If you aren’t already familiar with Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle rule to start with your “why”, we highly encourage you to watch that video if you want to be highly motivated.  You can find that link included at the end of this blog post in case you are interested. 

For those of you who haven’t seen it, let’s give you a little run down.  Essentially, Simon teaches us that in order to truly inspire others to change, you need to explain WHY you are doing it.  Why you believe this product or service can improve their lives. You can try to use logic, you can try to force them to understand by throwing stats or facts out, but ultimately this isn’t going to create loyal customers.  

In the video, he gives a great example.  He says that one of the reasons that Apple is so successful is because they understand this concept of starting with the why.  He provides two routes that Apple could go. The first, is how most people will try to lead, by providing facts an stats about what they are trying to do.

“We make great computers, they’re beautifully designed, simple to use, and user friendly.  Want to buy one?” 

It gets the job done, it tells you why their products are good, but does it make you want to buy one?  Now this next one is how Apple actually markets themselves. Notice the difference.

“Everything we do, we believe in challenging the status quo.  We believe in thinking differently. The way we challenge the status quo is through our beautifully designed, simple to use, and user-friendly products.  We just happen to make computers. Want to buy one?”

So much more enticing, right? Not only do you want to buy a computer from them, but you want to know more about what else they are providing!  Now let’s think bigger picture.

This process doesn’t only relate to a company or a business who is trying to promote or sell something.  It can lead to much greater movements as well. Anytime you are trying to promote change to others, or even to yourself! You NEED to focus on the why. 

Why should you make this change? Why should you if it’s going to be inconvenient, or difficult?  It can be difficult to keep your motivation if you aren’t focusing on the bigger picture of why this is going to make your life so much better.

Before you try to make a change within yourself, or try to ask others to change, make sure that you understand why this needs to happen.  If you aren’t passionate aboout it, how can you expect others to? When things get tough, the biggest motivator to keep going is that WHY. 

Why are Team Bonding Exercises Important for your Employees?

Every so often I come across a large black colony of ants on the sidewalk. Oftentimes they are carrying a piece of food back to their nest. When I see a piece of food that is much bigger than they are on their backs I can’t help but marvel at what they are doing.

According to a study done by a group of scientists at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, there are 2 ways different teamwork strategies that ants utilize to haul their prize back to their lair.

Ants naturally produce chemicals called pheromones which help them communicate to each other. When one ant finds a morsel of food it wants to gather, it releases this communicative chemical so its fellows can find the morsel and coordinate with each other which strategy to use.

Strategy 1: Chomping 

The first strategy that ants consider is breaking the morsel of food down into smaller particles until the food is broken up into a more manageable size so it is much easier to carry. As you can imagine, this way is much more time-consuming. 

Strategy 2: Teamwork makes the Dreamwork

The second strategy, which is a lot faster and is the strategy that we want to highlight, is to work together to carry the food whole. This way is much trickier because they then had to coordinate amongst themselves. If all the ants pushed and pulled in conflicting directions than their goal to get the food back to their nest wouldn’t get accomplished. These Israeli Scientists took a video of a group of ants moving a piece of cereal. They found that the leader would, soon after taking the lead, lose its way because the piece of food got in the way of their antennae. Once the leader lost its sense of direction because its antennae were compromised, a new ant would take its place as the leader, and this would continue to happen until the journey was complete. 

So while the leader ant is leading the group homeward, the ants in the back are constantly feeling where its fellows are pushing toward. The ants knew that productivity would be lost if one ant pushed one way and another ant pushed the exact opposite way. Because the ants had a perspective of inclusion they were able to move swiftly toward their nest.

We can learn a lot from watching ants work together as a team:

• Always be ready to take the lead if needed
• Be aware of what your teammates are doing so you can coordinate your efforts for maximum productivity
• Make sure you all have the same goal in mind. In the case of these ants it is transporting the piece of food to the same place.

Source: https://www.popsci.com/crazy-ants-cooperate-carry-food/

How to be an Empowering Leader and Inspire Action

“Leaders hold a position of power or authority, but those who lead inspire us.”

There are many ways to lead, and even more ways to be a leader. You may be in a position of authority – such as a boss, a manager, or even a parent. You may also simply be a person that others genuinely look up to. All of these things qualify as leadership positions, and chances are, you fall under this category.

Lead by Example

If you’re a leader, you want to use your influence for good. It’s important that you recognize the people you have under your influence, and how your actions affect them. A great leader “talks the talk and walks the walk,” meaning that you’re capable of doing everything that you’re asking of others. It’s important that those looking up to you see that you’re doing your part, too.

Communication is Key

In this TED talk by Simon Sinek, (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qp0HIF3SfI4) he talks about how a great leader will walk people through and coach them until they feel comfortable taking the lead themselves. If you were a boss and your employee was underperforming, would you let them go or try to help them? Just like a parent would try to walk a child through the process of improvement, a great leader teaches gives others the proper resources and help they need to let them lead.

