Why is it a problem to focus on not meeting goals? You might ask, “How else will I get there?”

It’s not a secret. It’s not magic. We aren’t just going to manifest the reality we want.

Our brain has a pattern match system. It matches for exactly what you tell it. If you think red corvettes, you will see 10 by noon. Your brain will look for them automatically. It does a lot of things to make our lives easier – as long as we program it correctly.

Therefore, when you consistently focus on not meeting goals, that’s exactly what you see – and get. There may be many ways that you are making your goals, but if you are not giving attention to, nurturing and supporting those areas, they wither and slip away.

Locking it in and focusing on goals not being met will always result in being behind. That has to stop or you’ll literally be behind all the time. How do you fix that?

When you’re correcting for a thinking error, you look for an equally true statement to put into place to direct your attention. Notice the words equally true. We are not making something up, but re-focusing attention to a new destination. Just like there are multiple destinations when you fly out of an airport, the path we take determines the destination.

Instead of focusing on NOT meeting goals, focus on what you are doing right or have accomplished. That puts your attention on what you want, not what you don’t want.

Focusing on what’s right builds energy and confidence. It’s what gets you up on a snowy day or pushes you through an obstacle. If you have been focusing on the negative, you have already wasted half of your energy before you meet an obstacle and then it feels insurmountable.

Training your attention is key to working with intention and finding success.

Pay attention to what you’re paying attention to today.

-Jan

I was talking to a businessman recently who, even though it is the very beginning of the year, already felt behind. In fact, he was telling everyone around him that he was behind on the year’s plan he had just devised.

His focus on a specific goal instead of the big picture was creating an unconscious intention.

His behavior was focused on his not reaching his goal. Yet, if you asked him, he would be emphatically clear that he was focused on making his goals, but his attention was on not making them and he directed the attention of his staff to being behind and not making them.

We all slip here and don’t realize that we have substituted a different intention than what we desire. What we focus on, our attention, is what feeds intention. That is what is meant by intention creates reality.

Intention is the basis or vision that gives framework to an organization’s mission and vision, and provides a reference point for the leader. In 1994, Leadership expert Margaret Wheatley said that intention shapes reality by shaping perception. Prior to that, Gary Zukav said, “What you choose, with each action and each thought, is an intention, a quality of consciousness that you bring to your action or to your thought.”

An intention is a guiding principle, one that is used to make daily decisions, over and over again. Intentions can be conscious, unconscious or both, but our true intention is the one determined by our behavior.

With repetition intentions gain strength, lock in and become a habit. Most of us don’t think about how we became who we are, or how our organizations became what they are. Yet there is a clear path that created both. And there is a clear path that will change it.

Do you know what your actions and behaviors reveal as your true intention? Does it line up with where you want to be?

-Jan

Are you the one in the crowd who has given up making New Year’s resolutions?

As evidenced by the sudden decline in gym attendance in March, artificial deadlines don’t work for most of us, especially when life speeds up and gets in the way.

There are two types of people when it comes to resolutions:

1. Those who make resolutions and then have some capacity to move forward with them with a sense of commitment.
2. Those who laugh and can’t figure out why people make them, believing the entire exercise is ludicrous.

For the resolution maker, even when the purpose is perfect – you want (or need) to lose weight – you set a goal, which is an artificial deadline. The minute you say, “I will lose 10 pounds by March 1,” you are creating a stressor. When that deadline arrives, and you haven’t lost all 10 pounds, you failed. Even if you lost 8 or 9, you didn’t meet the goal – and feel the failure.

For those tired of artificial deadlines or the sense of failure, intention can move you in the direction you would like to go. Using the example above, if you lose 10 pounds by March 1, woo-hoo, that’s great. If not, you still win because you have lost 8 or 9 pounds.

The purpose for both resolutions and intention is training to get a new behavior and a desired outcome. It’s all about winning, one way or another. Artificial deadlines inherent to resolutions and goals set us up to fail; intention gets us on the road consistently moving toward the objectives we have set.

So, if you have sworn off New Year’s resolutions, try shifting to intentions to make 2012 your greatest year yet.

-Jan

Your organization is cut to the bone and there is no time or resources to train the new people you have planned to hire. It would be best if they could just arrive and do the job you need within the culture you have chosen.

