Thought Tweet #933 The status quo ain't...and it never will be again.

The Thinking Behind The Tweet

We can count on change to arrive real soon.

Understand People Do Only 3 Things: Good Habits, Bad Habits, & New Things

Good Habits are things people think and do that help them achieve long-term desires and goals. Bad Habits are things that people think and do that do not help them achieve long-term desires and goals. Good leaders use these simple definitions to inject clarity into their lives. Then good leaders work at reducing their performance of Bad Habits and expanding their performance of Good Habits. And, good leaders test New Things...relentlessly seeking more Good Habits.

Take Talent To Task

Good leaders are fascinated by people's talents. When people's talents show a capability of aligning with the trust of the leader's goals, good leaders ensure the talented person has access to (1) opportunities to put the talent to productive use, (2) specialized knowledge to complement the talent, and (3) time to practice skills to hone the talent into a personal strength. Then good leaders don't leave things to chance - they help people connect personal strengths to important tasks. 

Don’t force change…construct it with comfort

Good leaders know change is constructive only when people are comfortable. And personal and business growth happens when people learn how to expand their comfort zones. Knowing these things, good leaders consider people's comfort/stress levels and design change in increments that help expand comfort zones without triggering the destructive consequences that naturally happen when people are forced into discomfort zones. Good leaders also know this correct approach to change 'dominoes' as confidence escalates.

Repeat clearly, "I do have time!"

Good leaders know the importance of leading by example. So, they know if they say "I don't have time" or "I'm too busy" their followers will pick up on that, think the same way, talk the same way, and act accordingly...spreading the lack-of-abundance mindset to one and all. Knowing this, good leaders remove the "I don't have time" & "I'm too busy" bad habit from their thoughts and words. They replace the bad habit with good habits: as examples, they apply the 80/20 Rule and they practice abundance thought and solution talk.

Change character for the better

All great leaders changed their character. Perhaps Abraham Lincoln performed one of the greatest self-transformations. When he was a young man he had the habit of openly criticizing other people. In 1842 Lincoln publicly criticized Illinois state employee James Shields. Shields took exception to the criticism and challenged Lincoln to a duel. The 2 men faced one another with weapons in hands. Fortunately their seconds intervened. Lincoln used the incident as a life-lesson and he chose to change his character for the better...rarely criticizing others. Lincoln's change of character took him from the dueling field to the White House. 

Link to Part 1

Bringing People to Process - What does that mean?

We can lead a horse to water but we can't make it drink.

We can lead a person to work but we can't make them do it right.

Horses have to want to drink before they drink.

People have to want to do work right before they do work right.

The Key Message: When People want to do work right, their businesses excel.

So, let's focus on helping people want to do work right. Let's not just delegate work to them, let's make sure the work to be delegated makes sense and let's make sure the delegation is performed in a most-influencing way.

The work to be delegated - that's the ingredients.

Influence - that's the key secret spice, the flavouring for success.

To do a better job of Bringing People to Process, we need better preparation. To prepare, we need to learn about people so we have a good working knowledge of WHY people become motivated and HOW we can assist them in becoming motivated. After we know these things we need to adjust our delegation processes. We also need to adjust the tools we use to communicate work-process.

Here's a 'prime example': Taking Talent to Task...i.e., to fit the context of this 3-Part series of Thought Posts, re-word that - Bring Talent to Task. 

NOTE: There is a very special relationship between Talents/Strengths and motivation/ability to perform Tasks well. That's why Bringing Talent to Task is a 'prime example' of how to improve your business performance.

We Bring Talent to Task when we:

1. Know individuals' Talents & Strengths,
2. Know the details of the work we want done [the nature of the work-process, the details of the Tasks, and the specifics of the required actions],
3. Know how to delegate in ways that influence and cause people to feel accountable, &
4. Perform the delegation successfully.

Conclusion:

Anyone can bring process to people. The best leaders know it takes thought, commitment, and effort to excel at process design, including communication design and especially delegation design.

Anyone can bring people to process. The best leaders know the keys to success are individuals' self-motivation and how leaders influence people in ways that inspire the right actions to generate the right results.