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Thoughts on Leadership: 5 Leadership Skills to Learn from ‘Moneyball’

By Gino Blefari | October 6th, 2011 0 Comments

Last week I went to see “Moneyball,” a great baseball movie starring Brad Pitt that tells the story of the 2002 Oakland A’s. Pitt plays Billy Beane, the GM of the A’s that led the team to win 103 games, including an unprecedented 20 in a row, the longest streak in American League history, despite having the lowest payroll in the major leagues and a lineup full of cast-offs and undervalued players.

Season after season, Beane would watch teams with deeper pockets steal his star players. When he realized that he couldn’t compete with the New York Yankees’ payroll, he decided he needed to change the way you evaluate talent and change the way the game was won. He needed to re-imagine the game so that it couldn’t be bought and so that he could compete on a playing field that wasn’t level.

What I like most about this movie which is based on a true story, are the leadership lessons, which can be applied to any business:

  • Do not prematurely resolve tension. Billy refused to accept solutions from his scouts and assistants that were based on the old way of doing things. He may not have had his own solutions in the beginning, but he held the tension. He didn’t give up in the face of conflict every time he contradicted the so-called “experts.”
  • Staying in the fire focuses your attention on outside-the-box solutions. Billy met a young Yale economics graduate who was using sophisticated mathematical models to recruit and draft young players. Billy hired him after the young graduate confessed that according to his model, Billy himself got drafted way too high, and got paid way too much as a young major leagues player.
  • It’s not about you. Billy was functioning from a higher principle than ego. He really wanted to change how the players were evaluated and in turn how the game was won.

The start of the 2002 season was an absolute disaster for the Oakland A’s. The team of no-name players constantly lost and took a lot of criticism. Billy’s own team manager refused to follow his directions and repeatedly started their one star player. Reporters, commentators, sports talk show hosts, and fans that called into the shows backed the manager and consistently blamed Billy.

How did Billy get through this rough start? He traded the A’s one star player just before a game, which meant that the manager had to go with the game plan and play the percentages. Then, he fired their head scout who refused to make the necessary adjustments.

  • It’s obvious, but sometimes leaders need to make bold and unpopular decisions, and then stick with them. Very few of us are willing to make these kinds of decisions. This can be a very painful, but necessary, period in a leader’s evolution.

What was Billy’s model? There were many mathematical variables, but the single one he chose to focus on was called “on-base percentage” (OBP). This means that by whatever means, whether by taking a walk, getting hit by a pitch, or hitting singles, the player gets to first base. If you don’t have men on base, there’s no way to score runs. This variable defined the A’s strategy and the one thing they would focus on, given their limited resources.

  • Do one thing very well. Billy hired a pudgy Triple A player who was virtually unnoticed by big leagues. But when they crunched the numbers, this guy knew a ball from a strike and got on base more than anybody else. With this one big thing in mind, they coached every player on how he could improve his on-base percentage (OBP).

Suddenly, the season started to turn around. Everybody was puzzled except for Billy. The A’s began their winning streak that helped them win their division. They lost in the playoffs, but the model had shifted permanently. Billy’s manager got the credit. But it wasn’t about who got the credit. After the season finished, the Boston Red Sox approached Billy with the biggest offer in the history of the game for GMs. He turned it down. It really wasn’t about the money. The Red Sox, who hadn’t won the World Series since 1903, won the World Series two years later using Billy’s method.

So, here’s the question I want to leave you with: If you had to choose one variable, Billy’s equivalent of on-base percentage (OBP) for your business, what would it be?

For my business, what resonated well with me in 2009, after two of the most challenging years in the history of real estate, was that I was faced to reevaluate how we were recruiting and retaining agents. I discovered an equation for this method. I tracked the total closed company dollar from agents recently recruited and the total closed company dollar from agents who had left the company, to arrive at a total net worth company dollar ratio. The end result, recruiting and retaining productive agents was the key to success not the quantity of agents.

