Three Practical Exercises to Improve Your Leadership Today

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a lot of leaders, they read a lot of books. through their career they've been to leadership training. So grab all those, but at the end of the day, be you like, what is your unique personal brand and how do you bring that into your workplace through your.

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I chatted with our senior coach, Michele Marquis, so you are about to get some free coaching because she shares three ways to become a more effective leader. Be more intentional about developing your leadership skills. It's a really great episode because Michelle shares practical exercises you can start doing today to improve your leadership skills, become a better coach, and of course, to help your team grow.

So get out your pen and paper or whatever app you use and get ready to take some notes.

talking today. We're talking all about leadership and how to improve as a leader, which is such a great topic because there's so many. I mean, look, you could talk about so many different things, right?

Lots of different directions that we can. but we can't do all the things, but we can focus on a few things at a time, to improve as a leader. So why is this topic so, important for you?

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That's it. Five pages in culture solution where Matthew talks about, your personal brand. And so many of the executives that I talk to, they never think about that. They don't think about themselves with that personal brand. So we talk about that. And then the second thing is, doing a leadership inventory for yourself.

I have a really good, template that I use. And then, rating your own performance because a lot of the, specifically the executives that I talked to, they don't have a performance review, right? , they're

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So again, it's a great way for them to reflect on their leadership style, right. And then think about how they improve. So that's where we really talk about also, usually they don't have a job description, they don't have a role description. they run the show.

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And so this idea of, Hey, this is why people reach out to coaches, right? leaders love getting coached. We all love getting coached, really, if we think about it, because we all wanna grow. We all wanna get better. We all wanna make progress in our lives. And, it is true that a lot of founders and owners and even executives, they're busy running their teams and oftentimes we're forgetting about, Hey, I have to take the time to assess where I am.

when we become more self-aware as to how am I.

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Cuz I don't, I don't know that a lot of people are thinking about this in general. And the first thing that comes to mind when I think of personal brand is just like with culture. , you are creating a culture whether you give attention to it or not. It's the same thing with your personal brand, whether you're being intentional about it or not, you're creating a personal brand, so we should probably be intentional about what that looks like.

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So we always talk about what is it right now? Like what do you think your personal brand is right now? so many people you know, they can't really think about. So I said, so here's what I want you to do. Ask a few of your very close friends separately to identify three to five characteristics that they would use to describe you.

like who, what they think your personal brand is. It's an incredible exercise because of those three to five people, there's always two or three that are consistent across those five. So that whether you wanted it to be or not, that is your brand. That's your brand right now.

And then how do you wanna change? another great exercise for yourself if you're really thinking about what your personal brand is today, is to look back at some of your old performance appraisal forms. when you did get reviewed as an individual and then see.

What are those key words, key phrases that keep coming out for you? Like when I look back at my own performance appraisals it was always, Michelle gets it done. Michelle gets it done, So that became like, again, whether I liked it or not, that's what I was doing. I was the person if you wanted to get something.

No matter how busy Michelle is, she's the one that's gonna get it done. So again, having them reflect back and finding those pieces, is a great first step. those two exercises, find out where you are and then really think about, is that what I want it to be?

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or you wanna make sure that you're demonstrating it. So one of the things that Matthew talks about when he talks about personal brand is you define it and then write it down. and then read it every day, and then do one thing every day that demonstrates your personal brand. another thing to think about is, as a leader, are you demonstrating the core values of your company

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And what I always find fascinating is it's hard for people to identify their superpower. And the reason why is because it's so natural to you. you're just so used to doing it. you don't realize that for other people, they see it in you as such a gift and a talent because they don't maybe have.

But it's so natural to you that you're like, oh no, that's no big deal. Like that doesn't really matter. And so it's the same kind of thing is that so often when people are looking at, at their leader, they're really recognizing a lot of qualities that they really appreciate that maybe they don't have yet, or maybe they aspire to be.

And that's what we get to do too, in addition. Asking people, those qualities that they see in you already. to Michelle's point, when we are being intentional about creating your. Who do you look up to? maybe it's leaders you've had in the past that really have made an impact in your life that really shaped you as a leader?

Maybe it's someone you don't even know, someone that you just follow online or they've built a business and they're in your, maybe they're in your same industry and you just really recognize the way that they lead and then be able to say, Wow. These are some of the qualities in them that I appreciate and how can I work towards, becoming more of that kind of person.

when I think personal brand too, I, always think of that Maya Angelou quote of people will, forget what you said. They will forget what you did, but they will never forget how you made them feel.

