The Secrets to Making Great Decision as a Leader

How to Make Great Decisions as a Leader

Decisions are one thing in this universe that can determine and create totally opposite futures depending how they are called. The right decision can vault you towards your goals and lock your bearing down towards what you want to achieve, while a bad decision can take everything you hold dear and then drop you to the bottom. So the question is how do we make the best decision possible while taking into account all the variables involved?

The Source of Indecision, FEAR

There are many elements that go into a well-chosen decision such as timing, manner, counsel and the list goes on and on. Without the right perspective a leader may become overwhelmed and fall into the greatest decision killer of them all, Fear. An indecisive leader is an oxymoron; there is not such thing as a passive leader. Leaders must make decisions!

            Decision-making not only affects you, but every single person around you, and can continue far into the future. That is why it is so important to use your assets wisely and make the right decision the first time.

Why Loyalty is Imperative For a Leader

Making a decision as a leader should not be a lonely process; you should seek counsel from many around you. “One of us is never smarter than all of us.” Now after you have talked it over with your peers and those who work closest to the pulse of the problem, take the appropriate amount of time then “Make The Call.” Even if it 180 degrees from what has been suggested from everyone else, if you truly believe that is the right decision, Make The Call!

            This is where as a good leader you have a tool in your pouch so to speak, and it is called loyalty. If you have done your job as a good leader, a good “ServantLeader,” you will have developed loyalty between you and those you lead. This loyalty allows your team to know without a doubt you have the best interest for them and the mission. Loyalty means you expect your team to tell you exactly how they feel about a situation with true honesty, but after everything has been said and a decision is made, Loyalty means everyone walks out of the room and embraces that decision made like it was their own.

Decision Making Steps

1.     Take time proportionate to the outcome of the decision

        As Dave Ramsey would say, do not spend an hour at the checkout trying to decide which pack of gum you want to purchase, make the decision and move on! Now in the other hand, if you are deciding on something that will effect your next 5 years you will want to take a lot more time to come to a conclusion. A good rule of thumb is looking at your risk profile per the decision and gauging when it will increase, this will give you a good idea when a decision must be made.

2.     Get Good Input From Your Team

        Bring in the best to talk about the decision, both Pro’s and Con’s. This is the point where you as a leader need to step up and ask good questions. The goal is to encourage good debate among your teams. The better the disagreement and debate the more information you get on the subject and a better understanding.

3.     Find some quite space

        Now that you have had plenty of time and lots of great input on the decision, it is time to break away to find somewhere you can truly be alone with your thoughts. This will allow you to really take in everything you have learned on the subject and make a good call on the decision. This is a very important step. Many great leaders find an activity to do, one that allows them solitude but keeps their hands busy, this allows their subconscious to really go into overdrive and for them to make a great decision.

4.     Defeat Indecision and procrastination.

        Leaders may get stuck in analysis paralysis, at this point after you have weighed all the inputs and spent the necessary time thinking about the decision, put a day on the calendar down to the hour, this will signify the moment you must make the call. When that day and hour arrive do not push it back but stick to your choice and pull the trigger!

“See You At The Top”

Tom McConnell

Owner Mental Giants Nutrition

TomMcConnell@mentalgiantsnutrition.com

As always a video by Eddie Pinero. Check out his website YourWorldWithin, you won't be disappointed.

Servant Leadership is Strong Leadership

Proper leadership requires power, but positional power should not be used often and for good reason, if a leader must rely on positional power alone the organization can soon expect decreased output and possibly notice troubles arise in the future. So the question remains what type of leadership is best? I believe the answer to that is servant leadership which in my opinion is by far the most effective form of leadership out there, that is if your goal is to have an organization with a rich culture full of members that want to excel.

Does Servant Leadership Mean a Weak Leader? NO!

Many may hear the term “Servant Leadership” and get confused and picture a leader who is not strong, but the word they are actually thinking of is subservient leader, and is not what I am referring to. A Servant Leader is by no means a doormat.

