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The big question becomes, “How do you motivate people?” In the bookCoaching For Improved Work Performance, the author suggests five reasons that people do not perform in the way they are capable. Here are those five reasons.

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Good Leaders Produce, they have a propensity for growth. They continually add valued to other people and that alone brings a measure of success to the team.

Question: What is the difference between a Good Leader and a Great Leader?

Servanthood, Other’s First, Inspirational, Initiating Growth –this is quite a heavy list if you aspire to greatness. Instead of the question I just mentioned, I would propose a different question; “How do Great Leaders sustain greatness?” My answer is the thesis of this podcast –Great Leaders are readers!

Consider the following comments……

If you aspire to greatness and you are an average reader, you are falling behind. The truth of the matter is that you and I are not good enough to remain average. You are either advancing or falling behind in life.

Consider these five attributes of sustainability.

Make Time To Read Daily

Start your day with a daily dose of inputting knowledge that stretches your abilities. A common denominator for executives is they feel they are too busy to keep up with their reading. In one Ivy League institution it has been verified that readers are likely to earn an income that is 5x greater than those who do not read.

Reading Is Habitual

It has been stated that Rick Warren reads a book each day. Abraham Lincoln one of our greatest Presidents and with only one year of formal education attributes his success to reading. To become a relevant leader you must become an effective reader.

Reading is Foundational To Growth

Dr. Suez stated; “The more you read, the more you know, and the more places you go!” Developing a personal growth plan is REQUIRED!! If you desire to improve your place in life, then you must become an effective reader. What are you willing to give up to make more room for books in your life?

Reading is The Pathway To Learning

Michael Angelo at 87 years of age stated “I am still learning!” The day you stop reading is the day you stop leading. The ultimate purpose of reading is to share what you are learning. Otherwise it becomes self-indulgent!

Here are some hard truths about striving for greatness. If you are not learning you have no business leading. If your daily posture is a learning growing posture then you influence is in decline.

Place Value On Intentional Reading

Here are four reasons for intentionality:

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Before you send me your comments, let be perfectly clear in saying there has always been a leader at the top that represents and speaks to those people that are part of any organization. Yes, there are top-down aspects of leadership. These leaders have given wise council, conducted the ordinances of the church, and given presentations to inspire. At times this configuration of leadership has been referred to as a “power pyramid.”

I want to offer a comment from Zig Ziglar that challenges us to rethink the “power pyramid,” he states; “If you help people get what they want, they will help you get what you want.” What he was really talking about was servant leadership. That idea was a game changer in my life.

In 1970 Robert Greenleaf wrote an essay entitled “The Servant Leader” of which this essay was the genesis of a book of Servant Leadership. Greenleaf would write; “…The care taken by the servant leader is to make sure that other people’s highest priority needs are being served. The best test and difficult to administer is; Do those served grow as persons? Do they while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, and more likely themselves to become servants.”

I want to give you five (5) guidelines to assist you in becoming a better servant leader.

Do Not Rely on your Title or Position

I have been personally blessed abundantly to obtain education, honors, and experience. I do not rely on these accomplishment to help lead. I need to earn respect everyday by delivering on what I promise and by serving others.

Choose To Believe In People and Their Potential

Caring about people is the right thing to do. I have found that the more I invest in other people’s potential and serve them, their potential increases dramatically. This is a win-win scenario.

Try To See Things From Other’s Perspective

Intentionally try to see things from their vantage point. This will assist you in serving other people better.

Create an Environment of Encouragement

There are few things in life that are better than serving on a team of people who desire to serve one another. When leaders are willing to serve people and encourage others to serve a tremendous spirit of cooperation emerges.

Measure Your Success by How Much Value You Add To Others

When you decide to serve others as a leader, the team’s success becomes your success. Remember that one is too great of a number to achieve greatness.

LINKS

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FREE GIFT– “The Art of Balancing Candor With Care” – Click on the icon at the bottom of the page

Executive Coaching Service– Private message me for details on this customizable service

Music: “Gratitude Mood” by David Arivett. You can learn more about his music by clicking on his name. THANKS DAVID!

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No one should ever lose a job, miss a promotion, or destroy a marriage because of a bad attitude. WHY? Because a person’s attitude is not set; it’s a choice.

Here are six ways to manage your attitude and stay on track.

