Laws of Leadership No.12-The Law of Empowerment

Only Secure Leaders Give Power to Others

Theodor Roosevelt said, the best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good man to do what he wants done, and self-restrict enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it.

Only secure leaders are willing to give themselves away.

Mark Twain once marked, the great things can happen when you don’t care who gets the credit. I believe the greatest things happen only when you give others the credit.

Empowerment is powerful, not only for the person being developed, but also for the mentor. Enlarging others makes you stronger, but to give power away to others you have to secure yourself.

Laws of Leadership No.11-The Law of the Inner Circle

A Leader’s Potential is Determined by Those Closest to Him

Every leader’s potential is determined by the people closet to him. If those people are strong, then the leader can make a huge impact. If they are weak, he can’t.

I could not work harder or smarter. Learning to work through others. I hire the best staff I can find, develop them as much as I can, and hand off everything I possibly can to them.

I know I have more potential, but I haven’t yet reached, and if I want someday to get there, I’ve got to surround myself with the best people possible.

The success comes not from what you know, but from whom you know and how you present yourself to each of these people.

Laws of Leadership No.10-The Law of Connection

Leaders Touch a Heart Before They Ask for a Hand

All great communicators recognize this true and act on it almost instinctively. You can’t move people to action unless you first move them with emotion. The heart comes before the hand.

Connecting with people isn’t something that needs to happen only when a leader’s communicating to groups; it needs to happen with individuals. People won’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. You develop credibility with people when you connect with them and show that you genuinely want to help them. The greatest leaders are able to connect on both levels: with individuals and with an audience.

Some leaders have problems with the law of connection, because they believe that connecting is the responsibilities of the followers. That is especially true for positional leaders. They often think, I’m the boss, I have the position, these are my employees, let them come to me. But successful leaders who obey the law of connection are always initiators. They take the first step with others and then make the effort continue building relationships. That is not always easy, but it’s important to the success of the organization. When a leader has done his work to connect with his people, you can see it in the way an organization functions, employees displaying incredible loyalty and a strong work ethic. The visit of the leader becomes the aspiration of the people. The impact is incredible.

Don’t ever underestimate the importance of building relational bridges between yourself and the people you lead. There’s an old saying, to lead yourself use your head, to lead others use your heart. That’s the nature of this law.

Laws of Leadership No.9–The Law of Magnetism

Who You Are Is Who You Attract

Who you get is not determined by who you want; it is determined by who you are. In most situations, you draw people to you who possess the same qualities that you do.

People who are different will not be attracted naturally to you; leaders draw people who are like themselves.

People who are drawn to you probably have more similarities than differences, especially in a few key areas: attitude, generation, background, values, life experience, leadership ability.

The better leader you are, the better leaders you’ll attract. That has an incredible impact on everything you do.

Generate Creative Ideas from Existing Resources

Are all great ideas born completely out of one’s own independent thoughts? Does creativity solely rely on one’s intelligence? Take a look at Fredrik Haren’s book The Idea Book and you’ll get an answer.

I was lucky enough to get to listen to his talk and got a free copy of that book with his autograph! Wonderful. He mentioned some tips to getting creative ideas. I’d like to share with you two most impressive ones.

Ideas are based on a collection of information. The Idea Book itself is a good proof.

• First, the idea of writing this book came from Blue Ocean Strategy. You’ve got to find a niche market for your own thing. 

 His books were not sold in the bookstores, interestingly he sold them in the stationery stores as he designed the book in a way that it had half of the pages written with ideas and half with empty spaces, just like a notebook but with great ideas! No one wouldn’t love to buy such a notebook in a stationery store.

• Second, copy from the best.

Take a glimpse at the cover of this book, doesn’t it look like the cover of The Bible? Fredrik was inspired exactly by The Bible. That’s why he designed the cover of his book in that way.

Being creative and generating creative ideas is reachable, it comes from the information we’ve already had and the existing resources around us.

Keep Walking

Photo by Martin Heigan

After half a year, everything is finally kinda settled down.

A lot of things happened in the past six months. Quitting the job, becoming jobless and hopeless, encountering a turning point, struggling to adapt to it……

I often think, after so many difficulties, there’ll be nothing that could beat me down. It reminds me of the song Thank You For Hearing Me from Sinead O’Connor, which says “Thank you for tearing me apart, now I have a strong strong heart”. The more hardships we experience, the stronger we become. No matter what will happen in the future, I’ll face it with a smile and confidence, with the belief that everything can be conquered with my strong will and faith.

