Find Your People By Jennie Allen

2 May 20221 May 2022by journeytoleadershipblogLeave a Comment

We stay stuck in the routines of our lives.

We don’t connect with others, we seclude ourselves for self-protection and stay within the social circles we are comfortable with.

Yet we remain unsatisfied with our lives and wonder whether or not life is supposed to be this way.

Yet we wonder how to find our community, our people, the ones who will fight for us and who are worth fighting for.

What is a Community?

Community is more then friendships.

Community is a way of life and is essential to living a fulfilled life.

In addition, the sense of community is based on the truths that people are the best and most painful part of our lives.

Your Community is made of non toxic people who see you, know you and who are willing to be seen and known by you.

Principles for Community

Community is necessay.

Needing other people is not a weakness but a strength.

There are 5 principles to building a healthy Community.

1. Proximity

The principle of Proximity relates to a need for intimacy and physical closeness.

To create Proximity, you can start noticing people in your vecinity and initiating the friendship even if you get frustrated.

2. Transparency

Closeness leads to Transparency.

However, you will only be as close as you are transparent and vulnerable.

3. Accountability

When we are left alone, we tend to become the worst versions of ourselves.

That is why Community has the potential to make us better and keep us accountable.

Indeed, Community makes us more effective, challenges us to aim higher, sharpens the mind and speaks truth.

4. Shared purpose

Most communities are built around a bigger and common mission.

Communities give the opportunity to do something meaningful and exciting.

5. Consistency

Communities provides healthy and consistent relationships.

Usually, people aren’t because they don’t want to deal with conflicts.

Nevertheless, conflicts are an inherent part of life.

That is why the people from your Community have to be consistent, choose to stay and be willing to be inconvenienced by your relationship.

To stay consistent, one must:

Assume the best because so many offenses are misunderstandings.
Seek peace and address a problem directly before it grows.
Be quick to apologize and make amends.

Review

Find Your People by Jennie Allen is a faith-based self-help book about building deep community.

Find Your People is destined mostly for extroverts, for people who are hardwired for relationships, for people who are afraid of being alone and of being lonely.

It is also written for those who hope to make deep connection and build an authentic community.

Allen uses her own life experiences and as an example of moving from a space of lack and fear to one of finding the right community.

Indeed, Allen transforms her initial neediness for relationship into a personal strength.

Furthermore, she demonstrates through biblical references that Deep Community is a social necessity and a path to greater success, hope and faith.

It seems like building and keeping that Community requires hardwork but is worth it.

Finally, Allen stressed that there are no perfect people but only the right people for you.

So, go out there and find your people!

Let me know below what you think about this book!

Favorite quote(s)

But community is bigger than two or three friends. Community should be the way we live.

We live guarded because we fear someone will use our weakness against us.

No one can be your everything, but everyone has something to say, something to teach you, and something to bring to your life.

Conflict isn’t the enemy to our friendships; conflict is fodder to make them grow. Conflict is inevitable in the kind of deep community we are talking about here.

If we’re going to deal with an offense, it needs to be a real offense. This is my rule on when to address something: don’t react too quickly. So many hurts are just misunderstandings.

Ratings 3/5

Author

Jennie Allen

Journey To Leadership, Quotes

28 Quotes On Trust In Leadership

29 November 202129 November 2021by journeytoleadershipblogLeave a Comment

Trust is an essential part of leadership…

In order to make sound decisions, to have a successful business and team, Trust is more than required. It has to be built up and most importantly maintained.

Below, I have compiled a few quotes to illustrate the importance of incorporating trust in the leadership process.

1. Anyone who doesn’t take truth seriously in small matters cannot be trusted in large ones either.” – Albert Einstein

2. Wise men put their trust in ideas and not in circumstances. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

3. I cannot trust a man to control others who cannot control himself. – Robert E. Lee

4. Trust is the glue of life. It’s the most essential ingredient in effective communication. It’s the foundational principle that holds all relationships. – Stephen R. Covey

5. The glue that holds all relationships together — including the relationship between the leader and the led — is trust, and trust is based on integrity. – Brian Tracy

6. Just trust yourself, then you will know how to live. – Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

7. Trust should be earned inherently, without any verbal demands. – Anne Elisabeth Stengl

8. When the trust account is high, communication is easy, instant, and effective. – Stephen R. Covey

9. It’s discouraging to think how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit. – Noël Coward

10. It has always been my contention that an individual who can be relied upon to be himself and to be honest unto himself can be relied upon in every other way. – J. Paul Getty

11. Never trust he who trusts everyone. – Carlos Ruiz Zafón

12. You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time. – Abraham Lincoln

13. If you do not tell the truth about yourself you cannot tell it about other people. – Virginia Woolf

14. Peace and trust take years to build and seconds to shatter. – Mahogany SilverRain

15. Without trust we don’t truly collaborate; we merely coordinate or, at best, cooperate. It is trust that transforms a group of people into a team. – Stephen R. Covey

