Category Archives: Leadership

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Applied Knowledge is Key to Success

 Knowledge isn’t power until it is applied ~ Dale Carnegie

Applied Knowledge is Key to Success

To wish you success,

At this stage,

Would be an understatement,

By now,

You have earned your progress in life,

By your creative and resilient efforts.

 

Among the many members of the class,

Some will be surprised at the eventual result,

Some will love what they’ve got,

And others already know their result.

 

Whatever, group you fall into,

It’s the application,

You put the certificate into

That’s of utmost importance.

 

It takes some effort,

To master an art,

Some skill to communicate,

The result of the effort.

 

But a work of genius,

Is divine,

The expression of natural talent,

And the results can be reproduced,

By a determined mind applying such specialist knowledge.

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Without a Follower there is no Leader

I sat down with some friends over coffee and the discussion quickly moved on to the topic of leadership, and someone defined leadership as taking the lead and having people follow you. This got me thinking, not about the leader but the follower who has put his or her trust in the leader in the hope of getting to a particular destination.

Leaders and Followers

Without a follower, there is no Leader.

Without followers, there can be no leaders. The leader is the person in the group who has decided on the direction and destination and has inspired, convinced and motivated the others to follow. Followers agree to be led and thus give credibility to leadership.

“Followership, like leadership, is a role and not a destination.” – Michael McKinney

More than at any time in the past, the world needs leaders. We need good, strong and visionary leaders.

However, most of us are followers. In fact all of us whether we consider ourselves leaders or not will at some time play the role of follower. There will be times where in one setting such as your department or team, you are the numero uno.  In another setting for example at corporate level you have to diligently follow another.

You are your number one follower.

To lead others, you must be the leading influence in your life. You need to have direction, goals or objectives you want to accomplish. Your success in achieving your goals will depend on your ability, discipline and commitment to follow through on your decisions.

You the leader are thus your number one follower. You set examples for others to follow, you show by your disciplined action what it means to be committed to a vision and you model the change that you want to see in others. To be a good leader you must know how to follow.

3 things to make you a good follower.

1. Get the job done. To lead and follow effectively, you need to get the job done. It is your responsibility to get the job done. Don’t hang around waiting for instructions. You may be the boss in your other role but here you are required to follow.

2. Grow yourself as a person. To be continually effective as a follower, you must grow and up skill yourself. As your organization grows from five to five thousand employees, you as a follower will need to have grown into a person capable of leading ten, hundred and eventually a thousand.

3. Serve your leader. This is not a very popular word. As a follower, it is important that you take the weight off your leader. Make his or her job easier by not being a clog in the wheel. Put in your best effort at accomplishing vision.

Serve with Diligence

The challenge for you as you progress on your leadership journey is to commit your time energy and other resources to serve diligently wherever you find yourself in the role of a follower. In so doing, you will make your own leadership much more effective and enjoyable for yourself and for your followers.

Question: What makes it difficult to serve?

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Book Review: Management in 10 Words by Terry Leahy

There is no silver bullet that will hit the bull’s-eye of a successful life or business. Anyone who tells you otherwise is lying. But there are simple truths which, combined with hard work, increases the chance of success. ~ Terry Leahy

Management in 10 Words

Tesco is the largest supermarket chain in the UK. For every £1 spent on groceries in the UK, £3 is spent in Tesco. Terry Leahy spent fourteen years as CEO of Tesco and oversaw its expansion from groceries into everything from electrical goods, clothing and mobile phones. As at the writing of this review, he is no longer CEO but he has taken the time to put down his thoughts on management into a book

Humble Beginnings

I find  ‘Management in 10 Words‘ to be an inspiring, simple and practical book because Leahy takes me on a journey that starts from his humble beginnings in a council estate in Liverpool. We pass through his early days in Tesco as a marketing man. He ends up as the chief executive and proceeds to grow the company into the largest retailer in the UK and the third largest in the world.

