Metamorphosis in leadership

Leadership means you initiate, lead, and do things that may be no one dares to start yet.

Leadership means you need to connect, earn trust, lead the way without a clear roadmap, and be fearless while knowing the fear in you.

Leadership means that you are agile, empathetic, and willing to be in the shadow while your team is in the spotlight…

A leadership needs metamorphosis.

When talking about leadership in a digital world, Charlene Li said:

“This metamorphosis is not easy, comfort, or painless – if your palms are not sweat and your stomach is not churning, you probably haven’t really practicing digital leadership.”

This is also applicable to leadership in any situation.

Leadership with metamorphosis means:

Having a proactive approach
Moving on from things she can’t control
Embracing everything coming to her way and making the best out of it
Living her life
Calculating risks
No gossip
Kindness

Value is the focus for your life and business

We are born with values.

Values are the reasons why we exist, why we are whom we are, why we live our life, why we do what we do daily.

You are successful when you demonstrate a high value to the society, to your community, to others.

When you focus on express your values, you live a rich life, a colorful life, a magnetic life. You’ll be more connected, attractive and impactful to others.

The same principle applies to a business operation.

A business exists, because it has products and service people need. And value is the reason for those products and services to exist in the marketplace. Focusing on value can help your business sustainable. Every company is in business to fulfill a need, to provide a value – plain and simple.

Value is the focus of your life and your business.

Who is your competition?

If you are working in a corporate, who are you competition? Are other companies making similar products your competitors?

If you are writing a book, who are you competition? Are other authors writing similar books?

If you are a freelancer, self employed, who are you competition? Are other freelancers in the similar fields?

The real competition is yourself, your products.

The competition comes: do you have empathy towards your customers, do you have clear determination to walk forward facing challenges, do you want to fight “I’ll do it later” tendency, do you want to get up in the morning to do the hard work, or do you want to finish the reading and writing you get to do….

No matter what you do, you are valuable when you help other, when you produce something, when you do your physical or emotional labor. When you do, you will be competitive in your own way, unique way that has your label and your flavor.

Competition is a good thing. Competition gives you or your product a category, establishes your presence, gets you the recognition.

Competition is that we are entering into the same race, but we do it together. So we will need to open to each other. We learn from each other, we encourage each other, we are each other’s company on the way for a better future.

If you strive to do better, to be better, you are competitive.

Three things can improve your relationship with your colleagues

We are in a company, in a social community. Our relationship with our colleagues is important for our success, happiness and productivity at work.

There are three things you can do to improve your relationship with your colleagues.

1. Be mindful with your words. Many of us are not aware that some words we say are rude or are perceived as rude by others. This means that we have blind spot in our self-insights. We need learn to listen to ourself – what does it sound like when we replay back to ourself. We need be empathetic to others and think in other’s shoes to increase our mindfulness and improve our communication.

2. Be careful on commenting on other’s appearance. At work, it can be awkward toco me t on other’s appearance, especially when someone is sensitive to their appearance. If you want to have a small talk to warm up with others, pick up something neutral.

3. Give positive comments generously. We tend to save our positive comments and think they know your intention. We need to let others know they do a good job. Positive enforcement is an effective way to boost your relationship with them and also their continuing positive behavior. Give positive comments generously also reduce stress for the working environment. As a leader, the positive comments you give also increase the engagement.

Use the three tips for better communication, therefore you will have a better team and a better environment.

Ups and downs

A friend consultant shares his philosophy with me, “When you are riding on a big waves, go crazy with your full speed. When you are down in a valley, fully absorb yourself to learn, exercise new muscles and prepare coming out of it.”

He was fired twice from his jobs. The first time he was fired, he went to get his Master degree in MBA. The second time he was fired, he went to get his Ph.D in business management and founded his consulting company.

Now he is an influential strategist, having over 100 employees working in his consulting companies.

He knows how to handle ups and downs in his life.

When you are moving on the right direction, everything comes to your way. You are in the Yang wind. Whatever you do you feel you can make a difference.

