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Posts Tagged ‘Goals’

Intentional Leadership — D1, W3, M7 — Legacy

Posted in Leadership, tagged , , , , , , , on July 15, 2013| Leave a Comment »

We all die. The goal isn’t to live forever; the goal is to create something that will. ~Chuck Palahniuk

I believe I’ve mentioned the idea, before, about how with every interaction we have the opportunity to build or damage trust (earn trust dividends or pay trust taxes, as Stephen MR Covey would say). Well, there are other types of capital for leaders; in addition to trust, there is personal capital (ability, time, and influence) — things you have control over, and corporate capital (brands, product lines, etc…). Every day, and throughout your career, you will have the opportunity to make trade-offs with the various types of capital you have within your control. As we would with our money, we might make a withdrawal of one type of capital in order to invest it in another area, with the expectation of a positive pay-off at some point in the future.

In many ways, your legacy as a leader will be defined by your ability to shift capital from unproductive ventures to more profitable areas.

For an example of this, take a look at Indra Nooyi, chief strategist of PepsiCo, Inc. She was the driving force behind Pepsi’s transition from just being a soft drink company to becoming a more diverse producer and distributor of some healthier fare. Under her direction, the company bought Quaker Oats, which brought Gatorade and Quaker Oatmeal into Pepsi’s portfolio. She also drove the acquisition of Tropicana, which allowed Pepsi to add a well-known fruit juice to the portfolio. Later, she persuaded the company to sell Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and Kentucky Fried Chicken, essentially getting out of the “fast food” (or Quick Serve) industry.

Because of her efforts, only 20% of Pepsi’s sales wee from soft drinks by 2006, compared with 80% for Coca-Cola. Based on her accomplishments, Nooyi became CEO of PepsiCo.

What do you think she said when asked about the legacy she hoped to leave? She wanted Pepsi to be regarded as “both a commercial and moral success — turning profits while combating obesity.”

That’s a tall order, one might say, but it’s clear the woman is not easily discouraged by circumstances and conditions. She has a vision, she has the capital — both personal and corporate — to use at her disposal in crafting the company she dreams of…

Let’s transition now, and look inward. In what area of your life / business do you think you are wasting capital?

What can you do differently to reinvest your resources for a more favorable outcome?

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Intentional Leadership — D5, W1, M7 — Legacy

Posted in Leadership, tagged , , , , , , on July 5, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Good morning, and Happy 5th of July! Hope you all enjoyed a marvelous day yesterday, with family, friends, and celebration of all that’s great!

My day, yesterday, was a bit off-track. I had intended to get a lot of work done on my computer, but the internet wasn’t really working. All the signals said it was fine, but it wouldn’t fully load any pages until much later in the evening. Consequently, I got a lot of cleaning done and cut the grass (more like mowing hay!) in my back yard, finishing about 5 minutes before the rain began to come down! Guess it was meant to be how I should spend the day. Got some of the computer work done before bed last night (that’s right — I did not watch any fireworks, although I heard plenty in my neighborhood).

And here we are, at Friday, again!

I have a couple of coaching sessions today, and will have dinner with someone new looking for information about coaching and mentoring. And, I will indulge my love of handmade arts and crafts by attending what I understand to be a large Arts & Crafts fair (large — at least by West Virginia standards; the ones I used to attend in Washington would easily have 400 artisans in attendance, displaying their wares) this afternoon. Hopefully, the rain will hold off until I’m done!

As I typically do on weekends, I will study, write, and prepare the content for the next lesson in my Empowerment Mentoring program: “Attitude.” This is powerful content and I’m having fun with it. I have some errands to run, and some people I need to take the time to reconnect with. I will be meeting with a group of John Maxwell Team Coaches Monday evening, and am planning a trip to visit family later in the month. So, lots to do. And, still trying to catch up on my sleep.

What about you…what are you up to this weekend and in the weeks ahead?

As you know, I encourage those I work with to be intentional — thoughtful about how they spend their time and energy. I hope you are taking this to heart; it makes a tremendous difference in what you are able to accomplish and how you feel about yourself in the process.

I look forward to hearing the stories of what you are up to!

Have a great weekend, and I’ll “see” you Monday!

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Intentional Leadership — M6 Wrap-Up — Perseverance

Posted in Leadership, tagged , , , , , , , on June 29, 2013| Leave a Comment »

As a leader you are always on stage; someone is always watching you. And when you experience adversity, as you no doubt will, your people will be watching to see how you handle it. Will you react — instantly and from a place of emotion — or will you respond — from a place of thoughtfulness and intentionality?

Will you persevere or will you give up?

While we would all probably prefer to not go through the hard times, they are opportunities for growth and demonstration of what you’re really made of. They are opportunities to grow your influence. When you show you have what it takes to overcome obstacles, work through challenges, and succeed in your mission, you are   proving your worthiness to lead.

