About My Leadership Book - The Coach: Conversations On Leadership
I am passionate about leadership and leadership development. I believe that the health of businesses, non-profits, classrooms, sports teams, and families all hinge on the quality of their leadership. Using a story based approach, I have described key leadership principles in The Coach: Conversations on Leadership.
In this leadership book, you can read a story and learn the lessons at the same time.
It is currently available as an eBook. The print version is coming soon at www.principledriven.com
What this book is all about
Read the story of a coaching relationship between a business owner and his coach as they work through common and difficult leadership issues in this business parable. Listen to their conversations and learn from their experiences.From this engaging story, you will learn how to apply sound leadership principles in your life.
A Sample From The Book: The Situation
Launching the business looked easy - buy a franchise, hire the right staff, and work hard to build a future for my family. The first few months were difficult, and they were rewarding. Just before leaving the Navy, I purchased a franchise territory in my home state of Georgia from a successful remodeling company franchisor. In only six months, I built the business to a profitable status. Right from the start I was on a roll. The business grew quickly. I was paying off my business loan, and I was making money. Within nine months, the business grew to the point that I needed to start hiring a professional staff. I could no longer keep track of all the sales, production, customer service and accounting issues on my own. Following the business plan created by the franchise company, I began to hire a staff to help me grow the business.
The hiring process took a while to complete, but over the next three months I found the people I wanted. Isaac Dalton, an experienced building and construction sales professional, came onboard as my Sales Manager. Doug Caldwell, a seasoned engineer with experience at a large homebuilder, took over day-to-day production issues. Sharon Innis came to us from a local retail store to work as our Customer Service coordinator. And, I found a great accountant, Christine Stevens, to look after the company's financial matters.
We began our second year in business with a growing client base, good carpenters, fantastic relationships with subcontractors, and a strong professional staff. We were poised for great growth - then it hit. Suddenly, my fast growing business hit a wall. The money kept coming in, but the staff started losing their drive. Now they seem to be working in slow motion and bickering with each other over minor issues. I've been trying to fix the problem for six months. I don't know what to do, and now I'm starting to lose my drive as well. I've got to get some help. When I get to the office, I'm calling the franchise corporate staff to see if they can offer any advice.
More Sample Text: A Call for Help
"Good morning, John. This is Carl Daniels, from Kennesaw.""Hello Carl! How's our fastest starting, most profitable, first-year franchisee this fine morning."
"Well John, to tell you the truth, not good. I'm having some problems that I don't know how to fix, and I was hoping that you could help me out."
"No problem, Carl. Tell me what's happening, and I'll see if I can get you the help you're looking for."
"John, if I could tell you what's wrong, I could probably fix it. I don't really know where to start."
"Just give it a shot, my friend, and we'll figure it out together."
"OK. Here goes. You know when we worked together to find my professional staff."
"Sure I do. You've got some great people on your team, Carl."
"You know, John, I thought I had great people, too. We started out great. Now, I'm not so sure. They seem to be running at about half-speed the last few months. We've got some tensions between people, and we're not working as efficiently as we did before. I really don't know what's happening. Business is still pretty good, but I'm concerned that if I don't figure out what's going on with my staff, I'll be in trouble before too long."
"Sales are good?"
"For now, yes."
"Your profit margins are ok?
"Yes, but they're slipping a little."
"So, you're main concern is with the people on your team?"
"Yeah. They just don't seem motivated. I've tried everything I know to do to motivate them and to get them to work together better. They're just not getting it."
"Well Carl, I could kick this around with you, but it's not really my area of expertise. I'm great at business process stuff, and I've got some ideas about leadership and team dynamics that I would be happy to share. But honestly, people issues aren't really my strong point. Have you thought about getting a leadership coach to help you?"
"A leadership coach? What's that?"
"A leadership coach is someone who understands leadership issues, knows how to diagnose leadership problems, and can help you fix them."
"John, I don't have leadership problems! I have people problems! I'm killing myself here! I work 70-80 hours a week, and they're not pulling their weight!"
"OK. OK. I hear you, and I think I understand your situation. But you called for my help. Didn't you?"
"Well, yeah... I did."
"Didn't you say that you had done everything that you know to do?"
"Yes, but..."
"Well then, would you be willing to get a different perspective on your situation?"
"I guess so, but I'm not interested in any psycho-babble, mumbo-jumbo, head-shrink advice. I just want to fix this problem so that I can get on with business."
"Carl, I'm not talking about psycho-babble, mumbo-jumbo, head-shrink advice. I am talking about working with someone who can look at your situation without an emotional connection. Someone who can help you diagnose the real problem so that you can get it fixed. I've worked with a leadership coach on some issues here in the home office before. It has always helped me. In fact, I know of a great coach in the Atlanta area who might be able to help you."
"Alright, John, I'll give it a shot. Let me have his name and number. I'll call today."
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Lenses To Supplement This Book
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Strengths and Blind Spots for Each DISC Style
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When you work with other people, your personality style will interact with their's in some pretty predictable ways. As you build a team, these interactions can have a major impact on team effectiveness. Everything from what job requirements feel comf...
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Personality Assessments For All Ages
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Personality Assessments provide objective and descriptive rather than subjective and judgmental ways to understand our behaviors and behaviors of other people. Taking an online personality assessment gives you the opportunity to learn more about your...
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How to Build Rapport With Other People
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Rapport is the deepest level of relationship, and different people move from initial connection to rapport in different ways. Since different people reach rapport by different routes, your success at building rapport with someone can be somewhat hit-...
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Connecting With People Better
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Connecting with people can often be a challenge. This challenge increases when we attempt to connect with people who are significantly different from us. When you learn a few key communication tips and insights, you can connect with people much more...
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Introduction to the DISC Human Behavior Model
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Your leadership style, communication style, and parenting style are heavily influenced by your personality style. The same is true for other people. How you communicate with people, build relationships, raise your kids, network at business meetings,...
Some of my favorite leadership links
- My Website
- Of course I'm in the list.
- The Kevin Eikenberry Group
- My friend and colleague, Kevin Eikenberry. He's really good.
- John Maxwell
- He's got some great resources. If you don't know of him, check it out.
- The Arbinger Institute
- Great concepts. Great ideas. Great resources.
- Personality Insights
- My friends, colleagues, and partners in Atlanta, Georgia.
- Pici and Pici
- Joe and Dawn specialize in sales training, and he teaches great concepts in leadership.
- Leadership from About.com
- A good collection of links to articles on leadership.
- Leadership Now
- Another great collections of articles, ideas, and resources.
Resolving Conflict in Teams Blog
Resolving Conflict in Teams
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