Tag Archives: leadership

DON’T CONFUSE BULLIES WITH LEADERS

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#leaders #bullies #leadership #success
Leaders don’t have to know everything.
They only have to know what they don’t know, find people who do know and create a space/atmosphere for them to do their best work.
A leader doesn’t have to be an expert in the company/agency he or she is leading. He or she has to make sure the people he or she is leading – the actual experts – have what they need to do their best work. The leader also may have to defend and support the work being done in the company or agency.
A leader also has to embrace the mission of the company/agency he or she is leading.
Bullies, on the other hand, do not lead. They tear things down. They denigrate the people within the company or agency. They don’t embrace the agency’s or company’s mission. In fact, they want the agency or company to do the opposite of what it is supposed to do.
Strong leaders don’t always show their strength. They often exercise strength behind the scenes, and always in an effort to help those they are leading.
Bullies want their “strength” on display. They often deploy their “strength” by acting against those whom they are supposed to lead. In such a situation, people usually get hurt and the company or agency crumbles.
Leaders know their success doesn’t come strictly on their efforts. They know it takes a team to pull off success, and are eager to credit that team with the success. If there are failures along the way, leaders take the blame themselves, and take responsibility for the repairs.
Bullies believe they are the only ones who can achieve success, and those under them merely do as they say. They credit no one but themselves for success, and only blame others for failures.
While the leaders work diligently to help others succeed, bullies work only to help others fail, so they can claim success.
Leaders lift people up. Bullies beat people down, to paraphrase a campaign theme from the recent U.S. election.
Bullies are skilled at breaking things. They are less skilled at building, or rebuilding, things.
Leaders try not to break anything, but, instead try to build or rebuild with existing structures, materials and people.
Indeed, some things must be torn down to rebuild. Bullies do that for sport. Leaders do that only when necessary, to try to save as much of what was there as possible.
Most of us have worked for leaders. Some of us have worked for bullies. If you are an aspiring leader working for a bully, you may have to cut your losses and find a leader(s) to work for. You’ll learn from a bully how not to be, and learn from a leader how to be.
The bully’s apparent “strength” hides overwhelming weakness. Over that so-called muscle is very thin skin.
Bullies have to look over their shoulders constantly, lest they be sabotaged. Leaders have to observe their teams constantly so they can learn more, support more and advocate more.
If you are put in charge of something, choose to be a leader. It’s safer for you and better for your organization.
In golf, the player lets the club do most, if not all, the work, while providing the best swing possible.  In leadership, the leader lets the team do most, if not all, the work, while providing the best atmosphere possible.

Peter

INITIATIVE IS NEVER GIVEN

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#initiative #TakingInitiative #motivation
The only way to get initiative is to take it.

It’s never given.

So writes leadership expert Seth Godin in his blog, dated Oct. 10, 2019.


Those who work for someone else, or, perhaps, those who hire a fitness coach, medical or other professional etc., are content to be told what to do.

In many instances, following an expert’s advice, or doing what your boss tells you, is not only prudent, but desirable.

Other times, especially in a work situation, some people realize that doing this for a long time is not what was meant for them.

Therefore, they take initiative to do something different.

Though Godin in this blog post says initiative is never given, he would probably make an exception for the person who gives himself initiative.

Are you in a situation in which doing what you are doing is not going to satisfy you for the long term?

You know you can do bigger and better things if given the opportunity.

But, opportunities don’t always come naturally, or through happenstance. Sometimes, you have to look for them, and at them.

The good news here is that if you feel stuck doing something unfulfilling in your eyes, and KNOW you can do much more, there are programs out there that may be an answer for you. Here’s where you give yourself the initiative to look at them.

These programs can be done without you giving up what you are doing now – at least for now. By devoting a few, part-time hours a week, at least to start, you can potentially earn an income that could dwarf what you are earning at that unfulfilling job.

No specific education, background or experience is needed. All you need is an open mind, a willingness to work and the gumption to stay with it.

To learn about one of the best such programs, message me.

Sometimes, you have to get away from people ordering you to perform what you see are meaningless tasks. Sometimes, you may need to get away from a job that is wasting your valuable skill and time. Sometimes, you just need to change your life.

If you are waiting for the opportunity to come to you, you may be waiting awhile.

Instead, give yourself initiative. Look for something different. You might even find something you had never thought you would do. But, if your mind is open enough, you’ll check it out anyway. Because, you never know what you might find when you look.

If patience is a virtue, and good things come to those who wait, don’t tell that to those who give themselves initiative.

Yes, they may have patience. They may do what they hate until they find what they love. But they have given themselves the initiative to keep looking. Instead of waiting to see what happens, these folks keep looking to make things happen.

So, give yourself initiative. It may be the greatest gift you could ever receive.

