Molly Harvey - Outstanding leadership

Visualise and be it now

Leaders visualise the future on the inside before developing it on the outside. Every morning, make time to sit down and visualise your day ahead. One of my favourite sayings is, be there before you get there.

• Leaders always think about the future and how to get to the goals that they set.
• Let the past go. Be in the present and walk into the future you want by visualising it every day.
• Create an environment around you that prepares you for the future.
• Shoot for the stars; write in your journal what your future will look like in five, ten and fifteen years from now.
• Visualise and meditate on your goals daily.
• Mastermind with other leaders.
• Know what gives you energy, what takes your energy and what wastes your time.
• At the end of the day just before you pop off to sleep, visualise the next day and see it all unfolding as you want it to.
• Look at what everyone else is doing and visualise something different.

Talk less

Leadership is more about taking action than talking. Everything changes when we take action. Leaders know they are paid to be scared and push through adversity. What are the important decisions you need to make today so that every day you can take action and manage those decisions?

• For one week ask more questions; watch what is going on around you, talk less and take more action.
• At your next meeting experiment by asking more questions rather than making statements.
• If you have too many projects on the go, clear them all and start from scratch.
• Take a day off and notice how you will come back ready to take action.
• When you say you will do something, do it.
• Be accountable to yourself.
• Remove the word should from your language and add the word choice instead.
• Continually develop your self image and watch how much more action you take in life.

Determination

Determination is all about never giving up, overcoming setbacks and pushing through to the next step. Determination challenges your assumptions, overcoming what scares you and disrupting your old patterns.

• The difference between whats not possible and what is possible is your level of determination.
• Outstanding leaders are ordinary people with extraordinary determination.
• Great leaders continue to re-invent themselves through determination.
• Know that there is a thin line between determination and obsession; balance is the key.
• Determination is the commitment to keep going when everyone laughs at you.
• Determination is that inner knowledge that you will succeed one day.
• Determination is a state of mind that you build day by day.

See all problems as challenges

It takes discipline to reframe problems as challenges and turn them into opportunities. When we train our minds to look for the lesson in every problem it helps us to solve the challenge and move forward in our lives more quickly.

• Train yourself to see every problem as a challenge so that you can overcome it.
• Ask for help and admit it quickly if you have made a mistake.
• Practise patience and perseverance.
• The days of micromanagement are over. Inspire everyone around you to seek solutions.
• Keep learning, keep growing, and never stop.
• Get out of the way, let go of control and trust others.
• Listen, engage and then share your opinion.
• View change as a challenge and foster hardiness.
• Ask yourself how important this issue will be one month from now and you will give yourself a great reality check.

Passion

Passion is that positive flame inside each and every one of us that starts from the inside and radiates out. Passion is contagious. When we are passionate about what we do in life it eases everything we do and say. I made a decision many years ago that I never want to retire. Why? Because I have found what I am here to do and it never feels like work. Each day is another chance to be passionate and go out and make a difference in life.

• Be knowledgeable; try to know everything that is going on in your field of business.
• Every day sharpen the leadership skills that will continue to give you the edge.
• Trust and follow your heart energy as well as your head energy.
• Every day raise the bar of your integrity and your level of personal mastery.
• Find the fun in what you do and treat your employees and everyone youre surrounded by in a heartfelt attentive way.
• You need both passion and compassion to lead.
• Every day share what you know with others.
• Every day inspire yourself and others to action.
• Know who you truly are and be consistent in your decisions and behaviour.

Storyboard your vision

Storyboards are a representation of what you want to happen in your life. When I was young I didnt have my own bedroom until I was eight years old when my mum and dad had a large bathroom extension added to the house. The new bathroom was so large that half the room became my bedroom. I can still remember those white walls that became my first storyboard. You are never too young or too old to start storyboarding. Walt Disney created the Disney empire through storyboarding.

• Brainstorm and write down what you want to achieve in the four areas of your life: work, health, family and learning.
• Buy a large poster board, coloured pens, lots of magazines, glue, pins and tacks.
• Sit quietly and ask yourself, What do I really want to achieve?
• Pick words that will be your theme for the coming year; for example, my theme this year is Focused Action.
• Go through magazines and cut out relevant pictures and words.