Why do some people seem to reach the top of the corporate ladder easily, while others remain stuck on the middle-management rung? You might think that it is just because those people have more of what it takes to succeed, like brains, talent and powerful people in their corner. But there is something else that is just as important: attitude.

Dr. Martin Seligman, an authority on optimism, discovered that attitude was a better predictor of success than I.Q., education and most other factors. He found that positive people stay healthier, have better relationships and go further in their careers. And he even found that positive people make more money.

Anyone can adopt the right attitude. No matter where you are from or how much innate talent you have, the right attitude can make a difference in your career. Try adopting these 10 attitudes of successful workers:

1. I am in charge of my destiny.
If you spend your entire career waiting for something exciting to come to you, you will be waiting a long time. Successful professionals go out and make good things happen. So commit yourself to thinking about your career in an entirely different way. You will make it to the top, and you are in charge of making it happen.

2. Anything is possible.
Think that there is no way you will ever be at the vice-president level? Then you definitely won’t. Remember: If you think you can’t, you probably won’t. Adopt the attitude of The Little Engine That Could — “I think I can.”

3. No task is too small to do well.
You never know when you are going to be noticed. That is one reason to take pride in your work — all of it. One public relations executive in Chicago said that her first task in the PR department of a ballet company was reorganizing the supply closet. She tackled the project with gusto and was immediately noticed for her hard work and attention to detail. Remember this the next time you feel like slacking because you are working on a menial task.

4. Everyone is a potential key contact.
While you do need to be aggressive in the workplace, you can also go far by being nice to those around you. Do you think it’s unimportant to establish a good rapport with your boss’s secretary? Well, just try getting your meeting squeezed onto the schedule when you really need it. Be courteous to those around you — you never know when your past contacts will play a role in your future.

5. I was made to do this job… and the one above me.
If you spend your days feeling like you are not cut out to do the work you are responsible for, your performance will suffer. Your job may not be the perfect fit, but successful workers act like they are in their dream job, no matter where they are.

6. It’s not just what I know, but who I know.
Successful workers understand the importance of networking, both in and out of the office. You need to proactively establish professional contacts. Invite a colleague out to lunch. Go to the after-work happy hour. Join your professional association. Do your part to establish a networking path for your future.

7. What else can I do?
Since you are in charge of your destiny, it’s your job to look for ways to improve your professional self. Volunteer to take on an extra project. Learn a new skill that will make you more marketable. Stay late to help your co-workers. Successful workers don’t just complete the job and sign out — they look for additional ways to make their mark.

8. Failure will help pave the way to my success.
While it seems like some people never experience setbacks, the truth is everyone fails from time to time. The difference between successful and unsuccessful people is how they deal with failure. Those who find success are the ones who learn from mistakes and move on.

9. I am my own biggest fan.
Have you been waiting for someone in the office to recognize your talents and efforts? Maybe it’s time you start tooting your own horn. Step up and talk about your accomplishments and what you have done for the company. Successful workers know how to point out their achievements without sounding boastful.

10. My opportunity monitor is never turned off.
Yes, there will be days when you will want to just be happy with the status quo. But remember that successful workers are always on the lookout for opportunities to improve. Keep your eyes, ears and your mind open to new opportunities — you never know when you will discover the one that will change the course of your career!

Almost everywhere we turn, trust is on the decline. Trust in our culture at large, in our institutions, and in our companies is significantly lower than a generation ago. Research shows that only 49% of employees trust senior management, and only 28% believe CEOs are a credible source of information. Consider the loss of trust and confidence in the financial markets today. Indeed, “trust makes the world go ’round,” and right now we’re experiencing a crisis of trust. This crisis compels us to ask three questions. First, is there a measurable cost to low trust? Second, is there a tangible benefit to high trust? Third, how can the best leaders build trust in and within their organizations to reap the benefits of high trust?

Most people don’t know how to think about the organizational and societal consequences of low trust because they don’t know how to quantify or measure the costs of such a so-called “soft” factor as trust. For many, trust is intangible, ethereal, unquantifiable. If it remains that way, then people don’t know how to get their arms around it or how to improve it. But the fact is, the costs of low trust are very real, they are quantifiable, and they are staggering.

In 2004, one estimate put the cost of complying with federal rules and regulations alone in the United States — put in place essentially due to lack of trust — at $1.1 trillion, which is more than 10% of the gross domestic product. A recent study conducted by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners estimated that the average American company lost 6% of its annual revenue to some sort of fraudulent activity. Research shows similar effects for the other disguised low-trust taxes as well.

