News and Press

Have You Met…Andy Christiansen?

The Founder of High Capacity Leaders shares some of the secrets from his book, “The 40:40 Principle.”

By Kristen Berry, originally published at CummingPatch

Andy Christiansen builds leaders on a simple concept that anyone can follow. In 2001, he founded High Capacity Leaders in nearby Alpharetta, and his concept emerged from a desire to create thriving work environments through encouraging leaders to build their skills and unique abilities.

He has a made an impact on leaders and teams from the U.S. Air Force, Coca-Cola, E & J Gallo Winery, Chick-fil-A, Veryfine Products, IBM and AT&T.

Christiansen’s latest book release, “The 40:40 Principle” simplifies the process of building leaderships skills through the power of relationships.

The premise of “The 40:40 Principle” teaches leaders how to maintain and nurture beneficial relationships with those below and above their own age bracket.

“There are two practical exercises that stem from the 40:40 Principle. They both help you work on your business, not just work in your business,” explains Christiansen.

“The first one states, before you can intentionally invite strategic advisers into your life or business you first must define what success is for you or your business. Put another way, define your mission or vision. What do you exist for?”

“Second, is to identify key people (strategic advisers) you want to invite to a one time meeting (could be by phone or in person), or to something more formal. Consider that you are building your personal board of directors, or your dream team. People have much to offer and wisdom to share, they simply need to be asked. I have done this my entire life and I can guarantee you, I would NOT be where I am today without these wise people (randomly and regularly) in my life,” attests Christiansen.

Christiansen recalls his first notion of strategic advisement when he was just 13-years-old, cutting lawns in his neighborhood. “I clearly remember listening to one of my customers and neighbors Mr. Cook (who must have been 88-years-old at that time) talk about his working days, and how to better cut grass, trim grass and get new clients.”

“I remember thinking, this guys knows everything, if I keep learning from him I’ll know everything and that will make me somebody important.”

“Now the joy I have is giving this wisdom away to others who can benefit from it! This year I was hired by the U.S. Air Force to help them develop HPO’s High Potential Officers, and the feeling I get being able to learn from them and likewise have them learn from me all in the effort to make the world a better place is second to none.”

Learn To Lead

Polishing Your Leadership Skills Can Pump Up Your Business

By Don Sadler, featuring Andy Christiansen Featured October, 5, 2011

As a self-employed professional, do you think of yourself as a “leader”? This is an important question that many self-employed individuals may not have thought about before.

This is especially true of those running a solo operation, who may not think that leadership is as important for them as it is for the owner of a more traditional business with employees. However, any entrepreneur who owns a business, whether it has one employee or 100, is usually seen as a leader by others in the community, as well as by peers in professional organizations (like industry and trade associations) and by those with whom he or she does business.

If you do have employees, wearing the leader tag may feel a little bit more comfortable, although leadership may not be one of your natural strengths. In either case, improving your leadership skills is one of the most important things you can do to not only grow your business, but to help your employees grow and reach their full potential as well.

Management vs. Leadership

One of the biggest mistakes many entrepreneurs make is confusing management with leadership, notes Andy Christiansen, the president of High Capacity Leadership Training in Alpharetta, Ga., and the author of “The 40:40 Principle” (WestBow Press, 2010).

“Management is more about overseeing the accomplishment of tasks—it doesn’t go much beyond the day to day,” says Christiansen. “Leadership is much bigger than that: It’s about taking people somewhere by inspiring and motivating them. If all you’re doing is managing, you’re not really leading.”

Christiansen believes that the single most important leadership trait for any entrepreneur is vision. “You can’t lead without vision,” he says. “However, some owners and entrepreneurs are really just task-oriented managers. This is fine, to a degree, because a big part of leading is making sure things get done. But business owners need to cast the company’s strategic vision and then share this with all of their employees and stakeholders.”

If others are able to see how their jobs fit into the big picture, they are more likely to be excited and inspired—“and this should be the No. 1 priority of a leader,” Christiansen adds. “The vast majority of people either don’t give themselves the opportunity to create a vision, or their vision is so vague that it’s not worth pursuing.”

