Mountain State University LeaderTalk

Twitter White Paper Available Today

We are pleased to offer a free resource to our readers, a free white paper called "Twitter for Beginners."

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•Four great reasons to use Twitter for business
•Who to follow
•What to tweet
•How to use direct messages and @replies to connect and build relationships through Twitter.

Use the permanent link at the sidebar ("White Paper") or follow this link to download your copy today. Please share this link with your friends and colleagues who are interested in learning about how to use Twitter.

A Reason for Being

My husband is turning 40 tomorrow. We celebrated with a few friends last night, and have plans to enjoy a fun day out tomorrow. It is a milestone birthday, but I don't expect any monumental upheaval.

We met during college, so I have now known him about half his life. We have lived in five homes, in three states, during our sixteen years of marriage. We've enjoyed much more health than sickness and more prosperity than financial struggle.

We haven't ended up exactly where we thought we might, but we like where we are. Eric enjoys his job and is excited about new opportunities to choose job experiences that closely align with his talent at work. He enjoys our daughters, and makes time for his favorite activities: running, weight training, fantasy football, and eating homemade ice cream.

About eight years ago, though, he made a major change in his career. To outsiders, it wasn't a minor adjustment; it was an almost complete turn-around.

It started with daily, dehabilitating stress headaches. He visited various doctors, filled a series of different pain medication prescriptions. No relief.

His headaches ended the day he decided that he should look for a different type of career. By allowing himself to envision a different life, he freed himself from the pressures and strains of the day.

Even though nearly two years elapsed between his decision to pursue a new career and his first day on the new job, something even greater than his physical pain lifted the day he did his first Google search for new job possiblities. It has not returned.

At first glance his two careers are about as far removed from one another as most people can imagine. Once a pastor, he now works for a federal law enforcement agency (though he has kept the nickname "Preacher").

Yet, friends who knew him before recognize that he is essentially the same man now as he was before. His reason for living remains unchanged. His values and priorities are constant.

As a pastor, and now as an agent, Eric has had careers that allow him to impact people for good. First in ministry, and now in upholding the law, he is fulfilling the same calling. He especially appreciates this sentiment from a police chaplain he works with: "Remember, you do God's work."

People with a strong sense of purpose and a clear vision for the future they desire can change their vocation without abandoning their raison d'être. Eric did, with no regrets.

It also makes for a great conversation starter. Raised eyebrows, "You did WHAT before?"

I don't expect Eric to have a mid-life crisis as he passes this milestone birthday. He he's given careful consideration to his life's choices and made course corrections as needed — leading self with character — so that the next 40 years will be as purposeful and full of adventure as the first 40 have been.

More Ways to Have Your Best Year Ever

Earlier this week, I shared two tips about how to have your best year ever:

• Cut out the complaining.
• Do what you can to make someone's day extra special.

Here are two more ideas:

Start with a plan, but be flexible.

We all have some non-negotiables in our days. Maybe you have a job with strict in-office working hours. Or perhaps you are a student with classes to attend. My advice is to sketch out a schedule for the week that includes all those requirements, then pencil in other activities and appointments that you want to be sure to include in your weekly routine. It might help if you make a list of those extra priorities first, then you won't forget to add them into your plan. Don't forget to add in time for exercise. I love to build extra time in to allow for time to relax and recharge.

Note: Sometimes coming up with a schedule you can live with seems like an almost impossible task. At times, I feel like I am building a house of cards. If any one thing doesn't go exactly as planned, my day collapses into a game of 52 card pickup. If you feel that way when you look at your plan, it is a sure sign that you need Tip #2...

Enlist the help of others.

It is impossible to do everything, and even more impossible to do everything well. You probably already know that asking for help is a good idea, but you may be reluctant to do so. Saturday morning, I had a fun conversation with Wally Bock and Mary Jo Asmus on Twitter. Wally said something memorable:

Cleaning is what God invented checkbooks for.

Even though I don't have paid cleaning help, his sentiment is one I can understand and endorse. If you have more money than time, decide what tasks you would like someone else to do, and HIRE SOMEONE TO DO THEM. If you are like many of us and and your budget won't allow you to hire help, consider free or low cost ways to get the help you need.

Earlier this summer, I worked out a swap with a friend who is an excellent organizer. I watched her three daughters so she could have a much-needed break, then she came over for a few hours to help me get ready for our new school year. All six girls played happily, and I ended the day with a re-organized classroom/dining room.

