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Leading Blog | Posts by Month |
02.28.25
LeadershipNow 140: February 2025 Compilation
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Posted by Michael McKinney at 08:07 AM
02.27.25
Leading Thoughts for February 27, 2025
IDEAS shared have the power to expand perspectives, change thinking, and move lives. Here are two ideas for the curious mind to engage with: Craig Wright on the value of thinking opposite: “The more a person can exploit the contradictions of life, the greater his or her potential for genius. Great artists, poets, playwrights, musicians, comedians, and moralists embed oppositional forces in their work for dramatic, and sometimes comic, effect. Brilliant scientists and mathematicians seemingly do not go in search of contradictions but are comfortable when they find them. Transformative entrepreneurs look for contrarian solutions. If you want to better understand an object or concept, conceive of the opposite.” Source: The Hidden Habits of Genius: Beyond Talent, IQ, and Grit—Unlocking the Secrets of Greatness Clay Scroggins on the key to simplifying: “Find that one sentence that defines why you do the things you do, and it can have massive repercussions on your life moving forward. When you can clarify your why—and by that, I mean the answer to every ‘why do you do what you do’ question—you can start to live and lead effectively.” Source: How to Lead in a World of Distraction: Four Simple Habits for Turning Down the Noise Look for these ideas every Thursday on the Leading Blog. Find more ideas on the LeadingThoughts index. Follow us on Instagram and X for additional leadership and personal development ideas.
Posted by Michael McKinney at 07:01 AM
02.20.25
Leading Thoughts for February 20, 2025
IDEAS shared have the power to expand perspectives, change thinking, and move lives. Here are two ideas for the curious mind to engage with: Richard Farson on contradictions: “Contradictory impulses to both succeed and fail can be found in every project, every work team, even every individual. Every management choice, Job offer, or new applicant can appear both appealing and unappealing. Every deal is both good and bad. That is why leadership is essentially the management of dilemmas, and why tolerance for ambiguity—coping with contradictions—is essential for leaders, and why appreciating the coexistence of opposites is crucial to the development of a different way of thinking. It is often the most valuable service one can offer an organization. But it requires nontraditional thinking. Source: Management of the Absurd: Paradoxes in Leadership Steven B. Sample on thinking gray: “The leader whose thinking is constrained within well-worn ruts, who is completely governed by his established passions and prejudices, who is incapable of thinking either gray or free, and who can’t even appropriate the creative imagination and fresh ideas of those around him, is as anachronistic and ineffective as the dinosaur. He may, by dint of circumstances, remain in power, but his followers would almost certainly be better off without him.” Source: The Contrarian’s Guide to Leadership Look for these ideas every Thursday on the Leading Blog. Find more ideas on the LeadingThoughts index. Follow us on Instagram and X for additional leadership and personal development ideas.
Posted by Michael McKinney at 07:20 AM
02.17.25
7 Qualities that Drive High-Impact Teams
ORGANIZATIONAL teams determine overall performance, shape culture, drive growth, and deliver results — or not. Today’s teams face a new reality. Never before have they encountered the changes and challenges brought on them by remote, hybrid, and in-person work environments. Add in the emergence of AI and countless other workforce and societal trends, and it’s apparent that yesterday’s approaches no longer apply to today’s realities. This time of disruption demands that organizational leaders take an honest look at their teams and how they function and then apply accurate data to inform new ideas, explore strategies, and pursue professional development to position themselves for success. A recent study of 1,000 working Americans revealed essential actions needed for navigating today’s evolving work environments and team dynamics. The findings point to seven key behaviors, practices, and mindsets that describe high-achieving teams. Together, these qualities will enable leaders to reshape culture and drive high performance. As leaders realize the importance of getting it right to survive this new environment, they can draw from the study’s data-driven guidance and take action to redirect the trajectory of today’s teams. These key insights will inform leaders on where and how to take immediate action that will have impact and add immediate value to their teams: 1. Ensuring accountability. The study found that some 4 out of 10 people on a team at work are not experiencing the accountability that is so often requisite for trust, collaboration, teamwork, and results. Further, 54 percent have mentally checked out because a member wasn’t stepping up or was ineffective. In contrast, great teams are accountable to their leader and to each other — whether or not the leader is around. 2. Addressing distractions. The number and magnitude of distractions confronting workers has greatly increased through new technology, social and global events, and changes in the workforce and work environment — think hybrid and work-from-home settings. The findings showed that 1 in 3 workers were on teams without established standards to address distractions. In contrast, high-achieving teams have clear, agreed-upon, and proven standards to increase the likelihood of alignment, efficiency, and positive outcomes. 3. Elevating direct communication. A majority (57%) of workers said their teams do not freely share issues and ideas without being prompted — often referred to as “reactive honesty.” More alarming, 1 in 8 (12%) remain silent even when prompted to speak up. In contrast, high-achieving teams share issues and ideas without being prompted. Teams that embrace “straight-line communications” — addressing challenges directly through clear, direct communication — promote faster resolutions, better collaboration, and greater success. 4. Systemizing communication. The study explored communication on teams from a variety of angles and found that 39 percent of workers feel out of the loop on their teams. In contrast, a clear communication strategy and framework creates a foundation for effective, consistent communication across teams at all levels. Holding regular informative meetings, engaging in active listening, and instilling trust were among the top strategies for systemizing effective communication. 5. Understanding the influence of power. Close to half (44%) of workers said they felt only conditional power — or even powerless — on their teams. For leaders at every level, it’s important to understand the mindset, role, and influence of power on teams. Those who do so help to better engage and unlock the high achievement of different team members. 6. Optimizing differing work environments. Study findings highlighted the difficulty of addressing differences in workplace preferences. More than two-thirds (69%) reported that they found working in person at the office to be the most effective type of team interaction — followed by email (45%), online video conferencing (44%), and instant messaging (43%). High-achieving teams continually examine the interactions that allow them to most effectively move forward. 7. Promoting consistent high achievement. A great majority (75%) of workers said that being on a consistently high-achieving team would be a significant improvement to their work experience. In this time of workplace complexity, creating highly effective teams is a key solution to overcoming intrusive organizational challenges and to creating great cultures that drive results.  Follow us on Instagram and X for additional leadership and personal development ideas.
Posted by Michael McKinney at 10:53 AM
02.14.25
SOFTEN-ing Improves Your Zen but Does NOT Diminish Your Authority
THINK back to the last difficult conversation you had. What happened? Maybe you lashed out, got defensive, dodged or overexplained; possibly you lied, got passive-aggressive, or completely shut down, unable to talk. Whatever the reaction, I want you to know that it’s normal. In high-stress interactions, our walls go up, and our armor comes on and we’re ready to protect ourselves in any way we can. Most of the time in difficult interactions, we turn cold. Our bodies tense up, and we’re on the defensive. We start saying things that are hurtful and unhelpful and likely have to repair the situation with multiple conversations to get the issue resolved. This toughness that we exude during hard interactions has a tendency to keep us rigid and unable to move the conversation forward in a productive way. Think about what might happen if you did the opposite. If you were able to relax in these high-stakes and stressful moments — what would change? Those in leadership are often scared of losing their edge. They don’t want to be too soft or too Zen because they’re nervous to be more human in a work setting. It’s more professional to be at odds, cold, serious, standoffish, untouchable, inaccessible. Since being human isn’t necessarily what got them to where they are in their careers, to begin with, they aren’t sure if the act of softening is for them. I would raise an eyebrow if some people didn’t think this was a bit outside the box; however, at the end of the day, what’s most important is for the work to get done, the bottom line to be met, and everyone to go home feeling fulfilled and of service, and if that’s the experience people want, then learning how to soften in the moments we want to be hard is the way to go. Below, I’ll share four reasons why softening within a difficult interaction is crucial as an authority figure. Adaptability Think about difficult conversations like you would martial arts. If someone is attacking you and your whole body is stiff, hard, the attacker can simply push you, and you’ll fall down, break easily. But if instead you drop your weight and soften the body, you become fluid, able to move, adapt, pivot, and navigate the situation with grace and confidence. Employees want to see those in leadership positions show calm under pressure, where moments of crisis or stress are met with more openness and creativity; where they can show different ways of handling and solving a problem - showing that there’s another way forward, even when others can’t see it. To be able to access this trait within a hard conversation means we must soften within it—let our guard down—so we can think clearly and talk wisely. Loyalty and Trust Think of the scenarios that come up daily where you react too quickly to fix the problem, forgetting about the people or group who brought the issue to you. Or maybe there have been instances where you have felt tension on your team and said you were open to hearing what was needed, but the moment it was shared, you went straight to defending and justifying your actions. When we find a way to relax within the interaction, we’re able to be more compassionate during heated interactions. We get to meet those expressing themselves where they’re at first, and then help to solve the issue second. Opening ourselves up to listen and acknowledge the other person or group during a stressful moment, helps those coming to you feel that they can trust you. Once trust is established and a bond is formed, loyalty is close behind. Creativity and Productivity In our lives, we go off instinct, and one of the most popular ways to manage others off instinct is to micro-manage. Where we’re constantly checking in on our teams, having meetings, 1:1s to make sure everyone is doing their job and on track. This constant monitoring is a result of mistrust of those around us. Our fear is what is driving the behavior and the interactions. When we start to calm our nervous system and move ourselves out of fear and into more rest within interactions, we start choosing different behaviors and words. We come from a more abundant mindset instead of scarcity and are then able to trust those around us more and give them permission to thrive in their positions on their own—for them to show us what they can do. Letting go of the reins and finding the calm within our interactions helps give those we work with space to create and thrive. Humanness Right now, the world is swept up by advances in technology. We’re connected all day long, emailing at all hours, even on weekends. In the working world, being is not what’s important. Doing is. All this doing is leading more and more employees to burnout and creating a toxic company culture. What softening does is bring back the idea of humanness. It reminds us to think of others in hard moments, to see if we can be helpful and supportive, even when it’s challenging to do. To see what a person or group of people needs, acknowledge it, and respond accordingly. So much of business is focused on outcomes and numbers that we forget it’s actual people who are doing the work. Softening helps us connect with each other, even when it’s hard to do. When I first start working with clients, their eyebrows raise when I share with them this idea of softening. There’s a lot of discomfort around the word itself. Won’t others walk all over me, take advantage, or think I’m not fit for the position I’m in? And what I say is this: Softening helps you connect with those you work with; it’s what allows you to be heard, understood, and human in the moments when your people need you to be. Softening is what gives you the opportunity to think clearly and live into the quote often attributed to Albert Einstein, “You cannot solve a problem with the same mind that created it.” In heated moments, it’s turning the body and mind from ice (hard and impenetrable) to water (soft and fluid). Where can you start to soften in your interactions today? Follow us on Instagram and X for additional leadership and personal development ideas.
Posted by Michael McKinney at 11:59 AM
02.13.25
Leading Thoughts for February 13, 2025
IDEAS shared have the power to expand perspectives, change thinking, and move lives. Here are two ideas for the curious mind to engage with: Michael Doctoroff on conflict: “Conflicts, when properly controlled and resolved, can be a powerful tool for developing creative business plans and objectives. Without conflict, the organization would remain in a happy state of inactivity. Source: Synergistic Management: Creating the Climate for Superior Performance Robert Shaw on blindspots: “Blindspots are not simply problems to be identified and fixed. Managing blindspots is learning to accept them as inevitable and, in some respects, positive because they force you to remain vigilant. Your weaknesses and the threats you face are ever-present, and the greatest risk is believing otherwise. That is, knowing you have blindspots forces you to look more carefully and deeply at your own behavior and situation. In this regard, they both threaten and protect.” Source: Leadership Blindspots: How Successful Leaders Identify and Overcome the Weaknesses That Matter Look for these ideas every Thursday on the Leading Blog. Find more ideas on the LeadingThoughts index. Follow us on Instagram and X for additional leadership and personal development ideas.
Posted by Michael McKinney at 01:16 PM
02.10.25
8 Principles to Get You to Great
HOW do successful people think? The key to doing well is thinking well. It’s a way of being in the world. Becoming great means making the hard choices necessary to get you there. Performance coach Doug Hirschhorn advances eight principles in 8 Ways to Great that direct the decisions of top performers. Principle #1: Find Your “Why?” How questions bring up negative thoughts and inadequacies. “The reason most people go through life with big dreams but fail to achieve them is because they ask themselves ‘how’ before they know their ‘why.’” The why question energizes and motivates, “Knowing your ‘why’ is what’s going to get you to figure out how.” Ask yourself, “Why have I chosen this, and why am I still doing it?” Principle #2: Get To Know Yourself Identifying and understanding your strengths and weaknesses allows you to leverage your strengths and minimize the weaknesses that hold you back. I’m talking about the kind of self-awareness that allows you to acknowledge both your strengths and your weaknesses so that you can use them to balance each other and keep yourself going overboard in either direction. Self-awareness allows you to do more of what you’re good at and less of what you’re not. It can also send up the red flag that lets you know you’re about to do something stupid. Your weakness can force you to put guardrails in place that address your issue in such a way that it strengthens the habits that drive you forward. Principle #3: Learn To Love the Process To reach your goals, you need a step-by-step plan that becomes part of the process of reaching your target. Process thinking allows you to avoid distractions and prioritize the next step you need to take. If you allow yourself to get distracted, you’re likely to abandon the process and start making stupid, self-destructive decisions. I just want to emphasize how important it is to concentrate on the step you need to take right now and not trip yourself up by looking too far ahead. Principle #4: Sharpen Your Edge Your edge is a two-sided sword. One side is knowing what sets you apart from others. The other side is learning all you can to increase the odds of your success. Your personal edge is something you develop and lead with to help set you apart. “In a world full of choices, establishing an edge can make the difference between success and failure in whatever you do.” The external edge guides you when to take smart risks. “Remember that your overall edge is determined by leveraging your strengths, minimizing your weaknesses, and then gathering as much information as you can before making a decision.” Principle #5: Be All That You Can Be Do not compare yourself to others. If you do, you may be doing well compared to them but still not doing your best. You don’t want to be doing just good enough. Challenge yourself to grow beyond your present level. “The difference between challenging yourself to be the best you can be and just trying to beat the next guy is that excellence is a constantly moving target, so you’ll always have something to work for.” Hirschhorn says, “Don’t get sucked into external markers of merit. Measure your success in terms of how well you performed and not only the outcome.” Principle #6: Keep Your Cool It’s human to get scared. But you don’t want to act out of panic, ego, or insecurities. Remain objective with your priorities in mind. You don’t need to always be right. “You can win when you’re losing when you make the decision you need to make instead of the one you might want to make even though you know that decision might mean taking a painful loss.” Know when to cut your losses. When it comes to growth, fear comes with the territory. “Sometimes, being scared is the most rational reaction to a given situation. There’s no shame in that. It’s when people give in to those feelings that they get into trouble. As I frequently say to my clients, ‘Feeling fear is okay as long as you don’t act afraid or make a decision because you are afraid.’” When you feel like panicking, “remind yourself of the process you’ve been following and stick to it; do what you need to do, not what you want to do. There are always aspects of even the scariest situation that are within your control. Take control of what you can instead of letting the situation carry you away. Thinking negatively is sure to tip the odds of success against you.” Principle #7: Get Comfortable with Being Uncomfortable The perfect magical moment never comes. “Waiting for that last piece of the jigsaw puzzle or the exact alignment of the stars is what keeps most people tied to a job they hate or afraid to take the step that would get them to the next level in their career.” Winners act. “If you want to make a change—I mean, really want to make a change—you have to be willing to do it right now. Not later, not tomorrow, not after the weekend, not on January 1, and certainly not only when that eternally elusive perfect moment arrives.” Uncertainty creates volatility, but people react to it differently. The most successful people don’t freeze or panic or buy everything in sight. Instead, they take the time to look around and assess the opportunities available to them. Principle #8: Make Yourself Accountable Often, what holds people back is that they don’t have the structure or discipline to do what needs to be done consistently. “Unless there is some meaningful reward for performing well and an equally meaningful consequence for making a stupid mistake or breaking your own rules, you may not take the steps necessary to put your best-laid plans into action.” It is easy to get caught up in the moment and get distracted. The fact is, “For most of us, the answer is to enlist the aid of someone to whom we make ourselves answerable.” Follow us on Instagram and X for additional leadership and personal development ideas.
