7 Lessons Learned in 10 Years of Consulting

Every journey has milestones of one form or another – markers of time, distance or achievement. Some milestones are large while others seem small.What’s your favorite way to celebrate reaching a milestone?You do celebrate milestones, don’t you? When you reach one, do you take time to slow down, reflect, and celebrate your accomplishment?Or do you keep rushing forward, more concerned about the leg of the journey ahead than the leg of the journey just completed?If the latter, I can relate. That’s how I used to be —busy with the “real” work and finding little time for “warm and fuzzy” stuff like quiet, mindful reflection.In a few days, I’ll celebrate a big milestone in my professional journey — ten years as an independent consultant. In September 2005 I took the plunge and launched X Factor Consulting. I have been working as a consultant ever since.I’m planning to celebrate in several ways — many of which involve sharing. I’ve benefitted from dozens of people have invested richly in my success and I want to do the same for others. To start my celebration, I’m sharing seven key lessons I’ve learned over these past 10 years.

1. Consulting is a people business at its core. Every business is a people business. I learned that from my Dad. Firms don’t hire firms. People hire people — usually people they trust and like. Tip — the best way to develop business is to connect authentically and network naturally on a daily basis with people who value relationships.
2. Mindset matters. I believe Henry Ford was right when he said, “Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right.” Your first sale can be the hardest because the first person you’ve got sell is yourself. It may be hard to get a client to believe your services are valuable if you don’t believe that yourself. Tip — develop routines and rituals that keep you centered, believing in yourself, and perpetually in a growth mindset.
3. Sharpen the axe. And I believe Abraham Lincoln was right when he said, “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” Of course, we are the axes and our consulting projects are the trees. The investments I’ve made in my professional development have benefitted my clients and me. Tip — invest richly and regularly in your ongoing professional develop. Find mentors and masterminds to help you grow.
4. Clients are more interested in their results than your process. Say it isn’t so, but it is. In my experience, it’s rare when a client hires a consultant because of “how” they produce; they hire you because of “what” you produce. And, back to point one, people hire people, not processes. Tip — learn to ask great questions about clients, the results they seek, and the barriers that stand in their ways. Then, listen to the answers.
5. Balance working “in your business” and “on your business.” Every slow season I’ve experienced in my 10 years of consulting came after spending a disproportionate amount of time working in the business (delivering client work) rather than on it (business development, developing systems, etc.). Tip — develop systems and checklists to make sure you’re doing something to work on your business sometime every week.
6. Do more than you say you are going to do. I am regularly amazed to see consultants who simply don’t do what they say they are going to do. Few things alienate a client faster than breaking a promise, even a trivial one (“I will send you that document later this afternoon”). As the saying goes, it’s best to under promise and over deliver. So don’t say yes to something if you can’t complete the tasks and commit to the timeline. Tip — find a reliable system — maybe another person to act as an “accountability partner” — or some other way to hold you accountable.
7. Think before you speak, especially when saying yes. Every decision involves tradeoffs. And every time you say yes to one opportunity, you’re actually saying no to something else. There simply isn’t time to do it all, so choose wisely. Tip — learn to say, “no”. Yes, you can learn to say no gracefully and resolutely and you must unless you’re fine allowing others to control your destiny and establish your priorities.

While these aren’t all of the lessons I’ve learned over the last decade, these seven are significant and I trust they will help you on your journey.*******If you are looking to launch a consulting business or lift your current practice to the next level, consider joining me for our next two-day Consultant’s Launch and Lift. Email me at kmonroe@xfactorllc.com for details.

Why America Needs a Servant-Leader - 5 Values

Were you expecting a national discussion of servant leadership in connection with the next U.S. presidential election?That’s what Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz started last week with an op-ed in the New York Times entitled, “America Deserves a Servant Leader.”Schultz advocated servant leadership as the essential element needed for all of today’s leaders, including the next U.S. president. Here’s my favorite line from the piece:

‘The values of servant leadership — putting others first and leading from the heart — need to emerge from every corner of American life, including the business community.”

