Category: Inspiring Others

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How to Incorporate Recognition While WFH (Working From Home)

Team morale while working from home
ways to make working from home better

By: David Novak Leadership

Let’s be honest – it’s not common for households to have everyone home, all day, every day. In this new normal, there may be chaos, lack of communication, little to no silence and many disruptions.

During this pandemic, you can find many reasons to focus on the bad things, which can be extremely draining and contagious. So, how do you fix this?

The answer is actually simple – look for ways to recognize others throughout your day.  When you start to look for the positive, it shifts your focus and your mindset to things that are good, which impacts your outlook and attitude.

Here are some great ways you can express appreciation towards the people around you today:

  • Write a thank you note. Writing a note shows the receiver that you care enough to put time, effort and thought into recognizing them. Learn how Jesse Cole built this into his daily routine here.
  • Give an award. Get creative! The effort and creativity behind the recognition can say a lot. Everyone could use more fun in their lives! Learn about Joey Zwillinger’s award here.
  • Be specific when you say thank you. It’s so important to explain why you are thanking them. This helps them understand what they are doing well and it will inspire them to do more of it in the future. Here’s an example on how to be specific:

“Thank you for leading the way when it comes to servant leadership. You take time to build relationships with everyone which sets a great example for all of us! You seek to understand the needs of people by listening well and asking questions. Then, you help find answers and solutions. Because of you, I feel cared about and valued which leads to a great environment to work in. You make a positive difference and matter to me.”

Recognition creates a feeling that can be addicting. Everyone needs more encouragement and affirmation, and you can be a catalyst for changing the entire mood in your home by using the power of recognition. This is a great way to get closer to others and work more like a team.

Remember, a little recognition can go a long way and make a lasting impression on the way each person in your household experiences this troubling time.  Who will you recognize today?

 

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The Biggest Leadership Mistake You Can Make

What comes to mind when you hear the words leadership mistake? Maybe you thought of a bad decision by an executive that costs the company millions of dollars. Or perhaps you thought of a poor personnel decision that has caused dysfunction on your team. You might even have thought about a mistake you recently made in leading a project.

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Often, we don’t consider our own leadership mistakes, yet, these mistakes tend to happen more frequently and can have the longest impact on our success as a leader. If you want to become a better leader, you need to eliminate the most frequent leadership mistake leaders make. What is that mistake? It’s probably not what you think.

The most frequent mistake a leader can make is being insecure.

An insecure leader wants everyone to think they are the smartest one in the room. They are always looking for an opportunity to show they know more than others on the team, and they are constantly trying to prove that they belong in the job.

If you’re the kind of leader who struggles with insecurity, here’s some truth for you: if no one thought you could do the job, you would not have been appointed to a leadership role.

So, what should you do? Start by asking others for their input, and then give them credit when you use their ideas. When you celebrate another person’s idea, you gain that person’s trust. Confident leaders enjoy showing how others contributed to the success of the team.

Recognizing your team members is the best way to ensure they will continue to share ideas. Then, you and your team can build on those great ideas together, and you’ll be known as a leader people want to follow.

Want more insight on leadership? Check out the David Novak Leadership Leadership Podcasts. You’ll hear from some of the best leaders in the country as they share about mistakes they’ve made, how they became successful, and you’ll even get tips on how you can grow as a leader.

 

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How Focusing on the Vital Few Helps You Avoid the Seduction of Shiny Objects

By: Gregg Dedrick, President and Co-Founder of David Novak Leadership

“Just do it!” I bet you’re familiar with this Nike slogan that encourages us to take action. While this can be good advice, I believe it’s important for organizations to adopt a “just don’t do it!” campaign. Why? Because the seduction of shiny objects is constantly tempting you, as a leader, to take on something else, find the silver bullet, and drift away from your True North. And while it’s tempting to “just do it,” what if “just don’t do it” is the right answer?

As I shared in my previous blogs, finding your True North begins with answering three questions. Then, you stay focused on your True North by communicating it to everyone and using it in all your decision making.

