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by on November 22, 2011 Leave a Comment

John Maxwell’s 5 Levels of Leadership

The John Maxwell 5 Levels of Leadership training last week the the Emory Conference Center in Atlanta was a one day brain dump exercise of an entire book… and I liked it!

The levels idea was pretty simplistic, but in reality it does work that way. The levels are:

  1. Position
  2. Permission
  3. Production
  4. People Development
  5. Pinnacle


“Position” is the obvious one where a company gives you a role and people have to follow your direction because of the position… think supervisors, leads, shift manager, etc.

What follows after position is basically a natural progression of leadership, or at least that is what you would think. But most people don’t think about leadership so they really miss the boat in many relationships.

If you take the time to evaluate yourself and your relationships with others you will see some natural progressions and some that seem to have stalled. You know that some of those that have stalled could really benefit you and your company if you were able to take it to the next level. Recognize it. Work on it. It is worth it. This book gives you some pretty good tools to do just that.

Another aspect that I really like is the understanding that you can be at different levels of leadership with different people in different situations at different times… Wow, that was a lot. Pretty obvious when you stop to think about it, but that would require you to think and act differently… sorry, I couldn’t help myself!

I’ve known very few people I’ve even thought were close to level 5 leaders, but the discussion of John Wooden near the end of the book is a great read. Would have loved to have been coached by, led or even just known such a remarkable man.

Filed Under: Books and Articles, Featured Tagged With: ,
by on October 25, 2011 Leave a Comment

Take a flying leap

Every once in a while someone tells me to take a flying leap… ok, more than once in a while :)

If I had this kids hops I’d take that a little more literal…

For those of you who haven’t ever walked onto a football field or don’t understand how far 5 yards is try this out – stand up and take 5 really long steps, now turn around and see how far you went – should be about 5 yards. He should probably be a long jumper or high jumper because not only did he get some distance, he also got a lot of height if you go back and look at the video.

Very cool. High school football has changed a lot in the last 2 decades :)

Filed Under: Featured, Fitness Tagged With:
by on October 6, 2011 Leave a Comment

Steve Jobs and his legacy

With the news of Steve Jobs passing away it reminded me of an exercise I’ve done in different forms over the years…

Write your own legacy/eulogy/what people would say about you when you died.

Do you think Steve resigned as CEO knowing he was close to passing and realized he needed to do other things with the remainder of his life?  I would like to think the answer is no.

Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs Legacy


There are very few people I know who could honestly say that there isn’t much else they would have done or done differently with their lives, but Steve Jobs has got to be one of those people.

He fundamentally changed four of the largest markets of our time.  Personal computing, music players(anyone remember a walkman anymore?) and music, smart phones and tablets. 

Before you go thinking I’ve drank the apple koolaid please know that I don’t have an iphone, mac, ipad, etc.  I have an old ipod I inherited from my daughter, but that is all.  I like their products, but don’t see the cost benefit although my wife and kids have their products so I can see the benefits, just not the cost benefits in relation to other products.

What I think is the most interesting thing is that he was basically an entrepreneur and visionary who never lost the spirit even when apple became the larget company in tech/world/life.  He was able to inspire an entire corporate entity to follow him and make followers out of customers.  He was the epitome of a leader.

I guess you can add a fifth, sixth and seventh industry that he fundamentally changed…  Design/UI, Marketing, and sales as well because all of those industries/markets were handed their butts by a tech company that redefined cool.

RIP Steve!  Your legacy will live on…

Filed Under: Featured, Personal, Tech
by on September 2, 2011 4 Comments

Dreams, Hopes and Wishes vs Goals. No contest.

Just got through the mid-year review process which is always fun. Cool to look back and see what has been accomplished over the last several months and even more fun is to look forward to the rest of the year and set some goals.

Personal Goals

Power generation goals are cool to me(I currently work at Southern Company which is a great energy utility imo), but probably pretty boring to most of you so I’m going to discuss some personal goals. Starting off the year I had some resolutions including the standard ones… lose weight, sleep more, eat better, read more, spend more time with the girls, etc. I’ve had some minor successes, but only two major successes.

