By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy

Here’s an idea to heighten your self-confidence. Reading time 2:58.

He’s the leader of a multimillion dollar foundation. Smart. Witty. And 3-feet-9 inches tall.

He deals with community and business leaders with ease and self-deprecating humor. “I just need a minute of your time. “I’ll make it short. I am expert in that department,” he quips.

He is also an expert in leadership. He has taught me a key leadership skill: your self confidence is a measure of your attitude. Not your altitude.

Consider William Seward, a 5-foot, 6-inch senator from New York. He ran in the 1860 Republican Primary against 6-foot, 4-inch Abraham Lincoln among others.

Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, in her book Team of Rivals, says that Seward nevertheless was a “commanding figure, an outsized personality against whom larger men seemed smaller.”

How do vertically challenged leaders seem taller?

Be curious about others and let criticism roll of your back. That’s what Seward did. Again quoting Doris Kearns Goodwin: “Seward was genuinely interested in people, curious about their families and the smallest details of their lives, anxious to help with their problems. As a public man, he possessed unusual resilience, enabling him to accept criticism with good humored serenity.”

Competency is the key to seeming taller. “Qualifications, experience and charm will do much more for one’s job prospects than a pair of stilettos,” observes one researcher on height.

The history books prove that height insight. President James Madison stood 5-feet 4 inches and the Great Escape Artist magician Harry Houdini stood 5 feet 5 inches.

Indeed, there can be great strength in less length. Consider:

In horse racing, the first two Triple Crown races are significantly shorter -The Kentucky Derby (1.25 miles) and the Preakness (1.18 miles) — than the Belmont (1.5 miles).

In a sonogram, the shorter the acoustic wavelength, the sharper the picture.

X-rays are 1,000 times shorter lightwaves than visible light yet X-rays that can burrow through your flesh and bones.

And in car racing, the shorter the sound wave, the louder the race car roars by the grand stand . In playing the harp’s 47 strings ranging from 3-inches to 60-inches, the shorter the string, the higher the pitch. And the shorter and smaller the bubbles in champagne the better tasting it is. Cheers!

Today’s ImproveMINT

Focus more on your attitude not your altitude to keep your leadership thinking in mint condition.

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