3 Secrets I Learned to Grow My Career

I Found It, I Found It, I Found It! I was going through old boxes I’ve had in storage for the last 7 years. I was looking through old pictures from my martial arts training, old copies of different Ninja magazines I had during my early training days and there it was. I found the old book that contained the 3 Secrets I Learned to Grow My Career. No, it wasn’t a book of Ninja secrets. It was a book of career grown secrets I found somewhere. I can’t remember where. I think it was laying around one of the offices I was in at one time. I don’t know who it belonged to. I picked it up and began to read it. I was amazed at the ideas and concepts it held. I stuck it in my briefcase and took it home with me.

7 Leadership Skills to Pack for Back to School

It’s Back To School Time!

Is your child going back to school? Regardless of their age, these 7 Leadership Skills are some of the tools every child should take with them when they go back to school.

When Pat Williams is an expert in leadership. The above is a quote Pat Williams is famous for and also one that I believe is true and I want to talk about today.

I found my notes from a meeting with Pat Williams I attended when several years ago. One of Pat Williams quotes talked about how important leadership is and how it should be a part of the curriculum we teach our youngsters. We have to build great leaders. We should give them these tools before they head off to school continue educating them with this knowledge as they continue through school.

As we prepare our kids for going back to school and we start packing up the backpacks with the necessary tools, we must pack their mind with these 7 Key Leadership Skills.

Vision – Great leaders have great vision.

Vision is like the Why in goal setting I speak about. If you want to get the goals you set you have to know your why. Why do you want to achieve that goal? A leaders vision is the same thing.The vision is the reason, the why, a business does what it does. Knowing the vision will

A. Keep you focused. Knowing where you want to be will keep you on track.
B. Keep you fueled. If you want to stay motivated, know your vision, your why. Knowing your why, your vision for doing what you do to achieve your goals will keep you going when it gets tough.

Communicating the Vision – a good leader will be able to share the vision with the people.

A. People must have Hope – communicate the possibility for better, for greater.
B. Communicate with Optimism – People won’t want to follow someone that doesn’t speak with optimism.
C. Inspiration is key to keep people motivated. You can’t motivate people, they have to motivate themselves, but, you can inspire them and help them keep that motivation.
D. Speak verbally. Emails and social media alone won’t get the picture needed to see the vision. Speak to people about your vision. Let your emotions tell the story. Learn public speaking skill and never turn down the opportunity to have the stage.

People Skills – a great leader knows that their people are their biggest asset.

The company I work for, First Republic Bank believes in it’s people. In our Human Resources Department, the letters on the wall reads “There are no businesses, only people.”

Our CEO often states that we are a customer service company that happens to be a bank. I believe that is true. I believe our leaders and our people share that vision that Jim communicates so well. Great leaders have people skills.

There are no businesses, only people. ~~ Jim Herbert, Chairman and CEO - First Republic Bank Click To Tweet

A. Be Visible – there’s a management methodology called MBWA, Manage By Walking Around. It’s not about walking around checking up on your people, it’s about being visible and available.

B. Listen – a good leader is a good listener. We have many leaders that talk, few that listen. People will believe in and remember the leader that listens. A point Pat mentioned was that Listen and Silent are made up of the same letters. Remember – 2 Ears, 1 Mouth.

C. Empowerment – Give your people the power to make mistakes and successes. When given the power to make decisions and do what is right, people often do. Uplift the people that work with you.

D. Delegating – Hire good people and get out of their way. Delegate to the strengths. You are not alone and cannot do everything yourself.

Character Counts – good character is a characteristic of a great leader.

Pat made it a point to mention that you can have leadership without character. However, he offered a great quote by Coach John Wooden of whom he wrote a book.

Reputation is what other people think you are. Character is what you do when no one is watching. ~~ Coach Wooden

Pat Williams believes that character includes your values, principles and morals. He touched on 3 characteristics of character.

A. Honesty – telling the truth no matter what you are

B. Integrity – consistency in one’s life – they walk the walk and talk the talk and they match.

C. Humility – having a humble spirit. Great leaders have humility. Pat shared a quote from the great evangelist and speaker Billy Graham’s daughter, “In daddy’s mind he’s just a farm boy from North Carolina.”

Competence – Great leaders are good at what they do.

Many people believe that leaders are born. However, skills can be learned and enhanced. Some of the key skills great leaders must possess are:

A. Problem Solving – when people stop bringing you problems, your job is over.

B. Team Building – finding and hiring great people and then empowering them. Even the Lone Ranger had Tonto.

C. Teacher – Pat mentioned a quote by the great Green Bay Packers coach, Vince Lombardi, “They call it coaching, but it’s really teaching.” Pat stressed that you can’t be a life long teacher if you are not a life long reader. You must continue to read, to exercise your brain. It’s a muscle, too.

Boldness – at the end of the day, you must decide what to do.

Pat told the story about the advice is father gave him as a child. “Be Bold. Be The Boss.” Leaders have to make decisions. You get one crack at leadership.

A Servant’s Heart – A great leader gives up the need to control.

Have a serving spirit. It’s about others, not you.

Who’s going to lead today? Raise your child to be a leader. Send them back to school with the right tools in their backpack along with their lunch. When they get back to school, encourage them to take leadership roles, to be bold.

