The great man is he who does not lose his child’s heart.
– Mencius
Today’s quote comes to you from To a Child Love is Spelled T-I-M-E: What a Child Really Needs from You
Welcome to a special edition of Leadership Lessons – straight from the desk of Santa Claus.
Dear Santa:
Awhile back, I heard a colleague say, “The quality of a workplace is directly related to the quality of its leadership.” That blinding flash of the obvious had a real impact on me. To help build a positive work environment, I need to be the best leader I can be. What can I do to make that happen?
Wondering in Wisconsin
Dear Wondering:
Well done … you’ve broken the code! While all team members must help build great workplaces, leaders certainly are the primary architects. To be the best “architect” you can be, you need to Enter the Learning Zone. That’s a concept I learned from Monday Morning Leadership – one of the most powerful books in my personal library. Here are a few short passages that should help:
“For you to be the very best, you cannot allow yourself to become complacent in your comfort zone. You need to be reaching for improvement. To fulfill your potential, you need to move out of your comfort zone and into ‘the learning zone’ …”
“There are three rooms in the learning zone. The first room is the reading room. Look around this library – there are more than a thousand books in here. More than half of those books are about management and leadership … Suppose you decided to read one book a month on management or leadership. During the next year, you’d have read 12 books. Do you think you’d know more about management and leadership if you read that many books a year? …”
“The second room in the learning zone is the listening room. Did you know that the principal reasons executives fail are arrogance, out-of-control egos, and insensitivity? They forget to take the time to listen to their people. Soon they become insensitive to the needs and desires of the individuals on the team. Don’t allow yourself to fall into that trap – listen to your people! …”
“The third room in the learning zone is the giving room. You cannot succeed without giving back. Your legacy will be what you give [and teach] to others.”
Modify the above strategies a little, and you’ll have some great guidelines for being a more effective leader in your personal life as well.
| Today’s lesson comes from Monday Morning Leadership: 8 Mentoring Sessions You Can’t Afford to Miss
By David Cottrell |
How far you go in your life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in your life you will have been all of these.
– George Washington Carver
Today’s quote comes to you from The Dash: Making a Difference With Your Life
Step out of your comfort zone once more each week and create over 50 additional opportunities for excitement, challenge and possibility each year. This is what life’s about.
– Sam Parker
Today’s quote comes to you from 212° the extra degree (softcover):
how to achieve results beyond your wildest expectations
Believe you me, having to smile and be jolly every day when you’re wearing the same thick, hot, red-wool suit (that itches like crazy) is no picnic. This is a job that will definitely strain your sanity and drain your ego if you let it. Seems like everyone wants a piece of me. Yet many of the people I serve question my existence…or just plain don’t believe in me at all. And those who do believe often expect me to do the impossible – rarely caring about what I have to do, or go through (including chimneys), to meet their expectations. And they ALL have expectations.
There’s no doubt that my biggest challenges come from two roles that people rarely associate with this red-cheeked, bag-carrying sleigh driver: Santa the MANAGER and Santa the LEADER. I am, after all, running a business here. I’m a boss. I’ve got responsibilities – both to the gift-getters and the gift-makers. There are workers to lead, letters to read, orders to fill, processes to manage, stuff to buy, stuff to make, standards to maintain, new technologies to adopt, skills to develop, elf problems to solve, and reindeer droppings to scoop (although I delegate that one.) Trust me, I’ve got some big and not-always-easy-fitting boots to fill.
Like most managers, I have to deal with marketplace fluctuations (“Dear Santa, I thought I wanted that, but now I want this.”). And I’ve seen more than my share of budget cuts, staff reductions, employees who are either unwilling or unable to adjust to change, technology advancements, increasing demands for higher quality and better service, fluctuations in the economy, competing priorities, ever-growing performance expectations (for all of us), and a whole lot more. Whew!
No, it’s not easy being Santa Claus. But in spite of that, I love what I do. People need me…they depend on me. We’re doing something important here. And knowing that gives me the energy to carry the sack, lead the pack, and keep coming back. By now, you may be wondering how I meet all of these many challenges and responsibilities…how I manage to bring everyone and everything together to complete our mission. Some people think I use magic. But really, there’s no magic about it.
So, if it’s not magic, what is my secret? Actually there are eight of them! And you can find all eight practical strategies for leading others and getting big things done all year long in my book called The Leadership Secrets of Santa Claus. A few of my elves helped me put together this book and I guarantee that if you read it and apply these “secrets,” you’ll find them more valuable than anything you might have written on your holiday wish list.
|
The Leadership Secrets of Santa Claus: How To Get Big Things Done in Your Workshop All Year Long By “Santa’s Helpers”: Eric Harvey, David Cottrell, and Al Lucia
The perfect tool to get all employess energized and committed to personal and professional success |
Believe you me, having to smile and be jolly every day when you’re wearing the same thick, hot, red-wool suit (that itches like crazy) is no picnic. This is a job that will definitely strain your sanity and drain your ego if you let it. Seems like everyone wants a piece of me. Yet many of the people I serve question my existence…or just plain don’t believe in me at all. And those who do believe often expect me to do the impossible – rarely caring about what I have to do, or go through (including chimneys), to meet their expectations. And they ALL have expectations.
