Lead to Lift Up Others (eBook)

Leadership Insights From a Caregiver's Journey

Ross Woodstock (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2021 | 1. Auflage
180 Seiten
Bookbaby (Verlag)
978-1-0983-5559-3 (ISBN)

Infos

Lead to Lift up Others is a leadership book with a twist. Ross Woodstock leads you through 12 leadership insights gained from his role as a caregiver for his wife Sharen. Your work as a leader is not about you. It is about what we as leaders should be doing to lift up others around us. Our leadership should be built around lifting up our direct reports, out peers, even our bosses. If you dedicate your leadership life to lifting up others, you will find that people will prosper and grow, teams will be stronger, more cohesive and productive and the organization will flourish. People want to work for and with leaders who focus their energy on lifting up others. Your career will be more satisfying and fulfilling when you lead to lift up others. Throughout this book, you will find principles you can employ to help you be that kind of leader. Ross shares insights into the leadership lessons he has learned in my role as a caregiver. He shares some of my personal stories, but more importantly, he connects those lessons to your work as a leader, in whatever capacity you serve. At the end of each chapter, you will find coaching tips. These are practical, real-world ways you can apply these leadership lessons in your everyday work as a leader. If you are willing to go the extra mile, you will find these helpful tips to be difference-makers in your leadership career.

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The world we live in demands more great leaders. Whether in business, education, government, healthcare, non-profits, our families or communities, the single most important ingredient for success is leadership. We need leaders who can bring diverse groups of people together to manage change, solve problems and embrace a new, better vision for the future. As the business world has shifted from the command and control style of leadership to a coaching culture, the skills needed to thrive as a leader have shifted. If you want to evolve and grow as a leader, you must continually adapt and adjust to the new realities of today's world and anticipate and prepare for the changes coming in the coming years. In Lead to Lift Up Others, Ross Woodstock shares 12 leadership insights from his years as a caregiver for his wife Sharen-a victim of a devastating stroke that changed both of their lives. The compelling stories surrounding Sharen's battle to achieve a satisfactory quality of life paint a picture of the characteristics needed to build a leadership legacy that will leave a positive impact on the world. One of the essential truths in leadership today is that being a leader is not about you. Your greatest reward as a leader will come from investing yourself into the lives of those around you. You can accomplish this by letting them know you believe in them, celebrating their success, remaining positive in the face of chronic negativity, demonstrating resilience, encouraging those around you, remaining humble, maintaining an attitude of gratitude and committing to a strong foundation of values. Throughout this book, you will be challenged to take a closer look at your own leadership journey. At the end of each chapter, Woodstock provides coaching tips, including hands-on activities that will allow you to apply each leadership insight into your everyday work. Commit to your personal growth and experience the transformational impact in your work as a leader with Lead to Lift Up Others.

Textauszug

Leadership Insight #1:

Build a Strong Foundation of Values

“When you achieve complete congruence between your values and your goals, like a hand in a glove, you feel strong, happy, healthy, and fully integrated as a person. You develop a kind of courage that makes you completely unafraid to make decisions and take action. Your whole life improves when you begin living your life by the values that you most admire.”—Brian Tracy

 

Nothing in my life prepared me for my role as a caregiver.  The early months were the most stressful days of my life. Over the years, I had dealt with the loss of loved ones, financial struggles and emotional upheaval.  I even survived puberty! Those turbulent times did not compare with being thrust into caregiving.

 The care and support Sharen and I received at Sparrow Hospital was incredible. However, I quickly began to awaken to a stark reality:  We were about to be forced into a system that was stacked against us. 

The first dose of bad news was even though Sharen could not sit up in bed without assistance, she was going to be discharged from the hospital and would have to be admitted to a rehabilitation center. I was dumbfounded at the thought that a patient clearly in need of long-term care was so quickly kicked to the curb. The medical professionals explained to me that insurance companies make the decision as to how long a patient can remain in the hospital—and according to our insurance company, her time was up.

Shortly thereafter, we received the second dose of bad news. As I began to hurriedly research the rehab centers in our area, I discovered the best facilities did not accept private pay insurance because those centers don’t want to jump through the “hoops” required by those insurance companies.  Consequently, I was limited to a choice of just three homes. After completing a tour of the first home, my daughter broke down into tears at the thought of her mother having to endure a single hour in that disaster zone.

We were fortunate that the best of the three facilities available to us did, in fact, admit Sharen. As it turns out, it was a mixed blessing.  The physical and occupational therapy facilities and staff were very good, something for which I will always be incredibly grateful. The rest of the experience—well, not so much.  The care was inconsistent at best, especially overnight when staffing was kept at the state minimum levels, and the food was simply awful. Sharen was understandably miserable and insisted daily that I take her home. The problem was she wasn’t physically ready to live at home, and I wasn’t emotionally prepared.  

At this point, I had returned to work. The stress of trying to run my business and spend as many hours a day as possible with Sharen quickly began to take its toll. Additionally, I faced constant pressure knowing the insurance company could determine it would discontinue payments for the nursing home stay—in which case, Sharen probably would be discharged, whether we were ready or not. 