This gives you and me hope. With plenty of heard work, persistence and a bit of luck you can achieve success in your carer or business. Yes luck. You do need the lucky breaks to get ahead. But being in the right place at the right time is not enough. Luck is what happens when preparedness meets opportunity. Preparedness is you playing your part in readiness for the opportunity that will surely come your way.

Success Princples

Success depends on what lies deep within us. If you spend your life never daring to go where your hopes and dreams might take you, you will end your days deep in a dark valley of frustrated hopes, looking at what might have been. ~ Terry Leahy

There are a lot of success principles to learn from Management in 10 Words. Here are a few

  • Embrace failure as an opportunity learn. Misfortune and mistakes may knock you back, but keep on moving.
  • Deliver value that exceeds what your customer or client is paying for.
  • Welcome competition. It brings the best out of you.
  • Keep things simple. It will make you more creative and innovative.
  • Be a person of your words because, Trust is the bedrock of leadership.

Be Ambitious. Do not be trapped by your past.

This book very much encourages you to be ambitious, and to persevere in the pursuit of your ambition. Terry has a clear message to those who think or say to themselves ‘I can’t achieve my ambitions’, or believe that they have a disadvantaged background or up bringing. Do not be trapped by your past or be a prisoner of your background.

The past is just that – Don’t let it limit your future ~ Terry Leahy

Most of the book is made up of the 10 guiding principles that helped Terry on his way to the top. These principles are simple enough to be applied by you and I to our small or large teams, small or large businesses or simply as guides to live by.

Management in 10 Words

  1. Truth
  2. Loyalty
  3. Courage
  4. Values
  5. Act
  6. Balance
  7. Simple
  8. Lean
  9. Compete
  10. Trust

Set down your bias against the largest supermarket in the UK that is probably responsible for the closure of many small businesses. Read this book and learn from a true leader and business giant. Well done Terry.

Question: Have you read this book? if not why not get a copy and tell me what inspires you in the book? If you have read it why not let me hear from you by leaving a comment below.

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Taking Advantage of Hidden Strengths

Hidden Strengths
Handicap – Advantage in disguise
 
Their lives,
Having been filled with an
Immense creative anticipation
Of the worlds progress.
 
They lived a life
Of active participation
For which the world
Was to give solid appreciation.
 
If nothing else,
J F Kennedy and Rousseau,
Had a unique approach to life,
As a common personal trait,
Each man suffered a weak health,
Each man lived a determined life,
Each day was lived like it was the last.
 
 JFK
Neither lived too long,
But both lived long enough,
To leave the world a legacy,
Death to each man,
Meant a strong will to achieve without delay,
Time has proved that
Like all great ones,
Each one succeeded in living after death.
 
They won the struggle,
To hang on to life,
They conquered death.
If JFK and Rousseau,
Capitalized on weak health,
There must be other things,
A determined mind with buoyant health,
Could use to an advantage.
 

Time Passes On

Life itself is too short,
And time,
Eventful time, passes as a glimpse,
A life crowded with events soon ends abruptly,
Marking the end of vital activity.
 
What others perceive as a handicap,
Is a triggered weapon propelling a determined mind to substantial advantage,
Fuelling the commitment for daily achievement.   
The quest for greatness.
 
Parting Words
 
Observe the Scout Master’s parting words to young scouts embarking on an expedition,
“May your roads be rough, may you achieve victory in spite of it”.
With those words, the young scout develops a battle ready attitude,
And a determination to overcome whatever challenges that may present themselves on his route to success.
 
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Standing on the Shoulder of Giants

We were dwarfs on the shoulders of giants, so that we can see more than they, and things at a great distance, not by virtue of any sharpness of sight on our part, or any physical distinction, but because we are carried high and raised up by their giant size. ~ Isaac Newton

standing on the shoulder of giants

I sat through a one-hour lecture on 4000 years of management history with great difficulty as I asked myself the question, “What is the relevance of this to me?” On a deeper reflection I realized how myopic I was in my thinking.

