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This is the 9th of 16 weekly installments on The 5 Pillars of Influential Leadership. Every Thursday, I will break down the 5 Pillars and show you how becoming and influential leader will not only improve your job skills but your personal life as well.
The 5 Pillars is a project that I have been working on for almost two years and had a great time with the official launch of “The 5 Pillars of Influential Leadership” Coaching program on May 23th.
Why the 5 Pillars? I have spent more than 30 years in the business world and although it has been primarily in the Construction world, the 5 Pillars philosophy works across all industries. In fact, while developing this program I realized that it can have a significant impact on your personal life as well.
I will break down each Pillar into three sections, personal, business and community. Any growth or improvement needs to start within, with the end goal of influencing the community you live in. In this post we will take a look at BUSINESS GROWTH.
For you soloprenuers, your business growth journey may be a one-man (or woman) show. For bigger business, it may include hundreds or thousands. Either way, adding value to your clients or customers is the goal.
ACTION
Wanting to do something and knowing what it is are obviously important pieces of expanding and improving your business. Just remember … all the knowledge in the world means nothing without action. Plan your work and WORK YOUR PLAN.
ADVERSITY
There is no real gain in life without overcoming some type of adversity. Overcoming adversity is something we are faced with every day. There is truth to the saying “No Pain, No Gain”, the question becomes “How much pain are you willing to overcome to succeed?”
CONSISTENCY
Consistency not only reinforces your habits, but also represents who you are. Being consistent builds trust and credibility. Lack of consistency creates doubt and fear.
GRATITUDE
Never, never, never forget that without your clients and customers, your business would not survive. Everyone provides recognition and interest before the sale. Successful people recognize after the sale. “Thank you” may be the most powerful two words in your business plan.
EDUCATION
Leaders are life long learners. Reading, attending seminars, webinars and workshops and collaborating with like-minded individuals are just some of the ways to increase your knowledge in your specific business lane. What are you doing, right now, to educate yourself further in your field?
EMPOWERMENT
If you are a soloprenuer, where do you draw your motivation? If you are a business owner, how are you empowering your people? If you are an employee, how are you being empowered or better yet, empowering others? Being believed in and believing in others are critical to forward movement.
PRODUCTIVITY
Are you simply busy, or are you actually getting things done? Busyness does not equal productivity. Next time you make a list, don’t just write down the things you need to do, write down why you need to do them. There is a big difference!
DEPENDABILITY
How dependable are you? Much like consistency, dependability says a lot about who you are. Being dependable tells others that you care. If you want them to care, you better show them that you do.
COMMITMENT
Commitment was my choice for my “One Word” for 2013. Everything, yes everything we do in business requires commitment at some level. Your level of commitment will be directly related to why you are doing what you’re doing. If you are weak on commitment, you might be weak on your why. Just a thought!
The 5 Pillars coaching program will take each topic to a much deeper level. We will explore open ended questions and how they are directly impacting your life and more specifically in this segment, will allow you to evaluate and understand your role in growing your business.
In the mean time, start asking the type of questions that will result in better answers. When you ask “How can I” you get an answer that will move the needle. “What can I do today that will help take my business to the next level?” Answer that question, act on it, and you will succeed.
RELATED:
- Click here to see Part 1
- Click here to see Part 2
- Click here to see Part 3
- Click here to see Part 4
- Click here to see Part 5
- Click here to see Part 6
- Click here to see Part 7
- Click here to see Part 8
- For more on The 5 Pillars of Influential Leadership and to view my video click here
- To view my guest post in the 2013 International Leadership Blogathon click here
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Barry Smith 5/30/13 photo by author © Building What Matters 2013
The post The 5 Pillars Of Influential Leadership – Part 9: Our Growth Plan! appeared first on BUILDING WHAT MATTERS.COM.
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]]>Carl Jung said “The greatest tragedy of the family is the unlived lives of the parents.” Stop and read that again. I believe that this is true not just for parents but for everyone.
Living a fulfilled, meaningful life requires growth. One of my focus points as a coach, trainer, speaker and author is growth. Whenever I address the subject of growth, I always bring up the two components required for growth. Intentionality and Accountability.
The first two Pillars of my 5 Pillars of Influential Leadership are Awareness and Environment. Both of these are critical to our growth. Once we realize where we are and where we want to be and how that journey will be impacted by the environment we find ourselves in, we are ready to grow.
But as I said, growth only comes through Intentionality and Accountability. Certainly there are many other factors that will determine how you grow and the rate in which you do it, but the first step is always intentionality.
Every time I use the word “try” when speaking with one of my coaches or mentors, I hear the silence on the other end of line. I love this quote from one of the greatest visionaries in history, Yoda. “Do or do not, there is no try.” Trying get’s you to the line of intention, but accomplishes nothing. Like Yoda said, “do or do not.”
We have to have the try to get headed in the right direction, but growth comes from actually doing it. Doing it comes through accountability.
Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement and success have no meaning.” – Benjamin Franklin
It doesn’t matter how you define success, you have to be a life long learner to continue to achieve that success. When you stop growing, you put a cap on your potential and I believe that when you stop moving forward you are moving backward.
Growing means stretching outside of your comfort zone. It means doing things you have not done before. It means facing the failure of not succeeding the first time you attempt something new. Many people have a tendency to quit when the going get’s tough.
PERSONAL GROWTH requires SACRIFICE, SELF-CONTROL, DISCIPLINE and PERSEVERANCE. Your ATTITUDE is really a reflection of your CHARACTER.
