Tim Herd

From way out here on the precarious end of this sagging limb, I’m going to declare that there’s never been a successful venture that has not included an element of risk. And furthermore, from this quivering, cracking twig, I tell you that in most cases, that risk has not only been beneficial, but instrumental to the triumph!

We live in a world endemic with hazards, perils, dangers and insecurities. Not only is that the way it comes naturally, but it’s also the way we have crafted it culturally, despite all our attempts to the contrary. And although we aim to eliminate as many liabilities as possible, we will never attain a risk-free existence.

Given that reality, therefore, means that people who are successful devise a way to recognize the risks associated in any endeavor, minimize what they can, and capitalize on what’s left. The young couple who chooses to raise a child, the entrepreneur who invests in a new concept, the blogger who bares his soul to the world, the politician who runs for office, the adventurer who dives with sharks, the failure who tries again: all know the risks yet still strive for success.

Successfully managing risk is to take purposeful action in spite of fear, discomfort, history or hardship to exercise your faith in the worth of the end result. How? Here are three intentional actions to not just practice but profit from the risk in your life:

Manage fear. The most paralyzing response to risk is fear. And there’s certainly no shortage of them: fear of harm, loss, rejection, embarrassment, failure, the unknown, or what-have-you! Yet most fear thrives on unsubstantiated feelings rather than facts, and concerns things that never materialize. A study by the University of Michigan frames our fears in proper perspective:

• 60 percent are completely unwarranted because what we fear never even happens.
• 20 percent are based in the past and are therefore out of our control.
• 10 percent are so trivial that they make no difference at all.
• 5-6 percent are justifiable but can be resolved by action.

The fear-less bottom line: a full 95 percent of our usual fears are a waste of time, energy and distress!

Choose resilience. Remember those wobbly moments, crashes and spills when you first learned to ride a bike? My daughter’s first solo ride crashed memorably into the bushes and inserted an embarrassing and uncomfortable twig up her nose. But she got back on the bike. A friend of mine, a professional mountain biker who knows intimately what wipe-outs can be like proclaims, “Fall down seven, get up eight!” Resiliency is the ability to cope with disappointment and setbacks. Avoid viewing problems as unbearable. Decide to try again, applying the most recent lessons learned from your encounters. Resiliency builds strength to overcome the risks to reach the reward.

Speak and act in faith. If you do not have faith in the legitimacy and value of your dream, who will? If your reach is to be extended, and your goal is to be attained, who will be its champion? If followers are to be enlisted and led to victory, who will motivate them? The obvious answer is you! You must choose to speak and act in faith, seeing and believing the end result with more certainty than its ill-defined route. Your faith will then become contagious, infecting first yourself, then your associates, and ultimately your entire domain.

MasterPoint: Rise to the risks to reach the rewards.

I was recently interviewed on advice for new graduates. Here’s how I answered. What other advice would you offer?

1. What do you wish you had known back then and now do know?

When I graduated from college, I still didn’t know myself fully. I thought I did, of course. But there were still many particular discoveries to come about my own personality traits, temperaments and inherent gifts and talents. Like many at that age and stage of life, I needed to realize that although I now possessed an education, there was so much more I didn’t know.

Being teachable helped me build an innovative business that supported my family for nearly 20 years. But in the process I became isolated from others within my own profession, as I became too busy to both contribute and associate on a regular basis. Only after I sold the business and reinvigorated my career in parallel track, did I discover how much I had been missing of the tremendous  benefits, both personally and professionally, in developing and sustaining  interactive, meaningful relationships with my peers and community. Being independent is a good thing, I’ve realized, but not to exclusion of ongoing engagement with others who, by the way, have even more to teach me! …Continue Reading

“Influence is getting people to do what you want them to do. It is the means or method to achieve two ends: operating and improving.

But there is more to influencing than simply passing along orders. The example you set is just as important as the words you speak. And you set an example—good or bad—with every action you take and word you utter, on or off duty.

Through your words and example, you must communicate purpose, direction, and motivation.” — The United States Army

What are you wanting?

How are you operating?

What are you improving?

How are you speaking?

What is your example?

How are you acting?

What are you communicating?

Who are you influencing?

Examine your intent

To set your example

To exert your influence

To determine your results.

During one of the seemingly annual debilitating October snowstorms in my area, a branch fell across the power lines outside my house and caught on fire.  As we gazed, the blaze soon fired the wire itself, then ran with it all the way to the transformer at the edge of our property. An immediate and mighty flash lit up the entire Eastern Hemisphere (remember that!?), then we and many others were promptly plunged powerless into the cold dark night, where there was weeping and gnashing of teeth…

Fortunately, we have a fireplace in the living room. So we purposely employed some of that downed branch’s relatives and invited the fire inside.

There, the small heap of formerly dry, inert logs, now ablaze with colorful, dancing flame, sustained us with light and heat. As the cordwood released its sizzling potential, occasionally spit-firing cascades of tiny shooting stars skyward, we watched, warmly mesmerized, as it altered our plight and prospects.

