Category: Leadership

How to Defeat the Dark Side of Imagination

Imagination causes anxiety.

I was afraid of the dark when I was a kid. Monsters lurked in the closet. I still imagine monsters where none exist. A headache is a brain tumor. Indigestion is food poisoning. A strange noise means the car’s engine is shot.

Imagined enemies are harder to kill than real.

Imagined monsters are like body odor. They go where you go.

Imagine the worst:

I imagine the worst. Maybe you do too.

The boss says, “Can you hang back after the meeting?” Your heart races.

When new ideas are suggested, imagined monsters fill your mind.

You imagine obstacles based on past experiences. When your boss typically plays it safe, you anticipate resistance to new proposals.

Imagine success:

Reflecting on the future is an act of imagination.

Imagination is where success begins.

If you can’t imagine it, you can’t achieve it.

It’s silly to think imagined success is real success. It’s foolish to think fantasy trumps grit. But imagination is a necessary beginning.

5 ways to defeat the dark side of imagination:

The person who imagines success is more likely to succeed than the person who imagines failure.

Winners imagine success and act. Losers imagine failure and stay the same.

#1. Don’t dismiss negative imagination.

A person who doesn’t imagine obstacles and challenges is unprepared.

Imagined monsters are useful when they inform action and destructive when they prevent action.

#2. Dedicate time to imagine success.

1. Imagine positive results.
2. Visualize the process of winning.

#3. Be a cheerleader. Get a cheerleader.

The people around you either strengthen your heart or weaken your knees.

#4. Ask, “What if we do nothing?”

Consider the consequences of staying the same.

#5. Imagine something you might try.

When can’t-do fills your mind, imagine a small thing you can do. Action answers anxiety.

How can leaders address the dark side of imagination?

4 Tips to Answer Anxiety – Leadership Freak

How Compassion Answers Anxiety – Leadership Freak

Sir Ken Robinson – The Power Of Imagination

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28 Words Every Leader Needs to Thrive

Book Giveaway!

Author Bill Treasurer is giving away five signed copies of his new book, “Leadership Two Words at a Time.” Just leave a comment on today’s post to become eligible.

Winners must be residents of the continental U.S. Deadline for eligibility is 10/8/2022.

Success in leadership is a three-legged stool. When you fail in one area, you fail. My friend, Bill Treasurer, says the three legs of leadership are:

1. Leading yourself.
2. Leading people.
3. Leading business.

You can succeed in one area of leadership and still fail.

You might get things done but if you can’t lead yourself, failure is around the corner. You might be great with people but if you lack courage to deal with tough issues, you’re doomed. Everyone might love you but if you can’t deliver results, you’re ruined.

28 words leaders need to thrive:

Bill’s book, “Leadership Two Words at a Time: Simple Truths for Leading Complicated People,” captures the core of leadership in 14 two-word principles.

Leading yourself principles:

#1. Know Thyself

Transform your leadership with self-awareness.

#2. Model Principles

Live the values you want others to live by.

#3. Aspire Higher

Continually lift people, performance, and profits.

#4. Gain Control

Be better for everyone through self-mastery.

#5. Practice Humility

Prevent hubris by keeping your ego in check.

#6. Cultivate Composure

Purify your motives with daily reflection.

Leading people principles:

#7. Trust First

Build trust by first being trustworthy.

#8. Create Safety

Promote courage with psychological safety.

#9 Nurture Talent

Develop people so they can add more value.

#10. Promote Inclusion

Create a just, fair, and equitable workplace.

Leading business principles:

#11. Love Business

Keep learning and you’ll enjoy the adventure!

#12. Get Results

In my house we say, “Get’er did.”

#13. Master Management

Apply fundamentals to have more impact.

#14. Lead Up

Succeed by supporting your boss’s success.

Two more words:

Bill’s book begins with, “Be courageous.” Maya Angelou said, “Courage is the most important virtue.”

I chatted with Bill about some of the two-word principles in his book. Here’s the video:

Which two-word principles do you find most relevant today?

Connect with Bill Treasurer:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/courage/

Facebook: http://facebook.com/bill.treasurer

Twitter: https://twitter.com/btreasurer

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Time Management: 7 Golden Rules for Golden Hours

We need reminders that everything we hope to do requires time and energy. Time management is the power to manage your schedule and your energy.

