~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ LEADERSHIP WIRED John C. Maxwell's FREE Semimonthly Newsletter Designed To Maximize Your Leadership Potential. January 2006 - Volume 9, Issue 1 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In This Issue: * Maxwell Moment – In Pursuit of Potential * Leadership@Large – Surveying the Leadership Landscape * Book Review – Connecting to Success * Quick Quotes – Hold On To Hope ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Maxwell Moment ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ IN PURSUIT OF POTENTIAL By Dr. John C. Maxwell The enemy of great is good. The primary reason so few leaders or organizations ever become great is because they get good and then stop. They stop growing, learning, risking, and changing. They use their track record or prior successes as evidence that they've arrived. Believing their own headlines, the leaders in these successful organizations are ready to write it down, build the manual, and document the formula. This mentality shifts their business from a growth to a maintenance mindset. Neither you nor your business ever "arrives." We never get to the place where there's nothing more to be done and nothing more to be said. In the words of my friend Dave Anderson, "Yesterday's peacock is tomorrow's feather duster." What you strutted yesterday, the next day is just cleaning dust off of shelves. I like to distinguish between a "goal mindset" and a "growth mindset." A person with a "goal mindset" has very tangible, numerical goals to achieve over a specific period of time. Nothing is wrong with clearly defined goals, but there's a better way of thinking that I call a "growth mindset." A growth mindset recognizes goals on the journey, but only as part of a process—not as the end results. When goal-oriented people hit a milestone, they have tendency to settle very quickly, but when growth-minded individuals hit a goal, they blow right on by because they're constantly learning and growing. Success has a brutal side: It can make you arrogant, it can make you complacent, and it can close your mind. To survive the temptations of triumph, we must realize that success is not the point and should never be the ultimate objective of an enterprise. The goal of business is to strive to reach full potential. I define full potential as focusing on seeing how far you can go, how good you can get, and how many people you can bring with you. Reality dictates that you will most likely never reach your full potential, but the journey keeps you humble, hungry, and focused. What you become in the process helps you and your organization make the leap from good to great. Use your success as a stepping stone, not a pedestal. Leaders of successful organizations are tempted to stop working on themselves. They continue to work hard on their job, but they have a tendency to neglect personal growth. They use their experience and track record as a license never to read another book and an excuse never to attend another developmental course in their field. They point to their acclaim and accomplishments and decide to rely on the skills they have learned in the past to run the rest of their career. They develop an arrogance of intelligence that creates a disabling ignorance. This ignorance disables them, their people, and, as a result, their business. Growing people grow people. But when you don't grow, you plateau. It's just a matter of time. Once this happens, you plateau everyone working for you. When I as a leader go flat, my influence with everybody in my organization fizzles and fades. When the leader doesn't grow, the people don't grow. It's the Law of the Lid; a stagnant leader stunts the growth of the organization. Let me give you four benefits of pursuing your potential, even during seasons of success. • We have higher self-esteem. People that are constantly learning and growing have a good self-image. • We are willing to change and risk. One of the obvious evidences of growing people is that they are constantly changing and risking. Show me a person that doesn't change, that doesn't risk, and I'll show you a person that's not growing. • Our passion increases. When we begin to grow personally, our passion for life and learning begins to increase proportionately. • We lift the lid for others. What a leader does determines what everybody else is going to do. The people don't pass the leader. An organization's growth doesn't outpace the leader's progress. As I lift the lid for myself, I lift the lid for others. One of the most amazing things to me is how much room there is at the top. On the other hand, it's jam-packed and crowded at the bottom. On the streets of average, there's traffic and congestion, but success has so few people on the roads. It's amazing how the higher you go, the less people there are. Three percent of the people in the United States have a library card. Six percent of Americans believe Elvis is still alive. Trust me, there's a lot of room at the top. As a leader you should learn like you'll live forever and live like you'll die tomorrow. Either way, you're covered. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Leadership@Large ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A RESOLUTION WORTH MAKING Looking for solutions to stick with your New Year's resolutions? Trim them, slim them, and cut them down until only a few core commitments remain. So advises a recent article of "Leadership Guide Magazine", entitled "LIFE BALANCE: Planning a New Year Around THE Dream." As the sun sets on a calendar year, the natural tendency is to evaluate the past 12 months. In doing so, we find areas in which we'd like to improve—hundreds of them. We want to save more, spend less, exercise more, eat less, become organized, balance our schedules, and the list goes on and on. Scores of resolutions later we have a foolproof plan for the perfect New Year lifestyle (which we abandon before February). "Leadership Guide" sets out a simple approach to "streamline, organize, and schedule the ‘no-matter what's' for a resolution worth making. STREAMLINE — Edit your goals to zero in on a main focus Brainstorm the many ways this year could be better than the last. Let yourself dream. Make a comprehensive list of behaviors you wish to change and goals you hope to accomplish. Then downsize, downsize, downsize. Look only for the activities that tie in directly to your main focus for the New Year. ORGANIZE — Weed out your interests and lock onto commitments Ken Blanchard says it best: "There's a difference between interest and commitment. When you're interested in doing something, you do it only when it is convenient. When you are committed to doing something, you accept no excuses, only results." From your scaled down list of self-improvements, toss out anything you aren't willing to put the time and effort into making a reality. Consider the commitments. Will you consistently devote time to them? Are they sustainable? SCHEDULE — Plan your life around your commitments What doesn't get scheduled doesn't happen. Prioritize your commitments. Refuse to compromise the resources and time you have allotted to them. Your