Weekly Guest Article: 4 Leadership Strategies Of Great CEOS>>>Gary Vaynerchuk

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As a CEO of a large organization that has grown quickly (from zero to $200 million+), I have a lot of POVs on leadership strategies that lead to strong internal culture and business results.

Here are a few concepts that I don’t see too many others talking about:

1. Look Out For The “Iceberg”

I stood in front of my entire company last September and rolled out a new vision for how we’re going to service clients, and 98% of them thought I was out of my mind. They didn’t believe in what I was saying at all.

Some of them thought I was like the “crazy founder” who has wild ideas on marketing opportunities that can’t actually be implemented in reality.

But I wasn’t upset about it. The truth is, if you have full, 100% buy-in from your employees, you’re in a dangerous spot.

There should be some sort of friction between a CEO or founder who sees everything that’s ahead and the people who are in the trenches. They both have different mindsets, experiences, and factors to take into account in their day-to-day.

The best analogy I can give is looking out for an iceberg.

As the captain of the ship, I’m at the top watching for icebergs and letting everyone know what we should do to avoid them. But if my employees are downstairs, they’re not seeing the same thing I see and they might disagree.

Leaders need to understand what’s happening next. Employees execute on the current and overvalue the past.

That’s something that should be expected. If you’re a leader, it’s your job to communicate.

2. Understand You’re a Parent, Not a Babysitter

This is a huge difference between great CEOs and ones that aren’t. Great CEOs understand that they’re a parent, bad CEOs think they’re babysitters.

For example, I let people in my company do their thing. I don’t micromanage. I’m just watching and supporting as time goes on.

With my management style, my biggest vulnerability is creating entitlement. In other words, my ability to create top-line revenue and fix problems can sometimes give leaders within my company a false sense that they’re the ones executing and getting results within their departments.

As a “parent”, I always think a lot about giving people room to try, fail, and learn – but at the same time, helping them be capable of executing at high levels on their own so that they can still win without me.

Great CEOs sometimes seek out difficult situations and make decisions that the organization isn’t ready for. They might even make decisions that they themselves aren’t ready for.

If you’re a leader, it’s your job to make those moves that you know are right for the company in the macro, even if it causes some tension with executives or team members in the micro.

3. Make Your Employees Feel Safe

This is the number one thing I try to do as a leader. I try to make people feel safe around me.

Safety helps create speed in business for a couple of reasons:

First, when people aren’t spending time thinking about how to navigate a situation, they’re spending time executing. When they’re executing, the entire machine moves faster and produces higher output.

Second, people are able to get to the punchline much faster than they otherwise would which helps me save time.

For example, there are a lot of meetings I sit in that I know are just “disguises” for an ask or a sale on the back end. When I feel that’s the case, I immediately try to make the other person feel comfortable asking me for what they want right away.

I don’t need people to spend 45 minutes on a “set up” for a sale – I need them to be honest about the expectations they have of me.

It’s on me to create a safe environment where they feel comfortable sharing their intentions up front.

4. Understand That You Work For Your Employees, They Don’t Work For You

This one is hard for a lot of leaders to understand.

Most new managers think that becoming a manager is the “graduation.” Truth is, it’s the reverse.

Leaders work for their employees.

That means you have to understand what your employees want at a deep level. You have to be constantly adapting to their needs and what they want from the organization.

For example, one of my employees might want higher pay when he’s 24. But maybe he falls in love at 28 and decides he wants to spend more time with his family. Another might be more interested in a fancy title. Another might want to get access to me and build a relationship.

Another might want to go to one of our international offices and work there.

There are a million different variables, and it’s on you as a leader to adjust to reality as it changes.

When you go from being someone who “executes” to someone who’s managing a team, you go from trading on IQ to trading on EQ. You go from doing the actual work to listening to employees, catering to what they want, taking the blame, and being the bigger person.

The best managers are actually the best mentors.

Reprinted by permission.

6 Habits To Make Motivation Flow Effortlessly–Guest Contributor, Jari Roomer

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Learning how to motivate yourself is one of the most powerful skills you can learn in life. Motivation is definitely not something random (even though it sometimes feels like it is). There’s a psychology behind why you feel motivated or unmotivated.

In today’s self-development landscape it’s very popular to glorify self-discipline and to disregard motivation. I completely disagree with this notion.

Learning exactly how motivation works makes it much easier to stop procrastinating, overcome the inner resistance and work hard on your goals instead. Furthermore, it makes your work and life much more fun as you don’t have to force and discipline yourself 24/7 to do the right things (which, let’s be honest, isn’t a fun way to go through life).

I’ve tried both approaches in my life and work. I tried just disciplining myself to do the work even when I didn’t ‘feel like it’ and I tried getting myself in a peak state of mind before the start of the day. I can say with 100% confidence that I prefer the latter.

Why not look into the methods to make you ‘feel like it’? When there are habits and tactics available that can spark motivation within a matter of minutes, it would be a waste not to make use of them. Why rely only on your willpower when that’s proven by research to be a finite resource that weakens throughout the day?

Yes, you’ll need to perform these habits on a daily basis as motivation is just a temporary wave of emotions. But that doesn’t really matter when these habits only take a few minutes each day.

“People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing — that’s why we recommend it daily.”

— Zig Ziglar

Nowadays, I’m more motivated than ever before — and my results are better than ever. It’s not that I wake up and immediately feel motivated. Rather, it’s that I exercise certain quick habits that spark the motivation necessary to work hard on my goals, without the need to force myself.

I clearly notice that when I don’t perform these habits, my motivation levels drop heavily. That’s why Zig Ziglar’s quote is so true — we need to spark motivation every single day.

Habit 1: Visualization

Visualizing about your goals and how your future could look like is a highly effective way to motivate yourself to work hard today in order to make your vision a reality.

In the past, however, I had trouble adopting visualization as a habit in my life because I always thought it was a bit vague and pseudoscience-ish.

However, visualization can be extremely powerful as it can prime your RAS(your lens through which you view the world) and disarm limiting belief systems. Furthermore, as your goals are at the forefront of your mind during your visualization, you’ll be consistently focused on them.

Personally, I use the 3-phase visualization technique, which takes only about 3 minutes to complete. In the first phase of the visualization you think about how your life would like 3–5 years from now. Clearly visualize what you’ve achieved, what you are doing, where you’re at and who you are with. In the second phase of the visualization you think about how the coming 12 months will look and the last phase of visualization you think about what you need to do today in order to make significant progress on your long-term visions.

