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Problem Solving Tool_SWOT_3x5 Leadership

Leaders Help Others Solve Problems. Here’s a Simple Tool to Assist.

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The late General (retired) Colin Powell – former Secretary of State, National Security Advisor, and Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff – is popular for (among many things) making a statement regarding a leader’s obligation towards peoples’ problems:

“The day the soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help them or concluded that you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership.”

While the statement addresses soldiers, it is a universal lesson in leadership – leaders help solve problems. Whether it be in a managerial role or as a mentor, leaders help others remove obstacles, achieve clarity on a path forward, and help enable and inspire action.

But one important aspect of leaders helping people solve problems, which seems to be less discussed, is HOW. How can leaders best help others solve problems, overcome challenges, and commit to a plan toward progress?More

Leader as Marketing Officer_3x5 Leadership

Why We Need to Think & Communicate Like Marketing Officers

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Are you a marketing officer? Me neither. But there is an essential connection between marketing and leadership – communication. Over recent years, I’ve come to find the value in thinking and sometimes acting like a marketing officer.

Communication is an essential competency of leadership regardless of field or level in the organization. It’s necessary to help others (as well as ourselves) to understand, visualize, and maintain perspective. Leaders need to communicate much – priorities, change, context – and often. Our communication builds common understanding, commitment, and alignment across the team. More

Two Development Tools Available to Every Leader_3x5 Leadership

Two Important Developmental Tools Available to Every Leader (and Mentor)

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Have you ever hesitated to reach out to a boss or a mentor and ask for their time – maybe to seek out advice for a current challenge?

Do you feel like a burden when you do?

What about encountering distracted, seemingly aloof communication from a boss or mentor? Though likely unintentional, even the smallest signals can message that we are distracting our boss or mentor from more important things, or that we are not someone on their short list of people worth their time.More

Goal Setting Cover_3x5 Leadership

Self & Leader Development Through Goal Setting (from a Self-Identified Non-Goal Setter)

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“It is not enough to take steps which may someday lead to a goal; each step must be itself a goal and a step likewise.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

I have an interesting relationship with productivity. Deep down I truly believe that productivity alone does not equate to success or value. I internalize a childhood lesson from my mom, “don’t confuse motion with progress,” and am a huge fan of my wife’s sweatshirt that reads, “your worth is not measured by your productivity.”

However, I have a bevy of passions – my faith, family, fatherhood, professional work, writing reflections on this platform, mentoring, self-development habits, and other interests like endurance running – that together require a lot of time. To successfully attend to all these passions, I have to be intentional and productive in how I spend my time. I often become frustrated if I find myself inadvertently ignoring any of these identities.

I believe others can relate to this productivity conundrum.More

LBWA 2.0_3x5 Leadership

Leadership by Wandering Around 2.0 – Connecting & Communicating Through Presence

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3×5 Leadership Note: Leadership by Wandering Around was the first article we wrote and published when we created 3×5 Leadership. To date, it remains the most popular article. That tells us the idea resonates with many. So, to celebrate 3×5 Leadership turning 5-years-old this month, we want to revisit this essential idea and expand on the idea with what we have learned over these years. Enjoy!

The idea of presence remains a critical component to effective leadership. It is an essential ingredient to building trust, deepening connections, and creating shared understanding with those we work with and lead. And while physically being present is the foundation of this idea, it requires so much more like our attitudes, words, and behaviors during those times. Regardless of industry and organizational context, leader presence is necessary; it is something we can enact across physical and digital domains.More

Big Rocks Theory 2.0_3x5 Leadership

‘Big Rocks Leadership’ 2.0: Living & Leading with Intentionality

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3×5 Leadership Note: Big Rocks Leadership was one of the first articles we wrote and published when we created 3×5 Leadership. To date, it consistently remains one of the two most popular articles. That tells us the idea resonates with many. So, to celebrate 3×5 Leadership turning 5-years-old this month, we want to revisit this essential idea and expand on the idea with what we have learned over these years. Enjoy!

The theory of the ‘big rocks’ goes like this:More

A Model for Retaining and Reflecting on What We Learn_3x5 Leadership

A Model for Retaining and Reflecting on What We Learn

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I believe one mark of an exceptional leader is a personal commitment to continuous self-development and learning. Running with this idea, let’s say you read one to two books a month for the purpose of development and learning. Additionally, you listen to an audiobook a month. You also listen to one to two podcasts a week. And you read a handful of blogs and articles each week. Great! I’d consider that quite a robust self-development habit of learning!

That’s also a lot of content to consume every week.

How do you extrapolate what is important and relevant from all that? Moreover, how do you record those ideas or lessons, retain them, organize them, or even reflect to keep them relevant months or years down the road? This is certainly a common challenge for those highly committed to self-development.More

What Do I Actually Get from All This Reading_3x5 Leadership

What Do We Actually Get from All This Reading?

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I recently had a wonderful conversation with a mentee of mine who is passionate about his development as a leader. Only two years into his career, he is already demonstrating a commitment to self-development that took me the better part of a decade to figure out. One of his current dilemmas, however, is worrying that he is over-consuming developmental content. He reads broadly, follows online journals and blogs, and listens to podcasts on a consistent basis. While I’m proud of his devotion to these important habits, he expressed concern that he is consuming too much and failing to retain, internalize, and ultimately apply much of what he learns. He’s not the only person I’ve talked to with this concern; this is also one that I often struggle with myself. I believe many of us are voracious consumers of a variety of great leader development content.

So, what do we (or should we) actually get from our reading and consumption of developmental content? I feel this dilemma is not unique; it is something many of us have thought about and is worth exploring.More

4 Self-Development Activities_3x5 Leadership

4 Self-Development Activities We Should Be Doing

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How are you developing yourself as a leader?

How well can you answer this question? I’m sure some may respond with a deer-in-the-headlights look supported by initial “um, well…uh…” Many others are likely to respond by listing some books, articles, magazines, and/or blogs they’ve read recently – which is great!

But I think my next question would be: Awesome! What else?

I don’t offer this follow-on question judgmentally or pretentiously. I ask it with all the well-meaning intent I can. However, I think only reading and consuming developmental content, even in various available formats, is an insufficient model for self-development. It helps us to gain new information and perspectives for sure, but that alone does not help you process the information, clarify lessons or goals, integrate new approaches into your behavior, or assess growth or effectiveness of it all in your leadership.

Reading for development, while valuable, is insufficient alone for your self-development as a leader. A complete approach to our self-development requires the integration of four activities – goal setting and achievement, seeking feedback, broad knowledge gathering, and reflection. More

Creating Leadership Sace_3x5 Leadership

Creating Leadership Space for Others to Fill…and 8 Book Recommendations to Help

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In my decade-long journey of growth as a leader so far, I’ve come to firmly believe that one of the greatest impacts I can have as a leader (and a developer of other leaders) is to create leadership space for others to fill. Creating this space, enabling others to fill it, and supporting their growth throughout the experience truly is one of the best things we can do to nurture others’ leader development. This directly supports the 70-20-10 Model for Learning and Development (70% of learning occurs from challenging experiences and assignments), cultivates ownership and responsibility within those leaders, gives them experience to expand their perspectives, and creates rich opportunity for follow-on reflection and learning (even from failure).More

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