Red Bike Leader

rip the training wheels off your leadership

Archive for the ‘leadership’ Category

Same Old Song

by guest | May 28th, 2010 | Posted in leadership

When we encounter change or challenge in our everyday life, it can be so easy to refer to the past and use it as the primary tool for decision making. But is it always the best tool?

We use tradition as our guide. “It worked then, why shouldn’t it work now?” “We always do things this way.” “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” We use tradition as a source of pride. “like those before us who began this great movement/business/organization/family/church…” “… the RICH traditions of our past…”

BUT, we also use tradition as a crutch. “I know it’s an antiquated system, but we don’t have time to reinvent the wheel, just keep doing what you’re doing.” Instead of making decisions based on tradition, why not make them on intention? our intentions grow and change with the current needs of whatever movement we’re a part of. every day has an intention, a goal, a step towards the grander intention or goal. traditions are the oposite. they stay put. they are the result of achieving an old goal. although this is something worth celebrating and considering when encountering the future, it isn’t necessarily the best decision making tool, and yet it seems to be used in a disproportionate way.

When we come to the point of making a decision, our mindset shouldn’t be “what has worked in the past?” but “what will propel us into the future?” or “What will help us best fulfill our intentions/goals?”

[guest blog: Jason Shafer]

Wipe It Off

by Ryan Russell | May 26th, 2010 | Posted in leadership, motivation

People are bound to say crap about you… that is the nature of people and also the nature of leadership.
You need to figure out when to let the crap stick or when to wipe it off.

Identify the 2-5 leadership voices that count the most to you and your development. Let them speak into difficult problems, even if you don’t always agree with what you hear. Be willing to give them a full account of your hardest scenarios. Likewise give them full access to the scenarios if needed or when you can. Count on these people to ask you hard questions and challenge your growth. Listen to them and let their guidance shape your life.

Honor, or at least respect, people who have an issue and come to you in person and are willing to speak frankly. Those rare, but open discourses can typically result in good to fair resolutions if you are willing to listen and be open to growing. Learn to slough off and ignore the rest.

As for the people who have the crap to say….
Ignore spineless, behind-your-back conversations. Don’t worry about half-told truths. Delete the all-too-easily volleyed emails, text messages and twitter updates. (You know that person wouldn’t say directly to you what they have written with their new found technology enhanced courage.) Your leadership and your character will always prove itself out in the end.

Life is far too easily consumed with dissections of emotionally charged situations, frustrations, disappointments and disagreements. Do your best as you make your leadership calls. Trust your experience. Admit and learn from your short comings. Keep moving on.

Volunteer Leadership Team

by Ryan Russell | May 19th, 2010 | Posted in basics, leadership

Some quick basics on building a kick-ass volunteer leadership team.

Never go alone. Get people engaged in your initiative from the very beginning. If you can’t take people with you early on when your passion is white hot, then it won’t get any easier for you later.

Get people in on the ground floor. Some people are more inclined to serve with you because you aren’t thoe big and established ‘old dog’. Use this to your strength.

Share your vision of the glorious future. Make it straight forward and easy to understand. Practice this every time you meet with someone. if you don’t have it down to 2-3 quick & easy to understand sentences.

Grow Up! The best leaders will come around young leaders when they see your desire to grow up and do something of import. You don’t have to wear a suit and tie to accomplish this, but you must be ready to work hard. Have fun, but prepare yourself to grow and demonstrate this with how you carry yourself.

Don’t put off inviting in BIGGER minds. Find people that will challenge you. BE SURE to listen to them when they speak. This stop investing if you demonstrate that you aren’t listening.

Keep close a tight group of trusted people. Choose carefully 3-5 rock solid leaders you can depend on in hard times & for key decisions.

Don’t just invite friends, but choose leaders. Diverse strengths and insights won’t come without some effort on your part to seek them out. Just because people are easy to hang with doesn’t mean they will be the best leaders for your project.

Engage your key people regularly. This doesn’t have to translate into more meetings though. Invite them into your processing, your planning, your strategy. Quick phones calls and emails will do the trick.

—> If they aren’t invested, they aren’t invested with their time, money and mental energy that will help your project or organization move towards accomplishing your dreams.

