Tag Archives: dreams

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TEAM – Is it?

I am a member of a team and I rely on the team. I defer to it and sacrifice for it, because the team, not the individual is the champion. ~ Mia Hamm

Rowing Team

According to Patrick Lencioni, it’s not finance, strategy or technology that gives a company the ultimate advantage. It’s the people and their ability to subordinate their individuality for the greater goal of achieving team objective.

If done successfully, working as teams can be very rewarding both for the organisation and the individuals who make up the team. But teams are made up of people and the default nature of the human being is the individual. We live in a “I”, “me” and “my” world.

The more complex the work to be accomplished the greater the need for team effort. And that’s what make teams powerful. Together you can achieve more when everyone is moving in the same direction.

Examples of Team Accomplishments

  1. Building the Tower of Babel
  2. Building the Space Shuttle
  3. Building the worlds biggest passenger airplane
  4. Building the worlds tallest bridge
  5. Building the computer or mobile device on which you are reading this article.

People are your greatest asset and your greatest liability.

Its not all the time that you have the ability or luxury of picking who is on your team. For example, when you have been chosen to be part of a team at work or in other settings. However, should you have the opportunity to pick your team, take some time to think about it because your success can depend on who is on the team with you or who is not.

To grow your business beyond yourself, other people need to be a part of what you are doing.  Here are a few things to consider before setting out to find the right people for your team.

5 Things to Consider

1. How big is your dream?

John F Kennedy set the target of being the first nation to safely take a man to the moon and back. Bill Gates dreamt of a computer on every desk and in every home. You need to dream big and you need to be able to start small. If you can do it alone, there is no point in getting others on board.

2. Can you articulate your dream?

It doesn’t matter how big your dream is, if you can’t put it in words and paint a picture for some to see, you will find it difficult to attract the right people. You may attract some people who are desperate for work. If you had only one and a half minutes to talk about your idea to a potential investor, what would you say? Spend some time clarifying your ideas and craft your words.

3. Is there an opportunity for people to grow and develop?

Is there going to be any transformation in their lives as a result of being part of your team? Invest in the training and development of your team members. Ensure that your team members have the opportunity to acquire the new skills that will take your business to the next level. Give them the space and watch as they take your business to the next level.

4. What is the reward for joining your team?

This is such an important question because everyone will ultimately want an answer to the question “what’s in it for me?”. Remember Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Beyond money, people want a sense of belonging, achievement and purpose. What have you got to offer? While team members may subordinate their individual ambition for team success, great teams are made of people who can achieve some or all of their personal goals while working on team goals.

5. Are you a team player yourself?

Do you know it all? Do your find it difficult to let go after you have assigned work? Are you pleasant to be around?

 One is too small a number to achieve greatness ~ John C Maxwell

To be a team player, you must be

  • Trustworthy
  • Comminicative
  • Commited
  • Accountable
  • Enthusastic
  • Result focused

TEAM – Together Each-one Achieves More.

Why not leave a comment by telling me your thoughts about Team

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The Cries for Inspirational Leadership (Part 1)

Vision without action is merely a dream. Action without vision just passes the time. Vision with action is what can change the world ~  Joel Baker

Inspirational Leadership

Partnership

Leadership is perhaps best viewed as a partnership – the partnership between the “leader” and the “led”. The goal of beneficial leadership in this regard would be to facilitate and unlock the potentials of the parties to achieve desired end results. In this context, a good leader is the person that acts as the bridge linking people to their goals through inspired actions. This distinguishes a true leader from a “greeder”. A “greeder” is the person that benefits only at the expense of the people that he or she leads.

There are people today in diverse positions of power, influence and authority who exploit the will, trust and belief of the people they supposedly lead. The often silent but agonising cry of these people for inspirational leadership is often met with more brazen exploitation.

Inspirational Leadership

Personal inspiration rather than mere motivation is what makes the leader stand out. Inspiration is far superior to motivation. It is a process that is spirit-induced and heart-controlled. It is revolutionary in concept and dynamic in approach. An inspired person is energised, enthusiastic and so passionate about his convictions that he is perpetually restless and tireless in pursuit of his goals.

I remember once asking a class during a coach-training session if well known transformational leaders like Nelson Mandela, Barack Obama and Bill Gates, among several others were inspired or merely motivated to do what they are recorded to have done? There was not one person in the class that was not convinced that these leaders were personally inspired.

