MANY organisations today are undergoing a rapid transition in leadership styles.
Coupled with the reality that modern organisational life is about achieving more with less, there is a demand for a new form of managerial leadership – high-performance leadership.
High-performance leaders empower others to venture into unknown territories, inspire colleagues and staff to make difficult decisions, and are able to move their organisations forward in new ways to achieve better results.
Managerial leadership
The term “managerial leadership” recognises the subtle switch over the past decade from the role of a manager to that of a leader.
This is not to decry the traditional management activities such as planning, organising and controlling. Rather, it is to acknowledge the transition from control to empowerment that has taken place.
Managerial leadership is a way to encompass both sets of activities. And high-performance leadership is a way of recognising the leadership attributes needed to achieve long-term organisational success.
One of the key distinguishing features of this type of leadership is the ability to initiate, drive and constantly encourage change.
High-performance leaders are pioneers, willing to step out into the unknown to achieve innovation. These leaders search out opportunities, experiment and take risks.
They lead by example and act as a role model for others to follow, acting in ways that are consistent with their beliefs.
High-performance leaders acknowledge the power of working collaboratively and concentrate their efforts on building peak-performance teams.
This involves developing vision and values, establishing direction, and persuading others to see, understand and believe in their vision through developing shared goals and plans of action.
Change to match
As the team develops and matures, the leader must change his leadership style to suit the stages of development of the team. He must also be able to diagnose and troubleshoot at every stage.
This ability to change leadership style – not only during the stages of team development, but also when leading and managing staff at every level – is the hallmark of high-performance leadership.
By analysing the “maturity” of the subordinate and the varying levels of support and direction needed in any given situation, the leadership style can be varied. Choose the most appropriate style – direction, coaching, support or delegation – to match the circumstances.
Desirable qualities
Sharing vision and setting goals lie at the heart of managing performance, which is the natural domain of a high-performance leader.
Involving others in creating smart goals and setting performance standards and expectations lead to a clear understanding of what is needed from the team.
Being able to spot performance problems early and developing the ability to coach and counsel are now an integral part of the leadership role.
High-performance leaders develop the key interpersonal skills to lead others. They understand their strengths and weaknesses as a leader, acknowledge their preferred behavioural style when dealing with other people, and develop the ability to change style if necessary.
They understand the power of effective communication, encourage others to give constructive feedback and praise when appropriate.
They have learnt to empower and delegate.
Above all, they are honest. In the majority of surveys about the most admired qualities of leaders, respondents said they admire leaders who are (in rank order): honest, competent, forward-looking and inspiring.
In a nutshell
To summarise, one can refer to Warren Bennis’s now-classic book, Leaders. He describes leadership as “heading into the wind with such knowledge of oneself and such collaborative energy as to move others to follow”.
His book offers four major strategies that seem to form the essence of high-performance leadership:
Attention through vision: “I have a dream” (Martin Luther King). The leader must set a vision for others to follow.
Meaning through communication: “If you can dream it, you can do it” (Walt Disney). The leader’s vision must be communicated to the people who can make it happen.
Trust through positioning: The accumulation of trust is a measure of the legitimacy of leadership. Trust is the emotional glue that binds followers and leaders together.
Deployment of self through positive self-regard: Leaders must have persistence and self-knowledge, be willing to take risks and accept losses, make and honour commitments, and be consistent and willing to learn constantly.
To paraphrase a quote from Colin Powell: “High-performance leadership is about achieving more than the science of management says is possible.”
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Life is what you make of it
EVERYONE dreams of what they want to become when they grow up, but not everybody turns their dreams into reality.
Lack of family support, the ever-changing environment or lack of finance can mean that you have to shelve your dreams. But in most cases, dreams fail because people do not work hard enough to achieve them.
For example, you may have wanted to become a scientist but are now a policeman. Or you may have wanted to be a doctor but are now a beautician.
Perhaps you were indulging yourselves in non-productive “fun-life” activities, when you should have spent some serious hours studying enough to get through your exams. You may have not made a proper plan and activated it accordingly.
But the good news is that it is never too late to start working toward a brand new goal.
Everyone wants happiness in life. You just have to work for it. Stop dreaming that somebody is going to drop riches in your lap.
You have what it takes to become whatever you want, if only you put your heart and soul into developing the aptitude to change your attitude.
It is important that you have an aim in life. Many successful people have achieved their goals through hard work, lots of “heart” and smart work. They knew what they wanted, and how to get what they wanted.
They understood the fact that they needed to increase their knowledge, acquire the necessary finances and have a master plan to be achieved in a given timeframe.
They also realised that their plan had to be drafted in a practical manner, based on understanding their abilities and shortcomings. They created realistic targets as small stepping stones towards achieving their ultimate goals.
They understood the fact that they would have to change their immediate ways of working and thinking to suit the changing environment, and yet not lose sight of their pre-set goals.
Get rid of the “I am just another employee” attitude. Tell yourself: “I am the owner of my very own business — my life.”
Here are some questions which you could ask yourself:
What is the higher purpose of my life?
What should my immediate goals be?
Do I have the necessary resources to meet my short-term and long-term goals?
What are my shortcomings?
What are my strengths?
Who can help me with my doubts and improve the way I think?
Then create an action plan, with weekly targets and a work plan to help you achieve those targets.
Do not waste your time or life. You possess valuable resources such as your life experiences, loved ones and your career.
Make full use of what you have to get the best out of life. This realisation is your first stepping stone to achieving greater things
Lack of family support, the ever-changing environment or lack of finance can mean that you have to shelve your dreams. But in most cases, dreams fail because people do not work hard enough to achieve them.
For example, you may have wanted to become a scientist but are now a policeman. Or you may have wanted to be a doctor but are now a beautician.
Perhaps you were indulging yourselves in non-productive “fun-life” activities, when you should have spent some serious hours studying enough to get through your exams. You may have not made a proper plan and activated it accordingly.
But the good news is that it is never too late to start working toward a brand new goal.
Everyone wants happiness in life. You just have to work for it. Stop dreaming that somebody is going to drop riches in your lap.
You have what it takes to become whatever you want, if only you put your heart and soul into developing the aptitude to change your attitude.
It is important that you have an aim in life. Many successful people have achieved their goals through hard work, lots of “heart” and smart work. They knew what they wanted, and how to get what they wanted.
They understood the fact that they needed to increase their knowledge, acquire the necessary finances and have a master plan to be achieved in a given timeframe.
They also realised that their plan had to be drafted in a practical manner, based on understanding their abilities and shortcomings. They created realistic targets as small stepping stones towards achieving their ultimate goals.
They understood the fact that they would have to change their immediate ways of working and thinking to suit the changing environment, and yet not lose sight of their pre-set goals.
Get rid of the “I am just another employee” attitude. Tell yourself: “I am the owner of my very own business — my life.”
Here are some questions which you could ask yourself:
What is the higher purpose of my life?
What should my immediate goals be?
Do I have the necessary resources to meet my short-term and long-term goals?
What are my shortcomings?
What are my strengths?
Who can help me with my doubts and improve the way I think?
Then create an action plan, with weekly targets and a work plan to help you achieve those targets.
Do not waste your time or life. You possess valuable resources such as your life experiences, loved ones and your career.
Make full use of what you have to get the best out of life. This realisation is your first stepping stone to achieving greater things
Think big
THINK about what you are doing each day and ask yourself: “Is what I’m doing now getting me to where I want to get to?”
If the answer is “No”, then do something different. Get out of your comfort zone and change your habits.
An instructor was watching me use a piece of equipment in the gym the other day. “Let me show you a different way to do it,” he said.
The “different” way was a lot harder and somewhat more painful. However, it was more likely to produce results.
The human body and brain will always find an easy way to do things.
However, as it is often said: “No pain, no gain.” So if you want something different to happen, do something different.
Psychologist Abraham Maslow said: “If you deliberately plan to be less than you are capable of being, then I warn you that you will be unhappy for the rest of your life. You will be evading your own capabilities, your own possibilities.”
It is never too late to make that change.
Story of McDonald’s
Mr Ray Kroc, the founder of McDonald’s, was over 50 when he started making money.
He was a paper cup salesman who obtained the marketing rights to inventor Earl Prince’s multimixer milkshake machine.
He criss-crossed the United States for 17 years selling these mixers until he met up with the McDonald brothers, who ordered eight of his mixers and had them churning away all day.
Entranced by the effectiveness of the McDonald’s operation, Mr Kroc started thinking about building McDonald’s restaurants all over the US. He thought he could then sell more multimixers.
The McDonald brothers were not too keen on the idea, so they franchised the restaurants to him.
He ultimately bought out the McDonald brothers, and as they say, the rest is history.
Mr Kroc’s belief in himself was unshakeable. He said later: “I was 52 years old. I had diabetes and incipient arthritis. I had lost my gall bladder and most of my thyroid gland.”
But he did not allow his age or his physical condition to hold him back.
Think about the negative things you say to yourself and the beliefs you have about yourself. Do not allow them to hold you back.
Change your beliefs
If you do have negative beliefs about yourself, here is a way to change them.
Your subconscious will always attempt to move away from pain and towards pleasure.
So start to associate massive pain to your negative belief. Think about how it will hold you back and stop you from achieving what you are trying to achieve.
Think about how miserable you will feel if you do not even try.
Old people rarely regret what they have done in their lives, but they do regret what they have not done. So think forward to when you are 75 or 80, and imagine how you will feel if you never tried doing what you wanted.
Then start to think of the pleasure you will receive in fulfilling your beliefs. Think about how good you will feel when you achieve what you set out to do.
That way, when you are older and you look back and think about the things you did not achieve, at least you will be able to say: “I tried, I gave it my best shot and I didn’t sit on the sidelines.”
So think big. The size of your success is determined by how big you think.
If you think small, you will have small achievements. If you think big, your success will be big too.
If the answer is “No”, then do something different. Get out of your comfort zone and change your habits.
An instructor was watching me use a piece of equipment in the gym the other day. “Let me show you a different way to do it,” he said.
The “different” way was a lot harder and somewhat more painful. However, it was more likely to produce results.
The human body and brain will always find an easy way to do things.
However, as it is often said: “No pain, no gain.” So if you want something different to happen, do something different.
Psychologist Abraham Maslow said: “If you deliberately plan to be less than you are capable of being, then I warn you that you will be unhappy for the rest of your life. You will be evading your own capabilities, your own possibilities.”
It is never too late to make that change.
Story of McDonald’s
Mr Ray Kroc, the founder of McDonald’s, was over 50 when he started making money.
He was a paper cup salesman who obtained the marketing rights to inventor Earl Prince’s multimixer milkshake machine.
He criss-crossed the United States for 17 years selling these mixers until he met up with the McDonald brothers, who ordered eight of his mixers and had them churning away all day.
Entranced by the effectiveness of the McDonald’s operation, Mr Kroc started thinking about building McDonald’s restaurants all over the US. He thought he could then sell more multimixers.
The McDonald brothers were not too keen on the idea, so they franchised the restaurants to him.
He ultimately bought out the McDonald brothers, and as they say, the rest is history.
Mr Kroc’s belief in himself was unshakeable. He said later: “I was 52 years old. I had diabetes and incipient arthritis. I had lost my gall bladder and most of my thyroid gland.”
But he did not allow his age or his physical condition to hold him back.
Think about the negative things you say to yourself and the beliefs you have about yourself. Do not allow them to hold you back.
Change your beliefs
If you do have negative beliefs about yourself, here is a way to change them.
Your subconscious will always attempt to move away from pain and towards pleasure.
