Set Your Destination

When something is new, the possibilities can seem endless. New job? New project? You can take it anywhere you want, right? The problem is that endless possibilities significantly impede progress. That’s why Stephen Covey dedicated one of his 7 Habits to “Start with the end in mind.” It’s also why new organizational leaders often have an onboarding structure in place for them for the first 100 days (or so).

The start of your next big thing is a critical period. So set a SMART goal. Set a next step. Begin to set your destination – if not your final destination, then at least your next one. Until you do, progress will be difficult.

Get a Quick Win

In today’s ever-changing organizational environment, unfortunately there isn’t much patient for long-term initiatives. Because of this, even the best strategies can fall by the wayside unless they demonstrate a quick win.

A quick win is a tangible and visible evidence of progress. It gives your new project a concrete story to tell (after all, it’s hard to argue with results). It enhances visibility. And for professional as well as personal projects, it helps provide motivation to keep going. Remember: people don’t want to wait to win.

With People, Slow is Fast

Most projects can’t happen without the support of others. The bigger the project, the more support it takes. You may be able to pull off most of the nuts and bolts of the work, but if you try to go it alone, you’ll be doomed before you start. Try this:

• Build relationships with others before you need them to help you.
• Ask for and value input from others even when you don’t necessarily need it. (This will make it much easier to get when you do need it!)
• Value results AND relationships.
• Get buy-in from key decision-makers each step of the way. If you don’t, you risk having your project shut down because someone with authority wasn’t prepared for it.
• Bide your time. Credibility comes with a tenure of relational and performance capital.
• Say thank you.

Put Fear in Its Place

If there’s one topic that doesn’t get nearly enough attention, it’s fear. Fear is real and it has the power to stop anyone in his tracks and abort any otherwise worthwhile endeavor. Unfortunately, many times the greater the undertaking, the stronger the fear. In his book Start, Jon Acuff says that, “Fear tends to argue both sides of the coin, leaving you absolutely no room to stand. Here are two of the complete opposite things it will tell you: Don’t chase your dream at all, and: If you chase your dream, you have to do it all at once.”

Dale Carnegie dedicated an entire book to disrobing the anatomy of fear and putting it in its rightful place. For that reason, How to Stop Worrying and Start Living is a must-read. Some fears are worth considering, but most play on our insecurities. The longer we pretend fear isn’t real – or that it doesn’t affect us – the longer we’ll limit our progress.

Acknowledge fear, but put it in its rightful place. Follow George Patton’s advice: “Don’t take counsel of your fears.”

One final thought: none of us can do everything but all of us can do something. Let’s make that thing count!

What’s your next big thing?

Nathan Magnuson is a leadership consultant, coach, trainer and thought leader.  Receive his ebook Trusted Leadership Advisor by subscribing to his website or   follow him on Twitter.

One of the first mistakes we often make is assuming that the person in charge is always the leader. Then, when it turns out they aren’t, we give up. But what if leadership doesn’t have anything to do with having a title? In that case, it would be possible to have an organization filled with leaders at every level.

So how can we tell who the real leaders are? Here’s a start. Real leaders do each of the following – and then some:

Take Responsibility

Great followers do what they’re told. Leaders take initiative and responsibility for solving problems. Have you ever tried to resolve a problem with someone who told you, “that’s not my job?” Contrast that with a person who went the extra mile to resolve your issue, or at least get you pointed in the right direction. Which one will you prefer to work with in the future? There’s no substitute for having defined processes, but leaders gain influence each time they take responsibility.

Have the Courage to Take Risks

One of the reasons people are so reluctant to take additional responsibility is their fear of consequences if things don’t work out. In unhealthy organizations, this is a legitimate fear. But leaders don’t take risks for just for the fun of it – they understand the differences between blind risks and acceptable risks – and they accept the responsibility to take the appropriate risks at their level. At some point, someone has to make a decision. It’s always easier to push risk up the organizational chart, but organizations tend to reward those who are willing to manage risk themselves. Leadership always requires courage.

Collaborate

In today’s information age, collaboration isn’t just a nice sentiment or corporate buzzword that goes in and out of vogue. It’s an organizational deal-breaker. Leaders are aware of how their part fits in the context of the larger picture – and they go out of their way to anticipate who needs the information they have. Then they work proactively to make that information available.

Develop Others

I got to work on a project with the FBI once and I will never forget what the Executive Assistant Director told us one day. She stated that the organization needed leaders who were good at… making other people look good. This flies in the face of the assumption that leadership is 100% about individual performance. A high performer who can’t develop others will soon be leading a low-performing team – and won’t be doing it for long.

True leaders don’t wait until they are in charge to develop others. They constantly look for ways to help others improve – or to make something better for everyone.