So, if you had to organize around a single big thing, coach toward it, take criticism for implementing it, what would it be?

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Thoughts on Leadership: Teaching Others How to Accept Change

By Gino Blefari | September 29th, 2011 0 Comments

Last week, we looked at how the greatest leaders are those who can adapt to change. This week is a further look at how leaders need to concentrate on having their people go from change avoidance to change acceptance.

A great example is found in the classic book, “Who Moved My Cheese?” Author Dr. Spencer Johnson tells a simple but powerful story about four characters in a “maze” who are obsessed with finding “cheese.” Two of the characters are mice named Sniff and Scurry and two are “little people,” Hem and Haw, who are as small as mice but have a very different approach to finding cheese. The “cheese” is a metaphor for anything we want or desire in life. It could be a great job, a terrific company with flowing profits, or the relationship of your dreams. The “maze,” says Johnson, is “where you look for what you want—the organization you work in or the family or community you live in.”

Change is the only constant in business and in life, yet all four characters in the book see it very differently. The mice expect it, revel in it and actually figure out how to have fun looking for new cheese as the old cheese disappears. However, Hem and Haw seem constantly frustrated, resentful and angry. But the “cheese” they were convinced they earned and owned is no longer where they expected it to be. Johnson explains, “It would all be so easy if you had a map to the maze. If the same old routines worked. If they just stopped moving ‘the cheese,’ but things keep changing.”

The simple story of “Who Moved My Cheese?” reveals profound truths about change that give people and organizations a quick and easy way to succeed when change happens. Change can be a blessing or a curse, depending on your perspective.

I was a co-owner of Contempo Realty in 1997 when we sold our company to NRT, what is now known as Realogy. I was surprised and caught off guard when they announced to us that our new brand would be Century 21. This was an unexpected change and quite frankly stunned most of us as we all presumed the transition would be to Coldwell Banker. Uncertain of this new adventure and what operations would be like moving forward, we knew that wishful thinking was no substitute for a strategic plan. In order to compete as our new brand we had to sharpen our skills and work at a higher level.

Looking back today, I see that it was a blessing in disguise. To help employees accept the big changes that were happening around them, I gave each employee the book “Who Moved My Cheese?” My intent was for each of them to understand the message within the book, that everyone can view change as a blessing if they understand the nature of cheese and the role it plays in their lives. I wanted each one of them to seek out new opportunities and quit the “it’s-not-fair” attitude and instead seek opportunity.

In the story, the characters are faced with unexpected change. Eventually, one of them deals with change successfully, and writes what he has learned from his experience on the maze walls. When you come to see “The Handwriting on the Wall” you can discover for yourself how to deal with change and enjoy more success and less stress in your work and in your life.

Resistance to change is a dead-end street. “Who Moved My Cheese?” provides a simple, powerful message to the person confronted with unwelcome change.

Learn to think more like a mouse. Don’t depend upon the status quo. Realize change happens and circumstances, which may have favored you in the past, will change in the future. Accept that you can’t control change and are not entitled to things remaining the same.

While there’s no single way to deal with change, the consequence of pretending change won’t happen is always the same: The cheese runs out.

“Who Moved My Cheese?” is a rare book that can be read and understood quickly by everyone who wants to succeed in changing times.

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Thoughts on Leadership: Stop Fighting Change

By Gino Blefari | September 22nd, 2011 0 Comments

Successful leadership requires many skills, but one of the most important is learning how to deal with change. Change is a funny thing. We all know it is inevitable, but we often resist it. Great leaders, however, look at change and embrace it. They understand that change, though scary and stressful, creates opportunities. Change can offer a challenge to be more creative, flexible and strategic.

When thinking about change, I often turn to Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric. Mike Ferry originally introduced me to his inspiring leadership traits. Welch is one of the most well known “big businessmen” of his generation and offers a lot of insight into how successful leaders deal with change. Welch is also interesting to me because when he first joined GE in 1960, he worked as a junior engineer in my hometown of Pittsfield, Mass., making $10,500 a year.