The seduction of shiny objects comes into play when there’s a new initiative everyone is excited to implement. It sounds great. People are passionate about its potential. And it’s tempting as a leader to say yes when everyone else thinks it’s a good idea. I know because I was particularly vulnerable to a new initiative that was a shiny object. But what if it’s not a good idea? What if implementing this initiative takes you three degrees off course from who you really are? Over time, you’ll end up far away from your True North.

free learning guide to help you avoid the seduction of shiny objectsThe Pyramid Slide became our screening tool for shiny objects at KFC. When a new initiative was proposed, we would look at the Pyramid Slide to see where it fit. Then we would ask questions like these about the shiny object:

  • How does it fit our True North?
  • How does it fit into the pacing and sequencing of what’s going on to ensure it has the most impact?
  • How does it propel us towards brand revitalization?
  • How does it propel us towards brand revitalization?
  • Is this more important than what we’re already doing?

If we couldn’t answer these questions well, we chose to “just not do it.” The Pyramid Slide helped us determine when we should say yes or no to shiny objects.

At KFC, breakfast sandwiches and adding healthy menu items were all shiny objects for me. It was tempting to say “just do it” when our competition had huge success. Take breakfast, for example. Our competition succeeded with breakfast, and it was tempting to dive in and see how KFC could “just do breakfast” too. But breakfast didn’t fit with our pacing and sequencing, so we chose to “just not do it.” It was tempting to add salads to our menu to provide healthy options for our customers, but we chose to “just not do it” because it didn’t align with our brand positioning.

Your True North must become an endless drumbeat because organizations have short memories and voracious appetites to embrace the seduction of shiny objects. You, as the leader, must find the courage to stay focused on what’s most important, rather than the things that are the newest fad or the things you have a personal interest in. You must have the courage to “just not do it” when everyone else is telling you to give in. You have to keep your team on the path to True North.

You’re now officially ready to implement what you’ve learned by answering the three questions, defining your True North, and avoiding the seduction of shiny objects. Use this guide to create a plan for turning your intentions into action. Having others engaged in your journey is important, so involve them from the beginning. And remember to invite others to help you and hold you accountable as you begin your journey to discover your True North.

Who do you want to invite on your journey to discovering your True North? Share this blog series with them today, and invite them along.

 

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The Two Things You Need To Be a Complete Leader

We want to change the world by creating better leaders and we believe to be the best leader you can be requires that you are both Heartwired® and Hardwired®.

What do we mean by that? Heartwiring® is building passionate commitment in those you lead and Hardwiring is putting the discipline and process around what matters most so you get great results. If you have one without the other you are never going to accomplish BIG things.

There are four categories:

  1. Leaders who are high on Heartwiring® and Hardwiring® are the type of leader others want to follow. They treat others well and care about them while using process and discipline to get consistent results the right way. But even good leaders can get better
  2. Those who are high on Heartwiring® and low on Hardwiring® tend to be well liked by their peers and subordinates, but they often fail to deliver the best results on a consistent basis. Learning how to establish process and discipline around the things that matter most will help them deliver and sustain powerful results.
  3. Individuals who are low on Heartwiring® and high on Hardwiring® tend to value results more than people. People in this quadrant may experience low engagement and high turnover on their team because they tend to get things accomplished through muscle management rather than influence.
  4. People who are low on both Heartwiring® and Hardwiring® might be new leaders who have not received appropriate leadership training. Or they may come from a work environment that focuses only on results. They desire to become the most effective leaders they can be, but, like everyone, they need help.

We must never stop growing as leaders. Most of us lean more towards one or the other, either we are more Heartwired or Hardwired. Determine where you need to grow the most and lean into the learning zone. Take our FREE assessment and find out if you are more Heartwired or Hardwired.

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Where Do You Draw The Line? Balancing Work Relationships

Friendly happy diverse team workers talking laughing eating pizza together in office, cheerful workers staff group chatting sharing meal enjoying having fun at work, good relations at lunch break

Most leaders want to be liked by their team members, yet some have a difficult time drawing the line between personal and professional relationships in the workplace. As a leader, you don’t want to seem unapproachable or standoffish; but you also don’t want your team to forget that you’re there to guide them. A smart leader seeks to find a balance in this area.

