Intentional Listening

Interesting reading today about listening and how to truly do so. The Chinese symbol above indicates what it really means to listen to another:

The symbol on the left indicates the EAR, the top right symbol is YOU, underneath that is EYES, the line indicates undivided attention, the bottom symbol indicates your HEART.

M. Scott Peck said, "You cannot truly listen to anyone and do anything else at the same time."

I know this is true, but I many times try to listen with just the ears...

Leadership Tip 3 - Keep It Simple

Many people have a very simple goal (get in shape, make more money, be nice) and they stop before they start. Why?

The details. Action is all-important. In his book, Action! Nothing happens until something moves, Robert Ringer talks about the all-important first step. Action always works, even though it may lead you in a different direction than where you had intended to go.

Getting bogged down in the details happens because we think that we have to have everything figured out before we start. I can tell you...that is absolutely NOT true! All of us learn through experience and you wouldn't learn through experience if you knew everything before you started!

The point is illustrated to me by a faithful reader, who has found the secret...

I think that I may have found the answer to my "being consistent with working out" problem. My "goals" before were respectable, to be sure. Get in shape. Run a 5k. Run a half-marathon. I had high hopes in the beginning, just like all the other goals I've set in the past. Then, not so much. But, the goal that I am concentrating on now is, ...Go to the Y.

There it is...keep it simple...just get there! Don't worry about elaborate schemes or bells and whistles.

It's a cliche, but it's really true...You're halfway to success if you just show up!

Takeaway: Act! Don't try to get it all figured out first

Action Step: Identify it's most basic step of your top priority goal, even if it seems elementary. Do it...Today.

Profiles in Leadership - Reagan's Courage

In 1986, President Reagan met with Gorbachev in Reykjavik to discuss nuclear disarmament, among many other things. From Architects of Victory quoting An American Life:

Then, after everything had been decided, or so I thought, Gorbachev threw us a curve. With a smile on his face he said: "This all depends of course, on you giving up SDI." I couldn't believe it and blew my top. "I've said again and again the SDI wasn't a bargaining chip. I've told you, if we find out that the SDI is practical and feasible, we'll make that information know to you and everyone else so that nuclear weapons can be made obsolete. Now, with all we have accomplished here, you do this and throw in this roadblock and everything is out the window..."

Gorbachev heard the translation of my remarks, but he wasn't listening. He wouldn't budge from his position....I was getting angrier and angrier. I realized that he had brought me to Iceland with one purpose: to kill the Strategic Defense Initiative. he must have known from the beginning that he was going to bring it up at the last minute.

"The meeting is over," I said. "Let's go, George, we're leaving."

Reagan's Communication's Director Patrick Buchanan had this to say:

This was a triumph. What you saw then was the character of this man. He hated nuclear weapons, but he believed in the defense of his country. He believed in SDI and he was willing to blow up a summit over it. But when it was done, he knew he had done what he believed was right.

But for me, that was the moment that said it about Reagan. It was his general serenity in his beliefs. His conviction that—as he used to say—as he would point to the ceiling, “The rest of time I’ve got”—after the shooting—“belongs to Him.”

I think fundamentally Reagan’s success was due to the fact that his beliefs and his principles were correct and they corresponded perfectly with the time he was in.

Leader's Toolbox

The newly created Leader's Toolbox will be developed to assist the everyday leader in leading well. Leadership Toolbox will provide pithy, motivating lessons that will be easily implemented.

This is NOT only aimed at the corporate CEO (though they will find usefulness as well), but to everyone who will, at some point, have an opportunity to lead. My goal is that you will seize that opportunity and lead well.

As always, interaction is the best form of education, so feedback is always welcome!

For reference to previous postings on Leadership, see:

Leadership Tip 1
Leadership Tip 1.1
Leadership Tip 2
Leadership Tip 2.1
Leadership Lessons 1, 2 and 3