Change the Trajectory of your life by Making Better Choices

It is that time of year again where you reflect on your year and ask yourself how you did. When you look back over your year, are you satisfied with the progress you have made? Or is this just another year where you feel like you have really worked hard, have once again given your all, but you are no closer to realising your dreams than you were in January this year. Every year just seems to get busier and you feel like you are working harder than ever, yet you are just spinning your wheels every day, achieving very little. You are not alone; most people that I have surveyed this year feel the same.

This cycle of overwhelm and very little or no progress will continue unabated, unless you commit to make a fundamental shift to your philosophy, where you change the way you approach your life from this moment on and you begin to introduce new success routines and daily disciplines, which will equip you to make better choices in the future. Until you make this shift and accept that, if you want your results to change next year, then you must change the one thing you have 100 % control over, namely YOU. You will remain trapped in a never ending cycle of regret.

Your new life starts right now, it is one choice away, you get to decide whether you want things to positively change by design from this moment on or whether you are going to allow your life to continue to spiral to nowhere, due to your on-going neglect and lack of commitment. This one positive decision, where you introduce the few positive changes described below into your life, will completely change how your life will turn out in the next year. Decide to do things differently from this moment forward; the choices that you have made up until now have created the life you now lead. These same choices can never change the trajectory of your life.

Action Idea: Get clarity about the following and as you think it, commit to ink it. Explore the few concepts below and get absolute clarity about each one, before you blunder blindly into another year.

·         What does success really mean to you? Invest the time to explore all the things that are really important to you and discover what you really want to achieve. The more clarity you have about what you want, the easier it will be to build a framework to start bringing exactly that into your experience.

·         Now ask yourself the crucial question WHY, achieving what you desire is important to you. When you know why something is important, no challenge will be too large to stop you from achieving your dreams.

·         Once you understand what really makes you tick (What success means to you and why you want it) and you turn this into a crystal clear vision of what you want in your future. You now have a clear direction to travel on every day to move you toward the future you want and most importantly when you arrive at this future that you have visualised, it will be exactly what you want.

·         Explore your vision and create a set of crystal clear goals that will help you to realise your vision.

·         Break these back into bite size chunks or projects.

·         Explore each project and break each one back into individual action steps that you can do every day.

·         Schedule time into your week to carry out these tasks.

·         Apply daily discipline to carry out the necessary activities every day

·         Measure your performance daily.

·         Stay committed and consistently carry out a minimum of five goal orientated activities every day.

Following this simple plan described above is really easy and everyone that has introduced these few small changes into their lives has seen remarkable positive changes in a reasonably short space of time. Those that have chosen leisure over labour, entertainment over discipline and instant gratification over long term commitment, have continued along a path of frustration and regret. Which path are you going to choose this year? As easy as this plan is to follow, so easy is it to do nothing new and to simply continue along the path of neglect. I sincerely hope that you make the right choice this year.

Author: Andrew Horton Motivational Speakers

http://www.andrewhorton.co.za

You cannot effectively lead, if you allow anyone in your team to bleed

During the Tour De France cycle race, winning the race is all about personal commitment and team work. Each cyclist is a member of a team, whenever one of the top cyclists or potentials winners wants to break away from the bunch or make a strategic move to gain an advantage during the race. He depends on his team mates to assist him by going out front and absorbing the force of the oncoming wind to make a type of wind vortex to draw him along. As each team member tires, he slowly drops back into the team and one of the other team members goes to the front and takes the full force of the wind to assist his team mates. This on-going process creates a vortex of wind assistance that continually cycles and supports each rider in turn.  

Should any rider attempt to break away on his own, he would be exposed to the full force of the wind, without any opportunity to drop back into formation, where he could rest and recuperate. Any rider that attempts to go it alone for too long will quickly tire and drop out of the race completely. This lone strategy of trying to do it alone will wear the rider down and his competitors will prevail.

The crucial team lesson to be learnt from this simple analogy is that no one member should be expected to shoulder the load alone for any length of time. Every team member must consistently deliver their best, but must have the humility and ego strength to rotate into the background, where necessary, to give other team members a chance to take the lead and to shine. This will keep the team moving along at top speed and will see the team achieve incredible results in a very short space of time.

