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Think like a Leader and
Lead like a Thinker
By Mark Sanborn, AICC 2013 Spring Meeting Keynote Speaker
& Workshop Presenter
continued on page 21
The point of thinking
—about life
and leadership—isn’t just to know new
things. It is, to paraphrase philosopher Jim
Rohn, to behave in new ways. Reading a
book won’t help you lead any better than
buying a treadmill will make you fit. If you
don’t use it, you lose the benefit. (50% of
adults don’t read one book a year.)
We live in an age that seems marked
by attention deficit. Our lives have so
many competing demands that a modern
dilemma seems to be a lack of time to
truly think. Yet thinking is the basis for
everything that happens in our lives. It is
a dangerous course to allow others to do
our thinking, or to let business and activity
minimize the amount of time we give to
thought about our work and lives.
Leaders are always good thinkers; great
leaders are great thinkers. The following
suggestions will allow you to undertake
better thinking and reap the benefits
thinking creates.
1. Make time to think
Most days when I’m in Denver, usually
mid-afternoon, I drive a couple of miles to
the nearest Starbucks. I don’t take my cell
phone, but only a pad a paper and a pencil.
My objective is to spend 15-30 minutes of
uninterrupted thinking.
Feedback from my audiences tells me that
this simple idea is one of the most effective
and valued things I teach.
Why don’t people make time to think?
Perhaps it is because they confuse
activity with accomplishment. Author
Amy Salzman once observed that most
people aren’t too busy to look up from the
grindstone; they are afraid of what they
might find.
We can stay incredibly busy and still
accomplish little. Thinking helps
us separate the mundane from the
magnificent in our lives. It can clarify both
our direction our purposes. It does require
that we stop doing business and living life
long enough to think about our businesses
and our lives.
2. Find a good place to think.
Many homes have a room called a study,
although how much if any study actually
occurs in these rooms is questionable. A
study can be an excellent place to think,
especially if you design it for that purpose.
Any place that provides enough calm and
lack on interruption is a good place. One
of my favorite thinking places is about
30 minutes outside of Denver on the side
of a small mountain that overlooks the
Continental divide.
The reason for having a place to think is
that a purposeful place quickly enables
thinking mode. When we go to a specific
place or spot to do out thinking, the mind
becomes conditioned to do just that.
Find a place that invigorates your thinking
and go to it frequently.
3. Focus your thinking.
One of the biggest obstacles to thinking
is lack of focus. At times it benefits one
to let his or her mind wander. This open,
spontaneous approach is not, however, the
best at all times.
Leaders are always
good thinkers;
great leaders are
great thinkers.
“
”