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!

2. What other advice do you have to offer the newly minted college graduates?

It’s rare that a recent grad lands the dream job in the corner office with the company car and stock options. But while you are not where you want to be, and it is not comfortable where you are, do not expect things to just fall from the clear blue into your waiting lap. That “Standard Rich and Famous Contract” just for showing up? It only happens in movies and fairytales. Instead, look for productive things to do. Volunteer for more duties. Develop new ideas. Keep busy. Be persistent and consistent. Seek out what’s next. Partner with others in team dreams for mutual goals.

Such are the things that lead to others that help you get where you want to go. Determine organizational needs and seek to fill them. Do what you can. Then do more than what you can by enlisting the synergy of others. You’ll be surprised how well you’ll thrive.

Look for ways to maximize your value while adding value to others and your organization. Develop that website, podcast, book, feature, or publicity campaign. Research. Experiment. Volunteer to help with a colleague’s/boss’s/ professor’s project. Write. Design. Partner. Scheme.  Learn. The strides of progress may be incremental at first, and barely noticeable—but taken together help fulfill your dream.

3. What one thing should I buy with my graduation money that will make a difference?

“Things” are never fully satisfying. After you’ve got your basic needs met, the stuff you surround yourself with is always temporary—as it inevitably wears out, breaks down and becomes obsolete. Many “things” are merely purchases that do not and cannot make any ultimate difference in your life. So choose wisely about such things.

If you want to make a difference in other people’s lives, your workplace, or even the world, however, begin by investing the resources you now have in yourself, to improve your mind, body, spirit and relationships. Join a professional organization and network with your more advanced colleagues. Subscribe to a specialized journal and devour its peer-reviewed contents. Take continuing education classes for personal and professional enlightenment. Attend seminars and workshops to become proficient in a new skill or hone an existing talent. The resultant transformation in developing your own potential, expanding your own possibilities, and enabling your own difference-making future is the shrewdest of all investments.

“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.

]]> http://www.timherd.com/2013/04/20/leadership-influence-associates-incorporated/feed/ 0 http://www.timherd.com/2013/04/04/blazing-brilliantly-for-the-best/ http://www.timherd.com/2013/04/04/blazing-brilliantly-for-the-best/#comments Thu, 04 Apr 2013 23:22:00 +0000 Tim http://www.timherd.com/?p=1669 April 5, 2013

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.

Be they good or bad.

Like you!

As a leader, your cache of human resource capital can be burnished to pure gold, or burned to worthless ash, solely by the quality of your stewardship.

Like the damaging wildfire, poor leaders consume good will and intentions, destroying trust, morale and potential to realize an overall loss. Or, like the intentional fire harnessed in the hearth, skillful leaders transform willing workers to reap purposeful results together they could not on their own.

Remember the “fire triangle” you learned about in elementary science class? The three basic ingredients of fire are fuel, oxygen and heat. Turns out there’s another critical component: To sustain a fire, a fourth element, combustion, creates a chemical reaction that releases more heat and allows the fire to continue.

That’s where you come in! To your team’s innate talents, skills and resources, you can add that combustive spark to motivate and sustain your work, collaboratively enabling power in each other and your spheres of influence.

By combining just four shimmering elements in an intentional blaze of brilliance, here’s how you can overcome inertia, draw supporters, fan passion and burn obstacles to advance your goals and transform outcomes:

1. Individual. The transformational leader is individually relational by demonstrating genuine concern with each teammate’s worth, wants and well-being. Being respectful, openly transparent and communicative, the leader celebrates each one’s intrinsic value and establishes a trustful, two-way relationship. Start with the vibrant fuel of individuals.

2. Intellectual. The transformational leader welcomes and rewards fresh ideas and a diversity of thought. Free thinking and active learning encourages ingenuity, nurtures personal and professional creativity, and reveals potential for further refinements and new possibilities. Supply the essential oxygen of intellectual stimulation.

3. Influential. The transformational leader kindles influence to elevate and empower individuals, institutions and ideals. Within your relational hearth, stoke your oxygenated fuel with the draft of upward momentum and the empowering warmth of persuasive influence. Add the critical heat of persuasive power.

4. Inspirational. The transformational leader eloquently articulates a compelling vision to both engage and motivate investments by all stakeholders. Such inspirational impact comes not from explaining policies and procedures, but through personal, dynamic, and difference-making stories that touch people’s hearts. Add the vital spark of inspiration.

MasterPoint: Kindle an intentional blaze for the best in transformational results.

