We agreed on one thing: people with a consistent track record are self-aware. They find ways not to derail.

The only way to stay on track is to master the art of listening and exchanging feedback. This makes it the unavoidable basic survival skill—yet you don't take it seriously enough.

Now, most managers have been trained on this one way or another. So why is it that:

• You and people around you keep making the same errors over and over again?

• People don't change the attitudes that lead to disappointment and poor outcomes?

• "We gave each other feedback" means "We exchanged punches"?

• "I gave her feedback" means "I dumped my dissatisfaction on her and have no idea if it helped"?

Unfortunately, you have unconsciously agreed to be sloppy and lax about it. "I know enough about it anyway."

That's the course of a mediocre would-be leader. Please forgive me for being direct and authentic.

OK, I got your point Hervé. Where do I start?

Here it is. It's free.

The three mini-videos below tell you everything you need about feedback and how to promote it at work. You can also email me, and I will send you my article on feedback—your reference point. It shows you how to structure your feedback message and provides noteworthy examples.

Please share this with your staff, peers, management, friends, and partners. Let's make a small dent in the universe.

The secret?

Nothing sticks until you practice it like a mad man. You will need to practice like a martial artist.

To go further and anchor your basic survival skills—or structure your entire leadership ecosystem—contact me.

Karate is a big part of my life, something I have practiced consistently since 1971. Having lived in many countries over the course of my life meant starting all over, from white belt, every time I changed dōjōs. I have practiced competitive Karate, Shotokan, Wado-ryu, Taekwondo and now Shotokai Karate. I have also practiced Judo. (I might hold the world record in brown belts.) Finally, I was in one place long enough to stick to one dōjō, and a few years later was awarded the grade of black belt with the congratulations of the jury, a team of federal judges. 

As my current Sensei, Nicolas Moulin, from Valence, France, congratulated me on succeeding my exam, he said, “Now is the beginning of learning the art of Karate Do.” I was humbled. So far, I had been practicing only the basics for decades, I guess.

Here are 5 invaluable lessons I want to share that apply to the corporate world:

1. Make your competition irrelevant instantly

Karate is not about fighting; it is about eliminating your opponent instantly. It is not about applying the maximum force; it is about applying the necessary power extremely efficiently—quickly and precisely. Your opponent needs to be annihilated within two seconds. Any well-trained person, man or woman, can achieve that. Call it swordsmanship with bare hands. There is no second chance.

In business, practicing Karate means that you are positioning yourself to deliver your services in a way that competition quickly becomes irrelevant. It requires that you learn to execute with this type of mindset: unique differentiation, incredible value and positive impact. You create a WOW effect.

2. Improving your leadership is a lifelong foundational commitment

Karatekas (those who practice Karate) practice several times a week and understand that it takes decades to approach mastery.

They learn about the numerous stances, hand and foot movements, kicks, breathing techniques, and they practice highly coded katas, a series of precisely choreographed moves that take years to execute well. It becomes creative and artful when, as a master, you add your own interpretation, rhythm and personality.

In many corporations, managers feel fortunate to get basic management training. Leadership is taught once in a blue moon, in short workshops. You get one single communication class, one single feedback method, and that’s it. You are declared trained, knowledgeable and ready to tackle today’s managerial complexity. 

Would it make equal sense to take a Karate class once a year and declare yourself ready for competition? I encourage you to think about shifting from a once-in-a-while training mindset to a full-blown leadership development strategy where everyone is evaluated, coached and aware of the new skills to practice. Your HR department may be too small and/or busy to tackle this; it is a strategic pillar that should be owned by all.

3. Search for perfection but focus on progress

A Karate teacher is inherently exceedingly patient and accepting. Although they encourage the quest for perfection, they focus on constant repetition. As students struggle to improve their skills, the teacher focuses on progress, not on how far the student is from their own expectations of themself.

Progress is rewarded by moving the students to another belt color after a codified and ritualized evaluation. Thus, respect and appreciation are created at all levels, no matter the skill level. Focusing on progress lies at the heart of keeping practitioners motivated, with a feeling of belonging.

Unfortunately, bosses often resort to exerting more control when mistakes are made and a separation is then self-created from the subordinate. This undermines the employee’s self-confidence. Incessant control and negative judgment lead to the famous set-to-fail syndrome. The employee ends up feeling demotivated, even harassed, and often leaves the company.

4. Nailing the basics is sine qua non

Practicing the basic stands, kicks, hand gestures and displacements is fundamental in order to progress. A Karate Sensei pays attention to every single detail and gently reprimands those students who are too eager to advance beyond their capabilities and pursue advanced practices. Nailing the basics ensures the creation of a solid base for a lifelong practice.

A client of mine, head of sales in an insurance company, made the massive mistake of focusing solely on strategic initiatives and overlooking the day-to-day basics. An analysis revealed that his organization of 900 sales professionals was missing its targets because the basics (regular phone calls to customers, simple thank-you cards, etc.) were simply not encouraged, practiced or evaluated. Thus, the deeper problem was a managerial culture of laxity and sloppiness.

5. Leadership is assessed and taught from the very top

A dōjō reflects the spirit of its master. You will find that grand masters are old, kind, respectful, mindful, and are cherished by their students years after they pass away.

True leaders make sure they own the development of their people—making them feel capable, trained and prepared for top roles. They model the way people should communicate, run meetings, address conflicts or handle customers. They focus on human connections, as they know these lie at the very heart of creating a time-tested culture. They walk the talk, serve as a role model, and care about the learning of every single person in their organization. 

What kind of CEO, leader, manager do you want to be remembered as? 

Welcome to the Leadership Dōjō.

