How to Inspire Others

Drag others down and you’ll go down with them. The magnitude of your impact is determined by your ability to ignite passion in others.

You make a difference by
inspiring others to make a difference.

Those you inspire pull you forward. They don’t require pushing.

Five qualities of inspirational leaders:

Jeremy Kingsley, author of, “Inspired People Produce Results,” says inspirational leaders are:

1. Dedicated.
2. Loyal.
3. Visionary.
4. Planners.
5. Confident.

5 Questions:

Jeremy offers a series of questions to assess your inspiration quotient:

1. Do you absolutely believe in what your organization does and stands for?
2. Do you have a plan for tomorrow?
3. Do you enjoy planning your strategy?
4. Are you optimistic?
5. Do you motivate others easily?

I believe…

Leadership value is determined by the ability to inspire.

Don’t tell me what you can do. Tell me what you can inspire others to do.

Four surprising qualities of inspirational leaders:

1. Passion balanced with compassion. The pursuit of personal gain and glory doesn’t inspire, it threatens. Inspiration occurs when others believe you genuinely put them before yourself.
2. Strengths and frailties. The frailties you’re working through inspire others to work through theirs. Avoid whining. Focus on hope, progress, and benefit.
3. Belief. “The people who influence you are the people who believe in you,” Henry Drummond.
4. Optimism. Rise above the failures of others by believing in their future. Those who believe in others inspire others.

Lousy leaders push down. Successful leaders lift up.

“Keep away from those who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you believe that you too can become great,” Mark Twain.

Bonus:

I asked Jeremy how leaders inspire themselves. He talked about finding mentors. In his own words (2:35): 

Who has inspired you? How?

How do you inspire others?

13 Power Tips for Leading Through Uncertainty

It’s certain that we live in uncertain times.

13 Power Tips for Leading through Uncertainty:

1. Pull with – not against, higher ups. Grab the rope and pull, even if you disagree. Everyone who pulls in their own direction dilutes potential success. If you can’t pull with, jump ship, now.
2. Aim to make a positive difference. Don’t simply survive. Survival doesn’t inspire.
3. Listen and agree with expressions of fear. People feel minimized when you minimize their feelings. Affirm don’t correct. Ask, “What makes you feel that way?”
4. Schedule a “hard truth” meeting to explore worst case scenarios, fears, doubts, and what if’s. The sole purpose is honest expression without solutions. Paint black pictures. Prevent anyone from minimizing or solving anything. Honor and respect pain and fear. You look like a fool when you ignore the obvious. End “hard truth” meetings with power tip #5.
5. Schedule “tough solutions” meetings.
6. Break challenges and problems into small pieces. Ask, “Can we fix this?” When you find something you can fix, ask, “What can we do?”
7. Develop imperfect solutions. The search for perfect solutions creates uncertainty.
8. Learn as you go.
9. Celebrate small wins. Enjoy how far you’ve come. Momentarily forget how far you must go.
10. Focus on things within your power. Uncertainty focuses on factors outside your control; decisions made by others, economic downturns, or regulatory fiascos, for example.
11. Focus on positive behaviors and less on speculations. Uncertainty always causes speculation. Repeatedly ask, “What can we do.” But remember to embrace power tip #1, first.
12. Speak hard truths optimistically. Express highest points of confidence. “I’m not sure how this turns out but I’m giving it my best.” Pretending everything’s ok doesn’t instill confidence in those who know it’s not.
13. Connect with others who faced similar uncertainties and challenges.

Bonus: Remain emotionally steady.

This topic was suggested on the Leadership Freak Facebook page.

Which power tips are most difficult and why?

What power tips can you add to the list?

How to Find Your Passion and Change Your Life

Everyone says, “Follow your passion.” But what if you can’t find it?

Find your passion; don’t wait for it to find you.

Discontent:

Pick the scab of dissatisfaction. Hidden passion often lurks under the surface of discontent. Explore what you don’t like.

What don’t you like about you? Forget what you don’t like about the world. Passion to write Leadership Freak, for example, grew out of disappointment within me – about me.

Explore what you don’t like about what you don’t like?

Comforters kill passion. They’re enemies. Reject comfort. Find passion by following pain. Burning discontent guides.  Those close to you feel compelled to help you feel better. They should help you feel worse.