So start to associate massive pain to your negative belief. Think about how it will hold you back and stop you from achieving what you are trying to achieve.
Think about how miserable you will feel if you do not even try.
Old people rarely regret what they have done in their lives, but they do regret what they have not done. So think forward to when you are 75 or 80, and imagine how you will feel if you never tried doing what you wanted.
Then start to think of the pleasure you will receive in fulfilling your beliefs. Think about how good you will feel when you achieve what you set out to do.
That way, when you are older and you look back and think about the things you did not achieve, at least you will be able to say: “I tried, I gave it my best shot and I didn’t sit on the sidelines.”
So think big. The size of your success is determined by how big you think.
If you think small, you will have small achievements. If you think big, your success will be big too.
Work like a professional
The answer lies in the following points that will be relevant to anyone who wants to make a career switch:
1 Use every opportunity
Notice and take advantage of every chance that turns up.
Opportunity does not knock just once. It knocks all the time, though you may not recognise the sound.
One technique is to learn from successful people by finding out how they achieved their success in the field you want to enter.
2 Ask questions
Successful people will share their knowledge and experiences with you if you ask good questions that stimulate their thinking and responses.
The quality of the information you receive depends on the quality of your questions.
The key to connecting with others is conversation, and the secret of conversation is to ask the right questions.
A conversation can lead to a relationship, and a nurtured relationship can produce amazing results.
3 Dedicate yourself
Two questions you should ask yourself on a fairly regular basis are: “What can I do to contribute to my profession – to my employer and my professional association?” and “How can I be professionally accountable?”
When you can do this, you will get so much more than you give.
4 Tell stories
Be inventive in selling yourself and your profession. Learn to network, one on one, by using memorable stories.
Sometimes, it is appropriate to fade into the background. Most of us are shy in some situations. But to be professionally accountable, you must be able to stand out and speak up.
When you are in any situation where you are meeting the public, how do you introduce yourself?
When people ask what you do, can you tell them in a way that will stick in their minds?
I challenge you to come up with a one-sentence way of presenting yourself and your profession so that people will never forget.
Create a vivid picture of your job, its challenges and triumphs. People will remember the picture you create in their minds, rather than your words.
5 Be persuasive
Being professionally accountable means knowing how to influence people.
Former American president Dwight Eisenhower said: “Leadership is the ability to decide what has to be done and then getting people to want to do it.”
How do you influence people?
Horst Schulze, founder of the Ritz-Carlton hotels, advised prospective employees: “We are all ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen. Our guests pay our prices to have an experience, and it is your job to be part of that experience. You will never say, ‘That is not in my job description,’ and you will never bring your own problems to work.”
Obviously, this works at the Ritz-Carlton.
Do you have a similar motivator for yourself, your colleagues and your fellow professionals?
Are you persuasive in representing your company, department or association in public?
Your actions matter
The future belongs to the competent. You need to be multi-faceted in your competence and become a charismatic communicator with excellent people skills, especially in negotiating.
This means developing the habit of learning everywhere, every day.
Take the initiative. Go and meet people who, perhaps, do not look like you or think like you.
I remember attending a five-day conference where most of the audience members were from overseas. I sat down with some people who were of a different race from me, and, over the course of the conference, we became great friends.
As I got to know them and enjoyed their conversation, I asked if they would mind telling me about their values and culture.
I realised that, as fascinated as I was to meet them, they were equally fascinated to talk to me. You inspire others, both personally and professionally, through your actions and the environment you create.
When you are professionally accountable, people watch what you do as well as listen to what you say.
1 Use every opportunity
Notice and take advantage of every chance that turns up.
Opportunity does not knock just once. It knocks all the time, though you may not recognise the sound.
One technique is to learn from successful people by finding out how they achieved their success in the field you want to enter.
2 Ask questions
Successful people will share their knowledge and experiences with you if you ask good questions that stimulate their thinking and responses.
The quality of the information you receive depends on the quality of your questions.
The key to connecting with others is conversation, and the secret of conversation is to ask the right questions.
A conversation can lead to a relationship, and a nurtured relationship can produce amazing results.
3 Dedicate yourself
Two questions you should ask yourself on a fairly regular basis are: “What can I do to contribute to my profession – to my employer and my professional association?” and “How can I be professionally accountable?”
When you can do this, you will get so much more than you give.
4 Tell stories
Be inventive in selling yourself and your profession. Learn to network, one on one, by using memorable stories.
Sometimes, it is appropriate to fade into the background. Most of us are shy in some situations. But to be professionally accountable, you must be able to stand out and speak up.
When you are in any situation where you are meeting the public, how do you introduce yourself?
When people ask what you do, can you tell them in a way that will stick in their minds?
I challenge you to come up with a one-sentence way of presenting yourself and your profession so that people will never forget.
Create a vivid picture of your job, its challenges and triumphs. People will remember the picture you create in their minds, rather than your words.
5 Be persuasive
Being professionally accountable means knowing how to influence people.
Former American president Dwight Eisenhower said: “Leadership is the ability to decide what has to be done and then getting people to want to do it.”
How do you influence people?
Horst Schulze, founder of the Ritz-Carlton hotels, advised prospective employees: “We are all ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen. Our guests pay our prices to have an experience, and it is your job to be part of that experience. You will never say, ‘That is not in my job description,’ and you will never bring your own problems to work.”
Obviously, this works at the Ritz-Carlton.
Do you have a similar motivator for yourself, your colleagues and your fellow professionals?
Are you persuasive in representing your company, department or association in public?
Your actions matter
The future belongs to the competent. You need to be multi-faceted in your competence and become a charismatic communicator with excellent people skills, especially in negotiating.
This means developing the habit of learning everywhere, every day.
Take the initiative. Go and meet people who, perhaps, do not look like you or think like you.
I remember attending a five-day conference where most of the audience members were from overseas. I sat down with some people who were of a different race from me, and, over the course of the conference, we became great friends.
As I got to know them and enjoyed their conversation, I asked if they would mind telling me about their values and culture.
I realised that, as fascinated as I was to meet them, they were equally fascinated to talk to me. You inspire others, both personally and professionally, through your actions and the environment you create.
When you are professionally accountable, people watch what you do as well as listen to what you say.
Good and bad leadership
ACCORDING to James MacGregor Burns, who authored the Nobel prizewinning book, Leadership, there are at least 130 current definitions of leadership. Warren Bemis and Burt Nanus, in their book, Leaders, claim that there are at least 350. Here are a few:
We have conceived of leadership … as the tapping of existence and potential motive and power basis of followers by leaders, for the purpose of achieving an intended change.
Though leadership may be hard to define, the one characteristic common to all leaders is their ability to make things happen.
Leadership can be defined as the will to control events, the understanding to chart a course and the power to get a job done, cooperatively using the skill and abilities of other people.
Leadership is the ability to get men and women to do what they do not want to do and like it.
Leadership appears to be the art of getting others to want to do something you are convinced should be done.
The world is changing at the speed of light. Everything is being touched by this accelerated pace of change. No person, entity, industry, profession, and no part of the world or any business can escape the relentless pull of the future into the present moment. Business leaders need to chart an effective course into the future even though they do not have a clue what their organisations will look like tomorrow, let alone next year.
Many business leaders are mired down in philosophies, strategies and approaches that were the standards held years ago when the rules and the world were more predictable.
The rules are changing — and the rules that are determining the rules are changing. How, then, can today’s executive, business owner and manager predict what their vision of tomorrow will look like with any degree of accuracy?
It is anybody’s guess what the next several years will create, manifest, modify, re-define or even destroy. What you can do is stay loose, flexible, positive and optimistic. What you want to avoid is: remaining stuck in yesterday’s paradigms, attitudes, philosophies and strategies. Some things to avoid in the future include:
Believing that what worked last year or yesterday will work today or tomorrow;
Thinking that what you thought about the future yesterday will come to pass;
Status-quo thinking;
Conventional wisdom or thinking;
Using yesterday’s results as a benchmark for tomorrow; and
Refusing to think out of the box.
Spend some time considering how all of this is impacting your ability to manage successfully. Meanwhile, bear these common leadership myths in mind:
Myth No. 1: Position or title equates to leadership. Just because you are the chief executive officer, president or a department head does not mean you have leadership attitudes or ability. There are a lot of people running organisations today who may not be good or even acceptable leaders.
Myth No. 2: Tenure or longevity equates to effective leadership capabilities.
Just because you may have been with your organisation for over 30 years does not mean you are an effective leader. Any success you might have had could have been due to timing, luck, pure effort, will or any combination of these.
Myth No. 3: Leadership is an endowment or an education process.
Leadership trust, respect and confidence are earned and not a set of mastered skill sets.
Myth No. 4: You can study your way to effective leadership. You can read all the books on leadership, but unless you are willing to let go of some of your beliefs, attitudes, prejudices, opinions or paradigms, you can have all the leadership knowledge in the world and still fail as a leader. This does not mean that you should not study leadership but it does mean that study is not enough — it takes wisdom, understanding and execution.
Myth No. 5: You have to be a senior citizen with grey hair to be an effective leader. I know many executives who are still in their 20s and are model leaders.
Myth No. 6: To be a leader, you have to be in charge of something or someone.
Leadership is not about position. You can be the receptionist and have a leadership attitude about your roles and responsibilities. You can be in sales and have a leadership mindset about your tasks.
Myth No. 7: To lead, you have to have followers. Leadership does not mean you have to be in front of a group. If you are the only person working in a department, you can still display leadership attitudes.
We have conceived of leadership … as the tapping of existence and potential motive and power basis of followers by leaders, for the purpose of achieving an intended change.
Though leadership may be hard to define, the one characteristic common to all leaders is their ability to make things happen.
Leadership can be defined as the will to control events, the understanding to chart a course and the power to get a job done, cooperatively using the skill and abilities of other people.
Leadership is the ability to get men and women to do what they do not want to do and like it.
Leadership appears to be the art of getting others to want to do something you are convinced should be done.
The world is changing at the speed of light. Everything is being touched by this accelerated pace of change. No person, entity, industry, profession, and no part of the world or any business can escape the relentless pull of the future into the present moment. Business leaders need to chart an effective course into the future even though they do not have a clue what their organisations will look like tomorrow, let alone next year.
Many business leaders are mired down in philosophies, strategies and approaches that were the standards held years ago when the rules and the world were more predictable.
The rules are changing — and the rules that are determining the rules are changing. How, then, can today’s executive, business owner and manager predict what their vision of tomorrow will look like with any degree of accuracy?
It is anybody’s guess what the next several years will create, manifest, modify, re-define or even destroy. What you can do is stay loose, flexible, positive and optimistic. What you want to avoid is: remaining stuck in yesterday’s paradigms, attitudes, philosophies and strategies. Some things to avoid in the future include:
Believing that what worked last year or yesterday will work today or tomorrow;
Thinking that what you thought about the future yesterday will come to pass;
Status-quo thinking;
Conventional wisdom or thinking;
Using yesterday’s results as a benchmark for tomorrow; and
Refusing to think out of the box.
Spend some time considering how all of this is impacting your ability to manage successfully. Meanwhile, bear these common leadership myths in mind:
Myth No. 1: Position or title equates to leadership. Just because you are the chief executive officer, president or a department head does not mean you have leadership attitudes or ability. There are a lot of people running organisations today who may not be good or even acceptable leaders.
Myth No. 2: Tenure or longevity equates to effective leadership capabilities.
Just because you may have been with your organisation for over 30 years does not mean you are an effective leader. Any success you might have had could have been due to timing, luck, pure effort, will or any combination of these.
Myth No. 3: Leadership is an endowment or an education process.