One huge success was to read more – mostly business, achievement and personal development/success related topics. I’ve really done that this year primarily through listening to books on my commute, listening to podcasts anywhere I’m sitting for more than a few minutes and choosing physical books to read that really interest me or that I get glowing personal recommendations to read.

Another decent success is wrapping up Friday. That goal was to work out harder and more specifically the guys I work out with wanted to do a 4 week program to increase your one rep max bench press. Crazy fun and hard, but surprisingly effective. Monday the final 1x rep was what your old one rep max was – since I guessed at 315 and hadn’t really done that much weight in a while I was surprised how easily it went up.

325 is my goal for Friday. Haven’t touched that in a while and if I get really froggy I might jump on 335. Either way I’m really happy with being able to push 315 at 42 years old.

Dreams are not goals!

By evaluating the successes compared to the failures there is one glaringly obvious difference… The successes were real goals. The failures were just dreams, hopes and wishes.

Goals rule! But only if done properly. Inherently you and I both know how to do proper goals and be successful, but it makes a lot more sense to do it strategically and through a process so you don’t get those failures. Because they aren’t really failures, just unrealized dreams. Minor difference but it makes all the difference in the world.

I am going to expand on this concept in a later post, but you already know the short answer… Each of the successes had a time boundary and an aggressive yet attainable desired outcome. The failures were just dreams, hopes and wishes.

Filed Under: 30 day challenge, Featured Tagged With: ,
by on September 2, 2011 Leave a Comment

30 Day Challenge. If Matt Cutts can do it, so can I…

Matt Cutts is the head of Google’s Webspam team and has to be one of the busiest people in the world… With all the Black Hat SEO, shady Internet Marketers and of course the dreaded BING (cue the Bing/Airplane audio clip) how could he possibly find time to do anything more than work?

I have a hard time and all I do is work, workout and chase two girls around their travel sports teams practices and games… ok, maybe I’m close or ahead in that aspect.

Even still, he can’t possibly get much more than work done, can he? Rhetorical question of course – take a look at Matt’s blog category 30 days where he has ran a marathon, written a novel, learned new words, went without power (jk), went sky-diving and more!

30 Day ChallengeThis is one of those posts that cross over from my techie life to personal to business because it is all about goals. 30 days is long enough to form a habit so it is perfect for a time bound goal. In addition to time bound you need to have a specific goal and a plan to get there… Choose something you want to do and then do it every day. Pretty clean.

My first 30 day goal is to post at least one blog entry every day! Seems simple enough, but it is difficult to find the time so it will be challenging for me.

My second 30 day goal is to read at least 5 books over the next 30 days. Wait, wasn’t this supposed to be A 30 day challenge and not SOME 30 day challenges? Yes it was, but I am close to that goal anyway as you can see from an earlier post so this just formalizes it and makes me focus in on it a little more.

This is my first day and first post of 30 Day Challenge Goal #1. See you tomorrow!

Filed Under: 30 day challenge, Featured Tagged With: , , , ,
by on August 10, 2011 Leave a Comment

School starts back tomorrow and lessons are everywhere

School house rock. Keep learning!

Keep learning for a lifelong adventure

With school starting back in the morning the kids will be in full on lesson mode. Learning new things every day. It keeps them excited and their brains are making incredible connections that will serve them the rest of their lives.

Does learning end when we leave school?

Of course not. As we get older and leave school we have a tendency to stop thinking about learning in the same way. It is no longer formalized, dedicated times with specific goals of what to learn.

Some people never read another book, set another learning goal, learn a new language, write another story or do much of anything more than learning how to use FaceBook and Fantasy Football sites.

What can I learn today?

Audio Books

Since I am in technology I have to pretty much learn new stuff all the time or get left in the bit dust. But I really like to learn new things so this year I’ve been using my wonderful commute time to listen to audio books.

