Repost: No more planning! Time for ACTION!

By Mastin Kipp

The best time to start — is now.

One of the coolest things I heard last year is that it’s best to get clarity through taking action.

I learned this from Marie Forleo.

The basic idea is that we don’t need to wait to “know” or “discover” or “find” the perfect plan. We just need to start.

And learn along the way.

Perfectionism is a dream killer, because it’s just fear disguised as trying to do your best. It just is.

The Daily Love is a giant experiment in starting before I was ready and getting clarity through action. When I first started, I had no real idea what TDL was going to become. I just knew I had to write every day.

And now that it’s growing even more, I still don’t know what it’ll be in 1,2 or 5 years, and I don’t know if I have the skill to actually pull it off, but that doesn’t stop me.

There is a magic that comes from simply starting. From just doing it. From deciding to take constant action. You don’t have to make some crazy quantum leap; all you have to do it just take a small step. One at a time.

And from there, it all starts to form in front of your eyes. The unseen becomes seen; a way is made from what seemed to be no way.

Too many people need some kind of certain outcome before they can start. This is what starts to slowly kill dreams, one fearful moment of stasis at a time.

The goal should be to get started and know that you will learn along the way and that you aren’t supposed to get it perfect the first time through.

Even if you think you’ve found the perfect plan, once you start to make it happen you will see that things don’t ever go the way that you plan them to.

The future is uncertain, but what will bring you one step closer to your dreams is action. Planning is important. But action is key.

Can you commit today to learning through action instead of needing the perfect plan to start?

What would that look like?

A different way to set and achieve goals. Acronyms definitely help me.

Leadership Freak

The former CEO of Southwest Airlines, Jim Parker, told me,

“Don’t set artificial goals for yourself.”

Begin with noble ends:

Leadership is about people. Set people goals. Production and profitability are useful and necessary but never enough.

Increasing profits by 6% is important but not noble.

Two questions beyond artificial:

1. How do you want to think and feel about yourself when 2013 slips away?
2. What contribution will you make to the way others think and feel about themselves?

For you:

How do you want to think and feel about yourself?

1. Proud. Does your behavior and attitude make you proud of yourself?
2. Progressing. How can you enhance your strengths and minimize your weaknesses? What can you do for you?
3. Beneficial. How can you help others?
4. ???

For others:

How do you want others to think and feel about themselves?

1. Hopeful. What can you do to make the future bright?
2. Confident…

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A by-product of good managers? Employees who trust them. Employees who are motivated and inspired to work hard and become better people.

Leadership Freak

Managing is more than processes and procedures; it’s people. Successful managers bring out the best in others.

“Management and leadership are about
coaching around performance.” John Baldoni

My conversation with author, speaker, and executive coach, John Baldoni, covered everything from what’s wrong with leadership to the good side of office politics. John has an amazing breadth of experience and expertise.

Manager as coach:

Coaching rises to the top of leadership skills in organizations that value participation rather than command and control.

“Coaching is about long-term relationships.” John Baldoni

John suggests manager-coaches begin with three questions:

1. What does my employee want? Uncover motivation. Do they want development, promotion, opportunity? All employees strive for recognition.
2. What is stopping my employee from achieving her objectives? Everyone has blind spots and behaviors that hold them back.
3. What can I do to help my employee become more successful? Sometimes you’ll challenge. Other times, you’ll…

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The first quotation from Lapin alone makes me want to read the book!

Leadership Freak

If you don’t know why you are here,
how will you know what to do?

Life without purpose has no dignity, no direction, and no enduring passion. What’s true for you is true for business.

Purpose and business:

David Lapin explains, “The purpose of economic activity is to make a valuable contribution to the well-being of others.” (Lead by Greatness)

• What businesses do? Engage in economic activity.
• Why businesses exist – purpose? Make valuable contributions to the well-being of others.

Purpose is the heart of your business. Every great organization understands and owns its “valuable contribution to the well-being of others” – purpose.

Power of Purpose:

1. Purpose drives business.
2. Purpose directs business.
3. Purpose evaluates business.
4. Purpose enhances business.

Personal purpose:

Your difference explains your unique potential.

What’s good for business is better for you. Life without purpose is living death. Lapin suggests finding your purpose by, “analyzing [your]…

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Repost: Overachieving and Overreaching – A Sign of Imbalance

May 22, 2012
Overachieving and Overreaching
A Sign of Imbalance

by Madisyn Taylor

Sometimes when we don’t feel good enough, we create imbalance by overachieving or needing to be the best at something.

Overachievers are people who have achieved but still feel the need to do more, creating an imbalance in their lives. People who exhibit this behavior may be trying to compensate for feelings of insecurity and doubts about their worth. They may be chasing unresolved issues from their past into the present, or they might not be looking at their lives as a whole, but judging themselves based only on one aspect of their being. If this is a word that we’ve heard used with respect to our choices and lifestyle, it is worth examining in order to balance our lives for a more rewarding experience.

