– Leaders Understand That Activity Is Not Necessarily Accomplishment

(DAY 17 – The 21 Day Leadership Challenge)

Leaders are busy. And some things are more important than other things. Put together a list of everything you have to do and prioritize it from most important to least.

Dig into it:

• Leaders never advance to a point where they no long need to prioritize.

• Busyness does not equal productivity. Activity is not necessarily accomplishment. Prioritizing requires leaders to continually think ahead, to know what’s important, to see how everything relates to the overall vision.

• The Pareto Principle – if you focus your attention on the activities that rank in the top 20 percent in terms of importance, you have an 80 percent return on your effort. For example if you 100 customers, the top 20 will provide you 80% of your business, so focus on them.

• The Three R’s – requirement, return and reward. Leaders must order their lives according to these three questions:

1. What is Required? Any list of priorities must begin with what is required of us. The question to ask yourself is, “What must I do that nobody can or should do for me?” If I’m doing something that is not necessary, I should eliminate it. If I’m doing something that’s necessary but not required of me personally, I need to delegate it.

2. What Gives the Greatest Return? As a leader, you should spend most of your time working in your areas of greatest strength. Ideally, leaders should get out of their comfort zone but stay in their strength zone. My rule of thumb: If something can be done 80 percent as well by someone else, I delegate it.

3. What Brings the Greatest Reward? Life is too short not to do the things you love. Your personal interests energize you and keep you passionate. And passion provides the fuel in your life to keep you going.

– Momentum Is a Leader’s Best Friend

(DAY 16 – The 21 Day Leadership Challenge)

Momentum is capital. With every success, you build momentum that makes the next success easier. Take something small and use its success to do something bigger.

Dig into it:

• If you’ve got all the passion, tools and people you need to fulfill a great
• vision, yet you can’t seem to get your organization moving and going in the right direction, you’re dead in the water as a leader. If you can’t get things going, you will not succeed. You need to harness the power of the leader’s best friend – momentum.

• When you have no momentum, even the simplest tasks seem impossible.

• On the other hand, when you have momentum on your side, the future looks bright, and obstacles appear small. An organization with momentum is like a train that’s moving at sixty miles per hour.

• Truths About Momentum

a) Momentum is the Great Exaggerator – momentum is like a magnifying glass; it makes things look bigger than they really are. Because momentum has such a great impact, leaders try to control it. When you have momentum, you don’t worry about small problems and many larger ones seem to work themselves out.

b) Momentum Makes Leaders Look Better Than They Are – When leaders have momentum on their side, people forget about their past mistakes. Once a leader creates some success for his organization, people give him more credit than he deserves. Momentum exaggerates a leader’s success and makes him look better than he really is.

c) Momentum Helps Followers Perform Better Than They Are – When momentum is strong, people are motivated to perform at higher levels, making all participants more successful than they would be otherwise.

d) Momentum Is Easier to Steer Than to Start – Getting started is a struggle, but once you’re moving forward, you can really start to do some amazing things.

e) Momentum Is the Most Powerful Change Agent – Given enough momentum, nearly any kind of change is possible in an organization. Followers trust leaders with a proven track record. They accept changes from people when they have led them to victory before. Momentum puts victory within reach.

f) Momentum is the Leader’s Responsibility – It takes a leader to create momentum. Followers can catch it. But creating momentum requires someone who has vision, can assemble a good team, and motivates others. If the leader is waiting for the organization to develop momentum on its own, then the organization is in trouble.

g) Momentum Begins Inside the Leader – It starts with vision, passion, and enthusiasm. The leader most model those qualities to his people day in and day out, which will attract like-minded people to his team. Once you see forward progress, you will begin to generate momentum. Once you have it, you can do almost anything. That’s the power of the Big Mo.

– Leaders Find a Way for the Team to Win

(DAY 15 – The 21 Day Leadership Challenge)

When something doesn’t work out, you learn something new. But it’s important not to start with that idea or else you might give in to it. Strive for nothing less than total victory today.

Dig into it:

• Victorious leaders have one thing in common: they share an unwillingness to accept defeat. The alternative to winning is totally unacceptable to them. As a result, they figure out what must be done to achieve victory.

• The best leaders feel compelled to rise to a challenge and do everything in their power to achieve victory for their people. In their view…

* Losing is unacceptable.

* Passion is unquenchable.