16. Trust is built when someone is vulnerable and not taken advantage of. – Bob Vanourek

17. Trust doesn’t mean that you trust that someone won’t screw up—it means you trust them when they do screw up. – Ed Catmull

18. Leadership is the relentless pursuit of truth and ceaseless creation of trust. – Jack Welch

19. Great teams have trust at the heart of their success. If you don’t trust each other, you’ll play safe. Trust makes it possible to aim higher. To leap further and to know someone has your back if you fall. – Adam Grant

20. A team is not a group of people who work together. A team is a group of people who trust each other. – Simon Sinek

21. Trust starts with trustworthy leadership. It must be built into the corporate culture. – Barbara Kimmel Brooks

22. When people honor each other, there is a trust established that leads to synergy, interdependence, and deep respect. Both parties make decisions and choices based on what is right, what is best, what is valued most highly. – Blaine Lee

23. It’s mutual trust, even more than mutual interest, that holds human associations together. – H. L. Mencken

24. Trust is built with consistency. – Lincoln Chafee

25. When truth takes a backseat to ego and politics, trust is lost. – Patrick Lencioni

26. Because you believed I was capable of behaving decently, I did. – Paolo Coelho

27. Do not trust all men, but trust men of worth; the former course is silly, the latter a mark of prudence. – Democritus

28. You must train your intuition – you must trust the small voice inside you which tells you exactly what to say, what to decide. – Ingrid Bergman

Last Words Of Advice

Trust is a two-way street and is fragile. It takes years to build and a few seconds to destroy.

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.

Quotes

Quote Of the Week #220

29 November 202127 November 2021by journeytoleadershipblogLeave a Comment

Journey To Leadership

26 Constructive Things That Great Leaders Say

2 August 202115 August 2021by journeytoleadershipblogLeave a Comment

Words are powerful and can have a long-lasting effect on people…

Great leaders show interest and appreciation in the success of their team.

Indeed, they go beyond and above to motivate their team.

Wondering what are some motivating things that leaders can say?

1. What do you need?

2. How can I help?

3. What do you think?

4. Thank you!

5. Please

6. I apologize or I am sorry

7. How are you?

8. I was wrong

9. I don’t know…

10. I believe you can

11. I trust you

12. Tell me more

13. We have a mission statement

14. My vision is

15. My expectations are

16. Here is the plan

17. Here are the objectives

18. What are we learning from this?

19. Help me understand

20. Let’s talk about it!

21. Why don’t you tell us?

22. What do you think?

23. How can we improve this?

24. Let’s find a solution to your problem

25. We did it!

26. Congratulations!

Last words of advice!

It always help to be sincere in your delivery!

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.

Journey To Leadership

9 Tips To Lead Employees Working Remotely

4 May 20204 May 2020by journeytoleadershipblogLeave a Comment

Working from home has become the norm in the last few weeks, and has allowed companies to remain competitive and productive.

Employees can now get work done, tend to personal obligations and spend more time with their families.

That being said, leaders have to maintain their objectives and keep an eye on their teams.

Wondering how to help establish remote working and lead your team from afar?

There are amazing benefits to having remote workers: you save money and office space, workers save time and energy from the commute.

It will certainly improve employee engagement and boost morale.

There are different ways that you can help establish remote working.

1. Make a general assessment

Each company has unique needs. Therefore, you first need to assess the needs and the equipments of your company.

Secondly, you need to assess the position and responsibility of the employee. The position needs to be suited for remote work. You may want to understand with whom they confer with, how long they work and what do they need to get work done.

2. Get to know your team

Should all employees be allowed to work remotely?

To allow employees to work from home, you have to know how well they produce work and how serious, disciplined, mature and autonomous they are.

Some employees may be new to the company, may need a lot of supervision, may have difficulty communicating from a distance or may not know how to balance their work and life.

You can put remote under a trial period to test their ability to produce quality work remotely.

3. Make sure you trust your team

Before sending them out to work remotely, you must be able to trust your team and know that they will be pulling their weight.

Remote workers are not that hard to supervise but it all depends on your level of trust.

4. Invest in new technology

In order for you to keep up with your remote team, you may need to invest in digital workspaces.

These workspaces will allow you to schedule meetings, share documents, set deadlines, give instructions, train your team, communicate securely with your team and track their individual progress.

5. Clarify goals

Information can easily get lost when you are working remotely.

It becomes important for you to clarify your objectives and ensure that your team understands what needs to be done.

This will make it easier for them to stay on task, for you to track their progress and to address any issues.

