LEADERSHIP at EVERY LEVEL

Quit Taking a Ride... and Take the Wheel - Part 2

2009-11-11T21:53:00.000-08:00

Last post I discussed a pretty good habit you can swap for really great one – Quit Taking a Ride… and Take the Wheel. Winners are always in the driver’s seat. As a result, they let their actions rise above their excuses.

When problems arise, what’s your first reaction? Do you think like a cop, identifying culprits and assigning blame? Do you vent your anger on anyone within your yelling radius? Do you submerge yourself in regret, thinking, If only? Or do you immediately get creative and think, How can we make this right?

Early in my career, I asked my boss why, when the rest of us couldn’t find daylight, he could see the light at the end of the tunnel and it was always coming from a rainbow?

“It comes from a lesson I learned long ago,” he said. “The more you focus on the positive side of life, the more you will attract the positives. The things we focus on create a magnet for our lives.”

As the years since then have taught me, my boss was right. Focus on excuses, and every challenge is a stumbling block. Focus on solutions, and every challenge becomes a stepping stone.

During one of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s election campaigns, his campaign manager was about to print 3 million copies of the candidate’s acceptance speech with his photograph alongside. Then someone pointed out that the photographer had never given permission to use the photograph. According to the copyright laws at that time, you could be fined a dollar per copy for publishing unauthorized photographs. The campaign couldn’t take a $3 million hit.

The campaign manager felt a tinge of panic, but instead of thinking up excuses or finding someone to blame, he kept his cool and started considering ways to handle the situation. Could this disaster be turned into a dividend?

He had an idea.

He cabled the photographer: “I have a plan that could mean a great deal of publicity for you. What’s it worth to you if I use your photo on this campaign material?” The photographer cabled back: “I can’t afford more than $250.”

It was a deal!

By focusing on finding a solution, FDR’s campaign manager was not only able to prevent great embarrassment and fines, but he also forged a lasting relationship between the photographer and FDR’s administration—and he got a pretty good deal for a crucial photo.

Winners are skilled at seeing solutions. They do this in various ways. One powerful way is to cultivate a heightened awareness of solutions—that is, when they encounter a problem, they immediately start seeing possible solutions. It’s a habit that can be cultivated, and it has to do with a take-charge mindset—taking the wheel instead of letting events drive themselves. When we change the way we look at things, things change the way they look. If we remain open to new experiences, we discover new ways of doing things, new ways of enjoying life. If we train ourselves to think in terms of solutions instead of problems, we begin to see more solutions. Soon problems become merely occasions to find solutions—a kind of game that challenges you to solve puzzles.

You can train yourself to look for good outcomes by becoming aware of how you react when a problem arises. Do you get angry? Do you start assigning blame? If so, catch yourself before you speak. Take a breather. Remain calm. You’re inside the problem; where’s the exit? What needs to be done right away? What can be done later? What can be done to keep this from happening in the future?

Next time you hop into your car, consider how much bigger your windshield is than your rear view mirror. There’s a reason for this: in driving, as in life, you need to keep your attention focused forward more than backward. Keep your eyes on the road ahead, always looking for winning solutions. Leave the problems and excuses in your rearview mirror.

Check out Winners ALWAYS Quit for six other pretty good habits you can swap for really great results./

Quit Taking a Ride... and Take the Wheel

2009-11-11T21:51:00.000-08:00

Just today, my wife and I brought our newborn baby boy home. Oh, wait a minute. That was 16 years ago today! How can that be? From drooling to driving in a nanosecond. In spite of our attempts to make time stand still, my son is ready to quit taking a ride and take the wheel. For him, it is a literal change. For the rest of us, it's a figurative challenge.

My good friend and bestselling author, David Cottrell, and I discuss this challenge in our latest book, Winners ALWAYS Quit.

On any of life’s journeys, we have to make a choice before we begin the trip. Our options are these: we can be a passenger, or we can be the driver. It’s our choice.

People who choose to be passengers have to go where the driver is going. Passengers have no control over how fast they move ahead, no say about whether rules are observed.

Then again, being a passenger has its appeal. You can just sit in the car and relax, oblivious to your final destination. You can plug in your earbuds and listen to music, or you can nap. You can text a friend on your cell phone or do sudoku puzzles. You don’t have to pay attention to where you are, who’s in front of you, who’s behind you, or whether you’re making progress. Your journey may be pleasant enough, but if you choose to be a passenger, you’re just going along for the ride.

