Quote Of The Week #164
Tag: Success
8 Avoidable Mistakes That New Leaders Make
Congratulations! Your hard work has been noticed, you have been promotef and you have been rewarded with the position youq have been coveting (or not).
Now, it’s time to get to work because with your new role comes new responsibilities and with these new responsibilities come new people, new concepts, new ideas and also new opportunities for mistakes…
Wondering what are the critical mistakes to avoid as a new leader?
1. New leaders wait to be sollicited
A new leader who goes and checks in with the team is relatable, creates a bond and a sense of security.
Even if he or she has nothing special to say, expressing the basic requirements to the team is a good start.
2. New leaders nurture an imposter syndrom
It is quite normal to lack confidence when you first start out.
However, it is unhealthy and unproductive to openly and inwardly nurture an imposter syndrom for long periods of time.
After a while, your team will surely pick up on it and will start to question your leadership.
Stop doubting yourself and take confidence in your leadership.
3. New leaders struggle with their leadership style
Befriend an employee or discipline a friend? That is the question…
Most new leaders, especially if they are unexpectedly thrown into a leadership position, have a hard time determining their leadership style.
It’s all about understanding your team members, learning to delegate, keeping your role and responsibilities in mind, finding the right balance between relatable, approachable and authoritative.
4. New leaders lead everyone the same way
Some people are quiet, others are loud.
Some introverted and others extroverted.
Some are all over the place and others don’t require discipline.
Some rather competition and others choose collaboration.
Some enjoy confrontation, some a conversation and others avoid conflict altogether.
Some are just somewhere in that spectrum.
The point is that not everyone is the same or require the same treatment. Therefore, the same leadership style cannot be used with everyone all the time.
5. New leaders tend to power trip and ego trip
That new found power can be elating to new leaders.
It will have them thinking that they can treat people anyway they want to or do whatever they please.
Someone else was in line for the job but you got it and it’s now an opportunity to belittle them?
There is no need to play or keep playing dirty because you have already made it and tomorrow is never guaranteed.
There are people on your team that you don’t like and you want to demonstrate your dislike and your authority?
They may technically be worked for you but the truth is that you are working for them.
If you abuse your power, everyone around you will lose respect for you and your behavior will slowly degrade productivity and team performance.
6. New leaders maintain their old responsibilities
Your responsibilities have changed or have increased?
It can be tempting and reassuring to want to handle every single details and to maintain your old activities in addition to your new ones.
It’s time to accept the change, to fully take on your new role and to learn how to delegate.
7. New leaders tend to openly criticize
Whether it’s bad talking the person who previously held your position or critiquing the way things were done before you were here, critiquing tend to leave a bad taste in the mouth of your new team.
There is nothing wrong with wanting change and reorganizing things to your liking but you can do this without degrading your predecessors.
8. New leaders are afraid of appearing incompetent
Because of their fear of appearing incompetent, new leaders don’t clarify objectives, speak when they should really be listening, take credit for other’s ideas and don’t ask questions to higher ups.
Last Words Of Advice!
Before fully jumping in your new role and responsibilities, take a few moments to observe your new environment, comprehend the company culture and understand the people you will be working with.
Hope that I’ve helped you get it together on your way to leadership!
Don’t forget to like, share and leave a comment below.
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6 Famous Principles For Effective Task Management
In our daily rush and in a constant desire to produce, we often find ourselves multitasking, overworked, stressed out, pretending to be busy but not completing any task.
Below are six principles of task management to help you finish what you started.
Wondering which Principles to use in order to manage your tasks effectively?
1. The Pareto Principle
In 1906, Pareto realized that 20% of the population made up 80% of the revenue.
Then, he also noticed that these statistics also applied to work productivity. Indeed, in the workplace, 20% of the work produced generates 80% of the desired results.
That is why the Pareto Principle, better known as the 80/20 Principle or the Law of the Vital Few, encourages you to focus on essentials tasks, prioritize your activities, avoid those that are not beneficial to you and learn how to say no.
2. The Parkinson Principle
In 1958, Professor Cyril North-Cote Parkinson understood that a task will take up all the attributed time for it’s realization.
In ther words, the Parkinson Principle or the Dilatation Principle affirms that even if we have the ample time to achieve a task, we will use up all that given time.