6. Create a structure around your team

Let your team know at what time and for which activities they need to be available.

Working from home provides great flexibility but remote workers may have to also obey a code of conduct, a dress code and fixed hours to keep them engaged and far from burning out.

7. Plan in person meetups

Remote workers can get lonely and lose touch with their organization.

They will even have more difficulty keeping up and communicating with your team in the office.

Therefore, it becomes detrimental to make yourself available to them, keep them in the loop, encourage communication and include them in meetings and all meetups.

8. Deal with the legal aspects

You have to make sure that your team agrees with requirements and conditions of working from home.

Their information and data must be protected and they have to be safe, insured and properly equipped.

9. Equip your team

Your team may need a computer, a dedicated office space, a better and protected internet connection.

Overall, keep in mind that working remotely reduces the cost of operation.

Last Words Of Advice!

Productivity and work life balance have somewhat improved thanks to remote working. Employees are more and more looking for companies that can provide them with enough telecommuting.

However, just like working in a cubicle, remote working is not made for everybody and should not be imposed.

Some people enjoy human contact and others may want a better work-life balance but may suffer the consequences of working alone.

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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Four Red Flags Wrecking Team Success and Cohesion

20 January 202014 February 2020by journeytoleadershipblog26 Comments

Building an ideal team is one of the most complex but also one of the most rewarding and advantageous responsibility of a leader.

The leader has to select the team to ultimately create the best results for the organization, in light of the company’s culture and of the personality, motivation, commitment, values, performance, integrity level of his or her potential team members, with respect to his or her leadership style.

When the team is built, the leader has to look out for red flags that can destroy the synergy of his or her team and easily create a lasting toxic climate.

Wondering how to detect these red flags, avoid toxicity on your team, how to extract the best results from your team members and to become the best team member you can?

A few years ago, I worked on a year-long project, under a boss who used demotions and other measures to punish some of his employees when mistakes occurred. For example, he would quickly and sadistically withdraw work responsibilities from someone he did not favor to give to someone else.

As a result, the team was a unsalvable shipwreck: every man for himself, searching for a flotation device, fighting to get on land. My former boss manipulative behavior created a toxic climate where people were continually in flight or fight mode, were mistrustful towards one another, would turn on each other, retain information and sabotage every other person efforts to succeed, were obliged to seek his “affections” and to continually prove their loyalty to him in order to feel safe in their position, were more focused on office politics than on their work, were always on the lookout of a scapegoat, were afraid of speaking up and being transparent.

The lack of trust, commitment, performance was noticeable on a daily basis. By trust, I mean the ability of the team members to admit their mistakes, acknowledge their strengths and weaknesses, stay open, transparent with one another without any repercussion on themselves or their career.

RED FLAG #1: Lack of Transparency

In Speaking Truth to Power, James O’Toole states that “In essence, trust is hard to earn, easy to lose, and, once lost, nearly impossible to regain”.

Teams must be able to understand each other, to interpret their respective behavior and to be candid with one another.

To enable transparency, leaders have to:

Ask their team to reveal something personal and relevant about themselves. It can relate to their failures or successes, to their worst or most embarrassing experiences at work.
Encourage team building to better understand one another and enable bonds.
Assess and apply their team strengths and weaknesses by using profiling tools to get more insights into their behavior such as the DISC assessment, Social Style model, Right Path Profiles, Insights, MBTI).
Define a clear purpose for the team.
Explain major decisions from the organization to their team and include them in the flow of relevant information.
Maintain trust overtime and create unanimity.
Consistently tell the truth to their followers, be comfortable with it and practice integrity.
Value openness, empower those who tell the truth and must not reward those who do otherwise.

RED FLAG #2: Fear of conflict

In teams, conflicts do exist, are raw and real, are to be expected, and shouldn’t be avoided. In addition, they occur because we were born into different generations, backgrounds, with different personalities, values and morals.

Furthermore, conflict is always seen in a negative light or as a destructive process.
However, conflicts can be healthy and productive too. And even though conflicts are uncomfortable and make you feel under attack, they are necessary for personal and organizational progress, are used to generate the best decisions for the organization and to make team meetings mire engaging. In order to establish a conflict culture, it is imperative that leaders:

Create a structure where it is safe for their team members to express themselves without feeling the need to attack.
Hold their team accountable to the conflict system established.
Focus the conflict on the issue at hand to avoid personal attacks.
Assess each team member conflict capabilities/profiles with MBTI to develop the appropriate approach.
Ask their team members directly how they deal with conflicts.
Define conflict resolution, ease anxious team members in the face of conflict and find courage to speak truth to power.

RED FLAG #3: Lack of Commitment

Commitment is the willingness to achieve common goals as a team, the ability of team members to align themselves with the organization purpose, values and strategies even in disagreement with the decision taken.

