Think Different

Outstanding people are always different from their peers, the best compliment you can be given is when others say to you that you are different - only those who are different are going to make a difference. I am not saying be weird, but be different and stand out!

John Mason put it so well "You're born an original, don't die a copy", believe me we are so conditioned by our surroundings, that if we do not choose to be different we will be nothing but copies.

Think different, be different and stand out.

I have always been moved by the 'Think Different' Apple computer poster advert and the original version had the following words:

"Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes.
The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them.
About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They invent. They imagine. They heal. They explore. They create. They inspire. They push the human race forward.
Maybe they have to be crazy.
How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art? Or sit in silence and hear a song that’s never been written? Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels?
We make tools for these kinds of people.
While some see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do."

My recent talk at the Change Agents Network

Authentic Change (Part Seven) Social Media ... Life as we know it!

Pondering change and thinking about things that happen around us I am drawn to my statement in part six of this series ... ‘Simply if you aren't making time to think about how you can simplify your life, you are simply wasting time.’

I have to ask the question as to how we can simplify our approach to social media, I remember about a year ago getting a mastermind group together to discover everything that was new and what was happening in social media. The day in my opinion was a failure and the main reason was we were trying to answer questions to complicated questions we had conjured up.

The approach should of been simple and the question even simpler 

‘Does it work?’ and ‘How can it work for us?’

When we adopt the simple approach we can include everyone, not just the experts and this is vital in collaboration going forward ... more and more you hear of young children and other non-experts coming up with solutions to problems the experts can’t solve.

Social Media is a very limiting description, but don’t allow the description to limit your belief about what it authentically is, you see social media is actually life - it is the medium that has enabled us to connect with others and to stay in contact with them. 

Social is life as we know it! Those that are extroverted in life are extroverted in the social arena, those that are shy are also shy on social media. This is strange because contrary to popular belief that says that interacting online is not real, people still feel the need to be shy and hide from the world in a social space. 

If social media was fake or unreal then people would not hesitate to engage, but authentically they realize that it is real, contrary to popular belief and refuse or fail to engage.

In the social business arena companies have no doubt that it is real and have tried to hide for as long as possible behind the old facades of the system, no wonder we had a meltdown in the global economy - that was just the way business worked in the industrial age.

Only twenty out of the Fortune 500 CEO’s are involved in some way with social media, that is 4% and that is alarming, my question is ‘Authentically what are they trying to hide? How long do they think they can possibly get away with it? Because at the end of the day you can shutdown the likes of ‘WikiLeaks’, but what is the authentic message you are delivering by not being involved?

The time to be open and transparent is with us, it is a time where only the truth will prevail, that is simple and everyone understands the truth because it is never complex.

Don’t look for the complex, look for the simple and see a world that is new and changing daily, let go of your old paradigms and embrace change as quickly as you possibly can.

Thank you for sharing this journey of Authentic Change with me, I hope that the ideas that I have shared help to stimulate thinking and provoke discussion so that we may all live in a better world.

Authentic Change (Part Six) Simplify and then keep it simple!

My journey in life has allowed me to explore many ways of thinking, both complex and simple, but I must say I do prefer the simple ...

Einstein said "any fool can complicate things but it takes a genius to simplify things" ... I would like to simplify things even more.

True change only happens when we begin to simplify our lives.

So how do we simplify our lives?

Simply if you aren't making time to think about how you can simplify your life, you are simply wasting time.

We are often told to prioritize our lives. Unfortunately priorities do not simplify our lives. It actually just tells us that there is a lot to be done and then we start  trying to find time to do it all. Prioritizing like that just adds stress to our lives.

I am suggesting you simplify and get rid of things in your life that waste time, so that you can make more time for yourself.

Don't waste time watching television, yes that is a total waste of time. Encourage your family to do the same so that you can spend more time together. Don't listen to and read the news and avoid people who like to share the news with you - if it is really relevant you will get to hear about it regardless.

Now that you have made more time for yourself, choose to spend the newfound time reading, writing your first book or interacting with people who will actually add value to your life. 

Charlie “Tremendous” Jones said “You will be the same in 5 years as you are today except for two things, the books you read and the people you meet.” Get out and meet new people and in turn advance your personal brand.

Think before you commit to things, ask yourself will this add to the value of my life or am I simply wasting valuable time.

Authentic Change (Part Five) Recognition and the simple ‘Thank You’

Recognition is so important in this world - babies cry for it and people die for it. Saying ‘Thank You’ is what we should be doing all the time, don’t expect a thank you but know that you say thank you. 

When you let someone into the traffic flow and they forget to say thank you, don’t become offensive and start judging, rather judge yourself as the good person and say thank you to yourself for being the person who was able to allow the other person to go before you.

Recognition - we all love to be appreciated and we love to be thanked for the things we do, so practice the old adage of ‘do unto others as you would have done to you’

In the work situation as in relationships, and they are always similar, the easiest way to think is how would I treat this person if I was in a relationship with them?

We can say thank you and we can give certificates and flowers; and they are all good. However it can be perceived as just something that is nice! So when does the recognition become truly authentic?

When we state the way we feel about what the person has done and how they fit into the greater plans and vision for the company or department. Including people in this way gives them the sense of belonging that they are looking for and it allows them to become more committed.

Leaders are people with vision, true leaders trust and share that vision with the people that follow them.

Authentic Change (Part Four) Do you think of others first?

Think before you do anything and the real question is what can I do for others to lighten their load ... Authentic is real; it is true and it is uncompromising, you cannot pretend because it has one very simple rule - it is only authentic if I trust what you are doing or saying to me. 

Leadership is about being authentic. Managers and people who think they are leaders often fail because their actions are not consistent with what they have promised their followers, thus the perception of distrust is created. 

Can you fake it till you make it? Yes I believe you can as long as your intention was authentic and that you have no intention to harm anyone in your journey to make it, when you put others first by not harming them, your intentions are true to who you want to be and how you want to treat others and how you want others to treat you.

With that in mind you are actually not faking it, you have actually arrived at the place you intended to be ... everything is real for you, it may just take a little longer for others to realise that fact.

Authentic Change (Part Three) Why are we waiting for others?

As Mahatma Gandhi said “If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. … We need not wait to see what others do.”

The truth is too many people wait, it is apathy mainly due to our education system, a system that has indoctrinated us to believe that when can only do things when we have the qualification, when we have been certified or when we have been ordained ... Or even worse when we have the title and we believe all this bullshit, every single day of our lives.

What are you waiting for; decide if you are a follower or if you are a leader, and please don’t think by being a follower you have no responsibilities. As a follower you need to be loyal and your job is to ensure that your leader has people as their ultimate focus and that their vision for the people is paramount. Remember you have chosen to follow this leader and it is your duty to remind them to have vision and continue to seek the vision for the people who have chosen to follow them.

And if you are the leader, your responsibilities are obvious when you read the previous paragraph.

The system has manipulated us into thinking we cannot or are not allowed to do something until we are qualified or whatever criteria we have allowed ourselves to believe, the RuleBreakers have always ignored this and gone on to do great things ... Think of it, what if the Wright brothers had said we cannot fly because none of us have a pilots license.

Don’t wait for others to do things - do them yourself and do them differently, think how you can do them differently and collaborate with others on how things can be done differently, this will speed up change and bring about the change you wish to see in the world.

Authentic Leadership is about people, don't have the audacity to put the word leader with anything that does not have people at the core.