TouchPoints

Creating Powerful Leadership Connections in

the Smallest of Moments

Presented by Hallal Youssef

Even a brief interaction can change the

way people think about themselves, their

leaders, and the future. Each of those

many connections you make has the

potential to become a high point or a low

point in someone’s day. Each is a chance

to transform an ordinary moment into a

touchpoint.

What is a touchpoint?

A touchpoint is an interaction with one

other person, a couple of people, or a

group that can last a couple of minutes, a

couple of hours, or a couple of days.

Those Touchpoints can be planned or

spontaneous, casual or carefully

choreographed.

Most Leaders feel that these inevitable

demands keep them from doing their

“Real work”. But in TouchPoints, authors

Douglas and Mette argue that these

interactions are overlooked opportunities

to expand your influence and deliver

measurably better results.

Let’s take an example

You’re holed up in your office trying to

grab some time to finish a proposal that’s

critical to the future of your department

and your own career when a team

member knock on your door to ask for

advise.

How do you respond?

To be a real Leader you need to love the

pressure, the sweat & the grind. People

deserve someone worth following.

That is why the authors encourage

leaders to make the commitment to

mastery.

The mastery Essentials

Use Your Head

Use Your Heart

Use Your Hands

Leaders who want to be influentials

look at leadership as something they

must get really good at.

To lead effectively in a TouchPoint you

must develop a Leadership Model, it is

one of the most practical, energy-saving,

and stress-reducing things you can do as

a leader.

A good Leader must develop an

integrated approach that combines

assertive and adaptive approach both

together.

The Leader’s material

A leader must know his materials (people’s talent, energy, commitment and creativity), he must ask two vital questions:

1. What makes people give the very best of themselves?

2. What makes for ever stronger performance in an ever changing world?

Einstein once observed that the person

who “can no longer wonder, no longer

feel amazement, is as good as dead.”

A Leader must lead with his Head and

Heart

To make genuine connections with other people, you need to bring more than information and experience to the interaction, you need to bring yourself by answering the questions of the heart:

Why do I choose to lead?

What is my code?

How well do I walk the talk? & what could I have done better?

TouchPoints are all about communication

Lead with Listening

Listen with your Head

Listen with your Heart

Listen Exponentially

Follow through with Speaking

Speak with your Head

Speak with your Heart

Speak Exponentially

Lift your Game

Mastering the Touch: How Can

I Help?

Leadership is not about you, it’s about

them.

Four Magic Words: How Can I Help

Those four magic words shift the focus

from what you want to communicate

or accomplish, to finding out what

they want and need from you.

Asking the 4 magic words

prepares you for the triad

1. Listening intently helps you figure out what is really going on and what others need.

2. Framing the issue, ensures that everyone in the TouchPoint has the same understanding of the situation

3. Advancing the agenda, means deciding what next steps to take and who will take them.

How can I do better

Tomorrow?

If you really want to make progress, do

your own “post-game analysis” of your

TouchPoints at the end of each day.

Ask yourself what worked? What could I

have done better? & what did I learn

from my previous experiences?

Leadership is hard, yet no matter how

hard it can be to achieve ever higher

levels of performance, the authors believe

that you can approach every day with a

sense of optimism and focus your energy

on the things you can control. This will

increase commitment and confidence to

people around you.

The beauty of TouchPoints is that they are both approachable and aspirational: every moment is an opportunity to aim for mastery, while achieving mastery will remain an elusive target. That's because mastery is not a destination it's a quest.

There is a TouchPoint right around the corner, use it well.