To enhance team commitment, leaders must:

Embrace conflicts, divergent opinions, ideas and perspectives.
Among conflicting ideas, make wise decisions and be unafraid to displease some team members.
Before making a decision, understand and consider all ideas.
Clarify their decisions with the team and write down them down to avoid ulterior assumptions and ambiguities.

RED FLAG #4: Lack of accountability

Team members must keep each other accountable for their behavior, their mistakes and lack of performance. If no one is held accountable, team members gradually lose respect for each other and moral decreases. Leaders must:

Lead by example, call out mishaps, low results and misconduct.
Make every team member aware of each other contributions and functions on the team.
Track everyone’s progress and accurately measure performance.
Measure team success using objective and liable means.
Measure progress with timelines.
Focus on areas of productivity.
Make sure that the collective interest in results exceeds the individual needs of the team.

How to be an effective team member?

Develop your communication skills.
Make sure that you are understood and are open to clarifying misunderstandings.
Monitor your non verbal communication. Keep your body language positive and opened.
Look at the person you’re exchanging with.
If a problem occurs between you and someone else, fix it before the problem festers by talking to that person as soon as possible. This shows that you are willing to work through issues, that you are a problem solver instead of being inappropriate and ineffective.
Give sincere and appropriate positive feedback to your team members.
Develop your listening skills.

To demonstrate your interest in learning new skills, to better understand the other person, you have to:

be willing to listen more that you speak and voice your opinion in due time.
Implement the conversation with probing question.
Request other people opinion before giving yours.
Avoid planning your responses during the conversation.
Encourage the conversation with nods, smiles and eye contact.
Manage your tasks and time.
Put your understanding of the team task into writing in order to clarify immediate issues and to have a reference for time and deadlines measurement.
Own up to your actions.

Failing to follow through on your team assignments is synonym to letting your team down. To stay accountable for your part:

Keep your promises.
Offer to help coworkers in time of need.
Avoid procrastination and do not hesitate yo ask for help.
Avoid blaming others for your mistakes take the blame if you have done something wrong.
Find solutions to issues instead if creating them.
Learn from each and very situations and move on group them.
Avoid repeating past mistakes.
Work on interrelationship skills.

Last Words Of Advice!

In the team, you have to cooperate with your coworkers and work well with your supervisor. To do so:

Treat everyone with respect.
Avoid stereotypes and jumping to conclusions.
Avoid gossip and keep confidences.
Share your knowledge with your team.

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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Book Reviews

The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow By John C. Maxwell

29 July 201916 February 2020by journeytoleadershipblog2 Comments

According to John C. Maxwell, there are 21 irrefutable laws of leadership that every leader should hold on to.

1. The law of the lid

Your ability to lead determines your effectiveness, the height of your success, the limit of your vision, the impact of your influence.

To overcome the law of the lid, you have to increase your ability to lead.

2. The law of influence

Influence is an important part of leadership.

You have to put in work to gain influence. It is not about a title or a leadership position and cannot be bought.

With influence, you can rally people to a cause, move people in a new direction, and you can win people over on the long run.

3. The law of process

Leadership is a lifelong process.

LEADERSHIP IS DEVELOPED DAILY, NOT IN A DAY. - John C. Maxwell in The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership Click To Tweet

Leadership is a collection of skills that need continual improvement, personal growth and learning.

Leadership requires a lot of self discipline and determination. It is important for leaders to open themselves up for improvement to start slow and fight their way up.

4. The law of navigation

Leaders need to effectively navigate their way through life, while knowing people are depending on them.

In order to give themselves the best chances at success, they:

Are realistic.
Have to stay focused and in control.
Have a solid vision for their destination.
Have enough visibility to change course in time if they want to.
Draw their itinerary from their past failures and successes.
Listen to what their team has to say.
Don’t make commitments lightly.
Plan the course of their action.

5. The law of E. F. Hutton

Leaders become real leaders thanks to their character, relationships, knowledge, experience, past successes and abilities. People will not follow you because of your position.

The law of E. F. Hutton helps you figure out who the real leader in the room really is. To find the real leader, observe the reaction of the people in the room when the real leader speaks.

6. The law of solid ground

Leaders must communicate their character, exemplify their behavior, maintain their credibility and avoid breaking the trust of their followers.

When leaders make a mistake, they must quickly admit it and ask for forgiveness.

7. The law of respect

Leaders who are stronger and better leaders than their followers tend to gain respect.

8. The law of intuition

The law of intuition is a complex part of leadership, relies on instinct, facts and other factors.

Leaders who work with the law of intuition are able to sense a situation, to read people and themselves, to use their intuition to achieve their goals and to solve problems.

9. The law of magnetism

The law of magnetism states that who you are is who you attract.

