Leaders Make Things Better

The real question you need to ask yourself about your job is, “Are things better as a result of me being there?” The mark of a great leader is in their ability to add value. They enhance the quality of what they touch. They are constantly thinking about ways to improve that which they are a part of. Author Marcus Buckingham wrote, “‘I am not satisfied’ is the mantra of a leaders. As a leader you are never satisfied with the present, because in your head you can see a better future, and the friction between the ‘what is’ and the ‘what could be’ burns you, stirs you, and propels you forward. This is leadership.”

If you want to do more than expected of you, always be seeking out better and more efficient ways of operating. Improve upon your ideas and the ideas of those around you. The results you are currently getting are a direct outcome of the way you are doing things. To improve the result you have to change what you are doing. You can’t get what you’ve never got until you do something you’ve never done. High achievers are willing to think at a higher level than anyone else around them. Albert Einstein said, “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” In order to move beyond our current level we have to rise up to a new level of thinking. This requires a willingness to spend time working on your business not just in it. Very few take the time to develop better practices because they are inundated with the daily do. They spend more time putting out fires rather than lighting new ones.

If you want to raise your influence you have to make things better around you. Here are 3 ways you can make things better….

1) Pursue Excellence

If you want to be the best you have to get around the best. Surround yourself with opportunities that will help spark ideas. Ed Catmull, the President of Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios shares many stories in his book Creativity Inc. about how committed they were to pursuing excellence while developing their movies. He tells about the trips they would send their creative team on to be fully submerged in the experience. For example, while working on the famous movie Ratatouille they sent their team to Paris to visit fine dining restaurants touring their kitchens and walking around the city’s sewers to fully immerse themselves with a rat’s life. While working on Finding Nemo their team trained to get scuba certifications. In order to improve upon that which you are working on you have to improve upon that which you are surrounded by. Pursue excellence in all that you do and all that you do will get better and better.

2) Provide Solutions

To make things better you have to become a great problem solver. In fact, your value comes from the problems you help solve. All business transactions is a result of someone paying to get a problem solved. That problem could be very meaningful or very minuscule, but make no mistake it’s all a result of a problem getting solved. And the more you can provide a solution to people’s problems, the more valuable you become to them. This requires you to bring unique solutions to the table. No-one wants to pay to find out they have a problem, but they will pay extremely well to get a problem fixed. You see, you can’t just be a thermometer, you have to become a thermostat. Thermometers only read your temperature, but thermostats have the ability to change the temperature. Don’t just bring problems to the table…bring solutions with them. I would dare say almost never bring a problem to the forefront unless you have solutions to go along with it. And if you don’t have a solution yet…work harder until you get one. The more solutions you bring, the more valuable you become.

3) Persist Relentlessly

Thomas Edison said, “When you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this – you haven’t.” The only way you truly lose is to give up. Sounds simple, but the truth is nothing is impossible until you give up. Once you give up the possible slips into impossible, not because it is impossible, but because you have made it impossible. Those who are successful in life are those who don’t give up. We all face obstacles on our journey to success. Obstacles teach us how to become successful. Yet many people who face obstacles become disillusioned thinking something is wrong. Obstacles are not always a sign of things going wrong, many times they are a sign of things going right. The path of success is not one of smooth seas and a warm breeze. Patiently persist on working things out over time. Don’t expect things to change overnight. Remember, it’s those who have the stamina to last that become the winners. If you don’t have an unwavering sense of determination you will give up when things get shaky…and things always get shaky. Radio personality Paul Harvey used to say, “You can tell you’re on the road to success; it’s uphill all the way.”