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The notion of reinventing oneself has become a bit of a buzz word. Basically what it means is keep developing and growing. Staying fixed or even regressing is not healthy or a great way to live. From the perspective of an employer, people who reinvent themselves means they have an awareness about who they, what their strengths are and where they want to go in life. Managing people like this can be quite confronting if you are not doing the same. You may even become envious or jealous of the person as they appear powerful, disciplined and focused. 

Reinvention is like giving yourself a makeover. Not because you don’t like who you are but rather because you want to be your best. In an article written by Dan Gallagher, he outlines a model for reinventing oneself when you are a leader. To get started you need to have a strong sense of self awareness. This means really knowing everything about yourself, how you think, what you believe, your strengths and so on. Part of being at the top requires you to have the social skills to be able to network with develop a great support system. Great leaders have a coach and many others who support them.

Having strong support ensures you can step out and question the status quo. This can be achieved by creating a very brilliant strategic plan, outlining how you think the company should move forward. To be able to successfully do this you need to really know the context your in and also have a great global and political awareness. Being open minded is critical in this step. And finally an element of social responsibility and humility where you have the courage to  to realise that life is greater than self and bringing about the good of others is a higher calling or bigger vision.

When you imagine yourself doing all of these things you can see how success would follow. You would feel incredibly confident and this would give you the courage to keep reinventing yourself or a notion that I prefer,  being the greatest you can possibly be.

I read a quote recently which said if you live in the future you live in uncertainty but if you live in the present then all is fine or something along those lines. Living in the future does make you feel uncertain but if you never think about the future and where you want to go then you will not reach your destination. It is a little like planning a long trip, you need a map, supplies etc and you need to know where you are going. Once you know you start to path out the way forward. What is more concerning is living in the present and being uncertain. Not having a goal or a focus point will make everyday feel uncertain. This is a really stressful way to live.

When you think about the future and the direction you would like to go in, remember that just like planning a trip to a new destination, you need to work out a plan and imagine yourself going there. The excitement that comes from planning a trip is exhilarating and you can feel the intensity of the excitement grow as you approach your departure in anticipation of your destination. This is how life should be. Work out the goal, plan for it and start preparing for it. You cannot get from destination A to B by waiting for someone to do it for you. Neither can you expect someone else to make you a success or do the work for you. This is your life.

So feel the excitement, relish in it, and begin the journey. Putting off the achievement of your goal for another day will cause your energy to dissipate and it will make your destination seem never possible. Don’t let that happen. As John Wayne once said in an old cowboy movie, “Get off your horse and drink your milk,” in other words get into action and make it happen.

A recently written book titled “Big Questions from Little People” compiled by Gemma Elwin Harris asks many great questions. Children have the wonderful ability to ask great questions without limiting their thinking. One  of the questions was “Where does good come from?” This is a great question. Goodness is something that includes both our thoughts and actions as one leads to the other. It includes asking ourselves questions around what do I think is good? Then it also requires gathering other peoples perspectives on this same subject.

In the workplace, do you ever ask the employees these type of questions? Doing so would unlock a great deal of information and also help to understand the many different perspectives you will gain. Many workplaces list missions and visions and values but there is rarely a list of behaviours or expectations listed and made public. Companies also often list frequently asked questions but these are usually all around procedures rather than philosophical questions. A workplace that asks philosophical questions encourages thought and growth. In leadership development, most work is done through asking the tough questions, questions that question the status quo.

As a leader in your workplace do you ask questions? Do you regularly spend time asking and thinking through tough philosophical questions to stretch your thinking and to enhance creativity and strategy? Maybe start with the first question, where does good come from in our company? See what answers you get.

Part of ongoing development is looking at areas that you want to achieve or goals you want to set. The challenge with setting goals is that we all have a history of not achieving what we set out to achieve at some time in our life. So what is it that stopped the goal being realised? One of the reason behind it may be that the new goal you were committed to was competing with a hidden commitment or belief. For example you may want to learn how to delegate a lot more. You set out to think about what you are currently doing or not doing in this area so you can gain clarity about what you need to change. However in looking at this list you notice that a lot of the things you do actually ensures you don’t delegate. You do most of the tasks yourself and you take on other peoples tasks. These behaviours will ensure you don’t move forward in positively becoming a better delegator.