Launching Basics

by Ryan Russell | May 13th, 2010 | Posted in basics, entrepreneur, leadership

Getting ready to launch your own non-profit?

Have a unique focus or problem to tackle - If you aren’t going to be original or if you aren’t going to strive to be the best in your area of focus then go work with the ones who are. There is a TON of redundancy in the non-profit, social good space already. Yes, I am speaking to the ministries too.

Demonstrate & prove your concept - Seek early wins, even if they are small ones. start with your free time. Jump in with your money and energies first. Know what you are talking about from an experiential perspective. Draw from your in the trenches experience to cast a grander vision.

Develop a thorough but basic plan – You don’t need 10 pages to make your point, but you do need a few. Websites are nice, but be sure that you can easily share your plan & strategy with others. Avoid writing a novel but be sure to outline the “who, what, where, why, how, when, and how much” for all who are interested. Be specific and brief.

Recruit leaders - Every non-profit seeks volunteers, but what you really need early on is leaders. Leverage your personal relationships, contacts and networks. Seek leaders by having leadership opportunities for them to tackle with you. Don’t ask leaders for basic things… they want to jump in on real issues you with you.

Communicate a crystal clear mission – Don’t give vague concepts and flowery anecdotes; tell us what is going to change because you are in existence. Be bold. Be brave. Be simple if necessary. Help all of us to “get it”. And it quickly. Without flinch

23 Point Coaching

by Ryan Russell | May 10th, 2010 | Posted in leadership, motivation

[disclaimer] I am a big Phoenix Suns fan. [end of disclaimer]
Hang with me even if you are not a Suns fan or a spectator of the NBA.
This past Friday night was a great game between the Suns and the Spurs. But just as good as the outcome was for the Suns (winning 110 to 96) it was an incredible performance by their second year, back-up point guard, Goran Dragic. If you are skeptical, check out his stat line and then grab some locally flavored recap by Dan Bickley.

While Goran was en route to putting up 23 points in the fourth quarter, ESPN replayed some ‘wired’ feeds from the Suns huddle. His coach, Alvin Gentry, was captured telling him, “It’s ok. You are going to make mistakes. I need you to stay aggressive. Go out there and stay aggressive.” Unbelievable. Play-off basketball. A must win situation. The Spurs are the most hated opponent of the Suns and Alvin Gentry sends out his back-up point guard into the battle and leaves him in the entire forth quarter as the kid gets unbelievably hot.

Now, you have to ask yourself this question… Did Goran get hot because he was lucky that night to have his best game when it was most needed? Or, did his coach and his team infuse him with the confidence to get hot through their belief in him and his ability? If you read the accounts and heard the audio, you would be inclined to suggest that the coaching, challenge and encouragement of his team lead him to be able to do his best at the most important moment.

File this under teamwork, motivation and encouragement. Practice it in your places of influence.

—-
By the way, the single coolest thing around this story, was barely shown on TV.  Goran’s entire team, lead by the starters, were anxiously standing on the sidelines waiting for the final buzzer. As soon as the game ended, they swarmed and hugged him like high school kids who had just won the state title. It was an impressive picture of a true team.

More Than a Cover

by Ryan Russell | May 6th, 2010 | Posted in basics, entrepreneur, leadership

Appearance matters. I have had this conversation several times with young leaders and in more than one instance it seems to have fallen on deaf ears. Words relayed about first impressions, professional standards and basic hygiene have been filed by recipients as surface, non-important and old school (and I am not even that old).

Here’s an excerpt from a worthy article on the subject:

When you shake hands with a potential partner, they form an instant impression of you which is not easily dislodged.   First impressions are powerful because until we begin to speak, they are the only bits of information we have to make a snap decision as to whether we like or trust someone.  Countless communication studies have shown a man’s visual appearance is initially more powerful than what he says; ignore your wardrobe at your own risk. [more]

Launch Recap

by Ryan Russell | May 5th, 2010 | Posted in entrepreneur, leadership

I had every intention of blogging each day of Launch501c3… so much for intentions.
Craig Gross (XXXChurch), Jake Larson and myself were joined by Jamie Tworkowski (TWLOHA) and Chris Dumas (DonorTools) for this small gathering of non-profit founders and launch leaders. Our hope is that each person left invigorated and better equipped for the challenges that lay ahead of them in the start-up phases of their new non-profit organizations.

