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How to Think Big? 7
How to
Think Like a Leader Achieving high-level success requires the support and
the cooperation of others. And gaining this support and cooperation of others
requires leadership ability. Four
leadership rules or principles that can cause others to do things for us in the
executive suite, in business, in social clubs, in the home, anywhere we find
people: 1. Trade minds with the people you want to influence. Is a magic way to get others – friends,
associates, customers, and employees – to act the way you want them to act. To
get others to do what you want them to do, you must see things through their
eyes. When you trade minds, the secret of how to influence other people
effectively shows up (ex. one political candidate for a national office
apparently fully as qualified as his opponent lost by a tremendous margin for
one single reason. He used a vocabulary that only a small percentage of voters
could understand.) Keep this question
in mind: “What would I think of this if I exchanged places with the other
persons?” Thinking of the interests of the people we want to influence is an
excellent thought rule in every situation. Put the
trading minds principle to work for you:
2. Think: What is the human way to handle this? People use different approaches to
leadership situations. One approach is to assume the
position of a dictator. – Makes all decision without consulting those affected.
He refuses to hear his subordinates’ side of a question because down deep
perhaps, he’s afraid the subordinate might be right and this would cause him to
lose face. Dictators don’t last long. Employee may fake loyalty for a while but
unrest soon develops. Second leadership technique is the
cold, mechanical. The fellow using this approach handles everything exactly
according to the book. He doesn’t recognize hat every rule or policy or plan is
only a guide for the usual cases. This would-be leader treats human beings as
machines. Third person who rise to tremendous leadership height use a
“Being Human.” You are a human being, I
respect you, I’m here to help you in every way I can. “Whoever is under a man’s
power is under his protection, too.” Anybody can hire a man. But the test of
leadership is how one handles the dismissal. Two ways to
use the be-human approach to make you a better leader: First. Each time you face a difficult matter involving
people, ask yourself, ”What is the human way to handle this?”. Avoid sarcasm,
avoid being cynical, avoid taking people down a peg or two. Avoid putting
others in their place. Ask “what is the human way to deal with people?” It
always pays-sometimes sooner, sometime later. But it always pays Second. To let your action show you put people first. Show
interest in your subordinates off the job accomplishments, treat everyone with
dignity. Remind yourself that the primary purpose in life is to enjoy it. As a
general rule, the more interest you show in a person, the more he will produce
for you, and this what carries you forward to greater success. Practice
praising people. Rub people the right way. 3. Think Progress, Believe in Progress, Push
for Progress. Promotion in all fields go to individual who believe
in-and push for progress. Develop a forward look. Two special
things you can do to develop your progressive outlook.
Believe in-and push for progress, and you’ll be a
leader. Remember this: When you take over the leadership of a group, the
persons in that group immediately begin to adjust themselves to the standard
you set. This is most noticeable during the first few weeks. Their big concern
is to clue you in, zero you in, find out what you expect of them. They watch
every move you make. They think, How does he want it done? What does it take to
please him? What will he say if I do this or that? Once they know, they act
accordingly. Check the example you set. Use this ever-accurate as a guide:
“What kind of world would this world be, if everyone in it were just like me?
In similar fashion, ask yourself, What kind of club, community, school, church
would it be if everyone in it acted like you. Think, talk, act, live the way
you want your subordinates to think, talk, act, live - and they will. Over a
period of time, subordinates tend to become carbon copies of their chief. The
simplest way to get high-level performance is to be sure the master copy is
worth duplicating. Am I a
Progress thinker? Checklist: A. Do I think progressively toward my work? 1. Do I
appraise my work with the “how can we do it better?” attitude?
2. Do I praise my
company, the people in it, and the products it sells at every possible
opportunity? 3. Are my personal standards with reference to the
quantity and quality of my output higher now than three or six months ago? 4. Am I setting an excellent example for my
subordinates, associates and others I work with?
B. Do I think progressively toward my family? 1. Is my family happier today than it was three or six
months ago? 2. Am I following a plan to improve my family’s
standard of living? 3. Does my family have an ample variety of stimulating
activities outside the home? 4. Do I set an example of a progressive, a supporter of
progress for my children?
C. Do I think progressively toward myself? 1. Can I honestly say I am a more valuable person today
than three or six months ago? 2. Am I following an organized self-improvement program
to increase my value to others? 3. Do I
have a forward - looking goals for at least five years in the future? 4. Am I a booster in every organization or group to which
I belong?
