews of their careers. I left the position with great satisfaction in how God had moved and motivated me and provided me with the physical and emotional energy I needed to make a positive difference in other people’s careers and my own.

The journey wasn’t always easy. Several times I almost quit, but every time I was at my lowest point, God showed up in the most amazing ways. He used the Holy Spirit and whispered words of encouragement and perseverance that spoke to the core of my soul. God followed up on the whispers of the Holy Spirit with words of encouragement and perseverance from a co-worker.

My co-worker said, You are doing great, man! I don’t know how you’re doing it, but you are cleaning things up and people are noticing it. Keep doing what you are doing. People need you! He prayed for me and asked God to bless me with the courage and energy to keep fighting the good fight.

God is so good!

There is another story of redemption in all of this. In 2006 my wife was diagnosed with alcoholism and bi-polar disease and she decided she no longer wanted to be married or be a mother to our children. By 2009, I lost my marriage, my house, my credit, my retirement and my career. But I held on tightly to God and now in 2018, I am so blessed by God with the highest position of my career, and a home for my kids. And God blessed me with the gift of being able to help several other people achieve their career goals along the way.

Why attend the Summit and bring your team?

The wisdom and experiences shared at the GLS are priceless. If you think you don’t have the time or money to attend, that could be a sign of why you need to be there. Pray about it and God will answer.

Embrace a growth mindset and support your employees’ desires for career development and self-growth. Support them and in turn they will support you.

 

New Research on How Timing Affects Your Leadership

Posted on March 14, 2018 by - Articles, Change Management, Leading Yourself, Productivity, Resilience, Wellness

A fascinating new book by GLS faculty alumnus Daniel Pink (GLS 2010), When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing, explores the relationship between timing and leadership effectiveness. Recently, the GLS team sat down with him to discuss his findings.

GLS:  As leaders, we are always searching for new ways to grow our abilities, invest in the people we lead, spread our vision and increase our impact. Often we invest time into discovering the “how” behind these skills; however, you would argue the “when” is just as important. How does learning the value of “when” have the potential to increase our leadership capacity and enhance our leadership skills?

Daniel:  What most leaders haven’t realized—but what the science shows very clearly—is that “when” has a material effect on people’s productivity, creativity and well-being on the job. One example is simply time of day. The research shows that our cognitive skills do not remain static over the course of a day. They vary, often considerably, in predictable ways.

Indeed, time of day effects can explain 20 percent of the variance in human performance on workplace tasks. That doesn’t mean timing is everything. But it is a big thing—and something leaders should be prepared to reckon with.

GLS:  In the book you share, “I used to believe that timing was everything. Now I believe that everything is timing.” What makes timing so important in our lives, and how can it actually affect the way we lead?

Daniel:  We are temporal creatures. Every cell in our body has a biological clock. And we live in a temporal environment. We move through time and organize our lives by its units. For some reason though, we’ve discounted this aspect of our lives. But it’s omnipresent, and knowing how to deal with it can make a world of difference.

GLS:  One timing strategy in your book is something you call “the nappuccino.” Talk about that.

Daniel:  This strategy is the recipe for a perfect nap. It turns out that the most effective naps are extremely short—between 10 and 20 minutes. Those deliver the restorative benefits of napping without what’s called “sleep inertia,” that groggy, boggy feeling we often get from sleeping too long. But the very best short nap has a twist. We should drink a cup of coffee right before napping. Since it takes about 25 minutes for caffeine to enter the bloodstream, when you wake up, you’ll get an added boost. It’s called a nappuccino, and I swear by it.

GLS:  Why are endings important?

Daniel:  Endings—simply being aware of an end—dramatically shape our behavior. Endings can energize us. So the impending end of a decade is one reason why people are disproportionately likely to run their first marathon at ages 29, 39, 49 or 59. Endings help us encode—that is, to evaluate and record entire experiences. That’s one reason we should pay particular attention to how customer experiences, family vacations and work projects end. Endings also help us elevate, feel better and even seek meaning. In general, we prefer rising sequences to declining sequences at the end. That too can shape how we construct experiences and interact with others.

GLS:  You say, “Midpoints can bring us down. That’s the slump. But they can also fire us up. That’s the spark.” How can we take the midpoints in our own lives and leadership and turn them from slumps into sparks?

Daniel:  The recipe is fairly straightforward.

