Leaders Provide Advice On Achieving Success

Leaders Provide Advice On Achieving Success - Part 1

After working with many leaders certain beliefs, statements and convictions keep being repeated in our conversations and seminars and feedback sessions. This is the first in a series of articles providing advice from leaders we have known on achieving personal and organizational success.

Clear goals that align individual effort with organizational objectives create energy and expectation in any organization.

Hard work is absolutely necessary – nothing can replace it - the important thing is to remember to measure the effect of your work in results, not in hours spent. Some of the most effective people are those who spend the most time at work, and some of the least effective people also spend the most time at work!

Until you have worked with a truly excellent person you will not really know what that means. Once you have, you will look for truly excellent people and realize they are few and far between, so value the ones you have.

Having the right person in the right job creates excellence - more than any other factor. So create excellence with success in matching people to positions.

Avoid negative people – and if you can't because of circumstances, do not let their negativity infect you – it will rob you of time and energy and passion, and that is all you have.

Every leader puts a sense of urgency, focus and high energy in the top five attributes for winners.

Your health is the most important element of your life – take the time to take good care of it. Alcohol and/or drugs may not kill you – but they will slow you down. They will rob you of time and energy, the two main elements of what you bring to the table.

Moderation is good if you want moderate results – passion is required for truly exceptional results.

Balance is something people talk about after they have achieved their success – balance in all areas of your lives is a myth – and that's OK.

Passion can trump reason in many situations. The person who speaks with conviction and certainty will be believed. That can be a good thing – it can be a not – so – good thing.

Our Time, Our Energy and Our Talent are the three resources we all of us bring to every table.

Energy is a developable resource – physical condition, passion, a positive attitude, clear goals and success – big and little - all influence your energy.

Focus is a quality that is absolutely necessary to the completion of projects and to achieving results - it creates energy and fights against diffusion of your efforts.

Make up your mind early on that doing a few things well and completely is better than doing a lot of things average – pick out your passions and pursue them, but not too many passions at one time.

The only security any of us have is the security of our own accomplishments - and current accomplishments are more important than less current accomplishments.

Intentions are great – but results are how you are evaluated. Lots of people fail to make the distinction between the two

Don't ever confuse knowledge with results – knowledge may lead to results, but only if you act!

Never confuse buying something with getting results – remember the exercise devices cluttering innumerable closets that were bought on the basis that they were the beginning of fitness? People get rich on "How To" books that become best sellers and end up being read by only 10% of the people who bought them. The other 90% bought them because the title represented hope, and hope without action is delusion, at best.

The only thing worse than an intention that never gets past your consciousness is one that does and is expressed – with no action. People don't reward intention. In fact, they punish intention that does not lead to action and results.

Call To Action

Two Things: First, always end a meeting, a presentation, a discussion with a clearly understood call to action – What is going to be done?

Second: Share this advice with your own universe of people – see how effective the different elements can be as a tool to begin discussions on your organization's issues.

Andy Cox is President of Cox Consulting Group LLC. He founded his firm in 1995 after extensive experience in leadership positions in Fortune 500 corporations. His focus is on helping clients select, develop, retain and enhance the performance of leaders and emerging leaders. He can be reached at http://www.coxconsultgroup.com . Visit his blog at http://multiplysuccess.blogspot.com

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