How you respond in these times will define your leadership more effectively than nearly anything else you do.

The key is, you get to decide.

Who will you be?

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Intentional Leadership — D4, W4, M6 — Perseverance

Posted in Leadership, tagged , , , , , , , on June 27, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Do you have your journal handy? Let’s spend some time today in reflection.

What are the three hardest aspects of your job? Write them down.

Next to each one, list the reason for the difficulty.

Then, imagine yourself persevering through each of the three areas, and write the rewards you will earn by enduring.

Now that you have greater clarity, what actions will you take to make them reality and move forward, intentionally and confidently, into your future?

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Intentional Leadership — D3, W4, M6 — Perseverance

Posted in Leadership, tagged , , , , , , , on June 26, 2013| Leave a Comment »

What challenging situation is your team facing right now? How can you lead them to persevere in the midst of these challenges?

Let’s develop a plan:

What’s the situation?

What are the challenges?

How will you lead them through this time?

What milestones will you celebrate?

How will you recognize and reinforce the behaviors your team needs to demonstrate in order to be successful?

What do you think you might learn about yourself and your team-mates through this experience?

What past principles have you learned that will serve to give you confidence going forward?

How will this make a difference for your team?

Who do you want them to experience about your leadership through this time?

Once you’ve taken the time to thoughtfully answer these questions, step forward and lead your team confidently to success!

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Intentional Leadership — D2, W4, M6 — Perseverance

Posted in Leadership, tagged , , , , , on June 25, 2013| Leave a Comment »

They say experience is the best teacher. I beg to differ…Experience is the best teacher when we choose to reflect on our experience and learn the lessons inherent in them. This is when we gain wisdom. If we don’t do the reflection, then we have merely lived through a string of experiences.

Sometimes, we don’t recognize the lesson until much later, following an experience; it may be days, weeks, months, even years later before we can see the positive impact a challenging time had on us.

Think back to a difficult season in your life. What was it and how did you face it?

Looking back, what benefits were there for you as a result of that difficult time, that you weren’t able to see then? (Did the situation redirect your path in life? Did it bring you closer to family, friends, co-workers? Did it prepare you in some way for your current work or some other challenge you’ve faced since then?)

How does your new perspective motivate you to persevere as a leader in your current situation, know that there are unforeseen rewards on the other side?

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Intentional Leadership — D1, W4, M6 — Perseverance

Posted in Leadership, tagged , , , , , , , on June 24, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Perseverance offers a number of rewards, some of them may even be sweet!

Think about Milton Hershey. Yes, THE Milton Hershey of Hershey’s chocolates fame. He was fired from his first job as a printer’s apprentice, for lack of attention to detail. Next, working in a candy store, he discovered his passion and opened his own shop in Philadelphia. Although he had plenty of financial support, he went bankrupt. He moved to Denver to work in his father’s mining venture, but missed the opportunity.

Again, he went to work in a candy store. Learned some new things, and moved east, again. He opened another candy store in NYC; again, he went broke!

No one would have been surprised or would blame him had he given up and gone to work, again, for someone else. But he didn’t. He summoned his courage and tried, again. (There’s that word, again — “AGAIN”!) And aren’t we all thankful he did? Personally, I’m partial to the semi-sweet variety of his chocolate and am enjoying some now, as I write!

The key is, he was persistent. And his name is synonymous with chocolate.

And what about Walt Disney? I believe he went bankrupt seven times before his dreams for Disneyland were realized. I’m sure we could all think of several other similar stories of passion, adversity, perseverance, and eventual success.

Leadership and failure are inseparably linked. When you attempt to bring your vision to life, you will experience bumps in the road, you will find you have fallen into a pot hole or even a giant sink hole along your journey…or you may be blazing an entirely new trail, with all kinds of unforeseen obstacles ahead. The trick is to learn from these setbacks, grow through them, and move beyond them. You will feel the amazing sensation of satisfaction — along with your success — when you do. And my friends, there’s not much like true satisfaction in knowing you stuck to it and accomplished what you set out to do.

Spend a little time today thinking about your greatest setback in your life to-date. What was it?

How did you get through it?

What was the bittersweet reward?

What did you learn from it that you have carried forward and use in other situations?

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Are you just going along for the ride?

Posted in Food for Thought, tagged , , , , , , , , , on June 21, 2013| Leave a Comment »

I’ve been thinking about this for a few weeks now. Originally, my thought was “are you hitchhiking through your life?” But as I thought about hitchhiking, it didn’t make as much sense.