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.

We’re all on this merry-go-round of life. Bright lights, swirling color, beating music and fanciful figures fuel our dreams and entice us to extend our reach beyond our white-knuckled hold on our unsettled seats.  We manage only the briefest glimpses of our goal. We aim. We try. But the pace is swift and the sweeping panorama quickly recedes into our past. We miss.

It happens.

What kind of rider-tryer are you?

• The fearful tries not.
• The perfectionist tries only if success is assured.
• The loser gives up trying at least one try too soon.
• The risker leans far into the effort of each try.
• The experimenter tries many kinds of tries.
• The persistent one tries and tries and tries and tries again.
• The teachable one tries, learns, applies and tries.
• The winner stays on the ride, actively trying until ultimately succeeding.

Stay on the ride. Live fully engaged. Gain the brass ring.

Try.

Succeed.

Live.

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.

Therefore, be it resolved:

I will operate with the highest integrity in all personal and corporate interactions, demonstrating a commitment to truth, purpose, responsibility and trust.

I will set a high standard of excellence for superior workmanship, highest professional conduct and exceptional quality productions in all endeavors.

Furthermore, I will look myself in the eye in my twice-daily mirror meetings to answer to my own set of personal, vocational, and social standards of conduct:

1. Personal Responsibilities.   I will be complete and well-rounded, working daily to enrich my mental, physical, spiritual and financial well-being:

●  Am I engaged in regular exercise? Do I eat healthfully and get enough rest? Am I spending quality, rejuvenating time outdoors? Is my down-time spent in worthwhile pursuits?

●  Am I engaged in active learning? Do I keep my mind positive and nimble with uplifting stimulation and wholesome entertainment? Do I curb my base passions? Do I actively determine a positive attitude and my reactions to challenges and problems?

●  Am I nourishing my spiritual life? How am I serving God and other people? Do I fellowship with like-minded believers and contribute to improving the human condition?

●  Am I spending less than I earn? Do I adhere to a budget and follow a financial plan? Am I managing my resources with wisdom? Am I properly caring for the possessions I already have?

2. Vocational Responsibilities.   I will work to the best of my abilities, and continually strive to enhance and add to those abilities:

●  Am I meeting my own expectations in my job performance? Do I manage my time well? Am I scrupulously honest? How and in what specific ways may I improve this month? What can I do to exceed expectations and add value to the organization?

●  Am I treating my colleagues, clients and customers personably and honorably? How may I empower others in their jobs? Do I listen well? Do I return calls and emails promptly? Am I on time for appointments? How may I connect people to the larger cause?

3. Social Responsibilities.   I will treat other people as I wish to be treated:

●  Am I being faithful to my spouse, both mentally and physically? How may I invest in my marriage and enhance my relationships with family members? Am I demonstrating love to my children in a way they can understand? Do I apologize when I’m wrong?

●  Am I upholding the responsibilities I agreed to as a member of my civic organizations? Do I fairly tip service workers and treat them respectfully?  In what ways may I contribute to the good of my community? How am I demonstrating good citizenship?

Holding myself accountable for everything I say, think and do will enhance my health, my job performance, and my market value. My personal and professional relationships will prosper. My career will flourish. I will reach my goals and enjoy the rewards of success. I wholeheartedly agree to this contractual culpability.

Signed and self-witnessed__________________________________  Date_________

MasterPoint: It’s my life and I’m responsible for it.

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 pungent or pleasant—with good will, grace and gratitude, and both your character and your capacity grows.

Passion. Discover what inspires you and pursue it. Embrace the joy it brings as you develop your interests, gifts and talents to contribute passionately in your position for the benefit of other people.

Purpose. Integrate the best of your People, Position and Passion practices to reveal and revel in the self-fulfillment of your life purpose.

How have you found this to be true?

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:

Avoid the Giant.   Some problems can simply be avoided, like detouring around a landslide. There may be many routes to your goal. One blocked path doesn’t mean you are deterred, merely detoured.

Redirect the Giant.    Some Giants attack simply because they cannot allow any challenge to go unanswered. But if you can convince a Giant that you are not an enemy, and in fact, may share some common goals, you may be able to enlist that Giant’s considerable help by focusing its energies on another target. You may have talented and passionate Giants who have difficulty in comprehending the long-term goal, and unintentionally cause obstructions to your progress. But if that passion can be directed along a parallel path to a mutual aim, you’ve not only removed an obstacle, but have gained a committed ally.

