Real Leaders Inspire Ongoing Action

The day after MLk day is more important than the holiday itself. It is the day that we truly see who the real leaders are. It is the day that the celebrating masses give way to the nonconforming minority of change-makers.

MLK taught us to lead fearlessly, selflessly, and righteously. His accomplishments - and sacrifice - is worth celebrating and remembering, and I am proud that we take a day every year to do it. But celebrating is easy.

The day after MLK day is where true leaders shine. And they continue to shine for the weeks and months in between celebrations.

Right now, the world doesn't need celebrators. It needs leaders, innovators, and motivators. A "Day On" once a year won't cut it. Sure, being a good citizen 0.27% of the year is better than nothing, and donating a single holiday to commit to community service is indeed a noble act. But you are capable of more than serving soup, picking up trash, cleaning highways, and removing non-native plants.

The question on January 17th should not be "What did you do on MLK day", it should be "What are you going to keep doing to make the world a better place?"

You have skills that can inspire the masses, move mountains, and change the world - use those everyday to truly live MLK's dream - and yours.

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"Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can't ride you unless your back is bent."

 Martin Luther King, Jr.

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Passionate Leaders are Better Leaders

Leadership Passion Pyramid

To be a truly inspiring and effective leader, you must have passion.

But not any passion will suffice, the best leaders focus their passion on 4 main areas:

1. Passion for the development and fulfillment of the people they lead
2. Passion for the cause they are working towards
3. Passion for making an impact
4. Passion for their own personal growth

The ordering is just as important as the area of passion. Why?

Nothing happens if the people you lead don't make things happen.
Be invested in the people you lead, as their happiness and fulfillment is vital to success. People achieve more if they have the ability to work autonomously, utilize their strengths, and recognize that their work is making an impact towards a bigger purpose. They must have internal motivation: drive.

Great causes call for great achievement.
The most impactful leaders establish and communicate causes that people are willing to fight for. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was not fighting a war, he was fighting for freedom. Mother Theresa was not nursing, she was giving people the opportunity to live their lives, free from issues of health and poverty. Lead people towards something worth fighting for.

Nothing inspires action like the ability to make a positive impact.
Steve Jobs didn't turn Apple into one of the most valuable brands in the world by inspiring people to make computers. He wanted to put a "ding in the universe", and showed progress towards doing just that. Endeavor doesn't just support high-impact companies, they focus on measurable impact, and report on it every year.

The Best Leaders Never Stop Growing.
According to Professor Michael Useem, the Director of Center for Leadership and Change Management at Wharton, the most effective leaders have 3 traits in common:

1. Being a self-directed student of leadership and lifelong learner 
2. Receiving mentoring and coaching that is fine-grained, off-line, and individual 
3. Getting in the game and having diverse experiences

Leaders must continue to grow, and push each other to grow, in order to make a bigger positive impact, faster. But reading a book won't suffice, you must be DRIVEN to grow from the inside out.

All the leadership books, training, and experience mean nothing if you are not endlessly motivated from your heart and mind. So no matter what or who you are leading, start with passion, then build from there.

Look Back Before Moving Forward

At the end of every year, I dedicate a day to looking back. I think about a lot of things, and I use Who, What, Where, When, Why, How as a framework...

Who slowed me down
Who helped me 

What I set out to do
What I did 

When I was struggling
When I was happiest 

Where I tripped
Where I soared

Why I failed
Why I succeeded

How I lost motivation
How I inspired, motivated, and empowered others and myself

I look within myself to find balance, and I look outside to find knowledge. I listen and learn from experts in all fields, knowing the diversity of thoughts and opinions enriches mind and body. I reflect on the news and trends - good and bad - and think about how I can use newly acquired knowledge to be successful next year.

2011 was an amazing year. 2012 will be even better.

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Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish

                                -Steve Jobs 1955-2011

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How do you end your year so that next year is even better?

Inspire Others To Exceed Their Expectations

Forbes.com just published a brilliant article on leadership that was written by Russell Raath. In it, Russell share a scene from the movie Invictus where Morgan Freeman plays Nelson Mandela:

Morgan Freeman’s Mandela offers some final words of wisdom. “We need inspiration,” he says, “because in order to build our nation, we must all exceed our own expectations.”

You can read the full article on Forbes and I highly recommend it. The takeaway is simple and powerful. As a leader, your job is to do more than just setting and achieving goals. Your imperative is to inspire and empower people to exceed their goals, and expectations.

Increase Motivation, Inspire Action and Drive Behavior

No matter your position, role, and responsibilities - you have the ability to motivate others and inspire action. There are thousands of books, research reports, and case studies on this topic - and out of all of them that I have come across, the three best resources are the following two videos and link

1. Dan Pink on the Surprising Science About What Motivates Us (video)
2. Simon Sinek on How Great Leaders Inspires Action (video)
3. Chip and Dan Heath on How to Change Things When Change is Hard (book, and article)

Here are the videos and book summary for your convenience:

Dan Pink on the Surprising Science About What Motivates Us

Simon Sinek on How Great Leaders Inspires Action



Chip and Dan Heath on How to Change Things When Change is Hard (Article copied from Triple Pundit Blog) 

Human decision making is like a tiny rider on a massive elephant.  The rider may think he’s in charge, but the elephant’s will always wins. Both are imperfect – the rider over-thinks and over-analyzes.  The elephant acts on passion and emotion. Heath’s advice for causing change was three-pronged:

1. Direct the rider

1. Motivate the elephant

1. Shape the path

1) Direct the rider:
Humans obsess about problems to a fault and spend very little time analyzing what’s right, say, in a relationship.  Heath explained how focusing on bright spots rather than issues can be transformational.  Let’s study what’s working and do more of that.  He gave an example of Donald Berwick at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement who aimed to save 100,000 lives by a certain date, and exceeded his goal simply by looking at what medical practices worked and spreading them across healthcare facilities.

2) Motivate the elephant:
People are emotional and often react better to a good story than heaps of data.  Tell a story and allow your listeners to draw their own conclusions (which ideally match up with yours).  In a vivid example, Heath described a procurement officer who wanted to overhaul his company’s supply chain for greater efficiency.  Rather than say that, or bombard his team with data on the problem, he chose one item — gloves worn by the manufacturing team — and noticed that the company purchased 424 kinds of gloves.  He got one of each and placed them in a mound on the conference table and then invited his team in.  Without saying a word, they began to proclaim “This is crazy! We can fix this so easily!” — which was exactly what the procurement officer wanted to do.  He invited his colleagues to see, feel, and then change the problem.

Interestingly, Heath pointed out that the environmental movement has got us all saying, “This is crazy!” but no one is quite at the point of saying, “And we can fix it!” And that’s a problem.

3) Shape the path:
Make change easy.  Manipulate the situation and the environment such that the desired behavior is frictionless.  Amazon’s 1 click purchasing button is a great example of removing all barriers between the customer and the goal.  If you are trying to drive change, have you removed every single barrier between the people who aim to change and the actions you want them to take?  “What looks like a people problem is often a situation problem,” Heath explained.  The clearer your ask, the higher the likelihood that people will comply.  Giving students a map and specific directions about donating a can of food increased their likelihood of compliance from 8% to 42% in the most kind students, and 0% to 25% in the least kind students.

So to recap:

• Direct the rider – study the bright spots and replicate

• Motivate the elephant – use emotional levers

• Shape the path – make change easy

 Motivating, inspiring, and changing behavior is never easy, but knowing the science behind each will certainly make you more effective!