PRACTICE IMPERFECTION

Leadership and influence are never perfected, only practiced.

Leaders who try to be perfect, self-sufficient and all-knowing wind up having to throw their weight around and keep others at arm’s length. They focus mostly on keeping up the display of bulletproof competence. Of course, competence isn’t a bad thing, but a hyper-focus suggests a trade-off. There's no need to choose between imperfection and competence. Imperfection and vulnerability are not weaknesses. They require true strength of character, which is influence at its best.  When you practice imperfection (that is, humanness), you release your team from the fear of not meeting your expectations and being criticized. Those are things that block innovation and collaboration. Here are five tips to help set you on your path:

1. Lead with questions, not answers.

If you arrive with the right answer, people will withhold their best stuff -- the very stuff that may lead to the next breakthrough. Learn the art of inquiry. Ask questions that begin with, what have you noticed? How do you think we could improve? What is keeping us stuck? What do you love about it?”

2. Share lessons learned. Admit mistakes.

People are drawn to leaders who are not only very smart but have the confidence to kick back and laugh at their mistakes. We like and trust individuals who are personable and regular folks. Know-it-all-ness is off-putting and stifles innovation. The leader with natural influence says, “Let me tell you about something I learned the hard way,” instead of dictating the course to take.

3. Leave room for others to be right.

Watch out for the destructive practice of making people be wrong. Even if their ideas are not the way to go, acknowledge their contributions. When teammates have the opportunity to be right, they will demonstrate more spontaneity and freedom of expression. When you establish a safe environment in which people have the opportunity to be right, they will take ownership of the results.

4. Demand feedback. Welcome challenge. 

Let members of the team know you won’t tolerate compliance for the sake of pleasing you -- and that you have no need for yes men and yes women. Ask, “What do you need from me to nail this project?” or “What am I missing on my end?” People trust and engage with leaders who are not threatened by those who speak their mind to offer value.

5. Change your mind. 

The confident leader understands it's not necessary to be the only big deal in the company. Cemented certainty can lead to pride of ownership and close mindedness. On the other hand, if people know they can approach you and make a case for another solution for a project, you will always be presented with the best ideas to maintain a competitive edge. If someone has a better idea, change your mind along with the course of action. You will earn the reputation of being fair and open-minded.

Hey, nobody said leadership was easy. To be vulnerable and imperfect requires courage. But the challenge of living in the white water of change is too complicated to rest solely on one person’s shoulders. Every person is needed, all working together to reinvent the institution.

PRISONER OF HOPE

When things get difficult, it’s easy to want to give up.  

It’s easy to get down and discouraged. But, that’s not God’s plan for us. God wants us to be so full of hope, so full of expectancy that we just can’t help believing for the best. He wants us to be prisoners of hope! When you’re a prisoner of something, it’s like you’re chained to it. In other words, you can’t get away from it. I know people that are prisoners of fear, prisoners of worry, prisoners of doubt. You’ve heard them. “Nothing good ever happens to me.” “It’s never going to change. It’s just been too long.” No, you’re chained to the wrong thing. You need to break those chains and become a prisoner of hope. That means that no matter how long it’s taking, no matter how impossible it looks, our attitude should be, “I just can’t help it. I know it’s going to work out. I know I’m going to overcome. It may be taking a long time, but I know this too shall pass. It may be difficult, but I know that means I’m closer to my victory because I am a prisoner of hope!” 

SUCCESS INDICATOR

Everyone wants to be successful.

Success comes in many different shapes and sizes.

Everyone defines success through their own lens of life experience.

One thing we all have in common though is the opportunity to learn from those who are already successful.

In study after study you will find similar habits among those who are successful and well…those who aren’t.

Let’s take a look at some of those habits…

UP A LEVEL

Your strategy is to make everyone else get on your level; you’re not going down to theirs.   

