Sunday, April 10, 2011
April Training and Opportunity Slides
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Sunday, April 3, 2011
April Training and Opportunity Slides
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Sunday, March 20, 2011
Camping is a way of leadership
This weekend I went camping with my 5 year old son, my best friend and his two boys. Aside from the great bonding experience we had, I learned something about leadership. Let me explain.
When we arrived at the camp site, the first thing I told my son and his boys was that we needed to unpack the car and set up our tent. I explained that we had to do this first before we did anything else in case it rained. Because my son had never been camping, I had him right next to me as we placed the tarp on the ground. He held the stakes as I hammered them into the earth. He held the tent poles as I tied the ropes of the tent to the stakes. He unrolled the bedding as I handed him the sleeping bags.
Each task came with an explanation of why we did things and why it was important to do the things in the order we did them. Then it was time to build the fire.
My son and his friends wanted a big fire. They immediately went for the thick logs with the logic that they would build the biggest fire. I carefully explained that in order to build a big fire, we need to start with some small kindling. So, my friend and the boys gathered dried branches and leaves from the ground and placed them in a pile in the fire pit. Then they watched as I carefully lit the small twigs and leaves and softly blew on the embers until they started to flame.
Once they flamed, we placed slightly larger dried branches on the small flame and made a bigger flame. Then once that flame caught, we placed the big logs leaning against each other in a pyramid shape over the flame and watched as the fire grew. It burned bright for hours and hours. The only thing we had to do was add large logs to the fire every hour or so to keep it going.
The same is true with leadership. When building a team, start with a vision. Let the followers know where you are going, what you will do when you get there, and how you will be with them every step along the way. Stay beside them. Coach them. Show them how to do the task by demonstrating the skill they need to learn. Start small. Constantly watch over the flame that you build inside of them blowing softly on the embers that are glowing inside of them. Save the big tasks for last. By starting with the small tasks you can build the confidence necessary to create a strong, stable fire that only needs a few logs from you every so often in order to stay burning.
Over time, you will soon be able to warm yourself by a fire that was built by you, and maintained by others. You will sleep soundly in a campsite that provides the shelter and warmth you need from the coldest of elements.
When we arrived at the camp site, the first thing I told my son and his boys was that we needed to unpack the car and set up our tent. I explained that we had to do this first before we did anything else in case it rained. Because my son had never been camping, I had him right next to me as we placed the tarp on the ground. He held the stakes as I hammered them into the earth. He held the tent poles as I tied the ropes of the tent to the stakes. He unrolled the bedding as I handed him the sleeping bags.
Each task came with an explanation of why we did things and why it was important to do the things in the order we did them. Then it was time to build the fire.
My son and his friends wanted a big fire. They immediately went for the thick logs with the logic that they would build the biggest fire. I carefully explained that in order to build a big fire, we need to start with some small kindling. So, my friend and the boys gathered dried branches and leaves from the ground and placed them in a pile in the fire pit. Then they watched as I carefully lit the small twigs and leaves and softly blew on the embers until they started to flame.
Once they flamed, we placed slightly larger dried branches on the small flame and made a bigger flame. Then once that flame caught, we placed the big logs leaning against each other in a pyramid shape over the flame and watched as the fire grew. It burned bright for hours and hours. The only thing we had to do was add large logs to the fire every hour or so to keep it going.
The same is true with leadership. When building a team, start with a vision. Let the followers know where you are going, what you will do when you get there, and how you will be with them every step along the way. Stay beside them. Coach them. Show them how to do the task by demonstrating the skill they need to learn. Start small. Constantly watch over the flame that you build inside of them blowing softly on the embers that are glowing inside of them. Save the big tasks for last. By starting with the small tasks you can build the confidence necessary to create a strong, stable fire that only needs a few logs from you every so often in order to stay burning.
Over time, you will soon be able to warm yourself by a fire that was built by you, and maintained by others. You will sleep soundly in a campsite that provides the shelter and warmth you need from the coldest of elements.