Take Responsibility For Your Attitude

Roberta Flack recalls, “My mother had only gone as far as the tenth grade and ,my father had a third-grade education, but they were both very literate. They drummed into our heads that the situation you live in doesn’t have to live in you.” Our attitudes don’t come from our circumstances or personal history. Attitude does not come from outside ourselves. It comes from within.

Evaluate Your Present Attitude

To improve your attitude, you need to assess where you’re starting from. Depending on how self-aware you are, it may even be difficult. The key is to try to look at yourself objectively, to separate yourself from your attitude. Identify problem feelings about yourself –Feelings come into play before a conscious awareness intellectually. Identify problem feelings related to others. Identify problem thinking.

Develop The Desire To Change

The desire to change is the key to growth in all areas of life. Ironically most people desire improvement but the resist change. The problem is that you cannot get the one without the other.

Change Your Attitude by Changing Your Thoughts

Major Premise: We can control our thoughts.

Minor Premise: Our feelings come from our thoughts.

Therefore: We can control our feelings by changing the way we think.

Why is this argument construct important? Because your attitude is your emotional approach to life. It is the framework through which you see events, other people, and yourself. The saying is true; “You are not what you think you are, but what you think…..you are.”

Develop Good Habits

Much of what we do every day comes from habitual behaviors. Over time we approach a way of participating in life. It is not enough to simply change our thinking, we must also change our habits. Fortunately our habits are not instincts. They are actions or reactions that we have acquired over time.

Manage Your Attitude Daily

One of the great discoveries of life is realizing that we often place too much emphasis on making decisions and too little on managing the decisions that we have already made. In John Maxwell’s book Today Matters, the thesis is that successful people make the right decisions early and then  manage those decisions daily. If you take responsibility for your attitude, recognizing that it can change how you live, you can make your attitude your greatest asset.

LINKS

Shepherds Advantage Leadership Podcast is now on iTunes – SUBSCRIBE

Shepherds Advantage Leadership Podcast is now on Stitcher– SUBSCRIBE

FREE GIFT– “The Art of Balancing Candor With Care” – Click on the icon at the bottom of the page

Executive Coaching Service– Private message me for details on this customizable service

Music: “Gratitude Mood” by David Arivett. You can learn more about his music by clicking on his name. THANKS DAVID!

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Have you ever pondered, “What separates the best from the rest?” It is attitude!

Denis Waitley stated in the book The Winner’s Edge, “The winner’s edge is not in a gifted birth, a high IQ, or in talent. The winner’s edge is all in the attitude, not aptitude. Attitude is the criterion for success. But you can’t buy and attitude for a million dollars. Attitudes are not for sale.”

Let’s consider four things that attitude can do for us.

Your Attitude Makes A Difference in Your Approach To Life

• The happiest people in life don’t necessarily have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything.
• A person’s attitude has a profound influence on his approach to life.
• One of things that I have learned in life is that life often gives you whatever you expect from it.

Your Attitude Makes A Difference In Your Relationships With People

• To be successful you need to get along with people.
• President Roosevelt stated, “The most important single ingredient in the formula for success is knowing how to get along with people.”
• Consider these three key ideas
  • Who we are determines how we see others
  • Hurting people hurt people
  • We can lift up or take down other people in our relational circle
• Each person that we meet has the potential to teach us something

Your Attitude Makes A Difference In How You Face Challenges

• Life is going to give us obstacles, challenges and problems. They are inevitable. How will you handle them? Will you give up? Consider the following successful people.
• Demosthenes, the greatest orator has a speech impediment
• Martin Luther translated the New Testament into German while incarcerated
• Pilgrims Progress was wrote in prison by John Bunyan

Your Attitude Is The Difference Maker

• Dr. Earnest Rosenbaum stated that we have known for over 2,000 years there is a correlation between the mind, body and health.
• Poet John Milton wrote, The mind is its own place, and it itself can make a heaven of hell and a hell of heaven.
• Your attitude has a profound influence on how you see the world

LINKS

Shepherds Advantage Leadership Podcast is now on iTunes – SUBSCRIBE

Shepherds Advantage Leadership Podcast is now on Stitcher – SUBSCRIBE

FREE GIFT – “The Art of Balancing Candor With Care” – Click on the icon at the bottom of the page

Executive Coaching Service– Private message me for details on this customizable service

Music: “Gratitude Mood” by David Arivett. You can learn more about his music by clicking on his name. THANKS DAVID!

