Workplace success is a byproduct of how well employees work together and accomplish goals to help the organization grow profitably.   Sustainable success is a function of how well the employees know each other’s strengths and utilize them rightly to maintain momentum. In the most fluid and high-performing workplace cultures, the differences in people, their cross functional roles and department duties and the dynamics of hierarchy and rank are perfectly in sync.   Simply put, it’s about how the “dots connect” within the workplace’s interconnected field of diverse personalities, capabilities and skills sets, competitiveness and expectations.  What still remains unknown in most workplaces is the dot each employee represents. 

Your workplace dot is not your job title, description or responsibilities.   It’s something much more.  Your workplace dot is being aware of where you fit within the culture and the most critical function you play within your organization.  It’s about the areas you can best influence directly or indirectly and having the courage to enable your influence every day.   Your workplace dot changes as the culture changes and new leaders enter into the fold.   

Let’s face it -- you do much more than your job description.  If you were asked to review the job description you were hired to perform, you would probably have to rewrite it.   People define their jobs, not the business.  That has been one of the most fundamental shifts in the workplace today.   It’s less about the business defining the individual – and more about the individual defining the business.  This is why each person defines their own job in the new workplace – because there are so many different variables that an individual brings to work that it is impossible for a job description to define them all. 

With each new job you assume and/or organization you serve – your workplace dot changes.    Those who have successful careers and continuously increase their market value know how to navigate the changing terrain.   They are like a chameleon; they master the art of exploration and know how to integrate themselves into any environment and make the most impact.   This is why they represent different shades of each department they influence.

They know how to align themselves with people whose strengths are complementary so that their collective efforts reverberate throughout the organization to deliver maximum results.   People gravitate to their workplace dot.  

The employees that know how to seamlessly maximize the impact of their workplace dot across any environment are the ones that can instantly multiply their interconnection points (amongst people, resources, situations, crises, changes, etc.).  They strengthen their influence and performance impact along the way – benefiting both themselves and others.  They are the employees that will ultimately develop the most powerful personal brands throughout their careers.

Within what type of workplace do you exist? Is your leader aware of your workplace dot and where it best fits?  Does your leader know how to multiply your interconnection points?    

The traditional workplace is a siloed field of disparate parts; it is a workplace culture that is stagnant and that few employees get excited about.   Every department has their own agenda and most keep their work to themselves.  They rarely engage with other departments beyond staff meetings and they create disruption for other departments because they don’t connect the dots between their employees.    This workplace represents more of an operations-driven, “order-taking” environment where innovation is slow and people are not inspired to think big. During times of crisis and change – the traditional workplace is most vulnerable to risk.  

The new workplace is a highly integrated field of knowledge where innovation is an embedded part of the culture.  This is the type of workplace culture that breeds high-performers and demands strong employee personal brands.    This workplace represents a market-driven environment where ideas and ideals are continuously being tested and where a leader’s primary responsibility is to connect the dots between their employees.  They are always looking for ways to make things better to assure they improve their market leadership position.

So what is your workplace dot?  How can you best enable it, shape it and allow it to flourish?   What role can your leader play to assure your workplace dot remains relevant and in demand – and that it’s continuously in interconnection mode?

You can’t control your ultimate career success and significance – unless you know how to maximize the impact and influence of your workplace dot and that of others. 

When you go to work today, ask your colleagues, what’s your dot?   When you are in a meeting, try to figure out what your colleague’s dots are and if you can help your leader connect them.

Welcome to the world where everyone must know the workplace dot!  Define yours today and help your colleagues do the same.  It’s the only way we can work more effectively together and make the workplace fun again!

 

 

According to a recent report featured on CNBC, U.S. entrepreneurship has reached a 14-year high.  The report states that instead of necessity-driven new businesses, more U.S. entrepreneurs are launching ventures based on perceived opportunities, growth ambitions and a broad optimistic outlook—a group sometimes called opportunity entrepreneurs.  Nearly 78 percent of entrepreneurs last year started ventures to pursue new opportunities. That is up from 71 percent of total entrepreneurship in 2010.

There is an entrepreneur that exists deep-down inside of each of us.    Many people have thought about starting a business or have an idea for a new product, service or brand.  People are extremely curious and they want to test the elements that drive their innate curiosity.  Entrepreneurship is  no longer just a business term anymore – it’s a way of life.  You don’t need to be an entrepreneur to be entrepreneurial.  You just need to cultivate the entrepreneurial attitude.   This is exactly what people feel in their gut every day and why they desire the direction to enable their entrepreneurial spirit.

John Cage famously said, “Our highest business is our daily life.”  Entrepreneurship shapes every aspect of my thoughts, my attitude, my relationships and my general approach to working and living.  My approach to entrepreneurship is different than most know. It is not bound to the world of business. Mine is a holistic entrepreneurship—one that applies to everyday life, on and off the job. It influences how I make decisions and relate to others. Its principles are not only governed by corporate laws but also by universal laws, like trust, attraction, reciprocity and responsibility. Its effectiveness is not measured solely by revenue, profitability and/or social media followers – but also by influence, compassion and social impact. Its time is not bound by nine-to-five but by birth and death.

Through a broader view, entrepreneurship is not merely a capitalistic expression with a foundation in pioneering enterprise. It is also an existential expression with a foundation in pioneering life experience. When you learn to see daily obstacles, opportunities and responsibilities through the wider entrepreneurial lens, you optimize your desires, activities and relationships on the whole. Ultimately, you exhale a greater power and purpose into every endeavor because grand enterprises and gratifying lives spring from the same source. In short, the principles that drive business innovation, success and sustainability are the same ones that propel an exhilarating, revolutionary life. This is a significant paradigm shift if you are in the business world and have never considered the application of entrepreneurship beyond your work. It is a breakthrough if you are outside the business world and have never considered entrepreneurship useful to daily living. 

The history of entrepreneurship speaks of its widespread power and significance, inside and outside the marketplace. Our lifetimes have seen the cultural imprint of classic venturists like Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, Sergey Brin, and Bill Gates – and the compassionate reach of social pioneers like Oprah and Bono. Their legacies are like apples and oranges but their foundational movement is the same:

•   they see what others don’t;

•   they do what others won’t;

•   and they keep pushing when prudence says quit. 

While there is more to entrepreneurship, these three behaviors run thread-like through every pioneer’s approach. The primary (and ultimately defining) characteristic of an entrepreneur like Oprah or Jobs is a deep sense of responsibility to humanity. There are others who lack it and subtract from life; and there are those like Bono and Brin who breathe it and add to life. Such life-takers and life-givers are positioned at opposite ends of the entrepreneurial spectrum. Between them are lives of impact and significance, and lives of suspicion and disgrace. You determine where along the line your story falls.

This broader view does not imply everyone is an entrepreneur. It implies everyone can become one regardless of pedigree, vocation or socio-economic status. This does not require plans of global impact either (though it certainly can). Most of us would celebrate a day without relational stress or a week without professional regret. But don’t we want more than survival?

The seed of an entrepreneurial life is a sleepless desire to live with more power and purpose than you are now—and in doing so, make the world a better place. That phrase has become weightless to most and it’s unfortunate because if we considered what it means to make an impact, one day, one activity at a time, we might comprehend the immense power we possess. 

Listen to the voices of today’s entrepreneur musicians and professors (like Bob Geldof and David Batstone), actors and businessmen (like Angelina Jolie and Mac Anderson), mothers and fathers (like Julie Aigner-Clark and Kevin Carroll), sons and daughters (like Bobby Bailey and Catherine Rohr). They implore you to join their cause or break new ground of your own. You are powerful, they say. You can make a difference. You can change your life and your world … one day, one decision at a time. 

Ultimately, they are calling to the entrepreneurial spirit within each of us. In response, some write a check, say a prayer or read a book. Others step out and revolutionize their life and the lives of those around them. The latter are the flourishing ones.

Applying an entrepreneurial approach to all-of-life is not automatic, nor is it as simple as joining a good cause, though it can start there. It usually requires you to reshape rigid attitudes and reconsider old habits—painstaking tasks for sure, but more responsible than stubborn mediocrity. Beyond the undoing of personal antagonists, the business of living is not alien. The tools of innovation and impact are within reach of us every day. The key is uncovering them, understanding them, and then learning to apply them regularly. Practiced enough, a life-wide entrepreneurial approach becomes second nature. That’s when the momentous can happen.

 Despite where you find yourself, you probably have an idea of what your life could be—the impact it could have, the legacy it would leave. Venture out to that place of uncertainty where all significant endeavors have begun, then have the courage to take a leap of faith.

Here are 12 ways to conceive the business of living and become the everyday entrepreneur you can be.  They will guide you rightly towards the pursuit of breakthrough ideas and non-negotiable ideals – and a life full of momentous activities and amazing adventures with fewer regrets.  