The high calling of leadership
It is a noble calling to be a leader. Leaders influence outcomes. In fact, that is all that leadership is: influence. It is not position, title, rank or even production. Leadership is influence. Each individual who has heard that higher calling for leadership has a unique responsibility to influence the hearts and minds of their followers in a positive way.
If the leadership isn't positive, then it isn't sound. (Hitler, Mussolini and Attila the Hun were leaders. Do we want to have leadership legacies like theirs?)
The highest calling of leadership involves influencing the hearts and minds of the followers in a positive way. The leader who masters the art of encouraging the hearts of others wins the respect and admiration of loyal followers. To encourage means to speak with the words and actions that serve to give bravery or courage to followers regardless of their situation.
A good example of this involves more than merely words, while important, actions speak louder. Think about teaching a child to ride a bike. We start by doing the action for the child, assisting him 100% by placing him on a tricycle that CAN NOT FALL. We are 100% of building his courage. Then we move to a stage of training wheels where independence is growing, but not far from our sight. Later, we run beside the bicycle with our hand behind him on the seat. Finally, we progress to letting him ride freely, outside of our cautious eye. Free to ride, the child has independence to ride with his friends. Each step is designed to create encouragement and confidence along the way. Until finally, we have duplicated the skill we learned from the bicycler who taught us!
Becoming an encourager first requires a true understanding of the true struggles and needs of the followers. A wise leader learns his own strengths first, and then learns the strengths and weaknesses of his team in order to develop those strengths. Leaders who relate well to others do so from a strong base of understanding one’s own thinking and emotions, as well as, their followers.
Remember, fear traps a follower. Lack of confidence freezes a person's actions. Doubt leaves a follower passive and apathetic. The anxiety created from fear, lack of self confidence and doubt diminishes results often leading to a dysfunctional team or worse, no team at all. It is a leader's responsibility to encourage. Encouragement is the antidote for this cancer of an organization.
Never forget, a leader's core responsibility is to encourage the hearts and minds of the followers in a positive manner.
*Acknowledgments to L. Hollis Jones and his book “The Entrusted Leader”, for material on this article.
If the leadership isn't positive, then it isn't sound. (Hitler, Mussolini and Attila the Hun were leaders. Do we want to have leadership legacies like theirs?)
The highest calling of leadership involves influencing the hearts and minds of the followers in a positive way. The leader who masters the art of encouraging the hearts of others wins the respect and admiration of loyal followers. To encourage means to speak with the words and actions that serve to give bravery or courage to followers regardless of their situation.
A good example of this involves more than merely words, while important, actions speak louder. Think about teaching a child to ride a bike. We start by doing the action for the child, assisting him 100% by placing him on a tricycle that CAN NOT FALL. We are 100% of building his courage. Then we move to a stage of training wheels where independence is growing, but not far from our sight. Later, we run beside the bicycle with our hand behind him on the seat. Finally, we progress to letting him ride freely, outside of our cautious eye. Free to ride, the child has independence to ride with his friends. Each step is designed to create encouragement and confidence along the way. Until finally, we have duplicated the skill we learned from the bicycler who taught us!
Becoming an encourager first requires a true understanding of the true struggles and needs of the followers. A wise leader learns his own strengths first, and then learns the strengths and weaknesses of his team in order to develop those strengths. Leaders who relate well to others do so from a strong base of understanding one’s own thinking and emotions, as well as, their followers.
Remember, fear traps a follower. Lack of confidence freezes a person's actions. Doubt leaves a follower passive and apathetic. The anxiety created from fear, lack of self confidence and doubt diminishes results often leading to a dysfunctional team or worse, no team at all. It is a leader's responsibility to encourage. Encouragement is the antidote for this cancer of an organization.
Never forget, a leader's core responsibility is to encourage the hearts and minds of the followers in a positive manner.
