The average man does not know what to do with his life, yet wants another one which will last forever – Anatole France
Nobody wakes up and declares that they want to be average today. The world is waiting to here the music inside of you!
Do you remember these 1999 Super Bowl commercials by Monster.com? It brings a smile but speaks a truth. Do not allow death to deny your best work. START TODAY!
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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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Do I have your attention? Let me ask you a question; What is the average number of times Americans check his/her smartphone?
Answer: Every six and a half minutes!! That is 150 times per day!!
Question #2; How many times do you check your smartphone?
Here is one of the numerous reasons this matters. Considering that smartphone addictions look like other addictions and considering that you waste a lot of time in Shallowville, it is really hard to go deep on any significant work. Researchers state that we are wasting up to eleven years of our life on distractions.
ELEVEN YEARS!!!
Author Adam Alter suggests that people spend 1-4 hours every day on their phones. Outside of sleeping, staying on our phones is the next most significant activity. That is 100 hours per month texting, playing games, surfing the web, reading articles, and checking bank balances. That all adds up to eleven years of your life!!
Do you want to reclaim some time back into your life – as in eleven years? Count how many times you check your phone today!
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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.
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Music: “Gratitude Mood” by David Arivett. You can learn more about his music by clicking on his name. THANKS DAVID!
Nerd Alert! Did you know the part of your brain that makes things run on auto-pilot is called your basal ganglia? We do not need to think about breathing and our heart-beating. It just happens.
Have you ever wondered why Steve Jobs always wore black? He discovered that he could save 12 hours per year by eliminating the daily two-minute decision on what to wear. Beyond the actual time you spend picking out your clothes, you are making another decision. Every decision is like doing another rep in the gym.
The research is clear, there is an upper limit to the number of decisions that you can make daily. By doing so many reps of monotonous things, at some point your decision-making muscles get tired and you start making poorer decisions. Author Greg McKeown in Essentialism, writes that we need to make some decisions once and not 1,000 times.
Now this may not seem to be a big deal at first but, when you add up all of the times that you think about decisions that you could have put on auto-pilot you begin to see that the most creative among us are also the most boring in every other aspect of their lives.
Am I going to have devotions this morning? That decision is on auto pilot. Brain cells saved! Am I going to surf the web each morning? NO! That decision has been made – no internet before creative work.
Let’s give our prefrontal cortex a break and stop making so many decisions that could be handed off. What decisions can you give your basal ganglia?
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Former CEO of GE, Jack Walsh wrote a book, Jack: Straight From The Gut, stated six rules for successful leadership:
In the book by Peter Drucker, Managing in Turbulent Timeswrites, “A time of turbulence is a dangerous time, but its greatness danger is a temptation to deny reality.”
Here are six questions to ask yourself to help you define reality.
These questions will assist you in looking at reality without putting a glossy spin on it. Here are four ways to guard against unrealistic thinking.
Admit My Weaknesses
Admitting my weaknesses is the first step toward any recovery. You can’t define reality if you will not face reality.
Embrace Realistic People
The old saying that birds of a feather flock together is really true. I like to be around people who are like me. That may be a good thing when I want to have some fun. It may not be a good thing when leading from the front is required. I need people that fill the blanks on my weaknesses. Effective teams compliment each other.
Ask for Honesty From Others
All leaders need to have a group of people around them who will tell them what they really think. You do not need yes men on your leadership team. The only way to get honest feedback is by asking for it and by treating people well when the actually give it. There is a pitfall in this line of thinking –sometimes we do not want to hear the truth even though that is exactly what we need. Secondly, make sure that your ego strength can handle this type of conversation.
Invite Fresh Eyes to Check Me Out
It is said that over familiarity breeds contempt –that is a true statement. It is amazing what we do not see because we are so close to the issues. It is worth the price tag to pay for outside eyes to take a close look at what you are doing.
Jim Collins states in his book Good To Great, You absolutely cannot make a series of good decisions without first confronting the brutal facts.” Remember that good leaders who lead great organizations face reality and make changes accordingly.
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Music: “Gratitude Mood” by David Arivett. You can learn more about his music by clicking on his name. THANKS DAVID!
Harvey Dorfman’s book Coaching The Mental Game, is about his winning mental strategies for athletes. He earned several World Series rings with the Oakland A’s and Florida Marlins. He instructs that we just as athletes should seize the moment. He introduces a phrase “Carpe Momentum.” Seize the moment!
This phrase from Dorfman’s book suggests that when we seize any MOMENT we create MOMENTUM! Show up moment to moment to moment what do you get? Momentum, momentum, momentum! If you feel that your momentum has disappeared, no problem – seize the moment.
Harvey Dorfman taught his world class athletes to seize the moment by “Task Execution.” This is a mental process by which you remove all distractions about the past and future and execute only the task at hand. Carpe Momentum is accomplishing one task at a time.
What is your one task today? Get on it! Make this your mantra question of the day and focus on the one task.
Do this and you will end up in the Hall of Fame called “AWESOMENESS!”