So, what are the values of servant leadership that are particularly relevant for leaders in every corner of American life?Here are five that make my list:

1. Service above self. Simply put, it’s about putting aside ego and focusing on the needs of those we’re privileged to lead. Servant-leaders sense a calling to serve others first, not to be self-promoters. In politics, it’s about putting the “service” back in “public service.”
2. Power from paradox. Martin Luther King, Jr. said it best when he exhorted us to be both tough-minded and tender-hearted. Servant-leaders inevitably make tough decisions. But at the same time, they unlock immense power by uniting heart, head, and hands in service to others.
3. Unity over divisiveness. Leaders and followers are all part of one single human family. Servant-leaders have a particular appreciation for systems thinking, seeing the big picture and understanding the interconnectedness of the modern world. Naturally, they lead by uniting people, not by dividing them.
4. Listening and learning. Robert Greenleaf, considered the founder of the modern servant leadership movement, advised servant-leaders to respond to any problem by listening first and speaking only when words would improve upon the silence. Modern politicians tend not to heed Greenleaf’s advice. If they want to grow as servant-leaders, they should.
5. Stewarding and sharing power. All leadership involves power and history warns of the corruptive nature of unbridled power – especially in the political arena. Rather than seeking power for personal gain or shunning it out of fear, servant-leaders seek to harness power to build a more just and sustainable world and share it with others willing to do the same.

It would be wonderful if the discussion instigated by Howard Schultz continues throughout this U.S. election cycle. Discussing ideas of how to best serve the needs of all Americans would certainly change the tone and tenor of future debates among the candidates.You can read Howard Schultz’s op-ed piece by clicking here.And if you want to learn more about servant leadership at Starbucks, you might enjoy my recent podcast with Howard Behar, first president of Starbucks International and a powerful voice in the servant leadership movement.

The Transforming Power of Servant Leadership -- 6 Reasons

“Servant leadership is very strong stuff. If you really live it, servant leadership changes everything.” That’s what Ari Weinzweig, CEO and Co-founder of Zingerman’s Deli, told me in one of our Servant Leadership Sessions podcasts.In our latest Servant Leadership Session,  Dr. Ann McGee-Cooper voiced a similar view: “Servant leadership is something that, if you dare to bring it into your life, transforms everything about who you are and your values, how you think, your priorities, how you live your life.”The transforming power of servant leadership: Why does that theme appear so regularly?Here are six reasons I have identified.

1. Servant leadership is holistic. It’s a philosophy of leadership and life. If you’re serious about it, servant leadership is 24/7. Servant leadership impacts every area of your life — what you do as a parent, partner, parishioner, or PTA member. It harmonizes all areas of your life into a beautiful symphony of service.
2. Servant leadership taps into the transcendent. Something larger than self-interest calls a servant-leader to serve. For many, the source of transcendence is their religious faith. For others, it’s a noble cause or mission. In either case, people find servant leadership provides immense power from outside them.
3. Servant leadership bonds leaders and followers. I’m amazed how servant leadership unites leaders and followers into a collective we. Servant leadership dissolves individualism and replaces it with trust, camaraderie, and shared purpose. Nothing is more effective for team building.
4. Servant leadership makes followers into leaders. Self-interested leaders seek to transform people into their followers. Servant-leaders seek to transform people into leaders. A servant-leader seeks relentlessly to pass on and develop the servant leadership spirit in her or his followers.
5. Servant leadership makes meaning of the mundane. Life contains far more moments of tedium than opportunities for grand adventure. Servant-leaders are everyday heroes. Their transformative power comes from the ability to bring meaning to the small things – listening attentively, shaking hands, asking “how are you doing?” and meaning it.
6. Servant leadership is egalitarian. As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “Everybody can be great, because everybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve…. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love."

