Change the plans, not the priorities.

Change the plans, not the priorities.

Decide what is important and make it your priorities.  Plan what you need to do to reach your priorities.  If this sounds simple, it is.  I find that those who are successful think of everything thing they do in terms of how it can help reach their priorities.

Stephen Covey said, “You have to decide what your highest priorities are and have the courage—pleasantly, smilingly, unapologetically, to say ‘no’ to other things. And the way you do that is by having a bigger ‘yes’ burning inside. The enemy of the ‘best’ is often the “good.” 

This process fills your time with only productive activities.   If your plan is not advancing your priorities, change the plan.

What do you do when your moment arrives?

What do you do when your moment arrives?

All the preparation, planning, prayer and now it’s here.  The moment you have been working towards for what seems like a lifetime, and for some maybe it was.  You are about to cross into your biggest adventure, one that you dreamt about.  

What is going through your thoughts right now? Am I ready?  Can I really do this?  It would be too easy here to just say – yes you can, now get going!  But I’ve been there and it’s not that simple.

When your moment arrives, it deserves your undivided focus.  If you really want this, here is what you do:

Reflect, Renew, and Return.

Reflect on why you set this goal in the first place.  What big purpose led to this moment?  Rediscover the impact you were going to have when this moment arrived. Look back over the time you invested.  Remember the learning, practicing, and every challenge you overcame to hone your ability to accomplish just what you are about to attempt.  Hold those thoughts.

Renew your commitment.  The process to achieve success may not be easy but it is worth it.   The difficult steps ahead require passion about the reasons to climb.

Return to the moment and do it.  Fulfill your dreams!

Mentoring – Share your story

Mentoring – Share your story

Have you ever heard someone say, “I’ve seen this movie before, and I know how it ends?”  This statement rarely refers to a movie, but to a situation, challenge, opportunity that previously ended badly for the person who says this.  Well I have been to movies where the ending was great.  I have also been involved in situations, challenges, and opportunities that went very well.  When I think of mentoring, I think of it as an opportunity to share my story; those that didn’t go well, and those that were a success.  Both in an effort to provide direction that can be used by others as they work to achieve their goals.

Mentoring provides an impact in three areas:  Providing options, Describing the landscape, and Inspiring movement.

Provide options. When I begin a new activity I sometimes think, “I don’t even know what questions to ask, let alone the answers.” My first activity then is to find out what I don’t know so I can learn that before I start.  For mentoring to be successful it needs to provide both direction and directions.  Direction entails the big picture that we will discuss in describing the landscape.  Directions is the movement that is inspired to arrive at your destination. Both are essential and as Simon Sinek said, “There is a difference between giving directions and giving direction.” My first mentor in writing and publishing my book The Leadership GPS provided guidance in what impact I could make, what I needed to do and who I needed to meet to learn how to be successful, then introduced me to those who would help me in my endeavor.  When I mentor individuals, I look to set the stage with the big picture before moving on the tactical advise.

Describe the landscape.   If you travel to new places, it’s hard to imagine what is around each corner until you have been there.  You can research the major tourist locations, but you really don’t know a city until you walk its streets and interact with the people.  This is why many people have tour guides for new locations.  A mentor is a tour guide to success.  The landscape of publishing was a mystery to me when I was ready to launch my book.  I had a great mentor that described publishing to me up front so I could navigate my way through.  I have traveled many places in my career and can describe the landscape to others who have not yet experienced it for themselves.  John Maxwell put it this way, “One of the greatest values of mentors is the ability to see ahead what others cannot see and to help them navigate a course to their destination.”

Inspire movement. Oliver Wendel Holmes said, “The great thing in the world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving.”   Movement, that is an important step in any situation.  When I was being mentored in book writing the first question to me was, “How many pages have you written today?”  That was followed it up with, “It’s hard to be an author if you haven’t written anything.”  When I mentor an individual, we talk about where they want to go then we discuss practical steps they can take now that will move them in that direction.

Mentoring is an opportunity to share your story and expand the opportunity for success to many.

