It's Time For A Fresh Start

Your success and happiness lies in you. Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulties. – Helen Keller

A story is told of a young Greek artist named Timanthes studied who under a respected tutor some 2,000 years ago. After several years the teacher’s efforts seemed to have paid off when Timanthes painted an exquisite work of art. Unfortunately, he became so enraptured with the painting that he spent days gazing at it.

One morning when he arrived to admire his work, he was shocked to find it blotted out with paint. Angry, Timanthes ran to his teacher, who admitted he had destroyed the painting. “I did it for your own good. That painting was retarding your progress. Start again and see if you can do better,” he told him. Timanthes took his teacher’s advice and produced Sacrifice of Iphigenia, which is regarded as one of the finest paintings of antiquity.

It’s been said that life is a continuous process of getting used to things we hadn’t expected. There is no denying that we are living in challenging times. 2012 will be an interesting year on many levels. As you prepare for the New Year, here are three lessons we learn from the story of Timanthes that can help you get off to a good start.

You can’t live in the past so reset your priorities. Timanthes spent days admiring his work to the point where it ultimately became a distraction. The economic downturn and recession has taken an unprecedented toll on many fronts. The far-reaching effects have dramatically altered not only the way in which corporations operate but households as well.

Harry Truman once said, “Men who live in the past remind me of a toy I am sure all of you have seen. The toy is a small wooden bird called the “Floogie Bird.” Around the Floogie Bird’s neck is a label reading, “I fly backwards, I don’t care where I am going. I just want to see where I’ve been.” Flying backwards is not an option for moving forward in today’s economy. Priorities today must be honest, realistic, transparent, and flexible.

You have to embrace challenges so reset your attitude. Timanthes was upset when he discovered that his work was blotted out with paint. Faced with the challenge his tutor presented him, he turned his disappointment into a masterpiece. How you respond in the face of adversity will determine your path forward.

The noted English architect Sir Christopher Wren was supervising the construction of a magnificent cathedral in London. A journalist thought it would be interesting to interview some of the workers, so he chose three and asked them this question, "What are you doing?" The first replied, "I'm cutting stone for 10 shillings a day." The next answered, "I'm putting in 10 hours a day on this job." But the third said, "I'm helping Sir Christopher Wren construct one of London's greatest cathedrals."

The first step in your recovery begins with a change of heart; a change in attitude. Resilient leaders embrace challenges and overcome obstacles with the big picture always in view.

You have a fresh slate so reset your vision. Timanthes embraced the challenge from his tutor and painted his finest work. He reset his priorities by not living in the past. He reset his attitude by overcoming great disappointment to paint at a new level of perfection he had not previously known.

T.E. Lawrence once said, "All men dream but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds awake to the day to find it was all vanity. But the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for the many act out their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible..."

We may not have chosen the challenges that we face today but creating a masterpiece is our choice. The opportunity of today is to be what Lawrence described as “dangerous men” dreaming with open eyes to create something they never would have imagined in better times.

If you find yourself living in the past, with a bad attitude, take heart. You can turn your crisis into an opportunity and begin with a clean slate. With a clean slate your finest work may now be in the making.

© 2011 Doug Dickerson

A Way With Words

Words do two major things: They provide food for the mind and create light for understanding and awareness. – Jim Rohn

Listed on the Merriam-Webster website (http://bit.ly/tedSHd) is the 2011: The Year in Words. The list reveals defining moments in politics, culture, sports and more that spiked lookups in words because of events in news.

A few examples include the words “prefecture” and “haboob.” “Prefecture” gained notoriety as a word back in March when reports from Japan about the devastating earthquake and tsunami focused on the prefectures that were most affected; an official term for a region or district.

“Haboob” was introduced into our vernacular back in July when a massive dust storm rolled through Phoenix, Az. In describing the mile-high billowing wave, many media reports referred to the storm as a “haboob”. The word comes from the Arabic habūb which means “violent storm.”

Confucius said, “Words are the voice of the heart.” In leadership, the words we use can either be instruments of good or instruments of bad and we must choose them wisely. If you were to have an inventory taken on the words you use in your business or organization, how do you think you would rate?

