Tag: Success

Vision & Mission: The catalysts for greatness 

Leadership, Success

For a company, a team or an individual colleague to do well there needs to be a foundation of Values. Without this foundation there is no direction, and as Simon Sinek has taught us, there is no Why. There also needs to be consistency across the Behaviours of the company, team and colleague as well, this is How the Why is achieved. If the Values and the Behaviours are right then the Results will match and success will be the outcome.

However, just having the right Values to inspire the right Behaviours is not enough to attain greatness. This involves how we get from the Values to the Behaviours, having a clear and consistent path to follow. In order to attain greatness there are two other pieces to this picture, things which are the bridge from the Values to the Behaviours. These are the Vision and the Mission. Both should be clear and outcome orientated.

The Vision is the extension of Why we do what we do, it is the overall goal that shoots for the stars, it is an ideal outcome, an ideal worth working hard for. For example, the Vision of the Royal National Lifeguard Institution is “To end preventable loss of life at sea.” This is a clear and noble goal, as all Visions should be.

The Mission is more about What we are going to do and How we are going reach the Vision. It is the second part of the bridge between Values and Behaviours. It is a kind of action plan in the form of a statement. For example, this is the Mission statement of Disney, “We create happiness by providing the finest in entertainment for people of all ages, everywhere.” This might sound like what Disney do, which it is, but it also tells us How Disney does it.

In order for the Vision and the Mission to firstly be created and secondly to become part of the culture of a company or team and the mindset of an individual colleague, we also need passionate leaders who inspire others to believe in the overall Vision and Mission. Then each individual within the team or company will make it their reason for coming to work, their reason to strive for greatness.

This is the job of Line Managers at every level, to coach their team, so that they may oporate at their full potential, in a way that helps their colleagues find joy in their contribution. This is teamwork at its best, and it begins with Values and Vision and continues with Mission and Behaviours. Let us all be the leaders which inspire greatness in others, so that we may achieve greatness together.

Kindness and success 

Happiness, Success

Some people will say that nice guys finish last, but I would like to politely disagree. To use a racing metaphor, if it is a sprint the nice person may well finish last, but life and/or a career are not a sprint, they are marathons. Kindness, if mixed with competence and cooperation, will quite often win you the career race, and the life long race. It depends on what you value.

Opportunities are given to those who are trusted, and nothing erodes trust more than back-stabbing and gossip, two behaviours that those who want to be first can often display. Living a meaningful life involves building and maintaining relationships. In relationships we are running metaphorical marathons. I would argue that kindness is an essential ingredient in a life full of both happiness and success. This is the race worth running.

The science of achievement and the art of fulfilment 

Happiness, Success

Happiness and success can be thought of in terms of units. I believe that both happiness and success work a bit like compound interest, if you don’t cash in on the interest of the happiness and success units invested, but instead take what you’ve learned and double down on what brought the happiness and/or success, then the net result increases more and more.

However, it can be very difficult to find out what makes each of us happy and how we individually find success. This is because we are all individuals. Now we know this intellectually, but we often still go chasing after things that appear to bring these desired results for other people. These things are often external, temporary and ineffective in bringing long term happiness and success. I often put happiness and success together, and I do this on purpose, because I believe that they are so interconnected that it is very difficult to have one without the other.

When we gain material success we rarely find long term happiness, because of the nature of material things. If we can figure out what actually makes us happy, things that bring us joy and contentment, it then becomes clear what type of success will then increase and sustain this happiness for us. This is because our goals for success will be on our terms, they will be what success means to us.

Tony Robbins calls this the Science of Achievement and Art of Fulfilment. If you get both of these right, then you will be happy and you will find success by following your own path, guided by the wisdom and examples of others, rather than following the paths of others guided by someone else’s goals that will not necessarily bring the happiness and success you are looking for. Socrates said “Know thyself,” Tony Robbins added to this “Be thyself.” This is the route to both happiness and success.

Win win strategies 

Success

A win win strategy, as you may well know, is a situation between two people when you win and so do they. In many situations people aim for themselves to win and they don’t necessarily think about the outcome for the other person. This may be a sales pitch, a marketing opportunity or a situation between friends. My belief is that in business and in life when we aim for a win win we often end up winning twice.

If we help someone else while helping achieving a positive outcome for ourselves, then we build a relationship that can include trust and respect, which often pays dividends further down the road. With any relationship it is the positive contributions to that relationship from both sides that makes it strong and long lasting. If we want this sort of personal relationship or one with business accossiates and/or clients then aiming for a win win is an intelligent thing to do.

Motivation: can versus can’t 

Happiness, Success

Our subconscious believes what we tell it and if we tell ourselves what we can’t do more often than what we can do our whole self image can become very negative. On the other hand, if we choose to tell ourselves more often the things that we can do, this has a positive effect on how we see ourselves.

