Every manager and entrepreneur dreams of becoming an inspiring leader that people would gladly follow. Some people have a natural leadership instinct, but what if you weren’t born with such exceptional skills? Can you learn how to be inspiring to others?
Science says there are ways you can train yourself so that people listen to you and follow your lead. Here’s what I found to be useful for anyone willing to go on this journey of inspiring leadership.
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Passionate leaders see life as a mission. So they go above and beyond to fulfill it. They walk their talk, they convey their beliefs without dismissing others, and they stay committed when times are hard. But most of all, they don’t settle. To be able to say that your work is your life and you wouldn’t change it for the world, now that’s self-fulfillment!
Mentality wise, the differences between people who live paycheck to paycheck and those who run their own successful business are vast. For one thing, the former group leads a life of pressure where stress is the norm. They see the world as a jungle that rewards only the fittest, a race to a safe heaven that will hopefully occur before retirement. The latter group worries too, but about different things. Like failing to change the world
9 out of 10 workers acknowledge that it’s the curious person in the office that will most likely bring ideas and get promoted. But only 22% of workers describe themselves as curious, and only 12% say their employers are encouraging a strong desire to know or learn something. No wonder innovation doesn’t grow on trees!
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“How Entrepreneurs Do It;” “5 Ways to Achieve This and That,” “10 Books Every Innovator Must Read…” This is in my newsfeed every single day. The headlines differ ever so slightly, the content is virtually the same.
To their credit, the publications and their contributors churn out fairly good orations. You have a lot to learn from this kind of clickbait. But read them every day and you start to notice a pattern – it all boils down to common sense. Perhaps the articles target those who lack it.
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Since work is the only way to get anything valuable out of life, you might as well do it full time and make a difference, than to lug your body to and back from the office for half that time and achieve nothing.
Makes sense, right? It’s the mindset of inventor Lori Greiner, and it sounds a lot smarter coming from her mouth:
Ask any business leader what he / she does first thing in the morning and chances are they’ll tell you the same thing: jump right out of bed and into their white collars. Good leadership calls for discipline and sacrifice, but it always pays off. So, here’s why real leaders don’t waste time between the sheets.
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“If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself”
– Henry Ford
A truly great business doesn’t stem from the willingness to make money. While having financial incentive certainly helps, a more important driver is innovation, delivering real value to the world.
Everyone has that one great idea at one point in life. Envisioning a product for the future is one of the best things you can do with your daydreaming time, but the real challenge is getting it done. For a product that hopes to change the world, you might have to consider creating your own startup.
We hear about startups in the news all the time. In fact, they are mentioned so often these days that it seems everyone’s doing it. But in reality only a handful of entrepreneurs go through the motions like they’re supposed to. For instance, did you know that writing down every detail as it hits your head can turn out to be crucial for the success of the product? How about re-launching more than once? These practices, as well as many others, are vital to building a successful institution that can generate retention and revenue.
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We love it when communication flows. Everything we do at 4PSA revolves around communication and collaboration, so we believe strongly in the power of using these as tools for building teams and businesses. But sometimes, shutting up can help too.
According to a study published in the Journal Of Social & Personal Relationships, blocking communications with negative people can increase your productivity and even boost your IQ. It’s the kind of research that seems to reach an obvious conclusion, but most of us are oblivious to these teachings our entire lives.
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For the past few months we’ve been populating our blog index with Quote of the Day entries featuring clever maxims from clever chaps and gals from all epochs and meridians. Deep, insightful, motivational, inspirational, sad, happy quotes. But never one that’s just plain funny.
Today’s quip is from The Salmon of Doubt, a posthumous collection of published and unpublished material by English writer by Douglas Adams.