Posted by Michael McKinney at 10:24 AM
02.07.25
What Can Leaders Learn from Elite Athletes About High-Level Performance?
WITH THE SUPER BOWL around the corner, what can business leaders learn from elite athletes about high-level performance? Be like Roger. And Michael. And Simone. And Usain. And many others. That’s key advice for business leaders seeking to improve their impact and excel in a sustainable, long-term way that’s good for them and everyone around them. The Roger, in this case, is none other than Roger Federer, the tennis legend considered an exemplar of athleticism and sportsmanship. But underlying Federer’s and other top athletes’ outsized success is rigorous devotion to routines and practices that optimize their state of mind and body for high-level performance. This matters to effectiveness in the business domain, too, where such practices are often ignored or dismissed, even though they support one’s centeredness and capacity to maintain focus, be creative, and make good decisions, even under great pressure. The takeaway? Leaders in any organization can enjoy higher performance on every dimension if they establish a discipline of daily, weekly, monthly, and annual practices that systematically support their centeredness. So why does maintaining practices that yield a high-performance state of mind matter so much for leadership? Here’s why. The Need for a Performance-Enhancing State of Mind A key thing athletes and leaders share is the need for a performance-enhancing state of mind. Specifically, both perform best when they are able to enter and maintain a calm, alert state under high stress, whether facing match point on the tennis court or an unexpected setback at the negotiation table, as research suggests. This ability to focus and perform under stress is what sets the Michael Jordans and Roger Federers apart from the rest—they may not be the best overall athletes, but they’ve truly mastered the all-important mental part of the game. The problem is that most business executives, even high-performing ones, don’t recognize the value of mental state like elite athletes do, so they don’t develop skills and habits to get to that state consistently and effortlessly. Indeed, executives often see themselves as industry or functional domain experts—whether in tech, health sciences, finance, or as an engineer, designer, or head of operations. But they fail to recognize what’s often their most primary role or function: leading others to set vision, build and evolve the team, solve problems, and navigate challenges collaboratively. Most executives also think that performance is a function of effort: more effort, more results – the “no pain, no gain” mantra historically embraced by athletes. The reality is that this is not the key to productivity. Pushing hard alone isn’t sufficient and can be counterproductive. Coherent, creative, efficient, intelligent thinking and decision-making are what drives productivity. For this, a calm and alert state of mind is key — a state of centeredness. Athletes train to optimize this state. Here’s how they do it. They Embrace a Growth Mindset Great athletes focus on process over outcomes. We don’t have control over all outcomes, but we do have control over our process. Leaders must stop obsessing over outcomes and “perfection,” and embrace challenges as opportunities for growth and improvement. Some of the most successful leaders in sports, like former Super Bowl-winning coach Bill Walsh, exemplify this mindset; he emphasized focusing on continuous improvement, not winning. Committing to high standards and constantly learning, striving, and improving is critical. When leaders try to control everything and everyone around them, they fail to understand the value of differentiating what they and their team have control over and what they don’t. They Practice Deliberate Practice The researcher Anders Ericsson pioneered the idea of “deliberate practice” after observing that elite athletes, musicians, and other high-performers practice consistently in a particular way. That is, they identify key skills they want to improve—whether a complicated sequence on violin or a tricky shot in basketball—and practice it relentlessly with the help of feedback from knowledgeable coaches. In this way, deliberate practice is far superior to naïve practice, which is essentially doing something repeatedly, without expert guidance or feedback loops, and hoping for improvement. Leaders will perform better if they embrace deliberate practice just like athletes do. It means identifying key skills that will benefit your overall leadership effectiveness—such as inviting more input from your team—and then practicing in a deliberate manner. Have clear goals around your leadership skill development—“I will raise my team’s 360-degree ratings of my openness to input by 50% within two months”—and solicit regular feedback from colleagues. Great leaders are always practicing in a deliberate way. They Sleep Like Their Life Depends on It Sleep optimizes a leader’s state of mind and, in turn, overall performance. The link between sleep and physical, emotional, and cognitive capacity is well-established. “Rest and restore” is now a fundamental principle in athletic training and similarly applies to leadership. Sleep and rest are critical for peak performance, as illustrated by Federer’s goal of 10-12 hours of sleep every 24 hours. He’s not alone: LeBron James says he averages nine hours, and Usain Bolt considered sleep a critical part of his sprint to multiple world records. Simone Biles, considered the greatest gymnast of all time, similarly prioritizes nine hours of sleep. Yet the culture of business executives promotes the idea that sleep time is time wasted or a sign of weakness, and too many think they can perform well on 3-4 hours of sleep. They can’t. For example, evidence shows that for most of us, operating on fewer than six hours of sleep is equivalent to operating while drunk. In the U.S., over $400 billion of productivity is estimated to be lost each year due to sleep debt. They Meditate to Be Great Regular practice of meditation—even if just minutes a day—promotes positive physical and mental health outcomes, including lower anxiety and better concentration and memory. NBA stars like Michael