Leadership Traits: Initiative

One Saturday evening several years ago I was running my restaurant.   We were busy.  We were barely keeping up with our orders.  The restaurant was a disaster area.  Tables needed cleaned, the trash needed taken out, the phones kept ringing.

The money guys were in town, the two primary investors.  They were worth around ten million dollars each.  They were putting cash into payroll before we were generating enough revenue to meet payroll, and keep the lights on and the oven running.  These were only second to my customers among those whom I needed to impress.  They seemed to have chosen the least opportune time to come visit my store.

I was so busy I didn’t even have the time to greet these two guys, let alone sit down and have a chat.  John Doe was standing in the lobby waiting for his pizza; Jane Doe was waiting on hers to be delivered out on 48th street; Tom Thumb would be waking through the door in fifteen minutes for his … and the phones kept ringing.

The guys walked back to the back.  One got a broom, the other got a rag, and they started cleaning up the store.  I was sure that was it for me; I thought I might as well turn in my resignation, and step aside.  After things slowed down to the point where I was able to do so, I went over to the table where the guys were sitting so I could face the music.

“I’m sorry about … “ I began.

One of the guys lifted up his hand, and waived the sentence off.

“Mr. Henthorn, do you know how much money I’m worth?” he asked.

“From what I understand, sir, quite a bit.” I said.

“Somewhere around ten million, I suppose.” he said, “Do you know how I made that fortune?”

“I can only guess, sir.” I said.

“I suppose I can only guess, too.” he said, “But, you know, I think it probably has a little bit to do with knowing when I need to pick up a rag, and clean a table.”

And then he handed me a fifty dollar bill, and they left.

I usually tell this story to people who are above sweeping floors, and cleaning tables.  There is also an important lesson in there somewhere about taking initiative.  If you need something done, one way or another, it’s up to you to get it done.

Boost your level of initiative.  Look for things needing done, and go do them.  Put them on a list if you can’t get to them right away, and check them off when they’re finished.  You’ll be more productive, and the people around you will follow your example.

Till next time, remember, you are capable of doing extraordinary things.  Take the initiative, and do them.

Leadership Traits: Motivation

Like I wrote a few blog posts ago, I’d like to get back to some of the fundamentals of Personal and Business Development.  I’d like to put feelers out there for my readers so they’ll have an idea of where the edges of the box are before thinking outside of it.

I’ve already written a post about the five paragraph order, which is a good communications, planning, and problem solving tool.  Over the next several entries, I’d like to expand my blog post on the fifteen leadership traits.  Knowing these traits will give you the opportunity to find ways to develop and advance your leadership skills in all areas of your life.

Here we go:

Motivation

It’s probably not by accident that the acronym MILITARY BEARING is used to delineate the fifteen leadership traits.  It starts with an ‘M’ … and ‘M’ stands for ‘Motivation.’

I’ve attended a lot of training evolutions where motivation was not only the primary focus, it was the only item on the agenda.  If all you have is motivation, you can go a long way, and everything else tends to fall into place after a while.

Bill Bartmann points out that there are two kinds of motivation, positive, and negative.  Mr. Bartmann is a true operator of the American Dream.  He went from being a ‘hopeless’ teen age derelict to being among the Worlds Billionaires.

Mr. Bartmann tells a story of his use of positive, and negative motivators.  He met his wife when they were both very young.  When they met, Bill was already friends with wifes sister.  Bills wifes sister told Bills wife, while they were still dating, not to have anything to do with him … he was a high school drop out, and a street gang member, etc., etc.

On the positive side, Bill wanted to be … needed to be … someone his wife would be proud of, and he wanted to provide themselves with a lifestyle other than the one they were on the path to living.

On the negative side, Bill didn’t want to prove his sister – in – law right … he needed her estimation of him not to be correct.

One factor drew Mr. Bartmann into a course of action, the other repelled him into a course of action.  Some individuals are driven primarily by positive motivational factors, while others are driven primarily by negative.  Most successful people employ a combination of the two in a balance that is suitable for them, and you should follow their example.  Find your motivators, figure out your ‘why’s, and keep them in your personal development tool belt like you would a wrench.

