Positive Leadership: Hard Work Builds Winners
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Positive Leadership: Act Like an Optimist
Try it! But not just once...try it again and again and again until it becomes a habit. Then this "simple trick" will stop being a trick and become a part of who you are.
Here's to your success!
Monday, June 25, 2012
Positive Leadership: Visualisation as a Tool for Peak Performance
How do athletes, and others who take performance very
seriously, bring out the best in themselves?
Athletes began to use leading-edge techniques like mental
rehearsal and focused concentration years before the general public had even
heard of them. Jack Nicklaus, for example, said that he would "watch a
movie" in his head before each shot.
These days, thanks to many researchers, we know more. Peter
Fox and his colleagues at the University of Texas monitored people's brain
activities as they performed various body movements and also as they imagined
performing the movements. They found that the actual physical movement
consistently involved the interaction of several specific areas of the brain.
Imagining the movement activated those same areas of the brain.
In other words, mental rehearsal of an
action puts the mind through a neural workout that is very much like the real
thing.
So whether you're trying to break your own personal best
record in a sport or sell a new car to an ambivalent customer, mental
rehearsal, or visualisation, can help you prepare for peak performance by
walking you through successful strategies and potential pitfalls.
Friday, June 22, 2012
Thursday, June 21, 2012
Positive Leadership: The Power of Pause
Shriver was California's trailblazing First Lady from 2003
to 2010. Her work is driven by her belief that all of us have the ability to be
what she calls Architects of Change -- people who see a problem in their own
life or the community around them, then step out of their comfort zone and do
what it takes to create the solution.
Excerpts from the USC Annenberg School of Communication 2012
Commencement Address by Maria Shriver:
"But today, I have one wish for you. Before you go out
and press that fast forward button, I'm hoping - I'm praying - that you'll have
the courage to first press the pause button."
"That's right: the pause button. I hope if you learn
anything from me today, you learn and remember -- The Power of the Pause."
"Pausing allows you to take a beat -- to take a breath
in your life. As everybody else is rushing around like a lunatic out there, I
dare you to do the opposite."
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Positive Leadership: Controlling Your Mind Through Positive Intelligence
Daniel Goleman made a compelling and accurate case nearly
two decades ago that Emotional Intelligence (EQ) was more important to
leadership effectiveness and performance than IQ. But most attempts at
increasing EQ have resulted only in temporary improvements. The reason is that
a more foundational and core intelligence has been ignored, which is a
pre-cursor to high EQ, namely Positive Intelligence (PQ). Without a solid PQ
foundation, many of our attempts at improvements fail due to
self-sabotage.
Your mind is your best friend, but it is also your worst
enemy, involved in self-sabotage. To illustrate, when your mind tells you that
you should prepare for tomorrow’s important meeting, it is acting as your
friend, causing positive action. When it wakes you up at 3:00 a.m. anxious
about the meeting and warning you for the hundredth time about the many
consequences of failing, it is acting as your enemy; it is simply exhausting
your mental resources without any redeeming value. No friend would do that.
Your PQ is the percentage of time your mind is serving you
as opposed to sabotaging you. For example, a PQ of 75 means that your mind is
serving you 75% of the time and sabotaging you about 25% of the time.
Compelling evidence from a synthesis of research in psychology, neuroscience,
and organisational science shows that with higher PQ teams and professionals
ranging from leaders to salespeople perform 30-35% better on average. What’s
more, they report being far happier and less stressed.
In this video, author and Stanford lecturer Shirzad Chamine introduces
Positive Intelligence. He shows how your Positive Intelligence score or PQ
dramatically affects both your performance and personal fulfilment. He reveals
the 10 Saboteurs that are our hidden internal enemies and how to combat them.
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Positive Leadership: The Power of Teamwork
Monday, June 18, 2012
Positive Leadership: With Hard Work Anyone Can Be Brilliant!
