April 29, 2013 Focus Point

April 29, 2013
Focus Point

 

How to increase Influence with people.

 

Last week we discussed what leadership is all about. This week we will discuss how to grow in our influence with people. First of all I want to share that this is totally a learnable skill. The John Maxwell Group teaches leadership and growing in influence all around the world to people in all walks of life, and in all kinds of different businesses, and professional settings. It is so wonderful that people are learning, changing, and growing in their leadership and their influence with people, and reaching higher levels of success in life. So this is good news. It means that you and I can learn to grow in our leadership ability and we do this by increasing our influence with people, and we increase our influence with people by intentionally adding value to them. You and I can wake up every morning and determine who and in what ways we will add value.

 

There are endless ways to add value to another, but the foundation of it all is to Identify and Relate to people. By asking questions and listening, we can quickly begin to identify and relate with anyone. People will always remember others who have cared enough about them to identify, relate, and help them in some way. You will get an even greater impact by 10 to 1 if you are the first to help. You will go from someone who has helped, to the one who was the first to help, and you will always hold a special place in this person's heart.

 

How would the environment change in your home, church, and at work if you asked questions and listened and became the first to help?

 

Growing in influence with those around us takes time and effort. Our physical bodies grow automatically. We even experience life automatically, but our minds, skills, and attitudes only grow if we are intentional about it, and anyone can choose to be intentional.

 

To ponder this week: Increasing our influence is simple and basic, both to understand and to do, but it does not happen automatically.

 

Remember. Whatever it takes you can learn!

 

April 22, 2013 Focus Point

April 22, 2013
Focus Point

 

What is Leadership anyway?

 

If you lead people then you influence people and that's a fact. If you have little or no influence you will not be able to lead effectively, if at all.

 

I think we hear many different ideas and opinions about what leadership is and how we grow in leadership. Today I would like to simplify it for all of us. Leadership is Influence, nothing more and nothing less. It means that we are leading people who are following of their own will and choice. We remember the wonderful leadership proverb: "He that thinketh he leadeth, and has no one following him, is only taking a walk." Do you know anyone taking walks? I sure do. They are microwave pop tart leaders, and even though they have a position and people call them "leader", they really have no influence with their people. Have you ever had this kind of supervisor or boss? Have you ever been this kind of supervisor or boss at times? Me too.

 

To be a REAL leader, we do not manipulate, use greed, money, or position to get people to do what we want. This sort of tactic may work for a time, but your people will do just enough to get by. They will not give you their very best unless you have influence with them. So with the exception of maybe the military, you and I must learn how to gain influence with people, and although the results do come quickly when people apply the material that we teach here at the John Maxwell Group, they do not come overnight, nor do they come automatically. We do not want to be microwaved, we want to be in the slow cooker. We are in it for the long haul, we want to become the right kind of leader for the right reasons. Like Margaret Thatcher says, "Being in power is a lot like being a lady, if you have to tell people you are, you are not."

 

I invite you to start today. Commit to yourself that you will not retire for the day until you have done something for your own personal growth, and then do it again tomorrow. Develop a daily habit of growth, and one day you may find yourself asking not "how long will this take" but rather "how far can I go".

 

This week, lets you and I understand what leadership really is and why we need both the attitudes and the skills of leadership in order to move to the next level.

 

Remember. Whatever it takes you can learn!

April 15, 2013 Focus Point

April 15, 2013
Focus Point

 

Choose, Change, Create

 

I call these the 3 Good C's, we will discuss the 3 Bad C's another day.

 

Have you ever noticed how easy it is to say yes to things? The door bell rings and we say yes, the telephone rings we say yes, to the local sports program we say yes, volunteer here, there, and everywhere, etc. you get the idea. It is easy to say yes. What is hard and takes courage is learning how and when to say no, learning what fewer but more important things truly fit into our highest priorities. Peter Druker said it best. "There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all."

 

1. Choose
I invite you to take a few minutes and review the last 7 days in your calendar and determine what items and activities that you should have said no to, which ones did not fit your highest purposes and that were less effective, and time burners. Also consider which items should have been delegated. This process helps us to become aware of where our time is going, and becoming aware is the very first step to making any sort of change.

 

2. Change
Now look ahead in your calendar over the next 7 days and in the same way eliminate and delegate. This action allows us to make changes and adjustments where needed. By doing this, we are looking for the very best activities and actions in the future days and weeks that we will invest our time in. The ones that only we can do and the ones that will best serve our purpose. Change involves unlearning many things, learning new things, and the creation of new habits.

 

3. Create
By becoming aware of our life, and where our time is going we can now become more focused on the work and action that will produce the results that we desire. I believe that we were created to create. See, it's not about doing more stuff, it's about doing the right stuff. It's not about over achieving, it's about super achieving. Peter Druker also said, "Efficiency is doing things right. Effectiveness is doing the right things." Can I ask you two questions? What are your two or three strategic priorities? And, is the action that you take each day leading towards these priorities?

 

This week lets you and I Choose, Change, and Create. Let's create the life that we were born to Love!

 

Remember. Whatever it takes you can learn.

April 8, 2013 Focus Point

Connect Effectively

 

In his work Everyone Communicates, Few Connect, John Maxwell teaches that it takes no effort or preparation to speak words; we all do that. But to connect with the other person, this takes energy and effort. To connect, we meet the other person where they are at and identify and relate to him or her.

 

Have you ever been with someone who was more interested in themselves and about if their hair was in order or if their clothes were just right than they were in being with you? Have you ever been in a meeting and you realize that the person who is speaking has disconnected with his or her audience? And maybe they did not even realize it? When we experience a disconnect on the phone, our knowledge of what has happened is immediate. But in most cases a disconnect is very subtle, if not gone unnoticed entirely, when we are working with people.

 

To truly connect with another person takes effort, preparation, thought, and energy. I believe it is worth whatever it takes. When we work with people it is not only what we say, but also how we say it, and most important, how we make the other person feel. People will forget what we say long before they ever forget how we made them feel. I believe that your success and my success in life is based on many things, but one of the most important is how effective we are able to connect with people.

 

This week let's you and I connect!

 

Other people are asking of us:

1. Do they care about me?

2. Can they help me?
3. Can I trust them?