That’s the thing about fire and other catalysts of change. Their very appearance sparks significant transformations in themselves, their surroundings and ultimate destinies. …Continue Reading

Just because you’ve missed the brass ring on the carousel doesn’t mean the ride’s over.

During the heyday of musical carousels, an extra attraction enticed riders to grab a ring from a dispenser as the whirled turned. Players hoped to match their dexterity with the timing of the carousel’s rotation and the up-and-down canter of their wooden horse to snag a ring as they sailed by. Most rings were iron, but one or two per ride were made of brass and redeemable for a free ride. Striving for the highest prize by catching the brass ring meant living life to its fullest.

At one point in my life, I kept a list of all the things I had tried and failed. And anytime I toted that nasty thing into view, usually to add to it, it was good for another self-confirming round of Just My Hard Luck.

Yet despite that formidable list, those failures failed to define me. Because I knew my trying time of trying had not yet run out.

…Continue Reading

Of all the people with whom you interact every day, there’s just one who both starts and ends your day with you: that familiar, good-looking one in the mirror!

As a leader, that’s the one who spends a major part of each day helping to create the future by casting the vision, developing buy-in and partnerships, investing in relationships, and influencing decision makers. What you do makes a difference in people’s lives.

The crucial aspect of your success is your ability to engage in meaningful communication with those you direct. And because you’ve earned their trust, they willingly accede and remain accountable to your leadership, and together you are able to accomplish much. It’s a great relationship.

But does that accountability extend to that one in the mirror?

It’s easy to hold others responsible; after all, it’s part of your job description. But the sharp leader recognizes that to remain sharp, accountability starts and ends with the first person singular.

In the interest of devoted self-development, I herewith agree and execute the following:

Self-Accountability Agreement

Whereas:

I am responsible for my own actions, choices and behaviors. I alone am accountable for how I live my life, carry out my duties, and attain my personal and professional goals. …Continue Reading

4 Principles to Self-Satisfaction

Self-esteem, self-worth and self-satisfaction, despite how they sound, are never found in self.

True soul satisfaction at home, work, play—and in all of life—does not come from within.

Instead, our inner contentment is constructed from genuine interest and engagement with four prime pathways to self-realization and fulfillment.

Come, get intimately acquainted with these precious principles and discover how, through an outward direction, your inward satisfaction soars:

People. By focusing on the value of other people and meeting their needs, both their worth and your own is enhanced.

Position. Seek the significance in your surroundings, both literally and figuratively—and whether …Continue Reading

In Bruce Wilkinson’s wonderfully empowering book The Dream Giver, he spins an allegory about a guy named Ordinary who leaves his comfort zone to pursue his dreams. The further he travels away from the familiar, the more unsettled he becomes, and the more he is oppressed by those opposed to his audacity to dream. He encounters Border Bullies, who try to prevent him from crossing into unfamiliar territory. His tenacity is tested in the Wasteland. And just when the fulfillment of his dream is in sight, he meets Giants, whose self-appointed purpose is to take him down and deny his dream.

If you’ve ever pursued a big dream, you know the tale is true. Some of the obstacles that prevent us from realizing our goals are gigantic. But as leaders, if we are to persist and win, we must find ways to effectively neutralize those Giants, one way or another: …Continue Reading

The LIVESTRONG role model has recently come clean, so to speak. Cyclist Lance Armstrong confessed to doping in his seven wins of the Tour de France, yet never considered himself a cheater.

Despite unparalleled athletic triumphs and other worthy achievements, the disgraced cyclist admitted the great lie he sustained for years. “I know the truth, Armstrong said. “The truth isn’t what was out there. The truth isn’t what I said. I’m a flawed character, as I well know.”

Aren’t we all.

Yet character is what matters. Just ask any of Armstrong’s millions of disillusioned fans. Or the people who care about you the most.

Character is core. It is who I am on the inside. Even if no one is looking. Even if I ignore, deny, or try to disguise it.

Character is choice. I am who I choose to be—whether champion or chump. I determine my core by my choices of actions, inactions and reactions.

Character is change. A closed mind degrades the body and rots the soul. Self-improvement can correct flaws, redeem past mistakes, and create a better current and future me.

Character is capacity. Shallowness drowns in its own troubles, but wisdom brings maturity, depth and the ability to thrive despite circumstances.

Character is.

(but I can be persuaded)

January 5, 2013

Leadership, by definition, prohibits the use of coercive power.

Think of a time in your adult life when someone forced you to do something despite your better judgment or convictions. How did that affect your relationship with that person or your inclination to act as that person subsequently directed?

Chances are, not positively.

True leadership—the kind that derives not from position or title, but through mastering the art of positively influencing people—is the only way to mutually elevate and empower lives, institutions and ideals.

…Continue Reading