During today’s visualization practice I envisioned how my business, Personal Growth Lab, would have many highly engaged followers that would join me on a Peak Performance retreat in Bali. I clearly envisioned the exercises we would do there (such as defining your values, setting your goals, getting clear on your priorities, learning about state change hacks and productivity techniques)and how fun and exciting this retreat would become.

This immediately fueled me with motivation to work hard (and smart) today so that I can grow the PGL following and make this retreat come true.

Habit 2: Reviewing Your Goals

Another highly effective peak performance habit is to review your goals every single day, preferably as part of your morning- and nighttime routine. By reviewing your goals and your reasons why you want to achieve your goals, you put them at the forefront of your mind. This doesn’t just spark the motivation to work hard, but it also helps you to stay focused on your goals and spark new ideas on how to achieve them.

The main reasons why people don’t achieve their goals is because (1) they set too many goals and are therefore spread too thin with their time, energy and focus, and (2) they ‘forget’ about their goals because they fail to remind themselves every single day about what they want to achieve.

Habit 3: Cold Showers

Taking a cold shower has become one of my go-to tools for getting out of a lousy state of mind and into a peak state of mind in an instant. It quickly helps to me to go from unmotivated and low on energy to highly motivated and peak energy levels.

From this improved state of mind it’s much easier to stop procrastinating and work hard on your goals instead. In fact, there hasn’t been a single time where I didn’t feel energized and motivated to go out and crush it after taking a cold shower.

I have to admit, at first, taking cold showers sucks. Your body is actually going into a stress response as the cold water hits your skin, but the key is to stay calm, control your breath, breathe deeply and silence your mind. After 10–15 seconds you’ll start to notice that you can actually handle it and that it’s not as bad as you first thought it would be.

Try to stay for at least 30 seconds under the cold water and notice how awake, energized and on fire you feel when you leave the shower. This instant boost of energy feels amazing, and it’s totally worth the initial struggle.

Habit 4: Reading

Reading the work of the greatest minds in the world is incredibly motivating. By reading business or self-development books, you feed your mind with empowering messages and learn new valuable lessons that you can implement in your own life.

Through reading, you continuously focus your mind on growth instead of mindless distractions, and you spark new ideas that get you motivated to take action.

“Reading is essential for those who seek to rise above the ordinary.”

— Jim Rohn

If you make it a strong habit to read every single day, you’ll fuel your mind with new ideas and motivating messages. Personally, I read for about 15 minutes as part of my morning routine. This helps me to start the day with an engaged and highly motivated mind.

Habit 5: Affirmations

Affirmations are essentially messages that you want to remind yourself of on a daily basis. This could be in the form of post-it notes hanging around your house or by having a single piece of paper with all of your affirmations on them.

Your affirmations can include any message that you find empowering and motivating. Whether it’s inspiring quotes or life-lessons you’ve learned yourself, it doesn’t really matter. As long as it gets you motivated.

Personally, affirmations such as ‘you are strong, you are powerful, you are great, etc.’ don’t really work for me. There’s nothing wrong with it though, and maybe they work great for you. My personal preference is to affirm important questions and principles that will help me improve my performance during the day.

For example, part of my affirmations is the question ‘What’s the one thing I can do such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?’ This helps me to focus on my most important task every single day.

Another part of my affirmations is ‘Focus on the highest value activities. Focus on just a few key things. Continuously do a 80/20 analysis and eliminate or outsource everything else’.

But I also have reminders like ‘Fear is a compass for action, direct action.’ and‘Act and behave like the person you want to be. How would they act?’

Affirming these messages or questions to myself on a daily basis helps me to focus my mind on doing the things that are necessary to accomplish my goals, and it feeds me empowering messages that spark that motivation within to work with much less resistance than I used to.

Habit 6: Continuously Optimize Your Environment

We are truly a product of our environment. Most people view themselves as separate from their environment, but this is impossible.

In fact, your environment continuously influences how you feel, think and act. It influences anything from how motivated you are to how productive you can be.

Your environment, such as the people you surround yourself with (friends, colleagues, family and your significant other) and your direct environment (your home and your office) can either support your goals or hinder your goals.

For example, your environment could make you lose motivation because people in your surroundings distract you from your work. Another common example is that friends and loved ones try to talk you out of chasing your goals or subtly shame you for improving yourself. Maybe they even (subconsciously) try to pull you back towards destructive habits while you are trying to build up empowering habits.

“You are the average of the five people you associate with most, so do not underestimate the effects of your pessimistic, unambitious, or disorganized friends. If someone isn’t making you stronger, they’re making you weaker.”

— Tim Ferriss

That’s why you should continuously analyse whether you have the right people around you. Ask yourself important questions such as:

  • Which people support and inspire me?
  • Which ones hold me back or talk me down?
  • Which ones make me feel better and which ones make me feel worse?
  • From which people do I learn a lot?
  • From which people do I get energy and which people drain energy?

These are all questions you should ask yourself regularly. If you come to the conclusion that the people in your environment are actually limiting your success, make it your mission to surround yourself with new people who accelerate your success. Make it your mission to find your ‘tribe members’.Talking with and being around these people is one of the surest ways to spark the motivation within, as you engage in more stimulating and inspiring conversations more often.

Another example of an environment that limits your motivation and success is when your physical environment is filled with distractions and lacks success-reminders.

Especially as a work-from-home entrepreneur (like myself) or freelancer, you should be careful when it comes to your work environment. When you try to work with focus and intensity while your environment is filled with distractions (such as your Playstation, Netflix, bad foods and even your smartphone), you’ll find it hard to stay motivated. All of these distractions pull for your attention non-stop as your brain finds them more stimulating and novel than your work, pushing you towards procrastinating.

Instead, make sure you work in a distraction-free environment to keep your focus and energy on your important work at hand.

Furthermore, if you want to continuously get that spark of motivation throughout the day, make sure you fill your office or home environment with success-reminders such as inspirational books, empowering affirmations and pictures of your goals.

By creating a supporting environment, you make motivation ‘effortless’ as your environment essentially does the work for you.

Personally, I found that upgrading my environment was one of the most powerful decisions I’ve ever made to upgrade my mindset, motivation and productivity levels.Through upgrading my physical environment and surrounding myself with inspiring people, I built a ‘system’ that sparks motivation and new ideas round the clock. I encourage you to do the same!

