“A leader’s goal is not to see but to envision.”

One of the most famous stories to this day of foresight is the example of General Electric under Jack Welch’s leadership. GE made a critical strategic decision; it would either be first or second in every market it entered, or it would abandon that market altogether. This approach constituted a wrenching change for GE as many longtime GE divisions and components were let go. But Welch held to his vision, recognizing the changing marketplace, being number three or number four would never be profitable. As a result, GE today represents the gold standard for American corporations, and Jack Welch is still revered as a business genius and a true rhino leader.

Like Mr. Welch, the rhino leader takes no prisoners, ignores the doomsayers and creates products unique enough and attractive enough to turn them from “what’s that?” to “must have.” A rhino leader tramples obstacles in his wake that suggests defeat, which provides a foundation necessary to achieve victory on his own terms.

The rhino always stays on message and is never troubled or daunted by changing circumstances. If you’re ready to apply the technique of rhino foresight here are three ways to do that today:

Step 1: Cultivate the environment in which foresight can thrive – as leaders we must commit ourselves to knowing the information that affects our future. We must stay current in our fields of expertise by reading the latest books, current biographies and historical perspectives. We need to attend trade shows and seminars and join professional organizations.

Step 2: Correlate events the past with those of the present – Correlating both past and present is an incredibly empowering tool that helps leaders understand the seeds of your individual successes and failures. Study the law of cause and effect in your day-to-day activities. Every meeting, telephone call, e-mail argument, and smile is an action that leads to another action. Be certain your actions are firmly future-focused and amenable to your path toward success.

Step 3: Anticipate the future – Foresight must always be proactive. Foresight requires conscious effort to anticipate and direct with what the future will look like. Today’s leader must create a “necessity mind-set” without any prompting from the marketplace.

The best leaders can take a lesson from the Rhino. What a Rhino smells prior to aggression is generally anything that they consider to be a threat. What that scent really translates into is success. If a Rhino becomes aggressive taking down the threat, he will succeed in being the victor. If a great leader senses a threat, they will become proactive rather than wait and be forced into being reactive. That heightened sense is really the smell of success.

The sweet smell of success is difficult to describe as each successful leader will relate a different approach to attaining success. However, all successful leaders have at least one thing in common. They smelled success before they achieved it. Human beings are driven by their senses. When you wake up in the morning and smell a freshly brewed pot of coffee, you find yourself wanting a cup. Most personal or professional missions in life work in the same manner. When you know someone who has achieved success, you crave the same.

Motivation is the key that turns the lock to our senses. If we see a beautiful, new car, we envision ourselves behind the wheel. If we hear our favorite song, we want to sing along or at least dance. If we touch silk, we want to wear it. Although these examples are tangibles, the bridge to acquiring them is the intangible bridge of motivation. When great leaders tap into these motivations and take steps towards attainment, they risk free-falling into the unknown.

The greatest leaders look within themselves for the motivation that is necessary for achieving the tangibles that represent heightened senses, motivation, and hard, focused work. Smelling success before achieving it is the motivation that is necessary for attaining our goals.

• Make a list of “Things to Do Today,” EVERY SINGLE DAY.
• Begin with the most difficult “thing” EVERY SINGLE DAY on the list. By doing this, everything else on the list will seem a lot easier.
• Take an action for someone else EVERY SINGLE DAY. It can be something simple like getting a cup of coffee or a soda for a co-worker or loved-one, without being asked to. Ask a co-worker or loved one what you can do for them today…help with paperwork, bring them lunch, pick up dry cleaning, go to the grocery.

Every once in a while a Rhinos sense of smell leads them in the wrong direction. That is to be expected. For without those small failures they will never achieve and maintain the reputation of being a mighty force to be reckoned with. Since a Rhino charges with no fear, each of their endeavors, even if they don’t hit the bulls eye, further embeds their standing as a relentless foe.

A Rhino is aware that his sense of smell is more acute than his blurred vision. They are self-effacing, realizing their weakness, but all the while strengthening their assets. The delicate balance between their heightened sense of smell and acting on it appropriately and with precise timing, is what has given the Rhino their status.