Leadership trust, respect and confidence are earned and not a set of mastered skill sets.
Myth No. 4: You can study your way to effective leadership. You can read all the books on leadership, but unless you are willing to let go of some of your beliefs, attitudes, prejudices, opinions or paradigms, you can have all the leadership knowledge in the world and still fail as a leader. This does not mean that you should not study leadership but it does mean that study is not enough — it takes wisdom, understanding and execution.
Myth No. 5: You have to be a senior citizen with grey hair to be an effective leader. I know many executives who are still in their 20s and are model leaders.
Myth No. 6: To be a leader, you have to be in charge of something or someone.
Leadership is not about position. You can be the receptionist and have a leadership attitude about your roles and responsibilities. You can be in sales and have a leadership mindset about your tasks.
Myth No. 7: To lead, you have to have followers. Leadership does not mean you have to be in front of a group. If you are the only person working in a department, you can still display leadership attitudes.
The Law of Capital
The Law of Capital - your most valuable asset, in terms of cash flow, is your physical and mental capital, your earning ability.
Your Earning Ability
You may not even be aware that, unless you are wealthy already, your ability to work is the most valuable asset that you have. By utilizing your earning ability to its fullest, you can bring thousands of dollars each year into your life. By applying your earning ability to the production of valuable goods and services, you can generate sufficient money to pay for all the things that you want in life. The amount of money that you are paid today is a direct measure of the extent to which you have developed your earning ability so far.
Use Your Time Well
The first corollary of the Law of Capital says: "Your most precious resource is your time." Your time is really all you have to sell. How much time you put in and how much of yourself you put into that time, largely determines your earning ability. Poor time management is one of the major reasons for poor productivity and underachievement in every industry in America. It is the number one problem for both managers and salespeople in every field.
Invest Yourself Carefully
The second corollary of the Law of Capital says: "Time and money can be either spent or invested." One of the smartest things that you can do is to invest three percent of your earnings every month back into yourself on personal and professional development, on becoming better at the most important things you do. In fact, if you just invested as much in your mind each year as you do in your car, that alone could make you wealthy.
Invest one hour of your time reading in your field every day. Listen to audio programs in your car. Attend every course that can advance you in your career. Get personal and professional coaching to help you to get the very best out of yourself.
Get Better At the Things You Do
There is nothing that will give you a bigger and better "bang" for your buck than reinvesting a part of your time and money back into your capability to earn even more. All wealthy and successful Americans have learned this sooner or later, and all poor and unhappy Americans are still trying to figure it out.
Increase Your Return on Life
The third corollary of the Law of Capital says: "One of the best investments of your time and money is to increase your earning ability."
The purpose of corporate strategic planning is to increase "return on equity" or ROE. This requires organizing and reorganizing corporate activities so that the company is earning a higher return on the capital invested in the organization. In your work life, your personal equity is your mental and emotional capital. Your job then is to earn the highest possible return on your human capital, to increase your "return on energy." This way of viewing yourself must become a key part of your attitude throughout your work life.
Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do to apply this law immediately:
First, take a list of your output responsibilities, the things you do that represent accomplishments, not activities. Examine the list and rank the tasks by priority, on the basis of the value of the work to your company.
Second, take a list of all the things you do, day in and day out. Take this list to your boss and ask him or her to rank your tasks in terms of how valuable he or she considers them to be. Then resolve to work on your most valuable tasks every minute of every day.
Your Earning Ability
You may not even be aware that, unless you are wealthy already, your ability to work is the most valuable asset that you have. By utilizing your earning ability to its fullest, you can bring thousands of dollars each year into your life. By applying your earning ability to the production of valuable goods and services, you can generate sufficient money to pay for all the things that you want in life. The amount of money that you are paid today is a direct measure of the extent to which you have developed your earning ability so far.
Use Your Time Well
The first corollary of the Law of Capital says: "Your most precious resource is your time." Your time is really all you have to sell. How much time you put in and how much of yourself you put into that time, largely determines your earning ability. Poor time management is one of the major reasons for poor productivity and underachievement in every industry in America. It is the number one problem for both managers and salespeople in every field.
Invest Yourself Carefully
The second corollary of the Law of Capital says: "Time and money can be either spent or invested." One of the smartest things that you can do is to invest three percent of your earnings every month back into yourself on personal and professional development, on becoming better at the most important things you do. In fact, if you just invested as much in your mind each year as you do in your car, that alone could make you wealthy.
Invest one hour of your time reading in your field every day. Listen to audio programs in your car. Attend every course that can advance you in your career. Get personal and professional coaching to help you to get the very best out of yourself.
Get Better At the Things You Do
There is nothing that will give you a bigger and better "bang" for your buck than reinvesting a part of your time and money back into your capability to earn even more. All wealthy and successful Americans have learned this sooner or later, and all poor and unhappy Americans are still trying to figure it out.
Increase Your Return on Life
The third corollary of the Law of Capital says: "One of the best investments of your time and money is to increase your earning ability."
The purpose of corporate strategic planning is to increase "return on equity" or ROE. This requires organizing and reorganizing corporate activities so that the company is earning a higher return on the capital invested in the organization. In your work life, your personal equity is your mental and emotional capital. Your job then is to earn the highest possible return on your human capital, to increase your "return on energy." This way of viewing yourself must become a key part of your attitude throughout your work life.
Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do to apply this law immediately:
First, take a list of your output responsibilities, the things you do that represent accomplishments, not activities. Examine the list and rank the tasks by priority, on the basis of the value of the work to your company.
Second, take a list of all the things you do, day in and day out. Take this list to your boss and ask him or her to rank your tasks in terms of how valuable he or she considers them to be. Then resolve to work on your most valuable tasks every minute of every day.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Investing in Better Research by Robert Kiyosaki
A few days ago, a reporter asked me if I was losing money in real estate. My reply was, "No, I'm making money."
Confused, he asked, "How can you be making money during the subprime disaster?" I explained that since the real estate market took a downturn, there were more people renting rather than buying, which is great for my apartment business. I also informed him that I'm raising rents since demand for affordable apartments is so high. When someone moves out, I increase the rent and new tenants line up, which means my cash flow is increasing.
He then asked, "Are you looking for new investments?"
A shocked look came over his face when I said, "I've been investing heavily in the stock market since August 2007. I've moved several million dollars into the market."
"The stock market?" he stammered. "Stocks are crashing. Why are you in the stock market? Besides, I thought you were a real estate investor?"
Ignorance Isn't Bliss
As Warren Buffett has said, it's important for society to have accurate and informed sources of information. While I agree, I sometimes wonder about the intelligence of many financial journalists, both in print and the electronic media.
For example, lately on financial TV stations, the reporters have been talking about the run-up in gold and asking, "Is it time to invest in gold and gold stocks?" What a ridiculous question. Now isn't the time to be investing in gold or gold stocks -- that time was 10 years ago, when gold was below $300 an ounce. Investors should've taken substantial positions when gold was cheap. For reporters to be talking about gold today is no different than them reporting on the hot real estate market in 2005, just before the top blew off.
I had dinner with a friend of a friend the other night and he was telling me about the Rothschild formula for investing. According to him, this involves not participating in the first 20 percent or the last 20 percent of an investment run-up. Instead, it's investing in the middle 60 percent, when risks are low and the direction of the price is determined. As the asset value approaches what appears to be the last 20 percent, you sell and move on to another asset class.
As we all know, most amateurs (and, possibly, many reporters) only participate in the last 20 percent.
Take Notes
I wondered if the reporter who asked why I was investing millions in stocks was an investor himself. I did my best to explain to him that there are two things professionals invest for: 1) Capital gains, and 2) Cash flow.
I said, "The amateurs who come in at the top 20 percent of a market are generally investing only for capital gains. In the last real estate boom, the 'flippers' who got no-document, zero-down loans paid very high prices, and hoped for a greater fool than them to take the property off their hands.
"These are some of the people being faced with forecloses today. They're the investors who make the news -- not the investors who are making money."
The reporter then asked me, "So what do you invest for?"
My reply? "Both. If I can, I want both capital gains and cash flow."
I went on to explain that I was investing millions in stocks that were paying a high dividend -- cash flow -- and also had their prices battered down by the market crash, a loss of capital gains.
Spelling It Out
He wasn't the brightest reporter, since he had trouble with the idea of investing for both cash flow and capital gains. After about an hour of explanation, he finally began to understand that I'm not just a real estate investor -- I'm someone who invests for capital gains at a great price, or cash flow at a great price, regardless of the asset class. If the deal is right, it doesn't matter if it's in real estate, commodities, a business, or paper assets.
Here's an example of capital gains for a great price: Back in the 1990s, every time I had some extra cash I would buy some gold or silver. Although I didn't receive any cash flow from gold or silver I knew I was purchasing the metals at a great price, and that someday those prices would rise again.
An example of buying for cash flow at a great price is when I buy a stock that pays a dividend. I wait until the stock market dips and then buy, which is what I'm currently doing. One of the better companies I've been buying is a bulk cargo shipping company that's hauling U.S. grains to India. The more the dollar drops in value, the more grains we export. Every time the market drops, I buy more of this stock at a great price, because I love the cash flow from dividends.
Finally, an example of buying both capital gains and cash flow at a great price is when I find an apartment building at a bargain, and then increase the rents. By doing so, I increase the cash flow and the property value, which translates into capital gains.
Leave It to the Pros
When I watch professional football, I love listening to John Madden because I know he knows what he's talking about. He's been both down in the trenches and in front of the bench as a coach. He knows the game. By that token, one financial reporter I respect is Bloomberg's Kathleen Hayes. She's a savvy reporter who knows what she's talking about. I wonder about some of the other financial reporters.
The problem with much of the financial news in print and on the web, radio, and television is that it comes from journalists who may not be investors. When I listen to most journalists whine and cry about the subprime mess, the slowdown in the economy, and the volatile stock market, I can all but tell that they're not really investors. None of these events really has much impact on professional investors, who follow market trends and are familiar with the underlying fundamentals of the assets they investing in.
So the next time you hear a reporter ask, "Is this the time to be getting into stocks, bonds, real estate, gold, silver, or oil?" remember that it's probably the time to be looking elsewhere. And keep in mind the Rothschild formula of investing. You never want to be too early -- and you also never want to be too late.
Confused, he asked, "How can you be making money during the subprime disaster?" I explained that since the real estate market took a downturn, there were more people renting rather than buying, which is great for my apartment business. I also informed him that I'm raising rents since demand for affordable apartments is so high. When someone moves out, I increase the rent and new tenants line up, which means my cash flow is increasing.
He then asked, "Are you looking for new investments?"
A shocked look came over his face when I said, "I've been investing heavily in the stock market since August 2007. I've moved several million dollars into the market."
"The stock market?" he stammered. "Stocks are crashing. Why are you in the stock market? Besides, I thought you were a real estate investor?"
Ignorance Isn't Bliss
As Warren Buffett has said, it's important for society to have accurate and informed sources of information. While I agree, I sometimes wonder about the intelligence of many financial journalists, both in print and the electronic media.
For example, lately on financial TV stations, the reporters have been talking about the run-up in gold and asking, "Is it time to invest in gold and gold stocks?" What a ridiculous question. Now isn't the time to be investing in gold or gold stocks -- that time was 10 years ago, when gold was below $300 an ounce. Investors should've taken substantial positions when gold was cheap. For reporters to be talking about gold today is no different than them reporting on the hot real estate market in 2005, just before the top blew off.