Now Do It

Learning how to motivate yourself is one of the most powerful skills you can develop. It makes it a lot easier to stop procrastinating, decrease inner resistance and work hard instead.

Furthermore, you don’t need to force yourself every single time to do the work. Instead, it’ll flow with less effort and with more joy. In my opinion, that’s a much more fun way to live your life.

Therefore, as an action point for this article, I recommend you try out at least 3 of the previously mentioned habits. Experiment with them and see which ones work the best for you!

 

See More Jari Roomer>>>http://thepersonalgrowthlab.com/author/getgoinvesting/

How to Be an Irresistible Conversationalist and Make People Laugh More—-Guest Article by Anthony Moore

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“The key to being a good conversationalist is probably a genuine unselfish interest in others. That, and practice.” -Frank Crane

In the Academy Award-winning picture The King’s Speech, there’s a scene where speech therapist Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush) asks King George IV (Colin Firth), a chronic stammerer, “Do you know any jokes?”

The king hesitates. “Eh…ehm…” he stammers. “T-timing isn’t my strong suit,” he laughs darkly.

A lot of people have a difficult time with conversations with strangers, even acquaintances. I know I do. As Cal Fussman once penned: “We all know the feeling of wanting to do something so well and so badly that we try too hard and can’t do it at all.”

20 years since speech therapy lessons in 3rd grade for my stuttering and stammering, I still find myself talking too fast. I mumble. I make jokes no one can hear, then laugh awkwardly to cover it up. People rarely laughed during conversations with me — they were busy trying to understand what I was even saying.

For a long time, I decided it’d be best if I said as little as possible when meeting strangers (plus, that way I could increase my “mysterious” factor).

But I’ve worked hard to become a better conversationalist. I find I can make people laugh easier than before. I might still stutter (still working on that) and I still have trouble pronouncing “remember” and “statistic.” But for the most part, I feel comfortable and calm in conversations.

Here’s what I’ve learned after 20 years of bungling conversations and still making people laugh.

Before, I Was Bored. Now, I Give All My Attention.

In the past, I’d gauge my interest in a person within seconds of meeting them. If I found them boring, uninteresting, or weird, I’d mentally decide, “This conversation will go nowhere. How can I get out of this?”

The truth is, people are hyper-sensitive to this rudeness. You can’t fake interest in a conversation without the other person knowing. You can always be polite and discuss topics more for the other’s benefit.

But if you want to be a great conversationalist, you can’t be rude. People know.

Instead of trying to extricate myself out of a conversation, I approach every conversation with intent and attention. I face my feet toward them (it’s a dead giveaway when your feet or facing away, you look like you’re ready to run). I look them in the eyes, and I give genuine eye contact and interest.

Frankly, I still get bored during some conversations. That’s bound to happen. But it’s no excuse to be rude. Entrepreneur Tim Ferriss put it this way: “Treat everyone like they can put you on the front page of the New York Times.”Someday, you just might run into that person.

I used to think there was always a more interesting person to talk to, so I would always be looking for an out, worried I’d miss it. Now, I don’t focus on what else is out there or let any feelings of FOMO dictate how I feel. As James Altucher once wrote: “I am where the party’s at.”

“People Pleasing is a Form of Assholery”

If your primary method of conversing involves flattery and pandering, you’re on track to be a bad conversationalist.

This was another crutch I used. In efforts to connect and bond, I’d just compliment the other person in every possible way, hoping they’d like me. But it was disingenuous. Looking back, most people noticed immediately, and I rarely made any real connections.

People don’t want empty praise or generic kudos, they respond to a real connection and honest conversation. As Emmy-nominated comedian Whitney Cummings once said of people-pleasing:

“You’re not pleasing anybody. You’re just making them resentful because you’re being disingenuous, and you’re also not giving them the dignity of their own experience. It’s patronizing.”

You’ve probably been guilty of over-flattering; we’ve all been there with our boss, our in-laws, a cute stranger. One time, I met Steve Forbes at a cocktail party and I was the most kiss-ass suck-up you’d ever seen. I doubt he remembered me despite my endless praise of him.

If you want to be a great conversationalist and create genuine laughs and connection: don’t flatter. Don’t pander. Be honest and frank.

There’s only one you, and that’s what will make people interested and attentive.

My One Strategy to Leave a Bad Conversation

Sometimes, you just need to leave the conversation — the person is rude, oblivious, maybe just incredibly chatty. These conversations are hard to leave once you get sucked in.

I learned the following strategy in counseling, of all places. I was in a group setting where we were all allowed a 2-minute slot to share, though many went over their time despite hearing the timer. As the timer went off for me, the lead counselor interrupted, “and on that note…” signaling to me that time was up. I was surprised and caught off-guard. But it worked.

I’ve used that strategy for myself, too. The other day, I was chatting with a new acquaintance who was very excited about penny stocks and the trading in the stock market. Despite my obvious stepping away, turning to leave, and other cues demonstrating I wanted to leave, he excitedly kept talking my ear off about selling short and studying market research.

“Great! And on that note, I gotta head to dinner!” I interrupted with a big smile. He apologized and said goodbye. He wasn’t trying to be rude; he was just oblivious.

This is true for most people who talk a lot — they rarely intend to be rude or selfish, they just get caught up in their own world. That’s another important lesson I learned: most talkative folks respond well to a polite interruption saying you need to go somewhere else.

Don’t patronize a chatty talker (and resent them for not shutting up) — communicate your need to leave, and they’ll usually respond well.

How to Activate Extreme Self-Confidence and Destroy Chronic Anxiety and Fear

“All confidence is acquired, developed. No one is born with confidence. Those people you know who radiate confidence, who have conquered worry, have acquired their confidence, every bit of it.” -Dr. David Schwartz, The Magic of Thinking Big

A lot of people struggle with self-confidence and self-belief. When you lack these traits, you express that lack in other ways, like needing others to “choose” and like you. This is a foundation for mediocre conversation, all the time.

It was for me. Growing up, I had virtually no self-confidence (especially not in my speaking ability). I had this constant need to be liked and chosen, and it came off as desperate and awkward. I was so busy trying to get you to like me, I was never myself.

If you can relate, I had good news for you: all confidence is developed.

No one is simply born with enormous, unshakeable confidence. You can develop and build your self-confidence over time, which will become apparent in conversations and your ability to make people laugh and smile. But it’s a rare trait. If you decide to become one of the few who develops this, your conversational skills will improve immensely.

