Vincent Van Gogh

Don’t stop at good, go for great

good to great nelson mandelaI have been working in business for thirty years and have a successful career.

I started writing in addition to my career because I saw it as a way to reach and teach many more people than I could just one-on-one or speaking to groups. I still mentor, teach, and speak today and enjoy every opportunity but I also write a blog and have a following on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter where I share my thoughts on leadership. That was a big step for me to now reach over 10,000 people regularly.

Three years ago I published my first book, The Leadership GPS, and it became an Amazon Best Seller.

These have all been steps on my personal journey from good to great and I’m not done – I am in the process of writing my next book. You see, I call my goal from good to great, Change The World Through Leadership Now.

After each step towards my goal I could see the next step I needed to take. It is just like Nelson Mandela said, “After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb.”

I want to share with you the three steps I consistently take on my journey from good to great:

Sharpen your focus. Life can be full of issues that need to be resolved. We can get really good at managing them. Many of these issues are important and need your investment – it’s ok if you take care of them, just don’t let this become your life’s work. Keep focused on your good to great goal and get back to it regularly – and if you can, perhaps you can use solving the issues as part of your good to great goal.

“Managing your problems can only make you good, whereas building your opportunities is the only way to become great.” – Jim Collins, Good to Great

Accomplish small steps. Great things are rarely achieved with the first try. It’s a process that builds on itself. With each small step of success ask yourself “What’s next?” And use what you’ve built to reach the next step.

“Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.” – Vincent Van Gogh

Finish with great. Great is a life-long dream. Believe you will reach it and keep climbing.   No matter how many times you may slip, pick yourself up, learn from what happened and get going again.

“Most great people have attained their greatest success just one step beyond their greatest failure.” – Napoleon Hill

 

Want to make an impact? Shift your focus.

focus to impactThe human eye has an amazing ability to shift its focus from far in the distance to right in front of us in an instant. Touch screens use “Pinch to Zoom” to shift the focus of a picture, document, or webpage in and out using two fingers.

Whether we focus on the eye or touch screens, the ability to shift your focus is paramount to having an impact on anything.

Repeat these three steps continuously to have successful impact:

 

Start with a distant focus

In leadership we often talk about setting a vision. Vision is where you paint the picture of success that allows you to build the plan to achieve it.

“For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream.”­ – Vincent Van Gogh

Zoom in to a near focus

If you want to impact the world, start with impacting your company. If you want to impact your company, start with impacting your team. If you want to impact your team, start with impacting one individual.

“I only hope that we don’t lose sight of one thing – that it was all started by a mouse.” – Walt Disney

 Expand back to the distant focus

Once we get involved in the day to day plans it’s easy to forget why we are doing what we do. The road to success is often long and winding. Unless you expand your focus once in a while you won’t know if you are still on track.

“Circumstances may cause interruptions and delays, but never lose sight of your goal.” – Mario Andretti

 

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