Inspired Leaders Make Lasting Impact

Many scientists, writers, politicians, entrepreneurs, philosophers, entertainers, artists, teachers and others that make lasting impact in the lives of others and in their communities have been personally inspired to do so. Each of them has through some personal ingenuity made the world a better and happier place for others, because there has been a massive and irresistible personal drive to make a lasting impact. Personal inspiration is a hallmark of true leadership.

Strength from within

You cannot stop a truly inspired leader or even try to put him down, because he is propelled by forces of stronger convictions within him than all the negativism around him. That is why true personal inspiration is the key to successful leadership. A leader that is not personally inspired often ends up being the puppet of other people.

The Next Generation

A challenge of leadership succession and ascension is that some entrenched systems do not often favour the emergence and sustenance of truly inspired leaders. As a result, the transformation that the people earnestly desire continues to elude them.

Tell me what you think about Inspirational Leadership by leaving a comment below.

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Speaking for Impact – 7 Tools From a Speakers Toolkit

Mere words are cheap and plenty enough, but ideas that rouse and set multitudes thinking come as gold from the mines ~ A. Owen

Speaking for Impact

Have you listened to a speech or presentation that left you not knowing what was said and why you attended the event in the first place? I have.

Have you made a speech or presentation that left your audience asking themselves why they bothered to turn up? I have.

In todays fast changing world, one of the demands of your audience as you speak and make presentations is that you give them something to remember and something to make their lives better. Speaking is a means of communicating a message. Messages that are remembered always have something that resonates with the listener and something that brings a challenge to change.

Even when your speech is to inform or to entertain, it will make a difference to your audience if your message carries with it the seed of life change. How do you do this?

7 Tools For Making Impact In Your Speech And Presentations

  1. Have A Clear Objective That Is Tailored To Your Audiences Need.

What identified need does your audience have that your presentation is set out to meet or provide a solution for? You can gauge this by simply identifying who will be in your audience, what are some of the challenges they have and what would you want them to do differently after your presentation.

  1. Connect With Your Audience

You can increase you connection with your audience by arriving early. This allows you time to get acquainted with your audience.

Connection is increased when you are talk personally to people. By using the words “you” and “your” in your speech, you can speak directly to one person with several others listening in. This makes your presentation personal and I the listener will give you my attention because I want to hear what you have to say to me.

  1. Have a Clear Structure.

To make it easy for your listeners, you will need to ensure that your speech has a clear and easily identifiable structure. This will usually be made up of an opening, a body and a closing.

You opening is there to turn audience attention away from many other things that can possibly occupy their mind in that moment and to listen to you the speaker. It should also make the audience feel at ease in your presence.

The body of your speech will contain all the points you have to make laid out in a clear and logical manner. This will make it easier for listeners to follow and understand.

Your closing should contain a recap of your main points and clear next step. If you have presented a challenge for change, you want people to take action immediately and start implementing your solution.

  1. Have Just Enough Content.

Too Much Content

Many attempts to communicate are nullified by saying too much ~ Robert Greenleaf

In my opinion, it is always better to leave your audience yearning to know more than to give them so much that they get confused about what you want them to learn or do. You cannot say it all in one presentation. Based on the time allocated, decide on what is important and stay focused on it.

There is an old speakers saying that When you squeeze your information in, you squeeze your audience out”.

  1. Make You Points Stick

Each point you make will have a chance of being remembered if you

  • Base it round a story, acronym or an activity
  • Include questions and statements that cause your audience to reflect on your point and think about how it can be applied to their lives.
  • Include a method or solution for applying your point
  • Show the benefits to be derived from making the changes you are proposing
  1. Effectively use transitions.

An effective transition from one point or section to another will include a summary of the point or section and a preview of what you are about to say. This helps the listener to recollect what you have just said and create an interest in what you are about to say. It also helps the listener to know when you have finished with one point and you are about to start another.

  1. Make Your Closing Memorable.

In any speech or presentation, the last thing you say is alway the first thing your listeners remember. So be intentional about your closing. Leave your audience on a high note and never close with a question and answer session.

In your closing, recall all your main points, include a clear call to action or next step and leave your audience feeling good.

They may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel ~ Carl W. Buechner

Why not add your own tools for speaking with impact by leaving a comment.

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Ideas To Action Challenge – 10 Keys To Help You Become An Ideas To Action Person.

