Leadership Begins at Home

I was on my way to a meeting and saw a billboard that caught my eye. It worlds: What are you teaching your children? The big idea? Leadership really does begin at home.

What are we teaching our children by the lives we are leading and examples we are setting? I believe that the best way to influence your kids is to be true to yourself and to lead the best life that you can, so that they will adopt the same values, though their path may be different. What message are you sending to those little leaders who watch your every move and model your every act? Are you showing them what’s possible by being remarkable in each of your pursuits? Or are your teaching them to play small by resigning yourself to average?

The fruit never falls far from the tree, and your children will become a lot more like you than you may believe. You can help your kids get to their greatness. It starts with you leading the way.

“The fruit never falls far from the tree, and your children will become a lot more like you than you may believe”

(these are not my thoughts J and are copied from Robin’s book)

Burn the Extra 1 Percent

Reading British GQ on a flight, the biggest idea I ran across in the magazine comes from Chris Carmichael, the coach of seven-time Tour de France-winner Lance Armstrong who said, “the last 1 percent most people keep in reserve is the extra percent champions have the courage to burn”. Magnificent thought. I hope we never forget it.

Spend every bit of your energy playing at your best and creating world class results. Offer every bit of your potential to all you do. And awaken your talents. And your inner fire. So at the end, you can say, “ I gave it my all. I did my best”. That would be fantastic. Wouldn’t it? And please remember – the opportunity for outright greatness comes at the very moment that ordinary people give up.

“The last 1 percent most people keep in reserve is the extra percent champions have the courage to burn”

(these are not my thoughts J and are copied from Robin’s book)

Your Highest Freedom

One of my favorite books is Man’s Search for Meaning, written by Viktor Frankl, an Austrian psychotherapist who survived confinement in Nazi concentration camps. So many of those around him perished. They lost hope. They fell into despair, then death. He managed to get through the ordeal by applying what I believe is our highest human freedom: our ability to choose how we respond to and process any event that happens to us. We can look for some good or we can become haunted by the bad. Frankl writes, “everything can be taken from a person but one thing, the last of the human freedoms to choose one’s attitude to a given set of circumstances, to choose one’s way.” Such a magnificent thought.

“Everything can be taken from a person but one thing, the last of the human freedoms to choose one’s attitude to a given set of circumstances, to choose one’s way”

(these are not my thoughts J and are copied from Robin’s book)

Ask Powerful Questions

One of the fastest ways to find the solution to an issue or challenge you are facing is to ask the right question. The right question inevitably leads you to the correct answer. Questions matter. In business, remarkable performers are dazzlingly good at getting to the right question. The one that speeds them to the place they need to reach and offers them the missing piece they need to find. And in life, asking yourself a powerful question will allow you to step into a whole new set of possibilities that you may have missed while you were locked into an old way of seeing things. Like the lesson amid a so-called failure. Or the opportunity that inhabits a setback.

Here are six questions that I share with the clients with whom we do leadership development work. I suggest you write them down and then find some time today to answer them in your journal.

• What one thing – if I did it – would profoundly improve the way I work (and how I live)?
• What needs to happen between now and the end of the next 90 days for me to feel that this is the best quarter of my work and personal life? (remember, clarity precedes mastery)
• Who do I need to express appreciation to? (make your list long)
• What would I like to improve, professionally and personally?
• What could I be grateful for that I’m currently not grateful for?
• How do I want to be remembered at my retirement party?

And as you make this day extraordinary, I’ll leave you with one of the my favorite quotes (which comes from Mark Twain): “If everyone was satisfied with themselves, there would be no heroes”

“In businesses, remarkable performers are dazzlingly good at getting to the right question, the one that speeds them to the place they need to reach”

(these are not my thoughts J and are copied from Robin’s book)

Be Unreasonable

One of my favorite quotes comes from George Bernard Shaw, who noted, “the reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man”. Please think about that idea for a moment. I suggest it’s a big one.

Sure, be practical and operate intelligently as you move through your world. I agree, it’s important to use common sense. True, foolish risks can lead to difficult consequences. But having said that, don’t be so scared of failure and disappointment that you fail to dream. Don’t always be so reasonable and practical and sensible that you refuse to seize glorious opportunities when they show up. Push the envelope as to what’s possible for you. Remember, critics have always laughed at the visions of the bold thinkers and remarkable visionaries. Ignore them. And know that every outstanding piece of human progress was achieved through the heroic efforts of some one who was told their idea was impossible to realize. The world needs more dreamers. Unreasonable souls who fight the urge to be ordinary. Who resist the seduction of complacency and doing things the way they have always been done. You can be one of them. Beginning today.

Kahlil Gibran, in The Prophet, made the point for more beautifully than I ever could, when he wrote, “ the lust for comfort murders the passion of the soul”

“Remember, critics have always laughed at the visions of bold thinkers and remarkable visionaries. Ignore them”

(these are not my thoughts J and are copied from Robin’s book)

Ideas are worthless

Controversial chapter title? Perhaps. But I think it’s true. I’ve heard so many gurus say that ideas are the currency of success and thinking drives business and we become what we consider all day long. But, to me, ideation without execution is mere delusion (I dare you to share that line at your next team meeting). In other words, an idea no matter how big, only assumes value when it’s acted upon and brought to life.

This world of ours is full of great thinkers who never realized their greatness. They were strong on the thinking side but weak on execution side. And they suffered as a result of that constraint. (German poet Johann von Goethe said, “whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic.”) World-class people get both right. They are superb strategically and brilliant tactically. Really creative and really good at getting things done.

So jump-start your commitment around execution. Yes, capture your ideas and bask in the glow of a remarkably imaginative thought that has the power to improve how you world or the way you live. And then reach deep into yourself and have the discipline to do whatever it takes to make that idea a reality. Because nothing happens until you move.

“This world of our is full of great thinkers who never realized their greatness”

(these are not my thoughts J and are copied from Robin’s book)

Don't Fight for your Excuses

“I can’t be better than I am at work”. “ I don’t have the time to exercise”. “I can’t do this project (or reach that dream) because it’s too hard/scary/impractical”. It’s so easy very human to fight for your excuses. And the more you fight for them, the more they own you. Don’t feed what you don’t want. Let them go. And step into your power.

“We have forty million reasons for failure – but not a single excuse”, observed Rudyard Kipling. Successful people don’t make excuses. They create results. And no great like was ever built on a foundation of excuses. So stop making them. Most of them are self-created delusions, designed to help you avoid doing the things that you are afraid to do. Yes, beneath every excuse lives a fear. A fear of changing. A fear of the unknown. A fear of failure. A fear of success.

Today can be the day you burn the bridges that lead to your excuses (please do). Today can be the day you step up to the possibilities that lie just off the beaten path of your life. Today can be the day you Lead Without Tittle. And access your genuine greatness.

“No great life was ever built on a foundation of excuses. So stop making them”

(these are not my thoughts J and are copied from Robin’s book)