Many may not know this, but Welch was almost fired from GE because he once blew the roof off the factory. Then after a year of hard work, he was not happy with the $1,000 raise he was offered. He felt unappreciated and dissatisfied with GE’s strict bureaucracy after learning that everyone in his department received the same $1,000 raise. He almost quit GE at the time, but was talked out of it by a higher-level supervisor.

Welch went on to be named vice president of GE in 1972. He moved his way up the ranks and eventually was named CEO in 1981. As CEO, he took apart a lot of the earlier management team put together by his predecessor, creating real change from day one.

I model my leadership style after Welch because he focused on the principle, “Embrace change; don’t fear it.” Why fear something you know will happen again and again? That’s no way to live, and definitely no way to run a business.

Change keeps everyone alert and on their toes. It’s the reality of business. Welch was able to turn a struggling, slow-moving corporate giant into a dynamic and growing company. The goal may be the same, never-ending growth but he said that the tools and methods were constantly changing. He encouraged his colleagues to never stop thinking about the need for change. Only through “massive change” could G.E. win, something Welch firmly believed in.

The leaders of many organizations refuse to see the handwriting on the wall and just hope that things will get better. Yet, wishful thinking is no substitute for a strategic plan. Lasting leaders not only come up with real solutions and partnerships, but they also constantly motivate and inspire team members to get past their fears of change and rise to the challenge.

Change isn’t easy. We all seek stability and predictability. But today more than ever change keeps hitting us in the face just when we think we can afford to get comfortable. So stop fighting change. It is no use and complaining isn’t a practical option.

Ask yourself: How are YOU leading your team as well as yourself and facing the constant changes in the “maze” of your life?

The following are each great books written by Welch that I recommend all leaders read for inspiration and insight: “Straight from the Gut,” “Winning, Jack Welch and the GE Way,” “Jack Welch and the 4 E’s of Leadership,” “29 Leadership Secrets,” and “Jack Welch Speaks: Wit and Wisdom from the World’s Greatest Business Leader.”

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Thoughts on Leadership: How to Build Trust in Your Leadership

By Gino Blefari | September 15th, 2011 0 Comments

If people don’t trust you, why would they ever follow you? The first critical job of any leader is to inspire trust. People simply won’t recognize you as their leader unless they trust you. And that trust has to run across intellect, ethics and morals.

Trust is confidence born of two dimensions: character and competence. Character includes your integrity, motive and intent with people. Competence includes your capabilities, skills, results and track record. Both dimensions are vital.

Leadership and trust go hand-in-hand. Whether you are a minister or a corporate CEO, you have to work to build that trust. It’s not just implied. How do you do that? The following are 13 common behaviors of trusted leaders around the world that build and maintain trust from others.

  1. Talk straight
  2. Demonstrate respect
  3. Create transparency
  4. Right wrongs
  5. Show loyalty
  6. Deliver results
  7. Get better
  8. Confront reality
  9. Clarify expectation
  10. Practice accountability
  11. Listen first
  12. Keep commitments
  13. Extend trust

When you adopt these ways of behaving, it’s like making deposits into a “trust account” of another party. Remember that the 13 behaviors always need to be balanced by each other and that any behavior pushed to the extreme can become a weakness.

Depending on your roles and responsibilities, you may have more or less influence on others. However, you can always have extraordinary influence on your starting points:

Self-Trust - the confidence you have in yourself and in your ability to set and achieve goals, to keep commitments, to walk your talk, and also with your ability to inspire trust in others.

Relationship Trust – how to establish and increase the trust accounts we have with others.

The job of a leader is to go first, to extend trust first. Not a blind trust without expectations and accountability, but rather a “smart trust” with clear expectations and strong accountability built into the process. The best leaders always lead with a decided tendency to trust, as opposed to a tendency not to trust. As Craig Weatherup, former CEO of PepsiCo said, “Trust cannot become a performance multiplier unless the leader is prepared to go first.”