As a leader you are always wanting to bring others up. However, there will be those that want you to come down to theirs. Not everyone will go to the next level. They will try to convince you to settle where they are at. This is not you though. You are unstoppable, there is no settling in you. A leader never is complacent with where they are in life. You will help others to come up to your level though. As you are working in your purpose take time to bring others up to your level. A leader never settles. Being unstoppable means you are always looking for ways to get better and to help those around you. Don’t allow those that don’t want to be the best discourage you from being your best. Being a leader is a special thing. Don’t take it for granted ever. Everyone has the ability but so few go to that level. You are one that will go to that level and keep on going.

Are you bringing others up to your level today?

MOTIVATION TO LEARN

Motivated from within

Intrinsic motivation is an important topic in education, as teachers and instructional designers strive to develop learning environments that are intrinsically rewarding. Unfortunately, many traditional paradigms suggest that most students find learning boring so they must be extrinsically goaded into educational activities. Malone and Lepper (1987) suggest that this need not be the case and identify several different ways to make learning environments that are intrinsically rewarding.

Malone and Lepper define activities as intrinsically motivating if "people engage in it for its own sake, rather than in order to receive some external reward or avoid some external punishment. We use the words fun, interesting, captivating, enjoyable, and intrinsically motivating all more or less interchangeably to describe such activities."

The factors that they identify as increasing intrinsic motivation are:

• Challenge: People are more motivated when they pursue goals that have personal meaning, that relate to their self-esteem, when performance feedback is available, and when attaining the goal is possible but not necessarily certain.
• Curiosity: Internal motivation is increased when something in the physical environment grabs the individual's attention (sensory curiosity) and when something about the activity stimulates the person to want to learn more (cognitive curiosity).
• Control: People want control over themselves and their environments and want to determine what they pursue.
• Cooperation and Competition: Intrinsic motivation can be increased in situations where people gain satisfaction from helping others and also in cases where they are able to compare their own performance favorably to that of others.
• Recognition: People enjoy having their accomplishment recognized by others, which can increase internal motivation.

Observations

• "Unnecessary rewards sometimes carry hidden costs. Most people think that offering tangible rewards will boost anyone's interest in an activity. Actually, promising children a reward for a task they already enjoy can backfire. In experiments, children promised a payoff for playing with an interesting puzzle or toy later play with the toy less than do children who are not paid to play. It is as if the children think, 'If I have to be bribed into doing this, then it must not be worth doing for its own sake.'"
  (Myers, 2005)
• "The functional significance, or salience, of the event dictates whether intrinsic motivation is facilitated or diminished. For example, an athlete may perceive receiving an external reward (e.g., money, trophy) as a positive indicator of her sport competence (informational), whereas another athlete may perceive the same reward as coercion to keep her involved in the activity (controlling). Thus, the aspect of the event that is perceived as salient will determine level of autonomy and perceived competence experienced, and ultimately affect intrinsic motivation for that activity."
  (Horn, 2008)

References

Brown, L. V. (2007). Psychology of motivation. New York: Nova Science Publishers.

Coon, D. & Mitterer, J. O. (2010). Introduction to psychology: Gateways to mind and behavior with         concept maps. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

Griggs, R. A. (2010). Psychology: A concise introduction. New York: Worth Publishers.

Horn, T. S. (2008). Advances in sport psychology. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.

Malone, T. W. & Lepper, M. R. (1987). Making learning fun: A taxonomy of intrinsic motivations for learning. In R. E. Snow & M. J. Farr (Eds.), Aptitude, learning, and instruction: III. Cognative and affective process analysis. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Myers, D. (2005). Exploring psychology, Sixth edition in modules. New York: Worth Publishers.

HARD WORK IS WORTH IT

Is Working Hard Worth It?

All this talk of stress from work can leave you thinking that hard work isn’t worth it.

I disagree.

Working hard is worth every bit of your effort. You’ll never regret choosing greatness for your life and going for it.

But the question you need to ask is, “Are you working hard on the right things?”

Do you give your health as much focus as your work? Do you give your relationships as much emphasis as your deadlines? Do you make time for exploring, creating, and traveling, just like you make time for meetings, conference calls, and clients?

Or are you simply spending all of your time at work?

In the words of President Theodore Roosevelt, “Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.”

What could be more worth doing than working on your health and happiness?