*Acknowledgments to L. Hollis Jones and his book “The Entrusted Leader”, for material on this article.
Monday, March 14, 2011
You can conquer the impossible
By Harvey Mackay
A college student arrived a few minutes late for his final exam in mathematics. The room was quiet, with everyone working hard, and the professor silently handed him the test. It consisted of five math problems on the first page and two on the second. The student sat down and began to work. He solved the first five problems in half the time, but the two on the second page were tougher. Everyone else finished the exam and left, so the student was alone by the end of the time period. He finished the final problem at the last second.
The next day he got a phone call in his dorm room from the professor. "I don't believe it! You solved the final two problems?"
"Uh, yeah," the student said. "What's the big deal?"
"Those were brain teasers," the prof explained. "I announced before the exam that they wouldn't count toward your final grade, but you missed that because you were late. But hardly anyone solves those problems in so short a time! You must be a genius!"
"Genius" is sometimes just not realizing that something is impossible.
Truly, some feats are impossible. I don't expect to ever see a person fly without some mechanical help. I'm not betting on anyone outrunning a high-speed locomotive. But then, I probably wouldn't have put money on Antonio Albertondo, who swam the English Channel in 1961.
The Channel waters are cold and unpredictable. Only a tiny percentage of those who have attempted to swim across have reached the other side. But Antonio, who was 42 years old at the time, swam from England to France, where his waiting friends congratulated him for accomplishing what they thought was impossible for a man his age.
Antonio stopped long enough for a hot drink, and told his friends they hadn't seen the impossible yet. Then he dove back into the water, swam 22 more hours and made it back to England. Did he accomplish the impossible? I vote yes.
I do believe that there are limits to our physical abilities. But I absolutely accept that our minds have capabilities that we cannot begin to comprehend. Antonio's physical accomplishment also had a major mental component. He put his mind to accomplishing the seemingly impossible.
"So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable, and then, when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable," said the late actor Christopher Reeve. Reeve's dream of walking after a catastrophic horseback riding accident was never realized, but because of his activism and fund-raising activities, major research breakthroughs for spinal injuries have given hope to many.
While most of us will be asked to perform difficult assignments, not many will be actually expected to accomplish the seemingly impossible. Some days we may wonder how we'll get all our work done, or catch up, or be successful in the next project. Those days pass, usually leaving us with a sense of pride that we have greater capacity for achievement than we realized.
What we call progress was once called impossible. If necessity is the mother of invention, then a positive attitude is the master of the impossible.
A positive attitude leads you to ask "what's possible?" and then follows that question with "what else is possible?"
The Walt Disney Company employs "imagineers" to explore the possibilities and push the limits of reality. Even though their businesses are built on fantasy and illusion, the effects must all look real and believable. I believe accomplishing the seemingly impossible is a daily event for this creative and determined company.
We can do this in our businesses too -- and we must if we intend to survive. If you value your customers as much as we value ours at MackayMitchell Envelope Company, you'll settle for nothing less. A positive attitude, creativity and determination combine to create genius.
Former First Lady Nancy Reagan recounts a story about the genius of the Greatest Generation. "Once, at the University of California, a student got up to say that it was impossible for people of Ronald Reagan's generation to understand the next generation of young people. 'You grew up in a different world,' the student said. 'Today we have television, jet planes, space travel, nuclear energy, computers...'
"When the student paused for breath, Ronnie said: 'You're right. We didn't have those things when we were young. We invented them.'"
Mackay's Moral: What could you accomplish if no one told you it was impossible?
A college student arrived a few minutes late for his final exam in mathematics. The room was quiet, with everyone working hard, and the professor silently handed him the test. It consisted of five math problems on the first page and two on the second. The student sat down and began to work. He solved the first five problems in half the time, but the two on the second page were tougher. Everyone else finished the exam and left, so the student was alone by the end of the time period. He finished the final problem at the last second.
The next day he got a phone call in his dorm room from the professor. "I don't believe it! You solved the final two problems?"