As stated earlier, a Rhino has no natural predators. A predator will only strike if they sense a vulnerability or lack of confidence. The Rhino doesn’t respond to such frivolities. Great leaders also have no natural predators. They are people who have sensed a threat or an opportunity, rather than having been motivated by an attack. That higher sense of existence is the motivational factor that breeds success.

A predator has yet to experience the sweet smell of success; therefore they pose no real threat, as they have yet to experience the heightened sense of awareness that it takes to be really motivated towards tangible or intangible goals.

Jack Welch, in his extraordinary book “Winning” notes resilience as one of the most important characteristics a leader can have: “The fourth characteristic [of senior leadership] is heavy-duty resilience. Every leader makes mistakes, every leader stumbles and falls. The question with a senior-level leader is, does she learn from her mistakes, regroup, and then get going again with renewed speed, conviction and confidence.

Leaders encourage resilience in their teams by nurturing them through the recognition of failures and by encouraging them to build new and more successful habits in terms of failure. The level of your achievements in life is directly proportional to your level of failure. If you don’t believe me, simply stand in the center of a busy airport and consider how many times the Wright Brothers did not get the plane off the ground! Yet they continued to try until they prevailed.

The greater your failure, the greater your potential in life is. Failure is the price we pay to achieve the success and progress we enjoy in life. It is important as a leader to know that no matter how many times you fail, you are not a failure. Failure does not define you. What you do with failure creates those defining moments that enrich you as a leader.

Changing our failure mind-set assures us that while we cannot avoid fear, we can learn from it. Reflecting on our experience from a new vantage point allows us to break down failure into specific elements, which can then be dissected and analyzed, helping us to determine the specific root cause of the failure.

Success is not reserved for special people–nor is failure. The only definitive difference between achievers and those who struggle is how they approach, handle, and perceive their failures.

As leaders, our job is to keep our goals rooted in reality, but we must also embrace the understanding and opportunities that failure brings. That will indeed make our teams and our missions soar.

While it is very easy to put on blinders and run through life, the rhino realizes that survival depends on constant observation and planning. A Rhinos vision can be likened to a mother’s vision-no matter what species she hails from. A mother’s main objective is to lead by example and protect herself and her herd of baby Rhinos.

While growing up you probably thought that your mother had eyes in the back of her head. You now know that she didn’t. However, what she did possess was an all-encompassing vision as she realized that she constantly had to be aware of her surroundings and protecting her herd, much like the Rhino’s lifelong vision.

What your mother envisioned was not just children running and playing. She crystallized her vision and saw dangers and pitfalls that may be lurking around any corner. Her visions, much like the Rhinos, gave clarity to her vision of her herd obtaining heights and depths that they were yet to realize.

That is not just blind faith; it is a very carefully calculated vision of what she wants for the future of her baby Rhinos, or herd. Now that is a leader that is not focusing on leadership or being in charge. That is a leader without blinders whom creates, shifts, and refines her vision based on circumstances, opponents of her herd, and activity in the herd.

Your mother, like the Rhino, believes without proof, that her herd will be a powerful force to be reckoned with. Part of that vision requires a little blind faith mixed with organizing, planning, and a 360° vision of what the world has to offer.

A Rhino, much like a mother, has eyes on the side of it’s head, allowing it to keep a 360-degree watch on everything that is going on around them, at all times. A Rhino’s babies run around with blinders on due to immaturity, lack of vision, and the blind faith that they innately posses for their mother. Her job is to instill her visions into her herd with skill and precise calculation.

The reality is that Rhino’s can only see approximately a 50 feet parameter around them. But that is insignificant to the mighty Rhino. What they envision is a world past the 50 feet and unexplored territory to be reckoned with.

The Rhino forms pictures in their mind of what they believe is out “there.” They become so steadfast in their vision that when they charge, they do so with their eyes closed. They are not interested in leading; they are interested in their target and exude so much power and bravery that they expect the herd to follow, much like a mother of any herd.