I had dinner with a friend of a friend the other night and he was telling me about the Rothschild formula for investing. According to him, this involves not participating in the first 20 percent or the last 20 percent of an investment run-up. Instead, it's investing in the middle 60 percent, when risks are low and the direction of the price is determined. As the asset value approaches what appears to be the last 20 percent, you sell and move on to another asset class.
As we all know, most amateurs (and, possibly, many reporters) only participate in the last 20 percent.
Take Notes
I wondered if the reporter who asked why I was investing millions in stocks was an investor himself. I did my best to explain to him that there are two things professionals invest for: 1) Capital gains, and 2) Cash flow.
I said, "The amateurs who come in at the top 20 percent of a market are generally investing only for capital gains. In the last real estate boom, the 'flippers' who got no-document, zero-down loans paid very high prices, and hoped for a greater fool than them to take the property off their hands.
"These are some of the people being faced with forecloses today. They're the investors who make the news -- not the investors who are making money."
The reporter then asked me, "So what do you invest for?"
My reply? "Both. If I can, I want both capital gains and cash flow."
I went on to explain that I was investing millions in stocks that were paying a high dividend -- cash flow -- and also had their prices battered down by the market crash, a loss of capital gains.
Spelling It Out
He wasn't the brightest reporter, since he had trouble with the idea of investing for both cash flow and capital gains. After about an hour of explanation, he finally began to understand that I'm not just a real estate investor -- I'm someone who invests for capital gains at a great price, or cash flow at a great price, regardless of the asset class. If the deal is right, it doesn't matter if it's in real estate, commodities, a business, or paper assets.
Here's an example of capital gains for a great price: Back in the 1990s, every time I had some extra cash I would buy some gold or silver. Although I didn't receive any cash flow from gold or silver I knew I was purchasing the metals at a great price, and that someday those prices would rise again.
An example of buying for cash flow at a great price is when I buy a stock that pays a dividend. I wait until the stock market dips and then buy, which is what I'm currently doing. One of the better companies I've been buying is a bulk cargo shipping company that's hauling U.S. grains to India. The more the dollar drops in value, the more grains we export. Every time the market drops, I buy more of this stock at a great price, because I love the cash flow from dividends.
Finally, an example of buying both capital gains and cash flow at a great price is when I find an apartment building at a bargain, and then increase the rents. By doing so, I increase the cash flow and the property value, which translates into capital gains.
Leave It to the Pros
When I watch professional football, I love listening to John Madden because I know he knows what he's talking about. He's been both down in the trenches and in front of the bench as a coach. He knows the game. By that token, one financial reporter I respect is Bloomberg's Kathleen Hayes. She's a savvy reporter who knows what she's talking about. I wonder about some of the other financial reporters.
The problem with much of the financial news in print and on the web, radio, and television is that it comes from journalists who may not be investors. When I listen to most journalists whine and cry about the subprime mess, the slowdown in the economy, and the volatile stock market, I can all but tell that they're not really investors. None of these events really has much impact on professional investors, who follow market trends and are familiar with the underlying fundamentals of the assets they investing in.
So the next time you hear a reporter ask, "Is this the time to be getting into stocks, bonds, real estate, gold, silver, or oil?" remember that it's probably the time to be looking elsewhere. And keep in mind the Rothschild formula of investing. You never want to be too early -- and you also never want to be too late.
Sunday, January 20, 2008
7 Countermeasures To Take When You And Your Leadership Are Demonized
Most organizations abound with acolytes for the status quo. The status quo is simply the existing state of an organization. What's wrong with the status quo? A great deal. In fact, the status quo of any organization is usually wrong.
The trouble with the status quo isn't that it gets poor results. After all, if you know you're getting poor results, you can start taking steps to turn them into good results.
The trouble with the status quo is that it gets mediocre results but represents them as good results. And poor results are less harmful to an organization than mediocre results misrepresented as good results.
The acolytes may worship at a lot of altars: the funding of inefficient, wasteful, pet programs; the misplaced craving of the employees to bring back the "good ole days"; the people's championing a poisonous culture of unrealistic entitlements. And so on.
If you start demolishing the altars or even questioning the status quo's orthodoxy, the acolytes may very well resort to a common status quo tactic that throws most leaders off balance: They'll demonize you.
Note I don't say "criticize," I say "demonize." Surely you'll be criticized. But demonization involves an attack of another order of magnitude. It's through demonizing that the status quo pulls out all stops. Understanding this and executing the right countermeasures can be vital to the short and long term success of your leadership.
First, let's look at demonization itself. Throughout history, demonization of people, groups of people, and even nations has involved characterizing them as evil or less than human, e.g., the attitudes and practices of some whites towards Black people in the period 1865-1965, resulting in widespread lynching.
One purpose of the demonization of individuals is to divert attention from their arguments by discrediting them personally. Proving that they are Fascists, Communists, Racists, Religious Nuts or some other despised category can be particularly effective not only in undermining individuals with controversial views, but in isolating them from public support. Furthermore, the evil/subhuman traits that the demonizers try to pin on people can open the way for truly horrendous attacks.
Now let's look at how demonization plays out in a lot of organizations. The status quo usually resorts to demonization when its first line of attack, passive resistence, fails. Passive resistence is the status quo's game. It plays it first, it plays it often, and it plays it well. It plays it anytime it feels threatened. The game may be passive, but it's outcomes are anything but. What can be more relentlessly active than when you challenge walking people to run ... but they keep on walking -- and swear they are running? Yet the status quo doesn't always succeed in the passive resistence game; and that's when it may turn to demonization.
Demonization as accomplished by the organizational status quo does not engage in rational criticisms of what you are doing but an attack on who you are. There's little or no truth to what is being said. Truth has nothing to do with the impulse behind the attacks. Outright survival of the status quo at all costs is the impulse.
"He's ruining the organization."
"She's got to be replaced."
"He doesn't know what he's doing."
"She'll cause us to lose our jobs."
And worse.
Clearly, if you don't deal with the demonization, it could destroy your effectiveness and even result in your being replaced.
Here are 7 countermeasures to demonization.
1. Look inwardly.
When you are being demonized, you must get in touch with the best of who you are. Delve into the resources of your own character: patience, understanding, courage, and persistence. They are countermeasures to demonization. You have such assets in abundance. Find them and draw them out so they can be expressed fully. In fact, being on the receiving end of demonization gives you an opportunity to clarify and strengthen those inherent resources.
2. Act outwardly.
Keep your leadership bearing. Be composed and considerate. The adage "Showing up is 90 percent of winning" applies here. Face the people who are demonizing you. For instance, you might walk up to a group of them who obviously are bad mouthing you to one another and enter into a pleasant conversation with them. You might show up (briefly, please) at one of their after-work haunts and have a social interaction with a few of them. You might go to their work sites or be at the employee gate and greet them in a friendly way. At those times, you don't have to say anything to defend yourself against demonization. Demonization needs illusion to survive. You are not the person the status quo is trying to make you out to be. You puncture that illusion by being with them and being genuinely interested in their concerns and being actively helpful.
However, be judicious in your interactions with them. Just as you can error when being demonized by staying away from them, you can also error by being with them too much, prompting them to think you're a pest.
3. Be friendly.
When we are friendly in the face of demonizing attacks, we act as a kind of voltage stabilizer for the power surges of emotions that demonization activates.
Clearly, being demonized is not pleasant; but leaders who respond by losing control, getting angry and lashing back at the people who are engaged in it are playing into the hands of the status quo, which will inevitably point out that such behavior justifies their assertions.
People respond more openly and positively to friendliness. By being friendly, we model good interactions, bringing the future into the present. We make real issues relevant factors, not the patently false issues that demonization creates.
With friendliness, we increase the chance that others who are not demonizing us will join our cause. Friendliness is fire prevention equipment against your burning bridges behind you. An opponent may seem to be your opponent today but in the future you may need him to be your partner in implementing changes.
Getting results through friendliness can take a lot less energy than getting results through coercion and intimidation. Friendliness isn't an absolute necessity in leadership. I've seen great leaders who responded to being demonized by acting out as terrific curmudgeons. It's just that unfriendly leaders have to go through a lot more trouble getting people motivated.
4. Be forceful -- benevolently.
Don't accept rude talk and/or insulting behavior. But in not accepting it, be forceful in a kind and moderate way. For instance, an executive told me: "At our annual sales meeting, the sales people were angry over the layoffs of many of their colleagues. Four senior executives, colleagues of mine, who had forced the layoffs, did not show up for the social events at the meeting, not wanting to face the people's anger. But I felt I had to be there. I remember a bunch of really ticked off sales people were at the bar of the hotel, drinking and just verbally ripping the senior management to pieces. I took a deep breath and went over among them. I ordered a drink and tried to have a friendly chat. A couple of them started abusing the senior executives to my face, but I wouldn't stand for it. I looked them in the eye, I spoke softly; I showed I was going to be pleasant but not put up with bad behavior or insulting talk. Of course, I didn't change their attitudes much, at least at that bar; but a few of them told me later they really respected me for just going into the lion's den."
5. Get results.
One of the most effective countermeasure measures against demonization is simply to get results. You're a leader. You do nothing more important than get results; and when you set the organization on track for getting more results faster, continually, you'll find that demonization will likely dry up and blow away.
6. Keep a sense of humor.
Make sure you do it not at the expense of others but of yourself. Self-deprecating humor can take the steam out of a lot of what demonization offers.
7. Get cause leaders.
This incorporates the first 6 points. If you manifest your inner strengths, take the right action, keep your leadership bearing, don't accept abusive talk or behavior, get great results, and keep yourself of humor, you likely will have people take up your cause against the demonization. Their defense is usually far better than any defense you could personally mount.
Mind you, the acolytes of the status quo are, for the most part, good, well-meaning people, people who have loved ones in their lives. Their engaging in demonization may come from a sincere intention to protect themselves and keep their loved ones secure. The fact they are good people is all the more reason for you to be friendly, open, and considerate in the face of a demonizing attack.
In most cases, you can weather being demonized -- and even become more effective in your leadership -- as long as you institute these countermeasures. In the end, you may find that at least some the people who demonize eventually become your ardent cause leaders. The flipside of demonization is acclaim
The trouble with the status quo isn't that it gets poor results. After all, if you know you're getting poor results, you can start taking steps to turn them into good results.
The trouble with the status quo is that it gets mediocre results but represents them as good results. And poor results are less harmful to an organization than mediocre results misrepresented as good results.
The acolytes may worship at a lot of altars: the funding of inefficient, wasteful, pet programs; the misplaced craving of the employees to bring back the "good ole days"; the people's championing a poisonous culture of unrealistic entitlements. And so on.
If you start demolishing the altars or even questioning the status quo's orthodoxy, the acolytes may very well resort to a common status quo tactic that throws most leaders off balance: They'll demonize you.
Note I don't say "criticize," I say "demonize." Surely you'll be criticized. But demonization involves an attack of another order of magnitude. It's through demonizing that the status quo pulls out all stops. Understanding this and executing the right countermeasures can be vital to the short and long term success of your leadership.
First, let's look at demonization itself. Throughout history, demonization of people, groups of people, and even nations has involved characterizing them as evil or less than human, e.g., the attitudes and practices of some whites towards Black people in the period 1865-1965, resulting in widespread lynching.
One purpose of the demonization of individuals is to divert attention from their arguments by discrediting them personally. Proving that they are Fascists, Communists, Racists, Religious Nuts or some other despised category can be particularly effective not only in undermining individuals with controversial views, but in isolating them from public support. Furthermore, the evil/subhuman traits that the demonizers try to pin on people can open the way for truly horrendous attacks.
