Force

By Alex Granger

The ability to influence others to act is considered by many thought leaders to be an essential part of any business professional's tool kit. Your sphere of influence is directly related to the number of people whose thoughts, decisions and actions you are able to influence. You will have been developing this sphere of influence since you joined the company you work for, or the church you serve, or the community you live in. Its potency is generated partly by the number of people you are able to influence; and partly by the influence they exert over others.

F.O.R.C.E is an acronym that articulates the five ways to improve personal effectiveness and influence. Alex shares stories of individuals who are considered mavericks, who prove that within each and everyone of us resides a force of nature that can change the course of lives. This book seeks to awaken that force and nurture it so that you become more effective wherever you are, while having a level of super influence on every person, situation, crisis, challenge that you come across. If you're in leadership, sales, customer service, finance, administration, business, family, school - if you are living, breathing, read this book!

Read it with focus, and commit to learning the key ways to become more effective and influential. Thereafter, pass this book on to someone who needs to learn the same skills and traits as you would have.

May the FORCE be with YOU!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Alex Granger
• Release date: Mar 6, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386165590

Book preview

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT THIS BOOK…

"Knowing Alex Granger for a number of years, it was not surprising that I found his latest book, FORCE to be a powerful illustration of the way he has passionately succeeded in becoming an authentic force of nature. He articulately illustrates that through the power of F.O.R.C.E., you are able to take positive control of your actions, and your performance.  Alex skilfully uses examples of exceptional and extraordinary people like Steve Jobs, Oprah Winfrey, Zimbabwean Strive Masiyiwa, founder/chairman of Econet Wireless and the remarkable and courageous previous Public Protector, Thuli Madonsela, as brilliant people who have made a real difference and continue to leave a legacy in society and the greater economy.

Alex provides practical suggestions by using the acronym -  F.O.R.C.E, to assist in achieving whatever dreams and aspirations you have for yourself.  Throughout the book he reminds us that we are all capable of achieving greatness, no matter what challenges life throws our way.

If you are an entrepreneur, an aspiring leader or if you’re in a customer-focused environment, this book is a must-read.  The book is humbly written, immediately actionable, very compelling with a very powerful and convincing message.  An enjoyable and easy read!!!" ~ Dawn Nathan-Jones, Entrepreneur, Leader, Advocate for Woman Empowerment and more recently celebrity Shark in Mnet’s Shark Tank

A forcefully inspiring book with an African touch from an equally inspiring man. As you read through the book you cannot ignore the force to reflect on the opportunities you have in yourself yet to be tapped. ~ Dr. Elizabeth Kalunda. United States International University-Africa and Co-Founder ESMS FinancEdge Analytics Ltd.

The topics that make up F.O.R.C.E are powerful ingredients in their own right. Alex does a brilliant job of blending them with his unique stories and perspectives. I’m confident that anyone who takes a piece of this advice will taste the fruits of success. ~ Gilan Gork, Mentalist, Global Speaker, Best-selling Author & Founder of the Influence Institute

Alex has done it again! FORCE, his third book, is a book everyone who wants to excel in ANY condition should read. The book and the author are a force to be reckoned with (see what I did there). In FORCE, Alex demonstrates that each of us already has all the tools we need for success. We naturally allow difficulties to dictate to us how we must meet them. We easily get overwhelmed and intimidated by the challenges we face. In FORCE, Alex redirects our attention away from what we face, to the tools that are within us. FORCE calls on us to realise we have enough in us to meet what is without. Because this kind of thinking is unnatural, Alex takes his time and holds our hands throughout the journey. He uses a number of stories of extraordinary people (and aliens – yes, aliens) from Yoda (the Jedi in Star Wars) to our own Advocate Thuli Madonsela. In a special way, Alex also demonstrates in his stories that Africans are also a force to be reckoned with. Alex also moves us from a scientific definition of Force to a very powerful and actionable acronym F.O.R.C.E. This is a refreshing way to attain a life of excellence. FORCE is not a theory, it is a force (I really should stop) and it is actionable. In FORCE, you will learn how to unpack your capacity, increase it and use it to become exceptional in all you do. You will learn to think differently – positively – about the challenges you face and the opportunities they present. You will learn to have more things to be grateful for. You will learn to aim AND reach the highest level of excellence in everything you do. You will develop courage to take on anything life throws at you and overcome fear. And you will attract and give out positive energy. May the FORCE be with you! ~ Xolani Sithole, Managing Director: Sebenza Forwarding & Shipping, Speaker, Financial Guru, and Facilitator.

GRATITUDE

Writing a book takes commitment, dedication, as well as sacrifice. I would like to thank my amazing family - my wife Susan, daughter Nicola, and son Cedric. I also want to thank my mother who always prays for me. Thank you to my coach Mongezi Makhalima, my business partners Siphiwe Moyo and Refiloe Manyaka, and my best friend Tino Janda. A special thanks to all my clients who have supported me over the years, and new friends that I made in Kenya, Rwanda, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Dubai, Turkey, Germany, Canada, Mauritius, Nigeria, UK, Mozambique, and Zambia.