When you look at the things you are doing that don’t support the change you want to make you will see that you have a belief or value that you are committed to that is overriding your new area you want to commit to. The example of delegation could be that you are really committed to a worry that if you delegate to others then maybe you will miss a good opportunity that will come up. You may be committed to being completely independent and you  see delegation as creating a dependency. The next thought may be that if you are seen as dependent then you may lost some respect as people may believe you are not able to do everything.

What happens is that your hidden commitment negates your new commitment towards improvement. The first step to resolving this is to do the work required to understand what your hidden commitments are. This is critical. If you don’t  know what you believe how can you develop your beliefs and thoughts. Often these beliefs are hidden deep in our subconscious and we are not aware of them. Awareness is the key to unlocking those beliefs and ensuring they are no longer hidden. When you find them it will feel like a great revelation, a great relief as it will help you understand more about who you are, and the more you know the more you can develop. Now your goal is achievable!

Have you ever thought that you clearly knew what success meant to you and then suddenly you realised that you had it all wrong? In the split of a moment you became aware that your success can only be gained from what you do not how others are impacted by you. Sometimes we feel that our success is seeing how we make others feel about themselves or the achievements they make. In the role of leadership you support many people and you may come to feel that your success is seeing others succeed. However this is your passion not your success.

Success is achieving what will make you feel great. You realise that your unique contributions can bring about a great gain to humankind and this excites you. Begin by defining your sense of success. then create a plan to make happen. You will begin to realise that your success can only be achieved by you owning it and being responsible for it. Take control of it and start making it happen.

Once you are clear about what success is to you, then begin by writing down your strengths. In addition think through what your challenges are or weaknesses so that you can be clear about what you need to be doing to create your success. Surround yourself with people who will support you.

So a moment of clarity – success as defined by you for you, not what you are passionate about. Your passion should be a strength and this will bring about your success.

The greatest way to achieve something is to take one step towards it every day. To know at the end of each day that you have moved closer to your goal will leave you feeling energised and confident. Sometimes this is difficult as you may be uncertain as to what your goal is. So begin by determining what success will look and feel like for you. Do not be pressured into creating a success story or picture based on what you think everyone wants. Peer pressure and family pressure are incredible forces. However if you live by them then all you will achieve is your peer and families goals. There is a great argument to be had that achieving your own goals and success, in the format that works best for you, will win out in the end.

To begin to know more about what success is for you requires opening your mind to new ways of thinking. If requires shifting your perspective or the way you see things. It also requires full understanding how to separate out the goals your family or friends have desired from what you desire. Then it requires finding the courage to achieve your measure of success. Success is so often measured according to high profile people. However we do not see the pathway they took or they are not high profile when they are struggling in the early days to achieve their own sense of success. We are generally not interested in these stories, just the end result and then we apply this result to the first step of success. This is a really destructive message and way of thinking.

First step is to identify what you are strong at, your strengths. What do you love doing, get excited about, find your energy levels exploding from? Notice this about yourself. Then once you observe your strengths begin to create some ideas around your strengths. From here take your ideas and turn them into a plan, a pathway, a goal. Then spend the next moment taking the first step towards it. Do not go to bed at night without knowing you have taken one small step everyday towards achieving your goal. Success will be upon you before you know it. The irony is that everyone loves being around a person who feels successful. It is the feeling of success that is contagious and inspiring, the feeling of seeing a confident person. That is what people want more of.

We are at a period of time where certain corporations have been in existence for several decades. Some may even be heading towards a century. With age comes wisdom but with it also comes some inherent problems. Learning from the past supports wisdom going forward. Sometimes wisdom and opportunities to learn are not practiced because this also requires thinking about what changes need to be made to implement the wisdom gained. With ageing comes a propensity to take less risks, however the very nature of growing a business is about being creative and taking risks. If you look back at the beginning of the corporation then you will see it started with someone taking a risk and being creative in the approach they took.

Growing a business, which means the same as staying in business, requires always being open and creative. It means taking a real look at what is going on and observing the market. In some corporations, ageing has left the corporation bound up in rules and systems, trying to minimise risk. Overtime boards begin to take control of the corporation. They employ CEO’s who are compliance or systems experts. More controls are implemented until the corporation is so rigid and bound up that it cannot be flexible and meet market demands.

Employing a CEO who is flexible, entrepreneurial, creative and open to taking risks means handing over trust and responsibility allowing this person the freedom to grow the business. Instead what we see today is  greater control thus setting the CEO up to fail.

