Leadership

Working with business owners in many different industries over the years, I’ve noticed that the most effective ones share certain beliefs about productivity. I’m not talking about clichés like, “Time is the most precious resource” or, “Since there are only 24 hours in a day, you need to delegate any task that you are not uniquely suited to do.”

Instead, truly outstanding entrepreneurs follow productivity principles and beliefs that I find (you may, too) refreshingly different from the norm. Here are 11 of them:

1. “The pie is enormous and getting larger all the time.”

Instead of fearing competition or scarcity, the most productive people have an “abundance mentality.”

While mentoring a very sharp young entrepreneur the other day, it occurred to me that most founders and small business owners are in business without any real idea of what it takes to be a winner. That’s why they follow the Richard Bransons and Mark Cubans of the world — so they can understand how a successful person thinks.

Unfortunately, thinking is just the beginning. Becoming successful over the long haul is just as much about listening to your gut than your ability to reason. It’s more about building relationships than understanding yourself. It’s more about experience and execution than ideas. And it’s more about doing than dreaming.

All that begins with a mindset that defines how you behave. A mindset that leads to action is the mindset of a winner. This is the mindset of a winner:

Too much busyness keeps us from becoming who we might have become, had we given ourselves the space. This is a tricky reality for modern enterprises and the people tasked with strategic thinking within them.

Culture is a complex issue. While every organization faces its own challenges, I can share a few that are common to most senior executives within enterprises in the midst of a modern transformation.
Strategists Need Time to Think

Chaos will always be easier than simplicity to achieve, and as a result, we will often feel frazzled, with our backs against the wall. But if you are in charge of strategy within your organization, you need to give yourself time to concentrate. Period.