As you consider how you might enlist the (free) help of friends with items on your to do list, think about ways that you might help them while accomplishing your own goals and tasks. A few years ago, I shopped for my neighbors groceries each week while doing my own shopping. At the end of the month, she paid for her cleaning person to clean my home. Since I was going shopping anyway, it was a good trade off for me. Be creative! Chances are, your friends will appreciate the opportunity to help, especially if you can add value to their lives also.

Don't forget to ask your family members. They may not know you need their help if you don't ask them.

How do you map out your week? I would love to hear your ideas and suggestions. Do you have any creative ideas about finding help for your endless to do list? I would love to hear your stories.

How to Have Your Best Year Ever

Today is the first day of classes at Mountain State's main campus in Beckley, WV. Even though I am not on site in Beckley, I am excited to see what the new school year will hold for MSU and our students.

I have written before about how I love new beginnings.

For me, the start of the school year is another opportunity to start fresh, a time of self reflection. How am I spending my time? Am I spending time on the things are truly meaningful to me? If not, what can I do to set aside time for activities that help me fulfill my most important priorities?

Here are two ideas I have to make this my best year ever.

I am going to stop complaining.

Complaining doesn't solve the situation. In fact, complaining has a negative effect on me and on everyone who has to listen. So, instead I am going to consider what action I can take to change the situation. Usually, there are steps I can take to make things better. Rarely, my only choice is to endure patiently.

As often as possible, I am going to try to make someone's day.

At this stage in my life, my real life sphere of influence is relatively small. My virtual sphere of influence is much farther reaching.

How can you make someone's day?

If you pay attention, people will tell you or show you the things that bring them joy. My daughter Cami sleeps on the top bunk and she loves it when I climb up on her bed to talk and snuggle. My downstairs neighbor, who lives alone, often works late. Sometimes I wrap an extra serving of our home-cooked supper in foil and set it aside for when she comes home. My husband loves ice cream. If there is some in the freezer when he gets home, he is extra happy. Bonus smiles if I take the time to actually make some ice cream.

Positive words, spoken or written, smiles, acts of service: these are things I can do to make a huge difference in someone's day.

You may interact with hundreds or thousands of people each day through your leadership in your organization. Or maybe, like mine, your sphere of influence is significantly smaller. Whether you are interacting with many people or just a few, what you do matters. Start with your spouse, your children, your next door neighbor, or the person who sits next to you at the office. Consider what you might do influence the people in your life in a positive way.

I will share more ideas about how to have your best year ever in a future post so if you have some ideas, please share them in the comments. I'll be glad to give you credit for them.

For now, choose one of these: Cut out the complaining. Do what you can to make someone's day special. And don't forget to come back and let me know what effect your new choices have on your life — and the lives of the people around you.  

Meet the Dean

Dr.William M. "Bill" White, the founding Dean of Mountain State University's School of Leadership and Professional Development, lived most of the first quarter of his life in Bluefield, WV. He grew up under the shadow of the mountains, in the center of West Virginia's coal empire, in a still segregated college town.  

During the summers, Bill spent most days at the side of his pastor and mentor, Rev. C. Anderson Davis. Long afternoons, Bill and his friends stood behind the pulpit in their church's sanctuary, taking turns speaking, Bill learning cadences and mannerisms he would later bring to the boardroom and the classroom. Davis invited Bill along to the summer camp that he led, to visits with parishioners, on trips throughout West Virginia, Virginia, and Tennessee. He encouraged Bill to pursue his love of science, theater, and music.

As a result of a close knit family, church, and community around him, Bill emerged to adulthood with a strong sense of confidence in his abilities and potential. After gaining valuable leadership experience as class president throughout his years at Bluefield State College, he pursued a career as a research chemist in the 1970s. His status as the only minority in management at a time when corporate acceptance of diversity was still evolving only reinforced his development and growth as a leader.

After a highly successful career as a chemist, Bill founded and directed The Marketing Development Group, a company which provided organizational development consulting for Fortune 100 companies including AT&T, Texico, and Bell Labs. He completed his doctoral work at Fielding Graduate University in Santa Barbara, California, in the area of Leadership and Change, and worked as an adjunct professor and course designer at The University of California/Davis. In the back of his mind, Bill had a dream of working at a university to create a leadership program focused on helping people succeed as leaders in business and industry. He even told his doctoral advisor, Dr. Marie Fielder about his aspirations, and she helped him create a doctorate to fit his unique interests.