Now let's look at how demonization plays out in a lot of organizations. The status quo usually resorts to demonization when its first line of attack, passive resistence, fails. Passive resistence is the status quo's game. It plays it first, it plays it often, and it plays it well. It plays it anytime it feels threatened. The game may be passive, but it's outcomes are anything but. What can be more relentlessly active than when you challenge walking people to run ... but they keep on walking -- and swear they are running? Yet the status quo doesn't always succeed in the passive resistence game; and that's when it may turn to demonization.
Demonization as accomplished by the organizational status quo does not engage in rational criticisms of what you are doing but an attack on who you are. There's little or no truth to what is being said. Truth has nothing to do with the impulse behind the attacks. Outright survival of the status quo at all costs is the impulse.
"He's ruining the organization."
"She's got to be replaced."
"He doesn't know what he's doing."
"She'll cause us to lose our jobs."
And worse.
Clearly, if you don't deal with the demonization, it could destroy your effectiveness and even result in your being replaced.
Here are 7 countermeasures to demonization.
1. Look inwardly.
When you are being demonized, you must get in touch with the best of who you are. Delve into the resources of your own character: patience, understanding, courage, and persistence. They are countermeasures to demonization. You have such assets in abundance. Find them and draw them out so they can be expressed fully. In fact, being on the receiving end of demonization gives you an opportunity to clarify and strengthen those inherent resources.
2. Act outwardly.
Keep your leadership bearing. Be composed and considerate. The adage "Showing up is 90 percent of winning" applies here. Face the people who are demonizing you. For instance, you might walk up to a group of them who obviously are bad mouthing you to one another and enter into a pleasant conversation with them. You might show up (briefly, please) at one of their after-work haunts and have a social interaction with a few of them. You might go to their work sites or be at the employee gate and greet them in a friendly way. At those times, you don't have to say anything to defend yourself against demonization. Demonization needs illusion to survive. You are not the person the status quo is trying to make you out to be. You puncture that illusion by being with them and being genuinely interested in their concerns and being actively helpful.
However, be judicious in your interactions with them. Just as you can error when being demonized by staying away from them, you can also error by being with them too much, prompting them to think you're a pest.
3. Be friendly.
When we are friendly in the face of demonizing attacks, we act as a kind of voltage stabilizer for the power surges of emotions that demonization activates.
Clearly, being demonized is not pleasant; but leaders who respond by losing control, getting angry and lashing back at the people who are engaged in it are playing into the hands of the status quo, which will inevitably point out that such behavior justifies their assertions.
People respond more openly and positively to friendliness. By being friendly, we model good interactions, bringing the future into the present. We make real issues relevant factors, not the patently false issues that demonization creates.
With friendliness, we increase the chance that others who are not demonizing us will join our cause. Friendliness is fire prevention equipment against your burning bridges behind you. An opponent may seem to be your opponent today but in the future you may need him to be your partner in implementing changes.
Getting results through friendliness can take a lot less energy than getting results through coercion and intimidation. Friendliness isn't an absolute necessity in leadership. I've seen great leaders who responded to being demonized by acting out as terrific curmudgeons. It's just that unfriendly leaders have to go through a lot more trouble getting people motivated.
4. Be forceful -- benevolently.
Don't accept rude talk and/or insulting behavior. But in not accepting it, be forceful in a kind and moderate way. For instance, an executive told me: "At our annual sales meeting, the sales people were angry over the layoffs of many of their colleagues. Four senior executives, colleagues of mine, who had forced the layoffs, did not show up for the social events at the meeting, not wanting to face the people's anger. But I felt I had to be there. I remember a bunch of really ticked off sales people were at the bar of the hotel, drinking and just verbally ripping the senior management to pieces. I took a deep breath and went over among them. I ordered a drink and tried to have a friendly chat. A couple of them started abusing the senior executives to my face, but I wouldn't stand for it. I looked them in the eye, I spoke softly; I showed I was going to be pleasant but not put up with bad behavior or insulting talk. Of course, I didn't change their attitudes much, at least at that bar; but a few of them told me later they really respected me for just going into the lion's den."
5. Get results.
One of the most effective countermeasure measures against demonization is simply to get results. You're a leader. You do nothing more important than get results; and when you set the organization on track for getting more results faster, continually, you'll find that demonization will likely dry up and blow away.
6. Keep a sense of humor.
Make sure you do it not at the expense of others but of yourself. Self-deprecating humor can take the steam out of a lot of what demonization offers.
7. Get cause leaders.
This incorporates the first 6 points. If you manifest your inner strengths, take the right action, keep your leadership bearing, don't accept abusive talk or behavior, get great results, and keep yourself of humor, you likely will have people take up your cause against the demonization. Their defense is usually far better than any defense you could personally mount.
Mind you, the acolytes of the status quo are, for the most part, good, well-meaning people, people who have loved ones in their lives. Their engaging in demonization may come from a sincere intention to protect themselves and keep their loved ones secure. The fact they are good people is all the more reason for you to be friendly, open, and considerate in the face of a demonizing attack.
In most cases, you can weather being demonized -- and even become more effective in your leadership -- as long as you institute these countermeasures. In the end, you may find that at least some the people who demonize eventually become your ardent cause leaders. The flipside of demonization is acclaim
Five Ways to Become Wealthy
The Five Roads to Financial Success and How to Choose Your Own
There are basically five ways that you can become wealthy starting with nothing in America based on over 25 years of research into American millionaires. Number one, you can inherit it. Less than 10 percent of wealthy Americans inherited any of their money, and it's less and less every single year.
The Second Way
The second way that you can become wealthy is you can achieve it professionally. You can become a doctor or a lawyer or an architect or an accountant. You can become extremely good at what you do, be paid very well, and hold on to the money.
The Third Way
The third way you can achieve it is you can become a senior executive of a large corporation. You can be highly paid; you can have stock options and bonuses. And if you stay with the company long enough, for enough years, you can be paid enough to become wealthy.
The Fourth Way
You can win it. But only a tiny fraction of one percent of wealthy Americans got that way by winning their money some way or another. As a matter of fact, the odds against you winning the lottery are the equivalent of lightning striking twice in the same place. They're millions and millions to one.
The Best Way
The fifth way that you can become wealthy is you can start your own business and earn it all by yourself. Starting your own business has been and will always be the high road to becoming wealthy for most self-made millionaires. Entrepreneurship is America offers more opportunities and opens more doors than all other possibilities put together. This is why it has been said that if you have the ability to start your own business and you don't do it, you are a fool. I'll repeat that. If you have the ability to start your own business and you don't do it, you're a fool.
Where do you start? You start by getting your finances under control. The very first thing you do is you make a decision to get your finances under control. Some years ago, a man named George Classon wrote a book called The Richest Man In Babylon. It's a classic on financial success and what Classon said in that book was that the key to becoming wealthy is to pay yourself first. Take ten percent of your earnings, of your gross income every month and put it aside. Learn to live on ninety percent or less of your gross income. So the very first thing that you do is you begin to save your money.
Action Exercises
Now, here are two things you can do immediately to put yourself onto the high road to personal wealth:
First, resolve today to begin saving your money a little bit at a time. Set a goal to save 10% of your earnings, to put it away and to never touch it. This will change your life.
Second, immediately register your own business or sole proprietorship. Open a bank account, get business cards and letterhead and create the corporate entity under which you can do business. Your business opportunities will appear far sooner than you think. If you build it, they will come.
There are basically five ways that you can become wealthy starting with nothing in America based on over 25 years of research into American millionaires. Number one, you can inherit it. Less than 10 percent of wealthy Americans inherited any of their money, and it's less and less every single year.
The Second Way
The second way that you can become wealthy is you can achieve it professionally. You can become a doctor or a lawyer or an architect or an accountant. You can become extremely good at what you do, be paid very well, and hold on to the money.
The Third Way
The third way you can achieve it is you can become a senior executive of a large corporation. You can be highly paid; you can have stock options and bonuses. And if you stay with the company long enough, for enough years, you can be paid enough to become wealthy.
The Fourth Way
You can win it. But only a tiny fraction of one percent of wealthy Americans got that way by winning their money some way or another. As a matter of fact, the odds against you winning the lottery are the equivalent of lightning striking twice in the same place. They're millions and millions to one.
The Best Way
The fifth way that you can become wealthy is you can start your own business and earn it all by yourself. Starting your own business has been and will always be the high road to becoming wealthy for most self-made millionaires. Entrepreneurship is America offers more opportunities and opens more doors than all other possibilities put together. This is why it has been said that if you have the ability to start your own business and you don't do it, you are a fool. I'll repeat that. If you have the ability to start your own business and you don't do it, you're a fool.
Where do you start? You start by getting your finances under control. The very first thing you do is you make a decision to get your finances under control. Some years ago, a man named George Classon wrote a book called The Richest Man In Babylon. It's a classic on financial success and what Classon said in that book was that the key to becoming wealthy is to pay yourself first. Take ten percent of your earnings, of your gross income every month and put it aside. Learn to live on ninety percent or less of your gross income. So the very first thing that you do is you begin to save your money.
Action Exercises
Now, here are two things you can do immediately to put yourself onto the high road to personal wealth:
First, resolve today to begin saving your money a little bit at a time. Set a goal to save 10% of your earnings, to put it away and to never touch it. This will change your life.
Second, immediately register your own business or sole proprietorship. Open a bank account, get business cards and letterhead and create the corporate entity under which you can do business. Your business opportunities will appear far sooner than you think. If you build it, they will come.
Friday, January 18, 2008
You Deserve to Be Happy
Achieving your own happiness is the best measure of how well you are living your life and enjoying your relationships. You can learn how to be happier and more fulfilled in everything you do.
Everyone is Different
Happiness in life is like a smorgasbord. If 100 people went to a smorgasbord and each put food on their plate in the quantity and mix that each felt would be most pleasing to him, every plate would be different. Even a husband and wife would go up to the smorgasbord and come back with plates that looked completely different. Happiness is the same way. Each person requires a particular combination of those ingredients to feel the very best about himself or herself.
Listen to Your Heart
And your mix is changing continually. If you went to the same smorgasbord every day for a year, you probably would come back with a different plateful of food each time. Each day-sometimes each hour-only you can tell what it takes to make you happy. Therefore, the only way to judge whether a job, a relationship, an investment, or any decision, is right for you is to get in touch with your feelings and listen to your heart.
Be True to Yourself
You're true to yourself only when you follow your inner light, when you listen to what Ralph Waldo Emerson called the "still, small voice within." You're being the very best person you can be only when you have the courage and the fortitude to allow your definition of happiness, whatever it may be, to be the guiding light of every part of your life.
There Are No Limits
A very important point on the subject of happiness is whether or not you feel that you "deserve" to be happy.
Accept the notion that you deserve all the happiness you can honestly attain through the application of your talents and abilities. The more you like and respect yourself, the more deserving you will feel of the good things in life. And the more deserving you feel, the more likely you will attain and hold on to the happiness you are working toward.
Make Happiness Your Key Measure
You should make happiness the organizing principle of your life. Compare every possible action and decision you make against your standard of happiness to see whether that action would make you happier or unhappier. Soon, you will discover that almost all of the problems in your life come from choices that you have made - or are currently making - that do not contribute to your happiness.
Pay the Price
Of course, there are countless times when you will have to do little things that don't make you happy along the way toward those larger things that make you very happy indeed. We call this paying the price of success in advance. You must pay your dues. Sometimes these interim steps don't make you happy directly, but the happiness you achieve from attaining your goal will be so great that it totally overwhelms the temporary inconveniences and dissatisfactions you have to endure in order to get there.
Action Exercises
Here are three steps you can take immediately to put these ideas into action.
