“Action is the real measure of intelligence.” — Napoleon Hill

I found a definition of intelligence that’s changing how I look at intelligence.  This post is less about the definition of intelligence or what is intelligence, and more about why have a different definition of intelligence in the first place.

To put it simply, I think how we see intelligence and how we see ourselves can be limiting or enabling.  And, I’m a fan of enabling and empowering you … with skill.  My dictionary says that intelligence is, “the ability to learn or understand or to deal with new or trying situations: Reason, also: the skilled use of reason … and the ability to apply knowledge to manipulate one’s environment or to think abstractly as measured by objective criteria.”  In my view, that’s interesting but limited.

I like what’s possible when we look to expanding our notion of intelligence and define it for other areas or aspects of our lives, such as social intelligence, emotional intelligence, spiritual intelligence, and positive intelligence.  Wow, that’s a whole lot of intelligence going on.

I actually like Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences.  I like Howard’s work for a few key reasons.  Fist, I like the fact that he took a broad, multi-disciplinary view of intelligence.  It goes well beyond the idea of take a test, and your IQ score says how smart or dumb you are.  I especially like the fact that Howard connects intelligence to value, the community, and the greater good.   This creates an interesting reason for having intelligence in the first place, that goes beyond the individual.  I also really like the fact that Howard connects intelligence with the development of skill: “Strictly speaking, every intelligence entails the development of skills.”

In the book, Changing Minds: The Art and Science of Our Own and Other People’s Minds, Howard Gardner does a great job of defining intelligence and helping us see new ways to look at, value, and develop our intelligence.

A Definition of Intelligence

What I like about Howard’s definition of intelligence, aside from the multi-disciplinary view is that he connects it with solving problems and building products.  Howard writes:

“I define intelligence as a biopsychological potential to process specific forms of information in certain kinds of ways.  Human beings have evolved diverse information-processing capacities — I term these ‘intelligences’ — that allow them to solve problems or to fashion products.  To be considered ‘intelligent,’ these products and solutions must be valued in at least on culture or community.”

Intelligence Varies with Time and Place

Value is a key variable with intelligence.  What’s valued varies with time and place.  What’s value in one arena, may not be valued in another.  What’s valued at one point in time, may not be valued in another.  Howard writes:

“The last assertion of ‘being valued’ is important.  Rather than claiming that intelligence is the same in all times and places, I recognize that human beings value different skills and capacities at various times and under various circumstances.  Indeed, inventions like the printing press or the computer can alter, quite radically, the abilities that are deemed of importance (or no longer of importance) in a culture.  And so individuals are not equally “smart” or “dumb” under all circumstances; rather they have different intelligences that may be variously cherished or disregarded under different circumstances.  In terms of the argument put forth here, each intelligence represents a distinct form of mental representation.”

Types of Intelligence

Here are the multiple-intelligences that Howard Gardner has identified through his body of work:

• Linguistic Intelligence
• Logical-Mathematical Intelligence
• Musical Intelligence
• Spatial Intelligence
• Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence
• Naturalist Intelligence

You can find out more about these types of intelligence in Howard Gardner’s books: Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences, Multiple Intelligences: New Horizons in Theory in Practice, and Intelligence Reframed: Multiple Intelligences for the Twenty-First Century.

The Theory of Multiple Intelligences

Howard’s work with Norman Geschwind, a pioneering American behavioral neurologist,  and his colleagues convinced him that the singular view of intelligence was ineffective.  Specifically, Howard no longer believed in the following views of intelligence:

“1) Intelligence is a single entity. 2) People are born with a certain amount of intelligence, 3) It is difficult to alter the amount of our intelligence — it’s ‘in our genes’ so to speak. 4) Psychologists tells you how smart you are by administering IQ tests or similar kinds of instruments.”

In response, Howard developed the theory of multiple intelligence based on his work with Geschwind, brain study research, and his broad  experience teaching across a variety of topics from anthropology to piano, to individuals from kindergarten to college.  Howard writes:

“Spurning an excessive dependence on psychometric instruments, I instead developed a view of intelligence that was deliberately multidisciplinary.  I considered evidence from anthropology — which abilities have been valued and fostered in various millennia in different species; and the study of ‘individual differences’ — particularly evidence from unusual populations such as autistic individuals, prodigies, and youngsters with specific learning disabilities.  Perhaps most crucially, I collated evidence from brain study: what we know about the development and breakdown of the brain and the ways in which different regions of the cortex effects different mental computations.”