Are you facing serious transformational challenges in your company? Simply drop me a line at info@herve.com.

Instant liberation from procrastination

“Successful people ask better questions, and as a result, they get better answers.” – Tony Robbins

The leader pondered, "How can I close the revenue gap this year?"

The mind locks into strategy first, action second: “I have not done this before. I have never experienced it, so I cannot be certain.”

When we start with how, it becomes harder to achieve results because the focus shifts to obstacles, most of these are imaginary — and rarely the ones you will actually encounter once you begin. So you stay stuck, thinking about it over and over.

Yet the leader already has a lot of experience. That’s why he or she is the leader. In the past, they led from vision: “This is where we are going, and this is why. It will be done. There is no way back.”

That place of no doubt is the true starting point: being fully committed to the vision and tapping daily creativity to tackle the obstacles that emerge along the way.

This is the art of proactiveness I highlight in my book What Color Is Your Sky?:

• Quiet your mind and eliminate the noise.

• Visualize success as if you are infinitely resourceful.

• Reverse-engineer your vision — your Green Dot.

• Then focus on non-negotiable, committed daily success.

The mountain is not the obstacle; the five steps ahead of you are.

The better question for any leader becomes:
“Visualize yourself at the top of the mountain, having far exceeded your revenue goals. What did you do to achieve that? And what is the immediate action you need to take tomorrow morning?”

This may become your new philosophy: act in alignment with your audacious goal and reverse-engineer your success.

I encourage you to read — or re-read — the first chapters of What Color Is Your Sky? for my complete introduction to living proactively.

"This is not looking good for me right now," says a client of mine. "I was distraught at your feedback, but now I see I had a huge blind spot. I screwed up." The painful reality is that this high-potential executive had just been promoted to a strategic role in a multi-billion-euro global company. And now, he might lose his job. All because of a single mistake — one error, one bad shot. Now, all might be lost.

I can name a dozen scenarios resembling this disaster. For example, a general manager responsible for distributing American industrial products in several African countries refused to be coached last year during his onboarding process. He is about to be fired and does not even know it yet. "Why did we hire him? How did we get to this?" is the day's subject of discussion. Predicting this type of outcome is not complicated; unfortunately, it is a pattern that will keep repeating itself until the CEO matures. The leader must agree that the critical problems start with them, not the fired executives.

Does it look familiar? If you read this, others likely label you "Top Potential." You might occupy a spot beyond that, perhaps even be the top person, the CEO. That's excellent. This article is designed to help you understand how to create a durable and reliable success ecosystem and avoid career-ending events.

First, you must identify why you might not reach your potential. Even if you feel successful enough, you might still feel unsettled or unable to remain.

After over twenty years of coaching key contributors and professionals worldwide, I have discovered that seven core failures contribute to tragedy.

Core Failure #1: Being and acting small

Here, our mind becomes our biggest enemy. Despite being born with incredible potential and gifts, we naturally develop survival instincts and defense mechanisms as we go through life - ones that can hold us back later. When we feel threatened, we often react impulsively, make many poor micro-decisions, and unconsciously harm others or the environment without taking responsibility. We often seek mental security through domination, bragging about money, self-validation, or distracting ourselves endlessly. Many leaders become boring talking monkeys with lessons to give and who criticize far more than encourage. In business, such leaders fail to think critically, collaborate with others effectively, identify and learn from mistakes, and create a supportive, creative environment; instead, they may resort to old-fashioned dominance. While staying just how you are might seem easier, it is a perilous strategy.

Core Failure #2: ME - Me - me - A small self-limited vision

Most leaders prioritize their basic needs, such as food, safety, and mating, as reptiles prioritize. Their answers are legitimate when discussing their ambitions, dreams, and ultimate wants. Yet, they are politically correct, focused on short-term or materialistic rewards like 'my promotion,' a safe home,' 'my own business,' and 'I would love to make [X] millions a year.' However, the answers radically change when people free themselves from outside mental pressure and stop worrying about what their partner, boss, parents, church, or culture might say. This lack of a personalized vision, or a vision limited to what others expect or what is considered 'normal,' restricts the possibilities to a self-imposed norm. The blue sky magic is gone. In business, the vision, the core purpose, and the mission are confused with the 3-year financial plan. Employees engage the best way they can and look forward to their well-deserved vacation or retirement. Most people with this low level of awareness act alone and need help managing their time.

Core Failure #3: May God help me - Zero proactivity

In my book, I created the reverse-engineering process to coach myself and others to eliminate procrastination, focus daily, and never let go of end goals. Individuals with high potential are adept at delivering results, but many only bring their best when faced with obstacles. They typically strive for achievable outcomes rather than setting ambitious creative goals. That's the reactive red curve — adapting as you meet obstacles. Unfortunately, there isn't a clear blueprint for daily progress, let alone achieving overall success.

In the business world, most project failures stem from starting too early with incomplete analysis. Employees and managers often focus solely on their own departmental objectives and tasks, leaving it to the boss to worry about collaboration, maintaining focus, and ensuring alignment with the outcome. This lack of proactivity, or the failure to take the initiative and plan for the future, can lead to missed opportunities, much higher costs, and a lack of overall success. Operating in this mode is exhausting; worse, the top leader becomes acutely aware that growth is virtually impossible.

Core Failure #4: No-show

For years, I sought approval from others for everything that I initiated. I was unconsciously needy. My low self-esteem stopped me from trusting my intuition, skills, and deep knowledge. Then, one day, I was fired by an unconsciously incompetent CEO who sincerely believed his bluff. It was a traumatic rupture, which turned out to be a blessing. He put me out of my misery; I had lost all my motivation. I understood then that I needed to show up consistently for myself, my projects, my clients, my staff, and my family. I learned that I absolutely could influence or even control my destiny. That began my proactive green curve - living deliberately every day. The critical question is: What system can help me succeed predictably, and how can I learn to show up consistently?