1.  Creating Impact and Influence.

Entrepreneurship is not just about making money – but extends to seizing opportunities to build relationships, advance commerce, and better humanity.  When you can embrace the totality of entrepreneurship, it begins to shape a balanced state of mind to enable your passionate pursuits through the lens of endless possibilities.

The business of living is about creating impact and influence.  Whether you close a large client contract or give back to your local community – the outcomes continually fuel your entrepreneurial spirit.   Innovation becomes a mindset that fuels continuous improvements in your business and in the lives of others for the betterment of a healthier whole.   With the impact and influence you create through your entrepreneurial spirit, innovation becomes second-nature.   Steve Jobs was the master of connecting the dots of convergence between business impact and societal influence.

2.  Going Alone with Others.

Only you can take the steps that shape your new life as an entrepreneur. No one can do this for you.    This can feel like an intimidating, lonely road—but you are never truly alone. Every ground-breaking entrepreneur’s path is flanked by support, be it obvious or unnoticed. Even the seemingly lonely paths of Nelsen Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi were dotted by the shadows of believers.

As you begin your entrepreneurial journey, many times you are faced with skepticism by your friends and colleagues.  Unfortunately, envy and jealously often stand in the way.   Don’t live a life fueled with regret.   Your courage and belief in yourself will be tested often along the way – but if you remain focused, consistent and true to your goals, you will begin to attract people with similar ideas and ideals.  You will begin to build community and transition from solidarity to going alone with others.

3.  Testing Your Ideas.

How many times have you been in a meeting and someone says to you, “That’s a great idea, you should take the initiative and make it a reality.” What typically happens? Most of the time – nothing.  Most great ideas remain dormant because people don’t have the courage, resources, time and/or money to take action. And for those who take action, most are unprepared and thus find themselves spending their valuable time and money on a dream that simply goes astray.

You have an inner circle, a small group of close friends, family members and associates who tell it to you straight. Optimize your relationships with them and deem them your board of advocates. They are the proving grounds for all new ideas and plans. Such people pad your path with uncommon wisdom, courage and intuition. Learn from those who have done it before. Don’t ever think you have all of the answers, just because it’s your idea. Ideation is distinctly different from execution.   Allow your personal board of advisors to guide you with wisdom born from their own failures and subsequent successes.   Click here to learn another 11 things you must actively do – at all times – in order to convert ideas into reality.

4.  Controlling Your Controllables.

As an innovator, you learn quickly that you cannot control some big factors on your road to success: the market, the weather and the character of other people, to name some prominent ones. Yet, these factors cannot force you to take your eyes off what you can control: your feet, your focus and your character. Controlling your controllables is how new entrepreneurs flourish in and out of season.  Consider the story of Nobel Peace Prize winner, Betty Williams in 1976 for her work as a cofounder of Community of Peace People, an organization dedicated to promoting a peaceful resolution to The Troubles in Northern Ireland.    Watch the powerful video from the band, Nickelback (If Everyone Cared), which tells the   story of potent pioneers – who controlled the controllables.   It says it all.

5.  Earning Serendipity.

An entrepreneur plants multiple seeds knowing that each grows at a different rate. He then focuses on growing a garden rather than blooming one flower at a time, knowing that some seeds will flourish and others will fade. The reward of a well-tended garden is serendipity—when you watch a seed you planted along the way bloom when you least expect it, or when unanticipated opportunity arises from a near-forgotten seed. Consider the path of Bob Geldof, the pioneer punk rocker behind Live Aid.     He mastered the art and science of opportunity management.   Have you?   Put your capabilities to the test!

6.  Probability Patterns.

An entrepreneur does not overanalyze opportunities. Instead, you learn through experience to discern the underlying patterns that determine whether a venture will be, or  can be, successful. This frees you to seize ripe opportunities and pour out your resources with confidence. Consider the timely impact of entrepreneurs Julie Clark of Baby Einstein and Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook.

A seasoned entrepreneur can detect patterns in how things work and interconnect.   They begin to view risk as their best friend as pattern recognition becomes an innate character trait.   They can quickly recognize the probable results of their decision-making and the sustainability of their ideas and ideals.

7.  Sewing Value Threads.

Embracing and enforcing values is a hallmark of entrepreneurial living. The air is thick with ads that aim to fog your standards. To be a successful entrepreneur you must know what material you are made of and then sew its threads through everything you consume, promote and pursue. Ultimately, you will see that preserving your values, not the prevailing pop-culture mist, deepens life’s significance. Blake Mycoskie created Tom’s Shoes with this in mind. In his first year of business (2006), he sold 10,000 pairs of shoes and then sewed value through each sale by giving away the same number to disadvantaged children in Argentina – a business model that continues to this day.

8.  Eating Twinkies and Coke.

Ill-motivated entrepreneurs take good fortune for granted and usually fall victim to their prosperity. They upgrade their lifestyle with each success and in doing so often impoverish the significance of their lives. There is more to consumption than meets the eye. It either erodes or upholds your power and purpose. One of the primary keys to the business of living is a consistent, value-sewn standard of success.   Gilbert de Cardenas Sr. built a cheese enterprise, yet maintained a commitment to driving his old car and eating a Twinkie and Coke for lunch in the parking lot at the early stages of the business; this fueled his purpose while reminding himself to manage success rightly.

Flourishing entrepreneurs know the fickle nature of prosperity and, unlike a modern Howard Hughes, they bank their lives on more than material increase and extravagant spending.

9.  Discovering Real Friends

Regret is one of humanity’s most common emotions. We are, by nature, protectors of sameness. Still, it is the pioneering spirits who are envied and emulated. It is also the pioneering spirits who spark injustice from others. As you launch into the business of living, your accomplishments are met with criticism, jealously and even betrayal. Consider the paths of President Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King, Jr.

The business of living refines your relationships so that only the purest remain.   Stay away from the leeches and loafers and align with the leaders and lifters!

10.  Painting a Target on Yourself

There is an old Far Side cartoon of two bears in the woods. One is noticing the vibrant red and white bull’s-eye on the other’s stomach and says, “Bummer of a birthmark, Hal.” Becoming a new entrepreneur makes you that birthmarked bear. This makes entrepreneurship the best form of accountability. It also sets you up as a leader. Accepting the position with gratitude, grit and innovation is up to you. Competitors and critics will take aim at you but you don’t have to stand still.

 11.  Pioneering from Compassion

There is no way around the immense responsibility bestowed on the new entrepreneur. It extends beyond your family, friends and associates to the wider audience of humanity. Comprehending the power and “human value” of your brand is the first step to momentous impact. What you then do with your power can change your world. The next question is: Who else’s world will you change? The living legacy of today’s entrepreneur is compassion. It is also the success template for all future innovation. The ONE and RED campaigns are excellent corporate examples. So are individuals like Catherine Rohn, founder of the Prison Entrepreneurship Program, Majora Carter, founder of Green the Ghetto, and Peter Benenson, founder of Amnesty International.     

 12.  Creating, Restoring and Sustaining

Ultimately, the new entrepreneur flourishes by creating dreams, restoring hope and sustaining life for others. These actions encompass the natural result of the business of living. A great sense of trust in and responsibility to humanity allows entrepreneurs like Ron Clark, Kevin Carroll and Oprah Winfrey to make far-ranging, long-lasting impact. They and their endeavors define today’s entrepreneur and tomorrow’s hero. 

Applying these 12 activities to everyday life is what sets a person, and a business, apart from the pack. You do not have to apply them all to become more entrepreneurial, but the more you apply, the more momentous your endeavors can be. I encourage you to think big.

If you want to get more out of life for yourself – and others – an entrepreneurial approach is the most powerful, purposeful course of action. It requires effort and risk but the rewards will outweigh the sacrifices. This is why it is called the business of living. It is a worthy and grand business. I invite you to venture out and experience it for yourself.

Last week I wrote about how to make leadership and the workplace fun again and it inspired me to ask a group of 100 high-potential employees what they wanted most from their leaders.  Every high-potential works to climb the corporate ladder quickly as they are eager to lead.  But even high-potential employees need unwavering support from their leaders to reach their ultimate career goals and potential.   Leaders must take responsibility to assure these employees stay on track and help minimize any disruption that may slow down their momentum.

In a Harvard Business Review blog,  Douglas A. Ready, Jay A. Conger, and Linda A. Hillask the question:  Are You a High Potential?  They describe high-potentials as employees who deliver strong results, master new types of expertise, and recognize that behavior counts.  The authors also note that high-potentials have the following four intangible X factors that truly distinguish them from the pack:  

• Drive to excel
• Catalytic learning capability
• Enterprising spirit
• Dynamic sensors

According to the authors’ research, companies designate the top 3% to 5% of their talent as high-potential. 

