Your mistakes actually hold the key to stronger leadership. When was the last time you told your team that you messed something up or that something was your fault?Today I want to talk to you about how your need to feel safe is actually making your team feel unsafe and is holding you and the team back. Up your leadership game by focusing on demonstrating more vulnerability with your team. If a leader creates an environment which doesn't tolerate mistakes and the leader, him or herself doesn't ever admit to any mistakes, then the team will be very hesitant to do anything that puts their neck out.When everyone plays things safe the level of achievement goes down. Why? Because we're staying within our comfort zone. Our success, however, is connected to stepping just outside our comfort zone.So we need to make sure that we're not coming across as mistake-proof. When was the last time, for example, that you said to your team, "We didn't achieve this goal and it's because of me. It's my fault. You know, I messed that up." Or, "I know we made this decision, but that was the wrong decision. And that came from me. I inspired that decision. I'm sorry, I messed up."Shine a spotlight on your mistakes so that your team feels okay with making theirs and your results will go through the roof.

We all know that goals are important, but to achieve mastery, we must learn to love the plateaus. The plateaus are those times, when you feel like you're making no progress at all, when you feel like giving up and when you feel like you shouldn't have even maybe started working toward the goal, those are the times that we need to learn to embrace.Look to treat them as the signals that they are. That if you keep your head down and if you just keep hammering away, keep plowing away at whatever it is, that your next spur of achievement is just around the corner.Success is not linear. It's more like a stair step, having success for some time and then no success and then some more success.The path to mastery involves showing up day after day, diligent, persistent, patient practice, day after day.

Most likely, you're building your network and connections in the wrong way. Today I want to teach you three principles you can use to build stronger connections with the people who matter most.Today's principles are all around the acronym CPR, like the Health Saving Technique, but the letters stand for something different here. The C is for curiosity, the P is for persistence and the R is for reciprocity.The first principle is all around curiosity. Be curious, ask why, ask deeper questions. And you'll see that the conversation just naturally flows. When you're curious about someone and you're asking that one level deeper, they will immediately be more engaged with you. They will immediately feel something magnetizing about that conversation, because you're simply being curious about them.The next is persistence. If at first you don't succeed, try, try, try again. Everyone's super busy, right? You're super busy, so is everyone else. And often when someone gets that first email, when somebody is trying to approach them, they will discount it. Maybe they won't respond right away or they won't respond at all. But you have to just keep trying.And the third thing is the R, reciprocity. When you're looking to connect with someone, ask yourself, "Well, what is it that you can give? How can you help them?" Don't even ask for their help at first. How is it that you might help them further their cause? Give first and then you'll receive more likely in return.

Your problem isn't finishing things, your problem is that you haven't learned to create enough momentum that will carry you through and complete whatever you’d like to get done.Today I'm going to teach you three simple techniques that you can use to create more momentum in your business and life.Unless you create more momentum many of your goals, perhaps even most, will go unachieved. Number one: Get into the habit of creating momentum by simply “choosing to start for just five minutes.” Choosing brings a sense of control, since you can choose to do anything regardless of whether you would like doing it. Focusing on the start is less overwhelming than focusing on the finish. And my committing to only 5 minutes you virtually always have the time (and you end up never realizing when the 5 minutes was up!)Number two: Go public. I want you to IPO your ideas, IPO your intent, go public with whatever it is that you're going to do. Because when you create that peer pressure and let the world know what it is that you want to achieve you’re compelled to act.Number three: Make it painful. We move towards pleasure in life, and we move away from pain. Putting money on the line, in some form, against your goal completion hacks into our natural instinct to avoid loss, which according to behavioral scientists from Yale University can significantly increase the odds of goal achievement.

Today I'm going to teach you three hacks that you can use to complete your work up to five times faster. Instead of working five hours on something, what if you could be getting it done in just one hour? If you don't learn these techniques, if you don't learn these hacks, you won’t become all that you’re capable of becoming.The number one technique to increase the rate at which you work is based on the Pareto principle. The Pareto principle simply states that 20% of the causes typically lead to 80% of the effects, or said in another way, 20% of the effort leads to 80% of the results. Where are the leverage points in your work? What really matters? Focus on the 20% that generates 80% of the result and you’ll save tons of time.The second technique is to focus on Parkinson's law, which simply states that work will expand to fill the time given for its completion. So we can use this to our advantage by proactively restricting the amount of time we give ourselves to complete tasks.The final technique is what I call ‘The 96% Solution’. If work remains after applying 80/20 focus and restricting the time available, in light of Parkinson’s Law, then delegate the remaining work to someone else. Ask them to “80/20” the 20% that remains (assuming you completed the initial 80%). Completing 80% of the 20% that remains, mathematically speaking, comes to 16% + your initial 80% = 96% done. And that’s more than enough - considering your initial 80% is often enough!These three things, in combination, have enabled me to complete my work up to 5x faster.