You’ve probably heard the question before, either asked aloud or whispered by that little voice inside your head. Or perhaps you’ve heard it another way: “Do you control how you Spend Your Time?”

You already know that time is precious; however many of us fall into the ratrace of society’s expectations and become victims of living on other people’s time, rather than our own. Think for a minute about why we use the verbs spend and own in relation to time. It makes sense when you consider how valuable your time is. In fact, it is arguably the single most important asset you possess. And, if YOU don’t own it, then someone or something else does.

To determine exactly who or what owns your time, take a few minutes to calculate everything you do in a 24-hour day, and subtract the hours spent sleeping, commuting, working – the everyday things that cannibalize most people’s time – you might have less than a few hours a day to call your own.

Even if you did have more time, would you have the financial resources to do the things you wanted to? Would you be able to afford a nice vacation or even a day at the spa? It wouldn’t matter if you had more time, if you lacked the income necessary to do those things you would love to spend your time doing. That old verbatim, “Time is money” truly does have a double entendre.

So, how can you buy back your time and make your hours worth more? The answer may lie in simply knowing the difference between acquiring riches and establishing true wealth. If you have these things, then you can buy yourself more time to do all of the coveted activities you’ve been missing out on. Think of all the clichés like, “Time is precious” that might apply here!

Do You Own Your Time®?

Have you lost sight of your dream? Have life’s circumstances made it seem implausible for you to pursue those long-lost goals? Complacency will rob you of your time – day by day – minute by second. Time is something you can never recover. Therefore, it is even more precious than any riches. So, to get more of your time, you must develop the Rhino mindset of leadership mentality. You must grasp your dream and do whatever it takes to see it through. Do you really want to be an old person one day who looks back on your life, only to wish you had seen, done or had more than you did? For many, it will be too late. For you, it is not.

You see, there is a correlation between – yet a distinctive difference – between being rich and being wealthy. Many people think those are one in the same. Based on the definition above, this simple phrase represents a monumental shift in perception, purpose and process, and it is the key to success in both your business and personal life. Please take note: “own” is a verb, an action, a step you actively decide to make. Taking ownership of every minute of your day is not only a critical step in leadership but also a philosophy of life that can move you from the rat-race of “income accrual” to a lifetime of “true wealth.”

This difference between acquiring riches and establishing true wealth is something that many people have lost sight of.

Riches = directly tied to a dollar figure. Everyone has their own imaginary figure that they would consider as rich. For some, that may be a six-figure number. Others may not consider rich to be anything less than a $mill. You could say that lottery winners become rich. They are not wealthy. This represents material possessions, monetary income, anything that projects the appearance of success. However, without due caution, it’s easy to become enslaved to these things, to the point where they own you instead of the other way around! Most people today spend their time simply earning an income, which is certainly a noble effort but, consider this. By nature, income is designed to “come in” and then “go out”. When you look at it that way, the process seems a bit futile.

True wealth = directly tied to owning your time. By contrast, when you own your time, the world looks different and each day feels different. True wealth is a holistic state of existence: a combination of focused mind-set, the ability to value what’s truly important in life, and the means by which to enjoy your life. You’ll still meet obstacles along the way, but you’ll be free to overcome those obstacles any way you choose – even if it requires walking away for a break from the action to reassess your approach. When you own your time, you alone dictate your life’s course!

So how can you own your time and create true wealth in your life? Start with three steps:

