Love the work

For about a decade, I did between fifty and a hundred speaking engagements a year to company and association audiences around the world. I met hundreds of people who were top performers in their companies and industries. In some ways they were very different.
They were men and women. They were tall and short and fat and thin and fit and sloppy. Some were educated and sophisticated and others were not. They were farmers and engineers and sales people and teachers and small business owners and big business executives in a variety of industries and a variety of cultures. As different as they were they all had one thing on common.
They loved their work.
That’s powerful stuff. If you love your work, you’re more likely to dive into it enthusiastically. You’re more likely to achieve the magic of flow. You’re more likely to put in the extra time and effort that makes for success.
There are lots of things that go into a happy and successful life. This is an important one.
Love the work.
Don’t think about your next job based on the salary or the benefits or the status. Those are important, but they’ll slide into the murk at the back of your mind when you start the job itself. Then the work will matter and it will matter all day, every day.
Love the work.
Base your career plans on doing work you love. Base your changes in direction on doing work you love. Forget all those peripheral factors.
Love the work.

- See more at: http://www.threestarleadership.com/success/love-the-work?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter#sthash.KbiCwRcL.dpuf

How Human-Centered Leaders Follow Principles that Matter

Many think of leadership and power as a peanut butter and chocolate combination. They just go together. There is power in being a leader yet too often leaders put the objective of power above doing the right thing and engaging people in a respectful, thoughtful way. Self-interest overrides sound leadership principles.

When principle is placed first, however, our leadership changes dramatically. Leading on principle first solves many problems and produces clarity in how to build organizational cultures.

The Buffer Example

Several weeks ago I received an email from the team at Buffer. I am a customer. The email subject was “Introducing Transparent Pricing.” Here is an excerpt:

“Transparency has been a foundational principle of the way we do things here at Buffer. We share the details of our salaries, our revenue, our fundraising, and more. Today, I’m so excited to extend this transparency directly to you, our beloved Buffer customer!”

Leading on principle first solves many problems and produces clarity in how to build organizational cultures.

As I clicked through and read more, I was amazed. They highlighted where money was spent and identified monthly salaries of team members. Much more about the organization wasrevealed in their blog.

What was clear is that transparency was a galvanizing leadership principle. Everything done by the company is centered on being transparent. And transparency is expanding as the company grows, not the other way around (as would be expected).

I have never met Joel Gascoigne, CEO of Buffer, but I would like to. Joel represents someone who is challenging leaders to raise the standard in the way they lead. He is not the first, although he is likely among a minority of leaders who are leading on clear principles.

Why Leading on Principle Matters

People often talk about leadership principles. They have a list off six to eight principles they try to lead by. Those principles are likely in a handbook, pinned to a wall, or just part of a quarterly speech. A list of principles is just that: A list.

When a principle that matters is front-and-center and used in every important decision made, the principle is a leading one. The principle becomes the guiding light and the test to ensure the decisions square with the principle. The principle is activated within the leader. I may sound repetitive but this is important. Rather than being talked about, the principle is used often and others see the impact of the principle in how work is done and how everyone acts.

Let’s be specific. Highlighted below are three reasons why leading on principle matters.

1. Brings Clarity to Discussions and Decisions

When people are wrestling with important decisions, the test of whether or not the right decision is being made is how it stacks up against a key principle. In Buffer’s case, whether or not to withhold certain performance news would be a short conversation. Doing so would violate their principle of transparency.

Clarity brings speed to some decisions. Clarity will also bring meaningful conversations, ensuring the principle remains unvarnished and can thrive through various business and leadership challenges.

2. Creates and Sustains Organizational Culture

When starting a company, getting the initial hiring right is crucial. Hiring the right people delivers a foundation in which the company can continue to succeed in their mission. With a guiding principle, the right questions to ask an interviewee is easier. With a guiding principle, the screening process is easier. Self-screening may happen as well.

In the Buffer example, when a potential hire reads about their transparent culture and how salaries are known by the world, they may elect to not apply. This culture may not fit everyone and that is okay. In fact, it is better this way for many reasons. From costs of early departures to disruptive behaviors, avoiding these costs and hurdles means a lot to any organization – young or old.

Clarity will also bring meaningful conversations, ensuring the principle remains unvarnished and can thrive through various business and leadership challenges.

3. Serves as a Way to Galvanize Organizational Purpose

Uncertainty creates wasted energy. There is enough uncertainty in market conditions without adding to it with internal wishy-washiness. Let’s be real honest. Too many organizations seem flimsy in what their real purpose is. Instead of focusing on a higher mission or purpose, many competing individual desires take over. Uncertainty in purpose reigns and, worse, people get worn out and the organizational culture becomes disoriented.