In order to prepare for Sharen’s discharge, I had to invest in significant alterations to our home and get those projects completed quickly. Sharen’s two brothers built a wheelchair ramp so I could get her in and out of the house.  I also had to have four doorways widened to allow for wheelchair access and have two sliding glass doors removed to set-up a bedroom for her, which also meant acquiring a hospital bed.  Additionally, I had to interview and hire a caregiving company to provide staff at our home when I would be at work. Sharen would require someone in the house 24/7 for several months. Of course, none of these costs were covered by insurance, and it all had to be completed in a few short weeks.

The stress became so overwhelming, it was almost unbearable. There were two occasions when I literally felt like I was going to collapse. The second time, I was certain I was having a nervous breakdown. I was alone at my office early on a Friday morning when the world started to cave-in. As I felt seconds from crashing, I closed my office door and lay face down on the floor.  At that moment, I called on my Christian faith and cried out, “God, please save me!”

You can interpret what happened next however you’d like. I believe it was God’s power that picked me up off that floor and filled me with energy. There was no way I could have survived that moment with my own strength alone. In my mind, without a doubt, it was a supernatural act that saved me from a serious medical catastrophe—which would have had dire consequences for both me and Sharen.

What saved me at that pivotal moment was the fact that I have a strong foundation of values. In difficult times, I turn to these values. They guide me in how I live my life and influence every decision and action that I take. Just as you need values to guide you in everyday life, as a leader you must have values that serve as the foundation for how you lead.

Values Are Your Guiding Light

Every decision you make in life is rooted in your core values. They guide your behavior and the choices you make. If integrity is one of your core values, and you find yourself facing an ethical question, you are likely to make a decision that takes you down a path that is moral and just.

This brings an important history lesson to mind. As the Civil War drew to a close and a Union victory became apparent, President Abe Lincoln recognized it was time to heal the wounds of the war.  Lincoln knew that to achieve peace and true national unity, there must be reconciliation. People expected Lincoln to use his second inaugural address in 1864 to celebrate the impending Union victory.  Instead, he unexpectedly shifted directions and turned to a startling conclusion: “With malice toward none, with charity to all,” Lincoln was calling on the nation to move into a new era—an era not imbued with retribution, but one filled with forgiveness and harmony. Lincoln’s ability to convince the nation to support reconciliation was likely due to the fact that people admired his values and trusted him as a leader. How had Lincoln earned such a high level of trust? It all came down to his values—values from which he never wavered and always clearly communicated, whether in letters or casual communications. Following his last meeting with the president, shortly before Lincoln was assassinated, General William Sherman reflected on these characteristics when he wrote: “Of all the men I have met, he seemed to possess more of the elements of greatness, combined with goodness, than any other.”

Staying anchored in your values brings fulfillment and meaning into your life. As a young man, I aspired to have a career in broadcast journalism. I started my career working at a tiny radio station in St. Johns, Michigan. It was a wonderful opportunity to learn the business from the ground-up. I started my own little news and sports department, interviewing local newsmakers and high school coaches. I even had the opportunity to do sports play-by-play for high school football and basketball. I was living the dream!

Though the job was fulfilling, challenging and most definitely a lot of fun, Sharen and I were struggling financially. For the first couple of years, I worked part-time with no benefits. Eventually I became a full-time employee with health insurance, but we were living paycheck to paycheck and having a hard time making ends meet. I attempted to land a higher paying broadcast journalism job in a larger market, but I quickly became frustrated. I felt that I was being unfairly passed over in job interviews. It seemed like my dream career was turning into a nightmare.

Just as our frustrations were reaching a peak, I was offered an opportunity to move into a potentially lucrative new career as a travelling salesman for a popular sporting goods line. I faced a crossroads in my life:  Do I take the path that offers more immediate financial security for my family? Or do I give my dream career one final shot—even though I had no new job prospects?

Ultimately, I chose the career that gave me a sense of purpose and meaning over the one that offered me more money. Why? Because this was the choice that most aligned with my personal values—and the decision ended up paying off in spades. A few weeks after turning down the sporting goods sales career, I was offered a job at the number one radio station in Lansing, Michigan. This position became the springboard for a wonderful, highly successful career in radio and television that lasted for more than two decades.

How to Identify Your Values

In my work as an executive coach, I often start my one-on-one coaching engagements by asking my clients to identify their core values. I have found this useful in a number of ways. First of all, it allows the client to focus on what it is really important in their life. Secondly, it serves as a connecting point for us during the coaching engagement.  When the client is considering potential action steps they might take, I will often ask them to consider how each action step aligns with their core values.

You will find that considering your values foundation is time well spent.  A simple, but effective technique is to identify your top 10 to 15 values.  Once you have completed that list, identify the top three.  Lastly, select your number one most important value. Keep your list of values on hand and reflect on it from time-to-time.

In his book What Matters Most (Franklin Covey 2000),...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 1.3.2021
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Wirtschaft ► Betriebswirtschaft / Management ► Unternehmensführung / Management
• ISBN-10: 1-0983-5559-8 / 1098355598
• ISBN-13: 978-1-0983-5559-3 / 9781098355593