Every effective leader must be a great example, who assists, guides and encourages their followers. Really great leaders have one further trait and that is one of mentoring, where they continually strive to help all the members of their team, to grow into great leaders themselves. They eliminate their ego and encourage the people in their teams to grow to levels that in many cases may even exceed their own. This openness where the leader steps aside to allow someone else to lead for a while, allows the leader to concentrate on their team and individual team member effectiveness, reduces the workload of the leader, freeing up time to concentrate on the vision of the team and also gives the leader time to focus on team members that may be needing more guidance, assistance and development.

Ducks are amazing; they use team work and rotating leadership, to achieve incredible levels of super performance. They fly in a V formation that creates an updraft, which reduces the workload on the formation by up to 70 %. The only duck in formation that bears the full load and absorbs all the wind force is the lead duck. As the front duck tires, it drops back into the V formation to rest and then another duck moves effortlessly into the front to absorb the load for all the other ducks.

Ducks also have another amazing trick up their sleeves when it comes to team work and support of their flock. Should one of the ducks flying in the formation get sick or wounded, two ducks drop out of formation and follow it down to the ground to protect and support it. They support and protect the duck, until it recovers and is able to fly again or it dies. Once the duck has recovered and is ready to fly again, they then join another flock of ducks and continue their migration. Should there not be another flock to join, they work together as a team flying, until they catch up with the flock.

Is everyone in your team supportive of other team members who may need guidance and assistance? Being part of any successful team is always about offering support, during both the good and the bad or challenging times.

Action Idea: Look at your leadership style, are you hogging the leadership ball, where you are so focused on the outcomes you are trying to achieve, you have lost sight of the people in your team? Look at your team right now and see who is ready to take on a greater leadership role. Have the courage to give them the opportunity to lead, learn and grow. The real measure of a leader is not in how well they lead followers, but rather in how well they are able to create great leaders.

As you step back and allow someone else to lead for a while, take a look at your team. Is there anyone in your team that needs help or additional training and support? Invest the time into building the individuals in your teams. The greater the ability of every member of your team, the better equipped they are to deliver.

Author: Andrew Horton Motivational Speakers

http://www.andrewhorton.co.za                                                                                                                   

   

Grow your “DREAM TEAM” from the ground up - Together Everyone Achieves More

The first step when creating a “DREAM TEAM” is to acknowledge that you as the leader are accountable for every team member. When you accept that you are fully responsible for ensuring that you have the right people to fill your teams, you have created a perfect foundation for building a “DREAM TEAM” that matches the plan and model necessary to achieve the desired results.

Although you are responsible for your team and everyone in it, you must empower your team members by delegating tasks to them completely. Offer constant support and guidance where necessary, but have the confidence to give them enough latitude to assume a leadership role and to shoulder full responsibility for any task that you delegate to them. Research has shown that by offering greater levels of autonomy to your team members, you will inspire them to a greater degree, allow them to feel more valued and an integral and necessary part of the team.

Building dream teams, filled with super achievers, is all about understanding the importance of each team members contribution to the whole, where they are given autonomy to carry out their individual roles. This allows the members of your team to feel more challenged, keeps them focused on the outcome they are trying to achieve and allows them to focus their energy on any potential opportunities that may be available.

This shift, where you completely delegate tasks and responsibility to your team, will help you to free up time to be a more effective leader and will help you to retain the most valuable members of your teams, as they will feel valued and an important part of the common vision or purpose; you and your team are working to achieve.

It is seldom, if ever, necessary to completely reboot your teams and start everything from scratch. In most cases it is merely a small shift in the way teams are structured or led that result in massive positive changes.  The difference between mediocre team performance and stellar team performance is often in merely refining and defining certain small details. The building blocks for creating your “DREAM TEAM” are in essence, merely creating a core business model that is communicated to and understood by all team members.

Poor team performance is very often a symptom and expression of the lack of a clear vision. This can be rectified by reworking, refining and updating the overall vision and ensuring that each individual’s vision is aligned with the overall vision of the team or organisation. We can only perform at the level of our knowledge and understanding of our real vision and purpose. If this is unclear or ambiguous, the results that will flow will be less than satisfactory.

Look at the heart of the challenges that are limiting the performance of your team or teams. If you want to leverage the maximum from all the individuals on your teams, there must be a total commitment to rejuvenate them, with the drive coming from the front. This entire process is driven by great leadership, which has a clear vision and a set of common goals and objectives that is clearly communicated and understood by everyone within each of your teams. This will allow each individual within each of your teams to flourish, grow and thrive.