The best leaders recognize that trust impacts us 24/7, 365 days a year. It supports and affects the quality of every relationship, every communication, every work project, every business venture, and every effort in which we are engaged. It changes the quality of every present moment and alters the course and outcome of every future moment of our lives – both personally and professionally. I am convinced that in every situation, nothing is as fast as the speed of trust.

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Thoughts on Leadership | Leaders Know How to Attract Attention

By Gino Blefari | September 1st, 2011 0 Comments

To accomplish anything in life as a leader, you’re likely going to need help from other people. Regardless of how talented or accomplished you are, you can’t always assume that you can count on attracting and retaining the attention of others. It will be more and more challenging and rewarding to hold onto the attention of those who matter to you.

Attention provides leverage. The more people leaders can attract and motivate to join them on a challenging quest or initiative, the more impact they are likely to achieve. So, what are effective ways to attract and retain the kind of attention that helps leaders to address the challenges they face? Here are four steps that build on each other.

1. Embrace mystery - Frame the more difficult problems that are relevant to you and need to be solved. Help people to understand why these are such significant problems and why so many people have been unsuccessful in trying to solve them. It probably will not attract the people looking for easy answers, but it can attract those who are naturally curious and looking for stimulating challenges.

2. Focus inquiry – Don’t try to suggest answers. Frame interesting questions instead. Help people gain perspective by posing questions that intrigue and motivate them to start investigating the mysteries that lie ahead.

3. Excite the imagination – Provide some “what if?” scenarios to illustrate the possibilities that await those who manage to come up with creative answers. Paint the pictures but make it clear these are only pictures. Stimulate people to pursue the questions with a lot of energy and creativity.

4. Be authentic – If you are not genuinely engaged in addressing these problems yourself, you will not be able to sustain the attention and effort of others to come up with creative solutions. On the other hand, if you are on a quest yourself, leading by example, you could have a contagious effect and the encounters you have can help both sides to learn from each other.

Do these techniques actually work? Well, think of how Martin Luther King excited and mobilized a broad group of people to tackle some very challenging social problems. On a completely different level, one leading tech company in Silicon Valley regularly attracts the attention of the venture capital community by sharing its most difficult technology problems and suggesting that they would buy the start-ups that come up with creative solutions to these problems. Or look at the way professional astronomers have mobilized a global network of passionately engaged amateurs to learn more about the vast universe beyond this planet.

This kind of attention is priceless and powerful. All leaders need to find ways to generate it and harness it. This is not just an opportunity, but increasingly an unavoidable obligation. Leaders are all experiencing increasing economic pressure as individuals and institutions. In this kind of environment, leaders not only need leverage, but also need to more rapidly improve their performance.

Leaders get better faster by working with others. To do this, they first need to attract their attention. If they fail to attract that attention, they will not get better faster in an increasingly competitive global economy, and they could be overlooked. That is why attention is becoming more valuable at the same time that it is becoming rare.

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Thoughts on Leadership: How to Turn Failure into Success

By Gino Blefari | August 25th, 2011 0 Comments

“I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career; I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty six times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over in my life. And that’s why I succeed.”
-Michael Jordan, 2006

Failure. We all experience it. Most of us see failure as a negative thing, which makes sense; it doesn’t feel good to fail. We all want to succeed and failure feels like a setback to that goal. What we don’t realize is that failure presents an opportunity to learn, grow and succeed. Check out Michael Jordan’s “Failure” Nike Commercial.

Michael Jordan is a fun example to look at. When most people think about this basketball legend, they’re not immediately thinking about how he didn’t make the varsity basketball team his sophomore year in high school. They’re not thinking about the times he lost the game-winning shot. They’re thinking about his achievements: six-time NBA champion, five-time MBA MVP, 14-time NBA All-Star, two-time NBA Slam Dunk Contest winner, Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year.