When it comes to vision, Christiansen encourages entrepreneurs to just do it. “Take five minutes to think about what you want your business, your family, or whatever to look like in a year, five years or ten years, and write this down. That’s your vision.” He says to follow the acronym SEE and make sure your vision is:

• Simple—State it in 20 words or less.
• Extraordinary—Don’t be afraid to think and dream big.
• Energizing—Your vision should accelerate your heartbeat and get you excited.

High Level Leadership

Robert Turknett, who holds a doctorate in education, and his wife Carolyn Turknett, are the principles of Turknett Leadership Group in Atlanta, Ga., and the authors of “Decent People, Decent Company” (Intercultural Press, 2004). They have conducted extensive research into what makes business owners and executives effective leaders. Based on their research, they have created an approach that helps entrepreneurs better understand their leadership strengths and weaknesses.

The Turknetts identify four different levels of leadership. “The higher the level, the better the entrepreneur is at engaging in behaviors that produce sustainable solutions and positive business results,” explains Robert Turknett.

Level 2: This individual operates primarily out of self-interest and uses others as tools to pursue his or her own goals. The leadership philosophy is, “Play by my rules and I’ll get you what you want.”

Level 3: This individual is very sensitive about how he or she is viewed by others, thereby avoiding conflict whenever possible. The leadership philosophy is, “If I show others consideration and respect, they will follow me anywhere.”

Level 4: This level describes a typical manager: someone who is primarily concerned with making sure subordinates achieve well-defined goals and follow proper procedures. The leadership philosophy is, “My main responsibility is to clearly articulate standards, goals and expectations.”

Level 5: An individual at the highest level of leadership learns from experience, has strong values and self-identity, and is willing to self-evaluate. The leadership philosophy is, “I must be willing to risk my position of authority (‘I’m in charge’) in the interest of deepening my substantive authority (‘I’m leading a successful team’).

“Many people, even successful entrepreneurs and executives, get stuck at Level 3,” says Carolyn Turknett. “You might be able to make money as a self-employed person or business owner at this level, but you won’t be as productive or effective as a leader if you don’t move up the leadership ladder.”

Improve Your Leadership Skills

Here are five tips from the Turknetts and Christiansen to help owners improve their leadership skills:

1. Identify your leadership strengths and weaknesses. Work to improve your weak areas.
2. Practice integrity—don’t just preach it. Integrity must start at the top of any organization and flow down, says Christiansen. “People are looking for consistency between what leaders say and what they do. If you cut corners or wander into gray areas ethics-wise while stressing the importance of integrity to others, your words won’t carry much weight.”
3. Take accountability seriously. Many owners set goals but they don’t hold themselves accountable to someone else for actually achieving them, says Carolyn Turknett. She encourages leaders to write down the most important things they want to accomplish and then share this with a peer who will hold them accountable for results. “It sounds simple, but very few people actually do this.”
4. Find a leadership role model. “Spend time around visionary leaders you admire and consider mentors, or hire a leadership coach who can help draw out the leader within you,” Christiansen says. He also says that it’s important to find mentors on both sides of age 40, especially for entrepreneurs who want to become better leaders. “Wisdom travels both ways—entrepreneurs especially need to seek input and feedback from people of all ages, because the business world is changing so fast.”
5. Be open to receiving leadership feedback from others. This can be a formal leadership assessment or informal feedback from other leaders you respect. Christiansen recommends forming a personal board of directors that can give you objective, no-holds-barred feedback and advice on your leadership style, strengths and weaknesses.

Leadership 2.0

Andy Christiansen, the president of High Capacity Leadership Training, distinguishes between two distinct types of leadership:

Leadership 1.0 worked well in the Manufacturing Age, but has become outdated in the current Creative Age. It focuses primary on getting results via quotas, etc., but has little regard for the development of employees. “It offers limited potential and results in fast burn-out,” says Christiansen.