Here I was unable to appreciate the energy, effort and passion that had produced this amazing intellectual work. While I find no immediate use for what I heard, there are countless of others who will. This made me think differently about the work I do, the decisions I make and the actions I take. Everything is important and everything is relevant.

Today, tomorrow or 4000 years to come, someone somewhere will have a chance to build on your work and will thank you for making the effort.

What value do you put on the work you do? Beyond yourself, have you stopped to consider the effects of your thoughts, the implications of your decisions, and the consequences of your actions?

Yes it’s not about you. It’s about those coming after you. To leave a legacy is to think beyond yourself and have some consideration for those who will inhabit this world after you.  As long as there is breath in you, you cannot resign yourself to your present circumstances or get complacent about your station in life. There is more to be done and you have a unique role to play. Yes, there is one more mountain to climb.

What inspires you to keep going when all that is inside of you wants to give up? After 27 years in prison, Nelson Mandela said “I found inspiration in a poem that helped me stand when all inside me wanted to lie down”. What inspires you to get up and move on?

I draw strength from the achievements of those who have gone before me, whose accounts and thoughts I glean from the books I read. I look beyond myself to the many I can assist on their journey just like many have helped me on my journey.  You must find inspiration from outside of yourself. You must look around you at the things in your world from which you benefit not from your direct effort but from the effort of those who went before you.

You have available to you an enormous amount of information, knowledge and wisdom. That which took several men and women the whole of their lives laboring and sweating to investigate, learn and understand is now available to you at the click of a mouse. To who much is give, much is expected.

You can be more, do more and achieve more than you can think or imagine, you only need to make the required effort to climb on the shoulders of those who have gone ahead of you.

As you acquire and leverage knowledge, you can take advantage of opportunities unseen by many simply because you are standing on the shoulders of giants.

Leave a comment.

What inspires you to get up and continue to make the effort to learn and grow?

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Why Hesitate?

Why hesitate? Upon the plains of hesitation are the bleached bones of countless millions, who on the threshold of victory sat down to wait, and in waiting they died. – Author Unknown

Why Hesitate?

Let me tell you a story.

 

Two seeds lay in a shallow depression in a field where the farmer had thrown them. As autumn arrived, birds searching for worms and the wintery wind loosened the earth which slowly starts to cover them up. Patiently they waited as the nights grew longer and the days grew colder. Autumn turned to winter. The ground turned frosty and they felt cold.

 

The snow came in and the pressure increased from the weight of the winter snow piling up above ground. Eventually the pressure eased, the snow melts and the soil once again became soft and moist. Warm spring winds gently began to caress the fields and both seeds could feel strange and powerful urges within themselves.

 

Still covered up and pressed down by the earth, the first little seed pondered, “I wonder what’s up there” and like a nation coming out of recession, he began to push curious little green shoots upwards in the direction of the earth’s crust. “And I wonder what’s down there” he said as he began to push enquiring little roots into the soil below.

But the second little seed said, “I have no idea what’s up there. It could be scary. And I don’t know what’s down there. That’s really frightening. So I think I’ll stay here a little longer. (from More Magic of Metaphor: Stories for Leaders,Influencers and Motivators  Nick Owen)

 

Like the seed that’s saying to itself, “I think I’ll stay here a little longer. It could be dangerous up there and who knows what’s down there”, what is keeping you where you are when all the signs tell you this is not where you should be? Are you afraid of taking a step into the unknown? Do you lack the confidence in your own ability? Maybe you are enjoying where you are and you have lost your appetite for battle. You have become a big fish in a little pond.

 

For you reading this today, a gap exists between what you want to do and what you are doing. There should always be a gap because inside of you is a desire to reach out for more. The two seeds in my earlier story represents the two struggles that you will go through from time to time.

 

One part of you wants to reach out to start a new business venture but then another voice tells you that the world economic conditions are unstable. There is a promotion opportunity at work and you want to put yourself forward, but then this second voice tells you that you do not have the required skills and qualifications. You stay on for so long in a job that you hate; a job that is taking you farther away from your dreams because you find comfort and security where you are.

