• What do you want to do when you grow up?
• What do you see yourself doing in 5 years?
• How do you plan to get there?

The list can go on and on… I know I have heard these all my life. For me it’s difficult to answer because I have always enjoyed where I was at the time. Maybe because I look to be content no matter where I am, or to look at life as a journey, not a destination.

If you’re like me, you’re handling your career like Driving in the Fast Lane. I’m going no where special, but I’m getting there fast… But ask any expert and you’ll see they all agree on one thing…

Yep!!! You have to have Specific Written Goals.

“The greatest thing in life is not so much where we are, but in what direction we are moving.” Oliver Wendall Holmes

“Before you can score, you must first have a goal.” Anonymous

“If you don’t know where you are going in life, you’re liable to wind up someplace else.” Yogi Berra

“Aim at nothing and you’ll probably hit it.” Anonymous

“I really don’t know what I want from life, but I’m pretty sure it ain’t what I’ve got.” Alfred E. Newman

After 32 years of business experience you’d think I would have lived what I learned more consistently. Well, you’re wrong. At times even the best Leaders out there are JUST LIKE YOU. That’s because you have the potential to be a Great Leader. Just take some of the simple advice of Great Leaders of the past.

Step 1 – Get a GOAL!

You’re probably telling yourself that you have tried to do this in the past and can’t seem to get it done. Check this out if you’re having trouble Getting Started.

Step 2 – Do Step 1 until you Get a Goal.

Here are some simple steps to help make your Goal Setting More Successful:

• Start easy and small, just start
• Make your goals Achievable and Measurable
• Find someone else to help keep you accountable
• Don’t plan too far out. Just get pointed in the Right Direction.

Well it’s been almost 6 months since our last post… Why? You ask?

That’s right, it wasn’t a Goal and it Fell off our Radar Screen since Life is Busy!!!

“There are Always REASONS for not meeting your Goals or Deadlines, just NO EXCUSE!!!”.

Today I created written goals and I’m off to my Destination again. Have you ever tried to Google Directions without putting in a Starting Address and Destination… you get my point.

If you need some help with writing your goals, let me suggest identifying these categories:

• Business/Financial
• Family
• Social
• Physical
• Spiritual
• Mental

Keep in mind that you ‘Balance’ your goals across the 6 categories. The goals need to compliment each other not compete.

Like I said before, don’t worry about looking too far out. As you progress and meet your mini-goals, new opportunities will appear giving you many options to change your course; often options you didn’t know were possible.

So take an exit ramp, not for the purpose of quitting, but to redirect your direction to ‘Stay on Course’. Don’t just go through the motions and ‘Drive Along’. Plot your course and don’t miss your Exit Ramp.

You can Do it. You Are Born To WIN!

Usually, the results are enough to keep your team motivated, and encouraged. All of the members don’t need to see personal results, sometimes team results or positive results of another team member can be enough to keep growing themselves or challenging each other.

But what do you do when the results aren’t there? or you, as the Leader, start to feel demotivated? Check out some previous tips to ensure that you, THE LEADER, are ALWAYS on your Game:

• How to Get Started?
• How you should look at your Job.
• Are You a Servant Leader?
• How to ALWAYS get a YES from your Boss.
• Should I STAY or Should I GO?
• Are You a Scary Manager?
• Do You Make Work Harder by not Managing Your Boss?
• Leadership 101 – Seek First to UNDERSTAND…
• What’s a Leader to do when THEY have the BLAHs?
• 5 Reasons Why You Should Treat Your Employees Like Dogs
• Ever Feel like things will NEVER change?

So this year was a good year, but the REAL question is, “How do we, as a team, continue to improve year over year”? Before I answer this, let me tell you a funny story about helping your Boss put things into perspective.

It all started with a simple lock, just like this one.