Think about it this way: When trust is low, in a company or in a relationship, it places a hidden “tax” on every transaction: every communication, every interaction, every strategy, every decision is taxed, bringing speed down and sending costs up. My experience is that significant distrust doubles the cost of doing business and triples the time it takes to get things done.

By contrast, individuals and organizations that have earned and operate with high trust experience the opposite of a tax — a “dividend” that is like a performance multiplier, enabling them to succeed in their communications, interactions, and decisions, and to move with incredible speed. A recent Watson Wyatt study showed that high trust companies outperform low trust companies by nearly 300%!

I contend that the ability to establish, grow, extend, and (where needed) restore trust among stakeholders is the critical competency of leadership needed today. It is needed more than any other competency. Engendering trust is, in fact, a competency that can be learned, applied, and understood. It is something that you can get good at, something you can measure and improve, something for which you can “move the needle.” You cannot be an effective leader without trust. As Warren Bennis put it, “Leadership without mutual trust is a contradiction in terms.”

How do the best leaders build trust?

The first job of any leader is to inspire trust. Trust is confidence born of two dimensions: character and competence. Character includes your integrity, motive, and intent with people. Competence includes your capabilities, skills, results, and track record. Both dimensions are vital.

With the increasing focus on ethics in our society, the character side of trust is fast becoming the price of entry in the new global economy. However, the differentiating and often ignored side of trust — competence — is equally essential. You might think a person is sincere, even honest, but you won’t trust that person fully if he or she doesn’t get results. And the opposite is true. A person might have great skills and talents and a good track record, but if he or she is not honest, you’re not going to trust that person either.

The best leaders begin by framing trust in economic terms for their companies. When an organization recognizes that it has low trust, huge economic consequences can be expected. Everything will take longer and everything will cost more because of the steps organizations will need to take to compensate for their lack of trust. These costs can be quantified and, when they are, suddenly leaders recognize how low trust is not merely a social issue, but that it is an economic matter. The dividends of high trust can be similarly quantified, enabling leaders to make a compelling business case for trust.

The best leaders then focus on making the creation of trust an explicit objective. It must become like any other goal that is focused on, measured, and improved. It must be communicated that trust matters to management and leadership. It must be expressed that it is the right thing to do and it is the economic thing to do. One of the best ways to do this is to make an initial baseline measurement of organizational trust and then to track improvements over time.

The true transformation starts with building credibility at the personal level. The foundation of trust is your own credibility, and it can be a real differentiator for any leader. A person’s reputation is a direct reflection of their credibility, and it precedes them in any interactions or negotiations they might have. When a leader’s credibility and reputation are high, it enables them to establish trust fast — speed goes up, cost goes down.

There are 4 Cores of Credibility, and it’s about all 4 Cores working in tandem: Integrity, Intent, Capabilities, and Results. Part of building trust is understanding — clarifying — what the organization wants and what you can offer them. Be the one that does that best. Then add to your credibility the kind of behavior that builds trust. (see the 13 high trust behaviors below). Next, take it beyond just you as the leader and extend it to your entire organization. The combination of that type of credibility and behavior and organizational alignment results in a culture of high trust.

Consider the example of Warren Buffett — CEO of Berkshire Hathaway (and generally considered one of the most trusted leaders in the world) — who completed a major acquisition of McLane Distribution (a $23 billion company) from Wal-Mart. As public companies, both Berkshire Hathaway and Wal-Mart are subject to all kinds of market and regulatory scrutiny. Typically, a merger of this size would take several months to complete and cost several million dollars to pay for accountants, auditors, and attorneys to verify and validate all kinds of information. But in this instance, because both parties operated with high trust, the deal was made with one two-hour meeting and a handshake. In less than a month, it was completed. High trust, high speed, low cost.

13 Behaviors of High-Trust Leaders Worldwide

I approach this strategy primarily as a practitioner, both in my own experience and in my extensive work with other organizations. Throughout this learning process, have identified 13 common behaviors of trusted leaders around the world that build — and allow you to maintain — trust. When you adopt these ways of behaving, it’s like making deposits into a “trust account” of another party.

