SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: SENSEI LEADER Book Signing & Benefit – Freeport, Maine

Join Jim Bouchard on Wednesday, July 1st at Conundrum Wine Bistro in Freeport, Maine., for a special signing of his new book, THE SENSEI LEADER to benefit The Friends of Long Creek Youth Development Center!

Your contribution includes:

• Signed copy of THE SENSEI LEADER
• Complimentary wine & appetizers
• Select reading by the author

CLICK HERE TO RSVP!

Proceeds benefit The Friends of Long Creek Youth Development Center!

The Friends of Long Creek support programs directed toward returning youth in the Maine criminal justice system to their communities as productive citizens. Click here to learn more about their great work.

Jim is a volunteer mentor at Long Creek and is honored to support this cause.

From THE SENSEI LEADER book: Share Success!

Today’s post is an excerpt from THE SENSEI LEADER, now available on Amazon and other major booksellers.
For a limited time, save 20% when you order through this exclusive link!

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Success is the goal that gives our lives meaning and purpose. Of course, that depends on exactly how you define success.

There is no “my success” when you’re a leader. It’s OUR success.

I’ve become a cocky old bastard in some regards. Just after I turned 50, I proclaimed that I now know exactly what success is. When I make this declaration during a keynote or in a workshop, I can start a fight—and that’s a fight I’m willing to start!
I can and will define success for you…

Success is simply feeling that you have enough––materially, emotionally and spiritually.

That’s it.

The fight usually starts when someone stands up to tell me that I can’t define what success means to anyone else.

Well—I just did.

What I did not do is tell you how much is “enough.” That’s completely up to you. I wouldn’t presume to tell anyone else how much they need to feel satisfied and successful.

I do, however, know this as a fact: when you don’t feel as if you have enough, you cannot feel successful. You may even feel depressed or desperate.

Poverty is not an empowering experience.

There are some problems with success that make it elusive, changeable and sometimes difficult to recognize, even when you’re apparently successful.

First—Success is not a fixed point.

It’s difficult if not impossible for most people to identify a specific amount of money, a particular achievement, or even an ideal life partner that absolutely guarantees success.

Next—Success is a feeling, and by definition, it’s impossible to objectively quantify a feeling.

Feelings are also extremely dynamic and fluid and sometimes subject to external forces beyond your control.
The good news is that while feelings and emotions are difficult if not impossible to control, you can always control your response to them. Your response can in turn alter and shape your perceptions and feelings.

Finally––Success is not about getting more—it’s about having enough.

Enough doesn’t mean you need to have more than someone else, but unfortunately, that’s exactly how most people measure success—and that can leave you sadly disappointed.

As a leader, your success is dependent upon the success of your followers. When they fail—you fail. When they’re suffering—you suffer too. Of course, the upside is that when they are successful—you are also successful.
Having said that, an effective leader develops followers–– not dependent children.

You are not solely responsible for each person’s individual success or failure.

Your success as a leader, however, grows in direct proportion to your willingness to share that responsibility and in direct proportion to your investment in the success of each individual you serve.

Show your people that you are truly committed to their success. That’s how you inspire your followers to create the abundance that defines success—for themselves, for the organization, and for you.

In the end, success is something you and your followers produce together.––share it.

Excellence is not for the chosen few

We’ve been doing a lot of sneak previews for Jim’s upcoming book, THE SENSEI LEADER. Let’s not forget his powerful book on personal and professional Mastery- THINK Like a BLACK BELT…here’s a sample:

Too many people think excellence is for the chosen few. That’s just dead wrong.

You might think that you’re average and that excellence is a quality that describes someone better than you. Change your mind. Excellence is not only attainable; it’s your personal responsibility.

Excellence means reaching the highest levels of performance, production, and creativity that you can achieve. Compare yourself to others and you’ll always find people better or worse than you are; that’s incidental. Compare who you are today to who you were yesterday; that’s a meaningful comparison.

Everyone can be excellent!

You’d be right to question that statement. How can that be if excellence is a quality that describes the highest levels of performance? There are the best, then the rest; right? It’s not about being “better” than someone else; it’s the other guy’s job to be his best; it’s your job to be your best. In some area, in some expression of your talents and abilities you can excel. Excellence is a choice, not an accident.

I make two promises to my martial arts students and only two:

#1 If you’re willing to do what it takes to get to Black Belt you’ll be able to do anything you want within the scope of your talents and abilities.

#2 You’ll learn how to recognize and develop your talents and abilities.

That’s it. You don’t have to be better than everyone else to be excellent. You’ve got to identify your unique talents and develop them to the best of your ability. You’ve got to commit yourself to becoming a better you every day of your life. That’s what excellence is all about and nobody else can do it for you.

The fact is that every person on this planet has some talent or ability in which he or she can excel.

Other people can help you develop. They can teach you, coach you, encourage you, and hold you accountable, but the work is yours alone. All excellent people use mentors, coaches, teachers, and trainers; they know it’s a part of the process. They also know that when you step in the ring you’re on your own. Your trainer is in your corner to coach you, give you a different perspective and sometimes to throw ice in your trunks; nevertheless, you’re the guy who has to take the shots.

The Black Belt has undeniably become a universal symbol for excellence. The renowned “Six Sigma” business program co-opted this symbol to represent the highest levels of training in their system. Once people find out I’m a Black Belt in martial arts they have a certain expectation that I’ve mastered the fighting arts and assume that I’ve dedicated myself to a lifetime of training and self-perfection. They’d be right in that assumption provided they understand that the Master is always a self-directed work-in-progress.…

“Perfection is not a destination, it’s a a never ending process.”

