Do you invite thinking or evict thinking?

It amazes me how many people feel the necessity to strongly inflict their opinions on others. For me that is always a clear signal that they need to have other people validate them. Strong leaders are those who are willing to make quick decisions, listen carefully taking in all information-even contradictory information, and make each person feel they added to the conversation in a thoughtful way. Strong leaders know how to challenge without undermining who you are or making it personal.

So which are you as a leader? Do you invite thinking or do you evict thinking?

Here is quick test to see which one you are:
1. I have strong opinions.
2. I often speak over other people or interrupt.
3. I often reply to people with "no," "I disagree," or "That is not how I see it."
4. In a group I often take the most air time.
5. People often tease me that they always know where I stand on issues.
6. I have been told at times I am stubborn.

If you answered yes to those, you are more likely evicting thinking. You are more likely to be surrounded by people who will say yes to your ideas and not challenge your thinking. For leadership that means the brilliance of your group is really not the sum of the parts but rather a part.

Opinions and thoughts are good. You do need to stand for clear issues and be willing to stand up for what you believe in. When you state them so strongly as to overpower a person or group you leave them with two choices- either I agree with you or I disagree with you. What you lose is the mutual exploration ground that leads to new thinking that is much bigger than either party originally brought to the table solo.

So be a strong leader that is willing to invite thinking, that is willing to stand for things, and that encourages others.

Anne Warfield
Outcome Thinking for Leadership Transformation

What Do Leaders And Winter Have In Common?

I love Summer, I enjoy Spring, Fall is okay but Winter, man I am not a fan. For me Winter is too cold and too long. In my mind, I think let’s just get rid of Winter.

But what would happen if it was Summer all the time? Would I really want my neighbors in my yard year around? Or do I love Summer because we all KNOW that Winter will come so we FULLY embrace Summer? We know that we will get our quiet time in Winter so we don’t mind the constant traffic of Summer.

As a Leader Winter is like your time of LEARNING. It should be your longest season and it should happen EVERY YEAR. I can’t tell you how many leaders I run in to that consider themselves “there.” Like once they have arrived they don’t need any more training.

Who are they kidding? That is when you need it the most.

As a leader your brain shouldn’t even be CLOSE to what it was even six months ago. You should be constantly stretching it. Only by doing this will you gain new insights and the ability to “SEE” things you didn’t before. It is like changing the lens cap on a camera and suddenly new things come in to view. They were there before but not visible to you because they weren’t in your conscious level of that time.

The training is not always about the content. It is about the way it stretches your brain, how you mold it to your past and present, and how to apply it to your life today. You life is never at the same spot so you will never absorb the learning in the same way.

Think about Lance Armstrong. What if he said, “I learned how to ride a bike as a kid so I don’t need any more lessons.” You couldn’t even imagine him saying that because you realize the level he is stretching to is way beyond what he was as a kid. On top of that the equipment he learned on as a kid is not even close to the equipment he has today. His brakes today are probably 1000 times more sensitive then the brakes he used as a kid. There is no way he could apply the same pressure to his brakes today as he did 40 years ago and expect the same results. So why DO YOU?

I encourage all the leaders we work with to constantly read, travel, and stretch. You never know where your next insight will come from.

Anne Warfield, http://www.impressionmanagement.com/

What's Stopping Your Results

It is ironic to me how many companies ask me if we can do "instant" training for their leaders because they don't have the time to take away from work. Hmm... what does that really tell you?

Even when you look at nature there are always Four Seasons- Spring (a time for regrowth), Summer (a time for warmth and enjoyment), Fall (a time for reflection and shedding of bad habits so you are ready for growth), and Winter (a dormant time of deep learning beneath a bed of snow so it emerges in the Spring with new colors).

In work we follow the One Season mode-work, work and more work. At what point do you stop and improve your game? When do you do your intense learning so you can come back in the Spring stronger than you were before? If nature didn't take all four seasons to rejuvenate what would happen?

Why do we believe if we heard or learned something once we don't need to revisit it? I believe that there are deep layers to our learning and at times we may listen to something but we don't hear it at a deep enough level because we don't have the capacity at the time to grasp it completely. Then you come back later at a whole different level and all of a sudden your understanding is so much deeper.

To really grasp this concept think of how many times you, as a parent, reflect back now on what your parents did and you say, "I understand now." Or when you were promoted to management for the first time and you finally understood why your old manager did things the way they did. You had a shift in thinking which then shifted how you viewed all the experiences in the past that relate to that thinking.

So challenge yourself as a leader to continue to grow, stretch and learn। There is a good reason why nature follows four seasons!

Anne Warfield, www.impressionmanagement.com