The law of intuition

Leaders Evaluate Everything with a Leadership Bias


(DAY 8 – The 21 Day Leadership Challenge)

With experience, you’ll build great instincts. Leaders go with their gut many times because they need to make quick decisions. Practice making quick decisions using your intuition.

Dig into it:

  • The Law of Intuition is based on facts coupled with instincts plus other intangible factors, such as employee morale, organizational momentum, and relationship dynamics.
  • The Law of Intuition often separates the great leaders from the merely good ones.
  • Leadership intuition is the ability of a leader to read what’s going on. For that reason, I say that leaders are readers:

1. Leaders Are Readers of Their Situation – leaders pick up on details that might elude others. They sense people’s attitudes. They are able to detect the chemistry of a team. They know the situation before they have all the facts.

2. Leaders Are Readers of Trends – leaders discern where the organization is headed, often times they sense it first and find data later to explain it. Their intuition tells them that something is happening, that conditions are changing. Leaders must always be a few steps ahead of their people, or they’re not really leading.

3. Leaders Are Readers of Their Resources – leaders think in terms or resources and how to maximize them for the benefit of their organization. They are continually aware of what they have at their disposal.

4. Leaders Are Readers of People – Intuition helps leaders sense what’s happening among people and know their hopes, fears and concerns. Reading people is perhaps the most important intuitive skill leaders can possess.

5. Leaders are Readers of Themselves – leaders must know not only their own strengths and weaknesses, but also their current state of mind. Why? Because leaders can hinder progress just as easily as they can help create it.

  • Without intuition, leaders get blindsided, and that’s one of the worst things that can happen to a leader. If you want to lead well, and stay ahead of others, you’ve got to obey the Law of Intuition.

 

 

The law of respect

People Naturally Follow Leaders Stronger Than Themselves


(DAY 7 – The 21 Day Leadership Challenge)

Loyalty and respect take trust a step further. Think about who you would follow no matter where they wanted to go. And why.

Dig into it:

  • People naturally follow leaders stronger than themselves. That’s how the Law of Respect works.
  • People don’t follow others by accident. People who are an 8 in leadership don’t look for a 6 to follow – they naturally follow a 9 or 10. The less skilled follow the more highly skilled and gifted.
  • Occasionally, a strong leader may choose to follow someone weaker than himself. But when that happens, it’s for a reason. For example, the stronger leader my do it out of respect for the person’s office or past accomplishments. Or he may be following the chain of command. In general though, followers are attracted to people who are better leaders than themselves.
  • When people get together for the first time in a group, take a look at what happens. As they start interacting, the leaders in the group immediately take charge. But after the people get to know one another, it doesn’t take long for them to recognize the strongest leaders and to start following them.
  • In time, people in the group get on board and follow the strongest leaders. Either that or they leave the group to pursue their own agenda.
  • Top Six Ways That Leaders Gain Others’ Respect

1. Natural Leadership Ability – if you possess it, people will want to follow you. They will become excited when you communicate vision.

2. Respect For Others – when leaders show respect for others – especially for people who have less power or a lower position than theirs – they gain respect from others. If you continually respect others and consistently lead them well, you will continue to have followers.

3. Courage – Good leaders do what’s right, even at the risk of failure, in the face of great danger and under the brunt of relentless criticism. Can you think of one great leader from history who was without courage? A leader’s courage gives his followers hope.

4. Success – When leaders succeed in leading the team to victory, then followers believe they can do it again. As a result, followers follow them because they want to be part of success in the future.

5. Loyalty – When leaders stick with the team until the job is done and look out for their followers best interests even when it hurts them personally, followers will in turn learn to respect them.

6. Value Added to Others – Followers value leaders who add value to them and their respect for them carries on long after the relationship has ended.

The law of solid ground

Trust Is the Foundation of Leadership


(DAY 6 – The 21 Day Leadership Challenge)

Leaders build trust. Spend some time today building or strengthening the trust that someone has in you.

Dig into it:

  • Trust is the foundation of leadership. It is the most important thing. Leaders cannot repeatedly break trust with people and continue to influence them.
  • Your people know when you make mistakes. The real question is whether you’re going to fess up. If you do, you can often regain their trust.
  • How does a leader build trust? By consistently exemplifying competence, connection and character. People will forgive occasional mistakes on ability. And they will give you time to connect. But they won’t trust someone who has slips in character.
  • Character Communicates – a person’s character quickly communicates many things to others. Here are the most important ones:

* Character Communicates Consistency – leaders without inner strength can’t be counted on day after day because their ability to perform changes constantly.

* Character Communicates Potential – weak character is limiting. Who do you think has the greater potential to achieve great dreams: someone who is honest, disciplined, and hardworking or someone who is deceitful, impulsive and lazy?

