Labels: achievement, success

A colleague recently told me "people aren't interested in goal stuff anymore - because they feel they already know it." I nodded knowingly, but after our conversation I couldn't get my unasked question out of my mind.

"If people know all about goals, why aren't they achieving all the things they desire?"

The first, and most simple, answer to this question is that even though people know about goal setting, and talk about the importance of it, they don't do it.

My guess is that less than 20% of people have clear goals, and probably less than 5% have them written down. A great case can and has been made that taking the steps to clearly define and write down your goals is a key to greater achievement.

While I agree with that point and strongly encourage you to more clearly define your goals, greater achievement alone isn't enough.

The second, more powerful and less obvious, reason why people aren't achieving what is possible for them is that goals are just one part of the achievement and success process.

In order to achieve at the highest levels you must consider all three parts of your life, which goals don't really do.

Let's start with a truth: You are where you are today because of the choices, experiences, associations, inputs, ideas, beliefs, opportunities and habits in your life up until this moment.

The underlying point of a goal is to create something different in our future than we currently have or experience. So it follows that in order to reach that destination we must do something (or perhaps many things) differently.

This means that to reach your goals you must create new or different choices, experiences, associations, inputs, ideas, beliefs, opportunities and habits.

Goal achievement requires consideration of three components: where you've been, where you are, and where you want to be.

Most goals focus solely on the "where you want to be", though the best ones take "where you are" into account. To expand your horizons beyond goals themselves, let's discuss each of these perspectives briefly.

Where you've been. Your past is what puts you in your current situation. Therefore, in order to best determine how to move forward, you must better understand where you've been. This understanding can come from reflection and exploration of past situations and experiences. This is important because if you don't understand your past choices, habits, etc., you are likely to repeat them unconsciously. With the same behaviors in the future, it will be hard to reach new results, regardless of your goal, whether you have written it down, etc.

Where you are. The starting point for goals is today, right now. Today, your current status and situation, creates the context for any goal. While you will be most successful if you are grateful for your current circumstances (however challenging they might be), you also need to be unsatisfied with your current development (however wonderful things are). Complacency is the enemy of progress and a healthy amount of discontent can provide the impetus for your greater success. In order to successfully move towards your desired future, you must acknowledge the present.

Where you want to be. Goals, especially when they are clear and specific, help create a focus on the future. You must leverage this focus to create the action that is required to reach your goals. While your goals are about your desired future state, even then the goal alone isn't enough. You must take action. You must make changes to your habits, associations, ideas, approaches and more to achieve success.

To move ever closer to your potential - and create the results you desire in your life - you must do more than set goals. Your goals are a wonderful starting point, but you must also:

• Understand your past
• Acknowledge your future
• Take actions required to reach your goals.

Creating the life and results you require takes more than goals. It takes learning, growth and action. When you put all of these components together in the right ways, you will create remarkable results.

Potential Pointer: It takes more than goals to achieve greatness in any life endeavor. The truly successful look to their past for clues, acknowledge their present as a launching pad, and focus on and take massive action towards their desired future.

I met Michelle Cummings, the author of this book, at a NASAGA Conference recently. I've been a fan of her Spokesperson E-Newsletter for several years, so meeting her was one of my Conference goals.

I'm sure glad I did.

Michelle is a master at designing and facilitating learning events that are engaging and fun. We share many common experiences and philosophies, and I learned so much during the session she led at the Conference.

Playing With a Full Deck is her book of 52 (of course!) activities that require only a deck of cards and people. The activities are categorized by use - including problem solving, energizers and diversity. Each exercise is simply described and often includes pictures. When I read through this book again this morning, I found a new exercise I will use with a group next week.

Beyond all of that, the book includes a number of interesting facts about playing cards, their history, etc. It's almost worth the cost of the book just for these trivia tidbits!

If you are a trainer or facilitator, this book needs to be on your shelf. If you are a leader looking for ways to engage your team in meetings and retreats, this book will be invaluable to you. I even plan to use some of the exercises at parties - because they aren't just learning exercises, they're fun too.

The best news of all is that if you subscribe to Michelle's free newsletter you'll get a sneak preview - you receive nine of the activities from the book as a special gift for subscribing.

You can buy this book directly from Michelle's company or at Amazon.com. Your choice.

"Thank you"

Saying "thank you" is one of the lessons most of us learn at a young age. It's something we teach to our children too. We all know that gratitude is important, which is why in many parts of the world we have a day called Thanksgiving to remind us to be thankful.