Every thought we have either creates new pathways in the brain or reinforces old ones, so that they become strong habits. Simply focusing on what we can do can be very motivating. If a problem pops up in our lives taking a moment to look at our options to see a way through will help. Try starting sentences with “I can…” rather than I can’t and I think you will develop more motivation and more confidence over time. Give it a try, I know you can.

Mental obsticles and their antidotes 

Happiness, Success

We all have mental obsticles, thoughts that pop up again and again which seem to sabotage our plans. Often these are minor things that prove to be an inconvenience and nothing more. Sometimes the mental obsticles can be very debilitating. However, there is something we can do about the debilitating mental obsticles, if we can identify them then we can find antidotes for them.

There are three areas I have found where these mental obsticles can appear, they relate to your health, your sense of self and your professional life. For me these were anxiety, anger and procrastination respectively. My job at the time of discovering this was very stressful, which caused great anxiety that had a negative impact on my health. I felt angry at the situation, at my difficulty in finding a different job and at those around me associated with the situation, which was very uncharacteristic of me and something I did not like at all. I also habitually procrastinated when I should have been up-skilling myself to move forward professionally.

My answer was to find three mental antidotes and use them as a mantra when any of the mental obsticles popped up in my thinking. I decided that courage would overcome anxiety, compassion for myself and others would overcome anger and fortitude would overcome procrastination. These were my key words, courage, compassion and fortitude, this is my mantra. It did not fix things immediately, because I needed to rewire my thoughts and make new pathways in my brain, and I still have some work to do on this, but it can help when the mental obsticles popped up in the moment by saying or thinking them.

I recommend you find your mental obsticles (one that is effecting your health, one your sense of self and one your professional life) and then find their antidotes, this will be your healing mantra. Repetition of the mantra is the key. Every morning, every night and any time one or more of the mental obsticles pops up. Instead of being sucked in by the negative mental obsticles, repeat the mantra over and over out loud or, if you prefer, in your head and no one else needs to know.

Something to remember however, is that even though it will help in the moment when it is needed, the mantra is not a quick fix, it is only an aid on the journey to self mastery. You have to put in the time again and again to achieve this.

Taking responsibility

Happiness, Success

Taking responsibility for the things you have control of in your life can bring immense rewards, the most important of which is that you will move away from feeling like you are a victim in areas or situations in your life. When we feel that our lives are mainly subject to forces outside of our control we feel like victims. A similar mindset allows us to blame these outside forces, or even other people, when things don’t go our way.

Outside forces and people will have their influence over us at times, when it rains and we are standing outside we will get wet, but the degree to which we stand there is the degree to which we get wet. At all times we can decide to take acton to improve things or we can decide to view a situation in a positive light and look for the opportunities. This boils down to taking responsibility for what we do, what we say and most importantly what we think. We cannot control everything but we can control how we respond to the events and situations in our lives.

A word of warning however, do not mistake taking responsibility for blaming yourself. If you made a mistake it can be easy to beat yourself up about it. Whatever we do it will never be perfect. Our lives will always be a work in progress. Embrace this and treat life as a great adventure with every mistake being an opportunity to learn and every challenge an opportunity to either succeed or learn how to.

This is taking responsibility for your life, the fruit of which will be a greater feeling of control in your life and greater opportunities. You will be able to see more opportunities, because you will be looking for them and others will see that you take responsibility, that you are accountable for your actions, and they will give you opportunities. The greatest payoff however will be that you will be happier while you have more control over your life, because you have control of yourself. This is the most important mastery you can achieve.

Doing the right thing

Success

Sometimes being successful means doing the thing that you know is right in a culture or environment that is encouraging you to do otherwise, because personal success must align with your values and beliefs. This can be incredibly hard to do. It does help to try and cultivate inside yourself a moral compass. The more you think about your moral compass, the more vivid your focus on it, the easier it is to use it when a situation is pushing you the other way. Your values and beliefs are what guide your moral compass, they are your North star.

Know thyself before leading others 

Leadership, Success

Gaining a deep understanding of yourself brings with it a feeling of being comfortable in one’s own skin, and this brings an inner confidence that is emitted out to everyone around you. It is about knowing what you value and what you believe. Your values and beliefs are your centre of gravity, so to speak, they are the compass and bearing of every decision you make. However, this is only a starting point of building yourself up as someone people look to for advice, collaboration and leadership.

You will need to prove yourself too, as someone who can be relied upon, who can be trusted and can lead others. This also has to be consistent, good leaders help those around them consistently, which builds trust. Without trust no organisation or team will succeed or work well together.

Knowing yourself is only the beginning, it is the foundation from which to build your new happier and successful self, and a place to begin as a leader. Good leaders inspire others to follow them through what they do, what they say, and how they treat those around them. If you look after those around you well consistently then are already a leader.