Core Failure #5: Being super busy is the way to succeed

This is when the high-potential individual expects things to happen and assumes that their work is adequate. Instead of acting as the architect of success, constantly diagnosing why we are not getting the right outcome, they rely on their expectations of other people without spending enough time deeply understanding obstacles. They micro-control, complain, blame, and go from one disappointment to another. We see countless unproductive meetings, endless email storms, and reputation-killing nasty surprises. Their job or business is at risk, but they invariably will see it too late. The core issue is that although they understand that they must orchestrate better, they must spend more time stepping back. They also avoid tough conversations, justify poor results, overestimate what they can achieve, etc. The boat's captain has become unconsciously incompetent and needs serious coaching to become a creator of better outcomes. Team performance coaching also becomes vital.

Core Failure #6: No PURPOSE, NO SPIRIT

A leader may perform their duty well yet often needs more personal drive to inspire people to engage, change, and carry the vision. This lack leads to lower creativity and the realization that key people are holding back. "I am just doing my job" characterizes this type of environment. A trusted coach might challenge this leader: What is your life's purpose? What do you wish to accomplish for others, humanity, and the planet? Why are you here?

When top people cannot clarify their life's purpose, a caring coach must challenge them and offer support until they find it. Unleashing one's true identity and personal brand is crucial to success. It is worth more money than you will ever make. That's an integral part of our work when we decide to work together.

Core Failure #7: The "Why?" is unclear, or it is based on fear

"Why are we doing this, boss?" All this hard work and sacrifice requires a better answer than "You need to meet the financial commitments or suffer the consequences." Employees need someone who gives meaning to challenge, risk, and adapting to ever-changing goals. They need someone who can communicate with passion and faith and answer the why questions. That is the No. 1 job of any leader and their top team.

Where should I start?

In my book What Color Is Your Sky?, I introduce the Sweat and Soul Cycle to help you predictably create a fulfilling future.

I recommend that, first, you learn about the "Illusion of the Ego" and how asking for feedback, debriefing, and conducting project pre-mortems and post-mortems can change your game. You must always have a clear, untainted understanding of your reality - blind spots create derailments that are hard to recover from.

Second, understand that the source of your failure patterns is ingrained in your brain. Your learned behaviors helped you reach this level — those habits have become your enemies. With time, you can learn to diagnose and uncover those patterns. It is magical when you find one and transform it into a better process. This is where success coaching comes in, as it accelerates your transformation.

Finally, you may have reached the point where relying on yourself will keep you pinned beneath a glass ceiling. The team below you needs to improve, and delegating is hard. You cannot do it alone anymore, and going further requires humility. I believe you know this already: A major rupture is on the horizon.

I invite you to work on yourself. You can start by subscribing to my YouTube channel, which offers free short lectures on how to become the best version of yourself.

You are incredibly busy, but you have read this article so far! That's impressive, and my intuition tells me I need to share more to earn your trust.

In the video below, I explain how the Sweat and Soul Cycle can help you avoid these seven core failures. Please give it a try.

If you feel ready for a leapfrog and are truly committed, contact me on LinkedIn or click the START tab.

The CEO enters the room. He is here to respond to questions posed by my group, as requested by the HR director, who is also here. They are honored to have an opportunity to interact with him and have eagerly prepared their questions.

Predictably, the CEO starts by stating the company’s financials are good. I feel a slight twinge of disappointment as I take in the attentive gazes of my leadership trainees, most of whom are leaning forward in their seats. The CEO talks about how things are hard due to the fierce competition, but believes in the strategy of acquiring other smaller companies. He ends with a list of things he wants to have happen in the coming year. 

“Does anyone have any questions for me?” he asks.

“What is your vision for the future?” someone asks. He hesitates.

“Well, I don’t have a crystal ball, so I can’t predict the future, but I can talk to you about next year if you want…”

I glance around the room. The feeling of eager anticipation that was present moments earlier has fizzled slightly. I begin to regret our having asked him to address this group of high potentials. Another employee stands.

“As managers, we’re a bit concerned by the recent increase in employees who are leaving or have left already. What are your feelings about this and what actions are being considered?”

“Well,” he says, “the situation here is not really worse than those of our competitors. But I agree that we certainly need to do a better job of employee retention. I count on you to help us make that happen.”

My shoulders slump as I see the questioning looks the managers are giving each other. As more questions are addressed by the CEO, the mood in the room flattens.

Toward the end, a daring manager asks, “Sir, what are you proud of?” Good question, I think. But the CEO looks slightly uncomfortable.

“I’m not the type of person to answer a question like that,” he says. “I prefer to focus on what’s not working well and address those problems…”

The message I just heard from the person in charge of this entire organization is that “If you’re really good at your job and at being a leader, I won’t really notice,” but “If you make a mistake, our paths are going to cross.” And “I have no idea where our company is going, but make sure you react well to whatever direction it heads.” Worse yet, “Nothing you do is worth being proud of. I just want you to focus on not making any mistakes.” 

This was a mistake. Why, I wondered, did we invite him without providing him better preparation and coaching! I make a mental note to ensure that the HR director who’s here with us prepares him appropriately next time. Goodness, get him coached! Quick!

CEOs need to prepare for such events. Answering core questions helps define the culture, the soul of the company and greatly impact the engagement of its managers. Furthermore, it inspires them to make better tactical decisions.

Here is a list of questions that a CEO or senior managers should spend time on and be prepared to answer. (Please feel free to add your own questions to the list.)