You have two or three golden hours every day. You get more done in your golden hours than you get done the rest of the day.

Do priority work when you’re at your best.

I can get lots done other times of the day, but my best hours are before breakfast.

Time management: 7 golden rules for golden hours

#1. Do impactful work.

Do big-rock work during your golden hours.

Fools spend time on busywork. If it’s not useful and meaningful, don’t do it. Better to check off one high-impact task a day than to spend one hour doing busywork.

#2. Organize before.

Choose peak-hour tasks before peak-time begins. Don’t waste peak performance time figuring out what to do.

#3. Narrow focus.

1. Multitasking makes you stupid.
2. Close your door.
3. Don’t surf the Internet.
4. Return calls later.
5. Turn off email.

#4. Use maximizers.

Does classic rock fuel your jets? Turn up the volume.

I prefer a dark quiet room during my golden hours.

#5. Make time management social.

Everyone on the team needs to know and respect everyone’s golden-hour-time. Hang a do not disturb sign on your door.

Give everyone on your team permission to maximize golden hours.

#6. Schedule playtime.

Playfulness expresses our humanity. “Man only plays when he is in the fullest sense of the word a human being, and he is only fully a human being when he plays.” Friedrich Schiller

Surf the Internet when you feel like taking a nap, not when you’re bright eyed.

#7. Delete stuff.

Delete anything that’s older than two weeks from your to-do list.

How might leaders take time management to new levels?

Still curious:

How to Flame Up, Not Out

Saturday Sage: A Playful Life Is a Better Life

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4 Things I Learned after 2 Weeks Vacation in Maine

Some vacations are about doing stuff but the best vacations don’t have agendas. When you need a vacation to recover from vacation, you did it wrong.

Our plan was to live without a plan for two weeks.

Our favorite reading spot while on vacation in Maine.

My bride and I have two homes. Our home is Pennsylvania and we grew up in Maine. We just returned from two weeks back home in Maine, most of it spent in a small town 35 miles south of Canada, Machiasport. (Our real home is Central Maine, but the coast has the best seafood in the world.)

You could throw a rock into the Atlantic from our vacation rental and it was secluded. We saw two people on the beach the whole time we were there. The word ‘beach’ is misleading for the coast of Northern Maine. You wouldn’t dream of swimming unless you had a layer of blubber. Occasional patches of sand pretend to be beaches.

4 things I learned after 2 weeks vacation in Maine:

#1. Books inspire. Cable news contaminates you.

We didn’t see the news for two weeks.

I read Man in Search of a Soul by Carl Jung. He was brilliant, even if you don’t agree with everything he believed.

Cable news at night is idiotic.

#2. Ted Lasso is as good as my friends said.

We don’t have Apple TV at home but our vacation rental did. In the evenings we binged two seasons of Ted Lasso. Talk about a lift.

#3. The world doesn’t need me.

Everything kept turning without me. That’s freeing, not depressing. Brevity and frailty add value to every breath.

#4. Rituals and routines are good.

Living without an agenda is good for awhile but rituals and routines tell us who we are and where we’re going. Useful routines are channels of reliable contribution. Rituals provide stability in turbulence.

What have you remembered after time away on vacation?

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Idiots Don’t Take Notes

You had a brilliant thought and like an idiot didn’t write it down.

The opportunity to record a brilliant idea is the time between a lightning flash and the thunder that follows. If you hear the thunder and don’t take notes, the thought-gods take back their gift.

Your brilliant thought didn’t die. It drifted into the atmosphere looking for someone with respect.

People who respect ideas take notes.

A billionaire can take notes:

The founder of the Virgin Group, Richard Branson, takes notes. Did I mention he’s a billionaire?

“I urge everybody to take notes, whatever they are doing, wherever they are going. It doesn’t matter what form they take – laptops and phones are better than nothing – but I prefer a pen and paper.”

Fools hear wisdom and say, “I knew that.”

Wisdom feels familiar when you hear it. When you hear something interesting write it down, even if it feels familiar.

Branson says, “Become a great listener. Get out there and ask people questions and write down the answers.”

