Last week I had the privilege of giving a motivational keynote talk during a town hall meeting at The Hartford Insurance Company. My talk was entitled Everyday 
Leadership: Motivating the Leader in You!
My challenge was to use this platform to connect the employees to their new vision statement. I think we got there…or at least moved them in the right direction.
My keynote talk focused on splitting everyday leadership into three components:
- Leading yourself
- Leading the organization
- Leading others
Shift from a 9-5 Mindset to an Owner’s Mindset
One of the powerful ideas that I shared with the audience was something that I learned from keynote speaker Mandy Adendorff at the recent Total Woman Conference. (Last weeks’ tip to Get G.P.S. was also inspired from this conference). Mandy is an international artist, award-winning entrepreneur and minister.
Check out her web site – http://mandyadendorff.com/
Mandy spoke about the importance of shifting your mindset from the 9 to 5 Mindset (or the employee mindset) to a mindset of thinking more like a business owner, i.e., the Owner Mindset. She believes that the owner mindset seeks to build, while the 9-5 mindset seeks to survive.
“If your currency is solutions, you will build a business. If your currency is busy work, you will be too busy. While busy work appeases the conscience, strategic work produces results.” – Mandy Adendorff, Artist of Faith
46¢ versus $15.00
I shared a personal story of networking with a person who forgot to bring his business cards with him. Over the course of our discussion, it became clear that we could be connecting and referring people to each other for new business development. I asked for a couple of his cards. He had broken the first rule of networking: “Never leave home without your business card”. But he had a solution to the problem: He told me that he would FedEx them to me. I reassured him that that wouldn’t be necessary and that he could just mail them to me in the regular post. He insisted “No. I send everything by Federal Express.” Once again, I tried to suggest that he can just pop them in an envelope with a first class stamp on it and his cards would be sure to arrive in plenty of time. Again, he insisted that he would FedEx them to me.
I felt badly for the business. I felt the pain of financial loss. It wasn’t my money, but then it was somebody’s money and it was being wasted. The business owner in me was offended. Why would anyone choose to spend $15 when they could spend 46 cents. What would Warren Buffett do?
Little decisions – big impact
No matter what position you hold in your organization, you can influence the business results. You can improve the profitability by your everyday decisions.It may not seem like a big deal at the time, but your choices matter. Other people are watching your decisions even when you don’t know it.
My friend Chris Harvey who is a retired Lt. Colonel in the US Army and now is a deputy project manager at Sikorsky, had this to say about everyday leadership:
“It’s all about everyday leadership. Everything you do as a leader is being watched by the people you lead, including your language, your timeliness, your attention to detail. You must lead by example and excel at the ‘little things’ as well as the ‘big things’.”
Put this idea into action
This week, act like you own the organization. Make decisions that are in the best interest of the organization’s health and well being. Spend money like it’s your own money. If you have issues with financial control, then spend money knowing that you will be accountable to someone else.
This week, set aside the lure of busyness and recalibrate your value on your ability to influence a positive outcome – for your organization, for people in your network, and for yourself. Make conscious choices as if you were the owner. By the way, you are! You are the leader of your life. You own your own experience. Shape it. Lead it. Do right by it.