However, that’s not going to happen, is it?

Do you have the leadership capacity, the attention, the focus to maintain the values based structure to bring in new people and integrate them into with the group?

The common mistake is to take your attention off of the here and now and move into the future and the prospect of growth. Your growth will depend on the here and now – the foundation. The sloppier we are, the sloppier it becomes.

Leadership is about providing for our followers. If we get so focused on the future, we fail to provide what they need to stay in step. We can get ahead of ourselves and lose the group.

Remaining values based and still looking forward is not easy. One way to successfully implement the growth is to simply slow down, communicate, clarify and clarify again.

You have to remember that everything you learn and know from experience is not in your employees’ heads – they need to be informed and educated and informed some more.

In our need for speed, we skip over the employees’ process of learning. We don’t provide the information, the time to practice and the time for the learning to become integrated into their work. We fail to provide the attention and the time necessary and we fail to notice where they are in the process and respond to where they are and where they have to go.

This leads to mistakes and we make the time to do it over instead of the time to teach. – and transform.

We think they are where we see them in our heads – which may not be reality, only our perception or desire.

If they are not following, you are not leading.

Business life is messy – it’s not perfect.  And being a Values Based leader requires courage.

Courage is about stepping out – going against the grain – and you go against the grain because you’re clear in your convictions and don’t want to follow the herd.

Seth Godin has referred to this as “sheepwalking.” Sheepwalkers are people who have been raised to be obedient and given a braindead job and enough fear to keep them in line.”

To be courageous in your work, you have to know who you are and you have to know what you stand for – what values drive you.

By standing for your values and stepping out, you’re making yourself a target, yes. But the difference is clarity of purpose and being aware and managing the risk – with your eyes wide open. You are not caught off-guard.

Leadership is often on-the-job training. Humbling, to be sure, but it makes you more accessible and approachable to those you lead.

Just like business life being imperfect, O’Toole (2008) reminds us that values based leaders are imperfect. Values Based Leadership is a process of learning to develop the discipline to serve others and learning to overcome or compensate for weaknesses within the individual self.

I read this short little book called, Anything You Want, and I loved it!

It is a perfect example of Derek Sivers’s journey as a Values Based Leader.

He needed to be able to distribute his music. He didn’t have a record label and the whole internet digital age was yet to come. So he figured out how to set up a website, take credit cards and began. Then he decided to “help his friends.” This became one of his guiding values.

He didn’t intend to create a big business; he intended to help musicians get their music distributed. He had a simple guiding principle, which he stated:

“Helping the musicians is our first goal, and making a profit is second. Make sure everyone who deals with us leaves with a smile.”

He empowered his employees to use this simple statement to make decisions about customer care.

Was he a perfect business man? No.

He made lots of mistakes. He didn’t manage his employees well. He failed to set up many structures for a growing business.

But this blog is not about management. It is about leadership.

Derek was a leader. He had a clear vision of what he was doing and how he would serve his “friends.” He held the environment for the work to be done and he stepped back. He used his guiding principle every day to make decisions and taught his employees to make decisions about serving their customers.

I have worked with so many business leaders that say they can’t get their employees to take initiative. They don’t see how their own leadership sets the stage for employee indecision.

Derek had the opposite problem. He was clear, he was consistent, and he had an unwavering values proposition. He never lost his commitment to his purpose. He offered the guiding principles and let them run with it. And his employees took his lead to the extreme, in fact, leaving him behind and out of a job.

OK, perhaps that was a little too far. With leadership and management in balance, it doesn’t have to go that far in your company. Most businesses get the management and don’t understand that is not leadership.

Are your employees running away with your lead or are you dragging them along?

-Jan

I am so thankful simply for Thanksgiving. That’s because Thanksgiving has, for the last several years, given me the opportunity to meet and come to know someone I admire and hope to emulate. She exudes and lives with such graciousness. Her name is Carin Clauss.

She has lived a very interesting and diverse life, being involved in politics at the highest levels of government.

The premise of her work and life is built around the idea of respect and finding the common ground in issues and supporting those common points within all the competing viewpoints and voices.

