Listen

I have seen it in all businesses -
People get to big and forget where they started and they let- Power- get to their heads and they forget to listen to those around them.
My best mentor- Paul Arpin- had the gift of staying grounded, he always had the last word and the final decision but he always would listen to those around him that he trusted and took in all the opinions and then acted.
Power and titles are a funny thing- they change people.
Never forget-
Stay humble and LISTEN !

Hope vs Hate

Hope vs Hate

Is it possible to be tough and also have hope ?
Can you help people and teach them to help themselves?
Can you speak truth to power?
Can you respect, truly respect, other opinions and people of diversity?
Is life all about - more - more money, more stuff, more power ?

Bullying- liars - hypocrites

We all have many things that bother us or drive us-

For me it’s fighting against bullies and liars and hypocrites- and the funny thing is ( actually it is not humorous) most time these characters normally go hand in hand, if you find a bully they most likely are liars and hypocrites. It really annoys me when people stand up on a soap box to yell and point the finger at someone else while they are guilty of probably the same thing or worse- that is the height of hypocrisy.

I see it almost every day and it is all around me.

I saw it as a young man in the work place and it was what ultimately drove me to  take on more responsibility and eventually to Senior Vice President - it was , and still is, never about the money or power - it was my way to help keep the bullies and liars and hypocrites in check or out of power.
I watched as the VP before me ridiculed others, picked on the meek and straight up lied to everybody and it hate me up inside.
In order to conduct the change I wanted to see and I had to on more responsibility and start to form a real team and have a workplace where people respected each other and always were honest.
I am proud of what we were able to accomplish and the bonds that were made and hopefully was able to show people that you do not have to stab people in the back to succeed and that by working together you not only can accomplish some pretty amazing things you also make friends for life.

Get involved- if you do not like what you see or what you hear around you- Step Up!

Make a difference- you do not have to play their ugly games to win.

Just put your blinders on and do your thing - be honest- be sincere and respect everyone!

Humility

Humility makes a whole lot of things possible, -
None more important than a single humble question: “ What am I missing ?”
Good leaders constantly worry their limited ability to see. To rise above limititations , good leaders exercise judgement, which is a different thing from intelligence.
Intelligence is the ability to solve a problem, to decipher a riddle,  to master a set of facts. Judgement is the ability to orbit a problem or a set of facts and see it as it might be seen through other eyes, by observers with different biases, motives, and backgrounds.
It is the ability to take a set of facts and move it in place and time - perhaps to hearing room or a courtroom, months or years in the future - or to the newsroom of a major publication or the board room of a competitor.
Intelligence is the ability to collect and report what the documents and the witnesses say ; judgement is the ability to say what those same facts mean and what effect they will have on other audiences.

Urgency

How do you have a sense of urgency if you are not the one being oppressed?
How can you really appreciate what you have if you never experienced being without it ?

For example my daughter taught in a innner city high school with many kids that came from poverty and some from other countries, one young man was born and raised most of his life in a part of Africa where they had very little.
As a young boy he would get up very early every morning and do his chores and then walk miles , in all kind of weather, to have an opportunity to go to school and get an education.
Here in the United States we have public transportation to take our children to public schools and many of our children take it for granted and complain and resist getting an education.

How can you teach appreciation?

My grandparents grew up in a small house with no indoor plumbing and grew most of their food.
My grandmother had this cookie jar on the top of this metal cabinet and when I would visit as a very young boy it was a huge treat for her to hand me a cookie from this jar.
My aunt lived next to her sister, my grandmother, and was very poor and if my grandmother had a ham she would share it with her sister and her sister would take the bone home to make soup out it.

How can a child today ever really understand and appreciate what is in their kitchen and refrigerator if that is all they have known.

How can we install or teach a sense of urgency to help those less fortunate if we never really lived their lives and saw the world through their eyes ?

Shoe on the other foot

Always try to live by the “ shoe on the other foot “ theory.
Before you judge or you take your stand think about in in different terms -
What if whatever the situation is closer to home and more personal.
Don’t think about as THEM or something that does not or will not ever effect you -
Think about it as if it did effect you , as if it was your daughter, your son, your mother .
People speak of religion and most think they are “ good” people but they separate things and people very easily if it does effect them personally.
It is easy to be tough if it is not your child, your family or your life.
How will you be judged in the end ?
It is how you treat the needy , the poor and the defenseless that matters .
What if the shoe was on the other foot ?

Leaders

An excerpt from a book I am reading ...
Driving leadership into every corner and every communication-
“ We would teach that great leaders are -
(1) people of integrity and decency;
(2) confident enough to be humble;
(3) both kind and tough;
(4) transparent; and
(5) aware that we all seek the same meaning in work.
We should also teach them that
(6) what they say is important, but what they do is far more important, because their people are always watching them.
In short, we would demand and develop ethical leaders.”