* Character Communicates Respect – When you don’t have character within, you can’t earn respect without. How do leaders earn respect? By making sound decisions, by admitting their mistakes, and by putting what’s best for their followers and the organization ahead of their personal agendas.

  • No leader can break trust with his people and expect to keep influencing them. Trust is the foundation of leadership. Violate the Law of Solid Ground, and you diminish your influence as a leader.

The law of E. F. Hutton

(In the 2008 eddition it´s called: The law of Addition)

Leaders Add Value by Serving Others


(DAY 5 – The 21 Day Leadership Challenge)

This law is taken from the old commercials “When E. F. Hutton speaks, people listen”. Find someone who’s a stronger leader than you are. Now just listen.

Dig into it:

  • Adding Profits by Adding Value – Costco’s CEO, Jim Sinegal, believes the success of Costco comes from treating his employees well.

* Costco employees are paid an average of 42% more than the company’s chief rival and they also receive generous health care coverage.

* Sinegal shows he cares and respects his employees – he has an open-door policy. He is on a first-name basis with everyone.

* Sinegal’s salary is well below what other CEO’s of similar size company’s make because he is more focused on serving his employees than making an exorbitant salary.

* The result: Costco has by far the lowest employee turnover rate in all of retailing.

  • The bottom line in leadership isn’t how far we advance ourselves but how far we advance others.
  • There is one critical question: Are you making things better for the people who follow you?

* If you can’t answer with an unhesitant yes, then you likely aren’t.

* 90% of all people who add value to others do so intentionally. Why do I say that? Because human beings are naturally selfish. Being an adder requires me to think about adding value to others.

  • Adding Value, Changing Lives – four guidelines for adding value to others.

1. Truly Value Others – effective leaders go beyond not harming others, they intentionally help others. They must value people and demonstrate they care in such a way that their followers know it.

2. Make Yourself More Valuable To Others – the more intentionally you have been in growing personally, the more you have to offer your followers.

3. Know and Relate to What Others Value – this can only come by listening to your people’s stories, their hopes and dreams. Learn what is valuable to them and then lead based on what you’ve learned.

4. Do Things That God Values – God desires us not only to treat people with respect, but also to actively reach out to them and serve them.

  • The attitude of the leader affects the atmosphere of the office. If you desire to add value by serving others, you will become a better leader. And your people will achieve more, develop more loyalty, and have a better time getting things done than you ever thought possible. That’s the power of the Law of Addition.

The law of navigation

Anyone Can Steer the Ship, but It Takes a Leader to Chart the Course


(DAY 4 – The 21 Day Leadership Challenge)

Setting goals is important. Navigation takes it one step further because you’re plotting a course of actions that take you to the goal. Define a goal for yourself and plot a course to reach it.

 

Dig into it:

  • First-rate navigators always have in mind that other people are depending on them and their ability to chart a good course.
  • Before good leaders take their people on a journey, they go through a process in order to give the trip the best chance of being a success:

Navigators Draw on Past Experience – every
past success and failure you’ve experienced can be a valuable source of information and wisdom. Success teaches you what you’re capable of doing and gives you confidence. However, your failures can often teach greater lessons, if you allow them to. If you fail to learn from your mistakes, you’re going to fail again and again.

Navigators Examine the Conditions Before Making Commitments – No good leader plans a course of action without paying attention to current conditions. Good navigators count the cost before making commitments for themselves and others.

Navigators Listen To What Others Have to Say – Navigating leaders get ideas from many sources. They listen to members of their leadership team. They spend time with leaders of other organizations who can mentor them. They always think in terms of relying on a team, not just themselves.

Navigators Make Sure Their Conclusions Represent Both Faith and Fact – A leader has to possess a positive attitude. If you can’t confidently make the trip in your mind, you’re not going to be able to take it in real life. On the other hand, you also have to be able to see the facts realistically. If you don’t go in with your eyes wide open, you’re going to get blindsided. Balancing optimism and realism, faith and fact can be very difficult.

  • Charting A Course with A Navigation Strategy
    here’s an acrostic that the author used repeatedly in his leadership.

Predetermine a course of action.

Lay out your goals.

Adjust your priorities.

Notify key personnel.

Allow time for acceptance.

Head into action.

Expect problems.

Always point to the successes.

Daily review your plan.

  • The secret to the Law of Navigation is preparation. When you prepare well, you convey confidence and trust to people. Leaders who are good navigators are capable of taking their people just about anywhere.

 

 

 

The law of process

Leadership Develops Daily, Not in a Day


(DAY 3 – The 21 Day Leadership Challenge)

Leaders use a process whenever they build something. It makes your ventures repeatable and scalable. Build a step-by-step process for doing something.

