Blog

Providing clarity should be at the very top of the priority list for any leader. Why? Clarity brings certainty and reassurance to a team. It removes confusion, roadblocks, and misalignment. It contributes to camaraderie, trust, and understanding. It builds confidence, loyalty, and respect. It provides direction. The importance of establishing clarity to effective leadership cannot be overstated.     Great leaders start by clarifying three important things.     Purpose  First, they provide clarity around the purpose of work. If people don’t know why they do what they do, work will not be as fulfilling as it ought to be. When a team understand the purpose behind all the effort, it serves to motivate and inspire them.   Vision  Second, they provide clarity around where the organization is going. They share a compelling vision and paint [...]

I’ve been incredibly lucky to work with many amazing leaders throughout my career and I’ve learned there is one significant challenge that every leader faces. I like to call this universal struggle the ultimate leadership challenge.  What is the ultimate leadership challenge? It is the challenge of overcoming self. To move from being self-focused to others focused. To put our own personal interests and desires aside in order to benefit others. Only a few are able to consistently overcome this daily battle.   Why is this so hard? We are all human that’s why. We all have our own desires, wants, wishes, egos. We want what we believe will provide comfort and ease, status and [...]

Does your team understand what winning looks like for your organization? Is it super clear what results must be achieved in order to claim victory? Ensuring team members know what winning looks like is a great way to help establish a strong culture that gets results.   Can you imagine a basketball game without a scoreboard? Where the players, coaches, and spectators have no idea who is winning? Or how about an Olympic running event without a defined finish line or even a stopwatch keeping time? Sounds ridiculous doesn’t it. Would anyone have any interest in such an event?     Much like a sporting event without a scoreboard, work can feel pretty dull, pointless, and uninspiring without clear goals, clear measurement on progress toward those goals, and results. Almost everyone wants to belong to a winning team, and it’s impossible if no one knows what winning means for [...]

I agree with Simon Sinek that leaders eat last, but I also believe they eat with their team. Let me explain.   One of the best ways to establish a great culture within your company is to create what I call charity within your organization. Charity is showing true care and concern for the people you lead. It’s viewing people as people and not as a number or something that is easily replaced and expendable.   Probably the best way to establish charity within your organization is by getting to know your team. One of the best ways to [...]

At times when I speak to leaders about investing resources, time, and effort into creating a great culture, I often get a common response. It most often comes in a look on their face that says are you serious Tim? What’s in it for me?  This is an understandable and perfectly appropriate response. Afterall, leaders are tasked with the important responsibility to protect the organization’s limited assets and their time is valuable.   So what is in it for a leader who commits to creating a strong culture? Well, I never thought you’d ask!  1 - Improved Results   Many studies have shown that companies with strong cultures produce better results. Though investing in developing a strong [...]

As a CEO of a health care facility, there were only two types of employees I wanted working for my organization. One type was the frontline employee who took great care of my patients, families, and visitors. The other type was those who took great care of the frontline employees. That’s it! Those were the only types of employees I wanted.  In my health care facility we believed as leaders we worked for our staff. It was our job to always help our team look good to our customers. If we weren’t doing that, then we weren’t doing our job.   We would share this leadership philosophy during [...]

Gallup recently released their findings from their largest global study on work, and the results are not all that surprising. In their study they discovered that the quality of a company’s managers and leaders is the most critical element to long-term company success. I didn’t need a Gallup study to know this was the most critical, but it’s good to see their research confirms what most of us already knew.    Last Monday my book, Be An Awesome Boss!, was released on Amazon.com. In this book I explain The Four C’s Model that leads to leadership success. If ever there was a book that could [...]

I heard on a podcast recently that the founder of Chick-fila, S. Truett Cathy, once asked a friend, “who needs encouragement?” and then after a moment responded, “every human being that is breathing.” At times as leaders we are trained to look for the bad and correct it. What if instead we trained ourselves to look for the good and praise it? How do you think this shift in mentality might benefit your business? How do you think it might impact your ability to lead? Those you work with and interact with need encouragement; we all do! This week let’s [...]

Having worked in health care most of my career, I’ve relied heavily on a good group of volunteers to help in the different facilities and hospitals I’ve worked. Volunteers are the best! I’ve noticed that as leaders, we are quick to forgive a volunteer’s mistakes, thank them for their time, and are gracious for any efforts they make to help our company. We also tend to trust they have good intentions and want to do a good job. We normally are quick to smile at them and shake their hand. We are always so grateful they came in [...]