When you are in the Yin zone, whatever you do you feel you are a failure. You may not have that kinds of upset like being fired. However, you always have big or small bumps on your way.

You can control your pace to prevent or reduce that big failure. You can go away for a retreat so that you can come back strong.

Life is a marathon. You need to recharge, regain your energy, refresh and continue your journey.

The best way to pace yourself is to take a sabbatical… we are luck that we can practically take our sabbatical by planning it daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly.

We can walk away from our work completely. We can have daily meditation, exercises, yoga, reading and reflection time for ourself. We can have weekly or monthly intermittent fasting, social activities. We have annual event, retreat…

Ups and downs are normal stuff in our life. And you are the master to face and control the ups and downs. Because we are luck that we have the authority and power to command our mind and physical muscles.

Creativity in your life

Creativity is not an abstract word, not a big word, not a dream.

A life with creativity is a life all about changes – you move forward, take chances, explore new frontiers.

The real risk in life is that you do not change.

To thrive in life, you can test all your dreams, your crazy plans, and be yourself.

There are always opportunities if you have tried enough. Each trial, wether is a success or small or big bump, brings you closer to your target. If you fall, you still fall forward, at least you have moved forward a body length.

Fall your calling down in your heart that keeps coming back hunting you to do something about it. Keep doing, keep trying, keep moving, these will break you free, open new territories, new exploration, and new you.

Therefore, you create a new life.

Creation is the blood stream of your life. It excite you, attract you, bring oxygen to your life.

Be ambitious. Be bold. Go big.

Don’t close your show.

Keep doing, keep creating.

Be vulnerable and brave

When we live in our dream, not dream our dream, we experience ups and downs in life.

We may be failed. We may hit to a wall. We may get hurt.

However, these are all part of the plan for you to grow stronger, get better, and bigger.

Theodore Roosevelt said, “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again… who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly.”

Time management = Your “why” management

For a long time, people have been saying about time management.

There are many tools available for you to choose from.

However, with tools you are still struggling with your crammed schedules and constant disruptions from all directions. Keeping your focus and staying centered in a world that seems increasingly out of balance is hard.

I tried to manage my time. There was somewhat improvement, and I expect to be better.

Then I realized that to manage the WHY is a more efficient and effective way to manage your time.

You can prioritize your day with your intention by asking yourself three whys: why you need do what you’ve planned to do; why they are important to you; why they are urgent today.

By arranging your day according to whys, you have a clear direction and sense of mission. They empower you. They can allow you to have a bigger impact to the world. At the end of the day, you feel fulfilled and happy.

Think about your whys when you prioritize your day.

Recharge yourself

You are ambitious.

You want to more. You want to learn more. You want to influence more. Your schedule is crammed with todos. You are burn out.

Now, you need a break to recharge.

You need to enjoy life, indulge yourself, satisfy your curiosity and relax. You need to keep your elasticity.

Recharge is to be ready for the next journey.

A better process is to space out your energy and focus, prioritize your todos, and focus on the process more than the results. Doing a little bit work every day.

“If you work a little bit something every day, you will end up with something that is massive.” — Kenneth Goldsmith

The process is more important than the results.

Make assertions

When you want to make a change, to influence someone, or to make a difference, you get to make an assertion.

An assertion is something that you believe is true. But you need to test it to confirm it.

You assertion may be like this – ” No matter how educated, talent, rich, or cool you believe you are, how you treat people ultimately tells all. Integrity is everything.”

With this assertion, you may need to test:

What is the definition of integrity?

What would happen for the highly educated, rich or cool people who don’t have integrity?

What does a person having integrity behave?

Why integrity is everything?

If someone is challenging your assertion, what would be your alternative answer? How will you test it?

You see, through this thinking and testing process, you can get clarity, make progress, and get better on going everything!

Make assertions for your work, for your life, for everything you do, and test them. This is how we make small changes. Little by little, you can make a difference.