Set a Positive Example

Unfortunately, the best examples of positive behavior don’t always come from the top of the organizational chart. But people can’t help but take notice of a worthwhile example, no matter where it comes from. Leaders understand they are never too unqualified to set a good example – and that includes a good leadership example.

Create Positive Change

The whole point of leadership is change. If things were good enough the way they are, leadership would be unnecessary and irrelevant. Change is difficult to initiate and harder to sustain. There are often many barriers. But leaders don’t let what they can’t do prevent them from doing what they can do. And what they can do is enough.

It’s not easy being a leader. If it was, everyone would be doing it. But it matters – for individuals, teams and organizations as a whole. So if you are trying to figure out who the real leaders are, start looking for these factors. If you are trying to determine if someone is a leader, look for past evidence of them. And if you are trying to become a leader, this is a great place to start.

Nathan Magnuson is a leadership consultant, coach, trainer and thought leader.  Receive his new ebook Trusted Leadership Advisor by subscribing to his website  or follow him on Twitter.

If someone on your team has fouled things up, why don’t you try some of these responses?

Begin with Praise

Sometimes when a mistake has been made, the offending person is more than aware and dreading the upcoming interaction. Other times, they are oblivious. In either case, the way you begin the conversation will more than likely set the tone for future performance. No matter how badly someone botches things up, there is usually a silver lining somewhere. Begin by catching the person doing something right. This demonstrates that you noticed and that you care. It also sets a positive tone for the rest of the conversation (and future ones).

Ask for the Other Person’s Assessment

One of the most practical ways to address a performance snafu is to ask for the other other person’s feedback before you give your own. There are a couple reasons. First, if you open by sharing your concerns, it puts the other person on the defensive right off the bat. Second, people are always much more likely to follow through on their own ideas than the ideas of others. Just be careful that you don’t ask for the other person’s feedback only when there are evident mistakes – it won’t take long to pick up on that pattern.

Make the Fault Seem Easy to Correct

This is Dale Carnegie‘s 8th principle for being a leader. Most mistakes don’t error in their entirety but in just a small piece. I recently worked with a golf coach who had me adjust my swing. When I hit a nasty slice, I expected him to confirm how ugly it looked. But instead, he’d tell me it was “almost perfect” and I just needed to make a little adjustment and try again. Making the fault seem easy to correct helps distinguish between a fatal and a fixable error.

Redirect the Energy

The attention of an error usually tends to be the negative outcome – and along with it negative energy. Unless you redirect the energy to something positive, the focus stays in the wrong place. Bring the focus back to the positive desired outcomes and tie it back to what is “in it” for the individual and for other stakeholders if the outcome is performed correctly.

Provide Constructive Feedback

Feedback that is un-constructive may be true, correct, factual, objective and warranted. Feedback that is constructive is useful for positive change. Help the person you are working with understand what they can do differently in the future (including the critical thinking components) to get the results you both want.

Give Second Chances

One of the best examples of a second chance was Thomas Edison’s invention of the light bulb. After laboring for 24 hours, his team finally created what they hoped to be the first functioning bulb. Edison handed it to a young boy to take it up the stairs of their building to test it. Unfortunately the boy dropped the bulb and it was ruined. Shrugging off the frustration, Edison’s team worked for another 24 hours and Edison entrusted the same boy with the same task. The rest is history.

When people make a mistake, there is a sense in which they are in our debt. A second chance may not erase the debt but it demonstrates trust and builds enormous amounts of loyalty. And motivation doesn’t get much higher than trying to prove that trust is well-placed.

Have you ever had a boss who responded like a leader when you made a mistake?

Nathan Magnuson is a leadership consultant, coach, trainer and thought leader.  Receive his new ebook Trusted Leadership Advisor by subscribing to his website  or follow him on Twitter.

In other words, there is a great reluctance to take a stand in ambiguous or unpopular situations and declare, “If this doesn’t work, I’ll be the one who goes down with the ship.”

The great tragedy is that the opportunity for true leadership, the kind that welcomes responsibility and takes courageous and necessary risks in spite of the unknown – that kind of leadership, has never been in higher demand. Worse still, the kind of leadership that takes a stand is exactly the prerequisite to rallying others to unite and follow.

Is it so bad to be wrong, after all? The lengths “leaders” go to avoid blame many times far exceeds the amount of damage actually caused by a mistake. A business executive continues with a risky plan in spite of damning information in hopes it will work out because to turn back would be to appear to admit defeat. An education official gives in to a new testing standard, confident that it will fail but unwilling to propose an alternative. A politician refuses to support a bill drafted by an opponent because to do so would be to appear weak.

In the meantime, there is a long wake of losers. Shareholders lose. Customers lose. Employees lose. Students lose. Constituents all lose. And leaders lose their credibility in the process. The only people who win are the critics who say, “I told you so.” But is it really a win?

