Are you standing in your own way of success? By now you’ve made your resolutions and written your 2011 goals and/or your business plan. You’ve done everything you learned from past experience or were told such as writing your goals, determining the strategy to achieve those goals and outlining the tactics you are going to do to get there.

Two of the most common obstacles that can stand in your way of achieving your goals and being successful in 2011 are YOU and OTHERS.

You may be standing in your own way by thinking negatively; fear of failing or even fear of wild success; overanalyzing your plans or dwelling on prior failures. Often times we are unaware of the obstacles we pose for ourselves. Emotional obstacles can disguise themselves such as making excuses for not taking action, insincerity, manipulation by others, self-pity, poor judgment, cynicism, envy, irresponsibility and procrastination.

Others include family or friends who may be nay sayers, ultimately derailing you with their negative talk. Take a look at the environment around you, is your work area set up to promote productivity, are the people around you supportive of your goals?

Optimize your environment by eliminating your obstacles. “Clear the clutter” that no longer serves your purpose and surround yourself with the people and things that will help you achieve your goals. If you have a vision of where you want to be or what you want to do, determine what it is you need to do to make your vision a reality?

Some other obstacles that can be standing in your way include physical items, emotional state of mind, mental conditioning and spiritual conditioning. These obstacles are not exclusive of one another and often are interrelated.

• Physical: when you assess your environment is there anything that needs to be eliminated such as old documents, articles, or books. Perhaps you have an unfinished project you have been laboring over that can be delegated to someone else to finish. Is your work area nurturing, allowing you to perform what it is you have to do to become successful? Remove distracting books, CDs and papers from your desk and make sure you have the correct lighting? Become aware of your relationships and determine which ones fulfill you (give you energy) and which ones drain you (take more of your energy without giving back). Be sure you are associating with people who are not supportive of you.
• Emotionally: What is your emotional status like and have your emotions controlled your life? Have you made excuses for your present condition that have undermined your chances of success? Have you felt envious of others for one reason or another? If so, start focusing on what actions you need to take to reach your goals and stop comparing yourself to others.
• Mental conditioning: Have you been conditioned to act in certain ways that impede your progress to success. Mental conditioning may take many forms of which may be hampering your chances of achieving success. Are you arrogant, presumptuous or selfish? Are you always seeking approval of others? If you are, then stop and trust that you already have everything you need to succeed.
• Spiritual conditioning: Do you assume a martyrs role and in general have lack of soulfulness as you go through your life? Do you experience low self-esteem, guilt, or shame? To help build a stronger level of self-esteem, start by taking a look at your health and
  relationships. By taking care of your physical health you become more positive, vibrant and confident. What about your relationships, do you have many rewarding, close, loving relationships? Having strong, productive relationships and the ability to get along well with others helps increase your level of self-esteem.

NOW, take time to reflect on the above and make a list of what, when and how you are going to eliminate your obstacles to ensure your success in 2011.

To your success!

This is the time of year when everyone’s making their “New Year’s Resolutions”. What’s yours? Are you going to make the same resolution(s) you do every year, only to fall short or lose interest by February?

• Lose 20 pounds
• Exercise more
• Be more organized
• Make more money
• Stop procrastinating

We all have the best of intentions, but what separates intentions from achievements is ACTION.

If you want 2011 to be your breakthrough year, the one thing you can do right away is to Visualize your future. Imagine if work wasn’t work at all because you love what you do. It’s little to no effort because it comes so easy to you. You need to have a clear vision of what you want in order to know what you are going after. If you don’t know where you’re headed, you’re just going through the motions.

Take some time this week to answer the following questions.

1. If you could do anything and knew you wouldn’t fail, what would you do?
2. What do you want to be, do or have in your life?

Write the answers to these questions in your journal or on a piece of paper, just write whatever comes to your mind – don’t edit or over think it. It can be career, personal, goal or activity related. Why should you write them down? You need to capture your future vision, not just think about it! Once you write them down, it makes them more REAL and therefore more achievable.

Now that you have written them down, imagine yourself achieving them. What you focus on, so goes your energy. Therefore, the more you visualize what you want, the easier it will come to you.

Begin to act “as if” you have already achieved what you have visualized. By doing this, you will take the necessary steps towards your goal and build the momentum.

If you don’t take the time to decide what you want for yourself in 2011, circumstances or someone else’s agenda will choose for you. Make 2011 the year you Live your life on purpose – not by accident!

Without purpose, leaders can run the risk of being attracted to power and prestige. Although they may be powerful and effective leaders, they are driven by external opportunities and are vulnerable to egotistic impulses. Most often, the followers of these leaders do so out of fear, ignorance or indifference. In the long run, this type of leadership is far less effective.

