Daily Thought Archives: November 2008

November 1
WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE REMEMBERED FOR?
Our lives go by so quickly these days, as we all have so much to do. We often don't really take the time to think about what we want and why we are here. At great question to ask ourselves is "What do I want to be remembered for?" The answer has the power to make a tremendous difference in your life.

November 2
WHAT DOES THE SITUATION REQUIRE?
In life, there are times when extraordinary effort is needed to address an issue. In these times, it is not enough to do our best, but to do what is required. Also, we often find within ourselves those strengths that we never realised we had. When we do what the situation requires, our real potential is revealed.

November 3
FEEL BETTER BY HELPING OTHERS
One of the best ways to feel better is to help someone else, and actually, we get a double benefit. First, we take an action that gets us moving. Action versus inaction always makes us feel better. Second, we get the great feeling of helping others and seeing their appreciation. Go help someone today.

November 4
TALENT NOT USED IS LIKE EXCESS INVENTORY
If you have too much inventory in your company, you have an under-performing asset. Talent, for an individual, is like inventory. If it is not used, it is the same, an under-performing asset. Get a goal to use the talent that is within you and be determined to never waste your most important asset.

November 5
INVEST IN THE HIRING PROCESS
Your people drive the success of your organisation, and having the right people in your organisation can make all the difference. Most leaders do not invest enough time in the hiring process, and then pay the price of poor performers later on. Make sure you invest the most time you can in hiring, or as the saying goes: pay now or pay later.

November 6
COVERING FOR A MISTAKE IS A MISTAKE
People often try to cover-up their mistakes so others don't notice them. However, this is a mistake as eventually everyone notices everything. The better approach is to take responsibility for your mistake right away. Remember, you reveal yourself and your character to others in how you deal with your mistakes.

November 7
DEBATING THE OBVIOUS
In leadership teams, it is very often that the obvious is not debated and really should be. Teams have some long held assumptions that might be no longer valid in today's world. Wrong assumptions create wrong actions, and thus will create the wrong results. Therefore, take the time to debate the obvious from time to time, and bring your assumptions up-to-date.

November 8
INFLUENCE BEYOND YOUR JOB DESCRIPTION
Success in any job is not doing exactly what is on the job description, as often that is defined too narrowly to accurately portray what is needed for success. Influence is what drives success in any job, and those who create influence beyond their job description will always be more successful than those who don't.

November 9
THE WORST PAIN IS REGRET
Everyone, at some time, has avoided the very actions that would have moved us closer to our goals. It was about not wanting to put ourselves in a situation where we might feel uncomfortable (or even experience fear). However, the discomfort or pain would have been only temporary, and the worst is the pain we continue to feel, the pain of regret (and that's more permanent).

November 10
GIVING TIME BACK TO YOUR PEOPLE
Everyone has the trouble with not having enough time, and most people think that the meetings they attend are often the real time wasters. Why not give time back to your people by cutting the number of meetings in half, and for all meetings that remain, cut the time in half. When you focus your meetings on the key desired outcomes, your need fewer meetings and less time to accomplish those outcomes.

November 11
WILL HE/SHE OR CAN HE/SHE?
Two simple questions are key in determining whether a new person will be right for your team. Ask WILL he/she, meaning - does he or she have the right attitude and commitment. Second, CAN he/she, as in does he or she have the ability (skills, etc) to actually do the work. Remember the two power questions - WILL and CAN.

November 12
HANDLING AN UNFAIR ATTACK WITH POISE
A real test of a mature person is how they handle an unfair attack on themselves. The mature person is the one who handles such an attack with poise, and his or her actions never make the situation worse, but better. This person knows that nothing ever good comes from trying to get even with others.

November 13
THE HARDEST PERSON TO LEAD IS YOURSELF
All great leaders know that their leadership success starts with themselves first. They know that the hardest people to lead are themselves. When you successfully follow your own leadership (discipline yourself), all other aspects of your leadership of others will become easier.

November 14
MEMORIES SHOULD NEVER EXCEED DREAMS
There is an equation that is a great indicator of whether people will enjoy their retirement years or not. To enjoy retirement, memories should never exceed dreams. When a person no longer dreams and takes action on their dreams, all that remains are the memories of the past. Note, this is not just a retirement issue. Throughout your life, never let your memories exceed your dreams.