In this presentation to design and illustration students
from the University of Cumbria, England, Kevin Roberts, CEO Worldwide of
Saatchi & Saatchi talks about the great importance of creative design
solutions and the challenge to create a future that is: Vibrant, Unreal, Crazy
and Astounding.
As one student said to him after the presentation: ‘….thank you
for ……making me realise that there is no reason at all that with hard work, I can’t
be brilliant.’
Here is his presentation: http://www.saatchikevin.com/Dance_To_The_Music
Friday, June 15, 2012
Positive Leadership: Anything Is Possible!
Arthur Boorman was a disabled veteran of the Gulf War for 15
years, and was told by his doctors that he would never be able to walk on his
own, ever again.
His story is proof, that we cannot place limits on what we
are capable of doing, because we often do not know our own potential.
Do not waste any time thinking you are stuck - you can take
control over your life, and change it faster than you might think.
Hopefully this story can inspire you to follow your dreams -
whatever they may be.
Anything is Possible!
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Positive Leadership: Roger Federer and Mental Toughness
In a recent forum in Rotterdam Roger Federer opened up about
reinventing himself.
He said that though talent and determination to win are
two key factors in his successful career, what took him from good to great is
developing mental toughness.
“…Fighting your own demons is a difficult thing,”
he says. “I had them when I was younger… afraid of the unknown and [asking
yourself questions] ‘How confident are you?’ and ‘Are you doing the right
things?’ A lot of open questions are sometimes a difficult thing to handle -
especially if you bring in the pressure.”
Sport is emotional, tennis especially so because of the
one-to-one intensity. No team-mates to lean back on. If you have watched any
major tennis match you’ll understand how the intensity can help and hinder the
best on court. Players collapse on their knees in tears from relief or scream
to the gods in frustration. Being able to play an opponent for hours requires
the mastering of self-belief and the ability to stay focused allowing your
intuition to guide you.
The same rules apply to business and life.
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Positive Leadership: Changing Your Mindset
Professor Carol Dweck has reduced student aggression and
other behaviour problems in American high schools and increased adults'
willingness to compromise in the Middle East by teaching about the malleable
nature of people's thoughts, feelings, and behaviour.
She discussed her recent research as part of a briefing for nonprofit and corporate leaders at "The Science of Getting People to Do Good" conference at the Center for Social Innovation of the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
She discussed her recent research as part of a briefing for nonprofit and corporate leaders at "The Science of Getting People to Do Good" conference at the Center for Social Innovation of the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Positive Leadership: Why Feedback?
Monday, June 11, 2012
Positive Leadership: Excellence Under Pressure
Two people who had survived intense pressure and tasted
success last year were Graham Henry and Richie McCaw. As respective coach and
captain of the All Blacks they were tasked with bringing home the Rugby World
Cup silverware and a nation of five million supporters weren’t going to accept
anything less.
Success in sport can often hinge on how much a team wants to win and in high stakes situations mental toughness can play a crucial role.
Success in sport can often hinge on how much a team wants to win and in high stakes situations mental toughness can play a crucial role.
Henry believes that his eight years coaching the All Blacks
proved mentally tougher for his family than for him. "They go through more
difficult times than you, because they have no control over it, and you have.
You're at the coalface, doing the job, and it dissipates the pressure; you are
so involved in the process you don't worry too much about the result.”
Henry is now passing on his knowledge to other sporting
teams as a “mentor”. He’s involved with Super 15 rugby team the Blues,
Argentina’s national rugby team the Pumas, and Sport New Zealand’s emerging
coaches from disciplines such as yachting and cycling.
In a recent interview, Richie McCaw opened up about the sort
of pressure he is under as All
Blacks captain. “There is always pressure going into any match, I have accepted
that. Everyone expects the All Blacks to win every time they go on the field.
If you try and say there is no pressure you are kidding yourself. I try to put
it aside and just be excited by the opportunity.”
He goes on to say that being the best player he can be is
key to supporting his team. Walking the
talk and leading by example are traits of role model Todd Blackadder
(former All Black), which Richie hopes to emulate.
