For many years this slogan has been the banner we have waved at Houston Partners International. We continue to believe that everyone can maximize their personal and organizational effectiveness.
Recently, I pulled up our PowerPoint presentation on this subject while preparing for a client presentation. I thought it would be interesting to share the concepts of Maximizing Your Potential with all of you.
We start with a question....Are you open minded? The reason for this question is to determine whether you look at all of the opportunities around you during problem solving or creative thinking. When a person has a closed mind, they hear 100% but constrict their thinking by prejudging, quick rejection of new ideas, and so on. Open minded thinking takes that same 100% input and multiplies it to 1000% values by being creative about how the new ideas or information could be used.
We also talk about the idea of Training vs. Development. Training is teaching a person a new skill. Development is the process of getting people to use the skills and abilities they already have in a more effective way. Houston Partners International is dedicated to the concept of development.
There are three key elements to improving the use of your potential:
1. Developing a positive mental attitude
2. Interpersonal skills development
3. Goal achievement
Developing a positive mental attitude is a critical component to leading a successful life. If you say that you can do something, the likelihood of succeeding improves dramatically. If you say that you can't do something, you are immediately correct! Remove the word "can't" from your vocabulary!
The ability to interact successfully with others will separate you from the pack. Interpersonal skills development is a significant factor to success and maximizing your potential. You need to take the time to understand yourself and others and learn the great art of listening in order to get other people to listen back.
The spark to the fire is Goal Achievement. You must have goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, realistically high and time dated if you are going to drive to results. At the end of the day, in our careers, results are what we are paid for!
How do you define success? We define it as the continuous achievement of pre-determined personal goals. Have you taken the time to think about what you are trying to accomplish in your work and in your life? Have you written it down, applied the SMART test, and held yourself accountable for results? Doing these things will help you to reach the success that you have defined for yourself.
At Houston Partners International, we know that early negative conditioning has been a contributor to holding people back from reaching their potential. We know that positive attitudes get positive results. The question is...how do we change? The answer is...through a process of being exposed to new ideas multiple times. Did you know that one exposure to an idea results in only 2% retention after 16 days? By comparison, six exposures to one idea over six days results in better than 60% retention for 15 years to life.
You can start right now to Maximize Your Potential by being open minded, removing the word "can't" from your vocabulary, setting SMART Goals and holding yourself accountable, and improving your listening and retention skills as a way of showing others that you are truly interested in what they are saying.
Remember the three keys: Attitude Development, Interpersonal Skills Improvement and Goal Achievement. Those three keys will move you down the path to improved use of your potential. Let us know how we can help!
To Your Success!
Jerry
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