Breathe

Effective leaders in life and in business take breaks to think, to be strategic, to make room for new ideas and to just breathe.  In the rush of life, in the madness that can occur in running a business the real movement and growth comes from a leader that takes time for solitude. In these moments of solitude, the mind is free to relax, free to discover new methods and to renew the energy required to navigate the road ahead.

Follow these 6 steps below to effectively breathe and improve your performance:

1. Set a time each day to be quiet, remain still and gather thoughts.  The best time is when you first wake up and greet the day.
2. Set a time each week that you will remove yourself from fighting the fight and just dream about what the future can be.  Literally, block out your schedule.
3. Schedule one fun day/night per month.  If married or dating, regardless of your age, keep dating.  At work, schedule a lunch, a happy hour, something fun for you and your team.  Don't talk business, just enjoy the time.
4. Plan a vacation, and take it, at least one a year.  If finances are an issue to keep you from traveling, still use the time to be away from the normal routine and play.  Go to the park, have a picnic, see a movie or go to the zoo.
5. Always be reading a book that has nothing to do with your work.
6. Keep notes of what you come up with in your quiet times and breaks.  These concepts and thoughts are important to action steps needed to grow.

YOU ARE a leader!

No matter what your role is as one leading others, you are always in a position to lead.  Leading is influencing another in action, thought or direction.  Regardless of your role or position, if a person or group listens to you, or models your behavior, they have followed you and therefore you have led.

People say to me all the time, "Randy, I am just not a leader, I don't see any leadership traits in me".  Or, I will hear, "I have no title, I am just a clerk".  And one of my favorites is "I don't work, I am just a wife and mom".  Well, let me be the one to remind you that in each of those people above is a leader, and so are YOU!

Life is a journey taken with others, and in business, groups and families, decisions are rarely made without consult of others.  People working each day observe their peers in action, they refer to others for advice, they even vent and complain hoping for someone to help them.  And as for a mom or dad raising kids, is there a more fitting description for what we do...we lead our kids to adulthood.

Recognize that you are a leader.  It is tough to soak in what a leader should be and do until you accept that fact that you are one.  To someone each day, you are in a position to help them, encourage them, to guide them, for them to see you work in an ethical manner.  When you make your family priority number one, yet still get the job done, you are leading to those that have not yet found that formula.

The world is starving for leaders, for honorable people to lead the way.  Start thinking you are a leader, I promise you...many will follow!

People never disagree, argue or fail.

One thing for certain in life is that is can get messy.  People are independent beings, each bringing their set of ideas, values, perspective and solutions to the table.  When you fill a room and a team with highly skilled people, many times, they disagree.  What do you do in those moments?  How do you resolve a problem if tempers rise?  As a leader, what is your reaction when others challenge you, when your idea is called into question?  Or even worse, what happens when you are slandered and wrongly occussed of something you didn't do or didn't say?

If these types of situation have happened to you, then you know the types of emotions and tendencies that can be brought out of you.  If you haven't experienced this yet, trust me, you will.

Some great advice that I was given by a successful businessman turned leadership trainer, Jim Therrian, was this: put time between stimulus and response.  There it is, it is that simple...well to say.

Let's unpack that.  If you are challenged by someone in your team, an upset client, a family member, and they are heated in tone and words, do the following:

• Stop
• Listen
• Breathe (really, think about your breathing)
• And then wait, how long, well until you are ready

Not ready to attack, ready to talk.  You need to be in an emotional state of calm, and then when you approach them, you will be approachable.   If there tone and emotions are at a 10, and they bring you up from a 1 to a 7, you need to wait until you are back down to 2 or 3.  Then, approach them, I guarantee that there 10 has not only dropped down, yet when you have a 2, they drop further.

Two people at level 2 or 3 are passionate, yet poised.  Two people at level 9 or 10 are a disaster.