The powerful leader willingly gives from their power

The powerful leader willingly gives from their power

Even the most powerful was once powerless.  When we are born, we rely completely on others for support.  As we grow in strength and ability, we become more independent – but even this comes from receiving from others in some measure.  It is only when we look back at where we were and where we are that we understand our power came from others before us.  This should remind us to give back in the measure that we received.  

“It is every man’s obligation to put back into the world at least the equivalent of what he takes out of it.” ―Albert Einstein

Multiply your impact.  Leaving your mark on the world is a desire that we all share.  The farthest reaching impact anyone can achieve comes not from what is personally accomplished but in the multiplicative effect of helping others succeed.  To grow your impact, you must spread your influence through others.  Invest your time in activities that plant the seeds of success far and wide.

 “Power is strength; and giving that strength to others. A leader is someone willing to give their strength to others that they may have the strength to stand on their own.”  –Beth Revis

Success is all about loving what you do.  Life passes by so quickly we should seek to enjoy every moment.  The greatest achievements come from seeing others accomplish their goals and knowing that you had some small part in helping them realize their potential.

“Remember that the happiest people are not those getting more, but those giving more.” Robin Sharma

How will you respond to a tough situation?

How will you respond to a tough situation?

We are all faced with tough situations in our life.  They’re unavoidable.  You don’t always have the choice to avoid the tough situation – but you do have the choice on how to respond and achieve the most positive outcome possible.  Over the years I’ve found that if I plan the steps to take ahead of time – when I am not in a tough situation – I can rely upon them to get through.  Here are the steps I take each time:

Relax and take a breath. What is the real risk?  In stress our first response is to tense up.  Our muscles tighten, our field of vision narrows we’re looking for the immediate danger. In these situations, we can often miss the big picture.  The first step in responding to a tough situation is to take a breath – literally.  Pause before you react then inhale slowly and exhale slowly. Now calmly assess the real risk.

“Panic causes tunnel vision. Calm acceptance of danger allows us to more easily assess the situation and see the options.” -Simon Sinek

Decide how to respond. What do we do now?  Now that you have calmly narrowed in on the real risk, you are ready to decide on the best move for the short term – then do it.  Don’t keep analyzing, don’t second guess, just take action to resolve the immediate danger in the most beneficial way for all involved.

“It’s not the situation, but whether we react negative or respond positive to the situation that is important.” – Zig Ziglar

Use it to improve. What do we next? Once you face the immediate response that is needed at that moment, it’s time to evaluate.  You and others will be energized to solve the long term issue.  How did we get in this situation to begin with?  What can we change in the future to not be faced with this same situation again?  It is time to adjust for the next time.  Learn from what happened and build something better.

“When you’re in a situation, you can complain about it, you can feel sorry for yourself, you can do a lot of things. But how are you going to make the situation better?” – Tony Dungy

How to read the signs.

How to read the signs.

Making a decision isn’t always easy.  There are times we can take too long because we want to be sure that we have analyzed everything. Albert Einstein pointed out the fallacy in thinking we can be so sure, “Not everything that counts can be counted; not everything that can be counted counts.” So, what’s the answer?  How do you know what matters? How do you make quick decisions? How do you read the signs?

A heuristic is a general assumption based on practical experience and not based on observed scientific evidence at the moment.  The word heuristic comes from the Greek word heuriskein which means “to discover.”  Heuristics are useful in situations where detailed measurements and research are either unavailable or not practical given the time constraints, or when less precision is acceptable.  Reading the signs is how experts quickly decide. Realizing that heuristics won’t always give the right answer, sometimes the decision will be to do more research, but even that decision can be made quickly with heuristics.

The game of baseball is an area where heuristics come into play. Major league batters have just about 100 milliseconds to analyze the pitcher and the pitch to decide if they should swing. What can a batter actually see in 100 milliseconds?  The seams, spin, and trajectory can be signs of what pitch is coming.  There may also be signs from the pitcher directly like the height of the hands or the speed of the release that indicate a certain pitch.  From years of experience batters can read these signs.  What isn’t happening in the first 100 milliseconds is a physics calculation to determine where and when the ball will come across the plate.

