The greatness of any organization is built on the motivation and inspiration of it’s people to achieve the vision and goals. If there are no people there is no organization, company or community. There is no need for leadership. Leadership is required when you have a group of people working together to achieve a goal. Leaders who focus on inspiring their people to stretch their personal and professional growth create the kind of synergy that is necessary a forward focused company or organization.

“A leader is best when people barely know (s)he exists. When her/his work is done, her/his aim fulfilled, they will say ‘we did it ourselves.’” – Lao Tzu

“The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you.” – Max DePree

The piece de resistance to creating their success is to maintain line of sight on the vision and very clear goals. Your ability to keep the goal in front of the team is integral. This has to be done in casual conversations, formal presentations and in all communications. It is very easy to lose sight of the vision and goals in the busyness of business.

Once they achieve their goal… “thank you” has an amazing impact on people.

Keep the focus on their success and you will create the positive synergy you need for any initiative.

Lead by Creating Success for Others!

Bobbie Goheen

To be a leader is to trust change. This perhaps is one of the most critical attributes to learn that it is not about trusting others or yourself it is about trusting the nature of life and that it will evolve and change.

“True, trust necessarily carries with it uncertainties, but we must force ourselves to think about these uncertainties as possibilities and opportunities, not liabilities.” Robert C. Solomon

The leaders who get this are able to make quantum leaps for themselves and their organizations. Consider any great leader you esteem and you will find them on the edge of change. They are out leading and living on the horizon reminding others of the goal, the vision, the future. These leaders have learned to be tolerant of mistakes of others knowing it will grow better leaders and create a stronger future. This is perhaps the true risk leaders take and that is the ability to allow people to make mistakes and fix them. When people fix their own mistakes it makes them stronger and better for the organization.

“Trust is a skill, one that is an aspect of virtually all human practices, cultures, and relationships.” Robert C. Solomon

To be a leader that “manages with the movement” and leads from the front you have to be able to get out of the way. This is not always easy and here are three practices that support you in allowing others to support the vision and goal:

Grow! – Peter Drucker said, “if you not growing you are shrinking.” Decide you will focus on growth and KEEP your eye and activities on this goal. As your organization grows so too must you and your team. This is the kind of environment that engages and inspires people to their personal best because they have the opportunity to grow. Some of you may say to me, “well some people don’t want to change or grow”, and that is just not true…everybody grows, you just have to help them understand the why.

Give! – give away responsibility and accountability. The better you do this, the more you and your organization grow. Stay away from the trap that nobody will do it as well as you do… it is just not true. If you have people who show the capacity to handle responsibility expand their levels of responsibilities and allow them the ability to manage the resources to accomplish the goals. Keep this focus going so you have more people who are capable to expand with you.

“It is easy to love people when they smell good, but sometimes they slip into the manure of life and smell awful. You must love them just as much when they smell foul.” Wayne Dyer

Stop It! – don’t second guess their decisions. Focus on the goal. Their path maybe different and they will still get there. Do not undermine their decisions with your doubt, your goal is to build confident leaders. Will they make mistakes, yes… and always remember this quote from Warren Bennis, “Leaders who take risks make one or two big mistakes a year. Leaders who don’t take risks, make one or two big mistakes a year.” Do not hen peck them when a mistake is made…instead lead them by asking them what they learned, how they are going to correct it, and are there any new opportunities that have emerged because of the situation. Remember the best creative ideas have come from mistakes or tough situations.

“Trust opens up new and unimagined possibilities.” — Robert C. Solomon

Remember as a leader your job is to see the future, the goal, the possibility and let others build the road to that future. You must continue to communicate a compelling and powerful future through your passion and belief in their ability to make it happen. When you doubt them they doubt themselves and the future.

“If you want to build a ship, don’t herd people together to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Believe in your ability to show a compelling future for you and your organization and than get out of the way.

Trust the movement,

Bobbie Goheen

Can it be taught…no. It must be discovered through life experience …if you did not retain it from your childhood. We are all born with fabulous instincts and part of our socialization process muffles the voice of intuition and instinct.

