Positive Leadership: Fearless

Positive Leadership: Fearless

Positive Leadership: Choices

Positive Leadership: Choices

Positive Leadership: Fear

Positive Leadership: Fear

Positive Leadership: Becoming Fearless at Work

Positive Leadership: Becoming Fearless at Work

Positive Leadership: Be Fearless

Having the focus to see beyond your fears can instigate change. When you take risks, embrace the unknown, and ‘go for it’, that is often when you get the breakthrough you’ve been looking for.

AOL founder Steve Case and his wife Jean established the Case Foundation to leverage new technologies that will make the world a better place. They recently launched Be Fearless a campaign that encourages people to take a step forward in their efforts to create lasting social change in their communities. Their mantra is “Take Risks. Be Bold. Fail Forward.”

Jean Case recently outlined 5 key values that help develop a fearless mindset. We suggest you read it. We need more change-makers on this planet. 

• Make big bets – and make history
  History suggests that the most significant cultural transformations occur when one or more people simply decide to try and make big change.
• Experiment early and often
  Experience shows us that we need to keep looking around the corner to find the next good idea—because today's iPhone is tomorrow's Walkman.
• Make failure matter
  Every great innovator has experienced moments of failure, but the truly great among them wear those failures as badges of honour.
• Reach beyond your bubble
  Collaboration provides new ideas and innovations, as well as “air cover” when sharing risk.
• Let urgency conquer fear
  Don’t overthink and overanalyse every decision, take a calculated risk and go for it.

Positive Leadership: Be Fearless

Positive Leadership: Leadership Lessons from Coach K

Duke University basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski now has most NCAA career victories (903). Krzyzewski has been called “the modern-day John Wooden” by Louisville coach Rick Pitino and “a coach’s coach … a guy I think every coach in America looks to and respects,” by Kansas coach Bill Self. He has led the Blue Devils to 11 Final Four appearances and four national titles. In this extract from an interview with Jerry Kavanagh for Athlon Sports, Krzyzewski showed an appreciation for literature in speaking about his coaching style and leadership.

'In the book Absinthe and Flamethrowers, the author, William Gurstelle, writes that managers who take the greatest risks are the most successful. Do you agree with that?

I think you have to be careful when you say that. Somebody might think that to be a leader or a manager, “I need to take a lot of risks, or else I’m not good.” I think you can’t be afraid to do what’s necessary. Some people would equate that to taking a risk because it goes against the grain or it’s not something that is normally done. But my feeling is that a leader has to take the course of action that’s necessary to produce a positive result after doing an analysis and preparing himself to take a look at that situation. The world might call that a risk; a leader would call that the appropriate action that needed to be taken. I think when you just take that one statement (by Gurstelle), you can make a mistake by saying, “I didn’t take a risk today. I better take one.” I think you go boldly in the direction that’s necessary and in the direction that you’re prepared to go in.

You often talk about leadership. Napoleon defined a leader as “a dealer in hope.” I read where you said, “Leadership can be lonely.” Can you explain that?

Well, leadership is lonely because you don’t discuss everything. Part of it is that in your moments of doubt or in your moments of being nervous or wondering if this is the right thing that you’re doing, you never want to show weakness to your group. And you don’t share that because it’s not the main feeling you have, but because you’re a human being these feelings hit you. Leadership can be very lonely, but there’s a certain amount of time that you have to be by yourself, it has to be yours as you’re looking into it, before you present something to your group. I think that’s a price that you pay.

Some of the statements you have made have an application beyond basketball. For example, “Fear can change you.” What do you mean by that?

Some people are afraid of fear, so they avoid it. They don’t try to do anything. They’re very cautious. And when you get into new situations, there’s an element of fear that can excite you. It can freeze you or stop you from doing something, because it’s new. It can be exciting, but there’s still some fear involved. And I don’t think that you have to face fear. You know, part of being courageous is facing fear and doing what you’re supposed to do. People have different fears — fear of speaking, fear of heights, a bunch of fears — and when you face those fears, you can turn them into your strengths. That’s how you evolve as a person and how a group evolves as a team.'