It’s not what happens to us but how we choose to respond to what happens that determines our next move, next path, next relationship, and next risk. If you choose to be a driver, you accept the responsibility for moving toward your goal. You pay attention and focus on getting to your destination. You make decisions on how quickly to move ahead. You avoid potholes and stray ice chests in the road. You decide when to stop and refuel. You may choose to take a detour. You make all the decisions that affect the safety of your passengers and your success in reaching the goal.

The physical distance between a passenger and a driver is less than three feet; the psychological distance is enormous. Which would you choose to be?

Expect the Unexpected

When things are going the way they’re expected to go, most people feel they are in control of their lives. This is an illusion. In the larger sense, you can’t control all the events life throws at you, or even most of them. The only thing you can really control is how you respond to them. It’s like being a defensive driver.

When the unexpected happens, the illusion of control can vanish like your kids at dishwashing time. People react to the unexpected in one of two ways. Some take the role of the victim: “Wasn’t my fault. Nobody could have foreseen it. Nothing I could have done about it.” This is a “passenger” reaction.

Others see an opportunity to truly take control: “Okay, things have changed. Let’s see what we can do about it.
Maybe there’s a great opportunity here.” This is the way a “driver” reacts.

A real driver has the remarkable ability to deal successfully with the unexpected, the unusual, the extraordinary. Positively dealing with the unexpected by looking for solutions, not excuses, is the choice winners make.

Believe it or not, the unexpected is going to happen. It’s your choice how you deal with it. You can be a victim, or you can choose to realize that you can make strides toward greater success by taking control of the unexpected.

Do we sometimes fall into the victim trap? Of course. Occasionally feeling sorry for ourselves is natural, but remaining in the victim trap will keep you from achieving success.

Avoiding the victim trap is not easy, but it’s a choice you have to make. You control your next move. Will you sit and sulk, or will you commit to continuing toward your ultimate goal?

Tune into my next blog post for the inside track on how you can jump into the driver’s seat of your life!

Quit Getting Comfortable... and Explore the Edge

2009-11-11T21:48:00.000-08:00

Comfort certainly has its advantages—our comfy chair in the living room, a comfortable routine at work, a comfortable relationship. With all the advantages of comfort, here are some things you should know about the comfort zone before you explore the edge.

The comfort zone is where most of life is played. It is certainly where most of sports is played. Consider a football field: 90 percent of the game is played between the 20-yard lines. That’s why they call anything outside that area the “red zone”—it’s where the difference in the game is made. It’s okay to feel good and play well inside the comfort zone before you explore the edge and go for the score.

But staying in the comfort zone too long can get boring. We get soft and unfocused; we don’t have to be as sharp. If we make our comfort zone as big as our life, we not only lose our edge, we can even lose sight of the edge. We must ignite our own sense of adventure if we want to see what the world has to offer us and what we have to offer the world.

It’s pretty safe in the comfort zone. We know the boundaries, the landscape, and the other comfortable players in the comfort zone. There is little or no risk; a misstep here or there is not very costly. But like the football team that’s trapped between the 20-yard lines, we cannot win in the comfort zone. Because the risk is small, so is the reward. Learning and growth occur when we are uncomfortable. Think of the defining moments of learning and growth in your life. Were you hanging out in your comfort zone? No, you were hanging over the edge.

So, in case you’re hesitating to explore the edge, here are four comforting questions to help you move forward.

1. Who else has done it? You may think you’re in unexplored territory, but it’s unlikely that you’re trying something no one else has ever tried. Look around to find others who have explored the same edge that you might be anxious about. Whether your comfort zone ends at the edge of learning a new skill, speaking in public, making a financial investment, expressing your feelings, or quitting a bad habit, someone else has been at that very same edge. That person can help support you, prepare you, and encourage you to win.

2. Can I dip my toe in first? No one says you have to hurl yourself headlong into every new endeavor. Try it out first. Start small. When you reflect on the first time you tried anything new (leading, speaking, rock climbing, painting, playing a musical instrument), you probably remember how uncomfortable you felt. But you stepped out and did it, and you soon discovered that it wasn’t as hard as you had expected, right? After a while, what was once the edge became your comfort zone as you built your competence—and competence builds confidence.

3. How bad can it be? Often, the fear in your mind paints a darker picture of things outside your comfort zone than is really the case. Remember, the victory is in the exploration itself more than the success of your attempt. Thomas Edison said, “Genius? Nothing! Sticking to it is the genius. I’ve failed my way to success.”

4. How great can it be? Your dreams are usually bigger than your comfort zone. You must be so passionate about your dream that, instead of feeling that you have to leave your comfort zone, you are magnetically drawn to the edge.

So, quit getting comfortable and explore the edge!

