Category: #Marketing

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Could you be more influential?

Influence is a skill that some people seem to naturally have more of. Perhaps at least perceptually, and not realistically. Influence can also be difficult to measure, as it is what I’ll call etherial. Despite the fact it is a skill that is harder to measure, if you were to ask a number of different people who know the same person to rate another individuals influence ability, you are likely to get a range of what level they are at. Part of this has to do with the fact that in this scenario, it is fairly subjective in terms of what the actual measurement criteria would be.

An interesting observation I have had about the concept of influence is that this term about a decade ago used to be reserved and applied differently in terms of who had it. Typically someone who had influence was an individual who had amassed a great deal of both experience and a wide network of people. A network they had taken perhaps decades to cultivate. Fast forward to the word “influencer” and how it it used more commonly today, someone who is classified with this designation can seemingly overnight obtain this designation. Surprisingly also with what I’ll refer to as limited expertise.

What I’m suggesting is that the word influential has taken on a new angle. The more modern day aspect of it is often applied to people who are referred to as “influencers”, and this can be in a wide ranging amount of categories. Categories that perhaps five to ten years ago may not have existed, or at least not in the now commonly understood ways.

Now a days much younger people are considering what they can do to gain influence. For context, I’m talking about people in their early teens via mid twenties. When I think back to what I was thinking about during those years as I was growing up, I can definitively tell you I was not thinking about being influential in any way. In fact, if I had thought about what it would take to be influential, I know I wouldn’t have had the confidence to pull off any type of influence. So, the fact we now have such young people who are influencing others in their respective decade of life, and perhaps well beyond this is something I find fascinating.

One of the things I find fascinating about a young persons ability to influence others is whether they understand the level of responsibility that comes along with influencing others? I’m going to suggest they either are not aware of this, or are not prepared emotionally and with enough life experience to handle the influence level they have. Or, without the proper guidance from more experienced and mature individuals.

Let’s think about a young leaders ability to influence others. When you break down the essential elements involved with navigating the process to lead others, many young leaders of both business and sports teams struggle with strategically applying the concept of influence. More importantly appreciating the impact it might unexpectantly have on others. In other words the darker side to influence, and the side that can be crossed both knowingly or unknowingly.

If you were to be able to steer the concept of influence, it would make it much easier for young leaders in particular to navigate. However, similar to first time drivers taking the wheel of a car, the risk of their first attempt of successfully ending up where they want to be without incident statistically might not be in their favor. Although there is the concept of beginners luck.

When I’m in conversations with inexperienced leaders or sports coaches, I find they have a few things in common. One of them is an unrealistic amount of confidence in their decision making abilities. A second challenge is that they haven’t had enough experience with conversationally being able to articulate succinctly what their “end goal” is for the team that will be carrying it out. In other words, there tends to be a great deal of ambiguity and grey areas in terms of the communication level the majority possess. The third characteristic in common is that their ability to successfully forecast the outcome of their actual influence is going to be on the lower side versus an experienced leader or sports coach. Not always, but the majority of time this is the reality which plays out.

Depending on whether having more influence is something you desire or would like to more informally increase your ability in this area, below are some suggestions I have which can apply to both business leaders and sports coaches.

  • Influence can have a wide range of outcomes. Some are extreme, while others are so minor they are barely perceptible. Factor in ahead of time which end of the spectrum you want your influence to be.
  • The reality is that influence can be on a case by case basis. You are likely going to have more natural and less effort that will need to be applied to some people on your team, but consider if there is a common denominator in terms of why you seem to have more influence on some people versus others.
  • Being a top level influential leader will require you to ride the line of being both subtle and at times overt. Finding the middle ground takes both patience and practice, and there will be times that you will be extremely frustrated, and other times when you wished you had applied your influence sooner.
  • Being influential doesn’t mean being deceptive. In fact, some of the most influential people are ones that are completely transparent, and can routinely apply their skills in this area with magnificent results.
  • If you feel that applying your influence doesn’t come naturally to you, the good news is that there are a myriad of types of how to go about applying your influence. The one I always recommend is to lean into being authentically you, and don’t try to mimic someone else’s influence style. It will feel both wrong, and others will notice your awkwardness, and you will be less likely to obtain the results you are seeking.
  • Independent of their status or title, take notice of others around you who seemingly have mastered the art of influence. Pay attention to their body language, tone of voice, the type of words they choose, the timing and location of where and who they are applying their influence too. Getting one of these factors wrong can have negative consequences to the level of influence you could have obtained. In other words, carefully think through how to apply your influence, until you get to the point of more naturally being able to do so.