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You cannot disconnect Attitude from Reality and expect success!

Where Attitude Cannot Make The Difference

Your Attitude Cannot Substitute for Competence

• Confidence is a function of attitude. Competence is a function of ability. They are not the same but they are both needed.
• A great attitude can help you personally. It can make you content and more pleasant to be around. But it cannot help you positionaly. If you do not have competence in your favor, then you are going to be trouble.
• Even if your attitude is excellent and yet you lack competence – you become a major distraction to the Team’s effort of hitting their goals in a timely manner. Your incompetence becomes the distraction to everyone else around you.

Your Attitude Cannot Substitute for Experience

• The problem with experience is that you rarely have it until after you need it.
• Experience is often a hard teacher because the test is given firs and then the lessons come afterward.

Your Attitude Cannot Change The Facts

• A University of Texas study on aging found that people who had a more positive attitude remained more physically hardy than pessimistic people the same age.
• Poet Maya Angelou stated, “If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude. Don’t complain.”

Your Attitude Cannot Substitute for Personal Growth

• Musician Bruce Springsteen says, “A time comes when you need to stop waiting for the man you want to be become and start being the man you want to be.”
• Nothing can substitute for continual learning. You need to feed your mind and soul to become the person you desire to be.

Your Attitude Will Not Stay Good Automatically

• In the book Today Matters, one of the concepts is that most people overrate decision making and underrate decision managing.
• It is easy to say that from now on I am going to have a great attitude. It is another thing to actually follow through.

LINKS

Shepherds Advantage Leadership Podcast is now on iTunes – SUBSCRIBE

Shepherds Advantage Leadership Podcast is now on Stitcher – SUBSCRIBE

FREE GIFT – “The Art of Balancing Candor With Care” – Click on the icon at the bottom of the page

Executive Coaching Service– Private message me for details on this customizable service

Music: “Gratitude Mood” by David Arivett. You can learn more about his music by clicking on his name. THANKS DAVID!

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What is Attitude?

When you hear this word, what comes to mind? I tend to think of attitude as an inward feeling expressed by outward behavior! Some people attempt to mask their attitude and in fact they can fool other people for a while. However, the cover-up does not last forever. Attitude always wiggles its way out.

Your attitude colors every aspect of your life. It is like the minds paintbrush. You can paint everything in bright colors and hues or dreary dark colors. Consider attitude in this way:

• Its root is inward but its fruit is outward
• It is your best friend or worst enemy
• It is the speaker of your present
• It is the prophet of your future
• It is never content until it is expressed
• It is what draws people to you or repels them

Where Did I Get My Attitude?

Personality – Who Are You?

• Each person is unique and different – we all have different fingerprints
• Your personality type – your natural hard-wiring impacts your attitude.
• This is not to say that you are trapped by it, but it is to say that your attitude is impacted by your personality.

Environment – What is Around You?

• The environment that you were exposed to in your early years had an impact upon your attitude. Did your parents divorce? Were you wounded by close friends? Did a close relative die? Were you raised in a poor neighborhood?

The Expression of Others – What You Feel

• We remember harsh words spoken to for decades.
• Verbal scars can be carried for years, in fact all of our life in some cases.
• However, living words spoken in season gives LIFE – HOPE – FREEDOM!

Self Image – How You See Yourself

• Poor self-image and poor attitudes usually walk hand-n-hand
• It has been stated that every label that you attach to yourself is a boundary or limit that you will not allow yourself to cross.
• If you do not change your inward feelings about yourself, you will not be able to change outward behavior toward other people.

Exposure To Growth Opportunities – What You Experience

• Growth opportunities that people experience are not all equal. Higher education is not for everyone in the same way that trade schools is not for everyone.
• We do not all have the same upbringing. We are all influenced by geography, family history and origins.

Association With Peers – Who You Choose To Be With

• Hanging our with the wrong crowd can greatly impact attitude.
• Learn to hang our with people that have a growth mind-set.

Belief – What Know To Be True

• Thoughts can make you rise or fall
• Thoughts can make you a success or failure
• Thoughts can make you laugh or cry
• Thoughts can be nurtured into something beautiful
• Your thoughts can be lived out for others to see
• The sum of all your thoughts comprises your overall attitude

Choices – What You Do

• It is has been said that unless you are willing to change your own disposition you waste your life in fruitless efforts!
• The more that you live the more that life is shaped by choices.