             Now the meaning of Servant Leadership stands for a leader who cares about their team so much they want to serve them and do everything possible so that they may succeed. This is not just a supportive role, but also a teaching and disciplinary role as well. The leader does what they need to do for the best interest of their members no matter how hard that may be.

Common leadership misconceptions 

Myth - You must be socially disconnected from your team so they will respect you.

Truth – If you’re the type of leader who hides away in his office and knows very

little about the team you lead you may get compliance but will never have a team that wants to do more than the status quo or minimal expectations for you.

Myth – Young employees need strict micromanaging leadership to keep them inline.

Truth - If you are the type of leader that embraces servant leadership even young

employees will form a bond with you and will want to do great work; all they need is guidance and expectations for them to achieve that. For instance at Chick-Fil-A they manage hundreds of teenage workers all of which are extremely well mannered, polite, and do an excellent job, compare that to other fast food restaurants you frequent, that is a testament of servant leadership and what it can accomplish.

Myth – Employees need constant over watch and managing to stay on track and

mission.

Truth – This causes huge a bottleneck for any organization, your job as a leader is to

set goals and explain the culture and principals the organization stands for as

a guiding light. From their it is important to allow your members to make

decisions and become more and more self reliant. If you continue to be a micromanaging boss you will find your days full of office drive-bys consisted of questions and scenarios your team is more than capable of fixing but wont.

Great Leader Know Their People Matter

Our brain is an amazing machine, capable of much more than we will ever realize. It can help or hurt us depending on how we use it. One thing our brains do great is creating small programs to run tasks we do daily, this can be to our benefit but also lead us to our downfall let me explain.

            The first time you ever drove a car it was likely nerve racking, and nothing like jumping in the car for a drive today. You had to worry about checking your surroundings, checking your mirrors, putting the key in the ignition, changing gears, pushing the gas being ready to press the break… and the list goes on and on. So the question is why is driving a vehicle today so easy? Well your brain actually created a program called a TOTE, “Test Operate Test Exit” which in short puts your brain on autopilot and allows you to focus on something else.

            As a leader a TOTE can be a huge hindrance, when you start categorizing talking to your tribe under a single TOTE you take the authentic interaction between you and your people out. So you need to concentrate on each interaction and focus on staying “in the moment” and not allow yourself to go on autopilot, especially when meeting and communicating with the workers that will make or break your company.

Question
Who was one of your best leaders in your life, what leadership type did they use?

“See You At The Top”

Tom McConnell

Owner Mental Giants Nutrition

TomMcConnell@mentalgiantsnutrition.com

As always a video by Eddie Pinero. Check out his website YourWorldWithin, you won't be disappointed.

-Remember to take care of others you must first take care of yourself, before you can become someone else's hero you must first become your own. Be your own Hero!

Focused Leadership Part 2, The Power Of “No”

The key to focus can be found in keeping it simple. “No” can be your greatest asset during the journey to a more focused life. Every “Yes” you make must be defended by a thousand “No’s.” Without the ability to say no, you will never allow yourself the focus and dedication needed to truly accomplish great work. Always use deep thought before making any “Yes” commitments. Ask yourself will this new commitment get me close to my ultimate goal?

            Remember great leaders follow through on the little things, if your day is full of saying nothing but “Yes” you will be setting it up for failure.

No, the most under used word in our vocabulary

Try this experiment, start the day with this objective in mind. Count the number of times you say, “Yes” or agree to do something, be very precise and write it down. Now count the amount of times you tell someone, “No.” To a few of you this will be an eye opener and clearly one sided, though I think most of us already realize we agree upon way to many things each day, the worst part is we know deep down we will never be able to give each agreement the time and focus needed to do great work. I don’t know about you but I’m not striving to be an OK leader, I want to be a Great Leader. That being said we will need to be great in the small things, this includes keeping all of our promises.