It is time for us to think back to how many corporations began, with an idea, a plan and many risks. It required really knowing your market and having your finger on the pulse. It required flexibility. These things cannot be done from the board room. They are done at the coal face. The corporations of the future are not run by board rooms but by having a strong vision, allowing the CEO to achieve it and by supporting the CEO to achieve. Boards should put in place realistic ways to track progress. They should use the time they spend together to learn from the past, apply this learning and allocate time to change in preparation for the next step. Each board member, including the CEO, should be evolving, growing  all the time. This will flow on throughout the corporation, energising and invigorating it. With this comes growth.

Today is all about making deals. The skill of the deal maker is critical to the success of the deal. Many people aim to either get a win for themselves or they compromise what they really want and come out with less than they desired. However this loss or compromise is ignored as the deal is done and in reality the intent was to simply make a deal. But what if both parties could achieve a win win outcome? This means setting place two things. The first is the desire or the intent to want to create a win win for both parties and the second is to make no assumptions.

We make many assumptions about why the other party wants the deal but we rarely ask them. You may recall a time when you thought really clearly about what was important to the other party and then suddenly you found out that what they wanted was nothing like what you thought. Ironically what they want is easy for you to give. 

To make a win win deal remove assumptions. Ask the other party what they want, what is the win for them. Then explain what would be a win for you. The myth about holding your cards close to your chest is confused with working out what would be a win win situation. Sometimes what would cost you a lot may not be of great importance to the other party. So open up the conversation and your mind to what would be a win for the other party first. You will discover the many assumptions you are making.

A great deal of conversation today exists about the speed in which we must change or even our ability to change. It is stated over and over again that we must become familiar with change and see it as a part of life. Obviously this message needs to keep being reiterated as we still don’t get the message. Perhaps we have it in theory but in practice the speed in which we can change takes some time. However how would you feel if you could actually reduce the time in which it would take you to adapt to change?

Take for example a scenario. Your position at work is looking tenuous and maybe you can feel that you will soon be asked to move on. This may be for a whole range of reasons. You can make a couple of choices at this moment in time. You can either fight this decision, withdraw and try and stay away from any conflict or discussions about this, perhaps known as denial, or you can address the situation with your company and plan your exit. In most instances the last option is not taken up as we choose the first couple of options to give us the time needed to adjust to this change. However the first two options may take months and so a great deal of time has been lost and a great deal of stress has been incurred.

The reason why it takes us a long time to change is because of the level of attachment or control we want to have over others and situations. Detachment is being in command only of your own conduct. Life is full of duality, good and bad. Attachment and detachment is also based on duality. To be able to live freely and to be able to adapt quickly to change you need to be detached from situations so that you can move freely forward. It is not easy to only be in command of your own life, especially if you are managing others in a workplace. However this is what management is all about, supporting others to be in command of their own conduct. It is not about controlling or commanding others. We are usually motivated to control things because we are afraid to let go of what is around us. We make up stories, which are actually lies to comfort or convince ourselves that we need this level of control. But at the end of the day it is this level of control that actually makes our life stressful and challenging. It slows our speed of change.

The notion of creating energy as an input into our lives and then seeing that energy disappear can be described as the output. An interesting exercise is to draw a diagram with yourself as the centre. Then describe how you gain your energy. Use arrows to point towards yourself as this is what creates energy within you. Then write down what takes your energy, creating arrows going out from yourself.

Next take a look at the input. Are you actually doing all of these things all the time or is it more of a wish list? Then take a look at the output. Are you having energy taken from you in all these areas all the time or just occasionally? I am sure that you will see that it is more likely that you have minimal energy going in but rather large amounts of energy being taken out. This exercise can also give you some insight into how you see your world. If you have lots of avenues of energy coming in then perhaps you are more optimistic about life, more positive. However if you have more energy going out does this mean you see your world in a more negative way?

The greatest conclusion however is to understand that if your output exceeds your input then you are in trouble. In business this is not achievable so why would we think it is possible in our own lives. Input is like an investment,  it is depositing the very essence of life into you. Output is the withdrawal. If you are depositing less than you are withdrawing then you are in a deficit situation. It is not long after that the toll of this deficit starts to become noticeable. Your health might deteriorate, your stress levels will increase, your overall performance and ability to see things positively and to be able to work within the moment will be compromised. So increase your input and always make sure it is at least a third greater than your output.