When principles are present and demonstrated with consistent messages and actions, peoplefeel joy in their work. The joy in the work happens because purpose and principle usually go hand-in-hand. When strong principles guide leadership, purpose is present, too.

Abdicate Power, Elevate Principle

orePrinciples elevate leaders to act in an unselfish way and focus on a higher purpose of their organization. Purpose floods in every doorway and hallway, and you can see the determination and joy in each person. People want to do work where what they do matters and serves some greater good. Principles serve as the motivating core to make this happen.

The time is now to lead on principle, empowering a higher standard of leadership and engagement. The power of principle will inspire the sweet mix of purpose, profit, and people.

Read More; http://switchandshift.com/how-human-centered-leaders-follow-principles-that-matter?utm_content=bufferd8130&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Roselinde Torres: What it takes to be a great leader

The Biggest Mistake a Leader Can Make

Are You Adding Value Or Subtracting Value

Somewhere someone has been inspired by you.

Somewhere someone has been empowered by you.

Somewhere someone has done an act of kindness because of you.

Somewhere someone has taken on a challenge because of you.

Adding value doesn’t occur by accident, nor is it something that happens on its own, like the tides. The best leaders add value intentionally by knowing what is important and making choices based on that knowledge.

But true leaders know that the question, whether they are adding value, is not the only question, they are also asking themselves if they are subtracting value too.

Are you adding value to yourself or subtracting value from the person who matters the most?

Are you acquiring new skills? Are you spending your time on improving your competencies? Are you working on your leadership and adding value to your life, or are you squandering your time with the same old- same old?

Are you adding value to your team or subtracting value from those you care about the most?

Are you delegating to others to show that you trust them? Are you eliminating the barriers that make others feel useful and important? Are you allowing your team to step into their roles and step out with their talent? Or are you controlling and micromanaging? Do you need to pull back from doing and spend more time advising?

Are you adding value to your family or subtracting value from those you love the most?

Do you hold family paramount? Do you remember to cultivate a relationship with your family, to give something to and for them on a daily basis? Sometimes we get busy and we forget to make the time. Are you checked in or checked out? Make family a priority, and make decisions that benefit those you love. The concept of making a difference for your family holds families together in tough times as well as good.

Are you adding value to the things you hold dear or subtracting value from what you regard the most?

There is a cause or an issue out there with your name on it—something important to you, someplace where you can serve and make a difference in a way that is unique to you. Have you sought it out and cultivated involvement? Are you devoting energy every day into making a difference or are you waiting for the right time, right place, right people to appear in your life?

Many times we are subtracting value without even realizing it, but true leadership is always being mindful and always asking am I adding or subtracting?

To be the most successful as a leader, find the time to ground yourself daily in the things that are most important to you: Your own leadership, your team, your family, your passions.

Lead From Within: Stop and think. Are you adding value or subtracting value? Think hard where you want to concentrate your efforts, and where you most want to make the most difference because that is where you leadership and life begins.

- See more at: http://www.lollydaskal.com/leadership/adding-value-subtracting-value/#sthash.lNk90SAL.dpuf

Washington's Lessons: It’s Never too Early to Choose to Lead

GREAT LEADERSHIP doesn’t just happen. Great leaders are revealed in extraordinary circumstances, but they are made long before. A person’s quality of leadership radiates from their character. Consequently, it’s never too early to begin your leadership development. 

George Washington filled many roles in his lifetime: a surveyor, frontier explorer, businessman, land speculator, soldier, farmer and statesman. A couple of examples from Washington’s childhood help to explain his successes later in life. 

By age sixteen, Washington had copied out by hand, 110 Rules of Civility & Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation. They are based on a set of rules composed by French Jesuits in 1595. The first rule sets the tone of the others that follow: “Every Action done in Company, ought to be with Some Sign of Respect, to those that are Present.” There isn’t a leader that wouldn’t benefit from a daily reminder of this approach. Time and time again, these rules from his childhood played out in the conduct of his public life and defined his reputation. These rules and his concern for them integrated him as a leader and bonded him with those he led. 

George Washington’s father died when he was eleven leaving him to be raised by his older brother Lawrence. By age fifteen his formal schooling was over and he had achieved the equivalent of only a grade school education. But his education never stopped. Washington was an avid reader, soaking up the works of historians and thinkers. He was especially drawn to the essays of the Roman philosopher Seneca and Joseph Addison’s play Cato with its lesson in selfless leadership. He studied the ideas of his contemporaries in writings and conversation. He also spent a good deal of time writing which helped to solidify his thoughts. Learning is more than discovery. It helps us to make sense of things. It’s more than collecting information—it is applying it in a constructive way to some area of our life. 