Let me leave you with a closing thought on intelligence … actually, a quote, by Alan Alda:

“Be as smart as you can, but remember that it is always better to be wise than to be smart.”

Best Books on Intelligence

• Changing Minds: The Art and Science of Our Own and Other People’s Minds, by Howard Gardner
• Emotional Intelligence: 10th Anniversary Edition; Why It Can Matter More Than IQ , by Daniel Goleman
• Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences, by Howard Gardner
• Intelligence Reframed: Multiple Intelligences for the Twenty-First Century, by Howard Gardner
• Multiple Intelligences: New Horizons in Theory in Practice, by Howard Gardner
• Positive Intelligence: Why Only 20% of Teams and Individuals Achieve Their True Potential, by Shizrad Chamine
• Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships, by Daniel Goleman

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“The world is all gates, all opportunities, strings of tension waiting to be struck.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

Are you waiting for the economy to change?  Are you waiting for your job to change?  Are you waiting for the weather to change?  Don’t wait.  Work with what you’ve got.

It’s so easy to fall into the trap of playing the waiting game.  Especially if it’s a situation you don’t like.  The problem is, while you wait, the world passes you by. It keeps moving forward.  When you “just wait and see,” it takes your power away.  For example, I fell into the trap of waiting for my weather to turn back to the way it used to be.  It’s a new reality now.  The best way for me to make the most of it, is to embrace the change — rather than ignore it, dismiss it, or wait for it to change back.

Life’s better when you don’t wait for the facts to change.  You improve your effectiveness when you respond to life’s curve balls.  You also improve your resilience and self-reliance.  You also create new opportunities.  One of my favorite metaphors here from sports is, “You play the ball, or the ball plays you.”

In the book, Mojo: How to Get It, How to Keep It, How to Get It Back if You Lose It, Marshall Goldsmith writes about how we should not wait for the facts to change, and should instead play the cards we have in hand, based on the reality of our situation.  If nothing else, it helps us take advantage of whatever situation we are in.

What We Learn from Lawyers

You can’t wait for the facts to change.  You need to work with what you’ve got.  Marshall writes:

“A big part of our training as lawyers,’ Tom said, ‘was to interpret a pattern of facts so that we could advise a client.  Our teacher would give us a hypothetical set of facts and then go around the classroom asking, ‘What would you do?”  Every student would respond with a course of action.  The answers weren’t always correct or even reasonably intelligent.  Sometimes they were desperate.  But the students always came up with some rationale, some idea to act on.  At no point in these classroom exercises did any of my classmates say, ‘I’m going to wait until the classroom changes.’”

Act More, Wait Less

Waiting leads to underacting.  Marshall writes:

“When people wait for discomforting facts to change into something more to their liking, they’re basically engaging in wishful thinking.  It’s the opposite of over-committing because it leads to under-acting (or under-committing and not acting at all).  Instead of doing something, you’re frozen in place while you wait for a more comfortable set of facts to appear.  In s world that’s constantly rushing forward, this is asking to moving backward,.  That’s a Mojo killer.”

Carve a New Path

Assume the facts won’t change.  Find a a way to make the most of your new situation.  Marshall writes:

“When the facts are not to your liking, ask yourself, ‘What path would I take if I knew that the situation would not get better?’  Then get ready to do that.  If the world changes in your favor, you haven’t lost anything.  If the facts do change, you are more ready to face the new world.”

If there’s something you’ve been waiting for, maybe your wait is finally over.  Carpe diem.

Best Books on Taking Action

• Getting Results the Agile Way: A Personal Results System for Work and Life, by J.D. Meier
• Mojo: How to Get It, How to Keep It, How to Get It Back if You Lose It, Marshall Goldsmith
• The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal, by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz

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If you don’t have empathy for yourself, chances are you don’t have empathy for others.  If you constantly beat yourself up, in the name of holding yourself to a higher bar, you might be doing more harm than help.  This is especially true if you lead teams or set the tone for others.  Brains work better when they are relaxed and ready.

To show empathy for others, you need to first show empathy for yourself.

One of the jokes we say at work is “beatings will continue until moral improves.”  The point is to highlight that people respond better to encouragement, acknowledgment, and praise, not put downs, belittlement, and threats.  To say it in a *sticky* way, “You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.”

