The Law of the Picture

Jonathon Swift said, “Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others.”

We at the UpCloseTeam would take that notion one step further. As a leader, if others can’t see what you see, they do not know where the organization is going. That’s why for us, vision is the art of making visible what at first only you see. In other words, it’s about painting a picture so rich and colourful, everyone feels inspired.

John Maxwell calls this The Law of the Picture. Great leaders maintain a balance between staying the course and welcoming fresh ideas. This is particularly important when it comes to sharing their vision. The picture does not change. If it did, people would lose focus. But the picture can gain important details, which will also need to be shared to help everyone continue on course.

Simon Sinek says it so well. “One of the best paradoxes of leadership is a leader's need to be both stubborn and open-minded. A...

James is at the table with his wife, Cheryl. She can see he's distressed and asks if he's okay. The answer is larger than she expected. As far as she knew, James was happy in his job.

“Cheryl, I don’t know what’s wrong. I’ve worked long and hard for the company. I’ve been loyal and I've given my all. In the past, I was rewarded for my performance, but they’ve passed me over for a promotion again. Guess I better find another company that appreciates my experience and effort.’”

Only three years ago, James was excited about his future. He'd been promoted to a manager position at the manufacturing company where he works. They'd valued his university degree, but they'd valued his 10 years of experience even more.

He had spent many years showing his skills and helping the company grow. He grew in his career and was happy that his company valued his professional development.

James was ready for the learning curve his new role demanded. Never...

Do you know what it takes to reach your full potential?

Finding your potential involves a unique set of steps that require you to take action. There's no magic pill or one-size-fits-all solution. You have to be willing to put in the work and be open to change.

The key to success lies in asking yourself great self-development questions.

Ask yourself these questions:

1. What is your underlying desire in life?
2. Do you yearn for self-fulfillment? Or is self-development more important to you?
3. Are your efforts designed to make you feel good? Or are they designed to help you become the best you can be?
4. Is your goal to be successful? Or is it to achieve significance?

The answers to these questions are a personal growth journey. As a leader, you have an opportunity to help people grow and reach their full potential. To do this effectively requires that we take personal responsibility for our own growth as well. If we're not growing, we're not reaching our potential.

Personal Growth.

John...

I'm sure many of you have been in the same position as Sarah.

You have a boss who asks you to do something that you're not sure is a good idea, but you go along with it anyways. In Sarah's case, her boss asked her to participate in a DISC personality profile assessment.

She was skeptical at first, but she decided to give it a try. Now she wishes she had done it sooner!

Because for Sarah, her personality profile assessment confirmed many of the things she already knew about herself. This increased her self-awareness and gave her self-assurance.

Understanding her profile also helped Sarah to understand what drove her and why she excelled in some areas but was less motivated and successful in others.

With this knowledge, she began to understand how others saw her and how she might interact differently with others around her.

Sarah quickly became more self-aware and confident. If you're like Sarah and want to be more self-aware, keep reading...

Self-Awareness - What is It?

...

I was recently asked to talk about the key success strategies of highly effective non-profit boards. As a person who's worked on and for non-profit boards for more than thirty years, it's a subject I care about deeply and I've given it a lot of thought.

Here are the four success strategies I consider most essential for non-profit boards to be effective:

1. Recognize that as a board you represent the needs and desires of your cause communities.

Non-profits bring together people who care about causes, such as overcoming disease, solving homelessness, or supporting economic development in rural communities.

Highly effective boards work hard to engage representatives of their cause or stakeholder communities into key portions of their ongoing strategic planning. As board leaders, they appreciate the value of this input. The more the people who care about the cause are engaged in strategic planning, the greater the success of the non-profit organization. It's that simple.

But highly...

Becoming Better

As John C. Maxwell says, "Goals helped me to do better. But growth helped me to become better."

It takes more than ambition to reach success. We have to grow beyond what we thought possible.

In the chapter on personal growth in his book called "Leadershift", John C. Maxwell talks about the importance of embracing change, believing in yourself, developing relationships with other people, and being humble. Then he introduces something new: a concept he calls layered learning.

Why Experience Matters

We are generally exposed to the full set of principles we need to achieve success before we reach thirty. Some of us may even learn these principles sooner. But no one would argue that we stop growing at thirty. Why? The simple answer is experience and this is where layered learning comes in.

Being told something is not the same as experiencing it for yourself. Also, the key experiences in our life are worth repeating many times. With each experience, another layer is added....

Getting Ready to Plant

As spring approaches, our thoughts turn to gardening. We begin to plan what we will plant and look forward to watching things grow with a rich harvest in the fall. But as all great gardeners know, first we must turn over and fertilize the soil.

Learning is similar. In his book called "Leadershift", John C. Maxwell explores key changes every leader must embrace. Near the top of this list is growth and we do that by learning.

So often when we think about growth, we focus on the harvest. We see our goals being accomplished, the people who will be helped and the success this will bring to our organization. While all of these things are worthwhile and important, none of them can happen if we don't first turn the soil and fertilize.

5 Tips for Staying Teachable

How we approach our lives, the attitude we bring to others, and what we make out of the events that come our way—all of this is an opportunity to learn. But only if we are teachable.

Follow these tips...

What would you do to grow?

Recently, the UpCloseTeam was asked a powerful question:

“If you could do one thing and do it well to reposition your business to grow, what would that one thing be?”

What could be more important in these changing times? We all need to keep growing. This is a question we all need to answer.

The answer is simple

The question we were asked is about helping a business grow. But the same question could be asked about personal growth, growth as a leader, or growth as a father, mother, or spouse.

No matter which question we are asking ourselves, the answer is the same. We achieve growth by committing to going the extra mile. It is only by taking the initiative to go above and beyond that we can achieve real growth. 

Focus on 3 questions

To grow your business, you need to do one basic thing—get more customers. This is nothing new. Everyone in business knows how essential it is to have customers.

But do we know what brings customers in?...

Why Today Matters

Have you ever wondered if what you do today really affects your success tomorrow?

If you have a good day, does that make it more likely that the next day will also be good? And anyway, what makes one day good while another is not?

Everyone wants to have a good day, but according to John Maxwell, few of us know what a good day looks like. In his book, "Today Matters", he explains that very few people understand how the way they live today will impact what happens to them tomorrow. Why is that?

Misconceptions About Success

Well, there are a lot of misconceptions that can lead us astray. Here are few of the common misconceptions that are outlined in John Maxwell's book:

1. We believe success is impossible, so we criticize it.
2. We believe success is mystical, so we search for it.
3. We believe success comes from luck, so we hope for it.
4. We believe success is productivity, so we work for it.
5. We believe success comes from opportunity, so we wait for it.
6. We believe success...

A familiar reminder

January arrives and without fail we begin to get reminders about how important it is to set goals. Why? What is the purpose of goals? Do we really need to do them? Is there a big enough reward?

These are questions you may be asking yourself. Or, you may be one of those people who doesn't need to be reminded. Depending on your personality style, goals may be something you truly enjoy, or they may be of less interest to you.

Why goals matter

Goals are one of the best ways to measure your life's progress. Although coming up with and following through on goals takes real work, it's absolutely essential if you want a life full of outstanding accomplishments.

As Michelangelo said, "The great danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short, but in setting our aim too low and achieving our mark."

Do nothing, gain nothing

How many people drift through their precious life, aimlessly hoping that good fortune will fall out of the sky and land...