That is why it is necessary to break up tasks into smaller ones and create your own deadlines.
3. The Law Of Murphy
According to Murphy, a US Air Force Engineer, a task always takes up more time than expected and that whatever could go wrong will go wrong.
Consequently, you must expect the unexpected, anticipate problems, add buffers between meetings, and overestimate the time needed on any task you take on even if you are good at it.
4. The Laborit Principle
If we listened to ourselves, there is no doubt in my mind that we would always do what makes us happy and complete the easiest tasks first.
We would tackle the ones who require the least effort and neglect the hard and stressful ones.
However, handling the most difficult tasks first require extreme self-discipline but is the most rewarding task management strategy.
5. The Carlson Principle
In the 1950s, Professor Sune Carlson measured the number of time managers were being interrupted in average on a daily basis.
It turns out that they were interrupted every 20 minutes and were not able to effectively tend to their tasks because it took them time to focus back on their task at hand.
Carlson concluded that a task handled without interruptions or distractions is done faster than when it is done otherwise.
If you have an opening door policy, you may want to create strong boundaries to make time for your activities and reduce interruptions.
6. The Illich Principle
Ivan Illich, an ecologist thinker, states that beyond a certain amount of time spent on a task, our effectiveness and focus tend to diminish.
Due to that fact, it becomes vital to know and accept our own limitations, and to take regular breaks in order to recharge ourselves.
Last Words Of Advice!
The clutter on your desk also takes up mental space, create a sense of being busy and overwhelmed without you actually being productive.
It becomes important to unclutter as much as possible and set things at their place.
Hope that I’ve helped you get it together on your way to leadership!
Don’t forget to like, share and leave a comment below.
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Quote Of The Week #161
Quote Of The Week #160
Barbara Stanny
Barbara Stanny is financial therapist and wealth coach.
Barbara Stanny is also the author of Secrets Of Six-Figure Women : Up Your Earnings and Change Your Life.
Quote Of The Week #156
The Alchemist By Paulo Coelho
Santiago, humbly raised in the Spanish countryside, loved to read, wanted to travel, see the world and find his “treasure”.
Instead of being a priest like his parents desired, Santiago became a shepherd in order to wander throughout Andalusia.
The “Young Boy” was obsessed with discovering and accomplishing his Personal Legend.
The Discovery Of A Personal Legend
Everybody has a mission in life, a Personal Legend.
A Personal Legend is what you Always wanted to accomplish ever since you were young.
In your childhood, realizing your Personal Legend seems clear and feasible. However, the older we get, your belief that you can accomplish your Personal Legend seems to get dismantled by a mysterious force.
This mysterious force, made of negativity, deters you but also shows you how to accomplish what you truly want in Life.
The Courage To Pursue Your Personal Legend
Most people are afraid of following their dreams because they are:
- Told from childhood that they would never achieve their Personal Legend. So, the dream stays buried deep inside of them.
- Afraid of hurting the people closest to them, without realizing that those closest to them can help achieve their purpose.
- Frightened by the many obstacles and failures that arise while pursuing their dreams, even if their life is already challenging enough.
- Scared of realizing their dreams. They tend to fear success and self-sabotage.
On Your Quest Of Self-Discovery
According to Paulo Coelho, the Universe conspires to help us in accomplishing our Personal Legend.
It puts people on our way, good and bad, to guide us and redirect our course. The people we meet on our journey to accomplishing our Personal Legend are also part of the Journey.
Indeed, we can learn everywhere we go, with whomever we are and from everything.
For example, Santiago who has met a number of people on his quest of accomplishing his Personal Legend.
It first started out with a dream: one night, he had a wonderful dream about the Egyptian Pyramids. Then, he went to an old Gypsy woman to have his dream interpreted.
After that, he went to a village to change his book to a bigger one. While reading his new book at a well, he meets an old man who claims to be an old king of Salem and who encouraged the boy to accomplish his Personal Legend and to believe in Omens.
On his journey towards the Egyptian Pyramids, the Young boy sold his sheep and arrived in Tangier. There, needing to cross the Sahara, he met a Dangerous guide who would run away with his money.