1. What is the true purpose and mission of this company?

2. What is the history, the soul, the culture, and how does it align with our aspirations?

3. What are we proud of, and what do we want to be proud of in the future?

4. What should be my legacy as the leader of this group? 

5. What impact do I need to make on our culture today?

6. How do I help younger managers prepare for the future in this company?

7. Beyond conquering market share, what new tracks are we trying to create?

8. What do I love about my job? What do I find exciting about our future?

9. What would make me fulfilled in this role and job?

10. What is our opportunity today as a group?

Focusing on the soul of one’s company and its purpose may be one of the most powerful levers of employee engagement. Even if you do not occupy a high role, such as a manager, I encourage you to reflect on these existential questions. They are part of your responsibility.

Welcome to the Club.

Hervé Da Costa

Are you facing serious transformational challenges in your company? Simply drop me a line at info@herve.com.

Dans mon livre « Quelle est la couleur de votre ciel ? », j'ai introduit le concept de
rétro-ingénierie du futur. Cela implique de vous visualiser dans un scénario futur réussi,
puis de travailler à rebours pour identifier les étapes que vous avez suivies pour y
arriver et surmonter les obstacles. Cette approche vous aide à accéder à un état d’esprit
créatif et ingénieux. En vous concentrant sur un obstacle à la fois, vous pouvez trouver
des moyens de minimiser ou d’éliminer son impact négatif.

Regardez cette mini session vidéo et partagez avec moi vos objectifs, votre plan d'action,
vos craintes, vos défis, vos blocages.

A year later, before the virus crisis, I returned to the park and found that many people I had met still went there daily. This illustrated the answer to a fundamental question I asked the business executives attending my workshop in China: How do you create success in a sustainable way? 

The answer is simple: One day at a time. What ensures success? Your attitude, know-how, your discipline, and your persistence. More precisely, the secret lies in your determination to make every single day an amazing day.

How do I make every single day great?

Great days happen every once in a while. We want many more of those days. We want to deliberately plan each day so that by the end of the day, we can say: Wow, that was a very successful day! 

Most people start work each day by focusing on urgencies, necessary tasks, or responding to solicitations from others. Unfortunately, for many, the day is structured by responding to email, unproductive meetings, babysitting colleagues, or simply going from task to task and developing a false sense of being productive. The instances when you say no, when you stop to clarify priorities or to question the real purpose of you are doing, are rare. This is nothing more than busy-ness, hardly a way to create your future.

Wouldn’t you like to change this around and do less while achieving more? I would like to to introduce to you a practice that my clients and I have been using for years to deliver amazing results.

Start practicing the Deliberate Morning Program from my best seller book What Color is Your Sky?

This is about making a conscious choice in how you live your life from now instead of letting others dictate how you live. The payoff can be life-changing, as a number of my clients have discovered. To achieve it, you need determination, to want to be responsible to make that choice, courage to take such a life-changing step and focus to sustain it going forward.

Access my method here: Making Every Day A Million-Dollar Day

These are the very best books that I have collected in the past 15 years on the topics of accelerating managers and leaders.

This is about accomplishing more with less, Now!

Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done
Larry Bossidy & Ram Charan.

The book that shows how to get the job done and deliver results . . . whether you're running an entire company or in your first management job. Larry Bossidy, one of the world's most acclaimed CEOs, and Ram Charan, legendary advisor to senior executives and boards of directors, pooled their knowledge and experience into the one book on how to close the gap between results promised and results delivered.

The New One Minute Manager
Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson

For decades, The One Minute Manager® has helped millions achieve more successful professional and personal lives. While the principles it lays out are timeless, our world has changed drastically since the book’s publication. The exponential rise of technology, global flattening of markets, instant communication, and pressures on corporate workforces to do more with less have all revolutionized the world. 

The One Minute Manager Meets the Monkey
Ken Blanchard

When a person goes to the boss with a problem and the boss agrees to do something about it, the monkey is off his back and onto the boss's. How can managers avoid these leaping monkeys? Here is priceless advice from three famous experts: how managers can meet their own priorities, give back other people's monkeys, and let them solve their own problems.
 

The One Minute Manager Builds High Performing Teams
Ken Blanchard

Ken Blanchard teams up with Donald Carew and Eunice Parisi-Carew to explain how all groups move through four stages of development on their way to becoming high performing teams: orientation, dissatisfaction, integration and production. The authors then show how a manager can help any group become effective quickly and with a minimum of stress.

Who Moved My Cheese?
John Spencer

Most people are fearful of change, both personal and professional, because they don't have any control over how or when it happens to them. Exploring a simple way to take the fear and anxiety out of managing the future, Who Moved My Cheese? can help you discover how to anticipate, acknowledge, and accept change in order to have a positive impact on your job, your relationships, and every aspect of your life.

Our Iceberg Is Melting: Changing and Succeeding Under Any Conditions
John Kotter

This is a simple story about doing well under the stress and uncertainty of rapid change. It is based on John Kotter's pioneer­ing research into the eight steps that can produce needed change in any sort of group. After finishing the story, you'll have a powerful framework for influencing your own team, no matter how big or small.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
Stephen R. Covey

Stephen R. Covey presents an approach to being effective in attaining goals by aligning oneself to what he calls "true north" principles of a character ethic that he presents as universal and timeless.  Covey defines effectiveness as balancing obtaining desirable results with caring for that which produces the desirable results. 

Emotional Intelligence
Daniel Goleman

Daniel Goleman's brilliant report from the frontiers of psychology and neuroscience offers startling new insight into our "two minds"—the rational and the emotional—and how they together shape our destiny. Goleman delineates the five crucial skills of emotional intelligence, and shows how they determine our success in relationships, work, and even our physical well-being. What emerges is an entirely new way to talk about being smart.

