If you want your team or department to excel, the members must be committed to improving existing skills and learning new ones. Yet as many leadership gurus will tell you, team members rarely rise above their leadership. If you want your team to improve – both as individuals and as a collective – you, their leader, must set the example.
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What can you do to effectively set the bar higher when it comes to personal and professional development? Here are just a few ideas to get you started:

• Create both a personal and business vision. – A wealth of knowledge is our fingertips and we could immerse ourselves in a number of various studies in order to improve. You must choose to study the topics that will enable you to achieve your vision. That’s going to be difficult if you don’t have one.
• Be a goal setter/achiever. – Based on your vision, create a strategy to accomplish it. Once you have a strategy, break that down into bite sized pieces. These are the goals you set for yourself or your team that propel you forward. I know you’ve heard this before. But be honest – are you setting goals and working every day to accomplish them?
• Practice excellent time management. – Again, this is not a new idea. Despite the fact that every person reading this blog has heard or been taught about time management, time management experts tell us that only around 10% of us actually practice it. An excellent resource to help you work on both your goals and time management is Brian Tracy’s book, “GOALS! How to Get Everything You Want – Faster than You Ever Thought Possible.”
• Discover your strengths and the strengths of those with whom you work. – The Pareto principle poses that 20% of our effort leads to 80% of our results. One of the reasons this is true is because we waste 80% of our time, energy and other resources doing things we are not truly equipped to do. To immediately increase your productivity, discover your strengths and passions and invest more of your time doing those things you enjoy doing and are good at. Delegate the tasks (if you can) that do not fall within your area of expertise. By discovering the strengths of your team members, you can assign those tasks to your team members who have the strengths and passion to accomplish them. This increases not only your productivity, but theirs and the entire team. An excellent resource for this point is Tom Rath’s “StrengthFinder 2.0.”
• Recruit a Coach. – We all perform better when there is someone in our lives who is holding our feet to the fire, encouraging us to stretch beyond our comfort zone. Check out this short video which features 2 highly successful individuals speaking on the topic of having a coach: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLF90uwII1k

 
Obviously there are many, many more things you can do if you are seeking to improve your leadership skills. These would be a great start for someone who is either just beginning their leadership journey or sees a need to tune up their management abilities. Feel free to contact me at chris@mahan9group if you’d like to investigate ways the Mahan 9 Group can assist you in your quest to be an excellent leader.

leader will never inspire his/her team to greatness. An excellent leader will motivate his/her team to achieve more than they ever dreamed possible.

Practically speaking, that means if you want your team or organization to excel, you must be in a continual state of growth, development and improvement. You must be getting better at all aspects of leadership. Your drive for self-improvement will be the example that leads your team in their quest for excellence.

Make that commitment to grow and learn. Start today by performing an honest self-evaluation of yourself and your leadership. An excellent tool to assist you in this examination is John Maxwell’s “Leadership Assessment” which you can find at http://www.centerstreet.com/The5LevelsOfLeadership_Bonus.pdf.

If you are going to grow as a leader, you must accurately identify where you are today and where you desire to be in the future. Once you have your starting point and final goal firmly in mind, create a plan to help take you from where you are to where you want to be.
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In my next blog, I’ll continue to address specific ways you can improve as a leader. If you are looking for assistance in assessing your current leadership or are looking for a coach to work with you in your leadership development, drop me a line at [email protected]. 

What some leaders do not realize is that before they can do these things for others, they must first do them for themselves. A true leader is one who understands and acts on the knowledge that they are responsible for their own mindset, attitude and actions. In order to be the best leader – the best person – he can be, the true leader creates an atmosphere for himself that enables him to flourish and prosper. He clearly knows the goals he has set for himself, seeks inventive ways to achieve those goals, motivates himself to action, coaches himself when things don’t go as planned and finds ways to keep himself energized throughout the process.
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The wise leader is the one who also knows he/she can’t do this alone. That is one of the great values of having a mentor or a coach who assists you in your development as a person and as a leader. We all need someone who challenges us to effectively lead ourselves before attempting to lead others. Who is the mentor/coach in your life that is helping you? If you don’t have such a person, begin seeking out one today.
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If you want to truly develop as a leader, you must be working on self-improvement and self-growth. You’ll find it much easier to do with the assistance of a coach or mentor.