Some easy strategies to start with:

  • Start acting and speaking like successful speakers
  • Act even while you feel fear (do it anyway)
  • Seek problems out and prove to yourself that you’re capable
  • Start looking people in the eye whenever you speak with them (an uncomfortable but incredibly effective practice)
  • Open the front of your body. Hunched shoulders and a closed solar plexus inhibit confidence. Take deep belly-breaths, widen your shoulders, and raise your chin in conversation)

There’s no end to developing your confidence. Remember, the best speakers, the most clever conversationalists, and most confident individuals learned those skills over time. You can, too.

2019 Private Markets Due Diligence Survey – Findings Report

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Insights into the key factors influencing one of the most critical junctures between investors and fund managers—Released May 2019 by eVestment

 

Due diligence remains the foundation for investors looking to build quality portfolio and generate above market returns. It is arguably the point at which investors have greatest influence on the outcome of their commitments and an area we have observed an increased focus on in recent years. Consequently, due diligence is one of the most important junctures between investors and fund managers and a crucial part in forming and building successful, long-term relationships for both parties. This is why eVestment Private Markets conducts the only annual
industry survey specifically focused on the key elements of the due diligence process from the investor, consultant and fund manager
perspectives. This year, we’re pleased to present you with the fourth edition of our report in association with Nasdaq, the parent company of eVestment. With a renewed set of questions and topics explored for 2019, the survey continues to uncover the emerging factors impacting
fundraising, performance analytics and manager selection.

Key Findings

Returns expected to decline, but respondents see some specific opportunities. Respondents’ greatest concerns for the future
of private markets were identified as having a generally negative impact on returns, with more than 40% of investors expecting a decline in
performance for both existing and prospective investments.

When investigated by sub-asset class, the weight of opinion was against private equity, venture capital and real estate. Real assets and infrastructure were strategies that investors were most bullish on. Competition for deals is the number one concern for both investors and fund managers. Investor and manager respondents both voiced their highest level of concern about competition for deals, with investors indicating a stronger level of concern. This topic was only rated the fourth highest concern in our 2018 survey, but climbed to top this year’s survey — potentially as investors and managers begin to realize the effect of record fundraising levels flooding the market with available capital and an ever-growing list of fund managers chasing the same assets.

Close to two-thirds of investors and fund managers expect a market correction within the next two years. The prospect of a market correction was a top three concern for both investors and fund managers, and the majority of both groups reported it would be within the next two years. While investors indicated this would lead to an increased focus on monitoring their portfolio, fund managers saw the biggest impact on the timing of exits. Fund managers underestimate the importance of metrics and analytics during due diligence. In terms of specific elements of the due diligence process, it was clear that fund managers underestimate the importance investors place on key pieces of analysis such as loss ratios,

PME and the impact of fees. A new element uncovered this year was the growing importance of calculating horizon-based returns — perhaps
in an effort to better assess private market performance alongside other asset classes as allocations grow in size and the strategy evolves
from alternative to mainstream.

See full report:  https://www.evestment.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/eVestment-Private-Markets-Due-Diligence-Survey-2019.pdf

Hedge Funds Confront Continued Outflows Despite Improving Performance

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In a classic case of situational irony, Hedge Funds notched their fourth consecutive quarter of outflows in Q1 of this year with $22.1B in assets leaving the space, despite a level of performance that more than offset the net outflows, and resulted in industry growth of 3.3%. The industry now stands at AUM of $3.56T. This according to our friends at industry leading data provider Preqin.
To investors fleeing an ever improving industry, we liken this to fleeing a water balloon fight only to fall in and drown in your neighbor’s pool.
In short, the hedge fund industry has been posting the best numbers YTD since 2012. Whether it be Managed Futures, Macro, Quants, Event Driven, Equity or any derivative form of these strategies, you would have been green this year after fees. So we continue to find it baffling as to why raising capital remains such a challenge in the industry, as clearly to there is a great story to tell and sell.
Highlights from the Peqin Report:
  • In the face of net outflows, 37% of credit strategies recorded inflows, accounting for
    $6.6B of the quarter’s inflows.
  •  Both credit & macro strategies had positive capital flow for the quarter
  • Equity strategies suffered the most with outflows of $9.9B. This in spite of +7.18% return for the quarter.
  • Oustide the US funds recorded postive inflows wiht Europe weighing in at +$2.7B and the rest of the world at +$8.1B.
  • Long term performance remains the key indicator of a fund’s ability to attract new capital Over the last 3 years 44% of funds with returns 5% or better experienced postitve inflows as opposed to only 17% of funds with less than 5% returns.
  • The industry as whole had a +3.3% change in AUM since Dec of 2018, with the each strategy showing net increases of:
    • CTA’s 0.1%
    • Credit 4.9%
    • Equity 6.5%
    • Event 2.3%
    • Macro 2.6%
    • Multi Strat 1.7%
    • Niche 0.9%Relative Value 1.7%

 

SOURCE Preqin  https://docs.preqin.com/reports/Preqin-Q1-2019-Hedge-Fund-Asset-Flows.pdf

 

Goldman Buys United Capital in Move That Validates the RIA Biz

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Once considered an upstart business model in the wealth management space, the RIA industry can now openly tout the ultimate of ultimate endorsements. With the sale of United Capital to the creme de la creme of wealth managers, Goldman Sachs, the RIA model is now front in center as an integral cog in the wheel of any firm that is building out a full fledged, end to end wealth management biz.
Goldman is paying $750m in cash for United, which has $25B AUM, $230M in revenue and about 100 offices. United also owns the FinLife CX digital platform and financial planning software tool.
“The primary reason Goldman did the deal was to grow and expand its reach” in the mass-affluent market, says Duran, who will personally reap at least $75 million in the deal for his stake in the company, which he says is between 11% and 19%.
Duran will become a Goldman MD, while remaining the CEO of United. He will report to Tucker York, the long time, and highly regarded head of Goldman’s wealth biz.
Will be interesting to watch the integration.

Sales Lessons 101 From a Homeless Guy…. Guest Article by Daniel Bourke

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Why?

Because I’m nice?

Because I’m tired?

Because I’m travelling alone and felt like a little conversational companionship?

A combination of the above maybe but they’re not the real reason.

It’s because he put the hard sell on me.