  • First, we should recognize midpoints. Any undertaking with a beginning and an end, by its very nature, has a midpoint.
  • Second, once we recognize the midpoint, we should consciously use it as a call to wake up rather than to roll over.
  • Third, one way to wake up is to imagine that you’re “slightly” behind.

GLS:  You suggest there are 86 days in the year when an individual can make a fresh start. What are those days and why are they significant?

Daniel:  Certain dates operate as what researchers call “temporal landmarks.” They stand out in time the way physical landmarks stand out in space. They get us to slow down, and then to perform a peculiar kind of mental accounting. On these “fresh start dates,” we relegate our old imperfect selves to the past and open up a fresh ledger on our new better selves.

This is why you’re more likely to start to be successful in sustaining a new diet, exercise plan or work approach if you start it on a Monday rather than a Thursday, on the first of the month rather than the 13th of the month or on the day after your birthday rather than the day before your birthday.

GLS:  In the book, you teach that each individual has a chronotype that can be determined through a tool in the book. Each reader can identify if they are a Lark, a Third Bird, or an Owl.  Why is it important for leaders to understand their chronotype?

Daniel:  Leaders should understand their own chronotype, but equally important, the chronotypes of those they lead. Whether we rise early and fall asleep early, or rise late and fall asleep late, plays a role in our performance and well-being at work.

GLS:  What is one step every leader can take to utilize the value of “when” to enhance their leadership?

Daniel:  One of the simplest has to do with endings. At some point, every leader says, “I’ve got some good news and some bad news.” Which should she deliver first? The conventional view is to give the good news first as a way to ease into the conversation and lay down a cushion before bringing down the hammer. But that’s the wrong approach. Research shows that most people want the “bad news” first. Why? Given a choice, human beings prefer endings that elevate. So the next time you’ve got good news and bad news to report, lead with the bad, and follow with the good. You’ll see the difference.

To learn more about the scientific secrets of perfect timing, check out Daniel’s book, When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing.

4 Ways to Stop Wishing and Start Leading

Posted on March 14, 2018 by - Because of the GLS, Business, North America, Stories, Supervising People, Team Building, The Global Leadership Summit

Are you looking for ways to improve your career, jumpstart your team or develop a work culture that produces growth in your organization?

By attending The Global Leadership Summit, Martin Flores, enterprise solutions architect for Intel, was not only encouraged as a leader when he felt like giving up, but he was also equipped with the very tools that helped him accomplish new career goals and elevate his team to produce more growth than they thought possible.

“For six years, I worked for managers who had diminishing management styles, making it extremely difficult for career growth and opportunities,” Martin explains. “They took credit for other people’s ideas and accomplishments and did not offer coaching, mentorship or career development. During that time, I was attending the Summit and learned a different approach to leadership.”

Martin credits the Summit and what the Holy Spirit prompted in him with becoming the leader he wished to see in his organization. The results were far greater than he imagined.

These are the four ways Martin stopped wishing, and started leading, which ultimately led him to the new leadership position he’s in today:

  1. Update your career development plan

The 2013 GLS changed everything for me! I stopped wishing and hoping for changes in our leadership and I changed my career path from an individual contributor technical engineer and decided to return to management. I updated my career development plan to focus completely on management and leadership and shared it with my managers. This informed them of the direction I was going to pursue in their organization.

  1. Lead by example

I hit the ground running. Since there was a lack of leadership and employee development in our department, there were several managers struggling to manage their teams. I volunteered for a management position leading a team of three. This created opportunities for me to lead by example, and be the leader I wished to see in our organization.

My dream and vision was to be part of a high-performing and high-morale organization. I wanted us to become healthy and thriving, full of employees who felt valued, supported and connected to their work. I had worked in great organizations before and I wanted to experience it again. So I began focusing on developing my employees’ careers and their skills. As a result, their morale improved, communication and trust increased and our performance grew. While other managers were struggling, my team was soaring. So I offered to help solve some critical issues in another engineering environment.

  1. Clearly communicate a plan of action

I shared my ideas for solving the critical issues with my manager, which was a struggle, because my manager was more focused on how the issues reflected on his career than on the fact that a new approach from a thriving team could solve our problems. There was a lot of tension and I even contemplated quitting working for my manager. But I prayed about it and I decided to wait and see if the issues continued.