Jordan, Shaquille O’Neal, and the late Kobe Bryant all used meditation to perform at their best. Research shows meditators demonstrate more coherent brain signatures. There are different forms of meditation, but most are based on finding quiet time to clear your mind, often coupled with deep breathing to enter a relaxed state. Meditation can also involve mental imagery. Federer utilized visualization to enhance his performance, picturing himself succeeding physically and mentally on the court. They Exercise for Excellence Of course, physical fitness is necessary for athletic performance. But it’s not just for athletes; it’s critical for leaders. Maintaining physical fitness not only increases energy levels but uplifts mood and enhances focus. Three or more hours of moderate aerobic exercise per week increases mitochondrial density and supports neurogenesis, thereby enhancing energy levels and brain power. Higher-intensity aerobic exercise once or twice a week has a material impact on increasing VO2 max, which is associated with reduced stress, anxiety, and depression, along with improved cognitive function, memory, and overall brain health. The bottom line: exercise is an important practice for effective leadership. They Eat Right Don’t forget about nutrition. Aim for the right volume of calories for your size and activity level, along with balanced proportions of nutrients. A healthy diet has been linked to every kind of health outcome, but is notoriously challenging for busy people to get right. During her tennis career, Serena Williams maintained—and still does—a healthy, largely plant-based diet as part of her philosophy of “eating to live” rather than vice-versa. Novak Djokovic ascended to arguably the best men’s player of all time, and he credits a consistent, healthy diet as a key factor. So What? It’s logical that our inner life affects our outer behavior, and healthy mind-body practices place us in a position to realize more of our potential. A more balanced, rested, energized, clear mental state enables us to function at a higher level in our thinking, feeling, and more complex leadership capacities. The benefits of being a leader athlete are countless if leaders intentionally practice leadership and work to foster a high-performance state of mind by engaging in a routine of activities that support leadership growth at all levels. Individual and organizational success will naturally follow this proactive approach to leadership fitness, no matter your playing field. Follow us on Instagram and X for additional leadership and personal development ideas.
Posted by Michael McKinney at 03:17 PM
02.06.25
Leading Thoughts for February 6, 2025
IDEAS shared have the power to expand perspectives, change thinking, and move lives. Here are two ideas for the curious mind to engage with: Jonah Sachs on the expert’s trap: “While expertise can make us enormously efficient at playing an established game, it can also make us slower to realize when the game has changed and less able to respond to those changes. Our expert’s mind, so used to moving quickly and efficiently, tries to fit new information into old boxes so it can use its rapid processing power. ‘Oh, that’s just a new flavor of an old problem,’ our expert brain says. Too often it’s not. After all, most of the problems we face in a world of rapid change have little in common with a two-dimensional chessboard with rules that never change.” Source: Unsafe Thinking: How to be Nimble and Bold When You Need It Most Robert Pirsig on egotistical endeavors: “When you try to climb a mountain to prove how big you are, you almost never make it. And even if you do it’s a hollow victory. In order to sustain the victory you have to prove your self again and again in some other way, and again and again and again, driven forever to fill a false image, haunted by the fear that the image is not true and someone will find out.” Source: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Look for these ideas every Thursday on the Leading Blog. Find more ideas on the LeadingThoughts index. Follow us on Instagram and X for additional leadership and personal development ideas.
Posted by Michael McKinney at 12:37 PM
02.04.25
From Fear to Focus: Five Tips for Unleashing Your Best Performance
There are times when fear is good. It must keep its watchful place at the heart’s controls. —Aeschylus MANY people view fear as a negative, crippling emotion. However, it can act as a potent stimulus that enhances performance if we take the time to understand – and modulate – its power. The Sweet Spot of Fear Table tennis Olympian Amy Wang has had plenty of practice performing in the face of fear. She’s won the US National Table Tennis Championships in age categories of nine, ten, eleven, and thirteen before winning multiple open women’s national titles. Wang does, indeed, get scared when playing before a large crowd or on a big international stage. “But I need some kind of fear to boost my adrenaline to help me get ready,” she explains. In fact, Wang has a preferred level of “nervousness” while playing a match. On a one-to-ten scale, “Five to seven is the best for me,” she says. “If I’m not feeling any nerves before the match, it means I don’t care. I relax and don’t focus properly.” Wang’s coaches can easily tell when she’s overly nervous during a match. Usually, it’s enough to remind her to loosen up and take one point at a time to bring her back down to her preferred range. And when she’s not nervous enough? A sort of self-correcting mechanism kicks in. “If I’m too chill during a match, my opponent will start catching up, which will eventually increase my nervousness level,” she says. “But it’s better to start off at the right place.” It’s Only Human Fear is a natural human emotion, and it exists for a reason. It causes adrenaline to surge through our bodies, increasing heart rate and flow to the brain and muscles to help us escape predators or defend ourselves against rivals. It’s in our DNA. Luckily, we don’t need to run from saber-toothed tigers in the twenty-first century. Nonetheless, we still encounter stressful situations, mental or physical. And yet, our hormonal stress response – pumping out adrenaline and cortisol – has not evolved. In fact, the human biological alert system