We’ve already gone over that you can go a long way if all you have is motivation.  My observation is that motivation spreads through a group like a plague, particularly the motivational tone that originates from the head of the pack.  Motivation can take a group of people above, and beyond.  The lack of motivation can back a group up like a clogged drain.

If you are in a leadership position … shop steward, supervisor, business owner, salesperson, parent, teacher, volunteer coordinator … you have got to be motivated if you want to move foreword.  You set the tone, whether you like it or not, whether you feel good or not, whether there are other things you’d rather be doing or not.

Think of how your work day went when your boss would rather have been out golfing, and let that emotion show up on his or her shirt sleeve.  Were you very productive?  Be motivated.  Be glad you’re there.  I hate to say this, but, for the sake of fulfilling your objective, if you have to fake it, fake it till it comes back around on its own.

Till next time, overcome motivation block by finding out your motivators, and keeping them handy for review.  You’ll thank yourself later, and remember, you are spectacular.

Gods Cake and Carl Sagan

My brother sent me this as an email.  I thought it very wise, and appropriate to this blog.  I wish I knew who wrote it.

Gods Cake

Sometimes we wonder, “What did I do to deserve this?” or “Why did God have to do this to me?”

Here is a wonderful explanation! A daughter is telling her Mother how everything is going wrong, she’s failing algebra, her boyfriend broke up with her and her best friend is moving away.

Meanwhile, her Mother is baking a cake and asks her daughter if she would like a snack, and the daughter says, “Absolutely Mom, I love your cake.”

“Here, have some cooking oil,” her Mother offers.

“Yuck” says her daughter.

“How about a couple raw eggs?” “Gross, Mom!”

“Would you like some flour then? Or maybe baking soda?”

“Mom, those are all yucky!”

To which the mother replies: “Yes, all those things seem bad all by themselves. But when they are put together in the right way, they make a wonderfully delicious cake! ”

God works the same way. Many times we wonder why He would let us go through such bad and difficult times. But God knows that when He puts these things all in His order, they always work for good! We just have to trust Him and, eventually, they will all make something wonderful!

God is crazy about you. He sends you flowers every spring and a sunrise every morning.

Whenever you want to talk, He’ll listen. He can live anywhere in the universe, and He chose your heart.

Life may not be the party we hoped for, but while we are here we might as well eat the cake.

Carl Sagan proposed that mankind is a mechanism, or organ, for the Cosmos to gaze back on its self.  This is an important Cosmic function, otherwise it wouldn’t be … Mother Nature is a frugal manager.

To keep us gazing back, we are blessed with the capacity to enjoy the Cosmos … and we should endeavor to enjoy the Cosmos.  However, we humans often forget that we are still pieces parts of the Cosmos.   Though we are special, we are not that special.  We are still subject to the laws of nature, and nature has its own agenda.  Even the mighty star has problems … try going through a super nova.

To every thing, there is a reason.  Life is a cobble stone road we’re laying, and not all the bricks we lay can be perfect … some of them can be down right ugly.  Yet, they still serve their purpose, and are part of the whole.  The important thing is to learn from the ugly bricks, strike your line for the next row, and keep moving forward.  It all works out in the end.

Thanks for reading.  Till next time, keep the good thoughts in your head, and the bad thoughts out, and remember, you are special.

P.S.  Incidentally, this is what Earth looks like from out past Pluto, at a distance of six billion kilometers.

Earth from out past Pluto, at six billion kilometers. Source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_Blue_Dot

Five Paragraphs

When I was in the Marine Corps we used a mechanism for clear communications.  It’s called the ‘Five Paragraph Order.’  This tool in the tool box may not only be used for clear communications, but for problem solving, and planning.

The Five Paragraph Order is also known by the acronym SMEAC, which stand for Situation, Mission, Enemy, Avenues of approach, and Command and signals.  I’ll civilianize the acronym, and switch the E for an O, standing for Obstacles, which changes the acronym to SMOAC, which is still easy to say.

Here we go!

Situation:  What is the current situation?  What is going on?  Define the situation.  What does it look like.

It is particularly important that if you are using this as a problem solving tool to write the situation down.  This helps define a problem, and defining a problem … actually determining what the problem is … is half way to the solution.  There is an old saying, “We get so focused on catching alligators that sometimes we forget that we came here to drain the swamp.”