Hinder the Giant.   In an effective offensive strategy of a good football team, some members intentionally block the moves of the opposing team while others advance the ball toward the goal. Recognize that your best chance for reaching your goal is not a solo effort. Take time to develop collaborative partnerships and train your teammates in anticipation of necessary strategies.

What tactics can be employed, if necessary, to move beyond the obstacle, huge as it is? Are there any social, legal, economic, or other incentives (or disincentives) to employ? What resources can be added or removed from the state of affairs to mitigate the problem? How may the confounding issue be countered, refuted or reframed? With a well-trained and well-equipped team, your Giant may be controlled or curtailed enough for the dream to be attained.

Conquer the Giant.   It is dangerous to approach a Giant. Because of its size, strength, and contrariness, confronting a Giant can be a fearfully intimidating experience. It has the capacity to seal your fate and steal your dream. Confronting the Giant may indeed be a life-and-death matter.

Fear is a natural reaction to facing the unfamiliar, the hazardous, or the unknowable. Yet, the only tonic for fear is courage: intentional action in spite of it. Knowing full well the risks, the dreamer takes a deep draught from the flask of Courage, calculates his steps, and proceeds.

Giants do not easily fall. But even the biggest and most fearsome are not invincible. Conquering them, while difficult, is possible. The dreamer/leader and his or her team must commit all available resources to knowing, acting on, and reacting to their own—and the Giant’s—strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. With persistence, proper knowledge and courageous deeds against the Giant, yield it may.

Like successful dreamers, the most effective leaders find ways to disable the difficulties on the way to achieving the mission. Who or what are your Giants?

MasterPoint: Disable your Giants to achieve your dream.

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.

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.

The more proficient a leader becomes in the persuasive arts, the more likely the goals of the organization will be successfully met—and with less hindrance and resistance. (I am not speaking of manipulation here, which is the devious, dark side of controlling people: such is a coercive tool for dictatorial purposes.)

Abraham Lincoln, a lawyer by profession, recognized that this sometimes-illusive and counterintuitive practice does produce desirable results. Before he ever took on the mighty challenge of preserving the entire nation, he discouraged his clients to resort to litigation. Instead, he advised, “persuade your neighbors to compromise wherever you can.”

In Lincoln’s 19^th century eloquent prose, he expounded on this intentional tactic: “When the conduct of men is designed to be influenced, persuasion, kind, unassuming persuasion, should ever be adopted. It is an old and a true maxim, that ‘a drop of honey catches more flies than a gallon of gall.’ So with men. If you would win a man to your cause, first convince him that you are his sincere friend. Therein is a drop of honey that catches his heart, which … is the great high road to his reason, and which, once gained, you will find but little trouble in convincing his judgment of the justice of your cause.”

“On the contrary,” Lincoln continued, “assume to dictate to his judgment, or to command his action, or to mark him as one to be shunned and despised, and he will retreat within himself… and you shall no more be able to [reach] him than to penetrate the hard shell of a tortoise with a rye straw.”

Such folksy wisdom of the ages is now being buttressed by scientific research that shows that developing a respectful personal rapport with people enables the persuasive power that in turn exerts influence to effect change and achieve worthy goals. Not only does it move people and things onward and upward, it expands borders and motivates teams. It constructs possibilities, cements trust, and assembles ownership. It empowers mind, body and spirit for a better world.

And while persuasive leadership remains artful in its interpretation, its practice is open to anyone (you!) who applies the principles of the social science to the situation at hand. Here are seven suggestions to increase your persuasive influence, no matter what position you hold or where you are in life:

1. Be exemplary.  Encourage affinity by being genuinely positive, enthusiastic, and unselfish. Do more than the minimum to maintain your interpersonal relationships; exceed expectations.

2. Be trustworthy.  Earn trust with your peers, associates, bosses and clients by remaining readily open, transparent, truthful and teachable.

3. Be involved.  Engage in shared experiences to create positive learning and sharing environments that promote team building and strengthening individual commitments.

4. Be we-oriented, not me-oriented.  Focus on mutual strengths and desired outcomes; avoid detailing others’ weaknesses and shortcomings.

5. Be consistent and persistent.   Consistently validate the relationship with enduring personal investments and practical, value-added contributions.

6. Be certain.  Know your audience and your stuff. Be convinced of your data, your rationale, and your vision.

7. Be articulate.  Develop and practice eloquence: say it clearly and show it creatively. Fluently and effectively express your ideals.

MasterPoint: Persuasiveness is power.