Leaders who follow this law are able to attract the people who possess the same qualities as they do.

They attract people with same attitude, from the same generation and background, with the same values, life experiences and abilities.

Character makes trust possible. And trust makes leadership possible. - John C. Maxwell in The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership Click To Tweet

10. The law of connection

Leaders who observe this law touch people emotionally, know how to communicate with people, connect with them and show that they care.

The more leaders work on the connection with their employees, the more employees are loyal and demonstrate a strong work ethic.

11. The law of the inner circle

The people in the leader’s inner circle will determine the leader’s potential.

Leaders understand that they cannot be a lone ranger and acknowledge the purpose and strengths of the inner circle.

12. The law of empowerment

Successful and secure leaders empower and believe in their team.

Those who don’t create a barrier that their employees cannot overcome.

13. The law of reproduction

The law of reproduction works in a way where only leaders are capable of developing leaders and by teaching them what they know.

Some leaders don’t develop other leaders because they don’t have time or because of their own insecurities.

14. The law of buy in

People buy into leaders who have a vision.

If they don’t like the leader or the vision, they get another leader.

If the leader is credible, then people believe that the vision is credible as well.

15. The law of victory

Leaders who observe this law refuse defeat, dedicate themselves to victory and find a way to achieve success.

16. The law of the big mo

Leaders understand that to create change they need to create momentum.

Momentum is contagious, improves performance and makes the leader look good.

17. The law of priorities

Leaders spend their time prioritizing and recognize that doing more does not equate success.

They use the Pareto principle and the three Rs( requirement, return, reward).

18. The law of sacrifice

Sometimes, leaders have to sacrifice themselves to succeed and to gain opportunities.

The higher you go up on the ladder, the more you have to sacrifice.

19. The law of timing

Successful leaders read situations, recognize when to lead and when to take the right action at the right time.

20. The law of explosive growth

Potential leaders are hard to find and to attract but leaders who develop other leaders multiply growth within their organization.

21. The law of legacy

Leaders who leave a legacy lead with tomorrow in mind, make developing other leaders as part of the culture, sacrifice for future success and pass on the torch.

Review

The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow is an easy to read leadership development book.

In The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow, John C. Maxwell makes a list of 21 laws of leadership to help people better themselves and their organization.

These laws are the universal foundation for every area of your life. They can be learnt, be in standalone, have serious consequences, be practiced on a daily basis.

Maxwell has spent most of his life in leadership position. So, he entertains us with uncommon, historical and adventurous examples that everyone can relate to.

Finally, he encourages leaders to learn and go apply what they learnt.

Let me know below what you think about this book!

Favorite quote(s)

Leadership is complicated. It has many facets: respect, experience, emotional strength, people skills, discipline, vision, momentum, timing—the list goes on. As you can see, many factors that come into play in leadership are intangible. That’s why leaders require so much seasoning to be effective.

The good news is that your leadership ability is not static. No matter where you’re starting from, you can get better.

The leader finds the dream and then the people. The people find the leader, and then the dream.

MANY PEOPLE TODAY WANT TO CLIMB UP THE CORPORATE LADDER BECAUSE THEY BELIEVE THAT FREEDOM AND POWER ARE THE PRIZES WAITING AT THE TOP. THEY DON’T REALIZE THAT THE TRUE NATURE OF LEADERSHIP IS REALLY SACRIFICE.

Ratings 4/5

Author

John C. Maxwell

Journey To Leadership

The Importance Of Being Present In Leadership

15 October 201815 October 2018by journeytoleadershipblog5 Comments

Leaders often find themselves looking for the next best thing, distracted by the past and worrying about the future.

However, dwelling in the past or the future brings about dissatisfaction and unhappiness, impedes leaders from being effective, from being creative or finding appropriate solutions.

Indeed, we have all experienced these moments in meetings when everyone in the room is completely checked out, where people talk over each other and where no useful information is shared.

Wondering how to improve your leadership and live in the present?

What being present means?

Being present is a state of mind. It means being able to quiet your mind, to stay open and authentic, to remain in constant contact with your emotions and with your surroundings.

Being present means living in the moment and not overthinking the past, the present or the future. When you live in the present, you don’t over-analyze life, you accept your situation, take action or effectively resolve your problem.

Benefits of being present

Being present is powerful because it can be acted upon right now.

Usually, people dissatisfaction or unhappiness is caused by their attachment to the future or the past. Being present will help you:

Become more effective, more intuitive, more creative.
Be more aware of your fluctuating thoughts and emotions.
Achieve a higher sense of confidence and authenticity.
Increase your level of gratitude, trust, respect and broaden your charisma.
Gain the ability to interpret and to respond appropriately to any given situation.
Get the most out of your day and out of others.
Hone your communication and relationship skills. You can then connect with others, adapt to people and read them better.
Build up your emotional intelligence.
Foresee challenges and notice details.
Avoid being in a constant state of pain, anxiety or depression.
Retrieve your ability to enjoy your life and be an inspiration to people around you.
Activate the Law of Attraction.