Sometimes it is what you don’t do that matters 

Success

In one of my previous jobs I inadvertently had a very positive effect on a colleague by not doing something. While chatting for a few minutes one day at work they made an unkind comment about a Director of the company. I didn’t agree with what they said or join in talking about the Director, I just didn’t respond and changed the topic of conversation.

After the brief chat I forgot about it and got on with my day. Months later on a works social night out the same colleague told me that this same conversation, that I had forgotten about, had a profound effect on them. My decision not to join in making comments caused my colleague to rethink how they talk about other people, it has encouraged them to be more kind and to participate less in negative gossip. Sometimes what you don’t do is as important as what you do.

At any time you can be seen by others as a role model, so we should try to live up to this in everything we do and don’t do in our lives.

The path to success 

Success

We need to see the success we want, to see it and then walk the path towards it. Success is the destination and the path, because every step on the path is a success in itself. This may seem like an obvious thing to say, but many of us can see the success we want, the destination, but are blind to the path we need to go down to get there. We focus on the future we want and not the present.

This causes two problems. Firstly it makes the present seem worse because we compare it to the better future we want. Secondly not focusing on the presents blocks many of the steps, tasks and opportunities in front of us that can help us get to the success we want. We have to know the success we want and also be focused on what we need to do today and every day to get there. Remember to celebrate every step you make towards your goals.

Success is the destination and the path, because every step on the path is a success in itself.

Gossip kills trust

Happiness, Leadership, Success

When we hear someone gossiping, whether we laugh along or even join in with the gossip, the trust we have for the person gossiping begins to erode. This is because we fear that they do the same about us behind our back.

Gossip kills trust and without trust it is less likely that others will cooperate with us. Both success and happiness are built on cooperation. Happiness is largely a result of the relationships we have with other people and relationships are built on trust too. Success is not something we can achieve completely alone, long term success certainly can’t be achieved this way. Let us create and maintain positive relationships and therefore a good life.

I’m not saying that you have to get on your high horse and tell others not to gossip, but not participating in gossip yourself will undoubtedly improve your relationships and therefore your happiness and success. Other people will start to notice that you don’t engage in gossip and they will trust you more. The greater the trust the greater the cooperation and the greater your happiness and success will be.

Read something amazing every day

Happiness, Success

I believe that success is closely linked to absorbing knowledge from the world around us. This often takes the form of unconsciously assimilating messages and information from the culture in which we live. This is a passive way of absorbing knowledge.

It is important to be aware of what is going on around us, but I think that if we are to become successful, or even happy, in our lives then we need to be more active about learning new things that are relevant to success in general and in the specific area that we want to succeed in. Knowledge and understanding is power.

I have a recommended reading list on my blog site of books I think would help you find both happiness and success. It is not an exhaustive list, but these are books that I have read and have benefited from the wisdom in their pages.

Exploring happiness and success 

Happiness, Success

Meaning in life invariably stems from the values we have accumulated from our past experience. And finding meaning is a key component in finding happiness, because without meaning it would be difficult to see the point of doing anything. Yet in our current society success and usefulness are prized over value and if we are to find our own happiness we need to start moving away from the tide of expectations imposed by society and walk our own path.

You may be wondering why I am saying such things given that this blog is in part about finding success, but the success that society preaches is not what I am talking about in this blog. I am not talking about success based on society’s narrow definition of it, I am talking about personal success based on the foundation of personal values and the cultivation of personal happiness. It seems to me that you cannot find personal success without finding this foundation first.

Becoming a go-to person

Leadership, Success

If people start coming to you for advice it means two things. Firstly, they trust you to treat them with respect and that you will not ridicule them for not knowing something that you do. Secondly, you have begun to establish yourself as a person of knowledge and authority in your field or your life generally. This is a critical tipping point.

How you respond will determine if this is to continue or not. If you let this go to your head and you start to feel like some sort of guru, then people will stop respecting and, crucially, trusting you, and you lose. To continue to have people’s respect and trust you need to keep respecting them; to collaborate rather than dictate, and also continue learning, continue being a seeker of truth in every field, but especially in the field you work in.

Two factors of success 

Success

When it comes to success, I believe that two intertwined behaviours are critical. The first is always being humble enough to be a student, to learn from every experience and every person we meet. The second is taking responsibility for helping others find their own success. I do believe that finding both happiness and success is a path we walk together.

On a practical level, success achieved through going it alone and without help or any form of cooperation is, in my opinion, fool hardy and will be short lived. Long term success comes from helping others and allowing others to help us. We have to trust that others will execute their part well and we have to prove that we can execute our part well also. Success and cooperation are inseparable.

