Simply the best leadership book for those people progressing into their first leadership role.
Simply the best leadership book for those people progressing into their first leadership role.
Advice from over 300 leaders, in over 30 separate sections, so you can just pick-up and read the advice you need, when you need it… without having to read the whole book!
Click here to learn more about the examples I discuss in the video
Imagine a world where the work you do is fulfilling, enjoyable and makes a valuable contribution.
We all want to work in a place like that… and if you’re a leader, so do your followers.
Working isn’t just about getting paid… it should be so much more than that!
With a little thought and determination, This is possible… for you.
It is important to understand that pretty much every job you will ever do will have three separate work types within it… Bad work, good work and great work.
What you have to do is identify which tasks fall into each section and then ensure you appropriately distribute your time, to allow for more great work.
This is the pain in the arse, boring, life-sucking tasks your job involves. You know what I am talking about. The stuff that you have to do, which doesn’t appear to have any redeeming qualities or add any value to anything!
It’s the red-tape… The administration… The things that are in your job that are designed to keep you busy.
This is pretty much your job description – The day to day tasks that enable your role to be productive. These are the tasks that are directly linked to objectives you have and enable you to make progress towards them.
If all you ever do is your job description, you will be doing good work… But not fulfilling work…
This is value added tasks and responsibilities. This type of work won’t be in most standard job descriptions as it is way over and above the basic expectations of the job.
This is the type of work that is autonomous, creative, has real impact and contributes to the growth and development of you and those surrounding you. It makes your hair stand on end, it gets the blood pumping and the adrenaline flowing… It generates long term value to your company and your people.
99.9% of the world’s population want to make a positive contribution. They want to be a part of something bigger than themselves. A job description isn’t that… Great work is.
Ask yourself, “If I could do anything to radically improve the performance of myself and the people around me, what would I do?”
And in the answer, you have great work.
Identify what tasks in your job are in each section – Bad work, good work and great work.
Pro-actively reduce the amount of time you spend in bad work (I know it might be red tape that needs to be done, but does that honestly mean you have to spend your quality time there? No… Do it, do it quickly and don’t let it take more energy than it deserves!)
Do your good work… This needs to be done to do a good job!
Create time and opportunities to partake in great work – Make it a priority. If you do your performance will rise, your wellbeing will improve and the value you add will be a powerful contribution to those around you.
If you are a leader… Just take a moment to think about your followers. How much bad, good and great work do they have?
As a leader it is your responsibility to allow the environment for great work for your team – more great work will equal more innovation, creativity & productivity, which in turn equals ultimately better results.
In my role as a leadership and performance coach, I work with a variety of people… young adults who are just starting their careers, to company directors, to professional athletes.
No matter who I work with, time and time again, the most common desire is freedom.
Of course freedom comes in many different forms – financial, personal, performance, but it all boils down to the same thing. The ability to do what you love, without constraints.
When you think of freedom, what does it mean to you? Is freedom something you would want in your life?
If so, here are five intellectual steps that are necessary if you are to attain freedom in your life, inspired by motivational speaker Les Brown.
If you can master these five steps, you can manifest freedom. If you don’t freedom will always remain just out of reach:
Earlier I asked what does freedom mean to you, in your mind you created a vision. Now think about this vision again. Make it clear and specific. Make it colourful and bright.
What happens with most people is that they start with a vision, just like you, but then say to themselves it can’t be done… This is wrong. It CAN be done.
Take a moment to think about this logically – is attaining your vision possible?
No matter how big your vision is, no matter how far away it feels right now, no matter how unlikely you think it is… The answer is YES… there is always a chance and that makes it possible!
It is vital that you understand this. Your vision is possible… It can be achieved.
Once you know that your vision is possible, then you have hope, anticipation and momentum – Now you must choose to make it happen.
Your vision is possible – Think of how amazing your life will be when your vision manifests into reality – Don’t you deserve that future? Don’t you deserve that vision?
Make you vision so compelling and powerful… then combine it with the fundamental truth that it is possible. Do this and you will be unstoppable. Your vision stops being a dream and instead becomes essential. It becomes vital.