It is unfortunate in many ways that we have such a day. Yes, it may remind us on that day to be thankful, grateful and appreciative - but the fact is that we will benefit greatly if we do it with much more regularity. I was thinking daily, or even hourly.

The behavior of being grateful goes beyond saying "thank you," though that is one of the actions that should be included. When I speak of the behavior of gratitude I mean consciously and regularly looking for and acknowledging the things you are thankful for or appreciate. Some people choose to keep a gratitude journal, some make occasional lists and some mentally say thank you as things happen.

The purpose of this article is not to suggest or advocate for any particular method, but rather to implore you to be grateful; for when you are, your life will be drastically altered for the better.

Before I share these five ways with you let me make one thing very clear: the reasons to be grateful are many, but do not include a quid pro quo of "If I'm grateful, I'll get these benefits." Rather choose to be grateful, do the things that heighten you appreciation of the world around you and your circumstances, and rest assured these benefits will flow to you.

What we think about expands. This is the foundational principle for the other four ways that follow. Would you like more of the things you are grateful for in your life? When you think on those things and are grateful for their presence, you are already taking the first step towards expanding them in your life!

Reduce your stress. We add much stress to our lives by the things we think about, wonder about and worry about. If you are thinking appreciative, grateful thoughts there is less room for the rest. When you are grateful for what you have, you will reduce your stress.

Change your focus. Being grateful in these ways changes your focus by definition. Our minds are built to literally allow us to see the things we are looking for. When you approach life from the perspective of thankfulness, your mind will literally notice more examples of things to be thankful for, and even help you do a better job of seeing the positive in any situation.

Improve your relationships. Do this exercise with me. Think of a person that is a challenge in your life - a person that makes something difficult for you; someone that frustrates you or you argue with frequently. Write that person's name at the top of a piece of paper and write down five admirable things about that person - five skills, abilities or characteristics about that person that you can appreciate. Once you have done that, commit to thinking about those attributes or characteristics the next time you are around or working with that person. As you think of those things you appreciate, even when you are frustrated or in disagreement, your thinking about the person and your attitude will change. By taking this step of gratitude and appreciation you are taking a huge step towards improving your relationship.

Improve your self image. The more you think about the good things in your life, and the more you notice and observe what is working well in your life, the better you will feel about yourself! And the even better news is that as your self image improves your focus and your relationships will continue to improve and your stress will, everything else being equal, continue to drop.

The benefits of gratitude go far beyond doing something because it's the "right thing" to do. When you begin to notice and take inventory of all of the things you are thankful for, you recognize that even though your life may have challenges and you might be facing obstacles, you can build your future success on the blessings around you right now.

Potential Pointer: Everyone has a huge number of things, people and circumstances for which to be thankful. When you invest the time and focus to notice and acknowledge these things, you create space and energy to draw even more positive experiences and circumstances into your life.

Earlier this fall I was asked to give a talk on Ethical Leadership to a student leadership conference at Purdue University.  One of the students who heard me, asked me to speak on the same topic to his student group - the Mechanical Engineering Ambassadors, which I did last evening.

Part of my talk was to give my definition of ethical leadership.  It is one that I have synthesized over time, and I am sure draws heavily from various things I have read (I'm sorry that I can't link to any of them for you).

There is much I could unpack from that single sentence, but as I drove home last night I kept thinking about the core values piece and how that impacts us as leaders.

When I woke up this morning, my subconscious having worked on this idea through the night, I came to this point - living your core values is the the ultimate strategic leadership practice.

What could be more strategic that aligning your work, actions and decisions with your highest principles?

So here is your leadership activity for today:

1.  Reflect on your core values. 

1a. If you don't have a list of them, today is the best day to create it.

2.  Identify at least 2 ways - by looking at your schedule or action list - that you can live them in your work today (there are probably 22 ways, but two is a good starting point to make this a more conscious activity).

For years I've asked people, "What's the good word today?"  My intention always was to get people thinking about something positive and if they were thinking something positive to share it with me so I could benefit too!

Unfortunately far too often people can't come up with a good word - or in many cases a word at all.

As I said, I've asked this question for years, until it has almost become a conditioned response or a habit.  Because of that, I haven't thought much about it for a long time. 

Until recently, when I started thinking about how the U.S. President's team tries to manage communications with daily briefs and messaging.  It is no accident that the information shared by multiple media outlets is largely the same when it comes to creating the national conversation - at least some of that comes from the White House and is done deliberately. (This reflection is likely because of my preparation for the Leadership Lessons from Presidential Politics teleseminars I did recently).

