Followership for Leadership Breakthrough

It is simple logic that any individual or organization cannot achieve breakthrough and success if the focus is solely on taking up the leadership roles and with no willingness to play an effective follower’s roles. It is undeniable that the effectiveness of any leader is to a great extent dependent on the willingness and consent of the followers. Without followers, there can be no leader. Listed below are four critical characteristics of being an effective followership:

Firstly, effective followers are loyal, reliable, honest and truthful. It is critical that followers provide sincere and truthful information to their leaders. Good followers speak up even to the point of disagreeing with their leaders. Ineffective followers fail to give honest opinions. They cover up problems and are inclined to become ‘yes men.

Secondly, effective followers think for and carry out duties with assertiveness and motivation. They can be independent, critical thinkers for the impact of their actions, creative and innovative, and take criticism constructively. They are rational and responsible human resources who can succeed without strong leadership because they are committed to the vision and purpose of  being a leader.

Thirdly, effective followers are distinguishable from ineffective followers by their enthusiasm and self-reliant participation in the pursuit of team objective. Ineffective followers on the other hand, are often critical, cynical, apathetic, and alienated and become experts at the “the blame game,” blaming everybody around them for problems.

Finally, followers sometimes need to function as leaders whenever is required. Indeed, followers and leaders are linked together in interrelated roles and are dependent on each other. Clearly, the importance of followers cannot be underestimated.

As we devote much of our time and money to further develop our leadership qualities, perhaps we should also keep reminding ourselves that followership is what enables leaders the opportunity to achieve breakthrough and successes.  

Be SMART in Goal Setting!

Aristotle once said;“Man is a goal-seeking animal. His life only has meaning if he is reaching out and striving for his goal.” As such, I believe one of the critical skills to master in order to achieve breakthrough in life is goal setting. Once we’ve turn the process of setting goals to a skill, it will surely make a great impact on our life.

Goal setting allows us to identify what is important in our daily living and turn our thoughts and ideas into reality. It empowers us to decide what is our meaning of life, determine what we want to achieve, be motivated and gain self-confidence as and when we achieve it.

The process of creating a well-thought goal must be supported with energy, enthusiasm, commitment and effort. If it is practiced poorly, goal setting could cause serious downside effects which can undermine our success in execution. For example, poor goal setting could makes us become cynical, self procrastinating and fosters confusion about where to concentrate our actions and energy.

The key to setting the right, quality goals has to be SMART;

S = Specific

M = Measureable

A = Achievable

R = Realistic

T = Time Bound

And without having these SMART goals, it’s very easy that we let our life deteriorate to a state of "just living without real meaning and breakthrough success". 

From Breakthrough Desperado to Breakthrough Definitely!

One of the main reasons prompted me to rename this blog is simply because I wanna make it sounds more positive and energizing. Whether we like it or not, our attitude about life in general has a powerful influence on how we experience everything. Learning to adjust our attitude and perception positively is a powerful way to create positive change in every aspect of our life.

The common setback is that, sometimes we find ourselves inadvertently cultivating an unhealthy/negative thought of things that are out of harmony with our beliefs system, leading to seed unnecessary pain and suffering in our daily lives, emotionally and/or physically. It is therefore important to always remind ourselves that we do have a choice – to think positive (and not negative). This choice enforcement allows us to assign a positive emotional value and empower us physically not to fall upon any unwanted or inappropriate tendencies.

Indeed, the quality of our life is very much determined by the way we make the most out of it, irregardless of our current circumstances are. It’s all about positive attitude. The ability to keep our dreams alive in the face of challenging circumstances is not going to be easy and fun. It requires one of the greatest attributes of a successful person, that is to be positive thinking. As such, I decided today to rename this blog more POSITIVELY to Breakthrough Definitely! Sounds more energizing? You like it better? If yes, let us together move forward from Breakthrough Desperado to Breakthrough Definitely...

To despair or to shine in times of difficulties?

Very often, people like to tell us that the ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of despair and disappointment. Yes, that makes sense. But in real life, how many of us can actually embrace this fact and engrave it deep into our hearts and souls?

In times of difficulties and disappointment, not only we tend to lose sight of our own capabilities and self confidence, we also loose hope and happiness. Likely, we restrict our own ability, undermine our own capability and confine our infinite mentality within a finite sphere. Eventually we'll break down, we become despair, depress and live through our daily lives at a lowest, pathetic level, without realising that it is actually our minds and emotions that restrict us from moving forward triumphantly.

Why would we so easily let go, allowing our mind and souls to get into self destructive mode and negatively affecting our lives - our work, our personal relationships, our sense of security, our self-worth and our appearance? Why can't we control our toughts, manage our emotions and avoid getting knocked down painfully. Is this how we are suppose to grow and learn? How are we able and ready to get back up and strive on? Can we manage the finite disappointment without losing our infinite hope in life? Well, these are tough questions that only we could search our souls and answer them for ourselves.

At the end of the day, it is only with strong mental strength and with character to manage and overcome despair and disappointment, we could bring up and reflect special self attractiveness and personal values to self and others. It is only when we could overcome our own inferiority complex and grip our courage, that we can realize our potentialities to self and others! Ultimately, this is a self breakthrough that's worth a challenge at least once in our life time!

