You gotta believe!

Maybe you have heard this encouraged from a parent or coach before.  The greatest leaders instill belief in the people they interact with.  I’ve noticed that it’s a natural aura that they exude.  They encourage people they may not even intend to.  It’s more than their team or employees.

The gift of leadership is not just for a select few people though.  I have great news: you can train leadership.  You can get better at it, and the reason why is that there are multiple ways to express it.  

Some leaders are great vocally (like one who might use the phrase above).  Some lead by example.  Others might be a combination of both.  There is no right or wrong way to do it.  It’s just about results.

Speaking of results, this entry will cover the topic, belief (as discussed above), emotions, actions, and results.  I love a good acronym and today’s is:

B - belief

E - emotions

A - actions

R - results

Belief

Can you trust what you don’t see?  The simple answer is “yes” but after writing about saying “no” in E-Impact 95 shouldn’t make light of this concept.  The difference between the two words can make a huge different in your life, work, and impact project.

It’s tough to trust in things that haven’t been proven true.  The leaders that I mentioned above have a way of instilling belief in people that is the catalyst for greatness.

Some might say that belief is all you need to be confident.  While I think it is part of the process, I disagree.  The reason why belief is so important is it answers a simple “yes” or “no” question.  “Is this possible?” or “Can I do this?”

There is nothing wrong with a negative answer to the question.  In fact, it’s often a good thing.  It saves a whole bunch of time and effort.  

If however the answer is positive, there’s a whole lot of possibility that comes from it.

Belief is a state of productivity.  When you are in that state, you have to be aware of what can be.  You learn this from your emotions.

Emotions

I love being emotional.  It feels natural and expresses what we truly feel.   Today’s digital world encourages to share our best images, our touched-up photos, greatest angles, and auto-tuned voices.  Emotions don’t have the chance to be adjusted.  

Sometimes, emotions are criticized.  You may hear that you should “control your emotions”.  There are times this is necessary - when the extreme ones like fear and anger kick in.

In this case, you want to tap into your emotions.  You want to find them and listen closely.  Assuming you have belief in an idea or concept, your emotions will tell you what to do about it.

Think about the scenario, specifically the people involved.  Emotions revolve around relationships and understand what you are feeling and about who will tell you want needs to be done.

The Impactmaker Movement is a lot about passion with some creativity sprinkled in where needed.  In other words, I’m only asking you to reinvent the wheel when you have to.  If your emotions tell you that a group of people aren’t being treated fairly, consider a different way.  If that way does’t exist, your creativity needs to kick in.

It’s obvious that compassion is a likely emotion for recognizing a need.  It’s a great place to start when calling on your feelings to lead you to action.  However, what happens when it’s not that simple?  What if you need to look deeper for other emotions?

Don’t short change positive emotions either.  I love positive emotions for inspiration and direction.  Things like love, joy, and humor are things that can lead you to the right action too.

After the emotions that come from your belief, you’ll need to take action.

Actions

Actions most definitely speak louder than words.  You may be able to explain your belief and your emotions but what good are described actions without execution?  The truth is that there is some value.  Otherwise, you wouldn’t have made it even this far.  But, you’ve got to execute.

If you’ve found that something makes you worry, then you need to take the steps to fix it.  If you found that something makes you happy, then you need to find out how to replicate it.  Note that we are operating in the impact space.  These emotions are related to the experiences of other people.  It’s your belief that something can be done which fuels these ideas.

I find the biggest misstep in the transition from emotions to actions is in pace.  Many times, your emotions are telling you something deep that extends beyond just the moment you are in.  That specific event just serves as a catalyst for an “emotional explosion”.  

Especially in the impact space, it makes the most sense to take the time to sift through your emotions.  Anger seems to provide good examples of this because most people experience it on occasion and it is often sensationalized in the media.

I have been known to have a bit of a temper on occasion.  It’s not something that I am proud of but it has taught some lessons.  I know that in my relationships I have a tendency to experience “advanced anger”.  That’s a term I just made up but what does the Internet say about it?  The American Psychological Association will tell how to Control Anger Before it Controls You.

The article says the reason for a “low tolerance for frustration” could be “nature” or “nurture”.  In other words, there are genetic and environmental factors.  Either way, I find myself to have a pretty low tolerance.  

The article talks about the response to anger normally being aggressive.  I know that I start feeling aggressive (not in a physical way) when I anticipate something that is frustrating.  It may be a small leap, but I believe this applies to other emotions as well.  We start reacting in anticipation.  

In some of my book’s (Personal Finance in a Public World) research, I noticed that we have a similar “advanced” experience with dopamine (the pleasure hormone).  The body actually secretes it in anticipation of something pleasurable.  It’s like drooling before you even eat a piece of cake (do people actually do that?).  

My tangential commentary is relevant because aggressive and/or anticipatory action in your impact project causes problems.  You can’t assume things are one way until you’ve seen it yourself or have sufficient proof where that is not necessary.  This does not discredit your emotions.  In fact, it’s actually a testament to their power.  They are actually telling you something.  There is a reason why you have anticipation and that may be even more important than the event you are expecting.

Back in my anger example, I know that when someone in my life, like my wife (sorry honey!) is about to do something that frustrates me, I tend to react before it even happens.

I can’t believe I am admitting this.  It’s not all that bad when she puts a dirty dish in the sink instead of directly in the dishwasher.  I really shouldn’t get angry at all.  The issue is not that she is tainting our angelic kitchen (believe me, it needs plenty of work), it’s more that she doesn’t prioritize something that is meaningful to me (tidiness).  Rather than yell at her or storm over to the sink and put the dish in its place, I should probably let the anger subside and have a conversation with her or take a minute to notice that the dishwasher that I was supposed to empty is full of clean dishes (I think I just scored some husband points).

My precious kitchen means nothing in comparison to the world changing impact project that you care deeply about.  Hopefully, anger doesn’t get to you too often in that world.  But, what about worry, compassion, fear, or even positive emotions like love and joy?  These are powerful feelings that need to be examined.  

Don’t make snap judgements in anticipation of things that are not concrete.  You could allocate a lot of time or resources to something that doesn’t need fixing or to something that is not as great as it seems.  Let the moment breathe and use your analytical brain. You have one whether you know it or not, you may just need to practice the process.

Results

Here’s the good news:

Results come from actions everytime so you’ll never be missing something to evaluate.  

Here’s the bad news:

Results are often irreversible.  It pays to take the time to give you and your team the best chance for a desirable result.

You can’t guarantee belief, emotions, or actions but if you have all three of those, you’ll definitely have results.  

Always start with the end in mind.  That way, results will never sneak up on you.  You’ll have a pretty good handle on what to expect.  I hesitate to say anticipate after the commentary in the last section but there are no guarantees.  Impactmakers know this.  And so we do our best to prepare for success.

Winning

We went through the BEAR and it seems great on paper (or screen) but we must apply this directly to our efforts if we hope to be successful.  My mind tells me that we just need belief and then everything else will come.  However, I’ve noticed that it doesn’t always work like that.  And it doesn’t have to.

You do have to believe but that may not be the trigger to your efforts.  You might have to take action first.  Or, you might experience some emotion initially.  Either of these could turn you onto an issue or cause.  

Eventually, you’ll find a belief that something needs to be done and you’ll be able to address it.  Just get in the loop.  What’s most important are the results, not the entry point.

Believe. Emote. Act. Results. - In no particular order.