It takes empathy to really know just the right things to say, to make somebody’ day, or to lift them when they need it most.  This goes for you too.  It’s all too easy to get so focused on output or focused on outcomes, that you lose yourself along the way.  If you have a high-personal bar, it’s easy when you miss it, to beat yourself down, when you really need to lift yourself up.

While it’s true that we’’ll do more to move away from pain than we’ll do to move towards pleasure, pain and threats are not a sustainable strategy.  Intensity does not automatically mean inspiration.  On the other hand, inspiration often brings a healthy sense of urgency.  And when you’re relaxed and ready, you are often more resourceful.

But how do you build or rebuild empathy for yourself or others, if you are numb inside, or shut down?   Enter Visualize the Child.  It’s an exercise  that Shirzad Chamine introduces in his book, Positive Intelligence.  Visualize the Child is a way to rebuild empathy with yourself so that you can build your empathy for others.

Instant Empathy

You have instant empathy if you know  where to look.  Shirzad writes:

“If you go to the playground and watch five-year olds play, you will probably feel instant empathy and caring for these total strangers.  This is in part due to the fact that at that age a child still mainly radiates with his or her Sage essence energy.  The off-putting Saboteurs that make us less likeable as adults are not as visible at this age.”

Visualize Yourself as a Child

You can instantly find your empathy again.  The trick is to remember the feeling.   One way is to visualize a scene in your mind of you as a child.  Shirzad writes:

“You can use this fact to shift your brain to feel empathy and caring for yourself or others.  Visualize yourself as a child in s setting where your essence is shining through.  Perhaps you are holding a puppy, building a sand-castle, chasing a bunny, or snuggling with a loved one.  Pick a vivid and detailed image that instantly triggers feelings of caring and empathy.  You might even want to find an actual photograph of yourself as a child in which your original personality is shining through    Put that picture on your desk or on your phone or computer so that you see it frequently.  This image will be a reminder that your true essence is worthy of unconditional caring and empathy when you are feeling beaten down by your own Judge, or other’s, or troubles of life.”

Generating Empathy for Others

You can visualize others as a child as well to build empathy.  This will remind you of the hopes, the dreams, the aspiration, the fears, and the child-like wonder that they started out with.  It’s still there.  Shirzad writes:

“The same holds true for generating empathy for others.  If you are feeling upset at someone due to their Saboteurs, you have been hijacked by your own.  To recover back to your sage, you could activate any of your five Sage powers.  If you choose to activate the Sage’s power to Empathize, visualize the other person as a child in her true essence before she started getting weighted down by Saboteurs.  Visualize  her eyes and facial expression, her manner of carrying herself, what used to light her up as a child.  Visualize her hold her puppy, snuggle with  her mom, or chase a butterfly.  Trust that essence is still inside her, underneath her Saboteurs.  You can do this in the back of your mind even while you are interacting with her in a meeting.  It will instantly impact how much empathy you feel.”

Use an Actual Photograph

Using an actual photograph might be your best way to make it real and to remind yourself to actually do it.  Shirzad shares a story:

“To access empathy for himself, I asked Frank to play Visualize the Child.  His judge was so persistent that he couldn’t access any empathy for himself by just visualizing it.   So I suggested using an actual photograph.  He found a picture of himself under a Christmas tree.  He was lit up with joy, kindness, wonder, and curiosity.  The picture conveyed Frank’s true essence, which was hiding beneath his tough corporate demeanor.  I asked him to put a copy of that picture on his smart phone and look at it every day.  Frank reported that looking at the pictures made it easier for him to feel empathy and appreciation for himself during these tough times.”

You can really make this a fun exercise.  Find your favorite picture that reminds you of who you really are and who you want to be.

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“All our words from loose using have lost their edge.” — Ernest Hemingway

The words we use and the words we choose can shape our moments and our lives.  Have you ever experienced a great leader who never get stuck?  They are always asking things like, “What’s the opportunity?” or “What the next step?” or “How can we use this?’

It turns out that our language reflects fundamental dimensions of personality.  In the book, 59 Seconds: Think a Little, Change a Lot, Richard Wiseman says that research shows that things like handwriting analysis and graphology don’t work.  Instead, it’s the words we use that provide the greatest insight into real character.

