Read This If You Think You Don't Have Any Authority

I'm not the supervisor.

I'm not the manager.

I'm not in charge here, so I'll do whatever the boss wants.

Do any of these sound familiar?

If someone promoted me, then I'd have the authority to lead.

Once I've been knighted, then I'll have the nobility to influence others.

Once I've been bequeathed the royal blah, blah, blah . . .

Leadership doesn't come from authority. Some people use authority as though it were, and many people follow as though it were--but that's not what leadership is.

Leadership is assertiveness, not aggressiveness.

People want authority because they want to:

1. Control the environment around them.
2. Be immune to scrutiny from above.
3. Have the freedom to say and do what they really want.
4. Influence others.

The strange thing is that this approach will never work.

Let's break these down point by point.

#1 - The environment around you is only partially controlled by you. You can choose your friends but you can't choose your family. You can choose your job but you can't choose your manager. So outside of choosing the people and place you put yourself in, there's not really much you can do. So #1 up there is pretty impractical.

#2 - Haters gonna hate. It doesn't matter if you're the CEO. There's a board member who is watching. And even if you're the board member, your partners, other board members, and the entire rest of the internet are all watching. There's no escape. This approach is futile.

#3 - Volleying off of #2, it's more practical to just act in accordance with your true thoughts and feelings from the start. If you don't, you'll end up resenting yourself. And that is a great way to shut yourself down completely. If you do this, sure, there are people who won't like you. But if you are able to disagree professionally and with dignity, you'll earn respect, which is probably far more valuable than being liked.

#4 - Just because you have the power to tell people what to do doesn't mean they will like or respect you when they do it. If you're truly interested in leadership, not just authority, you'll want your team to follow you into the dark and feel comfortable going there. If you're serious about leadership, you'll want your team to go to war for you. That's a lot harder if they don't like or respect you.

So what do you actually want?

Authority or leadership?

Which is more sustainable or applicable to your long-term goals?

2 Minute Action:

Ask yourself what would happen if you just started?

What would happen if you just spoke your mind about the new branding project to your supervisor?

What would happen if you were honest with your friend about her new boyfriend?

What would happen if you were open and honest with people in a constructive, professional way?

They just might feel like you're trying to help.

They just might trust you a little bit more.

They just might see you in a different light.

It just might open the door to some new opportunities.

It can take 2 minutes of your day to do something a little bit out of your comfort zone.

Today's the day.

Make it happen.

8 Things School Didn't Teach You That You Need To Know

The skills you were taught in school are mostly not that useful anymore.

• You don't need to know that the Mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell.
• You don't need to know that Neptune is a gas planet.
• You don't need to know that an isoscolese triangle has two sides of equal length.

What you DO need to know is now up to you.

Until we change what we teach in schools, no one else is going to teach you what you actually need to know.Here are 8 examples to get started:

1. History has been written by the winners, and you can either sit still or help the rest of us re-write it.
2. Good guys think they are the good guys and bad guys think they are the good guys, so it's up to you to question authority and question yourself.
3. There is a 0% return on investment for complaining, so you'd better turn that into motivation or you'll be stuck.
4. A spreadsheet is simple and incredibly useful--you need to know how to use one effectively.
5. Heart disease is the most common (1 in 4) causes of death in the U.S.--so, yeah, learning to cook and eat healthily is a life-changer.
6. The most common regret of the dying is "not having the courage to live a life true to themselves," so maybe you should figure out what that means and how to get it.
7. There are a lot of different personalities out there and you're going to have to work with them, so you'd better learn to negotiate and operate alongside them.
8. It's hard to know when to put yourself first and when to put others first, but with some practice, you can figure it out.

This is just a quick list of things that have been on my mind.These "soft" skills are so critical in our world and they're not part of any curriculum I've seen.Until they're taught in schools, it's up to you to teach yourself (and those around you).

2 Minute Action

Pick one from the list that is resonating with you.I want you to take real action this time--not self-reflection or setting up bigger tasks for later.Ask yourself right now what you can do to move closer to your goal in 2 minutes.It's okay if it's small, in fact, that's the point.Everyone has 2 minutes.Let me know what your action is in the comments or if you have any other life-skills that should be added to this list.