Below are 4 actions you can take to help you begin to discover your purpose.

1. Set aside 30 minutes a day to reflect on your life- preferably in the morning. Resist the urge to check email and voice mail first – which can set your day off on the wrong foot. In this day and age, we all have so much going on between work, home, the kids and their activities, etc. that we don’t have time to think straight. Give yourself time to just think.
2. Schedule this time in your calendar. If you don’t set this time aside, it is unlikely to happen. It’s much like scheduling your daily/weekly workouts.
3. This is a time for you to think about all those things that are important not urgent. This is not the time to think about your “to do” list but more about where you see your life going, what’s important to you, what is your purpose as a leader?

• What have you been ignoring that is screaming for your attention?
• What can you do to build your strengths and your team’s strengths?
• What is no longer serving you that may be keeping you from achieving your goals or standing in the way of your purpose?

4. Listen to and trust your inner voice. What is your inner dialogue telling you about yourself? Is it helping you or harming you? Begin to take note of your mindset.

Changing your habits and doing these actions can be difficult, don’t go it alone. Enlist an accountability partner that will help keep your priority on you. Click here to get started now..

So, over the past 6 months, I invested in myself through a powerful mentor (business building expert, Lisa Sasevich – pictured here) and also joined a mastermind group of like minded entrepreneurs, which has all made a huge difference in my life. I have gone through an incredible transformation and as a result, I have reconnected with my authentic self and have never felt more powerful! I no longer need to act and speak a certain way because of corporate pressures.

Now my mission is to teach professionals, who are struggling to be someone they’re not, to identify their true talents and strengths and trust their intuition to become authentic leaders.

Are you ready to invest in yourself to unleash your power and become an Authentic Leader?  If so, I’d like to help. To apply for your complimentary session, click here and fill out the brief survey to get started (www.executive-force.com/strategy).

Do you have the courage to step outside the box (corporate mold) and show your true colors, admitting to your shortcomings? Unfortunately many people who get promoted into new leadership roles are so eager to impress and win the approval of others that they cover up their shortcomings because people assume you should know everything. Then, in their quest for success, they get caught up in the intense corporate pressures only to find their core values compromised as they become someone other than their authentic self.

Companies spend millions of dollars each year on leadership development between leadership conferences, development courses, books, etc. Each one of these does a fine job of outlining all types of characteristics and traits of great leaders. However, if you try to emulate all these traits and characteristics hoping you will become a great leader – you’re mistaken. First and foremost you need to understand who you are and what your true talents are that make you unique. Learn to listen to and trust your intuition, speak from the heart plain and simple so people can identify and connect with you – it’ll make you different and help you stand out from the rest.

Authentic Leaders have:

Insight – Sometimes insight is also referred to this as vision, which is important for all leaders to have, but this more about the ability to see into a situation. Having the ability to look at complex situations, simplify it and determine a clear course of action.

Initiative – Meaning they go first. They don’t sit around waiting to be told what to do – being reactive. Instead they lead by example and don’t ask others to do what they are not willing to do themselves.

Influence – They have the ability to attract followers and motivate people to act. Their enthusiasm and passion for what they do is often contagious. People are drawn to their vision and their values.

Impact – They make a difference and are able to create real lasting change. The measure of a leader is found in the impact they have on their followers.

Most importantly, Integrity – They stand firm to their core morals and values. This is what I consider the foundation of an Authentic Leader, as it ultimately determines the quality of a person’s impact.

Leadership comes from the inside out.

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Imagine a life of playing to your strengths every day – finding the ability to shine at what comes naturally to you.

Don’t go another day struggling to be someone you’re not. I can teach you how to identify your true talents and build them into strengths to become an authentic magnetic leader. Click here and apply for a complimentary strategy session to learn how I may serve you..

• The number of people on your team has been reduced and yet you’re expected to produce the same or better results
• Your team is not producing the results that are expected from you and your team and you’re concerned that your bosses and peers are not happy
• Members of your team are undermining each other, or worse undermining you, causing conflicts and frustrations for you and you’d like to turn your team into a well oiled machine

Then I’d like to help you get the most out of your team as possible by offering a special one-on-one  “Innovative Executive Leadership Coaching Session”

During this session we will…

1. Create a clear vision for the results that you want your team to produce, the way that you’d like your team to interact with each other and the kind of people you would like to have on your team.
2. Uncover hidden challenges that may be sabotaging your success with leadership and team building.
3. You’ll leave the session renewed, re-energized and inspired to create a powerful results driven team that gets things done so you can be a hero and still have a flourishing personal life.