Additionally, many times the “fault” is actually no fault at all except a change in the external environment. Sometimes it can be anticipated, but many times not. The market changes, a new technology comes along, the weather fails to cooperate. (What do you think happens to the construction industry when winters run long?)

No matter how sure you are of success, something could come along and derail it. But that shouldn’t stop us from making the decisions that need to be made today. That’s what sets those of us who would be leaders apart. After all, it takes an exceeding amount of courage to lead.

So what can we do about it? Here are some thoughts:

• Do a risk assessment.
• Have a plan and a contingency plan.
• In Colin Powell’s words, “Don’t take counsel of your fears.”
• Set a good leadership example; when you make a mistake, admit it publicly.
• Create environments where others feel secure in admitting their own mistakes. In Dale Carnegie’s words, “Make the fault seem easy to correct.”
• Focus on lessons learned from both successes and failures. Then share them so they aren’t repeated.
• Win and lose as teams, not as individuals. (The problem with “pin the tail on the donkey” is that no one wants to be the target).
• Applaud people for adjusting course when they recognize that a situation has changed. Go a step further by lending your support when it’s needed.
• Practice answering difficult questions with conviction and transparency. (You can’t appeal to noble motives unless you have them to begin with).
• Explain what happened, but don’t make excuses. Take responsibility instead.
• Offer hope.

If you’ve never had the finger pointed at you before, you’re a risky person for others to follow. Don’t be afraid. You will fall down and you will collect scars along the way. Will always be worth it? Unfortunately, there are no guarantees. But there’s no other way to lead than by example.

Nathan Magnuson is a leadership consultant, coach, trainer and thought leader.  Receive his new ebook Trusted Leadership Advisor by subscribing to his website  or follow him on Twitter.

“Yes, this is Bill. I’m a Vice President at First Big Bank. I need to know where our $77 million is.”

“Uh, yes,” I gulped. “Well… do you have an account number?” I was working in the investor reporting department of a major financial institution at my first job out of college. A large commercial property had paid off that week and the payment was split between two separate beneficiaries. As I had entered the $77 million wire into the electronic payment system, I was already preparing my braggadocio about the large amounts of cash I routinely handled in my job (even though this was a special circumstance and was only “electronic” money). But now it looked as though my day was about to be ruined. As I checked the account, my fears were confirmed.

“Um, I think I’m going to have to call you back…” I mustered. Epic. Fail.

What is it about mistakes? We go to great lengths to avoid even the appearance of them and then go to even greater lengths to hide them once they’ve happened. But what if we’re actually missing out on some of the best development there is? Let’s explore some of the benefits of making mistakes and see if we can come up with some alternatives.

Some of the Greatest Discoveries Were Born Out of Mistakes

The number of mistakes that led to eventual breakthroughs for inventors, engineers, researchers, and all kinds of people is nearly limitless. Thomas Edison conducted 9,000 failed experiments before inventing the light bulb. Eager to make an impression as a new publicly traded company, Ford Motor company lost a horrific amount of money on their Edsel automobile in the late 1950s. But from the mistake they were able to produce the Mustang, and later the Taurus. Walt Disney had to start his own business after his first cartoon series went bankrupt. He soon became a household name on his own. Whenever you try something new, there is always a chance of a breakthrough, even if it is not the breakthrough you intended to find.

Mistakes Are Some of the Best Learning Opportunities

Sometimes what we learn from failure actually benefits us more than the failure itself cost. We always ought to be able to learn something. Truett Cathy, founder of Chick-fil-A, said that, “Anything worth doing is worth doing wrong… until we can learn to do it right.” As an aside, I like to add that if you can’t laugh at yourself, you’re missing out on some of the best stuff out there! (Tweet) It’s great when we can learn from the mistakes of others, but when it’s your own snafu, the lesson can last a lifetime. This doesn’t just include a great invention like the Chick-fil-A sandwich. It can include any business, communication, leadership – virtually any kind of lesson.

You Can Never Know It All Before You Start

Sometimes the fear of making a mistake is greater than the actual mistake itself. Some leaders are more apt to be risk-minded than opportunity-minded. There’s nothing wrong with that at all. There are times when waiting for more information can help you avoid devastating losses. The flip side is also true. Sometimes waiting just makes dealing with a problem even more costly. Whatever your partiality toward mistakes, there will be times that require you move past your comfort zone (either toward or away).

