By: David Novak, Co-Founder & CEO of David Novak Leadership
I have said so many times in my life, “Positive energy lifts you up. Negative energy brings you down.” It’s important for us to get rid of the negative energy in our lives and move forward with a positive attitude. Even though I know this, I admit I need to practice what I preach and work on this in certain areas of my life.
We all have difficult or challenging things happen that force us into the dismal path of negativity. Unfortunately, the more we keep this baggage around, the more it feeds on itself and takes you further down the drain. As much as I know this, I still sometimes fall into the negativity trap.
Since I’ve retired, I’ve had the opportunity to work on my golf game. I set a goal to qualify for a major amateur tournament, but recently failed to do so by making some silly errors, which put me in a negative mindset in the second round of the qualifying tournament. I have to admit, I spent way too much time having a pity party and reliving all my bad shots again and again. Doing this made me question my abilities and created all kinds of anxiety about playing a game I love—a game that brings me joy.
I clearly needed to let it go and focus on the future. After all, the past should help us learn and inspire us about what’s possible in the future. In that game, I actually played better than most of my competitors, and I hit some fabulous shots. I had to take time to realize this and get back into a positive mindset. Doing that energized me to improve my game and enjoy that process. I realized there are new opportunities ahead, but only if I let go of the past. Believe me, I’m doing my best to let it go and I know I am better for it.
Conversely, in a much more significant area in my life, I recently concluded chemotherapy and radiation treatments for breast cancer. I never once asked myself, “Why me?” I didn’t allow myself to fill my mind with negative baggage. Instead, cancer forced me to realize just how blessed I’ve been in my life. I have had 63 years of near perfect health. I have the love and support of an amazing family. And I loved my work so much I never felt I worked a day in my life—work was actually my hobby! So far, I’ve lived a life of joy, traveled the world and achieved more than I ever imagined.
Having gratitude gave me the positive attitude I needed to persevere through the treatments and focus on getting well. For example, the doctors told me exercise would be key to my well being, so I worked out before and after my chemotherapy and worked out every other day of the week. It got my endorphins going, which energized me and kept me positive. I also started every day having quiet time with God and writing down three things I was grateful for in my life. It all helped me stay positive throughout my treatments and virtually eliminated the anxiety and worry I could have had.
The lesson here is, focusing on things that went wrong keeps you stuck in the past and bogs you down, while being grateful helps you keep a positive attitude—even through negative situations. Let’s all do our best to stay positive this year and focus on the great things ahead.
We want to change the world by creating better leaders and we believe to be the best leader you can be requires that you are both Heartwired® and Hardwired®.
What do we mean by that? Heartwiring® is building passionate commitment in those you lead and Hardwiring is putting the discipline and process around what matters most so you get great results. If you have one without the other you are never going to accomplish BIG things.
There are four categories:
Leaders who are high on Heartwiring® and Hardwiring® are the type of leader others want to follow. They treat others well and care about them while using process and discipline to get consistent results the right way. But even good leaders can get better
Those who are high on Heartwiring® and low on Hardwiring® tend to be well liked by their peers and subordinates, but they often fail to deliver the best results on a consistent basis. Learning how to establish process and discipline around the things that matter most will help them deliver and sustain powerful results.
Individuals who are low on Heartwiring® and high on Hardwiring® tend to value results more than people. People in this quadrant may experience low engagement and high turnover on their team because they tend to get things accomplished through muscle management rather than influence.
People who are low on both Heartwiring® and Hardwiring® might be new leaders who have not received appropriate leadership training. Or they may come from a work environment that focuses only on results. They desire to become the most effective leaders they can be, but, like everyone, they need help.
We must never stop growing as leaders. Most of us lean more towards one or the other, either we are more Heartwired or Hardwired. Determine where you need to grow the most and lean into the learning zone. Take our FREE assessment and find out if you are more Heartwired or Hardwired.
By: Gregg Dedrick, Co-Founder & President of David Novak Leadership
Imagine you are the best leader you can be. Think about your leadership style. What do you do that makes your team successful? How do you lead others? How would your team describe you as a leader? Now hit the rewind button.
What steps did you take to become this amazing leader? Becoming the best leader you can be doesn’t just happen. In fact, it takes time, commitment, and dedication.
My journey to becoming an Executive at Yum! Brands required me to become an avid learner by being open to learning from everyone. I was fortunate to have leaders like David Novak and Mike Feiner who mentored me and saw potential in me that I didn’t see in myself. I also invited some trusted friends to become truth tellers in my life. Learning from others helped me become the best leader I could be.
