PREDICTING CONSEQUENCES: AN IMPORTANT LEADERSHIP SKILL

An important leadership skill is the ability to accurately predict the consequences of a decision. The potential consequences of any task or activity are the key determinants of how important it really. Projecting the consequences of a decision into the future is a way of evaluating the significance of a decision. Value judgements helps the leader determine what direction to take.

Long-term perspective is the most important attribute in determining leadership success in life and at work. Long-term perspective turns out to be more important than family background, education, race, intelligence, connections or virtually any other single factor. 

Attitudes toward time has an enormous impact on  behavior and choices. People who take the long view of their lives and careers always seem to make much better decisions about their time and activities than people who give very little thought to the future.

Principle centered leadership has a clear future-centric orientation. It thinks five, ten and twenty years out into the future. These leaders analyze their choices and behaviors in the present to make sure that they are consistent with the long-term future that they desire.

As a principle centered leader you review the consequences of your decisions to hone your decision making skills. Continually ask yourself, “Did the consequences of my decision have a positive impact on the situation and my leadership ability?” 

Principle centered leaders have a clear idea of what is really important, and that clarity of vision makes it much easier to make better short term decisions. 

By definition, something that is important has long-term potential consequences. Something that is unimportant has few or no long-term potential consequences. Before starting on anything, you should always ask yourself, "What are the potential consequences of the decision you are about to make?" 

The clearer you are about your future intentions, the greater influence that clarity will have on what you do in the moment. With a clear long-term vision, you are much more capable of evaluating an activity in the present and to assure that it is consistent with where you truly want to end up. 

If there is a task or activity with large potential positive consequences, make it a top priority and get started on it immediately. If there is something that can have large potential negative consequences if it is not done quickly and well, that becomes a top priority as well. Whatever your frog is, resolve to gulp it down first thing. 

Motivation requires motive. The greater the positive potential impact that an action or behavior of yours can have on your life, once you define it clearly, the more motivated you will be to overcome procrastination and get it done quickly.

Think continually about the potential consequences of your decisions. Visualization is one of the very best ways to determine your the true priorities at should enter into your decision making process. 

Remember, you have the freedom choose, but you do not have the freedom to choosethe consequences of your chooses.

Choose carefully.

BELIEVE IN YOUR LEADERSHIP SKILLS

You must believe in your leadership skills.  

The most powerful single factor in being a leader is your beliefs about yourself and your leadership skills.

This is the Law of Belief.
It says simply this: Whatever you believe, with feeling, becomes your reality. Whatever you intensely believe becomes your reality. And  the brain blocks out any information coming in to us that is inconsistent with our reality.

Successful leaders absolutely believe that they have the ability and skills to lead.  And they will not entertain, think about, or talk about the possibilities that they will fail. They do not even consider the possibility of failure.

We all have an obligation to consciously elevate our self-esteem. People with low self-esteem don’t often accomplish great things. Indeed, low self-esteem is often an insidious excuse for laziness.

How many times do people not reach out for fear of being rejected; not try for fear of looking foolish? It takes hard work to raise your self-esteem. More important, it takes courage. One of the most courageous steps a person can take is to stand out from the crowd and let their inner brilliance really shine.

One thing successful leaders share is solid self-esteem. Not arrogance -- quite to the contrary, principle centered leaders with high self-esteem also tend to have high humility and be open to legitimate criticism. Rather, they are confident in their leadership skills and professional ability, and are willing to gracefully accept and share the fruits of their success.

Low self-esteem is the most frequent cause of self-sabotaging behavior. For example, people with low self-esteem tend to have ambivalent feelings about money; they want it, but subconsciously feel they don't deserve very much of it.

 

You always act in a matter consistent with your beliefs. 

 

The most important belief system you can build is a leadership consciousness where you absolutely believe in your ability to motivate and influence others.  This is positive knowing versus positive thinking. Positive thinking can sometimes be wishing or hoping. But positive knowing is when you absolutely know that no matter what, your ability as a leader is never in doubt.

 

Here's a formula for creating rock solid self-belief:

1. Accept yourself as you are. Accept what you are.  Accept the gifts and talents you have been endowed with.  But at the same time, vow to be more tomorrow than what you are today.
    
2. Work for continuous self-improvement. Work constantly at keeping yourself organized, and seek out other people to help you with things that you are not good at.  Seek to form a group of people around you that have talents and abilities that you do not have.
    
3. Accept absolute responsibility for your circumstances and your outcomes. You are where you are today because of choices you have made in the past, and you will be where you are tomorrow as a result of choices you make in the future. As former UCLA basketball coach John Wooden said, no one is a loser until they start blaming someone else for their loss.
    
4. Program yourself with positive self-talk.   Continuously remind yourself that you are a caring and compassionate person who is willing to make whatever changes are necessary in yourself in order to help the people around you be more happy and successful."
    
5. Decide to have energy. It takes more energy to be happy than it does to be miserable, and yes, energy is a decision. When you walk in the front door after a hard day at work and head for the TV instead of the exercise machine or the telephone, you have decided for lethargy and against energetic happiness.
    
6. Become a more effective time manager. People with low self-esteem are notoriously poor time managers, especially to the extent they waste their time (and their lives) in front of the tube. One of the most immediate ways you can begin raising your self-esteem is by putting your time to more effective use.
    
7. At all costs avoid negative people, and go out of your way to seek out positive people. Over time, you take on the attitudes of the people you hang around with.
    
8. Finally, believe in other people. Be like insurance billionaire W. Clement Stone, who is said to be a "reverse paranoid." He thinks everyone in the world is out to help him! If that's your attitude, how can you be anything but a raving success?

Another principle related to your beliefs is willpower. We know that willpower is essential to any accomplishment. Willpower is based on confidence. It's based on conviction. It's based on faith. It's based on your belief in your ability to triumph over all obstacles. And you can develop willpower by persistence, by working on your goals, by reading the biographies of successful people, by listening to audio programs, by reading books about people who've achieved success. The more information you take into your mind consistent with success, the more likely it is that you will develop the willpower to push you through the obstacles and difficulties you will experience.

Self-mastery, self-control, self-discipline are essential for anyone who wants to achieve greatly. And control over your thoughts is the hardest exercise in self-mastery that you will ever engage in. See if you can talk and think about only what you desire and not talk or think about anything that you don't want for 24 hours. Then you'll see what you're really made of. It's a hard thing to do but with practice, you can reach the point where you are thinking about your goals and desires most of the time. Then, your whole life will change for the better.

Leadership is much more than an activity.  It is a belief system.