Peter

KNOW, GO AND SHOW

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#know #go #show #leadership
Leadership expert John Maxwell says, “A leader knows the way, goes the way and shows the way.”
Motivational speaker Les Brown says, “Some of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears.”
Leadership has different definitions to different people, but many experts believe a leader shows, rather than tells.
A leader is someone a person watches and emulates, rather than one who gives orders.
To lead others, referring to Maxwell’s quote, you have to show the way. He doesn’t have to be loud, dynamic or boisterous. He just has to set an example for others to follow.
How do you become one of those? Going back to Brown’s quote, you can’t follow your fears.
You have to move, step or act whether or not what you are doing or where you are stepping is scary. Many good things are scary, at least at first.
Once you get in the habit of stepping or acting, it becomes much easier and much less scary. You will learn what you have, and why others should have it and take those willing to follow you to your – and their – dreams.
So, you’ve decided you want to be a leader, but your job doesn’t allow you to. Your job requires you to follow something or someone, perhaps something or someone you’d prefer not to follow. Still, you have to make a living, so you do as you are told.
Yet, there is something within you that is gnawing, telling you there is something much better out there for you.
Here is where you cast your fears aside and examine other alternatives. There are many vehicles out there that allow you to become one who knows, goes and shows.
Your mission, should you want to be a leader, is to look for one of those vehicles, by casting your fears aside and stepping outside your comfort zone.
To check out one of the best such vehicles that can help leaders lead, message me.
Certainly, not everyone is a leader. In fact, most leaders are found, rather than created.
The task is to match leaders with the right thing to lead others to.
If your current path is not working for you, it’s up to you to look for another one. You may not find it immediately, and you may have to stay in your “wrong” path until the right one appears.
That “right” path may appear through someone you already know, or someone you’ve yet to meet.
If your dreams are more powerful than your fears, if you long to know, go and show, you have to do what you need to and, perhaps with a few spare hours, work to find the way to get to your dreams.
It’s all possible, for those willing to look for it.
Peter

LEADERSHIP AND OZ: BRAIN, HEART, COURAGE

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#TheWizardofOz #leadership #workplaces
Even if you’ve read the book or seen the movie, “The Wizard of Oz,” you may not realize that it offers great lessons in leadership.
Workplace expert BJ Gallagher brings some of those lessons to light in her book, “The Leadership Secrets of Oz: Strategies From Great and Powerful to Flying Monkeys – Unleash Some Magic in Your Management.”
Using actual lines from the book and/or movie, Gallagher addresses how one can build brains, heed your heart and cultivate courage.
To jog one’s memory, Dorothy and her three sidekicks were looking to Oz to provide each with the one thing they thought they lacked. The point is that they didn’t lack that characteristic at all. The wizard helped give them the perspective they needed to see that they indeed had what they needed all along.
Sometimes, when we think we don’t have something, or believe we can never find that one thing that we believe will put us over the top, often it is our perspective that is lacking, as Andy Andrews often writes and speaks about.
Have you ever heard someone say, “if I just had a …, I could do …?”
Perhaps what they don’t have is money. They may have a job, but perhaps live paycheck to paycheck. Perhaps they are overwhelmed with debt.
Perhaps they really want something – a nice car, for example – but believe it takes the money they don’t have to get it.
There are many ways to get money while still working that job that doesn’t pay enough, in a person’s mind.
First: spend less and save more. It’s old advice, but still applicable today. If you are young, you can get your nice car, if that’s your dream, but perhaps not right away. If you skip, say, one trip to the coffee shop every day, and saved the money you would otherwise spend there, eventually you’ll have the money put away for that car. Better yet, buy a container that will keep your coffee hot for a long time, make your own coffee, skip the coffee shop altogether and save what you would have spent there. You’ll be driving those dream wheels even sooner.
By the way, while saving for the car, put a few bucks into an account for your retirement. You never know when the day will come that your job will go away. The more and the longer you can save, as well as invest wisely with good trusted advice, the bigger your smile will be when your job eventually goes away.
Second: take a second job or, better yet, use a few non-working hours to help generate an income that could be even better than that from a second job. Maybe it could even outpace your main income source. There are many such vehicles out to help you do that. To check out one of the best, message me.
One can dictate his own future by the right perspective on each circumstance. The Oz characters came to realize that what they lacked was not lacking at all. They simply lacked the perspective that could help them better see what they had.
We all make choices. We all have circumstances. Sometimes, seeing opportunity amid catastrophe requires merely a new perspective. Sometimes, looking at other ways to do things that may be different from what you are used to can turn catastrophe into a dream come true.
Peter