D. Do I think progressively toward my community? 1. Have I done anything in the past six months that I
honestly feel has improved my community? 2. Do I boost worthwhile community projects rather than
object, criticize or complain? 3. Have I ever taken the lead in bringing about some worthwhile
improvement in my community? 4. Do I speak
well of my neighbours and fellow citizens?
4. Take time out to confer with yourself and tap your supreme thinking
power. Don’t be a Mr. I-can’t-stand-to-be-alone. Successful leaders
tap their superpower through being
alone. (When Mr. I-can’t-stand-to-be-alone is forced by circumstances to be
physically alone, he resorts to television, newspaper, radio, tel., anything
that will take over his thinking process for him.) As part of professional
development program: Closet ourselves for one hour each day, shut
themselves/ourselves off from all distractions and think constructively about
anything that come to mind. Two kind of
thinking we can use:
How to use the
Magic of thinking big in life’s most crucial situations: There is magic in thinking big but it so easy to
forget. When you hit some rough spots, there is danger that your thinking will
shrink in size. And when it does, you lose. Brief guides for staying big when
you’re tempted to use the small approach: A. When
Little People Try to Drive Your Down, Think Big.
To be sure, there are some people who want you to lose, to experience
misfortune, to be reprimanded. But
these people can’t hurt you if you’ll remember three things: 1.
You win when
you refused to fight petty/unimportant people. Fighting little people reduces
you to their size. Stay big. 2.
Expect to be
sniped/shorten at. It’s proof you’re growing. 3.
Remind
yourself that snipers are psychologically/mentally sick. Be big. Feel sorry for
them. Think big enough to be immune to the attacks of petty people. B. When That “I-Haven’t-Got-What-It-Takes”
Feeling Creeps Up on You, Think Big. Remember: If you think you are weak, you are. If you
think you’re inadequate, you are. If you think you’re second class, you are.
Whip/trash that natural tendency to sell yourself short with these tools: 1. Look
important. It helps you think important. How you look on the outside has a lot
to do with how you fill on the inside. 2.
Concentrate on your assets, Build a sell-yourself-to-yourself commercial
and use it. Learn to supercharge yourself. Know your positive self. 3. Put other
people in proper perspective. The other person is just another human being, so
why be afraid of him? Think big enough to see how good you really are!
C. When an Argument or Quarrel
Seems Inevitable/foreseeable. Think Big. Successfully resist the temptation to argue and
quarrel by: 1. Asking
yourself, “Honestly now, is this thing really important enough to argue about?” 2.
Reminding yourself, you never gain anything from an argument but you
always lose something. Think big enough to see that quarrels, arguments,
feuds, and fusses will never help you get where you want to go.
D. When You Feel Defeated,
Think Big. It is not
possible to achieve large success without hardships and
setbacks/disappointment/loss/misfortune/defeat. But it is possible to live the
rest of your life without defeat. Big thinkers react to setbacks this way: 1. Regard the setback as a lesson. Learn from it,
research it, use it to propel/drive/push you forward, salvage something from every setback. 2. Blend
persistence/determination/perseverance with experimentation/trialling. Back off
and start a fresh with a new approach. Think big enough to see that defeat is a
state/condition of mind nothing more. E. When Romance
Starts to Slip, Think Big. Negative, petty, “She’s (He)-unfair-to-me-so-I’ll-get-even” type of
thinking slaughters romance, destroys the affection that can be yours. Do this
when things aren’t going right in the love department: 1. Concentrate on the biggest qualities in the
person you want to love you. Put little things where they belong. – in second
place. 2. Do something special for your mate and do it
often. Think big enough to find the secret to marital joys. F.
When You Feel Your Progress on the Job is Slowing Down. Think Big. No matter what you do and regardless of
your occupation, higher status, higher pay comes from one thing: Increasing the
quality and quantity of your output. Do this: 1.
Think, “I can do better”, the best is not unattainable. There is room for doing
everything better. Nothing in this world is being done as well as it could be.
And when you think, “I can do better” ways to do better will appear, thinking,
“I can do better” switches on your creative power. Think big enough to see that
if you put service first, money takes care of itself. In the words of Publilius Syrus: “A wise man will be
master of his mind, A fool will be its slave.” |
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