Ten Ways To Lead And Succeed In Times Of Complexity And Change-New Edition (Including 30 Bonus Links)

© Irene Becker, Just Coach It-The 3Q Edge™ | (IQ-EQ-SQ) Reach-Resonance-Results 
3Q Leadership™ Blog- 30,000+ Social Media Followers & Growing!  

 

Last year, Ten Ways to Live and Lead Forward In Times of Complexity and Change had thousands of views on my blog, and I believe the steps I wrote a year ago are even more critical today.  In order to further address our ability to LEAD and SUCCEED  in times of complexity and change, this NEW edition includes a compendium additional links outlining practical, powerful ways to transform pain into gain, complexity and change into the optimization and actualization of potential; ways you can build YOUR 3Q Leadership Edge™ as it relates to your life, your career, your people, your business….YOUR ability to develop 3Q skills that GROW at the speed of change/challenges!

 It is time to realize that we must also use the changes we face to develop the solutions, optimize the potential, that can help us live and lead forward. Doing do is counter-intuitive, but it is NOT impossible.  It is real, it is doable, and it is accomplished in ten simple but powerful steps you can decide to take…or not.

 

1.  Cultivate the power of the present moment.

Do not be a victim of what was, or what is not.  Stay focused on this minute in time, and your ability to use whatever you are facing to embrace your best self, optimize your true potential by becoming relentlessly solution focused.  Our greatest individual and collective strides forward are always the by-product of our most difficult challenges.  Before you can use/transform a challenge, before you can develop a solution, you must become empowered by the present moment and its possibility.  We cannot see the possibilities before us when we are mired in stress.  The solutions we seek are buried in the challenges we face.  Finding solutions, optimizing our potential starts by learning to embrace the present moment as a window to possibility by embracing the NOW.

2.  Give yourself a 90 second window-3 minutes to optimize!

Learn how to use it to catalyze mindfulness, whole brain thinking and the power of reflection.  Developing what I would call a more androgynous brain, improving whole brain skills and really optimizing your potential means taking time to reflect, time to put your brain in an alpha state.  Doing so, whether my prayer, meditation, chanting, time to simply reflect and stop the clock for 2-3 minutes is critical. Take time each day to pause.  Here is a simple, but powerful technique, The Pause, that anyone can learn and incorporate.

3.  Refocus on what really counts.

Get rid of toxic thoughts & reconsider relationships with toxic people and team members. Stop focusing on complexity.  Drown out extraneous noise.Start realizing that the anchors, the timeless wisdom that can help us translate complexity into simple powerful solutions is real. Retrain default patterns so that you can start using what is to create what can be. Our brains are automatically trained to focus on the negative (a vestige from our days in the cafe, when were surrounded by predators).  What really counts?  The sum total of your accomplishments can only be seen in light of your own personal happiness; and true happiness can only be found in what we contribute, not what we acquire. Learning to determine your purpose and engaging it means feeding your head, heart and soul with what counts.  Garbage in, garbage out. The negativity that saved us from predators when we were living in caves, will now hinder our potential.  Refocus on what YOU can do.  Get empowered forward.  Our ability to contribute, our ability to use both our strengths and our challenges to build a better self, better world is real.

4.  Put your brain in the KNOW & Go Forward.

Understand that YOU can re-train your brain!  There are many excellent books to read.  A recent GREAT READ is Super Brain by Deepak Chopra and Rudolph E Tanzi.  Spend a weekend reading this book and exploring ways that you can use your mind to optimize your brain.  Understand that the power to circumnavigate change and challenges is real.  We have only touched the surface of our individual and collective ability.  Living and leading forward means understanding the power of your mind to learn, relearn and develop new ways of seeing, doing and communicating that drive amazing results in your life and the lives of others.

 

5.  Stop searching for security in the same old places

Security cannot be found in what you acquire; it is a by-product of what you believe not simply what you achieve.  It is your ability to walk, talk and act in alignment with your highest power; the greatest good that is your ultimate goal and greatest triumph.  Purpose = profit on a multiplicity of levels from our own personal well-being to the survival of organizations and our society as a whole.  Need, greed and ego have destroyed every life, fiefdom and empire in recorded time.  History teaches us, life also teaches us that the only security we have is in taking the road less travelled, the road that will help us optimize our ability to realize our true purpose to live, learn and contribute.

 

6.  Use the changes you face to LEAD forward-Yes, use them to catalyze potential!

Develop coaching skills because they are a critical management, self management and leadership competency.  If you want to optimize your potential and the potential of others you need to develop R-E-A-C=H.  Learn how to redirect focus, empower confidence, actualize potential, communicate effectively and harvest results.  Embrace new ways, better ways to help you optimize your true talent and ability.  Invest in yourself, invest in your people because hope lies in the power of people living and leading forward; hope lies in our ability to innovate and create solutions that drive results.