Clarity of vision and a clear understanding by each team member of their individual role in delivering on the common vision, where everyone on your team is focused and driven by a common purpose and clearly defined set of goals, will ensure that everyone is delivering on their commitments to the team. As each team member sees the results of their accumulative efforts and they consistently see the success they are an integral part of creating, they will realise their value and importance to the team. This sense of belonging and value is really important to people and is one of the most powerful tools available to keep your team members inspired and driven to succeed.  

To encourage real transformation you must commit to apply a new recipe for teamwork to all your teams. If you continue to use the same tired patterns, systems, habits, motions or even staff, you will continue to get the same results. When you are creating a real “DREAM TEAM” you must ensure that you are not merely rearranging your old ineffective team, but that you are altering the basic components of the team and ensuring that a common vision exists for each team and individual. This vision must be understood and constantly communicated to each team member.

Commit to be an authentic leader, one that has a crystal clear understanding, why the team exists and one that has a vivid picture of the purpose and vision the team must fulfil. Ensure that this is regularly communicated and understood by all team members and that everyone is working toward a common goal. This allows for the formation of better teams and will always result in a superior team effort.

Author: Andrew Horton Motivational Speakers

http://www.andrewhorton.co.za

Building Dream Teams Today

If the leadership within any organisation wants to leverage the most from everyone within their operation, they must realise that the individuals within each of their teams, is the most valuable assets their company has. The greatest value can only be realised from each team member, if there is sufficient investment made, into converting all the existing and new individuals into passionate, productive contributors, who add real value to the team’s business synergy.

This may sound harsh, but if any existing or new team member, receives all the support possible, yet refuses to change and become a valuable contributor to the team, then it is imperative that the you as the leadership has the foresight to assess this as soon as possible and then you must have the courage and fortitude to replace these individuals with new members that are more suitable to the team dynamic. These are really tough choices to make, but are sometimes the only option available if you want to develop and attract the right calibre of people that will meet your team’s needs, performance criterion and team dynamic. One rotten apple in a barrel of perfectly fresh apples will soon cause the entire barrel to start to rot.

As you build, support and invest into creating a team of passionate, productive and driven people with a common objective and vision, you have the makings of a “DREAM TEAM” Each member of the “DREAM TEAM” does not only become a powerful contributor to the overall success of the team, but also gets to really enjoy what they do, thereby gaining richer and deeper career satisfaction along the way.

To leverage the maximum from every individual in each of your teams, it is imperative that each leader is qualified to lead that team. This means that each team leader must be a perfect example of the productivity, passion, drive and results they expect from each individual team member. Who you are speaks volumes, strive to always be the example you would want to follow. Each leader must also have an intricate knowledge of each team member’s strengths, weaknesses, skills and knowledge. This will equip the leader to utilise each team member as effectively as possible and to offer the correct support to help team members develop the correct skills and knowledge.

Action Idea: Invest time to carry out an audit on each team member and carefully assess their strengths and weaknesses. The results that you will enjoy from your teams, is limited by the weakest link in each team, so understand the strengths and weaknesses of each team member. Invest sufficient resources into developing everyone in your teams, so that you can ensure that every one is operating at the required standard necessary to succeed.

The information you gather about the strengths and weaknesses of each individual in your team, must be used wisely to ensure that you always present tasks to each individual’s area of strength. This way you will always get the most from each team member and ensure that each team member is delivering at their full potential.

During the audit, also try to assess if there are any leadership, knowledge or other skills that may need to be improved in your team members, as any lack of skill or knowledge in these areas will dramatically reduce the performance of your team. Ensure that these issues are urgently addressed and corrective action taken immediately to remedy any shortcomings. You cannot ever have a “DREAM TEAM” without people with adequate skill, knowledge and without each team member acting as a great example to every other member.

If you want to be a great leader, who leads a group of inspired and driven members of a “DREAM TEAM”, then have a clear vision that is clearly communicated and understood by all team members, create a safe and supportive environment in your organisation, where you focus on the few leadership basics I have highlighted above and strive to lead your team by example. This will allow your team to become a magnet for top talent and incredible teamwork. The team’s processes will become organic, routine and effortless, allowing the team to work as a synergistic unit to realize all their objectives.

As you grow as an authentic leader, who acknowledges your responsibility toward encouraging real enthusiasm within your team and you strive to help each team member develop a real, sense of pride and self-motivation, where you consistently inspire all your team members with your perfect example, you have created a “DREAM TEAM”.

