Most of you know how passionate I am about growth, and one way to make growth happen is to get a mentor.
Fast Company has a great compliment to the traditional mentoring model. I classify this article as a compliment, because it helps-not replace the traditional mentoring model. You don’t succeed in the journey alone. Regardless, as Fast Company states, self-discipline is very important.
Give me your thoughts.
Let’s say you’re thirty-five and starting to wonder about what’s next. You have a passion for…you fill in the blank. Maybe, like this Fortune Article, you’re thinking about the "second act." You could be early or late in thinking about this…doesn’t matter.
Want to know what will derail your plans? Leadership atrophy, yes that slow disintegration that is usually attributed to your muscles. It can happen to our leadership strengths just like it can to our muscles.
Atrophy, by definition, is a slow over-time process. Some may say that it happens without the person knowing it. Regardless, it can be your ruin to let it happen. Here are some signs to watch for:
Think about it, how will you be ready for something in the future, if you’re leadership strengths have disintegrated over time? This is another one of those subtle (and dangerous) impacts affecting influence
Don’t forget, tomorrow is today masked.
Seth Godn’s June 12th Blog on the death of a sales call speaks volumes about changes in the way people buy. I’m most fascinated by the fact that some salespeople (if you can call them that) are still trying practice a dying (not that we don’t need salespeople, but we just need changed salespeople) art. It reminds me of organizations who hire managers that don’t have a clue about leading people. Giving power to someone who hasn’t spent a minute thinking about what energy that is unleashed by power-good or bad.
Even if you’re not a salesperson, take a step back and look at what you’re doing and ask yourself these questions:
Don’t panic if your answers are not very pretty. It just means you’re waking up.
I’ve mentioned it before, but is your company (or even you) ready for the coming talent shortage. Some say by 2010 this will be front and center for corporate America. This Fast Company Blog is great insight into GE and what’s happening with idea generation.
Are you ready? Give me your thoughts.
A father watches his son play. The son is four…the father remembers being a son. What he remembers is not what was said, but what wasn’t. This makes a difference. For you see a boy (girls too) needs to be told certain things as he grows up. If the child doesn’t hear it, he could become a wanderer.
I don’t know all the reasons for why a father’s influence is so powerful. But one thing is for sure it can build up or it can tear down. In many ways it is subtle, and in others it is overt. Many fathers, because of their pursuits in money making, power grabbing and countless others, fail to recognize how they are impacting. Like it or not everyone is a leader…our influence confirms that.
Here are some things that should be said before too much time has passed:
Are those words tough to say? Yes they are, but you must build a habit around them. If you don’t, your son or daughter will find themselves in adulthood wishing you had.
The picture you see is two of my uncles, and a great uncle. The scene is from the late 1960’s. My uncles were young and full of vigor. Did they know it then? If they did what were the evidences of it?
Can you be "alive" with all the energy that heaven will allow, and not know it? Many make claims about the future…a future they have no clue about. Those same people leave out a key ingredient in influence. That key ingredient is self-awareness. A self awareness of the good, the bad and the ugly. Can you stomach those three? Or would you prefer something a little less disturbing? Go for it all! Leave no stone unturned! The world is waiting for the real thing.
The "real thing" is what changes our sphere. People who possess the real thing know where their energy comes. They also use it. And they don’t hide behind the trappings of success to prop themselves up. Give me your thoughts…I want to help.
I read a stat. this week (I think it came from the Conference Board) that said fifty percent of the workforce is dis-engaged. In other words they are the "working dead." Fifty percent sounds astounding, but when companies are run by leaders who change dates on stock options, it makes total sense. What’s there to believe in when those in charge are crooks. Very little…
My mission is to wake the working dead. If you’ve looked at what Epic Living offers individuals and organizations, you know the portals. But you need to know that its so much more than that. I once was a part of the working dead and I’ve inherited staffs to lead who were this way. I wanted more than just a paycheck and an office. I also woke up to vision motivated by a love for people unquenchable. This drives me. Maybe Epic Living will wake people up so they will start their own businesses, or maybe teach them to pursue that medical career they left behind many years ago.
