GR8 Leaders finish strong. They are not necessarily optimistic, but they are definitely non-negative which allows a clear mind about resources, obstacles and opportunities. Finishing also requires Focus. Distraction is part of all of our life and worse yet, it is a lifestyle which can be conquered by segmenting, simplifying, slowing down, and single tasking. Finally,
Follow Up realizes that starting is critical, but finishing is the goal. Follow Up is part of the GR8 Leaders formula because it helps you get THERE.

GR8 Leaders are "Catalytic". Change efforts require discipline, focus and not becoming like the people or situation that needs changing. They help people adopt the changes needed by using the 30-50-20 Principle. Additionally, they use the ADKAR tool to assess Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, and Reinforcement of the team related to the change needed.
Finally, they use good change processes when faced with leading a change effort.

GR8 Leaders value continuous improvement and strategic thinking is a must for viability and excellence. 5 key elements are needed to develop your strategic thinking: Think Systemically, Ask - What if?, Analyze and Synthesize, Focus and Prioritize, and Adapt. Additionally, improvement requires reducing and recovering from mistakes by using the 4 steps for apologizing. Finally, improvement requires leaving the past behind, because it is over. It only has power that you give it that is why forgiveness is so important.

GR8 Leaders are skilled facilitators. The skill of facilitating allows leadership in any situation, even where the leader is completely unfamiliar with the specialized knowledge of a group. The reason, facilitation depends on process not on content. The process encourages leadership without controlling, especially during meetings or problem solving sessions. To be most effective, GR8 Leaders use basic tools like Anonymous Brainstorming, Impact/Effort Grid, Force Field Analysis, and Cause & Effect Analysis.

GR8 Leaders do not see themselves as the person needed to resolve conflicts, instead they teach members how to resolve conflicts constructively. Conflict is misunderstood, it is often seen as bad rather than something that can be constructive. Teams need to know the 5 different conflict styles, because each has its costs and benefits. If possible, team members need to know which of the 5 styles they tend to overuse or underuse. All of that information can be beneficial when utilizing the Conflict RESOLVED Process - especially the 3+3+2 recipe.

GR8 Leaders first understand the ingredients needed to build and maintain teams - interdependency, compelling direction, enabling structure and expert coaching. Next they know how to lead teams through the 5 stages - forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning. Finally, they know how to deal with 5 critical mistakes - unclear outcomes, lack of trust, lack of commitment, lack of accountability, and inappropriate conflict. Above all, they realize that the PROBLEM is always present - each member of the team, including themselves will have a tendency to - flash their ME - or - make everything about them.

GR8 Leaders understand the power of freedom compared to control and domination. Control often encourages rebellion or just compliance rather than greater productivity. Freedom enhances the need for accountability and personal responsibility, because it is easy to be irresponsible with freedom. Finally, delegation works best when leaders are seeking to develop the capacity of the people rather than just passing work to others. Delegation is not about control, it is about developing people.

GR8 Leaders know life requires assumptions, speculation and guesses. The difference between them and others is they realize when they are - filling in the blanks - and not seeking facts. They also share the truth with others, especially when it can increase their performance and capacity. Four steps used to structure a conversation to encourage higher performance are Reality, Story, Plan, and Feedback

Leaders that allow their emotions to lead them will often derail effective leadership. Emotions are very good, but they are untrustworthy leaders, because they just react or respond to stimuli. The power of emotions is valuable when used for Recognition and Praise and even more powerful when utilized with the Purpose of an organization. Those are effective uses of emotions.

GR8 Leaders know the 6 strategies that are used to influence and persuade and do not use those strategies to manipulate people. They also know that Clear Thinking is the prerequisite to Clear Writing, Clear Speaking and Clear Objectives.

Leadership blossoms when humility, listening and questions are valued. That powerful trio would seldom be listed as critical elements for leadership, but when discussing how great leaders operate, those elements are always present. The power of service above self used with the power of listening and questions become key tools to help get the organization where it wants to go.

1) Right Values for Right Results provides the critical foundation to becoming a GR8 Leader. There are transcendent values that have stood the test of time like self-governance, humility, sacrifice, freedom, valuing and developing people, and the fundamental value of Truth.

2) Right Structure for Right Results helps you understand the profound nature of how structure demands behavior. For example, Leaders that do not value people or developing people tend to have a structure that is focused on “ME” rather than “WE”. And, GR8 Leaders use structure to create a “path of least resistance” to what the organization needs to achieve.