$8.50 is nothing in the grand scheme of things. I’m sitting in a flash restaurant writing this, the kind where people wear their nice shirts and say things like, ‘I’ve been so busy lately!’, then spend 6-hours sipping $15 drinks.

I’ve been here for 3-hours (4-hours now) ordering food to chew up time. I do not fit in. I’m wearing shorts and sneakers and have my bag of crap with me. My bill will be 5–6x what I gave the homeless guy.

The front of the restaurant was a little dirty and dark. It didn’t look open so I hesitated to walk in. That’s when he struck.

‘Excuse me sir, how are you doing today?’

I was already facing him.

‘I’m doing great thank you, how are you?’

‘You look it! And let me ask, did your parents raise you well?’ He spoke through his toothless front gums.

‘They did, I’m very lucky.’

‘I can tell because you stopped to say hello to someone below you.’

‘No one is below me.’

His skin was darker than mine.

‘And I can tell you’re not a racist because you’re talking to me.’

This I didn’t care about. I talk to anyone the same. But the first two lines are what you should pay attention to.

Within 15-seconds of meeting me, he complimented me, twice. Once directly and once indirectly.

Directly by saying I looked great and indirectly by asking if my parents raised me well. They did.

‘Sir, my name is Thomas James.’ (Changed name)

‘I’m Daniel.’

‘Nice to meet you, Daniel,’ he said ‘now I’m looking for someone like you to help me.’

I kept listening.

‘Are you hungry, Daniel?’

‘I am.’

‘Well me too, and I’m looking to fill my tummy with some hot wings down the street.’

I half thought about saying let’s go and get them together. But I didn’t. He kept going.

‘I can get me a serving for $8.50, would you be able to help me out with that?’

‘$8.50 hey?’

Notice the very specific amount.

‘Yes sir, I’m going to get me some wings, fill my belly and go over under the bridge to sleep,’ he was smiling, ‘oh man, I can’t wait!’

‘Where are the wings?’

‘Down there on the corner.’

I walked closer to the street to get a better look.

‘Where you from, Daniel?’

Making the conversation about me.

‘Australia.’

‘Australia, how you liking Cleveland?’

‘I just got here today.’

‘Well I been here close to 49-years, it’s my birthday soon,’ he was enthusiastic, ‘I’ve got holes in my shoes but I’m hoping to get myself some warm socks soon.’

Letting me know a little bit more of his story.

‘Okay, let me see what cash I have.’

I had $8 in my pocket, a five and three ones. I’d been carrying it around for the past few days. I’m a card operator. Cash is rare in my world. I pulled it out and handed it to him.

‘Daniel, you’re the best. This is incredible. I’m nearly going to have a full tummy tonight, all I need to do is find $0.50 more.’

$0.50 sounds like not much more on top of $8 but it’s 6.25%.

I knew I had $0.50 in coins somewhere. I fumbled through my wallet and handed him the extra two quarters.

‘Oh wait, I think the chicken was $9.50.’

The only slip up he made.

‘No, no, you said $8.50, have a good night.’

‘Bless you Daniel.’

Who knows where he’s going to spend the money. Food, cigarettes, new socks. I hope he gets the wings but I don’t care, it’s his now.

What can we learn from Thomas James?

A) Make it about the other person

When he started the conversation he made it about me.

‘Were you raised well?’

‘Are you hungry, Daniel?’

As it turns out, I was raised well. And I was hungry. Walking into the restaurant probably gave it away.

He appealed to my interests first, not his own.

If you want to get someone on your side, make the conversation about them.

How does this help sales? It helps because you’re far more likely to buy something from someone you like than someone you don’t.

Thomas got me on his side.

B) Be specific

You’ve seen the signs homeless people hold before.

With writings like ‘any loose change?’, and there’s a cup out front.

People don’t understand vague ranges very well.

‘Any loose change’ is vague.

It’s the same problem as when you go to an ice-cream store and can’t choose a flavour. You’d think so many options would be a good thing. But too many choices and you end up with none.

Thomas James didn’t ask for any loose change. He asked for a very specific amount. $8.50 for chicken wings.

This means instead of having to think through all the different amounts of money I possibly had on me, all I had to do was think about $8.50.

This is what Apple does very well. When Steve Jobs returned in 1997, his first mission was to reduce the number of product lines from 21 to 2. Less but better. You know what happened next.

If you want someone to help someone make a decision (like buying something from you), reduce their number of options.

C) The little bit extra

I could’ve handed him the $8 and left it. Close enough.

Then he hit me with the upsell.

‘Now I only need $0.50 more to fill my tummy.’

If he didn’t say this, I would’ve walked off.

An extra 6.25% doesn’t sound like much. And it isn’t on individual transactions. But over the long run it adds up.

A $100,000 investment with a compounding interest rate of 6.25% turns into $183,000 after 10-years.

The upsell philosophy happens a lot at car dealerships. When you’re buying a $20,000 car, dropping $1,000 more on some extras doesn’t sound too bad for you but it’s great for the car dealership. Why? Because they make 10% profit on the car but 80% on the extras.

Homeless people have to be good salespeople. They have to sell for survival. Or drugs. Have you ever seen an addict go without a hit? It’s not a good time.

I could be over analysing this. Maybe I needed a reason to justify giving $8.50 to Mr James. Maybe I’m too easy. I gave Ink Stain $5 in San Francisco he was writing his first book and wanted to get it published, I said he should try Medium.

But I like to think Thomas is warm under a bridge with a stomach full of wings. And after reading this you’re a little better at sales.

After Thomas walked off, I walked inside, sat down and ordered myself a plate of wings. They were $12.

I didn’t book accommodation tonight. I’m catching a train across the country at 2 am. Maybe I’ll be the one under a bridge with a stomach full of wings.

Or maybe I’ll use Thomas’s tricks to convince the bar to let me stay until they close. We’ll see.

It’s Not What You Know, It’s How You Think >>> Guest Article by Zat Rana

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Late historians Will and Ariel Durant spent four decades of their lives studying, compiling, and writing the history of Western civilization. The product of their efforts, The Complete Story of Civilization, went on to span several million words across more than 8,800 pages divided into 11 books.

After finishing the last one, they took on an arguably more daunting task: to summarize all they had learned into 100 pages in The Lessons of History. It’s an incomplete and generalizing attempt, no doubt, but it is also one of the most densely packed sources of modern wisdom available to us.

