Posts Tagged ‘integrity’

Thursday Thoughts: Leaders Inspire

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“Before you can inspire with emotion, you must be swamped with it yourself. Before you can move their tears, your own must flow. To convince them, you must yourself believe.”
                                                                                                             -Winston Churchill
 
The ability to inspire people to reach new heights is a strong attribute that top-notch leaders possess. Passion and purpose, along with solid listening skills, are characteristics that lead to inspiration. Communicating that passion, purpose and meaning is what helps to establish an organization’s culture.
 
Success in inspiring people requires trust, vision and care. Employees must trust their leader, see a clear vision for the company to move forward and a plan for getting everyone there.
 
That trust is critical. People are not willing to recognize someone as their leader unless they trust them, not just intellectually, but ethically and morally as well. Likewise, people won’t follow someone unless they’re convinced that person knows where they’re going.
 
Inspiration requires a leader to show by example rather than telling others to be inspired. Here are five ways to instill trust and inspiration in others:
 

  • Include others. People need to feel closely connected to the actions and process that lead to decisions and the accomplishment of goals.
  • Feel passion and share it. The inspirational leader is passionate about the vision and mission of the organization. This leader is able to share that passion in a way that spreads it to others.
  • Possess genuine integrity: Integrity inspires others to follow.
  • Listen. When others feel you are listening to their opinions and needs, they will be inspired to work with you.
  • Provide solutions. An inspirational leader gives people what they want within his or her capabilities.

So, you might ask, how can you become an inspirational leader?
 
Realize that inspirational leadership is a fundamental shift in your state of mind. Understand how important personal appreciation and recognition is to maintaining a motivated workforce. Once your team has an inspirational vision, involve everyone in how you will achieve this picture of success.
 
You can build a personal brand identity as an inspirational leader by embracing the mindset that you will be the one who brings out the best in your people.
 
Choose to be an inspirational leader today and convert work into purpose.


Monday Mojo: Walk The Talk

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There are two types of people in the world.  There are the “Givers,” those people who are always going out of their way to help others – lend a hand, give a positive comment, make you feel good, and encourage you. Then there are the “Takers.” This type of person is always trying to work the angles to benefit themselves. They are in it for Numero Uno and have their hand out looking for someone to give them something. They tend to dish out sarcastic comments, tearing you down, and suck the energy from you.

Which one are you?

Here is the interesting thing.  Those who “give” get and those who “take” get taken away. It is a universal law of life we all need to understand if we want to accomplish our goals personally or professionally. On the surface it is so hard to get our heads around and comprehend. It is like saying if you want to go faster, take your foot off the gas. However, everything in life works that way. If we want to accomplish our goals, we have to help others accomplish theirs, but don’t do it for selfish reasons. Don’t do it just because it is going to help you accomplish your goal. Be genuinely connected with those you help, be in it for them. If you want to get fit and healthy, help others get fit and healthy. If you want to become closer to God, help others get closer to God. If you want to make more money, help other make more money. If you want to improve your business, help others improve their business.

So, why is that?

I think it subconsciously helps us have integrity and accountability with what we need to do to accomplish our goals.  We can’t genuinely advise and help someone to do one thing, and then do something completely different. The best way to help someone is to show them how, not tell them – that’s called Leadership, actually it is called Servant Leadership.

Someone once told me that if you want to know what your kids are going to be like when they grow up, it is not going to be what you say – look in the mirror and stare into the eyes of the person you see.  That is what your kids are going to be like. You can’t ask others – whether it is your kids, your friends, your colleagues, etc. to get up early, workout, eat right, spend quality time with your family, invest, be focused, accountable and discipline at work – and then go about your day getting up late, never working out, eat like crap, never spending quality time with your family, spend every penny you make and be a lazy ass at work.

It is like writing Monday Morning MOJO.  People are always telling me how much they love getting it every Monday morning.  I have thousands of people signed up from coast to coast who receive it every Monday morning, and by the time it gets forwarded on to other peoples distribution lists, who knows it may be reaching ten of thousands of people every week. The interesting thing is that the person who gets the most out of MOJO is me, because I have to take the time and write it – it burns the message into me. Then I have to have integrity with what I write.  I can’t say go for it and have a great life, then sit on my ass and watch life pass me by.

Make it a week of MOJO!


Thursday Thoughts: True Leaders do the right thing, always

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“Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things”

                                                                             – Peter Drucker

This quote sums up so much of what I believe to be true about leadership. The art of leadership involves much more than execution. It takes you far deeper than management, it calls upon your feel for what is right, but most importantly, it demands responsibility – a steadfast ownership of the values that define you and the actions you take.

This sense of responsibility is one of the most important but often misunderstood dimensions to inspired leadership. Without responsibility neither you nor the people you are charged with leading have a true compass that guides actions and decision making.

What does responsible leadership entail? Here’s my starter list:

  • Responsible leaders are responsible for establishing the atmosphere for the office or company they are asked to lead
  • Responsible leaders establish the ethical boundaries and understanding of integrity within their organizations by their own actions, not their words. Leaders don’t say one thing and do another.
  • Responsible leaders model respect for colleagues and customers
  • Responsible leaders establish and constantly reinforce standards of performance – for their agents, employees and themselves
  • Responsible leaders encourage creativity and innovation among their agents and employees while ensuring that these energies remain consistent with the larger goals of the organization
  • Responsible leaders provide direction to agents and employees that have drifted from the organization’s strategic direction and culture
  • Responsible leaders recognize that it is from themselves that most is expected

Are you ready for that? If you desire a position of leadership, understand that you must be prepared for responsibility and a commitment to find, in Drucker’s words, the right things in everything you do.


Thursday Thoughts: Leadership Requires Sacrifice

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Next Monday is Memorial Day. Most of us will celebrate at backyard barbeques, in the company of friends and family, enjoying the fruits of our hard work.

But what are we celebrating?

We are celebrating – indeed, we are honoring – the courage of those who do what must be done, who bear the load for others so that they may be free to live their lives.

On Memorial Day we bear witness to the leadership demonstrated by the members of the armed forces – those who sacrifice so we don’t have to.

General Norman Schwarzkopf, who led America’s combat forces to victory in the first Gulf War, understands this sacrifice that comes with leadership.

In a speech about leadership to several hundred real estate executives assembled for a conference he posed the question, “Why do the troops go? Why do their families let them go?

His answer: They go because their country asks them to.

Schwarzkopf continued, “As I speak to you right now, somewhere in this great nation, servicemen and women are saying goodbye to their families as they go off to war. I know what it’s like. Think of the anxiety of a family that is saying goodbye to a loved one with absolutely no idea when they will see them again or worse yet if they will ever see them again alive.”

The general defines leadership as the ability to inspire people to willingly do that which they wouldn’t ordinarily do. He distinguishes managers from leaders: whereas managers oversee processes, systems or equipment, leaders lead people who have their own dreams and ambitions.

Sounding like a preacher delivering a Sunday morning sermon, Schwarzkopf emphatically stated: “Leadership involves a sense of duty. Leadership involves a value system. Leadership involves ethics. Leadership certainly involves integrity.”

So, as you enjoy our American freedoms this Memorial Day, join me in reflecting on the model of sacrifice and leadership embodied in the men and women of our Armed Forces.

Think, too, how you might apply that model to inspire others around you to higher ideals – those places they might not otherwise go.