You may not have access to the CEO or top leaders in your organization. Yet you can leverage David Novak Leadership as your personal mentor. David Novak Leadership is all about helping others learn how to heartwire and hardwire their leadership so they can be more effective leaders and make a bigger difference in their world. Through our resources, you have access to top leaders who vulnerably share their experiences and advice with you. However, if you just read a blog without downloading the learning guide and completing it, or if you just listen to the podcasts without implementing some of the tips the leaders provide, you are missing out on ways to transform your leadership.
According to Micky Pant, the role of the leader is to develop other leaders and produce great results. Do you know how to develop yourself and other leaders? Here’s tips on how to use our resources to develop yourself and others.
Grow Yourself with David Novak Leadership Resources
1. Adopt a Power-FULL Mindset.
Power-FULL mindsets focus on the positive: I’m committed to doing this and I’m excited to see what happens. I believe I can change, even if it’s hard right now. This could work here.
Power-LESS mindsets focus on the negative and are limiting: I can’t do this. I’ll never change. This won’t work here.
You choose your mindset. Do you have a Power-LESS or Power-FULL mindset?
2. Develop intentionality and discipline about getting better.
Schedule time on your calendar to engage with our leadership resources each week.
Challenge yourself to apply at least one learning each week.
Share your plan with a trusted friend or colleague and ask them to hold you accountable.
4. Teach others.
Review what you learned and think about someone you know who could use this to become a better leader.
Schedule time to teach them about the concept.
Share how it helped you and what’s in it for them.
Hold each other accountable to implementing what you learned.
Grow Your Team with David Novak Leadership Resources
1. Review your team’s strengths and areas of opportunities and use this information to determine your plan of action.
Answer these questions for each individual team member and for the whole team.
What are they doing well?
What can they do even better?
Do you need to work with each team member individually first?
Or would it be more beneficial to develop skills together as a team?
2. Choose a development topic for each individual or the team.
Make a list of the development topics.
Review the David Novak Leadership website for tools.
Use the tools yourself first so you can explain why you chose the tools and how they helped you.
Gather the tools from our resources.
3. Communicate your development goals with the team.
Schedule a meeting to share your plans to grow the team.
Discuss what your expectations are.
Share what you’ve learned from David Novak Leadership.
Explain what’s in it for the team.
Define how you will work together.
If working with individuals, schedule 1:1 meetings and partner with each individual to define their development plan.
4. Share this resource and schedule time to discuss. Once the development task is completed, discuss these questions:
What did you learn?
How are you applying what you learned?
What do you want to focus on next?
5. Invite your team to check out our resources to choose their own development activities. Whether you’re developing yourself or your team, it must be integrated. Unless development becomes part of the way you operate as a leader, there will always be something more important to do. You have to decide to make developing yourself and others a habit. You have to hardwire it into your schedule, and by your example, your team will understand its importance and they will hardwire it into their schedules too. It all starts with you.
By taking the time to invest in yourself and your team, you are on your way to becoming the best leader you can be! As Simon Sinek says, “A leader’s job is not just to get the best out of their people – a leader’s job is to make more leaders.” Let David Novak Leadership help you make more leaders! Do you know other leaders who could use help developing themselves or their team? Then take action right now and pay it forward by sharing this blog with them. You never know how the simple act of sharing this blog post with others can encourage them to become the best leader they can be!
[cs_content][cs_element_section _id=”1″ ][cs_element_row _id=”2″ ][cs_element_column _id=”3″ ][x_image type=”none” src=”https://davidnovakleadership.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/bill-a-circle.png” alt=”” link=”false” href=”#” title=”” target=”” info=”none” info_place=”top” info_trigger=”hover” info_content=”” style=”border:8px solid rgba(0,0,0,0.10);border-radius:50%;”][x_share title=”Share this Post” share_title=”” facebook=”true” twitter=”true” google_plus=”false” linkedin=”true” pinterest=”false” reddit=”false” email=”false” email_subject=”Hey, thought you might enjoy this! Check it out when you have a chance:”][cs_text][/cs_text][/cs_element_column][cs_element_column _id=”7″ ][cs_element_audio _id=”8″ ][x_gap size=”30px”][cs_element_content_area_modal _id=”10″ ][cs_text]Bill Acquavella is President of Acquavella Galleries, a family-owned gallery founded by his father, Nicholas Acquavella, in the early 1920’s. When Bill joined his father in 1960 selling works from the Italian Renaissance, he expanded the focus of the gallery to include major works of the 19th and 20th centuries, offering paintings by the masters of Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Cubism, and Surrealism. Today, the entire scope of 20th century art is represented, including Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art. For over ninety years, Acquavella Galleries has sold major paintings and sculpture to private collectors and museums worldwide in addition to presenting museum-quality exhibitions.