Strength:

Follow your strength if you can’t find your passion.  Give your abilities to others. This option falls way below following pain, but if you don’t feel dissatisfaction, try it.

Passion isn’t found in current activities, if it was, you’d feel it now. Passion is more about what you aren’t doing. Explore new channels for strengths. Follow your strength if it’s buried, neglected, or under-utilized.

Who:

Your contribution to the world rises up when you work on you. Frantic living muffles passion. Reflect every morning or evening. Take walks. Sit quietly 10 minutes a day.

You can’t escape the tyranny of the urgent because you haven’t given yourself a chance. Walk even if you can’t get stuff off your mind, for example. Keep doing it.

Passion is first about being, then about doing. Embrace the future you.

Find:

Talk with someone who’s found their passion. Forget success; look for contagious joy coupled with discontent. Miserable people won’t help.

Was passion a flickering flame that eventually erupted? Did it strike like lightening? How much of their passion is about them; how much about the world?

 How did you find your passion?

How do you help others find their passion?

Getting Past Excuses

If I started over, knowing what I know today, I would …

Aim higher and start sooner.
Mark Hopkins

Excuses:

Mark went on to say, “Life’s curveballs and my conservative nature provide daily excuses for not doing what I am capable of.  But my experience has shown me that anyone can hit what they aim for, or very close to it.”

Mark’s comment reminded me of a quote attributed to Michelangelo, “The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark.”

Defeat excuses:

1. Develop deep experience. Experience provides perspective for aiming high. Mark said, “I’d get my Malcolm Gladwell 10,000 hours and go make a dream come true.” Gladwell says the key to success is practicing something for 10,000 hours.
2. Follow your drive. “In order to bring my ‘A’ game I need to be working on something I am passionate about.”
3. Build the team. “I would need an amazing team that was built on the kind of trust that only comes from knowing that we care about each other.”
4. Connect with mentors. “I would need a mentor who can take the pie-in-the-sky vision that I am hesitant to even say out loud and, through experience and personal example, lead me to the point where I can see my team making it happen.”

Failures:

1. Don’t stick with one thing long enough.
2. Follow expediency rather than passion.
3. Focus exclusively on themselves.
4. Think they know more than others.

Get real:

In my opinion, building the team and find mentors are the most neglected components of the road to success.

Why do people fall below their potential?

What makes aiming high more than pie-in-the-sky?

I haven’t read Mark’s book, Shortcut to Prosperity, but the table of contents goes well beyond pie-in-the-sky thinking.

Seeking and Seeing Breakthrough Moments

Hate surprises? Plan on staying the same.

Surprises propel into the future or drive into the past.

Problem is, surprise signals uncertainty. Organizations hate uncertainty. Extraordinary leaders realize surprise is a catalyst not an enemy. Reject surprises to your own peril.

Surprise energizes innovation.

I asked the “expert on surprise,” Soren Kaplan, “If you could start over, knowing what you know today, what would you do.”

Soren replied:

1. Embrace uncertainty rather than fight it.
2. Use the natural paradoxes of life as a source of creativity.
3. Seek out surprises to challenge assumptions.
4. Never settle for incrementalism but rather always go for the breakthrough.”

Soren’s response helps me understand why organizations like Cisco, Colgate, Disney, Medtronic, and Visa consult with him.

Incrementalism or breakthrough:

I think breakthroughs are often the result of a series of incremental advances. But Soren said, “Never settle for incrementalism.” I called him to explore.

Soren doesn’t reject the power of incremental advances. He imagines, however, a life of maximum impact. He dreams of making a big difference, of breaking through.

Seek:

Seek breakthroughs. Don’t wait for them to find you.

You may see breakthroughs coming. It’s more likely they’ll surprise you. One morning you’ll shield your eyes from their awkward glare.

Whether you see breakthroughs coming or they surprise you, seek them.

1. Embrace uncertainty.
2. Use paradoxes.
3. Seek surprises.
4. Never settle for incrementalism.

Sadly, breakthrough moments are missed because you don’t seek them or you don’t see them when they arrive.

Breakthroughs happen when:

1. Frustration outweighs satisfaction.
2. Someone believes in you more than you believe in yourself.
3. Fresh eyes observe stale attitudes.
4. Someone courageously names the elephant in the room.
5. New faces cross your path.

