Best Ideas 2008

from Able Leader, December 2008

by Steve Kaye

Here are my best ideas from this year.

1) Your inner self determines your external world. That is, your mix of beliefs, assumptions, and (mostly) fears attract more of what exists inside you. And often these cause the results that you obtain.

For example, people who believe they deserve to succeed, will do things that lead to success. People who assume others are honest, will do things that lead to trust. People who are afraid of rejection will do things that lead to being rejected. And so on.

Note that fear is especially bad because it attracts (or causes) exactly what you are afraid of having.

Action: Seek deep inside yourself to relate external results with your internal self. Recognize that you may spend months working on this because knowing your inner self is a difficult process.

2) We are the real message behind everything that we say. In fact, we are actually talking about, or describing, ourselves. And so, people who offer frequent praise are actually complimenting themselves. People who criticize are actually insulting themselves.

Action: Pay attention to what you say. Probe for the real message and then consider if this is what you want to reveal about yourself. Strive to send positive messages because these lift you (and the listener) into greater performance.

3) People with a large (i.e., courageous) inner self act in ways that make others larger. They offer praise, encouragement, and confidence. They do this because they feel comfortable in a successful, abundant world. On the other hand, people with a small (i.e., fearful) inner self act in ways that make others smaller. They disable progress by misbehaving. They cripple others with ridicule. And so on.

Action: Work on inner courage. Begin by identifying fears and then take action to peel these away, layer by layer.

4) Procrastination can be more complicated than just starting a task. Some procrastinators make it impossible to start tasks by finding (sometimes inventing) other tasks. For example, they sort nails or collect coupons, they surf the net or fuss over e-mail, they volunteer for committees or start special projects, and so on. As a result, they are always too busy to work on the critically important tasks in their lives.

Action: Keep a log of how you spend your time. Then rate each activity for its value in your business, your career, or your life. Often awareness is the first step toward making a change. Also, realize that procrastination is driven by fear. Thus, identifying the fear becomes the key to making progress.

5) Accepting responsibility has two benefits. First it puts you in control of obtaining results. And second, it gives you the reward of having achieved something. People who avoid responsibility (e.g., they blame others and external events), give up both control and reward.

Action: Accept responsibility for everything that you do.

6) Effective leaders decide faster, act faster, and heal faster than others. Everyone encounters obstacles and surprises. It's unavoidable. And great leaders live through these things faster.

Action: Pay attention to how fast you do things. For example, how long does it take you to decide, act, or recover? Work on the part of your inner self (the fears, actually) that slow you.

7) We are at the edge of a renaissance. Significant changes driven by population, resources, and climate will occur over the decades ahead. These will affect everything worldwide from industrial to political to social systems.

Action: Begin now to make strategic adjustments that take your business into the future. Change always favors those who cooperate.

8) Meetings are the most important activity in a business. People use them to make plans, find solutions, and reach agreements. All of these take a business into the future. And without these results, a company does not have a future.

Action: Learn how to hold better meetings. And hire a facilitator to lead those meetings when your participation is important.

Much success,

Steve Kaye
714-528-1300