It is the mindset of a leader to work on themselves harder than they work on others. A leader’s first responsibility is governing themselves. Historian Gordon Wood has written, “Washington became a great man and was acclaimed as a classical hero because of the way he conducted himself during times of temptation. It was his moral character that set him off from other men.” 

Leadership is embodied in the way you look at the world and respond to it. It’s never too early to choose to lead.

Read more; http://ht.ly/Ja7jX

Finding the Mango Tree Inside of the Seed: Lessons on Leadership, Part 1

I have been delving into some of Dr. Munroe’s work after learning about his recent death in the Bahamas. Along with his wife and 7 other people, he tragically died in a plane crash on November 9, 2014. Dr. Munroe was a globally recognized Evangelical Christian and motivational speaker who not only inspired many of my personal mentors, but also founded and led Bahamas Faith Ministries International (BFMI) and Myles Munroe International (MMI).

In a leadership series called Leading Edge Leadership, Dr. Myles Munroe taught that “true leaders do not ever search for followers.” I will admit that this initially confounded me because, fairly often, we rank our leaders by the number of people that follow them. Take a look at Oprah Winfrey – over 26 million followers on Twitter. Or how about Will Smith – over 75 million fans on Facebook. And Richard Branson – over 7 million followers on LinkedIn. There are all great leaders, right?

Whether measured by Twitter fans or Facebook followers or LinkedIn subscribers, social media leads us to believe that the most influential leaders are those that have the greatest number of followers. While coincidentally, this is in fact often true, the flawed presumption is that these leaders’ immense followership is what makes them so great.

But you’re thinking, doesn’t a leader need followers?

How else do you expand your reach? And in a world greatly influenced by social media, it makes sense why an emerging leader would be interested in leveraging these platforms to spread their message. So it seems, if you are just getting started as a leader seeking to influence the public, you should be focused on building a fan base of people who care about what you have to say and will help spread your message.

Indeed, business leaders like Seth Godin urge us to “find our tribe,” while countless other thought leaders encourage us to “find our why.” While these are important steps in growing as a leader, the problem arises when emerging leaders believe that they must first identify their followers before they can begin spreading their message. This might explain why so many blogs are abandoned after writers are unable to build a sizable subscriber base, or why so many musicians or artists give up after failing to amass dedicated fans. It might also explain why so many people appear to be more focused on marketing than content creation.

Maybe people are too busy searching for followers.CLICK TO TWEET

Dr. Myles Munroe believed that a mindset focused on finding followers is detrimental to leadership development. Discussed below are six principles of leadership, the elements of which help to explain why so many people unfortunately die as followers.

1. We were all born to be leaders

Dr. Myles Munroe rested his leadership philosophy on the simple, yet incredibly profound premise that every human being is born to be a leader.

He believed that there is a hidden leader trapped inside of every individual who labels themselves a follower. In other words, the essence of human existence can be captured by a single word – leadership.

This begins to make sense when we dissect how Dr. Munroe defined leadership. He explained throughout his writings and during his lectures that we are all born to become leaders, but not over other people. Instead, we are all born to become a leader in an area of gifting. Thus, true leadership begins with the discovery of one’s unique area of gifting, or in other words, one’s unique purpose in life. Every individual was born to leverage their unique talents and gifts for a distinct purpose that will ultimately benefit others.

Dr. Munroe wisely used the metaphor of a mango tree to explain this principle. He said,

“A mango seed is a mango tree.”

This might seem confusing at first. After all, a seed is a seed and a tree is a tree. But what he was trying to convey to his students was the idea that every mango seed was created to become a mango tree. Even more, he wanted them to understand that there is a mango tree trapped inside of every mango seed. Although we cannot see it initially, every mango seed has the capacity to grow into the shape it was ultimately destined to embody – the mango tree.

However, becoming a mango tree is not the true purpose of the mango seed. In fact, becoming a mango tree is merely the process that a mango seed must endure before it arrives at true leadership.

The fundamental purpose of the mango seed is to bear fruit – the sweet mangos that we all crave on hot summer afternoons. See, the fruit encapsulates the deeper purpose of the mango tree. Those are the gifts that the tree shares with the world. This is the reason for the existence of the mango seed and the reason why we value its unique nature.