A genius poet wrote notes:

Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman are the two leading 19th century American poets. Some consider Dickinson to be the greatest American poet of all time. She published 10 poems in her lifetime. All were published anonymously. She actually wrote about eighteen hundred poems.

Dickinson respected ideas. It seems she wrote down in the moment. Scraps of paper, envelopes, even the wrapper of cooking chocolate have partial or complete poems on them.

Keep your pen handy. You never know when an idea might pop in.

One of the most successful British business leaders and one of America’s greatest poets captured thoughts with notes.

Take out your pen today.

What note taking strategies do you use?

Still curious:

How Curiosity Changed My Life

Image source

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3 Ways to Respond to Failure: Get a Bigger Nail

Stephen King hung rejection notices on a nail when he was a kid. When he turned 17, the nail fell out because of all the rejections he’d received.

What did he do with failure? He got a bigger nail.

3 ways to respond to failure: Get a bigger nail.

#1. Know failure isn’t the end.

Failure is the soft underbelly of success.

Dr. Seuss tried to sell his first children’s book 27 times. He was on his way home to burn it when he ran into a college friend who just started a job with a publisher. The rest is history.

Beatrix Potter couldn’t find a publisher for The Tale of Peter Rabbit. She published it herself. It has sold about 45 million copies.

Literary Hub reports that Stephen King’s first novel, Carrie, was rejected 30 times.

King trashed his first draft of Carrie. His wife found it, unwrinkled it, read it, and told him to keep writing. Carrie sold for a $2,500 advance. It was published in 1974. He was 27 years old.

King has written 64 novels and sold about 350 million books. He’s worth over 500 million today.

#2. Hug failure; don’t push it away.

Your most powerful stories are about overcoming failure.

You won’t enjoy failing; own it anyway. The alternative to owning failure is blame. Blame guarantees you stay the same.

Tell your friends what’s hanging on your nail. You reject yourself when you push away your own stories.

#3. Adopt a next-time approach.

The difference between success and defeat is response.

1. Commit to the one-more-try principle.
2. Notice what isn’t working. Don’t repeat self-defeating behaviors.
3. Adopt a do-differently approach. What will you do differently next time?

The more you try, the more you fail – until you don’t.

The alternative to failing is dying slowly.

What’s your advice to people who fail?

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I Screwed Up

Sometimes when you try to fix a mistake you make things worse.

Yesterday, I put the wrong month in WordPress when I scheduled today’s post. I quickly corrected the date. The effect was everyone saw a partial blog post and a link that didn’t work.

This morning, the blog post published but the email notification didn’t go out.

Here is the correct link to 3 WAYS TO RESPOND TO FAILURE: GET A BIGGER NAIL

I want to provide great content without sending gobs of email messages to subscribers. I apologize for the inconvenience.

I believe the ‘Get a Bigger Nail’ post is useful. Take a look: 3 WAYS TO RESPOND TO FAILURE: GET A BIGGER NAIL

I wish you well,

Dan

PS Thank you to everyone who let me know the first link didn’t work.

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3 Practical Lessons from Taking Cold Showers

I’ve been taking cold showers for a couple years. My practice has evolved. Even if you’re smart enough to reject cold showers, these lessons will be useful.

Begin warm:

My cold shower journey began with turning on cold water and jumping in. You could hear me gasping in the hall. Invigorating is an understatement. My pores slammed shut and my heartrate doubled.

When your pores close they trap sweat and dirt. My wife let me know I wasn’t getting clean.

Today my cold shower begins warm enough to prevent goose bumps.

Act quickly:

The gradual approach prolongs agony.

I went from jumping into a cold shower to gradually turning the water cold. That didn’t work. I’ve learned if you’re going to do it, just do it. Now it’s boom. Turn off the hot water.

Negative anticipation multiplies pain.

Positive anticipation energizes.

Find the joy:

I enjoy the initial burst of clarity and vitality when the water goes cold, and it feels great after.

Lack of emotional payoff corrodes resolve.

Sustainable success requires positive emotion.

Positive emotion is fuel for grit.

Happy feelings are great but personal satisfaction is better.

Learn to enjoy doing hard things.

I feel satisfaction when I turn the water off and step out of the shower. Feelings of satisfaction are high-test fuel.

