Live As A Leader

By Aleta Norris, Nancy Lewis and John Rutkiewicz

"Leading people is a lot harder than I expected!"

You might have muttered these words more than once. Any leader who has spent long hours enmeshed in messy projects, worked to rally a misaligned team, struggled with doubt, or dealt with difficult people has wondered if there is an easier way to have an impact, enact posit

• Language: English
• Publisher: Author Academy Elite
• Release date: Jun 13, 2022
• ISBN: 9781647468699

Aleta Norris

During Aleta Norris's years as a business owner and coach, she's enjoyed opportunities to help others find contentment, happiness, and a sense of value. She teaches people to lead productive, positive lives in the midst of daily demands and long to-do lists. Aleta has done this work effectively because of imperfections in her own life - imperfections that women tend to think they are alone in. Her website, AletaNorris.com, is about more than books and speaking. It's full of encouragement, resources that spark, and an engaged online community (tribe). Aleta's PURPOSE is to be an encourager of women. It is her PASSION and "Women Who Spark" is the PLAN. Are you ready?

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Praise for Live As A Leader

The powerful secret sauce in Live As A Leader is liberally spread throughout every chapter embedded in the rich stories of real people in real situations, making the insights, lessons, and tools the authors offer us come vibrantly alive. This is one book that will fill you up to the brim with aha moments that will stick to your bones and that you can immediately apply to your work and your life. A MUST-READ!

—Roxi Bahar Hewertson, CEO at Highland Consulting Group, Inc. and Executive Leadership Coach;

Author of Lead Like it Matters . . . Because It Does and Hire Right, Fire Right: A Leader’s Guide To Finding And Keeping Your Best People

Live As A Leader is an exceptional blend of leadership concepts, true-to-life experiences, and calls to action. Aleta, Nancy, and John’s message to strike a balance of Inspiration and Accountability while leading others will resonate with leaders in any seat. A must read for new and experienced leaders alike.

—Ellen Ingram, Director of Human Resources

at America’s Service Line, LLC

Live As A Leader is not just any book. While reading it, I felt like I was attending an inspiring workshop. The chapter on Resolving Conflict would single-handedly justify the book. I immediately implemented the following tools in my organization: Recognizing Conflict Questionnaire and Mediation Meeting Planner. Buy it for your people leaders!

—Derek Deprey, Head of Employee Success and

Director of Leadership Development at ETE Reman and

Author of SHIFT: Move from Frustrated to Fulfilled

The Living As A Leader team has done it, giving you the opportunity in this book to transform your leadership mind and inspire you to lead with humility, respect, and servitude.

—Stephen LeGrand, CEO at Timberlyne

I am so impressed with how well Living As A Leader has integrated their years of real-world experience into this easy to read and comprehend book. Aleta, Nancy, and John have hit all the key points covering the invaluable leadership skills that we need today to succeed.

—Randall Troutman,

General Manager at Printpack Medical

As competition for talent heats up in today’s market, effective leaders will become the distinct advantage for organizations to attract, develop, and retain great employees. Aleta, Nancy, and John’s message is that if you are continuously open to becoming a better leader, you will inspire and uplift others.

—Chris Smith, EVP International and

Chief Brand Officer at Jockey International, Inc.

Live As A Leader provides a realistic roadmap for anyone that aspires to be an effective leader. Whether you are a formal or informal leader, you will benefit by applying the principles of real-life leadership presented throughout this book.

—Michael Draver, SVP and GM at LPI

Live As A Leader provides perspective to leaders that helps them see things from the employee’s point of view. It follows that up with practical tools and tips to implement truly effective leadership. When applied, leaders will be able to inspire their teams while holding them accountable, which will ultimately lead to success.

—Christine A. Specht, CEO at Cousins Subs

In the book Live As A Leader, the chapters don’t need to be read in any particular order but can be selected based on the curiosity, challenge, or need of the reader at any moment. The authors have shared vignettes of experiences from their clients over the past twenty-five years that are real and useful. I recommend this book to the thousands and thousands of alumnae, facilitators, and coaches affiliated with Living As A Leader to remind them of the magic they have in their toolkit and also to everyone else who leads people and wants to engage, motivate, and build a legacy of positive impact.

—Rosemary M. DiMonte, Founder and Principal at Red Rooster Consulting, Inc., Experts in Strategic Planning and Strengthening Leaders, Chicago, Illinois

No matter where you are on your leadership journey, Live As A Leader is full of guiding principles that will help you continue to grow, develop, and reach your full potential as a leader.

—Tim Peoples, Senior Vice President of Supply Operations at Wis-Pak, Inc.

In this book, the chapter Coach, Don’t Confront will give you many powerful takeaways. Learn how you can give your team what they crave and bring out their very best. I have worked with Living As A Leader over the past fifteen years, and this book encapsulates the tools of their teachings. Believe me, this approach works.