You see, hitchhikers often have a specific destination in mind, as they step out onto the road and stick out their thumbs, or hold up their sign about where they want to go. And they accept rides with folks, usually headed in the same direction…getting at least a few miles closer to their chosen destination. But, truly, they are pretty much at the mercy (in more ways than one) of whomever’s car/truck they climb into when they accept a ride. Meaning, they may get closer to where they want to go, or they may just get farther away from where they want to get away from…and may simply end up wherever the driver happens to be heading.

What spurred this line of thinking was a number of conversations with people in recent weeks — some of whom I work with in coaching or mentoring relationships — about where they are headed in their careers. One conversation with a young woman about 3 weeks ago, really brought this idea into the front of my thinking. I worked with her, planning an event, and asked her how long she thought she would stay in event planning. (As an aside, if you’ve never been in this line of work, it’s very stressful — being responsible for a lot of details to pull events together, when often times you have little to no control over many of the pieces required for your event to be a success. And event planners often do not allow themselves to actually enjoy the event they have exchanged so much of their life energy to plan!)

She shared some thoughts on things going on in the organization she works with, and hopes to have the opportunity to move up, as her manager will be retiring in the next 12-18 months. She talked about her education and previous work experience and then said the thing that raised my alarms!

She said, there might be some opportunities in other departments of her organization, but that she would probably wait to see what the others above her thought she would be good at and what positions they might consider her for.

I said that was well and good, but wondered what she thought she was good at and what she was interested in…what was she striving to accomplish in her career? She seemed surprised by the question and it was obvious she’d not given it any thought, but said she probably should think about it.

I’m not sure why this particular conversation struck me so, as I have similar conversations with many people at a frighteningly frequent rate. I’m astonished by the people who give very little thought to what they want to do in life and are so willing to just go along for the ride, allowing someone else to define who they are, what they are good at, and what they should be doing with their time and life energy!

So, my question to you this evening is this: Are you the driver and navigator on your life’s journey, or are you just going along for the ride?

If you aren’t clear about what you long to do, are called to do, are passionate about doing, find satisfaction in doing…someone else will plan your life for you, but he’s the scary part: What they plan for you will be more focused on meeting their needs, not yours, and while you may be capable of doing certain things, and may even be quite good at doing them…they may leave you feeling empty, dissatisfied…Just because you “can” doesn’t always mean you “should.”

Clearly, the choice is yours. I encourage you to make this decision thoughtfully and intentionally. The answer is really the difference between choosing to be a victim or victorious, choosing to live your passion or just passing time helping someone else live theirs.

I look forward to hearing what you decide.

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Intentional Leadership — D5, W3, M6 — Perseverance

Posted in Leadership, tagged , , , , , , , on June 21, 2013| Leave a Comment »

Wow! It’s hard to believe it’s Friday, again, so fast! I don’t know about you, but the last two weeks feel like they’ve just flown past.

As you know, last week, I was in Guatemala with the John Maxwell Team, teaching a new transformational leadership process, and it was a lot of fun! It was also an all-consuming week. You know what it feels like to be fully engaged — emotionally, spiritually, and mentally — right? Well, when I’m with this group of people, that’s how I feel, and it’s energizing and stimulating…and when I come back home, the environment is completely different. It’s like disconnecting from a power source — an extremely powerful energy source. And, so, all week, I have been really tired! Good tired…I spent a week doing something significant tired!

So, I am looking forward to getting a little extra sleep this weekend. But it won’t be a totally leisurely weekend — I have lots to do! I’m working with a new coach, and we had our initial call today. I committed to drafting the base of a strategic actions plan for the next five weeks to really accelerate my studies, content preparation, and client interaction. I have a lot to do, and I’m very much excited about being to dedicate almost the entire weekend to this important work.

I’ll go for at least one long walk, weed my flower beds, and maybe even take a nap!

Looking ahead, I’m planning a couple of trips, so need to spend some time on the details.

Finally, I have some letter to write. I love getting handwritten correspondence, so I try to send some to others on a regular basis.

What are your plans for the weekend?

Who will benefit from some time with you?

What do you have going on in the coming weeks?

What could you be doing now to prepare for those things, that will save you some time and anxiety later?

Whatever you do with your weekend, I hope you make it an intentional one!

“See” you Monday!

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Intentional Leadership — D4, W3, M6 — Perseverance

Posted in Leadership, tagged , , , , , , , , on June 20, 2013| Leave a Comment »

By refusing to give up when life’s circumstances conspire against us, we powerfully model the value of perseverance.

Who is watching when you go through hard times in life?

How can you inspire them by the way you act?

What will they learn by watching you?

In 2002, I went through a life-changing leadership training program. During the five weeks I spent in this program, I was made aware that as a leader, one is always “on stage,” so to speak. Meaning, someone is always watching. Think of yourself as a role model, because you are influencing others around you about how to behave in certain situations.

So, will you teach them to persevere? Or to give up when times get tough?

You get to choose. I hope you choose wisely.

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