* Quitting is unthinkable.

* Commitment is unquestionable.

* Victory is inevitable.

• With that mindset, they embrace the vision and approach the challenges with the resolve to take their people to victory.

• Three factors that contribute to a team’s dedication to victory:

1. Unity of Vision – Teams succeed only when the players have a unified vision, no matter how much talent or potential there is.
2. Diversity of Skills – Every organization requires diverse talents to succeed.
3. A Leader Dedicated to Victory and Raising Players to Their Potential – Unity of vision doesn’t happen spontaneously. The right players with the proper diversity of talent don’t come together on their own. It takes a leader to make those things happen. It takes a leader to provide the motivation, empowerment, and direction required to win.

• Leaders who practice the Law of Victory believe that anything less than success is unacceptable. And they have Plan B. That is why they keep fighting. And it’s why they continue to win.

• How dedicated are you to winning the “fight”? Are you going to have the Law of Victory in your corner as you lead? Or when times get difficult, are you going to throw in the towel? Your answer to that question may determine whether you succeed or fail as a leader and whether your team wins or loses.

– People Buy into the Leader, Then the Vision

(DAY 14 – The 21 Day Leadership Challenge)

You believe in someone’s ideas after you already believe in the person. Practice selling YOU instead of just your ideas.

Dig into it:

• The leader finds the dream and then the people. The people find the leader and then the dream. That’s how the Law of Buy-In works.

• People don’t at first follow worthy causes. They follow worthy leaders who promote worthy causes they can believe in. People buy into the leader first, then the leader’s vision.
• As a leader, having a great vision and a worthy cause is not enough to get people to follow you. You have to become a better leader; you must get your people to buy into you. That is the price you have to pay if you want your vision to have a chance of becoming reality. You cannot ignore the Law of Buy-In and remain successful as a leader.

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

– People Do What People See

(DAY 13 – The 21 Day Leadership Challenge)

Leaders create followers. Great leaders create other leaders. Start being a leadership mentor to someone today.

Dig into it:

• When leaders show the way with their right actions, their followers copy their good example and succeed.

• Great leaders are both highly visionary and highly practical. Their vision helps them see beyond the immediate. They can envision what’s coming and what must be done. Leaders possess an understanding how:

* Mission provides purpose – answering the question, Why?

* Vision provides a picture – answering the question, What?

* Strategy provides a plan – answering the question, How?

• As author Hans Finzel observed, “Leaders are paid to be dreamers. The higher you go in leadership, the more your work is about the future.”

• As you strive to become a better example to your followers, remember these things.

a) Followers Are Always Watching What You Do – Just as children watch their parents and emulate their behavior, so do employees watch their bosses. If the boss comes in late, then employees feel they can too. Nothing is more convincing than living out what you say you believe.

b) It’s Easier to Teach What’s Right Than to Do What’s Right – Nothing is more convincing than people who give good advice and set a good example.

c) We Should Work on Changing Ourselves Before Trying to Improve Others – A great danger to good leadership is the temptation to try to change others without first making changes to yourself. To remain a credible leader, you must always work first, hardest and longest on changing yourself; this is essential. If we work on improving ourselves our primary mission, then others are more likely to follow.

d) The Most Valuable Gift a Leader Can Give Is Being a Good Example – More than anything else, employees want leaders whose beliefs and actions line up. Leadership is more caught than taught. How does one “catch” leadership? By watching good leaders in action.

– Only Secure Leaders Give Power to Others

(DAY 12 – The 21 Day Leadership Challenge)

To build a team, you have to give other people ownership of what they’re doing. You have to let them lead. Empower someone else and let them lead.

Dig into it:

• If you want to be successful, you have to be willing to empower others.

• Theodore Roosevelt once said: “The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and the self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it.

• When leaders fail to empower others, it is usually due to three main reasons:

1. Desire for Job Security – The number one enemy of empowerment is the fear of losing what we have. Weak leaders worry that if they help subordinates, they themselves will become dispensable. Rather they should realize that if the teams they lead always seem to succeed, people will figure out that they are leading them well.

2. Resistance to Change – Most people don’t like change. As a leader, you must train yourself to embrace change, to desire it, to make a way for it. Effective leaders are not only willing to change; they become change agents.

