In fifteen years of coaching high potential and senior leaders, I’ve conducted thousands of hours of colleague feedback interviews. One of the themes that I hear a lot from senior executives talking about high potential leaders is that the client needs to play a bigger game. What the executives mean by that is that the high potential needs to start making an impact beyond their immediate function and start acting as a leader of the entire organization and not just their function.

With the performance reviews and goal setting sessions that come at the beginning of the year, now is a great time to think about how you can play a bigger game this year – the kind of game that really changes things and makes a big difference.

In the last couple of weeks, I’ve asked around three dozen high potential leaders to answer the question, “What’s the one thing you need to do to play a bigger game this year?”  I’ve boiled their answers down to seven ways to play a bigger game. If you’re ready to play a bigger game, you’ll want to take a look.

1. Take the risk:  My observation, which just about all of my clients agree with, is that most leaders overestimate the risk and underestimate the rewards of taking the initiative or saying what needs to be said.  To play a bigger game, take the risk.

2. Prioritize:  An effective strategy is probably more about what you’re not going to do than what you’re going to do.  To play a bigger game, you need to pick your spots.  Prioritize.

3. Collaborate: In the bigger game, 1+1 = 3.  To get bigger results, you have to work and play well with others.  Proactively reach out to people of different interests. Seek input from a broader group.  Collaborate.

4. Fight the legacy – If you’re organization is stuck in a rut, a bigger game can look like fighting the legacy of the way you’ve always done things.  The bigger game here is leading an energetic shift from “not possible” to “possible.”

5. Customer focused creativity – Customer expectations get higher every year and can change at light speed.  Part of the bigger game is to lead creative efforts that are focused on the customer experience.

6. Move faster – A big component of your bigger game may be encouraging others to move faster.  Small experiments, shorter decision cycles, being clear about when it needs to be perfect and when good enough is good enough are all components of playing a faster, bigger game.

7. Show up everyday willing to be fired – There’s an iconic scene from the movie Risky Business in which an instigating friend counsels the protagonist, Joel that “Sometimes you just gotta’ say, ‘What the ****.’ Because saying ‘What the ****,’ gives you freedom.  And freedom gives you opportunity and opportunity is your future, Joel.” The freedom to do what you need to do to play the biggest possible game only comes if you’re willing to be fired and believe that if it doesn’t work out here, it will work out somewhere else.

One other important point in addition to these different ideas on how to play a bigger game is that you still have to nail the basic expectations of whatever role you’re in.  That’s the price of admission to play a bigger game.

What about you?  What’s the one thing you need to do this year to play a bigger game? Please share your thoughts in a comment.

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The best leaders are those who lead people to believe in themselves.
People believe in themselves when they have a reason to commit to something significant and meaningful.
When people feel inspired by their leader, leadership is at its best. When people are made to feel important, when they know they matter and they have an important role, they bring their best to all they need to accomplish. Inspiration drives motivation.
When people understand the direction of the vision, leadership is at its prime. People need to know where they are heading and why they are headed there. Once they have that knowledge, they can leverage their talent to achieve great results. Direction fosters purpose.
When people feel safe to make mistakes, leadership is supportive. While success relies on innovation and creativity, it also takes many mistakes to succeed. When your people feel safe to fail, you have done your job in preparing them to meet challenges and letting them know they will go unscathed when they make mistakes. A safety net promotes security.
When people experience trust in their own ability, leadership is at its peak. Those you entrust feel important and empowered. Trust encourages people to bring their talent and knowledge and become part of the team. Trust leads to confidence.
When people know they can contribute in a meaningful way, leadership is optimal. It is important for people to know that they have a genuine contribution to make, that what they do is instrumental in achieving significant results. Meaning creates justification.

Give your people a reason to believe in themselves and watch them create something meaningful and significant.

