Have you ever wondered if great leaders are born or made? Anyone can be a great leader if they understand themselves, know what motivates others to want to follow them, and apply what they learn.

John C. Maxwell said it best, “A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.”

Do you know how to get your message across and have others want to follow you?

Let’s look at six leadership styles so you can better understand your style and how to motivate others better.

Do you have a well-thought-out strategy to start your day off right? Like many people, you might not. Instead, you probably have morning routines on autopilot, like making your bed and brushing your teeth. But, if you want to get the most out of your day, it is not the morning routines that will change your life, it’s mastering morning rituals!

Do you have a well-thought-out strategy to start your day off right? Like many people, you might not. Instead, you probably have morning routines on autopilot, like making your bed and brushing your teeth. But, if you want to get the most out of your day, it is not the morning routines that will change your life, it’s mastering morning rituals!

So, what’s the difference between morning routines and morning rituals?

One of the best definitions that I’ve seen is that the difference between a routine and a ritual is the intent behind the action. While routines can be repetitive, like making your bed or taking a shower, rituals are more meaningful practices that can create a real sense of purpose.

Tim Ferris, the author of the book, The 4 Hour Work Week, said it best, “If you win the morning, you win the day”.

And, I believe that it is true. But, how do you win the morning? It’s by having at least one or more of the following morning rituals consistently be a part of your day. Over the course of 20 years of coaching financial advisors and insurance agents, I’ve found a common thread among those who are successful; they all have at least one morning ritual.

Let’s look at five morning rituals that will change your business and your life:

All successful and experienced attorneys and accountants have referred clients to financial advisors at one time or another. They have done so because they realize that at some point, they have had clients who have needed financial advisory recommendations.

Do prospects view you as a product pusher or a problem solver? It’s a tough question you may not want to know the answer to.

Are you on a production plateau and you need a little nudge to get going? Most advisors are because they’ve never learned how to create the perfect campaign to grow their business; as a result, they leave their success up to chance.

Benjamin Franklin said it best when he said, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.”

I believe that is true. The best way to plan is to design a campaign, an organized course of action to achieve your goal, and take the right steps to do so.

Do you love to prospect? Do you get into the office and can’t wait to make that first call? If you are like most advisors and agents, you don’t! You probably look for anything else to do rather than prospecting. Does this sound like you?

Most advisors and agents don’t have a well-thought-out process for prospecting. The reason is they’ve never learned a step-wise approach to understanding what it takes to love prospecting. And how to do it successfully so that they create unlimited success!

Do you ever feel like your pipeline is stuck? You know why prospects need to take the next step, but for some reason, they don’t seem to have any urgency to want to meet, send you their statements, or even make a decision on the recommendations that you’ve worked so hard on to help them reach their financial goals.

Kevin Brady, a former U.S. Representative said, “Urgency creates action.”
Therein lies the problem; most advisors/agents don’t have a well-thought-out process for creating urgency in their sales pipelines and for maintaining the momentum!

Let’s take a look at just a few examples of creating urgency, in each stage of the pipeline and how one advisor did just that.  

Have you noticed that you get more emails now than you ever did before?  After constantly being interrupted by emails you most likely have become conditioned to feeling obligated to view each email the minute it arrives.

David Allen, the author of the book Getting Things Done writes, “There are no interruptions, only mismanaged inputs.”

In many respects, this is very true­, in that the emails that you receive all day are merely as important as you perceive them to be and the way that you react to them can either be a positive or a negative depending on what type of time management boundaries you establish.

Have you ever run into the same business challenge repeatedly and you just couldn’t get past it? If so, you are most likely on a production plateau and in need of a tool or technique to create a transformational moment. In other words, you need a Game Changer! 
 
Mickey Mantle, who had an impressive 536 home runs during his baseball career, said, “It's unbelievable how much you don't know about the game you've been playing all your life."

Let’s take a look at a few Game Changers that can have a lasting impact on your business.