Michal Jordan’s success was real. People like to say that he was born a “gifted” basketball player, that Mark Zuckerburg was born a technology genius, and that Martin Luther King was a born leader. What we fail to realize, though, is that none of these successes were born that way. No one is born to play basketball, create a social media phenomenon, or to be a legendary leader.

Turning failure into success is hard work. It takes dedication and vision. When I was a brand new realtor my first coach Tom Hopkins taught me an important philosophy on failure and rejection that has resonated throughout my entire real estate career. He said “I never see failure as failure, but only as a learning experience. I never see failure as failure, but only as the feedback I need to change course in my direction. I never see failure as failure, but only as an opportunity to improve my sense of humor. I never see failure as failure, but only as an opportunity to practice my techniques and perfect my performance. I never see failure as failure, but only as the game I must play to win!”

Learn from some of the greatest champions on earth how to take the reigns and turn losses into wins – adapted from Adam Appleson’s book, “7 Steps to Turn ‘Failure’ Into Success:”

  1. Grin and bear it.
    When Michael Jordan came across rejection, he met it by practicing more.
  2. Take a time-out.
    The greatest ideas were founded when men and women were away from their usual routines. Albert Einstein was on vacation in the Apennine Mountains when we wondered what would happen if a ray of light became imprisoned.
  3. Assess whether your current plans are realistic.
    If things aren’t happening as fast as you’d anticipated, by the deadline you set for yourself, the deadline may not have been realistic. Don’t be afraid to make new plans and pursue them.
  4. Get support.
    Have a team behind you to get you through the rough times and keep you motivated!
  5. Play a game called “15 Ways…”
    Grab a sheet of paper and brainstorm 15 ways you can overcome whatever obstacle is standing between you and your goals. The first five are usually pretty obvious, but the last 10 are usually a bit harder to come up with, and often surface the innovative solutions you hadn’t thought about already.
  6. Pick a hero.
    Every time you fail and want to give up, ask yourself what your hero would do, then go do it!
  7. Go out and execute every day.
    Commit to doing one thing for your dreams every day. You know the saying, “genius is 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration.”

True leaders do not fear failure; they know how to use failure to their advantage. Like Michael Jordan said, he has failed over and over again, and that is why he succeeds. Take chances and don’t be afraid to fail, it could be the secret to your success!

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Thoughts On Leadership: Leaders Need Those Who Know How

By Gino Blefari | August 18th, 2011 0 Comments

Last week, we looked at the importance of planning ahead from Simon Sinek’s book “Start With Why.” This week is a further look at the book, specifically on Chapter 8 and the discussion of ‘Those Who Know WHY Need Those Who Know HOW.’

The following is an excerpt from Chapter 8: Start With Why, But Know How, that I wanted to share with you:

The pessimists are usually right, to paraphrase Thomas Friedman, author of “The World Is Flat,” but it’s the optimists who change the world. Bill Gates imagined a world in which the computer could help us all reach our greatest potential. And it happened. Now he imagines a world in which malaria does not exist. And it will happen. The Wright brothers imagined a world in which we’d all take to the skies as easily as we catch the bus. And it happened. WHY-types have the power to change the course of industries or even the world…if only they knew HOW.

WHY-types are the visionaries, the ones with the overactive imaginations. They tend to be optimists who believe that all the things they imagine can actually be accomplished. HOW-types live more in the here and now. They are the realists and have a clearer sense of all things practical. WHY-types are focused on the things most people can’t see, like the future. HOW-types are focused on things most people can see and tend to be better at building structures and processes and getting things done. One is not better than the other, they are just different ways people naturally see and experience the world. Gates is a WHY-type. So were the Wright brothers. And Steve Jobs. And Herb Kelleher. But they didn’t do it alone. They couldn’t. They needed those who knew HOW.

“If it hadn’t been for my big brother, I’d have been in jail several times for checks bouncing,” said Walt Disney, only half joking, to a Los Angeles audience in 1957. “I never knew what was in the bank. He kept me on the straight and narrow.” Walt Disney was a WHY-type, a dreamer whose dream came true thanks to the help of his more sensible older brother Roy, a HOW-type.