At this point, despite his success, Bill faced a crossroads. Back in WV, his mother was ailing. As the single father of a teenage son, he felt the strain of juggling his career and caring for family. After moving back to West Virginia for these reasons, he began teaching at Mountain State University as an adjunct professor, and quickly made the transition to full time faculty. After less than two years, Bill became the founding Dean of Mountain State's new School of Leadership and Professional Development.

In his current position as Dean, Dr. White brings all of his past education and work experiences together. Under his direction, Mountain State University's School of Leadership and Professional Development has become the only comprehensive leadership school in the country, offering a bachelors, masters, and doctorate in leadership. Dr. White is the architect of MSU's leading edge Doctor of Executive Leadership degree. The new doctorate is not only the first for Mountain State University, it is the first for southern West Virginia as well.

Dr. White is the co-author of two books with Mountain State's President, Charles F. Polk: Apex Thinking, and What Leaders Believe , which will be released later this year. In addition, he collaborated with Associate Dean Dr. Frank Hitt to write a chapter for a text book for doctoral students in Education Administration entitled Leadership as a Discipline. The book is currently in publication. Dr. White wants  to see leadership recognized as an academic discipline and to create scholar-practitioners who will conserve, generate, and transform leadership knowledge.

Dr. William M. "Bill" White seemed destined to lead even from a young age. As others inspired him to do his best, he is now encouraging others to develop to their maximum potential. In a job that brings together so much of his knowledge, experience, and expertise, both MSU and Dr. White seem to have found a perfect fit.

Organic Leadership Development

I am honored today to have the the post that launched LeaderTalk reposted with a fresh introduction by Dan McCarthy at Great Leadership. Dan has been an encouraging supporter for LeaderTalk since the blog's launch.

I had the pleasure of talking with Dan on the phone last month. He called me at a prearranged time on a weekday afternoon and we enjoyed an hour of sharing our stories and thoughts about leadership. Toward the end of our discussion, I asked Dan an important question: What school comes to mind when you think about leadership education? Before I tell you his answer, I want to ask you the same question. What university do you associate with leadership training and development?

As long as there have been graduate schools, there have been Business Schools and the revered Masters of Business Administration. The degree is so well known and so established that we even call its graduates by the title of their degree; these folks don't just have MBAs — they ARE MBAs. Maybe you are too.

In our changing world, though, I think it is time for something new. 

Miki Saxon at Leadership Turn had a great post yesterday entitled "Composted Leadership." Her idea is that leadership is best learned in real life situations. She writes:

Leadership learned through doing—taking the initiative and accepting the risk of failure—is different. It combines a variety of experiences, good, bad and indifferent and adds a variety of organisms in the form of the varied humans that populate the organization. The effect of those organisms on the experiences of individual initiative produces a deeper, richer, more flexible form of leadership.

Miki compares leaders produced in colleges and MBA programs to crops produced with chemical fertilizers. Real life experiences, she says, are the compost in which the best leaders grow.

I believe that the "something new" that our world needs are leadership programs like the ones offered at Mountain State University. By bringing people together into cohort groups, we are giving people real life experiences where they can learn about themselves, learn how to work with people from different backgrounds and perspectives, and learn how to work within teams.

While MBA programs may offer some classes in leadership, our programs are all about leadership, focused on the skills people need to work with others effectively within organizations. I believe that they are healthy soil because they involve students in a learning conversation that integrates real life with classroom learning.

Dan's answer surprised me. He said that no schools came to his mind for leader education. He associates a few schools with business education and MBAs, though. I am hoping that the next time I ask Dan that question — and the next time I ask you — you will remember Mountain State University.

I would love to hear your thoughts. Where is the best place to learn leadership? Is the MBA outdated? Do you agree with me that our world needs something new?

Read The Detail Sorters by Mountain State's President Dr. Charles H. Polk for more about MBAs, leaders, and considering the impact each group has on an organization's direction. Don't forget to visit Great Leadership to read my guest post there.  

Making a Plan for Leadership Learning

Every week I find more sources of leadership learning online. Through the recommendation of friends and links on Twitter, I am discovering new sources of insight, wisdom, and interest. But my computer time is limited. In addition to writing and promoting LeaderTalk for Mountain State University, I also homeschool my three young daughters. I find myself wondering how to keep up with reading and commenting on blogs when the school year starts next week.

Earlier this summer, Penelope Trunk wrote a post entitled "How to feel like you have time to read everything." Though she made some challenging points, I still feel like I don't have time to read everything. I bet some of you are in the same situation. Reading and learning more about leadership are high priorities for you, but you may feel overwhelmed by all there is to read.