Having the ability to influence others isn’t something which everyone desires to do. However, when a leader or sports coach carefully wields their influence, is typically when the magic and end results they are seeking for their teams all starts to reveal itself.

#Leadership #Leader #Business #Management #Teams #Influence #Beinginfluential #Influencers #Teamdynamics #Motivation #Sports #Sportsteams #Coach #Sportscoach #Communication #Success

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Does everyone have ambition and perseverance?

When I’m talking to someone who I haven’t had the benefit of researching their background in advance, there are some initial questions I might ask them to determine more about them. Some of my questions are geared towards gauging what their level of ambition might be. For context, I find it interesting to learn about what the different elements are that contribute to someone’s ambition level.

We understand that ambition levels can ebb and flow, and this is fine. However, there are times during a person’s life or their career when having an innate drive towards being ambitious will serve them well. Although physiologically and as a generalization when we are sub-45, our energy levels tend to be fairly strong. This certainly can contribute to fueling a person’s ambition, but it’s not the only factor.

Another factor which I have seen contribute to a person’s ambition level is their desire to achieve, and often, they are only in competition with themselves. They will also have their own measurements for what they deem to be an attainment of success, and can be manically focused on their achievement goals.  Having the ability to focus and the discipline it can take to achieve difficult goals isn’t strictly reserved for “younger” people, as it’s actually a person-by-person observation.

The traits of being focused, disciplined and having a strong desire to achieve are also often accompanied by someone who enjoys the pursuit of competition. Not always, but this is another common characteristic which tends to be woven into the behavior of someone who is ambitious. Interestingly, another observation and pattern I have noticed about ambitious people is that they can inspire others with sheer determination they have towards being accomplished.

One of the things I find interesting about individuals who would be classified as ambitious, is that they don’t always have a role model. Sure, they do sometimes, but some of the most ambitious people I have had the opportunity to engage with didn’t have one. What they did have was their own internal blueprint for how they would strategically go about reaching their desired goals. Arguably this is where the aspect of nurture versus nature could come into the conversation.

Although people who are ambitious are well served by having a support system of others helping them in some capacity, many ambitious individuals will pursue their goals independently. This is a much more difficult approach, but it can and does work well for some. For example, I know someone who at a young age decided to pursue working towards accomplishing a goal most people wouldn’t consider taking on until their mid to late twenties. However, this person embarked upon accomplishing a very difficult to pursue goal, and achieved it before they were in their mid-twenties.

There was a great deal of sacrificing this person had to endure for 3-4 years, but they are now enjoying the results of the tremendously time consuming and focused approach they pursued and achieved. They did this on their own terms, and it was remarkable to see what it took to accomplish this. Especially because no aspect of what they were pursuing would be classified as being fun. Just the opposite. Yet, they had the internal drive and ambition it took to pull off and accomplish something that so few people at their age accomplish. Probably less than half of one percent, and they knew this odd at the beginning of their journey.

Picking back up on the nature versus nurture debate, I am of the opinion that everyone has some level of ambition in them. In my opinion, what separates highly ambitious people from those who are not, is a combination of factors. One of them being an innate desire to succeed, another one is they are not afraid of failing, and a third is that they can visualize what the end results of their accomplishment will be like, and they will leverage this heavily. Especially when they are experiencing times when they might not think they will be able to reach their goal. Even if this is a fleeting thought.

For the sake of conversation, let’s agree that everyone has the capacity to be ambitious, and have what it takes to persevere towards their goal or goals. Given this thinking, here are some suggestions to help inspire you, or someone you know or lead who would like to be classified as ambitious.