“He did not arrive at this conclusion by the decent process of quiet, logical deduction, nor yet by the blinding flash of glorious intuition, but by the shoddy, untidy process halfway between the two by which one usually gets to know things.” Margery Allingham

Once you begin to look for your intuition and instincts….you will find it.

“Instinct is the nose of the mind.” Madame De Girardin

Here are some ways to find your intuition:

1. Track the moments where you said “I should have listened to my instincts.” or “I should have trusted my gut.”

2. If you get a sense you should do something “follow it” without expectation and stay curious

3. Begin to use the words “I sense” “I sense this might be a good place to eat” or “I sense this may be a good direction to take” or “I sense we should discuss these two points before we make a final decision.”

4. Track how the moments where you “listen to your instincts, intuition, or gut” and note what happens.

Practicing these few steps will excavate your intuition and expand your choices and experiences in all aspects of your life.

To lead well there points where you are required to make decisions based on intuition and to do this well you must hone this skill by figuring out how to “follow” it.

“The only real valuable thing is intuition.” Albert Einstein

If you want to trust your instincts/intuition all the time you have to learn to “follow” them all the time.

Follow your inner voice,

Bobbie

To lead teams in multi locations takes open-mindedness and clear goals. Leaders who are able to maintain a fresh view on life and the world are the best people for this type of assignment. The ability to lead teams across the multi locations and/or the world requires the following:

“Conflict is inevitable in a team … in fact, to achieve synergistic solutions, a variety of ideas and approaches are needed. These are the ingredients for conflict.”
Susan Gerke

Solution Thinking - because of different time zones and cultures it takes patience, resiliency, and ingenuity to find places, times and ways to connect. Having the mindset to focus on “how to make this work…”, “I wonder if there is a better way…”, “Could we explore….”, are all the right beginnings to finding new solutions. Finding solutions are not a straight path, it takes being comfortable in ambiguity or conflict until an answer which meets the needs of the many appears. The ability to stay engaged with others during ambiguity or conflict is critical to building team and good solutions.

“A group becomes a team when each member is sure enough of himself/herself and her/his contribution to praise the skills of the others.” Norman Shidle

Commit to connect…a lot - the teams that thrive across the world are the ones who commit to regular and consistent connection as a team and as individuals. Face-to-face is always best, Skype or FaceTime are next best, phone is the option if the other two are not an option. All the other electronic mediums are weak tools to building real connection.

Conflict is It! - expect it, there is no way to work around conflict and it happens even more in a multi-location and cultural company. Those who work in these environment have to get very good at sensing conflict and learning to work with it. Ignoring conflict or using it for your benefit will harm the team and it’s success.

“Gettin’ good players is easy. Gettin’ ‘em to play together is the hard part.” – Casey Stengel

Build Trust – Commit to keeping the team in the loop on long term vision and goals regularly (even when it does not seem big to you, it is important to all), make time for team building activities (taking the time to bond strengthens short and long term performance…every time), engage and involve the team on designing new solutions or changes for the company and organization, encourage (and expect) personal contact and communication among all members, and have quarterly meetings which bring the players together in one room.

Leading a world wide team is not for the faint hearted or the arrogant. The type of leader who excels at this has the ability to be flexible, open minded, goal oriented, intelligent, solution oriented, non judgmental, opportunistic, aware, engaged, and invigorated in the face of ambiguity and conflict.

“Real teams don’t emerge unless individuals on them take risks involving conflict, trust, interdependence and hard work.” Katzenbach & Smith

“Attributes of successful world team players – agile with new technologies,
adept at learning new methods, processes, concepts and ideas, curious about different cultures, able to travel to different sites and countries, responsive to customer needs, and they are autonomous and don’t want anyone looking over their shoulder.” Center for Creative Leadership

If you are a leader that is looking to grow and learn… than join others on this new frontier of global leadership and find yourself changed and honed to a new level of leadership.

“You can’t change others, you can change yourself, and when you change yourself….you change the world.”

