Eisenhower certainly understood the concepts of being a more influential leader, didn’t he?
Influential Leaders
Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want to be done because he wants to do it.
Dwight Eisenhower
Spot on. I have been in the military and business world for forty years, and I often get asked what it takes to be a more influential leader. Being an influential leader is a lifelong learning process. You are never done learning. Every great leader always looks for ways to improve their ability to influence.
Leadership can be especially challenging for entrepreneurs. Balancing the need to run a business (i.e., products, investors, customers, etc.) and the need to lead company personnel is quite a task.
Effective leader influence as an entrepreneur means that you can “make things happen,” instead of just “letting things happen.” Leader influence is required in many activities. It is involved in a variety of situations and problems, from the very simple to the very complex.
Leaders must influence others to achieve goals, and they must gain the respect of followers to influence them. This is no easy task, but if you want to have the respect of your followers, you must become an influential and trusted leader.
Related: Looking for Battle-Tested, Effective Leadership Qualities?
Leaders use influence and collaborative skills to solve problems by selecting one course of action from several possible alternatives. Almost any decision involves some conflicts or dissatisfaction. The difficult part is to pick one solution where the positive outcome can outweigh possible losses.
To many, avoiding decisions often seems to be the easiest approach. Influencing decisions and accepting the consequences are the only way to stay in control of your time, your success, and your business.
Here are ten laws of leader influence Digital Spark Marketing uses with clients to improve their ability to get to the best solution alternatives:
Influential Leaders … Get into the Action
It is critical that you learn the importance of the start, whatever you have been postponing. Just do it, as Nike likes to tell its customers and potential customers. If you wait for the perfect time to start, it will never happen, and you will have accomplished nothing.
Great leaders don’t work in existing systems. They change the systems to give them what they want. And they don’t delay the start.
They come up with new options for jobs, projects, and professional development that their bosses hadn’t even thought of. They see an opportunity coming their way before most of the rest of us have even looked up from our laptops. They don’t hesitate to seize the initiative or get into action, do they?
Learn from others
Observing and learning from those around you makes you stronger, and better. Never fail to see its value. Your peers, as well as competitors, can usually teach you more than your friends. Let them. Learn from them. To be a great leader, you need to have a strong will and an even stronger stomach.
At the end of the day, you need to remind yourself that your job isn’t to make everyone happy, but rather to improve the organization as a whole.
Good leaders are constantly trying to improve and surround themselves with the ablest people they can find. They look squarely at their mistakes and deficiencies, and they ask frankly what skills they and the company will need in the future.
And because of this, they can move forward with confidence that’s grounded in the facts, not built on fantasies about their talent.
One of the most important things you can do as a leader is cultivate self-awareness. Knowing your leadership styles will help you to be more intentional about using them well and managing their shortcomings. Do you lead with expertise? Charisma? Caring? Armed with this awareness, you can leverage your unique styles to become more influential and inspire others.
Influential leaders … demonstrate integrity
Nothing can ruin your influence and respect faster than a lack of integrity. Integrity, however, is not just about avoiding unethical choices and situations. Integrity is intentionally molding a culture of values and service.
Show persistence
Persistence is key. Always keep up the effort as you will never know how close to success you may be.
Think about your energy. It’s not just about what you like best, but about what feeds you and what depletes you. And who. Do what you can to increase the good stuff and decrease the bad. You just need to realize you have the power to accomplish it. Much more than you may have imagined.
Eliminate whatever it is in your life that’s draining you, and replace it with something that inspires you. This will help your persistence.
Invest in yourself
Leaders invest in continuous learning. Grow your expertise. The more you know, the more you can help. The greater your competence, the more others will respect you and the effort you made to learn about what they do.
Always work hard at being a little better than you were the day before. Continuous learning is one of the most important attributes in the work and personal environment.
Great leaders know that every step they take, and every decision they make, matters in the end. They know they must strategize carefully, and then act decisively. They know they must think ahead — not just to their next step — but to the many steps after it.
Don’t fear failure
No matter how confident someone may seem, everyone is afraid of failing. All of us are afraid of screwing up or afraid of looking stupid.
But great leaders know that everyone they interact with is also afraid.
These people are successful because they act in the face of fear. They go after what they believe, seek change, and, ultimately, make a difference.
They also believe they can take a risk because even if they fail, they’ll be able to learn from it and overcome it.
Their fear doesn’t hold them back. Instead, it springs them into action, because they know not stretching themselves is worse than failing.
Help people be successful. Focus on developing leadership skills in your team. Be a resource, a sounding board, and a safe place to talk. If you want the people you lead to respect you, they need to know you are on their side.
Advocate for them; help them get the promotion they’ve been hoping for. Leverage your influence on their behalf.
Wear your passion
Always wear your passion for what you are doing. To do that, you must find those things that you love. Follow the passion; it is what gives you the strength to overcome the obstacles to everyday tasks.
Passion is power … it is what keeps you going when everyone else gets tired and gives up.
Concentrate on the future
A leader’s job is to interact with the future on behalf of constituents. Spend time doing things that only you can do, delegating other important areas to competent team members. Establish a vision, and keep your gaze focused on the overall goal. Resist the temptation to spend too much time-solving day to day problems if they cost you progress toward your vision.
Practice these leadership behaviors often and think ahead for your greatest leadership advantages.
Need some help in capturing more improvements for your staff’s leadership, teamwork, and collaboration? Creative ideas in running or facilitating a team or leadership workshop?
Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options to scope your job.
Call Mike at 607-725-8240.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to innovating your social media strategyg?
Do you have a lesson about making your advertising better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed at how reasonable we will be.
More leadership material from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.
Based on my own strategic exploration over the years, I have studied and synthesized the following thirteen power habits to form the base for your future success and help you become a powerful, high-performance person:
Habit #1
First and foremost, adapt and adopt the powerful habits of successful people, and always establish a definite purpose or principal objective in whatever you do.
Having a definite purpose in life and work will give you a sense of direction.
With purpose, you can move forward much more confidently.
Habit #2
Invest in self-directed, life-long learning:
Continually acquire new knowledge, skills, and competencies throughout your working lives to meet the ever-changing challenges.
You must embrace the practice of lifelong learning for lifelong employability.
Lester Thurow, the author of Creating Wealth, said that the three most important things needed for the Knowledge Economy are:
“Skills, Skills and Skills”.
You must therefore create your own learning journey for the rest of your life.
You have to keep on learning new things and set new directions for yourself, all the time in a rapidly changing world.
You can start by drawing up a learning agenda, in tandem with your long-range goals and objectives.
Habit #3
Stay ahead – and stay alert; embrace change and learn to tolerate complexity as well as ambiguity:
Indeed, technology is advancing so rapidly on so many fronts that the main constraint on productivity today is not so much your capacity to come up with new ideas, but your ability to keep abreast of and integrate the latest developments from fields outside your own particular specialty.
As a matter of fact, the overwhelmingly largest determinant of success today for you is the speed with which you can accept, learn, and work with technological change.
Prosperity today belongs to the person that learns new things the fastest.
Habit #4
Always be curious about the world around you, and don’t be afraid to ask some dumb questions!
Walt Disney, whose world-renown animation movies & theme parks – were started by just a little mouse, once gave this advice to budding entrepreneurs:
“We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we’re curious.
Curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.”
Albert Einstein never stop working till he died, and he said:
“The most important thing in life is to keep asking questions.”
Implicitly or explicitly, creativity always begins with a question.
And in both your business and personal lives, the quality of your creativity is determined by the quality of your questions.
Habit #5
Constantly challenge your own personal assumptions, and continually expand your habitual domain:
I have this inspiring wall poster in my home office as a constant reminder:
“If you always keep on thinking what you have always thought, you will always keep on doing what you have always done, and you will always keep on getting what you have always gotten.