Walt Disney began his career creating cartoon drawings for advertisements, but moved quickly to making animated movies. It was 1923 and Hollywood was emerging as the heart of the movie business, and Walt wanted to be part of it. Roy, who was eight years older, had been working at a bank. Roy was always in awe of his brother’s talent and imagination, but he also knew that Walt was prone to taking risks and to neglecting business affairs. Like all WHY guys, Walt was busy thinking about what the future looked like and often forget he was living in the present. “Walt Disney dreamed, drew and imagined, Roy stayed in the shadow, forming an empire,” wrote Bob Thomas, a Disney biographer. “A brilliant financier and businessman, Roy helped turn Walt Disney’s dreams into reality, building the company that bears his brother’s name.” It was Roy who founded the Buena Vista Distribution Compan that made Disney films a central part of American childhood. It was Roy who created the merchandising business that transformed Disney characters into household names. And, like almost every HOW-type, Roy never wanted to be the front man, he preferred to stay in the background and focus on HOW to build his brother’s vision.

In nearly every case of a person or an organization that has gone on to inspire people and do great things, there exists this special partnership between WHY and HOW. It is the partnership of a vision of the future and the talent to get it done that makes an organization great.

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Thoughts on Leadership: The Importance of Planning Ahead

By Gino Blefari | August 11th, 2011 0 Comments

Have you ever been in this situation? You rush out the door because you’re late for a morning meeting. You didn’t bother to take your time and realize whether you had all the materials you needed for the meeting. Halfway to your meeting it hits you that you forgot something so you drive back to your house to get it. You’re now even later than you were to begin with. If you’d taken just a few minutes to look around and check before running out the door, you could’ve saved yourself some time and trouble.

As Rick Pitino wrote in his motivational self-help book Success is a Choice, “What you should be doing is arriving at work a half hour early and getting all of your social conversations out of the way, getting your newspaper read, and getting your coffee poured, so that when the workday starts you are ready.” And if you do have to go back home for something you forgot, you’d actually be on time because you already planned to be on time.

There’s a great leadership lesson here – the importance of planning ahead. In his book, Start With Why, Simon Sinek also discusses a story that shows the importance and benefits of planning ahead for success from the very beginning:

A group of American car executives visited a Japanese automobile assembly line. They watched the cars go through the assembly line, which all seemed routine, but were confused by the process at the end of the line when the doors were put on the hinges of the cars. The Japanese process seemed to be missing a critical part. In the United States, a worker was hired to tap the edges of the car door with a rubber mallet to make sure that they fit perfectly. The Japanese assembly line, however, had no such worker or machine to ensure that the door fit.

Puzzled, the American executives asked the nearest Japanese worker how they made sure that the doors fit perfectly. The man replied, “We make sure it fits when we design it.” Not only was the Japanese process more efficient, but Japanese car doors last longer and are more structurally sound in accidents compared to American doors. Why? It’s simple: the Japanese engineered the outcome they wanted from the beginning of the process.

Many leaders make the mistake of structuring their organization how the Americans’ structure their car assembly line. They forget to base all their actions, from the beginning, on the original intention. Instead, they tend to focus on the short term. When something goes wrong, they provide their followers with several short-term tactics that would not be necessary if they had simply had the final goal in mind during the whole process.

If the American automakers had designed doors to fit from the very beginning, they wouldn’t need to worry about having a mallet or an extra employee and step in the assembly line to tap the door into place.

We can learn a very valuable lesson from the Japanese assembly line – one that applies not only to business, but also to life in general. We need to realize the importance of our long-term goals and keep them in mind with everything that we do. If we stop taking shortcuts and making short-term solutions, we will actually save ourselves time, stress and in some cases, (such as the assembly line) money!