I wondered if things would get bad enough for him to ask for help. Three days later, there were catastrophic test failures. This time the issues were escalated by other engineering managers, and hit the inbox of two of our VPs, which then made it back to my manager. He reached out for help, and it was time to resolve this ASAP. I explained the process and the timeline for a temporary fix until we could solve the core issue. It was time to act.

  1. Build a high performance team

The temporary fix worked for a few days, but then began failing, which led to panic and frustration within upper management. Collaboration was key. I assigned my two most experienced engineers to investigate the issue based on a key item I discovered was failing every night. They met with other engineers and within one hour, they had the missing information we needed to solve the root cause of the issues. Two weeks later my team successfully resolved it!

Later, I volunteered to take on managing another engineering team, and they became high performing within six months. God multiplied my opportunities and sphere of influence when I sought His guidance to lead by example. I was managing eleven employees and a year later,  I started to lead a third team with a total of 21 employees under my leadership. I took the same approach with each team— to focus on their career development. Building a high performance team makes all the difference in your organization!

 

These four steps take faith and perseverance—it’s all worth it in the end

During the years when I managed these teams, my employees received the best performance reviews of their careers. I left the position with great satisfaction in how God had moved and motivated me and provided me with the physical and emotional energy I needed to make a positive difference in other people’s careers and my own.

The journey wasn’t always easy. Several times I almost quit, but every time I was at my lowest point, God showed up in the most amazing ways. He used the Holy Spirit and whispered words of encouragement and perseverance that spoke to the core of my soul. God followed up on the whispers of the Holy Spirit with words of encouragement and perseverance from a co-worker.

My co-worker said, You are doing great, man! I don’t know how you’re doing it, but you are cleaning things up and people are noticing it. Keep doing what you are doing. People need you! He prayed for me and asked God to bless me with the courage and energy to keep fighting the good fight.

God is so good!

There is another story of redemption in all of this. In 2006 my wife was diagnosed with alcoholism and bi-polar disease and she decided she no longer wanted to be married or be a mother to our children. By 2009, I lost my marriage, my house, my credit, my retirement and my career. But I held on tightly to God and now in 2018, I am so blessed by God with the highest position of my career, and a home for my kids. And God blessed me with the gift of being able to help several other people achieve their career goals along the way.

Why attend the Summit and bring your team?

The wisdom and experiences shared at the GLS are priceless. If you think you don’t have the time or money to attend, that could be a sign of why you need to be there. Pray about it and God will answer.

Embrace a growth mindset and support your employees’ desires for career development and self-growth. Support them and in turn they will support you.

 

5 Incredible Outcomes from the Summit in Brazil

Posted on March 12, 2018 by - Because of the GLS, Calling, Government, Healthcare, Latin America, Prison, South America, Stories

The Global Leadership Summit has taken place in 21 locations so far in Brazil alone this 2017/18 season, with more events taking place as we speak. By the end of the season, the GLS will have reached more than 18,000 leaders in Brazil. Thank you for supporting and praying for God’s blessing on the impact of these events!

Be inspired by what has already taken place:

Digging Wells in In São Mateus

A lady who works with the mayor’s team was greatly impacted by the Greenly’s grander vision story about digging wells. In São Mateus, they have been facing issues on providing clean water for all regions of the city. Most of the people were receiving salty water in their tap. After seeing the story of this businessman, she took the case to the city council and created a project to dig wells in each region.

Her project was approved and the city has been able to bring good, fresh water for all but three of the regions in the city so far. The last few should be completed in the next month.

Health insurance and care for low income families

An entrepreneur in São Mateus was moved by Liz Bohannon’s grander vision story about the sandals in Uganda. He said, I don’t have a sandal business, but I do work with health insurance plans!

Since the Summit, he started a special project to offer 50%, 70% and 100% discounts for those with little to no income, and offer them a health program. He also partnered with another businessman to provide sports equipment for a social project that serves the kids in the slums. The host church is investing its time and energy to get volunteers to run this project to evangelize and provide hope and care to the kids living there.

Impact on inmates, the military and police in in São Paulo

Summit host partner, Batista do Povo, continues to build on its relationship with the different facets of the military force. In the past couple of months, a church member answered God’s whisper to provide Bibles to all the inmates in the Federal Police penitentiary. This member involved her pastor and church in the idea and shared how she was completing her law degree at the location where the most influential cases are being investigated for the state of São Paulo.