Our Language Has Clues

Have you heard of “The Big Five”?  It’s absolutely fascinating, and as Wiseman puts it, it’s “the holy grail of personality research.”  Anyway, here’s what’s interesting.  According to Wiseman, it started in the 1930s when a group of researchers compiled a list of 18,000+ words from an unabridged dictionary that could be used to describe personality.  They refined the list to about 4,000 words to describe relatively stable and central traits.  In the 1940s, another set of researchers refined this set to about 200 words.  Over the next 40+ years, researchers used increasingly sophisticated techniques to collect and analyze data on personality to identify key dimensions.  Finally, in the early 1990′s consensus emerged across countries and cultures around a set of five fundamental dimensions of personality.  The dimensions are: openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism.

Changing Your Language, Changes Your Life

I’m a believer that language is empowering and you can use this.  I believe the key is from finding the words that move you and make you … and avoid the words that paralyze or break you.  Changing your language, changes your life.

We live in the age of insight.  It’s easy to browse the Web to find and explore new ways to say things or express ourselves more fully.

10 Ways to Use the Power of Language

Here are examples of ways to use words to shape your life:

1. Find interesting words to express specific concepts.  I’ve always been a fan of expanding my vocabulary, and learning new languages.  I love it when a word perfectly expresses an idea.  For example, ikigai roughly translates to “the reason for which you wake up in the morning.”
2. Choose metaphors that evoke your best imagery.  What does life mean to you?  Is it a tragedy or a comedy?  Maybe it’s a sitcom.  For me, it’s more like an epic adventure.  For you, maybe it’s more like a dance.  The people that dance with life, find a way to go with the flow, and bend instead of break.  It’s the willow way.
3. Study Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP). In simple terms, NLP is a way to program success.  It’s a tool for personal excellence.  It was popularized by Tony Robbins as a way to model and replicate the success of others.   According to Wikipedia, you can think of neuro-linguistic programming as “(‘neuro’), language (‘linguistic’) and behavioral patterns that have been learned through experience (‘programming’) and can be organized to achieve specific goals in life.”   If you study NLP, you can learn ways to dramatically improve your precision and accuracy of language.  You can then use it to reshape your thinking, feeling, and doing.
4. Quotes.  I am a fan of quotes (did you notice my Great Quotes collection?).  As Sean Platt of Writer Dad says, “Life is better with the right words.” It’s so true, especially when we find just the right quote, that says it just the right way.  One of the reasons why I build out these quotes collections is to put the wisdom of the ages and modern sages right at our finger tips.  Quotes are “wisdom that sticks.”
5. One-liner reminders.  This is similar to quotes, but in this case, the idea is to create some pithy prose that makes an idea stick.  It’s a great way to turn insight into action.  In fact, one way I remind myself to take what I learn and apply it is the one-liner reminder:  “Turn insight into action.”  Related to this, I also use the reminder, “Find three take aways.”   I use one-liner reminders to build new habits or practice new skills.  For example, the way I learned to improve my influence was “ask, don’t tell.”  It helped me to start asking better questions, and to pose better questions to help bring others along.
6. Ask better questions.  You can use questions to build a wondering mind, and to explore new ideas.  People that get stuck or limit themselves tend to ask limiting questions, or they don’t ask questions at all.  Asking questions puts you in a more resourceful state.  Your mind is a powerful problem solver, but you need to ask it the right questions.  Here is a set of 101 Questions that Empower You to get you started.
7. Model the leader.  Leaders tend to have a way with words.   The words they use help express conviction.  The words they use help express vision and opportunity.  Here are some of the words some of my favorite leaders use in their vocabulary:   learning moment, leadership opportunity,  challenge, win, excellence, connection, conviction, vision, etc.    Rob White of Mind Adventures is a great example of using inspiring words. mental models, and mantras for personal empowerment and self-leadership.
8. Leverage patterns and pattern languages.  Patterns create a shared vocabulary.  If you haven’t explored patterns and pattern languages before, your world is about to rock.   Patterns are simply named problem and solution pairs.  The benefit is that you can build a simple language around the expert knowledge within a domain.  For example, Christopher Alexander developed pattern languages to share architectural solutions.  The beauty is you can use a single word to express a hundred-word concept.  In software development, one of the ways we rapidly share expertise is through patterns.  Beyond software, a great example of patterns in practice is the collection of Fearless Change: Patterns for Introducing New Ideas, which creates a vocabulary for driving change leadership.   I also have a post on The Power of Patterns.
9. Make it a mantra.    According to Wikipedia, a mantra is “a sound, syllable, word, or group of words that is considered capable of ‘creating transformation.’  One of my mantras is, “stand strong when tested.”  Another is, “lead by example.”
10. Choose your words to use your words.   In nearly every scenario where you say you “HAVE TO” do something, there is really a choice.   The choice may not be attractive, but that’s exactly why you are choosing the choice that you are.  Empower yourself by swapping out more “HAVE TO”s with “CHOOSE TO”s.   You will gradually break the ties that bind you, including your own.

