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Key Leadership Qualities

By Blogpost, challenges, Entrepreneurship, excellence, Goals, inspirations, Leadership, management, mindset, Success

A leader’s job is mostly about managing people, and a good business owner should also be a good leader. He or she should be able to effectively connect with his or her employees and be able to lead them down the correct path to achieve the company’s goals. The business owner might have great ideas and the passion to succeed but if the team or the staff are not willing to follow then the business won’t go far. As mentioned in my previous article, your top sales guy might not be a good leader. This also applies to business owners.

Running a company does not only mean implementing brilliant ideas and having the passion to run it. Managing people is also an integral part in running a company. Your staff is what keeps your business running on a daily basis. As the business owner, your staff looks up to you for guidance. Weak leadership can lead a company to ruin while a strong one leads to success. Just like implementing a leadership development plan for an employee, as a leader yourself, you can look to working on your own leadership skills to be able to properly connect with your team and efficiently run your business.

Communication

A leader should foster open communication with the team. Your staff or employees are the front liners of your business and they see things that are not seen by the upper management. You need that valuable information to be able to properly plan things out for your business. Allow your staff to speak out to gain insight at the base level. When communicating with the team, be as honest and clear as possible. This will help you gain their trust and confidence which in turn would also encourage them to be just as honest and clear with you. The key here is that excellent communication allows you to gain valuable information from the front line.

Live What You Preach

One great way of connecting with your team is to have strong ethics and living by them. This is all about earning your team’s respect. You can talk all day about doing the right things – but you need to walk the talk, and your subordinates will follow your example. Once you have their respect, they will stand by your every business decision. The less second guessing on every decision, the better chances of positive results.

Ask For Advice

It does not matter how well you know the industry, change is constant in business. Set your ego aside. You do not know everything. Ask for advice if you are not sure of something. Great leaders are always willing to learn new things and the easiest way to learn is to learn to ask questions.

Negative Team Culture To Watch Out For

By Blogpost, challenges, Food for thought, Goals, inspirations, Leadership, management, opportunities

A winning team culture can easily give your company that extra advantage over the competition. The team or corporate culture is one of the foundations of a strong business. This can greatly contribute on how fast you can achieve your goals or better yet, be a factor in your company’s longevity.

Take a look at today’s most successful and long running companies and examine their respective corporate cultures. You can probably see how similar their corporate team culture is to their brand image and the quality of their products. The corporate culture in one way or another reflects what the company’s image is.

A winning team culture is achievable by any organisation but does not come easy. A team culture is developed over time. It takes time, discipline and good leadership. A leader’s job is to encourage positive values and prevent negative ones. There are negative values that need to be stamped out before they can become deeply ingrained in your team.

Poor Communication

This is the easiest one to detect and is easily one of the most toxic. Poor communication goes against the very concept of a team. Communication between team members is essential if they are expected to work with each other to achieve their common goals. Poor communication stifles creativity and hinders great ideas from being implemented. This can also turn off high-performing members – causing them to quit and look for another company to work for. Give the team members the freedom to speak their minds. Encourage open communication but do not force. Just like any value you want to instill in the team culture, it takes time.

Micromanaging

Managing your team is indeed your job as the leader but do not overdo it. You hired these people because you are confident that they can do their jobs. This is what the hiring and the interview process is for. The fact that they are already employed means that you have already decided that they are the right people for the job at hand. Micromanaging can put your staff under unnecessary pressure and can stress yourself out. Whether it’s you or a person of managing position in your company, avoid micromanaging. Trust the team. Guide them but give them enough freedom to do what they do best.

Too Profit Focused

Ensuring that your company makes a profit is important but should not be the be-all and end-all. This can lead to aiming for short term results and focusing more on the bottom line. A profit focused culture can lead to poor employee engagement. Just like having a culture of poor communication, this can lead to individuals, possible high-performing individuals, leaving for another company. Strike for a good balance between profit and employee engagement. Remember, without employees, you cannot run a business.

Building a Winning Team Culture

By Attitude, Blogpost, inspirations, Leadership, management, mindset

Each organisation or company is different from each other. They may engage in the same line of business but they differ in the way they operate the business. Another thing that would be different is the culture. To be more specific, their team culture. Team culture is the sum of the beliefs, values and attitudes shared by the team members. It is how the team members cooperate and work with one other in reaching a common goal. Teams within a company may have different team cultures but are generally influenced by the company’s culture as a whole. Building a winning team culture contributes greatly to the success of the company.

