Now that the video is available on YouTube, I thought I would share it with all of you.

The post TEDx Talk: Imagining a Better World appeared first on Great North Dynamics.

Risk-takers are the ones who change the world.

It was April 9, 1917 – Easter Monday, right in the middle of the First World War. The Germans were entrenched in their position in northern France on the high ground known as Vimy Ridge. From this strategic position near the Belgian border, the Germans had successfully repelled numerous attacks by Allied forces.

Over the previous two weeks, the Germans had been bombarded by Allied artillery. They knew that the Canadians and the British were planning another full-scale assault – the planned assault had been revealed by a Canadian defector to the British – they just didn’t know when. Or how.

Unbeknownst to the Germans, in the early hours of that fateful Easter Monday morning, the combined forces of four Canadian army divisions and one British division were about to emerge from underground tunnels and launch their assault on the German position.

The plan was one of the most audacious strategies employed to date in early-20th century warfare. It involved months of training for the specific conditions of Vimy Ridge, weeks of artillery barrages, months of underground tunnelling, and all to attack an enemy that already knew an attack was coming.

From it’s very beginning, this was a risky plan. Not only were the Canadians tasked with taking over a heavily-fortified enemy position, but their own allies had tried and failed at the same mission TWICE. In order for the Canadians to pull this mission off,  not only would they have to achieve something their allies could not, but they would also have to come up with a plan just crazy enough that it might even work.

The Battle of Vimy Ridge lasted for four long, bloody, gruelling days. And by the time the sun set on April 12, 1917, the Canadians had forced the Germans from their final positions and taken Vimy Ridge.

This story is of particular importance to Canadians because this battle, the Battle of Vimy Ridge, is widely accepted as the “birth of a nation”, or Canada’s “coming-of-age”. This battle was the first time that multiple Canadian military divisions operated in a war theatre under the leadership of a Canadian commanding officer, Lieutenant General Sir Julian Byng.

I tell this story for two reasons. First, April 9, 2017, was just celebrated across Canada and by Canadians around the world, because it marks the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge – the birth of the Canadian nation. I had the honour of laying a wreath and laying my respects on behalf of the Government of Canada at my local memorial, and it was humbling to be a part of such a sombre yet significant moment. The second reason I share this story is because it illustrates perfectly the value and techniques of effective risk-takers.

In this post I want to use this story and other information to demonstrate that risk-takers can change the world, but to do so they need three things: an audacious vision, meticulous preparation, and an irrepressible flexibility.

Risk-Takers Can Change the World

World change doesn’t happen by accident.

If changing the world – through any of the private, public, non-profit, or education sectors – was easy, everyone would do it. But the fact is that there are very few people who have a lasting, world-altering legacy. And those people are risk-takers.

Think about it. If you live a comfortable life and take no risks, you will spend your life in the comfortable cushion you’ve created for yourself. And there is nothing wrong with that! If you have no desire to make a lasting impact on the world around you, then by all means, enjoy your comfortable life. But if you want to leave far-reaching legacy, you will need to take risks.

For many people, the legacy they leave is their family. I fully support this, because I think there is no greater legacy to leave behind than our relationships, especially with family. But guess what: having a family is a risk in and of itself. Having kids is a risk, because you don’t know what the outcome will be. Entering into a long-term relationship with someone is a risk, because you can’t predict the future.

Whether you want to start a family, a revolutionary business model, or a political campaign to exact social justice, you will have to take risks to accomplish your goals.

Everything worth doing will come with some level of risk. The question is where do you want to go and how much are you willing to risk to get there?

Audacious Vision

A leader is someone who can inspire a vision in their team.

In the case of the Battle of Vimy Ridge, that leader was Lieutenant-General Sir Julian Byng, and that vision was the taking of a strategic German stronghold in the face of overwhelming odds.

When you dare to dream wild enough to take a big risk, there has to be something inside of you that WANTS to succeed. That desire to succeed has to be stronger than the fear of failure. That’s where vision comes into play.

Whether you have a team of followers or not, if you want to be an effective risk-taker, you need to have an audacious vision.

Developing a vision can be a difficult task, but it is critical to success. Your overarching vision will guide your planning and help you execute each step towards success.

If you want to know more about learning how to create and share a vision, you can check out my blogpost on inspiring vision. You should also check out my workbook on developing a personal vision for your life, as there are many tools and strategies there that can help you.

Meticulous Preparation

The Battle of Vimy Ridge took four long, arduous days. But, if you have read Sun Tzu in his classic, The Art of War, then you understand that the outcome of the battle was decided long before the first shot was fired.

The Allies had spent months preparing for their assault on the German stronghold. Their strategists had been compiling all the information they had on the enemy positions, their experiences from previous (failed) attempts at taking the ridge, and the strengths and weaknesses of not only the German divisions but of their own as well.

The battle is won in the preparation.

Once the Allies came up with an attack plan, they then practiced it, over and over again. Let me remind you that this was 1917. Military maneuvers had just evolved from standing in a straight line and shooting at each other until one side surrendered to lining soldiers up in a trench and swapping canisters of mustard gas. Training for and practicing specific, strategic military maneuvers was a radical idea.

When you’re taking a risk, no innovation is too radical.

The execution of the plan was so important to the Allied soldiers that they practiced that execution as often and as thoroughly as they could. They knew that without the proper execution, all the preparation in the world would be useless.

Once you have a strategic plan in mind – and you should take the time to create a thorough plan – you need to make sure that you (or your team) has the ability to follow-through with the execution.

Once a plan is put into motion, there are so many variables that can directly affect you. There is only so much that you can predict. That is why practicing the execution is so important, because you need to know that you can execute your plan without even thinking about it. It should be second nature, a knee-jerk reaction, instinct.

If you have meticulously prepared by developing a detailed plan and practiced its execution, it doesn’t matter if there are bullets whizzing by your head or competing businesses nipping at your heels, you will be able to fight your way through, sticking to the plan the whole way.

Irrepressible Flexibility

The strategic plans for the Canadian-led assault on Vimy Ridge predicted that the German stronghold would fall largely into Canadian hands by early-afternoon on the first day. Instead, what followed was four days of some of the most horrific fighting conditions ever known to man.