 High-potential employees  earn the opportunity for advancement.  They sustain their momentum and high-potential designation by holding themselves accountable as much as their leaders as they work toward their career goals.   High-potentials aren’t guaranteed long-term success and must avoid complacency along the way.      Though dedicated to their careers and the companies they serve, they can’t reach their goals alone.  They require advocates who can guide them in the right direction, grant access to new doors of opportunity, and help them navigate the competitive terrain.

 Early in my career, I was a high-potential employee being groomed for an executive position in the organization.  I quickly learned that I had to figure out how to manage this responsibility on my own, and this is why I now say that high-potentials need an advocate.  The performance expectations were heightened by everyone from peers to board members, all of whom became keen observers of my attitude, approach, demeanor and potential executive presence.    For those who wanted me to fail, I realized I needed to be much more self-aware of my actions.  

My journey became more than just a job; it was a political tug-of-war where my decision making, my ability to lead and influence outcomes for the better were being carefully scrutinized. Luckily for me, I had a boss who had my back, gave me access to tools, resources and the unwritten rules, and helped me navigate any potential obstacles along the way.  

If you are an employee looking to become a high-potential candidate or you already are one, here are the six most important things that are required from your leader to assure your career  stays on track – and doesn’t get derailed by people motivated by envy, jealously or the desire to be in your shoes.

1.  Feel Valued and Respected

Employees want to feel valued and respected.  They want to earn their leaders respect but equally desire their leaders not to judge them (for whatever reason).  No unconscious bias allowed.  

Employees want to be fairly compensated and never taken advantage of by their boss.   They want a transparent relationship with their leader – one that allows them to share their opinions and points of view without running the risk of looking disloyal or untrustworthy.

2.  Sponsor Advancement

Employees want a leader that has their back and is willing to open new doors of opportunity.  Sounds like a nice gesture but this is asking a leader to do a lot when they already have their hands full.   Sponsoring an employee’s advancement signifies the ultimate commitment.

I’ve been told many times by executives that sponsorship is something that must be earned – to attain it but also to sustain it.   Sponsorship automatically puts a leader at risk and thus employees must go about their relationships with a mindset of delivering their “A-game” at all times.

Employees that seek the opportunity for advancement desire to be challenged by their leaders.  As a leader, are you capable of this?  My organization found it surprising that only 60 percent of leaders are able to consistently challenge their employees to perform and compete at higher levels. 

3.  Genuinely Invest in Growth & Development

Employees know when their leaders are ready to invest their time and company resources to assure their professional growth and development remains on track.  Employees don’t want their leaders to throw them a bone of recognition, they desire a long-term investment in their growth from their leaders to assure their skill sets stay ahead of the curve.

I was fortunate in my early career because my leader  supported my ongoing professional development to not only assure that my skill-sets were in alignment with my career goals and the needs of the organization – but also so I would feel valued enough to stay at the company.  When you are a high-potential employee, the executive recruiters start to call and one can become easily tempted to consider other options.   A genuine investment that reflects a long term commitment in an employee’s future with the organization is a great way to retain top talent.

4.  Exposure to People of Influence

Employees with lofty career aspirations want a leader that will give them a seat at the table.  They want a leader who has enough self-trust and confidence to let their subordinates in the room with their own boss.   High-potential employees want their capabilities to be showcased by those in roles of influence.   The high-potential employee knows that their talent is constantly being evaluated within an organization and in such a high-pressure environment, it’s not always easy for their potential to be discovered by people of influence.

The best leaders are the ones that inherently know their leadership is being evaluated when they showcase the talent of their high-potentials.  If they don’t see it that way, then there exists a problem that puts the high-potentials’ futures at risk. 

5.  Don’t Be Threatened

Employees want confident leaders that are not threatened by their potential.  It becomes increasingly difficult for employees to advance when they have a boss that is only looking out for themselves.  

I’ve learned that leaders who are threatened by top talent eventually become followers.  It is a leader’s responsibility to discover and groom their successor.  Instead of being threatened, they should spend their time becoming a better leader who can more effectively serve others without fearing their job is at risk.  

6.  Encourage Risk Taking and Exploration

High-potential employees want a leader that allows them to learn from their mistakes and guides them to overcome the burdens associated with failure.  If a leader limits their employees’ ability to unleash their passionate pursuits of excellence, they will never discover their full potential.

Employees want leaders to trust them, not micromanage them.   They want leaders to encourage risk taking and exploration that allows them to learn and cultivate capabilities on the job.  If not, how else will they earn trust?

One of the most defining moments in my career happened when my boss allowed me to assume full responsibility for our largest client.   I will never forget being asked to negotiate the annual contract with our client’s most senior executives at their headquarters.   Needless to say, it was quite a moment to be in a room with these four powerful people.  Because I was guided rightly, those four people never realized they were negotiating with a 24-year-old on the fast track.   I walked out of the room knowing that I was capable of high-potential because I had just negotiated a multimillion dollar deals.  But I also learned that in the end, it’s about earning respect when dealing with people.  

My boss but me in multiple situations to learn this early in my career and trusted me enough to put my capabilities to the test. Leaders that know how to do this with their top talent will find themselves enjoying long term success. 

 People desire a “leadership refresh” in their organizations.    Employees want leaders that are likeable, understand their needs, can authentically motivate people and know how to energize a workplace culture to generate the best results for the organization.  Just because you are a great sales person doesn’t mean you will be an effective leader.   The traditional leader still employs the old school ways of doing things that make it difficult to engage a workforce that is more diverse and multigenerational than ever before.    Today’s short-term, rapid-paced, limited-resource workplace requires more trust amongst employees and their intentions, transparency in communication and requirements and cross-departmental collaboration to fuel more desired outcomes – where people feel valued and respected.   

Employees want an awakened, dynamic spirit to come alive at work.  They are tired of excuses and just want people to be real about how they feel and honest about what needs to be accomplished.   Employees are fed up with the office politics and corporate rat-race and  are ready to start having fun again.   They want a workplace that is challenging, encourages trial and error and makes them feel that they matter.  

I recently keynoted an event where a senior executive was asked to share a few words about her leadership experience with the organization.   At first, she said all of the right things (which is exactly what people didn’t want to hear).   Then, she shocked the room by expressing dissatisfaction with her lack of leadership.  She went on to say that even though she knew that people were unhappy with the organization’s leadership protocols, style and approach – that she regretted not saying or doing anything about.    She concluded by talking about “courageous leadership” and why the workplace demands it now more than ever before.

To become an effective leader in the 21^st century workplace, you must do six things to make the workplace exciting again.  Along the way, you will earn trust and respect throughout the organization as a courageous leader.

1.  Allow People to Fail;  Encourage Employees to Test Their Ideas

Empower your people to be entrepreneurial and to test their ideas and ideals.   Encourage your employees to be their best by discovering how they best fit within the team and throughout the organization.   Don’t always feel like you need to be in charge.  Effective leadership is about delegating and being able to trust yourself enough to let go and allow others to establish their own footing without being so dependent upon you.    Give your employees the room to explore and unleash their passion.    

A recent study by Deloitte made it clear that employee engagement isn’t enough.  It’s about allowing employees to be passionate about their work and not so confined to their immediate roles and responsibilities.   The passionate worker is always looking to provide and create impact through long-term sustainable growth.   Great leaders are the ones that allow their employees to discover their passion.

2.  Build Teams That Last; Allow Them to Be Think-Tanks

 Great teams require great leadership.  Today’s workplace must remove silos and   operate without boundaries – putting a premium on collaborative thinking and holding each member of the team responsible to contribute.   The days of depending upon one or two superstars are over.   Leaders must now play the role of “think tank” facilitators – guiding clusters of strategic topics that roll-up to specific organizational goals and objectives.    Leaders need to influence but not control the dialogue.  In the 21^st century workplace, their responsibility is to find interconnection points that exist between each cluster to guide and direct the focus and the thinking.

 Leaders must allow team building to become more organic, less instructional and more enabled by the members of the team themselves.  They must measure effectiveness by how well each member is contributing to the overall impact, dialogue, thinking and outcomes of the group.  

 In a fast-changing marketplace, engaging employees and discovering their passions are best achieved when people feel valued and empowered to think, act and innovate in ways that come most naturally to them.

3.  Be a Great Communicator; Hold No Secrets

Never stop communicating your vision, goals and objectives.   Be a great communicator  who uses  all available methods to define your expectations and set the tone for your department or organization.  Never be vague and run the risk of losing trust from others.  No secrets allowed.

The workplace is becoming more fragile and employees want to know what they are ultimately being held accountable for and what they can or cannot do.   Stop being so structured about how you communicate.   Be human and be approachable.  

For example, when I was in the c-suite, I often held informal (at times impromptu) employee town hall forums.  The goal was not to deliver a “state of the company” address or some other important announcement – it was to address questions directly from employees.   The objective was to communicate the truth about growing tension points and/or concerns that people had about the direction of the organization.    I learned that people simply wanted to know what was going on. 

