Leadership & Coaching With Adrian

To bring out the best in people, it is important to be flexible and know how to relate to others. It’s an art to know how to be flexible with others while still staying true to one’s core beliefs.

The key to being adaptable is to be a “Go-Giver”, to look for opportunities to provide value to others in the group. Being rigid and teamwork do not go well together.

Adaptable people are:

1. Coachable

Self-improvement is a big priority for me. I look at coaches and mentorship as an investment, not an expense. When receiving coaching, it is also important to be humble and open-minded. Because not everything the coach or mentor says will be roses to hear.

2. Emotionally Secure

To be adaptable means I need to keep balanced emotions. It means I focus on not seeing everything or everyone as a challenge or a treat.

3. Creative

One of my favorite words is “pivot” when I come across a challenge. I need to be able to look at a challenge and still find a way to win.

4. Service Minded

To make a change, it is important to focus on serving others.

I have had the pleasure of leading joint venture partnerships with entrepreneurs worldwide. One thing I re-learned while doing so is how important it is to work together.

“Efforts combined is success multiplication” – Adrian Bryan

In my experience, it is amazing how many successes I have had by collaborating with others. This is multiplied even further when each team member is genuine, honest, and has a giving spirit.

Most people who have worked with me will be able to share the following sentiments about me:

1. Win-Win: I always look for a win situation for everyone involved. I want to ensure my customers, team members, and clients all get value at the same time.

2. Compliments & Praise: I do this with people who have earned it. It is important to reinforce others when they do something valuable.

To become great, you must 10X your efforts. Being committed is a character trait that needs to be honed over time. See some people might think of commitment as an emotional thing. For example:

“Oh, I woke up this morning with 100 sales on my eCommerce website. Ok today I am committed”

See that example above is based on emotion. Whereas a committed person would wake up with passion whether they had zero or 100 sales.

That being said, my emotions do go up and down, just like any normal human. But I don’t let rejection and disappointment stop my desire to have more success.

10X commitment is about having good character. It’s a state of mind that determines a person’s default actions in life. Here are the things to know about commitment:

“You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.” Zig Ziglar

I first heard this quote back in high school and I immediately felt a connection. There are many skills I have learned over the years that I failed at when starting out. But I kept going, I failed forward and now I have become intermediate to advanced on many of those skills.

“Commitment Does Not Depend On Gifts Or Abilities” – John Maxwell

Commitment lasts longer when someone has strong values. According to the Hexaco Personality Test, conscientiousness can determine a person’s commitment levels.

Take a risk

All commitment involves risk. Asking a client to say yes to a business deal is commitment. Asking a woman on a date is a commitment. Going to the gym is a commitment, e.t.c… All these things involve some level of risk and one must be willing to take them to succeed.

John Maxwell said it best

“Without communication, you don’t have a team; you have a collection of individuals”

This quote hit me like a brick of rocks when I first heard it and it is so true. I have been on teams that had very little interaction, and here are some of the ways I found that can bring a team closer:

1. Take the first initiative

Leaders need to be willing to do things first. This allows others to feel more comfortable following in their footsteps. A recent example of me doing this was… I was on a Zoom call with my coworkers. We usually meet weekly to discuss ideas and get to know each other more. What I noticed though was that no one was on camera. Everyone would speak and the most some would do is put up a picture of themselves on Zoom. So one day I decided to come on camera first. That allowed others on the team to feel comfortable turning on their camera for the first time as well.

2. Closer Proximity

Communication problems can be solved with proximity. Familiarity breeds relatability and trust.

3. Follow Up On Important Communication In Writing

After meetings, I find it important to follow up with emails or Google docs notes to recap what was discussed. I find this helps the team stay organized and complete tasks sooner.

Great leaders are willing to do things first. They may delegate the task to others to increase productivity. However, they never ask someone to do something they would not do themselves.

Great leaders focus on being competent and focusing on excellence.

Great leaders push their potential to and past their limits. Being average is not in the vocabulary of a great leader.

Great leaders pay attention to detail. Things done halfway right do not make the cut.

Great leaders perform with consistency. It is one thing to perform for a day or a week. It’s a whole different ballpark to perform over months, years, and decades.

Great leaders are niche-specific. The reality is that we only have so much time in a day. What I have done over the years is focus on my high-income skills that can drive revenue for companies. Instead of learning everything, I have honed specific skills.

Being dependable is a good character trait to have. When I am on a team, people know they can reach out to me with questions or get the work done. To be dependable, one must also:

1. Have pure motives

When I am being dependable, I do it out of good service to others. Not with some hidden agenda.

2. Sense of care and responsibility

From my experience, the most dependable people are those who care and have a desire to be proactive.

3. Consistent Contribution

Being dependable is a lifestyle. If you cannot depend on someone all the time, you cannot depend on them at any time. My strongest personality trait is Conscientiousness. That means I am dependable when tired, hungry, distracted, or overwhelmed.

