By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy

Here’s an idea to help you look for hidden resources well within your reach.

“Honey I Shrunk the Kids!” Remember that movie? I sure do. Funny but insightful too. The insect world is amazingly resourceful.

Bugs take on a Larger than Life image in the movie "Honey I Shrunk the Kids."

These little buggers can flourish in harsh conditions: in pure salt or oil; at 30 below zero or at 120 degrees, in a deep cave or in a crevice of a mountain 20,000 feet high.

After seeing these bugs larger than life on the movie screen, I wanted to learn more about their viability. I wanted to see if there were any lessons on longevity in general and leadership in particular that I could learn from bugs. Turns out I learned at least three lessons on leadership from these bugs . These three lessons reminded me how easy it is to overlook “hidden” resources that might be quite literally at our feet. Perhaps these three leadership lessons will help you “bug” the competition and take a bite out of their bottom line.

ADAPTING TO A NEW BOSS

A new queen bee is carefully introduced into the hive. She is placed in her own protective mini cage specially sugar candied sticks placed at one end of the cage. Then the candied cage is put into the hive. The bees in the hive will chew the candy in about three days. By then, the bees will get used to the new queen’s special smell over that period and more readily come to accept her.

PERFORMING BEYOND YOUR EXPECTATIONS

1. A blind termite less than one-inch long teams with other blind insects an inch long to build mounds 30 feet high.
2. An ant can pick up a stone 50 times it s own weight. A bee can haul a load 300 times its own weight—the equivalent of a human pulling three 100-ton trailer trucks at the same time.
3. A bee will take 500 trips outside the hive in learning the path of the sun to enhance the pollination process.
4. A fruit fly can fly continuously for 6.5 hours.
5. A desert locust can fly continuously for nine hours.
6. A flea can jump 200 times the length of its own body, the equivalent of a man bounding the length of five city blocks.
7. A grasshopper has about 300 more muscles than a man – a total of 900.
8. A caterpillar has more than six times as many muscles as man—a total of 4000!

GETTING ALONG WITH
THE CO-WORKER FROM HELL

The toad lives with fierce stinging ants. But the larger toad doesn’t eat the ants. Instead the ants and toad virtually ignore each other. The ants simply crawl over it, never stinging or preying upon it.

Today’s ImproveMINT:
Be aware of the resources within your reach but out of your sight to keep your leadership skills in mint condition.

You might also like these Leadership Mints on Productivity:

Let your Competition Work for You
Crossing your Finish Line in Style
Wisely Spending the Ultimate Treasure
Sharpening your Pencil Power

SUBSCRIBE: Have a Leadership Mint delivered to your E-mail every business day. It’s free. Just click the SIGN ME UP box in the upper left column.