Are you a Leader or a Manager..?

No one truly understands Leadership – that is why so many books are written about it, with each author giving their own “formula” for success.  I have read dozens of them and although the titles often include the term “Leadership” – what they are essentially talking about is how to get other people to do something they wouldn’t otherwise do in exchange for money or reward.

This is not Leadership – this is Management.

I have seen plenty of “Leaders” who hide behind the veil of Management in the belief that their position within a corporate structure somehow transforms them into gurus and experts that should be listened to and copied at every opportunity. Take away their position in the company and they crumble, very few will actually admit that they became good Managers and anointed Leaders simply because of the elevated positions they were promoted to in someone else’s organisation; they believe it was them all along…

It is relatively easy to be a great leader when you pay salaries to everyone so that they follow you, and if they don’t follow you; they get fired…

So what is Leadership..?

First, Managers do not need to be Leaders – they have authority given to them; they have rules, regulations and procedures to use to control people in order to produce a specific result. If a Manager is a Leader as well – then they will be truly effective and it will show in their results and in the spirit and culture of their company.

Second, Leaders do not need to be good Managers – they lead by example with the consent of their teams and those associated with their cause or vision. Leaders don’t pay people to follow them; they attract and inspire them to.

In business we have to be Leaders in our own respective fields, whether that is thought, technology, service, product or quality. Our clients have a choice, and only those who are capable of leading and inspiring their teams and their clients will be truly successful.  A great Leader will hire great Managers and attract people, clients and associates to achieve the Vision. 

So a question for you – who is following you without being paid to do so…?

How would you have to behave, what value would you need to add and how inspiring and attractive would you need to become such that you were truly a Leader in your field..?

Leadership is about Vision, Passion and Commitment to a cause or objective – this will encourage people to follow you or decide not to – most leaders are loved and despised equally; mediocrity is not an effective Leadership position.

To be great Leader become evangelical about whom you really are, what you do, why you do it and your purpose in life – it’s time to stand for something and go public. Then take action to achieve your visions and dreams; the right people will follow you and the Leader will emerge.

Remember, Managers get Qualified – Leaders get Identified

Capitalism is so over...

Capitalism isn’t working…

The Banks and Financial institutions have led us all to the current situation. A mixture of Fractional Reserve Banking, Interest on Loans and greed for future profits out of complex financial instruments have destroyed the “system” that we thought would help and support us in life and in business.

We seem to have forgotten that, as business owner entrepreneurs, we have to add value to something before we sell it – parasitically investing the stock market, a property portfolio, or even a MLM scheme – doesn’t add value to anyone. The only reason that these activities produce a “profit” is because of the way the current system is flawed through its dependency on money creation and inflationary growth that fuels the ever increasing debt stream.

So what is the way forwards for business owners like us – we can blame the banks, take to the streets and bemoan the systematic profiteering of the 1% of the world population that own 40% of its assets – or we can step up and actually change the way we operate, stop playing their game and start to take back credible control.

Here’s how we do it.

First, get your business and your life debt free – as business owners this is a primary objective. Making profit just to pay interest to the bank on money the created out of nothing in the first place is a waste of your efforts. 

Grow your business with “no money down” – give great at customer service, add real value, innovate and put the passion back into your team to deliver a remarkable experience and you will generate profits and cash to clear the loans.

Second, recognise that your pension, stock portfolio and options are all synthetic and will have no value in the future. Your business is your future, you legacy and your long term income stream. Build your business as if you will keep it for life – you may not have to work there all the time – but it will sustain you, your family and those who work for you much more effectively than some pension or investment fund that produces more bonuses for the bankers than future pensions for you.

Third, remember that greed is not good – we are here to make a profit and build a lifestyle. The days when we can do this at the expense of others and cause massive inequality of income and resources are over – remember someone has to actually work hard at some point in the system, and we have a collective responsibility to contribute as well as extract value from it. 

Employ people and pay them well for working hard for you – give then stability and brightness of future – not everyone wants the “excitement” of business ownership.