Take the Challenge,

Bobbie

As leaders we are presented everyday with situations that are described by others as “impossible” and yet we find a way through. What allows the impossible to be possible is simply based on the leader’s ability to listen to all those who are telling you why it can’t happen and what the obstacles are to achieving the impossible. Once you understand all the parameters of an impossible situation you can find a way through. The ability to listen to all the concerns and face reality is fundamental and critical to making the impossible possible.

“Nothing is impossible, the word itself says ‘I’m possible’!” — Audrey Hepburn

Making the impossible possible requires a mindset that says, “there is a way through”. If you do not have this world view than anything impossible remains so…

“There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.” Paulo Coelho

The achievement of making the impossible possible only requires one thing… you will have to change, you will have to shift your own mind-set, and you will have to move forward in a new way. Below are the requirements and considerations for moving in a new direction:

Define the new and impossible future clearly

Who do I want to surround myself with to get feedback to be the best possible leader to achieve the desired outcome?

As a leader once you shift into new skills and actions the movement towards achievement of the impossible starts. The more you operate in the impossible future state, so too do those around you.

I have personally done this many times in my life time and I get the good fortune to help others to move into the impossible everyday. The ability to move beyond our comfort zone and into the impossible strengthens our core skills as leaders to move mountains.

“It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.” – Walt Disney

Go ahead, think big and start moving in the direction of your dreams,

Bobbie Goheen

“Why?”, you ask…

Because Leaders may not have all the knowledge of where they are going, but they do have knowledge of how to learn and grow in any situation. Leaders are not afraid of making mistakes, in fact they are afraid they won’t make one ….which means they have grown complacent.

“It was when I found out I could make mistakes that I knew I was on to something.” ~Ornette Coleman

Making mistakes are a true and bold sign of learning and growth. Once you get the hang of it you see the value in being wrong or your concepts not quite working…it means you are in the place of growth, objectivity, inspection and learning. Mistakes are a clear sign of forward movement.

“While one person hesitates because he feels inferior, the other is busy making mistakes and becoming superior.” ~Henry C. Link

It easy to stand in “the spectator seats” and observe what others are doing wrong. It is harder and more rewarding to be on “the playing field” making mistakes and finding a path forward. You have to decide what do you want to be a “spectator” or a “player”?

The choice is up to you. One choice has less personal impact and keeps you comfortable….the other choice will keep you in the game, you will rarely be comfortable, and you will certainly say “ouch” more than just a few times.

Make your choice….. “comfort” or “ouch”?

Engage,

Bobbie Goheen

The best ideas take hard work. That is why passion for an idea, concept, etc is so critical for it is the energy which fuels the work. To be passionate about an idea means you will have:

The drive to make it happen.

The drive to engage others in the process.

The drive to keep with it when others keep pointing out all the hard work and problems there are with your idea.

In the movie “The Field of Dreams” there is a quote “If you build it they will come”. What the movie infers but never says “you have to build it and market it” for others to come. Watch it again with new eyes.

The passion and drive to see something come to life takes work. The self development and growth you will experience is exponential. You will be changed, you will grow and you will be ripe for the next opportunity.

“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” Thomas Edison

Finally, the truth is opportunity becomes reality through hard work and focusing on what needs to be done to make it happen. That labor may be doing things you don’t want to do and yet you need to do. To accept this early on unleashes the unimaginable strength of the leader.

“There are a lot of things that go into creating success. I don’t like to do just the things I like to do. I like to do things that cause the company to succeed. I don’t spend a lot of time doing my favorite activities.” Michael Dell

Now the secret is out between average and extraordinary… it is hard work.

Go Ahead Sweat Success,

Bobbie Goheen

“I took the risk.
I discovered who I was.
I changed.
I grew.
I learned.
I was an adventurer.”

To choose growth is to choose risk.

What risk are you holding back from that is in alignment with your true self?
What conversation do you need to have with yourself that you have been holding back on?
What would you do if you accepted this premise “I cannot fail, I can only learn and grow”?
Why should you choose growth which will stretch you and make you uncomfortable?
Why would you choose a path that is not comfortable or convenient?

Share your thoughts when you are ready.

Leap,

Bobbie Goheen