Take courage and all the best.

Don’t Get Stuck, Desperate and Die!

Over the last weekend, I was rather bored, went to cinema and watched one of the most boring and yet controversial movies of the year! Boring…, in the sense that the movie, “BURIED” is shot over-90 minutes, with only one actor and one scene throughout. Controversial…, in the sense that the storyline and the actor’s performance had clearly demonstrated the very real but cruel aspects of today’s lives… People get stuck, desperate and eventually die in a way beyond our control!

The main actor (Ryan Reynolds) in the movie is simply a man trying to make a living and is thrust and got stuck into a horrible situation (buried underground) somewhere in Iraq. All he wants is to get home to his wife and son alive. As the clock is ticking fast, he became desperate to safe himself, struggled hard, reacted irrationally in moments of panic and frustration, which is something every person can relate to in times of high stress and desperation before dying helplessly and miserably.

By the end of the show, it makes me wonder whether such a storyline also reflects the many facets of life stories of yours and mine, and perhaps many more out there. We may get stuck while in search of decent lives with our love ones in today’s globalised but segmentised world (where 90% of the world’s wealth are being controlled and manipulated by the top 10% of the world’s population), we enslaved ourselves for meagre incomes, along the way became so desperate to break free from our financial bondages and eventually ended up helplessly in a square box being buried four feet under!

Well, it’s rather sad indeed but I believe if we are not alert and not determined to take drastic actions, “BURIED” will become the His-story for you and me. For such, let me reiterate it once again, “Change We Need, Progress We Seek” and along the way to achieve breakthrough, we need to Keep Focus, Be Patient and Be Positive. The only impossible journey is the one we never begin!

Success = Failures + Frustrations?

Have you ever thought what success really means to you? For some people, success is making lots of money, for another success is to take action towards achieving goals. Someone else may define success as fulfilling self potential, to become rich, to win big and make others jealous. Other more direct and simple “successes” could be to laugh often and much, to gain respects from other people, to get married and have lots of children, to appreciate friendship and to stay healthy and beauty.

To me, success simply means knowing what you want, take actions and along the way, manage your frustration! One of my goals set earlier this year was to trim down my body weight in order to stay healthy and look sexier. I therefore started to head back to the gym on regular basis, to get sweat and burn excess calories. I normally go for serious cardio workouts, started of with weight lifting and/or rowing, then heading to cycling before stepping unto the treadmill for a real good stretch.

Well, life is always filled with a series of sweet as well as nasty surprises. As I’ve managed to trim down a steady 1.5kg/mth of weight for the past 2 months, which is very encouraging and satisfying, I decided to double-up my efforts by running faster and further last week, hoping to reach 6KM within 30minutes – a rather ambitious goal to achieve for a 87kg, 35 year-old man of me! True enough, I injured myself, now grounded for at least 4-6 weeks due to runner’s knee. Instead of heading to the gym for burning calories, I’m now going for physiotherapy and acupuncture for faster recovery. Sigh!

Nevertheless, I’ve learned a good lesson here – in order to achieve goals and be successful, I need to dream big. Along the way, I may encounter a lot of failures and frustrations. Please therefore stay cool, don’t give up, keep focus and discipline my frustrations. Sooner or later, I’ll surely experience my desired breakthrough in life.

Gambate my friend!

Take a Break to Progress, the Syntax of Success

In agriculture economics, we have what we termed as Pasture Management to ensure ranchers maximising the grass resources they have - maximize the potential growth of grass while ensuring health of land and livestock in their range. In industrial economics, we also have the Marginal Productivity Theory, which argues that a business firm should only pay a worker to work longer/overtime only when he could add to the firm’s well-being or profits for each additional hour he puts into his work. What about in the socioeconomics of our own well being? How do you manage your seasons-productivity of life?

Perhaps, one of the most common mistakes many people made is not taking the much needed break from their daily routines even when they are burned out, having capacity/performance drop or worse still, suffering from health and/or emotional deterioration due to the intense pressure of living and surviving. Indeed, each one of us needs/deserves to take seasonal breaks at different levels, different time frame. If we don’t give ourselves these breaks to revive, our creativity and productivity will suffer and our career and life could also be in jeopardy mainly due to the earlier-mentioned overworked syndromes.

Please do take some time off from work and go do whatever you love/want to do. Too many people think that by working hard every day of their life will pay off in some sort of way, of which it really doesn’t. There are so many more valuable and less stressful things outside of work. The only way to reap the rewards and “live the good life” is to take a good break, go home to visit your family and friends and/or go for a nice long holiday somewhere …and forget about your stressful, boring work in the office!

Come on, life is much more that those works that drained you dry. Who knows, by taking a long overdue break will help changing our life’s perspective, open up new opportunity for breakthroughs, gain new experience and reconcile old relationships that are of more valuable, meaningful to our life. Dude, if you have any adventurous plan and are looking for someone to explore together, please feel free to drop me a note here, at Breakthrough Desperado!