How Important Are You?

.
"It's the friends you can call up at 4 a.m. that matter."
~ Marlene Dietrich

Social media has added a new dimension to our contact lists both in our personal lives and business. We've multiplied our opportunities to create relationships. It begs a question. How important are we to the people we communicate with? In the competitive arena of business this matters. Why? Because people make choices based on how much value you provide to them - How important you are to them. Want to find out how important you are to others? Do You Really? Can You Handle The Truth? Ok then do this. List all of your contacts and connections and get a phone number for each of them - Yep all of them. Call each one and leave a simple message - "Call me - I'd like to talk to you" and keep a list of who calls back and how long it took them to return your call. It's simple - It's honest and It will tell you how important you are to people. Perhaps they will call you back out of curiosity - great that's a start. Now comes the hard part - Can you get them to continue to call you back - next month, next year - every year? Can you maintain value to them? Do your contacts, your connections, your customers and your friends call you back quickly? There Are No Excuses. This is a real test of how important we are to people. If you truly are important to someone they will make it a priority to call you back - Whether it's convenient or not. It's a simple truth

If you're important to them - they call back.
.

The Last Frontier

.
"Appreciation is a wonderful thing: It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well." ~ Voltaire

There's a place we can go. A place where we can unplug from the world and spend some quiet time. A place I like to call the last frontier. It's a real place that lies deep within the caverns of our mind. It's patched together with peaceful, happy and contented feelings plucked from our memory. Feelings we plant in a place that makes us smile. Choose your own location. Mine was taken from a trip to the wilderness of Alaska. In the silent majesty of mountain ranges and deep languid lakes I painted a masterpiece in my mind. A picture that overflowed with gratitude, appreciation and warmth. A picture of pride in my daughter. Of the joy in her smile. A picture of respect for those I admire and compassion for those I don't. A portrait that reflects the awe I experience with each sunrise. A portrait of perspective. It's a place that reminds us of what's important. An image that refreshes and fills our soul with warmth and peace. It's the last frontier. Pick a place. Choose your memories and paint a picture. Close Your Eyes and Remember. Reflect and Smile as it Refreshes Your Soul.

It's Your Last Frontier.
.

Social Media & C Suite

"In God we trust, all others bring data." ~ Deming

Why is the C Suite resisting social media so much? It's pretty simple really - The Fluff. We all recognize the power and enormous scope that social media has achieved - lot's of people are on the playing field. But what about the end result? Social media gurus will chastise us for thinking too linear, too old school and say that it's all about the enormous communication possibilities, awareness and reach. Ok - but you've still got to measure what you manage in business otherwise... (well you can fill in the blank). Here's the bottom line in three C's. Here's a way to categorize and measure social media in a good, old fashioned, linear way that completely disregards the fluff and the unmeasurables. Here's 3 social media metrics for the C Suite.

Contacts - You broadcast to them & read their stuff (one way).

Connections - You've moved them to a two way communication.

Customers - You've monetized them.

There are a myriad of great reasons to participate in social media that can't be immediately measured. But if you want to keep it simple - Measure how you are doing with Three Simple C's.
.

Being The Best

.
"If You Ain't First, You're Last." ~ Ricky Bobby

How good do you want to be? It's a question that parents put to their children. Teachers to their students. Coaches to their athletes. And managers to their employees. There's only one answer that really makes any sense to me - "The Best That I Can Be". Everything else is an insult to ... Well to everybody. Everything else is a cop out.

There is a scene in one of my favorite movies "Chariots of Fire" when a runner is whining to his girlfriend about not winning a race and he says "If I can't win - I won't run". ~ The lady beautifully responds to him

"If you don't run - You can't win.

Winners have to run. Whatever race you decide to participate in. Win It. Whatever you determine to focus your attention on. Wherever your interests take you - Be the very best. There will come times of frustration, of failure and disappointment and those times will tempt you to settle for less. ~ To be content with merely "good enough".

There will be people that tell you that just being in the game is what counts - I say baloney. I say once you stop trying to be the best you're done. Once you settle you're dead.  ~ Ricky Bobby sure knows...

If You Ain't First - You're Last
.

Anger Can Motivate Us

.
"We shall draw from the heart of suffering itself the means of inspiration and survival." Winston Churchill

Winston Spencer Churchill was an icon. His impact on this simple guy was without peer. Bereft of a father figure in my youth I chose to cast him in that role and read every word I could find on this heroic figure. The man had a drive and determination that spurred a nation and it certainly inspired me beyond measure. But Winston also had a demon - he called it his "Black Dog". A name he gave to the depression that would consume him and rile the red mist of aggressive anger. An anger that propelled him to take action. Most people get angry and they lash out. When Winston got angry he channeled it into a creative tour de force. His anger and resolve fueled a nation. It drove him to do and say what others could or would not. So what does this mean to you and I? What can we learn from this? Anger can serve as effective motivation. It is when we become so depressed, so dissatisfied and so angry with something that we determine action must be taken. It is when the "red mist" consumes us that we often have the greatest will to change our conditions and circumstance. What can we learn from this? Anger with our status quo is powerful once turned to action. What is your Black Dog? What angers you? What raises the red mist within you? We can't all be Winston Churchill. But we can channel dissatisfaction and depression into something good if get angry enough to take action.
.













.

How Well Do You Lead?

.
"A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves." Lao Tzu

The number of tomes, teachers, tweets and testimonials on the topic of true leadership could reach from here to the moon and back countless times. Some of them entertain, some educate, and some engage. Each has a different perspective on what it takes to be a "True Leader". Can anyone really capture the unique character traits that influence us to follow someones lead? To take actions we would not otherwise take, or be inspired to make a difference? Twenty years ago a young man that I worked with gave me a compass, as a gift. He said it represented my steering him in the right direction. Helping him to discover his true north. I still have that compass today and it reminds me of my definition of what a true leader should be. A leader is not a reflection of his star students, his exemplary employees or his most coachable athlete. A leader is not a reflection of the success his exceptional charges achieve. He is not what people say about him in public and to the press. A leader is reflected by his worst student. His weakest employee. His most incorrigible charge. He is reflected by what people say about him in private conversations, behind his back. A leader is not reflected by the employee who is always on time and goes above and beyond the call of duty. He is reflected by the employee who is always late and misrepresents what is expected of him. Leadership is measured by the weakest members of the team. They reflect the real quality of leadership. True leaders understand that it's what they do about the problems, perspectives and people that prove the most difficult that defines how well they lead. They measure themselves by how well the weakest member of their team is doing. How well the weakest member is reading his own compass and moving north. Do you really want to know how well you lead? Take a look at the weakest member of your team - That's the true test.

True Leaders Are Rare.
.

We Should Salute Them

.
"Always give a word or sign of salute when meeting or passing a friend, or even a stranger, if in a lonely place." ~ Tecumseh

I really love people who love what they do. People that love it so much that they exemplify what it is to be a consummate professional. Those that shine with the spirit of excellence from every pore. Teachers that make a lasting difference to our children. Parents that set a lifelong example. Soldiers that quietly defend, honorably and selflessly. And quiet professionals everywhere who inspire us with the standards they set. The Blue Angels flew over our office today, practicing for the Miramar air show. As they passed overhead I felt the urge to stand and salute them. I felt self conscious and the salute was simply delivered in my mind - but I saluted them nonetheless. Why? Because they remind me of what each of us needs to do a lot more of. We need to say thank you to those quiet professionals who represent the wonderful traits that we admire. We need to tell those dependable souls who reignite and reaffirm our faith in people what a difference they make. We need to salute the people who do really good stuff just because that is who they are. They don't do it for reward. They don't do it for acknowledgment. They don't do it for glory or promotion. They set a higher standard because that is who they are. We really should salute these remarkable souls with words, a handshake or a heartfelt gesture but even if you salute them simply in your thoughts - I sincerely believe

We should salute them more.
.