High impact leadership is leadership that achieves goals with the least amount of effort. It’s the nexus of a clear vision, positive energy, and appropriate action. After working with hundreds of entrepreneurs and executives, I’ve found that the most successful professionals distill this process down to three steps. You can see it in action at the Olympics too.
1) See it.
2) Be it.
3) Do it.
It seems so simple. Just follow these three steps and you can achieve almost anything. Olympic athletes are masters at visualizing a desired performance, believing in themselves and treating themselves as champions well before an actual win, and in taking daily action to realize their vision. But the devil is in the details. Let’s consider the three steps.
1) See it. In order to be successful, you must have a clear vision of what you’d like to achieve. We all have assumptions and fear blocks that shape our perspective and influence the possibilities we see. To be a high impact leader, you must move beyond these limitations and encourage your team to embrace the big vision. If you’re unclear about the future, brainstorm options with your leadership team and others you trust. Stay open to all possibilities. To develop a vision, consider the following questions:
a. What if we could ____?
b. What would it look like?
c. What would it feel like?
d. What would our clients say once we achieved it?
e. How would it affect our lives?
2) Be it. You must empower yourself to believe and act as if your vision was true now. If you believe it, others will feel your conviction and are more likely to give you their trust. But this is where your mental game may get challenged. As world champion sprinter Usain Bolt says, “it’s all about who can hold the mental toughness.” Here are a few questions to ponder.
a. Who do I need to be to achieve the goal?
b. What do I need to believe?
c. Who does my firm need to be?
d. How do we need to show up?
e. What must shift to achieve the goal?
3) Do it. Validate the “see it” and “be it” with immediate action. Write up a plan for action and start implementation. Consider these questions:
a. What actions do I need to take to achieve the vision?
b. What is our timeline?
c. What baby step can I take today to advance this vision? What else?
d. Who else can help? No Olympic athlete works alone. They all have coaches. Find trusted experts to support your goal.
e. How will we celebrate along the way? Celebrations reward the effort and keep motivation high.
My clients have used this process to increase profits, position their teams for market dominance, and achieve their big professional goals. I’ve used this process to take a start-up from $0 to $2.1 million in one year. I also used it to create the equestrian facility of my dreams, even after the bank rejected part of our construction loan mid-way through the build. It also works for personal goals. As one of my clients says, “this stuff works!” Try it! And if you’d like some support, contact me for a 30-minute complimentary consultation. I know for sure that it’s much more fun with support. Here’s to your high impact leadership!