It’s time to change!” (Anonymous)
Habit #6
It’s OK to be skeptical, but be mindful at all times. Don’t simply reject weird ideas prejudicially.
Explore, play and experiment with them.
Just remember what Albert Einstein once said:
“Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.”
Habit #7
Don’t be afraid to get out of your comfort zone, and be prepared to take some risks:
It is the natural inclination for all of us to stay in our comfort zone.
Once in a while, just move to the edge and enter the stretch zone. You will be thrilled as well as amply rewarded in the long term.
It takes courage to push yourself to places that you have never been before… to test your limits… to break through barriers.
I always remember Helen Keller’s famous quotation:
“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.”
Habit #8
Collaborate and network with people; build and enhance your relationships, especially with those who are smarter than you and/or who demand more out of you:
No matter what you and I do in the Knowledge economy, we are still in the people business.
Together, knowledge and relationships are the only true sources of sustainable competitive advantage.
Moreover, knowledge itself is all about relationships between people.
Henry J. Kaiser, an American industrialist who is recognized as the father of modern shipbuilding, once said:
“I make progress by having people around me who are smarter than I am and listening to them.
And I assume that everyone is smarter about something than I am.”
Habit #9
Take personal accountability for all your choices, decisions, and actions;
Don’t play the Blame/Justify game!:
Being accountable helps you achieve what matters to you most. Get things done.
What you want to get done, don’t let fear get in your way.
Don’t be a victim. Don’t blame others. Don’t justify.
Don’t be afraid to fail or succeed.
Actions have consequences.
When you try to justify or blame others, you give up your power to change.
Habit #10
Be a generalist; read, read and read widely (covering mainstream as well as fringe stuff!):
Always remember: ‘Specialisation is for insects only.’
Joel Arthur Barker, one of my favorite authors, said in the Afterword of his book, Future Edge:
“The cheapest, most powerful way to stretch your paradigms and improve your strategic exploration skills is to read.”
Habit #11
Always think about new ideas (including weird ones!); jot them down and work out the Next Steps!
“Thinking is hard work, and that is why very few people engage in it.”
Thanks to Henry Ford for saying that.
Thinking of new ideas often will give you a new and broad perspective to look at the ever-abundant data around you in order for you to gather valuable information for planning and decision-making.
Always remember this, ideas must come first.
Thomas Edison, the famous inventor, once remarked:
“Make it a practice to keep on the lookout for novel and interesting ideas that others have used successfully.
Your idea has to be original only in its adaptation to the problems you are working.”
Robert Kiyosaski, author of ‘If You Want to Be Rich & Happy Don’t Go to School: Ensuring Lifetime Security for Yourself and Your Children, gave this simple advice to all those who want to be rich:
“It’s what is in your head that determines what is in your hands.
Money is only an idea.
If you want more money, simply change your thinking.
Money never starts an idea. It is the idea that starts the money.”
Habit 12
Don’t just talk only, take immediate – MASSIVE and CONSISTENT – action and exercise self-discipline at all costs!
All the thinking in the world is of no use unless it finds application unless the ideas are transformed into action.
To take action in a rapidly -changing world, where it is all too easy to cling to the status quo and do nothing, you need the courage to take action – not make decisions.
Knowledge and learning levels are typically measured not by what you have learned and know, but by your productivity – what you do and what you don’t with what you have learned and know!
Action creates consequences and feedback.
I recall Robert Ringer, author of the best seller ‘Look Out for #1’ & ‘Winning by Intimidation’ who said this:
“Nothing happens until something moves,”
which also happens to be the title of one of his great books.
As a matter of fact, the key to success in any field of endeavor is the ability to act and get things done.
I am not sure whether it was Denis Waitley, author of The Psychology of Success, who defines ‘self-discipline’ as “doing the things you don’t want to do, but when they are done, they bring rewards.”
Habit #13
Persevere in the face of constant change, stress, and difficulty, and be persistent in all your endeavors:
Persevere and persist, and you will find most things that are attainable, and possible.
Dale Carnegie once said:
“Don’t be afraid to give your best to what seemingly are small jobs.
Every time you conquer one it makes you that much stronger.
If you do the little jobs well, the big ones will tend to take care of themselves.”
Helen Keller had wisely put it:
“We can do anything we want to do if we stick to it long enough.”
Interestingly, just think about the postage stamp:
Its usefulness lies in the ability to stick to one thing till it gets there!”
Enjoy your reading, exploration, and assimilation.
Best wishes and Good Luck on your continuing high-performance pursuits!
In the present age of digital technology, building a math website, or any website is an effective technique to reach a wide range of customers by showcasing a range of products and services through online platforms. The learning management platforms are also using this technique to represent their offers and benefits in providing education through online mode.
Unit Circle: A Circle With Radius 1
A circle is the locus of a point that is at a fixed distance from another fixed point. The fixed point is called the center of the circle and the distance of the other point from the center is called the radius of the circle. Any circle having a radius of one unit is termed the unit circle.
The center of the unit circle is usually considered as the point of intersection of the x-axis and y-axis in the Cartesian coordinate and is denoted by (0, 0).
Properties of a Unit Circle
The unit circle has the same properties as that of a circle and its equation can also be derived from the equation of a circle. The concept of the unit circle has some special applications in different areas of math particularly in explaining the trigonometric functions.
Application of Unit Circle
We can define the basic trigonometric functions with the help of a unit circle. A right-angle triangle is considered within the unit circle having the hypotenuse equal to the radius of the circle. So the hypotenuse has the value of 1 and the base and height of the right-angle triangle are obtained from the x and y coordinates of the endpoint of the hypotenuse on the circle edge. The hypotenuse makes an angle θ with the positive direction of the x-axis. Then the trigonometric functions will be defined as follows:
Sin θ = Altitude/Hypotenuse = y/1
Cos θ = Base/Hypotenuse = x/1
Tan θ = Altitude/Base = y/x
Design of Math Website
The math websites are designed to get the attention of the target customers who search online for learning solutions on various math topics. The math website launched by various learning management platforms provides updated information about their learning programs through online mode. The math website highlights the learning opportunities for different standards of students and the key benefits to be achieved.
The learning platforms take care of the students’ needs and provide the relevant solutions through the website. The math websites provide convenient and user-friendly access to interactive and structured learning modules to help students become experts in mathematical concepts. The website allows the application of advanced tools and techniques to suit the learning requirements of different grades of students.
The Role of the Website in Learning
Math websites provide a convenient and student-friendly online platform for learning math. The special features of the learning modules are highlighted through the math website which gives a comprehensive idea about the innovative techniques used by this platform.
The website informs about the application of interactive and structured learning methods that can help students become more knowledgeable in mathematical concepts. The website features the benefits of the online classes offered through the platform where students can get valuable guidance from expert mentors.
The website also gives information about customized programs prepared to suit the specific requirements of students like getting advice on career counseling and preparing themselves for competitive examinations. The websites are an easy way to receive regular updates about the learning programs and allow users to provide feedback to get a quick response. The math website serves as a very important digital tool that helps students and professionals achieve the benefits of online learning with the flexibility of time and location.
If you want to learn more about probability and other maths concepts in a detailed manner, in an interesting and fun way.
Coach Mike Krzyzewski said: Leaders should be reliable without being predictable. They should be consistent without being anticipated. If you follow college basketball, you recognize the name, Mike Krzyzewski. And if you do, you’ll know what a greater leader and developer of talent he is. His leadership strategies are seen every day on the basketball court and are very effective.
Leadership is a lifelong learning process. Every great leader always looks for ways to improve. Leadership can be especially challenging for entrepreneurs. Balancing the need to run a business and the need to lead company personnel is quite a task. But nonetheless, still very necessary.