The Germans provided a stronger resistance than the Canadians expected, and the trench warfare was fierce. This was World War One, remember, when chemical weapons were still widely used and soldiers advanced from trenches only to be mown down by machine guns. This was as close to hell on Earth as you could get.

The first thing that will keep you going under such circumstances is, as we discussed earlier, an audacious vision.

During the times when you are faced with your bell on earth, your vision is what will sustain your perseverance.

But vision alone is not enough to win a war. You need to be flexible.

When night fell on the first night and the Canadian plan had anticipated a victory by this point, it would be very tempting for the Allied soldiers, whose lives were miserable, to turn around and say “better luck next time.” But that is not a risk-taker’s response.

Risk-takers recognize that when things don’t go as planned, the plan has to change.

Rather than retreating when the strategy’s timeline was not met, the Canadians pressed their advantage. They continued to bring the fight to the Germans for three whole days before finally taking the ridge.

In other words, the Allied forces were flexible. Their plans had to change, but they pursued their goal against all opposition.

No matter how detailed your plans are, things will still go NOT according to plan. You need to be flexible and adapt to change. I wrote an entire blog post on adapting to change. You should probably read it.

Dynamic Lessons

I am going to end this post the same way I started it, by stating a simple truth: risk-takers are the ones who change the world. Risk-taking is a dangerous business, but it is necessary to reach long-term success.

In order to be an effective risk-taker, you must make sure you follow these three steps:

1. Create an audacious vision. Risk-taking is audacious in and of itself, and to make it work you need to be daring and create an audacious vision that will guide you through the ups and downs.
2. Carry out meticulous planning. Once you put your plan into action, real-life happens and you will face tons of differing variables. Do yourself a favour and make sure your plan is detailed enough to survive.
3. Maintain irrepressible flexibility. Things will not go your way. For all your meticulous planning, things will still happen that your plan did not account for. You need to be flexible and be able to roll with the punches.

Are you ready to be a risk-taker? I’m excited for you! Let me know in the comments section what kinds of risks you’re taking and how you’re planning for them! Or post it on social media and tag me (@kylewierks on Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter, Great North Dynamics on Facebook). I’ll make sure to comment!

This post was inspired by a TEDx Talk I gave recently (the Saturday before I wrote this, in fact). The talk I gave was about the importance of imagination and creativity in a world that prioritizes realism over imagination, and I spoke about the importance of creativity in risk-taking. It was recorded and will be posted online (I’ll keep you posted on that).

Creating Your Personal Vision

Check out You Can’t Reach What You Can’t See: Developing a Personal Vision for Your Life. This workbook will help you create a vision that will guide your career planning.

Books that influenced this article:

The Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell

Creativity, Inc. by Ed Catmull and Amy Wallace

Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination by Neal Gabler

The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow You by John C. Maxwell

The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferris

$100 Startup by Chris Guillebeau

The post Risk-Takers: What History Can Teach Us About World-Change appeared first on Great North Dynamics.

16,573 people gathered in Reunion Arena to watch the contest, and the excitement was palpable. Everyone wanted to see a show, and they were about to see the greatest show ten feet off the ground.

The lineup for the 1986 Slam Dunk Contest was an assortment of some of the best athletes in the NBA at that time. Dominique Wilkins of the Atlanta Hawks was the clear favourite to win that year. He had won the 1985 Contest and was a star of the NBA. Nicknamed “the Human Highlight Reel”, Wilkins was six feet, eight inches of sheer athleticism.

The rest of the lineup for that night included Roy Hinson, Jerome Kersey, Paul Pressey, Terence Stansbury, Terry Tyler, Spud Webb, Gerald Wilkins, and Orlando Woolridge (who was injured and could not actually participate in the contest). Here is a list of each athlete and their height:

• Roy Hinson: 6’9″
• Jerome Kersey: 6’7″
• Paul Pressey: 6’5″
• Terence Stansbury: 6’5″
• Terry Tyler: 6’7″
• Spud Webb: 5’7″
• Dominique Wilkins: 6’8″
• Gerald Wilkins: 6’6″
• Orlando Woolridge: 6’9″

When you read that list, you probably think that there is a typo. There isn’t. Spud Webb was five feet, seven inches, a full ten inches shorter than the next shortest competitor, and 13 inches shorter than his teammate, Dominique Wilkins. What in the world was he doing there?

It turns out that Spud Webb, while short (especially by NBA standards where the average player height in 1986 was 6’7″), had a huge jump. By huge, I mean his vertical leap was measured at 46 inches. To put that in perspective, the average vertical leap for a male today is 16-20 inches; anything over 28 inches is considered excellent. In NBA history, the best vertical leap recorded belongs to Wilt Chamberlain and Darrell Griffith at 48 inches. Right behind them, in a five-way tie, are Michael Jordan, Zach LaVine, Jason Richardson, James White, and Spud Webb.

So Spud Webb may be short, but he had one of the best vertical leaps in NBA history (or, if you believe the rumours that he could actually jump as high as 50 inches, he had the highest vertical leap in the NBA). This comparably short man was competing with literal giants.

The NBA Slam Dunk Contest of 1986 was comprised of three rounds: a first round, a semifinal, and a final. Since Dominique Wilkins was the clear favourite and defending champion, he was given a bye for the first round and moved directly into the semifinal. The rest of the contestants had three dunks to perform. Each dunk was worth up to 50 points, and the points were combined to give a final score. The top three scores would move up to the semifinal to join Dominique Wilkins. The semifinal would be the same: three dunks worth up to 50 points each, and the two highest totals would move on to the finals.

Before the first round, all eight competitors warmed up on the court as 16,573 spectators looked on. The spectators knew they were about to watch the proverbial David take on seven Goliaths, and they loved it. What made it even better was that their David (Spud Webb) was a local boy. That’s right: Spud Webb was born and raised in Dallas, Texas, and it was here that he would make his Slam Dunk Contest debut.

At the end of the first round, Spud Webb (who, let’s remember, is about an average of a foot shorter than his opponents), finishes with the top score and easily moves to the semifinals. Also advancing are Gerald Wilkins and Terence Stansbury. Webb’s teammate, Dominique Wilkins, who didn’t dunk in the first round, is waiting for them.