can’t tell the difference between a saber-tooth tiger encounter, a critical table tennis match at the US Open, or a high-stakes sales presentation. So, denying fear or trying to block it out is futile. And unnecessary. Once we learn to harness the energy of fear and minimize its dark side, we can enhance our performance in the direst of times. Five Methods to Optimize Your Performance in the Face of Fear Throughout decades of intense competition and various business challenges, I’ve researched, collected, and experienced many ways of channeling fear. Here are some practical tips to not only perform, but excel, in fearsome situations. • De-fang fear. Preemptively tell it, Come in, fear. The door is open. I’ve been expecting you. This simple, welcoming stance can lessen fear’s sharp bite from the beginning. It sounds deceptively simple, but I’ve benefited from doing this for many years now. Without the heavy dread, fear loses its discomforting emotional grip, but still transfers its biochemical power to fuel clarity of thinking and quickness of movement. • Switch modes. When needed, remove yourself from primal fight-or-flight mode – where your sympathetic nervous system causes shallow chest breathing and elevates your heart rate and blood pressure. Calm your primal brain by literally looking to your right, and your left, and confirming that there is no threat from a predator. You are not being chased by a lion or getting threatened by a cave dweller with a club. Then take several deep belly breaths – imagine pulling a string tied to your belly button, straight out in front of you. This activates your parasympathetic nervous system, engaging a calming, “rest and digest” mode. As you exhale, tell yourself: I am safe, I am warm, I am relaxed… (repeat this until it sinks in). The reverse works, too: Pump up your excitement levels by puffing up your chest to breathe deeply and rapidly. • Create your own “reset” switch. Our brain can “change itself constantly by creating new neural pathways,” wrote neuroscientist Dr. Tara Swart in Forbes. Rewiring the brain simply requires “practice of a new behavior which will sufficiently challenge the brain to think in a new way.” Focusing on a favorite word or mantra (e.g., “I’m just grateful to be here” or “I was born for this moment”) can instantly connect you with a certain empowering memory or confident mindset. Repeat this as needed before, during, and after stress-inducing situations. • Give yourself a “freak-out” period. A law school professor of mine once talked to us about the stress of final exams. Yes, there can be a lot riding on them. If you’re the type of test-taker who starts to sweat and freeze up from fear when the blank test lands on your desk, do the counter-intuitive: go ahead and (quietly) panic. Allow yourself one minute to imagine the worst, failing out of law school, fainting during the exam, whatever. Let the fear rush through your head and body for the full minute. Then let it wash away as you breathe deeply three times and relax. You’ve used up your immediate anxiety quotient, and can still tap into a deeper well of adrenaline to boost your mental activity. Now it’s time to simply start, calmly, on the first question of the test. And then the second, and third. • Finally, don’t worry about your zit – everyone else is worried about their own zit. That’s Gary Vaynerchuk’s advice, which I love. We all have an inner voice adept at pointing out our insecurities. Our blemish. Our accent. An unusual presentation style or unconventional backhand stroke. And when we’re consumed by self-consciousness, we operate at a fraction of our potential. But here’s the liberating truth: everyone else is too busy wrestling with their own demons to fixate on yours. Instead, shift from self-scrutiny to valuable service. Focus 100% on listening, contributing, and participating with others in the moment. The fear will start to fade, replaced by genuine confidence born of purpose. When you learn to accept fear as part of the success equation, you’ll stop spending energy trying to fight it. Then, you can leverage the super-power of focus and energy it brings. This leads you and others on the path to bravery and accomplishment. Follow us on Instagram and X for additional leadership and personal development ideas.
Posted by Michael McKinney at 04:48 PM
02.03.25
Think This, Not That
OUR mindset can either work for us or against us. A mind full of false narratives—false beliefs—will keep us from growing into our potential. Unchallenged, these negative beliefs will become the soundtrack we live by and keep us from moving in the direction of our best selves and change the outcome of our lives. Josh Axe identifies in Think This, Not That twelve mental barriers that obstruct personal growth and hinder success. Each comes with a critical mindshift—think this, not that—to realign our thinking and liberate us from our limiting beliefs. Mindshift 1: Create a Breakthrough by Unlimiting Your Beliefs We all have limiting beliefs like “I am not enough or not good enough” or “nothing good ever happens to me.” A belief changes the outcome of our life for better or worse. We need to identify our beliefs and determine if they are serving us well. Going from limiting beliefs to unlimiting beliefs is not like flipping a switch. It is a process taking one belief at a time. There’s one caveat when it comes to discerning your beliefs. You are not the things you say you will do; you are what you actually do. Beliefs are more than your feelings or deepest convictions. They align with your behavior; they demand action. THINK THIS: I can because…
Mindshift 2: Redefine Success by Becoming, Not Accomplishing Success is about what you are becoming as a result of what you do. “When you accumulate accomplishments while ignoring your character, it’s like building a house on sand. Eventually, your house will crumble and wash away.” Axe defines success as maximizing “your unique skills for the greatest good.” And this gets to the heart of leadership: “Your greatest potential is not just about you; it’s about us. It’s about influencing others. It’s about becoming the greatest you so you have the greatest impact on helping someone else become the greatest them.” THINK THIS: What’s most important is who I become.