First, accept that you deserve all the joy and happiness you can possibly achieve through your own efforts.
Second, make your own happiness the chief organizing principle of your life and judge everything against that standard.
Third, be willing to work hard and pay the price for the satisfaction and rewards you desire. Always go the extra mile and your success will be assured
Everyone is Different
Happiness in life is like a smorgasbord. If 100 people went to a smorgasbord and each put food on their plate in the quantity and mix that each felt would be most pleasing to him, every plate would be different. Even a husband and wife would go up to the smorgasbord and come back with plates that looked completely different. Happiness is the same way. Each person requires a particular combination of those ingredients to feel the very best about himself or herself.
Listen to Your Heart
And your mix is changing continually. If you went to the same smorgasbord every day for a year, you probably would come back with a different plateful of food each time. Each day-sometimes each hour-only you can tell what it takes to make you happy. Therefore, the only way to judge whether a job, a relationship, an investment, or any decision, is right for you is to get in touch with your feelings and listen to your heart.
Be True to Yourself
You're true to yourself only when you follow your inner light, when you listen to what Ralph Waldo Emerson called the "still, small voice within." You're being the very best person you can be only when you have the courage and the fortitude to allow your definition of happiness, whatever it may be, to be the guiding light of every part of your life.
There Are No Limits
A very important point on the subject of happiness is whether or not you feel that you "deserve" to be happy.
Accept the notion that you deserve all the happiness you can honestly attain through the application of your talents and abilities. The more you like and respect yourself, the more deserving you will feel of the good things in life. And the more deserving you feel, the more likely you will attain and hold on to the happiness you are working toward.
Make Happiness Your Key Measure
You should make happiness the organizing principle of your life. Compare every possible action and decision you make against your standard of happiness to see whether that action would make you happier or unhappier. Soon, you will discover that almost all of the problems in your life come from choices that you have made - or are currently making - that do not contribute to your happiness.
Pay the Price
Of course, there are countless times when you will have to do little things that don't make you happy along the way toward those larger things that make you very happy indeed. We call this paying the price of success in advance. You must pay your dues. Sometimes these interim steps don't make you happy directly, but the happiness you achieve from attaining your goal will be so great that it totally overwhelms the temporary inconveniences and dissatisfactions you have to endure in order to get there.
Action Exercises
Here are three steps you can take immediately to put these ideas into action.
First, accept that you deserve all the joy and happiness you can possibly achieve through your own efforts.
Second, make your own happiness the chief organizing principle of your life and judge everything against that standard.
Third, be willing to work hard and pay the price for the satisfaction and rewards you desire. Always go the extra mile and your success will be assured
The Parable of Talents
The Parable of the Talents is the primary reason for wealth or poverty throughout history.
Reasons for Rich or Poor
Why do some people retire rich and most people retire poor? This subject has fascinated philosophers, thinkers, mystics and teachers throughout the ages. There have been so many cases of hundreds or thousands and even millions of men and women who have started with nothing and become financially independent that people are naturally curious to know why it happened and what are the common rules or principles that others can apply to become wealthy as well.
Why People Become Rich
One illustration of this key principle is called the parable of the talents. In the Bible, it says, "To him that hath, shall more be given, and he shall have abundance. But from him that hath not, even that which he hath shall be taken away."
Accumulation Leads to More Accumulation
What does it mean? In the modern world, we say "the rich get richer and the poor get poorer." The fact is that people who accumulate money tend to accumulate more and more. People who don't accumulate money seem to lose even that little bit of money which they have. Why should this happen? The great success principle, the single idea that explains human destiny is simple. It says that, "you become what you think about, most of the time."
Control Your Thoughts
And whatever you dwell upon, grows in your reality. You create your entire world by the things you choose to think about and how you choose to think about them.
It just so happens that wealthy, successful people fill their minds with thoughts, words, pictures and images of wealth, affluence, success, productivity and solutions to problems in the marketplace, most of the time. These thoughts trigger the reticular activating cortex, the part of the brain that makes you more alert and sensitive to things that you have decided are important to you.
Activate Your Reticular Cortex
For example, if you decide to invest in a mutual fund, you will start to see news and information about mutual funds everywhere. Mentions in newspapers and magazines will jump out at you. These notices have always been there but now you have sensitized your brain to pick them up and draw them to your attention with far greater frequency and vividness. This is the function and power of your reticular cortex.
Avoid Poverty Thinking
On the other hand, what do poor people think about most of the time? Unfortunately, poor people fill their minds with thoughts of scarcity, lack, poverty, being unable to afford things. They are always thinking and talking about how little money they have, how much things cost and how they wish things could be better financially. What they think about most of the time is how little money they have.
Think Like Wealthy People Think
Wealthy people from an early age think about how much they have, how much they want and all the different things they can do to acquire and earn the money and things they desire.
Find Out How Rich People Think
Here's a rule for you. If you want to become successful, find out what failures do and don't do it. If you want to be wealthy, find out what poor people think about, and avoid thinking in those ways. Instead, find out how wealthy people think. Find out what they read. Find out how they spend their time. Study their lives, read their stories and autobiographies and listen to their words when they are interviewed and on tape. The more you find out what financially successful people think and talk about most of the time, and do the same things, the more rapidly you will enjoy the same rewards that they do.
Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do to put this parable of the talents into action:
First, make a decision today that from now on you will think and talk only about the financial success that you desire. At the same time, you will refuse to talk about or dwell upon your financial problems.
Second, instead of saying, "I can't afford it," instead ask the question, "How can I afford it?" When you think of something that you want or need that you don't have the money for at the time, the only question you ask is, "How?" How can you get it? What can you do to achieve it? What are your options? How can you get from where you are to where you want to go? This type of attitude will change your life.
Reasons for Rich or Poor
Why do some people retire rich and most people retire poor? This subject has fascinated philosophers, thinkers, mystics and teachers throughout the ages. There have been so many cases of hundreds or thousands and even millions of men and women who have started with nothing and become financially independent that people are naturally curious to know why it happened and what are the common rules or principles that others can apply to become wealthy as well.
Why People Become Rich
One illustration of this key principle is called the parable of the talents. In the Bible, it says, "To him that hath, shall more be given, and he shall have abundance. But from him that hath not, even that which he hath shall be taken away."
Accumulation Leads to More Accumulation
What does it mean? In the modern world, we say "the rich get richer and the poor get poorer." The fact is that people who accumulate money tend to accumulate more and more. People who don't accumulate money seem to lose even that little bit of money which they have. Why should this happen? The great success principle, the single idea that explains human destiny is simple. It says that, "you become what you think about, most of the time."
Control Your Thoughts
And whatever you dwell upon, grows in your reality. You create your entire world by the things you choose to think about and how you choose to think about them.
It just so happens that wealthy, successful people fill their minds with thoughts, words, pictures and images of wealth, affluence, success, productivity and solutions to problems in the marketplace, most of the time. These thoughts trigger the reticular activating cortex, the part of the brain that makes you more alert and sensitive to things that you have decided are important to you.
Activate Your Reticular Cortex
For example, if you decide to invest in a mutual fund, you will start to see news and information about mutual funds everywhere. Mentions in newspapers and magazines will jump out at you. These notices have always been there but now you have sensitized your brain to pick them up and draw them to your attention with far greater frequency and vividness. This is the function and power of your reticular cortex.
Avoid Poverty Thinking
On the other hand, what do poor people think about most of the time? Unfortunately, poor people fill their minds with thoughts of scarcity, lack, poverty, being unable to afford things. They are always thinking and talking about how little money they have, how much things cost and how they wish things could be better financially. What they think about most of the time is how little money they have.
Think Like Wealthy People Think
Wealthy people from an early age think about how much they have, how much they want and all the different things they can do to acquire and earn the money and things they desire.
Find Out How Rich People Think
Here's a rule for you. If you want to become successful, find out what failures do and don't do it. If you want to be wealthy, find out what poor people think about, and avoid thinking in those ways. Instead, find out how wealthy people think. Find out what they read. Find out how they spend their time. Study their lives, read their stories and autobiographies and listen to their words when they are interviewed and on tape. The more you find out what financially successful people think and talk about most of the time, and do the same things, the more rapidly you will enjoy the same rewards that they do.
Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do to put this parable of the talents into action:
First, make a decision today that from now on you will think and talk only about the financial success that you desire. At the same time, you will refuse to talk about or dwell upon your financial problems.
Second, instead of saying, "I can't afford it," instead ask the question, "How can I afford it?" When you think of something that you want or need that you don't have the money for at the time, the only question you ask is, "How?" How can you get it? What can you do to achieve it? What are your options? How can you get from where you are to where you want to go? This type of attitude will change your life.
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Neutralizing Worry Situations
Your job is to organize your life and work so as to minimize surprises and problems. However, this is not always possible, in spite of your best efforts.
Use the Worry Buster
If you are already facing a fear- or worry-inducing situation, here are the four steps of what we refer to as the "worry buster."
Clarity is Everything
Step Number One: Define the worry situation clearly in writing - fully half of all problems can be solved just by clearly defining them. Remember, "Accurate diagnosis is half the cure."
Determine the Worst
Step Number Two: Determine the worst possible outcome of the situation. What is the absolute worst that can happen?
Be Willing to Have it So
Step Number Three: Resolve to accept the worst should it occur. The first step in dealing with any negative situation is to be willing to have it so. Once you resolve to accept the worst, your mind will become calm and clear and you'll be ready to take some constructive action.
Take Action
Step Number Four: The final step is to immediately begin doing everything you possibly can to improve upon the worst.
The Real Antidote to Worry
Remember, worry is merely a sustained form of fear caused by indecision. The only real antidote to worry is purposeful action. Get so busy doing something about your situation that you don't have time to worry. As you take action, your confidence, courage and sense of control will return and wipe away your fears.
Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do to get rid of your worries:
First, make a list, down one side of a page, of all the situations causing you any stress or worry at the moment.
Second, on the other side of the page, write out the worst possible thing that could happen as a result. You'll be amazed to see much of your worry disappear with this exercise.
Use the Worry Buster
If you are already facing a fear- or worry-inducing situation, here are the four steps of what we refer to as the "worry buster."
Clarity is Everything
Step Number One: Define the worry situation clearly in writing - fully half of all problems can be solved just by clearly defining them. Remember, "Accurate diagnosis is half the cure."
Determine the Worst
Step Number Two: Determine the worst possible outcome of the situation. What is the absolute worst that can happen?
Be Willing to Have it So
Step Number Three: Resolve to accept the worst should it occur. The first step in dealing with any negative situation is to be willing to have it so. Once you resolve to accept the worst, your mind will become calm and clear and you'll be ready to take some constructive action.
Take Action
Step Number Four: The final step is to immediately begin doing everything you possibly can to improve upon the worst.
The Real Antidote to Worry
Remember, worry is merely a sustained form of fear caused by indecision. The only real antidote to worry is purposeful action. Get so busy doing something about your situation that you don't have time to worry. As you take action, your confidence, courage and sense of control will return and wipe away your fears.
Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do to get rid of your worries:
First, make a list, down one side of a page, of all the situations causing you any stress or worry at the moment.
Second, on the other side of the page, write out the worst possible thing that could happen as a result. You'll be amazed to see much of your worry disappear with this exercise.
Think Like a Millionaire
Attitude is Everything
The most important attitude for financial success is long-term thinking. Successful people think a long way into the future and they adjust their daily behaviors to assure they achieve their long-term goals. In a longitudinal study done at Harvard University in the 50s and 60s, they studied the reasons for upward socio-economic mobility. They were looking for factors that would predict whether or not an individual or family was going to move upward and be wealthier in the future than in the present.