Psyching yourself up is a particularly effective mental
toughness tool and we all do it before a big occasion because it helps to give
us courage or the “edge”. Perhaps it is no coincidence that the world’s most
successful rugby team, the All Blacks, also have the most elaborate mental warm
up – the Haka!
Friday, June 08, 2012
Positive Leadership: Success for the Successful: The Kobe System
If you haven't experienced the Kobe System for yourself, you
must not know what it feels like to be over the top!
This is because the Kobe System isn't just about getting to
the top; it's about going over the top! Success for the Successful is Kobe
Bryant's winning, results-oriented philosophy on how to adapt to succeed.
In this motivational speech, Kobe makes clear that just
because you're the GOAT doesn't mean you're done dominating. The KobeSystem
helps ex NFL star, Jerry Rice come to that hard conclusion.
For more motivational videos from Kobe, see: http://globalgrind.com/style/5-levels-kobe-system-featuring-kanye-serena-p-rod-more-video#ixzz1tcdhDX6G
Thursday, June 07, 2012
How Positive Leadership Can Help You: Building Leadership Strength is a Business Imperative
It is mission critical that
organisations consistently review how their employees perceive their leaders’
actions and efforts. Strong leadership, at all levels of an organisation, is
central to organisational success – it improves employee retention, morale,
productivity, engagement and ultimately, profitability.
Building
leadership strength and depth is a business imperative – but it can be expensive. In
today’s economy, leadership development expenses will likely have to meet
certain standards of proof of impact or return on investment.
So, how do organisations improve the
effectiveness and efficiency of their leadership development programmes and
processes, to ensure they drive a positive impact, and thereby make them (the
organisation) more competitive?
Positive Leadership works
with its clients to identify the best practices, trends and
strategic solutions needed to prioritise their investments to achieve the
greatest impact on their bottom line.
We address the 4 fundamentals
of corporate leadership development strategies and programmes:
- Selection – we focus on identifying and developing leaders in critical roles at all levels of the organisation
- Alignment – we continuously align development efforts with distinct business challenges and goals
- Efficiency – we utilise the most efficient ways to build and deliver learning solutions
- Effectiveness – we consider the overall business impact beyond the classroom or course, and implement development approaches that reinforce sustainable, and transformational, behaviour change.
To maximise ROI for
leadership development efforts, organisations must effectively
plan, implement and evaluate their initiatives. They must create a ‘chain of
impact’ that connects leadership development to relevant organisational
outcomes.
Positive Leadership provides advice and support in these endeavours.
A relationship with us gets
you 3 things:
- Our knowledge
- Our experience
- Our commitment to helping you achieve the results you want, and need.
For further information please contact: graham.watson@positiveleadership.co.uk
Wednesday, June 06, 2012
Positive Leadership: The Olympic Spirit - Never Quit!
The incident has become a well-remembered
moment in Olympic history, having been the subject of one of the International
Olympic Committee's 'Celebrate Humanity' videos and been used in advertisements
by Visa as an illustration of the Olympic spirit and featured in Nike's
"Courage" commercials in 2008.
Tuesday, June 05, 2012
Positive Leadership: Hard Work Pays Off!
For example: Simply hitting a bucket of balls is not deliberate practice, which is why most golfers don't get better. Hitting an eight-iron 300 times with a goal of leaving the ball within 20 feet of the pin 80% of the time, continually observing results and making appropriate adjustments, and doing that for hours every day - that's deliberate practice.
Tiger Woods is a textbook example of what the research shows. Because his father introduced him to golf at an extremely early age - 18 months - and encouraged him to practice intensively, Woods had amassed at least 15 years of practice by the time he became the youngest-ever winner of the U.S. Amateur Championship, at age 18. Also in line with the findings, he has never stopped trying to improve, devoting many hours a day to conditioning and practice, even remaking his swing twice because that's what it took to get even better.