3) Right Process – THP for Right Results provides the most widely used process in history to create and generate results. Learning the simplicity of the THP process (the 1 Unique Process) can radically enhance your ability to be clear and focused to get the results that are needed.

To finish strong Optimism is helpful. A smile or laugh is contagious. Unfortunately, so is pessimism. While positive thinking can provide some good benefits, it is not the answer. Non-negative thinking is the better approach. It is about being clear-minded about resources, obstacles, and opportunities, not trying to “positive think” them away, but not letting those things prevent you from moving toward your desired results.

Additionally, leaders are best served knowing how to Focus. Distraction is part of our lives; worse yet, it is a lifestyle for many. Removing distractions can be difficult but can be conquered by segmenting, simplifying, slowing down, and single-tasking. Since we do not control our environment, we also need to know how to focus when others are creating distractions.

Persistence realizes that starting is critical, but finishing is the goal. Persistence is part of the Great Leaders formula because it helps you get THERE. In the last phases of any project leaders need to focus on five key actions – stay connected to the team, communicate clearly and consistently, focus on deliberate action, give everyone freedom to act, and outrun the resistance.

Finally, Plan for the Future revisits strategy and THP while using some business analysis forms to help leaders apply the continual process of focusing on THERE.

Change Includes Failure provides a better way to view the effort you expend in a desire to be productive, but the result is not achieved. Making a mistake from lack of effort differs from what this is about. It is time to help remove some of the fear of failing by cultivating a different mindset on how to fail in the process of succeeding.

Change Is Difficult for Many People focuses on what is going on with the people. Leaders need to know the 30-50-20 Principle – they generally face three categories of people in a change effort: resisters, undecided majority, and early adopters. Leaders need to know how to deal with each and which to focus their efforts on. Additionally, the ADKAR tool is a good method to assess the team's Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, and Reinforcement related to the change needed.

Change Processes provides some tools and approaches to use when faced with leading a change effort. While there is no guarantee, these checklists and approaches move the odds in your favor.

Be A Catalyst reinforces the critical element for leaders about having values and standing on them. Leading change requires discipline, focus, and not becoming like the people or situation that needs changing. Change tests the character of a leader and whether they are leading. It’s easy to bow to pressure if you do not have a clear end result and the desire to achieve it.

Recognize and Recover from Mistakes promotes vulnerability as strength not weakness. Leaders who find ways to prevent or minimize the 10 Fatal Flaws and 18 Common Mistakes help themselves and their organization. They become “real” and are likely seen as such by others when appropriately relating mistakes. Being accountable for mistakes, not blaming others, and making plans to change create a truth structure for the organization that is essential for sustained viability. An effective start for recovery is learning the art of apology – Agree, Acknowledge, Admit, and Announce.

Get Over the Past focuses on a major obstacle to leaders, relationships, and organizations. Too often, the past is treated as if it is still with us, but it isn’t. It’s over! Living in the past moves us out of reality, stunts growth, and prevents positive change. The primary method to prevent the past from controlling you today, especially when someone has wronged you, is forgiveness. Don't think this is only a topic for religions, it is 100% applicable to work and everyday life.

Facilitating Gets Things Done starts with helping you see the value of facilitation as a skill primarily because it helps leaders use listening and questions regularly. It works because it focuses on Process, not Content. Leaders who facilitate encourage a structure where the team provides the solutions because the leader facilitates their involvement with each other and develops consensus when needed.

Facilitating Meetings is the easiest way to get proficient in the skill of facilitation. Using something like the Agenda Form and its structure will allow leaders to see how they can create more participation in meetings. There are also some basic approaches to help solve some of the common problems that show up in many meetings.

Facilitating A Delegation is about developing people and is best used in a structure of freedom. It grows the organization's capacity by developing the team and increasing the leader's freedom. Delegation is not just handing off the things leaders do not want to do, but it is a thoughtful process of planning, acting, and reviewing to increase people's capacity.

Facilitating Solutions provides some basic tools to use when working with groups. Decision-making options and simple tools like Brainstorming, Anonymous Brainstorming, Impact/Effort Grid, Force Field Analysis, and Cause & Effect Analysis help leaders facilitate results during meetings and problem-solving times. The Problem-Solving Recipe Card gives a leader a process to keep on track while facilitating a problem-solving discussion.

