what successful people do differently · successful people are clear and concise in their beliefs...
TRANSCRIPT
What Successful People Do
Differently?
Tony Richards
Tony Richards Associates
Group Exercise
• How do you define successful leaders/people?
• Name three characteristics of a successful leader/people
12 Keys that Successful People Do Differently
Be Specific
Successful people are clear and concise in their beliefs and actions.
Knowing exactly what you want to achieve keeps you motivated until you get there.
Be Specific
• Think about the specific actions that need to be taken to reach a goal.
• You are the general to your employees and family. Are you giving them clear, specific direction?
Keep Your Focus
• Many of us believe that our intelligence, our personality, and our physical aptitudes are fixed — that no matter what we do, we won't improve.
Keep Your Focus
• As a result, we focus on goals that are all about proving ourselves, rather than developing and acquiring new skills.
• Successful people help others to stay focused
• Example: Surgeon
S.M.A.R.T. Goals
Top CEO’s use S.M.A.R.T. goals thinking when decisions.
S = Specific
• A general goal would be, “Get in shape.” But a related specific goal would be, “Join a health club and workout 3 days a week for the next 52 weeks.”
S = Specific
• A specific goal has a far greater chance of being accomplished because it has defined parameters and constraints.
Example: JFK’s goal to have a man on the moon and back by the end of the decade.
M = Measurable
• To determine if your goal is measurable, ask yourself questions like: How much time? How many total? How will I know when the goal is accomplished? etc.
M = Measurable
• When you measure your progress, you stay on track, reach your target dates, and experience the exhilaration of achievement that spurs you on to continued efforts required to reach your goal.
A = Attainable
• To be attainable, a goal must represent an objective toward which you are both willing and able to work. In other words, the goal must be realistic. The big question here is: How can the goal be accomplished? What resources?
R = Relevant
• Relevance stresses the importance of choosing goals that matter.
• Does it make sense to our mission, vision, goals to put this procedure in place now?
T = Timely
• A commitment to a deadline helps you focus your efforts on the completion of the goal on or before the due date.
• Successful leaders/people know the importance of timing.
Productivity v. Busy
• In his book, The 4-Hour Workweek, Tim Ferris says, “Slow down and remember this: Most things make no difference. Being busy is often a form of mental laziness – lazy thinking and indiscriminate action.”
Productivity v. Busy
• “work smarter, not harder”
• The busy outnumber the productive by a wide margin.
Productivity v. Busy • The solution: Slow down. Breathe.
Review your commitments and goals. Put first things first. Do one thing at a time. Start now. Take a short break in two hours. Repeat.
• And always remember, results are
more important than the time it takes to achieve them.
Work Outside the Comfort Zone
• The number one thing I persistently see holding potentially successful people back is their own reluctance to accept an opportunity simply because they don’t think they’re ready.
Work Outside the Comfort Zone
• Most great opportunities in life force us to grow emotionally and intellectually. They force us to stretch ourselves and our comfort zones, which means we won’t feel totally comfortable at first. And when we don’t feel comfortable, we don’t feel ready.
Work Outside the Comfort Zone
• If you are looking to make positive changes and new breakthroughs in your life, you will need to embrace these moments of opportunity even though you will never feel 100% ready for them.
Work Outside the Comfort Zone
• Sadly, this is the kind of thinking that stifles personal growth and success.
• Mark Twain…”Sadly, most of us will go to our grave with our music still in our heads.”
Keep Things Simple
• Several business and marketing studies have shown that the more product choices a consumer is faced with, the less products they typically buy.
Keep Things Simple
• After all, narrowing down the best product from a pool of three choices is certainly a lot easier than narrowing down the best product from a pool of three hundred choices.
Keep Things Simple
• If the purchasing decision is tough to make, most people will just give up. Likewise, if you complicate your life by inundating yourself with too many choices, your subconscious mind will give up.
• Example: Warren Buffet
Make Small Continuous Improvements
• Henry Ford once said, “Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small pieces.” The same concept configured as a question: How do you eat an elephant? Answer: One bite at a time.
Make Small Continuous Improvements
• Making small, positive changes – eating a little healthier, exercising a little, creating some small productive habits, for example – is an amazing way to get excited about life and slowly reach the level of success you aspire to.
Measure and Track Progress
• Successful people are not only working in their job/business, they are also working on it. They step back and assess their progress regularly. They track themselves against their goals and clearly know what needs to be done to excel and accelerate.
Measure and Track Progress
• You can’t control what you don’t properly measure. If you track the wrong things you’ll be completely blind to potential opportunities as they appear over the horizon.
• Example: Mary Kay Ash
Learn from Mistakes
• Successful people concentrate on the positives – they look for the silver lining in every situation. They know that it is their positivity that will take them to greatness.
Learn from Mistakes
• If you want to be successful, you need to have a positive outlook toward life.
• Remember, every mistake you make is progress. Mistakes teach you important lessons.
Learn from Mistakes
• So don’t hesitate – don’t doubt yourself! Don’t let your own negativity sabotage you. Learn what you can and press forward.
• Example Thomas Edison
Positive Attitude
• A positive attitude is important to your social status, your health, your work, the way you challenge obstacles, and the kind of people you attract to your life.
Positive Attitude
• A positive attitude will bring more positive opportunities into your life.
• A positive attitude will help your body to heal faster from illness.
• A positive attitude can get you a job.
Positive Attitude
• A positive attitude can make you a success
• Drop that ‘stinkin thinkin’
Spend Time With the Right People
• Successful people associate with people who are likeminded, focused, and supportive. They socialize with people who create energy when they enter the room versus those who create energy when they leave.
Spend Time With the Right People
• You are the sum of the people you spend the most time with. If you hang with the wrong people, they will negatively affect you. But if you hang with the right people, you will become far more capable and successful than you ever could have been alone.
Maintain Life Balance
• Imbalanced lifestyles that are holding people back from their full potential. When you let your work life (or social life, family life, etc.) consume you, and all your energy is focused in that area, it’s extremely easy to lose your balance.
Maintain Life Balance
• You need to balance the various dimensions of your life. Completely neglecting one dimension for another only leads to long-term frustration and stress.
• Example: Work Hard/Play Hard
Summary
• Research by the Gallup Organization shows that the most effective leaders invest in their strengths, surround themselves with the right people to maximize their team, and understand their followers’ needs (Rath & Conchie, 2008).
Summary
• Successful leaders understand that they cannot be everything to everybody and remain effective; instead, they have a keen awareness of how to leverage their unique blend of strengths, skills, and talents.
Summary
• Successful leaders reign in their pessimistic thinking in three ways. First, they focus their time and energy on where they have control. They know when to move on if certain strategies aren’t working or if they don’t have control in a specific area.
Summary
• Second, they know that “this too shall pass.” Successful leaders “embrace the suck” and understand that while the ride might be bumpy at times, it won’t last forever.
Summary
• Finally, great leaders are good at compartmentalizing. They don’t let an adversity in one area of their life seep over into other areas of their life.
Individual Exercise
• How do you define success in YOU?
• Name three characteristics that will make YOU successful
• No Go Do IT - - - It’s Possible!
Thank You
Tony Richards
Tony Richards Associates
701-400-2065
tonyrichardsassociates.net