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Hugh’s Words of Wisdom Wednesday 09.30.2020: Are You Intentional or Accidental With Your Important Relationships?
Hello, everyone, this is Hugh’s Words of Wisdom Wednesday.
Let me ask you this. When it comes to your most important relationships, are you intentional or accidental with them? I was driving through Seattle last week and realized I hadn't spoken to a dear friend of mine, someone that I love talking to, connecting with, and being in relationship. His name is Robert and we hadn’t connected in about three weeks. And that reminded me, am I intentional and purposeful with the relationships that matter most to me?
If you have a customer, employee, significant other, partner, husband, wife, or whomever it may be, are you intentional with what you're trying to create or are you saying, “no, I'm going to let it kind of riff?”
I believe the power of being on point, purposeful, intentional with all of our relationships produces huge dividends because then we're actively creating that which we want the relationship to exemplify.
Be intentional with your customers, your significant other, with whomever is important to you, and the relationship will flourish.
That's it, ladies and gentlemen. And remember to live boldly.
Hugh’s Words of Wisdom Wednesday 09.16.2020: Let It Go
Hello, everyone, welcome to Hugh's Words of Wisdom Wednesday.
I want to give you these words. Let it go. This morning I came in to do the Words of Wisdom for Wednesday, and my camera wasn't working, so I had to regroup. I'm recording all of the Words of Wisdom on my iPhone with different light and headset. I could get kind of cranky and upset that my equipment didn't work. Or, I could let it go and say, well, how can I get it done?
Far too often, we lament that something isn't working instead of asking how do I make it work? There are days when you just have to let it go and go to Plan B. Today is one of those days, and I'm using plan B. If the quality of the video is less then perfect, I'm OK with that because the bottom line is that I want to make progress as opposed to seeking perfection. Today, I'm letting it go because this is where we are, and this is what we're doing.
And therein lies great words of wisdom for pretty much all of life. What do you need to let go of? Just let it go and move on. Make progress. Don't seek perfection, unless perfection involves watching all the Words of Wisdom for Wednesday, then be perfect in that regard. Thanks, everyone. I appreciate you. And remember, live boldly.
Hugh’s Words of Wisdom Wednesday 09.09.2020: Purpose
Good morning, everyone. Hugh’s Words of Wisdom for Wednesday.
Today I want to talk to you about one word, purpose. In the midst of everything that is going on in our society and in our politics, in our economy and all across society, we are looking for something that's going to help us become more successful and more satisfied during all of the tumult that we're experiencing.
My contention is that one word that will make a difference for you and the word is purpose. And I wrote about it in my book, The Seven Principles of Transformational Leadership. It is the premise that the moment you fall in love with an idea, a dream, a hope or an aspiration and seek to embody excellence in that endeavor every day and that it provides exquisite value for people, that is a game changing moment for you as a leader and for your business.
If you want to be successful and satisfied over the next six months, tell me, what is your leadership purpose. Post it here and let me know what it is. And if you need help clarifying your purpose just let me know because I'm a heat seeking missile in helping people clarify their purpose.
Thank you ladies and gentlemen. Live Boldly.
Hugh’s Words of Wisdom Wednesday 09.02.2020 Make A Difference Or Make An Exit
Good morning, everyone. Hugh’s Words of Wisdom for Wednesday, and this week I want to share a bold proclamation.
Make a difference or make an exit.
All too often, leaders get trapped into an idea of what it's like to be a leader. They get to be at the senior executive meetings, they like to go to some of the off sites. They get to do things that senior leaders get to do.
But I'm going to suggest to you that if you truly do not want to make a positive difference in a person's life, you should not be in the ranks of leadership. You might love the subject of leadership, but you are responsible for people in your role and you have to love people to excel as a leader.
I think that loving deeply, learning daily, and living boldly is what transformational leaders do. And when these three are not present, it is time to make an exit from the ranks of leadership.
So you've got two choices this week.
#1. Articulate clearly the thing that you love the most and want to learn about. This is an idea that turns you into a heat seeking missile toward its accomplishment. This thing you love is also something you're going to do daily in order to become excellent in that regard.
