It’s All Possible
Positive thinking mixed with positive doing is a recipe for high performance. Rob Hartnett has worked in senior management roles in companies from Apple to Hewlett-Packard. He specializes in helping others develop a possibility mindset, and his work is all about helping you believe it’s possible.
His book, It’s All Possible: How to lead an epic life and unleash the high performance hero within you, landed on my desk and gave me a motivational boost the weekend I read it. I reached out to talk with him more about his work.
3 D’s of Intentionality
Let’s touch on the three D’s of intentionality. How do you know if what you “desire” is strong enough to light your passion not only today, but for the long-term?
You have to ask yourself the question, “Do I really want to achieve this or do I have to have to achieve it?” Desire is so vital because without desire the next two D’s, determination and discipline, are just hollow. For desire to be strong your “why” must be rock solid. The test comes when it’s 5am and it’s raining and no one is there to motivate you, what do you do? That is the test about how much you really desire the goal or objective.
If you don’t feel that you have consistent “discipline” what can you do to stay with it day in and day out?
Get an accountability coach, training partner or a team that keeps you accountable and keeps you motivated. I am a firm believer that motivation is 50% internal and 50% from who you hang out with. Remember that having the self awareness to know you may fall away or lack the discipline is already a great start and puts you on the track to success. You are already miles ahead of others who are yet to realise this.
You also need to realise you are human and you need rest. A high performance person, race horse, racing engine, does not perform flat out day in, day out. Rest is vital. Rest is part of a high performance person. The routine goes like this. Practice – Learn – Race – Learn – Rest – Practice – Learn – Race – Learn – Rest and so on.
We’ve all seen those who crumble under adversity and challenge. What are some ways to push through that and overcome the inevitable pushback?
It starts with your Attitude and Mindset. You will get tested, it won’t all be smooth sailing, but we grow and learn in adversity as well as the good times. Did you fail or are you experimenting and learning?
When the going is getting tough, you need to consider your original motivation in the first place and this is especially important when you are leading a team. For example, am I more motivated extrinsically or intrinsically? Extrinsically means is it money, a lofty goal and asset motivating me or is it intrinsically, something around my values, beliefs, purpose and passion? Intrinsic is the more sustainable of the two and often the one we need to go back to and remember our “why.”
What are some of the characteristics of those who are moving toward success?
The characteristics of those who seem to be always moving forward to success is they have great resilience and determination because they suffer setbacks like everybody else. I do find that those who succeed are not superhuman or born with superpowers. However, they do follow what I have summarized as my CHAMPION approach.
C Chuck down your goal to small objectives
H Have a Go!
A Assess your progress
M Mindset Maintenance to keep going is important
P People are important to share the journey with – make sure they are the right people
I Investigate the best in the world as a benchmark
O Own the outcome win or lose
N Never Give Up!
Characteristics of Great Leaders
You’ve worked and observed leaders in various places from HP to the John Maxwell team. What are some of the characteristics of a great leader?
The characteristics of all great leaders are the following:
They model the way – they understand leadership is a visual sport so, as John Maxwell says, they know the way, go the way and show the way.
They Inspire – they are people you want to follow. No one wants to follow a whiner and complainer. Great leaders inspire and create an inspired vision for their team.
Challenge – Great leaders hire well and then look to remove obstacles and road blocks so their people can shine.
3L’s – They all learn, listen and then lead. This means they learn all they can about their people, the situation and then they ask lots of questions and listen intently to the answers and then, on this information, they form a POV and lead.
People – They value people and understand great people make great organizations.
Develop – They are continually developing themselves and they develop more leaders so they can move up.
Talk about the power of coaching.
Coaching is a great skill whether you are leading a family, a sports team or an organization. Coaching must start with connecting not correcting. Then no matter what coaching model you run it essentially covers the 3A’s.
Good coaches:
- Ask a lot of questions to bring out the best in people
- Action a Plan to achieve the next steps with the coachee
- Accountability – hold the coachee accountable for taking the right actions
I have not seen a good leader who was also not a good coach. Coaching can be powerful whether it is in a group session or one on one. However, coachees always respond better in one-on-one sessions. Also get specific on the coaching you need and then hire a coach on the basis of the skill gap you need. I recall a couple of years ago, nine time world motorcycle champion Valentino Rossi hired another coach who’s role was to soley improve his right hand corner speed. Role clarity like this is very helpful for both Valentino and his coach.
How do we best encourage the next generation of possibility leaders?
I am excited about leadership in Generations Y & Z. They ask better questions, they challenge the process and question existing beliefs and assumptions. We need to keep on encouraging them to question and most importantly understand that leadership is a skill that anyone can develop.
As today’s leaders we must encourage the next generation to try, learn, fail forward and collaborate together.
For more information, see It’s All Possible.
Photo Credit: TK Hammonds.