It becomes a MUST happen, rather than a COULD happen – and that changes the game!
The first two steps are about physiologically building motivation – the following two are about being mentally prepared for what it will take.
The bottom line is, you are the only person who can make your vision a reality. You are the only person who cares about it, you are the only one responsible for it, you are the only person who can drive it forwards.
If you hope someone else will do it for you – you are mistaken.
If you hope it will be given to you – you are mistaken.
If you hope you will just get lucky – you are mistaken.
Your vision is possible… You deserve it, so it MUST happen… The only person who can make it happen is you. Are you prepared to take accountability for your vision? If you want to make it a reality, you have to be.
Attaining your vision will not come easily… You will be knocked back, rejected and fail loads of times. There will be times you want to quit. There will be times when you will question your ability.
You have to be psychologically prepared for this – Because it is going to happen.
Most people are not prepared for how hard it will be and they quit – They try, they fail and they quit.
But when you know it is going to be hard, when you are ready for it to be hard, then you are able to get knocked down and get back up again.
The more you understand it is going to be hard, the more knocks you can take and keep moving forward – That is how your vision becomes reality – by NEVER giving up.
Understand it is up to you, understand it is going to be hard and it becomes possible…
As soon as you have the mental toughness that comes with “It’s down to me” and “It is going to be hard” then something magical happens.
When you have a vision that you know is possible, that you are determined to make happen and are prepared to take accountability and can bounce back from any amount of failure – then your vision becomes inevitable.
If you keep on taking positive action towards your vision… and never stop, no matter what… then achieving your goal just becomes a matter of time.
One day you will win… You just have to keep fighting, until you get to that day!!
You can achieve anything you want in life… anything.
But to do so you have to understand and master these five steps. The bottom line is your vision is possible – It’s then a choice if it must happen, if you are prepared to take responsibility and the knock-backs.
If you are, then success is only a matter of time… and it will be worth it!
It is at this time of year that I tend to reflect on my life more than usual – I think deeply about who I have been, who I am now and why.
It wasn’t that long ago that I was a very different person than I am now – In fact, almost three years to the day I was lost… lost in the fog and mist of depression.
You might know about my story, I have mentioned it in other posts… how I used to smoke 40 cigarettes a day, 50lbs overweight and utterly miserable – these were just the outward signals of the dark disease which was growing inside me.
I cannot accurately describe how I felt during this time… it was as though a cruel, oppressive and hurtful entity had been absorbed in every pore of my body and mind.
It felt separate from the “real” me, yet it was all consuming. I felt like I was drowning. It was scary and there didn’t seem like there was anyway out.
However there was a way out. I did escape, I haven’t fallen back, I never will – and I learnt some important lessons:
If you have been caught by depression, please get some professional help – I can offer my advice on how I recovered and hopefully it can help – however, nothing can beat professional support, especially if depression’s claws are in deep.
The way I managed to free myself will sound simple – I decided I had to change and I started taking positive actions everyday.
I realise this will sound over simplistic and unrealistic, but it is true – I was in a desperate situation – I had to change, otherwise the consequences would have been the darkest possible.
When I made the decision it felt impossible. I had no idea what to do or where to start – what possible action could solve something as big as depression?
The thing is that is what depression wants you to think – depression wants to grow – and the perfect conditions to grow are in a static, absorbed and defeated individual..
On the contrary… I found that depression cannot grow when positive action is consistently taking place.
Success is “consistency”
It is not about one grand action that will rid you of depression forever. That is unrealistic and will make you give up when it doesn’t happen immediately.
Instead it is about momentum – lots and lots of small but positive actions to improve your situation. They can be tiny steps, but when you keep on adding more and more, the momentum becomes unstoppable.
Going for a walk in nature, writing down some goals, making the call, reading the chapter of a book, meeting with friends, seeking professional help and applying for a job… keep taking small actions.
None are the antidote to depression on its own, but together they will slowly remove the conditions for depression to grow.
As the momentum builds, so will you and so will your mind – The fog will start to lift and the oppression will be defeated.
Take positive action – any action, no matter how small… just do it consistently, don’t expect immediate results and you can change your life… I did.