There’s a reason why small and medium businesses are the fast growers. There’s a reason so many women (and other minorities) are leaving corporate America to pursue another way to do business. Look around you, is where you’re at a place you can make a difference? If you don’t make a difference, it doesn’t matter if you’re there or not.
What are the reasons for taking the leap of faith? One certainly could be that some don’t want to find themselves alive but dead…
The following came from a letter to the editors at Fortune:
How I (Over)Work?
AS THE FORMER HEAD of a $600 million company, I feel compelled to comment on "How I Work" (March 20), on the habits of highly effective executives. In my experience, if a chief executive needs to rise at 4 A.M. and toil through 20-hour workdays, he may need to address several potential problems:
•He is highly inefficient and wastes a significant amount of what could be productive time spent managing the business. •He has not done a solid job of surrounding himself with a world-class management team he can delegate to. •He has virtually no interests (family or otherwise) outside his job.
Bottom line, American executives need to learn to work smarter, not harder. Instead of glorifying people who sacrifice their family, friends, and virtually all outside interests in pursuit of their career, FORTUNE should profile a highly effective CEO who can manage a $1 billion company and still find time to attend a school concert.
PETER SMITH Former Managing Director, Starkist Baden, Pa.
Needless to say, Mr. Smith gets it! Are some of you shocked or encouraged? Give me your thoughts…
THE BEST INFLUENCE WE CAN LIVE
The world changes when influence is used to grow people. People begin to be inspired and energetic. They use the conditions and environments to reconnect themselves, in addition to the outside world. This is a type of reconnection that opens up possibilities—possibilities around something greater than any one individual. Self-serving people need not apply.
It’s a powerful reality when you experience a leader who desires to use their influence to help others. The best organizations apply this; they don’t look at influence as an accidental encounter. This type of entity realizes that accidents happen ten percent of the time; the other ninety percent is about choices. Best-in-class organizations are on purpose about it. They formalize it by programs, behaviors and execution. Sadly, low performing organizations sit idly by wondering “what’s all the fuss about?”
We can’t wait for corporations, churches or associations to make this a reality. Seize the opportunity and apply this to your personal life. A key advisor once told me how she had to take ownership of her influence. Sheila was always confident, but her career wasn’t stimulating and most of her superiors didn’t seem interested in her aspirations. This led to a variety of dead-end streets. She would master a certain discipline then quickly become bored. Managers would ask her to be involved in projects that quickly became uninspiring. Sheila realized that it was time to take her rightful place at the table of influence. After years of letting others control the impact of her influence, she knew that her life was ebbing away. She came to a crossroads (as we all do), and chose to follow a path of authentic influence. Sheila was comfortable with the fear, the doubt and the uncertainty that comes with this type of move.
There is always a price for these types of decisions. She knew it wasn’t’ going to be easy, but she understood that many times it’s about an act of our will. Sheila has never looked back. I had the privilege of watching her grow over many years. Not often do you get to see this type of transformation, it was a blessing indeed. Sheila went on to succeed in many different arenas (education, business and non-profits) that our culture recognizes as great. But if you were to ask her today about the choice to embrace her unique influence, she would say it was all about the “choice.” Without a doubt, Sheila is truly remarkable.
This Fast Company piece reflects how rapid change is occurring…specifically in the book publishing arena. As many of you know, I’ve talked about this before. Look at the music industry for example. Since I’m writing a book, this is a very intriguing time. As I explore more ways to create "buzz" and audience around the idea of Epic Living, waiting for fame (as some have suggested I need) seems to be a pointless use of time.
So what kind of market could you revolutionize? Look around you…you might be surprised at how an industry or product is waiting for someone to shake it up. Might you be the person to do it? What ideas are you bouncing around in your head? Remember to revolutionize for the betterment of the world around you.
John Kotter said back in the late nineties that the first couple of decades of the twenty-first century would be a time of great change. He was right in more ways than one!
Let me know what you think.