A point of view in action

Let us now deconstruct a point of view, using the formula BBBA. You are familiar with what I see as my purpose in life – but how does my purpose manifest as a POV? The truth is, it is a point of view. Here’s how it is constructed.

· Belief: I believe in leadership. I believe that in the modern working environment, leadership has been undervalued, over-criticized and underappreciated. Yet great leaders can make a huge difference in people’s lives. Great leaders can make great places to work, they can help organizations grow and prosper, and they can alter the destiny of our lives. Great leaders can secure the wealth of nations and make a positive difference to many thousands of people. We need to encourage and liberate the responsible and inspiring leader in everyone.

· Behaviour: Because of this belief, I have made it my mission to make leaders more effective by making them better, more inspiring communicators. I do this by one-to-one coaching, by consulting and training, and by writing books that can help leaders everywhere.

· Benefit: By doing this, I hope that I can make a significant difference to many thousands of people, not just the leaders I can make more inspiring, but also the many more followers of the leaders I help.

· Action: Every person who is or aspires to be a leader has it in them to be an inspiring leader. They simply need to learn about what it really means to be inspiring and abandon their preconceptions about inspirational leadership.

Let me give you another example of a POV in action. In Chapter 4 I talked about the importance of being yourself better, and I gave examples of my personal values. One of them was curiosity. How would I express this value in a POV?

· Belief: I believe that if you are not learning every day, you are dying.

· Behaviour: That means that I take time every day to learn something new, and give free rein to my curiosity, especially about other people. I never let a question go unasked and unanswered, no matter how stupid it might sound.

· Benefit: What I get out of this is unexpected opportunities, new relationships, new perspectives, constant delight and, hopefully, a wiser view of the world. I find I am luckier than most, because I am discovering opportunities and making connections all the time.

· Action: I think that you should learn to liberate your curiosity, ask more questions and take more time to find the answers to questions that come to mind. You’ll find that serendipity will work in your favour too.

When you take away the scaffolding of Belief, Behaviour, Benefit, Action, a point of view comes over as a short, sharp and coherent story. It gets attention, it makes people think, it exhorts them to behave differently.

Дата добавления: 2015-10-23