Victor Frankl, a concentration camp survivor that earned his PhD in Psychiatry and Neuroscience, spoke in 206 universities and wrote 150 books once wrote, “Each man is questioned by life and he can only answer to life for his own life, to life he can only respond by being responsible.”

LINKS

Shepherds Advantage Leadership Podcast is now on iTunes – SUBSCRIBE

Shepherds Advantage Leadership Podcast is now on Stitcher – SUBSCRIBE

FREE GIFT – “The Art of Balancing Candor With Care” – Click on the icon at the bottom of the page

Executive Coaching Service– Private message me for details on this customizable service

Music: “Gratitude Mood” by David Arivett. You can learn more about his music by clicking on his name. THANKS DAVID!

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5 Questions about Awareness for your Growth

What are some of the unintended consequences in making this decision? (This question is a response question when statement is made; “I have decided this is the best way forward for our company or Team?). Every decision can have unintended consequences due to a lack of awareness.

Follow Up Question: Anything Else? A client will not always give you the whole picture, but will give you bits and pieces. By repeating this question you obtain the BIG PICTURE.

What am I missing? This can be a great question when resolving conflict or mediation.

WHY? This is a universal question to gain awareness.

Do you feel over-worked? Follow up question; Do you feel that your talents are being under-utilized?

The quality of your question determines the quality of the response – Learn to ask great questions!

Leaders are readers – highlight questions that you come across in the context of the material that you are reading.

Never presume that you have a complete knowledge of a circumstance.

Networking and Team Development Questions

Everyday how can I make my team better? How can you make your team better everyday? What is one or two things that you could do daily?

Is this the best you and your team can achieve? Managers – Team Leaders – Pastors – Denominational Leaders – etc. This is a stretching or visionary question. The power of this question is to challenge growth.

On a scale of 1-10 how would you rate your team for engagement? How are they really engaged in the vision and mission of the company? The follow up question would be what would it take to move this team to the next level (I.e. from a 6 to a 7). Bonus follow-up question, “Anything Else?”

What are the most important values of a leader? ( Equipping another leader). What does it mean to you personally? This brings a different response between what I must do versus what I think others should do. Would you like to be a better connecter with other people?

How do you make the most of this opportunity? Every opportunity can lead to another opportunity!

LINKS

Shepherds Advantage Leadership Podcast is now on iTunes – SUBSCRIBE

Shepherds Advantage Leadership Podcast is now on Stitcher – SUBSCRIBE

FREE GIFT – “The Art of Balancing Candor With Care” – Click on the icon at the bottom of the page

Executive Coaching Service– Private message me for details on this customizable service

Music: “Gratitude Mood” by David Arivett. You can learn more about his music by clicking on his name. THANKS DAVID!

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1.Spending too little time with the right people.

• Nothing is more ill-fitting than spending time with the wrong person.
• Spend time with people who make your life richer.
• The right people…
• Love me no matter what, despite my flaws, unconditionally
• Add value to me. They make me better.
• Continually grow. It makes me more determined to improve myself.
• Walk my journey with me. They know what’s important to me and we travel together.
• Are excited about life.
• Refuel me. They give me energy and inspire me.

Ask: Who’s sitting beside me? Are they the right person?

2. Not saying what you need to say.

• The regret is not saying what you want to say, it’s saying what you need to say.
• Ask: How do I need to use my voice?
• Gift voice: what I do well. We all have one. How do you know? It’s in an area where you have intuition and timing.
• Character voice: standing up for what I believe. Not allowing other people to decide for me.
• Experience voice: what I know and what I’ve learned.
• Heart voice: what I feel. This one can cause regret more than others. It’s important to let the people you love know what you feel and what they mean to you.
• Dream voice: where I’m going, my calling.
• Question Voice: what I don’t know or understand. Having the courage to ask for help. Gives me more growth and more joy than anything else.

3. Not taking action on things worthwhile.

• The secret to getting ahead is getting started.
• If you procrastinate, you’ll never have a shot at winning.

Being Action-Oriented:

• I rise early. If you’re not a good morning person, be a good night person; don’t let the day pass You.
• I prioritize my most important to-do’s and do them first.
• I remove distractions. Get in an environment or use your distraction-free time to get your most important things done.
• I set timelines. I block my time so the major tasks get done.
• I make visual and verbal commitments. Tell others what you plan to do so they can hold you accountable. You’ll be more accountable if you can see it or you say it.

