The 3 Proven Success Strategies Every Leader Should Know.

Do you know the story of King Midas? 

 This king is popularly remembered in Greek mythology for his ability to turn everything he touched into gold. Have you ever heard about the Midas touch, you know “some people just have a Midas touch.” 

 Well, that phrase came from King Midas, the story is a myth of course, but some leaders, for example, have that touch to turn everything into a success. They can take the worst performing companies and turn things around; anything they touched turns into gold. Sometimes I asked myself is it luck, coincidence maybe or do you think these leaders attract the success they want.

 One of our living legends, Dr. Wayne Dyer, said our thoughts could alter our physical existence and anything you put into your imagination, you can achieve it. Many great leaders use this proven secret to bring the success they want and in the process, create limitless possibilities for their life that manifest itself in the natural. 

 Great leaders and philosophers have known this for centuries; you can attract the success you want by the thoughts in your mind, believing steadfastly and working to bring what you imagine into reality. Albert Einstein said imagination is more powerful than knowledge and anything created was once imagined, so your thoughts and what you believe about yourself contribute significantly to the success or the lack thereof you attract into your life. 

 I will share with you 3 proven success strategies you can use in your professional life, as well as your personal life, to attract the success you deserve and in the process become someone who has the Midas touch. 

 Remove Self-limiting Beliefs

An essential clue to Steve Jobs success is his belief system and his mindset. I read this story, and this put everything into context about Steve Jobs life and his view of the world. According to Morty Lefkoe, from the Lefkoe Institute:

Jobs was describing, to Corning Glass’ CEO, Wendell Weeks the type of glass Apple wanted for their iPhone, and Weeks told him that Corning had developed a chemical exchange process in the 1960s that led to what they dubbed ‘gorilla glass.’ It was incredibly strong, but it had never found a market, so Corning quit making it. Jobs said he wanted as much gorilla glass as Corning could make within six months.‘We don’t have the capacity,’ Weeks replied. ‘None of our plants make the glass now.’

“Don’t be afraid,’ Jobs replied. This stunned Weeks, who was good-humored and confident but not used to Job’s reality distortion field. He tried to explain that a false sense of confidence would not overcome engineering challenges, but that was a premise Jobs had repeatedly shown he didn’t accept. He stared at Weeks unblinkingly. ‘Yes, you can do it,’ he said. ‘Get your mind around it. You can do it.’

“As Weeks retold this story, he shook his head in astonishment. ‘We did it in under six months,’ he said. ‘We produced a glass that had never been made.'” It’s clear that Steve never accepted it when someone said: “This is the way things are.” He never accepted it when someone said: “This can’t be done. But what was Job’s worldview that had him not accept the statement: “It can’t be done”?

The Gorilla Glass incident gave me one important clue. A video documentary on Jobs (“Steve Jobs: One Last Thing”) provided me the final clue. Steve said during an interview:

“Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact: Everything around you that you call life was made up by people who were no smarter than you. The minute that you can understand that, you can change it, you can poke it, that’s maybe the most important thing.”

Jobs understood something that very few other people do: What most people consider to be a given “reality,” is, in fact, something that people make up. It is constructed mainly of people’s beliefs. Most leaders hold many versions of an “It can’t be done” belief. Jobs did not. Jobs did not deal more effectively with the same world most leaders deal with. 

He interacted with a different world—a world in which almost anything is possible, while most people interact with a world in which so many things “can’t be done.” The single most common sabotaging belief people in organizations hold is the belief “we can’t ….” We can’t outsource, find financing, find the type of employees we need, do something because of government, etc. Steve never held any limiting beliefs about doing anything at Apple. And because he never had those beliefs, he was able to inspire people who held those beliefs to transcend them and do things they thought they couldn’t do.

The most significant barrier most people have to happiness and success is not an inability to deal with the world “as it really is.” Their biggest obstacle is a world filled with many self-imposed limitations. They live in a reality of their own making—a world in which they are inadequate, in which they can’t get what they want from others, in which lots of things can’t be done, etc. 

