6 Exercises to Develop Your Leadership Skills
Digging back through some notes from a recent Rich Dad seminar, I stumbled on these exercises that Robert Kiyosaki put together for developing your leadership skills. Check ‘em out:
1) Discuss people in your life who were role models. Who did you look up to? They could be people you knew personally or world leaders. Who did you look up to… and why? What did they do to inspire you to be a better person?
2) Take a look at the B-I Triangle. In which of the 8 integrities are you strong? Which areas do you need to develop?
3) If you plan on being an entrepreneur and owning your own business, how complete is your team? If you do not have a team, begin interviewing experts in all of the 8 integrities so you can better understand what they do, what is important and what words they use. Remember, each piece of the B-I Triangle has its own vocabulary.
4) How often do you speak in front of groups of five or more people? If less than once a week, begin looking for opportunities to practice.
5) How much feedback do you receive? Do you have someone who will critique your talks honestly and give you feedback? If you do not have a coach or critic, find one and give them permission to be blunt and forthright. There is no sense sugar coating feedback. Feedback should include appearance. If you look like a loser, you will only talk to other losers.
6) How do you measure your success? For example, it is OK to start with small groups who do not respond to you or your message. It’s OK to fail. It’s not OK to quit doing something that is important to you.
If you persist, practice, and keep receiving feedback, your skills, groups and success should increase.
Regardless of what business you are going into, you will only be as successful as your leadership skills allow you to be. Improving them is a never-ending process. Start with these exercises and you will see results.
Your Videos Suck!
Feedback can be difficult to take.
But…
The MOST difficult thing is not on the receiving side, it is on the giving side. Try giving honest, open feedback for an entire week. Don’t hold anything back. Don’t try to be nice. Say exactly what is in your head.
I guarantee it will be the most difficult week of your life.
Now, that’s not to say receiving it is easy either. Has anyone ever given you straight, unabashed negative feedback about something you’ve done that you were proud of?
How did that feel?
How did you react?
Were you angry? Resentful? Resistant?
Don’t beat yourself up. That is perfectly normal. Only those that have trained themselves to accept feedback as just that… feedback, have the ability to look at it neutrally. As something that can help them to get better. As a way of improving themselves.
Well, I received some unabashed, negative feedback about some videos I’ve been putting out there from the person closest to me, my wife. And how did I react?
Exactly.
Anger. Resentment. Resistance. Right on queue.
However, after processing what she had done for me, I came around and was able to take the feedback as it was… feedback.
This Is Your Dream Shot – What Are You Gonna Do?
What would you do if you had four days to spend at the Magnetic Sponsoring headquarters with Mike Dillard and the rest of the crew?
What questions would you ask? What information would you want to extract from them? What would you want to see? What tidbit of information would you want to bring back to your business that you think would take it to the next level?
So? What would you do? Leave a comment and I’ll do my best to get your questions on video while I am there.
BTW, here is the latest video I just posted in my 39 day Challenge series.
See the entire series here – http://johnseiferth.com/youtube
Questions
One of the basic things rich dad taught Robert Kiyosaki was instead of saying “I can’t afford it,” ask the question “How can I afford it?”
At its core, this simple exercise allows our mind to do what its best at – work things out. The minute we say “I can’t do this,” or “I couldn’t do that,” our thought process shuts down. We stop the energy from flowing.
However, if we ask a question like, “How can I do that?” or “What would it take for me to accomplish this?”, then our mind is able to do its work and create solutions.
Simply by asking questions, we open the space so that we can move around, exploring different possibilities, searching for new solutions. Then, and only then, can new content enter the space for us to consume.
Fact: Rich People Have Coaches
I just received this email from Robert Kiyosaki:
“More than terrorism, more than natural disasters, the biggest fear most people have is outliving their money. Our natural reaction to any fear is to fight, flee or freeze. Financial fear often leads to paralysis – where you ignore your money problems and hope they will somehow go away.
Don’t let fear cost you money.
Every day I am seeing increasing turbulence in the markets. “Playing it safe” by trusting others with your financial future is probably the riskiest thing you can do. People who used to dream of getting rich are now just hoping not to lose their home. Without financial education, you’re at the mercy of the market.
If you don’t have a plan to achieve financial security, what’s stopping you? If you’re not sure what to do or how to do it, then get a coach. Rich dad was my coach. He helped me face my own fears. He helped me learn. He helped me discover the answers that work for me. He challenged me and held me to my goals. He was tough on me. But I’m rich today because of him.”
Here is the thing…
I have never met anyone that STUDIES HARDER, works more at DEVELOPING HIMSELF, and believes in HAVING A PERSONAL COACH, than Robert. I am sure you are thinking to yourself, “What does Robert need with a coach? He is the guru, the man, the expert.”
Well, the reason Robert IS the man is because he has always had coaches. He has always surrounded himself with people that are better, stronger, faster and smarter than he is. That is what makes him rich.
For me, it is a difficult thing to admit that I need a coach. I often fight with myself over the fact that I should know this stuff, I should know what to do, I should know how to proceed. That is often where I am wrong.
We all lie to ourselves. We all tell ourselves that we are better than we are. That is where we need to take a step back and say, “No. I am not the best there is. I am not the end-all-be-all of business and investing.” I need help.
Even Mike Dillard talks about this in the latest issue of Magnetic Sponsoring Inner Circle. He calls it “YDKWYDK Syndrome.” Can you guess what that means?
You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know Syndrome
He and his partners at Magnetic actively SEEK OUT and engage coaches to help them get to the next level. Their goal is to take Magnetic and BetterNetworker.com to $50 million in sales in 2011. Holy crap! That is a context I can’t quite get my head around… yet.
The point is that the most successful people in the world have coaches. Period. The question is are you willing to do what the rich do and seek one out for yourself?