As I remember the story, I heard my General Manager (I was a Director of Housekeeping at a hotel at the time), call me on the two way radio… “You need to come meet me at the Store Room in the East Tower” (it was not really a store room but what I called the ‘Museum’). You see it was 5 Star hotel and when we stored things in the storeroom, we weren’t talking about old mop buckets and busted up computers etc… but hundreds of items from $30,000 pieces of artwork to antique chairs, or original statues etc… you get the picture. “Come up here right away, I need to see you” was the call… It sounded SO urgent so I dropped everything to respond. When I got there, I was frustrated to find that he only wanted to SHOW OFF his new IMPERVIOUS PADLOCK. As I was burning inside, frustrated that my idiot Boss just called me away from SERIOUS work; I began to ponder all the FACTS he was throwing at me:

• This lock cost me…(can’t remember exactly but it was definately WAY TOO MUCH)
• It’s Bullet Proof, at any distance (blah blah blah)
• Same lock they used at Fort Knox…(oh sure)
• I think it weighed like 8 lbs or something (it WAS Big, I’ll give him that)

All I remember is that he went ON and ON… like this was his FIRSTBORN. Telling me how this will be the perfect solution to protecting all our valuables in “The Museum”. I was thinking frantically how I could get out of this scenario and what I could do to bring my Boss ‘Back to Reality’, when just then my Chief Engineer walked up to see what all the ‘hub bub’ was on the radio. Then it came to me, Find The Weakest Link…

I asked my Chief for his tin snips from his tool belt and with two quick snips I cut the ‘$2.00 hasp’ holding the expensive lock and all 8 lbs came crashing to the floor (I was lucky it did not break the marble floor, that was not the impact I was trying to make) saying, “that is what I think of your Lock”, as I walked away…

You may think I purposefully tried to embarrass my boss (and maybe I did) but I did ask my Chief to see if he could remedy that for me and he said yes as he tried to keep from laughing out loud at the scene.

In order to continually grow a strong team, you need to continually find the ‘weakest link’ and improve it or replace it. Help your team find and correct the weakest links themselves, then your ready to move on to other opportunities. With these newly developed skills and perspective, they will be UNSTOPABLE.

When you’re NO LONGER NEEDED, consider it a JOB WELL DONE and leave with Pride.

Now Go Out There and find another opportunity to add value to.

Good Luck, and may this year be another good one for you as well. Thank you to Darren Rowse for the topic + group writing project.

Everyday I find that people in Authority, aren’t always effective leaders. Leadership is an Action not a position.

If you have recently been put into a position of authority, here are some things you should note as you get started.

• Seek First To Understand…
• Meet First with Previous Leadership or if that is not possible meet with others that were involved, the team.
• Talk to your team. Find out their Skills, Experience and Passions. Work to align them to maximize their effectiveness for the team.
• Focus on IMPROVEMENT!
• Don’t Change things, just for the sake of Change. Change is very Costly!!!
• Spend a Majority of your Time, Observing in the Beginning. Fix or change only things that are broken.
• Work with your Team to help them see the gaps and lead them to the solutions. This will accomplish two things:
1. Developing your People
2. Solving your Problems

Following these simple steps will not only help you achieve the best possible solution, but it will also give you immediate buy-in from your entire team. After all who likes to have a new leader just ‘storm in’ and change everything especially if the original team put their heart and soul into building what is there today.

So start slow, be sensitive, and try to take everyone with you. Leaders by definition are those that have followers. If you want to work alone, then be a sole-proprietor with no employees.

Manage your Team like they are volunteers and not employees and you will be on the right track.

“Experts” have many opinions about this, after all they ARE “experts”. They will run the gamut from:

• PLAN, ACT, DO
• Form a Committee
• Discuss First with an Expert…
• Etc…

The list could go on and on. But, let’s get something perfectly clear. I am NO Expert. Just a nobody sharing with other nobodies what I have learned from SOMEBODY. You see, I believe that Wisdom comes from above, and what I mean by that is FROM GOD.

If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. James 1:5 (NIV)

I also acknowledge that GOD uses people, and in some cases a donkey – but we won’t go there, to carry out his will. I have learned from many people during my lifetime:

• GOD through the HOLY SPIRIT
• HIS Living Word (THE BIBLE of which I will reference from time to time)
• My parents
• Family
• Friends
• Bosses (Good and Bad Ones, especially the BAD ones)
• Pastors
• My spouse
• and even my children

I strongly believe you can learn and grow through all experiences. If you look hard enough, there are OPPORTUNITES to learn everywhere. I have found that most people just don’t LOOK for them, but they are there.

My personal favorite: Plan your Work, then Work your Plan (continually monitor and re-prioritize your Plan, since the environment around you IS constantly CHANGING).

SO LET’s GET STARTED!