Shape your words, shape your life.  Always remember that YOU are your most important meaning makers in your life.   Choose your words and use your words with skill.

“You are growing or shrinking, you’re either climbing or sliding … there is no in-between.” – Tony Robbins

Are you expanding your capabilities and growing where it counts?    You can use innovation to survive and thrive in an ever-changing world.

Innovation simply means coming up with a  new idea, method, or product.   The trick is to focus your ingenuity in ways that translate into meaningful results for work and life.  The key to innovation is to ask the right questions.   Just asking the right questions, starts the process.

In the book, The Future Belongs to Those Who are Fast, Jim Carroll shares three questions you can use to innovate and drive change.

3 Questions to Drive Innovation

Jim shares the following three questions to help drive innovation:

1. What can we do to run the business better?
2. What can we do to grow the business?
3. What can we do to transform the business?

The beauty of the question is you can apply them to any industry and you can apply them to work or life.  For example, what can you do to run your life better, grow your life, and transform your life?

Example of Applying the Questions

The questions are open-ended and easy to apply.   To make it real and to see it in action, Jim shares an example of applying the questions to cattle ranchers.   Jim writes:

“When it comes to running the business better, there is a massive opportunity for the continued deployment of technology to better manage the herd; deal with food safety and traceability issues; manage the health of the herd; the list is endless!  Growth of the business? Consider the opportunities that come about with direct-to-to-consumer relationships as our world of connectivity continues to expand.  Transform the business?  Change the business model!  One Australian group was faced with the challenge of getting fresh meat to Indonesia – and so they built the MC Becrux – basically a floating stockyard for thousands of head of cattle!”

The power of possibility is driven by our ability to ask better questions and challenge our assumptions..  What does the future hold for you and how can you work with it, not against it?

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Numbers are everywhere.  Whether we are reading a report or presenting, numbers are a part of our lives.   It’s another way of communicating just like writing or speaking.  The problem is, we don’t usually get taught how to present numbers.  We’re lucky if we’re surrounded by the right people or the right examples to learn from.

Not any more.

You now have access to some of the best insight and action on presenting numbers.  Randall Bolten shows us how to present numbers with skill.  Randall’s new book, Painting with Numbers: Presenting Financials and Other Numbers So People Will Understand You, is the definitive guide to show you how.  It’s the short-cut to mastering the art and science of presenting numbers in a way that’s compelling and professional.  It’s a professional masterpiece that we can use for work and life to improve our personal effectiveness.

If you want to learn what the numbers mean or how to present them in a compelling way, Randall is your guy.  He spent 20 years as a CFO in the Silicon Valley making sense of numbers, and helping others do the same.  Now he runs a consulting practice that focuses on financial management and information presentation.

Introducing Quantation

Quantation is not a word in the dictionary.  Randall coined the word “quantation” as the subject of his book.  It’s a combination of the two words “Quantitive” + “Communication.”  Randall Bolten defines quantation as — “The act of presenting numbers, such as financial results, electronically, or in writen form for the purpose of informing an audience.”

It’s a Skill You can Learn

If you don’t think you’re a numbers person, this book is especially for you.   What I really like about the book is that Randall treats it like a skill.  It’s a skill you can learn, not a natural born talent.   You would learn it just like other literacy abilities such as writing, reading, and speaking.  He puts it in plain English and empowers you to use numbers more effectively, and, even better, understand the numbers that get thrown your way.

This book is very much a book you can use to advance your career, or to help you simply be more effective in daily life, when you have to deal with numbers, whether it’s balancing your checkbook, reviewing expenses, or reading the numbers they throw your way in the newspaper or on the Web.