In 1963, Mary Kay Ash, resigned from her job out of frustration from being passed over for promotion. She came up with the idea of writing a book to help women in business. What emerged from the book idea was a business plan that was later implemented and turned into a multimillion dollar business. In 2001 at the time of Mary Kay Ash’s death, Mary Kay cosmetics had over 800,000 representatives in 37 countries with total annual sales of over $200 million.

Idea Concept

According to Mary Kay Ash,

Ideas are a dime a dozen. People who implement them are priceless.

Everything starts with an idea and you have the capacity to generate lots of ideas. You can also find plenty of ideas online on just about anything you can think of. Yet many people fail to act on their ideas and the world ends up missing out on the potential that was never realised.

Why do people not act on their ideas?

Here are some of the reasons people have come up with on why they do not take action on their ideas.

  1. Lack of confidence
  2. Life gets in the way
  3. Too busy with work
  4. No motivation or drive to act
  5. Lack of support
  6. Discouragement from friends and family members
  7. Fear of failure
  8. Lack of know how
  9. No money
  10. No plan for action
  11. Don’t know how to do it
  12. Too young
  13. Too old

I am sure you can add one or two more reasons to this list.

It doesn’t matter why you have not been taking action on your ideas. What matters is your answer to this question. Do you think you would be a better person and the world you live in would be a better place if you make a decision today to act on some of your ideas? If your answer is yes, then you need to stop making excuses and start implementing some of your ideas. Here are some things to help you get started.

10 Keys To Help You Become An Ideas To Action Person.

Keys to Action

  1. Put first things first – There is always something you can do now with the limited time, skills and finances available to you. Find out what that is and then get started doing it.
  2. Believe in Yourself – Your belief in your self will be aided by your having a strong sense of purpose. What do you want in life and from life? With a sense of purpose, you will find it easier to commit to ideas that align with your purpose. You purpose serves as a screen that filters ideas.
  3. Get connected with the right people – People are your greatest ally and your greatest adversary. You will need to keep searching until you find people who will encourage, inspire and motivate you to get going with your ideas.
  4. Equip and train yourself – If you haven’t got the right skills and experience, then go and get it. Read books, attend courses or take up employment in companies that will provide you opportunity to get the skills your need.
  5. Set goals and realistic targets – Everything in life takes twice as long and costs twice as much. Set SMART goals and then proceed to create realistic plans that will lead you to achieve your goals.
  6. Set realistic time frames – Every new project is an adventure into the unknown. This will almost always result in costs and time delays you could not have envisaged at the start. Build some margin into your time estimates.
  7. Research to refine your ideas – Your idea in its current form will undoubtably undergo numerous refinements before you start. However, do not try and overdo the research. You know enough to get started and you will discover the rest along the way.
  8. Be committed to your success – Have you got a success mindset. Do you believe that you are going to make a success out of your life. If you do, then commit to your belief by taking actions that will bring you closer to your stated objectives.
  9. Find a coach or mentor – A coach is a trained professional who by asking the right questions is able to draw out the potential within you. A mentor is someone with experience in what you want to do. Mentors will share their experiences and give you tips that can help you avoid mistakes along the way.
  10. Be willing to adapt and change – Be flexible. Be a person who is open to new ideas and is willing to try new things. As you review and measure your progress against set markers, be willing to change course if necessary. You will need the wisdom to know when to persevere and when to pivot.

Decide on your next step and then act. Or leave a comment and tell me what else is holding you back.

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5 Reasons to Choose Diligence

Diligence, is the constant and earnest effort to accomplish whatever is undertaken (Dictionary.com). Diligence is also the steady application of effort to accomplish a task. 

5 Reasons to Choose Diligence

 

At the heart of success in many endeavours is diligence. This is described by Atul Gawande in his book “Better: A Surgeon’s Notes on Performance” as the necessity of giving sufficient attention to detail to avoid error or prevail against obstacles.

 

Publishing new blog posts at Leading like a Champion requires diligence on my part and while it has not been an easy task to achieve, it is very rewarding. So what does diligence mean in practice?

 

Diligence in Practice

  • Diligence presupposes that you have a goal or task you are working towards. Since you do not have the energy to be diligent at everything, it makes sense to carefully choose your goals and tasks so that you can apply your limited time and effort towards its achievement.
  • Diligence requires time and effort to yield results. Having decided on your goal, you must understand that it’s achievement will require effort also known as hard work. This reminds me of a phrase – ‘No bees, no honey. No work no money”
  • Diligence rewards attention to detail, careful completion of repetitive and sometimes boring task and a determined commitment to finish what you have began.