What Color Is Your Parachute?
Richard N. Bolles

It is one of the most highly regarded career advice books in print. The book recommends networking to find "the person with the authority to hire you", rather than sending out resumes in bulk, shotgun fashion. It also recommends carefully figuring out what one is best at and what one enjoys most, which (the author says) tend to coincide.

Coaching for Performance
John Whitmore

Featuring the influential GROW model, this book is the founding text of the coaching profession. It explains why enabling people to bring the best out of themselves is the key to driving productivity, growth, and engagement. A meaningful coaching culture has the potential to transform the relationship between organizations and employees and to put both on the path to long-term success.

Did you find this article useful ? Sign up for my newsletter , and I'll keep you updated with the latest and most relevant trends, techniques, and tools that I am working on.

And if you are a really go-getter and these 10 books are not enough for you, you can also check my last book What Color Is Your Sky?. You will learn to uncover your core motivation and use it to keep moving forward, stirring your passion to reach your goals while creating balance by nurturing your soul.

Are you facing serious transformational challenges in your company? If you are, simply click on the “Contact Us” link below.

How about learning the power of intention to help yourself get unstuck with your problems and achieve your goals. The video below explores self-improvement and personal growth strategies to help you become a better leader in your own life.

Permalink

]]>Get unstuck!Coaching executivesCreating your successPersonal successHervé Da CostaThu, 03 Aug 2023 22:33:00 +0000http://www.herve.com/blog-1/2017/2/13/5-easy-steps-to-creating-tangible-results-in-your-lifeinstantly56dc7aca04426203948950f5:573f7a51b09f956c849a2b64:58a1e9e820099eb147ec6c3b

Do you have a blue print for creating the life you are dreaming about? Do you know what your success looks like? Are you willing to take the steps to get there and walk the talk? Like most people, you deserve to be successful but you may not have an effective system to rely on. You need a plan, methods to use every day and a support system that keeps you energized and inspired.

Why are results not showing up?

If you are not getting the results you want, you are missing a success plan and a good compass. Success is achieved by design and effort not by chance. So, it is important for go-getters like you to be equipped with an environment geared towards their success.

5 Steps to Creating Results Right Now

Now, let us learn 5 powerful steps to create results in a hurry in your life. This will begin to use specific and tested success methods that will support you every day. It may rock your boat a bit but you will begin to trust that you are going somewhere. Anyhow, you can handle it, can’t you?

1 – Develop self honesty

It is important to detect that there are many excuses to explain not making progress. The problem is not making excuses; it is convincing yourself that it is OK with you.  It is not OK to let your dreams go. You must try, persevere and learn from setbacks; you deserve being there every day. Self-honesty is about making the difference between having a wish and working on getting there. Just like any skill, it needs to be learned and practiced.

There is no need for judgment or criticism here, all you need is to do is to practice always telling yourself the truth. For example, here are “self-honest” statements:

-       I am dreaming about it but I am not really willing to take it on

-       I know I could do better but I don’t know how to

-       I feel too old (or too busy, too whatever) and I use that to justify not making progress.

Catch yourself being honest with yourself. It gives you strength and courage. What areas in your life need truth? Tell yourself the truth about it and write it down.

2 – Create and write down your personal plan

“I will make $XXXX or YYYY euros this year” is not a plan, it is a goal. It is not enough to do that. You also need to list what you will make month-by-month, week-by-week and to establish how you will stay on track. You need to know for sure when you get off track so you can get right back on it. If you miss your weekly goals, the monthly plan will not happen so also being “self honest” is essential.

This is actually how you can bring success to any venture: by setting inspiring but realistic goals and tracking down your progress day by day, week by week. When you get off track, correct immediately.

3 – Maintain a daily to-do-list

I highly recommend to my clients that they develop a daily to-do-list. They should update it 1st thing in the morning every day, except when it is a day off. Items need to be concise, specific, prioritized and realistic. For instance, “make 5 phone calls to potential clients by noon” or “Clean up my files and spend 2-hours max doing that” are good examples.

Stay focused on one single task until it is complete. Observe when and how you get off track: people interrupting, TV, food, feeling tired or bored etc. Also notice how and when you get back to the interrupted task. Write down whatever comes up: ideas, insights, observations or more things to do later.

Make the list short so that you complete it and experience success every day. Do whatever it takes to complete your list. No excuses. This is how commitment is reinforced. You are walking the talk. As you develop your capacity and discipline, challenge yourself with more items on the list. This will increase your self-trust and your ability to do what you said you are going to do.

4 – Develop a self-evaluation system

You need to know how you are doing from a source that is not you. The evaluation provides you with an unbiased, accurate and un-arguable viewpoint. This develops your compass and helps avoiding getting lost in the ocean of all the possible reasons to not make progress.

Here are examples of how to develop a good compass:

- Find a clear way to evaluate your goals. For instance, if your goal is to take better care of your health, making 3 walks this week is a measurable event. 

- Use numbers as guides, they don’t lie. Did you make your 5 phone calls or not? If you made less than 5, you missed the goal.

- Ask to get honest feedback from trusted friends or colleagues. Notice anything that is consistently repeated.

When, you miss a goal, no need to beat yourself up for it. It is an opportunity to learn what happened and use that knowledge for the next time. This is how your courage and tenacity is reinforced.

5 – Stay energized and focused

The higher your goals, the more you can get derailed by harsh criticism, setbacks and unplanned events. It is crucial to surround yourself by practices and people that nourish and protect you. List:

-   What people around you can help you stay positive and motivated?

