Power is good. Greed is bad. A quote that Henry Kissinger states it best “Power is not the ultimate aphrodisiac.”
Every human being since the dawn of time has craved power. Granted, the amount of power the billions of people have craved is all different. We have all craved to have the power to provide food, water and shelter. Most have yearned for financial power to provide for more for our families whether it be our own home, money for education or lots of money for independence. Many individuals have craved leadership power, to have the ability to lead people to achieve something extraordinary. Government leaders have built their budgets based on the amount of power they can exert on their constituent base in the form of taxes. In fact one of our governments largest expenditures are our armed forces, which builds our power as a nation. Our diverse faiths we believe in wield a tremendous amount of power and influence in our lives in forming our values and beliefs. On a day to day basis, we each exert a certain amount of power to get an outcome we want whether it be painting the living room the color you want or influencing a prospect to buy your product. As parents we exert our power constantly on our children to influence the adults they will turn out to be. So when you hear someone say they are not interested in any form of power, they simply don’t know the role power plays in our lives.
GOOD POWER
for It might be the financial power to own a home, the leadership power to lead a group of employees, the persuasive power to convince others of our ideas or magical power to make all of our dreams come true.
Whether we admit it out loud or not, we all crave a certain amount of power in our lives.
- Born & Bred – B2
- Learned & Leveraged – L2
Born and Bred traits, also referred to as B2 traits, are those that are difficult to change and represent “who you are”. Simply stated, these are traits that you were born with and became part of you as you grew up. These traits have been instilled in a person over many, years and include such traits as intelligence, work ethic and strategic thinking. Just to be clear, it is very possible to improve on each of these dimensions, however, it takes a tremendous effort over a long and sustained time period.
Learned and Leveraged traits, also referred to as L2 traits, are those that can be learned, practiced and leveraged over a short period of time based on unlocking the performance trait and maintaining a commitment to achieve a high level of performance along this dimension.
Through the research conducted by the velocityHUB team, we identified a core set of 6 L2 High Performance Traits that can make the difference between average performance and high performance. The myth that high performers are simply born and that the rest of us are what we are is simply wrong. Working with our clients, velocityHUB has successfully taught and instilled these 6 L2 High Performance Traits in leaders, sales professionals and individual contributors. These participants have increased their performance levels, received job promotions, sold more business, increased their confidence and achieved a higher level of executive status. Through a series of self-evaluations, these individuals rated that their individual performance had increased an average of 22%.
So what are these 6 L2 High Performance Traits that an individual can change?
VISION
The ability to live with a sense of SELF, PURPOSE & ENERGY.
- Imagine living your professional and personal life with a heightened sense of purpose, with crystal clear clarity and with an energy that comes from within each and everyday. That is living and leading a high performance life with high performance rewards.
BRAND
The ability to differentiate your LEADERSHIP STYLE, CAPABILITIES & YOURSELF.
- You have a brand whether you know it or not. What you may not know is whether your brand is propelling your career forward or holding you back. High performers consistently have a brand that differentiates them from the rest of the pack. Developing a high performance brand is not challenging, you just have to decide you want to.
LEADERSHIP
The ability to inspire people to ACHIEVE UNCOMMON RESULTS.
- Picture achieving your individual goals and objectives everyday and having your team around you accomplish the same. High performers view this as “table-stakes”. You have an opportunity to wake up everyday knowing you are going to be successful, just wondering how successful.
RELATIONSHIPS
The ability to MAKE CONNECTIONS and INVEST IN RELATIONSHIPS.
- The facts are simple – high performers know more people, make more connections and invest in strong relationships. The fact behind that is that we all need people helping us achieve our goals and making us high performers. Making connections in today’s world is only a click away while investing in your most promising relationships is as simple as having a disciplined approach.
COMMUNICATION
The ability to SPEAK and WRITE with a CLEAR PURPOSE and CALL TO ACTION.
- There is no doubt that high performers know how to articulate their thoughts and communicate them effectively both in writing and verbally. What separates high performance communicators is their ability to keep their message simple and have their audience take action. Communicating clearly while yielding results is not a challenge, it is a possibility.
INFLUENCE
The ability to PERSUADE the way OTHERS THINK & ACT.
- High performers have a remarkable hit rate persuading others to take up their call to action. Another way to look at this is even simpler – high performers usually get what they want. Getting what you want is not as difficult as you may think. The key to persuading others to your line of thinking is to focus on the result and work the approach.
Each of us has both B2 and L2 traits. Our B2 traits are long-term “works in progress”. But we can choose to wake up tomorrow and develop our L2 traits and by the time the calendar turns over to the next month we can increase our performance level. So what it really comes down to is two simple questions for you – do you want to be a high performer? Do you want to take your career, your business and your profession to the next level and achieve your vision for your life?
If you answered “yes” to these questions, then you should begin right now to develop your vision, enhance your brand, deepen your leadership, broaden your relationships, improve your communications and expand your sphere of influence.
Don’t settle for average performance. Become a high performer today.
About Brendan P. Keegan
Brendan P. Keegan is Founder & Managing Partner of velocityHUB, a leading management consulting firm. He is a 5-time industry leading President & CEO of large, private-equity-backed companies and served as the Fortune 100’s youngest Chief Sales Officer for EDS, a $22-billion technology industry leader. Brendan has raised nearly $1.0 billion in capital and returned over $2.2 billion to investors through successful exit strategies. He has trained over 100,000 leaders, led nearly 50,000 employees, driven sales of over $100 billion and worked globally in over 150 countries. Brendan was named a Distinguished Fellow by Dartmouth College, a Fast50 Executive by FastCompany, a successful entrepreneur by Enterprise Bank, Best-of-the-Best CEOs by Incentive, 100 Fastest Growing Companies by PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Business of the Year by NH Business Journal, Top 10 Coach of the Year by USA Football, and Volunteer of the Year by & Youth Coach of the Year locally for his commitment to community service. Brendan is a sought-after speaker by companies across the globe on leadership, sales and performance. He has authored over 200 articles and been published in global publications including the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Business Week, Fast Company and InformationWeek.
Brendan serves on corporate boards to include Revolution Armor, Merchants Auto Group, ExpressIt Delivery, Olaeris, velocityHUB and nashuaHUB. Brendan and his wife Dana founded the Keegan Courage & Faith Foundation with the goal of giving back $1.0 million for youth education, athletics and at-risk youth across Southern New Hampshire.
About velocityHUB
velocityHUB is a leading provider of performance services to high performing sales, leaders, individuals and organizations around the globe. velocityHUB was founded based on the fundamental belief that every person is capable of achieving a high level of performance and their own personal vision of success.
Contact: Amanda E. Rogers | 603.402.1734 | amanda@velocityhub.com