—Gregg Weber, Plant President, RRD

Aleta, Nancy, and John’s book about the importance of accountability and inspiration is a fantastic source of leadership information. It is also a great workbook to help you apply it in your life and on the job right away. This book will help you accomplish better results for yourself and your team!

—Cory Bouck, Regional Business Director–Asia/Pacific at Johnsonville Sausage, LLC and Author of The Lens of Leadership: Being the Leader Others WANT to Follow

Live As A Leader should be read on a yearly basis. It’s an effective breakdown of our constant leadership challenges with timeless solutions.

—Bill Sager, Founding Partner at Carousel

Of all the wonderful concepts and exercises in Live As A Leader, the Box of Life exercise will be transformational for leaders. To be given the tool of looking at people from a different perspective due to their different life experiences can break down barriers. In the questions lie the answers!

—Phil Areddia, Vistage Chair and

Former President and CEO

Living As A Leader was instrumental in developing our people leadership culture at the company I previously led. In this book, you’ll find key elements of their great training program and competence boost that empowered our managers with hands-on leadership methods and helped us form a strong leadership team!

—Markus Rauchhaus, CEO at Nott Company

Live As A Leader is a call to action for leaders of all levels. Aleta, Nancy, and John have filled this book with practical, real-world examples and given us the tools to be impactful and inspirational leaders.

—Dana Berry, Director of HR and

Certified Leadership Coach at Intermatic

No organization, i.e., company, government, church, non-profit or family, can achieve their potential without leadership. Live As A Leader clearly and succinctly lays out what good leadership is, its impact, and how we can each move in that direction.

—Jim Long, Aspiring Leader, Husband, Father, Friend,

and CEO, Board Member and Partner at Pebble Creek Partners, LLC

Working with Living As A Leader has taught me that maintaining strong leadership is a constant endeavor. Balancing accountability and inspiration, staying outward-facing, demonstrating appreciation, taking on hard conversations are daily events when done properly. Live As A Leader demonstrates the skills your organization will need to maintain an intentional commitment to excellence.

—Gene Guskowski,

Founding Principal at AG Architecture

If you are ready to embark upon your own leadership journey, take this book along as your guide. You can have no better travel companions than Aleta, Nancy, and John, who provide practical guidance and sound advice while allowing for plenty of exciting discoveries along the way.

—Kent Wrenn, HR Leader and Talent Developer

Live As A Leader

Inspiration and Tools to Transform Yourself, Your Team, and Your Life

BY

Aleta Norris

Nancy Lewis

John Rutkiewicz

Live As A Leader © 2021 by Aleta Norris, Nancy Lewis, John Rutkiewicz.

All rights reserved.

Published by Author Academy Elite

PO Box 43, Powell, OH 43065

www.AuthorAcademyElite.com

All rights reserved. This book contains material protected under international and federal copyright laws and treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without express written permission from the author.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021915505

ISBN: 978-1-64746-867-5 (paperback)

ISBN: 978-1-64746-868-2 (hardback)

ISBN: 978-1-64746-869-9 (ebook)

Available in paperback, hardback, e-book, and audiobook

Any Internet addresses (websites, blogs, etc.) and telephone numbers printed in this book are offered as a resource. They are not intended in any way to be or imply an endorsement by Author Academy Elite, nor does Author Academy Elite vouch for the content of these sites and numbers for the life of this book.

Some names and identifying details have been changed to protect the privacy of individuals.

Dedication

To the thousands of leaders we have worked with over the past three decades.

For your willingness, humility, challenges, drive, and desire to improve.

Contents

Introduction: The Leadership Gap

Chapter 1 Seeing People as People

Chapter 2 Leadership Is a Different Skill Set

Chapter 3 Slowing Down to Speed Up

Chapter 4 Great Expectations

Chapter 5 Coach, Don’t Confront

Chapter 6 Solving Problems

Chapter 7 Building Trust

Chapter 8 Resolving Conflict

Chapter 9 Navigating Change

Chapter 10 The Legacy of Leadership

Chapter 11 Lead and Learn

Acknowledgments

About the Authors

References

Introduction: The Leadership Gap

Dave was an executive who, when he was bored, got up and walked out of meetings. No explanation. He just left, leaving behind those who prepped for these meetings bewildered and unsure of what they did wrong.

Marie was a plant manager in a small town who wanted to be a friend to all her employees. She planned happy hours and gave gifts to those who reported to her. She was beloved by her team—as a friend. At the same time, her team stagnated, struggled to deliver results, and failed to live up to their potential.

Mark was a CEO who never really knew what he was going to say to his team until the moment he opened his mouth. Then he let his instincts take over. Usually, his instincts told him to berate, belittle, and yell at those around him. He thought that was the way to motivate them.

