For the record, I never wanted to be a rock star. But as a college freshman I decided I was going to make an album. I hadn’t quite grown out of my belief that I could do absolutely anything I set my mind to. It was a good sentiment from my growing up years, but in this particular case it didn’t prove very helpful. I knew how to play the guitar and a buddy played the piano, so we decided if we wrote one or two songs each semester, we’d have an album by the time we graduated. In fact, I was so sure I would graduate with a diploma in one hand and a record in the other that I even volunteered to write the first song.

Schottsy

Back in my dorm room, I sat down to with my guitar, a pen, a notebook, and my thinking cap. Nothing happened. Somewhere during the next five long, lonely minutes, I decided songwriting just wasn’t in the cards for me. So I told my buddy, “I got nothin’” and got back to my business management homework.

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“So Nathan, tell me what you do for a living?”

“Well, I’m a consultant.”

“A consultant? But what do you actually do?”

This is typical conversation whenever I meet anyone new – and not just me, but for most folks in my profession. I don’t know why, but it’s always been a little tricky to explain what, in fact, I do for a living. “I solve problems,” or “I help people clarify what they want,” or “I build management solutions” are typical responses. A past employer taught us to say, “I help clients move from issue to outcome, with pace, certainty and strategic agility.”

Management Consultant What People Think I Do

The truth is that I help management understand their needs and then help build solutions to meet those needs. Since my specialty is organizational and talent development, the types of needs I address are usually related to the people and leadership side of organizations. My colleagues in other specialties do the same thing, but with finance, marketing, customers, supply chains, technology or countless other areas.

Whether you are officially a “consultant” or are a specialist, program manager, project manager or just plain responsible for some type of organizational change, I’d like to introduce you to a basic consulting methodology. Continue Reading…

Powerful Question #6

June 5, 2013 — 2 Comments

Question Mark 2Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “In my walks, every man I meet is my superior in some way, and in that I learn from him.” If Emerson was right, that means you and I are “experts” at something compared to some people.

What is one area you are an expert in – i.e. if people have questions, they should consult with YOU? (Don’t be humble, own up to your expertise!)

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“The Filipino is worth dying for.” Those were among the final words spoken by “the greatest president the Philippines never had,” Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino, Jr., including the night before he was assassinated on August 21, 1983.

There is no greater leadership impact than sacrificing for others. So far in this Leadership Profile series, we’ve looked at several thought leaders, a business leader and a football coach. They taught us how to think and to believe in ourselves. Today we’ll focus on a man who made the ultimate sacrifice on behalf of an entire nation.

Ninoy Aquino

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It’s May. Graduation season is upon us. The kids are close to getting out of school for the summer. Maybe you have your vacation all planned out. Regardless, nearly everyone has some collection of summer activities in mind.

Reading SummerI’ve posted about reading before. I’ve shared reading strategies, a comprehensive list of leadership books and inspirational quotes such as Charlie “Tremendous” Jones,’ “You’ll be the same person in a year as you are today except for the people you meet and the books you read.” Unfortunately, not everyone enjoys reading as much as I do. So for now, let me use a more subtle approach and simply recommend five leadership books. Whether you read one or five this summer, I’m positive each one will help take your leadership to the next level.

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It’s been said that the term “change management” is a misnomer because if you are trying to “manage” change, you’re already too far behind! Change must be led from the front. Because of that, when I first discovered John Kotter’s eight stage process for creating major change in a university textbook (and published in his international bestseller Leading Change), I knew I had stumbled onto something incredibly valuable.

Change

So how do you go about creating change in your organization? Change seems like it should be simple enough – until we experience resistence from people who want things to stay the same. What’s the solution?

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My favorite annual leadership event takes place each May. It’s Chick-fil-A Leadercast. The seminar features some of the biggest names in all of leadership. This year’s theme was: “Simply Lead.” I hope you got to attend, but if not, I’ve included 12 of my greatest takeaways. Here they are:

CFA Leadercast 2013

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Have you ever had a coach, teacher, or mentor in your formative years who pushed you to be more than you thought you could become on your own? If so, you’ll strongly appreciate this month’s leadership profile featuring my high school football coach, Dick Burton – even if you’ve never been an athlete.

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Powerful Question #5

May 1, 2013 — 3 Comments

Question Mark 2The late Charlie “Tremendous” Jones used to say, “You’ll be the same person in five years as you are today except for the people you meet and the books you read.”

Who is one person you’ve met and one book you’ve read in the past year that has had a positive influence on you?

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Real Leadership Sketches

April 29, 2013 — 3 Comments

By now there’s a good chance you’ve seen Dove’s latest ad campaign Real Beauty Sketches. Many of my female friends posted the link to the video below on Facebook, so I finally checked it out. I even shared it myself. Not wanting to get into a discussion on body image, I applauded the merits of a counter-cultural marketing strategy – one that emphasized that the consumer is already good enough just the way they are instead of fatally flawed unless they buy (and then continue to buy) the product.

It wasn’t until a recent comment by Michael Hyatt that I realized the significance this message has for leadership.

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This is the third post of a three-part series on the leadership merits of Gallup’s StrengthsFinder 2.0 strengths assessment. In the first post, I shared the practical benefits of the assessment itself. Then last week, I explained how the each person tends toward one of four leadership styles and how each style significantly impacts team performance.

Leadership with CranesThis week, I’d like to share some ideas on how to build a strengths-based leadership development program for your organization. I realize that not everyone is in a position responsible for serving an entire organization in this way. However, at the very least, these ideas can shape how we think about the implications of organizational leadership. Here they are:

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Last week, I wrote about the benefits of taking Gallup’s StrengthsFinder 2.0 strengths assessment. Nearly 9 million individuals have used the assessment to identify their Top 5 signature strength themes. That means there are many leaders out there who have yet to discover the incredible benefit of clarifying and leveraging their strengths.

Professional PeopleThis week I’ll show how the 34 StrengthsFinder themes neatly divide into four specific leadership styles – and I’ll explain what difference this makes for you and your team. Then next week I’ll share some ideas for building a strengths-based leadership development program for your organization.

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