A Thought on Leadership

I was at a conference last week and someone said

"Remember, well behaved people seldom make history"

It made me smile - I am not encouraging bad behaviour! - but I love the idea that conformity does not necessarily bring success. When you think of businesses, or successful leaders, they have that ability to play within boundaries however to think differently. To think how could we make this successful, what if we did this......etc and not find reasons or problems that would stop progression.

So today...see if you can make history..see if you can behave as someone who wants to make history!

Believing in Your Goals

I don't know anyone who has had a dream, who has achieved it with absolutely no setbacks...do you?

The way we think about setbacks and how we cope with setbacks is often the difference between success and failure. A little story...

Michael Jordan, in his biography explains his mental approach to a painful foot injury. He didn't want to miss any basketball games so tried to keep playing but the pain got too much...he had to miss the rest of the season.
During rehab, he didn't get down, he didn't feel that his career at the top was over...instead he visualized himself taking jump shots, making passes and eventually winning a championship! He kept a positive mind set all the way through the recovery process...he believes this positive approach brought him back quicker and stronger.

Setbacks will happen...when they do visualize the way through rather than mulling over how it happened....watch the difference in your career success.

Boxing clever for Suggestions

I am not a lover of suggestion boxes...though it is a start, I have to admit that in getting feedback. The problem tends to be that they become moaning posts so what about having two!

One for problems/threats
One for solutions/opportunities

This builds into the culture a sense of acccountability and responsibility for driving improvement. Post the problems that people see and get them to suggest improvements...with the winner being based on the solution rather than the issue.

Positive feedback and dealing with problems

Over on the Widows Quest there is a carnival on 5 November about how to turn your life around. I love this idea, and can't wait to see the links.

As managers, friends, partners etc we rush to find what is wrong with the reaction, idea, work etc We need to bring some positivity to the world!

So tomorrow (and next week at work) try and respond to any person with a positive comment, find something genuine and positive to say no matter whether you agree or not. I am often accused of seeing the positive in everything - well, guilty as charged! I believe that there is always something that you can learn or take from an interaction. If you do see the positive, just watch how people respond to you and open up...... you attract people because you stand out from the normal negative people