Anderson Leadership Solutions | Leadership Training and Consultation
I’m Dave Anderson, President of Anderson Leadership Solutions based in Tyler, TX. Anderson Leadership Solutions provides character based leadership development, consulting and training for organizations and leadership coaching for individuals. I was raised by an Army General, graduated from West Point, and served as an officer in the U.S. Army. I also worked for 20 years in sales and sales leadership in a Fortune 50 company. I am passionate about developing leaders at every level of an organization. That is the goal of this site and this company. You will find blogs, videos, a list of solutions, white papers, and other resources on this site. Contact me here to learn more about our services. 
Leaders when I say the words Low Maintenance Team a lot of you smile and think about a favorite team from your past.
Some of you are wishing you had a Low Maintenance Team right now.
I’ve had both low maintenance teams and high maintenance teams.
And I know, WE ALL WANT TO LEAD LOW MAINTENANCE TEAMS.
Most of my high maintenance teams occurred early in my 15 years of front line leadership. But as time went on, I adapted and developed systems and philosophies so my teams all became low maintenance teams.
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Who’s in charge? I’m not. Not as a new leader stepping in to lead a new team. I must move my ego aside and realize that if I want to make things happen on my team. I must rely on influence leaders to drive for awhile.
This is the third in a series of six blogs intended to help new leaders who are about to lead new teams. I gave an overview two weeks ago of 5 Key Steps and began breaking down each step last week. The 5 Key Steps for New Leaders on New Teams are:
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Courage is a buzzword I defined previously as: To act without regard for perceived or actual personal risk.
Is there anyone alive who does not wish to be courageous? For courage to be part of my character, I must develop to the point where I am habitually acting in a courageous way in both the big things and the small. I have written that character:
- Begins with our thoughts.
- Our thoughts become our words.
- Our words lead to our actions.
- Our actions become habits.
- Our habits determine our character.
- Our character determines our destiny.
Based on this premise then, the first step in developing into a person who habitually acts in a courageous way, I must begin by thinking about what courage looks like in practice. Continue Reading…
I learned many things during 15 years in sales leadership. I took over teams that were high functioning and low functioning. I took over teams that were full of rookies and teams that were full of tenured people. No matter the situation, I always learned more from my mistakes than I did from my successes.
Last week I began a series based on lessons I learned taking over new teams. In that post, I laid out 5 Key Steps for new leaders taking over new teams. They are:
- Communicate With The Previous Leader
- Meet Face to Face With The Influence Leaders
- Bring The Team Together Physically
- Build Trust With The Team
- Bring The Team Together Culturally
Step 1: Communicate With The Previous Leader Continue Reading…
Headline: West Point, The Best Public College in America — US News and World Report in 2011.
My alma mater opened in 1802 as an engineering school. In 2011 it was ranked third in the nation for undergraduate engineering, still lockstep with its 200-year-old original purpose. But at its heart, West Point is a leadership school.
The primary mission of West Point has been to provide leaders of character for our nation.
The question, “Can character be developed?” is answered every May when a new group of 1,000 second lieutenants complete four years of character development. In June of 1984, I began my journey from typical high school graduate to trained Army officer four years later. West Point changed my attitude about what the word character means.
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I started my first team from scratch and it took us over two years to hit our stride. My second team had a mix of experienced and novice members on it. We took about a year to begin to fire on all cylindars. The next team was pieced together from other teams. The individuals were all tenured and successful but most had not worked together before. We hit our stride quickly.
The way a leader launches into leadership with a new team can often determine that team’s trajectory for years to come. Continue Reading…
Though I was trained to lead at West Point and led men in combat as a lieutenant in the Army, I was still a baby when it came to recognizing a problem on my team, coaching it and documenting it appropriately in the corporate world.
The Story
I hired Tory myself (name changed). He had the talent to be a top salesperson. He had the gift of gab and people were naturally drawn to him. In fact, we were a lot alike, and I enjoyed spending time with him.
The first time I noticed it, I raised an eyebrow and forgot about it. A month later, there it was again. I was thinking it through when my cell phone rang and I moved to a more urgent issue. Continue Reading…
Organizational or personal values describe HOW we operate. Many organizations claim to follow certain values because they list them on their websites, or they are on a poster in their offices.
However, many employees will say their organization has values published, but admit those companies do not live by them. Why? I believe there are two reasons:
- The values are not defined. In other words, no one ever lays out exactly what each value looks like in practice.
- The values are not consistently communicated. Organizations and individuals must be marinated in their values consistently to make them part of their character.
I was a wimp for three years. I was a coach for twelve more after that. Add it up and I spent fifteen years in sales leadership at a Fortune 50 company. Not surprisingly, my success as a leader came in those final twelve years. I realized, with the help of the people I was leading, that they wanted candor not coddling. Continue Reading…
I was caught in the trap of my own making. I watched my company cut leadership training from its training curriculum in the early 2000’s. As the years went on, I began to bark about this lack of training for leaders. I believe that an organization that does not develop its next generation of leaders begins to stagnate and eventually staggers.
Then it hit me, complaining is not leading. I had complained for too long. Continue Reading…