I have almost 40 years in both the military (a little) and the business (a lot) environments. In my speaking engagements, I often get asked about the most valuable leadership advice I could offer.
Related: The Zen of Abraham Lincolns Leadership Lessons
Here is my list of the ten most valuable lessons on leadership I could offer:
Leadership strategies … multiplier leadership
Multiplier leaders know that at the apex of the intelligence hierarchy is not the lone genius. Instead, it is the leader who knows the importance of bringing out the smarts and capabilities in everyone around them. My most valuable lesson. No question.
Peter Drucker is a silent mentor for our small agency. We are big fans. He once made an interesting point when he said that leaders don’t train themselves not to say ‘I’ He’s implying that leaders innately work with others and let the team get the credit. They don’t force themselves to say ‘we.’ ‘We’ is natural for them, and it’s the way they’ve always thought.
You work as a team when you don’t care who gets the credit.
So the next time you interview someone with a resume that states, ‘I accomplished x’ or ‘I did x’, it should send up a few warning signals.
Leadership strategies examples … staff development
Many companies follow the motto: “Hire for character, train for skill.” You hire people that are eager to learn. They don’t have a ton of competence; but as a leader, you teach them, and they become better. They grow with your company and contribute to its success.
You see this with football coaches. In football coaching, it’s almost unheard of for someone with no experience to be hired as the head coach of a team. Most people start in a low-level position and gradually move up.
The same occurs in business. George Bodenheimer is the former president of ESPN. He began working in the mailroom of ESPN. It would have been tough for him to rise to the presidency if he hadn’t had a boss who wanted to help him grow and succeed in the company.
If you’re a leader, a primary objective is to develop your employees. In skills and leadership. You might have a great employee waiting to be a star, but if you don’t help them grow, you’ll never see it. Worse, they might leave the company to go to an employer where they will grow and succeed.
Types of leadership strategies … build confidence
We have written several articles on employee attitude. Employee attitude is so critical that it can’t be overemphasized. It trickles down from employers. Your business can never be what it can be if you don’t focus on employee happiness and engagement in their jobs and the workplace.
If you’re an entrepreneur, you’ll have dozens of people criticize you. Customers, current and former employees (whether you know it or not), and family and friends may give you constructive criticism. It can be stressful to hear or read, and it can be easy to pass on criticism to employees. It doesn’t help. As a leader, you should ensure employees have high confidence in their abilities.
Leaders should make employees feel good about themselves. Always criticizing and pointing out the flaws in an employee is a sure-fire way to decrease morale and engagement.
People first
No matter what the job is, leaders always want to look for the best people and then take care of them. Business is just a group of people working on various creations and inventions. People are your business. It is as simple as that. It’s all about the people. They are the lifeblood of the firm.
When you’re leading a business or an organization, you’re leading people. It makes sense that leaders need to take care of their people. Many leaders work to have relationships with their employees. Taking them out for coffee and getting to know them better is common among leaders. Putting people first is an essential element of being a leader.
Establish clear direction
Getting people on board, aligned, and pointed in the right direction is vital for an organization. If every individual is going in a different direction, it can be like chaos in an organization.
Keeping people coordinated and aimed is a continual process. You’re the luckiest leader in the world if this happens by default. Two ways to ensure people are coordinated and targeted is setting milestones and having multiple coaches and promoters for your employees.
Do what you can to make sure people enjoy what they’re doing. If people aren’t passionate about the business and love what they’re doing, they are more likely to be going in a different direction and susceptible to becoming disengaged. Indeed not a good thing.
This isn’t an excuse for being a jerk to your people. Often an invention is at first misunderstood before it becomes a revolution. So if you aren’t willing to be different or unique, you may never be a pioneer in your industry.
A perfect example of standing out as being different from business leadership is Netflix. It was a unique way to receive movies. In the late 90′s, if you wanted to rent a movie, you’d have to go through your cable or satellite provider or get one at Blockbuster or something similar.
Getting rental DVDs via mail was unconventional. No question, very different. Undoubtedly, Netflix needed to be willing to stand out as different. They were pioneering and attempted to change the way people watch movies. Breaking the norm is not an easy thing to do.
Have people follow you
Leadership is hard to define and real leadership is even more challenging. But if you can get people to follow you to the ends of the earth, you are a great leader.
Indra Nooyi
We often forget that we’re not anointed with leadership skills. We have to earn our stripes and competencies. We have to gain the ability to have people trust us and be willing to follow. Not many people will mindlessly follow a leader.
This is why leaders need to earn leadership. People won’t blindly follow someone.
It’s important for leaders to know their followers and clearly, communicate why they’re doing what they’re doing. This will help gain the trust of fans and thus earn them the position of leader.
Lessons on leadership … motivate people
Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want to be done because he wants to do it.
-Dwight Eisenhower
A quality of great leaders is being able to clearly articulate ideas and get people excited and motivated. It’s not selling people on an idea; it’s motivating them on the concept.
Getting a person to work with a leader when they’re not obligated is more than just motivating them. It’s about ensuring people have fun. Employees at Zappos can operate at dozens of other places, but they choose Zappos because of the culture.
Many charities get people to volunteer for them by promoting a noble cause. They say that if you donate, you’ll be spending your time working toward something greater than yourself. This motivates and inspires people to take a few hours to work for a charity promoting a cause they believe in.
One of the most famous stories of a leader inspiring another is when Steve Jobs recruited John Sculley to join Apple. Jobs asked the famous question:
Do you want to sell sugar water all your life, or do you want to change the world?
Learn good listening habits
To be a good leader you have to be a great listener. Brilliant ideas can spring from the most unlikely places, so you should always keep your ears open for some shrewd advice.
–Richard Branson
You don’t gain insights by talking. Nope. Ideas can come from anywhere, so it’s important to keep your ears open to new ideas and insight.
Leaders need to be good listeners of everyone … customers to employees to business colleagues. They need to listen to what other people say and not just hear it. Branson even carries a notepad with him so he can take notes on what people say.
Listening also helps a leader get multiple perspectives. When making a decision, a good leader always looks at different people. They know they own the final determination but always make sure they get input from multiple different perspectives.
The bottom line
Remember this simple fact. Does leadership focus on people the best definition of a leader? Someone who helps people succeed. Let your leadership success be your difference maker.
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way.
Like this short blog?Follow Digital Spark Marketing on LinkedInor add us toyour circlesfor 3-4 short, interesting blogs, stories per week.
More leadership material from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
I am a little past 74 years old now, and I am working on my third career. I have made some career mistakes along the way and seen much more. I love sharing what I have learned and helping others with Brevard County career assessment mistakes.
I have learned that my role is to do work that makes a difference in people’s lives.
For the first 12 years, I worked in engineering management, believing in the people’s right to know.
For the past six years, I’ve been in consulting, helping small businesses be more successful. My ultimate goal is to watch others succeed.
I realized I had solid problem-solving skills during my freshmen year after I went to the soup kitchen in Goldsboro to serve food to the less fortunate.
I felt that I needed to do something more, so I had an idea that when everybody moved out of the dorms at the end of a semester, instead of throwing nonperishable food away, students could put it in a box, and I would take it to the local food bank so it could feed the poor.
I ended up gathering about six carloads of canned and dry food help feed the poor that would have been thrown away.
My leadership skills were called into question during my first evaluation as an engineer. I was rated much lower than I had ever been rated.
I realized that, after having been promoted into a new position, I needed to learn a lot more. Determined to never again get a low rating, I learned as much as I possibly could, and this quest for knowledge became the driving force behind my attaining the high rating I achieved for this year.
Now here are some of the l cautions and advice that career advisors offered young people to help them tune up their careers.
Avoid these career assessment mistakes if you can.