3. Lack of Self-Worth – Self-conscious people are rarely good leaders. They focus on themselves, worrying how they look, what others think, whether they are liked. They can’t give power to others because they feel that they have no power themselves. The best leaders have a strong self-worth. They believe in themselves, their mission and their people.

• Strange as it sounds, great leaders gain authority by giving it away. If you aspire to be a great leader, you must live by the Law of Empowerment.

– A Leader’s Potential Is Determined by Those Closest to Him

(DAY 11 – The 21 Day Leadership Challenge)

Every leader has an inner circle of people they trust and rely on. Inner circle people have great talents and vision of their own. Better than yours in some things. Start building your inner circle.

Dig into it:

• Nobody does anything great alone, nor do leaders succeed alone. What makes the difference is the leader’s inner circle

• As you consider whether individuals should be in your inner circle, ask yourself the following questions. If you can answer yes to these questions, then they are excellent candidates for your inner circle:

1. Do They Have High Influence with Others? – One key to successful leadership is the ability to influence the people who influence others. How do you do that? By drawing influencers into your inner circle.

2. Do They Bring a Complementary Gift to the Table? – Bring a few key people into my inner circle who possess strengths in your areas of weakness.

3. Do They Hold a Strategic Position in the Organization? – Some people belong in your inner circle because of their importance to the organization. If you and they are not working on the same page, the entire organization is in trouble.

4. Do They Add Value to Me and to the Organization? – The people in your inner circle must add value to you personally. They should also have a proven track record as assets to the organization. Seek for your inner circle people who help you improve.

5. Do They Positively Impact Other Inner Circle Members? – Team chemistry is vital. You want your inner circle to have a good fit with one another. You also want inner circle members to make one another better, to raise one another’s game.

• Once you’ve reached your capacity in time and energy, the only way you can increase your impact is through others. Surround yourself with high performers that extend your influence beyond your reach and help you to grow and become a better leader.

– Leaders Touch a Heart Before They Ask for a Hand

(DAY 10 – The 21 Day Leadership Challenge)

Remember, without people there’s nothing there. Network and really connect with someone today.

Dig into it:

• For leaders to be effective, they need to connect with people. All great leaders recognize this truth and act on it almost instinctively. You can’t move people to action unless you first move them with emotion.

• “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” You develop credibility with people when you connect with them and show that you genuinely care and want to help them. And as a result, they usually respond in kind and want to help you.

• How do you connect with people?

1. Connect with Yourself – If you don’t believe in who you are and where you want to lead, work on that before doing anything else.

2. Communicate with Openness and Sincerity – People can smell a phony a mile away. Authentic leaders connect.

3. Know Your Audience – When you work with individuals, knowing your audience means learning people’s names, finding out their histories, asking about their dreams. When you communicate to an audience, you learn about the organization and its goals. You want to speak about what they care about.

4. Live Your Message – Practice what you preach. That’s were credibility comes from.

5. Go to Where They Are – Remove as many barriers to communication as possible. Try to be attuned to their culture, background, education, and so on. Adapt to others; don’t expect them to adapt to me.

6. Focus on Them, Not Yourself – Focus on others, not yourself. That is the number one problem of inexperienced speakers and ineffective leaders.

7. Believe in Them – It’s one thing to communicate to people because you believe you have something of value to say. It’s another to communicate with people because you believe they have value. People’s opinions of us have less to do with what they see in us than with what we can help them see in themselves.

8. Give Them Hope – French general Napoleon Bonaparte said, “Leaders are dealers in hope.” When you give people hope, you give them a future.

• Successful leaders who obey the Law of Connection are always initiators. They take the first step with others and then make the effort to continue building relationships. It’s not always easy, but it’s important to the success of the organization. A leader has to do it, no matter how many obstacles there might be.

• You connect with others when you learn their names, make yourself available to them, tell them how much you appreciate them, find out what they are doing, and most important, listen to them.

• There’s an old saying: To lead yourself, use your head; to lead others, use your heart. That’s the nature of the Law of Connection. Always touch a person’s heart before you ask for a hand.

– Who You Are Is Who You Attract

(DAY 9 – The 21 Day Leadership Challenge)

Leaders attract people like a magnet. And good leaders always attract the right people to get the job done. What kind of people do you need to attract? Figure out how you can do that.

Dig into it:

• In most situations, you draw people to you who possess the same qualities you do.

• Who you are is who you attract. If you want to attract better people, become the kind of person you desire to attract.

– 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.