Tag Archives: success

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Constraints Real or Percieved

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Limits and restrictions can constrain your behaviour.  They can take both physical and mental forms.  In some cases the constraint only exists because you believe it does.

For example, a stop sign limits your ability to speed through an intersection.  The sign itself is not a physical limitation but most perceive the need to adhere to the instruction.

In this case, given the potential consequences, taking the risk of challenging the limitation is probably not prudent.  However, when racing to the hospital with your pregnant wife you might push the limits relative to stopping, particularly at 2 a.m. when little other traffic is around.

Physical constraints like handcuffs or being held firmly by the arms by two burly individuals might be more difficult to resist, depending on the circumstances though, one might try.

Stepping out of the Box

Circumventing constraints, reaching out of the box, can be risky but also rewarding.  Conscious awareness of your own personal appetite for risk is important in helping you decide how forcefully to challenge the constraints.

A rule of thumb might be, behave in search of personal excellence.  That is, mind the consequences of the constraints, but push yourself to exceed regardless of the challenge in doing so.

Nothing is like the good feeling of success and acknowledgement of great achievements, of course when deservedly so.  My advice, don’t let a percieved constraint hold you back from greatness.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Good Leaders

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All of us rely on leaders in some way.  Like many animal species (humans are still animals after all) we form groups and somehow either through a natural or unnatural process (e. g. voting) someone assumes or is given the role (or perhaps roles in the case of multiple leaders).

Why do we need leaders?

Vision, mission, and  strategy are invaluable in all organizational situations.   From government, home, charitable to corporate and all types of organizations in between having a single point of reference to define, coordinate or facilitate the organizational road map  is only practical.

That is to say, multiple places where the buck stops has been proven experientially throughout history to be impractical. Consensus and collaberation are worthwhile ideals but ultimately even in collaberative high performing teams, the group looks to a single point.

What defines a leaders success?

Everyone has unique requirements of a leader.  This is why self awareness is such a critical skill for leaders.  Understanding what the people want, person by person is the first step.

Knowing the needs of others and facilitating their achievement is the foundational behaviour of great leaders.  Of course, there is more to it than just helping others achieve success, but also creating an understanding of what the objectives are.

Most simply put, leaders enable the achievement of success. Those that enable success the most seamlessly and where the results are most notable, are the best.

 

 

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

How or What?

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We all do things every day. These things range from waking up, eating to a multitude of other activities.  For example  working for monetary compensation or for non monetary motivations.

Two basic attributes can be applied to everything we do.  What are we doing and how are we doing it?  Obviously where, when and why can be important to some degree but what and how must also be known and always come into play.

Concious versus Unconcious

Often what we are doing and how we make it happen occur withput much thought.  We wake up after sleeping (the what) and it could be a concious action with an assist from an alarm clock or it could just be our unconcious internal clock causing us to awake.

Taking control of what you do and how it is accomplished is a critical aspect of personal success.  Deciding what to do based on a well considered motivational understanding is more likey to result in the outcome you desire.

While happy accidents do occur, taking charge of your destiny means there is no need to rely on the roll of the dice.  Whether the out ome was  good or bad, you thought it through.

Doing the Right Things

The message of this post is simple.  If you know waht you are trying to do (the goal or objective) you can plan for success.  If you plan for success and excute the plan effectively the risk of failure is greatly mitigated (although not removed, failure is always an option).

 

 

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Making Decisions

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A past boss of mine,who was a senior executive within the companies C-suite, used to describe one of his key activities as facilitating decisions.

Given his level within the company the focus of his decision facilitation was focused far more on strategic than tactical topics.  Nether the less , his own view of his functional role coincided with mine.

Actually there was a real synergy and integration among his leadership team, including himself, for that reason.  As the senior leader he focused on the achievement of the highest quality decisions.

Most importantly though, he enabled the decision making utilizing the best resources and sources.

Guide don’t Drive

Decision making is simply the thought process of selecting a logical choice from the available options.  It involves gathering and analzing the pro’s and con’s of the available data.

The process of making decisions can suffer in quality with too much or too little consideration.  This level of attention is a delicate balance.

