J.R. Lee

I want to make great decisions.  No one wants to go through life screwing everything up because their decision making ability was deficient.

Here’s what John Maxwell had to say…

It is easy to make decisions based on what we know.  But there are always things we don’t know.  It is easy to choose a direction based on what we see. But what don’t we see?  Reading between the lines is essential for good leadership.  We are most likely to do that when we ask the question, “What are we missing?”.

Asking and answering the tough questions on the front-end make things easier to navigate on the back-end. Don’t get blind-sided because you refused to find out what was lurking just around the corner.

I read this in the book Leadership Gold.  It’s actually a quote from the book Making a Life, Making a Living by Mark Albion.  Good stuff…

“A study of business school graduates tracked the careers of 1,500 people from 1960 to 1980. From the beginning, the graduates were grouped into two categories. Category A consisted of people who said they wanted to make money first so they could do what they really wanted to do later after they took care of their financial concerns. Those in category B pursued their interests first, sure that the money eventually would follow.

What percentage fell into each category? Of the 1,500 graduates in the survey, the money-now category A’s comprised 83 percent or 1,245 people. Category B risk takers made up 17 percent, 255 graduates.

After 20 years, there were 101 millionaires in the group. Only one came from category A, 100 from category B.   The study’s author, Srully Blotnick, concluded that “the overwhelming majority of people who have become wealthy have become so thanks to work they found profouundly absorbing….Their ‘luck’ arose from the accidental dedication they had to an area they enjoyed.”

Several years ago Devin and I went to England.  While we were there I decided to buy a souvenir.  Devin didn’t want me to, but I did it anyway.  It was Winston Churchill’s head.  I liked it for a while, then it became somewhat frightening so I sold it on Ebay to a bloke from Australia.  True Story.

Even though I sold his head – I think he was a great leader.  Read this quote:

“In every age there comes a time when a leader must come forward to meet the needs of the hour.  Therefore, there is no potential leader who does not have an opportunity to make a positive difference in society.  Tragically, there are times when a leader does not rise to the hour.”

I love this quote from Bill Hybels:

Make no mistake, spiritual leadership rises and falls on a person’s ability to connect daily with the Spirit. Skill, experience and instinct are pathetically inadequate if you want to be a spiritual leader. It is the matchless power of the Living God exploding through everything you do that makes a strong leader. Leaders worth following are forged in the brute reality of their personal walk with God.

If you are a leader, in any capacity, this is something that we can’t afford to file away in the back of our mind.  Sometimes that which seems the most simple is the easiest to forget.  If I forget everything – it better not be that.

I read a lot of blogs.  I liked this one and decided to re-post.  Here is an excerpt (Entire article here)

Can you perform your job/role better than someone has been doing it for 10 years longer than you?
Would you be interested in getting to the top of your game in less time and before the competition?

The secret is to get past the plateau. With most simple tasks we reach our highest level of proficiency after about 50 hours of practice and then our performance skills become automated and we stop learning. This explains why a 20-year-veteran brain surgeon is not likely to be more skilled than a 5-year newbie by virtue of time on the job.

What makes the difference between those that reach the top in sport and business is two things:

1. Intentional Practice
2. Immediate feedback against predetermined standards

Intentional practice is perfect practice and perfect practice makes perfect. Intentional practice requires knowing “Why” you are doing what you are doing and complete “Attention” to the task. Usually it is only possible to maintain this high level of concentration for an hour and usually in the morning when our minds are fresh.

Getting feedback against a known standard coupled with intentional practice, accelerates learning. With feedback we can make minute adjustments to our behaviour that makes the difference between a silver and gold medal. If this feedback is also positive and encouraging it will also build self-confidence and therefore motivation to keep practicing.

So what would fast track your career?

Skills such as getting along with peers, motivating a team to improve performance, influencing you boss to make better decisions are key components of leadership development, yet most people don’t think of these as things to practice.  We might read a book, take a course, even an MBA but do we think about practicing and getting feedback from a coach?

If you are serious about wanting to fast track your career you need to identify which competencies are going to make the difference and then I advise start your intentional practice and get some feedback.

Remember PPP – Perfect Practice makes Perfect!