Quit Moving... and Be Still

2009-05-19T14:46:00.000-07:00

The blinding speed of today’s information-saturated, time-deprived, hypercompetitive world forces us to run, run, run just to keep pace. Alarm! Snooze button. Alarm! Shower. Shave. Computer on. Phone on. Check headlines. Check voice mail. Check email. Google dog groomer. Make dinner reservations. Microwave breakfast. Drive to office. Check email. Check schedule. Text Junior about afternoon pickup time for soccer practice. Join global teleconference in progress. Answer incoming text message. Log out early to handle phone storm—and that’s just the first hour.

Accessibility through technology can be a double-edged sword—a blessing in terms of our productivity and material prosperity, but a curse on our peace of mind and ability to relax and enjoy life. Sometimes we seem to be human doings rather than human beings. When you’re busy being a human doing, you’re usually too focused on the job to stand back and look at the big picture. You’re too rationally involved in your goal to give your creativity free rein, to see the natural solutions to problems that stymie you.

If you have driven your car at night in a thick fog, you know that you can see farther down the road if you use your low beams, because your high beams just reflect off the fog and blind you. It’s the same thing if you’re trying to solve a problem in your life or your business: the high-intensity approach sometimes blinds you by putting your focus on unimportant issues rather than the real problem. But if you use your low beams instead—get away from the problem and let your creative intuition do its work - often the answer emerges and the path to the goal becomes clearer to you.

So, how, exactly, in today’s hyperactive and attention-demanding world, do we switch from high to low beams?

Try stop moving for a while and let things settle down. Be still. Relax. Be quiet. Look around. Listen.

My youngest daughter has a special area in her room where she can chill and relax. She calls it her “chillax zone.” Although your chillax zone might not have big pink pillows and a fluffy white carpet, we all need to make a time and place that offers us mental space. Your space might be your car as you drive home after work, a reading or meditation corner in your house, your bathtub, your gym, a nearby park where you walk—anywhere you can be alone with your thoughts. The thinking, planning, and reflection you do in this space helps you get off the treadmill and rise above the hurly-burly of your everyday world to gain a better perspective on yourself, your situation, and your dreams.

We all need to make a time and place that offers us mental space. Your space might be your car as you drive home after work, a reading or meditation corner in your house, your bathtub, your gym, a nearby park where you walk—anywhere you can be alone with your thoughts. The thinking, planning, and reflection you do in this space helps you get off the treadmill and rise above the hurly-burly of your everyday world to gain a better perspective on yourself, your situation, and your dreams.

You don’t actually have to go on vacation or head for the spa. All you’ve got to do is change the scenery in your mind. Instead of trudging along the dusty trail following the ruts of the wagon train, fly yourself to the top of the mountain where you can be still, relax, and dream while you gaze out over the world below.

When you stop moving, your world gets quieter. You don’t hear the babble of people working all around you, the rustle of information, the pinging of emotion, the roar of the wind past your ears. All that noise, gone - and then you can truly listen. As Indira Gandhi said, “You must learn to be still in the midst of activity and to be vibrantly alive at rest.”

Here’s to being still… so you can move forward!

Learn about six other pretty good habits you can swap for really great results in my latest book, Winners ALWAYS Quit.

Find Your One Thing.

2009-05-03T20:59:00.000-07:00

The most important thing in life, and in business, is to determine what is most important.

Quit Analyzing and Use Your Intuition

2009-04-03T09:06:00.000-07:00

Tom Peters called intuition our greatest gift. It’s the feeling we get when what we are seeing doesn’t match up with the facts we think we know; it’s the sudden move we make without thinking that saves us from disaster; it’s the voice that tells us the truth rather than what we would like to hear.

Intuition is the ability to make quick and sound decisions based on a minimum of information. For instance, take a look at this paragraph…

Cna yuo raed tihs? I cdn’uolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonemnel pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rsereeachr at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno’t mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteers be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig, huh? Yaeh, and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!

Isn’t it astounding how easily we can decipher words with information that is ambiguous, garbled, or less than complete? We are wired to see underlying patterns, fill in the gaps, straighten out the miscues, and discover the hidden meanings. The same is true of our innate ability to make decisions.

Applying the 80/20 Principle to our thinking can help us make smarter, faster, more intuitive decisions. The 80/20 Principle (also known as the Pareto Principle) is pervasive in our world:

- 80% of traffic jams occur on 20% of roads.
- 80% of beer is consumed by 20% of drinkers.
- 80% of classroom participation comes from 20% of students.
- 80% of profits come from 20% of customers.

In most situations, you can gather 80 percent of the relevant information in the first 20 percent of the time available. Generally, the remaining 20 percent of the data (which would take the remaining 80 percent of your time to obtain) would not substantially improve the quality of your decision. Your intuition is good enough to organize the data and fill in the gaps, just as it did in those nonsense paragraphs a few pages back.