I don't want you (or me) to get mired in the details of White House messaging, or start "yes, butting" because our work isn't the same as the President's and we don't have a huge communications team, yada yada yada.  Rather than focusing on the differences, let's explore the principle we can apply. . .

As leaders, we need to consciously create the conversation in our organization.  Ask yourself this question:

Are people talking about and thinking about the most important things, the things that will help us reach our objectives?

Most everyone has goals. And even if you don't have them clearly defined and written down (if that's you, why not?), you likely have some sense of where you want to go.

If you have neither, this article isn't really for you. But if either of the first two things is true for you then this article is absolutely for you; because if you have goals, I'm guessing you'd like to reach them faster.

The sole purpose of setting a goal is reaching the goal, and in most instances, getting to the goal faster would be a good thing! It doesn't matter if you are behind on your goal plan (or the deadline is coming up quickly), if you are overwhelmed by the amount you have to do, or whatever your reason is for wanting to "pick up the pace", the four actions that follow will accelerate your progress and move you towards your goals faster.

1. Remind Yourself Why

You set the goal for a reason. There is some purpose or series of benefits that will come to you when the goal is reached. You know what these reasons are, right? If you don't, stop here and determine them before you do anything else.

Here are some examples.

Your goal is to lose weight so you will have more energy, feel better about yourself or attract a mate (or wow them at your class reunion). Your goal is to complete the project on time in order to better serve Customers or earn a bonus (in order to take that Mediterranean cruise). Your goal is to complete the reorganization so that Customers will be happier, productivity can be improved and people can get settled into their new jobs quickly (so the lives of those you lead can become more normal again).

There may be many "reasons why" for any goal you set. You must know them, you must remind yourself of them, and you must recognize that all "whys" aren't created equally. Notice how powerful and personal the above ones in parentheses are? Those are the why's that will keep you moving forward towards your goals when you are frustrated, tired or discouraged.

Keep your whys clear, and if you are leading others, find ways to keep the whys clear and top of mind for them too.

We can achieve much more and achieve faster when we have a clear and compelling reason why.

2. Take Daily Action

I really can't say it any clearer than this. If you want to accelerate your progress towards your goals, you simply must take more of the actions required to reach those goals. Take at least one tangible action towards the ultimate goal every day. Cleaning your desk or organizing your files doesn't count. If you need to do these types of things, great, but that isn't progress towards your goal (unless your goal is a consistently clean office). Forget the busy work, and get to work. One task every day.

Want to move even faster? Take more action! Do two or three tasks every day. Make them tangible and directly related to the goals. As you take action, and see progress and have success, you create more energy. The greater energy you create allows you to take more action and have more success. This virtuous cycle is a major key to accelerating your progress towards your goals.

Want to reach your goal faster? Take action today, and every day. Start now.

3. Learn Something

There is a complete and direct linkage between goals and learning. The achievement of every goal requires learning. If you already knew everything required, chances are a goal wouldn't be needed. In fact there are two major components to the achievement of your goals - action (which we just talked about) and learning (which we're talking about now).

When you choose to learn things required for achieving your goals, you create:

• New abilities and skills you need for success.
• New insights or mindsets that create success.
• New information that causes you to be inspired and creates energy.

All of these things create speed in goal achievement.

When you combine steps two and three you have even faster achievement. Note: One of your daily tasks could be to learn something. This is a great daily action. But be forewarned, learning something every day, by itself, isn't enough.

Learning is a cornerstone to goal achievement, so as you learn more you accelerate your progress.

4. Get Help

There is no such thing as a self made man (or woman). We all need help and support to reach our goals, if even indirectly. Even if you could reach your goals completely alone, why would you want to? Get your ego out of the equation and you will speed up your progress. Other people can provide:

• Support
• A pair of hands to help
• Knowledge
• Experience
• A referral
• Encouragement
• And a thousand other things.

There is no need to go it alone, to do so is silly and non-productive.

To reach your goals faster, get help and build a team.

These four steps will help you reach any goal faster. They also will help you as a leader in helping teams and individuals do the same.

Start today by looking at any current goal you would like to achieve faster, then put these ideas in place. Rest assured your future success will come much faster than if you don't.