  • Having realistic timelines for achievements are not always possible, but the closer they are towards being attainable will be beneficial.
  • Make sure your ambitions are not based or biased on what you think you should be doing, or what you think someone else expects of you. If they are not your own ambitions, it will be much more difficult to stay on course to achieve them.
  • Your level of ambition will be different than others. It is unique to you, and it will not be productive to compare your level to others. Work on fostering your level upwards, as it has more capacity to increase than you might think it has.
  • Build in some minor celebrations as you hit milestones towards your pursuits.
  • Ask yourself “why” am I in pursuit of the goal(s) I have? If you can’t convince yourself they are worth it, it will be inevitably more difficult to accomplish them.
  • Do you have someone you can model even a portion of your pursuits after? You don’t have to know them, but the more you can understand their journey, this can be informative to help you know what obstacles you might encounter. Better yet, to avoid them.
  • If you are driven by pride, this can be a tremendously strong motivator.
  • Knowing that what you are pursuing and how it could positively impact both yourself and others, can assist in maintaining your ambition level to take you over some of the hurdles you will experience during your pursuits.
  • Don’t place self-imposed restrictions on yourself based on your age, education or where you are presently in your life or professional pursuit. Instead, remain diligently focused on where you want to be instead.

Yes, being ambitious will take a certain amount of energy and determination, but I promise you, it will be worth putting in the effort it will take to get you there. Even if you don’t believe that you can accomplish what you wildly desire to do. As Nike says, “Just do it”.

TAGS: #Success #Motivation #Ambition #Leader #Leadership #Successtips #Tiipsonbeingsuccessful #Personaldevelopment #Teams #Perseverance #Coach #Sportscoach #Teams

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Taking more risks. Why don’t you?

A limited amount of people enjoy taking risks. Although some thrive on doing so. What prevents more people and leaders from experiencing the opportunity upside of risk taking?

There are a variety of risk tolerant levels people have, but most will lean towards being conservative. This isn’t such a bad thing, but I like to think about taking risks from both a strategic and possibilities perspective, versus only considering the downside of the equation.

Another way to think about how to go about taking risks is to factor in being more calculated with what the outcome can serve up, and this is where leaders will enact thinking which will help to mitigate their risk levels. They typically will have to do this because most of them are having to report their actions to others. Or have them approved prior to taking them. There is also the reality that the leaders have a level of responsibility to protecting those they lead from being intentionally put into harm’s way.

This weekend I was talking to my youngest son about safety, and how conservative his industry has become in terms of taking risk. Of course, much of this is driven by the fact our society has become so litigious. The other half of the equation has to do with people wanting to play it safer than they had even a decade ago. Why? Because they are not willing to put themselves in an outcome that could have such severe consequences. I don’t blame them, as they are choosing not to compromise their well-being over putting the company or leaders demands first.

When people choose to be more conservative in their thinking, the impact it can have on our society is interesting. It is interesting because it is the risk takers who are the ones contributing to the new inventions and discoveries which we can benefit from. In the absence of having more risk takers, and people who are willing to push the limits on what is possible, we are at risk in a different way. A way that decreases the opportunity for accelerating the timelines that the risk takers are willing to accept the outcome of.  

In terms of also thinking about why many people are risk adverse or collectively conservative is something I think about often. I even challenge myself on whether I am taking enough risks, or more calculated risks to allow me a wider path or opportunity to experience more success. Success that in my mind might be measured entirely different from others, but that is the beauty in also thinking about risk taking. It can and should be customized to your risk tolerance level. Yet, I also believe that our risk tolerance level is fluid and will be different from a timeline perspective based on the circumstances in our life or professional journey.

If I think back to when I was in my early twenties, I remember being afraid to take risks, but I did certainly take them. Some of them paid off, and others were a complete disaster. I learned from both, but more so from the ones I failed at. However, I also recall thinking at that period in my life that I understood how to thoroughly think through mitigating my risks, but the reality is that I was too young and inexperienced to do so. In crystal clear hindsight, I should have asked others for advice on some of my decisions, but I didn’t, and I accept that. I also would have greatly benefitted from having a professional mentor, but I didn’t even know that was a concept at that time. At least not from a formal perspective other than relying upon my parents.

