THE SENSEI LEADER Movement Update: July 13, 2018

Hey, Jim Bouchard here, the Sensei Leader, and I've got a quick update and then a little bit of, I guess it's a little bit of a rant. No, I think it is a little bit of a rant. But anyway, as people come online, we'll just give you a quick update on what's happening in the next few weeks. Getting ready for Las Vegas, that's the CU Leadership Convention. That's going to be, they finally gave us a date, August 2nd is when I'll be doing my session and it's on Leading through change and resistance to change. And in response to that, today go to thesenseileader.com. Of course, if you don't know about this, that's how you join the movement. Just go to thesenseileader.com and subscribe there. You'll get a free copy of the ebook edition of The Sensei Leader, and you're automatically part of the movement. And then you'll get updates on a lot of the events and activities I'm going to talk about in just a second. Most of which are free to Sensei Leader Movement subscribers. So anyway, hey Jeff, how you doing? Good to see you. Like I said, Las Vegas, August 2nd, we'll be talking about leading through change and resistance to change. The blog, just go to thesenseileader.com, hit the blog button right on the top line there and you'll find it. It's the latest article there. And there's 4 steps, 4 action steps you can take to help you lead through change. We're also going to be doing that as an online seminar, probably in the fall. I'm going to call it online workshop because they're really not seminars, they're not webinars. That's what we're trying to get away from, that word. You know, in a webinar you turn the thing on for a half hour, an hour, and someone's prattling at you. Well, these are roll-up-your-sleeves workshops. You come out of there with some action steps and you're going to create strategies. I'm there to help you, not to tell you, not to lecture at you. Okay, so the rant. Let's talk about the rant. It's about soft skills. I'm really tired of hearing this word soft skills, and I'm really tired of reading the same old damn research all the time, over and over. I don't know how many times I've read some kind of report, and great organizations are doing these, don't get me wrong. I mean, they come from Gallup and HBR and Stanford University and Stockholm and all these great leadership programs all saying the same damn thing over and over and over. We know that people work harder, they create more, they're more loyal, they're gonna stay with you longer. All of these things when leaders actually show that they care and really do. That's the point. In fact, I just put up a meme. I said the last thing we need is another, another freaking study that shows us that people perform better when leaders show they care. What we need is leaders who actually care. And and know how to express it. And that's really everything we're talking about here at the Sensei Leader Movement. So when people challenge us with the idea that soft skills, or they, you know, they don't want to make the investment in soft skills, I've got a response to that. What can you do without it? What can you do without the right mindset and the right attitude? And if leadership doesn't have it, how can they expect anyone else to have it? That's the whole premise behind the idea of leading by example. I'm sick to death of hearing leaders complain about the people on the front lines when that leader has a stinky attitude to begin with, you see. So if you want people, if you want people to be enthusiastic, if you want people to get behind what you're doing, well then damn it, be enthusiastic yourself, right? Live and model the behavior that you expect from others. That's what it's all about. Now, if you consider that a soft skill, So be it. To me, that is the most essential skill and trait that a leader can develop. And I'll tell you what, there's been times when I've been tempted to lose faith and just say, you know, maybe we really can't teach these things. Maybe people cannot adapt these skills and embed them in their own life, in their own behavior. And I just don't believe that because I've seen it happen too many times. I've seen it happen too many times in our workshops where someone walked out. Just something keyed them in a different direction, right? And then they were able to, to really take these things and make them work. So I'm not going to give up. I'm just not going to give up at all. I do believe that people can develop these human-centric leadership traits, but you've got to be willing. You've got to be willing, and you've got to be willing to look in the mirror. Let's get back to that idea of soft skills again. You tell me, and please— hey, hi Kara, how are you doing? Very, very nice to see you. Chime in if you've got some ideas, if you've got some thoughts too, you know. But here's the deal, and chime in if you got an answer to this one. What can you possibly accomplish as a leader? And I don't care if you're in an organization, if you're leading a team at the corner market or at a burger restaurant. I don't care if you're a shift leader. I don't care if you don't even have a title or rank, or if you're leading a big company. What the hell can you possibly do without the respect, trust, and loyalty of the people you serve? That's the fundamental question behind everything we do at the Sensei Leader Movement. What can you do without the trust, respect, and loyalty of the people you serve? Now, the key question is, how do you earn that trust, respect, and loyalty? Listen to me, it's not a one-off, and it's not something that you leave to chance. These things must become a discipline in your life as a person as well as a, as a leader. And you do this, you earn trust, respect, and loyalty when you lead with courage, compassion, and wisdom. And let me hit the wisdom part pretty hard today. Wisdom is certainly experience and knowledge, that goes without saying almost. But in the martial arts, we had another perspective on it. It's, it's knowledge and experience tempered by awareness. Now, I told you just a few minutes ago, I'm sick to death of reading the same old stuff over and over again in this research. I mean, just look behind me, these books that I'm on the computer doing research a couple of hours each day. And this word awareness, just Google it for God's sake, and you're going to get tens of thousands of hits. You're going to get thousands of articles on how important awareness, particularly self-awareness, is to leaders. And yet people are pretty damn poor at doing it, and the surveys are showing that. That's the trick. Now, to that end, we are going to be doing one of the online workshops that we're going to be doing coming up. This is free to to Sensei Leader Movement members is one in self-awareness, and it's centered on a very simple practice. It's a very simple practice of meditation. This is free on the site as well. Sit still, shut up, and breathe. I'm going