Motivational leadership – Page 3 – Doug Dickerson on Leadership

Leadership In A Word: Yesterday

Posted June 17, 2018October 10, 2018
by dougdickerson

Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away, Now it looks as though they’re here to stay oh I believe in yesterday – John Lennon

A word about yesterday

In his book, No Limits, John Maxwell presents a most thought-provoking question that is worth some consideration. He asks: “When was the last time you said goodbye to something that was special that no longer works today?”. It is a truly intriguing question.

Perhaps in our more nostalgic moments, we look back with some degree of fondness and recall a particular time in our leadership journey that was important to us. Maybe it was a particular success or big win that propelled you to where you are today.

But if we are not careful, we can get stuck in a place, time, and mindset that no longer serves us or the people around us very well. We become stagnant and are looking backward to the “good old days” rather to the future. Sound familiar?

Maxwell continues by asking, “Are you willing to let go of some things you love? If not, you’re going to have a hard time being creative and becoming any better than you are today”. Now, that truly is thought-provoking indeed.

Obviously, reading this caused me to think about my own practices, routines, and my mindset. Have I been guilty of this? Am I guilty of this? In what ways is this mindset hurting me?

My reflections led me to these conclusions. Perhaps you will relate. Perhaps you could add to the list. But here are just a few of my observations.

Yesterday’s creativity will not sustain me

Creativity is the life-blood in leadership. The creativity I had thirty years ago when I was first starting my leadership journey may have served me well then, but it has no bearing on the creativity I need to succeed today. The landscape today is much different.

Leadership Checkup: Are you availing yourself of every opportunity to grow and learn new things?

Yesterday’s structure will not carry me

Leadership and management styles have drastically changed over the past few decades. The flow charts of top-down, bottom-up have mostly been replaced by more lateral lines with collaboration as the approach of choice by many.

Richard Branson observed: “People often remark to me that it’s great how Virgin thinks outside the box. They are genuinely surprised when I tell them, “Actually we don’t! We just never let the box get built in the first place.’”

Leadership Checkup: Are you relying on yesterday’s structures to guide you today or are you finding new approaches to new problems?

Yesterday’s attitude will not equip me

The attitude, faith, and mindset I needed all those years ago may have been sufficient at the time, but no longer. Not because I have arrived, but because my goals, dreams, and aspirations of today demand it. Going to a higher level of achievement requires an exchange. And it will be required in your leadership as well. The exchange will be to give up some things from the past that you loved in order to have the growth and success you desire today.

Leadership Checkup: What attitudes and mindsets of the past do you need to let go? Are you still surrounded with people whose mindsets are holding you back?

Quotes about yesterday

“It’s no use going back to yesterday, I was a different person then”. – Lewis Carroll

“What worked yesterday doesn’t always work today”. – Elizabeth Gilbert

“…But this one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead”. – Philippians 4:13

“You can’t have a better tomorrow if you’re thinking about yesterday”. – Charles Kettering

“Yesterday was not your defining moment. The calendar moved forward; why not you?”. – Steve Maraboli

A final word

We gain wisdom, understanding, and perspective from our past, for better or for worse, our past shapes us. While it’s certainly appropriate to reflect on the good things in our past, we must live in the moment and be forward in our thinking. It’s also time to let go of the past with all of its mistakes and failures and seize the moment that a new day brings. The challenge in leadership is to never stop growing, learning, adapting, and applying all that we can.

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Leadership In A Word: Vulnerable

Posted June 4, 2018
by dougdickerson

I found that the more truthful and vulnerable I was, the more empowering it was for me. – Alanis Morissette

A word about being vulnerable

I read where Will Rogers’ stage specialty used to be rope tricks. One day, on stage, in the middle of his act, he got tangled in his lariat. Instead of getting upset, he drawled, “A rope ain’t so bad to get tangled up in if it ain’t around your neck.” The audience roared. Encouraged by the warm reception, Rogers began adding humorous comments to all his performances. It was the comments, not the rope tricks, that eventually made him famous.