Dig into it:

  • Leaders require seasoning to be effective. If you continually invest in your leadership development, the inevitable is growth over time.
  • The relationship between growth and leadership: It’s the capacity to develop and improve one’s skills that distinguishes leaders from their followers.
  • Successful leaders are learners. And the learning process is ongoing, a result of self-discipline and perseverance.
  • The Phases of Leadership Growth

Phase 1: I Don’t Know What I Don’t Know – few think of themselves as leaders and as long as a person doesn’t know the importance of leadership he isn’t going to grow.

Phase 2: I Know That I Need to Know – at some point we discover we need to learn how to lead.

Phase 3: I Know What I Don’t Know – if we don’t get better at leadership, our careers will eventually get bogged down. In this phase you develop a plan for personal growth on areas you need improvement.

Phase 4: I Know and Grow and It Starts to Show – when you recognize your lack of skill and begin the daily discipline of personal growth, exciting things start to happen. You start becoming an effective leader but you have to think about every move you make.

Phase 5: I Simply Go Because of What I Know – your ability to lead becomes almost automatic. You develop great instincts which results in incredible payoffs. But the only way to get there is to obey the Law of Process and pay the price.

  • Benjamin Disraeli asserted, “The secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his time when it comes.”
  • There is an old saying: champions don’t become champions in the ring – they are merely recognized there. That’s true. If you want to see where someone develops into a champion, look at his daily routine.

 

MENTOR-model

The premier for a new tool, called the MENTOR-model was a success yesterday.
The MENTOR-model is a model for the whole meeting and would help mentors in their meetings with the mentee.

The participants also come up with several different ways to use the tool, and in ways I haven´t thought about.

Thank you!

The law of influence

The True Measure of Leadership is Influence – Nothing More, Nothing Less


(DAY 2 – The 21 Day Leadership Challenge)

Leadership is not about your title or position. It’s about leading. Can you lead in a situation where your title or position don’t matter? Practice some anonymous leading.

Dig into it:

  • True leadership cannot be awarded, appointed, or assigned. It comes only from influence, and that cannot be mandated. It must be earned.
  • Five Myths About Leadership

1. The Management Myth – that leading and managing are the same. Leadership is about influencing people to follow, while management focuses on maintaining systems and processes. Managers can maintain direction; to move people you need influence.

2. The Entrepreneur Myth – entrepreneurs are skilled at seeing opportunities and going after them. But not all of them are good with leading people in their vision.

3. The Knowledge Myth – neither IQ nor education necessarily equates to leadership.

4. The Pioneer Myth – being a trendsetter is not the same as being a leader. To be a leader, a person has to not only be out in front, but also has to have people following his lead.

5. The Position Myth – leadership is not based on rank or title. It’s not the position that makes the leader; it’s the leader that makes the position.

  • Several Factors That Make a Leader

a) Character – Who They Are – true leadership always begins with the inner person. People can sense the depth of a person’s character.

b) Relationships – Who They Know – with deep relationships with the right people you can become the real leader in an organization.

c) Knowledge – What They Know – information is vital. You need a grasp of the facts to develop an accurate vision for the future.

d) Intuition What They Feel – leaders seek to recognize and influence intangibles such as energy, morale, timing and momentum.

e) Experience Where They’ve Been – the greater your past challenges, the more likely followers will be willing to let you lead.

f) Ability – What They Can Do – the bottom line is followers want to know whether you can lead them to victory. As soon as they no longer believe you can deliver, they will stop following.

The law of the lid

Leadership Ability Determines a Person’s Level of Effectiveness


(DAY 1 – The 21 Day Leadership Challenge)

Every leader has a ceiling. Maybe you’re destined to be the supreme master of the universe or maybe you can’t even get your dog to come when you call him. Think about your leadership lid and what you can do to push it higher.

Dig into it:

  • Leadership ability is the lid that determines a person’s level of effectiveness. Your leadership ability always determines your effectiveness and the potential impact of your organization.
  • Let’s say you’re an 8 on a scale from 1 to 10. But let’s say that your leadership ability is a 1.
  • Let’s say you become a real student of leadership and you maximize your potential, taking it all the way up to a 7.
  • By raising your leadership ability – without increasing your dedication at all – you can increase your original effectiveness by 600 percent. Leadership has a multiplying effect.
  • Smart, talented people are able to go so far because of the limitations of their leadership. To reach the highest level of effectiveness, you have to raise your leadership lid.

The Norwegian Mentoring Program for youth

Evening Course II is a part of the Norwegian Mentor program (www.mentorprogrammet.no) facilitating the transfer of experience between the mentors and mentee.

The participants will receive training in practical tool that both could be useful in the mentor role, and in the work otherwise.

There will be room to discuss the management challenges and issues that have emerged along with the adept.

AND there will be revealed a new mentoring tool – The MENTOR Tool.

This will be fun, a lot of the mentors have I trained several times so they are getting better and better. BUT, there is always something to learn.