Understanding Conflict helps people see that conflict is not necessarily bad. Conflict can help cause greater productivity and build teams rather than hurt them. That depends on how leaders teach conflict, though.

Conflict Styles further develops a proper view of conflict by helping leaders identify which conflict styles are used, overused, and underused. Each style is valid, and each has its downside. No individual style is better than the others because each has its usefulness.

Conflict RESOLVED Essentials provides key points of a process that can be used to help people resolve interpersonal issues. A “recipe card” is provided to help reinforce the 3+3+2 recipe: 3 Critical Principles (Relationships, Future, Freedom), 3 Cardinal Rules (Slow, Talk, Two), and 2 critical skills (Listening, Questions).

Enhancing Effectiveness helps a leader identify and create cohesive actions needed to build and develop teams. Teams need clarity about who is doing what, where they are going, the structure that supports teamwork, and the coaching to keep them aligned toward the results. Additionally, leaders need to know the actions needed for each stage teams typically move through.

Enriching Effort and Work helps a leader build into jobs the essential elements required to provide team members the highest possible chance to be motivated to do their job well. Unfortunately, most leaders focus on things that can only prevent dissatisfaction, like money, benefits, incentives, and the environment. Those are the standard elements, but the real motivators are autonomy, challenge, competence, and belonging. Those may be easy to understand but difficult to design into the individual's job. Using the 5+1 Enriching Work Principles will help guide a leader toward those elements that truly impact job satisfaction.

Eliminating Key Obstacles requires insight into five critical mistakes: Lack of Trust, Inappropriate Conflict, Lack of Commitment, Lack of Accountability, and Unclear Outcomes. Each of those mistakes left unresolved will damage a team. Leaders are more effective when they teach teams how to resolve struggles rather than being the solution creator. However, the most common and difficult problem is that each member tends to have a “ME” rather than a “WE” focus. There is a “me” in team, but it is realigned and refocused.

Get an overview of all of the CATALYST System courses. You can learn about one tool that the GR8 Leaders program highly recommends that you use to help you learn and apply the principles, insights, and tools. Remember to take the assessments to measure where you are currently in your leadership capacities and values. Finally, the Leadership QUICKStart gives you the basics of leadership and what makes the difference between good and bad leaders.

Right Values for Right Results provides the critical foundation for becoming a GR8 Leader. There are transcendent values that have stood the test of time, like self-governance, humility, sacrifice, freedom, valuing and developing people, and the fundamental value of Truth.

Right Structure for Right Results helps you understand the profound nature of how structure demands behavior. For example, Leaders who do not value people or develop people tend to have a structure focused on “ME” rather than “WE.” GR8 Leaders use structure to create a “path of least resistance” to the organization's goals.

Right Process – THP for Right Results provides the most widely used process in history to create and generate results. Learning the simplicity of the THP process (the 1 Unique Process) can radically enhance your ability to be clear and focused on getting the needed results.

Purpose is essential in any organization, so a GR8 Leader will Start with Strategic Thinking. GR8 Leaders know the 5 competencies needed to help you think strategically – Think Systemically, Ask “What if?”, Analyze and Synthesize, Focus and Prioritize and Adapt. Each of those will help you develop your purpose and strategy.

Create Your Purpose sets the direction the leader takes, because leading is about the organization not the leader. The Compass tool focuses your attention first on Purpose before it considers anything else. In addition to the Purpose, you identify Core Values, your Brand Promise, and clarify Leader Behaviors.

Create Your Strategy and Goals by answering 11 strategy questions, determining Operational Priorities, and setting clear Goals. In Course One you learn how to set goals with THP, but now you make certain your goals fit the broader Purpose of the organization. Your Goals help the organization measure progress toward the Purpose.

Make It Personal - The Values & Vision exercise helps you identify personal values, understand consequences when values are ignored, and create ways to monitor if the values are being exhibited.

Communication Uses Influence and Persuasion Strategies provides six documented strategies that show how people are influenced or persuaded. Research shows how much emotions play in decisions and how shortcuts in thinking are often excellent but allow us to be more easily influenced than sometimes desired. This is important to help leaders see how to communicate for impact but not use this information for manipulation.

