I want to impart some truth that I have learned on my journey of leadership. The value of asking good questions can increase your learning exponentially. I have read literally hundreds of books attended hundreds of hours in great seminars and conferences. The one thing that I have come to learn is to ask good questions of leaders that are presently influencing my life and those leaders that I have the opportunity to meet each year. This one skill has accelerated my leadership development more than anything else that I could suggest to you. The better the questions that you ask directly equates to your growth, development, and ability.

Here are seven questions to enhance your leadership development when you are around other leaders;

1. Wisdom – What is the greatest lesson you have learned?
2. Passion – What are you learning right now?
3. Attitude – How has failure shaped your life?
4. Networking – Who do you know that I should know?
5. Growth – What have you read that I should read?
6. Experience – What have you done that I should do?
7. Gratitude – How can I add value to you?

Bonus Question:

If you only had five minutes, what is one thing that you would tell me?

Do you remember the movie, Searching For Bobby Fisher that featured a young prodigy? Josh Waitzkin was that young kid. He conquered the chess world as a kid, but ran into a major defeat at the world championships years later. It was this loose that taught him the most about loving the game or performing for others. Josh would turn his focus to Tai-Chi and has since become a world class champion in this field. He has written about this learning experience in his best-selling book, “The Art of Learning; An Inner Journey to Optimal Performance.” On his web site he offers personal coaching, one-on-one. He suggests that you need not apply if you are unwilling to step into a world class training camp.

Think about this statement for a moment; World Class Training Camp! What if you decided to step into a world class training camp for yourself? What would it look like? To start with with you need to decide if you only want to become DECENT or GOOD or GREAT or AMONG THE BEST, or THE BEST at what you do! If you only desire to become DECENT at your life, you probably could sit on a couch and eat Cheetos for a month or so after having lost your job. But if you desire to become the Best Version of YOU, then you keep moving forward to a goal of becoming the BEST version of yourself as the Almighty Creator has made you, in spite of your loss. In order to go where God has ordered your steps, you cannot stay where you are, you must leave something behind. What are you willing to stop doing in order to start your World Champion Training Camp?

Leadership Axiom: Know thyself in order to grow thyself. Self-awareness is a key step forward into your world class training. Executive Coaching is essential in this journey.

Matt McCall, a successful Venture Capitalist suggests an interesting success formula. Here it is:

ONE THING

80 = 80%

80 x 80 = 64%

80 x 80 x 80 = 50+%

• If you’re going after one thing, you have, roughly an 80% chance of success.
• Try to do two things and you have an 80% x 80% likelihood of success. A 64% chance of success
• Add a THIRD thing to the mix and your success math is 80% x 80% x 80%. Just over 50%.

Gary Keller, in his book, The ONE Thing: The Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results, says the same thing slightly different. He states that, “Going small is ignoring all of the things that you could do and doing what you should do. It is recognizing that not all things matter equally and finding the things that matter the most. It is a tighter way of connecting what you do with what you want. It is recognizing that extraordinary results are directly determined by how narrow you can make your focus.” In other words the way to get the most out of your work and life is to go as small as possible.

Most people think the opposite, believing that bigger is better. In Indiana the mantra is “Go Big or Go Home!” Perhaps Hoosiers need to step back and re-learn some life lessons. In thinking that bigger is better we end up with crowded To-DO-LISTS, quickly becoming over-worked and over-loaded. We remain clueless that big success actually means going smaller. Over time expectations are lowered and we aim for less which in turn increases the probability of abandoning our dream all together.

If you desire that your achievements should add up, then you must start subtracting things out of your life! When you go as small as possible, you will be starting at one thing – that is the point! Here are some questions that demand answers:

How do I want to spend my days?

What should my One Thing be?

Why do I want my One Thing?

How will I achieve my One Thing?

Do I possess the will to win?

Do I give up to soon?

Can I adapt and shift in today’s time?

Can I change bad habits?

1. What are your five most important values in life? 

2. What are your three most important goals in life, right now?

3. What would you do, how would you spend your time, if you learned that today you had only six months to live?

4. What would you do if you became a millionnaire tomorrow?

5. What have you always wanted to do, but been afraid to attempt?

6. What do you most enjoy doing? What gives you your greatest feeling of self-esteem and personal satisfaction?

7. What one great thing would you dare to dream if you knew you could not fail?

We are approaching another year filled with maximum potential. How would you answer these questions and what difference would they make on your behavior in 2018?

Depending on when you were born, technology could be your friend, your enemy or just an acquaintance. Years ago, when computer screens were the size of the average smartphone and one had to have an advanced degree to figure out how to turn 0s and 1s into actual functions, most of us would have left technology to the experts. But now, we have incredible access to enormous amounts of information and we have powerful machines that sit in the palm of our hands ready to do very complex tasks.