Today, I want to share a super simple technique inspired by the book Elite Minds that you can use to operate at your best day in and day out.Perfect is not the goal. What is? It's simply do your best. Each and every day, make it your intention to do the very best you can with what you have that day. If you did the best you could that day, give yourself a 'W' for 'win.' If you didn't do your best, give yourself an 'L' for 'learn.' The goal here is six or less L’s in a month and never two in a row.What I love about this system is that no matter how big my to-do list is, no matter what the day looks like, or how unusual that day is compared to the normal day, all I can ever do is my best. By measuring this and keeping it super public and visible, it has a huge effect on my psyche throughout the day. I'm thinking throughout the day, "'What do I need to keep doing for that W?" Or if I start to get slightly distracted, I rein it in much more quickly because I know I don't want to have to give myself an L for the day.The goal of six or less L’s per month roughly comes to an 80% hit rate, so basically, you're trying to show up as your best for about 80% of the days. I think that's a wonderful hit rate.No matter how big your list is, no matter how unusual the day is, all you can do day-to-day is your best. I'm super confident that if we just focus on doing our best day in and day out, we'll reach a much higher level of achievement and satisfaction in both our business and lives.

Today, I want to share three success secrets from the late Kobe Bryant, which were inspired by something that I read in the book, Raise Your Game.The greatest player in the game at the time would start to practice at 4:00 a.m. ahead of everyone else.During this time, Kobe would practice the most basic offensive moves, the most basic drills. Basic footwork, basic shooting, layups, just the absolute most fundamentals. The author of Raise Your Game asked Kobe, "Why does the greatest player in the game need to practice such basic moves?" Kobe responds with a big smile "Well, how do you think I became the best player in the game?"There are three success secrets baked in there that I wanted to share today that we can all really learn from:#1. If we want to achieve our fullest potential in whatever it is that we're doing in our business or our life, then we need to have a schedule. We need to commit to practice. When is it that we're going to show up? What time? Try to make that the same time every day. #2. After we have a schedule, when we show up, we need to show up at our best. Our highest, most deliberate, most focused, most genius attention and effort.#3. Whatever it is that we're doing, whatever skill it is that we're trying to build or work on, we can never forget the fundamentals. We can never forget how important it is to do the basics. Have a schedule. Show up with your best. Practice the fundamentals… So that brick by brick, you can build the house of your success in your business or life.

SUMMARYToday I want to share with you a nice story and a few simple techniques that you can use to create a strong sense of family values in your home - because leadership starts at home.One of my clients, a CEO of a local company here in the UK, shared with me a set of values that he and his family had created to guide their behaviors and actions in much the same way that you would create a set of values in your workplace. This particular CEO with his family would have this habit of asking themselves regularly, "Are we doing this right?" But what was really cool and beautiful about this is that “right” stood for the set of values that they had all agreed on as a family. So it was actually spelled R-I-T with three E's. RITEEE. The R was for respect, the I was for integrity, the T was for teamwork, and then the three E's were for excellence, environment and enjoyment. “Are we doing this RITEEE?” was basically a question that the family would ask themselves in a given situation or a decision that they're trying to make. It was short for: Are we doing this with respect? Are we doing this with integrity? Are we doing this as a team? Are we doing this with excellence? Are we doing this with respect to our environment? Are we doing this with enjoyment?"We create a set of values for companies, but we never think about doing that for the most important unit of all, our family unit at home. Where are the values for our family? Where are the guideposts to guide our behavior?To create a set of family values:First, sit down with your family members and agree on your values. What are the things that we value in each other? What are the things that we don't value? What are our likes? What are dislikes?" And create a list of words. Five or six words maximum. Second, play around with synonyms of those words or just reorganize the order in which you lay them out, so that you can create an acronym. A memorable acronym that you'll never forget. Similar to the client's story that I shared, "Are we doing this RITEEE?" Where RITEEE stood for the six family values.Third, get into the habit of asking the question, "Are we doing this [with whatever that acronym is]?"Over time you will see that your behavior and the way you operate as a family, as a unit, starts to coalesce and form around the very things which you find to be most valuable, which you value as a family.

To improve communication start by learning how to listen better. Today I'm going to take you through three ways in which you can improve your listening skills so that you can also improve and up your game on the communication front.Rule number one with improving your communication through mastering the art of listening is to develop the ability to pause. Really focus on relaxing and letting the other person speak. Don't think about the next thing that you need to be saying or cut them off. Just pause. Let them say whatever it is that they're trying to say and fully give the space for that. Number two, to improve your listening game, to improve your communication game, you need to reflect back what you're hearing. You can use just a simple statement such as, "I think I heard you say," or "I understand that what you're saying is...," and just reflect back. Play back what it is that you've just heard the person state.Number three, ask the question, "Why?... Why do you feel that way? Why do you think that way? Why don't you think things could be another way?" This will deepen your understanding, thereby improving any communication that follows.

In this episode, I talk about the power of enthusiasm and how you can cultivate it through 3 simple techniques."Enthusiasm is one of the most powerful engines of success. When you do a thing, do it with all your might. Put your whole soul into it, stamp it with your own personality, be active, be energetic, be enthusiastic and faithful, and you will accomplish your objective. Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm." - Ralph Waldo EmersonThe first technique to cultivate enthusiasm is to “act enthusiastically.” Strike a power pose. Stand up tall and straight. Shoulders back, chin down, smile. By behaving in that way, having that kind of posture, it gets us thinking in a more positive, enthusiastic way. We start to become what it is that we're trying to be.The second thing that you can do to develop your enthusiasm is to flex your “what's going well” muscle. At the end of every day, I just ask myself, "What went well today?" And I make sure I note all of those things.The third is to learn to say no. Think about the people, places and activities in your life that give you energy. Think about the people, places and activities in life that drain energy from you. Say no to those energy drainers. Say yes to the things that give us energy, because what gives us energy also helps propel our enthusiasm.Employ these three techniques to generate unstoppable enthusiasm.