Lacking initiative
During my careers, I have evaluated and selected new employees many, many times. What was my most important employee skill, you may ask?
Taking the initiative, hands down.
In any career, it is absolutely critical you continue to demonstrate your value to your employer, clients, and colleagues on a daily basis.
Adding value is THE buzzword for “safe-guarding” your career and propelling yourself to the top of your profession.
Showing initiative is a must-do in demonstrating your value at work. Initiative correlates strongly with personal achievement and professional development.
It is the act of taking personal responsibility for your growth, and it is a clear sign of your capacity to develop as a leader.
Career assessment … poor teammate
Over the years, I’ve come to realize that maintaining a great team almost always boils down to a strong management-employee relationship.
The list of natural wedges that typically drive apart management and employees is massive, but that should not derail you.
If you have the desire to create and maintain a great team culture in your company, focus on being a strong team player.
Do you consider yourself a leader that promotes loyalty in your team? How important is this leadership characteristic in your mind?
I believe that it is more important than ever as employee loyalty is at an all-time low. I have held leadership positions in the military and business for over 40 years.
In my mind, there are few if any, more important leadership habits to achieve.
Aiming too low
Whether it’s salary, title, or type of company, people are too intimidated by interviewers, scared of asking for what they want at every stage of the interview process, and suffer from imposter syndrome.
This is a direct result of decades of indoctrination by authoritative educational, parental, and societal institutions that tend to demolish your self-confidence to control you. This persistent lack of confidence is the #1 issue candidates suffer from when it comes to selling yourself effectively.
No continuous learning
In the information and internet ages, learning problems have gotten much worse. As we said many times, the amount of new technical information is doubling every two years … doubling.
We are living in exponential times.
So not trying to keep up with and maintaining the ability for continuous learning in such a fast-changing and complex environment is a death knell.
Becoming a jack of all trades
The most dangerous problem candidates run into that seriously limits their market value and range of future career options is becoming a generalist.
Corporations no longer value employees willing to do any deed for pay. They want professionals, experts, and true masters of the industry and job vertical.
They NEED these experts to remain viable and stay ahead of their competition. Makes sense, doesn’t it?
No longer is being eager and willing to work for a firm for the next 25 years a valuable candidate trait. Firms want true market leaders.
That means specialization and experience within a niche skill are not only a good-to-have but a MUST-HAVE to remain a relevant and desirable professional.
When you look at the career paths of successful people — people who worked alongside the world’s best entrepreneurs, VPs of Fortune 500 companies, etc. — you’ll notice a common pattern.
Almost none of them “moved up the ladder” in a linear fashion.
In fact, 99% of top performers have made at least one discontinuous “jump” in their career.
They might have gotten a normal analyst-level job right out of school, have normal responsibilities for a few years and then … BAM!
They get a director-level role when they’re 26. You have seen that happen, right?
There’s a big difference between skills and experience.
A 25-year-old who has been reading, learning, and implementing new information for five years will have more skills than an “experienced” 35-year-old who spent ten years coasting.
The more you focus on learning, the more exponential growth you’ll have.
That’s how you “skip the line” in front of everybody else. Remember that tip.
Chasing after status
Average people chase after titlesmore than results.
They care more about looking high-status than actually being high status.
They want to show up at their class reunion and be the most successful person there.
The truth is, there’s nothing wrong with this.
But counterintuitively, some of the best career opportunities you could get are not high-status ones.
Career assessment tools … not asking other people for help
One of the biggest misconceptions that people have when it comes to their careers is that strangers won’t care enough to help them.
In fact, the quickest way to avoid mistakes that could cost you months of wasted time and effort is by reaching out to someone in your field who’s a few years ahead of you and asking them questions.
But many of us are afraid of looking desperate or sleazy. Or we think “why would theyever want to talk to me?”
In reality, people love to help. You just have to reach out in the right way.
Working hard, but not working smart
Best career assessment test.
Bosses like people who work hard; bosses love people who get things done.
The more efficient you are with your effectiveness, the more you’ll impress those around you (and the more time you’ll have to enjoy your life).
Avoid these three mistakes, and your career will be better, and you’ll have a happier life! And life is all the better, yes?
Making your personal growth the responsibility of your company
Sure, it is great when they are willing to train you, but don’t rely on them.
Rely on yourself. The job market continues to change quickly.
You are best positioned if you change with it and skate where the puck is going.
If you leave that to others to dictate or set a ime, you will fall behind. If that is the case, you will be a victim.
That is not what you want, is it?
Your career is not your life
This is probably the most difficult of the mistakes to correct in my opinion, particularly early to mid-career. At least it was for me.
To be successful in this lesson, you should develop breath to your list of activities and always put family and friends first.
To do both well, think about activities that maximize your friends and family.
Not knowing who you are
Your life will be in constant change mode, and that is a good thing if you lead change in the direction of your success goals.
To do that most successfully, you should have a good understanding of who you are and what direction you are going.
Certainly, you must know your strengths and weaknesses pretty well.
You should always seek to be flexible and keep several alternative paths in front of you. Are you?
Avoiding change is a big no=no. Always be on the lookout for ways to reinvent ways for self-improvement.
Not sharing kindness
All of these career mistakes get better when you have a strong foundation in knowing how to stay happy.
One big part of being successful in happiness is learning how to share kindness. It costs you nothing, and you’d be surprised how much it can do for your happiness.
It doesn’t seem like a mistake that should be in the top ten to most of the younger generation, or that difficult to be an effective listener.
But most of us are wrong on both counts, aren’t we?
Everyone needs to make listening to their #1 core competency.
The bottom line
Career problems aren’t simply an amalgamation of your job’s stressors.
Your personal, financial, and professional problems, weaknesses, and vices will all meld together to gang up on you if you let your guard down or stray from the righteous path of moral behavior.
Stay ahead of the game by learning, networking, and speaking with career experts, colleagues, mentors, and influencers that have the RIGHT advice to guide you.
Need some help in capturing more improvements for your staff’s leadership, teamwork, and collaboration? Creative ideas in running or facilitating a team or leadership workshop?
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy continually improving your continuous learning?
Do you have a lesson about making your learning better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way.
More reading on learning from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
The Nine Most Valuable Secrets of Writing Effective Copy
How Good Is your Learning from Failure?
10 Extraordinary Ways for Learning to Learn
Continuous Learning Holds the Keys to Your Future Success
To increase your continuous learning, what skill would you choose? We would decide to increase education by improving reading skills. Hopefully, our school teachers are paying attention to differentiated instruction.
One of those products is reading. Reading … this is how Warren Buffett, one of the most successful people in the business world, describes his day.
Sitting. Reading. He advises everyone to read more, and that’s certainly a goal we can all get behind.
So how do we do it? And what are we to do with all that information once we have it?
Related: Continuous Learning Holds the Keys to Your Future Success
Reading more and remembering it all is a discussion with a lot of different layers and a lot of exciting possibilities. Improving reading skills relates to reading more books, better comprehension, and, of course, faster reading.
It’s not that they can’t find the solution … they can’t locate the problem.
K. Chesterton
Are you one that believes learning is a significant teaching product? What about whether schools and education administrators understand the problem they are trying to solve?
Are you familiar with the subject of standardized testing in our public schools?
All of these questions are certainly an interest of mine, though I have never been in the education profession. I like to follow the subjects of learning and standardized testing and the writings of Marion Brady.
I am a big fan of the thinking of Marion Brady. Ever read any of his books or articles?
He is a longtime teacher; school administrator; nationally distributed newspaper columnist; and author of courses of study, textbooks, and professional books.
His most recent article published in a blog from the Washing Post is “What do standardized tests test?” I will use this excellent work to examine this issue.
