People with a high level of personal mastery share several basic characteristics. They have developed several key habits that lead to their success. Master coach Steve Mitten shares ten habits that can contribute to higher levels of happiness, flow, effectiveness and meaning in people’s personal lives, careers and businesses.
It’s easy to lead … poorly. While leadership is easy to understand, implementing leadership concepts can be extremely challenging.
Becoming an effective, if not great, leader takes focus and determination. It requires a strong foundation of self-knowledge – e.g. personal values, principles, vision, and goals – and a clear understanding of your strengths and weaknesses in addition to a solid understanding of your emotional intelligence.
Becoming a leader begins when you come to understand who you are, what you care about, and why you do what you do. Your leadership journey must start with an inner journey.
When business leaders talk about change, they usually have a desired result in mind: better team performance, improved customer service, etc. This result can only be achieved when people throughout the organization change their behavior and practices, something that can’t happen by simple decree.
"That’s the way we do things around here." This phrase (and others like it) typically refers to the complex, subtle practices that become ingrained in an organization's culture, to the point where they become part of its identity. Habitual thoughts and behaviors are not bad in themselves; indeed, they are often the basis for what a company does well. But when circumstances shift or the company becomes dysfunctional, those habits may need substantive change.
New behaviors can be put in place, but only by reframing attitudes that are firmly entrenched. With a little knowledge of neuroscience, reframing behavior can be the essence of organizational change.
Leaders who focus on developing rather than dictating inspire people toward greater self-expression and encourage their leadership voice. Their priority is bringing out the potential in others, which inspires commitment and ownership.
In companies where people development flourishes, we see employees valued for their contributions, sharing their voice, taking risks, and meeting audacious goals. There is a great sense of shared ownership, accountability, and accomplishment.
What kind of leadership does it take to create this kind of workplace?
Want to know the secrets of companies that have thrived during the recent recession and appear to be poised for even greater success if and when the economy moves into recovery?
Thirteen common traits are deeply programmed into the cultural DNA of many high-performing companies. These companies deliver consistently good bottom line results by being great places to work. Surprisingly, many business leaders actively avoid applying these traits in their own organizations! What choice will you make?
In a learning organization, employees continually create, acquire, and transfer knowledge – helping their company adapt to the unpredictable faster than rivals can. The three building blocks required for creating learning organizations are:
By assessing how well your team, business, or company exhibits the defining characteristics for each building block, you can pinpoint areas needing improvement and develop additional capacity for learning. The resulting knowledge sharing and idea development, plus the ability to learn from mistakes and think holistically, will position you for greater success in today’s marketplace.
Examples of failed communication are all around us, both in the workplace and quite possibly in our personal lives as well. Not infrequently, people fail to find a way to talk and think together effectively to resolve difficult issues.
Dialogic leadership, an approach based on the core principles of “dialogue,” can lead to the creation of environments that overcome fragmentation and bring out people’s collective wisdom. As people apply the principles of dialogic leadership, they learn to think better together and greatly increase the odds that they will build the expansive relationships required to build success in the new economy.
Do companies feel the pain of not having emotional commitment from their managers or employees? Ask any company at any time about its top ten chronic challenges. Manager and employee performance will almost always appear on the list - finding them, keeping them, paying them, training them, and motivating them.
What companies must learn is that managers and employees don’t necessarily want to work less. They just want it to mean more. A key question, then, is “What is needed to create the highest level of self-sustaining motivation and to gain the emotional commitment of a companies’ managers and employees?”
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I thought that this recent article for the Leading News e-Newsletter was well worth sharing ...
Stop Chasing the Wrong Priorities
by Marshall Goldsmith - Leading News e-Newsletter, June 2, 2011
I’ve spent a lot of time studying what makes people happy, successful leaders. But some of the best suggestions I can think of came out of a study of a bunch of elderly retirees, who, as far as I know, never had been CEOs. A friend of mine had interviewed this group about what advice they’d give to younger people. What, they were asked, is the key to having a great life?
Their answers were both simple and wise so I’ll summarize here. Then I will explain what applicability I think they have to your careers.
1. Be happy now. Not next week, not next month, not next year. Now. The great Western disease we are spreading around the world is “I’ll be happy when.” When I get that BMW, when I get that new house, when I get that status. Americans are among the luckiest people in the history of the world. Don’t get so wrapped up looking at what you don’t have that you miss that, what you do have.
2. Appreciate your friends and family. When you’re 95 years old and you’re on your death bed, do you think you’ll be surrounded by your clients? It’s your friends and family who matter most.
3. If you have a dream, go for it. Want to write a book? Visit New Zealand? Learn to speak Mandarin? Your dream doesn’t have to big–it could be one that people think is silly, or just plain nuts. It’s your dream, and you should go for it now because when you’re 75, you may not be able to do it.
Now how does this apply to being a better, more fulfilled leader?
1. Having fun at your job is key. It’s important not only because life is short, but if you don’t enjoy what you’re doing, it will be very hard to make your colleagues enthusiastic. Want the young people who work for you to be happy at work? You go first.
2. You need to take the time to help your colleagues. It can’t be all about you. Coach your subordinates; give feedback to coworkers. The most important reason to do this has nothing to do with money. The most important reason is that 95-year-old retiree would be proud of you if you did and disappointed with you if you don’t. And if you don’t believe this is true, ask any CEO who has retired: “What are you proud of?” I’ve interviewed many, and not one told me how big their office was or how fancy their car was; usually what they talk about is relationships that meant the most to them.
3. “Going for it” is the most important thing you can do for yourself. In a fast-changing world, where industries are being overturned, the only certainty is doing what you believe in. You may not succeed–you could even fail miserably– but at least you would be able to look at yourself in the mirror and say, “Oh, what the heck, at least I tried.”
Dr. Marshall Goldsmith has authored 28 books including What Got You Here Won't Get You There - a New York Times best-seller, Wall Street Journal #1 business book and Harold Longman Award winner for Business Book of the Year. Succession: Are You Ready? is the newest edition to the Harvard Business 'Memo to the CEO' series. Marshall's latest book is Mojo: How to Get It, How to Keep It, and How to Get It Back When You Lose It.
Subscribe to Leading News at www.LeadingNews.org.
Leaders who discuss their own improvement priorities with their co-workers, and then regularly follow-up with these co-workers, show striking improvement (both actual and perceived). Leaders who do not have ongoing dialogue with colleagues show improvement that barely exceeds random chance.
Personal contact between leaders and their constituents matters – and matters greatly! The “follow-up factor” is critical for your successful development and your effectiveness as a manager or leader!