We’re too dependent on leaders…

In light of recent events in our country and in our world, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about the condition of leadership. The problems we face inspired my to write my latest book THE SENSEI LEADER. In this book, I’m not just looking at the problems we have with today’s leaders, but also the problems we have as followers.

We’ve created most of our leadership problems by simply refusing to take care ourselves. We willingly abdicate self-authority in exchange for some illusion of comfort, convenience and security.

From THE SENSEI LEADER:

We’re too dependent on leaders…

I don’t believe we’ve entirely lost the spirit of rugged individualism- but it’s sure as hell on life support!

For the first time in history, a nation was organized on the fundamental principle that the individual is superior to the state. The United States was founded on the idea that you are endowed with “inalienable rights,” and that it is the purpose of the state to protect those rights, not the purpose of the individual to serve king and country.

Has this experiment failed?

If we don’t want to be ruled by kings, czars or dictators, then we’ve got to accept responsibility for ourselves. If we want to be citizens instead of subjects, we’ve got to govern and lead ourselves.

Most of all, we’ve got to stop depending on leaders, in the sense of “others,” to fulfill every need, grant every wish and solve every problem. Our founders had the courage to reject the notion of a “mother” country to lead and govern themselves. We’ve got reject the entitlement culture that looks to others, especially in the form of government, to provide for every basic need, grant every wish and solve every problem.

After all, didn’t we once write a pretty impressive document that started with the words; “We the People?”

People who make the most effective leaders are usually people who don’t want or need overbearing, paternalistic or authoritarian leadership.

These days we seldom rally around a leader with the courage to be honest when times are tough, or the leader who calls on our ingenuity and grit when we’re faced with the most difficult challenges or choices. Instead, we flock to the leader that promises easy solutions- or the charismatic leader who satisfies some misplaced and distorted yearning for paternal guidance and security.

It’s time to stop being a society of children and start building a culture of leadership again.

SPECIAL BOOK REVIEW: Fiercely Loyal by Dov Baron

Much of the crises in leadership today is the result of a widening rift between managerial or organizational styles and the true human expression of leadership. Dov Baron’s latest book, Fiercely Loyal, is closing that gap.

Striking a masterful balance between engaging stories and irrefutable research, Dov creates a template you can use immediately to become an authentic leader and attract followers who are Fiercely Loyal.

Knowing Dov, it was no surprise to me that he places a tremendous emphasis on the same characteristics of effective leadership that I do. Two of the most important are compassion and genuine courage. I knew we were singing in the same choir when Dov dispelled the commonly held belief that being an open and vulnerable leader is a mark of strength, not weakness…

“Despite what you’ve been taught, vulnerability is the very opposite of weakness; in truth, it’s all about courage. Make no mistake, for someone to be truly courageous, vulnerability must come first…

“On the other hand, real courage requires vulnerability. Real courage requires us to step into something where we cannot predict the outcome; something that, in some way, seems terrifying, not because we could die, although that may be part of how we feel, but because we feel we might receive the most painful of punishments—that of being rejected, disowned, and ultimately isolated.

“That’s why I tell you that real courage cannot exist without the risk of vulnerability!”

Throughout the book Dov validates the leadership lessons I learned as a Sensei…

I don’t think I’ve ever asked Dov if he studied martial arts, but he certainly seems like a black belt to me when he talks about two other key characteristics of a genuine leader, purpose and Mastery:

“A way to internally define mastery is our urge to get better at something, and then when we get better at it, to see if we can keep getting better. Even though it may make no logical sense, people will play musical instruments for hours each night and on the weekend just to get better. Most of these folks are not planning on becoming professionals, or even hoping to make any money from their skill, yet they toil toward mastery.

“Looking purely from the position of economics, an economist would have to ask, ‘Why are they doing this?’ It’s awe inspiringly clear. Working through the challenge of mastery gives us a deeper sense of contribution, and when we combine the desire for mastery with making a contribution, we ignite a deep tribal desire. Once again, we are part of something bigger than ourselves; we belong and we have value. Simply put, we do it because it brings about the sense of personal satis- faction that happens when we overcome a challenge, because it is fun, and most important of all, because it gives our lives meaning—and meaning, as you will see, is vital to creating a culture where your top talent is Fiercely Loyal.”

Ultimately, that’s what leadership is all about. The primary roles of a leader are to inspire the best efforts of others, direct their collective efforts toward a larger, collective success and most of all- to be a living example of personal and professional excellence.

I’ve been instigating some trouble at my events by telling people I can’t stand “Undercover Boss.” It’s an entertaining show, but it actually pisses me off that so many executives have absolutely no connection to people on the front lines.

I may include this excerpt from Fiercely Loyal in my slide deck from now on:

“Business is now, more than ever, a process of relationship. However, as I’ve said many times before, those relationships must be transparent, authentic, and genuinely caring. This also means face-to-face business, not just with your customers, but with everyone in and on your team.”

Leadership is a human expression- to my mind leadership is one of the highest expressions of human interaction.

As a leader, you can only honor that expression through compassion and caring and by being fully engaged, on the most human level, with everyone you serve. That’s the point Dov drives home in his powerful book.

You need a copy of Fiercely Loyal in your library…

…today.

Learn more about Dov Baron and order Fiercely Loyal here…