Lead From Within: When you believe in people, you get people to believe in themselves. And when that happens you can achieve great things together.
- See more at: http://www.lollydaskal.com/leadership/lead-people-believe/#sthash.aatfVICm.dpuf

The best leaders are those who lead people to believe in themselves.
People believe in themselves when they have a reason to commit to something significant and meaningful.
When people feel inspired by their leader, leadership is at its best. When people are made to feel important, when they know they matter and they have an important role, they bring their best to all they need to accomplish. Inspiration drives motivation.
When people understand the direction of the vision, leadership is at its prime. People need to know where they are heading and why they are headed there. Once they have that knowledge, they can leverage their talent to achieve great results. Direction fosters purpose.
When people feel safe to make mistakes, leadership is supportive. While success relies on innovation and creativity, it also takes many mistakes to succeed. When your people feel safe to fail, you have done your job in preparing them to meet challenges and letting them know they will go unscathed when they make mistakes. A safety net promotes security.
When people experience trust in their own ability, leadership is at its peak. Those you entrust feel important and empowered. Trust encourages people to bring their talent and knowledge and become part of the team. Trust leads to confidence.
When people know they can contribute in a meaningful way, leadership is optimal. It is important for people to know that they have a genuine contribution to make, that what they do is instrumental in achieving significant results. Meaning creates justification.

Give your people a reason to believe in themselves and watch them create something meaningful and significant.

Lead From Within: When you believe in people, you get people to believe in themselves. And when that happens you can achieve great things together.
- See more at: http://www.lollydaskal.com/leadership/lead-people-believe/#sthash.aatfVICm.dpuf

The best leaders are those who lead people to believe in themselves.
People believe in themselves when they have a reason to commit to something significant and meaningful.
When people feel inspired by their leader, leadership is at its best. When people are made to feel important, when they know they matter and they have an important role, they bring their best to all they need to accomplish. Inspiration drives motivation.
When people understand the direction of the vision, leadership is at its prime. People need to know where they are heading and why they are headed there. Once they have that knowledge, they can leverage their talent to achieve great results. Direction fosters purpose.
When people feel safe to make mistakes, leadership is supportive. While success relies on innovation and creativity, it also takes many mistakes to succeed. When your people feel safe to fail, you have done your job in preparing them to meet challenges and letting them know they will go unscathed when they make mistakes. A safety net promotes security.
When people experience trust in their own ability, leadership is at its peak. Those you entrust feel important and empowered. Trust encourages people to bring their talent and knowledge and become part of the team. Trust leads to confidence.
When people know they can contribute in a meaningful way, leadership is optimal. It is important for people to know that they have a genuine contribution to make, that what they do is instrumental in achieving significant results. Meaning creates justification.

Give your people a reason to believe in themselves and watch them create something meaningful and significant.

Lead From Within: When you believe in people, you get people to believe in themselves. And when that happens you can achieve great things together.
- See more at: http://www.lollydaskal.com/leadership/lead-people-believe/#sthash.aatfVICm.dpuf

Creative people don’t always define themselves as creative.

You don’t have to paint like Picasso to be creative. Creative people are simply those who come up with new ideas, use old ideas in a new way, and put ideas together or make associations between things that don’t seem related at first glance.

My guess is that you’re creative, even if you feel like your work is smothering your creativity.

The truth is, you’re not alone. In a study done in 2012, 80% of people felt that tapping into creativity was the key to economic growth, but only 25% felt they were living up to their creative potential.

If you’re one of these 75% of creative people that is feeling smothered, how do you begin to get some creativity back into your life?

1. Recognize that you ARE a creative person.

2. Don’t worry about coming up with bad ideas. Just come up with ideas. Lots of them.

3. Get out into nature.

4. Sit somewhere other than your desk.

5. Don’t worry so much if you’re naturally disorganized.

6. Adopt Sir Richard Branson’s mantra “Always Be Connecting Dots” (ABCD) to see where you can find new ideas.

7. Ask why.

8. Stop focusing on a specific route and instead look at what you’re trying to accomplish.

9. Pay close attention to what’s happening around you.

10. Listen to your intuition.

11. Surround yourself with really smart people.

12. Try new things all the time. See what sticks.

13. Make your living space beautiful.

14. Work on being in a good mood.

15. Meditate.

16. Get up and do something different, then come back to the problem with new eyes.

17. Only take in kind or constructive words. Ignore everything else.

18. If you’re feeling stumped, ask yourself “What Would (someone who is smart and creative that you admire) Do?

19. Take a nap.

20. Figure out how you learn best. Visual? Make your problem something you can see. Auditory? Talk it through – out loud to yourself.