The efficiency of “No”

We all are given the same amount of hours each day, why is it that some of us get so much done and others do not? The very successful among us have found the efficiency that comes with the word “No”. Don’t get me wrong walking around all day just saying no over and over is not the key to success and most likely will ruin your social life. Before you can start to use the power of “No” you must make a list of goals you want to achieve and make them as clear as possible, you will need to be very specific while creating this list, the more clearly you can see you goals the better. I suggest you make this list early in the morning in a time of peace, and before others get up. For suggestions on how to do that refer to my post “Great Leadership Begins with Great Focus.”

            No can be an important tool for refining Diligence, after you define your goals. “No” can allow you to place your time where it is best spent, this will allow you to achieve the most in return. Diligence is a major key to success in my mind, you can find more on this subject in my post “Diligence They Key to Success?.”

           

The True Power of Focus

What is the one thing you can do today that would make life easier and help you get the results you want to achieve your goals? Ask you brain this question everyday. The key here is to keep it simple!

Whatever aspect of your life you want to improve, look and find the sweet spot or the target area that will give you the most return on your time, by doing this you will see huge returns on your efforts, so much so it will eventually bleed over into many other areas of your life. In the beginning progress may seem small but over time you will be amazed at what you can achieve. I recently read about the domino effect and I believe it is a great illustration of this phenomenon, and gives you a way to picture and realize your true potential.

I’m sure everyone has held a domino in their life and can picture the size of one. A domino has the ability of knocking over another domino 50% larger than itself, this may not seem impressive at first, but when you think about it if you keep that up by the time you reach the 23^rd domino you will be knocking a domino over the size of the Eiffel Tower! The 31^st domino will reach the size greater than Mount Everest, and the 53^rd domino would be tall enough to reach the moon. Now think about your effort and what it can do in the long run, it should give you goose bumps!

Question of the Day
What could you put more focus on to improve you life tremendously? What steps will you take to ensure this happens?

“See You At The Top”

Tom McConnell
@MGN_CEO On Twitter

Owner Mental Giants Nutrition

TomMcConnell@mentalgiantsnutrition.com

As always a video by Eddie Pinero. Check out his website YourWorldWithin, you won't be disappointed.

Great Leadership Begins With Great Focus, Wake up with a purpose

This has been an ever-growing question of mine, how can I use the majority of my day for good and stay focused on the tasks that will lead to my goals. This has become harder to accomplish in the distraction-ridden world we live in today. I have heard the average adult is distracted once every three minutes; this was frightening to me as a self studied psychology nerd I know we need around 15 minutes just to get into a flow state, a flow state allows us the most focus and is necessary for us to do our best work. Hopefully my insight along with a few tips and techniques will help you get more out of your day.

Wake Up With A Purpose

This idea is extremely simple yet tremendously effective. Think about it like this, imagine you were walking in your city and were in a residential area. Passing a construction site a team of workers is in the beginning phase of building a house. You being interested if the new house would stick to the older antique look the surrounding houses held or did the owner’s request the build look more modern and up to date? Seeing the building process was at a stand still you asked this question to the team lead. To your astonishment he states, “We will worry about what the house looks like when we are finishing up, right now we have the important job of getting this house built. Please leave us alone we are in a hurry.”

          I’m sure like me you would automatically come to the conclusion that house is going to fail, the team has no focus on the end goal, they do not see it clearly and without a clear defined vision, they will just end up adding brick after brick aimlessly until their walls fall over.
           

How To Wake Up With A Purpose (action plan)

I ask that you give me 21 days of commitment on this next action, many psychologist believe after 21 days a behavior turns into a habit and if you can build the following habit you will see tremendous change in your life for the better.