The result? Here is the video of Tiger Woods's dramatic chip-in for birdie on the 16th hole in the final round of the recent Memorial Tournament. Woods went on to win by two shots and tie Jack Nicklaus with 73 career PGA Tour victories.
Monday, June 04, 2012
Positive Leadership: Values Ground an Organisation
The chances are your organisation has a set of values,
operating principles or organisational expectations. They typically include
items such as integrity, customer service, quality, respect, high performance,
leadership, innovation etc. These corporate values interact with the personal values
which individual members of the organisation bring to work each and every day.
However, in order to build a winning organisation, where the execution of business
strategy is assured and optimised in all circumstances, it is important that
corporate and individual values are harnessed within a framework of leadership
values.
Leadership values “ground” an organisation – providing
direction for people that find themselves in ambiguous situations. They are
guides for decision-making. When employees encounter situations in which they
must choose one course of action from a number of different alternatives, they
can turn to their leadership values for help. Approached from the context of values,
decisions often become less complicated and stress-inducing.
When it comes to leadership values, your job as a leader is
critically important. You have a two-fold responsibility. First, you need to
make sure that everyone understands what the values are and what they mean.
Then, you need to guide people in practicing those values in their day-to-day
work lives. It is the right thing to do for yourself, your team members and
your organisation.
Lead well ... LEAD RIGHT!
Friday, June 01, 2012
Positive Leadership: Five Management Lessons from Olympic Athletes
Athletes are preparing hard for London 2012 at present. Once
the Games are over, the memories - and lessons – will remain. Whether you're a
sports fan or not, there are valuable lessons to be learned when you view the
efforts and results of these amazing athletes from the perspective of
leadership and peak performance.
Here are 5 such lessons - one for each Olympic
ring - to take to work this week:
They keep score
Olympic athletes know how they are doing all the time. They
know their results, but they also know their progress and improvement. If you
want to improve your performance, you’ve got to keep score of your own efforts
and results.
They have clear goals
Every athlete has a goal for the Olympics. To some, just
qualifying to be there is the target, while, for others, a medal - or a
specific medal, gold - is the obsession. In whichever case, the athletes are
all clear about their goals. You must duplicate that precision in your own work
life.
They practice
Actually, they practice, practice, practice - and practice
some more. They don't expect world-class performance after only putting in
occasional efforts in training. They know to be their best, they must practice
in focused and strategic ways to reach their goals. Do you practice like a
champion? Are you as diligent and consistent in learning the skills that will
help you succeed as they are?
They play to the end
They know where the finish line is, and they don't stop
until they hit it. They pick themselves up after falling and continue, or even
ignore injuries in their zeal to make it to the finish line. Their chance to
achieve their goal may be lost but they don't stop. And you will rarely hear
them blaming others for results, unlike many folks in the workplace who
constantly berate scapegoats. Olympic athletes play to the end, remaining
singularly focused on their endeavour. Do you?
They have coaches
It's unheard of for these world-class athletes not to have a
coach. Even though they are among the best in the world, they recognise that
they need help to keep improving their performance. It's the same for achieving
success in the office. The best thing you can do to improve your own or your
staff's performance is to find a coach.
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Positive Leadership: Demonstrable Values and Integrity are Key to Economic Recovery
Giving the sixth annual ICAS Aileen Beattie Memorial Lecture
recently, Douglas Flint CA, the Group Chairman of HSBC Holdings PLC, said that
while the financial crisis was a “great opportunity to move things forward to
learn lessons, [and] to fix things that need fixing”, it was also an
opportunity for some “to take advantage of people’s fear of repetition to offer
seductively attractive remedies that only address symptoms rather than causes”.
As well as addressing the fixes needed in the financial
system, Flint said, it was important offer a positive vision and “to focus on
what we want the wider financial system and banks in particular to do”.
Flint said
restoration of confidence was important to recovery, and if this were to happen
there needed to trust in leaders, in their motives and their data.