21. Take a shower. Don’t you get the best ideas in there?

22. Think about it from someone else’s point of view.

23. Work when you’re “feeling it.”

24. Don’t miss opportunities. If inspiration strikes, have a way to capture your thoughts – fast!

25. Make time for your creative hobby – even if you think your schedule is packed full!

Your creativity is important. Not just to the work you do and to innovation at your company, but it is also important that you don’t shut down your inner genius just because the modern world seems to force you to.

Embrace your creativity and see what you come up with!

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The first thing to understand about thinking is that "you" don't do the thinking. Thoughts spring up from the subconscious on their own, and you just observe them then accept or reject them. We're talking about those endless, seemingly uncontrollable, random thoughts that flit across the screen of your awareness every day. These are noisy thoughts like static electricity that we practice meditation to control and quiet. These thoughts are generally unproductive and non-creative because there's no purpose or meaning behind them. They're just a part of the landscape of a currently idle rather than a seeking or creative mind.

As soon as you add purpose to the equation the creative process can begin. Purpose means you want to answer a question or solve a problem. You take the question from your conscious mind and turn it over to the subconscious mind to provide that answer.

Here's where faith comes in. You have to have faith that the answer is already within you -- within your subconscious mind. And you will have that faith because it's based on the fact that you could not have possibly come up with the question if you didn't already have the answer within you. It takes the one to create the other. That's how the mind works.

So, convinced you have the answer somewhere within you, you just patiently observe or listen to what now issues from the subconscious. You still have to be selective and discriminating, but at least now you know what you're looking for. Now you have a plan, a method. What you'll now get will not be all useless thought but some intelligent, intuitive thought. Intuition doesn't come in words; it comes in a silent knowing. You now know the answer. Then you can turn it back over to your conscious mind to put into words.

While you'll definitely get the answer you're seeking, it's not definite how long it'll take. Could be hours, days or weeks, depending on how apropos the question to your problem, and whether you formulated the question correctly, etc. This is where detached patience and perseverance come in.

Let's say, for example, you want to write a detective novel. All you have so far is the price -- $25 in hardcover. It's a start, and you can almost see your name in lights on the marquee when they turn it into a movie. Many questions will now arise. What's the title? What's the plot line? Who are the major and minor characters? Who's the perp and why did he or she do such a dastardly deed? What's the theme of the story? The period and setting? The conclusion?

The answers to all these questions are in your subconscious mind at the very moment you pose the questions. Thus no stress and strain should ever be involved in the creative process. Stress indicates you've forgotten or have lost faith that all the answers are within you right now.

As many questions will arise during the planning of the novel (or business, etc.), many more will arise during the actual writing of it. Let's say you, the author, are totally stuck and blocked as to what the detective hero should, would or could do next. You form each "problem" into separate questions and turn them over to your subconscious.

The intuitive solution that soon springs up may go something like this: You let the detective feel exactly as you, the author, are feeling. Let the detective feel depressed and confused as to how to proceed - just as you are. Let the detective fear being out of leads and clues - just like you are. Let the detective start doubting himself and thinking about seeking some solace at the bottom of a bottle of Jack Daniels -- just as you the author were thinking. Continue in this vein to the compelling final resolution of the story - a resolution that's just as much a surprise to you as to the reader!

Had the author tried to think out this project "on his own," it's unlikely he would have come up with such a brilliant approach to it or "created" it with such ease and originality. The novel virtually wrote itself. It's amazing.