As you look to 2012 and the leadership vocabulary you will choose, allow me to make these following suggestions to help you set the tone for your organization. By using these three styles you can set the stage for an uplifting year.

Choose words that encourage. Elizabeth Harrison said, “Those who are lifting the world upward and onward are those who encourage more than criticize.” As a leader, the words you employ are either going to push your team onward and upward or at the very least is going to stall them.

By embracing a steady diet of encouraging words with your team you are setting the bar in how they communicate among themselves. Encouraging words will get you through a down economy, give you the energy to meet a challenging deadline, and the confidence needed to meet your goals. The difference maker can simply be the right word spoken at the right time. It takes no more energy to speak an encouraging word than it does to go negative. Be an encourager.

Choose words that engage. Words that encourage will get the attention of your team and endear you to them as a leader. Encouraging words touch their heart. Words that engage will challenge their minds.

Tom Kasten said, “You have to let people challenge your ideas.” And this is what good leaders do. While encouraging words motivate, engaging words create. They create new ideas, fresh thinking, and foster a culture of inclusion in the process. Reflect back on the use of your words with your team this past year. Have they brought about the desired change you intended?

Engaging your team with the right vocabulary can be one of the best moves you make in 2012. When given the chance, engage your team by invoking words that causes them to shake off the comforts of the past, and challenges them to a new level of excellence today. When your team is engaged they take ownership. Are you engaging them?

Choose words that equip. When team members in your organization are empowered to excel, they are empowered for success. In as much as they need to hear words that encourage and engage them, they need to hear words that equip them for the job.

John Maxwell wisely said, “It’s wonderful when the people believe in their leader; it’s more wonderful when the leader believes in the people.” And this is the secret to your leadership vocabulary – words that equip. When your people know that you believe in them and know they are empowered to do their job, the level of success they can achieve is limitless. 

How about some honest assessment of your leadership vocabulary: Are your words encouraging? Are they engaging? Do they equip? At the heart of your leadership are your words. Speak wisely. 

© 2011 Doug Dickerson

How Far Will Your Vision Take You?

Vision is the world’s most desperate need. There are no hopeless situations, only people who think hopelessly. – Winfred Newman

About 350 years ago, as the story is told, a shipload of travelers landed on the northeast coast of America. The first year they established a town site. The next year they elected a town government. The third year the town government planned to build a road five miles westward into the wilderness.

In the fourth year the people tried to impeach their town government because they thought it was a waste of public funds to build a road five miles westward into a wilderness. Who needed to go there anyway?

Here were people who had the vision to see three thousand miles across an ocean and overcome great hardships to get there. But in just a few years they were not able to see even five miles out of town. They had lost their pioneering vision.

Oliver Wendell Holmes said, “People can be divided into two classes: those who go ahead and do something, and those people who sit still and inquire, why wasn’t it done the other way?” Together, the first settlers had the vision to cross an ocean and establish a town. But in just a few short years they could not come together to expand their horizons by five miles.

The same obstacles that confronted the early settlers on the frontier can be the same ones you face in the boardroom. Just as the townspeople became restless, so too will your team if they do not understand the vision. Answer these three questions for them (and yourself) and the possibilities of your vision will increase.

Where are we going? Before a journey of 3, 000 across an ocean or five miles out of town, your people want to know where they are going. If they do not know where they are going and you have not effectively communicated the vision to them, how can you expect them to buy-in and go with you?

Denis Waitley said, “A dream is your creative vision for your life in the future. You must break out of your current comfort zone and become comfortable with the unfamiliar and the unknown.” If you are not comfortable with the unfamiliar and unknown neither will your team. Is there a sense of uncertainty within your organization? Are team members restless? If your vision is not moving forward perhaps the reason why is because they do not know where they are going. Help them know and they will go with you.

Why are we going? As important as it is for your organization to know where it is going, it is equally important for them to know why. The early settlers knew where they were going and why. But the vision stalled once they got established. Why? They quit dreaming. No one stepped up and adequately communicated that there were new trails to blaze and discoveries to make. As a result complacency set in and in the end there was contempt for those who attempted even modest new undertakings.