Having been friends for a long time, it is always great to see Craig in his energized and creative modes. He shared lessons learned by tracking back through the years of daring ideas, provocative approaches to ministry and sharing about the personal risks he took for the vision that he has. I can’t imagine that there was a person who walked away not inspired to try some new things in their endeavors. To this day I still believe that I have not yet encountered another person who has the same amount of marketing genius and creative social entrepreneurial insights as Craig.

Not ever having met Jamie in person, I was impressed by his humility and his authenticity to bring hope and healing to those who are ready to give up on life. But beyond his incredible message and his well documented victories, it was great for each person here to be able to learn as he relayed accounts of his personal sacrifices, struggles and obstacles he has had to overcome to hold onto his initial vision.

Chris gave some insightful pointers about fund-raising. He and his partner have effectively and insightfully created an  donor management tool that really takes a lot of the pain and headache out of the admin. process related receiving donations. In fact, I would say that their tools energize us more to more actively engage with each of our donors.  Beyond this tool though, I was extremely impressed by Chris’ deep knowledge and experience with nonprofit start-ups & donor development.

We are already developing new ideas and content for next year’s Lacunh501c3 group.
Thanks to all of you who participated. We are looking forward to seeing you change your part of the world.

Launch Day1

by Ryan Russell | May 3rd, 2010 | Posted in leadership, motivation

Last night kicked off our our first Launch501c3 conference. Intending this to be a small but hungry group of non-profit adventurers, we have about 35 passion driven new idea holders held up here in Las Vegas to Launch! their non-profit organizations. One of the attenders, Crystal Renaud is featured today in a NY Times article for her efforts and gave a little love to the conference.

Our aim for this 3 day gathering is to help each of these new initiatives by sharing practical processed, enabling ideas, developing these young organizations, giving insights from our past failures and most importantly, inspire a next wave of positive change in our world. The social entrepreneurs in attendance have wide ranging ideas on issues from homelessness to inspiring artists to use their platforms for change to sex addictions to unique water treatment solutions for unmet challenges in Africa. I will be sure to highlight a few of the unique initiatives here as we go.

Pizza Leadership

by Justin Humphreys | May 3rd, 2010 | Posted in leadership
You can learn about leadership everywhere, you can even learn from a pizza company. I was shocked when I saw Domino’s new advertising campaign that told people that they had reinvented their pizza based on criticism they had received from a focus group.
Some leaders disregard their critics. They choose not to listen, see or change when a customer tells them that their company is missing the mark. Domino’s did the opposite. Here are a few steps that all leaders can learn from Domino’s about improving results:
  • They got feedback and believed it: Leaders need to take the time to listen to their costumers and employees and they need to trust what they hear.
  • They evaluated the information and made a plan: Leaders need to evaluate the data that they receive and then they need to make a plan to change.
  • They worked hard to change: Change is never easy but great leaders are always willing to change when the result will be happy costumers and employees no matter how difficult it is.
  • They stood behind their product: Leaders and their employees need to be proud of what they do. After hearing critics and data; after working hard to change, a company needs to be proud of the result.
In a business world where the costumer is not always right anymore, Domino’s is a breath of fresh air.

Pricing the Pickle

by Ryan Russell | April 28th, 2010 | Posted in communication, leadership

Before we began, $60 per month seemed a little steep for a 6 year old’s karate lessons. My wife took our son to the first few sessions and came back with such glowing reports about the instructor that I had to go check it out for myself. Turns out the dude is very good… and not just at the butt kicking part. He smiles with the kids, learns people’s real names, places jokes in the middle of sessions for the parents, stays firm but friendly and gently employs an “evil pickle’” (a padded green baton) to test the children on their acquired techniques. It isn’t easy to maintain the attention, interest and respect of both 6yr. olds and also adults all while delivering REALLY good karate instruction.

There are defects in his business model to be sure but, I was reminded how personal, high quality and friendly leadership goes a really long way when setting value. Once I experienced the karate lessons I was happy to only be paying $60/mo.

*** Oh, and just so you don’t write this guy off as a fun, groovy kid teacher, I want to mention that his dojo wall is line with his world class accomplishments and articles from every major media source highlighting his personal accomplishments.