We are the 99% - we can make the changes – look at what is happening in the USA – we have a golden opportunity to make a capital based economy that works; not just for the pinstriped bankers and investors but everyone. The 99% didn’t cause the chaos, but with a change of approach we can correct it…

Thinking Outside the Box...

I found this article whilst surfing the Web - I don't know who originated it so I cant give appropriate credit for it. If I find out, then of course I will...


Some time ago a lecturer received a call from a colleague. He was about to give a student a zero for his answer to a physics question, while the student claimed a perfect score. The instructor and the student agreed to an impartial arbiter, and he was selected. 

The Examination Question read as follows;

SHOW HOW IS IT POSSIBLE TO DETERMINE THE HEIGHT OF A TALL BUILDING WITH THE AID OF A BAROMETER

The student had answered, "Take the barometer to the top of the building, attach a long rope to it, lower it to the street, and then bring the rope up, measuring the length of the rope. The length of the rope is the height of the building."

The student really had a strong case for full credit since he had really answered the question completely and correctly! On the other hand, if full credit were given, it could well contribute to a high grade in his physics course and to certify competence in physics, but the answer did not confirm this.

The lecturer then suggested that the student have another try. The student was given six minutes to answer the question with the warning that the answer should show some knowledge of physics. At the end of five minutes, he had not written anything. He was asked if he wished to give up, but he said he had many answers to this problem; he was just thinking of the best one. The lecturer excused himself for interrupting him and asked him to please go on.

In the next minute, he dashed off his answer which read: "Take the barometer to the top of the building and lean over the edge of the roof. Drop the barometer, timing its fall with a stopwatch. Then, using the formula X= 0.5 (A T²) calculate the height of the building."

At this point, the lecturer asked the original instructor if he would give up. He conceded, and gave the student almost full credit. While leaving his colleague's office, the lecturer recalled that the student had said that he had other answers to the problem, so he asked him what they were.

"Well," said the student, "there are many ways of getting the height of a tall building with the aid of a barometer. For example, you could take the barometer out on a sunny day and measure the height of the barometer, the length of its shadow, and the length of the shadow of the building, and by the use of simple proportion, determine the height of the building."

"Fine," the lecturer said, "and others?"

"Yes," said the student, "there is a very basic measurement method you will like. In this method, you take the barometer and begin to walk up the stairs. As you climb the stairs, you mark off the length of the barometer along the wall. You then count the number of marks, and this will give you the height of the building in barometer units."

"A very direct method."

"Of course. If you want a more sophisticated method, you can tie the barometer to the end of a string, swing it as a pendulum, and determine the value of g at the street level and at the top of the building. From the difference between the two values of g, the height of the building, in principle, can be calculated."

"On this same tact, you could take the barometer to the top of the building, attach a long rope to it, lower it to just above the street, and then swing it as a pendulum. You could then calculate the height of the building by the period of the precession".

"Finally," he concluded, "there are many other ways of solving the problem.

Probably the best," he said, "is to take the barometer to the basement and knock on the superintendent's door. When the superintendent answers, you speak to him as follows: 'Mr. Superintendent, here is a fine barometer. If you will tell me the height of the building, I will give you this barometer."

At this point, the student was asked if he really did not know the conventional answer to this question. He admitted that he did, but said that he was fed up with high school and college instructors trying to teach him how to think.

The student was Neils Bohr and the arbiter was Ernest Rutherford.

How did we get here...?

I write either late at night or early in the morning - I prefer mornings as there is something reassuring about the sunrise that confirms my belief in immortality…

So here I sit at 03.30, mug of tea in hand – and a blank screen in front of me. I have been invited to write a compelling chapter for a new book on the subject of Business Accounts…

So you won’t be surprised to know that I have “writers block” – and in order to remove the block I have started playing on the internet.

At first I did an ego search – typed my own name into Google – but that drummer out of Judas Priest still pops up along with the Jazz Musician of the same name. No fun there…

It is now 03.40 so I have decided to type in “conspiracy theories” just for the heck of it…

So far I have learned that man didn’t land on the Moon, 9/11 was planned by the CIA, Elvis is actually alive and the Philadelphia experiment really happened – they are all on the internet so they must be true…!

