Getty Images (c)
The Oxford Dictionary defines failure as lack of success. This is one perspective because failure can also be reframed as a learning opportunity. It is easy to be become despondent and give up after a failure if you only adopt the commonly held view of failure as lack of success. There are numerous examples of people such as leaders and entrepreneurs who have experienced repeated failures in their careers but refused to be crushed by them.
photo by Przemyslaw Biel
I was in Sheffield last weekend for the Revolution Youth Conference. This is a Christian conference organised by the youth ministry of Victory Assembly Church. I was invited to do a seminar on the topic “Leadership Principles of Christ”. I will discuss in this blog post, two of the three principles I talked about at the conference. These principles are applicable to all leaders in any field.
David Plouffe’s book, Audacity to Win, is a detailed insider account of the Obama campaign. Plouffe, who was Obama’s campaign manager, narrates how the Obama campaign was organized and executed to produce the most unlikely victory in US electoral history. I read this book in January and was blown away by the David and Goliath type battles waged in the quest to secure the American presidency. Obama was regarded as a long shot by the pundits and press. He was a David in comparison to the Goliath that was Clinton. His inexperience and skin colour were also considered insurmountable setbacks.
The UK Higher Education (HE) landscape is currently undergoing a major directional shift which is causing great uncertainty for all key stakeholders, namely universities’ administrators, staff, and prospective students. There is a move towards an American style commercial model, making many UK universities worried about their future.
It is important for leaders to be students of metaphors, especially their own metaphors. Metaphor is a powerful tool in a leader’s arsenal. Effective leaders are good communicators. They are competent storytellers, able to use the appropriate metaphor(s) in any given leadership situation.
In last week’s post, The Zulu Principle, I said that focus is crucial if you want to become an expert instead of a Jack {or Jackie} of all trades. It occurred to me that apart from focus, successful people rely on something else to excel in their field.
There was an interesting question posted in response to last week’s post – Practising Kaizen. A good friend asked “how can one avoid falling into the trap of becoming ‘Jack/Jackie of all trades, master of none?’ She is keen not to fall into the trap of being a ‘Jackie of all trades’ while growing in the Learning Zone. If you have not yet read last week’s post then you will need to read it to have a better context for this post. The only way to avoid the trap of becoming a Jack/Jackie of all trades is focus.
Benjamin Disraeli said that the secret of success is for a man to be ready for his time when it comes. The only way to be ready for your time when it comes is to be prepared for it. This is because the time to prepare is not after you have been given the opportunity but before the opportunity ever arises. If you wait to prepare only when you get the opportunity, then it’ll usually be too late. To be ready and prepared, you have to make ‘kaizen’ a priority.
(c) Aussiegall
Most leaders are future oriented individuals. However, in the haste to actualize their visions, it is very easy for them to focus on the future to the detriment of the present. This is because the present is seen as the ‘passage’ to the vision (destination). A vision can be defined as a preferred future and it’s always all about getting there. Yet you can’t have a ‘there’ without a ‘here’ because we all live in the here and now. Thomas Monson admonishes us to remember that the past is behind us so we should learn from it, the future is ahead, so prepare for it but the present is here and we need to live it.
I received comments from some readers, regarding last week’s post, that they have not set any New Year’s resolutions. This is as a result of setting them and not attaining them in previous years. I believe the term ‘New Year resolutions’ sometimes has negative connotations. The pressure to accomplish them can be overwhelming. What are New Year resolutions? Strip away the fancy name, New Year resolutions are simply your goals and targets for the year.