How well do you see the big picture?

1. Don’t Strive for Certainty

Big-picture thinkers are comfortable with ambiguity. They don’t try to force every observation or piece of data into pre-formulated mental cubbyholes. They think broadly and can juggle many seemingly contradictory thoughts in their minds. If you want to cultivate the ability to think big picture, then you must get used to embracing and dealing with complex and diverse ideas.

2. Learn from Every Experience

Big-picture thinkers broaden their outlook by striving to learn from every experience. They don’t rest on their successes, they learn from them. More importantly, they learn from their failures. They can do that because they remain teachable.

Varied experiences—both positive and negative—help you see the big picture. The greater the variety of experience and success, the more potential to learn you have. If you desire to be a big-picture thinker, then get out there and try a lot of things, take a lot of chances, and take time to learn after every victory or defeat.

3. Gain Insight from a Variety of People

Big-picture thinkers learn from their experiences. But they also learn from experiences they don’t have. That is, they learn by receiving insight from others—from customers, employees, colleagues, and leaders.

If you desire to broaden your thinking and see more of the big picture, then seek out mentors and counselors to help you. But be wise in whom you ask for advice. Gaining insight from a variety of people doesn’t mean stopping anyone and everyone in hallways and grocery store lines and asking what they think about a given subject. Be selective. Talk to people who know and care about you, who know their field, and who bring experience deeper and broader than your own.

4. Give Yourself Permission to Expand Your World

If you want to be a big-picture thinker, you will have to go against the flow of the world. Society wants to keep people in boxes. Most people are married mentally to the status quo. They want what was, not what can be. They seek safety and simple answers. To think big-picture, you need to give yourself permission to go a different way, to break new ground, to find new worlds to conquer. And when your world does get bigger, you need to celebrate. Never forget there is more out there in the world than what you’ve experienced.

From the How Successful People Think Workbook

Why Business Owners Should Never Be Happy

Every successful company is a work in progress, so your pursuit of better performance needs to be relentless.

by Mark Stevens from Entrepreneur.com

Let's say you are quite happy and content with the state of your business.

Sorry, but I'm disappointed to hear that. Not because I don't like good news but because I know an insipient problem when I see one. The hard truth is you should never be "happy and content" with the state of your business simply because every successful enterprise must be a perpetual work in progress. You -- the entrepreneur, the owner and manager in chief -- must be restless in pursuit of ever-higher levels of performance.

I used to visit a client -- a chief executive of a major enterprise who started out as a man with a dream and $30,000 home-equity loan and built his company into a juggernaut. On his desk was a sign that read for all to see:

The Boss Is Not Happy!

This was his way of declaring war first on himself and second on everyone who worked on his team. It was not destructive, mean spirited or evil. It was instead a perpetual battle against the cancer of complacency that can and will inevitably set in when the leader gets "happy and content" with the state of her business.

To build profitable, proud, innovative and truly productive businesses that meet the ultimate test of being scalable and sustainable, we all must declare war on ourselves now. And not let our guard down.

What to do? I suggest the following actions:

Stop asking if your customers/clients are satisfied. Satisfied customers are easy prey for aggressive competitors. We have to raise the bar, shooting for a new standard: Thrilling the people we serve. When you are thrilled you are a customer for life.

Get out of the office and into the field. Do the "dirty work" now and then because it's not really "dirty" to get behind the grill and cook a burger, show a guest to a room, answer the phones when the public calls. When Charles Revson was building Revlon into a powerhouse, he would allocate part of his time manning the customer complaint line. We wanted a clear, undiluted sense of how the company was pleasing, or failing to do so, the women who spent money on his products.

Of course you have to spend most of your time making leadership decisions, but if you watch Undercover CEO, you will see that every time the boss goes out and does what she used to think was below her, she comes away with a powerful epiphany.

Terminate anyone on your payroll you have warned about their subpar performance, but you have failed to cut the chord because you don't want to be disliked or you feel sorry for them. You're not engaged in a popularity contest and furthermore making an exception for one slacker is a slippery slope that almost always leads to a systemic problem: a "can't do" culture. Try taking that to the bank.

Give yourself a pay cut any year the company underperforms. You need to feel the pain too. Sitting alone in an isolated bubble of generous compensation removes the hunger, the drive, the rubber hits the road mindset that keeps companies alive, agile and vital in spite of the inevitable challenges they will face.

Try something you always thought was wrong or inappropriate for your business. As entrepreneurs, we can sell ourselves a bill of goods that is pure nonsense.

For the first 14 years of my company's evolution, I refused to advertise, thinking that public relations, social media and referrals were the only way to go. But after a TV appearance where I suggested to the viewers that they try something new, I took a shot at radio advertising. I declared war on my own closemindedness.

That first $12,000 flight produced $230,000. Now advertising is a mainstay of our marketing and I have tripled down, investing $30,000 per month, and I am now preparing to double that.

 

No Leader Rides Alone

by John Maxwell

In recent years, people in the business world have rediscovered the significance of teams. In the 1980s, the buzzword in business circles was management. Then in the 1990s, the emphasis was on leadership. Now in the twenty-first century, the emphasis is on teams. Why? Because nobody does everything well.
Not everyone recognizes that those closest to you will make or break you. There are still leaders who hold up the Lone Ranger as their model for leadership. One of the best illustrations of how unrealistic that ideal of leadership really is can be found in American Spirit by Lawrence Miller:
Problems are always solved in the same way. The Lone Ranger and his faithful Indian companion … come riding into town. The Lone Ranger, with his mask and mysterious identity, background, and lifestyle, never becomes intimate with those whom he will help. His power is partly in his mystique. Within ten minutes the Lone Ranger has understood the problem, identified who the bad guys are, and has set out to catch them. He quickly outwits the bad guys, draws his gun, and has them behind bars. And then there was always that wonderful scene at the end [where] the helpless victims are standing in front of their ranch or in the town square marveling at how wonderful it is now that they have been saved.
What baloney! There are no Lone Ranger leaders. Think about it: If you’re alone, you’re not leading anybody, are you?
Leadership expert Warren Bennis was right when he maintained, “The leader finds greatness in the group, and he or she helps the members find it in themselves.” Think of any highly effective leader, and you will find someone who surrounded himself with a strong inner circle. You can see it in business, ministry, sports, and even family relationships. Those closest to you determine your level of success.

from The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership
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John Maxwell
Distinctive Inc
Distinctive Inc Facebook

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Important Lessons To Give To Young Or Emerging Leaders

1. The toughest person to lead is yourself.
2. Leaders will either serve others or they serve themselves.
3. A person’s talent can sometimes take them to where their character cannot sustain them. See Tiger Woods.
4. People don’t need information. They already have an abundance of that. People need inspiration.
5. The most intimidating leadership assignment I have is husband and father because I am sending people forth into a time I cannot see. – Crawford Loritts
6. The best leaders come out of crock pot, not a microwave. They are made over time.
7. Don’t rush to judgement. Gather information at one level and then make decisions at the leadership level.
8. There is great power in a good compliment.
9. Take risks. The fruit is out on the limb, not close to the tree trunk.
10. You will either prepare or repair.
11. No one likes change but a baby. However, change is desperately needed.
12. Embrace your uniqueness because no two leaders are alike. They come in all different shapes, sizes, backgrounds, temperaments, etc…
13. People have to like you. You have to have a team that CAN help you. You must also have a team that WANTS to help you.
14. Leaders are readers.
15. The most valuable commodity a leader has is time. Don’t ever waste a person’s time. It’s the one thing that once you have taken it, you can’t give back.
16. The only difference between ANGER and DANGER is a “D”. Your temper can destroy your influence.
17. Great leaders don’t want a position. They want influence and to make a difference.
18. What you say “No” to is more important than what you say “Yes” to.
19. Generosity is the new evangelism, both in business and relationships.
20. The success of a leader is determined by those closest to them. Build a great team. – John Maxwell
21. Nowhere in the Bible does God call someone to an easy task. Therefore, have courage because it is not going to be easy.
22. Leadership has some very lonely times.
23. There are great perks to leadership. Everyone wants those. There is also a great price to leadership. Few are willing to pay it.