Something which occurred to me in the last decade is how fortunate collectively we are as a society now from the perspective of having the opportunity to have others provide us with guidance. What is odd about stating this is that the reality is that we are more connected now digitally than we have been in a few decades, yet so many people are experiencing loneliness. Being in this state is certainly not conducive to taking risks, or perhaps not as many constructive ones. When someone is lonely, their thinking becomes more compromised to think and dwell upon more negative emotions and outcomes, but not entirely. I’m making a generalization, to emphasize the point that given our heightened ability to be connected digitally, people are lonelier than ever.

In my opinion, people’s experience with loneliness has more to do with the fact their connections are digital versus in person. Most of us since Covid have spent much more time digitally interacting with one another, and this is factoring being on video meetings with people. Although there is greater convenience to meeting digitally, I don’t think it serves the same level of increasing our ability to connect as in person meetings and interactions do. This is partially why leaders and employers have more recently mandated their employees to return to a hybrid office model. Why? Because yes, there are numerous other reasons for bringing people back into working together in person, but in my opinion, more meaningful connections and risk tolerance levels will go up when people connect in person.

Independent of how you would classify yourself on a risk scale, or whether you have considered why you don’t take more risks, below are some ideas and intentionally thought providing one’s for you or others you lead to consider.

  • Let’s first have you rate yourself presently on an in general risk tolerance level on a scale of 1-10 (10 being the highest).
  • Now, think about your rating. Is this a rating you would have given yourself 5-10 years ago?
  • If your rating is different from the past, what are the contributing factors that have made you more or less risk tolerant?
  • When you think about taking any type of risk, what is the first emotion you experience?
  • If the emotion you are experiencing is contributing to having you be either risk adverse or at a lower risk tolerance level than you would like to be at, are there tangible and realistic ways you can adjust personally or professionally to increase your risk tolerance level?
  • Assuming you want to increase your risk tolerance level, will doing so impact others you lead or who depend on you? If so, begin thinking about what are the risks you want to take that will impact others, and can you collectively come up with a solution to mitigate the risks you want to take? This will entail having to communicate your risk thinking to others.
  • Risk taking doesn’t have to be associated with negative thinking, but the way we individually think about it will contribute to whether we are willing to become more risk tolerant. This is presuming you will be practical and clearly accepting the fact you will need to think more broadly than you have about taking risks before.

There are numerous and amazing stories about leaders and sports coaches who have been willing to take a risk, or many of them. These stories can be both informative and inspiring, and not all of the stories have the ending that was desired. However, if the risks were not taken, they never would have known what was possible, and in my opinion, this would be more tragically regretful than not taking the risk.

TAGS: #Business #Teams #Teamdynamics #Leader #Leadership #Sports #Sportscoach #Coach #Risktaking #Takingrisks #Strategy #Communication #Possibilities #Culture #Risk

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Who gave you a chance?

I’m a big fan of thanking or acknowledging others who have supported me in some way. I have done this via conversations, written notes and being able to fortunately include them in the “shout out” sections of my book series. Learning to thank others was a trait or manner my mom taught me at a very early age, and as soon as I learned how to write. At first having to hand write thank you notes to people wasn’t something I fully appreciated the context and importance of, but overtime, I came to value and want to do this without prompting.

Was my adoption of handwriting thank you notes a habit? Yes, it certainly became one, and I’ve never broken this habit. In fact, what I find amazing is the impact my notes have on the people who receive them. An impact with the loveliest of consequences. What I mean by this is that the brief time I take to write my thank you notes, allows the recipients to know that I truly care about what they have helped me with. Of course, you can thank someone verbally, but putting in the extra effort to express your gratitude in writing is more impactful and can provide a last memory effect. An effect that in present day time, not many people are the benefactors of, as so few people take the time to thank people in writing.

My habit of thanking others via writing takes place both via an electronic method, but I am a firm believer that the handwritten method absolutely increases the impact and meaning behind your note. I also like how you can personalize your approach to thanking someone based on the type of note or card you are writing. Consider your note or card being part of your personal brand, and another way of expressing who you are, and want to project to others. You can have some fun with doing this, so don’t shy away from being creative with your actual physical note style approach.