Table Of Contents

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT THIS BOOK…

GRATITUDE

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

DEDICATION

F.O.R.C.E

FOREWORD BY SIPHIWE MOYO

OVERTURE

FORCE

FORCES OF NATURE

UNSTOPPABLE: A ‘HOME-GROWN’ FORCE OF NATURE

DRIVING FORCE - THE APPLE STORY

F

FRAME OF MIND

O

OVERFLOWING GRATITUDE

R

REACHING HIGHER

C

COURAGE / CHOICE / CONFIDENCE / COMMUNICATION

E

EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE/ ENERGY / ENTHUSIASM / ENDURANCE

LET’S WRAP THINGS UP

About the Author

Picture 6

Fondly known as the Exceptionally Flawesome One, Alex Granger is a Global Speaker, Author, Think-Shifter, and the Co-Founder and Chief Purpose Officer of Twice Blue, a human capital development firm specialising in human performance improvement. Alex has the ability to shift thinking, present new insights, and diffuse complexity. He holds an Executive Leadership Development Program (ELDP) from the Gordon’s Institute of Business Science, with a distinction in leadership, and he is also a certified NLP practitioner. Alex has worked in executive and senior leadership positions for blue chip companies such as Bidvest, Imperial, Standard Bank, Altech Group, G4S Solutions, and Tsogo Sun. Alex is also the author of FIND KEEP GROW: The Radical Art of Sales, The Possibility of YOU: What Shapes You?, and co-author of best seller Expert Mavericks: Journeys To Success.

The author can be reached via:

www.alexgranger.com

[e-mail]

Dedication

This book is dedicated to all who believe that they are the force of nature and have what it takes to be effective, awesome, successful, great, abundant, amazing, creative, powerful, influential, flawesome, impeccable, extraordinary, impactful and that they can make a difference!

F.O.R.C.E

Foreword by Siphiwe Moyo

Dear voice in my head: the fact that my peers already have this and that is none of my business. I’m going to focus on my own vision. I’m in competition with nobody. Shut up!

The day was Tuesday, the 9th of April 2013. I was a divisional head of learning and development for one of the top 5 banks in South Africa. One of the executives who had just returned from attending an executive development program at INSEAD asked to see me. As head of learning and development, my team and I had been helping him with all the applications and logistics to Fontainebleau and he was so keen to give me feedback. He was also going to be giving a presentation to EXCO first and then to all the staff members about his experience at INSEAD and knowing that I do public speaking, he was keen to chat me through his presentation before presenting at these forums. I will never forget that day. He told me that he had learned a lot but that two concepts made an impact on him: the concept of value and the concept of a blue ocean strategy.  I latched on to his every word. We ended up spending more time than he had anticipated. Anyone who knows me will tell you that I love management theory and practice, which is why I now have the privilege of teaching for no less than four business schools in South Africa.

I was thoroughly captivated by the concept of a blue ocean strategy. Originally introduced to the world by preeminent management thinkers W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne, professors at INSEAD and co-directors of the INSEAD Blue Ocean Strategy Institute, Blue Ocean is a marketing theory that purports to teach us about rendering the competition totally irrelevant. Too many people are obsessed with competition. They spend too much time looking at what other people are doing and hence they don’t see progress in their lives.

It is impossible to teach corporate strategy at business schools without mentioning Harvard professor Michael E. Porter’s five forces that shape competition in an industry. These fives forces are externally focused. They are about analyzing the external environment, the competition. What if you could focus on yourself instead of worrying about the competition? What if the F.O.R.C.E was within you all along? What if you don’t have to look outside the window? Alex Granger’s book teaches all of us to forget about the threat of a new entrant into our industry, the bargaining power of customers and suppliers, the threat of a substitute product or even the jockeying of current contestants and focus on the F.O.R.C.E that is within us all. We are capable of so much more and this book teaches us how to tap into that.

So I know Alex Granger personally. The first time I saw him speak in 2015, I was simply intimidated. This man is great at what he does. Due to the fact that we work in the same space of people development and professional speaking, people have tried their best to compare us to each other. They have failed shem. We are both doing our best to impact the world and live out our respective purposes in an authentic way. I think we got this whole thing wrong. You don’t have to criticize someone else to prove that you like another. You really don’t have to hate AKA to love Cassper. You don’t have to criticize someone else’s hustle to promote yours. Focus on understanding your F.O.R.C.E and you will indeed be a force to be reckoned with. Thanks Alex for such a brilliant book. We need it!

Siphiwe Moyo is a Global Speaker, Author, Chairman for the SA Board for People Practices, Adjunct Faculty: Gordon’s Institute of Business Science, Wits Business School, Henley Business School, University of Stellenbosch Business School, and Co-Founder & Chief Purpose of Twice Blue.

Overture

What if I told you that you already have everything you need in order to live an effective, fulfilling, satisfying, complete, and distinctive life? How would it change your chance of getting a job, or starting your business, or developing that idea from concept to reality, or inventing that contraption, or developing a business strategy that works, or impacting your community, or empowering your students? What if I told you that you already have everything that you need in order to be successful? How would that impact your current situation? Would it change the way that you think about your life?

This book is about developing key critical traits to be more effective. These traits can be summed up in the acronym FORCE, and I will unpack this throughout this book. I recently watched a TED Talk by Carol S Dweck entitled The Power of Yet (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-swZaKN2Ic) where she explains the power of the growth mindset, and that