Positive Leadership: Leadership Lessons from Coach K

Positive Leadership: Achieving Happiness: Essential Qualities of Top Leaders

Ever wonder what it takes to become a successful CEO? Adam Bryant has interviewed dozens of outstanding leaders for his New York Times column, "Corner Office." In his recently released book Nice Girls Don't Get the Corner Office: 101 Unconscious Mistakes Women Make That Sabotage Their Careers (Business Plus), he distills the lessons he's learned from the best business people in the world. He has uncovered five essential qualities that determine who makes it to the top, all of which he says can be acquired by developing discipline, proper habits and a positive attitude.

The first trait possessed by top executives is that they have passionate curiosity. While they publicly project an air of authority and confidence, they have a different decorum when they are in their inner sanctum with their right-hand people. In that setting they encourage people to share their stories of success and failure. CEOs are intensely interested in finding out what works and why, as well as wanting people to learn lessons from their mistakes.

Chief executives want to understand the big picture and are constantly questioning how their organisation can improve. Through relentless questioning they spot new opportunities, see who's an outstanding performer, and gauge how well their team is working together. Rather than imagining that they have all the right answers, CEOs recognise that their greatest contribution comes from asking the right questions. By discovering what the employees in the organisation believe will lead to greater success, top-notch leaders are able to harness the collective energy of those people who will need to make it happen.

The second quality, says Bryant, is battle-hardened confidence, an inner resilience that CEOs develop by having learned how to deal with adversity. The best leaders embrace challenges, even relish them, and their track record shows that they always find ways to overcome the problems that they encounter. The defining characteristic of resilient leaders is that they take ownership of the issues they face rather than making excuses.

The battle-hardened component comes from the strong work ethic that CEOs develop as they're making their way up in an organisation. They develop the attitude that while there's always something they can do to overcome an adverse situation, they may not get it right on the first attempt. They learn that when they fall down, they can get up, dust themselves off, and continue forging ahead until they achieve their objective.

The third attribute of a chief executive is their uncanny ability to understand how teams work, which enables them to bring out the best in their people. It's typical that in their youth CEOs were active in sports, Boy Scouts and other group activities. In their professional development they learn to recognise whom they can rely on, who has the right reactions under pressure and who the star performers are.

In today's fast-paced business environment, organisations increasingly operate with ad hoc teams. The ability to put the right players on the right team to achieve a common goal is an essential leadership skill. CEOs recognise other managers in the organisation who are also able to recruit the right team and manage them well, and they promote those people into their inner circle.

A fourth element of extraordinary leadership is a simple mind-set. CEOs want people who present to them to be concise, stating the problem simply and offering a straightforward solution. They have little time to deal with subordinates who are unfocused or overthink problems, or worse, want to explain all of their research and analysis. Sometimes they'll ask someone to give them a 10-word summary of their idea. CEOs want people around them who can synthesise information, connect the dots and present practical action plans.

The fifth quality common to CEOs is fearlessness. They are comfortable being in uncertain situations where there is no map or compass to guide them. As soon as things get settled in their organisation, they want to shake it up and make the operation work even better. The best leaders understand that maintaining the status quo will enable their competitors to leave them in the dust, so they constantly want to keep their company on the cutting edge rather than allowing it to become complacent.

Chief executives look to hire people who not only have a track record of managing change, but an appetite for it. They love hearing stories of success involving an individual who sees an opportunity and goes for it based on the courage of his or her convictions. Like the other four factors, fearlessness is a characteristic people can develop.

Positive Leadership: Achieving Happiness: Essential Qualities of Top Leaders

Fear

What are you afraid of, and what does it cost you? Today, we want you to read one of the best descriptions of fear we have ever heard. It seems to be appropriate for the world in which we are living:

"I am Fear. I am the menace that lurks in the paths of life, never visible to the eye but sharply felt in the heart. I am the father of despair, the brother of procrastination, the enemy of progress, the tool of tyranny. Born of ignorance and nursed on misguided thought, I have darkened more hopes, stifled more ambitions, shattered more ideals and prevented more accomplishments than history could record.

“Like the changing chameleon, I assume many disguises. I masquerade as caution. I am sometimes known as doubt or worry. But whatever I’m called, I am still fear, the obstacle of achievement.

“I know no master but one; its name is Understanding. I have no power but what the human mind gives me, and I vanish completely when the light of Understanding reveals the facts as they really are, for I am really nothing.”

You see, if you have the courage to acknowledge your fears, you will be taking the first step toward controlling them instead of them controlling you. And if you take the next step toward understanding, you will be able to move past them to empathy, perhaps even to love. 

Fear