I recently had the honor and privilege to participate in an elite leadership training program titled Lead Now by the Focus 3 Team, founded by Tim Kight.
The Lead Now training I participated in was facilitated by Master Training Specialist and veteran of the United States Navy SEAL Teams, Scott Daly. Scott was excellent. He has spent a good portion of his life training people to perform at elite levels and become better leaders. I loved how Scott was able to take his life experiences, combine it with the Lead Now system, and apply it to situations each of us face every day. I found the training beneficial on so many levels. I highly recommend it, and I will share a few highlights from my notes that really helped me.
A prerequisite for the training was the completion of a DISC personality inventory. This was very enlightening. It was helpful for me to see areas to improve upon, how others may view me, and most importantly how to work with and lead other personality types.
Focus 3 helps organizations with culture work in a way that is unlike anything I have ever experienced. It is an elite system used by Fortune 100 Companies, professional and collegiate sports, and some of the top school districts in the world. Tim Kight, the founder of Focus 3, was the Leadership Coach for The Ohio State University Football Team, and the system was used here with Urban Meyer and his teams. It is a system that helps people become better leaders, and trains people to better deal with the events we encounter in life. The program centers around working on your RESPONSE to the events that come at you, so you can help influence a possible, better outcome. Click to Read More
The heart of the training, not mentioned in my notes below, centered around: character, competence, and connection to build trust, and accountability, support, and clarity to achieve results. You cannot achieve elite results however without building trust and you need all six traits. Focus 3 provides excellent training materials.
Here are some of my highlighted takeaways from my notes:
Trust is paramount in leadership. Leaders need to build trust. Trust is a repeated experience of you, over time. How do you build trust with people? You spend time with them. So many leaders fail to do this.
Most people lead as needed and without discipline and intention. Don’t be like that.
Love is free. Give it often. Trust is earned.
Your organization cannot have divisions. Leaders MUST get everyone on the same page. Everyone MUST get together and interact with each other.
Strength in one area of leadership will not make up for a weakness in another.
Talent is a gift. Character is a choice.
Elite leaders don’t rely on motivation, or quotes; they have a system.
Great leaders need to build emotional agility.
Caring is an action, not an emotion.
Your focus, self talk, and how you feel, determines how you behave. You have more control over these than you think. Get intentional about each.
As a leader, you have a responsibility to be clear. Ask others to let you know if you are not being clear.
Leaders take ownership of their organization’s struggles and challenges, and they pass the accomplishments and recognition on to the team.
I loved Scott’s story about how he helped a young SEAL make rank. From a very small conversation about monster trucks, he made an impact and built an incredible level of trust. Have lots of conversations with your team about anything.
You can’t be trained beyond the edge until you discover your limitations. Find new edges to overcome. Grow BEYOND your current level of skill.
Know exactly what you stand for.
The day you think you know it all — get out.
Lead at the next level.
Your beliefs, behaviors and desired outcomes must move from your head to your heart and actions.
How to have an accountability conversation:
1) State the observation.
2) Describe the impact it is having.
3) Ask what they think they can do to fix it.
4) Tell them what you want them to do.
5) How will they respond?
6) How will you respond to their response?
I highly recommend you learn more about Focus 3, R-Factor, and Lead Now on the Focus 3 website and podcast. This is excellent training for businesses, schools and well… everyone. I am very proud and thankful ofPort Clinton City Schools and Pat Adkins for this training.
Be intentional about your organization’s culture.
Always forward,
Kelly
Order Kelly’s books, Along Came a Leader and Unthink Before Bed: A Children’s Book on Mindfulness for your personal library.
Educator, Author, Keynote Speaker
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