Related: Why Questioning Is Critical to Learning and Problem Solving
Like most people, I believe that learning is a product of teaching. Just not enough learning from the amount of teaching in our schools. The assumption of learning from teaching is the bedrock of traditional schooling.
As Marion states, it shapes nearly all commercially produced educational materials. It’s how the school is portrayed in everything media.
It’s why traditionally arranged classroom furniture is in rows facing front, why most teachers talk a lot, assign pages in textbooks, ask questions about what’s been said and read. It’s the conventional process and teaching wisdom.
Sad, but very true.
Teachers teach, learners learn, and standardized tests monitor how well the process is going. The tests measure a quantity—the amount of information taught, minus the amount not learned or learned and forgotten.
A single, precise number is convenient for sorting and labeling the learning results. Something that the education industry feels like the only way to measure progress.
Simple and straightforward. Right?
But hold on for a minute. There’s an ancient Chinese quotation (from Confucius I believe) which, loosely translated, says,
Tellme, andI’ll forget. Show me, and I’ll remember. Involve me, and I’ll understand.
As Brady points out, there are three very different approaches to teaching—telling, showing, and involving.
The first two lend themselves to standardized testing.
The third one—the only one that works—doesn’t. It says that what needs to be evaluated are the outcomes of personal experience, and personal experience is very likely to be too individual, too personal, too much a product of a teachable moment, for its outcome to be evaluated by machine-scored standardized test items.
Involved learners don’t just read about geology; they’re outside, identifying, examining, and classifying, the rocks and earth around the school and other interesting places. Involved learners aren’t filling out worksheets about geometric principles; they’re determining the height of the school’s flagpole by measuring angles and lengths of shadows … by active learning.
Here is the key to Brady’s article, in my opinion.
What mattered most wasn’t what he said but what kids did. When he drew that radical conclusion, he states he began a search that continues, a search for experience-creating activities:
Differentiated instruction … sointeresting
the teacher can leave the room and nobody notices
Souseful
the activity’s relevance is self-evident
Socomplex
the smartest kid in the class is intellectually challenged
the systemically integrated nature of all knowledge is apparent
Sowide-ranging
Wide-ranging.
the activities cover the core curriculum (and much more)
Sovaried
every critical thinking skill is exercised
Soscalable
concepts developed on a micro level adequately model macro phenomena
Soeffective
when the activities themselves are forgotten, their benefits are fixed permanently in memory
Idealistic? Not in my mind. Perhaps I would call it a great dream. And why not?
As Brady states, if we can stop the standardized testing bandwagon, teachers can pick up where they left off before they were rudely interrupted—trying to figure out how kids learn best. What a novel idea.
In that situation, we will come away from this reform era having learned two useful lessons:
First, one is that no machine can measure the quality of complex, emotion-filtered, experience-based learning.
And second, if you’re testing the wrong thing, there’s no reason to keep score.
The bottom line
Thank you, Marion Brady, for not giving up and for keeping the dream alive.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy continually improve your continuous learning?
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way.
More reading on learning from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
9 Things to Know About Creative Visual Design Content
8 Presenter Mistakes That Are Rarely Made Twice
Know These Great Secrets of Collaboration and Co-Creation
How Good Is Your Learning from Failure?
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.
What do you believe is the major product of schools? My opinion is to achieve the ability and desire of students to learn new things through educational activities. What are your thoughts?
I loved this post from Seth Godin’s blog:
Educational activities.
The problem with complaining about the system
…is that the system can’t hear you. Only people can.
And the problem is that people in the system are too often swayed to believe that they have no power over the system, that they are merely victims of it, pawns, cogs in a machine bigger than themselves. That says it all, doesn’t it?
Alas, when the system can’t hear you, and those who can believe they have no power, nothing improves.
Systems don’t mistreat us, misrepresent us, waste our resources, govern poorly, support an unfair status quo and screw things up–people do.
If we care enough, we can make it change.
What does Bill Gates think? Learning Skills: Facts Bill Gates Doesn’t Understand About Education
The change we are in the middle of isn’t minor, and it isn’t optional.
-Clay Shirky
As Clay describes the digital internet age, it is far from minor and not optional. Right on the mark isn’t it? This description is particularly relevant to the need for continuous learning.
The amount of new technical information is doubling every two years. EVERY TWO YEARS. Amazing, isn’t it?
The top 10 jobs that were in demand in 2013 didn’t exist in 2004. We are currently preparing students for jobs that don’t yet exist, using technologies that don’t yet exist. All this to solve problems we don’t even know are problems yet. Scary, isn’t it?
For students starting a four-year technical or college degree, one-half of what they will learn in their first year of study will be outdated by their third year of study. We are living in exponential times, aren’t we? For more background see Shift Happens 2013.
What is your choice for the top learning issue of the day? Continuous learning is our choice. Taught in schools? We have not found many that are changing their learning and education strategy based on this environment. In fact, most seem to be hunkering down even more into the past. We were very surprised by this finding, how about you?
In earlier times, perhaps several generations or so ago, our great grandparents and their parents faced an entirely different problem of learning. In their environment, both generations shared the same problems and the same solutions. Learning in this environment was a lot simpler. It was simply a matter of transferring information (facts) from the older generation to the newer one.
Enter the industrial age where the world had begun to change very rapidly and grow in complexity. Old solutions, old facts, were no longer enough. Learning needed to change to keep up, switching from learning old information to discovering and understanding new information and solutions. A paradigm shift had begun. No longer dumping facts into a learner’s memory was going to be adequate.
In the information and internet ages, learning problems have gotten much worse. As we said earlier, the amount of new technical information is doubling every two years … doubling. We are living in exponential times.
So how do we improve our ability for continuous learning in such a fast-changing and complex environment? We have defined ten ways we believe are essential to achieving this goal.
Let’s discuss each of these:
Learn by doing
Most of what we know, we didn’t learn in school. We learned it in the real world, actually doing, not reading or listening about doing. Confucius once said:
I hear I forget. I see I remember. I do, I understand.
He appreciated that being a creator was the best way to learn. Make your learning be active learning and be creators as often as possible. And learn as many new things as possible. That means making your work environment an environment of change. Rotate into new jobs every 18 to 24 months (note that new jobs don’t necessarily mean new employers). We believe this is the most critical of the ten ways to improve your learning.
Educational activities … observe and reflect
By observing life’s experiences around us and careful reflection on what we observe, we can gather facts and information to learn new solutions and methods. Give students more opportunities to increase their ability to connect the dots around them.
Related post: Learning From Pet Dog Personality Traits
Present Novelty
Our brains pay more attention to things in the environment that are new to our experience. So, seek out as many new experiences to try as you can handle and help students become an explorer. Continuously expand their boundaries of new experiences …include some far out things in different fields. Continuously practice connecting the dots of experiences.
Don’t fear failure
Students need to be learners that ask hard questions and explore what might work and what won’t. As a learner, we need to accept failure so we can use the often messy trial and error. Make failures and mistakes as learning sources (and the mistakes and failures need not be yours).
Related post: How Good Is Your Learning from Failure?
Activity for students.
Activity for students … develop curiosity
Continually get students to think about what they don’t know, don’t be afraid of confusing student learning and evoking tough questions. You can develop curiosity. This curiosity can be used to tailor robust methods of blended learning.
Curiosity must come first. Questions can be fantastic windows to great learning, but not the other way around. Build students’ skill of curiosity … It is a necessity for good learning.
Fun learning activities for adults … practice imagination
Albert Einstein once said: Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you anywhere.
He understood the complexities of the world today required imagination for the discovery of new ideas and solutions. Imagination requires lots of practice; it doesn’t just happen on its own. So start working on this skill to add it to improving student learning.
We as learners respond to things around ourselves that elicit emotion. Put emotional stories to work to create a stimulus-response learning process. Listen to inspirational and emotional stories and use them as experiential learning in the classroom.