Mindshift 3: Become Self-Aware to Get Where You Need to Go Self-awareness is knowing how you are percieved and knowing what is happening inside of you—an awareness of how you tend to respond to what is happening to you. It’s knowing your strengths and weaknesses. And importantly, it is knowing who you are now so you can become who you want to be. Having self-awareness allows you to interrupt your unconscious, emotion-driven reactions and control how you respond to your environment—to live intentionally and not on autopilot. Axe says, “Being aware of yourself and others compels you to stop and look at the needs surrounding you, not turn the other way. It frees you from the grip of self-interest.” THINK THIS: I am self-aware and choose not to lie to myself.
Mindshift 4: Find a Why or Risk Wasting It All Your why has everything to do with your purpose. Why do you exist? “The best version of yourself always starts with the why.” A meaningful life is built upon an other-focus. “A big part of your life’s purpose is seeing the pain or potential in others and acting with compassion to meet their needs.” It’s not about you. “The idea that purpose is found in pleasure fixes can’t be further from the truth. Studies prove that trying to manufacture this feeling of happiness actually leads to lower well-being and depression.” THINK THIS: My life has value, meaning, and a specific purpose to make this world a better place.
Mindshift 5: Rewrite Your Role in the Story No matter what role in a story you are playing now, if it is not working for you, you can change it. In his book Hero on a Mission, Donald Miller identifies the four characters we play: The victim, the villain, the hero, and the guide. The victim is the character who feels they have no way out—helpless and powerless. The villain is the character who makes others small. The hero is the character who faces their challenges and transforms. The guide is the character who helps the hero.” The role you choose to play affects the life you have. When you accept responsibility for your circumstances and take radical action to change, you automatically step into the shoes of a hero. That is how you begin to write your best story possible. What is your story? If it is the victim, you will never grow. Choose a story that transforms you. THINK THIS: I can own my story and edit my role.
Mindshift 6: Assemble a Team to Fulfill Your Dreams We need a team. “Life is better with people who make you better. One of the most effective ways to stay on track and reach your goals is to surround yourself with people who are more disciplined than you.” Think in terms of who my community can become. THINK THIS: Life is better with people who help me grow. NOT THAT: Life is better on my own. Mindshift 7: Build an Unshakable Identity So No One Else Does It for You Your identity keeps you grounded. Be intentional about who you are and build on that foundation. I believe four movements have led up to and created the modern identity: irreligion, rationalism, romanticism, and relativism. These four movements led to the foundational principle that undergirds the modern identity—that our life purpose and mission should flow only from within ourselves and should satisfy whatever we think will make us happy, typically in a materialistic and hedonistic way. Choose your identity. “When you think about who you are, consider whether the identity you choose will keep you flailing in your fleeting emotions, chained to the past, or moving forward into your best possible self.” THINK THIS: Figuring out who you are is important because it determines your future.
Mindshift 8: Bust Vices by Building Virtues Virtues are what build our character and transform us from the inside out. Personal values are built upon virtues. The seven virtues are wisdom, justice, self-control, courage, faith, hope, and love. All of these virtues work together to apply each in our lives for the benefit of all. For instance, you can’t practice true justice without love. Having a virtuous character runs deeper than just being a good person; it is doing the greatest good, which is the most loving thing you can do for everyone around you and for a lasting impact. The greatest good is only possible to accomplish with the underpinnings of the virtues of faith, hope, and love. Axe asks, “Are you aware of the vices that keep your potential at bay?” THINK THIS: A divine identity will motivate me to live and create with excellence, no matter who is watching.
Mindshift 9: Turn Off Opinions and Turn On Principles Principles guide the application of your virtues. Principles are timeless. Opinions, on the other hand, come and go. “If you want to enjoy success in your relationships, career, and health, choose a path that is lined with principles.” Listening both to everybody and to nobody will lead you down the wrong path. The secret is to listen and follow wise leaders who have had the best results in their businesses, their finances, and their relationships. Today, we often speak of my truth and your truth or, rather, my opinion and your opinion. There is such a thing as absolute truth. “My truth will make you as comfortable as possible. The truth will force you to change. My truth is dependent on what will make me feel good right now. The truth leads to a better outcome in the long run. Don’t seek to discover your truth; act with wisdom and courage to uncover the truth, which leads to life.” THINK THIS: Principles lead to successful choices.
Mindshift 10: Flip the Fear to Turn on the Growth Framing events in your life as “all or nothing” are part of a fear-based mindset. You’re thinking in terms of perfection, not growth. Ask, “What can I do better next time?” You live in fear because you’ve tied an event (or series of events) to your identity. Because you are so invested in maintaining this idea of perfection and setting unrealistic expectations for yourself, you’ll do anything to protect your self-image, including keeping up the lie at whatever cost. You won’t be honest with yourself or others. You’ll never grow beyond superficial status because the goal isn’t to develop your character and skills but to achieve, accomplish, and arrive-at least in the eyes of others. THINK THIS: Failure can lead to flourishing.
Mindshift 11: Visualize to Realize Start with the end in mind. Visualization is a way to see the path ahead to reach your dreams. It helps you to prioritize what matters most and give up those distractions that don’t take you where you want to go. THINK THIS: I can dream big and make things happen when I set the right steps in motion.