Your company’s team culture can make or break your company. According to most companies, a large percentage believes that a company lacking a good team culture is unlikely to succeed. It does make sense since a good or a winning team culture revolves around the team members efficiently working with each other. To put it simply, excellent teamwork leads to success.

Culture based on your core values

You are the leader. This is your business. You are in the driver’s seat. You need to infuse a bit of your personality, attitude and core values in your team culture. Do you expect the best but still encourage a relaxed atmosphere? Create a culture of balance between work and play. Do you value customer service above everything else? Work with people who have great personality and are accommodating. Is innovation your thing? Nurture and promote innovators within your company. Take the time to think about what type of culture that will fit you, your company and your brand.

Communication

Communication has always been one of the most important aspects in our personal lives. This is no different in business. When developing a team culture, talk with your team. We all want to be heard. People want to be able to voice out their concerns without fear of repercussions. People want to be able to share their ideas. An open communication culture can build trust between the company and its employees.

Just have fun

We all know that saying about all work and no play. This is especially true in the competitive business and corporate world. A burnt out team member is no good to the team. Building a winning team culture includes ensuring that members of the team are happy with their job. A happy team member is more productive and tends to be more engaging to fellow team members. Come up with fun activities or events from time to time. Foster the idea that you take both work and fun seriously.

Let them know that you expect the best, and in turn you are also giving your best to the team.

Lessons for the Week: Finding Your Genius

By Blogpost, excellence, Goals, inspirations, mindset, purpose

In our team, we go through a cool little sequence. We also did a conference recently to review the year by going through reviewing the four (4) debriefing questions:

  • What’s worked?
  • What hasn’t worked?
  • What’s been some of the lessons?
  • And what do we need to be doing differently?

And when we can look at the week like that, we can sort of stop and reflect how the week has been and what do we need to be doing differently next week.

We had a great week here in the Tribe. We’ve had some huge lessons along the way, and this week we’re starting out strong. This is where I want to segway into becoming the rippling effect.

The Rippling Effect of Finding your Genius

Sometimes, we can be out there and in the trenches and going, and going, and going. We don’t realize the impact that we’re having or the effect that we’re having out there in the bigger world.

Sometimes we are feeling that, you know, we’re slogging away. We’ve got our goals we are working towards but isn’t really happening.

And I talked a lot about your genius, and I talk about a lot around finding that genius.

Finding what really lights you up. Finding those elements in your work, in your business, in your life – that you know, when you pursue it, when you’re actually in it, it’s easy.

It’s a breeze. It flows. Lights you up. Makes you feel good. You feel passion. You feel energized when you’re doing it.

And I think, when you find your genius, the rippling effect that it has out there in the wider world is huge. Because we’re all energy right!? It’s an energy thing out there in the world.

When you find your genius – that sends a vibration out there in the world.

I want to share with you a little story, we’ve had some great wins within the business for us over this last week. But one of the biggest wins was getting home one night and receiving a message from a young man whom I’ve known for 12 or 13 years.

And just the impact on these videos, you know, the Monday Magic Moments and the Finish it Fridays are having in his world and in his life.

To watch this boy develop into this young man, and to receive this message on the impact that these videos and these messages, and the learning and the lessons has had on him – really, struck a cord in the heart, as you can see.

It really goes to show that you don’t know who is watching. You don’t know what the impact that you’re truly having in the world when you are in your genius. You don’t realize the impact that you have on others. Both good and bad, right!?

Stay True to Your Genius

So, my message today is, stay true to your genius. Find your genius and stay true to your genius, and watch the rippling effect. Because you touch many lives out there.

And the more lives that you can touch, the bigger impact that you’ll have for yourself personally. And more importantly for those out there, and the community as a whole.

Opportunities Are Everywhere

By Blogpost, Food for thought, inspirations, opportunities

Hey guys! Hope you are well. So, what’s been some of your wins? What’s been some of your lessons over this last week? Today I just realized something very important – opportunities are everywhere.

I am on my way back from a client meeting, heading back to the office and I thought I’d share my experience with you. When you start off your day you’ll never know who you meet. You’ll never know who you come across.

Recognize and Acknowledge Good Opportunities

I’ll give you a little example. On the way to a client meeting in the city, I called an Uber and I started chatting away – chatting away, lovely guy. And he started saying, “what do you do? Who do you help?”

We were about, you know, all the different things that I’ve been doing and who I’m helping – and guys, you know what? I think he’s someone I might need.