Measure and Reward Performance

The best motivation is a reward. A reward does not have to be something physical, like money. Sometimes the pride that comes from feeling appreciated can be reward enough. Consistent performers aren’t taken for granted by great leaders, and their hard work is always recognized. Although numbers and measures of ROI are taken into account, it’s important to recognize every effort (even the ones that didn’t always have an amazing result) because most people crave genuine appreciation and will work to receive that every time.

Invest in Relationships

Your workers are more than employees. They have lives. They have families. They have problems. Get to know what’s going on outside of the office on a more personal level. Always keep it professional, but make sure your employees know you care about them. One follow-up question about their child or their side-hobby could make their day and improve their mood exponentially. A good leader is aware of their followers and does everything they can to keep them happy in all aspects – not just in the workplace. This also increases their positive feelings of association with you and in turn, will make them more loyal to the company and to their own work.

There are many ways to lead – focus on lifting others and you will be successful in your own way. You can be a great force for good in motivating those around you. John Quincy Adams said it best, “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”

False beliefs, false traditions and unbelief are the enemies of your personal progress. They blind and halt your development and stop you from living your true purpose. Since birth you have been bombarded by these enemies, and with no fault on those propagating them as they were just passing on what was given to them. Your parents handed down traditions they have learned and were handed down, schools teach you to prepare for the world as they understand it, churches and other organizations do the same and you are left to sort it all out. Who can you trust and where can you find answers to the big questions in life?

For those that have siblings, you might be familiar with the term “hand-me-downs”. A younger sibling doesn’t get the new cloths, but gets to use the clothes of the older sibling. This makes great sense when budgets are tight and families are large. But what if I tell you the same goes for beliefs and habits. It is interesting to hear adolescents talk and share their beliefs, especially when you are familiar with their parents. Sometimes you can just hear the parent talk through their child.

Handing down information can be great of course, but we might have picked up some things that aren’t really true or that serve our best interests. The older we become the more grounded we are in those beliefs as they settle. It is important that you challenge your belief system and start creating what you want. Throughout your entire life you have been educated or even indoctrinated by others that simply handed down beliefs and you took them to be true. If it is true or not, that doesn’t even matter. What matters is that you believe it and therefore your reality has incorporated that belief.

What kinds of beliefs am I talking about? Well here are a few:

• In order to make more money, I have to work harder
• I have to have a college degree to make serious money
• Seeing is believing
• I have a disability and therefore can’t
• Success before happiness
• I can’t change because of my culture
• I must keep traditions
• That’s just the way I am

Are any of these beliefs familiar to you? If so, they might need to be challenged. Are you ready for some change and are you willing to challenge some of your beliefs, even the deep-rooted ones? Book us and let us coach you to overcome the limiting beliefs you unwittingly carry.

There are two ways to achieve change in your life, change that has a lasting impact. Change through the repetition of words and/or experiencing an emotional breakthrough.

Repetition of Correct Words
We get bombarded by ideas, themes, words constantly and each has an influence upon us, even the billboard you really did not want to see. Where you put your mind’s focus will indoctrinate you to that focus. When I hear the word indoctrination, I almost hear a negative word, because of how it has been used in my life. However, I realize that the negative relationship I have had with the word indoctrination, stems from a false and negative belief. That word seems to be associated with group thinking, cults and even death as an end result.

But does the word indoctrination truly mean that? Basically, anything that garners our intention is going to influence and therefore indoctrinate us to something. All the shows we watch, blogs we read, games we play, people we associate with, will they not indoctrinate you? Well if that is the case, then this is great news and can be used to your advantage. That means you control what indoctrinates you and in turn you control your future. Yes, everything you spend any time on will change you towards that direction and can change your entire life. How fast can this occur? Well I don’t really want to put a time on it, but instantaneously is a reality in some cases.

Emotional Breakthrough
The other way to experience change is through an emotional breakthrough. These experiences can be explosive and cause a rapid or instantaneous change, both for the good and the bad. You can see evidence of this with people that have been sexually assaulted or suffered a traumatic event. The last mentioned aren’t the positive kind of emotional events, but there are ways to change an individual though positive breakthrough methods that can be equally as life-changing in the positive direction.  Many companies pay good money to have their employees gain experiences that will transform them to function better in teams and in turn increase profitability.

At Black Salt, we use both methods to encourage change in people’s lives. Our team building experiences are designed for participants to learn more about themselves and encourage change for the good, both individually and as a team.

It is common to hear people say <if, then> statements. If I….., then I will ….. For example, If I had more time, then I would have more money. This is a false reality that needs addressing. Think about this, do you believe your happiness is a result of personal success? Basically, if I am successful then I will be happy. However, as you might expect I am going to posit that the opposite is actually true, happiness precedes success and is a catalyst for attaining it.

Earl Nightingale said:” Success is not the result of making money. Earning money is the result of success – and success is in direct proportion to our services.”

Why would your happiness come after positive results? This means that you can’t be happy until you obtain expected results hence if you feel stuck now you must feel unhappy. I am telling you that you can be happy in your current circumstances and control that aspect right away. Faith precedes the miracle and happiness comes before success. These are eternal truths and will set you free from false beliefs causing mental bondage.

Success is achieved because people are happy, happiness is not achieved because people are successful.

Contact Black Salt today and let us show you how you could be happier and more successful.

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