You also learn quickly which employees want to be part of the solution – and which ones put up roadblocks.  Though I was there to communicate and be transparent, these meetings also served as forums to identify the real leaders and the lifters versus the loafers and the leeches (those that would enable the confusion and disruption).   Great communication is most effective when it is two-way and everyone is held accountable.    

4.  Don’t Hide Behind the Title; Be The Real You

Leadership effectiveness is more than just the influence a “job title” gives you.  The real impact of leadership is when you can reveal the person that is behind the title.   People are more curious now than ever before and they want to know who their boss is as a person.  

People want leaders they can relate to and respect as people.  Be real in who you are and what you represent as an individual. Reflect your true intentions as a leader and don’t hide behind a title as this limits your ability to build relationships with employees.

People want leaders who are humble enough to be approachable, yet whose executive presence is impactful and dynamic enough that they never cross the line of respect.  People will naturally gravitate toward you if you allow your likeability and approachability to flourish.   

5.  Awaken the Organization; Keep People On Their Toes

Keep the organization alive by enabling a culture that embraces new perspectives and keeps people on their toes.   Electrify the organization with hope and opportunity that can create endless possibilities.  Never allow your employees to get complacent.  Help them stretch their thinking and ability.  Make the workplace an environment where people are continuously growing and thinking big!

Don’t just be a provider, but rather focus on being an enabler of opportunities.   Make  it easier for people to contribute and feel more valued – yet demand enough from your employees  that they are continually challenged and hungry for more.

6.  Keep it Simple; Make it Fun

 Establish standards and best practices that everyone can enjoy, learn from and improve along the way.  The new workplace is less about the business defining the individual and more about the individual defining the business.   

 

When my father came to America – on his way to earning  a degree in Chemical Engineering from Cornell University in 1936 – he took the time to understand the United States and its customs, culture and people.    He was a keen observer of people and always curious to understand what made leaders effective, trustworthy and reliable.    Early in my career he would often remind me that people complicate things to make themselves feel more important.   In other words, leaders purposely make things more difficult for others to make themselves appear smarter and more capable than their peers.  Oftentimes they seek relevancy when they begin to feel more vulnerable.    Have you had a boss or known anyone else like this? 

My father would tell me that the more simple you make things, the more believable, trustworthy and effective you will be with people.   Perhaps we are beginning to understand why most leaders need a refresh.   They need to simplify their approach and make it more fun and enjoyable for employees as this will increase productively, engagement and desired outcomes.

My father often encouraged me to read books and watch movies from the 30’s, 40’s and 50’s – to understand what he meant by simplicity.   Read the Declaration of Independence.  There is a reason it transcends centuries and generations because its principals are easy to understand.   Simplicity always prevails.  Just ask Apple!

If you step back, you will see that simplicity is becoming the new normal.   The workplace and the world are changing fast and it’s important to embrace the basics that serve as the foundation for how we think, act and innovate new products, services and the technological advancements that support them.

Make employees feel that they can relate to you and what you expect from them and encourage their voices to be heard and amplified.   Don’t intimidate, make the journey simple and fun and watch them flourish.

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Developing your personal brand is essential for the advancement of your career and development as a leader.  Unfortunately, personal branding has become a “commoditized” term that has lost its intention as people have irresponsibly used social media as a platform to build their personal brand and increase their relevancy.   They believe social media can immediately increase their market value for their personal brand rather than recognizing that the process of developing their personal brand is a much bigger responsibility; a never-ending journey that extends well beyond social media.     

This is why I always advise those who want to have a social media presence to think carefully about their intentions and objectives before opening an account.  Why?  Because the moment you start – you must not allow yourself to stop.   Challenge yourself to think about what your intentions are and what you are capable of delivering to the communities you are serving – both in and outside of the workplace.

Personal branding, much like social media, is about making a full-time commitment to the journey of defining yourself as a leader and how this will shape the manner in which you will serve others.    

Your personal brand should represent the value you are able to consistently deliver to those whom you are serving.  This doesn’t mean self-promotion – that you should be creating awareness for your brand by showcasing your achievements and success stories.  Managing your personal brand requires you to be a great role model, mentor, and / or a voice that others can depend upon.  For example, when I write a blog or an article – I am extremely mindful that my community of readers expects a specific “experience of thought” from me. 

More than that, I aim to attract new readers by offering something of value that will hopefully engage them enough to continue reading my work.  Sounds like a lot of pressure and a tremendous responsibility to your audience, doesn’t it?  Well – it is at first – but over time the responsibility becomes a natural and instinctual part of who you are.   This is the mindset you must develop and the level of accountability you must assume when deciding to define, live and manage your personal brand.   Every day you know you must deliver to a standard of expectation that you have set-forth for both yourself and those whom you serve.   

 View your personal brand as a trademark; an asset that you must protect while continuously molding and shaping it.  Your personal brand is an asset that must be managed with the intention of helping others benefit from having a relationship with you and / or by being associated with your work and the industry you serve.

Have you defined your personal brand?   Are you consistently living your personal brand every day?   

If you’re like most, your answer to both is “no”.   Based on a survey conducted by my organization, less than 15% of people have truly defined their personal brand and less than 5% are living it consistently at work – each and every day.  Why?  It can be extremely challenging and it requires a tremendous amount of self-awareness, action and accountability.

What I didn’t tell you is that 70% of professionals believe they have defined their personal brand and 50% believe they are living it.   But when you “peel-back-the-onion,” you realize that their focus was centered on self-promotion rather than a commitment to advance themselves by serving others.  

So what is a personal brand?  A personal brand is the total experience of someone having a relationship with who you are and what you represent as an individual; as a leader.    Think about what that means to you. Let it simmer.     Ask yourself and then ask a close friend – what is the total experience of having a relationship with you like?    Write down the top 5 things you would expect others to experience and have your close friend do the same.   Are the answers the same or similar in meaning?  If they are, good for you!  If not, you have some work to do.

Every time you are in a meeting, at a conference, networking reception or other event, you should be mindful of what others are experiencing about you and what you want others to experience about you.    Each of these engagements is similar to a job interview – expect in these cases you are being evaluated by your peers.  Those who know how to live and manage their personal brand will earn their respect in any situation.  

At first, this is a bit of a challenge.  However, when you start to see yourself living through the “lens of a brand,” your perspective will change and you will become more mindful about how you approach the personal brand you are trying to define and aiming to live.  

Don’t confuse this with “acting a part.”   To the contrary, you should focus on being more of who you naturally are and want to be so that you can perform and serve at your optimal levels. Keep in mind that we have been conditioned to want to be more like others.  As such, we   are more likely to be accountable to others and what they want us to be rather than being true to ourselves. 

If your teammates and/or colleagues don’t know what your personal brand is, the fault is yours and not theirs. Having a personal brand is a leadership requirement.  It enables you to be a better leader, a more authentic leader that can create greater overall impact.  In fact, those who have defined and live their personal brand will more naturally demonstrate executive presence and as such may find themselves advancing more quickly at work.    

Personal branding is no longer an option; it’s a powerful leadership enabler.

Leadership is learned behavior that becomes unconscious and automatic over time.  For example, leaders can make several important decisions about an issue in the time it takes others to understand the question.   Many people wonder how leaders know how to make the best decisions, often under immense pressure.  The process of making these decisions comes from an accumulation of experiences and encounters with a multitude of difference circumstances, personality types and unforeseen failures.   More so, the decision making process is an acute understanding of being familiar with the cause and effect of behavioral and circumstantial patterns;  knowing the intelligence and interconnection points of the variables involved in these patterns allows a leader to confidently make decisions and project the probability of their desired outcomes.   The most successful leaders are instinctual decision makers.  Having done it so many times throughout their careers, they become immune to the pressure associated with decision making and extremely intuitive about the process of making the most strategic and best decisions. This is why most senior executives will tell you they depend strongly upon their “gut-feel” when making difficult decisions at a moment’s notice.

Beyond decision making, successful leadership across all areas becomes learned and instinctual over a period of time. Successful leaders have learned the mastery of anticipating business patterns, finding opportunities in pressure situations, serving the people they lead and overcoming hardships.   No wonder the best CEOs are paid so much money.   In 2011, salaries for the 200 top-paid CEOs rose 5 percent to a median $14.5 million per year, according to a study by compensation-data company Equilar for The New York Times.   

If you are looking to advance your career into a leadership capacity and / or already assume leadership responsibilities – here are 15 things you must do automatically, every day, to be a successful leader in the workplace:

1. Make Others Feel Safe to Speak-Up

Many times leaders intimidate their colleagues with their title and power when they walk into a room.   Successful leaders deflect attention away from themselves and encourage others to voice their opinions.  They are experts at making others feel safe to speak-up and confidently share their perspectives and points of view.   They use their executive presence to create an approachable environment.