Something has just caught my eye – and it has to do with the Banking System…

Now, I do know that I need to tread carefully here, and that there are plenty of cranks and nut cases out there who are probably uploading bizarre facts and theories dreamt up in an alcohol induced haze – but there is something here that is just plain interesting, and whether it is true or not doesn’t matter; it just seems to make sense…

How did we arrive in this financial mess, where the USA has a “debt clock” located in Times Square. The Clock was first installed by Seymour Durst on Feb 20^th 1989 in order to raise awareness of the consequences of the economic policies of the Reagan era. 

Back in 1989 – just 22 years ago – the USA had a debt of $2.7 Trillion. Then in late September 2008 the clock ran out of digits – the debt in the USA passed $10 Trillion and the digital “clock” needed an extra digit to display the amount.

Checking the value of the USA Debt today at 04.00 – it stands at around $14.5 Trillion. So that means that in the last 22 years the amount of US debt has increased by a total of $11.8 Trillion, which looks like this $11,800,000,000,000. My calculator won’t accept numbers that big so I have now switched to Excel to calculate that on average, every day , the USA has been getting deeper into debt to the tune of  $1.5 Billion every Day or $62,500,00 every hour, about $1,000,000 every minute..

Looks like there is something wrong...

So how did we get here...?

Look back in time to the control of the Money Supply to find out how we arrived at this ridiculous situation. Look at the rise of Fractional Reserve banking and the current banking system, check out what happened to the tally stick system in the UK, and look at the how the Federal Reserve – which is a privately owned corporation – controls the economy of the USA  and effectively those of Europe too…

My point is this – it is not the things that we can predict that will have the greatest effect upon us, whether positive or negative. It is always the unseen actions that we can’t see coming that have the most dramatic effect – and those dramatic effects are the manifestations of actions and decisions that have already taken place, so you can’t change them.

The financial crisis we are currently experiencing is the consequence of bright men in dark suits making huge amounts of money at the expense of the other 99.9% of the population – remember money does not disappear; it simply transfers to someone else… 

So plan for what you know, but always prepare for the unexpected – for that is where success and failure are found. Be grateful for your wins and chastened by your losses, but remember always that they both may simply be symptoms of someone else’s turn of the card…

Above all – enjoy the ride, make it fun, play nice and look after what no one can take away from you; your spirit, your relationships and your humanity. Travel, do crazy stuff like the world ends tomorrow – nothing you can do will be as stupid as the men in dark suits who have got it wrong by $1m every minute..

Oh, and recycle your plastic too.

At least now I have a chapter to write of the book – and it is now 04.45, here in the Moselle...

The Ego in the Dark Corner...

Sometimes, does it all just feel like your business isn't working? 

Your clients are a pain in the neck, cash flow is tight, you’re working harder than you team, and your marketing sucks, you are grumpy with your partner, the kids hide from you and even the dog keeps out of your way...

Sound familiar? - There are two facts about this situation;

1. It is only true to you - you just paint a dark picture because it fits in your dark corner at the moment...

2. You are not alone - welcome to being in business. Guess what, everyone goes through this at some time...

So what to do...

First, remember that your view of the world is just that - your view. You make your view true for you by finding evidence and "facts" to support your belief that everything is going against you. You may even find that if you look really hard you can find other people who have a similar picture of the world - so then you can confirm your beliefs with negative affirmations and third party validations too - bravo, that should help..
Your physiology follows your emotional state - if you are unhappy, frustrated or angry, it will show. This will affect your behaviour, your work and your relationships. If you believe things are bad then you will create the environment for those "bad things" to become manifest to you.

Beliefs + (Thoughts x Actions) = Results

If you start the equation with a negative Belief – regardless of how positive your Thoughts and Actions are – the resultant Result will always be negative...

Imagine that we rate your Beliefs, Thoughts and Actions on a scale of -10 to +10 with -10 being very low or negative and +10 being very high and positive.

Let’s say that your results look like this;

Beliefs = -7, Thoughts = +2, Actions = +8

This means that whilst your beliefs are negative, you’re Thoughts, (hoping and praying) that things will get better, are +2 and your Actions are + 9 – you are really busy…

This is what your Result will be...