 

7.  Build a Community of Purpose.

You need a community of purpose ( social, digital, person to person) to succeed.   A global marketplace demands real and virtual/digital/social communities that interact and collaboration together towards shared objectives.  Our individual survival amidst a sea of change, challenges that could make stress the number one worldwide source of disability means building strong relationships with kindred spirits, relationships with people whom we can trust and whose values and vision are in alignment with our own.  Leadership means building a community of purpose.

 

8.  Integrity, humanity, courage.  Say them, use them, and incorporate them in your life and work; use them to fail forward (a critical 21st Century Life and Leadership Skill!)

Leadership is a 3Q Equation.  Integrity, humanity, courage are the only fabric that will hold together our lives, our work, our organizations and our world. You can pay lip service to all three and manage; but you will never lead forward without making integrity-humanity and courage the mantra that guides your life and your work.

 

9.  Remember, going forward:  Purpose = profit.

Sustainability will only be achieved through our ability to know that success means creating value for others. Corporations will be forced to embrace corporate social responsibility, because our definition of success and the way in which we develop customer, client and constituent engagement and loyalty will be based on the purpose=profit equation.  Use it, embrace it.

10.  Traditional might does not make right, it often makes wrong.

The might we need now, more than ever before is not the might of brilliance, or the might of physical force; rather it is the might of a collective consciousness, an awareness that we can become victims to what has felled every great life and empire or we can make RIGHT. Each day is a powerful opportunity to right the wrongs we face, because our ability to evolve, grow, learn, re-learn and collaborate forward is real..  The Secret to Peace and Prosperity is timeless.   We have a choice to reach past the victimization of need, ego, greed; we have the ability to stretch ourselves past complacency or reactivity to a new set point where Might=Purpose.  Purpose=Profit and Leadership=Creating Value for Others.  Each individual is part of a greater whole.  Your complacency, reactivity or stasis will make you part of the solution, or help you become complicit in the problems we face on an individual and collective basis.  One small positive step towards integrity, humanity and courage can make an august ripple in the world. Ripple forward!

More On Surviving & Thriving In Times of Complexity And  Change?  Building 3Q Skills That GROW At The Speed Of Change And Challenges?  YOU Betcha!

3Q Leadership Development
Top Ten Posts 2013 On Leadership And Success In Disruptive Times
The Individual and Organizational Imperative for 3Q Leadership Development
From Pain To Gain:  Ten 21st Century Leadership Lessons Learned
Inspiring, Insightful Leadership Quotes And Posts
Ten Ways To Build Essential Success Skills That GROW At The Speed Of Change
The New Leader
From Now to HOW:  Building Social, Digital And Cross Generational Communication/Leadership
The Leadership Equation
The Individual And Organizational Imperative To Do GOOD
Leadership Means Developing A Community Of Purpose

Building A Thriving Organization

3Q Talent Optimization and Team-Building
Evolve Or Devolve-Manage Performance OR Optimize It?
Ten Ways To Build Essential Success Skills That GROW At The Speed Of Change
From Now To How:  Building Social, Digital And Cross Generational Communication/Leadership
How To Build Better Communication NOW
Resolve To Evolve And Redefine Winning
Ten Ways To Build Employee Engagement
Words Make Worlds
Courageous Teambuilding
Meaningful Work
The Purpose Equation:  Building Intrinsic Motivation

3Q Personal Development
The Power Of YOUR Story
Winning The Race With Wolves
Five Steps To Successful Career Transition
Five Ways To Take Control Of YOUR Potential
Ten Ways To Build Essential Success Skills That GROW At The Speed Of Change
From Victim To Victor
The Empowerment Compendium
The Happiness Compendium
Happiness And Success In The Face Of Change And Challenges
The Fire Of Human Potential:  Developing A Purposeful Life And Career

Image credit: lightwise / 123RF Stock Photo

 

 Are you ready to go from Now to HOW?  Get re-inspired by what you can achieve at the speed of change/challenges? Recharge, refocus, repurpose, repower? Build YOUR 3Q Leadership, Career, Business Development or Talent Optimization Edge?

 

How to Build Better Communication NOW!
Four Steps AND  Five Tips You Can Integrate Immediately!
AND 10 Bonus Links!

© Irene Becker, Just Coach It-The 3Q Edge™ | (IQ-EQ-SQ) Reach-Resonance-Results 
3Q Leadership™ Blog- 30,000+ Social Media Followers & Growing!  