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we remember that. We remember how they made us feel. They made us feel empowered. They made us feel worthy. They made us feel like our ideas matter. They made us feel like they had our back. They made us feel like they wanted us to grow. They wanted what was best for us. And they encouraged us. They supported us.

And when we do trainings, what is so interesting is we always ask people to share what are the quality, the good qualities of a leader, and. Some of those not so good qualities and every time one of the top qualities that shows up is being tough, but fair. Great leaders are tough but fair because we have to be a little tough cuz we have to get a little uncomfortable when we're gonna grow and we have to do the same thing for ourselves when we're building our own personal brand is to be really, honest with yourself, about who you are today and who you want to.

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And it's so funny because people are so hard on themselves, because the next step is I say, okay, tell me one of your direct reports and how you think they would. then we find the little disconnects there as

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love that.

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So that gives us areas that they want to work on. I pulled one out that we had used recently. So there's three main categories leading the organization. what's underneath that is like managing change, managing politics and influencing others, taking risks, setting vision and strategy, and then another.

Main area is leading the self, so demonstrating your ethics and integrity, exhibiting leadership stature, increasing your capacity to learn. And then the third is leading others. And that's where you get a lot of those, skills that like communication. Are you, Developing others, are you growing people?

valuing diversity and difference? So again, they rate themselves and then they pick someone that reports to them and they just say, uh, so I asked them, what do you think they would rate you? and then again, when there's a difference, why do you think there's a difference? And it's very interesting because they can't tell me, but I know it's because they're just being hard on themselves.

But that's a one area that they don't feel confident. so that we go back and then we identify those specific areas and then we drill down a little deeper.

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And so this is why these questions matter. This is why coaching matters because you're as having somebody ask you the difficult questions that again, deep down we. We know what we need to do. We know how to get better. we just need to be pushed a little bit sometimes and really allow ourselves to face the truth.

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And it gives us an opportunity to look at their strengths also. And so, if this is your strength, how are you using your strength to develop your team? So that's always, a good question for them to go. You know, I really don't get involved with that. That's hrs job. I have a training department that does that.

So again, just helps to bring that to the forefront of their mind and how they really wanna develop more of a leader. And I, I wanna just jump back to, brand for a second. And one of the things that was in Culture Solution that Matthew pointed out. We are all different, right? So be your unique self as a leader.

a lot of leaders, they read a lot of books. through their career they've been to leadership training. So grab all those, but at the end of the day, be you like, what is your unique personal brand and how do you bring that into your workplace through your.

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and that is just not true. That is not what I needed to do. That was the opposite of what I needed to do. And part of, going back to really great leaders, we remember them because of. Very unique personality style. I worked with a woman who I, I tell her this still today.

one of the reasons why I took the role that I did was because I knew that I was gonna learn a lot from her because she is one of those women that she walks into a room and people look, she walks into a room and you're like, she's got something to say and we wanna hear it. her presence was so powerful.

And I thought, I wanna learn how to do that. I wanna learn how to command a room like that. And I learned so much from her. but she was completely who she was. And when I got to see her stick up for not only herself, but stick up for her team and the decisions that we made, that made such an impact on me.

And so when we think about really great leaders, They're bold. They are bold in the way that they lead. They believe in their decisions, they believe in their team. that is something that is lacking today in a lot of organizations. Being able to be that bold leader and when we are that way, we attract the right people and we repel the wrong people.

We like get rid of the people that are not meant for us, and we attract those people that are meant to be part of our team and excited to, to work alongside you. to do great work to fulfill the mission of the organiz.

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And have them do the same thing, rate themselves. And then that became a tool for them to use to say, wow, four of my people need, help setting vision and strategy. these are my leaders. I want them all to have vision and strategy. So again, that just help build confidence in the fact that they're even paying attention to their leadership.

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But again, this is why when you have a third party person that you're able to talk to, that you're able to work through these things and help you identify some of the ways to improve as a leader, it's just only going to make you better and your organization better. we are all constantly learning and growing, and as your business grows, as you grow, as your team grows, you have to keep upping your game.

You have to keep going back to these, things, your personal brand, your leadership inventory, and then of course number three is rating your performance

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sometimes they'll have communication, but it's like so broad. So being, more specific and really aligning them back to your core values. So if your core values are, we're committed, excellence, this, that, and the other thing. So there should be underneath that, a description of what you would want to see demonstrated so that I know that you have the core value.