MONEY DOESN’T MAKE YOU BETTER

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#money #PersonalGrowth #HoldYourHeadHigh
“If I had more money, I’d be a better person,” some might say.
Leadership guru Jim Rohn, in one of his newsletters, begs to differ.
“We grow personally and then we advance materially,” said Rohn in one of his newsletters.
Last week, we discussed flaunting your most valuable asset: your earning potential.
Rohn puts a slightly different spin on that premise: success is to be attracted, not pursued.
Some old adages your parents may have taught you include: Work hard. Keep your head down and your nose to the grindstone.
In other words, work hard, but don’t draw attention to yourself.
That advice may have sufficed for the person who wants to simply work, draw a paycheck every week, stay in his comfort zone and out of trouble.
For true success, however, hard work certainly is important. But you see true success when others are attracted to you. The best way to attract others to you is to show that you are truly interested in THEIR success, perhaps even more than in your own.
You see, helping others succeed more than likely will bring you success as well.
How does one do this with a “grindstone” kind of job? First, analyze where this job will eventually take you. If it’s unlikely to ever get you out of the work station you are in, and you want out – at least eventually, you may have to find something that you can do within the confines of your work place, or outside of it, to let people know you want to be successful.
If that’s not possible in the confines of your work station, look at other ways to help people, and perhaps earn a part-time income in your spare time. There are many ways to do that, without taking on a “second job.” To check out one of the best, message me.
You can gain personal wealth at the expense of others. Or, you can gain success by helping others achieve success.
Which would you rather do?
If the latter appeals to you, you might have to find ways outside of your normal activity to accomplish that.
You can certainly be successful without being wealthy. Just observe the story of people like Mother Teresa.
She helped people in a very selfless manner.
But if you are not already wealthy, helping people can be a way of creating wealth – for those you help become successful and, as a result, for yourself.
To do that, as Jim Rohn would advise, make yourself attractive to others. Not necessarily physically attractive, but let your enthusiasm draw others to you. Let your desire to help them want them to help you, or do business with you.
Be the one not with his head down, but the one with his head held high, and a smile on his face. Be the one who knows where he wants to go, and who wants to take as many with him as want to go.
Be a magnet that draws the best to you, then bring out the best in them.
Peter

LEADERSHIP: KNOWING WHEN TO LEAVE

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A person who reaches the pinnacle of leadership not only keeps leading, he is aiming to leave a legacy so that when he steps down, a high quality leader will follow him.
In John Maxwell’s “The 5 Levels of Leadership,” the leadership pinnacle is the fifth level. Leaders reach that level not only by developing other leaders, but by creating a situation that people follow him for who he is, and what he represents.
Maxwell says that a person reaches that level by continuing to develop leaders at all the other levels. By having a team of great leaders that the Level 5 leader has developed, he knows that he can step down, and the organization will still succeed like a well-oiled machine.
One of the main mistakes a leader can make at this level is hanging around too long. A Level 5 leader, Maxwell says, leaves before he has to. Most who get to this level have matured, probably had great financial success and may be ready to take on other challenges – or just retire and do something fun.
There’s a philosophy in any job to stay until they throw you out. But really great leaders don’t wait to be thrown out. Because they are so humble, they leave BEFORE they may want to.
So, perhaps you aren’t a CEO with a great nest egg. Are you hanging around a job waiting to see whether they throw you out? Do you see the day when they just might throw you out? Do you think that you are so great at what you do, they will NEVER throw you out?
In today’s working world, EVERY job is at risk. You, as an employee, are just one bad manager, or one reorganization, away from a potential end to a career. The job you are so good at perhaps can be done by someone who would earn less than you. Perhaps technology will advance quickly enough that a machine will replace you. Today’s worker cannot wait around expecting his employer to keep him until he can retire.
You have to keep your eyes and ears open for new opportunities. Those opportunities may lie in areas you may not logically gravitate to. Perhaps learning a new skill will increase your career options.
Chances are very good that someday, you’ll walk into work to a surprise – the company has reorganized and you’re being laid off. Never expect to be tipped off to this. It will come when you never expect it.
Or, that great boss you had has left the company, and his replacement is someone with whom you don’t hit it off. Perhaps this person sees you as a threat. Perhaps he just doesn’t like you. He can make your situation untenable.
Though the Level 5 leaders of which Maxwell speaks can usually control their own destinies, you may not have that luxury. But that doesn’t mean you can’t think the way they do. Perhaps you may not WANT to leave a job yet. But you may have to.
What to do to prepare for that? Have a Plan B in place to give you income if a career killer visits you. There are several good Plan Bs out there. To check out one of the best, visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau. You could be building a legacy of your own while you work. You could work your way up to a Level 5 leader, without interfering with your career. If the end of that career comes suddenly, you can leave with a smile.
Peter

