We Are All Leaders
Everyone develops leadership qualities personally and professionally in different ways. Many people may not even aspire to be leaders, but “accidentally” end up being role models for others.
You can become a leader very early in your career. It does not necessarily mean that you are a loud “rah rah” person. You don’t have to run around the office “high fiving” everyone, or be super enthusiastic every minute of the day!
I have been very interested in sports leadership for years, and the one who set the bar the highest in hockey since the early 1980’s was Mark Messier. Not only was he known for winning 5 championships, his fierce competitiveness, and leadership qualities, but he was confident. Those who follow hockey closely will remember when he guaranteed victory in the 1994 Stanley Cup Playoffs while playing for the New York Rangers. Not only did they win that game, but they won it all for the first time in 54 years!
For every Mark Messier, there are many others who quietly lead by example in sports, business, and every day life. I always love the comment,
“They don’t speak up very often, but when they do everyone stops in their tracks to listen.”
Those quiet people are also leading and providing great value.
When I first got in to business, my perception of leadership was very one-sided. I thought that managers and executive management were the only ones who were leaders. Many of them did motivate and inspire their teams, but others unfortunately did not understand the importance of being a positive influence on others.
You can start showing leadership qualities from the moment you start a new role. Focus on things like:
- Caring
- Care about the job that you are doing, your customers, and everyone around you
- Having a strong work ethic, and becoming a “go to employee”
- Being the type of person that others want to be around
- Doing the “little things”, and being attentive to details
- Doing more than is expected of you
- “That is not my job” is not in your vocabulary
- Taking advice and criticism as a professional
- Being open to learning
- Supporting team mates and encouraging them
- Celebrating their wins, and supporting their losses
- Being enthusiastic & positive
- Having lots of energy
- Smiling
Before you know it, people will start to look up to you and aspire to be like you. They notice that you have taken steps forward and have become promotable sooner than most.
Everyone has leadership qualities in some way, shape or form. The million dollar questions are:
- Are you using them? And better yet…
- Do you want to use them?
Take stock of how you are leading now, and how you may want to lead in the future.
Shhhh… I will tell you a little secret.
You might actually like it if you don’t already!
I have had the good fortune to correspond with Richard from time to time over the past year. I also read his blog when time permits.
This post caught my attention over the weekend. If anyone is thinking about owning a business, is attempting to “live the entrepreneurial dream, or wants a great read, this post is for you! Check out how Richard eloquently describes the need for a business coach.
I Need a Business Coach
What is your intention and objective? What rationale are you using to determine your tenacity to reach your purpose? Is your resolution resolute? Will your commitment and resolve match the desire of the want? What are you willing to do to reach your objective?
We all want success. I have never met any person that wanted failure. Sometimes success eludes us and it is difficult to understand and discover what is holding the success from overflowing the cup of wealth and desire. Often opportunities are pushed to the side and forgotten mainly due to our own ignorance to look past our own self absorb opinions. We live in this circle of what we know that binds and hinders our willingness to seek opportunities outside our realm of vision and beliefs.
Many business owners have hit the first of many curveballs thrown…
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Saturday Music Memories – “Put Me In Coach”…
“I’m ready to play”!
I love baseball. I quit when I was 15 years old, but should have kept playing. I heard John Fogerty’s “Centerfield” on Thursday, and it brought back some very vivid memories.
I was about 12 or 13 years old. I played in baseball tournament over a weekend, and had a great time. The baseball diamonds were well-groomed, and there were more fans than usual, and it just felt different. Every time we took the field, “Centerfield” played, and I remember thinking how cool that was.
I don’t think we won the tournament, but I had a fantastic time. The only bad memory I had of the weekend was about a slide in to second base. The good news is I was safe; the bad news was I had to sleep on my side for a week because of the scrapes! OUCH…
Have A Laugh Fridays – Sensitivity Training
If you don’t know who Terry Tate is, you will after this 4 1/2 minute gem on sensitivity training!
Paul Castain’s Important Message About Life and Family
Do you ever read something online that is so inspiring and memorable that you cannot get it out of your head? This happened to me yesterday morning, and I thought about it for the rest of the day.
Since it is the 4th of July for my American readers, I thought this would be a great time to share a recent post by Paul Castain about family and life in general.
This piece comes from the heart, and discusses looking forward (not back) but keeping memories “in a special place” that you can cherish for the rest of your life.
i-avoided-writing-this-long-enough
Happy 4th of July, and have a wonderful day!
My Guest Post on Robert Terson’s Selling Fearlessly Website
Robert Terson is one of the first people who reached out to me when I started on Twitter last year, and I am very glad that he did. We had a great chat about my favourite sport (hockey), and over time we connected again, and he suggested that I do a guest post on his site!
That day has come, and you can view my post on doing what it takes to stay a success on his website today.
You can also follow on Twitter http://bit.ly/P5AEy6
I suggest that you take some time to check out his other content and connect with him. He is a great resource for those in the sales profession.
Tina has been an incredible contributor to my blog, and I wanted to take a moment to share one of her recent posts. She is insightful, forward thinking, and a joy to connect with on a regular basis. This post focuses on great teams, and the best part of it is she received feedback directly from her team members!
Thanks again Tina for your amazing support.
And to my fellow Canadians, Happy Canada Day!
Be Great…great is contagious. Ask your team, are we great? If so, what makes us great? If not, why not? Great or not great, how can we improve?
These are excellent questions that need to continually be posed to our team on a regular basis so we can continue to improve on the service we deliver everyday to our customers.
Each team player is different, but as long as we have the same common goal our differences can work together to accomplish great things.
