This is the last part of the 4-part series on leadership inspired by Colin Powell’s Leadership Presentation.

Again, Powell said something remarkable:

“The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them.”

Solve Their Problems

It’s so true. Imagine this is year 2020. You’re a general in a full blown war between the two most powerful military nations in the world. Your soldiers fight hard for survival and victory. Suddenly, one fine day, your soldiers stops bringing you problems so you’re all relaxed sitting in your own barrack. That’s not a good sign!

Leaders solve problems. You don’t want any more problems than you already have on your plate, nobody does. But, can you really escape from problem solving if you were the CEO of a start-up? What if you’re the platoon general? And what about the President of the United States of America? You wouldn’t think people would stop bringing problems to you, would you?

That’s exactly what Powell was talking about. If you’re trying to do anything remotely interesting, you’re bound to bump into a lot of problems. And you have to solve them. Your followers bring problems to you because they think you know what to do, they trust you.

Solve Their Personal Problems

Sometimes, the problems they bring to you might be personal, something that are totally unrelated to the work that you do. But it’s fine, because if you help them, it shows that you care. Everybody wants to feel some love, some attention, some touch. Even if you normally charge $500 an hour with your client, you won’t charge your own followers. Because it’s a gift. And they totally love that!

There’s nothing wrong for them to go up to you for guidance and advice, and likewise there’s nothing wrong for you to go up to your boss for the same thing. You’re all in the same boat, it’s better for everyone to get stronger so that you guys can row the boat faster. Remember, once you start charging, it’s a transaction. And anybody can make a transaction.

If They Don’t Find You, Seek Them Out

So what if they don’t have problems for you to solve because they don’t know they have one?

Seek them out.

Ask them what they’re struggling with. Understand their work and where they could improve. It’s tough to take the time from your busy schedule to ask others how they are doing, not to mention finding out what problems they have (and solve them!). But if you think the prize of being a great leader is really what you want, it’s totally worth the fight.

Some Stuffs You Should Do Now

1) Read Part 1 – Wake Up and Win, Part 2 – Piss People Off and Get Criticized, and Part 3 – Crucial Skills Experts Don’t Tell You.

2) Solve your soldiers’ problems, and don’t charge them.

3) Share some love by asking if they need help.

This is the end of my Colin Powell Leadership series. Feel free to leave your comments below!

“Don’t be buffaloed by experts and elites.”

Colin Powell said it well in his leadership presentation.

How many times have you given up doing something altogether because some “experts” told you that it is not going to work, or you should analyze more before taking the plunge?

Many, many times.

The experts may not tell you to quit in person, but their words and voices sure scared you to death when you were trying to do something remotely interesting.

To Listen or Not to Listen, That the Question

For example, in the current economic times, many so-called “experts” or “been-there-done-that” people would tell you not to invest in the stock market or start a new business. Either because their fingers got burned by the crash or they business failed in the first year.

I’d tell you this, now is the best time to thrive and the best time to find bargains, despite what the common viewpoint is. You need to know what you’re doing for sure, since you can’t just jump into home building business without knowing how to lay a brick.

Do you want to listen to them, to me, or to your own guts?

Be Practical and Cure the Analysis Paralysis

It’s also about being practical. The experts had gone through what you are going through, but they are taking a break now because they’re the experts. They don’t have to walk the talk any more, and so they just talk the talk. Besides, they play directly into your emotions, fear of failures. And people like it because now they find a reason NOT to do something. It’s hard work, and sometimes it’s painful if you don’t have a clear purpose.

Many of us suffer from analysis paralysis. We are only willing to make a decision based on a huge sample of data. Yes, I have to agree that data is important. That’s how you keep track of whether your business is doing well, your finances are well managed, your blog is getting better.

Yet, if we only rely on data, we will lose the judgment that we are born with. Your left brain will tell you that the data is helping you, but it’s the right brain that will help you bring yourself to the next level. It’s guts, passions, dreams that will kick yourself in the face and make you think holistically.

Quick Decisions will Help You Seize Opportunities

Besides, you don’t have time for a lengthy data analysis. Either you do it, or you don’t. Making quick decisions is one of the most important skills if you want to be successful in life. Great opportunities come and go, if you don’t grab it when you see it, you lose it.

If you want to be real leader, don’t just act like an expert when you’re not really doing anything. You have to be the person at the forefront of the battle field. Why else do you think a great general stands in the front line all the time? If a general is so valuable, he could just sit at the back and give commands. That would ensure his safety, right?

But if he just stays behind his own soldiers, he won’t know what is exactly happening in the battle. He won’t know what the soldiers are going through and what they’re thinking about. He’d be too relaxed in his own little world. And that’s when the enemies strike, and all is over…

You’re an Entrepreneur? Take Out Your Own Trash

If you are the President/CEO of your own company, you need to do whatever it takes to keep the business running and growing. When necessary, you have to take out the garbage, answer the phone, deposit the checks. It becomes even more obvious if you are the only one in your company.

Remember: the leader has to be the one that does the most work. Many people get this wrong and think their bosses have a lot of free time. Those are bad bosses. You have to lead by examples, if not nobody would work hard for you.

It’s tough, but it’s also rewarding. You will know the ins-and-outs of the entire company. When the time comes for you to manage your new employees, you will know exactly what it takes to get the job done and not just ask them to figure it out (when they don’t even know how to spell your full name?).

Your experts won’t tell you to think for yourself. They won’t tell you to make quick decisions. Heck, they won’t even help you take out the garbage! You still want to value their opinions because they had been there, done that and could possibly teach you a few useful tips. But when it comes to what you’re doing, you’re on your own.

I hope you’re getting the benefits from this post and will become a better leader in every aspect of your life. If you put your mind to it and learn from your mistakes, you can make a difference in your life, and more often someone else’s too.

