Dave Anderson | Leadership Training and Consultation

December 24, 2016 maximios

All leaders would love to have a low maintenance team (LMT). A LMT allows a leader to focus on the big things and avoid the day to day hassles that could and should be handled at lower levels. When a leader does that, the leader and the team are more engaged and burnout and turnover for both are lower.

But, while most leaders believe they want to lead a LMT, many are not ready to give up what they need to surrender in order to lead the team they desire.

If I want to be a leader of a LMT I must surrender SELF. I must:

Surrender my control
Surrender my fears
Surrender my time

What are my priorities for 2013? What accounts and what goals should I focus my efforts on? The time is now to think ask these questions. Do not wait until after the holidays.

These are key questions that will help me continue to grow and lead others to grow. Taking the time to get the answers to these questions does not have to be complicated.

Somewhere along the way I picked up a tool that helped me clear through the clutter of brainstorming sessions and simplified my action planning. Continue Reading…

I am one of those guys who does not always get to control the TV remote in my house. Because of this dynamic, my desire to watch Deadliest Catch or SportsCenter is put on hold so my wife can watch one of her cooking shows.

One thing I often hear on these shows is to always start with the best ingredients: really good vanilla, fresh vegetables or premium meats. I see this as an essential for Building A Low Maintenance Team (LMT) as well. To truly develop a LMT, I must start with great ingredients. In this case, that means hiring the right people.

I must hire people of character. That sounds logical but Hiring Character is not simple. Continue Reading…

Adversity builds character. I find that the people I admire have not always had things easy. Somewhere, at sometime in their past, these people overcame circumstances in their lives that changed them. They walk with a limp.

Through my 15 years of interviewing, hiring and training people I discovered that finding people who walk with a limp is often an indicator of their character.

In the business world, competency is the price of admission to any job or leadership position. Competency alone is not a differentiator when hiring today. This is a buyers market. There are competent people everywhere looking to fill open positions in good companies.

I write and speak often about character being an individual’s and an organization’s key to success. But character is difficult to determine in the hiring process. How can a leader determine if the person they are interviewing is of high moral character? Continue Reading…

When I relocated to Texas after 5 years managing in Buffalo, NY, I took over a team where one of the representatives had gone through initial training with me. Lori and I had known each other for 10 years.

Two months into being her boss, Lori asked me point blank, “What is your problem? This is not the Dave Anderson I expected.”

My response was: “Lori. If I don’t roar now, I will never be able to roar later.” Continue Reading…

I couldn’t wait to be promoted. I knew all the things I wanted to accomplish. I was also looking forward to the perks of leadership. In the Army we used to say, “Rank Has It’s Privileges (RHIP).”

But, years later, I realized that these sentiments were naive. They seem real to someone who has not held a position of leadership. But, once I earned that promotion, I learned that my assumptions were far from reality. Continue Reading…

I officiated my first wedding last month. It was a great celebration. But, I did not make it to the dance floor at the reception. I saw a video of my dancing once. That new perspective is all it took to keep me from the dance floor at this recent wedding.

If you have ever seen yourself on video after a wedding reception, you know what I am talking about. None of us dance as well as we think. It is not often we get the opportunity to see ourselves from another perspective.

Organizations who make a commitment to leadership development need to consider using an outside consultant for the same reason- the view from the outside is different. Continue Reading…

My four years at West Point began and ended at Michie Stadium. July 1, 1985 was a beautiful sunny day filled with fear and anxiety as I said goodbye to my loving parents and hello to the not-so-loving upperclassmen.

The principles of leadership taught at West Point served me well as a young platoon leader in combat in Desert Storm, as the CEO of two different companies, as a husband and father, and now as a pastor.

Guest Blog By Fritz Hager, Jr.- Fritz has a unique leadership background that he will share periodically as a guest blogger. I have watched him lead as a cadet, as a lieutenant in combat (Silver Star), as a CEO, as a father and now as a pastor. Continue Reading…

We do not lack smart people in business these days. Smart people are everywhere. We lack leaders.

The latest studies are proving leadership equates to profits. Developing good leaders does more to effect the bottom line of an organization than hiring yet another top graduate from a famous school.

Yet credentials and expertise are what most companies focus their recruiting and training efforts on. Leadership development tends to be an optional activity, while skill development is sacred. Continue Reading…

I’ve read multiple articles on how coaches should deliver negative feedback. As part of a Fortune 50 company with a stellar training department, I sat through many sessions on the same topic. I even wrote a blog a few weeks ago addressing some of these coaching issues: Wanted Coaches: Wimps Need Not Apply.

So much of our time as leaders and trainers is spent on becoming better at delivering bad news, we miss the importance of being good at delivering positive feedback. Through employee surveys, I was often reminded by those I led that I was not very good at the positive reinforcement.