 Do not spend your days gathering flowers by the wayside, lest night come upon you before you arrive at your journeys end, and then you will not reach it. ~ Isaac Watts. 

5 Reasons to Choose Diligence

  1. A commitment to diligence will help you achieve great things in life. Do you have big dreams? Are you ambitious enough to want to make a difference in the world you live in? From history, we know that it was the commitment to diligence that helped Thomas Edison discover the light bulb after over two thousand unsuccessful experiments.
  1. A commitment to diligence will reward you with expertise and authority. You will have had of the 10,000 hour rule made popular by Malcolm Gladwell in Outliers. Only the diligent can put in this required number of hours of purposeful practice to become an expert or authority in their field or profession. Only the diligent athlete can compete in the Olympic finals.
  1. A commitment to diligence will help you creates success habits. There are no short cuts to success. You will benefit from a steady progress towards your goal as Muscles develop from a diligent application of weights. You grow to become a bigger and better person by the diligent effort you apply to your work and business.
  1. A commitment to diligence will help you stay on track with your goals. Breaking down your larger goals into smaller specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound goals (SMART) increases the chances of your success.
  1. A commitment to diligence keeps you clear of slothfulness, indifference and laziness. These three words will significantly affect your growth and development as a leader, an entrepreneur and valuable contributor at work.

So you have a goal that is worth your putting your limited resources to. Reap the rewards of diligence. Break down your goal or task into several smaller goals or subtask. Your subtasks need to be meaningful and the accomplishment of each step must bring you closer to the achievement of your overall goal. Start today on the first step and stick to the task until the task sticks to you.

Winning is by choice and not by chance, so never, never, never give up ~ Winston Churchill

How committed are you to achieving your goals?

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Dream Big and take Small Steps

One Small Step For A Man

It was 10.15pm on Monday the 21st day of July 1969. Many of you reading this blog were not born then. After travelling non-stop for three days, three hours and forty-nine minutes, Neil Armstrong took the next and final step to become the first man to step on the surface of the moon. In his own words broadcast live to more than 450 million listeners or one out of every eight persons on the of the earth, he described this as ‘one small step for a man and one giant leap for mankind’.

Dream Big

To grow your life and grow your business you need to dream big. In 1961, US president John F Kennedy’s goal of sending an American to the moon was an ambitious one. You have big ideas you have been playing with for many years. Right there in your imagination, you have created the products, written the books and grown the business idea. Despite the planning, anticipation and excitement, when the time comes for you to take action, you freeze. You remain immobile and the opportunity passes you by. Time and time again you hesitate at the point where action is needed. How do you go about building the industry changing Business Empire you have in your head?

Take small Manageable Steps

The key to your success as an entrepreneur is to dream big and then take small manageable steps in the direction of your dream. Dream big, but start small. There is no room in your imagination for small dreams. Yes you may be running a small business right now, but think of that as one of the small steps in realising your big dream. What small next step can you take today to bring you closer to the dream enterprise or the dream job that keeps you awake at night?

There is only one obstacle in the way of achieving your dreams…YOU! Get out of your own way! Dream BIG and dare to fail! 

Experiment with small Steps

Dream big, start small and be willing to experiment with your small steps. Every experiment carries with it a risk of failure and very few adults want to fail. Our education and upbringing has thought us to avoid failure and so as adults we remain rooted in the same dull, boring and unproductive job for years because we are uncertain of the outcome of our next move. A small step affords you the privilege of failing forward and makes each unsuccessful attempt at change, growth or expansion a chance to learn what works and what does not work at little financial cost.

In my career as a businessperson, I have taken several small steps and none of it resulted in my being disqualified from the race. While working as a consultant some year’s back, I got together with some of my friends and we felt the next logical step was to start our own consultancy company. We all contributed money, started the company and employed a manager to run it. We had big dreams and we started small. After a year and a half of not making much money, we closed the place down and I moved on to my next experiment. So dream big and start with small manageable steps.

Ten small steps you can take today to bring you closer to your dream.

  1. Make that long planned phone call to that person.
  2. Submit that business proposal even if you think it makes no sense.
  3. Ask that person for help today.
  4. Do something different with your evening rather than spend it online watching movies.
  5. Apply for that job
  6. Sign up for that webinar
  7. Get out of bed early and get to work on time.
  8. Work on your book project today.
  9. Read that book
  10. Speak your mind at that meeting today.

Why not spend time today, think of the little things you can do to take you closer to your dream and then do it.