"Uh, yeah," the student said. "What's the big deal?"
"Those were brain teasers," the prof explained. "I announced before the exam that they wouldn't count toward your final grade, but you missed that because you were late. But hardly anyone solves those problems in so short a time! You must be a genius!"
"Genius" is sometimes just not realizing that something is impossible.
Truly, some feats are impossible. I don't expect to ever see a person fly without some mechanical help. I'm not betting on anyone outrunning a high-speed locomotive. But then, I probably wouldn't have put money on Antonio Albertondo, who swam the English Channel in 1961.
The Channel waters are cold and unpredictable. Only a tiny percentage of those who have attempted to swim across have reached the other side. But Antonio, who was 42 years old at the time, swam from England to France, where his waiting friends congratulated him for accomplishing what they thought was impossible for a man his age.
Antonio stopped long enough for a hot drink, and told his friends they hadn't seen the impossible yet. Then he dove back into the water, swam 22 more hours and made it back to England. Did he accomplish the impossible? I vote yes.
I do believe that there are limits to our physical abilities. But I absolutely accept that our minds have capabilities that we cannot begin to comprehend. Antonio's physical accomplishment also had a major mental component. He put his mind to accomplishing the seemingly impossible.
"So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable, and then, when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable," said the late actor Christopher Reeve. Reeve's dream of walking after a catastrophic horseback riding accident was never realized, but because of his activism and fund-raising activities, major research breakthroughs for spinal injuries have given hope to many.
While most of us will be asked to perform difficult assignments, not many will be actually expected to accomplish the seemingly impossible. Some days we may wonder how we'll get all our work done, or catch up, or be successful in the next project. Those days pass, usually leaving us with a sense of pride that we have greater capacity for achievement than we realized.
What we call progress was once called impossible. If necessity is the mother of invention, then a positive attitude is the master of the impossible.
A positive attitude leads you to ask "what's possible?" and then follows that question with "what else is possible?"
The Walt Disney Company employs "imagineers" to explore the possibilities and push the limits of reality. Even though their businesses are built on fantasy and illusion, the effects must all look real and believable. I believe accomplishing the seemingly impossible is a daily event for this creative and determined company.
We can do this in our businesses too -- and we must if we intend to survive. If you value your customers as much as we value ours at MackayMitchell Envelope Company, you'll settle for nothing less. A positive attitude, creativity and determination combine to create genius.
Former First Lady Nancy Reagan recounts a story about the genius of the Greatest Generation. "Once, at the University of California, a student got up to say that it was impossible for people of Ronald Reagan's generation to understand the next generation of young people. 'You grew up in a different world,' the student said. 'Today we have television, jet planes, space travel, nuclear energy, computers...'
"When the student paused for breath, Ronnie said: 'You're right. We didn't have those things when we were young. We invented them.'"
Mackay's Moral: What could you accomplish if no one told you it was impossible?
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
DALLAS CELEBRITY APPRENTICE EVENT!
DALLAS CELEBRITY APPRENTICE EVENT!
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Presentation - 6:30PM (Guests Free)
Show - 8:00PM - 10:00PM
After Party - 10:00PM - 12:00AM
TICKET PRICE: $5.00
(Limit 10 Tickets Per Rep)
Tickets on sale March 12th at Dallas Saturday Training
EVENT LOCATION
Dallas Training Facility
13748 Neutron Rd
Dallas, TX 75248
DON'T MISS THIS EXCITING EVENT!!!
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Presentation - 6:30PM (Guests Free)
Show - 8:00PM - 10:00PM
After Party - 10:00PM - 12:00AM
TICKET PRICE: $5.00
(Limit 10 Tickets Per Rep)
Tickets on sale March 12th at Dallas Saturday Training
EVENT LOCATION
Dallas Training Facility
13748 Neutron Rd
Dallas, TX 75248
DON'T MISS THIS EXCITING EVENT!!!
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