1. A leader understands to create wealth you must have the right dream.
   To create wealth, you must have a clear vision of your target and apply the right amount of action to achieve it. I’ve said for your years that, “Vision without Action is just a Dream; Action without Vision is a Nightmare!” Not only must you have the right dream, but the actions that you put forth to acquire that dream must match. Do you clearly know what the right dream is for you and do your daily actions support it? Have you taken inventory of your passions and skills? This critical step will help guide you toward a more fulfilling and balanced life, a more satisfying place where you can thrive and create true wealth while exceeding all your financial needs and goals.
2. A leader understands to create wealth you must have the right team.
   Who you spend your time with is equally important as how you spend it. We’ve all heard the saying, “Two heads really are better than one”. When you combine resources and ideas, it strengthens an organization. When you share the workload, everyone is more efficient and able to enjoy more personal time. But a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, so ensure that all hands are on deck. Find team members with skills and interests that complement each other and you’ll find yourself in a brewing pot of creative genius. The team might even be temporary, but with the right mix of people, everyone will part with more skills and knowledge than before, better equipped to own their time and create true wealth. Learn from great leaders who’ve gone before you and surround yourself with people who share your principles and support your dream.
3. A leader understands to create wealth you must have the right theme.
   Without a doubt, the theme – the underlying belief system – is your commitment to owning your time. The art of taking ownership of every moment of life is shared by the world’s greatest leaders. Working toward a goal is a journey, but what is the theme of your journey? Sometimes your theme is defined along the way, but you can identify your own theme in the beginning as a guideline. This will keep you both motivated and on track. One solid theme throughout a lot of success stories is “small steps toward big goals.” In other words, create an action plan of smaller, achievable goals to act as building blocks toward your end goal. It’s important to remember that the wealth you seek lies not only in the end goal, but in the journey. So celebrate small victories and enjoy the journey – and that sounds like another good theme!

Do You Need a New Dream, Team and/or Theme?

If you’ve come to the conclusion that you’re in need of some serious change in terms of who or what owns your time, I’ve got great news for you. While financial recessions – the current one included – are economic seasons none of us wish to encounter, they carry a silver lining and are historically known to create dynamic opportunities for entrepreneurial success stories. If you’re stuck in a cycle of chasing after income with little or no time left over, today may be a turning point.

If you surround yourself with successful people, guess what will happen? You too, will become successful. If you surround yourself with broke people who have very little to offer, aside from complaining or asking for more of your time, then you will never be able to get your time back, nor become wealthy. You will stay stuck right where you are, wishing you had more time and more money. You are the Rhino! Get back your time!

Once you take charge, your lifestyle will change dramatically and so will your financial riches. As a suggestion, rather than focusing on the monetary aspect; focus on the dream. The means and resources will fall into place once you take action towards your goals and find the right partners for success. This is not to say that you should let your responsibilities fall by the wayside. Of course, that would just create chaos and hinder your imminent success. Instead, allow those precious few moments that you do have (for now) to become more valuable and use them to take action towards fulfillment of your dreams.

Whether you’re the Assistant Manager of XYZ, Inc. or the CEO of your own entrepreneurial endeavor, the practice of owning your time holds the key to a lifetime of true wealth. It’s your time… OWN IT!

Keep Charging Hard!
Christian

Copyright 2009 © Christian Warren ● All Rights Reserved

Do You Own Your Time® Is A Registered Trademark of Christian D. Warren ● All Rights Reserved

Three Ways You Can Re-Engage Your Leadership Communication Today:

1. Mean what you say and do what you say you will do.

2. Stop and listen to your team before you speak.

3. Everyone matters.Throw out old communication habits and using email as the primary form of communication. Work to communicate on a personal inspired level – holding weekly meetings with staff sans the email!

Failure is the main ingredient in the recipe for success; its 10 parts education, 20 parts effort and 70 parts failure. So why do we hang our heads, lower our eyelids, and cover our mouths, drenched in shame and disgrace, when admitting our failures?

It all starts with the competitive arena which has actually made it more difficult for leaders and individuals alike to admit they have failed at something they attempted to do. Competition really starts in the womb and continues on with siblings, school, work, and personal relationships. Are we as individuals so pompous that we actually believe that we will succeed at everything we touch?

The truth is that it’s not necessarily the actual “act” of failure that hits us in the gut, knocking us to our knees; it’s the exercise of having to admit that we actually failed in the first place. That’s where the majority of our “failure” pain comes from. We are hard-wired for failure; we are just not hard-wired to admit it. What we are really craving is positive validation; and we can’t get that from failure… Unless we are able to turn the tables on the dreaded monster.

