John's Blog

One would think that the actions taken to achieve a vision would actually take you closer to that goal. Indeed, successful people and companies alike focus on doing only the tasks and activities that carry them closer to their destination. This is called "efficiency."  It's staggering to observe just how much "inefficiency" happens. People get caught up, worn down, and burnt out, committed to actions that at best, takes them no where, and at worst, takes them further away from their goal.  What's really shocking is how many people actually take no action towards achievement of their ideal life at all, leaving the outcome to "che sera, sera, whatever will be will be." If they had no ambition, this attitude would be perfectly reasonable, but it is usually people with a dream that do nothing about it.  "Faith," I hear you bellow. "The non-active are believing for the outcome" you reason. Possibly. However, faith is a stro...

You are forgiven for thinking that the articles posted here over the last couple of months were random and haphazard. Nothing could be further from the truth.  You may even think that the majority of articles were just emotional and religious, or at least "spiritual" in nature. Although that is partly true, it is not the whole truth.  Fact of the matter is that all the articles have been deliberate and grouped into four categories, namely; the vision, the leader, the team, and the action. These four categories combined together form "leadership" as defined by the U49 leadership system.  There is no doubt that what we do in our private lives affects our public performances. This idea is reinforced under the U49, with it assigning personal development topics to the leader, including; mission, truth, and the "I am."  Actually, a lot of what falls under "the team," "the action," and "the vision" comes from the ...

Entrepreneur, manager, and politician are roles that each require it's own set of unique skills, but does not guarantee that the title holder is a leader.  A person gets the title of leader by way of birthing a vision. The leader was, is, and always will be the vision owner and curator, responsible for taking it from inception to completion, with the effective and efficient help of a team.  Anyone that feels strongly enough to act on a vision can lead. Having a vision obviously doesn't mean the person will be a good leader. Like any skill, leadership is loaded with various principles, strategies, and techniques, requiring study and practice to master.  Many visions lay dormant on the shelf of "one day," collecting dust. The owners of the " vision-in-storage" become reluctant to dust the vision off and make it happen, because they feel unworthy of the leader position.  Instead of letting your vision decay into "regret," equip yourself wi...

Hundreds of thousands of new ventures, fresh visions and infant businesses die, because the leader didn't know how to get it going. Of all the things your "new life" needs to survive, momentum is crucial.   Without a doubt, a clear future vision defines why we do it. Growth gurus want us to diligently sort a one year, a three year, and a ten year plan, because it's the "year of vision." Pffft! Those plans will be a fat load of useless if you dont action it tomorrow.  The saying, "objects at rest want to stay at rest," applies to your vision too. Have you noticed the tiny steps given by the strong man as he starts to pull the heavy truck? These little steps focus all his power to move the truck forward just an inch. Our vision needs tiny steps of focused power to get the first sign of movement. Focusing on just "the next step," creates the initial movement in our vision.  The following step will need less force to move the visi...

Get out of the box - Part 4 - Fear of the unknown.    The most common barrier to getting out of the box of complacency is the fear of the unknown. When encountering this fear in others, you must know that they have not planned!    Planning removes the impact of the "unknown" element, and replaces it with "calculated risk."    People wrongly believe that they can just "wing it" through this life, and still enjoy the benefits of success. Nothing could be further from the truth.    Winging it through life is like standing up on a public platform to do an unprepared speech - it results in a lot of incoherent rambling that goes nowhere and means nothing.   When asked to prepare for a thirty minute speech at Cambridge University, Winston Churchill said he needed two weeks to prepare. When asked how long he would need to prepare for a two hour speech, he replied "I'm ready now."    Life is like a thirty minute speech, it ne...

Our personal development and life success is directly linked to the statement: "I am the way, the truth and the life."    Each of our missions in life uses this legendary quote as a map to growth through: focus, momentum and mastery.    Just in case the process is not clear: focus equates the way, momentum equates the truth, and mastery equates the life.    Some people incorrectly hold the belief that we must first discover truth, which then magically opens "the way" for us. In reality, we need to progress along the way in order to discover our personal truth.    Testing the leadership model, the U49, I set out on a personal growth path, exercising my mission as I went. I had preselected a random mission as part of an experiment to prove the effectiveness of the leadership model.    The experiment required me to dedicate one hour a day of focused time and effort, performing the various tasks within my selected mission, for a p...

Personal & Leadership Skill: Ability to Identify and Solve Problems No other skill will keep you relevant and in demand like the ability to solve problems. The best problem solvers in the work place are often the highest paid in the company. This is a skill that everyone should have but has become rare and extremely valuable.

Personal & Leadership Skill: Collect, Organise, Analyse and Critically Evaluate Information Regardless of the position we hold at work, we all deal with information daily. A massive amount of information is passed back and forward on a moment by moment basis. Information and its assimilation is big business. If you are in business, if you work or even as a student, you will constantly deal with this skill. Efficiently collecting, organising, analysing and critically evaluating information can mean the difference of starting a new trend in your industry or being a tail-end trend follower.