After being robbed, the boy wandered to the door of a Crystal Merchant, whose unachieved dream was to travel to the Mecca and who against all odds gave him food, a place to stay, a job and who treated him fairly.
While crossing the Sahara desert, he bumped into an Englishman, believer in omens, avid reader, who introduced him to the discipline of Alchemy.
Stranded in an Oasis in the desert, he fell in love with Fatima, the woman of the desert who taught him Love and that Nothing should hold him back from accomplishing his Personal Legend.
Finally, while starting to learn the language of the desert, he bumped into the Alchemist who would teach him the language of the world and show him that lead can be turned into gold.
Review
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho explores the themes of following your dreams and achieving self-awareness while doing so.
The Alchemist, through the journey of Santiago the shepherd, helps you identify who and why you are.
This whole book is a metaphor for travel and purpose. Furthermore, each character represents a stage in the life of a person. In addition, I am not used to reviewing fiction but this book was long overdue.
The story of the protagonist Santiago is very relatable, applicable to every stage of our lives, and easily interpreted. Sometimes, we have ups and downs but if we stay focused on our dreams, we really achieve our purpose in the end.
I truly recommend this book for people who have spent their lives not achieving their purpose or who refuse to become bitter. It gives hope and comfort. It lets you know that it is never too late to accomplish your Personal Legend.
Let me know below what you think about this book!
Favorite quote(s)
The secret of life, though, is to fall seven times and to get up eight times.
If someone isn’t what others want them to be, the others become angry. Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how other people should lead their lives, but none about his or her own.
“People learn, early in their lives, what is their reason for being,” said the old man, with a certain bitterness. “Maybe that’s why they give up on it so early, too. But that’s the way it is.”
[…]intuition is really a sudden immersion of the soul into the universal current of life[…]
[…] before a dream is realized, the Soul of the World tests everything that was learned along the way. It does this not because it is evil, but so that we can, in addition to realizing our dreams, master the lessons we’ve learned as we’ve moved toward that dream. That’s the point at which most people give up.
Ratings 4/5
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Quote Of The Week #154
Can’t Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds By David Goggins
Western society has an obsession for mediocrity and complacency even though we have great resources to excel and even though our minds are strong and are built to endure whatever challenges we face.
Succeeding and functioning at your highest potential is all a matter of detaching yourself from that system of belief, gaining self-awareness and conquering the mind.
#1: Self-limiting beliefs
Inequalities in the system, systemic oppression will always exist but are not the core reason why you are not excelling and functioning at your highest potential.
The truth is you are the one limiting yourself.
That is why you must imperatively identify what is holding you back in life.
To do so, you can:
- Get a journal and write down your pain, the list of things that are causing you pain.
- Give shape and name to what is bothering you.
- Create rituals where you call yourself out, face the hard truth.
- Set tangible goals for yourself and keep yourself accountable.
By identifying what is limiting you and creating rituals, you will be able to renew your purpose and reinvent yourself.
#2: The path of most resistance
You must understand that in life, there will always be pain. But if you have a purpose, you can overcome that pain and borrow the path of most resistance.
Before starting your mission, you will have to objectively assess your current situation and abolish your ego for it is the cause of all your problems.
On your mission and on the path of most resistance, you might get depressed and discouraged but you have to be convinced that your depression is a sign that you are no longer in your comfort zone.
#3: Taking Souls
In life, you will be confronted with your own demons, bullies who will oppose you for no reason and will face many other challenges.
You have to prepare your mind for eventual opposition and understand that:
- Challenges reveal your character and your mindset.
- Pain is finite and you can take on any challenge you want.
- You must defeat your own demons before you can defeat your opponent.
The Taking Souls strategy is a game that you play with yourself and yourself only by tapping into your own reserve of energy and power. It allows you to easily defeat your opponent and find your inner beast:
- Know who you are and why you are here and why you are fighting.
- Find areas in your life that need improvement.
- Take on tasks that you deem impossible or that make you uncomfortable.
- List your strengths and weaknesses. Turn your weaknesses into your strengths.
- List the strengths and weaknesses of your opponent or bully. Bullies are already insecure and unstable so it’s easy to get into their heads.
- Remember that the easiest way to fight a bully is to help them.