When I was recently writing a handwritten note to thank someone last week, it got me thinking about how this isn’t a topic which regularly comes up on conversation. Although I think it should, hence why I’m putting a spotlight on it today. The impact from a handwritten note can far exceed the power you might think that it has, and I have seen this occur time and time again. In full transparency, I don’t write my handwritten notes to have them be other than a polite way of expressing my gratitude. I also don’t have expectations post writing my notes, but I have certainly been pleasantly surprised by how people have gone out of their way to thank me for sending them a thank you note.

There is a chance we might not always recognize another person who should be acknowledged for the help they bestowed upon us (e.g., a teacher, coach, relative, friend), perhaps because it was part of their job to do so. However, this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t thank them for doing their job well, and it could simply be a verbal acknowledgement, but a written one is always better. When I have spoken to people about the power of thanking someone who has given them a chance personally or professionally, I often also hear excuses about why they haven’t done this, or that they are not strong at communicating their sentiments either verbally or in writing. Upon hearing these excuses, I point out that given the amount of technology we have access to help us with this, especially the written part (e.g., Chat GBT for one), I feel it’s a weak reason for not thanking someone. Alright, I’m going there…a bit lazy or perhaps selfish too.

Now to get back on a positive track, I would like to challenge you with considering whether there are people in your life who you should be either verbally or sending a handwritten thank you note who have helped you, or given you a chance? I’m certain there are, so let’s pause for a moment to reflect upon constructing a mental note of who is on this list. Now that you have this list, consider how someone giving you a chance may have changed the trajectory of where you are now. Does this person, or the people who have supported you to help you to navigate to where you are know you are grateful for their support? Independent of your response, below are some suggestions to consider your next steps forward in thanking others.

  • With the “mental list” you have come up with, consider taking this to the next level, writing down this information, and having it serve as a repository of who has given you a chance.
  • Having a list of who has helped you will be enormously supportive on days when you may not be feeling the “love”, or you feel as if no one is on your side. I assure you, there have been plenty of people who fall into this category.
  • Let’s think of logistics for a moment. Do you have a thank you card or cards you can send to someone? Do you know where to source them from? Do you have a stamp or stamps you can leverage to complete the process of mailing your thank you card if this is a requirement?
  • Your thank you note does not have to be a novel. In fact, keeping your note on the shorter side might be harder to do, but the important factor to focus on is being able to authentically express your gratitude for the support from the person who gave you a chance. Whatever your definition of this means.
  • Commit to a timeline for either speaking to or sending out your either written acknowledgement note of thanks. In the absence of this, you will find it too easy to procrastinate on doing this. A pro tip I have for doing this is to commit to spending 15-30 minutes a month with conveying your gratitude (e.g., in person, or perhaps via a micro video), sourcing your thank you materials, writing and sending your card out.
  • After crafting your list of who to thank, commit to coming up with a list of people you can give a chance. The length of the list is irrelevant, but it should be a “living” and on-going list that you keep.
  • Consider what your criteria is for what you can do to help give another person a chance. It doesn’t have to be a monumental opportunity or chance, as even minor chances that are given can have a seriously positive impact on another person.

Now that you have had an opportunity to reflect upon both being grateful and being proactive to thank someone who has given you a chance, remember that you will likely gain more joy and benefit from giving someone else a chance. So, don’t be shy with doing so, and be as overly generous as you can in this area too, as you never know what impact it will have on another person’s life or profession.

TAGS: #Business #Impact #Positiveimpact #Leader #Leadership #Sportscoach #Coach #Motivation #Strategy #Gratitude #Helpingothers #Management #Professionaldevelopment #Personaldevelopment #Achievement #Success

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What you could or should be doing.

Today is the one-year anniversary of my dad passing away. So naturally I am thinking about him. I’m also thinking about the memories we built, and about how knowing that towards the end of his life, we knew that he had only a certain amount of time to be with us. Yes, this significantly influenced my own and my families outlook on time. Time in terms of how we would invest it in spending quality time with our dad.