Here are a few of the books I’ve “read” recently:

  • First, break all the rules : what the world’s greatest managers do differently
  • Flip : how to turn everything you know on its head–and succeed beyond your wildest imaginings.
  • Tribes : we need you to lead us.
  • How to win friends and influence people
  • It’s not just who you know : transform your life (and your organization) by turning colleagues and contacts into lasting, genuine relationships.
  • I can read you like a book : how to spot the messages and emotions people are really sending with their body language.

I’ll do a post soon on some of these books I really liked.

Blogs

I read several blogs in Google Reader and visit the stuff that really interests me.

It is so easy to find good content this way that I’m surprised when people don’t know what I’m talking about. RSS readers are available in Outlook, Google, many mail programs and of course stand alone sites like Google Reader.

Podcasts

I listen to podcasts in the car, sitting at my kids practices, late at night and basically everywhere.

You get some decent information even if most podcasters are trying to sell you something or convince you to use their services. Some are better than others and some give more free info than most.

I plan on giving out my list of subscriptions soon, but go to iTunes and look for anything that interests you – there is probably a podcast to match your interest.

Magazines

Magazines have made a minor comeback for me recently as they seem to be either focusing on shorter, fast hitting topics or really good in depth reporting. I like both styles and read many different niche magazines. Finance, Tech, Fitness, etc. Love em all!

Take some time today to learn a lesson. The internet and related technologies have made it easier than ever. Take advantage of the opportunities!

Filed Under: Books and Articles, Featured, Personal Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,
by on August 9, 2011 Leave a Comment

WideSpread Panic plays center stage on Wall Street. Opportunity abounds!

If you’re old enough to catch the band reference to Widespread Panic then you’ve been around a while.  That should mean you’ve been there and done that on the stock market as well.

Here’s a clip of the band in case that is what you really wanted anyway – plus it is a good way to relax after the fever pitch of the stock market the last few sessions…

 

Given the massive swings over the last few years and especially the last few days and weeks it really appears we are going to continue see these volatility patterns for the foreseeable future and possibly forever. 

I’m sure some smart analysts have already said this, but it appears that there is an incredible opportunity in front of us… With volatility comes fluctuations – ie somebody is making money and somebody is losing money. 

Stock Market on fire

Stocks - On Fire or Just Burning Out?

No doubt about it, the stock market is hot! But is it on fire or just burning to the ground?

I’ve seen some crazy low P/E’s and, inexplicably, others with ridiculously high P/E’s. Opportunity.

IPO’s are hot again… maybe approaching late 90’s hot… and for companies that are operating in the red or who have tech products that are easily replicated or worse… both!

Technology is changing faster and faster. Communication is increasing rapidly even if less is being said. Combined I think the light speed of technology, people’s FUD especially related to stocks and their 401k’s will lead to even more WideSpread Panic! 

We saw it with a 500+ point swing followed closely by a 600+ point swing (both downward) and a 600+ swing in less than 2 hours to the positive. Opportunity.

The danger of group think and fear mongering and FUD factories will create even more problems in the markets and the world.  Deservedly so – I mean, look at our debt ratio and many countries are as bad or worse than ours… Opportunity.

Technology is moving fast and enabling faster and faster “communications” as I mentioned above. That leaves even less time to confirm the message you recieve is even true, analyze it and do proper research… must… act… now…  

If you keep your wits, maybe not.  Be calm.  Think.  Do it ahead of time so you don’t make a gut/group think decision.  And if you must go with the flow, at least plan for it ahead of time and take advantage of the sheeple who are caught up in the herd mentality or panic stricken selloffs and over/under valued stocks. 

There are all sorts of strategies for making profits on market swings.  Pick one you are comfortable with and go about making it happen even if you have to talk to a professional. Just make sure you guide them in what you want and don’t let them sell you something – remember, they are out to make money as well. 

Good luck!

Filed Under: Featured, Investing Tagged With: , , , ,