Leadership 2.0 is better suited to today’s Creative Age employee. It focuses primarily on training and developing people. “Intentionally trained people offer unlimited potential—and produce powerful results and profits,” says Christiansen.

Supervision and Leadership

If you have employees, improving your supervisory skills is a key part of strong leadership. Here are a few tips for becoming a better boss:

• Practice consistency. Do your behavior and moods swing wildly? If so, employees will be less likely to communicate openly and honestly with you simply out of fear of how you may respond. People follow and respect leaders with consistent actions and words.
• Offer praise generously and criticism constructively. Try to catch your employees doing something right and then praise them publicly for it. Use the 7:1 rule: Give seven pieces of positive feedback or praise for every one piece of negative. When you must correct or criticize, do so constructively by offering suggestions for improvement.
• Trust and delegate. Assuming they’ve earned it, show your employees you trust them by giving them more responsibility and decision-making authority. If this is new for you and your employees, start out slow and increase their responsibility over time. Delegation is hard for many owners who feel like they need to do everything, but it’s critical to strengthening leadership and helping employees grow.
• Work on your communication skills. Great leaders are almost always great communicators—this includes speaking and listening. Keep communication simple and straightforward—for example, avoid using jargon and confusing double-speak—and give employees your careful attention. They can usually see right past half-hearted and distracted listening.
• Set the right example. Chances are, your employees are watching what you do much more closely than they’re listening to what you say. Leadership means setting the right example in every area of your business: honesty, integrity, work ethic, and how others (both customers and coworkers) are treated.
• Be accessible. Do you really have an “open-door policy”? Or do you tend to hole up in your office and send the not-so-subtle message that you’re too busy to be bothered? Be sure to spend time every day practicing the fine art of Managing By Walking Around.

“I really believe great leaders are made, not born,” says Christiansen. “Any business owner or self-employed individual can become a better leader by putting proven leadership techniques into practice.”

Don Sadler is a freelance writer who is working with mentors and role models he respects to improve his leadership skills. Reach him at don@donsadlerwriter.com.

The Leadership Character Model^TM

Robert Turknett, Ed.D, and his wife Carolyn Turknett, MA, the principles of Turknett Leadership Group, have created a Leadership Character Model that is based on a foundation of Integrity. There are two sides to the model, each of which includes four leadership characteristics:

Respect                                                                        Responsibility

Empathy                                                                      Self Confidence
Doesn’t Assign Blame                                                Accountability
Emotional Mastery                                                      Focuses on the Whole
Humility                                                                      Courage

2/15/2011 – RAF MILDENHAL, ENGLAND — Being a mentor can mean different things to different people. In the Air Force, a mentor should prepare younger airmen for future leadership roles. However, Mr. Christiansen suggests seeking mentors in every area of life.

Originally Published at www.mildenhall.af.mil
by Tech. Sgt. Latisha Cole
100th Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs

Leadership Development Technologies

Technological tools that facilitate leadership development

By Larry Schwenker, CPM, RPA, CCIM, featuring Andy Christiansen, PCC, CLC
Originally published at IREMFirst.org

Technology definitely has its place in the discipline of leadership development. However, when you think of technology in commercial real estate, leadership development may not be at the top of that list.

Although there may be those who believe that there is a technological solution to every business issue, most would agree that leadership development is that is driven more by human relations.

Leadership development is one of many areas where it is really important to keep the proper perspective regarding what technology can and cannot do. There is a certain tendency to view technology as the end versus the means to an end. We sometimes get caught up in the hype of “How can we implement this technology?” when we should be asking “What is the business issue we are trying to solve and is there a technology that will facilitate a solution?”.

I was curious to see how those who are involved in leadership development viewed technology. Andy Christiansen, founder of High Capacity Leaders, LLC, an organization that performs executive coaching and leadership development, uses technology extensively in the leadership development process.

Christiansen views leadership development as having three components; character, competency and core personality. “Of the three characteristics, character has the highest impact on leadership success and; although there are some who claim to possess the technology to measure this, there is really no proven technology that can either measure or develop character.  Technology can’t speak to a human “gut quality” such as this. Ironically; whenever we try to use technology to “trump” the human equation we actually risk becoming less efficient in our decisions and processes.”

