About “The Strangest Secret”

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This amazing message was first played for a group of salespeople at Earl Nightingale’s insurance agency. They were utterly electrified. Word of it spread like wildfire and everyone who heard it was positively ignited into action. Requests for a recording of the message came pouring in—thousands of requests per week. Within no time, more than 200,000 people had called, written, or just walked right into Earl’s office to request a copy. As years went by, that number soared above 1,000,000 and became the first Gold Record for the spoken word, which helped launch the fields of business motivation and audio publishing. Our world has significantly changed since Earl shared his principles in the 1950s, but his message is now more relevant than ever. This timeless message about motivation, mindfulness, and character development will impact your life for sure.

Today, more than 50 years later, The Strangest Secret remains one of the most powerful and influential messages ever recorded. It continues to transform the lives of everyone who hears and heeds it. Take this 30-day test, then repeat it … then repeat it again. Each time it will become more a part of you until you’ll wonder how you could have ever have lived any other way. Live this new way and the floodgates of abundance will open and pour over you more riches than you may have dreamed existed. Money? Yes, lots of it. But what’s more important, you’ll have peace … you’ll be in that wonderful minority who lead calm, cheerful, successful lives.

 

Start today. You have nothing to lose. But you have a life to win.

# About Earl Nightingale

As a child, Earl Nightingale was hungry for knowledge. From the time he was a young boy, he would frequent the Long Beach Public Library in California, searching for the answer to the question, “How can a person, starting from scratch, who has no particular advantage in the world, reach the goals that he feels are important to him, and by so doing, make a major contribution to others?” His desire to find an answer, coupled with his natural curiosity about the world and its workings spurred him to become one of the world’s foremost experts on success and what makes people successful.

Earl Nightingale’s early career began when, as a member of the Marine Corps, he volunteered to work at a local radio station as an announcer. The Marines also gave him a chance to travel, although he only got as far as Hawaii when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941. Earl managed to be one of the few survivors aboard the battleship Arizona. After five more years in the service, Earl and his wife moved first to Phoenix then Chicago to build what was to be a very fruitful career in network radio.

As the host of his own daily commentary program on WGN, Earl Nightingale arranged a deal that also gave him a commission on his own advertising sales. By 1957, he was so successful, he decided to retire at the age of 35. In the meantime, Earl had bought his own insurance company and had spent many hours motivating its sales force to greater accomplishments. When he decided to go on vacation for an extended period of time, his sales manager begged him to put his inspirational words on record. The result later became the recording entitled The Strangest Secret, the first spoken word message to win a Gold Record by selling over a million copies.

 

The New Currency for Leaders

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The New Currency for Leaders

 

Mr Rockefeller, the richest man who has ever lived in America, said: “I will pay more for the ability to deal with people than any other ability under the sun.” It means dealing and connecting with people at all levels is considered to be the highest valued skill across the globe. You won’t surprise with Mr Rockefeller’s statement provided if you realise that the growth of any organisation is not limited by its opportunities but by their leader.

There is a world of difference between managing Vs leading people. Leaders have people that follow them, while managers have people who work for them. Leading involves the action of the leader walking someone through something, actually holding their hand and moving forward with them, whereas management is all about planning and execution. The main difference between mere management and leadership is communication. Therefore if you want to lead someone, you need to be able to communicate with them effectively.

# Credibility

I am a corporate executive, leadership practitioner and evangelist. With my 20 years of corporate journey, if anyone asks me to say one word which is indispensable to a leaders success then without any hesitation, I would choose the word credibility. It is easy for someone to be a people magnet and having the charisma and attract people into their organisation. People may walk to work with you, but without credibility, people won’t stay in your organisation any longer. Let me explain how and why credibility is the new currency for leadership.

If you step into a leadership position with good communication and connecting skills, then people will listen, believe and follow you. At the beginning of your leadership relationship with people, words are very important. People take what you say at face value because they don’t know you. So whatever you say during the first few months people will take notes and follow religiously because they believe in you. The first six months communication overrides credibility.

