To Be A Leader, Be An Infinite Learner

~ Learn through engagement with others – observe, listen, and ask deeper questions
~ Learn through study – take a class, research, read
~ Learn through experience – do things and try more
~ Learn through awareness – pray, meditate
~ Learn intriguing stuff, have interesting experiences, and share what you know. Make an impact!

What will you do today and tomorrow to be an infinite learner with a compelling life story?

From Beth Tabak of Starting Now Coaching.

To lead is to serve,
Coach Carolyn

An Equip & Empower Moment

“A true leader has the confidence to stand alone, the courage to make tough decisions, and the compassion to listen to the needs of others. He does not set out to be a leader, but becomes one by the quality of his actions and the integrity of his intent.”

~ Anonymous

To lead is to serve,

Coach Carolyn

Opportunities, Not Obstacles

"Every wall is a door." --Ralph Waldo Emerson

Great leaders look for opportunities when they come up against a brick wall. Instead of merely seeing the wall, they see it as a door – an opening to a new opportunity. When obstacles arise, some may look at them as failure. There is no failure, only feedback. Remember, you set the standard of what failure looks like for you and your business. When your standard is not met, simply re-assess the standard by asking some pertinent questions.

“What are the lessons I am to learn in this situation?”

“What are the blessings that I can take from this situation?”

Always re-assess your trajectories and intentions. Sometimes we simply outgrow them, or our passion has shifted. Like us, our businesses should be living and growing. George Bernard Shaw once said so appropriately, “The only man who behaves sensibly is my tailor; he takes my measurements anew every time he sees me, while all the rest go on with their old measurements and expect me to fit them.”

Like the tailor, we should continuously re-measure and re-assess so that any missed opportunity turns into a new opportunity. Become a visionary: turn your walls into doors and your obstacles into opportunities.

To lead is to serve,
Coach Carolyn

Great Leaders Are Made, Not Born

"A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way and shows the way.” ~ Dr. John C. Maxwell

Leaders have a sense of mission and vision that uplifts, motivates and inspires men and women to greatness, helping them achieve that vision. Leaders make things happen.

It is never too late to become a great leader.

To lead is to serve,
Coach Carolyn

Good Followers Makes Great Leaders

Writing for the American Chronicle, Dr. Adalat Khan shares the qualities of a good follower which, in turn will lead to being a great leader. Dr. Khan writes: “Behind the success of every great leader is the support, hard work and invisible struggle of many unknown people who are known as the ‘followers’”.

Dr. Khan goes on to state, the critical role which followers can play in the success of a leader necessitate them to have, acquire, and practice certain qualities. These qualities are:

Understand, Support, and Work for the Leader’s Vision
Followers should understand and accurately comprehend their leader’s vision. They must also commit themselves to support that vision. One difficulty which could crop in this regard is the possibility of conflict between the followers and a leader’s vision. To plug this gap, followers should align their vision with that of their leader’s.

Help the Leader to Succeed
Followers can either be like fuel providing energy or roadblocks creating hurdles for the efforts of a leader. Good followers however help the leader to succeed and do whatever it takes to achieve success. Having a winner’s mentality and deriving pleasure form the leader’s success is a quality to be possessed by them.

Provide Open, Honest and Accurate Information
Most of the leaders base their decisions on the information provided to them by their followers. If these information are accurate and honest it will lead to good decision. Conversely, inaccurate and dishonest information will lead to terrible decisions.

A Positive and Can Do Attitude
The phrase ‘recruit for attitude and train for skills’ is highly relevant for all followers. Sometimes when faced with difficulties even great leaders lose hope - during which times the followers could help them by reminding and reassuring them that they could succeed. It is a fact that all human being are capable of doing anything but only those succeed who possess the can do attitude.

Learning Attitude
Learning, the ability to understand one’s limitations, the courage to unlearn negative ideas and beliefs and the desire to acquire new knowledge, skills, and attitude is yet another quality necessary for good followers. To keep pace with the fast changing world of today people need to update themselves with new knowledge.

Dr. John Maxwell always says that the leader that thinks he leads and has no one following, is only taking a walk. In order to be a leader, one has to have followers. The followers are as good as the leader, and what Dr. Khan is stating is that if the followers are good then they become great leaders.

Dr. Adalat Khan is visiting professor to the American Central University and director of Mina Management Institute, a leading Malaysian Management consultancy and educational organization.

Read the rest of Dr. Khan's article at the American Chronicle.

To lead is to serve,

Coach Carolyn

Leaders are Born, not Made

An excellent article by author and speaker Brian Tracy.

The Key Leadership Abilities

Your ability to negotiate, communicate, influence, and persuade others to do things is absolutely indispensable to everything you accomplish in life. The most effective men and women in every area are those who can quite competently organize the cooperation and assistance of other people toward the accomplishment of important goals and objectives.