Then there was James, who was usually good-natured and liked to joke with his employees. Smart and highly experienced, he had worked in his job for thirty years and had more knowledge about the facility where he worked than anyone else. And he knew it. He could be arrogant, refusing to listen to anyone else. And under pressure, he would commonly become quick-tempered, barking orders at those around him.

These are just a few of the corrosive behaviors from leaders we’ve encountered in our thirty years of work at Living As A Leader. None of these leaders are bad people, and in the moment, they all genuinely thought they were doing the right thing for themselves and their companies. We’re pretty comfortable in saying they likely didn’t know better.

They didn’t realize that, in their own way, each of these people created toxic cultures. They held back their teams, and they failed to build strong foundations for high performance and personal and professional growth.

There are many ways for leaders to fail, from a lack of empathy to a failure to hold others accountable.

Too often, leaders fall into these negative behavioral patterns. It can continue this way for years, with people making excuses for the leaders, for the company accommodating and working around leadership weaknesses, and for employees feeling powerless to change the structure. On and on it goes until it finally reaches a breaking point for people or for the organization itself.

Does any of this sound like a situation you’ve found yourself in at work?

If you’re like most employees, the above examples probably sound all too familiar. According to a Gallup survey, 60 percent of respondents had left jobs or considered leaving when they didn’t like their direct supervisors.¹ Consider a few more of the statistics:

Employees who feel their voice is heard at work are nearly five times (4.6X) more likely to feel empowered to perform their best work (Salesforce, 2017).

Of America’s full-time workers, only 35 percent are engaged (Gallup, 2019).

23 percent of workers said they would offer more ideas and solutions, and 21 percent reported they would be willing to work longer hours if they trusted their leaders (Trust Edge Leadership Institute, 2018).

These statistics support a startling fact: the majority of employees leave work every day feeling unsatisfied. Further, these statistics suggest that workers are more likely to be higher performers if they have better relationships with their leaders. The tragedy of poor leadership isn’t just that it hurts the bottom line and holds down company profits. It’s that it affects people and families.

Think about it. The impact of poor leadership goes beyond the time people leave work for the day. It extends to the dinner table, where families decompress and talk about their day.

Leaders have a choice. They can be the kind of leader that inspires and uplifts people to be their best selves—or they can be the kind of leader that makes people vent, get frustrated, and look for other opportunities.

The sad thing is, many ineffective leaders never see themselves as the negative kind of leader or witness the harm they cause. Usually, they were promoted into positions of leadership because they were talented, high-achieving individual contributors and knew what they were doing. They may have high technical skill, but they have no experience when it comes to guiding, inspiring, and directing people. They’ve always been accountable to themselves and their own output. Then when they encounter other people who aren’t like them, they don’t know how to react. They default to acting in what they think is the right way in their mind—not in a way others need. Leaders make the mistake of treating employees as friends (instead of holding them accountable) or berating and belittling them (thinking that’s the best way to motivate everyone).

No one taught them how to be a leader.

So far, we’ve focused on the consequences of poor leadership because it is unfortunately so prevalent. But the flip side is that leadership can also be transformational. Leaders can take low-performing employees and build them up. They can harness the energy of motivated employees and help them take the business to greater levels of success in terms of growth, revenue, profitability, and overall performance.

We’ve seen that it can be done with the right training, framework, and diligence. It takes time and commitment to develop as a leader, just as it takes time and commitment to learn and grow technical skills. Just as someone can become more proficient at tasks on the job, they can grow in leadership skills like empathy, accountability, and listening.

Sometimes we get asked whether good leaders are born or made. And the answer is yes, to both. We’re all born with unique talents and personality traits. Personality is largely fixed by the age of three. But after the age of three, you likely learned to do a lot more to further your goals, from feeding yourself to driving a car. The same is true of leadership. Even if leaders don’t change who they are as a person, they can choose to incorporate new skills and behaviors that make them the best versions of themselves—and help others around them reach their full potential too.

In this book, we will explore the most effective techniques for developing yourself into a confident and competent leader by sharing much of what we have seen throughout our thirty-year careers. Each chapter shares pragmatic principles that organizations and leaders can put into practice in, let’s say, the right way. You will learn from others’ mistakes as well as from the successes that have happened when people learn to turn a weakness into a strength.

Before We Begin

We came across a statistic years ago that said more than 400 books are written on leadership every year. Leadership seems to be one of those mysterious facets of human existence that all of us keep trying to get our arms around. And likely, every book about leadership strives to define what leadership is. We’re no different.

In our work with leaders across North America—who lead at every level within their organizations—we strive to remove some of the mystery of leadership by defining it simply as this:

Leadership