Following these simple guidelines will ensure your work relationships are meaningful and productive:

Free Leadership Assessment from David Novak LeadershipGet to know the people you work with

Great leaders know who they lead. It’s no secret that personal connection creates a better work environment and leads to better results. Jason Goldsmith is a perfect example of someone who leads out of personal connection. In Jason’s work as a performance coach to top professional athletes, his first priority when taking on new clients is to ask lots of questions to get to know them better. Experience has taught him that bonding with his clients makes him more effective at his job. To learn more about Jason, check out his podcast on DavidNovakLeadership.com.

It’s simple to connect with those you lead. Start by asking your team members for three interesting facts about themselves. Ask about their background, dreams, and families. Doing this shows you care about them as individuals. Once people know you care about them, they will care about you.

Make sure you keep enough distance to be objective

While it is important to connect with the people you lead, you don’t want to get so close that you are unable to be objective around them. Sometimes being a leader requires you to take a step back and be a coach. This is hard to do if you become too involved. Leaving enough distance will allow you to keep an objective view about your team members so that you can still gauge a person’s talent and capabilities while giving the right feedback when necessary.

If you implement both of these approaches, you’ll have no problem striking the right balance with your team.

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Blog Conflict Feature Blog Inspiring Others Intentional Lead Others Lead Yourself Positive Mindset Training True Self

Be Your Best Self

By: Gregg Dedrick, Co-Founder & President of David Novak Leadership

How often have you been encouraged to just be yourself? You get this coaching from others throughout your life and while it sounds good, and could even be considered helpful, it’s often easier said than done. Fear can creep in. You might feel tempted to conform and fit in rather than be true to yourself. You wrestle. I personally believe that in reality, it’s much harder to be yourself than most people are willing to admit.

But I also know that when you hide your best self to be something that you’re not, it can come across as inauthentic. Others often see right through you and you can lose trust in those relationships.

So how do you learn to be your best self when faced with the reality that it can be really difficult?

I’ve focused on being my best self throughout my career. However, I’m not perfect at it. I even learned about the importance of being my best self through an embarrassing lesson at the age of 43 while President of KFC.

My dream job was to become president of a business, and I was excited about making a positive impact on the KFC brand and people working with me.  Since the business had been in a state of decline, I had the opportunity to turn it around while incorporating some fun.  Note my emphasis on fun…

After a year as president, the business was improving and I wanted to celebrate this accomplishment with the restaurant general managers that made it happen.  More than two thousand managers came to Louisville for this celebration.  During the planning process, someone from my team pitched the idea to create a video to play on the bus ride from the hotel to our facilities.  My role in the video was to welcome the managers to Louisville and share what they could expect in the days ahead.

Insert the fun here:  I was cast as the narrator for a David Letterman spoof, complete with an opening monologue and Letterman-style Top Ten List.   The problem with this fun approach is I’m terrible at delivering one-liners.  And I prefer handwritten notes, not teleprompters.  I know this about myself, yet I went along with the plan.  Do you think I came across as my best self?  Absolutely not!  I still cringe when I watch the video and clearly see how I wasn’t my best self at all.  I was stiff, when I’m usually informal.  It was evident that I was reading off the teleprompter, which is not how I deliver the best speeches.  The only saving grace of the video was when I ditched the script, put on a pair of feathery chicken feet, and did what I naturally do best:  I walked through the KFC Headquarters talking to whoever I met along the way about everything from the history of Colonel Sanders to what we do in our research kitchen.

This lesson in being your best self became part of my leadership program.  I show the bus video (although sometimes I leave the room because I can’t bear to watch it!), to emphasize how easy it is to tell when someone isn’t being themselves.

While it’s important to be your best self, I must highlight this caveat: As a leader, being your best self does NOT give you permission to treat everyone with a take me as I am or leave mindset. Instead, you have to figure out a way to be true to yourself while broadening your appeal and impact rather than turning people off or unnecessarily clashing with company culture. You engage with all kinds of people as a leader. Consider how you can be yourself while respecting the unique approaches of others too.