Clear Communication Requires Clear Thinking helps you understand the foundational elements for clear writing and clear speaking. Leaders often miss the opportunity to influence others, because their thinking is unclear when communicating. Learning and applying simple guidelines to structure writing and speaking will help leaders communicate more clearly. Our THOUGHT-Talk course teaches 11 “Recipes” for leaders to follow to enhance clarity, persuasion, and results in their communication.

Clear Communication Requires Clear Structure gives you some simple guidelines to structure writing and speaking. You need the “Rules of 3’s and 4’s”, the Classic Form, and “recipes” to structure your thinking and communication. This is all from our THOUGHT-Talk course, which teaches 11 “Recipes” to enhance clarity, persuasion, and results in clear communication.

Coaching Focuses on Their Best, because leaders value and develop people. It is not about demanding the best; coaching invites and facilitates it. GR8 Leaders know that a key task of leadership is to develop more leaders, which requires time to coach. Coaching uses THP to provide clarity on what the person needs to achieve. It requires getting to know the person to facilitate skills, insights, and possibilities.

Coaching Uses Recognition and Praise shows leaders that they are hurting the organization when they don’t respect their people enough to praise them. Recognition and praise are simple, free, and highly effective for developing, valuing, and even enhancing the productivity of people. Remember this simple guideline – make it True, Specific, and Personal. The research shows a big difference when leaders use recognition and praise and show respect for the people they work with. It is not a marginal difference; it is substantial.

Coaching Requires Listening maybe more than speaking. That’s why listening is a prized skill of GR8 Leaders but a vastly underrated skill of poor leaders. Listening occurs when humility, focus, and curiosity combine, and it works best when you picture what people tell you. Picturing enhances your ability to understand and retain what you have heard.

Coaching Requires Questions in fact, a good ratio is 4 questions to every one statement. Questions are probably the most powerful skill for leaders. Peter Drucker said, “The leader of the future will be a person who knows how to ask.” Because of the importance of both, listening and questions are practiced throughout the program.

Truth Not Opinion helps leaders gather facts and reduce assumptions. Leadership is hindered when assuming knowledge rather than actually knowing and not acknowledging guesses or assumptions. As I said earlier, asking questions is an essential skill for leaders and is necessary to separate guesses from truth or facts. Leaders who rely on too many assumptions, especially when being undisciplined not to ask questions, will hurt the people, the organization, and themselves.

Truth is the Essential Foundation shows how truth plays a more significant role in organizations than most believe. It is also something that people can handle and will enable enhanced performance when sought. And, when used to help develop people, with kindness and mercy, it is extremely beneficial rather than hurtful as many people believe.

Truth Encourages Excellence focuses on performance rather than emotions. It helps leaders create a structure of truth, not letting emotional conflict prevent candor and clarity. Truth is critical for developing the best in those being led or managed. Mastering the four steps of Reality, Story, Plan, and Feedback enhances employee performance and learning. Step 1 uses opposites to help move the conversation to the real issue.

Freedom Is Superior to Control helps GR8 Leaders focus on the benefits of freedom and reduce the costs of control (domination or manipulation). Freedom is derailed by “should, ought, or must,” which is the same as obligation. Freedom reduces rebellion, therefore aiding productivity. Control doesn’t develop people; it is about the leader getting his way often at the expense of the people. When people are encouraged to use responsible freedom, more power comes into their lives. Freedom is not obligated to do anything—it wants to do things. Freedom is encouraged with simple tools like Primary and Secondary Choices.

Freedom Excels With Self-governance shows how self-governance is a crucial factor in preventing irresponsible freedom. Self-governance is a critical leadership value that knows how to pass up immediate gratification for future benefits. It involves living with a WE, not ME mindset and isn’t a slave or victim of life, circumstances, and people. The Two Circles tool helps people see how often we allow our lives to be controlled by the external, resulting in a lack of self-governance. The Freedom V tool illustrates the correlation between freedom and self-governance and shows how boundaries and consequences are used to aid self-governance.

Freedom Is Not Controlled By Emotions provides critical insight into the way emotions work. Great leaders know that emotions are a central part of each individual; therefore, they know the best sequence for three words – Acting, Thinking, and Feeling. Leaders are not asked to eliminate or stop using their emotions because a tremendous asset is ignored when unused. The key is to slow down your emotions (thinking) so that you can reflect on your fundamental values and live those instead of reacting emotionally. GR8 Leaders also know the clear impact that reality and truth have on improving lives.