In the 10th grade, I took a dare from Steve Willis to do something "rowdy" in Mrs. Paul's World Cultures Class. Mrs. Paul was not amused and gave me a choice: detention or fill in for the Softball statistician that afternoon in the game.

Rather than facing my parents with the news I had detention, I opted for the statistician job. I had no idea what an impact that afternoon would have on me.

I saw firsthand the completely different way Mrs. Paul coached her girls. As a football player, I had grown use to the one size fits all method my coaches used and had no idea there was any other approach. Before a football game, the coach would rev all us players up to a state of frenzied aggrieves, motivating us with one thing only: the glory of winning.

Mrs. Paul (now Coach Paul as she had changed from her teaching attire), approached each of her players and I was astounded to see her motivate the players in individual ways.

Coach Paul motivated the pitcher by reminding her of the trusted leadership position she played on the team. But with the catcher, she used the well being of the entire team as her message. The highly competitive short stop got the message I had heard countless times- the glory of winning. On and on, each player individually with their own style of motivation. I then realized the powerful value of understanding that we are all motivated differently and should be "coached" differently.

100 years, 100 pounds, and 400 coaching clients later, I can tell you that Mrs. Paul's approach works. Mrs. Paul's approach to leadership is the fastest way to improve the performance of any team. It is now the only recommendation I give when coaching professionals on leadership. And in an interesting statistic, I have found that leadership programs developed by men are very similar to the one size fits all Football Coach from high school. Effective leadership development for women is different in their approach by tailoring the leadership to the individual followers.

And what is fascinating, is the success rate of leadership training based on the Mrs. Paul model- regardless of whether the leadership students are men or women. So I wasn't the only 17 year old kid on the team who was not motivated purely by WIN WIN WIN.

Introducing Leadership Training

A leadership program for women in an organization, although sounding good, sometimes falls down the priority list because the benefits can't be clearly identified like a new copier can. We must first put a value on leadership in any organization (even the 2 person office) proven by a simple Return on Investment strategy.

You will need to invest roughly 8 total hours in the first month, then a combined 4 hours a month subsequently. Your time is worth a dollar amount, so it is simple to calculate the actual cost in dollars. The 2nd half of the equation- the return on leadership -is more varied. Start by creating a list of the realistic outcomes: better attendance, higher sales, better productivity, stronger communication skills, better retention, less hiring/training, etc appear on many return lists. Next allocate a dollar amount to all these returns. We try to keep our list of returns tangible so we can easily assess a dollar value return.

Finally, compare the cost or your investment into leadership against the dollar of all your returns. If the return is higher than your investment, it is worth considering. But if the return is higher than 2x the investment, move it to the top of the priority list, above the new copier. Leadership Training should not end with upper level managers. Any person who has direct reports is a candidate for leadership training AS WELL as influencers within an organization. With one of my newer clients, the Office Manager Kathy does not technically have any direct reports, but as the nerve center for the whole organization, the influential power she wields is dramatic thus making her a good candidate for their internal simplified leadership training.

Establishing Leadership Training has been overcomplicated recently. An outside source like me will help to get you started, but the ongoing training is easy to execute on your own. You first being with the training outline.

For the biggest and fastest impact, develop Leadership training that stars with what to STOP doing. My clients always look at me strange at this ultra simple approach, but before we move onto feedback forms and psychological evaluations, I have seen dramatic improvements among leaders if they STOP doing 4 or 5 things. If the leadership student is stumped, a casual survey among her reports or counter parts will shed light. Kathy for example, learned that she had to simply STOP interrupting people. By constantly cutting others off, she unintentionally was belittling them; disrespecting them and making them feel detached from the team. So many times organizations, interestingly enough especially in male lead organizations, the focus is always on improving. But just as much gain can be made by eliminating the negative and it is much easier, faster and cheaper to execute upon.

After the STOP behaviors have been covered in your leadership training, the next valuable topic I recommend is PERSONAL MOTIVATORS. Starting with yourself, identify 2 positive motivators (being the top sales person in the region, a trip to St. Croix), 2 Negative Motivators (having to borrow money from your in laws, disappointing your boss), 2 Positive DE-Motivators/Motivators that don't work (the prestige of the corner office, artificial consequences) and 2 Negative DE-Motivators/Motivators that don't work (losing face with your associates, scare tactics). A person's motivators and de-motivators are never right or wrong and should never carry any judgment with them. As a coach or leader, our job is to simply know what motivates the player and use those to our betterment. Just like Mrs. Paul did.