 

Yes stepping out of the familiarity and safety of a routine job into the uncharted waters of running your own business can be scary. Accepting the promotion and becoming responsible for leading twenty people as the branch manager can be equally daunting. 

 

If you can see it as done then you can make it happen.

“What the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve”. Can you see it? Do you believe you can achieve it? ~ Napoleon Hill

It’s time to stop waiting and take the next step. If you have to improve your skills to get the promotion, please do it now. If you dream of owning your own business someday, begin today, do the research and write your plan. 

Leave a comment and tell me why you hesitate.

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Lessons from the Pickle’s Puncture

The Pickle's Puncture
Or could it be that,
We’ve become so conditioned to our current pleasure,
We so much enjoy our daily leisure,
The toil a constant life feature,
That the thirst for a new challenge is nothing to treasure.

 

Ever so often, our minds face the challenge of a re-capture,
Suddenly expectations suffer the pickle of a puncture,
Again a circumstance has pressured us into growth and to mature.

 

It is more about the lessons we learn,
From the challenges we are faced with and the good fortune from the achievements.
Remaining number one, is more challenging than gaining the coveted spot.
Defending a championship is often tougher than attaining the championship crown.

 

Even in our daily lives, at work, in academics, in business, as professionals, how often do we maintain focus on the benchmark against the competition, how do we measure against the chart of self improvement or at the basic level where are we in February against those self-proclaimed New Year standards.

 

The lesson from the pickle’s puncture may be a stimulating experience which we actively desire to re-live, but it may also be a jolt back to reality from a painful experience which we would prefer if it had not happened.

 

Nature serves us doses of both stimulating and painful experiences through life. It is easier to imagine that those held by society as successful in any endeavour had it all easy and rosy, a close encounter with the same people would soon challenge you to higher heights; you learn that investors lose on some investments within their portfolio, though the star investments make-up for the loses. Not all movies by today’s Oscar winning producer or famous actor was received with the wide public acclaim reserved for block busters. The Olympic golden athlete lost in some competitions, the high flying CEO was not the chosen candidate for some lesser roles in the past.

 

The empowering lessons learnt through life’s journey from the pickle’s puncture  makes the difference to the future if we apply ourselves to the inherent lessons.

 

So rather than focus on the circumstance, whether stimulating or painful, gain strength from the lessons learnt.
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Take Charge Take Responsibility Take Action

If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you  are a leader. – John Quincy Adams, Sixth US President 

Take Charge Take Responsibility Take Action

For many years as a young man, I assumed that it is the job of the people at the top to lead the organisation. I thought that until you had a ‘position’ or occupied an ‘office’ you are not required to make any contribution to the organisation beyond what you are paid for.

 

So I did nothing other than what my job required. This meant that I stayed in one place and got frustrated and angry when things were not moving forward. I felt helpless as if I was tied to a chair with no room to move. I could feel the pain of stagnation resulting from my self imposed limitation.

 

One day at a seminar, I had the words ‘You need no title to be a leader’ and the proverbial penny dropped. I can lead without a tittle! It occurred to me that if I was going somewhere with my life I might just move this department forward and in the process move the organisation forward.

 

Leadership is about you going somewhere and inspiring others by your actions.  

You are a leader and you do not need to be the chief executive to make a difference. You can make a difference where you are.

 

In his book The Leader Who Had No Title: A Modern Fable on Real Success in Business and in Life Robin Sharma tells the story of Ann, whom he described as a lovely woman who has a strong understanding of what it means to be a leader and lead without a tittle. Three things from Anna’s story that could help you in your job:

 

  1. With the power of choice, Anna made a decision to give nothing less than the very best to her job.
  2. Anna considered her work to be deeply important and essential to the smooth running of her organisation.
  3. Every day, Anna finds ways to challenge herself and make her job into something really meaningful to her and valuable to her employers.

You too can take charge,  to take responsibility and to take action.

