Book Summary Preview : 7 Moments

The Big Idea

The building blocks of excellence are moments---specifically, defining moments. In this book, bestselling author Lee J. Colan tells leaders how to recognize, create and utilize these moments effectively to bring out the best in their people.

The 7 Moments

1. A Moment To Commit: Giving your all-time best
Giving your best always gets the best results. A total commitment creates momentum. However, leadership will not always be a smooth flight, because good leaders are responsible for themselves and their teams.

Think excellence

•  You are the conductor of your own thoughts. No one else can control them for you. Your mind is a magnet. Only you can create your own positive attitude and by doing so, attract things of a similar disposition.

•  Mentally reframe challenges to view them in a positive light. Your experiences are not as important as how you choose to see them. The way you think about what happens determines the ultimate outcome.

•  True commitment never rests... keep pushing. Your responsibility as a leader includes always pushing your people and yourself. A leader never stops showing his team the way to success.

Create a compelling cause

•  Answer the question, "Why do we do what we do?" Meaning precedes motivation. People need to fully understand the situation before they can decide to commit themselves.

•  Keep it simple and easy to understand-- people commit to what they can understand. Excellent leaders take the initiative to define causes for their teams. These causes must be real and relevant to be effective and convincing.

• Think big-- your cause should stir the emotions. Compelling causes are not project goals; these are reasons to be excited to go to work every day. These should be capable of inspiring the employees to deliver great performance. Explaining a compelling cause can create a defining moment for employees while igniting a commitment to excellence.

Secure your foundation

•  Define and live by your team's foundational values.  These values are how a team flows and interacts. Leaders are committed to these values, and must be both examples and standards of these values.

•  Look at repeat problems for symptoms of cracks in your foundational values. Repeat problems indicate that the solutions are not deep enough. Steps should be taken to address these problems better, or discover what the deeper problem is in order to solve it.

•  Define rules of engagement to reinforce your team's values.  Setting rules of engagement, which describe how a team interacts, helps focus on what is critical for performance. These rules of engagement must always be visible and applied to even the smallest things.

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