Embrace change and contrast
Students learn new things best when they are in contrast to other information in the environment or to things that are in contrast to previous experiences.
To improve learning, work on the experience of change … have students study trends and study changes going on around them. Get them to step out into the unknown as often as they can.
In learning, students tend to respond best when they determine things that are most meaningful. Find the meanings that provide that which motivates us to dig deeper.
Connect and collaborate
Connecting with others in the internet world is a great way to share ideas and solicit feedback, new views, and ideas. Have students find some interesting online connections who share like goals, and have them try a collaboration project or two.
Collaboration is an excellent way to expand learning in a sharing environment.
A favorite expert on learning
One of our favorite authors on the subject of schools and learning is Marion Brady … you can find most of his work on his website.
I’ll start by affirming what he believes most thoughtful educators take for granted:
The main aim of schooling is to model or explain reality better. As you read, don’t lose sight of that. The aim of schooling isn’t to teach math, science, language arts, and other school subjects better, but to expand our understanding of reality.
Let me say this again … the main aim of schooling is to expand our understanding of reality.
BUCKMINSTER Fuller once said, “American education has developed in such a way it will be the undoing of the society.” Reading those words today, many may nod in agreement.
Few, however, are likely to give the same reason as Fuller did for so bleak a prediction.
Fuller was an inventive genius, but he was also a college professor, cartographer, philosopher, naval officer, mathematician, poet, researcher, cosmologist, industrialist, engineer, environmentalist, advisor to business and government, holder of 25 patents, author of 28 books, and recipient of 47 honorary degrees.
He aired his views on American education, including the judgment Brady quoted above, in the late 1980s in a speech delivered to a group that included college presidents.
“What you fellows in the universities do,” he continued, “is make all the bright students into experts in something. That has some usefulness, but the trouble is it leaves the ones with mediocre minds and the dunderheads to become generalists, who must serve as college presidents … and presidents of the United States.”
Generalists – people who strive to see the “big picture” – don’t get much respect in America. There is no listing for “Generalists” in the Yellow Pages, no places are reserved for them on the faculties of high schools and colleges, and no employment ads seek applications from them.
And what is the big picture today? Brady would include intensifying clashes on the “fault lines” between religions, societies, and civilizations; continuing threats of terrorism; a shrinking middle class and a widening gap between rich and poor; the confusion of national power with national greatness; dishonesty in boardrooms; violence accepted as entertainment; vast wealth plowed into no-return-on-investment armament and conflict; increasing environmental degradation; and lobbyist-dominated legislatures.
He goes on to state that these related, big-picture issues are parts of a systemically integrated whole – a whole that the education establishment is not addressing. We send our graduates off with expertise in technology, banking, politics, medicine, law, and myriad other fields, staking our collective fate on their ability to manage crises as they pop up. But the old problems intensify and are joined by new ones.
None of these actions do the job that needs doing. All these approaches to broadening students’ ability to deal with reality assume that the traditional academic disciplines are the basic organizers of knowledge and that the main task of educating is to introduce those disciplines to students. Wrong he states. The main task of educating is to help students make more sense of the world, themselves, and others.
The bottom line
In 1976, a British statistician named George Box wrote the famous line, “All models are wrong, some are useful.”
His point was that we should focus more on whether something can be applied to everyday life in a useful manner rather than debating endlessly if an answer is correct in all cases. As historian Yuval Noah Harari puts it,
“Scientists agree that no theory is 100 percent correct. Thus, the real test of knowledge is not the truth, but utility. Science gives us power. The more useful that power, the better the science.”
Need some help in capturing more improvements for your staff’s teamwork, collaboration, and learning? Creative ideas in running or facilitating teamwork or continuous learning workshop?
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy continually improve your continuous learning?
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way.
More reading on learning from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
9 Things to Know About Creative Visual Design Content
8 Presenter Mistakes That Are Rarely Made Twice
Know These Great Secrets of Collaboration and Co-Creation
How Good Is Your Learning from Failure?
Mike Schoultz likes to write about the topics that lead to small business success. He also likes to share his many business experiences. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, Pinterest, and LinkedIn.
Only the one who does not question is safe from making a mistake. That is an amazing quote from Albert Einstein. How about you … do you go out of your way to avoid making mistakes? Does that mean you also avoid asking questions? Are you looking for ways to improve your learning and problem-solving? Then ask more and better questions.
The amount of new technical information is doubling every two years. EVERY TWO YEARS. The top 10 jobs that were in demand in 2013 didn’t exist in 2004.
We are currently preparing students for jobs that don’t yet exist, using technologies that don’t yet exist. All this in order to solve problems we don’t even know are problems yet. Scary, isn’t it?
For students starting a 4 year technical or college degree, one-half of what they will learn in their first year of study will be outdated by their third year of study.
We are clearly living in exponential times, aren’t we? (See our article on continuous learning for more on this topic)
In this environment of an ever-increasing need for continuous learning, it is a good time to think about the importance of asking questions.
This was a big theme for Einstein, who told us, “The important thing is not to stop questioning,”while also urging us to question everything and “Never lose a holy curiosity.”
Einstein well understood that questioning is critical to learning and solving problems. If he were alive today, Einstein would see a world in which questioning has become more important than ever before.
But he might also be left wondering why, for the most part, we still don’t encourage questioning or teaching it and how to learn to our children.
Let’s start with the growing importance of questioning. Perhaps the best evidence of this can be seen in today’s high-tech world.
The leaders of Facebook, Amazon, Google, and a number of other leading companies are known as consummate questioners who constantly ask, Why should we settle for this? and What if we try something different?
A number of the top executives in Silicon Valley were educated in Montessori schools, where their curiosity was given room to roam at a young age.
This has served them well in today’s dynamic tech market—because their well-honed questioning skills help them analyze and solve problems, adapt to change, identify fresh opportunities, and lead companies in new directions.
Indeed, asking the right question is often the starting point of innovation. Look closely at new innovations over the last decade, everything from the making of the cell phone to the birth of the internet, and you will notice that each began with a person pursuing an insightful question no one else was asking at the time.
The questions led to answers that, eventually, have led to billion-dollar paydays. It has been said that, in Silicon Valley today, “questions are the new answers.”
So let’s transition to the subject of Socratic questioning. Wikipedia describes Socratic questioning as disciplined questioning that can be used to pursue thought in many directions and for many purposes, including distinguishing what we know from what we don’t know, exploring complex ideas, opening up issues and problems, uncovering assumptions, to get to the truth of things, and to analyze concepts.
They point out that the key to distinguishing Socratic questioning from questioning per se is that Socratic questioning is systematic, disciplined, and deep and usually focuses on fundamental principles.
Socratic questioning illuminates the importance of questioning in learning. It illuminates the difference between systematic and fragmented thinking. It teaches us to dig beneath the surface of our ideas.
It teaches us the value of developing questioning minds in cultivating deep learning. Integrating Socratic questions in the following manner in learning helps develop active, independent thinking.
The art of Socratic questioning is intimately connected with critical thinking because the art of questioning is important to the excellence of thought.
What the word “Socratic” adds to the art of questioning is systematic thinking, depth, and an abiding interest in assessing the truth or plausibility of things.
Critical thinking and Socratic questioning both seek meaning and truth. Critical thinking provides the rational tools to monitor, assess, and perhaps reconstitute or re-direct our thinking and action.
Socratic questioning is an explicit focus on framing self-directed, disciplined questions to achieve that goal.
If anything, the ability to ask insightful questions will be even more critical tomorrow than it is today.
As change continues to accelerate, tomorrow’s leaders—and the larger workforce—will have to keep learning, updating, and adapting what they know, inventing and re-inventing their own jobs and careers through constant, ongoing inquiry.