November 15
GROWING LEADERS TO GROW MORE LEADERS
You could summarise the focus of great leaders into one simple phrase. It's about growing leaders to grow more leaders. The mark of a great leader shows up in the results he or she delivers, but is always powered by how many leaders have he or she grown in their organisation. When leaders are throughout an organisation, performance always goes up and stays up.

November 16
WORTH TRADING YOUR LIFE FOR?
Is what you are doing today really worth trading your life for? Why? - Because that is exactly what you are doing. What you use your time and energy for becomes your life each and every day. This is such a short, but powerful question, as many people will "wake-up" years later and wonder where time (their life) went. Why not answer this question today, as the answer has the power to change your life.

November 17
WELL ENOUGH TO TEACH IT
How do you know when you have learned something new well enough? You know it when you can teach it. In order to teach it, you need to not only understand it; but in such depth that you can explain it to others and be prepared for their questions. Know it well enough to teach it, and you will also use (take action) what you know more often as well.

November 18
A CLEAR HONEST PICTURE OF OURSELVES
One of the most difficult things to do is to create a clear honest picture of ourselves. When we know ourselves well (our passion, strengths & weaknesses), we then know what development will help us turn our passion into success. It all starts with that clear honest picture. Build that picture today, and begin travelling the road that leads to even greater success.

November 19
MOTIVATING LIFE-LONG LEARNING
One of the very best things you could do for your children or for the people who work for you is to motivate their life-long learning. People who keep learning are always uncovering new information that triggers more dreams within them, and also the motivation to make those dreams happen. Life is never dull for the life-long learner.

November 20
LEADERS STEP UP FROM MANY PLACES
When you are in the middle of a crisis situation, you will always need leaders stepping up from many places in order to resolve the crisis quickly. This is the reason that developing leaders at all levels of the organisation is important. Leadership reveals itself in a crisis.

November 21
WHAT YOU THINK OF YOU
You are probably always concerned about what others think of you. That's just human nature. However, it is far more important what you think of you. Success very often comes down to what you think about yourself and the belief you have in your abilities. What do you think of you?

November 22
AUTHENTICITY FEEDS TRUST
They say that above all else, be yourself. When you are authentic, you always create more trust with others. There are far too many people who go through life masking their real self, and often end up without ever establishing meaningful trust with anyone. Remember, authenticity feeds trust.

November 23
INCREASE YOUR LIFE EXPERIENCES
Good judgement comes from experience and experience comes from what we do. It is often that people with more life experiences than others possess better judgement. Now, life experiences can be your own, but you can also expand your own life experiences with the experiences from others by spending time with them or reading their books. To possess better judgement, increase your life experiences.

November 24
HONESTY MORE IMPORTANT THAN MODESTY
You see many people who are so very modest in the abilities that they don't seem to challenges themselves to accomplish to their potential. In fact, they are more modest than honest. If they were honest with themselves on their true abilities, there would be no limit as to what they could accomplish. Being honest with yourself will drive more action than being modest.

November 25
GROW TO MEET THE SIZE OF THE IDEA
There's a big problem that most people make in their lives. They reduce their ideas to what they think they are currently capable of today. The successful people determine to grow themselves to the size of their ideas. Create your ideas big enough so they drive you to grow to meet them.

November 26
SELL YOURSELF BEFORE YOUR VISION
As a leader, you will never be able to successfully sell your vision unless you sell yourself first. Your people need to buy into you (your character and capabilities) before your earn the right from them to listen to your vision and direction. Be the type of person that sells yourself, just naturally, by the way you live your life.

November 27
ONE CRITICAL THING I COULD DO
You are always trying to focus your time on your highest leveraged activities. For leaders, a great way to find them is to ask this question to your people. For their most important areas/projects, "What is the one critical thing I can do that would help you the most to be successful in this?" Do this with your people, and you will be really helping them in a big way.

November 28
KEEPING IT IN THE RIGHT CONTEXT
One of the abilities of mature people is to take each circumstance they find themselves in and keep it in the right context. For most circumstances, the right context is staying focused on the action to take versus the other people to blame.

November 29
LEARN THE LINE BETWEEN WORK AND PLAY
Most people go through life never really finding and acting upon their passion. For these people, life is a continued struggle; and they see little hope for something different. The people who enjoy life invested time to understand their passion, and learn the line between work and play. For them, this line is very thin; as their work feels like play.

November 30
FOCUSED, BUT ALSO FLEXIBLE
To get what we want in life and to be productive, we all must be focused. However, life never goes in a straight line, so we need to be flexible enough to adopt new approaches when new opportunities are presented to us. Be focused, but also be flexible.