So how did I cash in on my $77 million mistake? Well, as it turned out, I did in fact wire the $77 million to the wrong bank and earned myself a couple awkward conversations. But it turned out to not be that big of a deal. I simply emailed a new set of wiring instructions to bank #2 and they solved the problem. And no money was actually in danger since both accounting departments would’ve stayed open until all the accounts balanced. Sure, it was a bit embarrassing, but also a turning point for me in my young career. I discovered that working with numbers didn’t really interest me (doesn’t take a genius to figure that!). Instead I needed to be working with people and creating change. That day marked a turning point in my career pursuits. And the added benefit is that now this whole illustration works much better for me in presentations than if I had never goofed up in the first place!

What’s the biggest, worst, most embarrassing professional mistake you’ve ever made?

Nathan Magnuson is a leadership consultant, coach, trainer and thought leader.  Receive his ebook Trusted Leadership Advisor by subscribing to his website or   follow him on Twitter.

I hope you got to see the jump.  I was watching a football game with friends but we had the jump coverage streaming on the computer nearby.  The fact that my friend Sean and I had gone skydiving for the first time over the summer caused me to get sucked in even further.  As the countdown neared, we paid less and less attention to NFL Sunday and held our collective breath as “Fearless Felix” finally went hurdling through the stratosphere, breaking the speed of sound on his own free-fall back to earth.  4 minutes and 19 seconds later, Baumgartner deployed his parachute and soon after landed safely on the ground in Roswell, New Mexico.

Since Red Bull had sponsored the “Red Bull Stratos” project, it didn’t take long for them to begin flooding promotional materials and videos online.  In particular, I found this video on YouTube, posted on 10 days before Baumgarter’s final record-setting jump, which I believe can teach us several lessons about how to live – and lead – on the edge, Felix Baumgartner-style.

Traditional Wisdom Says to Just Play it Safe

My high school football coach used to say that our greatest challenge as football players wasn’t the opponent who lined up across from us.  It was our mothers who usually didn’t want us to come out and play the dangerous sport in the first place.  It was the same for Baumgartner, having been as a child not to fall off anything.  However, he responded by “learning to love what you’ve been taught to fear.”  Not everyone has the opportunity to jump from space, but each of us has the opportunity to take a risk in life.  In the end, either you master your fears or they master you.

You’ll Never Know What’s Possible Unless You Push the Limits

Before Roger Bannister broke the 4 minute mile in 1954, the common belief was that it simply couldn’t be done.  It wasn’t humanly possible, scientists said.  Bannister chose to believe otherwise and today the 4 minute mile is now the standard for all male professional middle distance runners.  If you keep doing what you’ve always done, you’ll keep getting what you’ve always gotten.  If you’ve ever participated the “gallon challenge” (trying to drink a gallon of milk in under an hour), you know that it’s best to submit to some limitations.  But others can be not only life-shaping, but world-shaping as well, provided we commit to push through real or artificial barriers.

Early Success Can Spoil You

I thought it was ironic how Baumgartner commented on this when any failure on his part could result in certain death.  If this is something Baumgartner believed, how much more true is it for you and I?  Looking back on both my military and educational experiences, I realize now how unfounded any fears of messing things up in a training environment were.  What better place to push the limits, make a huge mistake, learn from it, and perform at a higher level when it counts?  If you can’t fail, can you really succeed?

You Can’t Do It Alone

We get so tempted to think that success is an individual accomplishment.  But just look at the Red Bull Stratos team that surrounded Baumgartner.  He had scientists, meteorologists, sports psychologists, outfitters, and an entire mission control team working to ensure his success.  Sometimes we make the mistake of assuming we need to “prove ourselves” to the critics who want us to fail.  In actuality, most people usually want us to succeed, and some of them will even sign up to work toward our success.  Like Baumgarter, there is often no way we can do it alone.

Living on the Edge is a Lifestyle

I was gripped by Baumgartner’s statement that, “I believe in God and I truly think that there is a plan that He has for everybody.  And I also think He has a plan for me.  It look like I’m becoming an astronaut!”  Many people of that mindset would advise against taking the “plans of God” and risking them by living so close to the edge.  But according to Baumgarter, daring mighty things was meant to be part of the plan itself.  Mavis Leyrer said that “Life’s journey is not to arrive at the grave safely….”  Baumgartner shows us we ought to plan to encounter risks (and even invite them) instead of trying to avoid them at all costs.

Like I mentioned previously, not all of us will have the opportunity to break the sound barrier while free falling.  In fact, you can’t be the first person to do it anymore.  But opportunities to accept a risk and take a chance are all around us, whether to start a business, start a family, deliver a public speech, run for office, apply to a program, or any number of other things.  Will you join me in living on the edge – Felix Baumgartner-style?

By the way, do you want to see how the Mission from the Edge of Space went down (pun intended)?  Red Bull posted another short video last week to give you a front row view!

Nathan Magnuson is a leadership consultant, coach, trainer and thought leader.  Receive his ebook Trusted Leadership Advisor by subscribing to his website or   follow him on Twitter.