The Pinky & the Brain effect

Success

When I was a child I watched a TV programme called Pinky & the Brain, which had two laboratory mice, who every night tried to take over the world. Pinky was an unintelligent sidekick to the Brain, who as his name suggests, was very clever. Each plan was as ridiculous as the previous one, which always fell short of success. The fun of each episode was watching the plans fall apart in funny ways.

Reflecting on this recently I was struck by the importance of a key part of this program. If we are to find success we firstly need to have the competence to avoid falling short of succeeding with the plan you have, but it is also very important not to be deterred by failure. Each episode would start with Pinky asking the Brain “What are we going to do tonight?”, or words to that effect, and the Brain would answer, “the same thing we do every night Pinky, try to take over the world.”

Every successful entrepreneur or business owner is successful because they have failed many many times and learned from each failure and then tried again. Failure is an opportunity to either succeed or learn how to. If you can fail fast, learn quickly and try again, you will succeed in whatever to try to do.

Stand in your own truth

Success

I have heard the phrase “Standing in your own truth” a number of times and it has me intrigued. It has taken me some time to mull over what this deceptively deep statement means. At its most simple, I think it means being yourself and at its most complex it delves into the psyche and explores what is meant by the self and how we see ourselves in relation to the world and the society in which we live.

To me standing in your own truth means, firstly, that we have a good sense of who we are and, secondly, that we have the confidence to step forth into the world with this self on show. Something that leaves us vulnerable and shows our courage simultaneously. It is a step into the unknown grounded in the knowledge that we can take on whatever life can throw at us, but without deviating from our own truth, our own genuine self. This to me is courage itself, and is something we should all try to do. Standing in your own truth is better than following the apparent truth of someone else.

Seeking opportunities 

Success

A reliable route to success is to become an opportunity seeker, to develop a mindset that looks upon situations and asks where is the opportunity. This has three parts to it, and all three parts need to be completed for success to happen. Firstly you have to be aware of opportunities when they appear, so you have to be looking for them. Secondly you then have to seize the opportunity by either acting in the moment or offering your time and talent to your superiors to help move your team or your business forwards. They will then decide whether or not to give you the go ahead to do it. You should get approval before you do it in order to get the recognition afterwards.

This can mean putting in time for free, as long as you don’t become a dogs body. You are exchanging your time and talent for future opportunities that could come from this. Thirdly you have to follow through and produce the goods. So only take an opportunity if you know that you can follow through. Knowing that you will go all the way has to come in as part of deciding to do it, whatever it is.

Walk Your Own Path

Happiness, Success

When I was twenty I received a shaving razor from a well known company free in the post, which was a savvy move on their part, as I’m still buying razor blades for it fifteen years later. This razor worked very well and has never given me any cause to think about buying one from another company. However, a few years ago I was doing my usual big shop in a local supermarket when I saw a fancy looking razor that had been reduced to half price. It was made by a rival company, it was white and it vibrated the blade of the razor to give a closer shave. Intrigued and encouraged by the low price, I bought it and gave it a try. It was no way near as good as the razor I had been using for years. The lesson here is not to be drawn in by low prices and the promises of better features that don’t actually improve your life, because they only superficially appear to do so.

It is very easy in our current society to be convinced to buy consumerist products simply by being told they are better than the last thing we were told to buy or to behave in a certain way that is deemed cool or popular because so many others are doing the same. If we are not careful we can start to sleepwalk through life, living based on borrowed thoughts and feelings, on assimilated beliefs, and we end up not following our own path. In this situation I believe rebelling and walking our own path will lead to a happier and more fulfilling life. This, however, is not easy to do. Firstly it takes courage to swim against the stream, and secondly you have to find your own path before you can walk down it. This means lots of mistakes and walks down unfamiliar paths. Walking your own path takes courage but also persistence and self compassion. Mistakes will be made, so go easy on yourself.

A Reflection on Resilience

Happiness, Success

Resilience is an essential character trait when it comes to happiness and success. It is the ability to treat knock-backs and disappointments as feedback, as opportunities to learn, which will result in both happiness and success. However, this can be a difficult mindset to engage in, because it feels more natural to react to knock-backs and disappointments with negativity, to treat them as negative feedback. This is due to the mental habits we have developed, the examples we have witnessed and the general assimilation of the narratives from the culture we have grown up in.

What we need to do is detach the negative from the feedback and disappointments, to try to look at it with a neutral mindset and try to tease out what can be constructive, so that we can move forward more positively. This, as with many things, requires practice. To a large degree we are working against all of the mental habits we have thus far embedded into the pathways of our brains. The good news is that if we repeatedly look for the feedback that we can use to make ourselves better, and as a result our careers and our relationships better, we will build resilience to cope with the disasters that life can sometimes drop on us. When we train our minds in this way we become ready for the tough times in life, but it has to be a daily practice otherwise when the disaster hits we will crumble.