Each player needs to be held accountable for keeping the standards of the practice/business at top priority. If someone falls below, it needs to be dealt with sooner than later or the effect on the rest of the team can be damaging.
It takes a lot work to keep a team healthy. Teams also need play time to keep it healthy and happy and allow for…
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Saturday Music Memories – Oasis Wonderwall
I was driving to a sales call on Thursday and I heard a very rare acoustic version of Wonderwall by Oasis. The cool part of this version is Noel Gallagher (typically the guitar playing brother), and not Liam (typically the vocalist) sings it. It has been my favourite version of this 90’s classic for many years.
My thoughts quickly turned to a night at a pub in a Sydney, Australia and a performer playing this song acoustically on a small stage in 1998. I remember how much I enjoyed it, and at that moment realized how lucky I was to be “down under” enjoying their summer, while it was the dead of winter back in Winnipeg, Canada!
I have never found that exact version of Noel singing Wonderwall, but here is the next best thing.
Enjoy and have an awesome weekend!
Guest Blogger: Why You Need to Find – And Get In To – Your Discomfort Zone
Michael Boyette from the Rapid Learning Institute and The Top Sales Dog blog reached out to me last week, and I am so glad that he did! He is giving me the incredible opportunity to post content on his website, and wanted to contribute to Sell Lead Succeed! as well. I love his take on the “Discomfort Zone”. Initially it looks like a place we would not want to be, but upon further evaluation, it is very clear that we all need to take a leap of faith and “get uncomfortable”. Enjoy!
Your sales career is “doing okay.” You’re in the groove and your boss isn’t tormenting you. But something is missing. You know you can do better. Fact is, it may take a lot more than you think to get to that next level. Top sales achievers understand this, and recognize that growth comes only by setting stretch goals. And that the rewards come after the risk, not before. In order to sell, lead, and succeed, you must first escape your personal comfort zone.
Strategies for Escaping Your Comfort Zone
1. Commit to your vision of where you want to be
People change only when the pain of staying the same exceeds the pain of changing. So the only way to escape a comfort zone is to feel discontent with it. The first step: daydream. All meaningful, lasting change begins by fantasizing about where you really want to be (i.e., not in this comfort zone). If you vividly imagine yourself busting through sales barriers, being excellent rather that just average, eventually that picture makes its way into reality. When it does, the old comfort zone is unacceptable and we feel the need to change it. That compelling urge to change is what drives us to do things that make us uncomfortable, but lead to the rewards we want.
2. Write down what you need to do
When it’s on paper, with quantifiable tasks and deadlines, you make it urgent. Writing things down is the best antidote for procrastination, which is a defense mechanism that keeps us in our comfort zones.
Example: By the end of next week, I will make 50 cold calls in the new market, and set up five sales calls that will lead to one sale.
3. Recognize – and resist – the urge to crawl back to the comfort zone
Entering a discomfort zone is stressful. At the first sign of failure our impulse is to return to where we never fail. You’re going to feel that way. Expect it and resist it.
4. Just do it
Fear dissolves through participation. Think of bungee jumping. Most people are terrified of it, can’t sleep the night before, break out into a cold sweat when the ropes are tied to their feet. For many, it’s utter agony. They then jump and the fear is over. All they feel is the intoxicating high of having broken through a personal barrier.
The same is true of public speaking. How many times have you seen speakers who seemed nervous at first – which means that deep inside they were terrified – but became increasingly confident? We all overcome fear by doing.
5. Don’t fall into a new comfort zone
So you’ve broken through that first barrier; now you can relax, right? No. High achievers use their comfort zone to rest in, not to live in.
In the early 1990s Bill Gates was the richest man in America and Microsoft Windows had established itself as the dominant operating system. Gates could have become complacent. But he didn’t. He lived in utter paranoia that networking would put Windows out of business. By 1995 he was convinced that the Internet could destroy everything he’d built. Gates’ refusal to retreat into a comfort zone explains why Microsoft still dominates the software market, and the Internet, today.
A Final Thought
Successful sales leaders and entrepreneurs are not necessarily more competent, but they do look for ways to grow and stretch. They willingly expose themselves to new things by venturing into their own personal discomfort zone.
Michael Boyette is the executive editor of http://rapidlearninginstitute.com Rapid Learning Institute’s Selling Essentials elearning site and editor of the http://rapidlearninginstitute.com/top-sales-dog Top Sales Dog Blog. He’s also managed marketing and PR programs for DuPont, Tyco Electronics, and US Healthcare. Connect with Michael via email at topsalesdog@rapidlearninginstitute.com or Twitter @TopSalesDog
I came across this insightful post by Cathy Berggren yesterday and I wanted to share it now. I am always looking for posts that grab my attention, and what better way to make me stop in my tracks then a bowl full of M&Ms! The cool part is there is a wonderful message here as well for all leaders. Now I have to run to the store 🙂 Enjoy…
Ever pick out your favorite colors in M&M’s when you eat them? Are you drawn to a particular color? Statistically, the company puts the highest number of blue in each container…in fact 24% in each bag. Can you guess the least amount? Yep, brown, an average of 13%. Any guesses as to why blue is favored over brown? I don’t have the answers, but have my own theory.
Blue stands out
We are drawn to people for the same reason. We are often drawn to those people who stand out. It may not be because they are loud or outgoing, or because they are some great leader by position, or because of their following or even their money. It might be because of their gentle quiet spirit, or maybe it is how they consistently love people. They may stand out because of their guidance and leadership to…
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Sell, Lead, Succeed! 