How we think affects everything from our ability to solve problems to how we understand meaning, value, and purpose.
There are many trends and patterns to be found in the past, and the Durants do a commendable job of highlighting them. The essence of their view, however, can be summarized by the following sentence from their short book:

The only real revolution is in the enlightenment of the mind and the improvement of character, the only real emancipation is individual, and the only real revolutionists are philosophers and saints.
The Durants believed that despite all that has and continues to change in our external environment, the real battle is still internal. Real change doesn’t happen until we face our minds and our thoughts.

There is a fair degree of nuance that needs to be accounted for with a statement like that, and it ties into larger questions of what progress is and how subjects relate to objects, but the fact that our thoughts — and their ability to change our minds — play a pivotal role in our experience of reality is self-evident in ways that are common sense. How we think affects everything from our ability to solve problems to how we understand meaning, value, and purpose. The Durants made it their life’s work to improve this ability in the average person by disseminating information — mostly history and philosophy.

But information alone doesn’t make our thinking better. We also have to understand and update the way our minds process this information.

Our Minds Get Stuck in Habit Loops
Based on popular psychology literature, some thinkers have codified the way we form habits into a simple loop: a trigger, a routine, and a reward. We see something in our environment that sets off the trigger; the trigger leads to a routine we’ve internalized based on our past interactions in such an environment; finally, a reward at the end reinforces said routine.

If you observe this in your daily life, you’ll see that it’s roughly right. Our brain is a pattern-seeking survival machine, and habits are how it ensures that we don’t have to think too hard about what to do when familiar situations arise, letting us conserve energy.

With time, we start to recognize patterns around us, and we internalize these patterns so that we can reuse them in the future.
When it comes to the human mind, there are still no concrete theories of how thought emerges. We know, however, that thought plays a pivotal role in facilitating how we interact with the information that the Durants, for example, were trying to impart on us.

In the same way that we form habits of action relating to our environment, we also form habits of thought when it comes to how we think about the world. We are all born into a reality in which — at first, at least — we can’t even distinguish between our own separateness from the world. With time, however, we start to recognize patterns around us, and we internalize these patterns — like we do habits — so that we can reuse them in the future. Usually, if a pattern persists in our mental habits, it means that it is valuable in some sense. But this is only the case if we apply that pattern to the right information.

One of the reasons it’s so hard to change our minds about things is that our brains are stuck in these mental habit loops, which tend to look at information from a singular point of view. Our brains have learned something in one context, so they mistakenly apply it to others, mixing up the triggers that lead to routine thoughts.

We’re all capable of overpowering these habit loops, of course, but it’s very easy and productive to have them operating as the default mode. To think well, we must be aware of their limitations and to not let them restrict us.

Diversifying Thinking Patterns Changes Us
Each of us faces different challenges at different times in different ways based both on our biology and our unique cultural upbringing. No two people think exactly the same way because no two people have lived exactly the same life.

In fact, these different thinking patterns (mostly produced from our mental habit loops) are, in large part, what makes you, you and me, me. Our identities are borne from the convergence of these patterns. They create our subjective experience.

The more diverse our trained thinking patterns are, the more accurately we will be able to interact with information around us.
The Durants are getting at the idea that although we’ve seen so much external change throughout history, none of it truly makes a difference unless we calibrate our internal, subjective experience with that objective, external environment. Our subjective experience is limited, and using it — and the thinking patterns that create it — as a baseline for understanding the world is a limited way to go through life. It biases us in the wrong direction.

At its core, a thinking pattern is an implicit rule of thumb for the way we connect aspects of our reality. Given the complexity of this reality, the more diverse our trained thinking patterns are — and the better refined the associated triggers are — the more accurately we will be able to interact with information around us.

Because thinking patterns emerge from the mental habit loops we form as a response to experience, the only way to diversify them is to seek out new and conflicting encounters. We can do this through books, unfamiliar environments, or even hypothetical thought games.

Outside of extreme external circumstances, any time we’re struggling to solve a problem or lacking a sense of satisfaction and meaning, it’s due to the fact that our current thinking patterns are not adequately suited for the job. Instead, we have to remodel the form and shape of these patterns so they better fit the form and shape of the issue at hand.

How We Think Is What Matters
We’re born with a set of biological machinery, but we’re not born knowing how to use it.

As time goes on, however, we begin to make sense of our reality. We realize what kinds of food are good for us, we learn to avoid things that are painful, and we begin to get attached to those who can take care of us. With even more time, we develop fully concrete distinctions between the different objects around us and how we, as subjects, are to interact with them.

What keeps this process going is our pattern-seeking brain. It forms both habits of action and habits of thought that it embeds into our conscious and subconscious memories to reduce cognitive load.

One of the problems with this, however, is that it’s really easy for us to become stuck in mental habit loops that don’t accurately assess the situation at hand, leading to both problems of comprehension and satisfaction. To counteract this, we have to be intentional in diversifying our thinking patterns. We have to learn to recognize when we’re falling into a mismatched pattern of thought, and we have to then use that information to update how we make connections between the objects in our environment.

To say that all issues can be solved with a shift in thinking patterns ignores the larger picture, but there is a truth to what the Durants learned from history — how we think about what is happening around us is arguably more important than what is actually happening around us.

SEE MORE FROM ZAT:http://designluck.com/community/

Updates From the Other Hedge Fund Conference This Past Week. Ideas From Sohn

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Although lacking the glitz and pizzazz that SALT has, the Sohn Conference is an outstanding hedge fund event and takes second place to no one. It brings in some of the best trade ideas the industry’s elite has to offer, while supporting a great cause by raising funds to support research to eradicate pediatric cancer and other childhood diseases.

Hedgie bigs there included Larry Robbins, Bihua Chen, Dan Sundheim, Jeff Gundlach, Scott Goodwin and a host of others.

Known for his insights into the turbulence of daily life, Gundlach told the Lincoln Center gathering, “Respect everyone. Know life is unfair. Take risk. Step up in the tough times. Face down bullies. Lift the downtrodden,” “And never, ever give up.”

Other hedge fund managers that spoke included David Einhorn who said he was wagering on AerCap while betting against GATX. Larry Robbins, quite literally an expert in trading health care stocks said he thought hospital systems were good investments as a whole. Cohen protegee, Gabe Plotkin said the environment for stocks was “pretty good”.

Have always felt the Sohn Conference attracted the best with the best ideas, no different this year.

33 Things Successful Leaders Have Given Up>>> Guest Article by Tim Denning

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Here’s an article you might not expect. The advice here is harsh and it will help you understand leadership and the traps that exist.

