Tag Succeed

Leadership Intangibles 

Steve Keating 1 Comment

I was talking with a colleague a few days ago and they asked me about which of the “leadership intangibles” are most important to the success of a leader. I think my answer surprised them, it likely disappointed them as well. 

That’s because my answer was there are no leadership intangibles. None. Zip. Nada. 

Everything my colleague believed to be an intangible of leadership must in fact be vividly tangible. For instance, they believed that caring for their people was an intangible of effective leadership. 

It’s the exact opposite. Authentic Leaders stand ready to demonstrate, in every possible manner, that they care deeply about the people they lead. They live the principle that says, “you can care for people without leading them but you cannot lead them without caring for them.” While anyone in a leadership position can say they care about their people, Authentic Leaders have no need to say it, they are demonstrating it with every conversation and every interaction. 

Giving recognition was offered up as another intangible of leadership. It is not. Giving recognition is an intentional and very visible act. If your people don’t realize that you recognize their commitment and effort then it’s the same as not recognizing them at all. 

I literally recommend that leaders put reminders on their smart phones so that they don’t go a single day without providing recognition to at least one of their people. As publicly as possible. When a person in a leadership position tells me that can’t find a reason to recognize their people every day I suggest they look harder…or sometimes just look. Quality effort is waiting to be recognized and once it is, it becomes much more visible.

Leaders who are quick to publicly recognize their people also never publicly admonish them. They keep their constructive coaching private. That’s critical because their people know that if the leader will publicly throw one of their people under the bus they will likely throw any of them, or all of them, under the same bus. 

Integrity was suggested as the ultimate intangible of Authentic Leadership. I was particularly flummoxed with this suggestion. Integrity has been given many “definitions.” It is said to be doing the right thing even when no one is watching. It has been described as “acting in a way that benefits many people rather than yourself. 

I take no issue with most of the definitions I’ve seen for integrity. But here’s the thing, leaders lead by example whether they know it or not. Their people are always watching. One element of integrity is doing what you say you will do. When you said you would do it. How you said you would do it. EVERY single time. Authentic Leaders know that they either have integrity ALL THE TIME or they don’t have integrity any time. Their integrity is public, visible, intentional and very very tangible.

As an Authentic Leader you don’t get to have any “intangibles.” All your actions are on display for your people to see. They will eventually know your thoughts as well for those thoughts will become your actions sooner or later. 

You lead by example. You lead by example. You lead by example. Remember that, counting on “intangibles” to help you lead will result in very limited leadership. As a leader your qualities and characters are always on full display for your people to see. Make sure they are seeing your best ones. 

Want more of LeadToday? I’m changing things up on my Twitter feed for subscribers. Beginning March 2nd I’ll be publishing two videos each week focusing on an element of Authentic Leadership. I’ll post these videos each Tuesday and Thursday morning. They will be about 10 minutes long so we can get into the topic in a more meaningful way. The investment for subscribers in still only $5 a month. That’s for at least 80 MINUTES of quality video content on leadership a month. 

If you’re interested in taking a look just head on over to my Twitter profile page. If you’re not a follower yet just hit the follow button. It will change to a subscribe button and once you hit that you’re on your way. You can cancel at any time you’ve decided you have nothing left to learn about leading the people who you count on for your success. 🙂

Here’s the link to my Twitter… https://twitter.com/leadtoday 

The Engine of Success

Steve Keating 1 Comment

I used to do a lot of Goal Setting workshops for older kids with special needs. These were primarily high school age kids that for a variety of reasons were no longer able to go to school in the mainstream public education system. I was asked to do a Goal Setting session for one class and it went well enough that it turned into a long-term thing. 

While I was never paid for any of this work I was richly rewarded. From time to time I’ll still hear from one of these kids who aren’t kids anymore. They are adults now, often with kids of their own. It is the greatest compliment, and reward, that they still contact me for advice sometimes. 

But at first I was very frustrating for them. That’s because when I asked them about their goals their most frequent answer was “to be a success.” There are so many things wrong with that goal I hardly know where to begin.

First off it’s not even close to specific enough to be a real goal. I could put 100 people in a room and ask each of them for their definition of success. I might get 100 different answers. And not a one of them would be wrong. Success is and should be very personal.

If you’re going to claim that success is your goal then you’re first going to have to define exactly what success looks like to you. What it means. How it feels. How you will measure it. How you will know, with certainty, that you have reached it. And most of all, precisely what actions you are willing to undertake to achieve it. 

I’m okay with someone telling me that “success” is their ultimate goal but every daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, and longer range goal they have must get them closer to that success goal. That’s why it is so critical that the first step of the goal setting process involve defining exactly what success means to the goal setter. 

Goals are literally the engine of success. Like most engines, goals can be complicated. They have various parts that all need to work together in order to create the horsepower needed to reach the destination (success) in a timely manner. 

You cannot sit in a car with no engine (or battery these days) and just think about it taking you somewhere. You need a real engine. So it is with goals. You cannot merely think about setting some goals and expect to get somewhere. You need real goals. 

