After a career across the US and Asia at Pepsico and Nike, Lance Tanaka has built a leadership consulting company on the back of Polonius’ sage advice to Laertes in Hamlet: “This above all: to thine ownself be true.”
Being true to yourself is not only the key to your success, he says, but to your happiness.
“My definition of authenticity is to be the leader you were designed to be, not the one you want to be. Your principles, your values, are hardwired into your brain.”
When you are not true to your own strengths, passions, and values, you are, he says, doomed to be average – when what we all want to be is significant. “Trying to turn your weaknesses into your towering strengths won't get you to extraordinary.”
Tanaka has developed a 90-day “DNA” reboot tool – “Dreams and Aspirations” – for executives who have sacrificed balance, freedom, dreams, family, and health in pursuit of money, title, finances and security.
His DNA tool helps execs succeed in all nine of these categories.
Step #1: Identify what your actual personal values are in each of these categories.
Step #2: Drill down and detail the elements of each: the “who, what, where, when” of each, replacing vague desires with clarity.
Step #3: Push out the things you’re not passionate about and pull in those that you are. Compound that process for 90 days, and you will gain clarity of purpose.
A McKinsey study said that mission fulfillment is five times more powerful than any other leadership dimension, yet 85% of frontline managers feel they are not living their purpose. The restlessness flows downward, and the newer generations demand more from their employers.
“In my generation, if you wanted to be successful, you had to work 70+ hours a week. The younger generations value balance. Even in Asia, they no longer want that top-down culture anymore where the boss sets down the rules and you just do it. Companies need to ask who these individuals are and what they genuinely want, if they want to both keep employees and keep up.”
TAKEAWAYS:
Written by Adam Gilad
Trending Now
The World's Most Expensive Coffee Costs $284 Per Ounce: Caffeine enthusiasts are well aware that the market is brimming with high-priced coffee options. Among them is an Indonesian blend known as Kopi Luwak, which is made from coffee cherries that have been consumed, partially digested, and then excreted by Asian palm civets, and it often commands aprice of around $600 per pound. (Mental Floss)
Maybe You Will Be Able to Live Past 122: The UK's Office for National Statistics offers a life expectancy calculator online. By inputting your age and sex, it uses national averages to predict the age you might reach. According to this calculator, I could live until 88 years old, which seems reasonable considering the global life expectancy is approximately 73 years. However, I recognize that this estimate may be conservative for those involved in the increasingly popular longevity movement. (Technology Review)
Is The Era of Revenge Travel Over?: Recall the hazy days of emerging from the pandemic? When borders began to open, authorities tentatively eased international travel restrictions, and you (along with nearly everyone else) vowed never to take for granted the freedom to leave your home, state, or country again? (Chartr)