I said, “Okay, so tell me a bit about you.” And the next thing he’s telling me this whole story of coming from India and so forth. And he’s a structural engineer but he’s got a company set up, and he’s got all these other business partners.

The next minute, we had this amazing conversation, and he goes – “look me up on LinkedIn. Let’s continue the conversation.”

And I thought to myself as I got out the Uber, it’s just, you’ll never know. You’ll never know who comes across your path. You will never know who you gonna meet. You’ll never know what the next step is.

We Should Learn to Recognize the Opportunities

Yes, we can do the planning. Yes, we can do our goals but when we actually stop and we actually be present – and be present with ourselves and be present with other people, opportunities come up.

And so, those opportunities are everywhere. You just have to know when to recognize the opportunities for what they are.

Most of the time they come unexpectedly. They can be circumstances that you did not expect, or people that you did not expect to meet – like that Uber driver.

You just have to be present, and conscious enough to know when you come across these opportunities, so you can use them to your advantage. Even situations that are less than ideal can be turned into an opportunity.

So, I’d love to hear – what’s some of those little stories you may have had over the past couple of years. And, what’s been some of your wins and lessons throughout this week?

So, there we go! You’ll never know who you gonna run into.

The Value of Teamwork

By Blogpost, excellence, Goals, inspirations, management, opportunities, Success

How has your 2018 been? And what has been some of your wins and some of your lessons throughout the first week of the 2019? I’d love to hear from you. What have been some of your wins? What have been some of your lessons?

This is a great opportunity as we welcome another year – having a review of the week, the month, the quarter, the year of what’s been some of your wins and some of your lessons.

I was in the Philippines last December where I spent four, five days with the whole team over there, just to really start to map out the year. It was an honor and a privilege. I also took my daughter and introduced her to the team. And I think, I found my succession plan.

She had the opportunity to present in front of our team and really embracing it. Also, the shopping – she loves the shopping over there. Oh my goodness! Next level.

But it was a good opportunity to spend some quality time with her, just a daddy-daughter time. And really honored – it’s a privileged to have that opportunity.

The Power of Team

One of the things, and biggest lessons that we learned was the power of team – and power of enrolling the team.

We arrived – the team have already started their strategy session on a Saturday, we arrived Saturday night. And we got into the team meeting on a Sunday. And I walked into the room and they said, “Just to let you know, we’ve already mapped out the next six months for you.”

I was like, “Alright!? Cool.” And what the most amazing thing was, when we reviewed what they had gone through the day before – I had done some previous planning up until, for this time together. It was exactly the same as I had mapped out – they didn’t know this that I had mapped out previously on what they had mapped out the day before.

And so, that was the biggest lesson for me is – Wow! We’ve got an amazing team. So aligned and so on the same page where they’ve been working on the sideline and I’ve been, you know, getting some planning down – coming together and we’re all on the same page.

Once again huge win and huge lesson. So, what are some of your wins? What are some of your lessons?

Hopefully you got to take some time out over the holidays and just had fun, spent quality time with love ones, spent some time with friends and family – and reflected on 2018. And now, start thinking about what 2019 looks like.

So, there we go! Let’s all make 2019 bigger, better and brighter.

Motivation is NOT Enough

By Goals, Attitude, Blogpost, Food for thought, inspirations, mindset

It’s another opportunity to start our week right.

Nice and wet outside, but hey, it doesn’t hold you back from achieving what you want to achieve for the week.

So, we have the opportunity to really start the week fresh. Start the week with some excitement. Start the week with some clarity, direction and some focus.

Motivation is NOT Enough

So I often I hear – “Yeah, I just want to be motivated. I just want to get more motivation. I just want have someone motivate me.”

All well and good! You know you can watch the videos, you can listen to the music, you can listen to the personal development stuff – but that’s going to give you a quick fix.

Those things can only give you a little electric shock. That’s going to give you the little thing that’s gonna jump start you. But that’s not enough to keep you going.

Coming up tomorrow, we have what we call out GoalsTribe Intensive which will bring all our clients together for two days to work on themselves and also on their business. To really get re-focus, re-strategize and really get clarity of where the next quarter needs to be.

What comes after Motivation?

What happens is that the motivation where they get really excited to come to this event is fantastic – they leave really pumped. But what happens next is so crucial, and there are two components in relations to utilizing that motivation and how do you actually make it everlasting. And there are two key components.

