Throughout my career, I have been very fortunate to work with great leaders, inspiring colleagues and amazing team members. This experience led me to strongly believe that maybe the most important responsibility we have as leaders is to recognize top talent and develop new leaders. As part of responsibility of developing leaders, I believe in inspiring and enabling our people to drive strong growth is extremely important. Strong growth aspirations and bold directions drive two things: Firstly, it eliminates mental barriers and drive to people to think differently to deliver on aspirations. Secondly, it creates a habit of looking to the big picture, align with the bold vision and think big. Thinking Big is one of the biggest virtue we can introduce to ourselves and our teams, hence requires a deeper discussion.
In my personal career, in my all coaching discussions with my teams and with people I am mentoring; “Growing Big by Thinking Big” is one of the main drivers of success discussions and it is the very first item of my leadership philosophy. Based on my personal experiences with great leaders in my company as well as the influential book “The Magic of Thinking Big” of David Schwartz, I structured the “Growing Big by Thinking Big" mission under 8 pillars: Thoughts & Beliefs; Self-Reflection, Attitude, Confidence, Excuses & Fear, Environment, Action, Continuous Progress. In my all coaching discussions and personal reflections, I go thru each pillar one by one to bring new perspectives and reflections for each pillar. Here I want to share with you my five main ideas under each pillar. Thanks to all people I worked with, which helped me to shape this approach.
All changes happening nowadays in the world requires all of us to innovate, become intentional learners and having a strong growth mindset. Those who will think big and will act upon that bold direction will be the ones who will drive disruption and transform our world.
Thoughts & Beliefs:
- A person is a product of his own thoughts and beliefs.
- Think success, don’t think failure. A wise man will be master of his mind. A fool will be its slave.
- Remind yourself regularly that you are better than you think you are
- The size of your success is determined by the size of your belief
- Belief releases creative powers. Disbelief put the brakes on. Eliminate the word “impossible” from your thinking and speaking vocabularies.
Self- Reflection:
- You are what you think you are. Others see in us what we see in ourselves. We receive the kind of treatment we think we deserve.
- We must think we are important, really think so, then others will think so too.
- Think your work is important. The way we think toward our jobs determines how our subordinates think toward their jobs
- Being self-critical is constructive. Blaming others is destructive. Stop blaming luck. Blaming luck never got anyone where he wanted to go.
- You see in any situation what you expect to see. A problem, a difficulty becomes unsolvable only when you think its unsolvable. Refuse to even let yourself say or think that it is impossible
Attitude:
- Attitudes are mirrors of the mind
- To activate others, to get them enthusiastic, you must first be enthusiastic yourself.
- Whenever you leave a person, ask yourself: Does that person honestly felt better because he has talked with me?
- Remember, praise is power. Invest the praise you receive from your superiors. Pass praise on down to your teams
- Recognize the fact that no person is perfect. Recognize the fact that the other fellow has a right to be different
Confidence:
- Confidence is acquired, developed. People who radiate confidence are who conquered worry.
- The greatest human weakness is self-depreciation
- To think Big, we must use words and phrases that produce big, positive mental images. To think confidently, act confidently.
- When you feel like taking negative action, ask yourself: “Is it really important?”
- Keep your eyes focused on the big objective. It is much better to lose a battler and win the war rather than to win a battle and lose the war
Excuses & Fear
- The more successful the individual, the less inclined he is to make excuses
- Remind yourself often “It is better to wear out than rust out”
- Someone’s “Good Luck” is due to preparation, planning and success-producing thinking. Don’t be a wishful thinker. Don’t waste your mental muscles dreaming of an “effortless” way to win to success.
- Fear is real. And we must recognize it exists before we can conquer it.
- Action cures fear. Indecision, postponement fertilize fear. Ask: “What kind of action can I take to conquer my fear?”
Environment:
- Environment shapes us, makes us to think the way we do.
- Companion with people with big ideas raises the level of our thinking, close contact with ambitious people gives us ambition
- You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with
- Don’t let negative thinkers pull you down to their level. Cling to people who think progressively. Move upward with them. A person is not “pulled up” to a higher level job, rather he is “lifted up.”
- Throw thought poison out of your environment. Avoid gossip.
Actions:
- People who get things done in this world don’t wait for the spirit to move them, they mode the spirit.
- Lots of good dreams never come true because we say “I’ll start someday”, when we should say “I’ll start now, right now
- An only fair idea acted upon and developed, is 100% better than a terrific idea that dies because it isn’t followed up.
- The test of a successful person is not an ability to eliminate all problems before they arise but to meet and work out difficulties when they do arise.
- Seize the initiative. Be a crusader. Be a volunteer. Show you have the ability and ambition to do. When you see something that you believe ought to be done, pick up the ball and run
Continuous Progress:
- Think in progress, believe in progress, push for progress. Think improvement in everything you do. Think high standards in everything you do.
- Always think: “I know we can do better than this”
- As you press forward to success, set goals. Deadlines, target dates, self-imposed quotes. You will accomplish only what you plan to accomplish.
- The biggest and most rewarding kind of investment is self-investment purchasing things that build mental power and proficiency.
- Your life is too important to be left to chance. Write about your short-mid-long term goals. Let your major goal to be your automatic pilot.
Kadir Sener