-7 + (2 x 8) = -23

It all starts with a belief…

If you decide to believe that, for example, social media, telemarketing or networking (pick anything from training to coaching, customer service to budgeting) won't work in your business - then guess what; it won't because you will sabotage the process and find reasons to justify why in your "special business" these strategies don't work - then you will look for facts to back up your argument.

If you search on Google for "social media doesn't work" you will get 406 Million results - now you can even write a book on how you always knew that social media wouldn't work  - your ego will be inflated and you will be vindicated because you were right..

If however you search on Google for "social media does work" you will get 747 Million results - but because these facts are uncomfortable to your ego, you decide to ignore this and revert back to your comfortable dark corner safe with your other evidence. Doh..! This is painful because it means that you will have to concede that you are not the master of the entire universe and that, in fact, the laws of physics do apply to you.

So Rule 1 - drop the ego and choose a different belief.

Whatever Belief you choose, will manifest itself in your business and in your life – you will make it happen and attract the circumstances to yourself that will satisfy your ego’s demands for vindication.
One of the best ways to change a belief is knowledge and education – read books, watch videos, listen to stories of those who you actually want to be like. It isn’t that you will copy what they did, or have to do what they did – it is just that when you are open to the possibility of a different outcome, your belief changes and therefore so will your Thoughts, Actions and Reactions.

Using the formula above; let’s just assume that your Belief shifts to +2, this is what happens;

2 + (2 x 8) = 18

A positive result – in fact for a 9 point movement in Beliefs, you have achieved a 41 point shift in your Results…

Rule 2 – it's OK to get help...

This is another huge challenge to the ego – especially us guys. We are the hunter killers, we bring meat and make fire, we are the stealthy predators. Without help support, we build our business and our income simply because we are the alpha male – and we never cry either...

How is that working for you…?

What would you rather have, a huge balance sheet or a huge ego..?

The two are generally mutually exclusive, one is very attractive, and the other isn’t.

Man or woman – it doesn’t matter, reaching out and asking someone to help you is a great step in changing your beliefs; Coaching works not because the Coach knows all the answers, rather they ask the right questions to challenge your Beliefs and adapt your Thoughts and Actions.

If you have got this far, then we should talk – providing of course your ego doesn’t stop you pressing send on the email… 

Remember, the easiest way to get out of your dark corner is to turn the light on – it just maybe that someone else needs to show you where the switch is..

You can contact me at davidholland@resultsrulesok.com

Kind Regards
David

Lessons from the Cosmos...

It was a very clear night last night - and it had stayed warm too.. 

There is something serene about star gazing, I dont know all the constellations and I cant find Venus or Mars, but sitting there with a glass of Southern Comfort on the rocks and contemplating the biggest questions we have, was magical...

As my eyes became accustomed to the dark, more stars appeared, and if I used my peripheral vision rather than looking directly at them I started to see clusters and detail that were not there before.

After a few minutes I spotted a plane - it was moving and flashing lights - so even I knew it wasn't Mars. Then in the corner of my eye I spotted a feint dot of light moving accross the sky - no flashing lights.
It was a satellite - and as it passed over head, I was reminded of the lyrics to a song by Billy Bragg - New England, part of which goes like this...

"I saw two shooting stars last night, I wished on them but they were only satellites, it's wrong to wish on space hardware..."

As the words came into my head, I thought to myself how cool it would be if after having seen the satellite, I now saw two shooting stars to complete the event...

Then - within seconds a bright "shooting star" raced accross the sky, and within two minutes another even brighter than the first. I had seen the shooting stars that I had imagined, the picyure was complete, and I had goosebumps...

So what lessons did I learn from this...

