Tag: goals

What’s Your Big Goal?

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Chapter 1
Taking People With You: The Only Way to Make BIG Things Happen
By David Novak (Chairman & CEO of YUM! Brands)
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The first job of a successful leader is to have an idea of where you want to lead people.  I start off asking a straightforward question:

What’s the single biggest thing you can imagine that will grow your business or change your life?

I said it was a straightforward question; I didn’t say it was an easy one.  The answer that you come up with is what I call a Big Goal, by which I mean something more than just small improvements or modest growth.  It’s not very bold to do just marginally better than the year before.

Setting the right goal is the key to achieving success, and leaders often fall short in this area by not aiming high enough.  None of us wants to fail, for a whole host of reasons (job preservation being among the top ones), so we tend to be cautious about how high we set our sights.  But the truth is, shooting for just good enough rather than for greatness will not inspire the people around you.  It also means that you’ll never get a chance to find out what you and the people you lead are truly capable of.  And that’s a shame, for your business, for your people and for yourself.

Image: Actioncoach.com

How to Stop Drinking From A Fire Hose & Get The Right Things Done – In a mere 18 minutes (Really?)

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This book sat in my Kindle queue for 8 weeks before I picked it up a few days before New Year’s Day. Why the foot dragging? I was fully anticipating a tired, re-tread, re-run of the often quoted “me-too” time management disciplines – – get-your-focus-on-the-main-thing-being-the-main-thing, turn off your email and blackberry, delegate better, say no more frequently, stop multitasking, blah, blah, blah. Even the title (18 minutes to solve global warming) had turned me off.

But, just like I had to eat all of the vegetables on my plate when I was a kid – – I bought the book, so I had to read it. And the verdict? I was wrong. This book is so much better than that. (Yes, it helps to have low expectations, but I stand my ground. This book is SOLID.)

Bregman gets your attention from the first chapter and you ride with him all the way through to the finish. Do you find yourself answering yes to one or more of the following questions? If yes, for $12 on Kindle, you’ll get your monies worth and then some.

  • Do you find that you ask yourself where did the day go? Where did the week go? Where did the year(s) go?
  • Do you often find that you do not have the time to get done what you want to get done?
  • Does “stuff” always get in the way of what you need to get done precluding you from finishing what’s important to you?
  • Do you feel that you are on a treadmill scrambling to try to keep up or finish…anxious, or frustrated or unfulfilled?
  • Do you find that you are working harder yet staying in place or falling behind?

Continue reading “How to Stop Drinking From A Fire Hose & Get The Right Things Done – In a mere 18 minutes (Really?)” →

I’m still learning. The day I stop reading, the day I stop learning – that’s the day I stop leading & likely the day I stop breathing.

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Mike Myatt is Managing Director and Chief Strategy Officer at N2growth – a firm which offers CEO coaching, leadership development and other related consulting activities.  Mike is recognized as one of the world’s top 25 leadership experts.  He has held numerous C-suite positions prior to becoming an advisor, speaker and author of Leadership Matters.  Mike is a syndicated columnist and contributing editor on topics of leadership and innovation for publications including Forbes, Psychology Today, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur, Chicago Sun Times, Success, Washington Times and the Chief Executive Magazine.  Mike contributed 2 articles in the past week for Forbes – both are exceptional and highly recommended:

1) Forbes: This One Leadership Quality Will Make or Break You (12/19/11)

2) Forbes: 5 Leadership Tips for 2012 (12/22/11)

I’ve included a good number of the important excerpts below from the 2 articles for my future reference. However, I encourage you to read the articles in their entirety so as not to lose Mike’s message and context. Continue reading “I’m still learning. The day I stop reading, the day I stop learning – that’s the day I stop leading & likely the day I stop breathing.” →

Makes me think, deeply…

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If you haven’t checked out Nicholas Bate’s blog, it’s worth the time. He’s an author, prolific blogger, a pioneer thought leader on business, life and productivity, a NLP Master Practitioner and a former Oxford University researcher. I’ve been an avid follower since 2009. His posts are generally short but thoughtful (reminding me of my high school English teacher who explained that “any monkey can write a two or three pager, but try to distill your message down to its core essence in a paragraph or two and this takes real work- – here you have Nicholas Bate). I find his posts to be deep…like mental candy – inspiring – and some having the impact of a can of Red Bull. Here’s 6 of my favorite posts from the last 6 months and a few other links to samples of his work that I’ve bookmarked. What an incredible talent he is. Enjoy…

Continue reading “Makes me think, deeply…” →

Shatter Your Standards…

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I’ve been an avid follower of Robin Sharma. He is the founder and CEO of a leadership consulting firm and the author of more than 10 international bestsellers on leadership (The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari; The Leader Who Had No Title). He’s ranked by some as being among the world’s top leadership experts. I was inspired by his recent post Master Your Life and Have Fun Doing it, where he shares some worthwhile thoughts as we close out 2011 and head into the new year.

  • 2011 is finding its way to completion. Many of us are thinking about the holidays – and joy-filled moments with those we love most. This is also a superb time to carve out some solo time and begin reflecting on what you did well in 2011. And what you need to improve so that the new year is guaranteed to become your absolute best year yet. Please remember: success doesn’t just show up via luck. No, success is the inevitable result of doing a number of specific things, in a consistent way.
  • So as you reflect…on your 2011 wins…I invite you to remember the following 6 Insights to Master Your Life: