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Too many people are standing still. They are neither moving forward nor stepping back. It is one thing to encounter failures and setbacks in life, but, in my opinion, it is even worse to not try because you may fail. If you introduce me to someone who never fails in life, I will introduce you to someone who never achieves anything worthwhile.

Quote for Leaders from Conrad Hilton:
“Achievement seems to be connected with action. Successful men and women keep moving. They make mistakes but they don’t quit.”

Conrad Hilton (1887- 1979) was the American hotelier who founded the Hilton Hotel chain.

Achievement, more than money, fame, or glory, seems to be the measure of success for a lot of entrepreneurs and other professionals. Some use money as a measurement for achievement, but it’s the working toward, realizing, and adding to achievement that is the true motivator.

People who achieve are self-driven. They don’t require someone to tell them what to do; they find out what needs to be done and do it.

My grandfather taught me this lesson when I worked with him during my teen years. My grandfather developed land and built residential homes; I worked with him because of my interest in real estate. He put me to work with carpenters, electricians, and the like; although my interest was more on the business side of real estate. I didn’t start as a good worker. I mostly did what I was told and then stopped working until the next task was given to me. Anyone who has been around a construction site knows how much cleaning up needs to be done; whether it be removing scraps of wood or cleaning up sawdust, there is always work to be done until the project is complete. When I didn’t work on a specific task, my standing instruction became “clean up.” I quickly learned how to find more tasks and didn’t wait until I was told. And I started to achieve more, because I got more done.

The action that leads to achievement is not the same as busy work – the menial tasks that always need to get done. Rather, it’s the action that impacts directly with the project. Learning how to focus your energies and turn on the action has a direct impact on what you are able to achieve. As with many other things, the more you work on something – “practice, practice, practice” – the better you work.

Work on the action that leads toward achievement and the more you will achieve. When you make mistakes, remember the 3 Steps for How to Respond to Failure. Also, keep in mind that “action” is an important part of leadership – Formula for Successful Leadership.

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It’s been a while since I’ve posted a new article. My time has been focused on a couple of business ventures and the unfortunate funeral for my brother who died in a car accident, RIP.

I’ve come across another good quote. This one was passed to me from a longtime friend; the author is unknown.

“Life isn’t about how to survive the storm, but how to dance in the rain.”

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In Wisconsin

Today is the State of Wisconsin Primary and for the first time in a long while I am at home instead of voting by absentee ballot. There are very few leadership positions as important as the Presidency of the United States, so I have been giving a lot of contemplation as to who I feel is the best leader for the next four-to-eight years.

John McCain

Back in 2000, I was a supporter for John McCain, a highly respectable patriot, knowledgeable and experienced candidate, and someone who is able to make better decisions than most. This year, he is the presumptive nominee with a clear and decisive lead of delegates for the Republican Party nomination.

With the DNC

This year, I am contemplating casting my vote in the Democratic Party. In Wisconsin, voters are allowed to register at the voting booth and select party affiliation at that time. By the way, the open primary registration of Wisconsin works to the advantage of Senators Obama and McCain who both do very well among independent voters.

Hillary Clinton

I honestly do not believe Senator Clinton to be the best choice. She is way too divisive for a leader. I think there would be more problems between the executive and legislative branches of government if she was elected. Do not misunderstand, I think she is very intelligent and capable as a politician, but I do not think she is who this country needs at this time.

Barack Obama

Senator Obama is, in my opinion, a highly influential leader. His oratorical abilities and celebrity status, allow him a great deal latitude from which to lead. I do not agree with every position that he takes, but I don’t 100% agree with every position that any of the candidates take. I do think that America needs an influential leader – someone who can inspire, influence, and provoke positive action.

Party Politics

As you can probably discern from this blog entry, I do not allow myself to be limited by political parties. I think it was George Washington, in his farewell address who warned against political parties and history has proven him to be accurate and wise. Great many problems have risen from party politics. Too many issues become a matter of competition to win than a decision to make for the best interest of the nation. The only good is the default mode of restraint in passing new legislation.

Jeffersonian Principle of Government

The Jeffersonian Principle of Government from our third President, Thomas Jefferson, is that government that governs best is that government that governs least. The division caused by a dual party system does keep the legislature in check, but too often distracts from issues that truly matter. There are thousands of young men and women who are dying in this nation’s wars in Iraq, in Afghanistan, and against terrorism. Too many people are struggling paycheck-to-paycheck in our economy, while fat-cat executives are given huge severance packages when they fail in their jobs. These two issues – war and economy – are the top two issues for me and most significant problems facing our nation at this time.

Casting my Vote to Make a Difference

So, today, I am going to cast my vote to play my role and be responsible for the governing of this nation. Freedom, of course, is not free. It comes with the high cost of responsibility. If we want to maintain a government “of the people, by the people, and for the people,” then we need to be responsible to fulfill our obligations by participating in the political process.

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Conflicts

Conflicts rip through every team and wreak havoc on the unity and focus of team. It is critical to understand what causes conflicts and seek resolution as expeditiously and thoroughly as possible. The main cause of conflicts is personality. Sometimes, the personality conflicts are wrapped around viable issues like differences of opinion on how to best accomplish a task, what rules or regulations govern an operation, or what takes priority among multiple issues; too often conflicts are unresolved because of personalities rather than issues.

Here are 7 steps for resolving personality conflicts in the workplace:

1) Maintain friendliness:

Cordial and courteous actions and words are often all that is required to mitigate personality conflicts. Maintain a friendly environment and you may very well maintain a “personality conflict free” environment.

2) Keep it professional:

Professionalism is a pertinent factor to keep tempers and attitudes from getting out of control. The Type-A personality is a great person to have on the team, but the Type-A personality can cause problems if there isn’t a clear practice of professionalism.

3) Determine the source of problems:

When conflicts arise, do not dismiss them as matters of personality. Seek to resolve any and all underlying problems, differences of opinion, and genuine work issues. Focusing attention on problems that matter will unite the team and draw attention to teamwork.

4) Document conflicts:

When conflicts do arise, it is important to keep track of the problems to determine the depth and breadth of the issues that infect your workplace. Documentation can also be used to determine an underlying source of problems or avoidable trends in conflicts.

5) Keep relevant parties informed:

Conflicts should not be swept under the rug and hidden. Problems will haunt your team and infect your work; conflicts need to be resolved – this is the only way to maintain the unity and effectiveness of a team.

6) Don’t hesitate to take the issue higher:

Sometimes a team member may need to be laterally transferred in order to put personality issues in perspective. If properly managed, a personality conflict should never lead to firing a team member, but under some circumstance a lateral transfer may be the best answer. If you do not have the authority to transfer someone, take the issue to those with the authority. Keep in mind, proper documentation will probably be required in order to make the case, so go back to step number 4.

7) Keep it professional:

All in all, keep things professional. We are all different and this is the value of a team.

Leadership quote from William Wrigley:
“In business, when two people always agree, one of them is irrelevant.”

Conflicts, in and of themselves, are not problems, but rather contribute to the dynamism and viability of a team.

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Formula for Successful Leadership

I want to share an idea that I have been dwelling on. It’s a simple formula or model for effective and successful leadership.

Successful Leadership = (Effective Communication + Articulate Vision + Influence + Action) (Ethics)

Effective Communication

3 Dynamics of Leadership

Articulate Vision

The Leaders Vision

Influence

Dr. Myles Monroe on Leadership and Influence

Action

Leadership and Action
Influence and Action

Ethics

Ethics is the multiplier for a very critical reason – anything multiplied by zero equals zero. Without ethics, nothing else amounts to much of anything.

The Relationship of Ethics and Leadership

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Great Book

I’ve added another book to my collection that I am quite excited about. Anyone who knows me personally knows that I have great love for books. I picked up The Daily Drucker which is a compilation of the best of Peter F. Drucker that was put together with Joseph A. Maciariello.

The Daily Drucker is “366 DAYS of INSIGHT and MOTIVATION for GETTING the RIGHT THINGS DONE” (leap year included). I intend to go through this book as the writer intended – one day for one passage of the legendary Drucker. What prompted me to buy it was a paragraph in the preface written by Drucker, “But the most important part of this book is the blank spaces at the bottom of its pages. They are what the readers will contribute, their actions, decisions, and the results of these decisions. For this is an action book.

Action

Action is the key. All thoughts, plans, concepts, and ideas are empty without action. You can spend all your time reading and discussing the finer details of leadership, but it will be all for nothing without action. Leadership requires you to go and do. You can only be and become a leader through doing leadership.

There is a famous quote that is a bit controversial because it may be misappropriated to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (read about it here). Nonetheless I like this quote, so I am going to share it with you.

Quote about action from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe:
 “What you can do or think you can do, begin it—boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.”

Failure

Don’t let the fear of failure hold you back. Even if things don’t work out quite as you expect, you can still gain a great deal from experience and always remember the 3 Steps for How to Respond to Failure.

Be bold, be a leader, and take action.

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One of the more popular pages on this blog is the article I wrote “3 Step for How to Respond to Failure.”

Failure

Failure is a difficult topic for many people. One fellow blogger, Ron from The Road Map, wrote a comment on the article that “So many times we just shutdown and struggle to learn from the experience.” That’s so true. Failure for some can be devastating. It can be paralyzing. But does failure always have to bring about an end?

Leadership quote about failure from Thomas Edison:
“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”

Failing Forward

I first read the quote from Thomas Edison in the book Failing Forward by John Maxwell. John takes the position that everyone will encounter set-backs on the journey to success. The difference between those who succeed and those who do not is how they respond to set-backs and failure.

Learning

A big portion of life is spent learning. There’s the old saying, “Live and learn” and those who try to encourage repositioning by saying, “learn and then live.” The most important thing to remember is that you still have to learn – create a lifetime habit of learning.

I remember an old chaplain from the Army, Major Frye (no relation to me). Who talked about how glad he was when he was finishing college, because it meant he would not need to spend a lot of time reading and learning the materials for classes. But soon after college, he realized that he was spending more time reading and learning for his job. He had to research, analyze, critically assess, and write about many topics on the job. He realized that living was a journey of learning. Once he learned to embrace learning, his attitude changed and he started to enjoy it – he created a lifetime habit of learning.

Learning from Failure

The best way to respond from failure is to learn from it. I must strongly emphasize that I do not mean to dwell on failure for that could lead to the paralyzing effect and, frankly, regrets are waste of time; you cannot change the past. You can change the future. If you learn from your failures and create a roadmap for how you would have done things differently, you would then have a plan to guide you through similar situations in the future.

Committing to not Fail

That last part that I would like to touch on is commitment and perseverance. I wrote an article title “3 Facets of Commit” and laid out three key considerations for commitment. A quote that is commonly attributed to Thomas Edison is, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” This quote speaks a lot about commitment and perseverance. It also speaks volumes about learning. You don’t try the same thing over and over again and hope for different results, you learn what doesn’t work, make adjustments, and try again. When you make a commitment and persevere, you learn how to succeed.

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Happy New Year! I hope your holidays were great and were spent with those who matter most – family. A lot of people are going to set goals (resolutions) for the next year and I do believe the beginning of a new year is an excellent time for self-evaluation. You don’t necessarily have to highly critical, but everyone has weaknesses and strengths; the better you understand and deal with those, the better you will be able to achieve your desired success.

Dustin Wax wrote an excellent post at LifeHack.org for 8 Ways to Achieve Success in 2008. Specifically, there were two parts in the post that I really enjoyed:

1. The SMART acronym which is credited to George Doran is an excellent breakdown for developing goals. In short, you should set goals that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevent, and Time-bound.
2. The step to “accept failure graciously” is, as readers of my blog know, a pertinent point.

 Failure and Success

I wrote an article on October 9th titled 3 Steps for How to Respond to Failure. The article has been widely read for the topic (and the 2nd most popular page on this blog). Failure is a significant topic for a lot of people. I would dare to say that very few people achieve anything of great significance without some set-backs and, most likely, were able to succeed in the end for how the person responded to the failures.

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Joel Barker

Joel Barker is known as The Paradigm Man for his leadership in defining the concepts of paradigm shifts for corporations. He was even presented an honorary Doctorate in Visionary Leadership from St. Mary’s University.

Joel Barker Quote about Vision and Action:
“Vision without action is a dream. Action without vision is simply passing the time. Action with Vision is making a positive difference.”

Vision

The vision is your mission statement to define the purpose and objectives of the organization. CEOs of most corporations utilize visions statements as a leadership tool to define strategic goals for the organization and defining operational traits for managers, leaders, and other professionals in the organization to follow. For leaders of small groups and teams, you can create a mission statement that works within the framework of the organization’s vision statement and target the objectives and operational traits specifically to the group.

Action

The action is the momentum and drive which work towards the defined goals – both short-term and long-term. The action falls subject to the corporate culture of an organization and is greatly influenced by the leadership with the organization. Effect leaders learn how to propel their teams and groups to action, but effective leaders also set the stage by practicing what they teach. Most people in an organization have no knowledge of what a CEO does on a daily basis, but most people can perceive whether a leader is a person of action or not.

Combining

Combining vision and action is highly effect as Joel Barker articulates. Your vision statements should clearly define your objectives and define how to accomplish your objectives. When you consistently and effectively communicate your vision statement, you demonstrate the importance of the goals and objectives that the statement defines. A significant part of the action for a CEO is the effective communication of the vision statement.

You can learn more from Joel Barker here.

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John Quincy Adams 

The former US President, John Quincy Adams, who was also the son of the US’s second President, was a man who lived an amazing life and was able to influence several of America’s defining government policies like the Monroe Doctrine, Adams-Onís Treaty, Treaty of Ghent, and, even, Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. The son of John and Abigail Adams, born on July 11, 1767, was a diplomat with international accomplishments, a Senator, a Secretary of State, a President, and then served seventeen years in the US House of Representatives until his death in 1848.

Quote from John Quincy Adams about Leadership:
“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”

Learning

Learning is a primary attribute of a leader. To be successful and to be a leader, adopt a lifetime of learning. But, as John Q. Adams’s quote reminds us, leaders beget leaders. So as you mentor and develop leaders, encourage them to adopt a lifetime of learning.

Action

Without a vision and purpose, there is no action, but merely having a vision is not sufficient. Your actions and the actions of others should move the group or organization in the direction of your vision. As the notable, former Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger puts it, “The task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been.”

Accomplishment

Your actions as a leader and the actions of those you lead should produce a product, service, or effect that accomplishes your vision. While the goals may change along the journey, the path should be marked with evidence of your leadership and tributes to the success of your team.

Lead

As a leader “…inspire others… (to be) …more…” by being more yourself and dream, learn, do, and become.

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