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Four years ago I was working on a assessment with Sam and for some reason his image of a smiling face came to my mind today ... On Stralya Day I always got a funny joke message and a selfie with his beer in his hand...
23 July 2017 – Donald Andrew “Sam” MCLEOD – Detective Constable (Retired) – AFP3904
Sam was born on 31 May 1955 and passed away aged 61 years. He joined the Australian Federal Police on 6 August 1984. Sam spent the entirety of his career in Southern Region across a number of different roles including Melbourne Airport and in the Regional Intelligence Section as well as the Drug and Fraud squads. Mr McLLEOD retired from the Australian Federal Police at the rank of Detective Constable on 1 July 1998.
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People underestimate the value of persistence for creative performance
Kellog Institute: “Most people assume that lightbulb moment will arrive right away, when you’re feeling freshest. But according to new research, we’ve got it wrong. Across several studies, Loran Nordgren, a professor of management and organizations at the Kellogg School, and Kellogg PhD alumnus Brian Lucas, now of Cornell University, discovered a widespread, persistent, and mistaken belief that creativity drops off with time. They dub this the “creative-cliff illusion.” What’s more, they found, the illusion is self-defeating. The more people believe in it, the fewer creative ideas they generate. But with experience comes wisdom, Nordgren and Lucas learned: people who do lots of creative work do not fall victim as often to the myth of declining creativity. “People think their best ideas are coming fast and early,” Nordgren says. In fact, “you’re either not seeing any drop-off in quality, or your ideas get better.” By giving up too soon, we risk leaving our best ideas on the table. Nordgren believes bringing attention to the problem can help people unlock new ways of thinking. “People don’t maximize their creative potential, and part of that is because of these beliefs,” he says…”
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GRIT - THE #1 KEY SUCCESS FACTOR.
Angela Duckworth identifies grit as the number-one predictor and factor of success. It's not talent, title, wealth, or appearance. It's grit, the ability to work hard for a long period of time towards a goal; to persevere, overcome, and keep moving forward in the face of adversity, failure, rejection, and obstacles. Success doesn't happen overnight. Along the way a leader and team will face countless challenges and will need Grit to find a way forward! And this begs the question. If Grit is so important and individuals and teams really need Grit, then what is it? And if Grit drives us, what drives Grit? I believe Grit is:
DRIVEN BY LOVE...
If you don't love it, you'll never be great at it. If you don't love it, you won't work to overcome all the challenges to keep doing it. If you love what you do, you won't quit when the world says you should. You will continue to show up every day, do the work, and discover success, created by the love you have inside you. (KR note – see Lovemarks, The Future Beyond Brands.)
INSPIRED BY VISION AND PURPOSE...
If you have a vision for what you want and you know why you want it, you will work hard and persevere in order to achieve it. When you know your why and you know the way you won’t let obstacles get in the way. (KR note – See 64 Shots.)
FUELED BY OPTIMISM AND BELIEF...
Research shows that when you believe in a brighter and better future you will continue to take the actions necessary to create it. It becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. What you believe determines what you create. If you believe it’s possible, you will continue to work to make it happen. (KR note – Nothing is Impossible.)
POWERED BY FAITH AND HOPE...
There will be times when your failures and challenges bring you down. There will be moments you want to give up. It's during these discouraging times that you need more than positive thinking. You need faith and hope to keep you going. Faith keeps you focused on possibilities instead of problems. Hope keeps you moving towards the future instead of living in the past. (KR note – Perpetual Optimism is a Force Multiplier; Hope is Optimism based on Data.)
REVIVED BY RESILIENCE...
When you get knocked down your resilience will move you to get back up. You will keep fighting for what you love, what you believe in, what you hope for and what you want. Even when your dream is killed a thousand times, you will keep reviving it and try one more time. (KR note – “It ain’t over till it’s over. And if it is, go again.”
KEPT ALIVE BY STUBBORNNESS...
