Monthly Archives: December 2016

Prepare for what’s next

Don’t settle for just being great today, prepare to be awesome tomorrow. When the next opportunity arrives make sure your name is on it.

Describe the future. No one can get the future 100% right, and the truth is you don’t have to be perfect here. Those who give it their best effort will be closer than those that just let the future happen to them. Do the research, talk to the experts, look for commonality between the past and the possible outcomes and describe the future in simple ways. Do this and you’ll find that you will be close enough when the future comes to make any needed last minute adjustments.

“I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.” – Wayne Gretzky

Design the plan. Now it’s time to understand what it will it take for you to be where the future is going. I use these three questions in developing my plans: What do I need to know? Who do I need to know? What am I going to do first? The answers to these questions guides the decisions you will make about how to invest your time. Of all the options, which ones prepare you best for the future you have described?

“You have to rely on your preparation and put yourself in a position to succeed.” –  Steve Nash

Deliver the win. Being prepared removes the doubt, worry and stress of the future. When you’re prepared, you are looking for the future so that you can implement all that you have prepared for. You will succeed because you prepared to succeed.

“I will prepare and someday my chance will come.” – Abraham Lincoln

Lasting leadership – Why, What if, Who.

You and your team are a success when you are there, that’s a start. For leadership to be lasting, it must enable a process that will continue after the leader isn’t there.

There are three areas that must be on auto pilot – self-correcting all the time, to maintain the positive outcomes that happened with your influence.

Why?  Don’t tell people how to do what they need to do, instead help them discover why they need to do and they’ll figure out how.

“Instead of telling the time, build a clock that could tell the time forever.” – Jim Collins

What if?  Recognize and expect that not everything will work. The way to success is not a straight, open road, it is a windy, bumpy road that must be navigated.

“If you persist after every temporary defeat, then you will achieve a lasting success.” – Napoleon Hill

Who?  Your greatest success will come by working with and through other people.

“Invest in great relationships, they will pay a lifetime of dividends.”– Bill Walsh

 

Not for show but for showing

not-for-show-but-for-showingWhat example are you showing by how you lead? Leadership is not to show others how good you are, it’s for showing others how good they can be.

Do you tell your team what to do, or sell them on where to go and let them figure out how to get there? Do you step out yourself or expect others to move first? Leading can be tricky business. How do you balance letting people make mistakes and grow, while you demonstrate the way to success? Both can be accomplished if your focus is on showing others how to succeed.

“Leadership is practiced not so much in words as in attitude and actions.”– Harold S. Geneen,

Here are three practical areas for showing others how good they can be:

No better way for showing the way than going the way.   Giving speeches, reading books, studying your industry. These are all very important steps in showing the way. Your team can learn what to do and what not to do from your tutelage. But there’s a difference between reading the owner’s manual of a car and getting behind the wheel and driving. Your actions demonstrate the proof that your words will lead to success. Get out there and do what you say others should do.

“The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.”– Walt Disney

Stop doing something and start doing the right thing. Mistakes happen. Wrong choices are made. These are part of a successful career – if you rebound. Once again, your example here is priceless. Be willing to open up and share your missteps and how you overcome them in real time, not just the history but as they happen.

“We all want progress, but if you’re on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road.” – C. S. Lewis

Don’t just look forward, look back to see if anyone is following. Ok, so you are out front demonstrating everything you are saying. You’re like the drum major in a marching band, leading the way forward. Have you ever noticed though, that everyone once and a while the drum major turns around the see that everyone is in step and marching in the right direction? In the same way, you need to check in with your team to make sure they understand your examples and are having success of their own.

“Thinking good thoughts is not enough, doing good deeds is not enough, seeing others follow your examples is enough.”– Douglas Horton

 

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