Mission:  What do you want done?  How do you want the situation to be?  What do you want the situation to look like?

Obstacles:  What is going to get in your way?  What are you going up against.  There is another acronym used in this paragraph that is helpful defining your obstacles.  I can’t seem to civilianize this acronym, which is UNIFORM … standing for Unit, Number, Insignia, Force, Organization, Reserves, and Movement.

• Unit – Put the obstacle in a category.  What is it?
• Number – How many are there; how big is it; quantify the obstacle.
• Insignia – what does the obsticle actually look like?  How can you recognize it when you see it?
• Force – What does this obstacle have that is going to get in your way, cause you problems, or keep you from attaining your goal in general.  What does it have that you need to watch out for?
• Organization – How is this obstacle organized?  How does it communicate?  Who is it’s boss?
• Reserves – Does the obstacle have a back up system to keep you from where you’re going?
• Movement – How does the obstacle get around?  Where is it going?  What are its habits?  Where will it get in your way; where, and when will it cross your path.

Avenues of Approach:  What are you gong to do about it.  How do you intend to get from point ‘A’ to point ‘B’.  This is where you pull out your map, and start drawing up directions.  You know from where you are starting, and you know where you’re going.  You also have an idea about what is going to get in your way, and where it’ll probably be lurking when you meet up with it.

Command and Signals: Who is responsible for what, when, where, why, and how.  This is where you put your administrative and logistics information … don’t forget your mission needs financed, you need to eat along the way.

Like I said, you can use this system for communicating, problem solving, and planning.  I use this system myself quite a bit.  I’ve also seen several like systems that have the same basic structure, and purpose, right down to the point where there are five elements, and the verbiage is changed a little bit.

I hope this tool has some use for you.  If not, I hope you enjoyed reading it anyway.  Till next time, remember, you are spectacular.

Back to the Basics

Several years ago I was the Training Department Head for a restaurant franchise organization out here in Nebraska.  At any given time during my appointment I had between 13, and 17 stores of which to keep track.  It was one of those deals where one works for the corporate entity, but is paid by the franchiser.   The two didn’t always agree with each other, and I was stuck in the middle.

The franchise owner was very impressed with the concept of thinking outside of the box … I am as well.  However, the Old Man wanted me to jump right in … start teaching his people how to think outside of the box right away.  That’s good, but one needs to at least know what local store marketing is before one starts thinking outside of the box with it.  My contention was that his management staff had to know where the sides of the box were before they started working outside of it.

I’d like to put us back inside the box … find out where the edges are.  I may have gotten ahead of myself, and presented subject mater I was impressed with myself, but may need some development to present fully.

Over the course of the next several posts I intend to yak what I know about leadership traits, problem solving, communications, relaxation, and whatever else I can think of which to write on the subject.

In closing, I’d like to leave you with this little tidbit on how the mind works in a funny way.  It’s a fairly advanced concept, but I’m stoked into yakety smaketing about it.

Have you ever looked for something, and just couldn’t find it?  You tore your house apart looking for it, and even blamed the dog for hiding it.  Not having this thing right at that moment left you in a terrible mess.  Then, after all was said and done, and you’d moved on to other issues, what you had been looking for was now in your way. 

Odd, isn’t it?  When you fret, and fume over something, its resolution seems to avoid you … till you’ve calmed down.  It may be that finding things takes a degree of passion, and focus.  However, it may come quicker to you if you use positive energy, instead of negative energy … and maybe even setting the issue off to the side and forgetting about it for a while helps.

Till next time, think positive, and remember, you are an extraordinary person.

But Wait … There’s More!

There’s actually more to the story … more to the message I was promoting in my last blog post.  There’s actually more to it than becoming acutely aware of little black pickup trucks because you’re driving a little black pickup truck.

On my side of the screen, this stuff has been known for 31 years.  As a young Marine, I was given the adage “Mind over Matter.”  I heard it quite a lot.  This adage was often used to help get young Marines through the stress, and strain of being a young Marine.  It tended to work well in the immediate sense.  Application of this adage got me up a few mountains with my field pack.