commitments cannot be optional. The moment you allow yourself to push them to tomorrow, you've lost them. To read more, view the following link: http://www.leadershipdevelopment.com/main/html/magazine_results.html?article_id=222 _________________________________________________________________ ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE Language is an essential building block of organizational culture. So says Tamara Woodbury, CEO of the Girl Scouts— Arizona Cactus-Pine Council, Inc., in her recent article for "Leader to Leader", entitled "Building Organizational Culture— Word by Word." An organization's underlying culture influences its overall health and effectiveness by permeating the attitudes of its employees. These attitudes express themselves in individual morale, team dynamics, and client interactions. Cumulatively, they generate the "look-and-feel" or flavor of an organization. Once established, organizational culture creates momentum—both positive and negative, which drives the organization and is not easily counteracted. As Woodbury writes, "Organizational culture is possibly the most critical factor determining an organization's capacity, effectiveness, and longevity." Shared values are the bedrock of organizational culture. Building shared values depends on executive leadership's capacity to present a vision that employees can take ownership of and adopt as their own. As Woodbury observes, "People do not invest in the vision of a current or past leader; they invest in their own vision." The challenge for leadership is to communicate a compelling vision that appeals to the personal goals and desires of its employees. Communication is crucial to engender shared values, and language is a powerful promoter of mission and vision. In assessing the organizational culture of the Girl Scouts, Tamara Woodbury analyzed the language of the four-page introductory brochure given to volunteers. In the brochure the words, must, mandatory, and required popped up an astonishing total of 84 times. According to Woodbury, "In our zeal to promote the health and safety of girls, we had unknowingly used command-and-control language that implicitly communicated that we did not trust our volunteers to make their own decisions in the best interest of girls." To enact change, the Girl Scouts' leadership carefully crafted communication with language appealing to the expressed desires of their volunteer leaders: Trust, love, responsibility, inclusiveness, integrity, and fun. Embedding shared values into culture is aided by the repetitive usage of a new vocabulary that pervades an organization's language and becomes a dominant theme throughout its communication. In the words of Woodbury, "Leaders must not only walk the talk—they must also talk the talk, being ever conscious of the language they use in their speech and their writing." Language boils down core values into tangible words and phrases that can be reiterated in meetings, project initiatives, and employee development programs. As core values become ingrained into the speech of an organization, they begin to affect and reinforce behaviors, and gradually entrench themselves into the organizational culture. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Book Review ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CONNECTING TO SUCCESS Never Eat Alone…And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time By Keith Ferrazzi with Tahl Raz (Random House, 2005) "Never Eat Alone" takes the negative perception of networking and turns it on its head. Laying out a compelling case for the all- important ability to build, maintain, enjoy, and benefit through relationships, Ferrazzi's writing is rich with personal experience, strengthened by story after story, and replete with practical advice. To many, the word "networking" connotes flattery or schmoozing for self-advancement. Ferrazzi offers a much more upbeat and affirmative view: "I didn't think of it [networking] as cold and impersonal. I was, instead, connecting—sharing my knowledge and resources, time and energy, friends and associates, and empathy and compassion in a continual effort to provide value to others, while coincidentally increasing my own." To Ferrazzi, success is less a product of natural talent, financial capital, or academic pedigree, than it is the upshot of a wealth of personal and professional connections. To this end, "Never Eat Alone" gives guidance to master small talk, relational follow-up, cold calls, mentoring relationships, casual interactions, and more. From a comprehensive Network Action Plan to advice on the best way to host dinner parties, readers are supplied with ample pointers to practice Ferrazzi's people principles. "Leadership Wired" subscribers may find Chapters 23 and 24 especially interesting, in which Ferrazzi explores the concept of building and broadcasting a personal brand. Ferrazzi's approach to networking places a high value on generosity. "Real networking was about finding ways to make other people more successful. It was about working hard to give more than you get." To him, networking is not done in an attitude of personal promotion, but rather a genuine concern to promote others. "It's better to give before you receive. And never keep score. If your interactions are ruled by generosity, your rewards will follow suit." Ferrazzi goes beyond endorsing networking as a good skill to embracing it as a way of life. His business philosophy centers upon pursuing and nurturing relationships. "No tabulation of dollars and cents can account for one immutable fact: Business is a human enterprise, driven and determined by people." The consummate networker, Keith Ferrazzi has been honored as one of "Crain's" "40 Under 40" and chosen as a Global Leader for Tomorrow by the Davos World Economic Forum. His content has been featured in "Harvard Business Review", Inc., and the "Wall Street Journal". In an increasingly interdependent world, his message in "Never Eat Alone" stands out as particularly timely and instructive. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Quick Quotes ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ HOLD ON TO HOPE "If you lose hope, somehow you lose the vitality that keeps life moving, you lose that courage to be, that quality that helps you go on in spite of it all. And so today I still have a dream." - Martin Luther King, Jr. "We judge a man's wisdom by his hope." - Ralph Waldo Emerson "Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all." - Dale Carnegie _________________________________________________________________ Leadership Wired is written by Dr. John C. Maxwell and is available via e-mail on a free subscription basis. You can subscribe at: www.INJOY.com/Newsletters. Questions about document transmission or editorial comments? Contact mailto:feedback@INJOY.com. Visitors may use the information contained in this e-newsletter by placing the following credit line: "This article is used by permission from Dr. John C. Maxwell's free monthly e-newsletter 'Leadership Wired' available at www.INJOY.com." This information cannot be used for resale in any manner. Copyright (c) 2006, INJOY, Inc.