Mindshift 12: Power Up Your Potential with Positive Perseverance We all go through valleys, and if all we do is dwell on the negative, we will create a negative life for ourselves. There is such a thing as toxic positivity. It’s when you deny or distort reality and rely on platitudes such as “Everything will be okay.” On the other hand, positive perseverance is the fusion of hope, grit, and gratitude. Hope is “choosing to think and act in a way that is contrary to the negativity of our present experience.” Grit is “being all in to create your future self. And gratitude is an appreciation for what we do have and what is right “and taps into the abundance of the little things.” Self-talk matters. How much of what you say is uplifting and positive? “Don’t say anything to yourself that you wouldn’t say to anyone else. If you wouldn’t say the words you tell yourself to your best friend, shut that negative self-talk immediately.” THINK THIS: I have the power to choose positivity.
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Posted by Michael McKinney at 11:39 AM
02.01.25
First Look: Leadership Books for February 2025
HERE'S A LOOK at some of the best leadership books to be released in February 2025 curated just for you. Be sure to check out the other great titles being offered this month.
We have a choice. We can either be reactive and struggle to adjust to transformational events on the fly, or we can be proactive and control the narrative—reinventing work to align with the evolving environment. Futurist Rishad Tobaccowala has had a highly successful career because he has anticipated and capitalized on emerging trends. In Rethinking Work, Rishad outlines the reasons why being proactive in this era of unprecedented change is the only way organizations will survive and thrive. Schools, banks, law firms, startups, medical offices—every sector will be affected by the current or soon-to-be-emerging trends and events that Rishad describes in this invaluable guide.
Striving is in our nature. We all want to perform at our best when it matters most. But in today's world, many of us feel lost, isolated, and overwhelmed. We're paralyzed by fear of failure and crippled by insecurities. We know we’re capable of more, yet no matter how hard we try, we feel stuck. We’ve been sold the wrong path to success and personal fulfillment. Renowned performance scientist and bestselling author Steve Magness reveals a new path to sustainable success. In Win the Inside Game, Magness argues that excellence and fulfillment are not mutually exclusive; we can and should seek both. When we measure our worth by our achievements, cement our identities to our careers, and sacrifice our well-being in the pursuit of external validation, it backfires. We default to survival mode, protecting and defending ourselves instead of being free to fulfill our potential.
It is clear that leaders carry a unique burden. They are guardians, protectors, providers, judges, helpers, servants, counselors, and friends—and only a Giant can be all those at one time. Leaders live and die with the actual results they create, and those results are created with and through the people they lead. Dave Durand spent 35 years founding, leading, and selling companies with more than a billion dollars in combined sales. Having led hundreds of thousands of people, he distills leadership influence in usable terms. Leading Giants illuminates the Four Superpowers of a Leader. By learning to serve as a firm but compassionate leader in the face of challenges, you will do the right things, the right way, and reap the benefits. Because life and business are full of good people engaging in destructive behavior, influencing people away from vice and into virtue is the key to peace, prosperity, and profits..
Doubt crushes leaders daily—from GMs of Fortune 500 companies to small business owners across America, leaders nearly unanimously express doubt and fear in the face of adversity. This makes sense because adversity pushes us beyond our training and our comfort zones. We cannot simply put our heads down and endure. Instead, learn that adversity is an opportunity for transformation. When faced with circumstances beyond our capabilities, we must grow to meet those challenges by persevering and becoming the person the situation requires. Perseverance > Endurance empowers leaders to gain clarity of their challenges, apply sound leadership principles, and lead their teams to victory by embracing the five factors of perseverance: Change, Uncertainty, Acceptance, Choice, and Growth.
The average American worker spends 156 hours a year engaged in the kind of moderate to intense workplace conflict that adversely impacts both performance and health. Managers spend twenty-six percent of their time addressing and resolving conflicts on their team—the equivalent of chewing up one full workday each week. But what if it didn’t need to be like this? What if there was a way to spend less time in stressfully interpersonal interactions and more time on the things that really matter? Because our responses are ingrained byproducts of the subcortex in action, they are predictable. If you can predict how someone will behave in a given circumstance, you can formulate a game plan. The secret is knowing which of the five patterns someone is wired to use when smacked by a stressor. You’ll learn the formula for identifying your coworkers’ and loved ones’ conflict styles and how to use this information to foster better communication and more effective, collaboration.
For Navy SEALs, success isn’t only a result of relentless training in shooting, skydiving, or combat—though they are experts at those things. The real secret is that they use their innate human capabilities to turn the stress of uncertain and complex situations to their advantage. In more than two decades of leading, training, and coaching top performers, Rich Diviney (founder of the SEALs’ “Mind Gym”) discovered that while most elite individuals and teams are masters of preparation, it’s how they react when things don’t go according to plan that separates the best from the rest. They are Masters of Uncertainty.
   
“You can't think well without writing well, and you can't write well without reading well. And I mean that last "well" in both senses. You have to be good at reading, and read good things.” — Paul Graham, Y Combinator co-founder
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Posted by Michael McKinney at 07:30 AM
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Here is a selection of 
Rethinking Work
Win the Inside Game
Leading Giants
Perseverance > Endurance
How to Get Along with Anyone
Masters of Uncertainty