Do you lead while being your best self? Do you have a story like mine where you weren’t your best self and it showed? Answer these questions to help you understand how often you lead as your best self:

  • When have you struggled with being your best self?
  • Do you tend to conform based on what others want, or do you tend to stay true to yourself? Explain your answer.
  • What keeps you from being your best self?

Download this guide to dig deeper into how you can become your best self. Let’s unite around the power of being our best selves as we lead others to become their best selves because as Leo Buscaglia says: The easiest thing in the world to be is you. The most difficult thing to be is what other people want you to be. Don’t let them put you in that position.”

Do you know someone who might find these tips on being your best self helpful? Then pay it forward by sharing this blog and guide with them today. You never know how the simple act of sharing leadership tips with others can inspire them to become a better leader.

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Five Behaviors of Great Leaders

When you think of great leaders who comes to mind? Do you think of historical people like Abraham Lincoln, Dr. Martin Luther King or John F. Kennedy? Maybe you think of leaders of powerful companies like Jamie Dimon or Indra Nooyi.

Free Leadership Assessment from David Novak LeadershipYou don’t have to be famous or lead a big company to be a great leader. Think about those leaders that made a real impact in your life like your high school coach, an employer or a manager that invested in your growth and development. These leaders earn trust and respect from their followers, and they lead by example. What makes them different?

Here are 5 behaviors that make a great leader:

1. They are all about their organization’s success. They understand that nothing big is accomplished alone. They care more about the success of the people working for them than their own success.

2. They are successful over a long period of time, and in more than one occasion. Great leaders are adaptable and grow. Because they understand and apply positive leadership principles, they can come into a variety of new situations and circumstances and still be highly effective.

3. They are avid learners. Great leaders are good at what they do, but they don’t stop there. They want to learn new ways to get better at leadership, at their business, and at their craft.

4. They don’t shift blame to their people when faced with setbacks. Great leaders take ownership when problems arise. They focus on what needs to be done to correct the issue then put process and discipline in place to ensure the issue doesn’t happen again.

5. Great Leaders recognize the people that helped them succeed. When success comes, great leaders point to their team – or mentors – as the reason. They give the credit away, rather than hoard it.

Leaders who exemplify these traits are not only admirable, but they leave a lasting impression. Implement these five behaviors and you’ll be sure to leave a lasting impression, too. If you want to continue to grow in your leadership, check out the great resources on our website.

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6 Daily Routines of Successful Leaders

One of the powerful secrets of effective leaders is establishing daily rituals or success routines. These leaders identify a few key behaviors that are important to them, and then they Hardwire, or put process and discipline around the behaviors, so they turn their intentions into action. We’ve asked a few of our David Novak Leadership Podcast guests what daily routines they follow to ensure they have the best day possible. Here are a few tips from some very successful leaders.

Prepare the Night Before

For David Novak Leadership founder David Novak, his daily routine actually starts the night before. Before he goes to bed, he looks at his calendar for the next day and asks himself, “What’s going to make each one of those meetings successful?” Then he tries to envision what a successful meeting would look like. By thinking about it the night before, David can go into each meeting prepared and focused on coming out with successful outcomes. Watch Here

Free Leadership Assessment from David Novak LeadershipCultivate A Positive Attitude

Harry Arnett, SVP Marketing of Callaway Golf, understands that deciding in advance to have a good day matters. So, each morning before he leaves for the day, Harry tells his wife and kids the same thing: “Let’s go make sure we have a better day today than we did yesterday, and let’s make a positive influence on at least some person today.”

Ken Langone, Co-Founder of The Home Depot, asks himself, “What can I do today to be as good a person as I hope I can be.” By asking and answering this question, Ken is preparing himself to look for ways to be the good person he wants to be, rather than hoping it will happen by chance. Watch Here

Physical Exercise

Brian Cornell, Chairman and CEO of Target Corporation recognizes the importance of exercise, so he is creative about building it into his schedule each day. Whether its 20 minutes in-between meetings or 20 minutes at the end of the day before a dinner function, he gets on the treadmill, which helps him manage his stress and refreshes his energy. Listen Here

Schedule Management

When David Novak realized that people tried to avoid him until around 10:00 in the morning because he is not a morning person, he learned not to schedule any major meeting till after 10:00 AM. This allows him to be at his best.

