Lately I have been listening to an outstanding program leadership expert John Maxwell created on How Successful People Think. I have read the book once, but the first time I read something I only mildly retain it. While I listen to John teach and his CEO Mark Cole challenge me with application ideas, it has been even more valuable than reading the book.
As I’ve been working through this, a few areas came to mind that are important for leaders to focus their thinking. These are not the only areas. John mentions eleven areas, but here are three you may want to consider reflecting on in your leadership either at work or home.
Hopeful Thinking
“Hope is about goals, willpower, and pathways. A person with high hope has goals, the motivation to pursue them, and the determination to overcome obstacles and find pathways to achieve them.”
Casey Gwinn Hope Rising
Reading this quote recently shifted my thinking on hope. This is something deeper and more action oriented than just thinking positively. As leaders we must see the positive in every situation, but what those we lead really need is hope.
These three ideas: goals, motivation, and drive are present in what Jim Collins called a Level Five leader in his book Good to Great. I think of the inspiring football coach whose team is down by a touchdown with a minute left and he calls his team to the sideline. He is positive, has a path to pursue, and the determination to overcome the obstacles in front of him. He inspires his team with the plan and the hope it will be accomplished.
As leaders at both work and home we must have hope and be dealers in hope to those we lead.
Purposeful Thinking
To inspire hope we must have it personally. How do we get hope? Purposeful thinking.
John calls this “big-picture thinking” in How Successful People Think. I will refrain from diving into the many great principles he shares. What I will suggest is that as purposeful leaders we need to know why it matters.
Many people have two questions constantly on their mind. 
The selfish question: “what’s in it for me?”
The purpose question: “why?”
As leaders who want to give hope, we must answer both of these questions. We have been asking these two questions since we were young. One more directly than the other. Answering “why” helps people understand the reason behind what they are doing. The second question can be the more difficult question to answer.
I worked with athletes for years and could tell them why they needed to lift weights and how it would benefit them, but the second question was more difficult. I needed to understand what was important to them and help them see how the “why” tuned into the “wiifm” question. If they could see how getting stronger and faster would help them get more playing time along with helping the team, then they have hope in suffering through the workouts. Maybe they even eventually enjoyed the experience.
Strategic Thinking
John provides a great process of how to think strategically in the How Successful People Think program so I will not cover that here. Allow me a moment to suggest why this is so important.
In his classic book Think and Grow Rich Napolean Hill shares multiple secrets on becoming “rich.” One is having an organized plan. Depending on the stage of your leadership, your organization, or size of your team this plan may vary in complexity. A strategic plan does not have to be fifty pages thick. Quite honestly that may be too confusing to implement and remove hope from your team.
You have the purpose which reinforces hope so how do you move forward? That is the one question strategic thinking answers. As the leader you are strategically thinking when answering the question “how can we . . .?”
Remember the football coach? If he gives the team hope but forgets to tell them the next play, then everything is pointless. Strategy is informed by your goals and purpose and at first may be the next step such as make fifty sales calls over the next number of days.
The strategy will grow in complexity but remember not to get attached to the plan. As we all have learned in the past twelve months, the plan WILL have to be adjusted so take the next best step to keep hope alive and move toward the purpose.
Which of these areas of thinking do you need to work on? Comment below and let me know. If you want to take a deep dive into the same program I have been working through go here and you can invest in it yourself. If you want a thinking partner to help expand your leadership thinking, contact me for a thirty-minute thinking partner session at no cost to you. Lead Well.
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