For me, I think one key will be to make a plan and stick to it. In doing that I am considering what format for blog/online reading has been most successful for me in the past. Here are some questions to consider:

Do you do best with email subscriptions to your favorite blogs? If so, decide which ones you want to read and subscribe to all of them by email.

Do you prefer an RSS feed like Google Reader? If so, make sure you subscribe to all your favorite sites so that you can have them all in one place when you settle in to read.

Do you have a home page on Alltop? Alltop allows you to customize a homepage by saving all your favorite blogs on one page with recent posts listed. Then you only have to visit one page to see all the latest posts from your favorite bloggers.

Do you prefer just clicking around to your favorite sites? If so, you still need to have a favorites list or plan for keeping up with those sites.

Some conclusions:

This is a very personal decision. What works for you might not work for me. I realize, though, that my indecision about how to read is standing in the way of my actually reading right now. Here's why: I set up a Google Reader at someone's suggestion with a few subscriptions, but I never open it. Using RSS feeds is not a habit for me. I don't want to make it a habit.

I don't like email subscriptions either. When I check email, I am in email mode, for me, reading and responding to the most time pressing or interesting messages. When I see a subscription, I ignore it. Then I never get back to it later.

My favorite way to read is to click around to sites. Before I started writing LeaderTalk, I was a huge fan of Mom blogs. But I never subscribed to even one. I had a favorites list and whenever I had free moment, I clicked away, and always managed to stay up to date with content. I am going to try the same thing with leadership reading. I will make sure all my favorite sites are on my list and use the list to read whenever I get a moment's break in my day.

Comments on blog posts extend the learning, creating community and conversation. As a Mom Blog reader, I rarely commented. As a leadership blog reader, I want to join the conversation, especially when the post raises a question in my mind or I have something interesting or useful to contribute. I enjoy receiving comments on my posts because they always add value and insight I hadn't considered. With that in mind, I am going to renew my efforts to comment on posts frequently.

How do you keep up with your blog reading and commenting? Please share your suggestions here.

Creative Redundancy and Team Alignment

During Wednesday's guest conversation with Kevin Eikenberry, I shared a phrase that my husband Eric and I have used a lot in our work with churches. Our idea of Creative Redundancy is that people need to hear the same information again and again — in different ways — before they truly understand it and apply it to their lives.

In planning church services around a theme, we included a Top 10 list, songs, a drama sketch, and a three minute talk by a church member, all on the same topic with one big picture idea. By the time Eric stood up to preach, people had already heard the main idea of his message, present in different ways through the various components of the church service.

Creative redundancy.

If you are looking for ways to keep the people in your organization focused on your organization's vision and values, creative redundancy is a good place to start. It is easy for people to get sidetracked at work. They may get so caught up in their own projects that they fail to make the important connection between their daily tasks and the overarching goals of the organization.

How do you do it?

Determine the big picture idea that you want your team to grasp and work toward. Until you know what it is, you can't communicate it or expect anyone to align to it.

Think about your team's current understanding of the idea. Start a conversation so you know and understand each person's perspective. As leaders, it is easy to make the assumption that people are on board with us. When we ask the right questions, we may find out that our perceptions are misguided. Several years after we started our church, my my husband asked our friend, Chris, what he saw as the main purpose of our church. His answer showed us that even though we had been communicating the vision of the church for years, even some of our closest team mates didn't quite get it. Lesson? Ask questions sooner, all along the way, to make sure people really understand.

Start communicating your idea. As you do, make sure you ask questions to gauge people's understanding. 

Think of different ways to get the same point across. Obviously, this is much easier in church, with a captive audience. Still, if you consider all the ways you communicate with your team, you will realize that you have many opportunities to communicate your big picture idea. You can reference your big idea in an email to your team. As you start a training meeting, you can invite a team member to tell a story about pprogress being made in accomplishing a team goal. Use that as a tie in and help people make the connection to the big picture idea.

Don't be afraid to repeat yourself. Say the same thing, Say it again a different way. And then say it some more. In helping people understand the big picture idea of our organizations, we cannot communicate our message too frequently.

Use another spokesperson who understands your big picture idea. Often, people will see and connect to the message coming from another speaker.

Find another way to say the same thing. See what I mean?

If you missed my conversation with Kevin Eikenberry and would like to listen to it, click here or, to read a transcript click here.

Twitter for Beginners | Making it Work

This is my fifth post about Twitter for beginners. You can read the rest here, here, here, and here.