The second round gets interesting. On his first dunk of the round, Webb scores a perfect 50, the first perfect score of the night. His next two dunks are still spectacular, but not perfect, and Webb ends up tying his teammate, Dominique Wilkins, for the top spot with 138 points apiece. Both Atlanta Hawks players advance to the final round.

By now the crowd is going crazy. Their unlikely hometown hero just made it to the final round of the NBA Slam Dunk Contest, and not only is he the shortest player in the NBA at the time (Muggsy Bogues at 5’3″ would be drafted in 1987 to become the shortest NBA player of all-time), but he is also a rookie. The crowd loves him. America loves him.

The final round of the Slam Dunk Contest allows contestants two dunks instead of three, and the points are combined for a total score out of 100. Spud Webb goes first. The crowd chants his name over and over. And he gets his second 50 point dunk of the night.

Dominique Wilkins goes next. The reigning champ shows why he is the best and scores a perfect 50 of his own, tying the two up with one dunk left to go. Then Webb turns into a monster and scores his second straight 50. The crowd can barely contain themselves, and the announcers are shocked. Finally, Wilkins comes up for his final dunk. If he scores a 50, he sends the contest into a sudden death “dunk-off”. He performs his dunk and the crowd waits with bated breath. The score comes up on the screen: 48. Spud Webb has won.

Spud Webb remains the shortest person to have won the dunk contest (and the shortest person to compete in the contest), and he did it in his rookie year. Three years later (after two wins by Michael Jordan in a row), in 1989, Webb returned to the Slam Dunk Contest for the first time, where he finished third. That was the last time he competed in the Slam Dunk Contest. But that doesn’t really matter. Because for one day, Spud Webb didn’t just live like a giant, he became a giant.

Dynamic Lessons

While Spud Webb may have literally lived like a giant, the lessons we can learn from him are far more important than basketball.

1. The only person who has to believe in you is you. Nobody who was watching the 1986 NBA Slam Dunk Contest actually expected Spud Webb to beat Dominique Wilkins. Even Wilkins, who was Webb’s teammate, had never seen Webb dunk. But that didn’t matter, because Webb knew what he could do.
2. You don’t have to be a giant to live like one. In this world, you will be faced with plenty of reasons why you can’t be a giant. You might not have the connections, the resources, the capital, the opportunity, or the time to become a giant in your industry. So don’t try to be a giant. You can’t change who you are. But you can change who you become. Take that leap and live like a giant. Fake it. By the time anyone notices you don’t belong, you’ll already be making a name for yourself.

Has there been a time when you lived like a giant and it paid off for you? What about when it didn’t? Take some time and tell us a story in the comments!

Books that influenced this article:

The Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell

The post Case Study: Spud Webb and Living Like a Giant appeared first on Great North Dynamics.

In leadership, the value of inspiring vision cannot be overstated. Time and time again I will mention the importance of inspiring vision because it is crucial that leaders, teams, and organizations be purposeful in maintaining a solid vision. However, it is common that a team can lose or outgrow its vision. Sometimes a vision needs to be re-envisioned, re-purposed, or reinvented.

The process of re-imagining your vision is so important that I have dedicated this post to three steps on how to inspire your vision back into your team (or inspiring your vision for the first time).

1. Stop everything

It is vitally important that you fix this, and that might mean stopping everything. In his book Creativity, Inc., Edwin Catmull describes a vitally important measure that Pixar had to take: they closed their campus for an entire day and paid their staff to attend a workshop that would design their corporate vision for the future. In order to get Pixar’s staff on the same vision, they stopped everything and made that vision their number one priority.

Starbucks did something similar in 2008. Business Insider has a great article about how Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz turned the company around. One of the ways he did that was by closing every Starbucks store in order to retrain their staff. The purpose was to rediscover Starbucks’ vision for perfection. According to this article, this cost Starbucks over $6 million, but it was worth it to perfect the vision that would make Starbucks excellent. This is a good example of how vision and excellence go hand-in-hand.

If your team has lost its vision, it is imperative that you, as a leader, make regaining that vision a number one priority. Stop everything and make vision your focus.

2. Dare to dream

If you were a Canadian hockey fan in the late 1990s and early 2000s, you probably remember the Kokanee beer commercials featuring the Sasquatch (if you haven’t seen these, I highly recommend them). One such commercial is firmly imprinted in my memory. For those who don’t know, these commercials feature a forest ranger and his assistant, Arnold, who protect the Kokanee Glacier from the Sasquatch. In this commercial, the ranger hires three beautiful women to help protect the glacier from the Sasquatch. Arnold turns to the ranger and says, “But I thought the Sasquatch wasn’t real.” The ranger’s classic response was simple: “Dare to dream, Arnold. Dare to dream.”

When it comes to your vision, you have to dare to dream. The grander the vision, the greater the accomplishment. There are a few ways to produce such a vision.

1. Corporate vision. The case of Edwin Catmull and the Pixar vision seminar is a classic example of this tactic. The Pixar organization engaged their entire staff, from their accountants to their executive, to produce a corporate vision that included participation from their entire staff.
2. Team vision. I worked with an organization that saw a marked decrease in enthusiasm and ownership in their team (I’ve written a separate article on ownership). It was decided that the problem was in the communication of the vision to the team; they forgot why they did what they did. This particular organization decided to create a team vision that would reinvigorate the team. To do so they took a select number of trusted team members — in their case six — and together we created a vision for the rest of the team to follow.
3. Personal vision. If you are an entrepreneur, chances are that you have a vision that you want to realize. This is not a vision that you have created with others; it is yours. It is perfectly acceptable to use your personal vision as the head of a team.

Regardless of whether your vision is the result of corporate consultations, a small team brainstorm, or your own brain child, the creation of your vision is only the first step (steps on creating this vision will be discussed in a later post). Now you have to communicate that vision.

3. Insane communication

A vision is only a picture in your head if nobody else can see it.

That means that once you have your vision established, you have to sell it, and not to your customers. Before anything else, you have to sell your vision to your team.

If you are an executive, that would mean selling it to your executive team. At you’re at a lower level of leadership, that could mean selling it to your own team, or even to your peers. If you want someone else to carry that vision, they need to  be sold on it. I have a couple tips for the initial sale of your vision.