1. Talk Straight
2. Demonstrate Respect
3. Create Transparency
4. Right Wrongs
5. Show Loyalty
6. Deliver Results
7. Get Better
8. Confront Reality
9. Clarify Expectation
10. Practice Accountability
11. Listen First
12. Keep Commitments
13. Extend Trust

Remember that the 13 Behaviors always need to be balanced by each other (e.g., Talk Straight needs to be balanced by Demonstrate Respect) and that any behavior pushed to the extreme can become a weakness.

Depending on your roles and responsibilities, you may have more or less influence on others. However, you can always have extraordinary influence on your starting points: Self-Trust (the confidence you have in yourself — in your ability to set and achieve goals, to keep commitments, to walk your talk, and also with your ability to inspire trust in others) and Relationship Trust (how to establish and increase the trust accounts we have with others).

The job of a leader is to go first, to extend trust first. Not a blind trust without expectations and accountability, but rather a “smart trust” with clear expectations and strong accountability built into the process. The best leaders always lead out with a decided propensity to trust, as opposed to a propensity not to trust. As Craig Weatherup, former CEO of PepsiCo said, “Trust cannot become a performance multiplier unless the leader is prepared to go first.”

The best leaders recognize that trust impacts us 24/7, 365 days a year. It undergirds and affects the quality of every relationship, every communication, every work project, every business venture, every effort in which we are engaged. It changes the quality of every present moment and alters the trajectory and outcome of every future moment of our lives — both personally and professionally. I am convinced that in every situation, nothing is as fast as the speed of trust.

Years ago, I heard the statement “the fastest way to personal growth is to open your own business.” Thirteen years after opening my first business, I can promise that statement is true. Like many people who are self-employed, I came out of the corporate world, where I was used to having support staff, creative people around me to bounce ideas off of, and the big bosses over me to handle the heat. I also had janitorial staff to clean the office and technical support staff to handle an errant computer.

When I left all that to open my own business, I soon discovered that my support staff, creative people, big bosses, janitorial staff and technical staff was the person I saw when I stared into my mirror. My business was brand new and very small, one room in an office building. I had to handle everything, whether I was “trained” to handle it or not. I had to discover what I did well, what I enjoyed the most, what I hated to do, when I could afford to hire help, and what help I needed to hire first. I had to stretch and grow quickly.

Fortunately, because I had solid experience in growing a business, the Touch Therapy Center built itself quickly. Within the year, I could hire help for cleaning and laundry service. Next came a bookkeeper. Now, 13 years later, I manage the business while other staff do most of the therapeutic massage, I’m in a medical office building with multiple treatment rooms, and I have a practice manager to handle the front desk, errands, and most administrative tasks.

What I want to point out is the rocky path of personal growth it takes to get from year one to year thirteen, turning a profit the whole way. Here are some of the things I had to learn or consider.

1. Watch my operating costs and bottom line – I had to remain profitable even if I was spending more money on getting help with cleaning, laundry service, and so forth. Watching my weekly financial statements was critical, or I could have worked myself crazy and not made a dime.

2. Know myself well enough to figure out what I liked to do and was good at versus what I am not so good at and am not fond of doing. One of these in the massage business is laundry. I didn’t enjoy dragging home loads of sheets and spending my evenings sorting, washing, drying, and folding them. And I wasn’t particularly great at it, either. On the other hand, I’m very practiced and skillful at attracting clients. I didn’t need or want to pay anyone to handle marketing for me, other than getting help with a design for my business card. It was easy for me and saved me money to develop my own brochures and press releases.

3. I had to find out about my willingness to take risk and how to handle the good and bad that came from that risk. Should I move into larger office space and increase my rent? If so, how much more business would I need to generate to remain at my same level of profit? Could I get larger space, spend more money, and at the same time make even more money? Could I negotiate new lease terms that were favorable to me?

Before long, I had a very busy practice and was ready to hire other staff. Now, I could draw on my past experience as an Executive Director and use my past hiring skills. This time, if I made a bad decision, it was mind and mine alone to deal with, for better or for worse. After about 8 years, I had to make a decision about opening my second business, The Confident Marketer. Other entrepreneurs had been asking me for several years how I’d built my business, how I knew what to do when, and how I got profitable. I found that I absolutely loved helping other self-employed people be successful. So, about 5 years ago, The Confident Marketer was born. And with it, a whole new level of personal growth and challenge was necessary. It’s one reason I keep myself always working with top coaches who can help me face up to the personal growth and new business skills I need to keep my business successful and innovative.