-   What regular practices can nourish your body and soul?

-   How will you reward yourself? Go crazy here, you deserve fun and joy for your efforts.

More:

- Help someone with nothing in exchange. Life will reward you immensely

- Meditate, pray and/or spend quiet time alone every day

- Regularly attend personal growth workshops and keep learning about yourself.

I have personally used these techniques for years for my personal goals and to help a startup get listed successfully on NASDAQ. Whatever the objectives are, the techniques are the same, very powerful. Hiring a dedicated coach is one key step that most successful people take. It provides them with a trusted and effective support they need.  Take that step, reach for the sky and make the world a better place!

The second, on the other hand, the consistently successful manager, reliably delivers superior results independent of the situation or assignments.

How does one become the second type, the true professional?

The consistently successful manager is a consummate professional who has developed a proven system over the years—a framework for long-term success. When their role expands, this agile and situational manager rises to the challenges and manages the change effectively. Whether the company goes through a major reorganization, an acquisition, a merger, a digital transformation or a strong initiative to boost sales, this person excels, and leaves the other managers in the dust. What is their secret?

For now, let us clarify the problem. The natural (intuitive) manager uses their past successes as a promise of future victories. They earned their organization’s trust by establishing a good track record on various past projects where expertise and involvement made the difference. That’s the good news. The bad news is that as the complexity of context increases, they continue to propose quick, superficial, operationally focused solutions to more complex systemic problems. 

Typically, this manager is unaware of what specific skills and habits need to be developed for the long term. The feedback they receive is: “You are not being strategic enough,” or “Your department is slow to change,” or “You are not prioritizing well enough,” or “You need to improve your department’s execution.” This manager has little idea how to suddenly become “strategic” or “a change agent.” Yesterday’s hero is now a below-expectation performer.

You may hear this now-mediocre manager say: "Let’s train everyone, and then we’ll get better results.” Or "After all our communication, they still don't understand.” Or "Let's have a meeting, as this needs to be fixed and done by next week." 

Without realizing it, they may be overconfident in their ability to cope with future changes. Yet, this manager is often blindsided by change initiatives. They focus on expert issues instead of creating human connections, reaching out to key customers or stakeholders, or spending far more time thinking about root causes of the problems to tackle. They do not learn how to self-develop, to lead teams to high performance, to identify core issues, coach others, create stronger business cases, or define change plans in a masterful way. Does this seem familiar?  

How can this manager get started on the right path?

While the intuitive manager uses the same methods over and over, regardless of outcome,

• the committed manager begins by shifting from a passive, wait-for-opportunities mindset to a proactive posture.

• The framework approach of the successful manager includes a set of personal principles, values, beliefs, situation-relevant methods and tools, systemic analysis approaches, and a network of resources, including experts, coaches and mentors.

• The successful manager understands that leadership is an art, not a corporate position. Similar to being an art practitioner, they understand that it takes commitment to learning, consistency, and years of practice to become masterful.

• They spend far more time analyzing, looking for hidden, deeper causes of problems instead of rushing into superficial solutions. They are willing to build a highly cohesive team around them and spend considerable amount of time putting together a solid analysis before acting.

Are you facing serious transformational challenges in your company? If you are, simply drop me a line at info@herve.com.

Here are 5 indications that serious disappointment lies ahead, and what to do about it.

1. Results remain good but problems exist on the horizon

This CEO is alarmed by the number of failed product launches last year. "This has cost us serious money, some key customers were upset, we cannot continue screwing things up like that, and we are losing credibility." He was forced to spend a significant amount of time reassuring investors, key customers, partners and suppliers. Although the team is engaged and motivated, the pace has drastically increased to a level of unease.

2. Trust is now low

Most executive teams are staffed by high performers who have earned their places by delivering in the past. They are good; however, why is there so little coordination and collective work? Even though the team has a common objective, you may notice that trust is low, and getting lower. The key directors, or founders, are now mainly or even solely concerned with their silo, and a sense of frustration permeates all discussions. This is not fun anymore. Unspoken expectations and concerns are dominant. Sound familiar to you?

3. The CEO is a mile in front

This CEO/GM leader claims that his partners and his team need their role to be clearer. He points out that they also complain about him making all the decisions and stealing the spotlight. This CEO realizes that he risks finding himself a mile ahead of his team and increasingly distanced from ground-floor reality. He is making promises that the organization cannot deliver and is asking for better trainings.

4. The team is struggling on unaligned priorities

I recently coached a senior team that kept complaining about the high number of conflicting priorities, their role being unclear, and the classic lack of resources. They had too many projects in parallel. I asked them: "Are your priorities strategic or do they comprise just a long list of to-do efforts/tasks that you are trying to prioritize? How do you define what is a priority?" Not knowing the difference between a task and a priority leads to being overwhelmed and unable to see through the clouds – very bad news. Can your team discuss the strategic importance of projects? Can your team cancel projects? Can it even consider the idea of ranking projects and canceling, de facto, only 5% of them? Also, what is your overall ability to manage organizational time and your own time?

5. The team is mostly doing, and not diagnosing

Change is easier to define than to put in place. As projects approach full deployment, the blind spots in the early stages of the project team evolution begin to create havoc. Internal customers complain, project launches fail, delays are far worse than anticipated, legacy systems fail earlier than anticipated, etc. Worse, little time is spent diagnosing or troubleshooting and looking for deeper root causes to problems. The top team is busy trying to deliver and not focusing collectively on why something will not work. Welcome to planned failure.

What can be done about it?