So those should be on your performance appraisal form. So we actually, when we do the performance appraisal form, I'll have them again, strategic objectives for the department. there's always those bigger goals. I'm gonna call 'em goals. So you have goals, but then underneath that, List each core value and then a description of what those behaviors are that demonstrate that you believe in the core value.

doing that and rating yourself, it is an incredible, Self-awareness, clarity, going, wow. once you do that, you can look back at your leadership inventory, your personal brand, and then it really, again, focuses in and doing it on a regular basis, not just once. usually it's just all about did you make it happen?

are you achieving your. This should be an opportunity to really look at your performance, holistically, like looking at, not just what you're doing, but how you're doing it. It's just like role descriptions usually they're all about, this is what I want you to do. They hardly ever say, and this is how I expect you to do it, and that how should be aligned back to the core values.

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And the more that we can be be that crystal clear,like Matthew talks about on the culture solution, lead with clear expectations. it's this idea of being really clear. And so when we're very clear with our team, I love that you're inviting leaders to be really clear with themselves.

Right. Especially those top people. Because again, if we don't have that person that is, Having those performance reviews with us, cuz you're the owner, you're the c e o or, or whatever the case, then it's too easy to not do those things. And I love how number one, the, the second and third, your leadership inventory and rating your, performance, they work hand in hand.

Because when you start rating your performance, you can then, Add some of those tasks that you're doing or add some of those things that you're doing to your leadership inventory so that you, after, let's say you do it every quarter for yourself, if you give quarterly performance reviews, give yourself a quarterly performance review, and then you can go back, after the full year and then look at what you've written down as, Hey, these were some of the things that I've done.

over the year that has helped me to build this personal brand. So, uh, Michelle, these are three things that leaders can do that they all work really well hand in hand. And if we're continuously thinking about these things and really evaluating, then. Imagine how someone is gonna go from January one to December 31st, and what an impact that would have making these small, incremental changes every single day.

And even just that flip of being super intentional about what you're creating and how you are intentionally becoming a better leader.

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I mean, everybody thinks they're communicating.

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Pick those top two or three and then really, Get laser focused in on those. I'll tell you the top two that just from a, a challenging standpoint for most leaders is time. Right? I don't have enough time. I don't have enough time. Okay. We all get the same amount of time, so we, we talk about that and then we talk about delegating.

And then a lot of times people feel like they're good delegators or they're super honest with me and. , I'm a terrible delegator. I go, well, what would happen if you delegated more? I'd have more time . so you get to really look at all those different pieces of what's happening with you as a leader, because that also starts to affect some of those pieces in the leadership inventory as well.

Because if you're so overwhelmed doing all of these things, but you're, you have a team of people. . it's just being really focused and deliberate about what you're gonna focus on and what you're gonna give away so that you have the more time

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That should be a priority and this is why having a coach is so important. we believe everyone needs a. We all need to be asked these great questions. And, one of the great things about having a coach too is, like Michelle was saying, you're learning how to be a better leader, which allows you to teach your people how to be better leaders.

And by doing that and to become more self-aware, and then everyone in the organization gets better, grows, the organization grows, all good things happen. So

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Because a lot of times, developing your personal brand, it's not something you share with everybody. Like, Hey, yeah, today I've decided my personal brand is gonna be this. it's an inside job, I guess is what I wanna call it, so you create this for yourself and it becomes your guiding light.

But when you have a coach, you're able to share that, experience of really developing it. It's not something that, you put up on a billboard,

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Because no one else is gonna know. No one knows if you don't do your leadership inventory, no one else knows if you didn't rate your performance. No one knows if you are caring about your personal brand. and so it just adds a layer of accountability. It adds a layer of encouragement and that's all.

But yeah, of course everybody can grow and we can. Learn, But yeah, having a coach, it does push you in ways and challenge you in ways that we just, often won't do for ourselves because again, we're doing all the things.

We're doing all the things.

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I'll call it this, kicking it up a notch. If you have a coach to lean on.

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And so if nothing, Today is a day for you to, to start to do some of these exercises. See how you feel, just kind of, you know, lean into it, step into it. This is the year that you get to be, the best leader that you can be this year, and then continue to do these things over and over and over time.

Oh my gosh. Think about where you'll be a year from now, three years from now, five years from now. Simply because you made it, you were more intentional about becoming a better leader, and we support you in that growth. Obviously, we believe in that growth. we believe that the only way that, your organization can become the best version of itself is to the extent that your people are becoming better versions of self of themselves than obviously if you're a leader, you're leading the team.

And we've gotta have that same growth mindset, in building a team. so Michelle, any last words before we go?

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Just start today. find a buddy, someone you trust, and do it together.

It will be so worth your time.

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So

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