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Thoughts on Leadership: Billy Beane’s Leadership Lessons

By Gino Blefari | August 4th, 2011 0 Comments

With the movie coming out next month, I re-read Michael Lewis’ book “Moneyball,” (my second go round) – a remarkable depiction of Billy Beane’s unique leadership of the Oakland A’s.

Beane was a natural. At 6 feet 4 inches tall, he excelled at every sport he tried. Stanford University attempted to recruit him on a joint baseball-football scholarship, but Beane rejected the offer fearing a football injury would threaten his baseball career. Beane signed with the New York Mets. It was 1980.

As a major league player, Beane struggled. Over his ten year career as a player, he never achieved the promise that seemed so attainable to him. In 1990, Beane was recruited by the A’s general manager Sandy Alderson and became an advance talent scout.

His job, find the kids that will one day make the A’s a winning team.

And this is where the story truly begins.

By 2002, and under Beane’s leadership, the Oakland A’s became one of the most winningest teams in baseball, finishing first in the American League’s Western Division. But this stat was dwarfed by one far more impressive – Beane did this with the lowest player payroll of any major league baseball team.

Beane wasn’t cheap. He was smart.

When Beane scouted, he didn’t look for the star recruit with the most home runs or highest batting average; instead, he wanted players with the highest on-base percentage. Players who did what it took to win day in and day out.

Beane taught us the importance of a balanced team. What makes a team successful is not necessarily having the star player, producer or agent, but having a group of people who are all capable of doing what it takes to win or succeed. Having a wide range of skills and talents on your team is critical. Does your team have all the skills it takes to succeed? If not, what can you do to change that? Training? Recruiting?

The second critical part of the team is that everyone is in sync. A team is the sum of its parts. If people on a team aren’t working for the same goal and aren’t willing to help each other out at their own expense, then the team isn’t functioning to its full capability. Think about when you played a team sport as a child. Your goal was to win and you did everything in your power to accomplish that. Most likely you weren’t concerned with making yourself look the best at the expense of your other teammates and it would never cross your mind to do something that benefited you at the expense of winning the game. A good team player makes sacrifices and it pays off.

So stop worrying about being #1 and start focusing on your goal and how you can most efficiently and effectively accomplish it. Success will follow!

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Thoughts on Leadership: Passion, Martin Luther King Jr., and Leadership Success

By Gino Blefari | July 28th, 2011 0 Comments

What is it about leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. that makes us remember and honor them for generations? What made him stand out from all the great orators of his day who shared his vision? What is it that tipped him from greatness to legends?

He, like other leaders share one thing in common: their amazing ability to inspire those around them.

Over the last few weeks, we’ve been looking at leaders whose inspiration and roots in the why of what they were trying to do led them to success. Like the Wright brothers and Apple founders Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs, Martin Luther King Jr. was not alone in his quest at the time. There were others preaching about civil rights and spreading a similar message.

Simon Sinek discusses King’s leadership success in his book, “Start With Why.” In his book, he cites the reason leaders like King achieve phenomenal success tying back to a simple “golden rule” that he subscribed to that made him different than everyone else.

While most leaders or companies communicate from the perspective of what they do, people like Dr. King communicate around why they do it. They start with a belief. Everything they do and every way they act is built around it. Rather than selling a product they sell a belief which creates deeper, more meaningful connections with people.

Sinek even says that it’s not a person’s skill or opportunity that creates this type of success; it’s the combination of other characteristics that make up a great leader.

Great leaders:

  • Inspire people to act
  • Give people a sense of purpose or belonging
  • Are followed by people whom they have inspired, not swayed

A leader is nothing without followers. You can judge a great leader by how his or her people act. Great leaders inspire people to:

  • Have deep personal motivation to act
  • Be less likely to be swayed by incentives
  • Be willing to pay a premium or endure inconvenience, even personal suffering
  • Act for the good of the whole because they want to, not because they have to

I hope from this series you have learned that in order to be a great leader you do not need money or fame, the highest skills or best connections, you just need the right intentions and a lot of passion. If you find those things, people will follow you and truly be inspired to act.

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