Your INTEGRITY will create CONSISTENCY and CREDIBILITY. Understanding your PRIORITIES will allow you to maximize your PERFORMANCE.
COMMITMENT to EDUCATION will help you overcome ADVERSITY and positve ACTION will help build SELF-CONFIDENCE and EMPOWER you in the FULFILLMENT of your GOALS.
If you want to do more, achieve more and become more, you need to grow more. So my question today is simple, “How far are you willing to grow?”
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On May 23rd, at 8:00 pm ET, I will be hosting a free call introducing “The 5 Pillars Of Influential Leadership” Coaching Program.
This will be a content filled call that will not only teach you about influential leadership but also about leading an intentional and successful life. The words in capitals above are topics within Pillar #3 – GROWTH.
This is the third of five posts related to the 5 Pillars that will go out prior to the call on the 23rd.
For more information and to register for the free call CLICK HERE.
To see the first video on Pillar #1 – AWARENESS click here
To see the second video on Pillar #2 – ENVIRONMENT click here
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Barry Smith 5/17/13 photo by author © Building What Matters 2013
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The last few days have had all the ingredients needed for me to have a bad attitude. Yesterday, a technician from Sony came out to my home to repair my laptop – for the second time. You techies out there will appreciate that a new mother board and a new operating system means that all data has to be transferred to another drive, all settings are lost and all the software will need to be reloaded.
This morning, I went to leave for the gym and, as the weather service predicted, freezing rain last night. No big deal, I will just put the truck in four wheel drive and carefully head off my morning racquetball game. Not so fast my friend. For some reason, the four wheel drive won’t engage. Unsuccessfully messed around with that for a little while and then back into the house.
I have an important event I am supposed to be at in two hours and at this point in time, I don’t know if I will make it or not. I have a meeting I am facilitating five hours from now. I hope I make that.
On top of all that, I knew that I needed to get a blog post out today. It’s kinda funny how things work sometimes. Last night I was trying to think of a good topic to write on. I have kind of wore out the holiday and end of the year stuff and needed something fresh. I am pretty sure someone once said “Be careful what you ask for.”
OK, so let’s look at what is going on here. Being totally transparent, these events a few years ago probably would have ruined my day. But not now. I have decided that I am going to be a person that happens to life and not just one who lets life happen to me. Let me ask you the question:
Are you a person who happens to life or a person that life happens to?
There is a big difference. If you are a person that life happens to, you simply wait for things to happen. Maybe you hope they are good things and not bad things, but basically you are just waiting to see what life throws at you in the hopes that you can deal with it.
On the other hand, maybe you are one of those people that happens to life. You realize that there will be ups sand downs but know that if you can make something happen before life has an opportunity to throw something at you, you might just have better results.
The more I have considered these two types of people, the more I have aligned myself with the proactive ones. It just plain seems that better things happen when I am around them.
As for my problems … I am blessed that my youngest son Spencer, knows all about the computer stuff and it just so happens that he is home on Christmas break right now and is helping me put things back in order. I should also be thankful that my computer is still under warranty.
If I miss the event or the meeting, the world will not end and I guess my weekend will start early (that’s never bad.) My guess is that the truck issue is something simple that I will have fixed before I need four-wheel drive again. I am thankful I have a truck.
What it really comes down to is that I could have chosen to let life happen to me today, but instead I think I will happen to it. How high will you fly today?
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Barry Smith www.buildingwhatmatters.com 1/4/13 photo by author
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This is Thanksgiving Weekend here in the states and for many of us, an opportunity to spend time with friends and family. For me, this year included eating, building puzzles, eating, watching football, eating and lots of driving.
Although I am grateful for the chance to spend time with family and friends, part of me is happy that the last few days have come to an end. Not because it wasn’t fun or enjoyable, but because looking forward, I am going to try and be as thankful every day as I have been the last few days.
Everyone posts what they are thankful for and they send “special” emails telling people why they are thankful for them specifically. I only feel obligated to write this because I have been guilty myself. Now understand, there was nothing fake about the things I posted or the emails I sent. And I am not saying there is anything wrong with it. It just seems a little premeditated.
I guess it is a good thing to have a day to celebrate being thankful but I would sure like to see us all be grateful more often than a few day stretch in November.
“Develop an attitude of gratitude, and give thanks for everything that happens to you, knowing that every step forward is a step toward achieving something bigger and better than your current situation.”— Brian Tracy, Author
I like this quote by Brian Tracy because it addresses both side of the equation. We almost always say thanks for things that have happened but how often are we thankful for what the future holds? I am very thankful for the future because I get to create it. To me, the past is done, can’t change it, but tomorrow … anything is possible.
So what is the best way to make tomorrow the best it can possibly be? Go into it with an attitude of gratitude. Be grateful from the minute you wake up to the minute you go to sleep. Laugh in the face of adversity because you know you can overcome it. Be thankful simply for the opportunity to tackle a challenge.
If you are a follower of my blog, you are probably waiting for the four or five words that will help you have an attitude of gratitude. Not so fast my friend … this one’s all on you. Why? Because you are the only one that can control your attitude.
I could also post a number of things that I am thankful for, but instead I think I will just think about them for a while. I have read more than once that writing things down is a good way to get them out of your head and onto paper. Maybe I don’t want the things I am thankful for out of my head. Maybe I want to keep them there and remain grateful.
I guess at the end of the day, it is up to you whether you wake up and go to bed grateful or not. My advice … well, I would give it to you but I think you already know what it is. Sweet Dreams!
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Barry Smith www.buildingwhatmatters.com 11/23/12 Photo by author
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