-Brian Dodd

Finding a vision’s “true north” By John C Maxwell

Have you ever been part of a team that didn’t seem to make any progress? Maybe the group had plenty of talent, resources, and opportunities, and team members got along, but the group just never went anywhere. If you have there’s a strong possibility that the situation was caused by lack of vision.
Great vision precedes great achievement. And every team needs compelling vision to give it direction. A team without vision is, at worst, purposeless. At best, it is subject to the personal (and sometimes selfish) agendas of its various members. As the agendas work against each other, the team’s energy and drive drain away.
In contrast, a team that embraces a unified vision becomes focused, energized, and confident. It knows where it’s headed and why it’s going there.
Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, a leader of troops during World War II who was called a “soldier’s general,” wrote that “every single soldier must know, before he goes into battle, how the little battle he is to fight fits into the larger picture, and how the success of his fighting will influence the battle as a whole.” People on the team need to know why they’re fighting. Otherwise, the team gets into trouble.
If you lead your team, then you are responsible for identifying a worthy and compelling vision and articulating it to your team members. However, even if you are not the leader, identifying a compelling vision is still important. If you don’t know the team’s vision, you can’t perform with confidence. You can’t be sure you and your teammates are going in the right direction. You can’t even be sure that the team you’re on is the right one for you if you haven’t examined the vision in light of your strengths, convictions, and purpose.
For everyone on the team, the vision must be compelling. But how do you measure that? You check your visionary compass. In fact, a team should examine the following five compasses before embarking on any journey.

Image courtesy of photobucket
A team’s vision must be aligned with…
1. A moral compass (look above)
A moral compass brings integrity to the vision. It helps all the people on the team to check their motives and make sure that they are laboring for the right reasons. It also brings credibility to the leaders who cast the vision – but only if they model the values that the team is expected to embrace. When they do, they fuel the vision, keeping it going.
2. An intuitive compass (look within)
A vision must resonate deep within the leader of the team. Then it must resonate within the team members, who will be asked to work hard to bring it to fruition. That’s the value of intuitive passion. It produces the kind of heat that fires up the committed – and fries the uncommitted.
3. A historical compass (look behind)
Anytime you cast vision, you must create a connection between the past, the present, and the future. How? Tell stories. Principles may fade in people’s minds, but stories stick. Tell stories about the people who have been in the organization a long time, and they will feel valued. At the same time, stories from history give newer team members a sense of security, knowing that the current vision builds on the past and leads to the future.
4. A directional compass (look ahead)
Poet Henry David Thoreau wrote, “If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.” Vision provides direction for the team, and part of that direction comes from having goals, which give targets to aim for.
5. A strategic compass (look around)
A goal won’t do the team much good without steps to accomplish it. The value of a strategy is that it brings process to the vision. It identifies resources and mobilizes specific members of the team. People need more than information and inspiration. They need instruction in what to do to make the vision become a reality.
The vision of a team must look beyond current circumstances and any obvious shortcomings of current teammates to see the potential of the team. And a truly great vision challenges people. The great artist Michelangelo prayed, “Lord, grant that I may always desire more than I can accomplish.” If you can confidently measure the vision of your team according to the above compasses, and you find them all pointing in the right direction, then you’ll know that the vision is worth stretching for.

Are there moments in your life when you think “I simply cannot make it another day?” When those times of fear and frustration set in, I want you to remember the story of Dennis Byrd. Dennis played defensive line for the New York Jets from 1989-92 when his career was tragically cut short due to a spinal injury (see picture above).

Dennis had collided with another teammate on November 29, 1992 and was immediately unable to move his limbs from the neck down. However, ten weeks later he held a press conference and walked out of Mount Sinai Hospital in New York.

Current Jets head coach Rex Ryan asked Dennis to speak to the team prior to their recent playoff game against the New England Patriots. Still feeling the effects of his injury, the following are some of the quotes from that pre-game speech courtesy of ESPN.