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I want to begin this podcast with the most basic of questions; “How Will You Grow?” I have personally been on a thirty year journey of learning and growing. Yes there have been seasons of great intensity and yet others were quite laid back. However, I have come to learn some commonalities about my journey that is the same as others. As you read various authors you will pick up on these common themes. So, my response is not uniquely mine alone as it is part of a collective body of knowledge that all learners arrive at. I want to share some of these thoughts with you.
Invest in Yourself First
The one thing that you need before passion about growing your business is to grow yourself and others on your team. What determines the growth of the people on your team? The growth of the leader! As long as people follow you they will only go as far as you go. If you are not growing, they are not growing! At this point some of your best will leave and go to another place where growth is celebrated and honored.
If you want to lead, you must learn. If you want to continue to lead, you must continue to learn. Investing in yourself may appear to be selfish to some, but that is perhaps their lack of understanding of how growth works. If you are not in shape to lead, where does that leave others in need of a leader? President Truman stated that you cannot lead others until you lead yourself.
Become A Life Learner
I made a commitment in my sophomore year of my under-graduate program to become a “life learner.” I have faced numerous temptations to slack off when I have obtained various goals. I am reminded of Rick Warren in his Purpose Driven Life material, “The moment that you stop learning is the moment that you stop leading.”
For those in the golfing arena will recognize the name Harvey Penick and his book Harvey Penick’s Little Red Book: Lessons and Teachings from a Lifetime of Golf. You may not be aware of the fact that Harvey Penick was self-taught. Harvey Penick influenced many Golf’s greatest players.
John Maxwell’s book Winning With People discusses the principle of “Every Person Can Teach Us Something”. He suggests that maintaining an attitude of teach-ability is essential to becoming a life learner. The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance or lack of intelligence. Rather, it is the illusion of knowledge.One of the greatest dangers in life is believing that you have arrived. In that moment your learning journey just ended.
Learn to develop a solid routine for your life. For me, I begin early in the morning with devotional reading, prayer, reflective thinking, writing/journaling, and anticipating who I can positively influence each day. This habit over time has proven to be a great success in my learning journey. This single practice has exponentially expanded my ability to lead others.
Create A Growth Environment For People You Lead
The truth of the matter is that most work environments are not conducive to growth. The fact of the matter far too many college graduates conclude they have arrived at graduation and they now know enough. These are the people that attempt to hold others, keeping everyone in our circle average. Ask yourself one question; Did you wake up this morning and look at yourself in the mirror and declare, “I want to be average today!”
What does a growth environment look like? Consider the following thoughts:
Walt Disney stated once, “I am a part of all that I have met.” There is a Kentucky Derby story that is told about a man who brought his donkey to enter the Derby. He was quickly rejected and was told that your donkey has no chance to compete with thoroughbreds. The gentleman replied that he realized that fact, but thought the environment would rub off on his donkey and improve him.
Being around people who are better than we are has a tendency to make us stretch and improve ourselves. This is not always comfortable, but it always profitable.
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In his book “Learned Optimism” author Martin Seligman learned something about learned HELPLESSNESS before he began to master the understanding of OPTIMISM. 
Here’s the short story: Decades ago, Seligman was in a lab with dogs. He split them into a couple groups. One group was given shocks but they could figure out how to avoid them easily. The other group was given random shocks that they couldn’t avoid. That was the first part of the study.
For the second part of the study, the dogs were given a shock again but this time it was super easy for all of them to learn how to avoid the shock. The group that easily escaped the shock the first time easily learned the second time.
But, get this.
The group that couldn’t avoid the random shocks in the first part of the experiment, didn’t even try to learn how to escape the shock in the second part — even though it was now super easy to learn. They just curled up in a ball and let the shocks continue.
They had LEARNED HELPLESSNESS. This has been replicated in animals and humans.
Not all people learn helplessness. Some of them, even after being bombarded with “shocks” maintain an empowered response. Seligman wanted to understand what made THEM tick.
He distilled the essence of what he learned into another one of his great books called Learned Optimism. It all comes down to the 3 P’s of Optimism.
Permanence. Let’s say something challenging happens. The Optimist will say, “Bring it on. I’ll crush it and then it will pass.” The Pessimist, on the other hand, says, “Another challenge. This is always going to be difficult.”
Interestingly, when something GOOD happens, the Optimist and the Pessimist flip their orientations. The Pessimist, who was sure the bad thing would be permanent, thinks the good thing will be fleeting. And, vice-versa with the Optimist. Good thing? That’s here to stay!
Pervasiveness. The Optimist is able to isolate the “bad” event into one compartment of their life. If they have a challenging discussion at work, they don’t say, “My whole life stinks.” They don’t make it pervasive the way a Pessimist tends to do.
Again, the opposite happens with the good stuff. It’s only a lucky break in one part of their life for the Pessimist and another sign of all the awesomeness for the Optimist.
(How do you show up?)
Personalization. Then we have the third P. If a bad thing happens, an Optimist is more likely to see the environmental circumstances that might’ve led to the event occurring while the Pessimist will take it all personally. Of course, the Optimist will have a healthy level of “needs work!” ownership when appropriate, but they won’t beat themselves up unnecessarily.
Let’s crush it TODAY!
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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
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Music: “Gratitude Mood” by David Arivett. You can learn more about his music by clicking on his name. THANKS DAVID!