Leadership & Goal Strategies With Rich Nicholls

Being a leader does not mean you have to have the nice big corner office. It doesn’t mean you have thousands of people at your beck and call. Being a leader is simply someone that can inspire others. Have you ever been with a group of friends and your dinner reservation fell through and now you have to make a new one? Well, the person who starts the decision making process is the natural leader in that given situation. I did not say the person who starts bossing everyone else around, I said the person who starts the decision making process.

I say natural leader here, but leadership skills can be developed. It takes an active decision to start developing these skills. You then need to actively push yourself out of you comfort zones and look for roles of responsibility. The more roles you take on, the more your leadership skills will evolve.

The more you develop your abilities and the stronger leader you start to become, the easier it is to become discouraged. Especially as others will lack the same passion you have for your projects. Natural leaders are able to keep calm and steady as these situations arise. If you are not the calm and steady type, make sure you take a few deep breaths before you continue to calm yourself down.

Natural leaders walk with a confident posture. If you know that you slouch when you walk, then pin your shoulders back, hold your head up high, and walk around like you own the place. People notice posture. It is important to speak with ‘posture’ in your voice too. Natural leaders speak with confidence. If they know how something is done they, more often than note, end up leading the situation. People just hand over to them, there’s no need for a discussion, people just accept your knowledge. If a natural leader does not know what is going on, they do not pretend to! This is what makes the previous point so important. People know that you are trustworthy; you don’t try fake your way through situations. Because of this they are perfectly happy to give you control when you tell them you know how to do something.

Leaders can act and make decisions under pressure. They know what needs to be done and they go for it!

I want to end off by saying that ‘natural leaders’ were not always ‘natural leaders’. They developed into leaders somewhere during life. It could have been at primary school, it could have been after school. My point is that you can develop yourself into such a great leader that people will look at you and say, “You are a natural leader!”

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Many people battle with chasing their goals. I say chasing becomes people run after them and often let them drift away! The main reason- excuses and assumptions. It is vital that you never ‘assume’ anything. Have you heard the phrase ‘the sin of assumption’? That is how bad some people see assumption! Your probably thinking, “What are we meant to do if we can’t assume?!” Well, the answer is simple. Deduce! Sure sometimes you have to assume. But never stop aiming for your goals because you have assumed the worse of a situation. It is absolutely fine if you deduce that you cannot go down a route to achieve your goal, but then go and look for another route! Too many people count themselves out because it didn’t work the first time.

When you see Olympic athletes, what do you see? Do you see a talented person? Do you see someone that has everything going for them? Or, do you see someone that achieved the impossible? The difference between Olympic athletes and the average person on the street, is that these athletes did not see the impossible, they saw beyond the realms of their gifts. Their vision was greater than their ability! No-one is born with that much ability! The top performing tennis stars are out every morning from a very early age spending hours every single day on the court working to achieve their vision. But then this is what sets apart the great from the average.

It is entirely up to you whether you want to be great, or average. Maybe you would be happy with just a little bit above average? More than likely you are reading this article because you want to be great!

First thing you need to do is challenge your belief system. What do you believe? Does it restrict your potential? Are you caught up in a box? Once you have defined your belief system it will be simpler to see which belief could be hindering you from achieving your goals. From here you need to try and decide what can aid you in changing your mindset. Little hint- I’ve got an article on mindset. Read it, apply it. Make sure your goals are written down. A goal is simply the shortest route from where you are to where you want to be. It should not be more complicated than this! It should be a journey that you enjoy, seeing results along the journey. Make sure you do enjoy it! This is your life, these are your goals!

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The work environment is full with managers and bosses, but it needs more leaders! Simply put, leaders inspire people so they want to do what they otherwise would have not even thought of.

Leaders create a great environment for others. If you are shouting and screaming at work, you are not leading, please, don’t fool yourself. You are managing. Managers handle situations; leaders give vision to change situations.

In authoritative situations, leaders let people know what is expected of them. If you are a natural leader in a group of friends, obviously it is not wise to tell them what you expect of them, you are friends! If you are in a leadership position for work then it is vital that your employees know what you expect. It could be helpful to go through goal setting with them. Let them take ownership of what you expect them to do. If they are involved in the decision making process, especially involving their career, then there is a good change their work ethics would improve!

As a leader, make sure you talk to your employees with the same amount of respect as you use to talk to your boss. Obviously you are not able to tell your boss what to do. But you can still treat them all with the same level of respect. Watch their attitudes change when you do this, watch their work improve as they begin to feel more valued!

When a job is well done, provide affirmation for the person/people involved. Sure, it is what they are paid to do, but when it is a job well done, often when a job is well done, people went above what is expected.

Don’t take your problems to your employees. If you are having problems whether they are personal or work related, only take your problems up the chain of command. If you think there is nothing wrong taking problems down the chain of command ask yourself this: “Will speaking to my employees fix my problems?” If your employees are the problem you obviously need to speak to them. If they are not, then you are just whining. When leaders whine the respect people have for them drops down a few notches. You may eventually find yourself managing your employees and not leading them simply due to the lack of respect they now have.

Taking your problems up the chain of command allows for your employees to see that you are an action taker. This is extremely beneficial when an employee brings a problem to you (because you are the next person up from them in their chain of command) and you get results. Word will spread that the change is due to your taking action.

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I heard a statistic not long ago that 1 edition of the New York Times contains more information than people from the 16th century would know in a life-time. With the popularity of social networking sites growing daily, each and every one of us has the potential to reach more peolpe than a newspaper, whether it is a small town paper, or a big city paper. Some of the more popular people on Twitter are getting followers in the tens of thousands.

Even if you only have 500, 1000, 10000 people following you, you are in a position of infuence! How do you handle that infuence? Are you using it responsibly?

Take some time out to see how you could make a difference to the people who see you as a leader.

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