1. Keep it simple. If you over-complicate your vision, you will kill it before it has a chance to take root. There will be plenty of time to go over the intricacies and the individual steps to success later. But to inspire vision, keep it simple.
2. Focus on the why, not the how. Another way to put it is focus on the result, not the process. Again, you will have many opportunities to lay out your fifty-step plan to achieving your vision, but people don’t buy into a vision because they love the idea of the process; they own a vision because they desire the end result.
3. Make it personal. People are, deep down, selfish creatures, and the question burning in the back of our minds is, “What’s in it for me?” We will all deny that, of course, and sometimes we aren’t even aware that we’re thinking it, but there is a selfish lens that we all use. So make it personal. Tell your team exactly what the realization of your vision will produce for them, personally. Will stakeholders get a financial return? Will staff be able to be a part of a revolutionary industry that changes the way the world works? Can the volunteers at your non-profit be able to change lives? The more people you are selling your vision to the harder it is to make it personal, but at the end of the day, you want your team to have a personal stake in the realization of your vision.
4. Be realistic. Don’t try to sell anyone a unicorn. Your vision is going to take a lot of hard work to realize. It will probably call for a lot of sacrifice, both in time and money. Be realistic with your team. Let them know that it will be tough. Give them a taste of what is to come. If you sow your vision in reality, your team won’t be surprised when things get tough a month down the road. There won’t be a mob at your door complaining that it’s too hard. They need to know exactly what they’re getting themselves into. And they need to know that it is all going to be worth it.

Speaking of realistic, it is not an easy thing to sell your vision. But it is necessary, and it will be worth it when your team buys into it.

Communication does not end when the vision is sold. You will need to be in constant communication with your team to ensure that your vision does not die. Remind your team regularly about why you’re doing what you’re doing. That vision will empower everyone.

Dynamic lessons

Are you, your team, or your organization struggling with maintaining or developing a vision? The good news is that you’re not alone; thousands, if not millions, of individuals and organizations are going through the same thing. The better news is that there is a solution.

I gave you three simple steps to reinspiring vision in your team and organization:

1. Stop everything. Vision is vital to your organization’s survival and success. Take the time to get it right.
2. Dare to dream. This is the time for big dreams and aggressive goals. If you want the comfortable route, get out of leadership.
3. Insane communication. Once you’ve developed your vision, you have to communicate it. It’s not easy, but it’s necessary.

If you want more help in developing vision for you or your team, there are resources available for that. I have published a workbook dedicated to helping you develop a personal vision for yourself. To inspire vision in others, first you must inspire vision in yourself.

Have you ever struggled with developing or maintaining a vision? How did you make it work? I’d love to hear from you! Leave a comment below.

Creating Your Personal Vision

Check out You Can’t Reach What You Can’t See: Developing a Personal Vision for Your Life. This workbook will help you create a vision that will guide your career planning.

Books that influenced this article:

Creativity, Inc. by Ed Catmull and Amy Wallace

Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow You by John C. Maxwell

The post Three Steps to Inspiring Vision in Your Team appeared first on Great North Dynamics.

Regardless of where you are in your career, or even in life, you still want to stand out as an everyday leader. There are many ways that you can stand out from the crowd, but I wanted to give you five ways that you can change your habits (or reinforce existing habits) in order to stand out from the rest of the crowd as a leader.

1. Take responsibility

If you are a human being, at some point you are going to do something wrong. Chances are that you’re going to make a major mistake within the first month of starting a new job. If you’re anything like me, you’ll make a major mistake before you even start your new job.

I was starting a new job as a political assistant when I was invited to attend a meeting of the Board of Directors of the organization. Since I was going to be working closely with the Board, President of the Board wanted to introduce me to the rest of the directors and executive before I even began working there.

So, one Tuesday night I was spending time with my family when I got a phone call from the President of the Board asking me where I was. It took me a moment to realize that I had missed the meeting.

My first instinct was to think up an excuse so they wouldn’t think I forgot. I could tell them that something came up or that I thought it was a different day or even that I was feeling sick and had tried calling but couldn’t get through. But then common-sense kicked in and I told her the truth. I forgot.

True, I didn’t say it quite like that. I believe my words were more like, “I am so sorry, I completely forgot about that. This is my fault and I take complete responsibility. It will not happen again.” My soon-to-be boss was surprisingly forgiving and went back to the Board and actually stood up for me, telling them that I had taken responsibility and she thought I was worth taking a shot with. I ended up keeping my job and made a lasting connection with some very influential people on that Board.

Excuses are common. If you want to stand out as an entry-level employee, or any level of employee for that matter, stop making excuses. Excuses are for the weak. It takes a leader to take responsibility, and at the end of the day that’s really what your employer is looking for in their staff: leaders willing to take responsibility for their actions.

2. Work harder, not smarter

You’ve probably heard the phrase “work smarter, not harder.” It even makes sense sometimes. After all, if you come up with an innovative way to save time, money, and effort, people will take notice. But at the end of the day, your work ethic will set you apart from the rest.

When you enter the job market, you have to remember that you are not the smartest person in your labour pool. There are people you are working with, or competing with for a job, who have read more books than you, gotten a better education than you, and have more life experience than you. You will not outsmart these people, but you can outwork them.

Let me make one thing very clear: you need to think smart. I am not advocating that you check your brain at the door. You have life experience, education, and general knowledge that are unique to you; this knowledge is part of the reason why your boss hired you. Use that to your advantage. You should be bringing innovative ideas to the table and suggesting creative solutions to complex problems, but don’t count on your intelligence winning you that promotion.

Hard work is not just something that looks good to an employer, it’s also an important part of being successful. Nobody ever became successful by waiting on their butt (unless your parents are rich enough to buy you success). If you want to be successful in life or in your job, you have to work harder than everyone else.

When I was in high school, I played on our school’s basketball team. During the preseason, my coach would schedule two practices a day: one in the morning, before school, and one in the afternoon/evening, plus weekends. We were a small school and we played in a single A league in Canada, so the competition was nothing close to bigger schools in bigger districts. As far as our league went, we were the only team to be practicing this much. We worked out butts off.

Every once in a while, my coach would huddle up our team and explain why we had this ridiculous practice schedule when our opponents were practicing maybe half as hard. He explained it this way:

When you’re sleeping in, catching up on your beauty sleep, there’s someone out there who isn’t sleeping. He’s out there working hard so that when the time comes, he can beat you.