The senior team needs to shift from being a group of talented champions to becoming a leadership team. The great opportunity is to tap into the senior team's potential for collective intelligence and strategic action. The identity of boss-in-charge needs to shift to situational manager/facilitator/coach/Sherlock Holmes. When you have such a team in place, the CEO has "cloned” herself, and now all you need is only one of the members of the team, any one of them, to tackle any company major issue. You have shared leadership, mutual responsibility and accountability. Welcome to League 1!

Ask yourself:

• Can you afford to continue to operate the way you do now?

• What are the risks of not changing?

• Can you fix things on your own? How soon? How?

Are you facing serious transformational challenges in your company? If you are, contact me to arrange a quick, no-cost, no-obligation chat about how we can team up. Simply drop me a line at info@herve.com.

How to develop personal excellence

I started Karate when I was 13 years old, in high school. The older kids had three, four, five years more than I had, and I needed to defend myself. That was one reason. The other reason was that I found Karate extremely beautiful. I was fascinated by the Japanese culture, but also found the Karate moves, the posture, really, really beautiful.

This fascination lies at the core of my approach to transformational coaching. Over time, it delivers meaningful change and helps create the best version of yourself.

My first teacher, my first master, Sensei Sanogo, who is now at the highest level of Karate teaching in the world and is one of the most respected teachers in Africa, emphasized perfect kicks, perfect punches. And that's what we practiced, over and over and over again. Hundreds of times. Today, 50 years later, when I come to my Karate club in France, or to other clubs—although I'm older than most people in the club—when I do my sidekick, for instance, which is called Yoko Geri, they go, "Wow!"

My current teacher, Sensei Moulin, is like the Mozart of Karate. Everything he does is artful. It is amazing to watch him. And when you look at that, you begin to understand the search for perfection. Through this type of teaching, the gift we received was to search for the perfect moves. Once you have those perfect moves, they stay with you for a lifetime.

I practiced in Africa, in the United States, in France, and, throughout, I met amazing teachers. I learned from the best and was very involved in competition from the beginning, because I wanted to express the warrior inside of me. This was a phase. After a while, I became much more interested in the art form, in the moves, in the sequence, in the traditional Karate style.

Because I changed clubs, it took me a long time to get my black belt. That’s because every time you change your club, basically, the tradition is that you start from zero. So, when my current teacher, Sensei Nicolas Moulin, congratulated me on my amazing black belt exam. je said, "Good. Now is the beginning of Karate." After over 30 years, I was humbled.

Life, in my experience, had been rough—has been rough—and I carried some anger and frustration as a result. However, Karate helped me channel that anger into the powerful movement that Karate brings. So, I became powerful. But not aggressive. I had to really manage my aggressiveness and remove some of this aggressiveness and stay centered, present, directional. And that was a new kind of power—not anger power, but a much more dominant, calm, master, powerful person. That's amazing.

The link between Karate and leadership

There is particularly useful teaching in Karate, which is that you have belt levels. White belt, yellow belt, orange belt, green belt, blue belt, brown belt, black belt. And then, within the black belt, you have level one, level two, level… up to five in some schools, and 10 in other schools. These systems allow time to really take place, but also the correctness of practices. You have regular evaluations. And if you are evaluated as having reached a certain level, you proceed to the next belt level. That, in a way, asks us to rethink our leadership development approaches.

People become bosses and are put into leadership positions, but the difference is that they've never been evaluated. Worse, the risk is it may make you believe that you are really at a high level, when, in reality, you are very much at the beginner level. Particularly in terms of basic skills: how you communicate, your presence, how you listen, how you talk, how you give feedback, how you organize your meetings, how you organize your projects, how you organize your time. So, we have much to learn from martial arts in how to really assess ourselves. That's a really humble but really practical way to possess the right skills at the right moment, in the right role.

The 3 fundamental leadership principles to learn from Karate

The first principle is learning the basic skills toward attaining perfection. And you can only approach perfection if the teacher shows you the right tool—the method—the right way to go. You need to practice it intensely, so you gain knowledge and practice. And you really improve the practice up to a point where you are unaware of how good you are. You move from unconscious incompetence, which is “I don't know how good I am or not; I don't even know the skills,” to knowing that you don't have the skill because you watch a teacher and the teacher shows you the perfect skill.

At that point, you're consciously incompetent. Then you keep practicing, you tend to same things. Sometimes you learn new things and you become aware that you are competent. You are good. So, you are now consciously competent.

And there is a point where you've practiced it so much, maybe you've been teaching those skills, that through time you do it naturally. It's ageless. And you are no longer even aware that you are competent. You have reached the level of mastery, because the underlying principles have almost disappeared, and it looks effortless. You are now unconsciously competent.

Now we're talking about mastery.

The first principle is knowledge, competence, mastery, and practice, practice, practice. 

The second principle is being evaluated all the time. That really helps. You evaluate yourself, your peers evaluate you, your teachers evaluate you, your superiors evaluate you. You receive direct feedback, and you reach stages where you're ready for the next level and everybody knows it. And you are acknowledged. Your level is announced to everybody. Such a system helps you to really be aware of your skill, for yourself and for others. 

The third principle is about spirit. If you have a good spirit, you will learn fast. If you have the wrong spirit in Karate, you will only learn violence. You will only learn to win, at all costs. But you will not learn to interact with others. Very much like a leader who wants to be a boss, but cannot navigate the company.

The most effective path is through practice, through evaluation—you develop spirit, you develop presence. You are focused, you're precise. One move and it's done. But you also show wisdom, calm. You have internal peace. You feel powerful. You're present.

 And in your presence, people recognize that you are really one. A true leader.

A true master.

That's the million-dollar question, because everybody has this question at one time or another, in one form or another. It's about really workload. It's not about behavior.