The importance of questioning in learning illuminates the difference between systematic and fragmented thinking. It teaches us to dig beneath the surface of our ideas. It teaches us the value of developing questioning minds to cultivate deep learning.
Integrating questions in the following manner in our learning helps develop broader, more independent thinking:
Implications and consequences
For example, you may ask: But if XYZ happened, what then would result? How does ABC affect this?
Related post: How Good Is your Learning from Failure?
Problem-solving… clarify your thinking
To clarify or crystalize thoughts ask: Why do you say that? Or perhaps, could you explain your thinking further?
Problem-solving examples … use alternativeperspectives
Always look at things through different lenses. Ask these questions to broaden your perspectives:
What is this counterargument for?
Can/did anyone see this another way?
So remember this always … only the one who does not question is safe from making a mistake.
That is a very certain way to make your biggest mistake in life.
So what’s the conclusion? The conclusion is there is no conclusion. There is only the next step. And that next step is completely up to you.
But believe in the importance of questioning to improve your learning and problem-solving. And put it to good use in adapting to changes in your learning environment.
It’s up to you to keep improving your learning and experience with innovation and creativity efforts.
Lessons are all around you. In this case, your competitor may be providing the ideas and or inspiration. But the key is in knowing that it is within you already.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new lessons.
When things go wrong, what’s most important is your next step.
Need some help in capturing more improvements for your staff’s teamwork, collaboration, and learning? Creative ideas in running or facilitating teamwork or continuous learning workshop?
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy continually improve your continuous learning?
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way.
More reading on learning from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
The Nine Most Valuable Secrets of Writing Effective Copy
How Good Is your Learning from Failure?
Continuous Learning Holds the Keys to Your Future Success
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.
Are you looking to be the best critical thinker you can be? Then you need to be like Da Vinci and focus on continuous learning. Let me elaborate.
Thought-provoking thinker.
There are three classes of people: those who see, those who see when shown, and those that do not see.
– Leonardo Da Vinci
No doubt. I am a big fan of great thinkers. My top thinker of all time? It has to be Da Vinci. Why do you ask? For his abilities in learning and creativity, without a doubt. A mathematician. A scientist. An engineer. An anatomist. A creative learner. Always learning and creating.
Do you see? Maybe some of the lessons from Da Vinci will help. So what would be the lessons in critical thinking, learning, and creativity derived from Da Vinci? Here are the ones I continually come back to:
Sketching and note-taking
Over his lifetime Da Vinci created 13,000 pages of sketches and notes. 13,000 pages. By hand, on individual sheets of paper. A sketch in the center, simple and done quickly, the label on top, annotations along the sides, arrows pointing to key content. Sometimes a summary on the bottom.
Alone in the first few iterations divergent thinking. Time to generate lots of ideas, and to reflect. Incubate ideas. Ask himself lots of questions. Always observing and studying. Think about the age of Da Vinci … no computers, few books, and few experts in fields of his interests. Just his ability to see and observe using notes to record for further study.
Da Vinci often reviewed his work with respected peers after he had finished incubating his ideas. It was an opportunity to refine his ideas. Time to collaborate. He was way ahead of his time on most topics, so many of his good ideas were rejected.
He didn’t lose his desire or his persistence by the rejections. But remember … 13,000 sketches led to at least three masterpieces. Persistence is a key, isn’t it? Perhaps this is the most important reason we have less creative people.
Build on others
One of the misunderstandings around creativity and imagination is that you have to be utterly original to do it. The truth is all creative people stand on the shoulders of those who came before. Writers learn to write by reading; painting students are sent to museums to copy the masters, while great chefs learn the already tested basics of cooking to create some new dishes.
Innovation stands on a platform that already exists. Yes, inspiration is involved, those flashes of insight, the ah…ha moments. You start with something that already exists and takes it to another level. So relax. Let go of thinking you have to do something original. Take the pressure off. Celebrate that there is all this help available.
Best critical thinker … question everything
Want to think what nobody has ever thought? Start by questioning all assumptions.
There comes a moment in time where everyone agrees with everybody about pretty much everything. For any sized organization that is focused on creating a culture of relentless innovation, hardened dogma is an innovation obstacle they must overcome.
And that starts best with questioning everything, assumptions included.
Pay attention to patterns
Treat patterns as part of the problem. Recognizing a new pattern is very useful, but be careful not to become part of it.
Best critical thinker … observe with all senses
Truly creative people have developed their ability to observe and to use all of their senses, which can get dull over time. Take time to “sharpen the blade” and take everything in. Add thoughts as you go like Seth Godin often does.
Continuous learning
Both creativity and innovation are based on knowledge. Therefore, you need to continually expand your knowledge base. Read things you don’t normally read as often as you can.
Defer judgment
Your perceptions may limit your reasoning. Be careful about how you perceive things. In other words, defer judgment. Let it all hang out.
Da Vinci’s basis for the study was simple observation and notes/questions on his observations. He withheld judgments, either positive or negative, for as long as possible. Particularly his own. He appreciated that judgment would be a block to creativity and new ideas.
Experience as much as you can. Exposure puts more ideas into your subconscious. Actively seek out new and very different experiences to broaden your idea thinking experience portfolio.
Always carry a book
When waiting: read. It’s not only about reading per se, but it’s also about focus and self-discipline. You need both to get smarter. How can you solve a problem if you can’t focus? And how would you solve it if you fail to commit yourself to the task?
Now, I am talking about reading per se. It improves your verbal-linguistic abilities, creativity, memory, open-mindedness, etc.
Critical Thinker.
Meditate
Again, it’s about focus and self-discipline. It also improves introspective and self-reflective capacities (intrapersonal skills). (How?)
Critical thinker … leave your comfort zone
Take risks. Here is how. Failing is very important in the process of learning.
Do a bit of math every day
Improving your logical-mathematical skills is critical for almost every area of your life.
Always challenge your ideas and points of view
It is a critical thinking and open-mindedness booster.
Stimulate imagination
Da Vinci used divergent thinking to create lots of ideas. Lots of ideas, questions, and curiosity to stimulate his imagination. He minimized the limitations and constraints when using his imagination to think of the solution space to his many questions.
Socialize frequently
Meet people you like and new people as often as possible. Try to have a lot of friends and to create new friendships (care both about quality and quantity). It’s very important for your brain. It improves your emotional intelligence and boosts your social skills. (Related TED video)
Always look for self-improvement
We are never going to be perfect, and this is great so that we always have something to improve. No time to get bored! It makes you smarter because you will know more about yourself.
Save and revisit later
Most of Da Vinci’s sketches were done on individual sheets of paper. Not in a constrained notebook. He understood the value of multiple revisits and connecting, reconnecting, and grouping related facts and observations. An analogy expert. And an uncanny ability to connect several different observations and ideas to create new ideas.
You have to understand when your emotions are getting over your rational thinking. It improves introspective and self-reflective capacities (intrapersonal skills).
Curiosity and questions
Perhaps Da Vinci’s greatest asset was his insatiable curiosity. The more observations and connections of ideas, the more questions, and curiosity. And creative ideas.
Get in touch with art
Painting, literature, sculpture, architecture, cinema, theater, dance, poetry, photography, and so on… It is fun, interesting, fascinating, and makes you smart (expand your problem-solving skills, open-mindedness, etc…). What else?
Engage smarter people
Befriend and engage in conversations with people who are smarter than you. You can expand your knowledge base and vocabulary by simply being around intelligent individuals.
Be open-minded
Being smart involves being open to different viewpoints even if they contradict your own. Be open to learning about viewpoints and concepts that you disagree with so that you become a more well-rounded individual.
Critical thinking process.
Be proactive
Don’t simply rely on watching the news or your professors at school to boost memory, learning ability, focus, concentration, and comprehension.