Goals in every area of your life. Goals that are written down. Goals that have a deadline to achieve them. Goals that are very specific. Goals that have a plan, a plan that states specifically what the goal setter will do every single day to ensure they get closer to one of the goals. If whatever you need to do today to get closer to one of your goals is not on your calendar then you’re not serious about it. If you didn’t do something yesterday to get closer to one of your goals then you may have been busy, even very busy, but I would suggest to you that you were NOT productive. 

Think about that. 

Many of you would tell me you’re too busy trying to get by to set and pursue goals. I would tell you that you’re too busy trying to get by because you don’t have true goals that motivate you, that drive you, towards greater success each day. 

Written goals quickly become priorities. When you have defined priorities in your life you discover that you have all the time you need to accomplish them. You’re no longer burning up time on the “stuff” that isn’t a priority in your life. 

Goals will harness the power that’s already within you to have whatever you want out of life. Without goals that power is wasted as you sit in neutral waiting for success to come to you. 

Don’t wait. Build your goal engine today. Yes, it will require lots of reflection and serious planning. But if you’re serious about success you’ll make those investments. If not, you’ll likely be waiting for success a long long time. 

The Will to Succeed or the Will to Prepare

Steve Keating 2 Comments

I don’t know if I’ve ever talked to someone who didn’t want to succeed. Even the most negative people, even people who are certain that they can’t succeed, want to succeed.

But most of them don’t succeed. If they all have the want to succeed then why don’t they? I think it’s because they lack the will to succeed.  So is having the will to succeed the “secret sauce” for success? Nope, it puts you in a better place then just having the want to succeed but not by much. 

I think the true key to ultimate long-term success is the will to prepare. 

Preparing means putting in effort, many times a ton of effort, with no immediate return for those efforts. 

A bunch of years ago after a particularly poor round of golf with my dad he convinced me that I really needed to focus on my short game. He was an excellent golfer and offered to help me with it. So one morning I called I said I had some time around lunch to do a little practice. I said “how about we meet at the practice range for an hour?” 

He replied if all I had was an hour then there was no point. He said 4 hours of practice at least a few times a week would be about right. I told him if I had 4 hours to spare I’d use it to play golf, not practice golf. He replied with some carefully worded comment about that might be why I suck at golf. 

He went on to say that every golfer “wants” to be good, but most aren’t “willing” to make the effort required to earn what they want.

I work with lots and lots of salespeople who want to sell more. Some even have to will to sell more, they make more calls, they see more people and they repeat the same mistakes again and again. They refuse to prepare for a sales call to maximize their opportunity with a prospect.  They decline to learn the art of selling, instead focusing on working more instead of working smarter. 

I see many people who really want to make a difference in the world by leading. But want doesn’t get it done. They struggle because that lack the will to make themselves an effective leader. They won’t invest a minute of their time in actual leadership training, many won’t even read a book a leadership. They don’t prepare to succeed as a leader and therefore they don’t succeed. 

What about you? I can safely say you want to be more successful. You may have the will to be more successful but do you have the will to prepare for success? Abraham Lincoln once said “If I only had an hour to chop down a tree, I would spend the first 45 minutes sharpening my axe.” 

He had to want to succeed, the will to succeed and most importantly, the will to prepare to succeed. 

Can the same be said about you?

Take Charge of Your Life

Steve Keating 3 Comments

Almost everyone I talk to says they would like “things” to improve in 2022. When asked to be more specific many of the people say, “you know, just things in general.”

Well, generally speaking “things” don’t improve until somebody improves them. I guess that’s where the “somebody ought to do something” phrase comes from.

People want improvement and they want somebody else to give it to them.

That would be nice if it worked that way and I suppose every once in a while it does. But waiting for “somebody” to do “something” to make your life “better” is kinda like waiting to win the lottery when you haven’t even purchased a ticket.

If you want to be sure of improvement this year then you need to realize that if it’s going to happen then YOU need to take responsibility for making it happen. Don’t wait on anything or anyone. Don’t hope for something good to happen, make something good happen.

Make a plan for self-improvement and then implement the plan. It can be professional improvement or improvement in your personal life. Maybe both. Be aware that some improvement will require that you start doing something that you may not particularly like doing. Other improvement will require that you perhaps stop doing something you like.

Oftentimes what we stop doing has more positive impact on our lives than what we start doing.

There are many things in your life that you don’t control but if you really want a better life then you must control the things you can…and they are many too. The most successful people accept responsibility for their lives.

They accept responsibility for what they do and what they didn’t do that they should have.

Change will happen in the New Year, the question is, will change happen to you or because of you? Will you be in control of your life in 2022 or allow “somebody” else to determine your life’s trajectory?

It’s a simple choice but it’s a choice that only you can make.

How You Doin’?

Steve Keating 3 Comments

We’re a little bit past the middle of the year and some of you have already decided whether this is going to be a good year or not so good. For those of you who have struggled thus far let me remind you we’re a little bit past the half-way point. You have plenty of time to turn things around. For those of you who have done well so far let me remind you too, we have a whole lot of this year left. If your year has been good so far then there is no reason it needs to stay that way…you can change it into a great year.

