High Performance Leadership

I'm on the road, facilitating a workshop on controlling chaos, sitting in my hotel room and of course, learning. Watching videos on leadership. What else would a leadership trainer do on the road? I started with a famous leader speaking and somehow wandered into this video by Drew Dudley. Honestly, I hadn't heard of Drew Dudley, but you should. He's inspiring. His ideas spark energy. I believe he does his best to live his values, and I love how he builds in the human element into his goals. In the video he talks about values, about questions to ask in order to more earnestly live your values, and about making a positive difference, especially for people who so often go unrecognized and unappreciated. Here's the video. Yes, I know it's 17 minutes long - but go for it. Invest 17 minutes in this and you'll find a story you'll likely repeat and some insights you'll want to start using. I know I will. Three Values Steps: Six Questions: ...

Questions are powerful. I've been lucky to work with two powerful mentors. Each helped me to realize and utilize the importance of questions. Lester T. Shapiro told me, "The principle role of a leader is to ask relevant questions." Relevant questions get to the heart of things. Relevant questions get to the motivations, needs, and causes of things. Ask relevant questions. Another great mentor, Andrew Oxley, told me "If you don't like the answer to a question, ask a better question." Powerful stuff. And here's the thing: there are always better questions. We need never be the victim of someone else's poor communication skills again. Simply ask better questions. It's up to us as leaders to keep the inquiry going long enough to complete a satisfactory dialogue. It can be hard work. The work is worth it. Part of those questions includes the most demanding question of all, the deepest question of all, the question most likely to trigger def...