Last week, I delivered a training program for a client and one of the attendees asked me if I had a list of key actions from the Applied Leadership model. I thought, “what a great question”. Considering that I didn’t have such a list I embarked on putting one together, thinking that a “Top 10” would be a good outcome. Instead, I ended up with a version of Casey Kasem’s “Top 40”. It’s not a music countdown like Casey’s, but it works well when all of the actions harmonize.

For those who have attended one of my training programs, the list below will be a good memory jogger. For others, it might inspire you to be the leader that you want to become.

1. Recognize that speaking the truth as you know it does not mean that it is the truth.
2. “Fracture Ice” – yours and others. Don’t declare your version of the truth. Instead, make proposals, check for understanding, and seek agreement. This way you will have an open mind and trigger yourself to challenge what you know, how you know it, as well as to collaborate in decision-making that acknowledges uncertainty.
3. Name your constraints – questioning what holds you back will break mental models and help you see the best direction for yourself.
4. Manage your spin or someone will manage you.
5. Know 52 distinctions in beer and everything else.
6. Be Diverse, i.e., manage your energy, surround yourself with a mix of intuitors & senors as well as feelers & thinkers.
7. Be Versatile, i.e., mindful of your implicit biases and encourage a full expression of positive masculine and feminine energy from others.
8. Nurture teams – call people on non-verbals, define direction quickly, pull aside the competitor, and be the first to be vulnerable.
9. Never avoid or delay a confrontation – use the 60-second confrontation model.
10. Create congruent messages – manage context and content to ensure that people get the right message.
11. Create performance management by setting goals > metrics > measures > targets.
12. Nurture accountability – ensure people have authority equivalent to their responsibility.
13. Monitor performance – the conversations about performance between managers and employees will cause interventions that lead to good performance.
14. Nurture organization structure – tweak structure from time to time; save major reorganizations for when you want to change the culture.
15. Manage your behavior – see it as input to what you can become rather than a consequence of who you are.
16. Use your mind to train your brain – with intentionality, the deliberative part of your brain (prefrontal cortex) can train reflexive emotions.
17. Positive Behavioral Change = (Experience + Expectation) x attention x veto power.
18. Be the leader that you want to become. Don’t wait for inspiration – act AS IF you already have the behavior that you want to acquire.
19. Know your ignitors, i.e., the people and situations that activate your amygdala.
20. Intentionally cause a debate (not an argument) and be the first to be reflective, evoking a dialogue.
21. Practice a Psychological Hug with someone once a day.
22. Know your self-story; name it, claim it, and reframe it.
23. Realize that the conversations you have with people create your relationship with them.
24. Create support in the organization one conversation at a time.
25. Recognize that there is no such thing as a throwaway line in conversations – your words will affect someone.
26. Fill your backpack with relationships – personal and work.
27. Have relationships at work, not friendships.
28. Don’t miss any conversations. Relationships succeed (fail) one conversation (missed) at a time.
29. You are constantly called into relationships with people, things, and information. Your choices define what you become.
30. Insert the future into every conversation – in the moment.
31. Your life is a Quantum Wave. There’s never nothing going on. When you’re in the moment, the here and now, you will be amazed at what you can accomplish.
32. Consider how much support you give and receive in at least five of the key relationships in your life. Put actions in place to improve these relationships by either shifting your listening style towards empathic or the pattern of your conversations towards dialogues.
33. Pygmalion Effect: don’t coach someone if you don’t believe in them – it will affect them negatively if you do.
34. Coaching people to their highest future potential: love the one you’re with, with attentive eyes, giving them freedom, engaging through questions, co-creating motivating possibilities, and acknowledging their effort and inner character.
35. Become a storyteller – create at least five stories from your personal life and keep them on the shelf. Use them when you need to convey tough messages to people.
36. Enhance credibility by becoming more aware of how you look and sound when speaking and listening. Ask people to observe you in meetings and give you feedback.
37. Download the Vocular App to measure your voice frequency.
38. Become more aware of toxic behaviors at work – put them in the Code of Conduct.
39. Manage Inclusion – use Positive Position to affect Disposition by putting everyone in a Learning Loop.
40. Once your leadership field is in place, step back but don’t step away. Six ongoing leadership actions: (1) sustain conversations about the future domain, (2) fracture ice by making proposals rather than declarations, (3) model behavior, (4) manage content and context to ensure message congruency, (5) monitor performance through conversations, and (6) create support by making everyone a “usual suspect”.