Author: Andrew Horton Inspirational Speakers

http://www.andrewhorton.co.za

Teams always achieve more

You will always be able to achieve far more when you work together as a unified and supportive team,  you will not only be more effective and efficient as a valued member of a team, but you will also develop great relationships with people that matter and who support each other. Research has also shown that committed members of any team who really support each other and work towards achieving a meaningful outcome, are far more satisfied and content, they are happy and enjoy going to work with their fellow team members every day.

When ducks fly in formation they are able to fly 75 % further than if they flew alone. As they all fly in the typical arrow formation, each duck that flaps its wings, causes an updraft for the bird that is following behind. This updraft is perpetuated right down the entire arrow formation. As in any successful team, each duck takes their fair share of the load and as the leading duck gets tired, it gradually fades into the V formation, where it can rest as it is carried along by the updraft of the other ducks wings. Another duck then moves to the front of the formation and takes the lead until it too gets tired and then the cycle repeats.

We can learn a lot from ducks, who are able to fly distances of thousands of kilometres every year, a feat that is not achieved as effortlessly by any other species on earth. They are able to achieve this feat for one reason only and that is TEAMWORK. The support that ducks offer to each other as each duck (team member) delivers their part turns an almost impossible task, into something achievable. We can also achieve similar results, where the accumulation of all our joint efforts, as contributive members of our team, adds up to significant results. This can easily and consistently be achieved if every team member meets their commitment to the team. 

We all like to feel secure and that we belong to an organisation that protects us and provides a supportive environment. We all want to feel like we are an important part of something of value and to be a valued member of a team that supports us and gives us a sense of purpose. We are also driven to achieve more and to live closer to our greater potential, when we are part of a supportive team. People are driven to do more for the recognition of the people around them, than they will ever do for their own satisfaction. A great, supportive team environment, where people feel like they are working towards a purpose that is bigger than themselves, is one of the most effective ways to draw the best from people.

To use this powerful force associated with belonging, teamwork and a sense of community effectively, we must create a supportive environment that offers real security and meaning to all team members and clearly communicate the vision of the group on a regular basis to every team member. The leadership must cast a crystal clear vision of where the team is headed and constantly support, encourage all team members to help them support and share the common vision.

Teams are all about community, where every member strives to encourage every other team member, to support each other to consistently perform at their best. The success of every individual will in turn uplift the performance of the team as a whole. The more people you help to get what they want, the more people will help you to get what you want.

Author: Andrew Horton Motivational Speakers

Are you one or two Pay Cheques away from Bankruptcy?

Most of the incredibly effective ideas, tools and techniques that I am going to introduce to you in this article, are not new. They are all common sense and really simple to apply in your life and if you use them, will make a massive difference to your financial wealth. The one huge challenge that you face though is that as easy as they are to use and apply, so easy are they to avoid and neglect to carry out every day.

If you are satisfied with the state of your financial health and you feel that you are on the path to create all the financial security you need, then you don’t need to apply any of these concepts in your life. If on the other hand you are like the majority of people out there and you are one or two pay cheques away from bankruptcy, then this article will most certainly be of great value to you.

Do you have any idea how you spend all your money each month or are you flying by the seat of your pants and hoping that you have enough money at the end of each month? Most people have far too much month at the end of their money, but they have no idea why. The first place to start is to build a budget and to work to reduce or eliminate all unnecessary expenditure.

Action Idea: Identify all your absolute necessities every month, things like rent, food, transport costs, school fees etc. Build a budget to take care of these first and then allocate the money that is left over as follows:

·         10 % - 30 % of your total income towards savings or as an additional payment towards paying off any credit card debt you may have accumulated. Pay off all debt as soon as possible. Until you have eliminated all non-real estate related debt from your life, you must focus as many of your financial resources as possible on eliminating this debt. You are effectively on an entertainment and luxury item freeze, until you are back to a zero debt level. There must be an automatic debit from your account every month to transfer your investment money into an investment vehicle; you must never even see this money.

·         2 – 10 % of your total income should be invested into your on-going education. I introduced a discipline of investing a minimum of 10 % of my income into coaches, books, seminars and personal growth materials a number of years ago. Within five years I had achieved financial independence.

·         Build a budget for entertainment, clothing and restaurant dinners etc. This money must be put into a separate account and when this is finished, there is no more funding for these items, for that month. Never ever pull money from anywhere else to fund these luxuries. 