Life coaching should be a collaborative experience, a shared responsibility between the coach and coachee. The responsibility of the coach is to identify weaknesses in mental process, and change them for to the strong processes, allowing the coachee to actively pursue and achieve their dreams. The coach/coachee relationship is a delicate dance of outcomes, observation, trust and curiosity that could last from just one project to a life time of achievement.

As every successful athlete knows, as every great salesman has experienced – there is a fine line between failure and success. The difference between a failure and a successful task balances uneasily on the golden pivot of timing! As in sports or in sales – when to lead is as important as how or where. Timing carries with it the potential of four possible outcomes:

<< Leadership << 21 Laws to Leadership 6 Things Others Respect in a True Leader In the orders society of dogs, there is always a leader for the team. Should the existing leader lose the favour of the pack through injury, illness or age; another dog with leadership capacity will step into the role and assume authority. Dogs don’t care who the leader is, as long as there is a leader. Chance are, the successor will be a dog that has proven worth earlier and demonstrated his or her capabilities for which he or she won the packs respect and admiration. Similarly, people recognize the capacity for leadership in others too, drawn in by admiration and respect. Many desire the position of leadership, but it is not a role for which one can crown yourself. Rather, leadership is a result of people recognizing your capacity and respecting your abilities - and then decide to follow you! This process often occurs by evolution, rather than revolution.

<< 21 Laws of Leadership 5 Areas of Growth a Leader should Continually Develop Let’s be clear on this: just because you hash tag leader in your bio, does not mean you are a leader! You no more select the title of leader than you select the title of being an “influencer” in your industry. These two title are awarded when the evidence of the traits have been identified and verified. One thing, however, is synonymous with leadership – and that is – growth! If your desire is to influence others with your leadership, or even if you are the leader of an organisation, perhaps a manager or supervisor – that fact is, your followers, your team, or your organisation will only grow to your level.

8 Universal Life Skills (everyone should have) There is no doubt that the world we live and its inhabitants are changing. Professional communication, access to information, more contact with diverse groups of people; are just three ways over the last decade in which the demands on each person personally has changed. Adaptability was an ability that was favoured, but has become an essential life skill to ensure personal survival in this ever changing world.

<< Board of Brilliance , If you want something different... John's Board of Brilliance If you want something different... a 1:48 video...

<< Board of Brilliance , Failure not an identity John's Board of Brilliance Failure is not an identity..... 1:34 video

5 Tips for Leadership Development Evaluation In my quest to learn, grow and share leadership traits, techniques and tips, I recently attended a conference, my first in many years. Several speakers took to the stage, sharing their secrets of success. Each one had a turn on the stage whipping the crowd into frenzied excitement with dance moves, power chants and positive affirmations. I walked away disappointed that leadership development had been reduced to rah-rah tricks and shallow development tips. Understanding the need for enthusiasm at conferences and the hype needed to promote sales, my concern is that this circus has become the expectation for leadership development.

The 18-Wheeler of Life   The secret to successfully living an authentic life is congruence. Congruence implies that we should have a straight line of agreement between vision, goals and behaviour. See the “Authenticity: The Pudding of Congruence” Blog Post . As basic as the concept of a straight line may be, it does require some conscious focus and attention. The concept is equal to the wheel alignment on an eighteen wheel truck.   To move a heavy vehicle safely and efficiently we need all the wheels to be balanced, correctly inflated and all pointed in the same direction. Our lives can easily be represented by the eighteen wheeler truck rig: The cab with the driver would represent our focus and vision in life. Sitting at the front of the vehicle our whole life will follow the course we select from in the cab. The Trailer would represent how we contain life, with all our own personality, attitude and emotions. What happens in life only has the meaning that we ...

Learning is a pleasurable experience, on which I put a great amount of value. Recently I spent a day at a conference, well-known speakers, about self-development. Apart for the usual “ra-ra-buy-my-products” sales talk in between, it was a good conference, with much learning on offer. However, one thing did stand out as peculiar - How WRONG people are about self-talk!

School was a perpetual state of fog as far as I was concerned. Even in the lower grades I struggled to comprehend and connect to the lessons on offer. Simple instructions would cause me great anxiety. A simple instruction like: “Close your eyes and imagine a big old oak tree!” So, can you do it? Can you close your eyes and instantly visualize an old oak tree projected from the depths of your brain onto the inside of your forehead? You can? Good for you! But not everyone can do this. Well, I can’t. I have to talk my way through the picture. I speak the oak tree into my imagination.

As a minimalist it always amuses me how clogged people get in their thinking. What really tickles me is how repetitive people are in their thought process, especially in solving problems.  Even with the advent of readily available information on the internet, people still seem to choose a solution that is cluttered with past failures. Around and round the problem they go. Some attempt to try old solutions - just quicker! Or, they try failed thoughts, but increase the VOLUME! (Obviously problems are afraid of noise?) Basically, people keep attempting the same solutions they always have, ending with the same, or very similar, results each time.