2. Make Decisions

Successful leaders are expert decision makers.    They either facilitate the dialogue to empower their colleagues to reach a strategic conclusion or they do it themselves.  They focus on “making things happen” at all times – decision making activities that sustain progress.   Successful leaders have mastered the art of politicking and thus don’t waste their time on issues that disrupt momentum.  They know how to make 30 decisions in 30 minutes.

 3. Communicate Expectations

Successful leaders are great communicators, and this is especially true when it comes to “performance expectations.”   In doing so, they remind their colleagues of the organization’s core values and mission statement – ensuring that their vision is properly translated and actionable objectives are properly executed.

I had a boss that managed the team by reminding us of the expectations that she had of the group.   She made it easy for the team to stay focused and on track.  The protocol she implemented – by clearly communicating expectations – increased performance and helped to identify those on the team that could not keep up with the standards she expected from us.

4. Challenge People to Think

The most successful leaders understand their colleagues’ mindsets, capabilities and areas for improvement.  They use this knowledge/insight to challenge their teams to think and stretch them to reach for more.   These types of leaders excel in keeping their people on their toes, never allowing them to get comfortable and enabling them with the tools to grow.

If you are not thinking, you’re not learning new things.  If you’re not learning, you’re not growing – and over time becoming irrelevant in your work.

5. Be Accountable to Others

Successful leaders allow their colleagues to manage them.  This doesn’t mean they are allowing others to control them – but rather becoming accountable to assure they are being proactive to their colleagues needs.

Beyond just mentoring and sponsoring selected employees, being accountable to others is a sign that your leader is focused more on your success than just their own. 

6. Lead by Example

Leading by example sounds easy, but few leaders are consistent with this one.   Successful leaders practice what they preach and are mindful of their actions. They know everyone is watching them and therefore are incredibly intuitive about detecting those who are observing their every move, waiting to detect a performance shortfall.

7. Measure & Reward Performance

Great leaders always have a strong “pulse” on business performance and those people who are the performance champions. Not only do they review the numbers and measure performance ROI, they are active in acknowledging hard work and efforts (no matter the result).    Successful leaders never take consistent performers for granted and are mindful of rewarding them.   

8. Provide Continuous Feedback

Employees want their leaders to know that they are paying attention to them and they appreciate any insights along the way.  Successful leaders always provide feedback and they welcome reciprocal feedback by creating trustworthy relationships with their colleagues..   They understand the power of perspective and have learned the importance of feedback early on in their career as it has served them to enable workplace advancement. 

9. Properly Allocate and Deploy Talent

Successful leaders know their talent pool and how to use it.  They are experts at activating the capabilities of their colleagues and knowing when to deploy their unique skill sets given the circumstances at hand.  

10. Ask Questions, Seek Counsel

Successful leaders ask questions and seek counsel all the time.  From the outside, they appear to know-it-all – yet on the inside, they have a deep thirst for knowledge and constantly are on the look-out to learn new things because of their commitment to making themselves better through the wisdom of others.

11. Problem Solve; Avoid Procrastination

Successful leaders tackle issues head-on and know how to discover the heart of the matter at hand.    They don’t procrastinate and thus become incredibly proficient at problem solving; they learn from and don’t avoid uncomfortable circumstances (they welcome them).  

Getting ahead in life is about doing the things that most people don’t like doing.

12. Positive Energy & Attitude

Successful leaders create a positive and inspiring workplace culture.  They know how to set the tone and bring an attitude that motivates their colleagues to take action.   As such, they are likeable, respected and strong willed.  They don’t allow failures to disrupt momentum.

13. Be a Great Teacher

Many employees in the workplace will tell you that their leaders have stopped being teachers.   Successful leaders never stop teaching because they are so self-motivated to learn themselves.  They use teaching to keep their colleagues well-informed and knowledgeable through statistics, trends, and other newsworthy items.

Successful leaders take the time to mentor their colleagues and make the investment to sponsor those who have proven they are able and eager to advance.

14. Invest in Relationships

Successful leaders don’t focus on protecting their domain – instead they expand it by investing in mutually beneficial relationships. Successful leaders associate themselves with “lifters and other leaders” – the types of people that can broaden their sphere of influence.  Not only for their own advancement, but that of others. 

Leaders share the harvest of their success to help build momentum for those around them. 

15. Genuinely Enjoy Responsibilities

Successful leaders love being leaders – not for the sake of power but for the meaningful and purposeful impact they can create.   When you have reached a senior level of leadership – it’s about your ability to serve others and this can’t be accomplished unless you genuinely enjoy what you do.

In the end, successful leaders are able to sustain their success because these 15 things ultimately allow them to increase the value of their organization’s brand – while at the same time minimize the operating risk profile.   They serve as the enablers of talent, culture and results.

How many times have you been in a meeting and someone says to you, “That’s a great idea, you should take the initiative and make it a reality.” What typically happens? Most of the time – nothing.  Most great ideas remain dormant because people don’t have the courage, resources, time and/or money to take action. And for those who take action, most are unprepared and thus find themselves spending their valuable time and money on a dream that simply goes astray.

Converting an idea into a reality (regardless of the required investment of time and money) is never an easy task. In fact, it is extremely difficult. Whether you are an entrepreneur or corporate executive, “giving ideas life” is much like giving birth to a child. You must own the responsibility regardless of the circumstances. No one will ever understand your idea or the dynamics associated with it like you do. In this regard, you are on your own and the journey will require you to learn about yourself – more than anything else will in your career.

As the old saying goes, “If it were easy – everyone would do it.”

Many articles have been written about this subject, but I have yet to read one that really digs deep enough to help one truly understand what is required mentality, physically and intellectually to go from idea to reality. Perhaps it’s because the process of cultivating an idea into a reality is a never ending cycle if you want to keep the idea alive over changing times. For example, we see this all the time with companies based on great ideas that then did not remain innovative and/or competitive enough to sustain their market leadership positions. . Let’s face it, Blockbuster should have thought of the ideas behind Netflix and Redbox – and made them a reality – well before these two companies became their competitors.

The same thing holds true in the workplace – where according to a recent study conducted by my organization, the workforce is not innovative enough because we are trained and wired only to execute on what we are told to do. No wonder we are most proficient at completing short term, immediate tasks. On the other hand, employees are least proficient at multiplying the opportunities inherent in the initial task they were asked to complete. Yes, we should be concerned about our ability to remain competitive – as both individuals and in our organizations.

Today’s fiercely competitive marketplace requires us all to either convert our own ideas – or be a part of converting someone else’s ideas – into a reality. If you are not participating in either of these activities, you must re-evaluate your purpose, what you stand for and your desire to be relevant. Everyone must be a part of cultivating innovation around the clock. You must begin to accept that embracing the entrepreneurial attitude is a requirement to cultivate growth and opportunity for the organization you lead and serve.

Entrepreneurship is no longer just a business term anymore; it’s a way of life. You don’t need to be an entrepreneur to be entrepreneurial.

Did you ever think that not being involved in innovative activities was irresponsible? Well, it is – not just to yourself, but to those around you.

As you think about how you can begin to embrace the entrepreneurial attitude more actively, here are 12 things you must actively do – at all times – in order to convert ideas into reality:

1.       Believe in Yourself

You can’t take action until you believe in yourself enough to handle the consequences of your decisions. Any time you assume the responsibility to give something that had not existed before an opportunity to become a reality – you become accountable for your actions.

Accountability requires believing in yourself enough to be 100% dedicated to getting the work done. Most people fail to take an idea to fruition because the unexpected challenges become more than they think they can handle and thus they no longer want to be accountable. They lose the belief in themselves to see things through all the way to the end.

2.       Create Your Own Personal Board of Advisors

Learn from those who have done it before. Don’t ever think you have all of the answers, just because it’s your idea. Ideation is distinctly different than execution.

Allow your personal board of advisors to guide you with wisdom born from their own failures and subsequent successes. I talked to a couple of fellow entrepreneurs about this and they offered some of their own wisdom.

Rich Melcombe, President & CEO of Richmel Media & Productions, says that: “If you want to be a successful entrepreneur, listen to everyone because you never know when you will hear a good idea. Advice from stakeholders is usually more meaningful, but not necessarily right. Few people will have enough context to fully understand what you’re trying to do. Synthesize their comments so they make sense to you, understand the thinking behind any negative comments, and then make the decision on your own.”

Brad Lea, Founder & CEO of Lightspeed VT, adds: “Although it is valuable to have a personal board of advisors, be careful not to let them deter you from your vision. Steve Jobs’ board said he was "crazy" to enter into the cell phone space because it was saturated and it would not be worth the long and laborious effort.”

 In the end, carefully evaluate any input that you get – but proceed with your own gut instinct.

 3.       Embrace Risk as Your Best Friend

Risk becomes your best friend when you give birth to an idea. If you can accept this fact, you will approach the process with a lens that keeps your dreams and ambitions in perspective and on track. When things don’t go as planned along the way, stay focused on the mission at hand and do not allow disruption to set you backward. Risk is normal and steps #1 and #2 will keep you looking forward.