The key to moving from not so good to good is the same as moving from good to great. You must know where you are today in order to know what you need to do to be someplace else tomorrow. 

Many people reading this have not yet invested any time this year to determine exactly where they are and how they got there. Now is the perfect time for some self-reflection. 

What have you been doing that is not working for you? What haven’t you been doing that you should be doing? When was the last time you sat quietly and reviewed your goals for the year and your goals for life? Are you spending time with people who feed you negativity or investing time with people who build you up?

NOW is the perfect time to ask yourself those questions. The opportunity to change direction remains yours to seize. The decision to speed up your progress is yours to make. 

Wherever you are at this point in time it’s vital that you understand that you put yourself there. Your decisions, choices and actions have consequences or benefits. If you’re blaming others or blaming your circumstances then you’ve lost control of your year…maybe even your life. 

The most successful people don’t blame their circumstances. They create circumstances that give them the best chance to succeed. They create those circumstances with thoughtful decisions, good choices and taking appropriate action to follow through on both. 

Self-reflection requires that you be honest with yourself. Sometimes brutally honest. It also requires an understanding that you are the master and creator of your future…if you choose to be. 

Invest some time today to take a mid-year assessment of your current situation and your desired situation. Adjust what you must and be fearless in jettisoning the things, actions and maybe people, who add no value to your life. 

You still have time to make this year exactly what you want it to be. Perhaps even better than you could have imagined. Just remember, if it’s to be it’s up to you to make it so.

Back to Basics

Steve Keating 4 Comments

As the story goes, the legendary former coach of the Green Bay Packers, Vince Lombardi, would start every training camp the same way. He would hold up a football and announce with great gusto, “This is a football.” 

Keep in mind he was speaking to a room full of professional football players. I think I’m safe in assuming that they all had at least a passing familiarity (pun intended) with what a football looked like. 

But Coach Lombardi was making a point. His point was we are going to begin with the basics because it’s the basics that will make us champions. 

You may not be a professional football player but that point is as applicable to you as it was to those Green Bay Packers. 

Skipping the basics, or believing your skills are so advanced that the basics no longer apply to you is one sure way to fall short of your potential. 

As the year ahead comes into focus it’s a great time to review your own “basics.” What have you skipped, or simply forgotten, that used to bring you great results? Maybe you used to send thank you notes…remember those, the kind you wrote out by hand, put in an envelope and dropped in a blue box on the corner? That practice remains to this day a solid basic skill when building and nurturing relationships. Perhaps more than ever considering how rare thank you notes have become. 

Maybe you skip making yourself a prioritized task list each morning. Using a prioritized task list is key to strong time management. For most people it’s not that they don’t have enough time, it’s that they lack a clear sense of priorities. 

People who prioritize what they want and need to accomplish will in fact accomplish much more than the people who don’t. Even if you’ve never applied that basic skill to your life before, now would be a great time to start. 

There are so many “basics” to success that I could go on forever. But instead I’ll encourage you to invest some time to think back to some of your greatest successes. What were some of the basics that helped you achieve that success? Are you still using them? If not can you say with specificity why you’re not? Or have they somehow faded away with not much thought as to why?

Consider the basics you need to be consistently successful and then go back to them. This is a great example of when “going back” is the fastest path forward to future success. 

So, what are you going back to?

The Enemy Within a Me

Steve Keating 7 Comments

People get frustrated with me when I tell them that it’s very likely the greatest obstacle to success they face is themselves. 

They tell me I don’t understand, but I do. They tell me I don’t know, but I do. They tell me I don’t know how tough it can be “out there,” but I do. 

I also know that in any situation where I’ve struggled to advance or accomplish a goal my greatest enemy was within me. That enemy slowed down my progress. My doubts about my own abilities prevented me from moving forward. Those doubts opened the door to my true enemy which was fear of failure. 

Despite the compliments I get about my speaking ability, the things I write and other stuff I do, I know this undeniable truth about myself…overall I’m a pretty average person. I don’t say that about myself in a bad way, in fact my “averageness” is one of my greatest strengths. It helps me relate to the people I’m trying to help. 

That’s why I can say with a high degree of confidence, I do understand, I do know. 

I also know my main enemy is within a me! 

I know the best way for me to block that enemy is to believe in myself. People who believe in themselves are pretty darn near impossible to stop. When YOU believe in yourself you are pretty much unstoppable.

Believing in yourself leaves no room for doubt. Without doubt to open the door fear has no way into your head. 

Any battle is halfway won when when your enemy within is kept away. Obstacles become opportunities when the enemy within you can’t mess with your head. 

So the next time doubt starts to creep into your thoughts you need to immediately ask yourself,  “is this an actual problem, or is this the enemy within a me just tearing down my confidence?”

If you’re average like me, and most of you are, (see, that’s how “average” works) you’ll know it’s the enemy within. You should also know you can defeat it by ignoring it. I know that if you believe in yourself you will be unstoppable. 

I know that about you cause I know that about me. I’ll never let the enemy within a me make me doubt my ability and neither you should you.