Tag Archive - dreams

Digging For Your Gold

August 9, 2010 in Leadership, Quotes with 3 Comments

Digging For Your Gold 300x197 Digging For Your GoldAlright, so last week I refreshed on one of my favorite authors, Norman Vincent Peale. Dr. Peale is definitely the champion when it comes to positive thinking. He built an industry on his powerful philosophy, including dozens of books, thousands or lectures, over fifty years of radio programs, and the widely read magazine, Guideposts. But positive thinking alone did not make him such a success…underlying all was hard work.

“Nothing of great value in this life comes easily. The things of highest value sometimes come hard. The gold that has the greatest value lies deepest in the earth, as do the diamonds.” – Norman Vincent Peale

Dr. Peale’s hard work involved mining deep into believing in yourself in order to attain your dreams. Like miners who dig deep for gold, you also have to dig deep to find your own gold and diamonds…the priceless personal values that make you who you are.

Hard work to attain business goals require a lot of effort that few will ever notice. It often involves confronting you fears. For example, it’s hard work to remain positive when presenting a new business idea if it generates nothing more that an initial lukewarm response. Taking action and not giving up produces solutions.

Mine your inner values of perseverance and dedication to achieve your goals. If you think you can do it, you will do it. It may often be rough-going at times, but no one ever said success comes easy.

What methods do you use to keep positive when digging for your success?

Inspire Your Team to Innovate

July 8, 2010 in Business, Leadership with 7 Comments

Inspired Innovation 300x198 Inspire Your Team to InnovateHighly motivated people are the reason that any organization can develop a successful product or service. But what motivates them to begin? Is it the compensation, or do they have tons of pride in what they do? Harvard Business School professor Bill George believes that the pride felt by inventing something valuable cannot be matched. When he said “competitors will eventually copy an innovative idea for a product or service, but an organization of highly motivated people is very hard to duplicate,” he is clearly stating that an environment of innovation is much more motivating than an environment of copycatting. Creating a better mousetrap is a big step down from designing the original invention.

Let your team use it’s unique attributes, not just it’s traditionally trained skills

Let your team feel pride in their work by allowing them to be unique. Don’t always send them off to repeat someone else’s success. They should be able to experiment, innovate, and create success of their own.

Breeding this kind of atmosphere entices the best people to come to work. Most creative thinkers don’t want to do the same-old, same-old their entire career. They didn’t spend four or more years in college, accumulating tens of thousands of dollars to be a mimic. Almost everyone dreams of putting his or her unique stamp on the world, and this alone creates the motivation for success. So give your highly motivated industrious team the time they need to come up with something great.

How are you inspiring your team to innovate?

Four Basic Skills of Leadership

March 3, 2010 in Leadership with 38 Comments

leadership basics 300x169 Four Basic Skills of LeadershipThe skills of leadership need to address each of the key elements which make up the ‘problem space’ of leadership: (a) oneself, (b) one’s relationship with one’s collaborators, (c) the system in which one is acting and (d) the goals to be achieved by oneself and one’s collaborators in that system. This entry will cover a numerous skills addressing these various elements of leadership: self skills, relational skills, strategic thinking skills, and systemic thinking skills.

Self skills are how the leader handles himself or herself in a particular situation. Self skills allow the leader to choose the most appropriate attitude, state-of-mind, focus, etc., with which to enter a situation. In a way, self skills are the steps by which the leader leads himself or herself.

Relational skills have to do with the ability to recognize, encourage, and communicate with other people. They result in the ability to enter another person’s model of the perceived world or perceptual space, establish rapport and guide that person to recognize problems and objectives. Since leaders must reach their dreams and accomplish their goals through their influence upon others, relational skills are one of the most important aspects of leadership.

Strategic thinking skills are necessary in order to define and achieve specific goals and objectives. Strategic thinking involves the ability to identify a relevant desired state, assess the starting state, and then establish and navigate the appropriate path of transition states required to reach the desired state. A key element of effective strategic thinking is determining which team members and tasks will most efficiently and effectively influence and move the present state in the direction of the desired state.

Systemic thinking skills are used by the leader to identify and understand the problem space in which the leader, his or her collaborators and the organization is operating. Systemic thinking is at the root of effective “solution creation” and the ability to create functional teams. The ability to think systemically in a practical and firm way is probably the most definitive sign of maturity in a leader.

Do you apply any of the four leadership skills in your life? If so, I’d love to hear about it!