Leadership, John Wayne Style

I have a favorite John Wayne quote - "leadership is being scared to death and saddling-up anyway."

There are 87 freshman congressmen in the U.S House of Representatives right now. Bolstered by the Tea Party movement they are saddling-up to act on the deficit. The problem is the few hundred other congressmen that are scared to death to act on the deficit. The reason they are scared is because they are sycophants.

Our country was founded on the idea of statesmanship. You choose to serve your country for the greater good, not for personal gain. You choose to take a turn leading and then hand the reigns to the next person, continually refreshing the country's leadership energy and pool of ideas.

What we can do at the very least is support this type of leadership through prayers, writing, contribution of our time and our money. For the first time in my life, the resolve seems to be there to treat the government's finances like our personal finances. It's in our best interest to help convert this resolve to action.  

The "Way" You Said That...

I was in a conversation in a men's group I participate in on Tuesday mornings at St. Monica Catholic Church and the "way" someone in the group related a very common phrase struck me this past week. He said "if I had taken the other fork in the road, I would have never been the father of Sheila's children (his wife's name is Sheila)." What struck me was the fact that his choice of language shifted the focus to someone else entirely. Naturally, we default to focusing on ourselves. How I'm used to saying and hearing this phrase is "I would never have been the father of five children" or something to that effect. Another person is rarely mentioned in our personal statements...

Most people know about using specific words or phrases to keep the focus on others, but how many times do we shift the whole focus of a personal statement to another?

Had I taken another fork in the road, I would never have been the CEO of my team's firm...

Attitudes Are The Only Real Disabilities

I dropped-off our babysitter at her apartment a few days ago and the thoughts she created are still with me.

The babysitter's name is Rosa. She is our 75 year-old former nanny. On the drive to her apartment (Rosa does not own a car) she updated me on what she had been doing the last week. Besides working for a new family full-time caring for their three-year-old and cleaning their house, she was taking an online computer course through the local community college, delivering Spanish classes to three different students at the nearby Barnes & Noble bookstore on Saturdays (she only takes up to three students at a time and I cannot remember the last time she had an open slot) and on Sundays she ushers at St. Rita Catholic Church. In her spare time she babysits or helps whoever needs an extra set of hands.

Needless to say Rosa chooses not to have any disabilities (even when asked to babysit 8 children under the age of 10 years-old - our five children and my wife's sister's three children)! 

If You Really Want Someone to Read Something, Then...

Nobody reads anymore. They scan.

If people scan and if pictures (business process visuals) are worth at least a few hundred words, why don't we use pictures more to communicate with others?

My bet is that when someone scans a process visual they slow-down enough to read (probably because there's a few hundred words to absorb)...

For example, imagine a one-inch square drawn on a piece of blank, white paper labeled "current organization" with a line a few inches long exteneding across the paper with an arrow at the other end pointing to a two-inch octagon labeled "future organization."

Does this description of a business process visual create curiosity?

I submit the idea to you to include a business process visual in your written communication if it is important that others read it.

Ironically, as soon as I have one of my team members figure out how to fix the translation of images inserted into my blog posts in Google Blogger to the http://www.cimastrategic.com/ homepage, you will see more business process visuals to think about and use for your own purposes if you like.

The "First Touch" is the Most Important One

In soccer, the first touch by a player in possession of the ball determines the success of the entire possession. The first touch could be a shot on the goal with the intention to score, it could be a pass to a teammate or the player could dribble. The result could be scoring (or not), completing a successful pass (or not) or maintaining possession (or not). Even if the player touches the ball several more times after the first touch, the possession builds on the first touch. Experienced soccer players know what their first touch should look like regardless of the situation and they must execute. It determines their success.

In your workday, the things you do (the right things) determine the success of the day. Revenue generating activities should always start the day (your first touch). It's the life-blood of any organization. It is what keeps the lights on. Additional revenue (scoring) helps the organization win more.

What is Sainthood and Why Should You Care?

Sainthood is being everything on earth you were put here to be.

Every writing career starts as a personal quest for sainthood, for self-betterment. Sooner or later, and as a rule quite soon, a man discovers that his pen accomplishes a lot more than his soul. - Joseph Brodsky, Russian-born U.S. poet & critic