Connect with Others

Micky Pant, Chairman of Yum! China, makes it a habit to walk throughout the office talking to employees, which ensures that he is available and visible to his team.

Follow Up with Others

Jamie Dimon, JP Morgan Chase Chairman and CEO, is disciplined about follow-up. One way he keeps track of his tasks is by keeping an 8×10 handwritten list with him at all times. He lists the emails and phone calls he needs to return, he keeps track of who owes things to him so he can follow-up, and he lists things he needs to think about and will reflect on this while he’s driving. When an item is completed, he obliterates it off the list with joy. Watch Here

These success routines have worked well for these leaders. Which ones will help you become the best leader you can be? Think about what behaviors you might put into place to ensure you have the best day possible, then put them into practice and make them part of your daily routine.

If you haven’t received your free subscription to David Novak Leadership click here to subscribe and gain access to all of our free learning guides, blogs, and podcast clips. If you are already a subscriber you will be automatically redirected to all of these resources.

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The Novak Center for Children’s Health

The retired CEO of Louisville-based Yum! Brands, David Novak headed the lineup of dignitaries launching the building’s debut, including University of Louisville Board of Trustees Chair David Grissom, UofL President Neeli Bendapudi, Ph.D., and UofL Executive Vice President for Health Affairs Gregory Postel, M.D.

Read This Article.

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Blog Inspiring Others Job Hopping Lead Others

Leading with Risky Ideas

Imagine you are given an opportunity that could be the chance of a lifetime…but there’s a catch. You can’t pull it off on your own and there is risk involved. You know without a doubt this is a risk worth taking. What do you do?

Successful leaders will tell you that taking risks is part of their job. But the other part of the job that rarely gets talked about is how to lead a team when you are ready to take the jump.

Taking risks doesn’t have to be a daunting endeavor. Make the process less stressful by applying this 2-step method

1. Get all the facts

Do research and explore your options. Find stats to support your decision and list the reasons why this risk is worth taking.

Free Leadership Assessment from David Novak Leadership2. Get your team give input

Give your team a chance to voice their thoughts and concerns. They might bring up a point you haven’t considered.

Following these steps will solidify your reasons for taking the risk, and will ensure you don’t leave your team behind.

Now, imagine you are presented with the same incredible opportunity. There are still two catches, only this time you’re unsure if this decision is the right next step.

You are bound to have points in your career when you’re not 100% certain about a decision. As a leader, how do you instill confidence in your team about a risky idea or concept when you might not feel so confident about it yourself?

Don’t worry, we have steps for that, too:

1. Be honest

Admit that you don’t know. Your team will appreciate you being upfront. By being honest, you give your team a chance to get involved in the decision. Then, after considering the options, if you still think that it is right to take the risk, you make the call. If you decide to take the risk, follow the next step.

2. Ask for a team together/team apart execution

Team together happens when your team aligns as a whole to make the decision. Then, once the decision is made, everyone must be a team apart. They choose to follow the decision, even if they don’t entirely agree. They know it’s time to move forward and they set out to execute the decision to the best of their abilities.

Once your team is on board, put your sights ahead and give it your best shot. Stay on course, and only change if the data shows you’re headed in the wrong direction.

Hopefully, you will have the success that comes with taking risks, but even if you don’t, at least you’ll know that you were smart about it.

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How Do You Manage When "X" Hits The Fan ?

The biggest “X” to hit the fan in 2017 had to be the Equifax data breach. After all, when you let 145 million people down, that is a pretty big deal. The embarrassment reached new heights when the CEO admitted he wasn’t sure if the company was encrypting its customers’ data. Out of the millions who were affected, many didn’t feel Equifax was doing enough to handle the crisis.