Another example of this would be the phrase “Red sky at night, sailor’s delight. Red sky in the morning, sailor’s warning.” From experience, weather observers understand that these signs are generally reliable indicators of weather patterns.  Getting one step closer to the detailed weather predictions is the fact that a red sky at night indicates a sky filled with dust which means a high-pressure zone is in the atmosphere and good weather should follow.  A red sky in the morning means that water is in the air and rain will be coming. This heuristic is just an educated assumption and more sophisticated weather models can predict this with much more accuracy, but it’s a fair, quick gauge.

Heuristics can be used for that quick review and analysis of the limited facts in a limited timeframe to make an informed decision.  There is a balance between knowing everything and knowing enough to make a decision.  Your ability to quickly decide comes from reading the signs; and that comes from study, experience, and asking the right questions. 

“If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you’ll never get it done.” – Bruce Lee

Here’s what you can do to develop your ability to read the signs:

Study – Michelangelo, the artist who painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel; the sculptor who brought the statue of David to life; and the architect who designed the dome of St. Peters Basilica. When speaking of the creation of his works of art said, “If people knew how hard I had to work to gain my mastery, it would not seem so wonderful at all.”  He studied his craft that allowed him to read the signs described as his ability to, “See the angel in the marble and carve until I set him free.”  

If you want to develop your ability to read the signs, seek out all opportunities to learn. Read books, participate in mentoring relationships, attend seminars. Fill your mind with examples of success.

Experience – William Osler, one of the founding doctors of John Hopkins who created the first residency program and instituted bedside clinical training with classroom studies, said of experience, “The value of experience is not in seeing much, but in seeing wisely.”  Osler agreed that the study of medicine was an important part of learning, but added the need to experience medicine to be able to read the signs, “He who studies medicine without books sails an uncharted sea, but he who studies medicine without patients does not go to sea at all.”

If you want to develop your ability to read the signs, seek out all opportunities to practice. Volunteer for new projects, try out what you have learned, review the outcomes and try again.

Ask – Neil deGrasse Tyson is the Director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, best-selling author and sought-after speaker.  He discussed the importance of being able to ask good questions in this quote, “My investment of time, as an educator, in my judgment, is best served teaching people how to think about the world around them. Teach them how to pose a question. How to judge whether one thing is true versus the other.” Asking the right questions will help you read the signs.

If you want to develop your ability to read the signs, seek out all opportunities to ask questions.

A few questions you should ask to narrow in on the decision are: What do I have to believe for this to be true?  What options have been considered? What is the downside of not getting this right?  

Give from what you have

How can I be a mentor, teacher, coach if I don’t know everything?  No one knows everything, but everyone knows something.  Each of has unique strengths, skills, and experiences to draw upon and provide guidance to others.  Maybe it’s just a different perspective that is needed at the moment.  I find that in mentoring I can help others in this way. I also discovered that I have benefited from each opportunity.

“I will not let what I cannot do interfere with what I can do.” – Edward Everett Hale

To help others.  When someone willing to learn and grow asks for my help, I do what I can to share what I have learned, experienced, and witnessed to provide a potential roadmap to be considered.   I am not saying that my views are the only path, nor even the right path for the individual.  I am merely recounting what I have done or would do in a similar situation. John Maxwell says we should, “Be a river and not a reservoir,” meaning to pass on what you get to benefit the next person.

 “When you learn, teach. When you get, give.”– Maya Angelou

To help yourself.  Helping others through mentoring returns many dividends.  First, I get to experience someone growing to achieve more than they have before. Next I build a connection that may one day provide help to me.  Third, I learn more about other strengths, skills, and experiences than I have that I would never understand if it were not for mentoring.

“Those who are happiest are those who do the most for others.” – Booker T. Washington

Building Integrity

We all follow leaders. Somewhere there is someone you look to for direction, guidance, and encouragement. When we hear “leader” we often think of it in terms of business – the manager.  While the manager is certainly in a position to exhibit leadership, there are those who are not managers who are also looked to for direction, guidance, and encouragement.  Those that are sought out leaders all possess one trait that allows them to stand out from others – integrity.

“It is true that integrity alone won’t make you a leader, but without it you will never be one.” – Zig Ziglar

By integrity I mean they can be relied upon to direct, guide, and encourage you to success. If you want to be a true leader with what should you do?  People most often imitate what they see and not what they are told.  Here are three simple messages that will build integrity: Do what you say. Do it first. Do it well.