For me, the transforming power of servant leadership comes from all these six of reasons, working together. The diversification of this “portfolio” is the source of its effectiveness. Servant leadership adapts to each new day, each new context, and each new human interaction.Have you been touched by the transformational power of servant leadership? Has a servant-leader in your life helped you change from follower to leader? What would you add to this list of 6 reasons, and why?

The Transforming Power of Servant Leadership

Have you ever encountered a person who truly challenged your understanding of the world? Ann McGee-Cooper encountered such a person in Robert K. Greenleaf, the humble man credited with launching the modern servant leadership movement.Bob Greenleaf mentored Ann during the last 10 years of his life. He helped Ann realize,

Servant leadership is something that if you dare to bring into your life it transforms everything about who you are and your values, how you think, your priorities, how you live your life.

Ann embodies servant leadership. Like a true servant leader, she has inspired many others. Her influence is still felt today in such great companies as Southwest Airlines, TDIndustries and The Container Store.Recently, I had the privilege of interviewing Ann for our Servant Leadership Sessions podcast. It was a rich and transformative conversation, so rich that we’re making two episodes out of it.In this episode, we explore what Ann learned through her relationship with Bob Greenleaf and how it transformed her life and work. Some of what you will hear includes: deep listening, looking inward, true dialogue (including silence), and the value of slowing down.One of the great reminders that struck with me from my conversation with Ann was, “Your role model is your most powerful teaching tool." I'd love to hear your key takeaways after you listen to our conversation.You can listen directly from our website or download from iTunes. Hope you find encouragement for your servant-leader journey.

What if Small is the New BIG in Employee Engagement?

When it comes to enhancing employee engagement, what if your biggest gains actually result from something small? That's what Kevin Nakao and his colleagues at TinyHR believe. And it's what led them to create TINYpulse, short weekly surveys that provide leaders with actionable insights that improve employee happiness, productivity, and engagement.Kevin Nakao, head of employee engagement at TinyHR, is our guest for this month's Servant Leadership Session podcast. In it, we discuss how little surveys --pulse surveys -- are leading to big improvements for a host of companies seeking to improve workplace happiness and employee engagement.While pulse surveys aren't a silver bullet solution. They are instrumental in revealing the concerns, challenges, and celebrations of your employees in real-time (well, almost).The magic -- if you want to call it that -- comes from using survey results as springboards for candid conversations and allowing those conversations to result in informed action.If this sounds interesting to you, we invite you to listen to our complete conversation. Who knows? It just might lead to your next big insight.

4 Revealing Responses to Mistakes

Misteaks happen!And when they do, what happens next reveals much about an organization's culture.Think back to a recent mistake in your organization. How was it handled? What was communicated —overtly and/or covertly — to everyone else about mistakes,? What were the consequences and how did they affect future behavior?Granted, we all make mistakes and not all mistakes are equal. Some are minor and insignificant while others are major with extremely significant, and in some cases, costly, implications.Here are four typical responses to a mistake – be it minor or major – and what that response says about organizational culture.Cover it Up. If news of a mistake can be contained, then a typical next step is the cover-up – hide it, bury it, sweep it under the rug – anything but disclose the mistake to others. (Teams go for the cover-up as do individuals.) When cover-up is the first response to a mistake, it is a good sign that fear rules the day. It is also a good sign that risk-taking, innovation, and out-of-the box thinking have left the building.Pass the Blame. Often, the first course of action after a mistake is to play the blame game, which has two parts: (1) identify the responsible parties; and (2) avoid being identified as among the responsible parties. The blame game is played in a punitive culture, one that believes the stick is mightier than the carrot. In a punitive culture, resources are wasted in insignificant risk reduction activities and, of course, in the multiple maneuvers to CYA.Blow it Off. “Hey, it was no big deal, everybody makes mistakes.” One way to downplay mistakes is to take a laissez-faire approach where no one interferes with the personal freedoms of their team members. And of course, this you-don’t-mess-with-me-and-I-won’t-mess-with-you approach can seem to work in interest of everyone – except the organization itself. An organizational culture that has abandoned accountability has also compromised its future success.Learn from It. There is a story that gets told in different forms about Thomas Watson, Sr., founder of IBM. As the story goes, a new vice president had led a risky venture which ended up losing a million dollars, no small sum in IBM’s early days. Watson summoned the vice president to his office. “Do you know why I called you here?” Watson asked. “I suppose to fire me,” the vice president replied. “Fire you?” Watson bellowed, “We just spent a million bucks to educate you!”In a learning culture, it’s only a mistake if you don’t learn from it.Eliminating mistakes is not possible; developing healthier responses to mistakes is. We can bury, blame, blow ‘em off – or, in the spirit of Thomas Watson, we can turn them into valuable learning experiences.What will you do to ensure the next mistake in your department becomes a learning moment?