As leaders, we tend to get ourselves into predicaments that are hard to escape precisely due to our obsession with protecting our image. Our greatest leadership strength can be found not in faking perfection but in embracing our own vulnerabilities.

Think for a moment about how different your leadership would look if you dropped the pretense of perfection and having all of the answers in exchange for authentic leadership. Imagine how different your life would be.

Allow me to explore a few ways in which being vulnerable can strengthen your leadership and why it matters.

Vulnerability empowers you as a leader

Think for a moment about the qualities you look for most of the leaders in your life. Melanie Curtin identified the top four qualities that millennials are looking for in an article for Inc. The top four qualities were mentoring, a gentle spirit, authenticity, and integrity,

All four of those qualities are essential to good leadership. When a leader is vulnerable these qualities will shine through. After all, how can you be an authentic leadership without being vulnerable?

If you want to gain respect and earn the trust of the people you lead, you will have to drop the mask and forget about the glittering image and get real.

Vulnerability puts the humanity into your leadership

Some of the most impactful lessons I have learned in leadership over the years from my mentors were not the great success stories they shared. It was the stories of their defeats, failures, and setbacks that inspired me. Why? Because they failed? No. It was inspiring because it allowed me to see them as human and that if they can fail, recover, and succeed then I could as well. It built my confidence.

Being vulnerable as a leader doesn’t mean that you make excuses for your failures or that you lower the bar on your goals or aspirations. Being vulnerable means that you allow your people to see the good, the bad, and the ugly, and still be inspired by your leadership.

Vulnerability creates connections in your leadership

Vulnerability opens up a whole new realm of leadership for you that just doesn’t come any other way. So long as you are guarded, distant, and protecting your image, then your people will always be made to feel they can never measure up to your example- or at least make it feel it’s out of their reach.

Vulnerability creates connections and builds bridges with your people that will open up doors and relationships that could not happen otherwise.

If you want to grow your influence as a leader then it’s time to be real, time to be genuine, and time to be vulnerable. Most people can spot a phony a long way off.

Vulnerability quotes

“Vulnerability is the birthplace of innovation, creativity, and change.” – Brene’ Brown

“We are at our most powerful the moment the moment we no longer need to be powerful.” – Eric Micha’el Leventhal

“Developing people by investing in them doesn’t mean pretending you have all the answers.” – John Maxwell

“Getting in touch with your true self must be your first priority.” – Tom Hopkins

A final word

Vulnerability in leadership is essential to good leadership. It’s not an expression of weakness, it’s an expression of being empowered as a leader and comfortable in your own skin. Embrace being vulnerable and watch your influence grow.

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Leadership In a Word: Limitations

Posted April 30, 2018
by dougdickerson

Life has no limitations, except the ones you make. – Les Brown

A word about limitations

One of the challenges in leadership is learning how to leverage your limitations. The more you grow as a leader, the more responsibilities you acquire. This means you give up certain rights in the process. It’s taking the old-school leadership pyramid where the leader is at the top and turning it upside down.

When one normally thinks of limitations it’s done so in a negative connotation. It often implies some type of handicap or restriction is holding you back. But that is not necessarily the case.

As a leader, having limitations does not mean you won’t be successful. It just means that success it will look different to you. It will come in different ways. It’s all about how you leverage your limitations. But how? Here are two different ways to think about leveraging your limitations.

Limitations help you to share the responsibilities

As you come to understand your role as a leader, which is fewer rights and more responsibilities, you come to learn how to include more people in the process. You are now in a position extend and expand your influence. When you do this you become stronger as a result.

Leveraging your limitations is about bringing people together to do what you can’t do alone. What may be a limitation for you is now a tremendous opportunity for the team. Where once before it was about leveraging yourself for success, you are now positioning your team for success. It may seem inconsequential, but the payoff can make a huge difference.

Limitations help you discover your strengths

The traditional view of limitations bends toward restrictions placed on a person- what they can’t do. But I believe that your limitations can expose you to your strengths – what you are really good at. It’s all about your point of view.

