| Written by Lisa Hood,
on 10-20-2008 15:49
|
Views : 77  |
Favoured : 4 |
Published in : , Motivation |
Tags : willing cooperation, clean slate, kind manner, zig ziglar, great leaders, cornerstones, top performance, top performers, business leaders, bully, sacrifices, consequences, interaction, integrity, fellow, choices, leadership, relationship |
Top Performance by Zig Ziglar, is a guide for business leaders to inspire others to follow, rather than bully or manipulate. "You can have everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want!"
All success begins by creating a foundation: the cornerstones of which are character, integrity, values and trust, each determined by the choices we make. One choice to make in every interaction is whether to react or respond. Reacting sacrifices control to others, whereas responding allows you to maintain control through choice. According to Ziglar, tomorrow is a clean slate and you can choose what to write on that slate, "You make that choice each time you decide to respond to negative events or react to those negative events." (p30) It may make it easier to respond if you remember "when others deal with us in a mean and vicious way...it's not because they want to hurt us...they are acting that way because they are hurting." (p31) No matter how obnoxious a person has acted or how deserving they are of a scathing rebuff, you still have the choice to respond in a positive, kind manner. With choice comes responsibility for the consequences and there is no more room for blame or deflection.
Great leaders gain the willing cooperation of others. They do not force or manipulate others. "Cooperation, like leadership, is not getting the other fellow to do what you want. Rather it means getting him to want to do what you want." (p42) Before gaining the cooperation of others, work must be done to form a relationship, built on the foundation discussed earlier. Ziglar recommends giving people "DOSES" of leadership. Leadership that is Dynamic is flexible and fluid, allowing for adjustments depend on the situation. Leadership must also be Organized, Sensitive and Effective. Lastly, successful leaders must be Strong willed, standing firm when necessary. People want to follow leaders they can look up to and who will not look down on them.Top performers build esteem. They look for the good, expect the best and cultivate loyalty. Leaders must also inspect results and offer feedback focusing on the performance only, not the performer. Always provide instructive feedback in private, with the intention of creating an action plan for improvement and follow up. The purpose of instructive feedback is to teach others to do better in the future, not to punish for past performance. "People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care...about them." (p101)
Don't wait for a shortcoming to provide feedback. It is just as important to acknowledge a job well done. According to George Matthew Adams, "There are high spots in all of our lives and most of them have come about through encouragement from someone else." (p63) The constant objective of a successful leader must be to raise the esteem, and subsequently the performance of their team. William James, a psychologist and philosopher, says "The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated."(p64)
Self image is the key to behavior: whatever we believe to be true, about ourselves or others' response to us, will influence our behavior, and predict our outcomes. Self image can be a limiting factor in performance, so successful leaders work to build the self image of their team members, using positive feedback, recognition programs and optimization of individual strengths.
"To be loyal to yourself, you must work to maintain a healthy self image" (p86) through continuous learning, life balance and giving back to others. You can not receive what you do not give: you must give respect and love to others in order to receive it in return. "When we are sincerely interested in others, we don't have time to direct negativity toward ourselves." (p93)
One way to improve self image is to recognize your strengths and the strengths of your team members. Workers are more productive when their efforts are recognized. Recognition does not necessary mean monetary rewards, or incentive motivation, which is much debated form of motivation. "Today's fringe benefits are tomorrow's expectations." (p122) Recognition motivates employees and reinforces the company's values.
Zig Ziglar has identified the Three A's for excellence that include attitude, aggressiveness and appearance. A quick review of each shows:
1. "Attitude is a mindset. You must believe." Successful leaders are committed to excellence and believe in themselves and their plans. Their strong beliefs influence all around them.
2. Aggressiveness. In a global marketplace, competition is intensive and aggressive. Without an equally strong approach in pursuit of excellence, our efforts can easily be replaced.
3. Appearance is the "visual manifestation of attitude and aggressiveness." Fair or not, the business community judges individuals by their appearance. It is important to have a professional appearance if you want to command respect.
Successful business leaders project an image of confidence and capability, through appearance, posture, gestures, eye contact, facial expressions, voice and listening. Nearly 90% of communication occurs through sight and only 7% through sound. The content of what is spoken is less critical then the context in which it is spoken, the accompanying body language and tone of voice. Visual communication fills the gap between the rate in which a listener receives information (~600 words per minute) and the rate in which a speaker speaks (~150 words per minute).
There is growing trend of employee dissatisfaction in the workplace and consequently, lower productivity and retention. The workforce needs leadership who inspires through integrity, concern and competence. In order to motivate, leaders must provide a MOTIVE to take ACTION. Motives may include fear, incentives or opportunities for growth. Fear and incentive motivations may be effective temporarily, but only internal motivations are effective long term. To motivate yourself, learn what moves you to take action and to motivate others, learn what moves them to take action. "That's the major purpose of Top Performance - to give specific methods, procedures, and techniques for helping each individual grow and inspiring them so they will do a better job - not just for the benefit of the company, but for their own benefit as well." (p165)
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