How to become more present?

Most of the time our mind is somewhere else.

Thoughts submerge us whether we want it or not. Therefore, asking someone to stop thinking is like asking them to stop breathing.

Your job is to not eliminate the thoughts that come to mind but to control them.

Needless to say, learning to be present is not an overnight process. Becoming more present requires a lot of self-discipline and self-awareness:

Understand that you are a mental, intellectual, emotional, spiritual being.
Understand that your past doesn’t define you and that you cannot go back in time. Worrying about the past will not help you identify what is wrong in the present and will definitely strengthen your negative thoughts.
Do not worry about the future. Your mind tries to create the future from your past and not from your present information. However, dreaming of your future is OK if you are expecting better for yourself.
Be self-aware and conscious. The moment you realize that you are not present, you are in the moment.
Stay true to yourself, avoid comparing yourself to others and avoid caring about what others think of you.
Listen to your gut and constantly remind yourself of your purpose.
Observe the patterns of your mind and observe your own reaction.
Accept the thoughts that come to you, don’t act on them and keep it moving.
Take time to reflect, to listen to yourself before dealing with people or entering a situation that you cannot handle. For example, I like taking my lunch break alone to center myself, to give me time to recharge my batteries.
Slow down, avoid multitasking and give yourself time to think before making a decision.
Avoid external distractions to be able to engage properly with people.
Prioritize, appreciate your time and energy. It is also important to avoid missing moments with your family and friends.
Be more empathetic, actively listen to people and seek someone else’s point of view.
Find things to be grateful about.
Find an activity that you enjoy in the moment.
Practice focusing on your breathing.
Surround yourself with people who matter most to you.
Compliment people, once in a while and give them your full attention.
Do not self-medicate.

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.

Journey To Leadership

The Importance Of Innovation In Leadership

6 August 201810 June 2019by journeytoleadershipblog10 Comments

Welcoming innovation and creating an overall innovation culture at work is not easy but necessary.

Most company cultures have very limiting unwritten rules when it comes to innovation. For the most part, innovators in corporate culture are seen as irresponsible, unmindful, nonconformist and disruptive. For instance, some organizations will not hesitate to shut down dissident voices and to punish rules breakers.

Furthermore, the longer you have been in a leadership position, the more you become complacent, the more you get stuck in your ways, the more you start believing in erroneous paradigms, the less you are willing to take risks, to change your processes and to innovate.

Wondering how to avoid complacency and to enable the innovation process?

What is innovation?

Innovation is a natural or acquired process that is present as a core value in most organization and that can make all the difference. It is the ability to deliver new positive data, value, concepts and systems. Somewhat, innovation implies creativity but not the other way around.

Furthermore, innovation is a mindset but not everyone is able to trigger innovation. Innovative leaders are capable of:

Self-awareness and of assessing situations.
Creativity and of generating new opportunities for themselves.
Identifying issues, understanding them and exploring different perspectives.
Finding long-term solutions to problem and making strategic decisions.
Having a vision, short and long-term goals.
Performing at a higher level, effectively restructuring organization, implementing a vision and appropriately using their resources.
Communicating effectively.
Adapting to different circumstances, taking action despite the circumstances and reinventing themselves.
Taking charge of their behavior and their emotions.
Adequately handling failure and success.

Why innovate?

Leaders feel pressure to adapt to the market, to create new products, to maintain a stable work environment, stable results and still welcome innovation. Jump starting the innovation process within your organization will help you and your organization:

Stay relevant.
Gain a competitive advantage.
Remember that what worked in the past, will not necessarily work right now.
Demonstrates your effectiveness, adaptability, capacity to handle issues and to overcome challenges.
Pay close attention to the customers.

How to trigger and maintain an innovation culture?

Every organization has their own culture and every leader has their own norms. So, in order to avoid complacency and to trigger an innovative spirit:

Live a healthy Work-Life Balance.
Identify new ideas to integrate into your leadership style.
Keep an open mind, focus on the positive, give yourself the time and the opportunity to explore, always ask questions and always be open to learn. Pursue truth and knowledge.
Challenge your own knowledge, your assumptions and your preconceived notions.
Avoid using your life and work experiences to drive innovation. Question and learn from everything: read, observe and explore more than usual. You can even look at other innovative ideas and see if they fir your situation.
Get out of your comfort zone, challenge conventional wisdom and the status quo.
Create a personal mission statement that measure your progress, that helps you follow through on your commitments and that incorporates your willingness to innovate.
Rephrase a same issue multiple times to gain more clarification.
Don’t hesitate to break societal rules to get where you want to go.
Demonstrate that innovation is necessary. Incorporate it in your core values and in your actions.
Listen to different ideas and appreciate other people point of views, especially if they are not related to the issue. However, this doesn’t mean that you will need to apply their point of view.
Be confident in your vision and embrace change.
Write down every idea that comes to you even if you don’t have the opportunity to use them.
Learn to take calculated risks, to handle failure as well as success, to plan for the unknown and for failures, to celebrate success. Failure and success can inhibit your ability to innovate because you are constantly thinking of what could go wrong. It is therefore important to see failure as an opportunity to grow and to get closer to success.
Analyze the time and the cost needed to implement your innovative idea.
Identify the passionate people and change agents on your team. Besides, expecting people to be passionate, demonstrate your own passion and convey it to your team.
Identify the people who are blocking your ideas in the organization. It would be wise to share your vision with them and try to convince them.
Ask for constant feedback and give feedback yourself.
Empower your team at all levels, trust them, allow them to speak their minds, to find different alternatives to a problem and help them achieve their goals.
Encourage dissenting voices who can challenge in new ideas and analyze their every aspect, who can identify areas in the organization that need optimization.
Welcome brainstorming activities and filter out ideas with potential.
Set deadlines to build pressure and to get more out of your team.
Train your employees to hone their skills, to appreciate change and set high expectations for them.
Avoid criticizing your team when they come up with new ideas and avoid shifting blame when something goes wrong.
Remove your ego and potentially collaborate with your competitor.

Hope that I’ve helped you get it together on your way to leadership!

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Journey To Leadership

The Importance Of Successfully Leading Through Change

25 June 201826 July 2018by journeytoleadershipblog6 Comments

To remain competitive, most organizations stay up to date on every technology, continually propose innovative products and always embrace change. However, putting change into practice is much more complex than it appears.

To that effect, effective leaders have to be confident, self-aware, self-assured, strategic, adaptable, bold, resourceful, driven, accountable and able to think on their feet. Needless to say, ineffective leadership hinders change, creates mistrust, disengagement, misalignment and a loss of moral among employees.

Wondering how to successfully lead change and overcome resistance?

Change is a part of life, is a constant and is inevitable. Change shakes things up, disrupts old habits, breathes new life into the workplace and into any project.

It has the ability to stimulate interest in a job and can be perceived as a new challenge. It also creates an opportunity for promotion and to learn new skills.

Change becomes compulsory and evident in the workplace during societal movements, when the values and beliefs of both leaders and employees no longer match those of the company. Change also happens when the organization requires new skills, new products or services, policies update, restructuring, or relocation.

Resistance to change

Change brings about an initial resistance, can easily become chaotic and unstable. When faced with change, most people believe that they will:

potentially lose their current position,
be demoted, that their career will eventually suffer or that their hard work will be devalued,
be working for a lower salary,
lose control over their own life,
live in the unknown.

The unknown generates strong emotions in people. Therefore, employees tend to resist change when they are surprised or unprepared, don’t understand the reasons for the change, are not implicated enough in the decision-making process.

Indeed, some people will openly express their resistance to change, some will voluntarily sabotage change, others will quietly and passively express their discontent. It is the role of the leader to temper such behavior and push change.

How to implement change?

The leaders must visibly act out the change, must be ready to do things differently and to think otherwise. To lead the change process from start to finish:

Assess your own ability to handle change. Before undertaking such mission, ensure that you believe in the change and that it doesn’t go against your principles. In addition, keep in mind that reacting to the change is much more difficult than initiating it. Either you can start the movement, participate in it or suffer and react to it.
Stay disciplined, resilient and patient. The change process is slow and everybody moves at their own pace.
Learn to communicate your vision which encompasses your values and morals.
Be authentic and transparent in order to build trust and to improve relationships. Change is much more difficult to implement when there is a climate of mistrust.
Be open to feedback and to making alterations to the original plan of action.
Ask probing questions to key employees, acknowledge that you don’t know all the answers and be open to learn continually. This will allow you to gather appropriate information, to anticipate issues, to maximize effort.
Evaluate the right amount of change you want to implement. You don’t want to overwhelm or burn out your employees .
Calculate the costs and determine the feasibility of the change to ensure that it doesn’t get out of control. It becomes critical to motivate the necessary time and resources, to place emphasis on the value and sustainability of change.
Analyze the consequences of change before undertaking anything.
Understand the company culture, its values and beliefs in order to best present ideas and to determine a proper structure.
Design a clear strategy and outcome for the process. For example, you can break the change process into smaller steps, prioritize them and create metrics to measure progress.
Identify the influencers and the people who are open to change in your organization. Find informal leaders in your organization, who will motivate others and who will instill pride in their work.
Discuss the implications of change with your employees and increase the number of meetings if necessary. Listen to the questions and concerns of your employees. It is necessary to reassure people about the upcoming changes by explaining to them the reasons and the benefits for change.
Directly address problems, don’t micromanage and don’t openly criticize dissenting voices in order to shut them up.
Keep your energy up during the process, motivate your team and show them the positive sides of the transformation. Persuade your employees that they will benefit from the change to increase commitment.
Encourage collaboration on your team, mitigate conflicts and maintain harmony as much as possible because emotions are high.
Set high expectations and give your team the confidence to deal with changes and gain their approval every step of the way.
Give your employees more ownership of their work to increase commitment.
Expect setbacks. Understand that the risks are worth the rewards and that it is OK to fail. People don’t take risks when there are no personal rewards, there is no clemency towards failure.