You often hear that “working hard” is an imperative to convert ideas into reality. But in fact, it is the most fundamental commitment one must make to assume any form of risk management. As such, you must find a way to make this level of commitment if you want to continue on the journey.

 

4.       Be Extremely Patient

Compromise is a choice, not a sacrifice.  Don’t put too much pressure on yourself. Take the time to appreciate the journey and understand how things work. Most people are too anxious to get their desired results and thus start to make bad decisions as they go.

One thing is certain: the journey will be filled with unexpected outcomes that you may not be prepared to deal with. Don’t let this get you down, but keep your head up and respect the process and where it takes you. You will learn a lot about your threshold of risk and ability. Equally, you will learn that many doubters are ready to stand in your way and may attempt to bring you down; this is when the ride gets uncomfortable. Constantly reevaluate those with whom you are sharing the journey (i.e., your inner circle).

5.       Learn How to Sell Your Vision

Converting your idea to a reality requires you to help others understand your vision. Selling vision is much like selling change. Clearly define your value proposition and how it can generate revenue. Selling lofty ideas without understanding how it will achieve financial results will never get you the right audience. The bottom line is what gets everyone’s attention.

Simplicity is the key to selling the vision for your idea. Making it easy for someone on the “outside” to understand what you are trying to accomplish will create engagement and increase your probability of expanding buy-in for your idea. This skill comes into play when selling to possible investors. Learn how to sell your vision sooner than later. Don’t wait as it takes time to piece together and refine your message.

6.       Connect the Dots Along the Way

Everything is connected to something else. Learn how to spot the paths of connectivity along the journey.  What may be your “core idea” today can mature into something bigger as you connect other tenets that naturally associate with your idea along the way.

For example, I launched a food business in 1997 called Luna Rossa Corporation. I started with a product line of specialty vegetables anchored by my flagship product of marinated artichoke hearts. The idea was to market a gourmet / higher-quality line of Luna Rossa branded products inside warehouse retailer Costco – which we successfully accomplished. Over time, this core idea led to gourmet line extensions that included pasta sauces, salad dressings, etc. We sold products to over 6000 retail stores throughout North America, eventually creating new brands and entering into licensing arrangements.

Never stop connecting the dots!

7.       Be Passionate With Your Pursuit

The pursuit of excellence requires you to unleash your passion. When you put your passion into everything you do, it gives you the power to become a potent pioneer. You will blaze paths few would go down, and see them all the way through to the end. Your passionate pursuit of converting your idea into a reality will open new doors to endless possibilities.

Your ability to remain passionate about what you stand for is the ultimate enabler for the success of your idea.

8.       Be Purposeful

Your intentions for your idea must have purpose and meaning. If not, your probability to quit along the way will increase. It will also increase the likelihood of you “psyching yourself out with unnecessary excuses.”

Rich Melcombe adds: “Entrepreneurs must have passion and believe in what they are doing or they are destined to fail. You need to make a commitment to yourself and have a fiduciary responsibility to anyone who supports your idea or concept. Your purpose is to execute the idea and make others believe too.”

Purpose fuels your passion and makes your journey less lonely. Perhaps this explains why family-controlled firms outperform their public peers by 6% on company market value. Today, one-third of all companies in the S&P 500 index are run by families.

9.       Focus on Building Momentum

Carefully identify all of your resources and build upon them via relationships, networking and sharing of resources to expand the opportunity for your ideas. Building momentum is critically important to convert your idea into a reality.

Stay focused, stick to your plan, eliminate distractions and neutralize the noise. Remember to manage your time wisely and never get overly excited about new opportunities that stem from your original idea. Step-back, don’t commit too quickly, and understand how the dots connect.

Building momentum has a lot to do with timing and the management and deployment of resources. Every resource counts. Know when and when not to use them so their value is optimally utilized at the right place and time.

10.   Always Make the Idea Better

Never grow complacent. You can always expand upon your idea and make it better. When you begin to see how the dots connect, challenge yourself and your personal board of advisors to make your ideas even better.

This is what Steve Jobs did with Apple, Pixar Animation and Apple again. Continuous improvements were part of his legacy. He never stopped thinking of ways to make his ideas better. The Japanese even have a name for it: Kaizen.

11.   Make Work/Life Balance a Priority

No matter how smart, passionate, or focused you work, without balance we are all susceptible to burnout. Mind, body and soul must be properly aligned. Take the time to make work/life balance a priority. It will give you greater clarity of thought and help you keep things in perspective.

Successfully converting an idea into a reality is a marathon, not a sprint. Pace yourself so that you can reflect upon the mission at hand. Always be aware of what you are attempting to accomplish. Don’t overwhelm your mind; give yourself some breathing room and allow your creativity to expand.

12.   Build a Legacy Around Your Idea

Let’s say you made the commitment to assume the responsibilities associated with the first 11 steps and have already been successful. Your original idea was born and its impact has now morphed into multiple areas that you would have never thought possible at the beginning.

You have “earned your serendipity” and the opportunities you have created for yourself and others have been momentous. The success of your idea is now real; it has become something more significant and it is up to you to make sure its legacy remains sustainable.

Once you give your idea its life, it is your responsibility that its impact stays alive forever.

We live in a world where people are quick to judge others and value them based on perception rather than reality.    Where people believe that there is more value in on how you “package yourself” than there is in the “real” you.   This leads people to think that it’s better to sell perception versus reality.  It also reinforces the fact that people don’t value themselves as much as they should, regardless of their professional status or credentials.  

At a time when people are uncertain about themselves and their future – and need their authentic voices to be valued and heard – this approach is counterproductive.   

We can see why this is so by looking at social media, which perhaps more than any other tool enables people to reach others with the power of perception over reality.  Someone might have 5000 Facebook friends, 10,000 Twitter followers and 800 LinkedIn connections – but this doesn’t define their value and real influence. It only means that they are actively seeking to build an online identity.  In fact, social media measurement tools like Klout.com and Kred.com reward you for your perceived influence based on the online impact of your content followership. 

People use perception as their reality even when it represents no real value at all.  The perceptual power of social media has allowed people to position themselves as experts – while in many cases the real experts have yet to be discovered or have decided to share their content and leadership with others in private communities with no social media presence at all.

Do you seek strong social media influence to be a valuable asset?  Does your lack of social media participation minimize opportunities for you in your career?  Clearly it is becoming a tool that is too powerful to be ignored.  But should you depend upon it to shape your identity?

Social media is serendipity on steroids.   Engage responsibly and earn serendipity.

Social media is still a maturing platform that requires a full commitment; it demands your time and high-levels of responsibility.  If you are active on social media only to increase your number of Facebook friends, Twitter followers and LinkedIn connections – and not to offer any real value during the process – then you are doing it for the wrong reasons.   The goal is to add value to the audience that you are serving.   This requires work, but more importantly it requires you to value yourself.   And if you don’t value yourself, you are being irresponsible to those who expect value from you.   In a world where perception is increasingly being confused with reality, we don’t need more people being “catfished.”

Unfortunately, there are many self-proclaimed experts and thought-leaders whose sole focus is to leverage social media as a “self-promotion” platform rather than using it to engage with meaningful and purposeful intentions.   The reason most people don’t engage with social media the right way is because they don’t value themselves enough to stand for something of significance that they can share unconditionally with others.  Instead, they mismanage their valuable time, thus further devaluing themselves.

Social media should not be your sole basis for “self-valuation” – yet many people have become addicted to managing their online presence because it is a platform that gives them attention; it makes them feel more important and valued.

Will the social media bubble burst?  Is it a matter of time before many of the disingenuous voices get weeded out? What will happen to those people who desperately need social media to validate their own leadership identity?    If the bubble bursts, will this finally expose the real value of those people that don’t really add any value at all?  

Here are seven ways to make sure this doesn’t happen to you – by valuing yourself enough to authentically discover your impact and influence: 

1. Don’t  Rely Solely on Social Media to Define Your Self-Worth

Take the same amount of time that you are using to build your online credibility and channel an equal strategic effort in the offline world.   Balance is the key.   Engage responsibly.   Use social media to build and enable your offline relevancy.   How people experience your perceptual value in the online world must be the same if not better in the real world.

People will value you more if they can believe you are just as impressive in person.

You only have so much time, so manage it wisely and think about the bigger picture impact you can create.   In the end, this is what is really valued.

2. Don’t Compare Yourself to Others 

People who don’t have a good sense of their own self-worth tend to waste their time comparing themselves to others – rather than focusing on how their unique talents can give them a competitive advantage.   As such, whenever you compare yourself to others, you risk losing your identity and further minimizing your value. 