The point to my story is that it takes courage to be an entrepreneur. You have to be willing to find out what you don’t know, get help with those things you don’t do well, and become expert at a few things that are yours and yours alone. You have to be willing to step up to intimately knowing and watching your financial statements (something I find many new entrepreneurs don’t want to do). You have to make decisions using both the facts and figures AND your gut feelings — your intuitive skills. And when there is a problem, you have to be willing to meet it and work it through, taking time to consider whether and how much it affects your customer service and your bottom line. All this takes a great deal of courage and a willingness to grow both personally and professionally.

A great business takes three things – a solid business plan, a creative and well-thought-out marketing plan, and a willingness to engage in personal growth. Behind those three vital things is courage. Step right up, and see how quickly your business becomes unstoppable!

Sue Painter is a marketing therapist whose expertise is finding the dark and murky under-places that keep your business from succeeding. She develops business plans that work, and strategic marketing plans that take dead aim at your target market. You can subscribe to her Marketing Tips e-zine at www.confidentmarketer.com.  

Article Source: www.leadershiparticles.net

Two things happened to Sandra Bullock this month. First, she won an Academy Award for best actress. Then came the news reports claiming that her husband is an adulterous jerk. So the philosophic question of the day is: Would you take that as a deal? Would you exchange a tremendous professional triumph for a severe personal blow?

On the one hand, an Academy Award is nothing to sneeze at. Bullock has earned the admiration of her peers in a way very few experience. She’ll make more money for years to come. She may even live longer. Research by Donald A. Redelmeier and Sheldon M. Singh has found that, on average, Oscar winners live nearly four years longer than nominees that don’t win.

Nonetheless, if you had to take more than three seconds to think about this question, you are absolutely crazy. Marital happiness is far more important than anything else in determining personal well-being. If you have a successful marriage, it doesn’t matter how many professional setbacks you endure, you will be reasonably happy. If you have an unsuccessful marriage, it doesn’t matter how many career triumphs you record, you will remain significantly unfulfilled.

This isn’t just sermonizing. This is the age of research, so there’s data to back this up. Over the past few decades, teams of researchers have been studying happiness. Their work, which seemed flimsy at first, has developed an impressive rigor, and one of the key findings is that, just as the old sages predicted, worldly success has shallow roots while interpersonal bonds permeate through and through.

For example, the relationship between happiness and income is complicated, and after a point, tenuous. It is true that poor nations become happier as they become middle-class nations. But once the basic necessities have been achieved, future income is lightly connected to well-being. Growing countries are slightly less happy than countries with slower growth rates, according to Carol Graham of the Brookings Institution and Eduardo Lora. The United States is much richer than it was 50 years ago, but this has produced no measurable increase in overall happiness. On the other hand, it has become a much more unequal country, but this inequality doesn’t seem to have reduced national happiness.

On a personal scale, winning the lottery doesn’t seem to produce lasting gains in well-being. People aren’t happiest during the years when they are winning the most promotions. Instead, people are happy in their 20’s, dip in middle age and then, on average, hit peak happiness just after retirement at age 65.

People get slightly happier as they climb the income scale, but this depends on how they experience growth. Does wealth inflame unrealistic expectations? Does it destabilize settled relationships? Or does it flow from a virtuous cycle in which an interesting job produces hard work that in turn leads to more interesting opportunities?

If the relationship between money and well-being is complicated, the correspondence between personal relationships and happiness is not. The daily activities most associated with happiness are sex, socializing after work and having dinner with others. The daily activity most injurious to happiness is commuting. According to one study, joining a group that meets even just once a month produces the same happiness gain as doubling your income. According to another, being married produces a psychic gain equivalent to more than $100,000 a year.

If you want to find a good place to live, just ask people if they trust their neighbors. Levels of social trust vary enormously, but countries with high social trust have happier people, better health, more efficient government, more economic growth, and less fear of crime (regardless of whether actual crime rates are increasing or decreasing).

The overall impression from this research is that economic and professional success exists on the surface of life, and that they emerge out of interpersonal relationships, which are much deeper and more important.

The second impression is that most of us pay attention to the wrong things. Most people vastly overestimate the extent to which more money would improve our lives. Most schools and colleges spend too much time preparing students for careers and not enough preparing them to make social decisions. Most governments release a ton of data on economic trends but not enough on trust and other social conditions. In short, modern societies have developed vast institutions oriented around the things that are easy to count, not around the things that matter most. They have an affinity for material concerns and a primordial fear of moral and social ones.