Reader’s Digest some time ago shared a story about George B. Dantzig. During his first year of graduate study at the University of California at Berkeley, he arrived late for a statistics class. He saw two problems on the blackboard. Assuming they were homework, he copied them and a few days later turned in his solutions. One Sunday morning six weeks afterward, the professor appeared at Dantzig’s door, waving a manuscript. It turned out that the professor had merely written two examples of unsolvable problems on the blackboard. The manuscript was Dantzig’s work readied for publication.

Fortunately for Dantzig, he was not in class when the professor told the students that the problems could not be solved. You leverage your leadership and your limitations when you discover your strengths and stop listening to people who tell you what you can’t do or accomplish.

Limitation quotes

“Never interrupt someone doing what you said couldn’t be done.” – Amelia Earhart

“Set high standards and few limitations for yourself.” – Anthony J. D’Angelo

“There are no limitations to the mind except those we acknowledge.” – Napoleon Hill

“”Out of limitations comes creativity.” – Debbie Allen

“If we can see past preconceived limitations, then the possibilities are endless.” – Amy Purdy

A final word

Often time the greatest limitations we have are the ones we create by our mindsets and attitudes. If you want to overcome your limitations begin there. Every other limitation you face is a creative opportunity to increase your leadership and influence. Don’t allow your limitations to define who you are and who you can become.

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Milestones In Your Leadership

Posted December 4, 2017
by dougdickerson

The spot on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial where Dr. King gave his “I Have a Dream” speech. – Provided by the author.

Leadership is practiced not so much in words as in attitudes and in actions. – Harold S. Geneen

Not long ago, I was in Washington D.C. for a speaking engagement. Afterward, I stayed a few extra days to take in some of the sights.

In the short time I was there, it would have been impossible to take in all that Washington has to offer. So I prioritized my choices and set out to make the most of it.

First on my list was an early morning stroll through the sacred grounds of Arlington National Cemetery. Although I had been there before, it was just as inspiring as ever. To walk among the lush hills where our national heroes like President John F. Kennedy are buried was quite moving.

But one of the most interesting experiences for me occurred on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. To be sure, it is an inspiring memorial to visit. On this given day it was quite busy with many people walking to the top of the steps to see the statue of Abraham Lincoln and his quotes that adorn the walls.

But very few noticed another piece of significant history engraved on the steps on the way up. It’s an inscription marking the spot where on August 28, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his infamous “I Have A Dream” speech. Most people missed the tribute to this epic piece of American history right under their feet.

Lincoln set into motion the freeing of the slaves eight-five miles away in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania with the Emancipation Proclamation. One hundred and one years later, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, Dr. King awakened the nation’s consciousness with the reminder that “America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which comes back marked ‘insufficient funds’. But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt”.

Whether it was seeing President Kennedy’s gravesite at Arlington, the Lincoln Memorial, or standing on the steps in the exact spot as Martin Luther King, there were many milestones by famous leaders to take in.

Milestones in your leadership come in unexpected ways and at unexpected times. Here are a few leadership themes I was reminded of on my trip.

The highest calling of leadership is in service to others

One cannot walk the grounds of Arlington without acknowledging with humility the service and sacrifice of the brave men and women buried there.

In his inaugural address, President John F. Kennedy challenged the American spirit with these immortal words, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country…”. It’s in the spirit of those words we are reminded of the importance of servant leadership.

The greatest opportunity of leadership is to inspire others

When Martin Luther King Jr. took to the steps of the Lincoln Memorial he prophetically spoke into our collective consciousness. His words elevated the dialogue, lifted spirits, challenged us to be better.

He had the courage to see things as they were and the foresight to see things as they could be. He dreamed of a day he could envision “when my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character”.

We need more leaders to step up and elevate and inspire all of us to reach our God-given potential.

The greatest responsibility of leadership is in the building of our character

The news headlines of today make it clear that we have work to do. Character-based leadership is needed now more than ever.

“Nearly all men can stand adversity.” said Abraham Lincoln, “but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power”. And this is the great leadership challenge of our generation. We must be leaders of character first and foremost.

Milestones in leadership are built in the intentional choices and disciplines on our leadership journey. Heed the words of the leaders who have gone before us, look to the future with hope.

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