Who motivates the motivator?
Leadership is like that. Who does the leader follow to evolve into the optimum model to follow?

Leadership must be renewed from within. It is like a muscle that must be worked to develop.

Consider playing a sport like tennis. A coach once encouraged me to experience playing against an opponent at least two “rungs” up from my level to improve my game. Easier said than done, I say! A special person, especially a company leader, has to possess several traits to combat ego issues. See if you agree with me:

Conscious competence—Great leaders select experts smarter and more informed than they are. They are committed to personal growth and lifelong learning. They are confident in their own skin that they are knowledgeable, yet they cannot know everything! They are self-referred and comfortable to know they have assembled the best team. This ability relates to control and trust issues, which is founded on insecurity.

Empathy—They need to understand and care about the people in their sphere is important to them.

Self awareness—This multidimensional leader is aware of short-comings as well as strengths. This trait is essential to emotional intelligence and assessing one’s position in the universe.

Courage to fail—It takes courage to risk one’s security and comfort to achieve an outcome. This is the discussion around “out-of-the-box” thinking and actions. Another perspective is to shift into curiosity mode and find out how parts fit together. This perspective allows space to explore and test different approaches. It is a way of eliminating obstacles by crossing them off the list of what has been tried.

Know it all—This omniscient leader has a blind spot that shines on the ego. It is a false premise to think one person holds all the answers, and that to ask for input or feedback somehow diminishes one’s credibility or stature and makes one weak. The hubris of this perspective is the undoing of many leaders and they don’t see it coming. Plus, adversaries see an opportunity in this warped thinking to feed misinformation or counterpoint with something the person does not know!

Humility—Robert Schuller said, “Humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking more of other people.” The ability to be humble opens a perspective of wide expanse. There are possibilities in humility and an openness to learn in service to others. Whether leading a large corporation, religious organization, or teaching a class, humility tracks back to being receptive to new ideas and a desire to know more.

The Model—One must be able to follow before becoming a great leader. The great leader uses all of the above traits to inspire confidence and emotion into people who perceive how their lives will be enhanced by connecting with this leader.

I would enjoy hearing your input, so please send your concepts of leadership directly to me. MC

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by Coachcubas

Action plan, business coaching, consumers

Breakthrough Results are like overnight sensations

March 5, 2015

Breakthrough Results are often like overnight sensations.

We all know or heard of people who have come “out of nowhere” and were the next big thing.

In figure skating, things aren't always as they appear

Stop there—Not true.

It’s like figure skating; we don’t see the spills and bruises, just the end result of the training and preparation. Truth is, they’ve been at whatever talent they possess or developing a product over time that bursts onto the stage or into a market.

Think when Steve Jobs was on hiatus (fired from Apple)—John Sculley headed Apple at the time. In particular, for you “youngin’s” out there, he introduced the Newton PDA. Huh? Yes, the term Personal Digital Assistant was coined by Sculley.

(Apple image)

Newton was a window on the future although a dismal failure at the time of release in 1993.—It was the precursor to the smartphone. Conditions contributing to the failure: The market didn’t rely on computers then, like today, so it was not ready to receive Newton. There wasn’t enough installed computer base for the everyday user to create a tipping point.

So, breakthroughs depend on timing. My experience teaches me that Preparation + Openness + Willingness to learn and adapt = Opportunities; which give you the power (POWA) to achieve your goals. We must be prepared to meet our greatness™. Yet, there must be capacity and openness to receive what may fly in that isn’t planned—serendipity some call it. Jonas Salk’s polio vaccine was such a breakthrough after years of chasing a cure.

Passionate people drive innovation; innovation creates breakthroughs. These types of people ignore time, food, hygiene sometimes, to stay in flow, what Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi documented with athletes and his study of happiness. Csíkszentmihályi described flow as “being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you’re using your skills to the utmost.” The reference is from Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mihaly_Csikszentmihalyi).

More recently, Csíkszentmihályi’s work centers on motivation and the success factors contributing to challenging experiences. In fact, he created a new personality “construct” called work orientation, characterized by “achievement, endurance, cognitive structure, order, play, and low impulsivity.” —All these factors contribute to breakthrough results.

What is important to note is the role preparation plays in a breakthrough. Finding all the ways that don’t work are the blueprint building blocks to get to what will. It’s the “keeping at it” that leads to the breakthrough. We can take a lesson from stalwart entrepreneurs who have a vision and won’t stop until it manifests.

Performance matters, but it is the lead up TO the performance that determines the breakthrough outcome. MC

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by Coachcubas

business coaching, entrepreneurs

Entrepreneur Shuffle

November 26, 2013

Here are several lessons learned along the journey of entrepreneurism:

People are limited by what they know. After 13 years in large corporations, I knew I could serve SOHO businesses and entrepreneurs more effectively as my own company. Positive Potentials LLC was born out of that burning desire.

Freedom is a personal value for me. It was freedom to make decisions, not free time! When driven by a passion for one’s work, it’s not work (Confucius said that), but the hours can take over one’s life. Time management is a huge challenge.

The biggest challenge in starting was to get the word out. Interestingly, people I previously worked with began to hire me because they enjoyed working with me. Marketing was the answer to creating sustainability.

I networked morning, noon, and night to create a presence and persona for Positive Potentials. I was able to receive feedback on how people perceived business coaching and where the gaps were in their businesses—I was curious and I did more listening than talking.

Certain truths became self-evident (smile):

Coaching shortens your learning curve—The one with the shortest learning curve LEADS!™

People start businesses but run them like a hobby.
My clients didn’t have time to go back to school to learn what they needed to know; business coaching filled many gaps for them in the business process from accounting to marketing.
Coaching provided a safe, non-judgmental space for quick learning. The information was useful and immediately applicable to the entrepreneur’s issues. I formulated a body of work called the EMBA Program that ultimately became a 12-week certification process for small business owners.
The entrepreneurs I coached were great at what they wanted to do. I called them my Widget Makers.

The flip side, though, was they hadn’t a clue how to run a business. With a fierce resistance to hiring expertise, once entrepreneurs connect value to coaching, they love it and welcome the shared experience.

See if you can relate or agree that these are the looming, persistent challenges I found. Please send me your feedback and comments:
• Self-promotion was hard for people.
•    They didn’t budget time and other resources wisely based on a plan; they became reactive to the situations.
•    They wanted to do everything themselves. They perceived it was too expensive to hire experts and found out the hard way how much time and money they wasted with a steep learning curve.
•    Time management was a huge challenge. There was little balance between personal and business.

I would be glad to post and share, with your permission, yours and others’ comments.

Happy Holidays! -MC

Pass it on . . .

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by Coachcubas

Who motivates the motivator?

Breakthrough Results are like overnight sensations

Entrepreneur Shuffle

Certain truths became self-evident (smile):

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