ARE YOU LIVING LIFE LOOKING THROUGH THE WINDSCREEN OR THE REAR-VISION MIRROR?

Leadership is having the “Vision” - the guiding force - the guiding daily thought process that thinks in possibilities rather than impossibilities. When we come from a position that there is plenty in the universe to go around then we don’t need to take what belongs to another. We don’t have less of ourselves by acknowledging another. We therefore can be creative not competitive. The leader isn’t competing with his team. A leader is a creator – they don’t underestimate the possibilities of the next 30 years. They see that to make a better world we are in creation not survival. To be a leader there needs to be followers.

First, as a leader what is your vision? Then what is the vision of the individuals on the team? Our role as a leader is to encourage and inspire and find new people who want to be enrolled in the vision as well. The vision of the leader only needs to be enough to inspire the leader. When a leader is inspired, it will ooze out onto all that are with him. The leader isn’t concerned about what the crowd thinks, for he knows that as he brings out the possibility of each individual then the crowd responds to the symphony. His concern is for producing the overall vision and then developing the vision of the team. With this vision, the leader then creates the possibility for the team. The leader can then lead by making others powerful. They speak life into all that they do. They enroll themselves in the vision first and then commit to the vision totally.

When the leader’s vision is that of “abundance” and “possibilities” they live in expectation of “excellence”. God looked at his work and said “it is good -excellent!” Their “good-excellent” expectation will give then a totally fulfilled, successful and more abundant life: a successful-excellent marriage, a healthy excellent body, a healthy excellent bank account, excellent successful friendships, and excellent successful meetings and excellent sales whatever that “good-excellence” is for them. Their belief will lift their performance which will lift their results which will lift their excitement which will lift their results which will lift their expectation! It becomes cyclic.

The art of leadership is about a new way of being. The “good” leader’s immediate response must be to make others more powerful by inspiring them. Positive leadership is when the leader puts a 10 on the heads of everyone in their team – Everyone gets an “A”. When a leader gives people the inspiration to live “in” who they are, they are released to “being” and not concerned with the challenge of living “up to”. A leader is a life enricher! If a leader is to make a difference in someone’s life they must look for people’s possibilities. I remember how I felt when someone first breathed possibilities into my life! Now I have the joy of passing that feeling on! Water, like music – has no boundaries.

Leadership is the ability to achieve results through people and the people think it was all “their” idea. The team love creating the results. Unity is so much more important than ego. You can’t feed ego and family at the same time. If you want to conduct the orchestra you have to turn your back on the crowd. Remember, a good leader doesn’t take himself so seriously. As a leader, relax and be human. Your people will love you for it. It allows the team to show their humanness. We resonate by being connected and we connect by non being superior. We all want to believe that we are valuable at the work we do and that each person on the team is an important and integral, vital part of the team. When upsets happen ask: why am I being this way and who am I being that is causing this upset? Possibilities are always only a sentence away. How you “are” in the moment creates the possibilities for you. When you enroll people in the journey of radiating possibilities then survival is over – then you can get out of your own way. A leader looks for the shining eyes. Is your presence enlivening or is it shutting people down? Are you a people builder – an encourager? A leader quiets the voice in their own head and in the heads of others – that voice that says “I can’t do it”. Everyone gets an A – remember? Samuel Taylor Coleridge said "Advice is like snow--the softer it falls, the longer it dwells, and the deeper it sinks into the mind."

Leadership is drawing the potential out of people that they don’t see in themselves. The art of “practice” brings out a higher skill and gives access to higher levels of possibility. A leader enrolls each voice in the vision of the team. A good leader becomes “good-excellent” by making other people powerful. Remember the conductor doesn’t’ make a sound. He orchestrates the “sound” of the team. You don’t get in life what you deserve, you get what you negotiate. When you expect more, you do more and then you get more. We create at our will possibilities as a state of being. Technique doesn’t mean much if there is no inspiration to use it. Symphony is all of us achieving our creative potential together.

The leader remembers the Law of the harvest. The person who fails the most and gets back up succeeds at the highest level. The leader encourages failure and sees it as a learning opportunity. A leader makes it safe for his team to be risk takers. A leader recognizes the downward spiral when talking to people and moves away quickly before they get caught up in it. A leader is looking for solutions to challenges not who is to blame. They accept responsibility when things go wrong and give total credit to the team when things go right. Stress comes from being irresponsible and shifting blame. Learn good habits and teach good habits by example. Develop the attitude that “we are a team of champions which makes a championship team”. This team culture is optimal excellent performance. A winning team is a group of individuals willing to sacrifice individual glory for the betterment of the team. The team will take no prisoners. The camaraderie of the team brings momentum. We work together and stick together.

To become a superb excellence leader I will do all the above and I promise myself I will develop others to be all they were created to be. Then my life has been worthwhile for I have left a legacy of super-excellence leaders in a world where true leadership has been lacking.