After six months credibility overrides communication. Let me explain how. The greatest motivational principle in the world is people do what people see. Leadership and life are always visual and are more caught than taught else; it will be shallow. As you continue to stay with your people and continue to lead those people, something very interesting will happen.  The longer you are with them, the less weight your words have and the more weight your actions have. Now that they know you more, and your behaviour and they no longer take you on face value.

Do as I say, not as I do attitude won’t take you any longer in our leadership journey. You should be a worthy example so that people will say someday I would like to be just like him. People may not always remember what you said or what you did, but they will always remember how you made them feel. The first question people ask a leader is, do you care for me? People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.

To gain credibility as a leader whom people love to follow, you must have a heart for people, passion to inspire them, and willingness to empower them. The best way to find out if you can trust someone is to trust them. Let people start where they are, and trust them to succeed. Your credibility depends on your track record of making a difference in peoples lives and peoples belief in you that you will do what you will say.

Once you build the reputation and trust that you are someone who honours the given commitments and promises and worthy of peoples trust then over time, your credibility factor increases with your people and in turn, helps your company. It becomes your currency which you can exchange to expand your influence with existing teams for a higher performance and commitment levels or with new teams and eventually with your customers. According to Edward R. Murrow, “To be persuasive, we must be believable; to be believable, we must be credible; to be credible, we must be truthful.” People will always look out for leaders who will take them forward with dignity and integrity to build a better tomorrow.

# Walk the talk

More than title authority and reputation, a leader should have moral authority. Moral authority is earned by our walk but not by our talk.  As a leader, either we can talk our way, or we can walk our way. Your talk talks, and your walk talks. But your walk talks a lot more than your talk talks. Sometimes there is a need for leaders to “talk the walk”. It sounds a bit counter-intuitive, but it’s not because there are situations in your business where you need to talk the walk too. As a leader, you should be able to explain why you do what you do in a language that is unique to your field and compelling to your people and customers.

I know many leaders who can win people with their big and exciting ideas and excellent communication. But they cannot follow through and finish what they have started. Therefore they make themselves known for not completing things what they say they will do. These leaders who are competent and super smart at starting things but lacks the motivation, discipline and planning to finish them; therefore, people eventually stop believing in them. Imagine what if you are someone who meticulously follows through on your commitments and responsibilities? For sure, you will build trust and currency of credibility with your people, stakeholders and customers. In such a setting people will listen to you, act fast and never hesitate to go the extra mile. As a leader, you always attract who you are, not who you want to.

#Be a tour guide, not a travel agent

Always remember one thing you cannot give what you do not have. Therefore a credible leader is like a tour guide, not a travel agent. Travel agents send people to destinations that they have never visited. On the other hand, a tour guide is completely familiar with the area, including its culture, history, visitor timings, attractions, etc. No tour guide can lead others effectively without having been there first and studying its details thoroughly. Therefore you should depend less on your title and more on your influence with your people.

# Call To Action

The challenge is that when we lose credibility, we lose the ability to lead and influence others. John Maxwell says credibility is a leader’s currency. With it, he or she is solvent; without it, he or she is bankrupt.” When your people trust you, then they will listen to you. They will be open to being inspired by you. If you are a one time leader, people will often give you the benefit of the doubt, as long as your credentials are good. But if you’re going to lead the same people time and again, you have to work to maintain your credibility.

Leadership Principles for Entrepreneurs

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While the last few months have been unprecedented in human history, we also find ourselves at a moment of unparalleled transition. Let me explain what happened during the last few months while we are stuck with Corona.

  • Amazon took over retail without owning any stores
  • Uber took over the taxi industry without owning a single car
  • Apple and Spotify have taken over music with no stores or artists signed to their name
  • Netflix has taken over movies and TV without ever showing a single movie in a theatre
  • LinkedIn has taken over job searching and hiring

No one can predict the future, but we must be prepared for it –– don’t you agree? There’s a saying, “We don’t know what we don’t know” and that’s why Growth Cast 2020 team has gathered some of the best experts that they know to give us unique insights and strategies to prepare our businesses and lives for the future.

