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Last week I published a very vital article on the essence of humanity: depression and happiness. Everyone should read it, regardless of the position and role they play on a daily basis. Everyone wants to be at least a little happy, everyone can be depressed. You need to know how to protect yourself from it.
Today my attention is also directed to internal topics, but which have a bearing on business. There is a certain business and life rule:
If you want to be successful in business, you must have a hard butt and a strong back.
A hard butt to withstand when you fall after failure and a strong back for support.
Inner Leadership
There is also another rule that is related to the so-called Inner Leadershipem, i.e. with inner leadership. This is a concept that the motto of our Institute has been referring to for 10 years: The effects come from you.
You are as professionally effective as you are mentally strong, confident, focused and courageous. It all starts in the head. It all depends on your characteristics, how you react emotionally (whether you are afraid or feel calm, aggressive or brave) and how you think, what is going on in your head during key conversations.
In business, the winner is the one who has a crazy and complex ego, pushing him over the dead to the goal and climbing to the top, or the one who has a tamed ego and is able to compete wisely, cooperate wisely, compare wisely, wisely care for others and to know wisely what he wants without looking at others.
This is what Strategic Psychology deals with – such strengthening of oneself, one’s character, taming the ego, so that it translates into strategic, business and financial results.
That is why I invite you to learn about 9 challenges which, according to my work and experience, since 2006 I have considered the most common problems faced by top management.
For each challenge, I discover 3 sources of each problem. If you don’t take care of them, it will become harder and harder in the coming years of change, competition and business development.
You can read about them, listen to the material in the form of a podcast or watch on YouTube. I invite you to discover the foundations of Leadership Mindset, which is an approach and way of thinking that creates real leaders or destroys them.
1. No patience
You lose your nerves too quickly, we get upset too easily.
What are the top 3 causes of this problem?
- We think we know better, we don’t allow other people’s opinion.
Sometimes we are even right, but we are so strongly convinced of our superiority that we look at others in advance. It causes a lack of patience with the “crap”. Everything other than our opinion becomes a shit then. We believe that the thoughts, conclusions, and problems of others are less important. Our thought: “You bother me with unimportant things.” Others: “He’s taking us lightly. Maybe it’s crap to him, but not me! ” - We forget that we used to need time to learn and draw conclusions.
It took us a month and we expect others to understand it in one day. It took us a year and we expect others to know it in a month. Our thought: “Well, we talked about this at our last meeting a month ago and you don’t understand it yet?” Others: “He mentioned something a month ago, but how do we know it all so soon ?!” - We are under stress, tense and take it out on others, or we just throw our frustrations onto others.
We do it either on employees or on the family after work. Our thought: “They’re all irritating me. One more stupid e-mail or comment…. ” Others: “Better not to write to him today, not to call him, not to talk to him.”
2. Strategic dilemmas and business concerns
It is a situation in which the leader does not know exactly what decisions to make, which is the most important. He seems to know what the priority is, but he is not sure. Cannot see clearly the goals and plans of his business.
What are the top 3 causes of this problem?
- We lack a vision – 1-2-3-4-5 years old.
We do not know what it may be. Too many variables, too much uncertainty, too many different data and opinions. There is also a lack of courage to define the vision and thus to communicate it. People are waiting and we are silent. We then throw up “scraps” of information, which causes people’s uncertainty and rumors. Our thought: “I don’t know which direction to go, so I won’t confuse people’s heads.” Others: “He would have shared something. We don’t know anything, and what he says is of even greater concern. ” - We do not analyze the market or we do it wrongly.
Either too cursory or chaotic. We cannot make logical inferences or trust our intuition. Our thought: “Data is pointless, I don’t know, maybe yes, maybe yes.” Others: Person A: “You know you have to go left.” Person B: “You know you have to go right.” Person C: “But the data clearly says it’s up.” - We have an idea, we have a vision, but lacks financial security and resources.
That is why we focus on current projects and sales. Our thought: “If there are no resources, we do what we can.” Others: “If he only wanted to creatively discuss the projects, we would find other ways of financing or come up with other ideas instead of constantly hanging around.”
3. A sense of chaos
Rush and fires keep you constantly in the whirlwind of work, which on the one hand is driving, adds adrenaline, which is addictive, but at the same time leads to exhaustion.
What are the top 3 causes of this problem?
- No strategy to implement the vision or lack of clarity of this strategy.
It often happens that as leaders, management, owners, we have a vision and strategy, but too weak and rarely we communicate it to people. Our thought: “Everything is clear. Two months ago it was communicated. Everyone knows what to do. ” Others: “What is the priority? What is really the main goal, the project? ” You know, but you don’t really know. - Lack of proper notation of information.
A bizarre, even banal cause of chaos is often incorrect quotation, incorrectly kept strategic notes. Something is noted, something is not. There is something on the computer, something on the cell phone, something on the calendar, and something else written down by another director. Our thought: “I have control over everything, but sometimes things get lost, I have to make a note of it.” Others: “Findings are still elusive. Nobody is taking notes, and even when they take notes, it is not known where. We keep coming back to the same thing. ” - Bad meetings.
We meet, talk, analyze, but do not spend time perfecting the way we conduct meetings. It wastes time for meaningless discussions.
4. Uncertainty if it is getting well
We know what to do, but there are doubts as to whether we are going in the right direction. There may be a vision, strategy, order, but every few days there are fears that break the rhythm of activities. It’s like sand in your shoes. You can go, act, and even run, but it keeps hurting and rubbing, and you get corns. In a short time, nothing will happen, but at some point it all accumulates and builds up.
What are the top 3 causes of this problem?
- No partner to talk to.
Uncertainty often comes from not “venting” our thoughts. In Change Value Process, I have one important rule: name things by spade and they will change in the blink of an eye. This means that if we don’t share our fears, they don’t disappear and they bud. - Lack of knowledge.
Sometimes we are so insecure because we lack knowledge, but we do not admit it to ourselves. Or we realize we have competency gaps, but don’t do anything about it. - Lack of trust in people.
There are times when we feel confident ourselves, but the lack of confidence in people’s competences or their ability to prove results kills us. We don’t know if we should control, support or do it for them. We are in limbo.
5. Weaker performance or fear that they will be worse in the coming quarters
Poor results can come from many factors, and sometimes we have no idea why. Is it the market? Is such a moment? Season? Or maybe mistakes?
What are the top 3 causes of this problem?
- No strategic analysis.
By not seeing the bigger picture, we only see selected, narrow elements of reality. Then we always worry too much about the current situation, and thus we do not have a plan and vision for changes. - Lack of confidence.
Weaker performance is natural moments in business. If we allow this to affect our confidence, then the problem will only get worse. If we make our confidence dependent on the results, then our emotions will always be like a flag in the wind. - Inability to fight.
We often lead to worse results by taking too soft an approach to the market, to competitors or employees. We care too much about relationships and we press too little. We show even greater weakness when we are unable to fight in moments of poor results. We are withdrawing instead of mobilizing.
6. The feeling of being left behind
When we feel the breath of competition on our backs and we always have the impression that they are a step ahead of us and our company – in terms of results, but also development, knowledge, technology and changes. Tetricting means sticking to the past, the patterns that worked. We are not looking ahead, we are not ahead of the future.
What are the top 3 causes of this problem?
- Not following the trends.
We don’t look at what is happening on the market and we don’t introduce adequate changes. - Not ahead of trends.
We are not putting our creativity to the fore to look further, step out of the box and allow ourselves to innovate. - Lack of development culture in the company.
It’s hard for changes, innovations, if we don’t have the habit of continuous development, learning, exchange of knowledge.
7. No time for important and most important things
So constant fires and constant chaos, mess, no idea where to start and what to do first, all at once.
What are the top 3 causes of this problem?
- No clear strategy,
especially no time to update priorities. - Lack of agility in the company,
that is, the lack of the managers’ ability to be more flexible and efficient in introducing changes. - Lack of confidence in the decision.
There are times when the leader has to decide what to focus on. When we want to please everyone, everyone loses.
8. Pressure in the head, throat, heart, stomach caused by stress and rush
Most call it stress and get used to it.
What are the top 3 causes of this problem?
- Not taking care of yourself.
Business and work are more important than your own health and well-being. Some even think rest is for the… losers and the weak. - Lack of mental training and mindfulness.
If we work intensively, we must be able to control our thoughts and clarity of thinking. - Lack of a partner to talk to.
Again, the question of not talking and not structuring your thoughts bows down again. If we do not have a partner or an external adviser or coach, we keep everything inside.
9. Lack of power, feeling frustrated that others are not listening to us with enough attention, respect
What are the top 3 causes of this problem?
- Lack of awareness of how authority is built.
There were times when the position was the source of authority. It still applies, but it is more and more often who we are, how we say, what we present ourselves. If we do not know how to communicate, respect is either to be managed from a position of strength or not at all. - Inability to talk.
Inability to mediate and business diplomacy. Many people cannot talk about difficult topics in a balanced, efficient and effective manner. - Lack of courage.
Business is like a sport. It is for the brave. There are times when life or business take away our confidence and thus our courage. Fears suppress our clout. The lack of sense and will prevent us from having this spark in our eye.
Summary
This is how we got to the end. 9 problems of leaders and a total of 27 causes. Some aspects are explicit and understandable. Most people will not admit to many of them because they do not want to show weakness. Sometimes they don’t even realize what’s blocking them, which causes them to be ineffective or not getting as much as they could. It all starts in our heads.
That is why I invite to discover the foundations of Leadership Mindset, which is an approach and way of thinking that creates or destroys real leaders.