Problems Addressed

I tend to measure the value of a book, based on the problems or challenges it solves.  Randall gives practical and tactical advice, as well as strategic insight.  Here is a sampling of some of the problems he addresses:

• How to apply quantation to your daily life, whether it’s reading reports or making meaning
• How to improve your personal brand by presenting numbers effectively
• How to think about numbers in a way that’s more approachable
• How to read numbers in a way that improves your understanding and clarity
• How to dramatically improve the effectiveness of the information you present
• How to trade off between complete, accurate, and useful
• How to relate to your audience in a constructive way
• How to use numbers to speak the truth
• How to layout information on a page
• How to choose between portrait and landscape
• How to present the time axis on a report
• How to use “white space” intelligently
• How to use visual cues to highlight important data points
• How to line up numbers to visually stand out
• How to choose the unit of measure to present numbers to add meaning and clarity
• How to make intelligent choices in terms of what to show and what not to
• How to avoid common pitfalls such as presenting variance in the wrong format
• How to use dollar signs more effectively
• How to create more effective charts and graphs
• How many digits to show
• How to make a great balance sheet that is decision-focused and usable acorss an Enterprise
• How to design effective dashboards
• How to understand and present key indicators more effectively

Insightful and Actionable Advice

What I like about Randall’s advice is that it’s specific and actionable.  He artfully sprinkled “The Deadly Sins of Presenting Numbers” and “Strong Advice” throughout his book to drive the main points home and to make it easy for you to build personal checklists.  He is prescriptive and direct.  For example, he will say you should right justify columns of numbers, or that you should wrap problem variances so negative numbers can be picked at a glance.  He even injects career tips, such as  …

“Even if you truly believe that you are a ‘visual person,’ think twice before saying this in public.  Your listeners may instead be hearing you state that you don’t understand how to process quantitative information or that you don’t want to go to much effort.  To those listeners, it’s as if you were saying, ‘Don’t give me too many big words to read.’
To win in the game of life, this is a new book to add to your shelf.    Whether you’re a business person person, starting your own business, moving up in your career, or simply want to make more meaning from the numbers you see everyday and everywhere, this book is the key to improving your ability to presenting numbers with skill.

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“When the effective leader is finished with his work, the people say it happened naturally.” — Lao Tzu

A skilled leader knows when to provide more help with the task.  A skilled leader also knows when to provide more encouragement or motivation.

An effective leader also know that just because you needed more task help in one situation, does not mean you need more task help  in another.  An effective leader also knows that just because you need more relationship support in one situation, does not mean you need more relationship support in another.

As a leader, your ability to identify a specific task, assess what a follower needs to perform the task , and apply the right combination of task and relationship focus, is a way to lead effectively, from moment to moment, or from situation to situation.  It’s leadership acumen in action.

The Hersey Situational Leadership® Model is a great model for applying the right amount of task-focus, and the right amount of relationship-focus to the goal at hand.  It’s a powerful model too because it helps you stay fluid and responsive, and adjust your leadership style based on what your followers need.

In the book, In the book, Little Book of Leadership: The 12.5 Strengths of Responsible, Reliable, Remarkable Leaders that Create Results, Rewards, and Resilience, Jeffrey Gitomer and Paul “Doc” Hersey write about how to use the Hersey Situational Leadership® Model to express and apply leadership in the moment.

Three Learnable Skills to Master

Hersey and Gitomer share three skills for using the Hersey Situational Leadership® Model:

• Skill 1 – Identify a Specific Task.
• Skill 2 – Diagnose the Follower’s Performance Needs for the Task.
• Skill 3 – Apply the Best Combination of Task and Relationship Leader Behaviors.

Applying the Skills

To show how you can apply the skills, Hersey and Gitomer provide a scenario and give some examples of how you would blend your task-focus and relationship-focus behaviors.

In the example, Pat walks into your office and asks if you have a moment.  The situation is a client has asked Pat to change the ordering process by noon the next day.

Here is how you might respond, to apply the three skills:

1. Identify the task. You identify the task as “change the order process.”
2. Diagnose the performance needs. You diagnose the situation.  You know Pat has the skills since she’s changed the order process twice before.  You ask her what is it about this change that you find challenging.  She responds that it’s the time frame.
3. Apply appropriate amounts of task and relationship behaviors.  You ask the following questions: Is this any more complicated than the other two you did so well on?  How much time will this one take? How much time did the previous two take? Do you need any backup resources? Do we need a plan B?

In this case, asking the questions helps stay connected, while exploring the task-needs and relationship needs that Pat may have.