SUCCESS VS. SIGNIFICANCE

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Success focuses on the three Fs: fans, fame and fortune.
But most truly successful peopl e are not fulfilled unless they are also significant. Significance focuses on three other Fs: faith, family and friends.
This formula came from the book “Attitude: The Remarkable Power of Optimism,” by Nido R. Qubein, president of High Point University in North Carolina.
You wouldn’t want to be around some successful people. They are selfish, greedy and among the first to take advantage of someone, or someone’s misfortune.
You might be drawing a paycheck from some of these folks. You see, they are not interested in your success. They are only interested in what you can do to make THEM successful. They pay you as little as they believe they can get away with. They want you DEPENDENT on them, even to the point of desperation.
In short, they are successful, but not significant – at least to you.
If they were significant to you, they would want YOU to be successful. They see your success as their success. They are grateful for what you do for them, and reward you well for it. That reward may not necessarily come in the form of money, though in the process of making you successful, money may be a part of it.
If you moved on to bigger and better things, they would feel proud. The successful, but insignificant, employer will feel you are leaving him in the dust, and want to penalize you for it.
Somehow, the successful but insignifant people sleep at night. Successful and significant people could not sleep at night if they let down one of their people.
Significant people put faith and family ahead of any personal gain. They believe if your priorities are right, everything else will fall into place.
The insignificant believe that only they are the priority.
So, one can choose to be successful at any cost. Others can choose to be significant first, then successful.
For the significant person, success may have a different definition. It may not be measured by money. Instead, it may be measured by how one earns and uses his time and treasure. It may be defined by how many people he has made successful.
In John Maxwell’s “5 Levels of Leadership,” the fifth level is helping to create other leaders. When you get to that level, you are successful and significant.
The lesson here is to have the proper priorities in life: faith, family and friends. The more people to whom you are significant, the more successful you will be. As your significance grows, your impact on the world grows.
Of course, one may need a vehicle to help more people become successful. For one of the best, visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau. You will see that the ONLY way for you to become successful is to help others become successful.
No matter who you are or how you define success, strive to become the most significant person you can be.
Peter

LEADERS WITH A CONSCIENCE

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We think of leaders as people who like to give orders.
We think of leaders as people we need to look up to.
We also think of leaders as people who make things happen.
We don’t normally think of leaders who have a conscience. It seems we were all taught to have a conscience, but somehow when people get into leadership posts, they become more about themselves than others.
Mayor Julian Castro of San Antonio, Texas, brought this to light when he said that for good change to happen, “you need folks in the boardroom who have consciences, and people in the streets who can picket at the right time.”
Castro was quoted in a March 2013 column by Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne.
As long as leaders won’t change, change is not likely to happen. Yet, in today’s world, change is not only the operative word, it’s the way of life. To paraphrase Darren Hardy, publisher of Success magazine, the change that took 100 years to happen up to now will happen in a much shorter time frame.
It’s happening so fast that it’s difficult to keep up with.
It will take leaders – and others – to make it happen. The old-style leader who got where he wanted, then fought to keep the status quo, no matter how anyone else was affected, will have to change. The new breed of leader will be concerned with others first. He will want to give and serve.
You see, if he gives and serves, he will get plenty. One never knows who the next innovator is. It could be someone right under a leader’s organization. To allow that person to excel to the best of his ability is a sign of true leadership. If a leader provides the right atmosphere for innovation and success for others, those innovators will likely forever be aligned to him.
LEADERS RELISH HAVING MORE SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE UNDER THEM
The new leaders will aspire to have good, innovative and successful people with him, and will want to reward them accordingly. The new breed of leader relishes having people even more successful than he in his organization.
He will want to serve and help those people to the best of his ability. He will give them all the credit for their accomplishments. He will create an atmosphere in which the best innovators can flourish and thrive.
Are you a new breed of leader? Do you want people like you in your organization? Do you want to build such an organization? You don’t have to be in a company. You don’t have to shell out big bucks for a franchise. You just have to be willing to look at one of the many opportunities that are out there for the entrepreneur.
For one of the best such opportunities, visit www.bign.com/pbilodeau . The potential for any leader is huge. All you have to do is find a few people like you that want to join with you. You help them succeed. They help you in return. And those who introduced you to the idea will help you, help them.
There’s no greater win-win than people helping people be successful, and have a great time doing it. No boss-worker hierarchy. No one person giving orders to the other. No one person succeeding, off the backs of others. People helping people succeed.
Mayor Castro has it right that we need leaders with conscience. But, more than that, we need leaders who WANT others to succeed, and will help them to do it. We want leaders who don’t just graciously allow their workers to be photographed with them. We want leaders who are honored to be photographed with those they are trying to help.
Peter