Wow! not How?

Last week I attended the Global Leadership Summit.  The summit never disappoints with its amazing speakers and leadership material.  Whether you attended this conference or any training conference, the challenge is always the same:  How do you take the vast amount of material and actually do something with it?  When I leave, I often think I am going to take what I learned and change the world.  But then I get back to my routine and I forget about all the things I learned.

To help you, here are 4 steps that I try to apply to see results after a training:

1. Don’t try to apply all of your learnings at once.

While you may be motivated to change, remember the key to leading, is making improvements your team is excited about as well.  Trying to change too much as soon as you get back from a training session sets you and your team up for potential frustration.

2. Identify one or two things that you want to apply to your own leadership.

By applying the changes to yourself, you get an opportunity to make an impact and allow those around you to see your growth and improvements.

3. Set some measurable goals around what you want to change.

Spend some time thinking about what success would look like for you and your team.  Write those down and determine how you will measure the results of what you want to change in yourself and team.

4. Set up reminders on your calendar to review your progress.

The main reason why you may not get the results you want is you fail to follow-through on the changes.  You leave a training event all excited about what you learned.  You are going to change everything to be a better person and leader, but then you get back to your routine and forget about what you learned.  You have a hard time following through on the changes you want to make.  Schedule time on your calendar each month, this could be one hour or one day, to review progress.  This is time where you will set aside your daily tasks and focus on your development.  Review what you have learned and the progress you have made.  Set some new goals on what you want to see improved by the next time you review your progress.

I hope these steps help you see the results that you want from the time you invested in learning from the training event you have attended.

For me, the two biggest takeaways that I had from the Global Leadership Summit were:

• Andy Stanley: He challenged us to find ways to create organizational cultures that will recognize rather than resist uniquely better.  Specifically, from two points he made – be a student and not a critic and replace How? With Wow!  Too often in my past I have focused on what is wrong with an idea and not enough on how to learn from an idea and allow it to develop.
• Marcus Buckingham: He made a statement – People want attention, not feedback!  This is such an important lesson to remember.  I want to strive to be a leader that pays attention to people.  I want to be someone who helps people become the person that God made them to be.  I want to see potential in people and pay attention to them so that they feel valued, known and cared for.  This is a great way to make an impact on others!