Free Leadership Assessment from David Novak LeadershipWe all face adversity in life, but the way we handle it can have a huge impact on our future success. Here are 5 things you can do when dealing with a crisis:

  1. Don’t panic. We all know that person who doesn’t deal well under pressure. When “X” hits the fan, you don’t want to be that person. Instead, be calm, cool, and collected. If you trust that you’ll get to the right place, those who follow you will too.
  2. Get the facts. Understand what caused the problem to happen. Don’t leave any area untouched. When leaders know exactly what they’re dealing with, they are more prepared to fix it.
  3. Make a good decision based on those facts. Once you determine what caused the issue, the next step is to assess the “X” and make a plan to resolve the problem.
  4. Tell everybody what you are going to do and why. Once you know how to tackle the problem, you need to alert anyone who has been affected by the crisis. Let them know the steps you’ve taken to understand the issue, and then tell them what you plan to do about it.
  5. Layout what you’ll do to make sure it will never happen again. This is most important. As a leader, you need to show people that you care when things go wrong. When an organization proves it has learned from its mistakes, and promises to keep them from happening again, that earns trust.

Another way to earn trust is to make sure your communication is bullet proof and weasel proof. Be 100% clear about what you know. Don’t leave out information or only address certain issues. If you’re being inconsistent, or hiding certain facts, someone will point it out. Be forthcoming and don’t give anyone a reason to question you. You’ll be the leader everyone wants around when the next crisis hits.

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Why You Need to Heartwire AND Hardwire Your Leadership

By: David Novak, Co-Founder & CEO of David Novak Leadership

Leadership failure is everywhere. I recently did a quick internet search on the topic and you wouldn’t believe the titles that appeared:

  • Businesses Don’t Fail, Leaders Do
  • 6 Warning Signs of a Leadership Failure
  • The Key Causes of Failure in Leadership
  • Why America’s Leadership Fails

These titles only scratch the surface! There were pages and pages of articles on leadership failure. Yet success is totally possible if you know and practice a secret I discovered while serving as Co-founder and CEO of Yum! Brands, one of the world’s largest restaurant companies, operating in over 130 countries. The secret is called Heartwiring™ AND Hardwiring™ your leadership. Lots of leaders talk about how to hardwire success through process and I’m a big supporter of that. But I know that hardwired leadership is much more effective if you combine it with Heartwired leadership™. I’m passionate about heartwiring and hardwiring leaders because I know it works. As CEO of a global company, I’ve invested significant time teaching this leadership style to thousands of leaders around the world… and it showed in the results we shared with Wall Street.

But before I explain what heartwiring and hardwiring means, let me share some of my background with you. I’ll start at the beginning…

I was anything but a born leader but I feel absolutely certain I was born to lead and teach.  My early education was far from typical when you consider I grew up in a series of trailer parks and ended up living in 23 states by the time I was in seventh grade.  Then, rather than getting an MBA or even majoring in business, I enrolled in the journalism school at the University of Missouri.  After graduation, I started my career as a $7,200 a year copywriter with the objective of one day being a creative director.  My career didn’t turn out exactly as I planned.  In fact, through a series of career “accidents,” I left the world of advertising and ended up in the restaurant industry. Over the course of my career, I’ve held many roles:

  • Copywriter
  • Account Executive
  • Head of Marketing for Pizza Hut
  • Chief Operating Officer for beverage division of PepsiCo
  • President of KFC and Pizza Hut
  • Co-Founder and CEO of Yum! Brands

Along the way, I had the privilege of learning from all kinds of leaders from all around the world, from the likes of Jack Welch, Warren Buffett, Jamie Dimon and Howard Schultz. And while I was fortunate enough to learn from Fortune 500 CEOs, I equally loved learning from the restaurant front line managers and franchisees. Through it all, I have been a passionate student of leadership, constantly seeking new techniques and major insights from the smartest and best people I could go see. The lessons I learned and put into practice from this diverse group of leaders shaped me and helped me achieve a fair bit of success. I know I wouldn’t be who I am today without the people who invested in my leadership journey.

Upon retiring from Yum! Brands, I knew there was more work to be done… that my leadership journey was far from over. I became excited about investing in leaders like you by sharing what my team and I learned about leadership over the years, so David Novak Leadership was born.