Diligence is a facet of Conscientiousness and I score 100% in this area. Here is my blueprint for being disciplined:

1. Do more today, so you can do more tomorrow

Yes, there are projects I am faced with that may take a week, a month, or a year e.t.c… But I look beyond the project and I look into the future of what my life will look like once I complete this project. I see how much more successful I will be if I keep pushing now. When I visualize my future success for doing the work today, it helps keep my discipline strong.

2. Think positive

To be disciplined, I guard my mind against as much negativity as possible. I avoid gossip, drama, and bad news, and I focus on the positive things going on in the world.

3. Strengthen Habits One At A Time

The book “The One Thing” by Gary Keller focuses on doing one thing at a time. I found this book to be very helpful so I can remain disciplined. When I focus on improving one thing at a time, it reduces my stress and allows for better focus. There is a saying “a practitioner of everything is a master of nothing.”

4. Race against yourself

Before I start a large project, I like to break the project down into smaller pieces. After that, I do one small part of the project and time myself. Once I complete that small part of the project, I estimate how long the project will take. Then I race against myself to do it faster than the time I set for myself. This helps me to remove boredom from some projects and improve productivity.

Have fun! Enjoy your work and the company of those you work with. Put yourself in a good mood. Successful people take responsibility for their enthusiasm and happiness.

I sometimes end up working on projects I am not that excited about. What works for me to overcome this is to look deep within and find one thing about the project that is interesting. Or I visualize how much value this project will provide once I complete it. That sparks my enthusiasm.

Another thing that helps is my belief in myself. I see myself winning in whatever I do.

Finally, a great way to be more enthusiastic is to have a sense of urgency. Put that project you are not that excited about on your calendar and have a project deadline date. This will fuel urgency when there is an end date in mind.

To go somewhere, you need to have a guide and a vision. Everything I do has intent behind it. Where do I want to be 3 months from now? Where do I want to be 5 years from now? E.t.c.

There is a book called “The Compound Effect” by Darren Hardy. This book talks about taking small steps and over time they will compound into bigger things. This is why intent is very important. The things I do to have intent are:

1. Creating A Vision Board

I outline all the things I want to achieve in my life in the next 5 years and put them on a vision board. I find images of these things, and print them off in 4K then attach them to the vision board on my wall.

2. Knowing My Strengths And Weaknesses

This is very important. I spend 80% of my time focusing on my strengths as those things will yield the most return. And the 20% I focus on improving my weaknesses.

3. Prioritizing Responsibilities

There are so many things to complete in a day, week, month, or year that it’s simply not possible to do everything. What I do is prioritize the most important task that will provide the most value in the long run. What I have found out by doing this is that I build on the Compound Effect.

It is better to give than to receive. Being a leader means giving of oneself and to help others win. One of my favorite books on this subject is “The Go-Giver” by Bob Burg and John David Mann. One of the concepts in the book talks about when you focus on giving value, the money will follow. Some of the things Go-Givers do are:

Go-Givers show praise to others. They believe in others’ dreams.

Go-Givers find out what is valuable to their team members and find ways to bring that value to them.

Go-Givers make themselves more valuable. Making yourself more valuable will in turn allow you to give more value to others.

On the Hexaco Personality test, I score 100% on Organization. The steps I follow to be organized are:

1. Thinking Ahead

The first step to being organized is to think ahead about what could happen and how to respond. What obstacles could I face? What systems can I prepare that will allow me to work faster and smarter?

2. Do Research

Find out all the tools available to get a job done, and then carefully select the one that will help you the most.

3. Journal all mistakes

The best way to avoid making the same mistake twice is to write it down. That will train your brain so that the next time you are less likely to repeat the mistake.

The ability to relate to others is key to being a great leader. The things that build relationships faster are:

1. Respect

You should respect everyone even before you get to know them. Everyone likes being around another person who values their opinions and feelings.

2. Shared Experiences

When you share experiences with others, that builds a very strong bond. What’s better is when you share multiple experiences with an individual.

3. Trust

It takes time to develop trust. However, with respect and shared experiences, trust will develop over time.

To be a great leader, self-improvement is essential.

The world is evolving so fast and the only way to stay ahead of the curve is to improve.

Great leaders prepare today for tomorrow.

Great leaders are learning something new on an ongoing basis.

Great leaders take information and apply it.

Great leaders are highly teachable and plan their progress.

“There is no I In Team”

Great leaders are generous with their time and resources.

Great leaders are loyal to their group. They are loyal to their life purpose.

Great leaders give to others without needing to make it known to others.

Most people who meet me will share that whenever I see a problem, I also see the solution (s) to the problem. And in cases where I do not immediately see a solution, I will research to find the appropriate solution. The things to know about being solution-oriented are:

1. Brainstorm all potential solutions

Write down potential solutions on paper. Or start researching for credible sources to get the solution.

2. The obstacle is the way

In many cases this holds true. Where there is an obstacle, on the other side of that is a success or a learning moment.

3. Have grit

The determination to keep going when a situation is difficult is a good trait to have. Tell yourself when things get hard “keep going”.

4. Pivot your strategy

If at first, the strategy used to create a solution does not work, be flexible in knowing when to change things up. Remember never quit, always pivot.