Author of seven books, including The Accidental Creative, Herding Tigers, Die Empty, Daily Creative, The Brave Habit. I help creative pros and leaders to be brave, focused, and brilliant every day.
BFB: The hidden key to endless motivation
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Before we dive into this issue, just wanted to let you know we've just launched a new set of speaking topics and workshops. If you or your team are interested in discussing a possible engagement, I'd love to chat about how I might help. Now... onward. Brave: Stop giving answers - ask more questionsAs leaders, we often feel pressure to have all the answers. But the most effective leaders know that asking the right questions is far more powerful than always providing solutions. When you constantly solve problems for your team, you rob them of the opportunity to grow and develop their own problem-solving skills. Instead of jumping in with answers, try asking thought-provoking questions. "What do you think we should do?" "What are we not considering?" "How might we approach this differently?" These questions not only empower your team but also lead to more innovative solutions. By fostering a culture of curiosity and inquiry, you're building a team that can think critically and adapt to new challenges. Remember, your role is to guide and support, not to be the source of all wisdom. What powerful question can you ask your team today to unlock their potential? Focused: The hidden key to endless motivationIn this week's podcast episode, I share a story of personal failure and how it led me to eventual success. The key to maintaining my motivation in the midst of failure? Progress. Small, daily wins. In her book The Progress Principle, Teresa Amabile wrote: The key, then, is to design each job so that, in the act of carrying out the work, people gain knowledge about the results of their effort. Ideally, this should be a feature of every job in every contemporary organization. Is it, in yours?” When your work feels like a never-ending set of tasks with little sense of completion, it's tough to stay mentally engaged. However, when you find small joys in daily progress, learning, and traction, that motivation will carry you through the most difficult moments. So, do you have a way of measuring your progress each day, or are you just moving a wall forward one inch at a time? How will you measure progress in your work today? Brilliant: Didn't fail? Too bad!Founder of Spanx and billionaire Sara Blakely frequently shares the story of how her father built resilience into her as a child. At the end of each day, he would ask her "What did you fail at today?" If the answer was "nothing", he'd be disappointed. Not because he wanted her to fail, but because he wanted her to learn that failure wasn't the end. It was an opportunity for learning and growth. If you're not occasionally failing, you're probably not trying sufficiently difficult things. So, when was the last time you failed? And, what did you learn from it? And, finally:If you enjoyed this newsletter, my new book The Brave Habit is a practical guide to making brave decisions every day in your work. I hope you’ll read it. (You can download a few sample chapters here.) Your turn to lead:Do you know someone who might find this email helpful? Please forward it to them.
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Todd Henry
Author of seven books, including The Accidental Creative, Herding Tigers, Die Empty, Daily Creative, The Brave Habit. I help creative pros and leaders to be brave, focused, and brilliant every day.
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