Summary:

1. Begin difficult tasks by doing some easy things first. Warm up.
2. Go all in when it’s time to bite the bullet. Gradual action prolongs pain.
3. Let yourself feel satisfied for doing something difficult.

I’m not encouraging anyone to take cold showers. If you think it’s nuts, I don’t blame you. I admit it’s odd. But, I enjoy it.

Here’s the first article I wrote about cold showers: Confidence: Proof You Can Face Any Challenge.

What’s bringing satisfaction to you these days?

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Leaders Love the Most

Leaders love the most. Haters ruin the most.

“All that I hope to say in books, all that I ever hope to say, is that I love the world.” E.B. White

Get out of leadership if you hate the world. Hide yourself away until you disappear in decay. But if you love the world, get busy.

The problem with the world is haters are energized and lovers are timid.

Leaders love the most:

#1. Negative emotions may point to love.

Anger means you care. Every successful leader I know is frustrated about something.

Examine your anger. Does selfish ambition fuel your anger or do you care about the well-being of others?

Sadness means you care. Disappointment means aspiration fell short. Congratulations if you tried to help.

#2. Positive traits point to love.

Love hopes. Hate gives up. When you hear, “Don’t give up. Keep trying,” you hear leadership. The best leaders always press toward positive outcomes.

Hope is fuel for grit. Leaders give up, not for lack of grit but because hope vanished. Hopelessness leads to hate.

Love is open-hearted. Hate forces compliance. Open-hearted leaders listen and change their minds. Closed minds defend, argue, and coerce.

An open heart takes you further than a clenched fist.

An open heart never bristles at being wrong because the desire for excellence is greater than the need to be right.

Love takes pleasure where hate resents. Always cheer when others thrive. Leaders love the most when they spotlight others.

#3. Love elevates worth.

Hitler was a remarkable – but worthless – leader. Hate leads toward destructive ends. Worthless leaders seek to ruin.

You elevate your worth when you serve the noble interest of others.

If you want to lead, care when others don’t.

It’s childish to say, “If you don’t care, I don’t care.” Don’t let others run your life.

What do you look to see when leaders love the most?

Still curious:

How to be the Leader People Love to See

The Heart of Business, Hubert Joly

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Crisis: 5 Ways to Fuel Progress When the Lights Go Out

Never trivialize crisis with frivolous optimism. Smart people roll their eyes at Pollyanna leaders. Acknowledge bad and work toward good.

The danger of crisis is magnetism. Crisis captures your attention, dominates perspectives, and pollutes attitudes.

Leaders who focus on negativity derail progress.

5 ways to fuel progress in crisis:

#1. Set people free:

When you say, “This is bad,” smart people sigh in relief. When you don’t acknowledge the beast, people focus on proving how bad things are.

Freedom to move forward begins after you embrace negative realities.

Solutions begin after you look the beast in the eye.

#2. Begin with what.

Don’t rush to assign blame when things go dark. The questions are…

1. What’s happening?
2. What are symptoms?
3. What are root causes?
4. What do we want?

#3. Explore who.

Solutions require accountability. Holding people accountable honors ability and maintains responsibility.

Don’t do other people’s jobs.

Identify harmful behaviors.

Three possible options when things go bad:

1. Something was left undone.
2. Someone did something wrong.
3. Failure was unavoidable. It was the environment. Now deal with it.

#4. Design solutions and develop new skills.

Problems persist when people repeat disappointing behaviors.

Don’t double down on current behaviors when designing solutions.

Do you enjoy solving the same problems over and over? More of the same always produces more of the same.

#5. Add support to challenge.

Maximize potential by adding support to challenge. Too much challenge shuts people down. Too little challenge invites boredom.

Support new behaviors and skills with training, coaching, and accountability.

Appropriate stress wakes you up. Adequate support moves you forward.

Bonus: Speak aspiration into crisis.

Pessimists define problems. Leaders believe this could be their finest hour.

1. Link correction to ambition.
2. Avoid punitive action even when laying down the law.
3. Say, “I’m counting on you.”

What do leaders do wrong when facing dark beasts?

What has helped you stay positive in crisis?

Still curious:

How to Be Decisive and Collaborative When the House is on Fire

Staying positive during difficult times

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