I’ve met a few leaders during my time who try so hard and then never seem to get anywhere. They scratch their heads wondering why. Let’s look at those successful leaders we all admire and what they *don’t* do. What these leaders don’t do says more than what they actually do.

Leadership is a privilege and it’s time all of us divorce the bad leaders so that the true leaders can rise up.

It’s time we vote with our lives and stop supporting these bad leaders who don’t understand one simple philosophy: everything starts with you. Leadership doesn’t exist to make you happy; it exists to make others happy and that’s the reward.

We’ve got to stop accepting mediocrity and these unsuccessful, pathetic leaders who only seek to please themselves. We don’t need to tolerate them and we should vote against them by leaving their asses behind.

You can be so much more without being subjected to poor leadership.

Here are 33 things successful leaders have given up:
1. They’ve given up worshipping hierarchy
Successful leaders don’t expect praise they give praise.

It’s not about your job title, how much experience you have or how many people you have around you who say nice things.

Hierarchy assumes you are better than someone else when the truth is you’re not. Let your inner belief guide you as a leader and give up hoping people will be impressed by your leadership title when they won’t be — we’d rather be impressed by who you are as a person.

2. They’ve given up making others live in fear
Fear doesn’t motivate people to be led by you. It causes the opposite to come true. Spreading fear is a mask for your own fear and insecurities.

It’s those things that happened to you as a kid or as an adult which you haven’t dealt with that causes you to want to make others live in fear and experience pain.

Maybe you threaten their job, or their position, or their livelihood but all that will guarantee is that they’ll do everything in their power to get away from your leadership as soon as possible.

3. They’ve given up getting the other leaders fired
Your successful leader counterparts are not walking around trying to get the other leaders fired in some Game of Throne type tournament where the last one left wins the kingdom.

Having someone fired is not impressive. That person has bills, a home to pay for and a family that cares about them.

Just because someone is not right for a leadership role, does not mean they are stupid or deserve to be fired in some kind of Mexican standoff.
Even worse is wanting to fire other leaders so you can gradually build up your own empire and have more power. This is ugly and driven by ego.

4. They’ve given up being afraid to be fired
Successful leaders know they have an expiry date and they’re not afraid to be fired. In fact, successful leaders are courageous and happy to sacrifice their leadership title for the sake of the people they lead.

Rather than worry about being fired, they concentrate on doing the best they can while being given the privilege to be called a leader.

5. They’ve given up being afraid of the old regime
Perhaps the previous leaders have moved on. Successful leaders are not concerned with eradicating an invisible virus which could be labeled as ‘the old regime.’

The people who followed the previous leadership will follow you too if you respect them, take care of their needs and lead them towards something meaningful.

6. They’ve given up a ‘revolving door policy’
Have you ever worked under a leader who has people leaving their team on a weekly basis? Do they make excuses about why every one of them is flawed and they will reign supreme?

Successful leaders don’t think like this.

When good people leave, they ask themselves “What could I have done better?”

An even better question they ask is “Could I ever be in a position to invite this person back again at some point?”

A revolving door policy is a sign that the current leader is doing a poor job.7. They’ve given up acting like a dictator
Successful leaders don’t tolerate the Wolf Of Wall Street way which is to lie, cheat, steal, sabotage and show people who’s boss.

Dictators who rule with an iron fist don’t last in positions of power long because the very people they lead end up turning against them.
Trade dictatorship for empowerment.

Build others up and let them too become a leader in something that is meaningful to them.

8. They’ve given up treating people like cr*p
More than anything, successful leaders are obsessed like a junkie to treat their people well because they understand it pays ten times the dividends in the long run.

Successful leaders treat everybody well — even the ones who don’t like their leadership.

In fact, they go even further to spend time with those who don’t like being led by them, so they can understand what they need to develop and see the side of them that is not coated in sugar.

9. They’ve given up having to recruit round the clock
A constant drive to bring on more people is healthy when your team is growing because of the collective good work.

If you’re being forced to recruit new people, to replace the ones leaving on a weekly basis, then the problem is you, not the people leaving.

People leave bad leaders — not teams, companies, sporting clubs or brands

10. They’ve given up making a bad example of someone
When someone does something wrong, they coach them in private.

Successful leaders do not subscribe to the idea that it’s worthwhile making an example of someone to show others how *not* to act.
Instead, successful leaders make examples of the role models to help inspire others.

11. They’ve given up letting their ego run the show
Ego is the enemy as Ryan Holiday would say.

You can never be a successful leader if you flash your ego and expect it to impress, inspire or motivate others to follow you. No one is following a self-obsessed fool; they’re following someone who is SELFLESS.

Your ego can be ugly and it will blind the people who follow you from seeing your true leadership potential. A leaders ego is about themselves whereas a true leaders goal is about everybody else other than themselves.

12. They’ve given up *NOT* listening
Rather than talking as if they have all the answers, successful leaders listen first. They accept that the collective wisdom is where all the best solutions are found rather than their own.

13. They’ve given up threatening people
It’s what scared, insecure, wannabe leaders do to cover up their own flaws and wear a mask of confidence.

Successful leaders don’t threaten; they inspire. They understand that threatening people only leads to mediocrity and it’s what we’d do as kids on the playground, not adults who’ve been given the privilege to lead others towards their hopes and dreams.

No one is inspired by a threat and it only creates more hostility.

14. They’ve given up talking behind peoples backs
Backstabbing is not a habit that successful leaders practice because they would rather tell people to their face in a diplomatic way, what they think.

Successful leaders are afraid to backstab because they know that eventually, it will happen to them if they do. They’re obsessed with transparency and giving feedback that is meaningful.

15. They’ve given up asking others to stroke their ego
They don’t want to be told how good they are and they don’t expect praise from their followers, or gifts, or privileges.

Ego stroking makes them uncomfortable because they know, like you and I, that they too are flawed, imperfect and have a long way to go in their development.
Ego stroking is only required when a leader is insecure and hasn’t spent the time to understand why they seek attention and praise.

16. They’ve given up telling lies
Lies like “I took the business from $9m to $700m” when the people in the room listening to that sentence worked with that leader previously and know that claim to be a lie.

Successful leaders don’t have to lie because speaking the truth has been one of their many hidden talents.
They know that lies eventually get found out and this won’t serve their goals. They prefer to tell the truth even if that means admitting they were wrong, owning up to failure or highlighting one of their flaws.