He emphasised the
importance of behaviour: “the greatest opportunity for improvement will come
from defining, teaching, reinforcing, rewarding and enforcing values in terms
of behaviour”.
If behavioural values are to be relied upon it requires
trust in organisations, Flint said. Assurance that this trust has been earned
has to be built into the system.
He urged regulatory and public policy bodies to think more
deeply about how to understand - “and if necessary shape” - the character and
culture of the organisations critical to the financial system.
He said people should
“care more about tone from the top, how individuals are screened for
behavioural characteristics when recruited or promoted, how ethics and values
are taught and reinforced, how values are enforced and rewarded”.
Flint listed the elements
he felt needed to be embraced: “independence of thought, character, judgment,
accountability, responsibility, a duty that goes beyond one’s own self-interest
or the narrow interest of one’s employer to one’s underlying principles and
integrity”.
For more, see:
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Positive Leadership: Everyday Leadership
Dan Mulhern is an
expert on leadership and organizational development. He currently teaches
courses in business and law at UC Berkeley. Mulhern is the author of two
leadership books, Everyday Leadership: Getting Results in Business, Politics and
Lifeand Be Real: Inspiring Stories For Leading At Home And Work and
is the co-author of the bestselling political book, A Governor's Story: The Fight for Jobs and America's Economic
Future. He is married to Gov. Jennifer Granholm, who served two terms as
the governor of Michigan. They have three children.
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Positive Leadership: Using Your Time More Efficiently
Here are three ways to get going and sustain an
action-orientation to your own productivity:
Choose smaller verbs.
One of the reasons that people don't do things as they think of them
(especially entrepreneurs and senior leaders) is because of their skill at ‘Visionary
Thinking’. Because they CAN think big, they do. Chunk your objectives into
smaller markers along your path to success.
Find, create, utilise
and assess the extra time you have each day. Arrive to an off-site meeting
somewhere early? Other people running late? Maybe you get a last-minute cancellation
of an appointment you had scheduled. What can you do during that time? Get
ready for 15-minute blocks of time throughout the day. Why 15 minutes? That
window is long enough to actually "do" something and short enough to
find!
Focus on what has
happened. Regularly through the day (before lunch, and before you go home),
take a moment and mentally check off what is complete. All too often there is
so much going on, and so much you can think of that is UNDONE, you tend to
forget how much is finished. This is your chance to recharge – as acknowledging
completion is a quick way to get back on track.
Too often, long-range goals fall into the “important but not
urgent” category of day-to-day workflow management. We put off doing the most
important things while making start-and-stop progress. When this happens, the
urgent – latest and loudest – clamours for our attention.
Work smart, maximise short windows of time, and mark something as
complete…it’s the best way to beat procrastination!
Monday, May 28, 2012
Positive Leadership: The Keys to a Successful Leadership Strategy
What style of leadership works and what doesn't work in an organisation?
1) Strict
hierarchical decision-making doesn't work. Shared consciousness or ‘smart
autonomy’ - is what works.
Everyone — not just those on the top rungs of the organisational
ladder — has to be empowered, but they must still look out for the needs of the
whole organisation, not themselves.
2) Information
ownership doesn't work. That's when people protect what they know without
sharing it with others. It's a hindrance to an organisation.
It makes you more
powerful but it makes the organisation weaker.
Inclusion and transparency is what works. Allowing
information to flow between parts of an organisation, helps formulate ideas and
foster trust.
3) Organisational
equity doesn't work. It's the idea that everyone within the organisation is
trying to make things "fair" for them in relation to their colleagues.
Having teams is what works, because it encourages
collaboration and supports that "shared consciousness" idea.
If everybody on a football team scores plenty of goals, but
you lose matches, you lost!
4) Command and
control doesn't work. Micro-managing and imposing your will over much of an
organisation stifles people.
Trust is what works.
Without it, it's impossible to have autonomous parts of an organisation.
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