I’ve travelled to a lot of places. During these trips, I’ve seen a sprout growing out of a rock. I was striked by the strong will to survive, even from a small plant. The strongest thing in the world is not the rock or stone, but our willpower to survive.

There are other hundreds of difficulties ahead, while I’ll march forward fearlessly with a peaceful mind that could empower me, and with gratitude from those who lent me a hand when I was in difficulty.

Laws of Leadership No.8—Leaders Evaluate Everything with a Leadership Bias

Leaders cannot rely on just facts. Great leaders have to have intuition.

• Intuition requires a reading of:

1. Situation
2. Trends
3. Resources
4. People
5. Selves

• There are three levels of leadership intuition:

1. Those who will never see it;
2. Those who are nurtured to see it;
3. Those who naturally see it.

What Does Father Look Like?

June is father’s month.

Father’s love is always less put in the spotlight than mother’s, as well as less sung by praises. It is especially true in my family. Whenever we present our shortcomings or weaknesses, my mom will always say, “these are inherited from your father.”:)

My father is a perfectionist, and very serious and strict to us. From quite a young age, we seldom hanged around him. We were kind of scared of him. In order to avoid being scolded, we tried to be away from him as far as possible. That’s one of the reasons why I’m not around him today.:)

I left home to a very good high school at an early age. Then I went to the university that is far away from my hometown. During my growing days, I didn’t have chances to talk much with my father and I made most of the life decisions on my own. I sometimes wonder what the influence my father has on me, and what the position a father should be in in a family.

Everybody has his/her own picture for a father. So does my father. Responsibility is the first definition in his dictionary for the word “Father”. He is the most responsible person whom I’ve ever seen. He always says, “This is what I should do as a father.” “I’ll just do what I should do no matter how disappointed you’ve made me.” In spite of his strictness, I know exactly how much he has done and sacrificed for us so as to give us a good education and growing environment. I would say, I have a good father.

While in my picture for father, responsibility is one respect. The other respect is tenderness. Maybe one of the roles a father performs, is to protect his children and let them feel taken care of.

What is your picture for father?

May all the fathers happy in June!

Photo by shanliren.

Woman at Thirty

June 3rd, is my birthday on Chinese lunar carlendar. Then, I’ll be another step closer to the age of thirty:(

On the day when I was 20, I visualised what I would be like at the age of 30 and wrote into my diary. I guessed I might get married with a kid, and have a satisfying job, which is the regular but ideal life for most Chinese.

Looking back, none of my previous dreams has come true, haha. There’s no any regret though. In the past less than 10 years, I’ve been walking every step following my heart. I’ve come to some point that I’ve never thought of while become someone that I kind of had any idea of.

Woman at thirty is mature. She knows what is right and wrong and determined to do the right things for herself and others. She’s responsible and capable of handling everything in place, thus becomes someone who can be depended on by her family and friends once something unexpected happens.

Woman at thirty is calm and composed.  She’s like a clear lake. When the sun shines on the lake, it sparkles sliently. When the wind passes by the lake, it remains poised and meanders its way. When the storm hit the lake, it does not arouse a single huge wave but does dance elegantly with the storm.

Woman at thirty is like a blossoming flower. She still has concerns, still tries to figure out the nature of many things, and keeps learning and growing.

The beauty of thirty comes from within. It’s the fruit of wisom and love, love for life and people.

Live in the Moment

“The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, worry about the future, but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly.” — Buddha

• What is “Live in the Moment”?

All of our unhappiness, be it sorrow, depression, frustration, fear or anger, results from hovering in the past or worrying about the future. Many a time, we forget what we can control for ourselves is here and now. We cannot change what has happened in the past, either can we tell what may or may not happen in the future.

“Live in the Moment” is to focus on what we are doing here and now. Without immersing ourselves in what has happened in the past, we’ll have no regret; without worrying about what may or may not happen in the future, we’ll have no anxiety.

• How to Live in the Moment?

1. One thought at a time

Our mind is full of thoughts. Turn off the thoughts that are irrelevant with what you are doing right now.

2.   Midfulness-practice

Focus our mind on what we are doing. Have the awareness in all our actions. Whether we are listening to the music, eating a banana, or washing dishes, immerse ourselves into every movement we make. We are not thinking about the appointment, the meeting, or the phonecall. We are fully living in the moment.

3.   Meditation

Regular meditation will help us become focused. The meditation I’m practicing is to focus on my breath.