Listen in: Soren talking with me about surprise.

Soren’s book: Leapfrogging. (A favorite of mine)

Soren on Leadership Freak:

• The Cure for Pessimism
• How to Find Your Breakthrough
• Finding Your Future Failure

How can leaders see breakthrough moments?

How can leaders seek breakthrough moments?

Life Lessons from Amy Lyman, Co-Founder of Great Place to Work®

Image source

I asked Amy Lyman, co-founder of the Great Place to Work® Institute, what she would do differently if she could start over.

She said, “I would not do anything differently as I don’t think about my life and work in that way. What I do try to do is think about how to go forward, taking the lessons I’ve learned along the way to make my life better and the lives of others better.”

5 life lessons from Amy Lyman:

1. Go forward in life with confidence that what you have chosen to do is valuable to the world at large and important to you personally.
2. Take time to choose wisely. Pursue a career or way of life at a reasonable pace that enables you to enjoy being alive.
3. Treat people with respect and fairness, without manipulation or deception, so that you are always able to look people in the eye.
4. Share the joys and burdens of work with your colleagues and co-workers, and when you have the opportunity to do so, share the rewards as well – fairly and equitably. From my many years of work with people in great workplaces in which relationships are built on trust, I’ve seen again and again the power of shared burdens and shared rewards.
5. Pursue happiness – our time on earth is brief in the grand scheme of things and a bigger car, bigger house or corner office pale in comparison to being happy.

My favorite:

When I hear Amy say, “Go forward in life with confidence…,” The words, “believe you matter,” bounce in my head. Stop trying to matter and know you do. Now, go do what matters.

More from Amy Lyman:

• Her blog: An extended response to the question: Choices for the New Year.
• Her book: The Trustworthy Leader. (Highly Recommended)

Amy on Leadership Freak:

• How to Create Buy-In Before You Blowup
• The Secret to a Great Place to Work
• How to Move Through Uncertainty to Opportunity
• Amy Lyman Kicked my Assumptions

Which of Amy’s life lessons gets traction in your thinking? Why?

What life lessons do you frequently share?

Finding Courage to Begin Again

I usually sleep the New Year in and watch the ball drop on the news. New Year’s Eve is an imaginary line in the sand but, I must confess, its power is real. New Year’s inspires us to begin again.

Step into the future or settle for the past.

Three keys to courageously begin again:

People give courage.

The people closest to you determine
the heights you reach.

You don’t lack determination you lack encouraging friends. Connect with courage-givers not courage-drainers. You won’t go far without others.

Resolution: Make a short list of people who lift you and spend more time with them.

Resolution: Fill those around you with courage by honoring their strengths. Make them feel they matter.

Positives inspire courage.

There’s something wrong with everything. There’s always room for improvement. Celebrate progress more frequently than suggesting improvements. Celebrations inspire courage. Constant correction drains courage.

Explaining what’s next
without celebrating what was – discourages.

Resolution: Say at least four positives for every negative.

Love overcomes fear.

Mothers face lions to protect the children they love. Love your organization. Love the people in it.

I’m not talking romantic love. Seek their highest good. Place the interests of others before your own. Self-interest makes leaders cautious. Seeking the interest of others enables and encourages.

Resolution: Place your organization before yourself.

Bonus:

Purpose sustains courage.

Noble mission infuses effort with value and sustains courage. People with purpose begin again.

Leaders fuel courage by explaining purpose,
giving place, and enabling progress.

How do you fill others with courage?

What fills you with courage?

The Most Important Thing

Facebook contributors completed the sentence, “The most important thing leaders do is _______.” The first 10 responses were:

1. Listen.
2. Give feedback.
3. Empower.
4. Communicate vision.
5. Inspire.
6. Enable others…
7. Learn.
8. Lead!
9. Keep hope alive.
10. Pray.

Read the entire list on Facebook.

The answer:

I didn’t have an answer when I asked. Now I believe there is no single answer. The most important thing is situational.

The most important thing leaders do is
the most important thing.

Successful leaders do what’s important. Sometimes it’s listening. Other times, it’s giving feedback.

Rejecting:

Clear the clutter. Find what’s important by stopping what’s not.