A lot of specific beliefs: a world in which something can’t be made smaller, more powerful, less expensively—a world in which Gorilla Glass can’t be mass produced in six months, etc. Jobs attracted the success he demanded because he did not put limits on his expectations.

 Visualize the Outcome

Visualization techniques have been used by successful people to visualize their desired outcomes for ages. The practice has even given some high achievers what seems like super-powers, helping them create their dream lives by accomplishing one goal or task at a time with hyperfocus and complete confidence according to Jack Canfield.

Inspiring Leaders harness the power of visualization to picture the future, and convince others that working together; they can bring that vision to reality according to Makeadent Leadership.

Here are a few examples of leaders, who inspired by their vision of a better/different future, inspired others to get involved in their dream. Because of that, together, many ordinary folks created extraordinary results:

 Betty White - "Peace in Northern Ireland"

Mikhail Gorbachev - "We need Star Peace not Star Wars".

JFK - "Man on the Moon".

Emily Murphy - "Women shall be counted as persons"

Ghandi - "Be the change you want to see".

William Wilberforce - "Outlaw the slave trade."

Rachel Carson - "The mother of the environmental movement"

Martin Luther King - "I have a dream"

Steve Jobs - "A computer for the rest of us".

Amelia Earhart - "Women can do whatever they set their minds to"

 And, even though when they first started on their journey, it may have seemed 'the impossible dream,' by tapping into the power of visualization, they built the belief within themselves, and others, that their impossible dream was worth striving for.

 Don't discount learning how to visualize as wahoo mumbo jumbo - everything in this world started as a thought. Your thoughts have the power to create worlds. Anytime you get your team thinking about the future; you are tapping into the power of visualization. Great leaders understand the power of visualizing and communicating that vision to their team in simple language everyone can understand.

 Discipline and Focus

The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand. – Football Hall of Famer Vince Lombardi

That’s the formula for winning in the game of sports and in life. You must have the discipline to take action if you want to live your dreams. According to Adam Toren from Entrepreneur, Nick Woodman, founder of GoPro, shared the importance of this drive and discipline as he created his now legendary camera company saying, “To get GoPro started, I moved back in with my parents and went to work seven days a week, 20 hours a day. I wrote off my personal life to make headway on it.”

Sometimes it feels like an uphill battle that never ends. But you will see results, and it will tell you “ hey you are on the right track,” and that will spur you on to the next small victory, then another until they start turning into big wins. When I listen and read the experiences, struggle, and challenges from great entrepreneurs and business leaders like Oprah, Bill Gates, Howard Schultz, Jack Ma, Aliko Dangote, Earvin Magic Johnson, etc. 

They share the same perspective; you have to be dedicated, focus and discipline to achieve your goals and your dreams.  

Bringing It All Together.

You must believe in yourself and remove any limitation you attached to your life, life is limitless. Visualize what you want the outcome to be and share it explicitly with your team. Discipline and focus yourself and your team to ensure your vision comes into reality. Follow these 3 strategies, and you will attract abundant success in your personal and professional life. 

____________________________________________________________________________________

Gifford is the founder of Leadership First and the author of  Communication For Change Management, Mastering Communication To Architect Change. Get your copy here

Ford, Starbucks, Xerox, and Apple experienced phenomenal turnarounds because communication was used to inspire their company to believe in the impossible. The research from this book proves that communication should never be an afterthought when planning and implementing change. When you read this book, you will learn:

•   How your change complexity determine your communication channels during the change 
•  How to conduct a stakeholder’s analysis
•  How to use communication to mitigate resistance 
•  Why communicating the why is so important 
•  How the culture of the company influence your communication strategies
•  The devastating effects of grapevine communication and the importance of formal communication.
•  Top leadership commitment and a lines manager role 

 As the leader, you are required to understand the crucial role communication plays during the change process because it will determine if your change fails or succeeds. When you read this book, you will become an inspirational leader, who can develop and implement a successful communication plan for any type of change in any industry or sector. Available on Amazon, Get your copy here

 Enroll in our exclusive online training course, Communication For Change Management coming soon.