If you aren’t working hard, someone else is, and that person is getting an edge on you. Winners work hard. That’s the bottom line. So if you want to win, whether in life or your job, you have to work.

3. Tough is not Enough

This is another maxim from my high school basketball days. My basketball coach had warm-up t-shirts made up for the team with “tough is not enough” written across the chest. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how hard you work, how much you keep getting back up, or how much blood, sweat, and tears you shed; if you are not effective, you are not going to win.

You need to have skill. If you’re an accountant, you need to be good with numbers; a writer, good at writing; a salesman, good at sales; a marketer, good at marketing; a basketball player, good at basketball. It does not matter if you work harder than anyone else if you have no skill to put with it.

I have two older brothers, both of whom played basketball at the same high school that I did (they graduated before I started the program). They were both better at basketball than I was. I worked hard; I wanted to be good. But at the end of the day, I was never the star of the team like my brothers had been, because I was not as skilled as they were.

To be fair, both of my brothers are also naturally athletic and they have a talent for basketball. But they also put in their time. They practiced their shots, their dribbling, and their passing for hours every day. I worked just as hard as they did — sometimes I even worked harder — but I never reached the level of skill and talent that they had.

Now, we need to make a quick distinction between skill and talent. I think that Will Smith said it best when he said the following: “Talent you have naturally. Skill is only developed by hours and hours and hours of beating on your craft.” Lebron James is a talented athlete. You only have to watch him play basketball to know that he could probably beat you at any sport you tried. But he is also a skilled basketball player. He has put hours upon hours into the game, building his skill, so that the combination of his skill and talent make him one of the best basketball players in the world today.

You may have natural talent, but you will only get so far on talent alone. You need to work at your skill, as well. I also had a teammate who was naturally talented at basketball, but he didn’t like to work at it. So even though he was a naturally gifted basketball player, he ended up on the bench a lot because other players, who may have been less talented, worked harder, and that work turned into skill.

What this all means is that no matter how hard you work, if you aren’t building your skill, you’re not going to get anywhere. It’s easy to work hard just for the sake of working hard. But if you can work hard and get better at your craft, you’re going to set yourself apart.

Building skill requires hard work, but hard work does not require skill.

4. Come with solutions, not problems

Leadership can sometimes feel like all we do is put out fires. Everyone brings problems to leaders and expect solutions. If you want to stand out, don’t bring problems, bring solutions.

I used to oversee a young staffer, let’s call her Ellen (not her real name), who worked under me. She was an intelligent girl but lacked confidence and initiative when it came to making judgement calls. She spent more time asking me for help and getting my advice than actually doing work. Not only did it mean that neither of us got much work done, but it also meant that I was essentially doing her job for her. That is not the impression you want to leave on your supervisor.

This doesn’t mean you can’t ask someone for help. By all means, if you’re stuck, ask for help. But gain a reputation as a problem solver. When you come across a problem, come up with a solution. That way when you bring the problem to your supervisor, you can also bring a solution. Your solution may not always be the right one, but it is better to have a suggestion than nothing.

5. Act like you’re in control, even when you’re not

Your reputation is based on people’s perception of you.

If you act frantic and unorganized, people will assume that you are frantic and unorganized. If you act like you are in total control, people will assume that you are in total control, even if you are actually about to fall to pieces from the stress.

Work is stressful. School is stressful. Relationships are stressful. Even your leisure time can be stressful if you enjoy doing things that involve risk. The point is that people all around you are stressed. The way to stand out in a sea of stressed-out people is to seem completely at ease.

On a more work-related note, things will go wrong in your workplace. Maybe you will get an assignment that you don’t think you can complete, or you are overloaded on projects, or someone has said or done something to stretch you to your breaking point. Whatever it is, do your very best to hold everything together.

You never know who is watching your reaction to something, so act like you are in control, no matter what.

Your boss is always looking for leadership qualities in her staff (or at least she should be). There is nothing that screams leadership like someone who is constantly in control, or at least appears to be.

Dynamic lessons

The five tips I gave for millennials to stand out in the workplace are as follows:

1. Own up to your actions and take responsibility for when things go wrong. Or when they go right!
2. There is no substitute for hard word. The harder you work, the more you will stand out.
3. Building your skill is vitally important. You can’t just show up; you have to work at getting better and becoming excellent in what you do.
4. Everyone has problems. Leaders don’t bring problems to the table; they bring solutions.
5. Your reputation is based off of people’s perception of you, so act like you are in total control of the situation, even if you might be freaking out on the inside.

If you are a millennial or anyone else working their way up, building their leadership skills, what do you think of this list? Did any of them work for you? What other tips do you have? I want to hear from you, and so does everyone else, so leave a comment!

The post 5 Ways Millennials (and anyone else) Can Stand Out as Everyday Leaders appeared first on Great North Dynamics.

1. Comparing yourself to lose: this is when you look at someone else and wish that you were them. You see how perfect their lives are, how much success they have, and you wish that you had that. This is comparing yourself to lose, because no matter how hard you try, you will never be that person.
2. Comparing others to lose: this is when you take pleasure in someone else’s failure in order to make yourself feel better. Such behaviour is unhealthy. Your self-worth should come from yourself, not from someone else. If you enjoy watching your peers fail, you are building your confidence and your worth on something you can’t control: someone else’s success. You can only control your own success, so build your confidence on yourself.
3. Comparing yourself to win: this is when you study other people and their successes (or failures) in order to make yourself better. When you see someone succeed where you have failed, evaluate their success and find out what they did that made them successful. If you succeed where someone else failed, find out what you did differently that made you successful and try to replicate that in the future. Learn from others’ mistakes (and your own), but don’t take joy in them.

Dynamic lessons

You often hear that you shouldn’t compare yourself to others, and that is completely true — most of the time. But you should also learn how to compare yourself with others to help yourself win. You can compare yourself to lose, you can compare others to lose, or you can compare yourself to win.

Who is someone successful that you admire? How can you compare yourself to that person and their accomplishments in such a way as to help you be a winner?

The post Comparing Yourself to Win appeared first on Great North Dynamics.

The Olympics were on TV this past August, and, true to form, I found myself watching more gymnastics in a single afternoon than I had over the past four years. I am always amazed at the sheer athleticism of gymnasts.

