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Peak Performance Resources for Leaders by Leaders

Category: Leadership & Influence Page 1 of 10

Finding Your Purpose and Living a Meaningful Life

In April of 1958, Hunter S. Thompson was 22 years old when he wrote this letter to his friend Hume Logan in response to a request for life advice.

Thompson’s letter, found in Letters of Note, offers thoughtful and profound advice.


April 22, 1958
57 Perry Street
New York City

Dear Hume,

You ask advice: ah, what a very human and very dangerous thing to do! For to give advice to a man who asks what to do with his life implies something very close to egomania. To presume to point a man to the right and ultimate goal— to point with a trembling finger in the RIGHT direction is something only a fool would take upon himself.

Leadership Advice from Marcus Aurelius

woman wearing white sleeveless top and black pencil skirt facing woman wearing pink sleeveless top and black pencil skirt leaning on wall

Dominance, Trustworthiness, and Competence in Body Motion During Speeches

Highlights

  • Body movements of politicians giving speeches were turned into stick-figure videos.
  • Stimuli were rated on dominance, trustworthiness, and competence.
  • Simple nonverbal cues were linked to perceptions of dominance and trustworthiness.
  • Male speakers from opposition parties received the highest ratings on dominance.
  • Body motion has ecological validity and is a nonverbal cue of social relevance.

People read dominance, trustworthiness, and competence into the faces of politicians but do they also perceive such social qualities in other nonverbal cues? We transferred the body movements of politicians giving a speech onto animated stick figures and presented these stimuli to participants in a rating experiment.

Analyses revealed single-body postures of maximal expansiveness as strong predictors of perceived dominance. Also, stick figures producing expansive movements and many movements throughout the encoded sequences were judged high on dominance and low on trustworthiness.

In a second step, we divided our sample into speakers from the opposition parties and speakers that were part of the government, and male and female speakers. Male speakers from the opposition were rated higher on dominance but lower on trustworthiness than speakers from all other groups.

In conclusion, people use simple cues to make equally simple social categorizations. Moreover, the party status of male politicians seems to become visible in their body motions.

woman pointing at sky on seashore

ZONE Tips > Hand Gestures Increase Influence

A team of researchers from the Netherlands found that hand gestures, when used strategically, influence how certain words are heard. 

Participants were 20% more likely to hear and interpret the words being spoken when accompanied by a matching hand gesture and 40% as likely to hear the wrong word when the gestures did not match

Previous research has suggested that certain hand gestures can signal extraversion and dominance and that speaking with gestures, in general, tends to lead to being evaluated as warm, agreeable, and energetic.

– Molly Hanson

Expressing yourself with your voice, body, and hands can help you to get into the zone. Animating your communication helps you feel your message and transfer this same feeling to your audience.

Sadly, most people speak in a monotone and use little to no gestures. Boring!

Let’s get into the zone and express ourselves!

Who’s On Your Team?

Have you ever wondered why some leaders have lots of free time, make more money each year, and seem to have the golden touch?

Are they smarter or luckier?

If you are struggling more than you would like, have no time, and continually lurch from crisis to crisis, there is a way out.

The difference that makes the difference is the team. We all know that life is a team sport.

You are only as good as your team!

Your team isn’t limited to your employees. Who is on your board of directors? Do you have a formal board of advisors? Do you have a personal mentor or coach? These people will tell you what you need to hear versus what you want to hear.

Unless you are willing to be surrounded by people who expect more of you than you do, you will have people telling you what you want to hear and confirming that you are right — when you may be wrong.

Your team includes your suppliers and customers.

You work too hard if you aren’t part of a winning team.

The company’s leadership is the key person whose vision, energy, drive, and enthusiasm (or lack thereof) are the vital element, Lifeforce and the driving force behind the company and everything it does. A change at the top reverberates throughout the organization.

For most leaders, the responsibilities, fast-paced work environments, and constant challenges create stress and pressure to perform at higher and higher levels.

Who do you go to for support?

Who do you go to when there are conflicts and upsets with colleagues? How do you balance your work life with your family life? How does the work you take home impact your family?

Most leaders bottle all these conflicting agendas and emotions within themselves, causing additional stress and potential burnout. 

The world’s best athletes, actors, and musicians have coaches to fine-tune their performance, motivate them, keep them in check and balance, and provide a sounding board for ideas and problem-solving.

Likewise, an experienced coach can provide you with a competitive edge, a sounding board, and general counsel for problem-solving. Traditional therapists, counselors, and psychologists don’t work for most leaders, as their knowledge of business and organizations is limited.

Goldzone’s coaching service is very discrete support provided by experienced executives, highly trained in leadership, coaching, business, and personal development.

If you are sick and tired and ready for a change, contact a Goldzone Coach today!

The Science of Persuasion

Are You a Manager or a Leader?

The New Rules of Leadership: 2-Hour Seminar

We are in the midst of a crisis of leadership where the old rules that made us successful no longer work! When the prevailing paradigm changes, the rules change, and the incumbent players lose their advantage. In this 2-hour seminar, we discuss why everyone needs to learn the new rules to succeed in the future! If you are having challenges leading or working with people of a different generation to you, listen to this audio seminar and learn why that is and what you can do about it!

10 Keys To Power Communication

I started my first business in 1994. I was young, inexperienced and had no idea just how dramatic the roller-coaster of business would be. What I lacked in experience, I made up for with hard work, enthusiasm, grit, and determination. My partners certainly had their hands full because I was also stubborn, perhaps a little hardheaded.

The business expanded rapidly, and we generated $3.3 million (in 2017 dollars) in our first 8 months.

We hired lots of salespeople and created a sales manual for them to have tools, tips, and guidelines at their fingertips. In this article, you will find an excerpt directly out of our original manual. It is as relevant today as it was back in 1994!

The Anticipatory Leader: Principles to Make the World Work

Fuller’s Leadership Principles:

  1. Think comprehensively.
  2. Anticipate the future.
  3. Respect gestation rates.
  4. Envision the best possible future.
  5. Be a “trim tab”—an individual who can initiate big changes.
  6. Take individual initiative.
  7. Ask the obvious and naive questions.
  8. Do more with less.
  9. Seek to reform the environment, not man.
  10. Solve problems through action.

Man knows so much and does so little.

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