20
Jan
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by Darren
Leadership, or being a leader for a team, is going to figure quite high on my agenda this year. Part of my personal development plan is to look at being an effective leader. I’ll share what I pick up along the way and I hope that you’ll also offer some insight in the comments.
I saw an article in the Harvard Business Review about Martin Luther King (link below). What I picked up from this article, is that King had a vision but that vision was not in isolation. The vision related to the basic principles of the US constitution; that all were equal and had basic rights – please forgive my simplistic rendering.
Therefore, to be an effective leader we should develop a personal vision, but that vision can, or even should, be tied to a larger mission. The larger mission provides a ready audience to hear your vision and follow you.
In the business environment the company’s mission may change and develop. Quite often, at the very top, a personal vision and a company’s mission may evolve in synchronicity.
- What is the dream that you or I have?
- What would we like to see happen?
These are the sort of questions that can help form our vision.
- Why do I want to see this happen?
That is the type of question that has shaped or will shape the mission.
It is the vision that motivates both the visionary and the followers. The vision is active and drives people forward. So, ‘what is my dream?’
Leadership and Martin Luther King’s Dream – Rosabeth Moss Kanter – Harvard Business Review
This post is in: leadership
and tagged: leadership, Martin Luther King, mission, personal development, vision
10
Jan
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by Darren
I’ve been spending a bit of time pulling together some goals and planning for 2010. One danger of goals and plans is that they can be forgotten. You can print them out, but then if the print-out isn’t in front of you you’ll forget. You could use a snazzy web 2.0 app to remind you, but if you lose access, you lose your reminder.
So, how can I remind myself of what my goals are for 2010. I need a hook so that I can be reminded constantly. I remembered (and that’s key here) how memory works better when you can associate one thing with another. The more connections you can make the stronger the memory. (If there are any memory experts out there, please correct me if I’m getting this wrong.)
It’s 2010, and will be for the whole year. Therefore, how can I use that as a stimulus? Within a few minutes of thinking about this I pretty much had a plan for the year. And not just a plan but a means of reminding myself about the plan and goals within it.
It was all about the number 10. Everything that I wanted to plan and do this year would be connected to the number 10. It could be a multiple, a date in the month or divided by. So, here are my goals and plans for 2010 – personal but there is crossover into the professional.
- 1 Live my life true to my personal mission statement
- 10 complete 10 personal projects in 2010
- 100 Look at the 100 things challenge (possibly the original challenge or any of the others, or perhaps one of my own)
- 100 Develop a network of 100 influential people to share and develop ideas with (I am an I [INTP] networking is not me, but this year it will be)
- 1,000 Finish the year with a disaster fund of £1,000 (This is above savings and debt reduction – link to follow when I work out daytum)
- 1,000 Have 1,000 fans for a project (This could be for any of the projects above as I work through them)
- 10,000 Unique visitors on my sites. This is an aspiration but is not limited to this site, it will be a goal for all my sites
- 100,000 Have an annual income of, well I can dream. Without dreams we simply spend eight hours each night doing nothing
- 1,000,000 This number comes into play if any of the above go viral. Yes, it is another dream but as Joseph said in his musical, any dream will do
Oh, and if you haven’t noticed it is the 10th today. I’ll be reviewing these goals and plans on the 10th of each month. The simplicity of this is that anything related to the number 10 fits into it and can be used. Let’s see how it goes.
This post is in: Personal, Productivity
and tagged: 2010, goals, hooks, power of ten, Productivity
31
Dec
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by Darren
All change for 2010:
- a new year
- a new decade (although for pedants you can argue the point)
- a new theme (working on it – but until it is finished I’m keeping things simple)
- a new day job
- a blog with purpose
- a better me (that’s a work in progress for sure)
It won’t all happen at once but then does anything? But as we transition from one place to another it seemed the perfect time to transition things here too.
And so a thought for 2010, as it sneaks past the bouncers and makes its way to the bar…
Be proactive; don’t be defined by others, their prejudices and their judgement calls, for you are fearfully and wonderfully made so be that.
This post is in: This site
and tagged: website
14
Dec
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by Darren
I can imagine Seth Godin as the leader of a Rock band. His attitude is to rock the Staus Quo, to gather no moss as a Rolling Stone and to give marketing the Cure. Sorry, enough of these puns. Free e-book from Seth Godin and a cast of many can be downloaded below. Get ready to rock 2010! We can make a difference.
Seth’s Blog: What Matters Now: get the free ebook
This post is in: change, links
and tagged: download, e-bboks, e-book, free
25
Nov
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by Darren
I’m not a great film buff. I can’t discuss the finer points of film noir or indie cinema with you or anyone else. But I do enjoy watching films. I could give you a long list of movies that I have seen and I have liked.
There is also a list that contains films I haven’t liked. This list could be sub-divided into films I have been looking forward to and then been disappointed. One of the reasons for this is that I tend to over-hype the movie to myself. Even if the movie is better than average I have elevated it to a status that it couldn’t reach.
However, twice before I have hyped up a movie and seen it with great hopes and expectations. And twice before I haven’t felt let down. The first was The Terminator, yes very 80’s and a little dated now, but at the time it was everything and more than I expected.
The next was Aliens, a sequel no less. But once again, despite my very high expectations, it provided. The astute among you may have noticed that they are both films by James Cameron. The other films he has made are also ones that I would willingly sit through more than once… yes even Titanic.
Well, he is about to release another film. This one with an alleged budget of $230 million. Once again, as he did with Terminator 2, he is pushing the boundaries of what is possible with special effects. And once again I am looking forward to it. I am trying not to hype it up too much in my mind, but everytime I see a trailer I can’t help it.
So I’m hoping that it will be third time lucky and I won’t be disappointed. And if you’re not sure what I am on about, take a look at the trailer below for Avatar.
This post is in: Personal
and tagged: avatar, movies