Another New Start

Starting. Over. Again. Do you ever feel like you're starting over again? You know like your first day at a new school or new job. Not knowing anybody. Not quite sure what to expect. Hoping you'll find some friendly faces and people that will look you in the eyes rather than looking the other way. People who will extend a hand and say, "Hi, you're new here, aren't you? Let me help you get acquainted."That's sorta what I feel writing this first post. It's a starting point. After all, this is my first entry on my new blog site. A site I said I'd never have. Yet, here it is after a year or so of putting it off. A site with my name as the domain. Yuck! I resisted this for years. Yet, now here it is and here I am.Starting over. This is not my first time blogging. I blogged for years through my company site, X Factor Consulting. Those posts were painful. Painful to write because they were written more like term papers than blog posts. And if I'll be honest, they were probably painful to read -- unless of course, you're a teacher or professor. Then they may have still been painful, but you might have had fun with your red pen.I also write some of the blog posts for Cairnway -- a boutique firm that I co-founded along with Joe Iarocci. Those posts center around our work in leadership development and servant leadership advancement.Starting over again. This is a fresh start. A new site. A home base where I write about things that may not neatly fit into the work I do through X Factor Consulting or Cairnway Center for Servant Leadership Excellence. Topics that are important to me. More importantly, I'm looking to connect in community with likeminded people from all around the world. Perhaps we live close enough together to connect for coffee. Or perhaps we'll have an opportunity to work in your company or community. Or maybe we just connect through sharing comments here or on other social media outlets.As we're just getting started, I'm inviting you to join our mailing list. At this moment, I don't have an incentive to offer. Just the offer of relationship to a community of likeminded people -- people of purpose and passion who want to offer their contribution to make the world better. I'd also love to connect with you on Twitter, LinkedIn, or Facebook.  

Is Servant Leadership Suffering an Image Problem?

Not long ago, I interviewed a best-selling author whose book advocates servant leadership ideals but never uses the term “servant leadership.” I asked if the author was familiar with servant leadership.“Yes, I think so, but I’m not sure how you define servant leadership. If you mean that leaders must always sacrifice themselves for those they lead, then I’m not a big fan.”If you define servant leadership that way, then I’m not a big fan of it either. To always sacrifice your self for others is not service – it’s martyrdom.Upon reflection, I realized that my author friend was not a big fan of servant leadership because he held a caricature of it in his mind.Many caricatures of servant leadership result from its blending of two seemingly contradictory elements - “servant” and “leadership” - into one powerful philosophy.Let’s explore three of the most frequent caricatures of servant leadership:

1. Servant leadership is soft. Martin Luther King, Jr. may have put it best when he admonished that, “We must always be tough-minded and tender-hearted.” That’s a great characterization of servant leadership – hard and soft at the same time. Servant leadership blends both competence and consciousness. It requires tough, hard-edged, strategic actions on one hand; on the other hand, the servant-leader always considers how those actions affect the people involved. Oh, and if you are not totally persuaded, just ask softie organizations that practice servant leadership – like the US Navy Seals, for example – just what they think.
2. Servant leadership is faith-based. Servant leadership is certainly consistent with all the great religions of the world, but no religion would rightly make an exclusive claim to it. Servant leadership requires that we submit ourselves in service to something bigger than ourselves – a cause, a community, our company, for example – and all the stakeholders thereof. Servant leadership is powered by what philosopher’s call transcendence and that does make it seem religious. But at the end of the day, servant leadership is as appropriate in the corporate boardroom as it is in any particular place of worship. 
3. Servant leadership requires subservience. This last caricature can be the harshest, especially for groups that historically have suffered oppression. No doubt, the word “servant” is loaded with negative connotations and many people are turned off by it. But at the same time, many other people are drawn to the paradoxical aspect of the servant-leader as a person in some position of power choosing to use that power for the benefit of others. That’s a radical notion and one that is certainly transformative. Servant-leaders are the most powerful leaders precisely because they share – and thus multiply, power. Servant-leaders are the ones with the most devoted followers, the greatest influence, and the ones most likely to bring sustainable transformation.

What other caricatures of servant leadership create barriers for people? How do you help people in your spheres of influence embrace an accurate understanding of servant leadership?Looking forward to your input and appreciate you sharing this post with others.

5 Ways Servant-Leaders Enhance Employee Engagement

If every manager were a servant-leader, employee engagement would be at an all-time high.Instead, as we saw in a previous post, the 2015 Edelman Trust Barometer shows employee engagement is now at an all-time low.And, as we explored in last week’s post, Gallup’s research shows that an employee’s manager makes or breaks employee engagement. I think most of us know this to be true from our personal experiences.So, we need more servant leadership in the workplace – now!Why does servant leadership lead to high employee engagement? Here’s our short list of reasons:

1. Servant-leaders choose to serve those they lead. A commitment to servant leadership changes the power dynamics between manager and those managed. Rather than demanding that followers serve them, servant-leaders find meaningful ways to serve those they lead. They regularly ask, “How can I help you succeed?” The effects of this “serve first” on employee engagement are dramatic.
2. Servant-leaders make sure other’s highest priority needs are being served. Come on, how often have we seen managers try to remedy low employee engagement in purely tactical ways? Employees like tactical things – but they need strategic things: connection to a larger purpose, a sense of belonging and continuous personal growth. Managers take note: Addressing high-priority needs results in richer engagement than creating short-term incentives or gimmicks.
3. Servant-leaders believe work is meaningful. Work exists for the person as much as the person exists for the work. Servant-leaders see dignity in all work. They seek to match the worker to the work. As Howard Behar says, “the person who sweeps the floor should choose the broom.” (You can hear more from Howard on this Servant Leadership Session podcast). Where employees find meaning, there they are engaged.
4. Servant-leaders develop others to be leaders. Servant-leaders are committed to the growth of people and invest in their development. They build personal trusting, relationships with the people they lead. “I’ve got to know you to grow you,” says Cheryl Bachelder, CEO of Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen. This allows the leader to discover the aspirations of each team member and identify developmental opportunities that allow for growth.
5. Servant-leaders inspire virtuous cycles of service. When managers take their responsibility to serve employees seriously, the employees catch on quickly. In turn, they are more serious in their efforts to serve their customers and each other. The magic of servant-leadership is the way it creates virtuous cycles of service. Working in an environment like this is fun, fulfilling and energizing. Being a customer can be the same. Think of your encounters with Southwest Airlines or The Container Store – or any other workplace with high engagement.

Servant leadership may not be a fast track to higher employee engagement. But among the tracks we know, it is the fastest and most direct route to sustained results.If you have something to add to the list, please do so in the comment section below.If you’d like to explore how servant leadership could improve employee engagement at your company, contact us.