However, I had no idea this adage was applicable to issues other than such things as force marches up mountains.  Furthermore, the adage was often diminished by well meaning, but misguided Marine Corps leadership, who would wittily add to the adage, “If I don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.”  I was also captivated for many years by popular entertainment media … who perish the thought that I should use my mind to do anything other than buy shaving cream from the sponsor.  I allowed myself to believe this was just a hokey Marine Corps saying , despite the positive results I personally experienced applying the principle.

The cosmos is comprised of space, time, energy, and matter … I use the acronym ‘STEM’ to help me remember.  Way down deep on the quantum physics level, it seems that matter is nothing more than itsy bitsy, string like vibrations of space … energy effecting space in time is matter.  The human brain is made up of matter, and it thinks.  Thoughts are the result of thought energy applied to grey matter … which in reality is energy in in the first place.  Minute, and inconspicuous as the resulting vibrations may be, they still have an effect on the Cosmos.  It should go without saying at this point that Humans have the capacity to control their thoughts.

The Law of Attraction postulates that energy attracts like energy, vibrations attract like vibrations.  The predominant tone of our thoughts determine the type of energy and vibration our personal matter group emits … positive to negative, successful to unsuccessful, happy to sad, good to bad.  Like gravity forming a planet, and the Solar Wind effecting our local system, we effect the Cosmos.  The kind of vibrations we produce on the sub atomic level pull to us, or push from us our wildest dreams and wishes.

Ask, and you shall receive.  Knock, and the door will be opened to you.  Effect and cause, and cause and effect.  So there’s more to it than becoming acutely aware.

Till next time, keep the good thoughts in your head, and the bad thoughts out.  Guard your thoughts like a treasury, and remember, you are a gift to the Cosmos.

My Little Black Pickup Truck

We’ve all heard the adage that we are what we eat. This, in fact, is true. Your body has a maintenance crew, as it were, and what you ingest provides the raw materials to maintain your body. They say that every seven years each cell in your body has been replaced through this maintenance process. So, you quite literally are what you eat.

There is another adage, equally as true, but less equally known, which says we are what we think. This dynamic is less easily delineated than the physiological effects of a healthy diet. However, this dynamic is easily illustrated through every day experiences.

I’ll use a personal experience to demonstrate how this dynamic works. A couple of years ago I bought a little black pickup truck. Till I started driving that little black pickup truck, it seems people driving little pickup trucks were far, and few between. After I started driving that little black pickup truck, little pickup trucks were everywhere, and a lot of them were black.

This amazed me. Where had all these little pickup trucks been hiding? Suddenly I had more little pickup truck opportunities than I’d ever dreamed possible. I could see what other people were doing with their little pickup trucks. I could go talk to someone about little pickup-truckness that had experience, and expertise on the subject. I could easily find people wanting to buy, or sell little pickup trucks, or little pickup truck accessories.

At that time I had the benefit of having a little black pickup truck as my main source of transportation. The cultural focus we modern humans place on our personal transportation mechanism dictated that this little black pickup truck was on my mind quite a lot … do you know we actually develop a personal relationship with our car keys, which is why key fobs are such great specialty advertising medium. I was suddenly in a little pickup truck World. However, I didn’t have to work very hard to get there; all I had to do was buy a little black pickup truck.

The experts tend to call this dynamic of thought ‘The Law of Attraction.’ What you think about will find its way to you by virtue of the fact that you become more perceptive to the venues of its approach. Health, happiness, prosperity … these’ll probably take more work to bring about than going out and buying a little black pickup truck. Think about the good things; keep the bad things out of your mind. Have your imagination think of the good things with all the tangibility you can muster, just as though there were a little black pickup truck outside in your drive way waiting for you to come out and take it on a drive down some dirt road in Nebraska.

Till next time, think of good things, and remember, you are a spectacular person.

It’s Your Donkey

There are people around us whom care enough about us to give us advice on how we should conduct our business.  Often, this advice is unsolicited, and is thrust upon us with ultimatums.  The wise seek counsel, but the wise also make their own decisions.  Buffalo Bob may have taken advice from the Peanut Gallery, but they didn’t run the Howdy Doody Show; and the captain is the one who helms the ship to port, despite all the input from all the sources a captain needs to do so.