How do we come back afterward and ensure that we will do a better job the next time? The current crisis on Wall Street and within the technology sector stems from leaders’ avoiding the simple lesson of failure. We’ve all become so busy at not taking responsibility for anything that we’ve lost the opportunity inherent in failure. Historically speaking, there are many who failed before they succeeded. Abe Lincoln was defeated for state legislature and Speaker of the House for Illinois, lost the nomination to Congress and the Vice Presidency, was twice defeated for a seat in the US Senate, lost a job, failed in business and suffered a nervous breakdown, ALL before becoming the 16th President of the United States. “The fact that millions have achieved great success after a ridiculous amount of failure should clearly prove to all that you can achieve success through failure as well.” Did I mention that Lincoln publicly acknowledged his failures? That’s the key to harnessing the power of failure. Admitting it and charging right through it. Success is about leveraging failure after failure without losing your ability to admit it.

A leader must understand that in order to achieve any measurable level of success, failure is necessary. Albert Einstein said, “Insanity consists of doing the same thing over and over and hoping for different results.” One of the most valuable traits one can have as a leader is the ability to closely observe his or her mistakes and learn the lessons that create positive changes so that the next set of challenges presented will result in different outcomes.

Failure should not be seen as an unsuccessful attempt; rather, it can be viewed as a yet-unattained goal or as simply one more step toward eventual success. Leaders can truly embrace their fullest potential by actively embracing failure as the most important ingredient in the recipe for success.
The past can be a validated, comfortable place to hide, but it can also serve as a roadblock to innovation and growth instead of a bridge to a brighter, more prosperous future. Failure is temporary; success is long term. Great Leaders should not shut the door on their failures nor obsess over them endlessly. Instead, they need to use them as a tool with formidable force, as failures are the greatest teaching tool in existence. Observe their failures and analyze them, understanding they are not identified by their mistakes. One can overcome a great deal of fear-based thinking by understanding that we all fail and we all can go on to achieve great success from that failure.

Jack Welch, in his extraordinary book “Winning” notes resilience as one of the most important characteristics a leader can have: “The fourth characteristic [of senior leadership] is heavy-duty resilience. Every leader makes mistakes, every leader stumbles and falls. The question with a senior-level leader is, does she learn from her mistakes, regroup, and then get going again with renewed speed, conviction and confidence? The name for this trait is resilience, and it is important that a leader must have it going into a job because if she doesn’t, in a time of crisis time, is too late to learn it.”

Leaders encourage resilience in their teams by nurturing them through the recognition of failures and by encouraging them to build new and more successful habits in terms of failure. The magnitude of your achievements in life are directly proportional to your triviality of failure. If you don’t believe me, simply stand in the center of a busy airport and consider how many times the Wright Brothers did not get the plane off the ground! Yet they continued to try until they prevailed.

The greater your failure, the greater your potential in life is. Period! Failure is the price we pay to achieve the success, progress and validation that we enjoy in life. It is important as a leader to know that no matter how many times you fail, you are not a failure. Failure does not define you. What you do with failure creates those defining moments that enrich you as a leader.

Altering our failure mind-set assures us that while we cannot avoid failure, we can build on it, as it is the strongest foundation of great success. Reflecting on our experience from a new vantage point allows us to break down failure into specific bite size pieces, which can then be dissected and analyzed, helping us to determine the specific root cause of the failure.

Failure is not reserved for special people–nor is success. The only definitive difference between achievers and those who cease trying is how they approach, handle, and perceive their failures. Once success is achieved, the failures experienced are suddenly recognized as hard work and determination; thus we have achieved that very much sought-after validation.

In 1946 one of the founders of 20th Century Fox, Darryl Zanuck, said, “Television won’t be able to hold on to any market it captures after the first six months. People will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night.” 20th Century Fox Television was founded in 1949. Mr. Zanuck clearly admitted failure and was obviously validated after the immense amount of success that the company soon garnered from the addition.

