Good Leaders: How are you diversifying your perspectives?

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Tunnel vision. That’s what often happens for leaders who have been with one company, in one field, or in one community for a long time.

Amy Smith, director of sales at Lifetouch Portrait Studios, knew that she needed to shake things up. After fifteen years in the same company, she was searching for new ways to accelerate her team’s development and broaden her own network. So when she heard me talk about Good Leadership Training from the stage at one of the Good Leadership Breakfasts, she was the first to sign up.

Fresh Perspectives

“It’s a challenge to network because I’ve moved so many times around the country, and it’s a challenge to broaden my exposure to leadership perspectives because I’ve only experienced the Lifetouch business culture,” she explained.  So she enrolled into Good Leadership Training with goals to gain fresh perspectives to spark her own growth and new tools for her team.

Her colleagues in Training loved her contagious energy and the happy spark in her eye. And we were all impressed with stories of her international volunteer work with school children in the Dominican Republic. She helped us all radiate goodness!

Nobody’s Perfect

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Despite her enthusiastic approach, she wondered how a group of strangers would talk about your flaws. “I was happy to learn that no one hesitated to speak up or share what they wanted to work on in their growth as a leader,” she observed. How did the program get people to open up? “Most coaches and leadership workshops take their own opinion and put it on other people. Good Leadership doesn’t do that. The Training encourages everyone to find their own goodness – which means everyone has to be honest about their own growth.”
The program features “Coaching Buddies,” — peer coaching to help each other be accountable to the four Cornerstones of Goodness: excellence, generosity, fairness, and positivity. When Amy was partnered with a high-level leader in finance, she realized that no matter the industry, most leaders are challenged by building and retaining a team and influencing through complex organizational dynamics. “We all have different roles, but the things I’m struggling with aren’t any different than what other people are struggling with,” she smiled.

Will your wheel roll?

Amy often reflects about her Seven Fs wheel as a way to work on her satisfaction with faith, family, finance, fitness, friends, fun, and future. She is learning to embrace her Seven Fs wheel, even though it isn’t always round enough to roll. “We don’t have family in Minnesota, so my family level is lower than I like and that’s okay for today. My focus is to continue to stretch myself to score a perfect 10 on the other Fs to maintain positive momentum as a good leader.”

Goodness in Leadership

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The Good Leadership Training gave Amy the tools to connect with her team deeply and with positivity every day. “I hear individuals on my team say, ‘we are all so alike’,” she observed. “But I’ve learned to see how we are all so different from each other! The Training helped shape my conversations with them as individuals, so they each receive the coaching they need.”

Her one regret? “I wish Training would have gone longer…we could have easily done a year-long course. Plus, I miss the encouragement of my classmates!”

Good leaders are always searching for new perspectives. And they inspire peers by embracing their flaws and growing together.

Please share with me: how do you find multiple perspectives to help you grow?[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]