Potential Pointer: If you want to accelerate progress towards your goals, remain clear on why you want to reach the goal, take daily action towards it, continue to learn things that support your goal and enlist the help and support of others. When you take these four steps, you are on your way to greater success sooner!

This book came up on Amazon when I was purchasing something else. I loved the title, and quite honestly it was an impulse purchase. I have to remember to trust my intuition more often.

This slim (97 pages) book is packed with research from the author's company and will help you better understand the causes, complexities and significant impacts of employee disengagement. Beyond that it suggests approaches leaders can employ to avoid, diffuse and correct this debilitating situation.

The books' subtitle tells the story (as it so often does): "Attacking the Spreading Virus of Disengagement." The virus is real, and this book helps us see that more clearly.

If you are looking for an expansive or academic view of this situation, find a different book. It may not be the only book you want to own on this topic, but it offers real solutions. And while short, it is a very valuable addition to your leadership and management book collection.

Learn More and Purchase

I've been thinking about choice a lot lately - for myself and the implications it has for us as leader. Here is a case in point - what I sent to our Powerquotes subscribers earlier this week -


"You can always do what you want to do. This is true with
every act. You may say that you had to do something,
or that you were forced to, but actually, whatever you do,
you do by choice. Only you have the power to choose for
yourself." 

 -- W.Clement Stone

Questions to Ponder

What choices am I making?

Do I recognize them as in my control?

Action Steps

Recognize your power to choose.

Use this power wisely.

.....

Recognizing that we are making choices and valuing those choices is something that effective leaders must do - it is a leadership activity of champions. 

Having the right focus on choice allows you exercise your leadership influence more effectively, will help you create a more empowered and engaged workplace and brings accountability and responsibility into focus more clearly.

But all of this starts with you. 

You must recognize that you are responsible for your choices; you must focus on what is inside of your control.  When you do these things consistently you will  create better results for yourself (in all parts of your life) and for your organization.  You will also be modeling this behavior for those you lead.

Choosing the recognize the power of choice isn't just a great concept for you personally, it makes you a more effective leader.

Improving your skills in this way doesn't require an organizational leadership development process.  It doesn't require a formal leadership development program of any kind.  What it requires is you stepping up and making choices based on what is in your control.

Recognize the power you have over the choices in your life and the outcomes those choices create.  Use them wisely.

Ryan, the good looking middle-aged executive that everyone loves is in a tragic car accident, and when awakens from a brief coma, the worst has occurred. He has amnesia! He can't remember any one or anything at all. Suddenly he is beginning life new, with no clue about the people he knows or the strategies that have made him who he is . . .

Ryan is a make-believe person, and the story is ripped from soap opera television (any show, most weeks I'm told). In the past when people would tell me of television story lines like this, I always thought, "I don't know anyone who as ever really had amnesia."

That isn't how I feel anymore.

Now I realize, that we all suffer from amnesia, and it affects our performance and results everyday. Yes, we remember the names of the important people in our lives and the way to work and our address, but we forget all sorts of important things all the time.

The things we forget are tools and techniques that affect our leadership skills. We walk through our day not doing things we know work; in effect operating as if we have amnesia related to the activities that lead to effective leadership.

There are many ways we can cure this unnoticed amnesia, but like any affliction, we can't cure it until it has been diagnosed. We can diagnose it with a 360 assessment. A 360 assessment can provide clues and pointers to show us and remind us of our blind spots. I have never coached someone on a 360 assessment where there wasn't at least one thing that the person felt they "knew was important" but just wasn't doing - a classic case of leadership amnesia!

Once diagnosed, the cure can come from executive coaching, or any coaching and mentoring process, as well as personal reflection and and being on an ongoing learning path.

Ryan's amnesia was catastrophic, our much less evident. And yet when we diagnose and understand our personal case, we can begin the long and beneficial road to recovery.

Pick one technique, tool or idea that you know works but haven't done lately (for whatever reason). Notice the results you get.

And smile knowing that you are on the road to recovery from leadership amnesia.

There are opportunities for us to learn from everyday life situations . . . everyday . . . but only if we look for them and take time to reflect on and digest them.

Recently we've all shared a common experience, that I know we can learn much from - and learn different things than you might think. That event? The U.S. Presidential campaign and election (and if you are reading this from outside the U.S. the lessons are just as valuable). As a leader, there are probably hundreds of lessons we can take from these events . . . but only if we step back, think, and reflect on them.

I've been doing that thinking and reflecting over that last year, as I have watched the polls, the press, and the process. As I've examined the speeches the systems, and the selection, I been learning and relearning key leadership lessons.