Control your agenda so you can create margins for thinking and doing more than others can do.

• I control my agenda. You either keep your own calendar, set your own agenda or others will set it for you.
• I evaluate my calendar. I evaluate it based on my actions not intentions.
• I review my actions and I ask, am I making progress.

4. Not allowing others to control your destiny.

• “I cannot and will not recant anything…”—Martin Luther
• Average people want you to stay average.
• People cannot give what they do not have. If they aren’t fueling you, they have nothing to give and if you hang with them, you’ll run on empty too.
• You become like the five people you spend the most time with and the books you read.
• Emotionally dysfunctional people should not control you.
• Have the courage to speak up and take control of your life.

We all have regrets. The goal is not to revisit them. Don’t try to do them over. Start today taking steps in the right direction.

“The biggest difference between who you are and who you want to be is what you do.”

“Where you are today is the product of what you’ve done yesterday.”

LINKS

Shepherds Advantage Leadership Podcast is now on iTunes – SUBSCRIBE

Shepherds Advantage Leadership Podcast is now on Stitcher – SUBSCRIBE

FREE GIFT – “The Art of Balancing Candor With Care” – Click on the icon at the bottom of the page

Executive Coaching Service– Private message me for details on this customizable service

Music: “Gratitude Mood” by David Arivett. You can learn more about his music by clicking on his name. THANKS DAVID!

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No matter how eager we are to learn or how much we desire to grow,

it is impossible to capture it all.

Give These Gifts to Younger People:

1)Resource Them

2) Value Them

3) Believe In Them

4) Mentor Them

1. The Value of Questions.

• Wisdom—What is the greatest lesson you have learned?
• Passion—What are you learning now?
• Attitude—How has failure shaped your life?
• Networking—Who do you know that I should know?
• Growth—What have you read that I should read?
• Experience—What have you done that I should do?
• Gratitude—How can I add value to you?

You Have to Grow Every Day.

• “Your level of success will rarely exceed the level of your personal

development.” –Jim Rohm

• Change your mindset from “How long will it take?” to “How far can I

go?”

• Everyone thinks they are teachable, but successful people move from

teachable to learnable.

• A Learnable Person:

1) Desires to learn—They are hungry.

2) Is intentional in learning—Every person and experience can

teach you something if you look for the lesson.

3) Applies what they are learning—Application equals

transformation.

4) Passes what they learn onto others.

The Roadmap for Learning:

• Humility—The Spirit of Learning
• Reality—The Foundation of Learning
• Responsibility—The First Step of Learning
• Improvement—The Focus of Learning
• Hope—The Motivation of Learning
• Teach-ability—The Pathway of Learning
• Adversity—The Catalyst for Learning
• Problems—The Opportunities for Learning
• Bad Experiences—The Perspective for Learning
• Change—The Price of Learning
• Maturity—The Value of Learning

. People Matter.

• With one trifling exception, the world is made up of others.
• Value people, believe in people, and unconditionally love them.
• Value everyone continually, but value a few strategically.
• Spend your time developing “Inner Circle Friends.”

Inner Circle Friends Give You:

1) A Spiritual Lift—Who prays for you?

2) An Attitude Lift—Who encourages you?

3) A Mental Lift—Who teaches you?

4) A Growth Lift—Who stretches you?

5) A Success Lift—Who adds value to you?

6) A Support Lift—Who unconditionally loves you?

Bonus:

• Every person who has ever achieved any kind of greatness has been

marked by failure.

• How do you know if a person adds value to you? You can’t imagine

your life without them.

• I don’t count my losses; I count my lessons.

LINKS

Shepherds Advantage Leadership Podcast is now on iTunes – SUBSCRIBE

Shepherds Advantage Leadership Podcast is now on Stitcher – SUBSCRIBE

FREE GIFT – “The Art of Balancing Candor With Care” – Click on the icon at the bottom of the page

Executive Coaching Service– Private message me for details on this customizable service

Music: “Gratitude Mood” by David Arivett. You can learn more about his music by clicking on his name. THANKS DAVID!

PSS: Leave a comment below to let me know what you wished someone would have told you earlier in life. Go ahead and hit the SUBMIT BUTTON – leave a comment!