My former boss recognized his teams success rested on the quality of decisions.   This then, producing high quality decisions,  became a focus.

This is not to say seemless execution is not needed and expected but rather the critical path to success starts with decision quality.

For Example

A quick and simple example of the potential benefits and risks associated with decision making is that of picking a stock.  A good decision can bring you wealth, while a bad pick could be costly.

 

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Personal Branding

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Yesterdays post focused on why your personal brand is of value to you.  In brief, your brand is carries your reputation and everyone associated with you and therefore your brand is a potential ambassador for you or a detraction.

People you know well and those you don’t (acquaintances) can carry your brand.  Social media is another great way to promote your brand.  Networking sites like linkedin, or namez.com.

Where to Start

The first step is determining what you want your reputation to be.  To develop the profile you want should not be rushed.  Take your time recording the attributes and qualities you want to be known for.

Review the list several times over a couple of weeks to be sure it is natural and intuitive to you.  The reputation you create for yourself needs to fit you like a glove

While some detail is needed, at a top level your personal brand can be things like a charismatic  and empathtic leader.  Or perhaps you want your reputation to be more like a superman – just give me the task or problem and rest assurred it will be done.

Creating an implementation and Communication Strategy

Whether print focused (resume’s, comendation letters) or social media or digital (websites) or word of mouth network or even all of them, a plan is needed to succeed (which appraoch, when and how).

The plan should inlude not only your strategy for spreading your reputation (personal brand) but of developing it based on the profile definition step.

Is it worth the effort?  Hopefully it is intuitive that a consciously planned  approach is far more likely to create the personal brand you desire, than a happy accident.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Griity People

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Why are some people successful while others are not.  What distinguishes a top leader, manager , sales person, student, athlete and so on.

Are there specific attributes associated with success.  Things like, intelligence, emotional maturity, physical capability?  Intuitively the answer is yes, but is there something else?

Is there an attribute that is always present to a high degree, which is a critical underpinning to skills and capabilities.  This is a question phycologists have been exploring for years.

Being Successful

I recently heard about some interesting studies of sucessfull salesmen, athletes and students that found the top performers sometimes had high intelligence and/or strong emotional maturity and/ or powerful physicality, but not always.

These factors might be present, or might not (just average or low levels).  This leads to the conclusion these factors are not necessarily or perhaps not at all determinent of success.

Grit

The one attribute that was present in high levels, in every case, was grit.  The higher your grit , the greater likelihood you would be successful.

Being a gritty person means that the one tends to stick to their goals despite numerous issues, problems, setbacks and failures. The person has firmness of mind and unyielding courage.

The theory is when you treat life as a long term journey, not a series of side trips, struggles are the norm and something to overcome.   Something that in fact can and will be overcome.

There is no need to start over or stew and wine over a bump in the , and there will probably be many, those with grit just soldier on to success.

Aquired Attribute

While only a theory, and techniques how to teach or learn grit are still in early development phases just believing in the value of grit is a start on your path to continued accomplishment and success.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Proactive or Reactive

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Generally a pro-active response requires more effort than just accepting the default or status quo approach.  Reactive reponses generally have an urgency associated with them  and are often more like a band aid.

That is they cover the problem temporarily but do not necessarily resolve it.  A pro-active approach requires planning which in itself adds effort.

Default, going with the flow or reacting do not involve any preparation.  Planning is not effortless, but the results are typically more satisfying.

Effort, duration, results

Spending more time and effort should produce better results.  This applies regardless of the product or service. However there is a caveat, both time and effort must be productive.

The act of just spending time or randomly acting on anything may or might not be effective.  The better approach is for it to be thought out (i.e., planned) for maximum effectiveness.

Pro-actively planning the approach, what, when and how is far more likely to result in successful achievement of the objective.

Repeatable and Sustainable

Another often overlooked benefit of the while thought out action is the ability for yourself and others to repeat it over a long period and expect consistent results.

This is the underlying concept of many activity models like ITIL, CMMI, Cobit or 6 Sigma. These models provide a framework for planning.