Time to turn conflict around,  re-establish trust, re-build and build stronger relationships? How well do you adapt to different listeners and audiences?  How well to you negotiate and resolve challenges, problems and conflicts?  Do you excel at building horizontal and vertical communication?

Communication is the linchpin for personal development, growth, organizational development, engagement, performance and sales growth; and today, building your communication quotient means learning how to develop a bridge between social, digital, cross generational and cross cultural divides.

Yes, 21^st century success means building a new set of communication skills that help you leap forward, help you learn forward, and help you collaborate and lead forward with actual and virtual constituents.

A new set of communication skills that help you leap forward, help you learn forward, and help you collaborate and lead forward with actual and virtual constituents.

Step One:  Awareness

Stop thinking about what you want.  Refocus.  Who are you communicating with?  What are the common objectives and values you share?  What do THEY want from your communication?  I know this sounds simple, but when our emotions get involved (and they do), simple goes out the window and is replaced by the automatic fight or flight response that jeopardizes effective communication.  Pause, reflect and search for information, for clues that tell you what your audience/listener wants and of equal importance, the common objectives and values you share. The words you use and the statements you make count.  Trust, transparency and the ability to always underscore common objectives and values must punctuate whatever you say.

Step Two:  Interest

Listen more, talk less.  You cannot light a fire with wet wood.  Gaining the interest of your audience/listener means listening to what they are really saying by hearing, seeing and feeling. Make sure you mirror back what they say for confirmation, or alternatively, if addressing an audience, ask questions to evoke answers that not only peak interest but develop a relationship bridge – a common thread between your values/objectives and theirs.

Step Three:  Desire

As the communicator, one of your goals is to light a fire, a fire of desire; desire to build a relationship.  Nothing is achieved alone.  Effective communication is critical.  You can lead a horse to water, you can force someone to do what you are saying, pay lip service to what you are communicating, but the results you achieve will be short term gain and long term pain.  What is not built upon shared objectives and values will ultimately crash and burn.

Trust, transparency and the ability to always underscore common objectives and values must punctuate whatever you say.

Step Four:  Action

Action is not reaction, rather it is a thoughtful response that drives the relationship forward, or alternatively terminates a relationship where values and objectives are not aligned in the best way for all. Take control of your communication by focusing on what counts.  Do not let the plethora of information before you create communication corrosion.  Re-focus on the information that is critical to the realization of shared values and objectives. Your brain, our brains are idiot savants that seek out what our mind focuses them on.

Daily In-Office Tips To Build Communication

Tip One: Develop Communication and Collaboration. Actively solicit input, build transparency of communication by seeking input from not only team members but employees at the front lines of your organization.  Find new ways, better ways to strengthen your presence, your brand – the shared objectives/values you and your people cherish by taking the time to get involved.

Tip Two: Empower Others. Validate.  Take time each day to notice and point out how your team members and employees are contributing to the overall plan, how there work, their input is critical to shared success.

Tip Three:  Don’t Run Away From Tough Questions or Conflict. Address tough questions rather than running or hiding from them. Tough questions and conflict need to be answered and addressed in a way that refocuses yourself and others on shared values and objectives, on your ability to turn challenges and problems into the focus and collaboration that drives solutions.

Leadership is a commitment to empower, enable and actualize the power of others

Tip Four:  Respond, do not react.  Build your 3Q Edge™ developmental skills like constructive discontent, so that you will not be influenced by the auto-matic fight or flight response that derides effective communication because you have learned to circumvent it.

Tip Five: Walk your talk.  Sustainable success is built upon shared values and objectives, is the end product of relationships of trust, demands leadership that can be trusted, and is modeled and counted upon during the good times and bad.

Leadership is a commitment to empower, enable and actualize the power of others; doing so means developing a communication playbook that opens the heads, hearts and minds of others.

This post was originally published as How To Build Your Communication Quotient  on Switch and Shift  Blog November 2013  |  Image Credit:  Jorganmac/123RF Stock Photo

 

More on Effective Communication?  YOU Betcha!

From Now To How:  Building Social, Digital and Cross-Generational Communication/Leadership

7 Ways To Turn Conflict/Communication Problems Around

Words Make Worlds:  Opening The Door To A Better Present And Future

Ten Ways To Build Employee Engagement

Are YOUR Ears Open?

Lead Forward:  Seven Power Words-Seven Power Posts

Five Ways To Communicate And Lead Forward

Self Talk-7 Powerful Tips

Self Test Your Learning And Communication Style

Great Read Excerpt:  The Power Of Communication by Helio Fred Garcia

 

Are you ready to go from Now to HOW?  Get re-inspired by what you can achieve at the speed of change/challenges? Recharge, refocus, repurpose, repower? Build YOUR 3Q Leadership, Career, Business Development or Talent Optimization Edge?