I have a stock response for well-wishing free-advice givers, which is, ‘Thank you, I’ll take your counsel into consideration.’  And, I do.  If I consider the advice good, I’ll use it; if not, I won’t.  The guy who brushes my teeth every morning is the only guy that can make those decisions for me, because he’s the guy who brushes my teeth every morning.

We are the stewards of our own destiny.  When we let other people do this for us, we run into unnecessary problems, which we are still responsible for resolving.  The following is an old parable I recently posted to a friend on one of my social networking sites.  I don’t think it has a name.  The parable illustrates the problems of always doing what others suggest, and not follow our own intuition.

‘Way back when … A man sold his donkey to a villager. He thought to take his son along into town to deliver the donkey. On the way into town they thought they’d enjoy the walk, and lead the donkey by a rope.

‘One of their neighbors along the way saw this, and became infuriated. “What are you doing!” the neighbor said, “You have a strong donkey, and you’re making your son walk? What kind of thing is that?”

‘So, the man had his son ride on the donkey as they went into town. They came across another neighbor along the way. “What are you doing?” the neighbor asked, “What kind of son are you to make your poor old father walk while you ride a donkey? And what kind of father are you to let him do it?”

‘So, the boy got off the donkey, and let his father ride as they went into town. They came across another neighbor along the way. “Wasteful!” the neighbor accused, “There you have a strong donkey you both could be riding, and only one of you is. What kind of thing is that?”

‘So, the man helped his son up on the donkey so both of them could ride. At that point, the donkey’d had enough. He bucked both the man and his son off his back, mumbled something about joining the French Foreign Legion, and trotted off into the sunset … leaving the man, the son, and their transaction in town in his wake.’

Be Your Own Lottery

This afternoon I interjected myself into a conversation. The guys were talking about one of my favorite subjects … The Lottery.

I live out here in Nebraska. A couple of years ago, the capital city of Lincoln was making headline news left, right, and center. A small group of meat packing plant workers pooled a few bucks each, and bought a stack of Lottery tickets from the gas station across the street from their work place. Lo, and behold, one of those tickets was the lucky winner.  The participants split equally the largest pot in the history of the Lottery.

Big news! After all was said, and done, and taxes and fees were paid, and all were interviewed on national TV, each participant walked away with somewhere between nine and eleven million dollars. Not too shabby.

The subject of the conversation I’d barged myself into was the fate of one of those participants.  Sad.  It seems that one of them, less than four years later, is right back where he started … and not because he thinks working in a meat packing plant is an interesting hobby.

From what I understand, statistically this scenario is the norm. Most Lottery winners are back to where they started within five years.

I don’t know the exact statistics, but, apparently, one stands a better chance of getting struck by lightening twice in the same day than winning the lottery. I’m going to ask a question that I’d like for you to contemplate … how many times have you seen someone in a Rolls Royce driving up to a gas station, and witness the owner of that vehicle going inside to buy Lottery tickets? Probably rare, if ever.

For just about every four hundred and eighty tax paying citizens in the United States there is one millionaire. Most of these are self made. One stands a better chance of becoming independently wealthy by spending that Lottery ticket dollar on a dust mop, and knocking on doors to find people wanting their houses cleaned.

I’m not saying don’t play the Lottery. I personally buy about one ticket a month … it’s not not fun, and they say the revenue generated goes into the schools system. I also put a dollar or two in the bell ringers buckets around Christmas. I expect neither to bring me my fortune, and neither will.

Here’s a concept. What if one became their own Lottery. What if they invested in themselves. Pick a subject, go buy a book, read 20 pages a day, every day. In one year you will have read around 30 books on that subject. In the statistically normal amount of time it takes to go from big pot lottery winner to broke again … five years … you will be among the the top five percentile of experts on the subject you selected … and, what could you do with that? Most of the gurus I’ve listened to suggest ten pages per day, which puts one in the top five percentile in ten years … little things, easy to do, done consistently, over time, bring huge rewards.

Till next time, take advantage of that Library Grant, go buy a good book, and read it, and remember, you are a spectacular person.