To take charge demands courage conviction and confidence. Yes you can make a difference, yes you can impact the lives of others for good and yes you can go forward with your dreams.

 

To take responsibility requires you to fully understand that it is your action or inaction that got you where you are and it will be your action that will get you where you want to be.

 

To take action makes talk cheap. Now is the time to make it happen. Remember Noah didn’t wait for it to rain before he built an ark. Neither should you wait for anyones permission. Begin today to take the necessary steps to build the life that up till today you have only dreamed about.

Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.’~ Abraham Lincoln

Here are three things to remember as you go into this week.

  1. Take charge and be the leading influence in your life.
  2. Take responsibility and acknowledge the gap between where you are and where you want to be.
  3. Take action and begin to move in the direction of your dream. 

What steps will you take this week to move in the direction of your dream?

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Answer is in the Question

Don’t dwell on what went wrong. Instead, focus on what to do next. Spend your energies on moving forward toward finding the answer ~ Denis Waitley

Answer in the Question

Contemplate the desired future in reflection,

Hold back from the challenges in today’s motion,

Afford yourself a change in direction,

Take life to a new dimension,

Seek the answer in a superior question

And observe steps of the cherished future in fruition.

What we focus on makes the difference.

Practical efforts applied towards the solution of today’s issues are bound to make a difference.

Often times the what, why, when, who and how, gravitate us towards the answers desired.

The depth of commitment applied to the questions and how far we are prepared to hold-out in favor of a solution, determines the quality of the answer.

While no question is of itself inferior, searching questions avail superior atmosphere within which excellence thrives.

However, while the answer desired may be absolute, the answers to our questions would almost always be incremental steps towards the solution.

By persevering during the wait, by taking on-board the lessons from the small increments, the stage is being set for a steady roll-out of superior questions and cherished answers that build the individual of excellent spirit.

Six words and their meaning to aid your thinking from dictionary.com

  1. Contemplate – To look at or view with continued attention, to consider thoroughly.
  2. Focus – A central point of attraction, attention or activity.
  3. Commitment – The act of committing, the state of being committed.
  4. Question – A problem for discussion or interrogation; a matter under investigation.
  5. Persevere – To persist in anything undertaken; maintain a purpose in-spite of difficulty.
  6. Excellent – possessing outstanding quality or superior merit; remarkably good.

What question is on your mind at the moment?

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3 Lessons on Your First Steps as a Leader

There are times in your journey when you know for sure where you are heading, but sometimes, you have to set off on a hunch without much clarity as to the destination.

We left the running of the worlds financial markets to people we thought knew what they were doing. Now we know better. A lot of these guys were fumbling their way around not having a clue of what was happening and hoping it all ends up well. It didn’t.

There is a story about a man who left the comfort of his parent’s house and set off on a journey to a far country. Today over 4000 years after he took the first step, the journey of Abraham continues in the nation birthed from his trusting his instincts.

What is keeping you in the same place? You must have heard it somewhere that you need a vision to start a business, you need to start with an end in mind or some picture of what the end looks like. That is very true. But at the same time the search for a vision could well be a part of the journey. All you need to know to begin your journey is the next step.

Here are three lessons from my journey so far:

1. Trust your instincts. You have to begin to train yourself to trust your gut feelings. This is that part of you that you cannot control and you sometimes do not understand. You can silence it or you can let it loose.

2. Take one step at a time. As the saying goes, “no one tests the depth of the water with both feet“.

3. Be flexible and be prepared to change direction at anytime. Someone once said, ” it is much easier to steer a moving vehicle than a stationary one.

The world needs leaders who are courageous enough to go forward despite not knowing what the future holds and are humble enough to admit it and change course when they are wrong. Don’t wait for all the lights to turn green, move on at the first green light.

Question:  Have you ever embarked on a journey without an end in sight?

[success] “Do not go where there is a path. Instead go where others haven’t gone, and leave a trail.” – Ralph W. Emerson [/success]