One is obviously having really clear goals that you actually working towards. That will enable you to maintain your motivation.

What are your goals? Are they specific? Are they measurable? Are they attainable? Are they relevant? Are they time orientated?

We know the SMART principle! That’s one component.

And the other component is, are they compelling enough? – “What is your why?”

When we have the clear, concise goals and we have the why – that is going to maintain the motivation. That’s going to maintain our drive. That’s going to maintain us moving forward to actually achieving what we want to achieve.

That’s why motivation is not enough, but having clear, concise goals and having your why – enables you to really instill that motivation day in and day out.

There we go! Love to hear what your goals are maybe? Or what is your why?

Love to hear! Comment below and looking forward to speaking to you soon.

Believe What You Want to See

By Blogpost, inspirations, mindset

Visualisation is one of the most powerful tools in goal setting and achieving.

If you can see the goal, see the prize, in your mind’s eye then you’ll be much more likely to achieve it.

As A.L. Linall, Jr. said, “Visualization and belief in a pattern of reality, activates the creative power of realization.”

If you believe you can’t visualise, let me challenge that.

You worry.

Whenever you worry, you are visualising a terrible outcome. You are imagining something that might happen, something that isn’t real.

So… there is no reason you can’t perform a mind shift and start visualising what can go wrong.

It takes time to perfect the art of positive visualisation. It takes time to get to the point where you believe what you see, and where your mind can’t tell the difference between the visualisation and reality (and your mind is no longer arguing that the visualisation and reality don’t match). For example, if you’re struggling financially, you probably worry like hell about how you’re going to make it through the month on what little money you have. You look at your bank statement and sure enough, it’s down to the bare bones. Heavy dose of reality!

And then you’re up all night worrying because of that reality.

But… you can de-stress and focus on what you want to go right. This isn’t some silly imagination game that kids play. It’s a creative force!

Visualise your ideal outcome, regardless of where you’re starting right now. See what you want to see. In the above example, instead of seeing yourself being evicted from your home and having your car repossessed, visualise yourself doing something you are good at and something you love to do, and being handsomely compensated for it. Visualise those numbers in your bank account going up and up and up.

Do this again and again, over and over, persistently (for at least 30-90 days) until that image becomes as normal to you as the terrible images that come from your worried imagination.

What’s really stunning about this is that when this visualisation imprints in your subconscious mind, you will naturally and effortlessly start seeing ways to make it happen!

Your brain will be primed for action. It will recognise your visualisation as a command because it likes to match your physical reality to what’s in your imagination.

You’ve heard the phrases, “What you think about, comes about,” or “Ask, and ye shall receive.” Your mental image is the command, the asking – and then your brain sets to work making it happen! You’ll notice people, situations, resources and opportunities come up out of nowhere. And if you unhesitatingly take action on these things that come into your awareness, you will very quickly transform your situation and your visualisation will become your reality.

Or, you can keep worrying and let that become your reality.

You choose.

Inspired by a blog post on http://kid-goal-setting.blogspot.com/

Accelerate Your Long-Term Goals

By Blogpost, inspirations

If you’re going to reach your business goals, you have to be structured and organised. We all know this – that a little planning and sticking to the plan will get you where you want to be.

But… what if you could reach some of your long-term goals faster than you predict? It is possible, if you change how you do certain things.

Here’s how many of us work our goals: inspiration hits, and we work like madmen (or madwomen) until a) we finish the project or b) abandon it because it’s too hard, it has become too boring, or something else captures our attention. This is a recipe for repeated failure! Here’s how to do it right and actually get things done, fast:

1. Use your imagination to work backwards. This helps you visualise what needs to happen. It helps you create a workable, sustainable plan of action, breaking it down from the big goal to intermediate goals, to daily actions.

2. Do a little every day. Let’s say your business would get a huge boost if you wrote a book. Does your timeline say, “complete book by year’s end”? Well, that’s lovely, but are you scheduling time EVERY DAY to write? Don’t wait around for inspiration! Don’t wait around for extra time! Nothing is going to happen unless you make it happen! Inspiration comes easily when you roll up your sleeves and get to work. Extra time magically appears when you work on your goal every single day. And… discipline yourself. Do your most important tasks when you are mentally and physically fresh. You’ll blast through whatever needs doing with enthusiasm and energy. This good feeling will stay with you all day, making it easy to create a habit of daily action (the good feeling, as well as seeing major progress, is your daily reward for making yourself do it!).