This may be changing. There is a rash of compelling books — including “The Hidden Wealth of Nations” by David Halpern and “The Politics of Happiness” by Derek Bok — that argue that public institutions should pay attention to well-being and not just material growth narrowly conceived.

Governments keep initiating policies they think will produce prosperity, only to get sacked, time and again, from their spiritual blind side.

Ever wondered what is meant by the term “wellness”? It can mean many things to many people, but most commonly it references a definition developed by Dr. Halbert L. Dunn in the 1950s. Dunn defined wellness as:

“an integrated method of functioning which is oriented toward maximizing the potential of which the individual is capable. It requires that the individual maintain a continuum of balance and purposeful direction within the environment where he is functioning.”

It could also be defined as actively becoming aware of and pro-actively making choices towards a more successful existence. In other words, wellness emphasizes the state of the entire, interconnected being and its ongoing development rather than simply the absence of disease.

To illustrate the concept, many different wellness models have been developed over the years. The image below show the model that WesWELL looks to for guidance. The model divides wellness into six distinct but inherently interrelated dimensions: Social, Spiritual, Physical, Mental, Emotional, and Environmental. 

It is worth mentioning that Career or Vocational Wellness is frequently cited in other models; WesWELL subscribes to the idea that Career Wellness should be attended to throughout the six dimensions rather than as a distinct dimension of it’s own. 

Eastern Michigan University’s Wellness Office offers these definitions for the six dimensions:

Social: A socially well person contributes to one’s human and physical environment for the common welfare of one’s community. Ze takes an active role in promoting a healthy living environment, encourages effective communication among community members, and seeks to preserve the beauty and balance of nature. A person experiencing social wellness is living in harmony with hir fellow human beings, seeking positive, interdependent relationships with others, and developing healthy sexual behaviors. A socially well person works for mutual respect and cooperation among the individuals within a community.

Spiritual: Spirituality is about more than simply religion, though it may involve being engaged with organized religion for many people. A person engaged in the process of spiritual wellness is willing and able to transcend oneself in order to question the meaning and purpose in one’s life and the lives of others. Ze is involved in the process of questioning all that is around hir and has an appreciation for that which cannot be completely understood. This person seeks to find harmony between that which lies within and the social and physical forces that come from outside. Feelings of doubt, despair, fear, disappointment and dislocation as well as feelings of pleasure, joy, eagerness and discovery are part of this search for a universal value system.

Physical: This dimension is what most people think of first when they think of wellness. Physical wellness involves taking responsibility and care for minor illness and also knowing when professional medical attention is necessary. Physical wellness includes being able to monitor one’s own vital signs whether perceived or measured. Physical wellness entails an understanding of the relationship between sound nutrition and the functioning of the body. Included in physical wellness is an awareness of the body’s true identity, depth of feelings, tension patterns, reactions, balance and harmony. The body is recognized as a formal expression of physiological development and personal evolution.

Mental or Intellectual: Mental or intellectual wellness is evidenced by self-directed behavior, which includes continuous acquisition, development, creative application, and articulation of critical thinking and expressive/intuitive skills and abilities focused on the achievement of a more satisfying existence. Intellectual wellness is also evidenced by a demonstrated commitment to life long learning.

Emotional: An emotionally well person is both aware of and accepts a wide range of feelings in one’s self and others. Ze is able to freely express feelings and to manage feelings effectively to arrive at personal choices/decisions based upon the integration of feelings, cognition and behavior. Ze is self-aware and self-accepting while remaining flexible and continually open to personal development.

Environmental: We can not separate ourselves from the physical environment in which we live; we influence it as it influences us. An environmentally well person has an appreciation of the external environment. Ze will work to preserve, protect and improve the environmental conditions. Examples of these actions include reducing one’s carbon footprint, free cycling, and reducing noise pollution.

There are 5 Points of Wellness of which most people feel they need to be complete in their lives. Most people in the Western civilized world are lacking in not only one of these components, but nearly all.

In this article, I’m going to explain what these points actually are and how they are defined. So here it goes, the 5 Points of Wellness consist of:

1. Physical
2. Emotional
3. Intellectual
4. Social
5. Spiritual

Now, let’s take each one of these in order and define them.

Physical Wellness
Physical Wellness by definition is the ability to perform daily physiological demands such as walking up stairs, lifting a bag over your head, digesting food, etc. Ways to improve this is to do resistance training, cardiovascular exercise, and have a good nutrition program.