One of my favourite events to watch is the uneven bars. Gymnasts swing and jump between two bars and do all sorts of tricks that I could never dream of completing. This last Olympics, as I watched in amazement, I noticed something I hadn’t before: the coaches.

When gymnasts are about to do an especially difficult flip or transition on the uneven bars, their coach will step onto the mat below them and spot them. The coach is almost inconspicuous; he does not touch the gymnast, nor does he support her anyway, he is just there to catch her should she fall.

The coach’s position to catch the gymnast should she fall provides a sort of safety net. The gymnast can push herself beyond what may be comfortable with the knowledge that if she should fail, there is someone there to break her fall. This extra security allows the gymnast to push her boundaries.

This practice is based off of this theory:

If someone has a security net, they are more likely to take higher risks with greater rewards.

But here’s the thing: there is no safety net for life. Just like the uneven bars, there is no net waiting to catch us if we fall. Gymnasts have their coach standing by to help, but who do the rest of us have?

Leaders do not just lead others, they are the human safety net. A successful leader creates two different types of security nets: a security neat for their team, and a security net for themselves.

Security net for your team

You want your team to take risks. Risk-taking is an important part of growth. If your team does not take risks, they run the risk of growing stagnant and apathetic.

A leader needs to let their team know that it is okay to make mistakes.

If you allow your team to make mistakes, you have to create a safe environment for them to do so. For example, if a team member takes a new approach to a sale and loses the sale, your reaction to the loss of a sale will determine that team member’s future action. An angry response will make that team member more likely to stick to the script the next time and not take a chance; a compassionate response will make that team member more likely to take further risks, which could lead to a future breakthrough.

Most leaders are not at the top of the corporate ladder. If a team member takes a risk and makes a mistake, there could be repercussions from upper-level management. As a team leader, you have to make a decision if you are going to support your team or your managers.

If you want to build a safety net that promotes risk-taking, you have to support your team when things don’t go as planned. That will mean taking responsibility for your team’s mistakes (and giving credit to your team for their accomplishments) as well as supporting their actions to your own superiors.

There is a stark difference between supporting your team in their risks and dealing with misconduct. If a team member is consistently making mistakes, or their mistakes are due to carelessness rather than taking initiative, it may be time to reevaluate that person’s value to your team, or to consider some sort of punishment. A security net provides the foundation for your team to take risky initiatives, but it is not an excuse for poor behaviour.

Security net for you

Successful leaders take risks.

Whether you are a leader of a team or a leader among your peers, if you want to succeed, you need to be willing to take risks.

It is not easy to take risks; that’s why it’s called a risk. You need to be smart about your risk-taking, ensuring that you work with a high reward potential (more about his in another post).

When you have nothing to lose, taking a risk is not so hard; it is when you have everything to lose that risk-taking becomes difficult.

If you have children, you know that your life changes dramatically when you have another human being (or multiple human beings) who completely rely on you for their survival. If you don’t have kids, you’ll have to take my word for it. When my daughter was born, a sudden responsibility fell on my shoulders to provide for her. Such a responsibility can make risk-taking suddenly distasteful.

There are a lot of life changes, responsibilities, and other items that can scare you away from taking risks.

There is no perfect time to take a risk. There will always be something important at risk.

I talk a lot about vision on this blog, because I believe that vision is what sustains both a leader and a team. When it comes time to take a risk, your vision is what will propel you forward. If you do not have a strong vision, the risks will seem much more daunting than they actually are.

Even if you have the vision to pursue a dream and take a risk, you need to have a security net. I should be clear that I am not talking about planning to fail. Confidence is key when taking initiative in a risky business, and you should never enter into anything with the expectation of failure.

But let’s face it: if you take risks, eventually you will fail. It’s inevitable. Denzel Washington gave the graduation address at the University of Pennsylvania in 2011, and his entire speech was about failure and the importance of persistence. I am not suggesting that you have a fall-back plan; I’m suggesting that you have a safety net so that you can survive long enough to try again.

1. Save money. If you are taking risks that will put you in danger of not meeting your financial obligations, you need to make sure that you have money saved up. Dale Partridge of StartUpCamp.com writes an article about starting your own business. In it he says that you should have $1,000 saved for emergencies, plus a year’s worth of expenses already saved before you start a business. I don’t think that such a large amount of savings is feasible for most people, but financial security is important. If you are in a position where you can put money away into savings, do it.
2. Build a network. Life is hard enough without trying to do it alone. If you are in a leadership position that involves risk, you need to have a support network. This network can be friends, family, peers, colleagues, or mentors, but the point is that when things go wrong, you need to have someone(s) to go talk to. No, the team under your leadership does not count. You cannot go crying to your team; they are your team, not your peers. If you are a peer leader, find someone outside of your peer group. Find someone or some people who know you, respect you, and push you to be the best you can be.
3. Craft a vision. I’ve already touched on this. Your vision will drive you and carry you through the tough times. Craft a vision that is detailed and expansive. Dare to dream. I will be posting more about this in December.

Dynamic lessons

If you want someone to take risks, it is vital that you, as a leader, give them a security net. For your team, you need to allow them to make mistakes and foster an environment that does not punish failure and supports them in their initiative.

Successful leaders also take risks. In order to protect yourself from your risks, it is important that you create your own safety net. This net should include saving money for emergencies, building a network of people you can go to when you need help, and crafting a vision that will sustain you in the tough times.

Have you taken a risk and failed? What did you do to protect yourself? What do you wish you had done differently? As a leader, how do you provide a security net for your team?

Books that influenced this article:

Creativity, Inc. by Ed Catmull and Amy Wallace

The post Risk and Empowerment: Lessons from a Safety Net appeared first on Great North Dynamics.

Leaders adapt to change.

We have all heard someone say that leaders adapt to change, but there is a huge disconnect between believing in adapting to change and actually going through with it. Adapting to change can be the hardest thing you have to deal with as a leader, especially if you have to lead other people through a change.

1. Don’t make it personal

When change happens, a good leader does not take it personally. Often, change is outside of our control. Something happened in the outside world that has affected the way you do your job. If the change is part of a bigger trend, either in your organization or in the larger world outside of your corporation, there is nothing you can do about it and you need to accept that the world is not out to get you.