To schedule this special coaching session, simply send an email to pamela.reyes@executive-force.com and answer the following questions:

1. How long have you been in this leadership position?
2. What are the biggest leadership challenges you’re facing today?
3. On a scale of 0 – 10 how important is it to you to get better results from your team?
4. What are your ultimate aspirations and goals as a leader?

Be sure to also include your name, phone number and email address when you reply so that someone from our office can get back to you and schedule your session within the next 24 to 48 hours.

When you adopt the techniques and methods I teach other managers and leaders like yourself, you’ll be able to get more from your team members in terms of productivity and you will also learn how to improve your leadership style.

The following tips are intended to make you think about what you bring to the table with your current leadership style and how you can enhance it.

10 Tips to a More Successful Leadership Style

• Choose to lead
• Be the person others choose to follow
• Provide vision for the future
• Provide inspiration
• Make other people feel important and appreciated
• Live your values and behave ethically
• Set the pace through your expectations and lead by example
• Establish an environment of continuous improvement
• Provide opportunities for people to grow, both personally and professionally
• Care and act with compassion

Have you done something to improve your leadership style in an effort to get more results from your team in this economy? Please feel free to share by leaving a comment below.

The top skill a leader can possess is resilience – the ability to bounce back in tough circumstances.  Executive Force  can help you become more resilient by seeing more possibilities and finding new strengths to keep going.  As your trusted advisor, I can help you:

• gain more influence in their organization
• launch a new initiative
• get commitment and build alignment among other executives
• improve business relationships with your boss
• implement difficult changes
• grow your organization
• improve leadership skills as you venture in new areas
• quickly gain knowledge of new functions where you lack experience
• avoid burnout and balance work, family, health, fitness, etc.
• make decisions with incomplete information
• get clarity about organizations strategy and direction
• make improvements in response to negative feedback from colleagues

If you’d like to become more resilient and achieve exceptional results Contact me today.

In these difficult economic times more and more companies are cutting operating costs to increase profitability or merely remain profitable.  These times are a true test for leaders.  You’re being forced to do more with less and to somehow increase your organization’s profitability and productivity with fewer resources.  You have to find a way to turn pressure into progress and your team is depending on you.

There are five critical leadership strategies that can help you and all you have to do is remember a simple acronym: CLIMB.

5 Critical Leadership Strategies

Create

Let

Involve

Manage work horizontally

Build

Create a compelling future for your team. Share your end goal with your team and that will help everyone to get on the same page and define their work aligning what they’re doing with the big picture. In doing this you’re ensuring that everyone remains focused on the end goal, thereby increasing overall productivity.

Let the customer drive you, your team and your organization.  It’s critical to make everyone on your team aware of who your customer is. They must know how their work directly affects your customers and the organization’s bottom line. This gives everyone a sense of being in partnership with the customer, resulting in greater customer satisfaction and in the end, an increase in profits.

Involve everyone in the big picture. An organization will thrive when its individuals continuously share their expertise and knowledge with each other. People will feel valuable if they think they’re contributing to a common goal and helping their colleagues get there. People like when you involve them and they will respect you for it.

Manage work horizontally by looking outside of your own department to identify roadblocks that might be standing between your team and the success of your organization. This is going to help you understand how your department affects the others in your company and how the inter-dependencies all work towards achieving the overall goal.

Build personal credibility by doing what you say you will and saying what you mean. When you do this you build trust and demonstrate your personal accountability.

The bottom line is that people want to follow someone they trust and by following these strategies you’ll be well on your way to increasing profitability.

productive team and ultimately increases profits. Take a look at these tips to ensure you’re doing everything you can to motivate your team.

8 Tips for Creating a Motivating Environment

1. Are you upbeat? How is your tone? The staff you lead is naturally going to feed off of your energy, so try to keep yours in check. The more enthusiastic and positive you are, the more motivated your team will be to do a great job for you.
2. How much of yourself do you bring to the job? Your team members need to respect your position and your role as their leader but they also need to know you’re human. When you bring your unique personality to work with you, it can go a long way.
3. Do you act motivated and engaged?
4. How much authenticity and truth telling do you explore, reveal and create?
5. Collect “success and achievements” on conference calls and at staff meetings.  Encourage people to be on the lookout for successes and share them.
6. How can you offset the “negative voice” in a company, on a team?  Key point:  You must be intentional about infusing the “positive voice”.
7. Exit Interviews:  The trick is not finding out why an employee is leaving but more importantly, why did they start to disengage in the first place?
8. If you are engaged with individual employees then you will notice when they start to disengage.