Specifically, here’s how you might apply the 80/20 Principle to your next big decision. First, identify the top five pieces of information you need to make the decision. Then, decide which four of these five are highest in priority. Once you’ve gathered this information, you will have roughly 80 percent of the information you need, and the remaining 20 percent is less important. Now, harness all of your experience and your intuition to fill in the blanks and make a great decision—even faster!

Please share ways you have found to quit thinking and use your intuition.

Play the Full Table

2009-03-31T20:11:00.000-07:00

During my family holiday visits, we played lots of ping pong - a favorite indoor sport for ours. Over many games and tournaments certain players dominated, and a clear trend emerged. The consistent winners used the full ping pong table to their advantage. They kept opponents moving, guessing and reacting to an array of shots in different directions with varying ball speed and spins. Some shots would barely glaze the edge of the table and fall to the floor for a winning point.

Like an inexperienced ping pong player, the uncertain leader plays it safe – hitting a gentle, predictable return to his competitor. During uncertain times (like today!) most leaders and business owners play it safe. This means that if you want to distinguish yourself during tough times, the bar is pretty low.

Now is the time to play the full table! Don't restrict your strategies to the sure shots. While your competitors are playing it safe, try new shots, explore the edges of the table. Throw something different at your competition to keep them on the defensive - keep them guessing. Don’t necessarily abandon proven strategies, but try putting a new spin on your shot by exploiting a new niche or leveraging an underutilized marketing channel. increase your exposure in the marketplace and improve your customer service vs. cut back on both. While everyone is playing in the safe zone, explore cost effective ways to play more aggressively.

Playing the full table also means tapping into the variety of skills, knowledge and creativity that you and your team possess. Invest in the minds and hearts of your team to yield riches of ideas and commitment. A fully engaged team is the only sustainable competitive advantage… .in good times and in bad.

This economic downturn has forced us into a new world with new challenges. Take a new approach by turning traditional mentoring on its head and let your younger team members teach you. Put some new minds on an old problem. You have everything to learn and nothing to lose. You will likely expand your repertoire of shots with newfound perspectives, insights and strategies.

The goal of playing it safe is to survive. The goal of playing the full table is to thrive... to win. Let’s play to win!

Shift into Reverse

2009-03-29T16:53:00.000-07:00

Mentoring is an effective way to pass on experience and knowledge within an organization. Companies in all industries have formal and informal programs designed to hone their talent and sharpen their competitive edge. However, the technology revolution has created an ironic twist to traditional mentoring. Today, it's not uncommon for a young, entry-level worker to have a better understanding of technology or some aspect of the operation than his manager. Hmmm?

As a result, many organizations are shifting into reverse. They're asking front line, shop floor, or young tech-savvy employees to teach the "old dogs" (that would be me!) new tricks. This approach is typically employed when senior leaders need to better understand operations, customer preferences or new technologies.

Remember what Picasso said, "It takes a very long time to become young." So, even if you don't have a formal program, try hanging out with your younger staff, even those who might be younger than your own children – a guaranteed eye-opener! You might discover that you are so far out of the loop you can't even see the loop. You can create your own form of reverse mentoring. It could be as simple as asking your children and their friends for feedback on your product/service/idea. Be ready for brutal honesty! If you don't have children accessible, then borrow your friend's. In either case, the children will feel valued and you will get valuable feedback.

Also, the next time you hire an intern, make a concerted effort to listen to and learn from them. Yep, learning can be a two-way street even with interns. No doubt, younger, fresher eyes will see things differently than we will. Their insights might even be shocking, and if we can keep our egos in check, they could lead to powerful breakthroughs.

The music industry is on the leading edge of showing how reverse mentoring and young/old collaborations can not only work but JAM! Last month's Grammy awards were a stellar example. Robert Plant (from Led Zeppelin) and Alison Krauss lead the evening with five awards. We also saw cross-generational performances by Stevie Wonder and The Jonas Brothers, Al Green and Justin Timberlake and Sir Paul McCartney and drummer, Dave Grohl. It was 43 years earlier that McCartney first appeared with The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show.

Before you jump in feet first (or head first in this case), consider these keys to successful reverse mentoring as well traditional mentoring relationships:

Create and maintain an attitude of openness to the experience.
Dissolve the barriers of status, power and position.
Commit the necessary time.
Have a game plan/goal.
Define rules of engagement.
Actively listen.
Be patient.

If you are trying to move ahead of your competition, try shifting into reverse with your mentoring.