Ultimately the pro-active approach produces better quality, time after time.  This concept can be applied to anything you do whether it be a trip to the grocery store or a trip to the moon.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Line or Staff

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Professionals with a proven skills, training and a strong track record are often hired to provide expert advice.  These consultants can assist organizations in valuable ways, but there are some caveats.

Roles Based Management

Armies typically classify their officers as either line or staff.  At a very high level the two types exist to distinguish between those that manage the battles (line) and those that provide support and strategy (staff).

In the military model, line mangers are at the front line of the organizational goals.  They execute the strategy.  Their performance can be directly aligned with the organizations outcomes.

Staff managers have specific expertise and focus on doing what is needed to enable line managers to succeed .  In this context, quality of advice and support provided is the performance measure.

Usually staff managers success is not linked to that of line managers directly.  Typically the highest levels of organizational power lie with line managers.  Staff managers input is important but the decision and action falls to the line.

Back to consultants

The  work of consultants is very much, using the armys model, staff work.  It is important and necessary work but there is no accountability for results.

If the advice works, the consultants reputation is enhanced, if not they probably don’t stay in the business long.  Although over the years I have frequently seen consultants dodge the qaulity bullet.

Staff Managers in Line Management roles

One of the most frustrating experiences is when a line manager operates with a consultanting or staff managers mind set.   Although they are in a role that is intended to oversee the deliverly of strategic results, their consulting mindset is focused on advice not execution.

Typically, this leads to high turnover in that area of the organization.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Making Mistakes

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Life is full of mistakes.  When you make a decision and/or take an action that turns out to be wrong, it is a mistake.  Everyones makes mistakes.

Life without mistakes is highly improbable, but also would be awfully boring.  Making mistakes is not a goal but not making them shouldn’t be an objective either.

Embracing Mistakes

Mistakes can have negative consequences.  They can also uncover paths to success or provide valuable experiences that can be used to avoid even greater mistakes.

It can be exhilarating to attempt to scale the mountain, especially when you succeed.  Fear of making a mistake and perhaps not even trying could be as costly as the mistake itself.

Balance

A common theme in so many of my posts is finding the optimal balances between opposites.  In this case, the balance is effectively between caution (to mitigate the risk of a mistake) and boldness( to go where no man has gone before)

Too much caution and places where no one has ever been will remain unexplored.  On the other hand too little caution when bursting into the unknown may have dire consquences, even death.

Recovering from Mistakes

The most important part of any discussion of mistakes is how to behave when they occur.  First and foremost, always acknowledge the mistake and acquiesce to your complicity in it.

This is critical because a defensive posture envaribly magnifies the mistakes.  With acceptance, it is much easier to move to the next step – resolution.

Following acceptance, analyze the impacts and consequences of the mistake  and plan a course of behaviour that results in maximum mitigation.

Random thoughts – keeping you on your toes

Defining Success

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Rene Descartes, a french philosopher published a phrase in Latin and French in 1647 that is commonly translated as “I think, therefore I am”.

Arguably, any intelligent being, artificial or otherwise can subjectively declare their existence using this statement.  The concept tweaked my interest the other day as I contemplated the meaning of success.

I think I am successful, therfore I am

Unfortunately, success requires validation and while self validation is satisfying, is it accurate?  If others don’t view me as successful, does it matter what I think?

This leads to the potential statement ” Others think I am successful, therefore I am”.   This also is largely a subjective assessment.  The true measure  is probably more likely founded in objectivity.

So how do I know if I am Successful?

Success is associated with achievement.  If the goal is clearly defined with associated measures to indicate when it has been achieved, measuring success can be very objective.

This applies to very specific activities (i.e., the goal) and can very greatly depending on your personal goal.

For one person, a goal could be to have accumulated one million dollars by age fifty while for another the accumulational of money might not even be on their list of goals at all.

One, rich at fifty, could claim success, while the other, potentially poor at fifty could also claim success.

And so success is very individual.  Arguably if your goal was to feel  successful, then stating (with conviction) “I think I am successful”, would become an objective measure of success.

That is, the statement would indicate you feel successful and since that was your goal, then you are successful.