Check out Pat Williams book on leadership here:

3 Quotes To Help Prioritize Your Goals

3 Quotes to Help You Prioritize Your Goals

The other day I asked one of my Goal Getters what their number one goal was the rest of this year and what their number one obstacle was to achieving that goal. Their answer was not uncommon to what most people answer. They have a problem trying to prioritize their goals. Sometimes we can’t see the forest for the trees.

I don’t always know what do do first. I have so many things I am working on that I don’t know which one is a higher priority. This reminds me of work projects. When you are working with many groups on a product and everyone has something they want done and you only have so many resources you have to set priorities. Inevitably when you ask them each to prioritize their individual requests they almost always say, “They’re all High Priority. They are all #1.”

When I think about the task of prioritize I was looking for a good image to help identify what we often go through. The proverbial statement, “You can’t see the forest for the trees” came to mind and I chose the image above. When we start working on our goals we often have a hard time of seeing the forest for the trees. This is especially true if we have multiple goals we are working on at one time.

I thought of 3 quotes that that help me focus when I need to prioritize my goals

3 Ways Your Mind Kills Your Dreams

Dream Killers

I was fascinated about motivational speakers. I loved to go to hear motivational speakers because I get really excited. It is almost riding a roller coaster. They talk about cool things like new cars, big houses, traveling in motorhomes, luxury yachts, and the big dreams.

A good motivational speaker will get you pumped up, they will get you motivated. They should, that’s their job. I have walked away from these motivational speakers ready to go tear up the world!

Then my stinkin’ mind would kick in –

Continue Reading …

4 Ways To Fight Fears that Cripple Your Success

Fear of Failure, Fear of Success, The Impostor Syndrome are fears that affect our success. Do you suffer from these? I wrote the speech linked here for my 10th Speech in the Competent Communicator manual for Toastmasters International. I am a member of a company Toastmasters Club. Completing the CC as it is called is a big step for me.

Creating and launching the Goal Getting Podcast has been exciting and I have put a log of hard work in getting this launched. I have achieved my goal that I set. However, it wasn’t easy. It should have been easier this time around. I did a podcast back in 2004. It didn’t take me very long to get it up and running.

Did you get this email this week? I did.

Did you get the email this week. I did.

Dear Tony,

It’s mid-year review time. As part of our human resources personal improvement plan, we conduct an annual review and a mid-year review. The purpose of the mid-year review is to gauge how you are doing on your goals you set for 2016.

Sincerely,

Human Resources

Did you get your notice? Does the company you work for do annual reviews? Do they do mid-year reviews?

Mid-Year Reviews

I used to hate annual reviews and mid-year reviews . . . until I became a manager.

“What? Now you like to harass your employees after you became management?”

No, quite the contrary. If you’ve listened to this show, you know me. You know I love to mentor, train and guide people to achieve their goals. That is what annual and mid-year reviews are about; Setting Goals. And, of course, achieving those goals.

Does your company perform reviews annually and or mid-year? What have you thought about them?

“I work for myself, I am self-employed. I do my own reviews, you say. That’s great. If you are an entrepreneur and you don’t do them on yourself and with your staff, you are failing both or you.

It is mid-year. How are you doing? Have you checked where you are on your goals? It’s time to do a self-assessment. That’s what we refer to them as where I work. They are really reviews at mid-year. We are doing our own assessment of where we are with the goals we set at the beginning of the year. Do you set goals with your manager and team each year?

Do you do a self-assessment to see where you are with your goals? Mid-year is the minimum time frame you should check. If your company only does mid-year and annual reviews, you should perform your own quarterly.

It is important to review where you are when you are driving toward your goals. Do a quarterly, a mid-year and an annual assessment of where you are.

Questions to ask yourself for your mid-year review

Did you create specific, achievable goals for 2016 with your manager / yourself at the beginning of the year?
I’ve found through the years that many managers set vague, non-measurable goals with their staff.
a. When you do your annual review, insist and ensure that each goal is specific and has the ability to be measured.
b. Define what success is. If you don’t have an agreed upon definition of what success is, you both won’t know if you are successful or will have different ideas of what success is.
c. Get commitment from your manager to do what it takes to bypass obstacles as needed.
Did you create a measurable action plan outlining what you needed to do to accomplish those goals?
Once you define specific, measurable goals and know what success is, you must define what action steps need to be completed to the best of your ability. The ability to track what you are doing and when it is completed will keep you motivated as well and have concrete examples of what you accomplished throughout the year.
Have you been measuring those actions up to this point?
It is critical that you keep track and know where you stand. It will be better to pivot or make adjustments to the goals and action steps if you know what your status is.
Where are you?
Take stock of where you are currently in the path to your goals. If you haven’t been doing so, start keeping track of everything that you have completed. Meet with your manager at least monthly to advise of the status and more frequently if you are encountering obstacles. Ensure that they are following up with any delays or bottlenecks.

The mid-year review is a great time for you to do a self-assessment of your goals and their status. Don’t think of it as a negative thing. It is your chance to let your manager know you are on top of the tasks you were given and that you are keeping yourself and them accountable. I recommend completing your own quarterly assessment even if your manager doesn’t.

Go out and make this year your best year ever.