Increase your income

This seems really simple and really obvious. Well do you have a set of specific and very clear goals and plans to increase your income over the next year, five years or even ten years? If you don’t have a crystal clear  vision of what you want in your future and you continue to live a life where you live like a paper cup blowing in a car park, with no real intent or plan, something amazing is going to happen over the next five years, NOTHING! You will arrive somewhere five years from now a little more wrinkled, a lot more disillusioned and a lot further in debt.

Action Idea: Invest the time to build a vision for your future financial position, create a set of crystal clear goals that will support this and then break these goals back into bite size chunks or achievable projects. Explore each project and build an action list, which will help you to identify all the individual actions you must carry out every day, to achieve each project.

Schedule time into your dairy to carry out these tasks every day, apply sufficient discipline to do the work required, measure your progress as often as possible and you will see your income grow and your financial position improve in a reasonable time. 

Once you begin to budget, you commit to eliminate all unnecessary expenditure from your life, you build a financial blueprint for creating the financial security you want in your future and you work your plan. All that is left to do is to remain disciplined, have patience and you will soon create the exact financial freedom you desire.

Author: Andrew Horton Motivational Speakers

http://www.andrewhorton.co.za

You can Never Find Time, but you can always Make Time

I am sure that you cannot remember the last time you had too much time on your hands. If you are like most people, you try to squeeze so much into your schedule every day, it is physically impossible to complete everything written into your daily planner.  You mistakenly believe that you will somehow find the time to carry out the myriad of activities you schedule into your day. Nothing could be further from the truth, you will never find time for anything; each hour just seems to blend into the next throughout your day, as you lose yourself in your constant cycle of busyness. This on-going cycle, where you are trapped on a hamster wheel of constant activity, which delivers very little productivity, sees you spin your wheels faster and faster every day, but nothing meaningful ever seems to happen.   

The only way to break free from this cycle of constant busyness and your perception that there is not enough time in your day, to carry out the activities that will allow you to achieve your dreams, is to accept that you will never find time in your day to carry out these actions, but you can always make time. Until you schedule time into your dairy every day to carry out the activities you know are necessary to change your life, so that you can create the future you desire, something amazing will happen, NOTHING! You will remain trapped on a treadmill of discontent, where every day just blurs into the next and nothing ever improves.  

Activity Log

One of the easiest ways to make time and gain a few extra minutes or even hours in your day, is to use an activity log to measure how you spend your time over a seven day period. At the turn of each hour, spend a minute or two, exploring how you spent the last hour. Do not analyse anything at this point, only record the facts, in your activity log. This exercise should take about 2 minutes each hour.

At the end of the week, take a look at your activity log and access how much time you waste each hour, speaking on your phone, distracted by emails or Text messages on your smart phone, chatting to or shooting the breeze with people, watching TV, listening to the radio or using your time to carry out activities that are not the best use of your time. Everyone that has invested the time to carry out this exercise properly has astounded themselves, with how much time they waste each hour on unnecessary activities.  

After the week has passed and you have identified all the areas where you are wasting time. Make a list of these and strive to avoid wasting any time during your day on them, from that moment on. Create a new habit of sitting for a few seconds at the end of each hour, throughout your day and ask yourself this simple question: “Was the last hour the best use of my time”? Becoming more effective and efficient is not an event, it is a process. Practice this new success habit, of evaluating your time usage every hour and within a very short time, you will stop investing your most valuable possession, namely your time into wasteful activities.    

Meet your Future Today

After mastering your time, as described above, by striving to only allocate your time to high priority activities, throughout your day, you can then introduce an additional concept to help you achieve your goals. I have called this concept “Meeting your future”. This is a really simple strategy, where you sit once a week (I find Sunday evening best) and schedule time into your dairy each day to carry out the really important tasks necessary to achieve your dreams. This is effectively time you schedule to carry out the prioritised activities, which over time will help you to unlock the future you really want.

Yes these are meetings with yourself, but as they are the most important meetings every day, (what could be more important than your happiness and dreams) nothing must be allowed to disturb you during these meetings. Your phone must be off; your door must be locked and you must give 100 % attention to this activity.

Since I have learnt new productive time habits, where I aspire to only invest my time into high priority activities and have introduced the concept of “Meeting my Future” into my life, I have accelerated my growth and am living a fulfilling and meaningful life. I want the same for you, give these simple concepts a try, they will completely change your life.

Author: Andrew Horton Time Management Training

http://www.andrewhorton.co.za