Emotional Wellness
Emotional Wellness is your ability to cope with daily circumstances in an optimistic, positive, and constructive manner. Ways to improve this is to incorporate more of the physical wellness needs, meditate, and taking time out. A person who is emotionally well is happy, as opposed to depressed or stressed.

Intellectual Wellness
Intellectual Wellness is the ability to learn and to use information to enhance the quality of daily living and optimal functioning. You can improve your intellectual wellness by reading, doing crossword puzzles, or listening to audio learning programs. When you’re intellectually well, you are informed and able to carry objective conversations.

Social Wellness
Social Wellness is your ability to establish positive relationships and be interactive in social situations such as a party, ball game, or family outing. To improve social wellness you can have lunch with some friends or go to a baseball game. When you’re social, you’re less likely to be lonely.

Spiritual Wellness
Spiritual Wellness is the ability to establish values and act on a belief that there is a force greater than that of any human. Ways to become more spiritual are to become more involved in your preexisting faith, such as going to your synagogue or church. Praying is the foundation of spirituality. Those who are spiritual feel more complete as opposed to incomplete.

“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”
- Oliver Wendell Holmes

One of the best books written on time management and life skills was the enormously popular book – The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, first published in 1989.   The book, written by Stephen R. Covey sold over 15 million copies in thirty-eight languages in fifteen years.

Covey lists seven principles that, when established as personal habits, help a person achieve “effectiveness.” Covey maintains effectiveness is achieved by aligning oneself to what he calls “true north”–principles of a character ethic that he believes to be universal and timeless.

Our character, Covey says, is a collection of our habits – which consist of knowledge, skill, and desire. Knowledge allows us to know what to do, skill gives us the ability to know how to do it, and desire is the motivation to do it.

The Seven Habits move us through the following life stages: Dependence, Independence, and Interdependence. Finally, to be truly effective, we must find the proper balance between actually producing and improving one’s capability to produce.

Another concept that Covey promotes is called the P-PC balance. P is Productivity, and PC is Productivity Capability.   Covey says that it is easy to get these out of balance and spend too much time on one or the other. Too much “P” means doing a lot of work inefficiently; too much “PC” means focusing on efficiency/design/process but getting very little work done.

The 7 Habits

I: From Dependence to Independence

Dependence is the paradigm under which we are born, relying upon others to take care of us. The first three habits focus on self-mastery, so that we are able to move from dependence to independence.

Habit 1:   Be Proactive
Change begins from within.   Highly effective people realize they improve their lives through their influence, rather than by reacting to external events.

Habit 2:   Begin with the End in Mind
Effective people have a principle-centered personal mission statement.   Their long-term goals are based on personal principles.

Habit 3:   Put First Things First
Highly effective people identify the key roles they take on in life, and make time for each of them.   They spend time on activities that fit within their personal mission, achieving balance between production and building productive capacity.

II: From Independence to Interdependence

Habits 4, 5, and 6 address interdependence. Ideally, we are moving from Independence – the paradigm under which we can make our own decisions and take care of ourselves towards Interdependence – the paradigm under which we cooperate to achieve something that cannot be achieved independently.

Habit 4:   Think Win/Win
We seek relationships and agreements that are win/win (mutually beneficial).

Habit 5:   Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood
Covey presents this habit as the most important principle of interpersonal relations. Effective people seek first to understand the other person, and only then try to be understood. Effective listening is putting oneself in the perspective of the other person – listening empathically for both feeling and meaning.

Habit 6:   Synergize
Through mutual trust and understanding, effective people seek synergy.   They resolve conflicts by looking for better solutions than can be obtained through just one individual’s solution.

III: Continuous Improvement

Habit 7:   Sharpen the Saw
The seventh habit is about renewal and continual improvement. The highly effective person takes time out from production and builds their production capability through personal renewal and maintaining balance among the physical, mental, emotional/social, and spiritual dimensions.

According to Covey, our daily activities can be put in one of four quadrants. Effective, proactive people spend most of their time in Quadrant II.

Consider: What one thing could you do in your life, that if you did it on a regular basis, would make a tremendous positive difference your life? (It is most likely a Quadrant II activity.)

By Sid Kemp   |   April 08, 2010

Here’s an unusual piece of business advice: Set yourself on fire every day. The life of an entrepreneur is full of ups and downs. One day things are exciting; the next we have to face a new hassle. On a movie set, the actors would say “It let the air out of our day.” In other words, the fire is out and the passion is gone.