They studied factors like education, intelligence, being born into the right family, or having the right connections. In every case, they found individuals who had been born with every blessing in life who did poorly. They also found individuals who had been born or come to this country with no advantages at all who had been extremely successful. What was the distinguishing factor?
They finally determined that there was only one key attitude that mattered. They called it "Time Perspective." Time perspective refers to the amount of time that you take into consideration when planning your day to day activities and when making important decisions in your life.
Time Perspective
People with long-time perspective invariably move up economically in the course of their lifetimes. When you spend weeks, months and years developing your skills and ability and expanding your experience in order to be successful, you have long-time perspective. The average professional person has a time perspective of 10, 15 and 20 years.
Begin to see that everything that you are doing today is part of a long-time continuum, at the end of which you are going to be financially independent or financially unfortunate. People with short-time perspective think only about fun and pleasure in the short term. They have what economists call "The inability to delay gratification." They have an irresistible tendency to spend every single penny they earn and everything that they can borrow.
When you develop long-time perspective, you develop the discipline to delay gratification and to save your money rather than spending it. The combination of long-time perspective and delayed gratification puts you onto the high road to financial independence.
Action Exercises
Now, here are two things you can do to develop the attitudes of financially successful people:
First, think long-term about your financial life. Decide exactly how much you want to be worth five years, ten years and twenty years from today. Write it down. Make a plan. Take action on your plan every single day.
Second, develop the ability to delay gratification. Instead of buying something on impulse, put off buying decisions for a day, a week or even a month. Decide in advance to "think it over" before you buy anything. This can change the way you spend money almost immediately.
The most important attitude for financial success is long-term thinking. Successful people think a long way into the future and they adjust their daily behaviors to assure they achieve their long-term goals. In a longitudinal study done at Harvard University in the 50s and 60s, they studied the reasons for upward socio-economic mobility. They were looking for factors that would predict whether or not an individual or family was going to move upward and be wealthier in the future than in the present.
They studied factors like education, intelligence, being born into the right family, or having the right connections. In every case, they found individuals who had been born with every blessing in life who did poorly. They also found individuals who had been born or come to this country with no advantages at all who had been extremely successful. What was the distinguishing factor?
They finally determined that there was only one key attitude that mattered. They called it "Time Perspective." Time perspective refers to the amount of time that you take into consideration when planning your day to day activities and when making important decisions in your life.
Time Perspective
People with long-time perspective invariably move up economically in the course of their lifetimes. When you spend weeks, months and years developing your skills and ability and expanding your experience in order to be successful, you have long-time perspective. The average professional person has a time perspective of 10, 15 and 20 years.
Begin to see that everything that you are doing today is part of a long-time continuum, at the end of which you are going to be financially independent or financially unfortunate. People with short-time perspective think only about fun and pleasure in the short term. They have what economists call "The inability to delay gratification." They have an irresistible tendency to spend every single penny they earn and everything that they can borrow.
When you develop long-time perspective, you develop the discipline to delay gratification and to save your money rather than spending it. The combination of long-time perspective and delayed gratification puts you onto the high road to financial independence.
Action Exercises
Now, here are two things you can do to develop the attitudes of financially successful people:
First, think long-term about your financial life. Decide exactly how much you want to be worth five years, ten years and twenty years from today. Write it down. Make a plan. Take action on your plan every single day.
Second, develop the ability to delay gratification. Instead of buying something on impulse, put off buying decisions for a day, a week or even a month. Decide in advance to "think it over" before you buy anything. This can change the way you spend money almost immediately.
Leaders Are Made, Not Born
The Key Leadership Abilities
Your ability to negotiate, communicate, influence, and persuade others to do things is absolutely indispensable to everything you accomplish in life. The most effective men and women in every area are those who can quite competently organize the cooperation and assistance of other people toward the accomplishment of important goals and objectives.
Everyone is Different
Of course, everyone you meet has different values, opinions, attitudes, beliefs, cultural values, work habits, goals, ambitions, and dreams. Because of this incredible diversity of human resources, it has never been more difficult and yet more necessary for diplomatic leaders to emerge and form these people into high-performing teams.
Do What Other Leaders Do
Fortunately, leaders are made, not born. You learn to become a leader by doing what other excellent leaders have done before you. You become proficient in your job or skill, and then you become proficient at understanding the motivations and behaviors of other people. As a leader, you combine your personal competencies with the competencies of a variety of others into a smoothly functioning team that can out-play and out-perform all its competitors. When you become a team leader, even if your team only consists of one other person, you must immediately develop a whole new set of leadership skills.
Focus On What's Right vs. Who's Right
Whenever you have problems, misunderstandings, or difficulties within the team, you reexamine your values, your goals, your activities, your assignments, and your responsibilities. You are more concerned with what's right than with who's right. Leaders are more concerned with winning than with not losing. High-Performing teams run by excellent leaders, are determined to perform in an excellent fashion. All members know that their ability to work together in harmony and cooperation is the key to the success of every one of them.
Aim at a Common Goal
The wonderful thing about becoming a leader in your work and personal life is that you can practice the skills of influencing and persuading others toward a common objective. You can promote the principles of excellent teamwork by establishing your values and goals, determining your activities, and then leading the action. And you can improve yourself by continually evaluating your performance against your standards.
Only Compare Yourself With Yourself
One of the marks of excellent people is that they never compare themselves with others. They only compare themselves with themselves and with their past accomplishments and future potential. You can become an even more excellent person by constantly setting higher and higher standards for yourself and then by doing everything possible to live up to those standards.
The more proficient you become at getting the results for which you were hired, the more opportunities you will have to get results through others. And your ability to put together a team and then to lead that team to high performance will enable you to accelerate your career and fulfill your goals faster than ever before.
Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do to put these ideas into into action:
First, think about specific things you can do to work more effectively with the different people on your team.
Second, set high standards for yourself and for each person and then dedicate yourself to achieving those standards.
Your ability to negotiate, communicate, influence, and persuade others to do things is absolutely indispensable to everything you accomplish in life. The most effective men and women in every area are those who can quite competently organize the cooperation and assistance of other people toward the accomplishment of important goals and objectives.
Everyone is Different
Of course, everyone you meet has different values, opinions, attitudes, beliefs, cultural values, work habits, goals, ambitions, and dreams. Because of this incredible diversity of human resources, it has never been more difficult and yet more necessary for diplomatic leaders to emerge and form these people into high-performing teams.
Do What Other Leaders Do
Fortunately, leaders are made, not born. You learn to become a leader by doing what other excellent leaders have done before you. You become proficient in your job or skill, and then you become proficient at understanding the motivations and behaviors of other people. As a leader, you combine your personal competencies with the competencies of a variety of others into a smoothly functioning team that can out-play and out-perform all its competitors. When you become a team leader, even if your team only consists of one other person, you must immediately develop a whole new set of leadership skills.
Focus On What's Right vs. Who's Right
Whenever you have problems, misunderstandings, or difficulties within the team, you reexamine your values, your goals, your activities, your assignments, and your responsibilities. You are more concerned with what's right than with who's right. Leaders are more concerned with winning than with not losing. High-Performing teams run by excellent leaders, are determined to perform in an excellent fashion. All members know that their ability to work together in harmony and cooperation is the key to the success of every one of them.
Aim at a Common Goal
The wonderful thing about becoming a leader in your work and personal life is that you can practice the skills of influencing and persuading others toward a common objective. You can promote the principles of excellent teamwork by establishing your values and goals, determining your activities, and then leading the action. And you can improve yourself by continually evaluating your performance against your standards.
Only Compare Yourself With Yourself
One of the marks of excellent people is that they never compare themselves with others. They only compare themselves with themselves and with their past accomplishments and future potential. You can become an even more excellent person by constantly setting higher and higher standards for yourself and then by doing everything possible to live up to those standards.
The more proficient you become at getting the results for which you were hired, the more opportunities you will have to get results through others. And your ability to put together a team and then to lead that team to high performance will enable you to accelerate your career and fulfill your goals faster than ever before.
Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do to put these ideas into into action:
First, think about specific things you can do to work more effectively with the different people on your team.
Second, set high standards for yourself and for each person and then dedicate yourself to achieving those standards.
Monday, January 07, 2008
How to Trigger Great Ideas
A major stimulant to creative thinking is focused questions. There is something about a well-worded question that often penetrates to the heart of the matter and triggers new ideas and insights.
Questions Stimulate Creative Thinking
Some of the best questions I've found for business problem solving are the following:
Clarify Your Desired Result
Question #1 "What are we trying to do?" Whenever you become frustrated with slow progress for any reason, step back and ask this again and again, "What are we trying to do?"
Analyze Your Current Methods
Question #2 "How are we trying to do it?" If you are experiencing resistance, perhaps your method is wrong. Be willing to objectively analyze your approach by asking, "How are we trying to do it?" Is this the right way? Could there be a better way? What if our method was completely wrong? How else could we approach it?
Could You Be Wrong?
It requires courage to face the possibility that you may be wrong but it also leads to your seeing new possibilities. The rule is: Always decide what's right before worrying about who's right.
Question Your Assumptions
Another good question is, "What are our assumptions?" About the person, the product, the market, the business? What are our assumptions? Could we be assuming something that is incorrect? Someone once said that "Errant assumptions lie at the root of every failure".
What if your unspoken or implied assumptions were wrong? What would you have to do differently?
Put Past Decisions on Trial
Another form of focused questioning is what I call "Zero based thinking." This method requires that you put every past decision on trial for its life regularly by asking, "If I had not made this decision, knowing what I now know, would I make it?" If I had not hired this person or gotten involved in this project, knowing what I now know, would I do it over again?
If the answer is "NO" to one of these questions, then your aim should be to get out of the decision as fast as possible. Be willing to "cut your losses," and try something else.
Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do to trigger more and better ideas.
First, be very clear about exactly what it is that you are trying to do. Write it down and describe it as if it were already achieved.
Second, question your assumptions continually. What if there were a better way? Be willing to try something completely different
Questions Stimulate Creative Thinking
Some of the best questions I've found for business problem solving are the following:
Clarify Your Desired Result
Question #1 "What are we trying to do?" Whenever you become frustrated with slow progress for any reason, step back and ask this again and again, "What are we trying to do?"
Analyze Your Current Methods
Question #2 "How are we trying to do it?" If you are experiencing resistance, perhaps your method is wrong. Be willing to objectively analyze your approach by asking, "How are we trying to do it?" Is this the right way? Could there be a better way? What if our method was completely wrong? How else could we approach it?
Could You Be Wrong?
It requires courage to face the possibility that you may be wrong but it also leads to your seeing new possibilities. The rule is: Always decide what's right before worrying about who's right.
Question Your Assumptions
Another good question is, "What are our assumptions?" About the person, the product, the market, the business? What are our assumptions? Could we be assuming something that is incorrect? Someone once said that "Errant assumptions lie at the root of every failure".
What if your unspoken or implied assumptions were wrong? What would you have to do differently?
Put Past Decisions on Trial
Another form of focused questioning is what I call "Zero based thinking." This method requires that you put every past decision on trial for its life regularly by asking, "If I had not made this decision, knowing what I now know, would I make it?" If I had not hired this person or gotten involved in this project, knowing what I now know, would I do it over again?
If the answer is "NO" to one of these questions, then your aim should be to get out of the decision as fast as possible. Be willing to "cut your losses," and try something else.
Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do to trigger more and better ideas.
First, be very clear about exactly what it is that you are trying to do. Write it down and describe it as if it were already achieved.