Visualize your ideal outcome
For example, can you imagine being smarter?The smartest people in the world visualize what they want before it comes into existence. They visualize what they need to do to make it happen. They visualize the steps they took. They visualize the obstacles they faced. So you need to learn to visualize your ideal outcome.
The bottom line
Do you see? Very, very few of Da Vinci’s abilities are in the populace. But that doesn’t mean you can’t learn to be creative … it can be learned. Can you use these lessons to learn to see or see better? Give it a try. Practice and be persistent. Stick with it, and over the long haul, you will see some good dividends.
Need some help in improving the creativity of you and your staff? Creative ideas to help the differentiation with your toughest competitors?
Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote for a workshop on creativity. Learn about some options for creativity workshops to get noticeable results.
Call Mike at 607-725-8240.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new creative ideas.
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step.
Try. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy to improving your creativity, innovation, and ideas?
Do you have a lesson about making your creativity better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.
Want to learn some quick and easy life hacks that are easy to do, low cost, and save you time? You’re in luck. We have collected many of these practical life hacks into this one list that is easy to digest. By tweaking little things, it can make your life much easier.
There are always these pesky little obstacles in life that make everything so difficult – pot always boiling over, zipper constantly unzipping itself, or ice cream melting on your clothes. All these first-world problems can easily ruin your day. Luckily, the internet is full of handy life-saving tips that can help you!
This awesome list of life hacks will teach you how to make your beer cold quickly, hammer nails without hurting yourself, keep your greedy colleagues away from your lunch, cover up dings on wooden furniture, keep your take-out pizza warm, and much more!
Avoid distractions at all costs
…is an increase in your productivity with a magnitude of at least 5x-10x.
A study at the University of California, Irvine, found that “the typical office worker is interrupted or switches tasks, on average, every three minutes and five seconds.”
3 minutes and 5 seconds. That’s 185 seconds in total between one interruption and the next.
What’s more, “it takes an average of 23 minutes and 15 seconds to get back to the task.”
23 minutes! That’s over seven times as long as it takes for you to be interrupted again.
The life hacks … finding vs. making your place
Some people seem to find their place in the world naturally. As kids’ “talents” become apparent, they get good at their talents. They study the train and ultimately get a great job or start a company doing their thing. If this is you, congratulations. And you don’t need to read this post.
But if you, like me, grew up on the island of misfit toys, you might want to keep reading. Those of us, who can’t find our place in the world, have to make our place in the world.
Position yourself or be positioned
When companies do this, it’s called “category design.” It’s a management discipline that helps companies create more than a new product, but a whole new market category. Historically, the innovators who successfully design a new product, company, and category are the big winners.
Category design on the personal level is about making your place in the world — connecting what makes you unique to a problem people care about and then positioning you as the solution.
The life hacks … solving critical problems
New categories emerge when a new problem gets defined (Henry Ford with “horseless carriage”), or an existing problem gets re-imagined (Travis Kalanick Uber founder with “smartphone-powered, personal transportation”).
The bigger and more urgent the problem, the more time and money people will put into solving it. Becoming a category king in many ways is a function of becoming known for solving a problem that matters.
Knowing how to develop your point of view
Here’s where you put yourself under the microscope, figure out who you are, and develop your story. Putting yourself through a POV exercise can be incredibly clarifying. How do you define who you are and what you want to mean to the world? How do you want people to see you? How do you want to describe the problem you solve?
Write it down, perfect your story and hone it until it sounds like a tight, conversational, presentation — so that if you had two minutes to position yourself, you could go through your POV and anyone would “get” you.
Say “Thank you” instead of “Sorry”
Apologizing focuses on what you did wrong and makes you smaller. I.e., “Sorry I’m late.”
Instead, thank them. Ie. “Thank you for your patience.”
Everybody likes to be thanked, and you’re focusing your attention on them and how cool they are. Win-win.
If you want to get what you want, you’ll have to speak to the values and ideals of the group. Not your own.
Imagine being in a gang of thieves. They’re preparing to break into the house of an old lady. It’s easy money they said, but the idea of robbing the old lady makes you feel a little queasy, so you speak up:
She’s an old lady guy. Let’s leave her alone.
BZZZ. They’re going to look at you like you blowing wind. They didn’t care about why would they care now.
But if you said:
I doubt she has much money. It’s not even worth the work. If we’re going to break into a house might as well break into a big one.
Then you’ll look smart. It’s about understanding the group and what they value so you can propose the right decision for them (or at that’s what they think).
Surround yourself with good people
The people you spend the most time with have more of an impact on your life than almost anything else. Spend your precious time with people who make you feel better and do better.
Your life will be much better when you are surrounded by good people who have your best interests in mind. Many people underestimate the power of How the People Around You Affect Personal Success. Ditch the haters. Let go of people who bring you down or don’t believe in you.
Marry someone who brings out the best in you. Work with a manager who brings out your best work. Cultivate friendships that motivate you to have fun and try new things.
See the best in others
Surround yourself with good people, and then see the best in them. Don’t talk badly about people behind their back. It usually gets back to them, and will only make you feel worse.
Rather, compliment people on what you truly like about them. Speak well of others when they aren’t there. Give genuine compliments, and it will make you and them feel better.
What you see in others has more to do with you than with them. And how you talk about others, will reflect more of you, than it does on them. Especially in a work setting. People will trust you when you trust them.
Appreciate what is
Appreciate what is, rather than complaining about what “should be.” Do the best you can. And then give yourself a break. Celebrate your good luck and fortune.
Before you go to bed, think about the good things in your life, and show gratitude when someone helps you. Focus on giving one genuine “thank you” a day, and notice how much better you feel. Be gracious in success and defeat.
Dedicate yourself to continuous learning
I am a big believer in continuous learning. You should always seek to be flexible and keep several alternative paths in front of you. Always be on the lookout for ways to reinvent ways for self-improvement. Our most favored quote on continuous learning comes from Charles Darwin:
It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.
All of these life lessons get better when you have a strong foundation in knowing how to be kind to others. I have never found a better way to stay happy. Kindness costs you nothing, and you’d be surprised how much it can do for your happiness.
Find something to make you laugh
Another important factor in your happiness is enjoying a good laugh as often as you can. Making fun of yourself and your mistakes is a great place to start.
Push goals
Everybody talks about goals. Everybody talks about SMART goals. Everybody talks about how to prioritize and organize your time and blah blah blah.
Push goals cut through a lot of this, and you can use them to solve many problems in your life at once.
A push goal is simply a goal like any other goal except it is strategically chosen to solve more than one goal at a time.
For example, let’s imagine you have a few goals: get more disciplined, make a new social circle, lose 15lbs, and get better sleep. Setting aside the fact that these aren’t SMART, they still are goals. You could try and tackle each of them individually, or you could pick one thing that would either capture the others or make pursuing them moot.
So, instead of coming up with a plan for all of them, you could simply join a martial arts class. Or join a running club and sign up for a half marathon. Or join a Crossfit gym and go to class regularly for two months. Each of these is likely to help you achieve the rest of your goals.
The bottom line
You see, we procrastinate a lot all the time, and we give ourselves excuses to accept those lame excuses.
This rule made me complete more tasks daily and without delay. And when you think about it, most of these tasks are so small that we consider them irrelevant to complete immediately. Thus, creating a super-low to-do list in the coming days or weeks.
Need some help in capturing more improvements for your staff’s leadership, teamwork, and collaboration? Creative ideas in running or facilitating a team or leadership workshop?
When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Are you devoting enough energy continually improve your continuous learning?
Do you have a lesson about making your learning better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add to the section below?
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way.
More reading on mentoring from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of a small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, Pinterest, and LinkedIn.