And as a result of this I've built what I believe to be a very innovative leadership tool for your leadership development right now.. That tool is a teleseminar titled Leadership Lessons from Presidential Politics. During it I will share over 25 ideas, tips, techniques and skills that I've extracted from the process. All of these ideas result in more effective leadership skills for you and can be applied right away!

Consider this as the most innovative leadership skills training you will participate in this year! Whether you are focused on upper level corporate leadership or supervisor training you will find lessons you can apply immediately.

This teleseminar will offered twice on November 12 - 2 pm ET and 9 pm ET and I'm paying your registration fee (people normally pay us $57 for live teleseminars) - but you can participate even if you are unable to attend. To learn more about the specific ideas I will be sharing, and to register, sign up for Leadership Lessons from Presidential Politics here.

Also posted in Learning and Training.

Labels: presidential leadership

Many years ago when asked what the most powerful force in the universe was, Albert Einstein said, "compound interest."  What I am writing about today, might be, with all due respect to Albert, just as powerful.  The reason is that it in many ways they are the same thing: compound interest allows your money to grow on itself, and Incremental improvement allows your skills and productivity to grow on themselves.

In short, if you want to improve your skills, your best approach is get a little bit better everyday.  You can't make quantum leap improvements each day (there are certainly situations where a new idea, technique or approach may in a short time drastically improve your skills or abilities, but you can't rely on these occurring regularly.) If you want to get 10% better at a particular leadership skill in the next 30 days, that might seem daunting.  But can you get 1% better every day for a month?   That seems easier and more realistic. We can all get 1% better each day.

So let's do the math.  We'll just use the working days and assume 20 working days in the next thirty (even though there are plenty of ways to work on leadership development everyday).  At the end of our 30 days we will have improved by: 20.81%.  This is certainly a powerful concept for us personally and should cause you to be excited and ready to start learning, but this is just the start.

The power of incremental improvement is perhaps the most when considered as an organizational leadership development idea.  Ask yourself this question:  what would happen to productivity, profitability, and results overall if everyone on my team improved by 1% each day.  Now you don't have one person improving 20.81% in a month, but EVERYone improving by that amount.

And this is just month one.

Want a strategic leadership initiative?  Build a process, tools and expectations to help everyone in your organization work on a single skill each month, with the goal of getting 1% better each day.  Then, move to another skill next month.

That is why I believe Remarkable Leaders are Continual Learners (one of the chapters from my book Remarkable Leadership - Unleashing Your Leadership Potential One Skill at a Time), and that idea is the crux of our "one skill at a time, one month at a time" model for the Remarkable Leadership Learning System.

I will write more on this topic in the coming days, but for now, I'll leave you with this question: 

What do I want to get 1% better at today, and how will I do it?

Labels: Unleash Your Potential

I've noticed a theme in my life lately, and it has a great deal to do with your ability to lead successfully. The theme is simply stated by the slogan on the t-shirt I wore last Friday night as trick or treaters came by our home.

"Just Be Nice"

I love the shirt and the message, because I believe that we all need to be reminded sometimes the importance of being nice.

Earlier last week I was in a conversation in my office. A visitor asked me to list the things I look for when hiring or otherwise bringing someone onto my team. One of the five attributes I listed was "being nice." He immediately asked if I meant "personable." I thought briefly then agreed with him. I wish now I could take back that agreement.

The third event of last week that points to the them of being nice, is the guest post that I wrote entitled, Decency - One Step in Leadership Development.

While I am among the most optimistic people I know, I believe that generally speaking, we are being less nice these days.

"Just Be Nice" - is clearly one of the most under-appreciated leadership activities.

Personable is good as is decency. But what I want on my team is nice people. This doesn't mean they aren't willing to be passionate about their beliefs or shy away from conflict. It means they are nice. Nice to each other and nice to Customers. I know that if I want a culture of collegiality, of interaction, of nice; I, as the leader must be a role model of nice.

When I am nicer, I build teams, communicate, develop others, coach, and influence more effectively - all important behaviors for me as a leader.

Your task today is to think about the behavior of being nice. Consider it to be the leadership skill you focus on today (and this week). Make note of how often you observe it - and how consistently you are being it.

It may not be the flashiest or sexiest leadership development idea you consider this week, but it is a good leadership skill - something that will make a positive difference in your leadership success and your personal life as well.

Just Be Nice.