They are willing to endure the hardship and pay that price ​because the desire for the prize is much greater than the desire for comfort. The same is true for those who desire greatness of any kind in their life. They know there is a process that enables them to move from where they are to where they want to be. Their vision is so clear and their desire to see that vision fulfilled so intense that momentary setbacks or temporary obstacles are never strong enough to dissuade them from the pursuit of that vision. They know the process will include adversity so they are not surprised, nor unprepared when it comes.

To enjoy success, one must be committed to view obstacles and hardships as stepping stones used to achieve an objective. When viewed in this manner, those adversities are welcomed, rather than avoided. They are perceived as opportunities for growth. The person pursuing their vision with vigor sees difficulties as doors through which they must pass on their way to the realization of their goal. The average achiever sees adversities as stumbling blocks while the over achiever treats them as stepping stones. This difference in attitude is one of the marks that differentiates the one who settles for mediocrity from the one who strives for excellence.

What are the obstacles that appear to be standing between you and the success you are currently pursuing? What will be the outcome if you choose to avoid the obstacles rather than face them and work through them? You might avoid some pain, discomfort or uncomfortableness. But at what price? If, instead, you squarely face the impending difficulties and work to remove the obstacles, what benefit will it provide in the quest of your vision? In what way will you be better by overcoming the hardship rather than by avoiding it?
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If you don’t already do this, begin today to see obstacles as stepping stones. Understand that by crossing them, not only will you be closer to your goal, you will also be better off – stronger, more competent, more self-assured in knowing that no matter what hindrances might lie in wait – they will surely fall in the face of your conviction and resolve.

Practically speaking though, most of us are not programmed to persevere. To persist in the face of discouragement is a conscious decision we must make each and every day. But when you look at the masses, you quickly perceive how difficult this daily choice can be. Something inside most of us clamors for us to avoid pain and disappointment at all costs. We have been programmed to believe that few things in life are worth it if they involve an intense struggle. How terrible it is that we have been so easily deceived by this lie.

We can get by in this life while avoiding difficulties. But do you want to just “get by?” Or do you dream of something greater for yourself? Are you attracted to lofty ideals and believe that you can achieve far more than what others typically achieve? If you aspire to true greatness or dream dreams that are out of reach for most, you must persevere in the face of discouragement, failure, setbacks, or obstacles. You must not give up. You must not quit!
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Finding the strength to persevere even in the most difficult of circumstances can be an overwhelming task if we attempt to face it alone. That is why there is great value in having a coach or mentor in our life. Having someone to walk alongside us to provide both external motivation and assist us in the development of our own internal motivation can be the difference between quitting and failure or persevering and success.

​and asked to select the most important. Two topped the lists of 86% of those surveyed: First, the ability to set priorities; Second, the ability to get the job done quickly. Tracy writes, “Nothing will help you more in your career than to get the reputation for being the kind of person who gets the most important job done quickly and well.”

The ability to prioritize is crucial if you desire to be a valued employee (more so if you are self-employed!). One key in the process is to determine what is most important to those to whom you answer. What appears to be a priority to you may not be to them. Working hard on the wrong thing first could be detrimental to your reputation and/or career.

Getting a job done quickly and correctly involves several things, including goal setting, time management and self-discipline. Self-discipline enables us to combat procrastination and to remain persistent despite any obstacles or setbacks we may encounter along the way. Time management aids us in allocating our time and energy in the most efficient manner while goal setting facilitates an organized approach to the task at hand.
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You may not be the person with the most advanced degree, complete skill set or years on the job in your workplace. You can still stand out from the others by developing the ability to prioritize and by being known as the member of the team who can always be counted on to get the job done quickly and correctly the first time.