In other circumstances, change might be completely within your control and you have had to make the choice to make a change in your organization or team. It might be a change to a structure or a process, but it heavily affects the way you do your job. Even if it is within your control, change can still be difficult. As a leader, even if it is a difficult choice, you still have to own it, but that does not mean you make it personal. If someone disagrees with your change, do not make it a personal vendetta. I will be talking more in a future post about how to win your team over on large-scale changes.

Sometimes change comes from someone in leadership over you. Whether a boss, manager, or Board of Directors, this leadership figure dictates a change that directly impacts you and your team. Regardless of whether this change has a positive or negative impact on you, remember again to not make it personal. Business decisions are rarely (and should never be) made based on personal feelings toward someone else. Your boss is not out to get you, so don’t think that he/she is.

In very rare instances, a change might be made that affects you that is, indeed, personal in nature. For example, you may get laid off simply because you have a personality clash with your supervisor, or you have an emotionally-unstable boss who has made a rash decision based on personal feelings rather than reason. This is so rare that if you think this has happened to, it probably hasn’t and you took a business decision far too personally. But, in the rare cases where this does happen, my advice is, again, don’t take it personally.

When you make change personal, you are building emotional walls and attachments that have no place in leadership. Emotional responses lead to people getting hurt. If you make a personal connection with changes occurring in your organization, not only do you risk hurting yourself, but you risk hurting your team. Yes, you should take ownership and buy into the mission and vision of your organization, but do not make changes personal.

2. Remember to breathe

Change often brings stress. After all, people are hard-wired to be cautious of change and to desire consistency and routine. There is security in familiarity, and when your security is threatened, you experience stress.

The most important thing you can do in a stressful situation is to take care of yourself.

Sometimes you just need to stop what you’re doing and focus on breathing. You need to deal with this stress before it burns you out. You have enough problems without adding mental health to the list.

I have written about mental health before and will continue to do so because your mental health is vitally important. You cannot be a leader if you cannot take care of yourself. Sometimes simple breathing exercises are enough to help you manage the stress. Sometimes you might need to seek professional help. The good news is that there are many options available to you in between breathing exercises and professional help.

3. Imagine the opportunities

It is easy to get stuck on the negatives when considering change. While this is a common conception, it is a narrow-minded view of change.

With change comes opportunity.

In a new environment, you will have new opportunities available to you. Consider the story of Andre De Grasse, Canadian Olympic sprinter and winner of two Olympic medals in the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Before he became a world-class sprinter competing with the likes of Usain Bolt, De Grasse was a high school basketball guard in Markham, Ontario. In his final year of high school, his school was unable to put together a roster for a basketball team, so De Grasse’s senior basketball year vanished.

Without basketball, De Grasse ended up competing at a track meet, something he had never done before. He ran the 100 metre sprint in 10.90 seconds. His performance caught the attention of a professional sprint coach, and De Grasse’s whirlwind ride to the top of professional sprinting took off.

Change is inevitable. There will come a time in your career that something will happen that dramatically changes your situation, or even your career. Always remember that with change comes opportunity. Andre De Grasse would never have won two Olympic medals in 2016 if he had chosen to mope about his school’s lack of a basketball team. Instead he accepted the change and took advantage of a new opportunity. Today he is one of the world’s elite sprinters.

4. Maintain your vision

At the end of the day, your vision is what defines your success. Everything else can change, as long as your vision remains absolute.

The organization with which you work should have an overarching vision. Any changes made to organizational structure or processes should be made in order to better achieve the goals set out in the corporate vision. If you are bought into your organization’s vision, you need to frame these changes in a way that asks, “How will these changes help us achieve the goals set out in our vision?”

This can be a huge roadblock for some people. I have been in a situation where an organization I was working with went through a structural change that I did not support (this has happened to me several times, but I am thinking of one instance in particular). At the end of the day I had to get past my personal biases against the change and ask if these changes would help us better reach the goals we had set for ourselves. When I realized that the changes would have a positive impact on the vision, it was easier for me to accept and embrace the changes.

You should also have a personal vision for your own life, a place that you want to be with goals of how to get there. Ask yourself, “Will this new change have an effect on my personal vision?” If the change provides new opportunities, it may even help your personal vision.

There is still the possibility that this change will have a negative impact on either the corporate vision or your personal vision.

If the changes affecting your organization do not harmonize with the corporate vision, you should expect your organization to face an identity crisis in the near future.

This is an issue that needs to be addressed by the leadership, either in amending the corporate vision or removing the change. If you are not in a decision-making capacity, it is still your responsibility as a leader to express your concerns to someone who does have the authority to make these decisions.

If corporate leadership decides to not address the issue, your corporate identity and vision could be in jeopardy. At that point it is up to you to decide if you want to continue working with the organization.

In situations where your personal vision conflicts with the new corporate policies/environment, you face a similar crisis. It is up to you to decide if you want to compromise your vision, change your vision, or leave the organization.

There are times, too, when your vision must change. For Andre De Grasse, he had to change his vision from basketball to sprinting. Even Walt Disney changed his vision several times; he began with cartoon shorts, which evolved into cartoon feature films, which eventually evolved into designing and building his own theme parks.

As long as you remain true to yourself, your vision can change.

Just remember that changing your vision will take a lot of work and a lot of soul-searching.

If you are in charge of a corporate vision, then there may be certain situations where your corporate vision must be altered to accommodate a new situation. Once again, such a change should only take place if it is in the best interest of the organization and if it maintains the spirit of the corporate vision.

Dynamics Lessons

In conclusion, I presented four ways that strong leaders adapt to change:

1. Don’t make it personal. The world doesn’t have it out for you, so don’t act like a victim.
2. Remember to breathe. Take care of yourself and your mental health.
3. Imagine the opportunities. With changes come new opportunities. Don’t miss out on them just because you were focused on the changes.
4. Keep your eyes on the vision. At the end of the day, your vision is what sustains you. The changes you are facing could have a positive, neutral, or negative effect on your vision. If you have to change your vision, make sure that you remain true to yourself (or your organization).

Have you had to adapt to a massive shift in corporate culture, environment, or processes? How did you deal with it?

Books that influenced this article:

The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow You by John C. Maxwell

The post Four Ways that Strong Leaders Adapt to Change appeared first on Great North Dynamics.