I had the opportunity to participate in Growth Cast 2020 and talk about Leadership Principles for Entrepreneurs.

Below are some of the topics discussed in this session:

  1. What is leadership?
  2. How can you become a leader by design?
  3. Everyone is important in the organization
  4. What are the Proven Leadership Strategies that worked well in my organization?
  5. Sometimes promotions are found to be the common cause of the workplace demotivation. How can we deal with them effectively?

The GOOD is always the enemy of the BEST

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Most people can prioritize between the good and the bad or between right and wrong. The real challenge arises when they are faced with two good choices. Which should they choose?

An excellent illustration of this can be found in a parable of a lighthouse keeper who worked on a rocky stretch of coastline before the days of electricity. Once a month, he received a supply of oil to keep the light burning. Not being far from town, he often had visitors.

One night an old woman from the village begged for some oil to keep her family warm. He had pity on her and gave her oil. Another time a father asked for some oil for his lamp so that he could search his missing son. Another needed some to lubricate a wheel to keep the machinery going so that he and his employees could keep working. Each request was good, and each time, the lighthouse keeper gave them the oil for their worthy cause.

Toward the end of the month, he noticed the supply of oil was very low. By the last night of the month, it was gone, and the beacon went out. That night in a storm, a shipwrecked on the rocks and lives were lost. When the authorities investigated, the man was very repentant. To his excuses and pleading their reply was, “You were given oil for one purpose-to keep that light burning!”.

As you become more successful and busier, you must learn to navigate the choice between two good things. You can’t always have both. How do you choose? Remember that the good must sometimes be sacrificed for the best !!

#leadership #johnmaxwell #borra #developingtheleaderwithinyou #dontcoast 

Meetings Before The Meeting

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Meeting Before The Meeting

Being able to turn an organisation around by being a positive change agent is the real test of a great leader. People feel awkward and self-conscious when asked to do something new. It could be as simple as changing staff seating arrangement or rotating staff across different teams or proposing a cross-training plan for few identified staff due to change in circumstances or business priorities.

When people hear that change is coming, the first thing they do is ask, “How is this going to affect me?” Why? Because they are worried that they will have to give up something. Here is what I learned over the years, “For everything you gain, you lose something”. So it’s unrealistic to expect not to give up anything and achieve progress. Most of the time, people undergoing a change in the organisations forget that they are not alone in the process.

As a leader, you would need to develop a process to plan what needed to be changed. Ask yourself “How do you eat an elephant? ” One bite at a time, correct. Usually, once I predetermine the change, I focus more on the process than the event. If you overestimate the event and underestimate the process, then you are setting up yourself for failure.

I don’t share the information about changes with everyone in the organisation at one time. I don’t make the communication “fair”, and I make it strategic. As a leader, before you let the masses know what’s going on, you need to meet with your key people and communicate with them. How do you know who your key people are? Ask yourself two questions. Who needs to get behind this to make it fly? Who actually has to fly this change? The answers to the above questions point me to the people who need to know about changes before everyone else does. Most of the times, the structure of your organisation will help you identify these people.

I meet first with the people whose influence is needed to make the changes fly because if they don’t buy-in, the plan is never going to work. I’ll need to work with them to earn their buy-in. Usually, these meetings happen one-on-one or in tiny groups. By telling them about the change before it’s public knowledge, I am giving them valuable information, making them feel special, and including them on the journey. It is an act of inclusion that most people appreciate.

This personal approach also allows us for open discussion, honest reactions, questions and objections. I think of these connection times as meetings before the meeting. If these go well, then I share the information with the people who care the most, that is the one who will carry out the implementation of the plan. Once everything goes well then we will announce it to larger groups throughout the organisation.

If my meetings before the meeting don’t go well, then I meet with those key individuals again and keep meeting with them until we can work through the objections and they buy into the change. The key players on the team or in the organisation must be willing participants and involved in the process for it to work.

In this article, I have shared a valuable #LeadTip, which I learned by being John Maxwell Team member. It certainly worked for me and helped me to bring a lot of changes in my organisation. Try it yourself and do let me know whether it helped you or not?