As leaders, our job is to keep our goals rooted in reality, but we must also embrace the understanding and opportunities that failure brings. That will indeed make our teams and our missions soar.
As leaders, our mission is to maintain our reality-driven goals, while realizing that without failure, our recipe for success will be missing the main ingredient. Validation is just the icing on the cake.

About.com’s Susan Heathfield on “Curing Employee Negativity” – I really identified with Susan Heathfield’s post on curing employee negativity on her blog. Particularly where Heathfield notes, “When employers understand the causes of employee negativity and put in place measures to prevent employee negativity, negativity fails to gain a foothold in the work environment.”

Negativity is a contagious virus that spreads from one mouth to the next, disempowering everyone and everything in its wake. As a leader you must be vigilant and pro-active in keeping your organization healthy and vital by nurturing a positive, can-do attitude.

This holds true as well for being vigilant about who you keep in your organization. It doesn’t matter how good a person’s work product is if that person is infecting the general atmosphere with an endless stream of negative comments.

And keep in mind being sarcastic can often be a form of negativity as well. The Greek root for the word “sarcasm” is sarkazein, meaning “to tear flesh.” There’s nothing funny about that!

PETER DRUCKER SAID, “It is easy to look good in a boom.” In a recession, it’s easy for leaders to say, “Times are tough. Nobody’s doing well. We expect a downturn in sales.” But what if leaders cultivated the mind-set that they can make money and thrive in any economy?

Where can we find the real tenets of leadership that show us how to face any challenge and overcome it? Business leaders are starved for effective role models, primarily because we’ve been looking in all the wrong places—like Washington or Wall Street.

If you want to see leadership, visit the zoo and head to the rhinoceros—the greatest role model for leadership. Why the rhino? He’s sensitive to his environment and a great listener. Listening is a key in leadership. As Drucker noted, “The most important thing in communication is to hear what isn’t being said.” The rhino is thick-skinned, well-balanced (on his l

arge three-toed feet) and poised, despite his ungainly appearance. And like a future-focused leader, the rhino is hard-charging when necessary, and he knows when to rest. He’s aware of what other animals in the vicinity are doing, but he doesn’t tailor his behavior to match or accommodate theirs. Great leaders set the pace, and like rhinos, are strong enough to carry the weight of the world on their well armored shoulders.

To succeed today, you need to emulate rhinos. Leaders with a rhino-like mind-set never assume that the environment determines their success. They know they can attract and make money in any economy. In fact, strategically minded leaders with aggressive mentalities thrive during recessionary periods. Their competitors tend to fold when the economy sours, leaving the field wide open for rhino-leaders to charge.

Three Examples of Rhino-Leaders:

Who are some of our modern-day rhino-leaders? Let’s look at three.

Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple. Jobs launched the updated iPhone at a time when gas prices were soaring, the housing market was in a big slump, and the mood in the country could be described as “grim and grimmer.” Jobs could have said, “Let’s hold off. The economy’s bad, and it will never support a new, expensive high-end phone.” Jobs didn’t waver. Instead, he charged like a rhino, and it worked.

When Jobs launched the iPhone in 2007, people were lined up around the block at Apple Stores, those distinctive and attractive sales environments, waiting impatiently to get their hands on Apple’s newest toy. A year later, people are still waiting in line. In a press release sent just three days after the 2008 launch of the 3G, Jobs announced that Apple had already sold 1 million new models. Apple will likely sell 4.47 million phones in the fourth quarter this year.

Steve Jobs eschews traditional marketing approaches like focus groups and consumer studies. He has an uncanny ability to take the pulse of the marketplace, bringing out not just new products but new ways of shopping. First, he invents a category, like the iPhone, the iPod or iTunes, and then he turns everybody into people who either possess these things or wish they did.

That’s the rhino approach in action: take no prisoners, ignore doomsayers, and create products unique enough and attractive enough to turn them from “what’s that?” to “must have.” Like a rhino, Jobs tramples everything in his path that suggests defeat. And he gets what he wants most of the time.