17. They’ve given up doing stuff they don’t believe in
Leading is meaningless if you don’t believe in the reason why you’re doing it. Successful leaders attach themselves to causes, people and goals they believe in even if they’re unsure whether they can succeed.

They do not chase things they don’t believe in because they know that it will be impossible to stay motivated and lead against their values, beliefs and purpose.

18. They’ve given up standing for nothing
Successful leaders stand for something. They create movements and tribes of people who are connected beyond the work itself.

They’ve given up standing for nothing and have a few key things they stand for.

Values such as:
Respect others
Lead with positivity
And the phrase “I’ll never ask you to do something I’m not prepared to do myself”

19. They’ve given up being disrespectful
Shooting your mouth off and talking down to people is disrespectful and successful leaders know that those actions will kill any thriving culture.

They prefer to be obsessed with respecting people at all costs. They understand that having people respect them starts with their own ability to respect each person first.

20. They’ve given up motivating people using their mortgage
This one’s directly related to leadership in business.

Successful leaders never threaten someone’s livelihood by attempting to bring their ability to pay their mortgage into the conversation.
There are a 101 ways you can pay your mortgage and if a leader uses this as motivation, you can be sure the person they are using it against is stockpiling their savings so they can leave you behind.

Successful leaders don’t motivate their people through money or threatening them with being able to put a roof over their head. Instead, they help you to be more successful so you can create more value and maybe pay your mortgage off quicker.

21. They’ve given up expecting people to work long hours
We’ve all heard of a leader who demands their team to work long hours. These leaders play games like sending emails at 11:30 at night to see who answers, and the speed of each person’s response.

Successful leaders believe in work-life balance and are afraid of their team burning out by working 12-hour days.
They want their people spending time with their families, traveling the world and having a healthy reason to come to work each day.

They do not want their team becoming tired and frustrated through working long hours because they understand that the work they do, and the relationships they must maintain, will be destroyed in these states.

22. They’ve given up penalizing someone for starting a family or being sick
Yes, this sort of thing happens. When someone is sick or starts a family, they need time off. Unsuccessful leaders get upset by this and want to find replacements who can show up despite being sick or their child being born.

It’s a sad fact and one that successful leaders run a million miles from. They’d prefer people to recover from illness and experience the birth of their child so that they can show up with a new sense of purpose.

23. They’ve given up *NOT* focusing on personal goals
Successful leaders tie a person’s personal goals to everything they do, so they can be consistently ticking off boxes that serve their people’s goals, and help them to develop.

Personal goals are how you inspire people to do their best work.

Letting people achieve their personal goals through the work they do only makes them more inspired to be led by you.

24. They’ve given up blocking side-hustles
Allowing someone to scratch their itch through a side hustle is something successful leaders get satisfaction from.

Maybe one of your team wants flexible hours to work on a project.

Maybe one of your team wants to leave on time so they can spend the evening working on their craft.

Maybe someone wants to leave your team altogether to let their side hustle takeover for good.

Successful leaders encourage side hustles and celebrate when someone goes from working for them, to working on their side hustle full-time. Not letting people do their side hustles will only make them find ways to work for someone else who will let them.

25. They’ve given up worrying about people starting their own business
Some of the people you lead may start their own business. These same people may even become your biggest competitors. You can’t stop this from happening.

Successful leaders know that having someone start their own business to compete against you is not the end of the world. It’s better to have people you’ve led be your competitor than entire strangers who will show you no mercy.

If you’ve coached someone to start their own business as a result of your leadership, then we salute you.

26. They’ve given up *NOT* dedicating time to their people
People need a leaders time and when a leader is impossible to reach, they’re forgetting their most powerful weapon: the people they lead.
You can’t lead someone unless you give them some of your time and help coach them, problem solve with them and give them guidance.

Leaders who are not approachable and are always too busy don’t last.

27. They’ve given up refusing to take feedback
Feedback (especially negative feedback) can be hard to swallow as a leader.

Successful leaders welcome feedback because they know that it’s the only way to grow and become an even better leader.

These same leaders encourage 360-degree feedback and get good at swallowing the sometimes harsh truth.

28. They’ve given up *NOT* empowering others to make decisions
A leader who must make all the decisions is not a real leader. Leadership is about delegating and trusting others to make decisions in your absence.

When you don’t trust people to make decisions, what you’re really saying is “I don’t trust you.”

Let your team make decisions. Start them off with small amounts of authority and then build from there. You’ll be surprised how good it feels to see your team making decisions and becoming leaders in the process.

Delegating the right to makes decisions will also give you more time to be a leader instead of being bogged down in emails and requests for approvals of $4 staplers.

29. They’ve given up outlining how people are exited
Successful leaders don’t draw pictures of how people who leave will be exited.

They don’t make you afraid to leave or force you to stay back after hours to pack your things and even delete all your social media profiles off your computer.

Successful leaders also don’t require you to leave right away once you speak your truth and make your intention to leave clear. Instead, they allow you time to finish up, transition to your next gig, and celebrate what you’ve done to date with a lunch/dinner.

Exiting a team should never be a shameful event.

30. They’ve given up assuming that someone who leaves is a traitor
People will leave your leadership and that’s normal.

Those who leave your leadership are not traitors. Take the time to understand why they are leaving and if it’s because of you and your leadership, be accountable.

Learn from your mistakes as a leader because no one starts out leading a team perfectly — not even Nelson Mandela.

31. They’ve given up clock watching
Focusing on output rather than minutes served is what successful leaders care about.

We all have lives to live and sometimes stuff happens. Trains get delayed, family members need to be taken to the doctor, children start their first day of school, teenagers graduate university and some days people wake up late.

32. They’ve given up *NOT* wanting to be replaced
Success looks like having one of their team replace them. The satisfaction of leading someone to become a leader brings them immense pleasure.

Successful leaders understand that true leaders breed more leaders.

33. They’ve given up *NOT* seeing their life from their deathbed
This one might sound strange but hear me out.

Successful leaders put their lives in perspective by thinking about what their final days will look like and what they will leave behind when they leave this world.From this perspective, all the things these successful leaders need to give up to truly lead, become crystal clear.

You can’t be a terrible leader when your heart is full of compassion, gratitude and the need to leave this world behind better than you found it through being a leader.

READ MORE INSIGHTFUL THOUGHTS FROM MR. DENNING>>> https://medium.com/@timdenning