Over the course of the 1970s and ’80s, Acquavella turned the gallery into a leader in the 19th and 20th century art markets, attracting billionaire clients like Paul Mellon, Walter Annenberg, and Henry Ford.[/cs_text][x_gap size=”40px”][cs_text style=”margin-top:-20px;”][bctt tweet=”“The best people get along with other people very well. You know, they know how to handle other personalities, and they’re very articulate about expressing their ideas and what they want to do.””][/cs_text][/cs_element_column][/cs_element_row][/cs_element_section][cs_element_section _id=”14″ ][cs_element_row _id=”15″ ][cs_element_column _id=”16″ ][cs_text style=”line-height:1;”][bctt tweet=”“Obsession, a passion to do it. You’ve got to have a passion and you have to have the ambition to want to succeed.
””]
[/cs_text][/cs_element_column][cs_element_column _id=”18″ ][cs_text]A member of the Art Dealers Association of America, Mr. Acquavella served as president of the ADAA from 1984-86. He is also a past member of the Art Advisory panel for the Internal Revenue Service. Mr. Acquavella graduated with a B.A. from Washington and Lee University in 1959. Since his father passed away in 1987, Bill has been joined by his three children, who work as directors at Acquavella Galleries. Bill’s personal art collection includes pieces by Picasso, Matisse, and Miró.
Becky recalls a significant failure in her career. She was working with someone she respected to launch a new product. Becky thought they should do it in a specific way, but her colleague didn’t agree. Becky relented, and later a competitor launched the product her way with great success. Becky knew she was right but second-guessed herself. Despite the failure, she is grateful that it happened when she was young. She learned that the next time she needed to fight harder.
Have you ever experienced a failure? What did you learn?
If your colleague disagreed with you, how would you respond?
Becky has the following thoughts on recognition:
Feedback is a gift, something we have lost in Corporate America. Becky says, “If I am not giving you feedback, then I am not investing in you. If I’m not getting feedback, people aren’t invested in me.”
What is the best piece of constructive feedback you’ve ever received?
By: Gregg Dedrick, Co-Founder & President of David Novak Leadership
Have you ever considered whose shoulders you stand on? What did these people do to invest in your life? How did they influence you to become the leader you are today? Sometimes these life investments were for a moment, while others were long term. Yet regardless of the length of time, you are standing on the shoulders of others.
When you look down, who do you see?
These are some of the people I see when I look down:
David Novak, my boss at Yum! Brands
Mike Feiner, my boss at Pepsi
My High School Football Coach
I became a successful leader at Yum! Brands because these men invested in me and allowed me to rise higher by standing on the shoulders of their wisdom.
A few years ago, I was inspired to let each of these leaders know how they impacted my life. I’m a firm believer that it’s never too late to say thank you, so I took the time to personally thank each one. And when I say it’s never too late, consider that my High School Football coach was from 35 years ago!
My High School Football coach was hard, yet he challenged us to become better than we were. The odds were often stacked against our 28-player team. He pushed us and I learned to ignore the odds and focus on doing my best. He taught me to believe victory was in our power, not determined by our opponent.
It took some research to reconnect with my coach. I started the process by calling my mom and she had the contact information for my coach’s daughter. The coach’s daughter then gave me his phone number.
Here’s how the conversation went:
Gregg: Coach Cal?
Coach: Yes?
Gregg: This is Gregg Dedrick. I played for you in the 70’s.
Coach: Yes, I remember you. You went on to play in college.
Gregg: (I paused at this response. Really, I thought? He knew what I did after I graduated? This touched me. I took a moment to bring Coach Cal up to date on who I became in my business and family life. Then, I shared how he influenced me.)
You know, you were an important part of that foundation of success. You taught me to do my best and believe that victory was in my power, rather than focusing on the odds. You challenged me to live up to my potential. You believed in me.
Silence followed… and then more silence.
Coach, in a broken voice: Well, geez. That’s something. Thank you so much for telling me that.
Coach Cal’s emotional response was unexpected. The “hard-nosed” coach was choked up and touched by learning about the positive impact he had on my life.
By taking the time to thank Coach Cal, it made a part of his life a little more meaningful, as it did for me. We were both encouraged by this conversation. I also discovered that sometimes people don’t even realize how they impact the lives of others. That’s why I’m passionate about identifying whose shoulders we stand on, and then intentionally thanking each one.
I’m a firm believer in these wise words of Isaac Newton: If I have seen further than others, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants. The lessons and wisdom of the giants in my life allowed me to see more clearly and become a successful leader.
What about you? Who do you need to thank today for his/her life investment in you? Are you willing to take the time to let others know how they helped you become who you are today? If you need some help, then download this guide.It provides you with an outline for appreciating those whose shoulders are the foundation for your success. May you experience the joy that comes from humbly recognizing that you, too, are standing on the shoulders of giants.