And, if in your heart of hearts, know that these three things are not present, then it is time for you to make an exit from the ranks of leadership. There's no other way to say it. Love deeply. Learn daily. Live boldly. That leads to great leadership. If not present, it's time to make an exit.
If you need help discussing what this means for you, I'm happy to help you.
That is it, ladies and gentlemen. I hope you live boldly and I'll see you next week. Take care.
Hugh’s Words of Wisdom for Wednesday 08.26.2020: Thinking bigger during times of adversity
Video Notes:
Hello, everyone. And welcome to Hugh's Words of Wisdom Wednesday for August 26, 2020.
This week I want to answer a question asked of me by a good friend and excellent consultant and coach, Alan Anderson. He asked, "Hugh, how do you help people think bigger during times of adversity such as a worldwide pandemic?" Alan, that's a great question. Let me see answer your question by giving you some context first.
In 2004 19.1% of Americans experienced a level of anxiety that interrupted the quality of their life. Today, the number is between 46% and 49%. The vast majority of people who feel anxious don't necessarily become debilitated and unproductive in the workforce, but performance is degraded. It's degraded because they don't know how to harness the power of anxiety and to use it to their advantage.
In this video, I want to give you three words to pay attention to that will help you think bigger and manage your anxiety or that of your employees.
The three words to pay attention to are: purpose, process, and person. Let me put meat on these bones.
Purpose: I believe purpose is the jumping-off point for high performance. I wrote about this extensively in my book, the 7 Principles of Transformational Leadership. It is the first chapter of the book because I believe it's the most important chapter.
In an abbreviated form, purpose is an idea, hope, dream, or aspiration you have fallen in love with for your leadership and your organization. You need a purpose for you to perform at the highest level. So when you fall in love with an idea, you're willing to exert yourself more and for more extended periods of time, and you think more creatively because you love the idea so much.
If you like an idea, you will have limited amounts of creativity. If you love an idea; or are passionate about an idea, nothing will get in the way of you accomplishing it.
So, to think bigger, you need a purpose. As an example, one of my clients and I developed a purpose statement for her Information Technology department of 180 people. We developed this purpose statement: "We enable customer success."
Notice this purpose didn't talk about her technology services. It spoke to customer success. AS CIO, she infused this purpose throughout her department and realized that to enable customer success, all of her leaders needed to enable employee success. There was no way to have a happy and successful customer with an unhappy and unsuccessful employee.
That's an example of a purpose statement. To overcome anxiety, we need an idea, hope, dream or aspiration that will rally employees to fall in love with it and act on boldly every day.
Process: I believe we should not think bigger for the sake of thinking bigger. Thinking bigger and critically should be undertaken in the service of a purpose statement. To think bigger and critically, you need a process. Here's an example of a process from my Executive Coaching work.
At the beginning of each week, set a goal or objective for the week. At the end of the week, the team leader and team conduct an After Action Assessment, asking, how did we do, were we successful or unsuccessful, and what got in the way?
This process is not complicated but incredibly powerful when done over time. The objective is to learn what to keep doing, stop doing, or start doing, to get better every week. The key question is, how can we become one, two, or three percent better next week? Over the course of twelve weeks, can we become twenty-five to forty-five percent better? The After Action Assessment is something you would do weekly when you genuinely love your purpose.
Person: We all need a role model. We need someone we can look up to and recognize them as the person that is an exemplar of thinking bigger and of pushing beyond the boundaries of what is possible. Our role model is someone we look to and ask, "what behaviors do they exhibit that I can adopt?"
What activities, language, or behaviors do they embody or exemplify that allows them to do what they do? How can I personalize what they do?
And we each need a coach. We each need someone that will come alongside us and challenge our assumptions challenge us to move beyond what is safe, comfortable and known. We cannot do this on our own. If you think you can, then I need to disavow you of that notion. It's not possible. We need someone that will come alongside us and help us convert our potential into higher performance.
So we need three things: a purpose, a process, and we need a person. If you would like two resources to serve you in this regard, go to my website and the featured resources section. There you will find two learning aids. The After Action Assessment and the Thinking Bigger Recommendations are available as my contribution to you pursuing your full potential.
That's Hugh's Words of Wisdom for Wednesday, August 26, 2020.
Live boldly!