The potential for innovation in the workplace weakens as people continue to brand themselves with other people’s content.   Instead, focus on spending your time developing the skill-sets and characteristics that naturally lie within your uniqueness into roles & responsibilities that will allow your inherent talent to flourish.   Be original and create your own platform. The key is how you – and you alone – convert your lemons into lemonade.  

3. Believe You Can Be More Valuable

Many people give-up on themselves rather than step-back and evaluate the bigger picture.   It’s never too late to start over, regardless of the circumstances.   It amazes me how many talented people focus more on selling other people’s dreams rather than valuing themselves enough to sell and accomplish their own.  Don’t ever believe you can’t be more valuable.   

Only you can control how much you are valued by others. 

4. Be Honest With Yourself

Understanding your self-worth / true value as an individual requires you to be honest with yourself.  Evaluate your current body of work.   Are you proud of what you have accomplished?   Does it support the next natural progression in your career?

Self-evaluation is critical.  You can only be valued by others if you have learned to value yourself. 

5. Manage Your Personal Brand or Someone Else Will

It’s astonishing how many people allow their personal brand to be defined by others at work.   We all have a personal brand and most of the time it’s misrepresented, misunderstood or undefined.   

If you are not living your authentic identity (the person that you truly are), then you are living someone else’s perception of you.   You must be your own brand manager.  You have to take charge of your own brand in this fast-moving world to get attention and get discovered.  

You need to know yourself in order to value yourself.    

6. Associate Yourself with the Right People

Tell me who you associate yourself with, and I will tell you the person that you are.

Former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell once said, “The less you associate with some people, the more your life will improve. Any time you tolerate mediocrity in others, it increases your mediocrity. An important attribute in successful people is their impatience with negative thinking and negative acting people. As you grow, your associates will change. Some of your friends will not want you to go on. They will want you to stay where they are. Friends that don't help you climb will want you to crawl. Your friends will stretch your vision or choke your dream. Those that don't increase you will eventually decrease you.”

Those with whom you associate yourself with should be people who increase your value.   If this isn’t happening, you need to evaluate your inner circle.

7.Trust Yourself

We are transitioning from a knowledge-based to a wisdom-based economy. It’s no longer about what you know, but what you do with what you know.  In the wisdom-based economy, it’s about balancing “the head” and “the heart” in everything you do and how you do it.  

Trust yourself enough to live whatever value you represent each and every day.   This is what the most effective leaders  do automatically and why they are so successful.

Today’s economic uncertainty has left people feeling stuck in their careers rather than being in charge of their career succession.   Too many opportunities are being left unseen.   It’s difficult to find success – whether you’re trying to be an effective boss,  a responsible parent, or even just a good friend – if you don’t trust yourself enough to recognize your own self-worth.   

Trusting yourself requires you to stand for a set of values that you can hold onto and that represents the person that you are.    What are your top values?  Do you live them every day in your work or is someone else defining them for you?    Your values serve as the foundation of your self-worth.

Be original, create distinction, and know that it’s okay to be different.  Even among those who know this to be true, few have the courage to act upon it.   Don’t compromise your values, nor settle for less than what your standards call for.   Believe in what you stand for and put yourself to the test every day.   Hold on to your values and never allow others to minimize who you are.

More and more people feel stuck at work and are looking for validation.   Not only do they want to be heard, but more importantly they want to know that their contributions are being noticed and not taken for granted.  Not for the sake of attention, but more so because they want to know that their skill sets are still relevant and useful and that they are making a difference to advance the organizations they serve.   With professional development budget cut-backs in recent years, employees have had to start investing in themselves as concerns grow about where their capabilities best fit in their organizations and what their futures hold.

At the same time, leaders are trying to make their employees feel more secure in order to keep the ship afloat, aware that if too much disruption leaks out into the workplace, there is risk of losing top-talent that is difficult and costly to replace.     In this ever changing workplace terrain, leaders need to think differently about how to keep their teams on track.  They must become more intuitive; diverting from the traditional ways of leading that have become too predictable and uninspiring.  

Many leaders are out of touch and disconnected from their employees, focusing solely on their own personal agendas.   This is most evident in leaders that still try to use a “one-size-fits-all” approach to earn trust, build loyalty and stimulate team and individual performance.

Leaders must understand that in today’s new workplace, there does not exist a single recipe to encourage employees to perform better.   Rather, it’s about how to maximize the ingredients in order to create hundreds of recipes that are customized and authentic; that provide long-term continuity and impact.    To get you started, here are ten ways to inspire teams to optimally perform.

1.Solving, Not Just Selling

Stop selling your employees about why they need to perform better.  Explain why their contributions help solve problems and contribute to the company’s advancement.  Employees are more inclined to step up their game when they know their work can add-value to the healthier whole.

For example, I would always show my team the outcome of their collected efforts.   We would go to the manufacturing plant and watch a new product on the production line or to the stores to see new label designs  on the shelves.   Inspire performance by connecting the dots of your employees’ efforts.

It’s not only about what you are trying to sell, but also what you  as a team were able to solve along the way.

2.Purpose, Not Just Profit

Employees are inspired by knowing that their hard work  makes a difference beyond profitability.  Employees want leaders who see beyond the obvious and look to create wider reaching impact that extends into the community and influences social causes.  

Look what IKEA did in1995, after they discovered that some of the factories that manufactured and sold carpets to IKEA were exploiting child labor.  Founder Ingvar Kamprad and his IKEA executives immediately took action, addressing the problem from within and taking all steps necessary to ensure that an IKEA product never again would be created by manufacturers that exploited children. IKEA then solidified its commitment to eradicate the problem at its root. The company partnered with UNICEF to create a program to help prevent child labor by changing the conditions that lead to child labor in the first place, namely: poverty, hunger, and illiteracy.  Today, this same program serves more than five hundred villages in India’s Carpet Belt, an area with a population in excess of 1.3 million.

3.Know the Ingredients, Not Just the Recipe

The secret recipe to inspiring employees is to know the “ingredients” of the people you are inspiring.  People want to know that their leaders understand their tendencies, aptitudes and behaviors well-enough to best work-with and motivate them.   The best leaders and coaches always do.

When you spend time with your employees, make it matter.   Don’t just expect your time and title to inspire them.    Employees want a leader that pays attention and genuinely cares about them.

Great leaders take the time to know the ingredients before they can create the best recipe for success.   Employees are most inspired when a leader takes the times to know them and show that they have their best interests at heart.

Leaders that know how to prepare thousands of recipes are those who continually make the ingredients better – and keep them from spoiling.

4.Learning, Not Just Lecturing

Employees are tired of being told what to do.   They are eager to learn and remain relevant.   But they find it difficult to be inspired by leaders who only inflict fear.    In today’s fast-paced world, people don’t have time for lectures; they want continuous coaching and leaders that are paying attention.  Eager to grow, they want objective feedback.

Simplify the process.  Don’t exhaust your employees through complexity and buzz-words.    People seek direction that is too the point.  Remember, most people have mastered the art of execution.  Let your employee do their jobs well by providing the right tools and support to make them better at carrying out their roles & responsibilities.  Be a great teacher, but quickly shift into facilitator mode.   People are inspired when given the opportunity to learn how to do new things. Stop lecturing and start teaching.   

5.Innovation, Not Just Ideation

Employees want to create impact.  Allow them to be part of the innovation-based projects in your company by letting them get their hands dirty.    Ideation is important, but being part of implementing the ideas that come to life can be a more exciting and meaningful growth opportunity for your employees that will inspire them to perform.

Additionally, provide your employees the resources to be innovative in their work.   Stay close enough to your employees’ activities to know the 2 or 3 tools  and/or resources that  each would require to take their performance to the next level.  

When given the right tools and resources, the best employees will instinctively challenge themselves to be more innovative in their work – and will perform better.    That is why incentives inspire performance – but remember that money alone is not the sustainable answer.   Focus on giving your employees the opportunities to elevate their individual value while serving the needs of the company.   

Allow innovation to inspire performance.

6.      Significance, Not Just Success

Helping your employees to be successful is important, but not inspiring enough in itself.  People want much more out of their leaders and if you can activate the natural talents of your employees in ways that make them feel more responsible about their jobs, you will be inspiring something that is more significant – and has longer lasting impact.

The next time you conduct an employee performance review, evaluate each performance in two areas:  success and significance.   Let’s say that “sales” is a performance category – and your employee has performed at 90% of plan.  That’s good.   After you discuss what is required to reach 100% of plan, measure the significance of the sales generated.  For example, perhaps reaching 90% of plan generated enough revenue to hire 5 more people or contributed to a particular community outreach plan as a result of a local market push.  You never know the significance of someone’s performance until you measure it; and when you do, it’s an effective way to inspire even greater performance.

7.Ownership, Not Just Accountability

Enforcing accountability is a key component to sustaining performance momentum. However, when you can give your employees “ownership” in the process of defining how accountability is enforced – you inspire trust and a desire to go above and beyond the call of duty.