If you’re afraid to stop, postpone. Postponing insignificant activities is enough. If you’ve misjudged their importance, they’ll be back.

Tip:

Delete items on your to-do list after carrying them forward a week. They seem important but they aren’t. If they were, you would have done them. Put them on a wish list.

Priority:

What’s important now?

1. Activities that produce results. Commit to action.
2. Everything that feels urgent isn’t important. The next time someone approaches with panic in their eye, ask if it can wait until this afternoon. By the afternoon, see if it’s solved.
3. Small wins. A small win in the hand is better than two big wins in the bush. Big wins emerge from a series of small wins.

Before starting something new, ask, “Is this important?” Keep asking as you go.

Avoid stagnation:

Don’t fret over finding the most important thing. Just do what’s important now.

Why are unimportant things getting done while important ones aren’t?

How do you determine what’s important?

 

8 Powerful Ways to Inspire Courage in Others

The past is the future, apart from courage and perseverance. Success is persistently taking the next step. Taking the next step takes courage.

“You will never do anything in this world without courage” Aristotle

***

“In the realm of ideas everything depends on enthusiasm… in the real world all rests on perseverance.” Goethe

***

The real power of courage and perseverance is they inspire courage and perseverance.

Inspiring courage:

1. Explain that courage and fear always dwell together. Courage doesn’t eliminate fear, it answers it. Acknowledge the fears of others.
2. Elevate courage by acknowledging your own fears. An occasional acknowledgement of your fear opens a window on your courage. Danger, too much acknowledgment makes others fearful.
3. Focus fear effectively. “If people are more afraid of the boss than they are of the competition, the competition is certain to win.” Joe Tye.
4. Give fear a name and it becomes just a problem; it’s easier to solve problems than it is to conquer fear. Joe Tye.
5. Prepare for what you fear. Hurricane Sandy is on it’s way to our home in Central Pennsylvania. We’ve been preparing. I purchased gasoline and tested our generator, for example. Courage transforms fear into preparation.
6. Create points of certainty. “People are not afraid of change, they are afraid of uncertainty…” Joe Tye. During change, for example, highlight things that aren’t changing.
7. Focus on purpose. Why must you move forward? Facing uncertainty without purpose makes chickens of us all.
8. “Lighten up and laugh – it is physiologically impossible to be frightened when you are laughing.” Joe Tye.

This post is a collaboration with my friend Joe Tye. Learn how to develop Perseverance and Courage in his webinar on October 31. More information.

Added resource: 1.5 minutes of my interview with Joe Tye: Changing Your Metaphors.

How do you face your fears?

How do you inspire courage in others?

Mintzberg on What’s Wrong with Management

Henry Mintzberg thinks modern management is off the tracks. While we spoke, I got the feeling if I asked what’s wrong with management he’d say practically everything. This from one of the most respected business thinkers in the world.

He went so far as to say,

“The problem in America
isn’t the economy it’s management.”

Mintzberg speaks against:

1. MBA’s with no experience.
2. Shareholder value.
3. Separating management from leadership.
4. Top-down strategy making. He believes strategy emerges from conversations within an organization.
5. Excessive executive compensation. He juxtaposed narcissist with over-compensated CEO.
6. Using terms like “human resources” and “human capital”. He thinks it’s sick.
7. Pushing employees to work harder and longer.
8. Current hiring practices.

Hiring a CEO:

“Stop hiring people who can impress.” Henry Mintzberg

Stop looking for perfect candidates. Mintzberg said, “Flaws aren’t fatal.” I got the idea that he doesn’t believe in savior-CEO’s.

Mintzberg said, “Listen to the people who know them best, the people who worked for them. There are only two ways to find out someone’s flaws, marry them or work for them.”

Searching for perfect – flawless – candidates prevent anyone from saying the emperor has no cloths. In a world filled with “perfect” leaders, fakery prevails. On a personal level:

Fakery exacerbates stress in an already stress filled world.

Email:

Mintzberg isn’t a big fan of email, to add an ninth item to the list. It obviously has a place but, “It does have an off button.”

He asked me to send him an email when to let him know I posted and then with tongue-in-cheek said, “I check email every three weeks.” At least I think he was joking. I found him to be contrarian but not contrary.

Read his thoughts on “The Offline Executive“.

What do you think is wrong with modern management?