If we find that we cannot allow ourselves to experience and enjoy the present moment, putting pleasure off into some distant future, it may be a sign that we are being driven to achieve more than is truly necessary. Pushing ourselves beyond the point of exhaustion, or to the exclusion of important people in our lives, robs us of true and meaningful joy. Once we make the connection to the eternal part of us, it can nourish us and allow our priorities to shift from chasing after an elusive feeling to being fully present in the moment so that we can live our lives in the now.

Sometimes we need to look to those we love and admire in order to realize what we value about life. We can take time to note what we like about others, and then turn the mirror to reflect the light of those same words and feelings toward ourselves. It can be quite a revelation to see ourselves in this nourishing light. When we can put the energy that we’ve been devoting to a phantom sense of achievement into the truly satisfying aspects of our lives, we can restore the balance between our inner and outer worlds and experience true joyful peace. [From DailyOm]

The yin and yang of passion.

Leadership Freak

Image source

Passion drives all success but it also stands in the way.

The dark side of passion:

#1. Independence: Successful leaders never succeed alone, they inspire others. Passion may motivate you to focus on your actions while neglecting the power and importance of others.

You’re all jazzed about YOUR impact. Effective leaders, on the other hand, get jazzed about the impact of others. Leadership-passion doesn’t exclude it includes.

#2. Decisions: Passion drives decisions. Passion off the hook drives foolish decisions. Passionate people don’t think things through. Excitement drives short-term decisions and neglects long-term consequences.

#3. Risks: Passionate risk-takers scare people. Passion minimizes danger. Learn to focus on points of stability while stepping into the unknown.

#4. Closed: Passion closes ears and turns people into pushers.

#5. Snap: Passion motivates snap decisions.

#6. Stubborn: Passionate people have more emotion than brains. They won’t back down…

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Dr. E. Richard Brown, 70, passes away

Last Wednesday, Rick — renowned health care advocate, researcher, professor and founding director of where I work, suffered a massive stroke last Wednesday. He died Friday, April 20.

Our Center is devasted. Hard to focus on anything at work. We’re shocked and deeply saddened.

Rick’s legacy is strong.  He definitely left his mark and made an impact during his life. We miss him.

Risk-taker practices #4, #5 & #6 resonate with me.

Leadership Freak

“Real change agents comprise less than
10% of all business people,” Jack Welch.

Most leaders play not-to-lose rather than playing to win, especially in large organizations. The more we have to lose the more we play not-to-lose.

What we protect owns, limits, and controls us.

What we risk propels us forward.

When to risk:

An unsatisfying present continues until you step toward your new future. If the present satisfies, roll over and go back to sleep. Listen to discontent – it’s yelling, “Get up and get moving.”

If the present is unsatisfying, risk losing it. It’s riskier not to risk when the present sucks.

Risk-taker questions:

1. What could you gain?
2. What could you lose?
3. What happens if you don’t change?
4. Who do you want to be? “To dare is to lose one’s footing momentarily.  To not dare is to lose oneself,” Soren Kierkegaard.
5. What’s in you that suggests success is…

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This ought to be required reading for leadership training 101. 😉

Leadership Freak

10 dangers of inexperienced leaders:

1. Needing to be liked.
2. Blaming.
3. Emotional decisions.
4. Impulsiveness.
5. Trying too hard.
6. Neglecting the long term.
7. Focusing on symptoms rather than causes.
8. Aiming without pulling the trigger.
9. Meddling.
10. Forget to say thank you. (Speaking of thanks, many of these points were inspired by contributors on the Leadership Freak Facebook Page. Thank you!)

10 questions every inexperienced leader must keep asking:

1. What type of world are my behaviors building around me?
2. How many questions did I ask today?
3. What am I learning?
4. Am I acting or reacting?
5. When was the last time I spent an hour in self-reflection?
6. What’s the most fun?
7. Am I soliciting input from experienced leaders and staff?
8. Do I welcome ideas from everyone?
9. How are we leveraging everyone’s strengths?
10. Who do I feel threatened by? Why?

12 powerful suggestions for inexperienced leaders:

1. You matter in ways you can’t imagine. Watch your tone…

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Distinguishing between healthy pride vs. hurtful pride.

Leadership Freak

Pride is good. For example, “Have some pride” and “Take pride in your work.”

Arrogant pride, however, represents the dark, blinding, deceptive underbelly of leadership. Arrogant pride drives leaders to gather in protective huddles of pseudo-invincibility where stepping on others is smugly applauded and lifting others is foolish weakness.

Filthy dark festering pride drives outrageous salaries, underhanded dealings, and deceptive accounting practices. What about employee handbooks and HR guidelines intentionally vague or confusing so they can be used to accomplish any leader’s personal agenda?

The danger of healthy pride is its putrid ravenous brother lives one step across the border. His name is arrogance.

10 symptoms the ravenous beast has you:

1. Flattery – Hateful manipulative speech that creates vulnerability to deceptive self-serving influence.
2. Stubborn unwillingness to reconsider. After all, you might look weak!
3. Insults, put downs and slanderous speech.
4. Sacrificing relationships for power, position, and prestige.
5. Refusing to explore…

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