The mango seed’s value does not lie in the fact that it becomes a tree.CLICK TO TWEET

Rather, the value of the seed lies in its ability to undergo a difficult process, become a proud tree, and ultimately bear sweet fruit, which is made available to human kind as a gift. Thus, in producing fruit and offering it to the world, the mango tree is both operating in its purpose and demonstrating the essence of true leadership.

Likewise, people are similar to mango trees.

The problem is that many people do not recognize who they are on the inside. That is why, as Dr. Munroe suggested, so many leaders are trapped inside of the shell of a follower. We are all uniquely created and designed to bear “fruit” to the world. These unique gifts and talents that we share with others for their benefit encapsulate the reason for our existence on this Earth, or our deeper purpose. And when we utilize our gifts to benefit those around us, we embody the essence of true leadership.

So, right from the start, leadership has nothing to do with following or followers.

It’s all about going through a process and sharing a gift with others. This is why a true leader is always unique, not a carbon copy of someone else. Much like the mango tree, we are all different and unique, from the way we stand on our feet to the way we talk with our mouths.

When you try to imitate and follow others, you lose your unique value.CLICK TO TWEET

True leaders simply don’t have the time to search for followers, because they are too busy bearing “fruit” to share with others.

So why then do we focus so much on finding followers to prove our leadership?

2. You have been trained to be a follower by a culture of oppression

If Dr. Munroe is correct, and we are indeed all born to be leaders (even those of us who have trapped our leadership inside of the oppressive shell of a follower), then who will become our followers?

The answer?

There are no true followers. Only leaders in disguise.CLICK TO TWEET

This is odd.

But Dr. Munroe explained that this question – Who will follow me? – is a clear indication that we have been influenced by a culture of oppression. A culture that divides individuals into leaders and followers, managers and subordinates, masters and slaves. This very culture leads many to avoid responsibility for changing their environment because they embrace the passive mindset of the blind follower. It allows people to believe that perhaps they were simply not born with the “right stuff” to make a real difference.

Where did this culture come from?

Dr. Monroe suggested that our society has been heavily influenced by Grecian ideology. The Greeks were known for being intellectuals and for exalting reason above faith. And according to Dr. Monroe’s research, the Greeks were a people that believed that leadership was a product of natural endowment. Simply put, if you were born with certain “negative” characteristics, you were destined to be a slave. Even if you attained skills or a noteworthy education, if you were born to be a slave based upon your characteristics, you could never aspire to become anything more than a talented and educated slave.

Conversely, if you were born with certain “positive” characteristics (which Dr. Munroe notes were often physical in nature, such as having a certain skin completion . . . ), then it was believed that the “gods” had selected you to be a leader.

See, the Greeks believed that leadership was a product of providence, displayed by having a “charismatic” personality. Things like having a “colorful” personality, being adept at public speaking and being described as an extrovert were all tell-tale signs of charisma. Interestingly, the word charisma is derived from the Greek word kharis, which means “a divinely conferred power or talent.” In others words, the “gods” chose specific individuals to become leaders, and those not chosen by the gods were destined to remain followers, or frequently, slaves.

Even putting on a suit would not change a Greek’s impression of an individual deemed to be a follower. You would merely be  a well-dressed slave.

Sound familiar?

This “slave” mentality still permeates the fabric of many prevailing leadership ideologies today.

We often believe that some people were simply born to become great leaders, while others were born solely to help or remain on the sidelines. We often look at great orators or talkative youths and say, “Wow. That girl is surely called to leadership.” Our notion of what leadership looks like is skewed by history, because we have been taught to focus on the wrong characteristics.

But what if we have been taught to think about leadership in the wrong way?

What if leadership is not about finding followers, but really about serving others with your gifts?CLICK TO TWEET

Those seeking to learn and grow as leaders must be mindful of the ideologies they embrace. As Jesus said in Luke 6:39 –

“Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit?

If we adopt the leadership philosophy of a misguided and outdated culture, and if we believe that we are simply not cut out to be a true leader, we will surely head down the wrong path and our unique talents will follow us to the grave. Our fruit will be left to rot on the tree and no one will ever taste the gifts we have inside.

Yes, there is value in following the example of others. You need mentors and teachers. But choose your personal leaders based upon your destiny, not by how many followers he or she has. We learn by following those who have already arrived at the placed we would like to go, not by following those who can “move the crowd.”

Even more, never forget that you are a leader too. It’s already inside of you. And you don’t need a huge following to prove it. You simply have to go through a process and grow before you finally bear your fruit.

Read more; http://ht.ly/IM5zW