But as entrepreneurs, our passion is our responsibility.

Some of us know our passion; others have yet to discover it. Just make sure it’s your passion and purpose, not what your parents and teachers said you should (or shouldn’t) do. Two owners of nearly identical pizza franchises may have two totally different reasons for being in business. One may be living a dream of growing a small business and giving local kids jobs, and another loves seeing families enjoying good food together. The key is to discover what motivates you–what sets you on fire.

Keys to Passion and Purpose
There are two important factors that motivate most entrepreneurs:

• We want to express our deepest desire, passion and purpose. The reason is simple: If we’re going to create a business

and spend so much of our time living in it, let’s make it something that we love, something that expresses our purpose in life.

• We want to put passion before practicality. Yes, we want the business to succeed and make money. But first we say the words that set us on fire. Then we go into work and light the fire under our business and in our team. It’s like the old steam locomotives. The engine and the tracks are the practical business structure. But if there’s no fire in the boiler, we never get rolling.

Making It Real
I wrote my first mission statement in 1995. I checked it four times a year and made little improvements. I did that for two years, but it wasn’t enough. Then I got some good advice: Read my vision, mission and value statements aloud each day, first thing in the morning. Here’s why:

• Vocalizing. When we read something aloud, it hits both sides of the brain. The left side is logical–it rationalizes, but there’s no passion and often creates negativity and resistance. The right side is the source of emotion and motivation. It isn’t always practical. But when we read a purposeful, practical statement aloud, it hits both sides of the brain and unifies them. 
• Daily practice. Motivation is like exercise. The more you work out, the stronger you get. The same goes for stirring the passion-pot each morning. If you miss a day, so what? That’s yesterday; that’s history; that’s the past. Just think about this for inspiration: “Today is the most important day of your life, for today is the first day of the rest of your life.” Make a fresh start any day and move in the right direction.
• First things first. Stephen Covey, author of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, teaches us to put “first things first.” One meaning of this is to start every day with what matters most. And it’s a great idea. Motivational coach Barry Gottlieb encourages us to take in only positive and nourishing ideas for the first two hours of every day. Start your day with your own vision, not with the newspaper!

Kim George, author of Coaching Into Greatness, says that mission statements framed on the wall are just awful. Instead, we need to make them alive, and make them real for ourselves. I read mine standing on a balance disk, dynamically, like I’m about to start a sprint. So read you mission aloud every day, in a dynamic, active way, to stoke your internal fire.

Feed the Fire as Often as Needed
Let’s say we get ourselves truly motivated each morning. We’re in the zone. We’re off and running. We’re making a great day.

How long is that going to last?

On a good day, about two hours.

On a bad day, 10 minutes.

Almost every day, something will let the air out of your day. It might be a complaining customer, an under-performing worker, a traffic jam that makes you late for a meeting, or a missed snack leading to low blood sugar.

It’s time to refocus our vision. The moment a marathon runner stumbles, what does he do? He stops, breathes, refocuses, and starts up again, running right on track. It’s not how many times we fall down. It’s how quickly we recover.

So create a one-line version of your mission statement. When life throws you off, stop. Stand up straight. Balance on your toes like a basketball player under the basket, ready to receive a pass and make the shot. Breathe in and out three times. And say the one-sentence version of your mission–aloud, if you can. You can do this in 30 seconds, and it will relight the fire of your passion. You’ll feel raring to go, just like you were first thing in the morning.

Don’t be embarrassed. Do this subtly–you can do it in a crowded elevator–and no one will notice.

What they will notice–and what you will feel–is your renewed energy and commitment. You’re burning to get to work; you’re back on the road to success.

Mistakes to Avoid
Here are a bunch of things not to do:

• Let your mission be what you have to do, instead of what you dream of doing.
• Let your mission be what society says you should do, instead of what you want.
• Forget about your mission and leave it stuffed in a drawer or hanging on the wall.
• Beat yourself up, so you start to resist, then hate, doing what you love to do.

That last point is a big burnout risk for any business owner or manager. When life becomes difficult (and sometimes it will be), it is easy to start saying “I have to.” That’s the path to burnout, to hating to go to work. Have you ever hated to go to work in your own company? Have you ever looked in the mirror and resented your boss? I have. Better to stick with doing things because you’re passionate about the end result.

Keep your fire burning clean and don’t block the flow with shoulda, coulda, woulda.