In many ways and looking at a very sad scenario from a positive perspective, I consider us fortunate to have to be cognizant about not taking time for granted. As we know it is easy to do so, and to not make the most of our time each day. This wasn’t the case with our family, as we rallied to make sure we spent as much quality time with my dad when we learned about his fate. I’m not suggesting we wouldn’t have done this if his fate had been different, but being more mindful of his reduced amount of time with us did impact our thinking about time and the choices we would make.

One of the outcomes from my dad passing that related to time was that our daughter accelerated her wedding plans by one year. She and her now husband, made this decision so that her other grandfather and grandmothers wouldn’t have to wait for two years for this event to occur. The wedding occurred on a day when we were experiencing hurricane conditions in the northeast section of the US, but the most amazing thing was that we only had to contend with wind. Not the rain we were dreading. As the wedding guests were finishing up their dinner, we were graced by a gorgeous sunset, and that was the first time that day we had seen the sun.

Both the lack of rain and seeing the sunset I felt were wedding gifts from my dad that day from above. I felt his presence during the wedding ceremony and reception, and I know that although he wasn’t able to be there, he made his presence known by the magical lack of hurricane rain, and the gorgeous sunset. He was a huge fan of the weather, so I know in my heart he contributed to giving our daughter both a memorable wedding weather day, and one that she and her husband and our wedding guests could acceptably handle.

Due to the fact we were not certain the wedding would occur on the day it did due to the event requiring electrical power, the high winds certainly had us remaining optimistically cautious about whether the power would be knocked out. Again, the fact it didn’t get knocked out I felt was another gift from my dad, and this was truly amazing, as we didn’t exactly have a back-up plan in place. However, I needed to begin making some contingency plans the day before the wedding, but fortunately we didn’t have to put them in place. The only contingency difference was having to switch up our photo locations, which was easy enough to do.

Albeit not the greatest or most welcome gift, knowing that you are faced with having to think about time differently does have its advantages. Certainly, one of them is that if you were taking time for granted, it quickly jolts you out of thinking this way, and which led me to think about today what I could or should be doing differently.

Being mindful of time and how we invest in it isn’t something I feel everyone has a strong grasp of having mastered. Although I do believe it is a skill we can and should become more aware of exceling at. Especially since when we spend and invest in our time more productively, or thoughtfully, I feel like there are many intrinsic benefits from this approach.

So, if you haven’t taken the opportunity to consider what you could or should be doing with either your time, or the direction of your life or career, below are some suggestions I can offer.

  • Can you honestly say that how you invest your time daily is contributing to where you want to be, or strive to be?
  • Do you feel like you are simply going along in either your life or career and surviving and not thriving? Could this be because you haven’t thought about what you could do differently to change your circumstances?
  • We hear people referencing having a bucket list of things they want to do before their time on this planet is up. I think it’s important to have a list of things you want to do, but more critical is factoring in the timing and reality of whether you can accomplish them? Having an unrealistic list might be more harmful for some, while conversely it could be motivational for others. Factor in which side of this equation you might be on, and whether you can or want to change to the other side.
  • There are things we know we should be doing, but have you stopped to think about what is truly preventing you from doing them (e.g., eating healthy, exercising, helping others you could be supporting better)?
  • When was the last time you prioritized your time from the perspective of how you want to invest in it from a longer-term perspective versus having a day at a time approach?
  • Do you know what your motivational factors are which would be driving and influencing your thoughts about how you invest your time?
  • If you don’t know what your motivational factors are, what could you do to figure this out to your benefit?
  • Is it possible you are taking what I’ll refer to as the “easy road” and not wisely investing your time because it takes effort to accomplish this? Refer to the previous two bullets for potential insight into what might be contributing to your approach. Especially if you are at all inclined to want to invest in how you apply your time differently or better.

Time management is absolutely an element which is woven into the topic of what you could or should be doing, and we can agree that not everyone has mastered this element. However, I’m a firm believer that we all can do so, and I hope you will make an investment in yourself to accomplish this. Why? Because I can assure you it will be worth it, and I say this based on my credibly of having experience with this to back up what I’m suggesting.

TAGS: #Business #Leader #Leadership #Motivation #Timemanagement #Teams #Sports #Sportscoach #Personaldevelopment #Professionaldevelopment #Perspective #Strategy #Management #Success