Stay Fluid and Responsive

If your follower needs more task help, you can help provide the who, what, when, where, how, and how much they need to perform.   If you follow needs more relationship help, you can focus on communication, praise, encouragement, or clarity on the “why” behind the task.  Hersey and Gitomer write:

“If the answers to these questions come from Pat, she will come to realize  she can handle this and the leader will be able to delegate. (Low Relationship and Low Task.)  If Pat cannot answer the questions and does not respond  with a little encouragement (High Relationship and Low Task), the leader can become more involved and provide some structure for meeting the deadline  (High Task and High Relationship).  One of the great things about the Hersey Situational Leadership® Model is how fluid and responsive you can be to follower needs.  This is leadership in the moment.”

You can practices your task and relationship leadership behaviors from moment to moment.  If you master this ability, you will dramatically improve your leadership effectiveness.  This will help you avoid micro-managing, and it will help you maintain trust with your followers.  It will also help you grow and expand your followers’ abilities, while providing the encouragement and emotional support that they need.

Why do movies like Rocky and Karate Kid help us achieve our dreams?  Because they aren’t just positive fantasies.

Instead, they show it takes hard work and effort to rise above our challenges.  They also show the setbacks that happen along the way.  Rather than hope for the best, or luck into success, movies like Rocky and the Karate Kid show how focus, effort, and practice can pay off.

You can use movies to fill your head with images, mental models, and examples of extreme effort.  When the chips are down, you can then draw from these scenes to inspire yourself to go the extra mile and really put in the effort required.  The key is to build a collection of inspiring movies and scenes that put a premium on effort and dealing with setbacks.

This is a big deal because just positive thinking or positive fantasies don’t help.  In fact, they work against us.  Here’s why:  positive visualization ignores dealing with setbacks.  Additionally, we’re less likely to put in the necessary effort to make our fantasies happen.

In the book, 59 Seconds: Think a Little, Change a Lot, Richard Wiseman writes about the negative impact of positive fantasies and visualization.

Effort Over Daydreams

Wishing your way to better grades, or using the force, just doesn’t work.  It’s effort that pays off.  Wiseman writes:

“The experimenters asked the students in both groups to make a note of the number of hours they studied each day, and monitored their final grades.  Even though the daydreaming exercises lasted only a few minutes, it had a significant impact on the student’s behavior, causing them to study less and make lower grades on the exam.  The exercise may have made them feel better about themselves, but it did not help them achieve their goals.”

Positive Fantasies Don’t Help

Just visualizing that everything goes your way doesn’t help.  It’s better to actually imagine potential setbacks or issues that you will have to deal with.  Rather than ignore things that can go wrong, embrace them.  Wiseman writes:

“During the work, the women were asked to imagine how they might behave in various food-related scenarios such as going to a friend’s house and being tempted with tasty pizza.  Each of their responses was categorized on a scale ranging from highly positive to highly negative.  After the women were tracked for a year, the results revealed that those with more positive fantasies had lost, on average, twenty-six pounds less than those with negative fantasies.”

Put in the Effort and Anticipate Setbacks

You can improve your success by putting in effort and anticipating likely setbacks.  Anticipating the setbacks will help you prepare for things that can go wrong, and actually deal with them.  Wiseman writes:

“Why should it it be so bad for you to imagine yourself achieving your goals?  Researchers have speculated that those who fantasize about how wonderful life could be are ill prepared for the setbacks that frequently occur along the rocky road to success, or perhaps they enjoy indulging  in escapism and so become reluctant to put in the effort required to achieve their goals.  Either way, the message from the research is clear: fantasizing about your perfect world may make you feel better, but it is unlikely to help your dreams turn into reality.”

if you want more from life, don’t just wish for it.  Put in the effort and make it happen.  Embrace your setbacks and rise above them.  Draw from inspirational movies and find your “eye-of-the-tiger” in any situation.

Once I realized that a big key to fitness and health is building lean “functional” muscle, I’ve been looking for the best approach.   I think I found it.  It’s, You are Your Own Gym, by Mark Laruen.  The tagline is, “Use the body you have to build the body you want.”  What a great concept.

I wanted a fitness routine that I could do anywhere, and I wanted it to be as effective and efficient as possible.  Here’s the big deal:  Mark, trains special forces for a living.  In fact, he trains them in record time.

Mark is in the business of building lean, muscular, physically fit bodies as fast as possible.  He uses the latest strength and conditioning principles and sports science to produce better results with only a fraction of the time and with less injuries.  It’s a huge plus that Mark is goaled with getting people into amazing physical shape as fast as possible and their lives depend on it.  It keeps it real, and puts a premium on results.