The inmates spend 20 hours each day in their cell and four hours outside. They are not allowed to see anyone except their lawyer. As the lawyers gave out Bibles, many inmates expressed gratitude; some even cried. The impact was greater than anyone could imagine.

The Federal Police superintendent received reports of some of the testimonies and changes in the inmates and asked to speak to the intern and her pastor. The pastor sent Col. Terra, one of the colonels behind the Military Summit and police chaplain ministry in the city. The Federal Police force has now has asked that the church provide support and a chaplain every two weeks at the Federal Police office in São Paulo. Talks of another influential military Summit are underway with this partner church, chaplains and colonels.

Atheist accepts Christ in Porto Velho

A well-known atheist attended the Summit for the first time. On the first day of the Summit, the team added a live speaker interview of someone who struggled with forgiveness. Following the session with Imacullee Iibagiza, the man was so moved by the testimonies, could no longer contain himself. He accepted Christ the same day!

Many more people attend the Summit in Governador Valadares than registered

A member of the church had little faith that the Summit event would have more than 15 participants. She kept telling the pastor to cancel the event due to the crises they were facing. During the Summit she cried almost the entire time as she saw so many attend, and heard so many testimonies shared. She asked her pastor for forgiveness for doubting the impact the Summit had on her and so many in her community.

 

Thank you for being a part of the impact of the Summit in Brazil! 

Fearless Leadership

Posted on March 12, 2018 by - Articles, Calling, Confidence, Leading Yourself, Team Building

If you’ve ever been in a room full of co-workers engaged in a team-building exercise, chances are you’ve heard the question, What would you do if you knew you could not fail?

It’s a good question that has been asked so frequently, it has nearly lost all of its poignancy. So let me ask the question in another way.

If fear were obsolete, what dreams would you take action on?

At the 2017 Global Leadership Summit, Gary Haugen brilliantly coined the phrase, Fear is the silent destroyer of dreams.

Fear is sown in silence, fertilized in the shadows and grown in darkness.

Fear is often an unseen virus that takes down the mightiest of dreamers and discourages the bravest of leaders.

So in a world desperately in need of courageous, fearless leaders, how do we face the silent destroyer of dreams and come out on the other side victorious?

Here are three ways to combat the fear in your leadership:

1) Name it

If fear thrives in the dark and chokes in the light, then the greatest step we can take to avoid this silent destroyer is to name the fear.

I can still remember what it felt like the first time I voiced a fear that had consumed me for months. I was walking around in what felt like a fog. Fear had already taken over so much of my life.

When I finally began to speak it, it spilled out of my mouth so quickly it almost scared me.

The tears came and it felt like my fear lay all over the floor, ugly, exposed and messy, for everyone to see.

But instead of judgement, I heard hope. I experienced freedom.

Freedom will never come if we refuse to voice our fears.

Freedom comes when we take a dose of humility, name the fears and allow them to lie open and exposed for trusted people to see.

2) Own it

Have you ever tried to convince someone it isn’t your fault that fear just happens to inhabit your every thought and action?

Perhaps the fear comes from a family sin pattern, or someone treated you in a way that caused fear, or the fear is just a part of your culture.

There may be legitimate reasons for your fear. However, legitimate reasons do not give us license to indulge the fear.

Every fear has the potential to be uprooted and thrown out. Fearless leaders own their responsibility in this process.

If you cannot own your own ability to overcome your fear, you will never experience freedom from it.

Own it.

Own your role in it.

Own your ability to rise above it.

3) Fight against it

In a world inundated with self-help books and how-to guides, there are so many messages telling us if we fight harder, fight smarter or fight better, we can defeat the fear that overcomes us.

But I would disagree.

On your own, you cannot defeat the fear in your life.

The good news is that we serve a God who invites you to join Him as He defeats the fear in your life.

He invites you to drown your fears in His word, to fill your minds with His teachings, to surrender all your thoughts to Him and then to work diligently to fix your mind on His truth.

Philippians 4:8 reminds us, Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable if anything is excellent or praiseworthy think about such things.

Fear is not a passive enemy. We must take real action and engage a serious strategy to defeat it.

We simply cannot approach the fight against our fear with apathy.

May we, as leaders, name the fear, own the fear and fight against the fear in order to unleash the dreams God has given us for His world.