There’s no doubt that my biggest challenges come from two roles that people rarely associate with this red-cheeked, bag-carrying sleigh driver: Santa the MANAGER and Santa the LEADER. I am, after all, running a business here. I’m a boss. I’ve got responsibilities – both to the gift-getters and the gift-makers. There are workers to lead, letters to read, orders to fill, processes to manage, stuff to buy, stuff to make, standards to maintain, new technologies to adopt, skills to develop, elf problems to solve, and reindeer droppings to scoop (although I delegate that one.) Trust me, I’ve got some big and not-always-easy-fitting boots to fill.
Like most managers, I have to deal with marketplace fluctuations (“Dear Santa, I thought I wanted that, but now I want this.”). And I’ve seen more than my share of budget cuts, staff reductions, employees who are either unwilling or unable to adjust to change, technology advancements, increasing demands for higher quality and better service, fluctuations in the economy, competing priorities, ever-growing performance expectations (for all of us), and a whole lot more. Whew!
No, it’s not easy being Santa Claus. But in spite of that, I love what I do. People need me…they depend on me. We’re doing something important here. And knowing that gives me the energy to carry the sack, lead the pack, and keep coming back. By now, you may be wondering how I meet all of these many challenges and responsibilities…how I manage to bring everyone and everything together to complete our mission. Some people think I use magic. But really, there’s no magic about it.
So, if it’s not magic, what is my secret? Actually there are eight of them! And you can find all eight practical strategies for leading others and getting big things done all year long in my book called The Leadership Secrets of Santa Claus. A few of my elves helped me put together this book and I guarantee that if you read it and apply these “secrets,” you’ll find them more valuable than anything you might have written on your holiday wish list.
|
The Leadership Secrets of Santa Claus: How To Get Big Things Done in Your Workshop All Year Long By “Santa’s Helpers”: Eric Harvey, David Cottrell, and Al Lucia
The perfect tool to get all employess energized and committed to personal and professional success! |
A 212° President
Today, October 27th, 2008, marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of
Theodore Roosevelt
Soldier, statesman, writer and explorer, Theodore Roosevelt became the 26th President of the United States. His enormous energy and zest for life made him one of America’s most flamboyant leaders.
Roosevelt served as assistant secretary of the Navy before resigning in 1898 to fight Cuba. Returning as something of a war hero, he easily was elected governor of New York. He then served as Vice President of the United States and took office after McKinley’s assassination in 1901.
Roosevelt greatly expanded the powers of the presidency and of the federal government on the side of public interest in conflicts between big business and big labor. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1906 for mediating the end of the Russo-Japanese War and promoted the construction of the Panama Canal. A devout naturalist, Roosevelt was responsible for setting aside thousands of acres of land to preserve what are today our national parks and forests.
Quotes by Theodore Roosevelt:
“I care not what others think of what I do,
but I care very much about what I think of what I do!
That is character!”
“It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.”
“The only man who never makes a mistake is the man who never does anything.”
“Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure…
than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much,
because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.”
We may affirm absolutely that nothing great in the world has ever been accomplished without passion.
– Georg Hegel
Today’s quote comes to you from Leadership Lessons:
Powerful Quotes & Inspiring Messages…for everyone
Welcome to a special edition of Leadership Lessons – straight from the desk of Santa Claus.
Dear Santa:
I haven’t been a leader all that long, so obviously I have a lot to learn. What can you tell me … where should I look for guidance … what do I need to remember as I lead my team?
A Newbie in Newark
Dear Newbie:
Over the years I’ve learned a simple truth: If you need guidance on being a better leader, go to the people you’re leading. That’s why one of the most valuable resources I have is a powerful handbook entitled Listen Up, Leader! Here’s a passage – one of many important messages from team members that all leaders need to consider:
“We are watching everything you do. Even when you think we’re not paying attention, we are. There is never a time when you’re not in your leadership role. You may think that when you choose to ignore an issue, you are not leading. You’re wrong! If you show up late for a meeting, you lead us to believe that our time isn’t valuable. If you lose your cool and over-react to small issues, we wonder how you will react when something big comes along. It’s a fact: You are always leading. You can never NOT lead! Everything you do counts!
Believe it or not, we DO understand that leadership isn’t easy. As we watch you each day, we see the incredible responsibilities you’re charged with. You’re accountable for your actions and for our actions – plus all the fiscal requirements, employee problems, feedback, training, technology changes, hiring, de-hiring, communicating, staff development, prioritizing, eliminating unnecessary bureaucracy, and much more. Your job is tough. But it is the job you chose. What we ask of you is to accept responsibility for being the very best at your job so we can be the best at our jobs.”
Whether you’re a leader at work, at home, in your community, or even at the North Pole, never forget the four most important words from the passage above:
Everything you do counts!