“Life has its everyday struggles.”
“For the last 18 years I’ve still been competing.”
“A man has a body, a mind, and a spirit. There are times in a man’s life when his body will tell him he cannot go on. Where his mind will tell him the task set for him is too hard for him to accomplish. Those two don’t matter. It’s a man’s will, a man’s spirit that will tell him you can do it. And it will make the mind and body follow along.”
“Every physical possession I have, if I were to have the genuine opportunity to trade them in for one more game, one more play, I would do it.”
The following comments were posted by WR Braylon Edwards on his Twitter account shortly after the speech:

“I just heard the most inspirational message of my life from former jet Dennis Byrd, who suffered a career ending neck injury…As God is my witness I have never been more ready to perform in my life. Dennis Byrd I respect, salute, and honor you.”

There is a sign in the Jets’ offices that states “Make Today Your Day”. Dennis, your life inspires us. Thank you for reminding us that not only can we make it another day, we can make today our day.

How do I maintain a teachable attitude? By John C Maxwell

Teachability is not so much about competence and mental capacity as it is about attitude. It is the desire to listen, learn, and apply. It is the hunger to discover and grow. It is the willingness to learn, unlearn, and relearn. I love the way legendary basketball coach John Wooden states it: “It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.”
When I teach and mentor leaders, I remind them that if they stop learning, they stop leading. But if they remain teachable and keep learning, they will be able to keep making an impact as leaders. Whatever your talent happens to be – whether it’s leadership, craftsmanship, entrepreneurship, or something else – you will expand it if you keep expecting and striving to learn.
Futurist and author John Naisbitt believes that “the most important skill to acquire is learning how to learn.” Here is what I suggest as you pursue teachability:
1. Learn to listen.
American writer and philosopher Henry David Thoreau wrote, “It takes two to speak the truth – one to speak and one to hear.” Being a good listener helps us to know people better, to learn what they have learned, and to show them that we value them as individuals.
As you go through each day, remember that you can’t learn if you’re always talking. As the old saying goes, “There’s a reason you have one mouth and two ears.” Listen to others and remain humble, and you will learn things that can help you expand your talent.
2. Understand the learning process.
Here’s how learning typically works:
STEP 1: Act.
STEP 2: Look for your mistakes and evaluate.
STEP 3: Search for a way to do it better.
STEP 4: Go back to Step 1.
Remember, the greatest enemy of learning is knowing. And the goal of all learning is action, not knowledge. If what you are doing does not in some way contribute to what you or others are learning in life, then question its value and be prepared to make changes.
3. Look for and plan teachable moments.
If you look for opportunities to learn in every situation, you will expand your talent to its potential. But you can also take another step beyond this and actively seek out and plan teachable moments. You do that by reading books, visiting places that inspire you, attending events that prompt you to pursue change, and spending time with people who stretch you and expose you to new experiences.
4. Make your teachable moments count.
Even people who are strategic about seeking teachable moments can miss the whole point of the experience. I say this because for many years I’ve been a speaker at conferences and workshops – events that are designed to help people learn. But I’ve found that many people walk away from an event and do very little with what they heard.
We tend to focus on learning events instead of the learning process. Because of this, I try to help people take action steps that will help them implement what they learn. I suggest that in their notes, they pay special attention to
Points they need to think about
Changes they need to make
Lessons they need to apply
Information that they need to share
Then after the conference, I recommend that they create to-do lists based on what they took note of, then schedule time to follow through.
5. Ask yourself, “Am I really teachable?”
I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: all the good advice in the world won’t help if you don’t have a teachable spirit. To know whether you are really open to new ideas and new ways of doing things, ask yourself the following questions:
Am I open to other people’s ideas?
Do I listen more than I talk?
Am I open to changing my opinion based on new information?
Do I readily admit when I am wrong?
Do I observe before acting on a situation?
Do I ask questions?
Am I willing to ask a question that will expose my ignorance?
Am I open to doing things in a way I haven’t done before?
Am I willing to ask for directions?
Do I act defensive when criticized, or do I listen openly for truth?
If you answered no to one or more of these questions, then you have room to grow in the area of teachability. You need to soften your attitude, learn humility, and remember the words of John Wooden: “Everything we know we learned from someone else!”