Another amazing characteristic of the rhino is his speed—a full-grown rhino is six-feet tall and weighs 4,000 pounds, yet it can move at a speed of 35 miles an hour. Rhino-leaders revel in moving quickly and taking advantage of opportunities.

Gary Kelly, CEO of Southwest. Southwest Airlines posted its 35th consecutive year of profitability, was the most punctual, lost the fewest bags, and had the fewest complaints. Why? Southwest has a rhino for a leader who communicates that while other airlines are cutting back on amenities and charging for services like checking bags, Southwest would offer more services, like Wi-Fi on its flights.

While the news media are creating negative marketing for Southwest’s competitors—writing stories on all the ways they are reducing services, cutting back flights and charging for services that used to be free—Kelly trumpets Southwest’s strategy of giving customers more. In an era of zero consumer loyalty and enormous information available to all, can you afford to give your customers less?

Tough times call for a tough role model, and no animal has a tougher skin than the rhino. Rhinos are sometimes called tanks because their skin appears to be divided into plates, creating the illusion that they are armorplated. If you’re going to survive and thrive in tough times, you must be just as thick-skinned as the rhino.

Norbert Reithofer, CEO of BMW. He is one thick-skinned rhino. Reithofer and BMW recently launched the 1 Series, a lower-end version, to appeal to younger, less-affluent buyers. When he began to hear criticism that the 1 Series was not a “pure” BMW, rather than bristle at the criticism, he created a marketing campaign via the Internet to let the world know that the 1 Series is every bit a BMW. For weeks, MSN.com and Yahoo.com advertised the 1 Series in dominant positions on their home pages. Go to YouTube and you’ll find video clips of the new cars. Other automakers have not embraced new media, which leaves them in a position to be trampled by the fast, thick-skinned, rhino-like Reithofer.

These three top leaders and companies emulate aspects of the rhino: they communicate their message boldly; they offer speed and more services instead of cutting back; and they take a tough-skinned approach to criticism and going after prospects. The rhino always stays on message and is never daunted by changing circumstances. There’s always one rhino in every industry. Make sure it’s you!

Christian D. Warren is a leadership consultant and author of Running with the Rhinos (Cirrus) and CEO of CDW Companies. Visit www.cdwcompanies.com.

ACTION: Start charging like a rhino.

While most of us might think that we want “to leave the past behind,” we are ignoring the future if we really have this mind set. The only real way to a clear future is to have a clear vision and total grasp of our past.

• Accept who you are. If you do not recognize and embrace your past, you will never be able to charge ahead and make a difference in the future.
• Realize that your past is a building block to your future. Whether you have eaten from the “silver spoon” or not, I promise that you have had advantages that have helped you be on the right track to success.
• NEVER stop listening. Every time that you listen to someone else, consider it a learning experience, even if you chose to never take their advice, they at least have given you a larger perspective. Just remember that listening is more important than talking and that you have listened in your past; otherwise you would not be here today.
• Give yourself and others a break. We ALL make mistakes, if we chose to learn from them, we are smart. If we chose to make the same mistakes over and over, we are gaining nothing.
• Believe it or not, your parents still know what they are talking about. They may not be “modern,” but there is wisdom in their words. You can gain knowledge and insight from them your whole life.

Sit down and write down your biggest mistakes. Knowing what you know now, how would you have handled the situation(s) differently? When moving forward, apply those solutions. Application is one of the biggest parts of learning. If you refuse to try new approaches, you will probably not forge ahead. A Rhino approaches every situation from a new vantage point; whether that be experience or location; the Rhino looks at every aspect of his vision, then charges.

Look back and reflect; frequently. It is healthy to go over past situations and pull knowledge and wisdom from them. As you charge ahead, realize that you are not a victim of your past, but rather a unique individual with the advantage of understanding the past and your mistakes.

Just remember that it is OK to ask questions. Not knowing something doesn’t show weakness. Asking for the correct answers shows your strength. The mighty Rhino does not stand alone. He is surrounded by his herd; without the herd he would have no real purpose other than self-preservation. The Rhino understands that his herd is his past and his future. Charge Ahead!