This is not about toxic bosses, vicious bosses, predators, or any of those overtly problematic things. Most bosses are reasonable. They are mostly competent. And, by definition, most are overwhelmed and overworked, and too busy with too many things, and they likely have pressures and problems with their own bosses. And it may not be your boss. It might be an investor. It might be somebody in your community. It might be somebody who exerts a strong influence on you.

Now, how do you push back, when you need to?

You have a lot on your hands but, as always, that's a good problem to have. The idea is to look at this as: “I have too many things to do. How do I cut down on the number of things I have to do. And how do I talk to my boss about this, so that it comes across as reasonable?” I'm going to explain to you how to approach this in just three steps.

It will involve calculating the time that is available to you, the budget, the resources you have, and how clear the task is. Unfortunately, often, the most troublesome part of this is that what you're supposed to do is not clear: maybe it's changing all the time, or the list is too long, or too ambitious, or you have a client who keeps changing the parameters and is difficult to deal with.

Let’s look at those three steps to deal with this kind of situation.

1 - Focus on clarity

The first element is to get serious about obtaining clarity. Why? Because, these days, everything seems urgent, and everything is important. People come to you—people below you, people reporting to you or your colleagues, people above—they come to you and say, “This is important.” It could be a client. “This is urgent. This is critical.” This is where you pause and say, “Let's be clear. Why is it urgent? Is it urgent to you? Because what's urgent to you is not necessarily urgent to me.”

You must adopt the posture of not automatically saying yes to everything. You're dead if you do that. Everything seems urgent today, because there's an emotional response to some kind of fear, to some kind of risk, to some kind of imagination. I want you to avoid falling into the trap of fake urgency. That means you have to find a way to talk about the fake urgency, to identify what’s fake versus what’s real.

The first thing to remember is that urgent and important are two different things. Usually, things that are important are not, by definition, urgent, and things that are presented as urgent are, frankly, often not actually important. Now, that said, if your boss comes to you and says something is important to them, it's important to you. But if it's a colleague, a partner, a consultant, or somebody else coming to you and saying it's urgent, that’s when you need to pause and take this step, to clarify if it's a “that's urgent for you, not necessarily for me” item. This is a good conversation, one you want to have.

In addition, you want to establish specifically what's expected. Write it down. Get very specific on what needs to be done. Often, people don't spend enough time writing this down, but this is about clarifying your agreements.

That brings us to the third part of obtaining clarity, and that is to manage agreements. It's a very powerful thing when you speak to people about agreements. “Here's our agreement,” you say. “Here's your role, and here's my role. Here's what I'm going to be doing—not [this] and not [that].” This is key because when we don't have clear agreements, it becomes very confusing—and the blame will always be placed on you.

2 - Prioritize and eliminate

A client of mine came to me and said, “Hervé, I have too many priorities. I just can't do it; my day is crazy!” I replied, “Wait a minute. These are not all priorities. You should have—at maximum—five priorities. I think you're confusing priorities with tasks.”

I explained, “Priorities are very different from tasks. What you're responding to is people are saying this is urgent and important, and that it's a priority. ‘Priority’ is just another way of saying urgent and important, but it's not actually a priority, right?”

A good example of a clear priority is: “This year we're focusing on marketing.” Or “This year we're focusing on clients in Northern Europe.” Or “This year we’re cutting costs” or “This year, because of COVID-19, we're making sure we take care of our employees’ health and safety.” That's a priority—it's general and it's strategic.

The goal is to become very good at differentiating between tasks and priorities.

Are you familiar with the law of Pareto? It says that 20% of what you do generates 80% of your impact and that 20% of what you do creates 80% of your stress. Now, from among all these tasks that you have, most of which are not priorities, what are the 20% of your tasks that need to be done and will create 80% of your performance—real performance?

Now, let's talk about the bottom 20%. One thing that nobody does in any industry is asking, “What do we eliminate?” If you did, people would be startled and say, “Eliminate? You mean doing less?” That’s exactly what I’m talking about. Yes—eliminate the bottom 20%.

3 - Your boss is there to be your partner in success

Your boss is not a divine ruler, master of all, a kingly, overly powerful entity. They are somebody with whom you should and can have an adult conversation. What you want to do is to really nail down an agreement with this boss about partnership. You are partners in this success.

In a previous article and video, I emphasize focusing on making your boss successful and strengthening your relationship with them. That's really an attitude that changes the game. You work for them, and not the other way around. Now that you have credibility and influence, you want to say to your boss:

“You're going to be focusing on these exciting, strategic issues. And I'm dealing with all the unexciting operational matters, right? I get that, but even so, I do need some of your time to navigate this:

• Can we have an agreement that we need to work as a team to create your success?

• When I send you an email on this, you'll respond?

• When I call a meeting, will you come prepared?

• And throughout the year, or throughout the month, or throughout the week, can we touch base to stay mutually accountable and in synergy?

Ultimately, you want to ask: Can we have a mutually beneficial partnership?

I assure you that these adult-to-adult conversations change the game—your hierarchy will learn to respect you. You're now somebody who is creating boundaries, who is defining how success will be created, and who is mentally strong enough to partner with them. Most of the time they will say yes to most of your requests. After all, they know that you are the builder of their future success.

This is when you can start really pushing back on which fake priority can be eliminated or reduced.

In summary, the first step is to obtain extreme clarity; the second step is to use the Pareto Principle to define which 20% creates 80% of the impact. Regularly make a list and eliminate the bottom 20%. It's a very courageous approach, but I know you can do it.

Finally, approach your boss positively, as a friend and a partner in success. “I'm trying to make you successful, right? All right then, how are we going to partner in getting things done?”

Enjoy the process—it works.