The stories she tells of her life experiences reminds me of Nelson Mandela’s clear understanding of not separating yourself from the “other.” The “other” is broad. It can be an opponent, an adversary or even someone with another way to do something. Mandela talked about how it was the separation between the two (or more) that allows judgment and violence to take hold.

Leadership is all about alignment. So finding that common ground and aligning the commonalities held by all involved brings the power of the group together and makes it strong.

By focusing on what is similar and what is aligned between the sides of an issue you find the common ground and make progress toward a more unified place. 

That can be a political agenda – such as she exemplified and illustrated in her stories to me – or it can be your business plan and implemented in your daily interactions and operations. - Jan

Values Based Leadership looks for that common good or goal to help the group reach goals that they cannot reach alone. http://www.leadsyncnow.com/blog/item/356-values-based-leadership-in-an-interconnected-world

Values Based leadership includes authenticity and transparency.  When I talk about these
things, people often ask me, “Have you ever worked at a large organization?” 

Yes, I have. 
So yes, I know that it sounds like lunacy to many of you.  To be authentic and transparent is the same
as suicide in many organizations.  Yet without these things we end up with the kind of corporations we see on the news every night - where greed is a legal requirement. 

Choosing to operate above the level of integrity takes courage. 

What comes to mind is Mark Twain’s reference to the fact that if you don’t lie, you don’t have to remember what you said.

Boy, does that save energy – frees up your mind, your calendar and allows you to focus on what’s important. So, the question begs – How do you do that in a competitive environment?

The issue is not really authenticity or transparency, it is naiveté.

Your operating from integrity does not mean others will operate from there as well and you have to understand that. You have to understand that even when you are being honest and open, others may try to take
advantage. You leave yourself open, yes, but you are open to the good as well as the not so good. You may take a hit. With open eyes, you evaluate the risk. VB business is not stupid business. As long as you understand the risks you increase your opportunities to win, too.

If I know my strengths and weaknesses, I manage those. I know where my judgment is sound and I seek input in the other areas from trusted advisors. This knowledge reduces the impact from those who seek to take
advantage because I am solid in my stance. I know who I am.

That is what Values Based Leadership is. Knowing who you are, being strong in that knowledge with the conviction to take a stance to seek the highest good – for the whole.

Is this Pollyanna? Sure.

Is it the truth? Yes.

It takes courage to face ourselves and act strong. It takes strength to lead from that place. I know. I’ve seen it. I’ve seen that transition into clarity.

It’s not about what you aren’t – it’s about what you are.

-Jan

In recent years the proliferation of gratitude journals has filled nightstands and bookshelves – for a reason.

The fundamental nature of gratitude has been known forever. Pick a book – whether it is self-help, psychology or religion - and it’s there.

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays because you can’t be politically incorrect about gratitude. It applies to everyone.

Did you know that gratitude changes your body chemistry and that changes how you view the world? Gratitude releases endorphins into your system and makes you feel good. When you feel good, you see your glass as half full instead of half empty.

The state of your physiology is directly tied to the way you act. When in gratitude, you smile at the guy in the elevator, which can lead to a conversation and that next opportunity. Without choosing gratitude and releasing those endorphins, we stare at our feet. And what comes out of that?

Gratitude is one way to fortify yourself against life. If you’re already crawling by and the engine light in your car starts flashing, it takes you to the floor. If you are strong and clear, a blinking engine light is an annoying bump in the road. The difference is the degree of resiliency that you maintain.

That same resiliency is a critical factor in leadership and in business.

So, pull out that journal and grab a pen. What are you grateful for?

-Jan

When Einstein discovered everything was energy, the reality of interconnection dawned – changing our world. Energy allows an interconnection that is evidenced every day with our Internet surfing, gadgets and toys. It flows around the globe at the speed of light.

Like the Internet, the concept of interconnection and leadership is not a fad. It changes the way we do business. The end result is not the only thing that counts – the means to achieve that end result becomes equally as important.

The whole point of leadership is to move the entire group ahead or forward together – to the benefit of the individuals as well as the organization. With effective leadership, everyone grows and the organization strengthens and prospers.

Values Based Leadership works from that premise and leaders overtly and purposefully interact with the group – the whole is interconnected and interdependent. Therefore, profit becomes only one of many aspects of success.

That is the reality of interconnection and leadership.

-Jan