Peyton Manning is regarded as one of the best quarterbacks of his generation, possibly even in history, and for good reason. By the time that he retired, he held the following records:

1. Total career passing yards (71,940)
2. Total single season passing yards (5,477)
3. Seasons with 4,000+ yards (14)
4. Games with 400+ yards (14)
5. Total career touchdown passes (539)
6. Total touchdown passes in a single season (55)
7. Number of seasons with 25+ touchdowns (16)
8. Number of games with at least 4 touchdowns (35)
9. Number of four-touchdown games in one season (9)
10. Number of total wins (200)

These are just the records that Manning holds on his own (not to mention the more obscure records that he holds, such as the oldest quarterback to win a Superbowl (39) or the most playoff appearances by a quarterback (15), to name a few). In addition, Manning is tied for the top spot for these records:

1. Average yards per game over a career (342.3)
2. Number of 400+ yard games in a single season (4)
3. Number of touchdowns thrown in one game (7)

In case you aren’t a football fan, let me shed some light on these statistics: Peyton Manning is an impressive individual. Some of the records he holds are quite close to the competition, but many of them have a huge gap between him and second place. In other words, Manning is an elite among elite players, and a very successful man.

When Manning and the Denver Broncos took the field on February 7, 2016, this was their second Superbowl appearance in two years. On February 2, 2014, Manning led the Broncos onto the field at Metlife Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ, to do battle with Russell Wilson and the Seattle Seahawks in Superbowl 48. In 2014, however, the end result was very different from 2016.

On the very first offensive drive of Superbowl 48, Peyton Manning, one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time, fumbled a snap that Seattle returned for a touchdown. Seattle never looked back, and for the rest of the game, the Broncos were steamrolled. The final score: Seattle: 43, Denver: 8.

This was a huge surprise to the football world. It’s not that the Seahawks were the underdogs — the Seahawks had the highest-rated defence in the league — but nobody expected such a blow-out. The Broncos had the best offence in the league by far. Peyton Manning had just had one of the best seasons of his storied career. The question on everyone’s lips was: “Can the Seahawks keep up with Peyton?” Nobody thought to ask if Peyton could keep up with the Seahawks.

The defeat was humiliating and the wounds were fresh. Peyton Manning had just played a record-setting season (he had set three single-season records for that season: most season passing yards, most touchdown passes in a season, and most four-touchdown games in one season) and had capped it off by losing the most important game of the season. How do you come back from that?

The answer, according to Peyton Manning himself, was self-evaluation. The first day back at the the Broncos training facility in Denver, Manning and the rest of his team watched the entire Superbowl game on tape. Multiple times. No, they weren’t reliving the defeat, they were watching themselves. Manning watched every single snap, every pivot, every throw, every play that he did. And he learned.

That’s not all that Manning reviewed. Over the course of the 2013-2014 season, Manning threw 787 passes (regular season and playoffs combined). He rewatched every single pass. He wasn’t just looking at his throwing technique either; he was watching to see where his receivers lined up, where their defenders matched them, the routes his receivers ran, where his eyes went, which receiver he threw the ball at, and how the defence responded. After each throw he would ask himself if he threw to the right receiver or if there was a better option. What did he do right? What did he do wrong?

Manning was so dedicated to watching game film that he went high-tech, even mobile. He had a top-of-the-line home theatre installed in his home for the sole purpose of watching game film at home. If that wasn’t enough, he also had a tablet that he carried everywhere with him, so that he could watch game film whenever he had a spare moment. For Peyton Manning, the time he spent actually playing the game paled in comparison with the amount of time he spent evaluating his own performance.

In the 2013-2014 season, Manning threw 55 touchdown passes (the most ever thrown in a single season). Was he happy with that? No. There were missed opportunities that he identified on film where he could have made more touchdown passes. More game film to study, to learn from.

So what is the point of all this work? Two years later returning to the Superbowl and winning that all-important final game was the point. Armed with the knowledge, Manning was prepared for the work it would take to get back to the top. Now, he did not do it alone. If there is one sport that epitomizes the concept of team, it is football. There are eleven players on the field, and each one is vital to the success of the team. As a leader, Manning had to first evaluate himself and improve himself before he could ask his team to do the same.

Demaryius Thomas is a wide receiver and was one of Manning’s teammates in both the 2014 and 2016 Superbowls. He was once interviewed by ESPN about Manning’s film review habits and he said, “[Peyton] will always say if he thought he could have done something differently. He’s not afraid to just say it. … When guys see somebody like Peyton so accountable, you have to be accountable. You can’t help it. He’s Peyton doing that — how are you going to just duck your head and not admit what you did?”

As team captain and a leader, Manning focused on improving himself before improving his team. The rest of his team saw their leader, the 2013 Most Valuable Player and arguably the best regular-season quarterback of all-time, evaluating every single second of his own performance in order to improve. Such action inspired them to evaluate their own performance, to get better, to match their leader. And they did. And two years later they won the Superbowl and became the best football team in the world.

Dynamic Lessons

Leadership is not just about inspiring others; it is equally about inspiring yourself.

1. You are first and foremost responsible for yourself. If you want to succeed, you must take ownership of your actions. There are always ways for you to improve. If the MVP of the NFL and the single-season touchdown record holder can find ways to improve his game and spot places that he could have made more touchdowns, then you can find areas of your own performance that you could tweak to become better and more efficient.
2. When a leader voluntarily evaluates his/her own performance, the rest of the team will follow. Oftentimes leading by example is far more important than leading by instruction. You want your team to be able to evaluate themselves, so show them how it’s done.
3. It’s a team game. You might not be a football player, or even a sports fan, but you are probably working in a team. Teamwork means, believe it or not, working together. When you constantly evaluate yourself and improve yourself, you make yourself and your team better.
4. Failure and success are equally instructional. This is perhaps the most important lesson. Manning learned not just from his mistakes, but also from his successes. He had the most successful individual season he ever had in 2013, even though he ended up losing the Superbowl. Both his failures and his successes were instrumental in teaching him and his team the lessons they needed to learn in order to win two years later.

Have you ever taken the time to stop and evaluate yourself and your outcomes? What did you learn about yourself?

The post Case Study: Peyton Manning and the Value of Self-Evaluation as a Leader appeared first on Great North Dynamics.