1. To find what you are looking for you have to know where to look and when is the best time. We have to be present in our own lives and in the situations that will move us forwards - in the case of shooting stars; looking up, at night is a good start...
2. In life and business, we need patience, we need to become accustomed to our environment and put ourselves in situations that allow opportunities to become manifest to us. It takes time, if we rush and chase too hard, we will miss the very things we desire.
3. Sometimes our results come from the periphery - we need focus but we also need to watch the edges, becasue thats where the best ideas and opportunities may come from - the Law of Precession...
4. When we have a vision or an idea, when we are clear about what we want, we will recognise the opportunities and events that accord with us. Without a vision, life is a random set of events, with vision and dreams, the same events have purpose and significance.

Have a great weekend - and remember; what you focus on will become manifest to you...

There are no Ferraris in Metz..

August is a strange time in France - everyone goes on holiday for the month..

I took my car into the local garage for repairs on Tuesday, only to be warned that if they couldn't fix it by Friday - it would be September before I got it back...

As it is most businesses don't open up until 10.00 am on a Monday, on Sunday everything is closed and they still find time for a two hour lunch break from 12.00 until 2.00pm...
We moved here about 18 months ago from Las Vegas in the USA - which is about as far as you can get culturally from rural France. In Vegas, everything is open 24 Hrs a day, the casinos never close, and just about anything can be driven through or delivered to your home or hotel room.
So what..?
In Las Vegas we lived in a gated community with cameras, security guards and  high walls to protect us, guns were in easy circulation and a search on the web revealed just how many convicted criminals lived in close proximity. Vegas is a tranisent city with great spirit but no heart; it is the American Dream on megawatt life support where alcohol fuelled highs are more than matched by acidic black jack and roulette induced desperation. Note - the casinos always win in the end...

The French do things differently, there are no guns, no cameras, and drugs are what you take when you have a headache. There is a value put on family community and quality of life - no one cares what car you drive, there are no Ferraris in Metz. What counts is lifestyle, choosing to take lunch, taking the month off, spending time with family and friends - no one actually needs 24hr shopping; I still can't remember who voted for that in the first place. Miraculously, we somehow manage to survive with the shops only open 6 days a week...

So what are you living the Vegas life or the Metz life - are you letting the glamour and the glitz dazzle your path to happiness, are you working 90 hours a week because you think it's how it has to be, are you substituting your real life with a fragile synthetic veneer of material acquisitions?

Metaphorically, everyone should holiday in Las Vegas and experience the energy, passion, fun and the endless possibilities. However, everyone should remember that in reality they need to live in France...

I wonder if that is where all the French go in August...?

This is what I did...

At a recent seminar of mine, one of the audience asked me a question; “If there were two pieces of advice I could give to help someone become more successful, what would they be?”

The question made me think – happens sometimes…

The answer I gave was instinctive, however, with hindsight I think that it was the best answer I could have given. The two pieces of advice that I gave, which have served me well so far in both my personal and professional life, were;

1. Show Up – if there is a challenge, meeting, event or opportunity; simply showing up will put you in the top 10% of people. I know that for some of the positions in my early career, I was under qualified and too young – but I showed up when others made excuses about the weather, meetings, and traffic. I have slept in cars and on station platforms to make sure I get to a meeting on time. If you show up you will win – if you don’t you can’t even participate

2. Say Yes – when an opportunity arises, say yes and go for it. I have travelled to 41 Countries, worked 21 and lived in 3. Saying yes to the sometimes bizarre and unusual requests can lead you on a world tour. I have had plenty of people who have read my story, tell me that they wish they could have done it – well they could, they just chose not to say yes when it was their time.

There are many more pieces of advice that I could have given including education, training, dedication and commitment – but I was only allowed two, and those were the two I chose.

I was also asked what my goal was when I was 17 – my goal then was to survive until the next morning without being beaten up. I was advised that I needed to have a BFHAG – A Big Fat Hairy Audacious Goal, and that it would inspire me. Personally I don’t want anything Big, Fat and Hairy and Audacious in my life – sounds like an extra from a Wayne’s World.  My goals are Big, Athletic, Powerful and Inspiring thanks..

Remember that having a definite fixed Goal can be motivating and inspiring, but it can also be limiting – if my goal had remained to simply survive the night, then I would not have said yes to any opportunity that didn’t limit itself to only achieve this.

What have you found works for you - I'm sure there are many different strategies that have worked, and I'd like to hear about them..