Mashable reports that 60% of Twitter users quit in the first month. My sense is that people will return to something if they see its value in their life or business. This statistic tells me that people are deciding that the return on their investment of Twitter time is not worthwhile.

Are you a Twitter quitter? If so, why?

I started using Twitter about a month after this blog launched. By early July, I still had only about 200 followers. Only a month later, I have more than 800. Of course, if you make Twitter a game of numbers, it is easy to get discouraged. Developing a following is important, but it is more important to make meaningful connections with the followers you have. If you are present on Twitter and relating to others, you will see your following grow. Just remember that even in its use for business, Twitter is about relationships.

Here are a few ideas about how to make your Twitter time worthwhile:

• Try to tweet at least TEN times a day.

It is easy for tweets to get lost in the stream. To be memorable to your followers, you need to be saying something. Tweeting takes only a fraction of a minute. Retweeting takes even less time. So here's an idea to get you started. Do a search on TweetDeck for a topic that interests you. Here's a secret: it doesn't even need to be related to your business. See what people are saying. If someone says something you like, retweet them. Or reply to them. Start a conversation.

• Find some new people to follow.

If you're new to Twitter and following a few people who aren't tweeting much, you may not find your Twitter stream all that interesting. Find some new people to follow. Generally speaking, you don't want to follow too many people at once. If I see a person who is following a lot of people but doesn't have many followers,I am reluctant to return the follow. So try to keep your numbers in balance: follow about the same number of people who are following you.

• Add Twitter to your daily online routine.

As I have written before, you don't have to make a huge time investment. Commit five minutes a day, twice a day. But stick with it. Make visiting Twitter a regular habit. Unless you do, you will not be able to develop the meaningful relationships that will make a difference in your life and business.

Cross Functional Teams and Team Alignment

One way to improve alignment of teams to an organization's overarching goals or mission is to create cross functional or interdisciplinary teams. Forming these teams can be time consuming but often results in worthwhile benefits to customers.

I witnessed effective interdisciplinary teams  during my time working at The Resource Center in Jamestown, NY, as a service coordinator.

The mission of The Resource Center is to support individuals with disabilities and other challenges in achieving maximum independence, contributing to their community, experiencing lifelong growth, and enjoying quality of life.

As a service coordinator, I worked with a caseload of about 20 individuals ("consumers"), helping to create and implement service plans to fit their unique interests and abilities. In planning with individuals and their familes or advocates, I had the responsibility of bringing together a team of people twice yearly for a service plan meeting. This team included people from departments within The Resource Center as well as outside vendors.

Physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech therapists, counselors, residential staff, day program staff, in home health care providers, psychological services staff, employment coaches, and other service providers joined with the individual and their family to discuss the individual's life goals in five areas: Living, Working, Learning, Recreation/Leisure, and Hopes and Dreams.

In holding service plan meetings, each team member contributed to a process that directly fulfilled the mission of our organization. In the conference room, where we circled the table, we were intent on fulfilling our purpose. The individual whose plan we helped to create was present, participating, a living reminder of our entire reason for being.

After the meeting, I wrote and compiled a Universal Service Plan, a mini-book describing the consumer and their history, preferences, and life goals. Each department used the plan to provide coordinated services to assist the person in achieving the life they desired. Every month, I met with the consumer to check progress, make adjustments when needed, and to help provide any additional services needed.

I don't mean to paint a fairy tale picture of the process. Sometimes team members disagreed about the best way to help a consumer meet their desired outcomes. Sometimes families expressed dissatisfaction about a particular service or felt discouraged about the options available to them. At times, we lacked the financial or human resources to provide the desired services to the consumer.

The key is that we had a process designed to bring departments together to communicate about how to fulfill the most important work of our organization.

Have you participated in a cross functional or interdiscplinary team in your organization? If so, how did it help your team in aligning with your company's overarching goals? What process can you implement to help the departments in your organization communicate about fulfilling the goals of your business?

I am excited for a guest conversation with Kevin Eikenberry on the topic of teams and team alignment. The conversation will take place on Wednesday, August 12, 2009 at 2 PM EST. You can participate from your office via phone or web simulcast. If you would like to join the FREE conversation, use this link. In this process of process of preparing for the call, I have been working closely with Associate Deans Dr. Ruth Wylie and Dr. Frank Hitt from Mountain State University's School of Leadership and Professional Development, drawing upon their knowledge and expertise about the team dynamic.