Second, question your assumptions continually. What if there were a better way? Be willing to try something completely different
The Four D's of Financial Success
Start From Nothing and Become Financially Independent
More than eighty percent of self-made millionaires in America began with nothing or in many cases, less than nothing. I can certainly relate to that because when I was growing up and right into my early 30s, I never had any extra money with which to start a fortune. It seemed to me that there was always enough, if not more than enough bills, to absorb every penny I earned. I was always in debt.
Be Ready for Your Opportunity
And even if a great business opportunity did come along, I wouldn't have been able to do anything with it. As I began studying financial success and self-made millionaires, I noticed that almost everyone around me was in pretty much the same boat. The idea of becoming really wealthy was a distant dream with very little possibility of coming true. You may be in the same situation, with more bills than money or assets.
Look at the Numbers
The statistics are a little scary. Of 100 people who reach retirement age, according to insurance industry statistics, only one will be wealthy. Four out of the hundred will be financially independent; fifteen will have some savings put aside. And the other 80 will be dependent on pensions, still working or broke - this after a lifetime of well-paid work in the most affluent society in human history. Now why does this happen?
Why People Retire Poor
There are two main reasons why people retire poor. First, they never decide to retire rich. They wish and hope and pray, but they never make a firm, unequivocal decision that they're going to do it. Second, even if they do decide to retire rich, they procrastinate until it's too late. They always have some good reason for putting it off.
Start With Desire and Decision
If you sincerely want to beat the odds, to achieve financial independence and retire wealthy, there are four critical steps that you must take, all starting with the letter D.
The first step is desire. You must want it badly enough to make an unshakable commitment and to be willing to make sacrifices. The second D is decision. You must make a decision right now to do whatever is necessary, to be willing to pay any price, go any distance, to achieve your goal.
Practice Determination and Discipline
The third D is determination, which is to keep at it until you succeed in spite of all the problems and obstacles you will experience. And the fourth D is discipline - the discipline to master yourself to develop the habits necessary for achieving financial independence.
Those are the four Ds. Desire, Decision, Determination and Discipline. And you can measure how successful you're going to be in the future by measuring how well you're doing in each of those on a scale of one to ten.
Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action.
First, make a decision, right now, that you are going to be financially independent, no matter what obstacles you face in the short term. Then write it down, make a plan and start to work on it every single day.
Second, resolve in advance that you will persist in the face of every setback or obstacle you face. You will never give up. You will keep on moving forward until you finally achieve your goal.
More than eighty percent of self-made millionaires in America began with nothing or in many cases, less than nothing. I can certainly relate to that because when I was growing up and right into my early 30s, I never had any extra money with which to start a fortune. It seemed to me that there was always enough, if not more than enough bills, to absorb every penny I earned. I was always in debt.
Be Ready for Your Opportunity
And even if a great business opportunity did come along, I wouldn't have been able to do anything with it. As I began studying financial success and self-made millionaires, I noticed that almost everyone around me was in pretty much the same boat. The idea of becoming really wealthy was a distant dream with very little possibility of coming true. You may be in the same situation, with more bills than money or assets.
Look at the Numbers
The statistics are a little scary. Of 100 people who reach retirement age, according to insurance industry statistics, only one will be wealthy. Four out of the hundred will be financially independent; fifteen will have some savings put aside. And the other 80 will be dependent on pensions, still working or broke - this after a lifetime of well-paid work in the most affluent society in human history. Now why does this happen?
Why People Retire Poor
There are two main reasons why people retire poor. First, they never decide to retire rich. They wish and hope and pray, but they never make a firm, unequivocal decision that they're going to do it. Second, even if they do decide to retire rich, they procrastinate until it's too late. They always have some good reason for putting it off.
Start With Desire and Decision
If you sincerely want to beat the odds, to achieve financial independence and retire wealthy, there are four critical steps that you must take, all starting with the letter D.
The first step is desire. You must want it badly enough to make an unshakable commitment and to be willing to make sacrifices. The second D is decision. You must make a decision right now to do whatever is necessary, to be willing to pay any price, go any distance, to achieve your goal.
Practice Determination and Discipline
The third D is determination, which is to keep at it until you succeed in spite of all the problems and obstacles you will experience. And the fourth D is discipline - the discipline to master yourself to develop the habits necessary for achieving financial independence.
Those are the four Ds. Desire, Decision, Determination and Discipline. And you can measure how successful you're going to be in the future by measuring how well you're doing in each of those on a scale of one to ten.
Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action.
First, make a decision, right now, that you are going to be financially independent, no matter what obstacles you face in the short term. Then write it down, make a plan and start to work on it every single day.
Second, resolve in advance that you will persist in the face of every setback or obstacle you face. You will never give up. You will keep on moving forward until you finally achieve your goal.
The Key to Leadership
The Foremost of the Values
Winston Churchill once said, "Courage is rightly considered the foremost of the virtues, for upon it all others depend." The systematic development of the deep down quality of unflinching courage is one of the fundamental requirements for leadership in any field. Fear, or the lack of courage is more responsible for failure in management, and in life, than any other factor. It is always fear that causes people to hold back, to sell themselves short, to settle for far less than they are capable of!
Eliminate Fear and Doubt
I firmly believe that you can do, have or be far more than you now know if only you could eliminate the fear, doubts and misgivings that consciously and unconsciously interfere with your realizing your full potential.
Unlearn Your Fears
If there is anything positive about fear, it is that all fears are learned, that no one is born with fears, and that having been learned, they can be unlearned. If you want to understand the role of fear in shaping the course of your life, just ask yourself, if you had a magic wand that would absolutely guarantee you success in any one thing you attempted, what goal would you set for yourself.
The Great Question
"What one great thing would you dare to dream if you knew you could not fail?" If you had no fears at all with regard to money or the criticism of others, what would you do differently? Most people can think of all kinds of changes they would, or could, make in their lives if they had no fears to hold them back.
The Origins of Fear
The development of courage begins with understanding the psychological origins of fear. The newborn child has only two fears; the fear of falling and the fear of loud noises. All other fears that we experience as adults are learned as we are growing up, primarily as the result of well-meaning but destructive criticism from our parents.
How Fears Develop
When the curious child gets into things and makes a mess, the parent scolds and punishes the child, eventually building up a pattern of fear connected with trying or getting into anything new or different. As adults, we experience this as the fear of failure, the fear of risking, of making a mistake, of losing.
Action Exercises
Here are two steps you can take immediately to put these ideas into action.
First, imagine that you had no fears at all. What would you set as a goal for yourself if you were guaranteed of success?
Second, decide exactly what you want and then act as if it were impossible to fail. You may be surprised at how successful you are
Winston Churchill once said, "Courage is rightly considered the foremost of the virtues, for upon it all others depend." The systematic development of the deep down quality of unflinching courage is one of the fundamental requirements for leadership in any field. Fear, or the lack of courage is more responsible for failure in management, and in life, than any other factor. It is always fear that causes people to hold back, to sell themselves short, to settle for far less than they are capable of!
Eliminate Fear and Doubt
I firmly believe that you can do, have or be far more than you now know if only you could eliminate the fear, doubts and misgivings that consciously and unconsciously interfere with your realizing your full potential.
Unlearn Your Fears
If there is anything positive about fear, it is that all fears are learned, that no one is born with fears, and that having been learned, they can be unlearned. If you want to understand the role of fear in shaping the course of your life, just ask yourself, if you had a magic wand that would absolutely guarantee you success in any one thing you attempted, what goal would you set for yourself.
The Great Question
"What one great thing would you dare to dream if you knew you could not fail?" If you had no fears at all with regard to money or the criticism of others, what would you do differently? Most people can think of all kinds of changes they would, or could, make in their lives if they had no fears to hold them back.
The Origins of Fear
The development of courage begins with understanding the psychological origins of fear. The newborn child has only two fears; the fear of falling and the fear of loud noises. All other fears that we experience as adults are learned as we are growing up, primarily as the result of well-meaning but destructive criticism from our parents.
How Fears Develop
When the curious child gets into things and makes a mess, the parent scolds and punishes the child, eventually building up a pattern of fear connected with trying or getting into anything new or different. As adults, we experience this as the fear of failure, the fear of risking, of making a mistake, of losing.
Action Exercises
Here are two steps you can take immediately to put these ideas into action.
First, imagine that you had no fears at all. What would you set as a goal for yourself if you were guaranteed of success?
Second, decide exactly what you want and then act as if it were impossible to fail. You may be surprised at how successful you are
Listening Power
The art of good conversation centers very much on your ability to ask questions and to listen attentively to the answers. You can lace the conversation with your insights, ideas, and opinions, but you perfect the art and skill of conversation by perfecting the art and skill of asking good, well-worded questions that direct the conversation and give other people an opportunity to express themselves.
Ask Open Ended Questions
Ask open-ended questions that cannot be answered with a simple "yes" or "no." Open-ended questions encourage the speaker to expand on his thoughts and comments. And one question will lead to another. You can ask open-ended questions almost endlessly, drawing out of the other person everything that he or she has to say on a particular subject.
Be Content to Listen
In order to be an excellent conversationalist, you must resist the urge to dominate the discussion. The very best conversationalists seem to be low-key, easy-going, cheerful, and genuinely interested in the other person. They seem to be quite content to listen when other people are talking and they make their own contributions to the dialogue rather short and to the point
Share the Opportunity to Talk
In fact, good conversation has an easy ebb and flow, like the tide coming in and going out. Whether it is between two people or among several, the conversation should shift back and forth, with each person getting an opportunity to talk. Conversation in this sense is like a ball that is tossed from person to person, with no one holding on to it for very long.
If you feel that you have been talking for too long, you should stop and ask a question of someone in the group. You will be tossing the conversational ball and giving that individual an opportunity to converse.
Learn to Listen Well
Listening is the most important of all skills for successful conversation. Many people are very poor listeners. Since everyone enjoys talking, it takes a real effort to practice the fundamentals of excellent listening and to make them a habit.
Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action.
First, make a habit of asking good, open-ended questions of others in every conversation and in response to problems or difficulties. This shows interest and increases your understanding.
Second, take a deep breath, relax and let the other person talk more. Practice over and over until you become an excellent listener.
Ask Open Ended Questions
Ask open-ended questions that cannot be answered with a simple "yes" or "no." Open-ended questions encourage the speaker to expand on his thoughts and comments. And one question will lead to another. You can ask open-ended questions almost endlessly, drawing out of the other person everything that he or she has to say on a particular subject.
Be Content to Listen
In order to be an excellent conversationalist, you must resist the urge to dominate the discussion. The very best conversationalists seem to be low-key, easy-going, cheerful, and genuinely interested in the other person. They seem to be quite content to listen when other people are talking and they make their own contributions to the dialogue rather short and to the point
Share the Opportunity to Talk
In fact, good conversation has an easy ebb and flow, like the tide coming in and going out. Whether it is between two people or among several, the conversation should shift back and forth, with each person getting an opportunity to talk. Conversation in this sense is like a ball that is tossed from person to person, with no one holding on to it for very long.
If you feel that you have been talking for too long, you should stop and ask a question of someone in the group. You will be tossing the conversational ball and giving that individual an opportunity to converse.
Learn to Listen Well
Listening is the most important of all skills for successful conversation. Many people are very poor listeners. Since everyone enjoys talking, it takes a real effort to practice the fundamentals of excellent listening and to make them a habit.
Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action.
First, make a habit of asking good, open-ended questions of others in every conversation and in response to problems or difficulties. This shows interest and increases your understanding.
Second, take a deep breath, relax and let the other person talk more. Practice over and over until you become an excellent listener.
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