Technology is a part of our lives – it is in our cars, it is at our doctors’ offices, it is in our schools, it is in our televisions, our phones, our credit cards, and on and on.

So how do those of us who are inept and still have VHS VCRs blinking under our tubed TVS to embrace that which scares us, frustrates us, and forces us to ask our five year old neighbor how to make a phone call?

Easy! Take a deep breath. Put down the hammer that you were about to use to smash the remote and realize that it is time to let go of 1955 and embrace the information era. The Internet has every answer that ever was and ever will be at the touch of a few keystrokes. Gone are the days of non-intuitive websites and browsers. Welcome the age of being able to browse the world’s best libraries and view long lost footage of your favorite documentaries!

Technology doesn’t mean you have to buy the latest gadget or take a masters level course on programming your microwave. Just like riding a bike, we all had to start with one foot on the pedal and one foot on the ground with the trust that we will overcome our fear of falling and will perfect balancing on two wheels. Practice in the privacy of your own home – surf the net and see what the latest craze is on You Tube and Google a saying to see who really said it…

Mental strength means many things to many people. It could be staying calm with the kids for a mother and pushing to the finish line for a runner.

Strength is the state of being strong, having mental power, force. Having strength is empowering and exhibiting self-control. Without resistance there is no need for strength so when we are using our mental strength then we are up against some resistance or obstacle. Most people avoid resistance and obstacles and therefore give up their power and control.

Being mentally tough is not the same as strength. Toughness is a burden to perform or accomplish something difficult. Think of when you have a callous on your hand. At first it is rough and toughens up. It eventually thickens and then you lose all feeling in the callous. Then the callous becomes painful. When you toughen up with people, you exercise a roughness that leads to insensitivity and then pain.

It is common to confuse toughness with strength. Sometimes these terms are even intermingled and misused but keep in mind that when toughness is exercised, pain follows and when strength is exercised, power follows. Mental strength is the ability to overcome mental resistance and consciously cause goals to be achieved

Why am I here? What is my purpose? What am I supposed to be doing?

These are ageless questions. Some people don’t believe there is a purpose and that doesn’t mean they won’t find their purpose, it only means it will take a little longer for them.

To learn what your purpose is, you must first remove all the chatter from your mind. Most of us were taught false purposes or worse yet that we have no purpose. Having an open mind will allow this process to work more quickly. It is as simple a process as you make it to be. The more resistant you are the longer it will take to unearth your purpose.

To find your purpose:

1. Gather a blank piece of paper and a pen (or use a computer)
2. Write at the top of the paper – My true purpose
3. Write the first answer that enters your mind. It doesn’t matter what that answer is and it doesn’t matter if it is a complete thought – just start to write.
4. Repeat this process with every answer that enters your mind until you reach that one answer that moves you to tears. That will be your true purpose.

This process is simple. And the more open minded you are the faster you will uncover your true purpose. For some it will be quick – for others it may take hours or days. For most, the first 20 minutes will simply be your mind clearing of clutter, then the magic begins. Your answer will be coming from the source. This source will be beyond you. It will be what moves you to clarity.

There may be times during this exercise that you want to quit. You may have written 100 different answers and think you will never get to the true purpose but trust that you will. Stay at it. If some answers conjure emotion – highlight them but keep moving forward. Don’t stop until you come to that one true purpose and you will know it when you write it.

You will find that uncovering your purpose will be the easiest part. Living it is what will define you. This is a very powerful exercise that has the ability to change your life.

Significance Begins HERE

Perfection is defined as a state of completeness and flawlessness. Have you ever experienced perfection? Does it exist? Is it egotistical to think that we can achieve perfection? Is perfection a perceived concept and does it mean something different to others? Most importantly, does it matter? In the grand scheme of life, does it matter if you achieve perfection and does it matter if you perceive something as having achieved perfection while someone else may disagree?

I ate a chocolate chip cookie the other day. In my opinion, the baker achieved perfection. There was nothing wrong in my mind with that cookie. It brought my taste buds to nirvana. It was delicious and it made me so happy to eat it. What a cookie! Have you ever experienced that before? That total feeling of perfection?

What keeps us from thinking or feeling that when we create something ourselves? Most of us create something and then begin to tear it down mentally – which in turn tears down our confidence. Is this innate in humans or just those of us lucky enough to think we aren’t good enough to ever achieve perfection.

This in itself is flawed thinking. Our minds are perfect. How we perceive things is what becomes fuzzy. We have experiences that cloud what is really there and what we perceive to be there. Know that our minds are miracles and are perfect. Know that we are capable of incredible things. Urban legend says we only use 10% of our brain. Although physically we use all of our brain what we really are using is a small portion of our potential. This keeps us from accepting and achieving perfection because we hold back a lot of our potential out of fear.

Perfection is not something that many people can accept – but is so worth the effort of exploring and understanding because it helps raise your awareness of what you truly are capable of and how you alone hold yourself back from reaching that level.