Hope that I’ve helped you get it together on your way to leadership!

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What is a Community?

Principles for Community

1. Proximity

2. Transparency

3. Accountability

4. Shared purpose

5. Consistency

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Trust is an essential part of leadership…

1. Anyone who doesn’t take truth seriously in small matters cannot be trusted in large ones either.” – Albert Einstein

2. Wise men put their trust in ideas and not in circumstances. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

3. I cannot trust a man to control others who cannot control himself. – Robert E. Lee

4. Trust is the glue of life. It’s the most essential ingredient in effective communication. It’s the foundational principle that holds all relationships. – Stephen R. Covey

5. The glue that holds all relationships together — including the relationship between the leader and the led — is trust, and trust is based on integrity. – Brian Tracy

6. Just trust yourself, then you will know how to live. – Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

7. Trust should be earned inherently, without any verbal demands. – Anne Elisabeth Stengl

8. When the trust account is high, communication is easy, instant, and effective. – Stephen R. Covey

9. It’s discouraging to think how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit. – Noël Coward

10. It has always been my contention that an individual who can be relied upon to be himself and to be honest unto himself can be relied upon in every other way. – J. Paul Getty

11. Never trust he who trusts everyone. – Carlos Ruiz Zafón

12. You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time. – Abraham Lincoln

13. If you do not tell the truth about yourself you cannot tell it about other people. – Virginia Woolf

14. Peace and trust take years to build and seconds to shatter. – Mahogany SilverRain

15. Without trust we don’t truly collaborate; we merely coordinate or, at best, cooperate. It is trust that transforms a group of people into a team. – Stephen R. Covey

16. Trust is built when someone is vulnerable and not taken advantage of. – Bob Vanourek

17. Trust doesn’t mean that you trust that someone won’t screw up—it means you trust them when they do screw up. – Ed Catmull

18. Leadership is the relentless pursuit of truth and ceaseless creation of trust. – Jack Welch

19. Great teams have trust at the heart of their success. If you don’t trust each other, you’ll play safe. Trust makes it possible to aim higher. To leap further and to know someone has your back if you fall. – Adam Grant

20. A team is not a group of people who work together. A team is a group of people who trust each other. – Simon Sinek

21. Trust starts with trustworthy leadership. It must be built into the corporate culture. – Barbara Kimmel Brooks

22. When people honor each other, there is a trust established that leads to synergy, interdependence, and deep respect. Both parties make decisions and choices based on what is right, what is best, what is valued most highly. – Blaine Lee

23. It’s mutual trust, even more than mutual interest, that holds human associations together. – H. L. Mencken

24. Trust is built with consistency. – Lincoln Chafee

25. When truth takes a backseat to ego and politics, trust is lost. – Patrick Lencioni

26. Because you believed I was capable of behaving decently, I did. – Paolo Coelho

27. Do not trust all men, but trust men of worth; the former course is silly, the latter a mark of prudence. – Democritus

28. You must train your intuition – you must trust the small voice inside you which tells you exactly what to say, what to decide. – Ingrid Bergman

Last Words Of Advice

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Words are powerful and can have a long-lasting effect on people…

Wondering what are some motivating things that leaders can say?

1. What do you need?

2. How can I help?

3. What do you think?

4. Thank you!

5. Please

6. I apologize or I am sorry

7. How are you?

8. I was wrong

9. I don’t know…

10. I believe you can

11. I trust you

12. Tell me more

13. We have a mission statement

14. My vision is

15. My expectations are

16. Here is the plan

17. Here are the objectives

18. What are we learning from this?

19. Help me understand

20. Let’s talk about it!

21. Why don’t you tell us?

22. What do you think?

23. How can we improve this?

24. Let’s find a solution to your problem

25. We did it!

26. Congratulations!

Last words of advice!

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Wondering how to help establish remote working and lead your team from afar?