Despite its limitations, technology has been used successfully to facilitate the leadership development process in the areas of core personality and competency. Two of the most notable areas where leadership development has benefited from technology are leadership assessments and training.

Leadership Assessments

There is nothing new about leadership assessment tools. A whole multitude of leadership assessment tools have been available for years. These assessments typically involve gathering information in order to evaluate either leadership effectiveness or personality traits.

Over the past few years, many of these tools have been converted to a web-based format.  Moving these tools to a web-based environment has significantly improved the value they can deliver to an organization.

One leadership assessment tool that has benefited immensely from the migration to the web is a tool known as the 360-degree performance feedback. The purpose of this tool is to assist leaders in understanding their strengths and weaknesses, and to contribute insights into aspects of their performance that needs improvement. In addition to a self assessment, this tool gathers feedback from the leader’s subordinates, peers, managers and, in some cases, customers and other outside parties.

Probably the most significant improvement over a paper and pencil system is the ability to streamline the information gathering process. Most web-based assessment tools have a feature that automates the participant invitation process, directs participants to access the on-line assessment and tracks completion. Ease of data collection along with statistical analysis of data results also enable organizations to set improvement goals and systematically measure progress over time.

Training

Innovations in web based technology and telecommunications have resulted in several alternative methods for delivering leadership training. Modes of training include webcasts; seminars offered via the internet, podcasts; a digital recording, made available on the internet for downloading to a personal media device and e-learning.

Each of these innovations has increased the level of flexibility and affordability of leadership development training. More affordable alternatives to instructor led leadership training has enabled organizations involve more employees in leadership training. Now organizations find it easier to justify the long term investments required to develop a true leadership development process. This is a comprehensive process that involves the ongoing development of leaders from all levels of the organization.

In addition, the flexibility of these tools enable trainees to more effectively balance participation in the leadership development process with their other responsibilities.

Leadership development is a process

Technology will never take the place of the relational aspects of leadership development. On the other hand, consistent use of technologies such as those mentioned in this article can serve as drivers of a more comprehensive and systematic leadership development process. This gives organizations the ability to measure progress, identify success factors and most importantly; ensure a continued legacy of leadership in the years to come.

Are You Really Connected or Just Linked? How to Create Powerful, Inspiring Conversations that Lead to Greater Success

Bill Gates, Bono, Oprah Winfrey and Lance Armstrong have reached the pinnacle of achievement in their individual walks of life, but what do they really have in common? They all found out that ultimate success comes through the power of relationships. They discovered that by themselves they were limited, but by adding strategic advisors to their life and business, they were unlimited! The new book, The 40:40 Principle, examines how authentic relationships with those on both sides of 40 will help you achieve the success and fulfillment you desire at work and at home.

“My grandfather used to say ‘the secret to life is when you’re under 40, seek to gain wisdom from those over 40, and when you’re over 40, do the same with those under 40’. It’s a reverse mentoring process, one where you intentionally gain wisdom, versus intentionally giving wisdom. In a day and age where relationships are random and shallow, The 40:40 Principle offers a system to gain and develop strategic, lasting relationships, ”said author Andy Christiansen, a professional, certified life coach, the founder of High Capacity Leaders and co-creator of the no-calorie fruit flavored spring water Fruit2O.

Christiansen’s passion over the past 20 years has been to work with leaders who have a desire to impact the world around them and help them uncover their sweet spots. His one-on-one mentoring with hundreds of corporate leaders coupled with his own life experiences led him to write The 40:40 Principle so that others might learn how impactful relationships can be in guiding personal and professional success.

The 40:40 Principle demonstrates that tapping into a network of acquaintances, friends and co-workers, both older and younger, will bring valuable advice and life lessons based on experience and wisdom. Strategic, intentional relationships with wise, trustworthy people of all ages are the key ingredient to achieving success in life.

The 40:40 Principle is published by WestBow Press, a division of Thomas Nelson.