Giving your employees ownership means that you have shared and entrust them with your authority.   You are now allowing your employees to “call the shots” based on what they believe is in the best interests of the team and the organization.    For example, create a special project and allow an employee to take ownership of it.   Outline your expectations for the end-result, but allow him or her to take charge of the project.  Agree to meet once-a-week and observe the change in attitude and desire to perform.     Use the results and what you learned along the way about the employee as a means to customize your approach to best inspire that employee’s performance long-term.   Again, this is a great way to learn more about “the ingredients” as noted in point #3.

8.Respect, Not Just Recognition

Beyond appreciation and praise, show your respect and admiration for the work of your employees.  While people want to know they are respected, you must establish the ground rules for how respect is earned.   

There are too many recognition addicts in the workplace.  In a world of fierce competition, we have come to believe we are our own best allies. We believe we must rely only on ourselves. We believe we can sell ourselves better than anyone else.  But this attitude puts our long-term careers in danger.

Unfortunately, too many people want recognition because they forgot the significantly greater value of earning respect.   Re-train your employees about the importance of respect and lead them in how to earn it.  When they see the greater impact respect delivers, they will be inspired by your example.

9.Personal Growth, Not Just Responsibility

Historically, leaders have used “increased responsibility” to inspire performance.    While this approach may still have merit, it is when a leader can help foster the professional growth and development of their employees that performance most flourishes.    Leaders must take more time to mentor and / or guide their employee’s development and growth.

Encourage networking opportunities and performance development forums.  If the budget gets cut,– put your money where your mouth is.  For example, purchase copies of a book that you believe will help your employees advance and grow in their work. 

Phil Jackson, former basketball coach of the Los Angeles Lakers and Chicago Bulls, has won 11 NBA championships – the most in history.   Jackson became known for giving each one of his players a specific book that would help the player be a better teammate, decision-maker, leader, etc. on the basketball court.  

10.Trust, Not Just Transparency

Ultimately, it is a relationship based on trust that inspires employees to perform.   When you are mindful of managing and concurrently implementing points #1 - #9 this will certainly jump-start your ability to earn trust with your employees and inspire their performance.  When you trust someone, you believe in them.   People are inspired when they know that their leaders believe in their capabilities to deliver. 

As a young executive, I had a boss that I trusted, not only because he was transparent with me – but more importantly because he believed in me.   He created an environment that helped me grow and prosper.   For example, he assigned the most significant corporate growth strategies to my team and me.   This level of trust inspired us to perform not only for the sake of seizing the unique opportunity that was given to us – but equally to prove to those above my boss that it was the right decision for the organization.    We wanted our boss to earn respect and recognition for the bold decision he made to place such a significant amount of trust on the youngest leader and team in the organization – and not to let him down.

Inspiring employees to optimally perform requires a leader who can see beyond the obvious in people.  Inspiration comes not from something that you turn on and off, but rather   from constant behavior – triggered through multiple ways – that makes your employees feel that they matter and that you genuinely care.   

 

 

Today’s economic uncertainties have fueled an unstable job market and created an unsettling environment in the workplace – where the lack of transparency, internal politics, the growing number of siloeddepartments and hidden agendashave made it more difficult to trust yourself, let alone others.What appears to be an endless path of disorganized chaos is now “the new normal.”As such, we must become mentally tough and learn to anticipate the unexpected.Employees must approach the workplace through a lens that can detect the pot holes of distrust while staying focused on seeing and seizing the next opportunity.

During a recent executive coaching session, my client asked, “How do I know if I can trust my boss?”We had spent severalof the preceding sessions talking about how to detect certain behavioral patterns, body language and interpersonal conduct.While she successfully implemented the mutually agreed upon plan, I spent quite a bit of time reflecting upon our sessions and began to further explore the issue.Much to my surprise, there were many points of view on the subject matter, including:

• When not to trust your boss.
• Should you trust your boss?
• How do you build trust with your boss?
• Learning how to trust your boss.
• This is why your boss doesn’t trust you.

Clearly, this is a topic of interest and employees in the workplace want answers.

Finding the right formula for “trusting the boss” is subjective and has a lot to do with the engagement of specific personality types and how they mesh in certain circumstances.But to help someone identify a baseline for how to most optimally “trust the boss” requires you to have had experienced a boss that, i) you have trusted a lot; ii) you never trusted; iii) and another one in-between.Fortunately, I’ve lived all of these experiences first hand, both in the workplace and as an entrepreneur.These experiences have shaped my “trust filter” and have allowed me to trust my gut about people and their ultimate intentions.As such, it no longer surprises me (though it still disappoints me) when people that I’ve grown to admire have become untrustworthy and as a result have made poor decisions and turned against their colleagues for the sake of personal greed.

To make sure you do not become the victim of someone undeserving of your trust, here are six ways to detect if your boss (or your colleagues for that matter) can be trusted:

1.   Transparent Communicator

Leaders who are transparent communicators make it easier for their employees to most effectively listen, learn and minimize mistakes.When your boss embraces an open dialogue, you feel safe to speak-up knowing that there are no hidden agendas.

 While not mandatory, it makes it easier to trust your boss when your interaction is not always limited to the workplace.I once had a boss that eventually became one of my best friends.While at work, it was all about the duties and responsibilities at hand.When we went to a baseball game as friends, we spoke about our families and had fun.She was a master at “separating the issues” and we grew to trust each other enough that our genuine friendship never harmed our working relationship.

 2.    Embraces Unconditional Feedback

Leaders that can be trusted are looking to grow and mature in their work.They embrace unconditional feedback because they want to continuously improve and become a better resource for you.Bosses like this are rare, but they do exist.They don’t leverage their title or authority to limit your voice.On the contrary, they give you a voice– without feeling that your voice should be restricted to its place on the hierarchical organizational chart.

 If your boss embraces feedback, you must trust them – and yourself – enough to give it.If not, holding back may backfire on you because he/she may lose faith in you if you don’t engagein trust-building when you have the opportunity.This type of boss will expect you to be consistent with your feedback and once a baseline of trust has been established will come to you for advice.

3.   Empowers People

Trustworthy leaders want you to succeed.They empower people to take action and to be themselves.They encourage their employees to take risksand donot judge or penalize them for failed but well-intentioned efforts.When a bond of trust is formed, they are able to acknowledge their areas of deficiency and will more readily enlist your help.

Trustworthy leaders want you to develop your own identity.While they will “coach you up” they will not expect you to emulate them.Unfortunately, many leaders that have power believe that their way is the best way – and therefore will celebrate those who attempt to emulate them.

One of my former colleagues decided that she could get ahead by becoming a clone of her boss.”Kelly” spoke like her boss, dressed like her and over time even started to act like her boss in meetings.Kelly lost her own identity because she felt that emulating her boss would get her noticed for the next promotion.Kelly’s boss found this to be amusing, but instead of course-correcting the situation,she took advantageof it and began micro-managing Kelly for the sake of fueling her own ego. Needless to say, Sandy annoyed several of her colleagues and eventually lost the career momentum she had worked so hard to build – and in the end, she also lost trust in her boss.

4.   Focuses on Creating Leaders, Not Followers

The boss you can trust wants you to be successful.They want to teach you how to be a great leader, not a follower.They share the secret of their success and are not concerned about whether you will use it against them.A boss that can be trusted is not threatened by your success, but rather finds a sense of accomplishment because of it.

They want you to be a star and  will not steal the spotlight from you.They are humble about their success and seek to help create the roadmap for yours.

Perhaps this sounds too idealistic, but I was fortunate to have two bosses like this.They saw my potential and helped me nurture my raw talent.They viewed me as the future of the company; and rather than limiting my abilities, they assigned me elevated roles and responsibilities to showcase my talent and capabilities.I will forever be grateful for these experiences as they taught me the value in always being mindful of supporting what is in the best interest of the healthier whole.

5.    They Invest in the Relationship

Once a boss acts upon the first four points, they have made the commitment to invest in the relationship with you, long term.When the boss has made the decision to trust you, you can feel safe in trusting him or her too.

It is at this point that your boss “technically” begins to sponsor your career; they have your back and will help you navigate your succession plan.

6.   Consistent Behavior

Finally, your ability to detect if your boss can be trusted is predicated on their level of behavioral consistency.If your boss is consistently acting upon points 1 – 5, you can confidently trust him/her.When your boss is consistent – the relationship feels natural – and you begin to understand why people gravitate towards him/her.Your trustworthy boss now serves as the standard by which to measure your relationships at work.

Review these points again carefully and put them to the test.A trustworthy boss is one of the most rewarding assets you can have in your career.Equally, a boss that can’t be trustedwill  not enable the development of your skill-sets and will set your career back many years.Remember that you have a choice and the consequences are serious, the benefits immeasurable.

Good luck on your journey!

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