3. Make it public. The more people you tell about your goal, the more real it will become in your head. And you never know – you might casually mention your goal to someone and they might have the answer to a question that’s been holding you back!

4. Make it simple. Don’t chase too many rabbits. Narrow your focus to a few key goals.

5. Track it. Keep a daily log (or journal or diary) of what you’ve done that day for each goal. This will help motivate you as well as point out the precise moment (decision) you may have made a mistake.

6. The secret ingredient? Be present. Be here, now. Give everything you do (not just your projects and goals) 100% attention. You’ll get everything done faster and better because of your full concentration.

You can do more than you think you can, if you set your mind to it!

Inspired by a post on http://lifedev.net/

How Your Story Creates (or Un-Creates) Your Goal

By Attitude, Blogpost, inspirations


What sort of stories are you telling about your goals? Are your stories full of enthusiasm, belief and action, or are they full of excuses and ‘becauses’? You may now know how important it is to tell the right story. The truth is, your Word is more powerful than you think. Have you noticed that the happiest people tell the most positive stories and the most miserable people tell stories of suffering and woe?

The thing is, it’s not the circumstances that create the story, it’s the story that creates the circumstances!

Your internal narrative and the way you talk to other people is a critical component of success. Your Word has energy behind it. If you say things like, “I’m sick and tired of… then you will actually become sick, and tired! If you say things like, “I love the challenge of…!” then you will approach the day with enthusiasm and drive. How does this work?

Try this little experiment, right now. Take a few minutes with no interruptions. Sit quietly and relax. Your first task is to say, “Nothing good ever happens to me.” Say it to yourself several times, and feel the physical reaction in your body. No matter what your mood was when you started, guaranteed, you are feeling blue now! We humans are emotional creatures. Our moods dictate our actions (otherwise it wouldn’t be so hard to stick to a diet). By creating a negative mood, you subconsciously sabotage your goals because now you just don’t feel like doing anything – because no matter what you do, “nothing good ever happens to me.”

The next step is to completely change the scenario. Paste a BIG smile on your face. I mean the biggest, cheesiest, silliest smile you can manage. It is physiologically impossible to smile and feel angry or sad! You can’t hold on to that negativity! Then, say to yourself, “Everything is coming together for me.” And feel the energy in your body change. Do you feel like taking action on your goals now? Sure you do! It feels good, and right, and the positive energy has totally transformed your ability to achieve!

Listen to yourself and see what sort of story you’re telling – do this any time you’re feel frustrated or stuck and you’ll notice that you’re telling yourself a story of drama, suffering, failure and all sorts of negativity.

Throw that story as far as you can and re-write it! We are hard-wired to tell stories. Our minds constantly attempt to explain what is going on around us – and that’s the key element right there – it’s the mind’s interpretation of an event that writes the story!

And YOU control your mind – when you are aware of what’s going on you can imprint the right thoughts in your mind, and then you can’t help but succeed!

Facts in and of themselves are just facts. Just raw data. It’s the story we create around them that dictates our experience! Think about that. If you took two people and put them in the same situation, their stories would be completely different.

Each story we tell is a complex tale that mixes our beliefs with current events, past events and emotions, and this goulash is what we tell ourselves and others. The thing is, much of the time these stories are created unconsciously and out of habit. And you can change your story, any time you want. You can go from:

  • Nothing ever works out
  • There’s too much competition, how will I stand out?
  • I wish I had time to do stuff I love
  • I would take care of myself better if I didn’t have so much work!
  • I’m not smart enough…
  • I’m not good enough…
  • It takes money to make money
  • Money is hard to come by

To:

  • Everything works out perfectly – even if it’s not how I anticipated, I receive valuable lessons from this situation.
  • For every talent and gift, there is an audience.
  • I do what I love, because I choose to focus on what is important to me
  • I make the time to take excellent care of myself
  • I’m smart and I’m always looking for new knowledge and skills
  • I’m capable and resourceful, and I’m always finding creative ways to accomplish things
  • I’m resourceful and aware and I constantly notice opportunities to make money
  • The less I worry about money, the easier it comes to me!

 

Listen to yourself next time you’re thinking or talking about your goals, and get in the habit of listening to yourself when you talk to other people. You may be shocked at how negative your Word is. These faulty stories are mostly based on fear, and if you change your stories to positive stories with a “can do” attitude, things will turn around for you very quickly!

 

Inspired by a blog by Dr. Maynard Brusman.