You just won't give up. When your dream is revived, your stubbornness keeps it alive. You won't let your circumstances define you. You are determined to define your circumstances. (KR note – Never Out of The Fight.)
AND IF WE'RE HONEST INCLUDES SOME FEAR OF FAILURE AND DESIRE TO PROVE YOURSELF...
The fear of failure I'm talking about is not a paralysing kind of fear but a healthy dose of fear that causes you to work harder and practice and prepare more. Combine this with a desire to prove yourself that you have what it takes; that you can do it and you'll keep working to improve in order to reach your goal. All the great ones, no matter how much success they have, still have a healthy dose of fear of failure and desire to prove oneself. It's what keeps you humble and keeps you working to be great.
(KR note – Fail Fast, Learn Fast, Fix Fast.)
Reminders for all of us as we move from Survive to Revive and Thrive.
I’ve written often in the past about the importance of grit and mental toughness in the boardroom and on the gridiron. Well, if you want to learn how to cook, ask a chef. If you want to learn how to paint, ask an artist. And if you want to learn about persistence and resilience, who better to ask than a U.S. Navy SEAL?
In a recent article in Business Insider, Wired Magazine writer and founder of the great blog Barking Up The Wrong TreeEric Barker spoke with his friend and former SEAL Platoon Commander James Waters about how his experiences in SEAL training and deployment align with the latest scientific research about grit, motivation, expertise, and how people survive the most challenging situations.
First is having a purpose and a sense of greater meaning. Barker relates how out of an initial 256 volunteers in Waters’ SEALS training class, only 16 graduated – a whopping 94% attrition rate. Research shows that when it comes to physical distress, our brains quit long before our bodies give out. The difference just might come down to having a higher purpose and an intrinsic goal (“Serving my country is something that matters deeply to me.”) rather than an extrinsic goal (“Being a SEAL would be really cool, and making officer one day would be a powerful position.”).
Confidence is key, but so is staying realistic. “People in tough situations need to be very realistic about the danger they’re in – but they need to be confident in their ability to handle it,” writes Barker, noting that studies have shown how optimism and despair can often be self-fulfilling prophecies.
It might surprise readers to learn that SEALS spend only about 25% of their time deployed in the field and the rest of their time honing their skills. There are so many disciplines that SEALS must master, preparedness becomes paramount. Indeed, Barker cites research that demonstrates how people who’ve prepared have a greater likelihood of surviving catastrophic scenarios “because they’ve already done the deliberation the other people around them are just now going through” and “reducing uncertainty reduces fear”.
Focusing on improvement is another SEAL-worthy lesson. Rather than frame situations as binary, win/lose scenarios, consider every situation a learning experience. Take a page from the elitist of the elite: Navy SEALS perform a rigorous debrief following each mission during which they spend 90% of the time discussing what could be improved the next time.
It’s long been said that there’s no ‘I’ in ‘team’. So it goes that lone wolves don’t play well with SEALS. “Giving help and taking on the role of caretaker [increases] the feeling of meaning in our lives” Barker writes. Having a support network – knowing that you can give and get help – is invaluable during tough times.
Faced with intensive training that goes on for a year or longer, Waters also learned the importance of celebrating small wins. And the scientific research on happiness backs up his hunch: a series of small victories has a greater cumulative impact than infrequent big wins. Recognising the small good things also helps you appreciate that life will always have its peaks and valleys.
Finally, laugh! “Experts say that humour provides a powerful buffer against stress and fear” Barker writes. “When people are trapped in a stressful situation and feeling overwhelmed, they're stuck in one way of thinking: This is terrible. I've got to get out of here. But if you can take a humorous perspective, then by definition you're looking at it differently – you're breaking out of that rigid mind-set.”
These are the strategies the toughest of the tough use when faced with the most physically demanding and dangerous situations the world has to offer. Now, imagine applying these lessons in true grit during stressful business meetings, weekend Hockey League games, or with a tantrum-throwing child!