#4: Flipping the script
Every negative experience creates callouses in the mind. When you know how to avoid negative self-talk, to manage your mind and your callouses, then you can choose fight over flight, push through any obstacles and overcome self-doubt.
To build the most stable callous mind there is, to acquire mental toughness and to improve your character, you need to accept your Self, stop running away from your past, face the source of your wounds, fear and insecurities.
For this reason, when you are facing opposition or a negative situation, you have to:
- Flip the script and stop seeing yourself as the victim of your circumstances.
- Work the hardest when you want to the least.
- Seek excellence to outdo your competition.
- Make your competition admire you and your abilities.
#5: Attaining your goals
Now that you are comfortable with the concept of pain and possess the ability to flip your negative experience, it is time for you to start:
- Feeding off your pain to overcome challenges and to live the life you want.
- Painting a picture of what success feels and looks like.
- Visualizing yourself achieving your goals or overcoming the obstacles standing in your way.
- Using your past achievements to fuel your news goals.
- Putting in the work to succeed.
When all is said and done, don’t forget to take the time to celebrate your success.
Review
Can’t Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds is David Goggins‘ raw and uncut autobiography.
In Can’t Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds, David Goggins aims to help you use your setbacks as fuel for your success, live a bolder life to your fullest potential, master the mind and use it to its maximum capacity.
David Goggins, intense and pragmatic, shares his hardships and successes in his civilian and military lives. Through his story, he encourages people to stop playing the victim and making self-limiting choices.
To make this short, his story is rooted in pain, very dramatic and hard to read. You basically need to brace yourself for the first chapters where David Goggins recalls his childhood.
Throughout his autobiography, we can observe:
- The evolution of his relationship with pain and suffering. He went from enduring pain, to insulating himself from it, to embracing it, to enjoying it a little bit too much, to diligently seeking it, to understanding that he is immune to suffering and finally using his pain as a pillar for his success.
- The shift from Victim to Warrior mentality.
- The catharsis from depicting his life and transferring his knowledge in a book.
- His willingness to open old wounds and repair the broken pieces of his life.
- His weight loss, brutal honesty, resilience, confidence and individual growth.
Furthermore, I couldn’t help to wonder about military life and how they recruit their candidates.
On one hand, does the military hire people who don’t know what to do with their lives, who completely lack purpose or are at their wit’s end? Then, the military breaks them down, builds them up into superhumans, gives them a patriotic purpose, and pours into them their way of thinking to get these superhumans to obey them and do whatever they want without asking questions?
On the other hand, according to David Goggins, “Hell Week is designed to show you that a human is capable of much more than you know. It opens your mind to the true possibilities of human potential, and with that comes a change in your mentality.”.
Needless to say, it’s amazing what these soldiers put their mind and body through but still survive. I wonder if they know how much they lose or gain mentally and emotionally doing so? If they are able to function outside of that institution and with that level of trauma?
Can’t Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds should definitely be called “How to make the best out of the worst”.
While reading this book, you will experience a lot of sadness, twisted experiences, inspirational and funny perspectives on life. Just life!
As much as I had a hard time reading this book, I couldn’t put it down.
Let me know below what you think about this book!
Favorite quote(s)
Nobody likes to hear the hard truth. Individually and as a culture, we avoid what we need to hear most. This world is fucked up, there are major problems in our society. We are still dividing ourselves up along racial and cultural lines, and people don’t have the balls to hear it! The truth is racism and bigotry still fucking exist and some people are so thin-skinned they refuse to admit that.
There is no more time to waste. Hours and days evaporate like creeks in the desert. That’s why it’s okay to be cruel to yourself as long as you realize you’re doing it to become better. We all need thicker skin to improve in life.
I looked at the people who were making me feel uncomfortable and realized how uncomfortable they were in their own skin. To make fun of or try to intimidate someone they didn’t even know based on race alone was a clear indication that something was very wrong with them, not me.
Self-improvement takes dedication and self-discipline.
The first step on the journey toward a calloused mind is stepping outside your comfort zone on a regular basis.
Until you experience hardships like abuse and bullying, failures and disappointments, your mind will remain soft and exposed. Life experience, especially negative experiences, help callous the mind.
Ratings 4.5/5
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