Everyone is Different

Of course, everyone you meet has different values, opinions, attitudes, beliefs, cultural values, work habits, goals, ambitions, and dreams. Because of this incredible diversity of human resources, it has never been more difficult and yet more necessary for diplomatic leaders to emerge and form these people into high-performing teams.

Do What Other Leaders Do

Fortunately, leaders are made, not born. You learn to become a leader by doing what other excellent leaders have done before you. You become proficient in your job or skill, and then you become proficient at understanding the motivations and behaviors of other people. As a leader, you combine your personal competencies with the competencies of a variety of others into a smoothly functioning team that can out-play and out-perform all its competitors. When you become a team leader, even if your team only consists of one other person, you must immediately develop a whole new set of leadership skills.

Focus On What's Right vs. Who's Right

Whenever you have problems, misunderstandings, or difficulties within the team, you reexamine your values, your goals, your activities, your assignments, and your responsibilities. You are more concerned with what’s right than with who’s right. Leaders are more concerned with winning than with not losing. High-Performing teams run by excellent leaders, are determined to perform in an excellent fashion. All members know that their ability to work together in harmony and cooperation is the key to the success of every one of them.

Aim at a Common Goal

The wonderful thing about becoming a leader in your work and personal life is that you can practice the skills of influencing and persuading others toward a common objective. You can promote the principles of excellent teamwork by establishing your values and goals, determining your activities, and then leading the action. And you can improve yourself by continually evaluating your performance against your standards.

Only Compare Yourself With Yourself

One of the marks of excellent people is that they never compare themselves with others. They only compare themselves with themselves and with their past accomplishments and future potential. You can become an even more excellent person by constantly setting higher and higher standards for yourself and then by doing everything possible to live up to those standards. The more proficient you become at getting the results for which you were hired, the more opportunities you will have to get results through others. And your ability to put together a team and then to lead that team to high performance will enable you to accelerate your career and fulfill your goals faster than ever before.

To lead is to serve,

Coach Carolyn

Stress Busters for Leaders

What can leaders do to better manage stress? Here are a few tips and tools from a team of The Center for Creative Leadership experts:

Create a ritual. Make it a habit to have a stress break. For example, every 90 minutes get up from your desk and walk around or get out for some fresh air. Do some deep breathing, shoulder shrugs, or just close your eyes for one minute. Taking a mental or physical break is an important strategy for dealing with day-to-day stress. When things are extra stressful, you can rely on these same tactics to get you through.

Get away. Find effective ways to set boundaries between work and home life. Whatever works for you - listening to music on the commute home, turning off the cell phone and email during personal or family time, participating in a social activity or hobby - make time for it and keep your commitment to having a life outside of work.

Re-define balance. Forget the idea of balance as finally having equal or sufficient time for everything: career, family, friends, community and leisure pursuits. Instead, start making clear choices that support your core values. Life balance is complex, not really something we can ever hope to accomplish. Demands and interests change over time, and what felt like balance at one point quickly becomes outdated. But if your life reflects who you are and what you value, you will feel more in balance - even when there isn't enough time.

To read the rest of the tips, visit The Center for Creative Leadership.

To lead is to serve,

Coach Carolyn

The photo is of the Basilica of Saint Francis in Assisi, Italy. Now that's peace!

Adding Value to People

Sadly, many leaders are more concerned with valuables than with value. What I mean by this is that many leaders in a corporate environment will tend to focus more on the dollars than on the relationships. Yes, the bottom line is making a profit, but a leader won't make that profit until he or she realizes that it takes making connections first that will lead to more profits.

If the people you lead don't feel valued, then they won't deliver as effectively and efficiently as they could. People are the most appreciable asset in any organization, and it is the role of the leader to make them feel valued. By adding value to the people you are in relationship with, be it business, intimate or platonic -- they will deliver more to someone who makes them feel like they have worth and value.

Leadership expert John Maxwell says to "put tens on people's heads." Treat everyone as a person of value because they are. Think about how you treat your boss or any other superior. You are more polite. You resist the urge to say anything negative or speak out of turn. You laugh at their dumbest jokes. Why do you act that way? To impress; so they would think more highly of you; or to get something from them? Whatever the reason, we should treat everyone as if they were our superiors. Treat others as if they just saved your life, a life worthy of saving.

Think about a person who you absolutely love and admire. You would do anything for this person. You would walk through walls for this person. Think about how this person treats you. Now think about how you behave around that person. I'm sure words came up like integrity, honor, trust, and loyal. And underneath there is a sincerity and gratefulness.

Take some time to examine all your relationships. Do you make them feel valued? Do you let them know how much you appreciate their presence in your life? Don't wait to say it during their eulogy, then it is too late. And don't have the attitude that they don't say they appreciate you first. What you give to the universe, is what you are going to receive. When you give kindness, you will receive kindness. But you must first give, and give genuinely and sincerely.

To lead is to serve,

Coach Carolyn