            I am asking you get up 45-60 minutes earlier than you normally do, so instead of waking up in a hurry. The key is to not start the day running around juggling coffee, breakfast, and beginning your day in frenzy. Try this instead, wake up with time to sit back and really think about a handful of things that will make this day a success, for me I look at my goals and say what things can I do today that will get me one step closer to my goals. This time of quiet is also a great time to prepare for the manic rush of the day, create a few actions you can use when distractions come up that draw you away from being focused. These can be very simple but are always very powerful in the long run. For instance if you are tethered to your cell phone, checking updates every 3 minutes make it a point to only check you phone every half hour, after that becomes tolerable extend it to 45 minutes and continue pushing that time until you find the sweet spot that works for you.

           You say you have trouble getting up with energy? Give this a try, the moment your alarm goes off do not push the snooze button but actually jump out of bed in a way that would startle your spouse, it may sound a bit crazy but who wants to be normal anyway, not me! If you still find yourself staying in bed try this last resort effort I promise it will help you leave your warm comfy bed in a hurry, get about a mason jar worth of marbles and put them in the freezer, ask your spouse or roommate to dump them on your bed under your blankets in the morning you wish to get up, that nice warm comfy bed will no longer be an option allowing you to get up and with a bit of pep.

I could write so much more on this subject, I really believe it is a key to sucess, and I will write more on this topic in the future. For now I want to honor the teachings from Michael Hyatt and keep my post around 500 words even though I busted that a while ago, sorry Michael.

Question

What are some morning rituals you’ve used and seen improvements in you life from? How do you feel about the ice-cold marble wake up call? I promise your get out of bed energized!

“See You At The Top”

Tom McConnell

Owner Mental Giants Nutrition

TomMcConnell@mentalgiantsnutrition.com

As always a video by Eddie Pinero. Check out his website YourWorldWithin, you won't be disappointed.

Building Trust, A Key To Leadership

Without trust societies are surely doomed for failure. The Absence of trust means no matter how well educated, diverse, or prepared a team may be, they will never achieve the quality of success a group made up of members with fraction of the talent but would die for each other could get, I know that’s a little extreme but you get my point.

How A Leader Gains Trust
Great leaders are great not because of their position but rather the fact people respect and trust them; it has nothing to do with their power, actually when a leader must rely on his power frequently it is often a sign they will not be in that position much longer. There are a few traits a leader must show their tribe before they grant the respect and trust needed to become a great leader. I broke these down in the following four traits.

·            First Capability, leaders must show their tribe they are capable of doing the job, this is easy if the leader is truly aligned with the tribe’s vision. Knowledge and capability are a byproduct of passion, when the leader is truly on fire and on board with the organizations mission he will surely be capable or learn very quickly if not.

·            Second is integrity, does the leader follow through with their promises, do they walk the walk? Nothing kills morale in a tribe more than a hypocritical leader.

·            Third is Caring, if a leader begins to treat their tribe members like interchangeable parts the company will soon erode from the bottom out. Great leader know it is the members that make the tribe great, no matter how loud they yell they will never get the same results they could have from a tribe of inspired members. Take care of your people and they will take care of you.

·            Finally Reliability, Great leaders know how important it is to keep the small promises, to often leaders make the mistake of just paying attention to what they deem “is a big deal” but after falling through on the small things time and time again they soon lose credibility and are deemed no longer reliable. Even worse, whatever trait a leader exhibits often spreads to the members of the tribe, soon you have an organization of members who cannot follow through on the small stuff which will also result in overall failure.

The Trust Killer!
A leader is the head of the tribe, and the biggest mistake someone appointing a leader could do is place a leader who is not 110% congruent to the tribes Why or Vision. Education, resume, or any other qualification will not matter if the leader is not bought in and believes what the tribe stands for. You cannot fake excitement or enthusiasm and tribe members will catch on quickly and realize you are a non-sincere leader.

Question:

What are traits you notice in leaders that build and breakdown your trust? Do you think a leader can do their job and get the mission done with minimal trust from the people they lead?

“See You At The Top”

Tom McConnell

Owner Mental Giants Nutrition

TomMcConnell@mentalgiantsnutrition.com

As always a video by Eddie Pinero. Check out his website YourWorldWithin, you won't be disappointed.