Brian Tracy said, “Goals allow you to control the direction of change in your favor.” Leaders who communicate vision, set goals in moving forward, will eventually reach them. How far will your vision take you? When your team understands their purpose and buys-in to the vision, the sky is the limit as to how far you can go.

What is my role? Not only do your team members need to know where they are going and why, they need to understand their role in carrying out the vision. Ken Blanchard said, “Vision comes alive when everyone sees where his or her contributions make a difference.” Do your team members know and understand their respective roles in carrying out your vision? How do you know?

Vision becoming a reality is not a game of chance and wishful thinking. Dreams turn into reality only as leadership has clearly defined it and team members know how to execute it. A wise leader will not leave it to chance but will do everything within his or her power to help others know where they are going, why they are going there, and what their roles is in making it a reality. A unified organization has unlimited potential for success.

How far will your vision take you?

© 2011 Doug Dickerson

Three Invitations Every Leader Should Send

Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other.

-          Abraham Lincoln

In Readers Digest, a story is told about Mercedes Ruehl seeing her first Broadway show when she was in grade school. Her family was in New York visiting relatives and driving through Times Square. On the spur of the moment her parents decided to see if they could get tickets to The Unsinkable Molly Brown.

Mercedes recalls waiting in the car while her mother ran up to the box office. “The only tickets left were box seats. Box seats! To me there were no better seats, and I remember my father saying, ‘Sure, go for it.’ One of the best qualities of my parents was that they liked to have fun.”

As the play began, Ruehl recalls, “I could not take my eyes off its star, Tammy Grimes. She must have felt my adoration, because at one point she looked up and held my eyes. It was probably for no more than one second, but it seemed like ten seconds. I always felt that was my official invitation to be an actress. With her gaze I was touched like a knight on both shoulders with a sword.”

When one thinks of life altering events that can shape the course of your destiny it does not necessarily have to be something on a grand scale. It can be as simple and powerful as a glance to a little girl during a play that can spark a passion and launch a career.

The influence you have as a leader, like the brief moment Grimes made eye contact with Ruehl, can be significant. So my question to you is simple. By your words, actions, and attitudes what type of invitations are you sending to your colleagues? Ken Blanchard said, “The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority.” Here are three invitations every leader should send to his team and why they matter.

With your passion, invite others to discover their purpose. I am not sure if prior to seeing The Unsinkable Molly Brown if Mercedes Ruehl wanted to be an actress, but by the time it was over I get the feeling that she did. Leaders with a passion have a way of rubbing off on you.

Soccer great Mia Hamm said, “If you don’t love what you do, you won’t do it with much conviction or passion.” Passionate leaders exude confidence. They do so because they are fulfilling their purpose. When you invite others to discover their life purpose, you are inviting them to change their lives. Why does it matter? It matters because without passion or a purpose one will never meet their full potential.

With your success, invite others to a life of significance. By all rights, Tammy Grimes was a successful actress. Because of her unknowing influence, she helped launch a successful career. Ruehl is one of only a few actresses to win a Tony and an Oscar in the same year – for Lost in Yonkers and The Fisher King. The measure of your leadership will be found not in the way you hold people back but in the way you encourage and inspire them on to greatness.

Inspiring others to a life of significance is the ultimate demonstration of your success as a leader. As you invite others to live a life of significance, you are investing in the next generation and leaving a legacy worth following. Why does it matter? It matters because success paves the way to a life of significance. Success and significance gives way to meaningful succession.

With your confidence, invite others to lead with courage. When Tammy Grimes looked into the eyes of Mercedes Ruehl she touched her soul. That brief moment changed the course of her life. As a leader in your organization, people look to you every day. While they may not need your vote of confidence to be successful, your voice can give fuel to their dream.

As you empower others in leadership it can have profound effects that you may not immediately observe. But when you send out invitations to those around you to discover their purpose, to live a life of significance, they can lead with courage. Why does this matter? It matters because above all else this is the high calling of your leadership. 

©2011 Doug Dickerson