Mark has really optimized his approach too.  You can get rapid results by working out just 30 minutes a day, four time a week.  Mark also provides motivation techniques and expert training tips and tricks along the way.  You even get a great primer on nutrition.  The icing on the cake is that Mark includes 125 exercises that are visually depicted , and you can use them to work out every part of your body.

Take Your Gym Wherever You Go

What I really like about the book is that Mark’s approach uses bodyweight exercises.  What that means is that you can get lean, strong, and confident without expensive gym memberships, free weights, or infomercial contraptions.  You really are your own gym, so you take your gym wherever you go.  If you want to save money, and get in the best shape of your life, the answers are in this book.  What an amazing game changer.

Your Real Home is Your Body

Your body is your temple.  Take care of it, and it takes care of you.  Mark writes:

“Your real home is not your apartment or your house or your city or even country, but your body.  It is the only thing  you, your soul and your mind, will always live inside of so long as you walk the earth.  It is the single most important physical thing in this world you can take care of.”

Train as Ancient Warriors

Get back to the basics.  Train with techniques that have stood the test of time.  Mark writes:

“You will be training as Achilles did before the battle on the shores of Troy, training as ancient warriors the world over knew was best, training as future SpecOps warriors will to meet their own foes.  Why?  Because it works.”

Train Like Special Forces

This is too cool.  Mark puts into your hands the same exercises that the world’s best get to use.  Mark writes:

“The military’s most advanced forces — from Navy SEALs to Green Berets to Air Force Special Tactics Operators — use these exercises as the backbone to their strength training, and now I bring them to you.  Now, for the first time, men and women outside SpecOps have the opportunity to reach the pinnacle of fitness, with an amazingly small sacrifice of your time.  Clear, concise, and complete, I bring these exercises into your living room, bedroom, hotel room, garage, yard, yard, office, wherever you like.  They are for people of all athletic ability levels, tailored to suit the needs and lifestyles of today’s busy women and men.

Lean, Flexible, and Strong … at Any Age.”

Get Lean, Strong, and Confident

It’s a total fitness program, optimized for rapid results.   Mark writes:

“These programs will increase the strength of important muscle groups needed in every day living, keep your muscles and joints supple and flexible, improve the efficiency and capacity of the heart, lungs, and other body organs, reduce susceptibility to common injuries as well as degenerative heart diseases, and reduce emotional and nervous tension.  The benefits are never-ending.  And success in your fitness program will inevitably lead to success in the other aspects of your life, both work and play.”

Mark has truly created a masterpiece and has given us a gift that keeps on giving.  Check out You are Your Own Gym, and explore what you’re capable of.

Every now and then I learn a new way of looking at an old word.   And it changes everything.  For example, when I learned that inspire is “to breathe life into,” inspiration took on new meaning.  I started wondering how many people I breathe life into.

This time, the word is enthusiasm.  I never really was a fan of enthusiasm.  That is, until now.  Somehow, along the way of growing up, I had associated enthusiasm with false inspiration.  Now, I have a new lens.

In the book, Little Book of Leadership: The 12.5 Strengths of Responsible, Reliable, Remarkable Leaders that Create Results, Rewards, and Resilience, Jeffrey Gitomer writes about enthusiasm and how he changed his view on what it means.

Entheos is “The God Within”

It’s a great thing when somebody or something lights our fire.  But, it’s a lot more empowering if you create your own enthusiasm.  Jeffrey writes:

“Thirty five years ago, when I heard Earl Nightingale tell me that enthusiasm came from the Greek word ‘entheos’ (which means ‘the god within’), I changed my entire thought process by realizing that I cannot rely on things or other people to create it for me.”

Spread the Lesson

Empower people to seek or create their own enthusiasm from the inside out.  Jeffrey writes:

“Your job as a leader is to teach the same lesson to all of your people so that they might receive the same gift.  A gift that altered my internal enthusiasm for the better, forever.”

It’s Contagious

It’s contagious.  And it works both way.  Jeffrey writes:

“Enthusiasm is contagious.  Either by presence or by absence.  The more enthusiastic  you are as a leader, the more enthusiastic it’s likely your people will be — and the more ready and willing they will be to accept whatever task you give them.”

To make the most of what’s around you, unleash what’s inside of you.  Share your gift freely.  It’s the gift that gives back.