David Novak Leadership is about Heartwiring Leaders™ and Hardwiring Success™! Let me explain. Early in my career, I had an experience that changed how I thought about my own role as a leader and inspired me to accomplish what, for me, is my greatest example of taking people with me.  I was working for PepsiCo and recently became head of operations for Pepsi Bottling. Since I had held mainly marketing positions until then, one of the first things I did was travel to our various plants to meet with the people there and find out how things worked.

While at a plant in St. Louis, I asked what I thought was a pretty straightforward merchandising question to a group of route salesman. I wanted to know what was working and what wasn’t. Right away, someone piped up, “Bob is the expert in that area.  He can tell you how it’s done.” Someone else added, “Bob taught me more in one day than I’d learned in two years on the job.” Every single person in the room agreed:  Bob was the best there was. I looked over at Bob, thinking he must be thrilled by all this praise.  Instead, I saw he had tears running down his face. When I asked him what was wrong, Bob, who had been with the company for over forty years and was about to retire in just two weeks, said, “I never knew anyone felt this way about me.”

I’ve always believed in people, but that experience made me even more determined to be the kind of leader that would never let a person like Bob go through his entire career without being thanked for what he did and encouraged to find out how much more he could do. I wanted the people who worked for me to know that they mattered, and I wanted them to enjoy coming to work each day. I also understood it started with me. It was my job to cast the right leadership shadow, because no one else was going to live up to these principles unless I lived up to them first. This is what heartwiring is all about – becoming a leader who listens to those you lead, cares about them, recognizes them, and acknowledges that every person on your team has value.

Hardwiring Success is all about what you do as a leader: using processes, procedures and discipline to get consistent results.

Heartwiring AND Hardwiring are equally important, because who you are as a leader is just as important as what you do as a leader.

As you join me on my leadership journey to becoming the best leader you can be, I’ll share my personal leadership story – things I did well, as well as my mistakes. I’ll share lessons I learned along the way. I’ll be honest and real, because sometimes the best way to learn is from the success and mistakes of others. I want you to know you’re not alone as a leader. I’ll commit to being one of the most transparent and honest leaders and teachers you’ve ever had.

Let me share what you can expect from David Novak Leadership:

  • Profound truths, practically applied rather than textbook, theoretical answers to your leadership questions.  I’m committed to sharing what I’ve learned through my experiences (the good, bad and ugly). I’ll also introduce you to other leaders because I want you to have a diversity of wisdom and insights to apply throughout your own leadership journey.
  • Transformational change that sticks rather than checklists that fade quickly. I’ll help you think differently about people and leadership so the changes you make are sustainable.  One of the best ways to change your leadership style is by doing something different, and I’ll provide insight on actions you can take to change the way you lead.
  • Leading by taking people with you rather than the traditional top down, hierarchical leadership style. I am passionate about the importance of taking people with you every step of the way. Top down hierarchies just aren’t as effective, and I want you to have a better way to lead.

John Quincy Adams said, “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” This is my goal for David Novak Leadership – to inspire you to dream more, do more and become more. Starting this month, you can stay connected with me by signing up to receive our bi-weekly blogs and podcasts. I’ll answer your leadership questions via video each month too. If you’d like to learn more about my leadership journey today, check out my books:

  • The Education of an Accidental CEO: Lessons Learned from the Trailer Park to the Corner Office tells the story of how I became CEO and the lessons I learned along the way.
  • Taking People With You: The Only Way to Make BIG Things Happen teaches you how to hardwire success by getting your mindset right, having a plan, and following through to get results.
  • O Great One! A Little Story about the Awesome Power of Recognition tells the story of a heartwired leader who transformed an organization through the power of recognition.

I’m a firm believer that leadership is about who you are AND what you do. Heartwiring Leaders! Hardwiring Success!  That’s what David Novak Leadership is all about. Follow me @DavidNovak on social media, because together, as leaders, we can make a bigger difference! Click here to listen to my podcast with Gregg Dedrick discussing why we began David Novak Leadership.

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