Finally, here are some suggestions for you:

1) Get your butt off the chair and start doing real work instead of just talking about it (it doesn’t apply if you’re a blogger since you work on the chair, hopefully a comfortable one).

2) Don’t keep analyzing data without actually doing something about it. The experts might have valid points, but they’re not in your shoes. Only you know what you do. Even personal decision making skills will help get you started.

3) Understand what your members/employees/followers have to go through to produce results. It’s best if you’d done it before, otherwise you should do it at least once yourself.

What do you think about leadership? What are you going to change today? If you have anything to add, feel free to leave a comment below!

Do you feel like you have been too nice to people sometimes, but they don’t seem to care?

Are you craving for approvals and compliments, yet they never come?

If you’re like most people, the answer is yes to both questions.

Colin Powell, the Ex-US Secretary of State and retired 4-star general, said this in his leadership presentation,

“Being responsible sometimes means pissing people off.”

A good leader needs to make tough decisions that will inevitably piss some people off, for the good of the entire group. If you want to do something great, you need to be strong and do what is right for the group even though you might upset some people.

It takes courage to open yourself to criticisms and attacks, sometimes personal. It takes a lot of EQ to respond in a responsible way and not react. It takes persistence to do it again and again, even though you are alone in this journey.

Intelligent people like leaders who are willing to do unpleasant things to fix a situation. If someone is intentionally not doing his fair share of work, the leader is naturally the person that should confront him. Morale will go up, everybody will be happier, and the leader will be seen as an authority.

It’s often easy to just ignore the problem and let others deal with it. But if you want to step up as the leader, you need to be the one who takes control and do what you need to do.

Similarly, Seth Godin, a famous author of business books and a marketing blogger, said this in a recent interview with Personal MBA,

“Try to find things people will criticize.”

If you are putting yourself out there, whether it is starting a business, writing a blog post, marketing your products, you will be bound to piss someone off and face criticisms. As much as you hope they would be constructive, but we all know that it’s not the case sometimes.

If you get flared up whenever you read or hear a criticism on yourself, you will not go far in whatever you are doing. Sure, sometimes they need to be dealt with. But most of the time, you are better off cooling your head down before deciding what to do next.

It takes a lot of good and bad feedback to grow, and it takes a lot of emotional maturity to sustain the growth.

It’s freaking uncomfortable

I won’t lie and say that it’s easy to do. It is not.

It’s easy for me to write them down.

But I did it. I wrote this blog post. No, I’ve written more than 50 blog posts. And I don’t think you would agree with every single one of them, and I don’t need you to. You see, I’ve had my share of doubts too. It was especially scary when I posted my first post.

What would people think about it? Do they think it sucks? Will they leave nasty comments?

All kinds of questions floated in my mind. Yet the secret of success is action. Once I got through the first obstacle, it was smooth sailing. Nothing bad happened. Sure some people might think it sucks (and they leave, which is cool), some people have criticisms, but many others learn and benefit at the same time!

So I tell myself to focus on the good stuffs, and learn from the bad stuffs.

What happens if you don’t piss people off?

Nothing. Your life will be the same as it is.

But don’t expect it to change because you might go insane. As Einstein might say, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

I’m not saying to go piss off somebody on the street for the sake of pissing them off. But you will inevitable piss someone off along your journey to be a great leader and a better person. And that’s cool.

Things you can start doing today

1) Decide now to do something you’ve always wanted to do, but stopped because you are afraid of criticisms. Once you make the decision, go do it. It is not as scary as you thought it would be.

2) Don’t try to please everyone. If you do that, the people you should care about will hate you, and the people you don’t really care about will not respect you.

And if you’re on the other side of the coin, when you’re about to criticize someone, remember this quote:

“Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain but it takes character and self control to be understanding and forgiving.”

–Dale Carnegie–

Whether you love or hate Colin Powell, you need to check out his presentation on leadership. In this and the upcoming blog posts, I will tear his presentation apart, throw out the junks, and share all the good stuffs with you. Be ready!

Powell mentioned this sentence in his presentation:

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

According to him, it is the slogan of a person who is either complacent, arrogant, or scared.

Why?

To me, it all begins with complacency. A person gets too comfortable with everything around him that he will not do anything to improve himself.

Next, he thinks, “Things are already the best that they can be.” That’s arrogance.

Then, deep down inside there’s this fear in the person, a fear that says, “Why bother trying to change things? You might fail, and everybody will laugh at you!”

And that’s being scared.

Get Out of Your Own Illusion

It’s an illusion that today will continue to be the same tomorrow. Often enough, many people get caught off guard because things don’t turn out the way it’s supposed to (or hoped to). The economic crises have consistently proven this fact, yet no action is taken until someone gets hit right in the face.

And it’ll be too late.

No matter how good things are going, there’s always a better way to do something. And if that is true, why not do something better?

It’s time to wake up and go out to win your game!

You’re Must Be Prepared to Fail

Yes, you will fail and some people will laugh at you and say, “I told you so!”

Yet, those are the people who don’t dare to challenge themselves, so they are the cowards. Do you want them to stand between you and success? I guess the answer is a big NO.

What Can You Do?

1) Stop complaining and start doing something that helps you to be a better person every day. Don’t stay busy watching the TV when you should be building your business or learning how to market your products.

2) You can start helping your friends to do the same, by sharing your ideas with them. They are most likely struggling emotionally and financially too. Find strength in one another.

What You’re Thinking Right Now Is Right

Yes, the slogan is the culture of humanity, and it’s here to stay no matter how much we talk about it. As much as we hate to admit it, we are not born ambitious, humble, or courageous.

But you can be different, if you want to.

You can learn. You can grow. You can change.

And if that happens, your life will be different, I promise.