Do what you say. Leaders set expectations for their teams.  A leader with integrity meets the same expectations themselves.  This applies to all things small and large – the daily activity to the year-end goals all matter.

“Your words and deeds must match if you expect people to trust in your leadership.” – Kevin Kruse

Do it first.“I am right behind you,” is not a phrase that is often heard from leaders with integrity.  These leaders don’t say “go” they say, “let’s go”.

“A Leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.”– John Maxwell

Do it well.If you want to be a leader that people follow, you have to lead them to success. Leaders with integrity demonstrate this by being successful themselves.

“You can’t lead if you don’t produce.”– Mark Cole

Profits and people – the right return

For a company to be a successful, sustaining entity, it needs to generate the right return from its activities.  The “return” that is generated can take many forms.  It is most easily thought of in monetary terms – the profit received when revenues exceed costs.  For a for-profit company that is of course important.  For a non-profit the budget must still be managed but a monetary return is secondary to the non-profit mission.  And for all companies, the monetary returns they generate aren’t theirs alone; they are to be used to benefit the shareholders, employees, customers and communities that they serve.

“Exceptional businesses sustain bottom-line results, which the invest to create meaningful, positive impact for their stakeholders.” – Punit Rennin

Whether for profit or non-profit, the best companies seek to achieve both a business impact and a personal impact.  This is what drives long term success; a sustainable business model that can generate the monetary returns necessary to provide for the benefits of the individuals.  This leads to the individuals supporting the business in return.

“A visionary company doesn’t simply balance between idealism and profitability; it seeks to be highly idealistic and highly profitable.”– Jim Collins

They secret to achieving a business impact and a personal impact is to focus on delivering basic needs and grand experiences.

Deliver Basic Needs. Customers need a product or process that you can deliver.  Employees need compensation that fairly remunerates them for their efforts. Each of these is about generating the right return from the activities.  A customer invests their money to receive a return of goods or services. An employee invests their time and talents to receive a return of compensation.  These are the most basic of needs to be satisfied with your company’s activities.

“Success and profitability are outcomes of focusing on customers and employees, not objectives.”– Jack Ma

Deliver Grand Experiences. But needs alone do not sustain a business or a person over the long term. It is the experience that the activities create that are most remembered by both customers and employees. What does your product or service help the customer achieve?  What outcome bigger than the paycheck do your employees participate in?  The answer to both of these can be unique for each customer or employee but the answer is that which brings them joy.

“A great merchant delivers both joy and profit. Then profit gets reinvested in more joy.” –  Andy Dunn

Understand your perspective

High upon a mountain you see the mist from the cloud around you and the rocks under your feet.  Miles away you see the cloud, the sky, the ground, the height of the mountain. Which perspective is the better? Neither, they are just different.  The perspective you want depends on the needs of the moment. If you are planning a climb you need the see the mountain, if you are on the climb you need to see each rock.

In each circumstance you should determine the best perspective for the moment – expanded or contracted.

“For what you see and hear depends a good deal on where you are standing” – C.S. Lewis

Benefits of the expanded perspective.  This is often called seeing the big picture.  What does it look like when it’s done?  How do all the pieces fit together?  These are questions that require an expanded perspective to answer. You should be asking this at the beginning.  Before you take the first step you need to know where you intend to go. Before you offer a solution you need to align on the real need.

“The broader one’s understanding of the human experience, the better design we will have.” –  Steve Jobs

Benefits of the contracted perspective.  The big stuff is made up of a bunch of small stuff.  Even if you have the best design and a great plan to get there – if you don’t excel at executing the steps to get there, you won’t deliver success.  Focusing in on what is right in front of you allows for rapid adjustment to keep on track.

“Your big picture will never be a masterpiece if you ignore the tiny brushstrokes.” Andy Andrews

The best of both perspectives.  This is the ultimate answer.  You need both perspectives at the right time.  One is not inherently better than the other and neither succeeds without the other. Make sure you capture all perspectives.

“Good leadership requires you to surround yourself with people of diverse perspectives.” – Doris Kearns Goodwin

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