to give you a very simple exercise in meditation for self-awareness to help you look in the mirror and help you understand who you are as a leader, as a person, and who you serve, and how those— how that reflects back to you, how what you do reflects back to you. In the responses of the people you serve. So watch for that coming up. Again, all you gotta do is go to thesensileader.com and subscribe. You get the free ebook and you get access to these workshops that we're doing. So anyway, back to the rant. Yeah, if you consider that a soft skill, if you consider these things soft skill, you're missing the boat and you're gonna get left behind. To me, there's two people— I'm not even gonna say to me, I know this for a fact now. There are two types of people in the world. There are leaders and those who aren't. And if you're not a leader, like I said, I don't care about your position of authority. It's not what I'm talking about. But if you're not a leader, if you're not on board, if you're not doing the things that we really focus on that a leader does, particularly leading, you know, expressing yourself with courage, compassion, and wisdom, then you're going to get left behind. And that's what's happening to too many people. So anyway, yes, leading with courage, compassion, and wisdom. How do you do this? It's because you inspire, empower, and guide. And I'm going to give you the quick 101 version of it. You know, the manager, this evil manager we keep talking about, and I'm not talking about your title, don't be offended, that's ridiculous. I'm talking about people that have this mindset that they can control others, that they somehow can impose their will, they can get things done, you know, just because they have that position of authority. Authority— position of authority does not make you a leader. Not at all. There are plenty of people in positions of authority that are piss-poor leaders, and there are plenty of great leaders on the front lines that don't have any rank, title, or certificate. But anyway, here are the differences between what we're calling "the manager" and a leader, an authentic leader. For instance, you know, a leader— I'm sorry, a manager is going to try to motivate. Now motivation is not a big deal. Motivation is just compelling someone to an action. You can do that by bribes, by incentives. You can also do that through fear, force, coercion. You can, you can do that by scaring people, by threatening them. A leader inspires. So if the manager tries to motivate, the leader inspires, and that's a key difference. Inspiration means that you're making a deep emotional and intellectual connection with people, that you're Showing them that they're part of something bigger than themselves, and it's part of something bigger than what, you know, each of us can do individually. Together, collectively, we can accomplish much more, but that requires inspiration, one of the key things we focus on. A manager, the manager we keep talking about, delegates. Ridiculous. Anybody can do that. Anybody can chop up a task list. The leader empowers. That means providing the resources, the training, the encouragement, and to express that respect, trust, and loyalty we're talking about, giving people the opportunity to engage and to take on some responsibilities and actually do something that's meaningful and purposeful, even though sometimes they're gonna fall down, and being there to support them when that happens. We're not encouraging foolish mistakes, stupid mistakes, not at all. But all of us, if we're, you know, the most successful people fail a lot. Why? Because they're trying. So that's it. So really quick recap again, you know, the manager tries to motivate, the leader inspires. The manager delegates, the leader empowers. And the third part of that triangle is this: the manager tries to push or drive, the leader guides. And that's the whole imprint of the whole sensei philosophy, right? That's what a sensei does, and that's the blessing of what I do for work. I really have to be honest about that. I was challenged just the other day. Someone said, "What, really, Jim? What the hell do you do?" I said, "I really just teach people how to be a sensei. That's what I spent most of my life doing." The blessing is that it's a perfect imprint if you want to be an effective leader. If you adopt this mindset of a sensei to inspire, to empower, to guide, It's gonna make your job a lot easier. It's gonna make you a much more effective, much more powerful leader. So that's really what this is all about. So anyway, there's my rant. Soft skills, you tell me, tell me in the comments here. If inspiration, empowerment, and the ability to guide people is soft, then I don't know what the hell is hard. I don't know what the hell is powerful. Now I know the contrast usually is because hard skills, usually we're talking about technical skills. And very interesting, Daniel Goleman, the guy who coined the term emotional intelligence, in fact I'm reading his new book, well it's not really a new book, but new to me, Primal Leadership. I've read several of his things, but Primal Leadership, and he hits it out of the park. If you read nothing else, just read the introduction to that book, and you will be convinced that what we're talking about is the most important and essential thing that you can invest in in your business and your organization. The technical skills are important, they're equally important. But the problem is Admiral Grace Hopper, I quote her all the time, she said it so perfectly, "Management is about things, leadership is about people." And for too long we focused on the management and we forgot about leadership. Well, join the Sensei Leader Movement because that's what our whole mission is. We're putting the humanity back in leadership. That's what we're focused on doing. And we want to support and develop human-centric leaders all over the world. So anyway, So, thanks for indulging me in that rant. Las Vegas, August 2nd, especially— well, it's for people in the credit union world, so see you folks. I hope we see you. That was a dumb joke. In Las Vegas on August 2nd, we are planning to do some hospitality there, and we're talking about doing some LASER executive coaching sessions, executive mentoring sessions. We'll be doing that in our hotel. We'll be at the Mirage. The event is at the Mirage right on the Strip in Las Vegas. And so if you're interested in that, if you're interested in the laser session, we're going to be offering that complimentary to some of the CU leaders that are going to be in attendance there. And just give us a shout so we can schedule that ahead of time. Okay, hey, thanks all you guys for tuning in. Hey, Peter Spanos, great to see you. Uh, Kara, I think I said hi to you. So good to see you again. Um, if I miss names, I'm sorry, I'm really bad at trying to follow that lead. So hey, thanks a lot for, uh, tuning into the update, and we'll be back with you very soon.