New Year, Now REACH!

If you live in Florida for any length of time, you cannot help but be impressed by the physical and operational size of Walt Disney World. One important reason for such growth and quality is the Walt himself would encourage his team members to “plus” every good idea! Truly a great example of a leader encouraging himself and his team to REACH! The result is the entertainment and marketing juggernaut we see today. This got me thinking out loud about what we need to REACH for or PLUS this year.

Finishing my series of Remember, Resolve, and then REACH, it is important to understand that when we REACH, we are extending our current:

• Thoughts
• Talents
• Abilities
• Aspirations

to get to something better, higher, or stronger. The challenge is that so few of us really do this. According to author and speaker Paul Martinelli, he states that one of the major mistakes people make when setting goals is that they establish goals that they know they can already achieve! That might make things incrementally better, but it won’t “jump the curve”. The point being is that we should always be reaching for goals that we are not totally sure we can achieve. Now, does this mean we will always reach those “plus” goals? No, but on the other hand, we just might! That is when life gets very interesting! Currently there is a film out about a prior Mount Everest expedition. Not only did the climbers need to reach to even make an attempt that few people have ever tried, they had to survive the descent. Whether experienced climbers or relative new comers, they all knew that a successful ascent was not a given, in fact, most expeditions fail. They had to REACH!

So how do we “plus” our lives this year? As stated, Debbie Phillips and Robert Berkley from GroupMV suggest we select a word or theme for the year. Such a theme sets a tone and provides focus for thought, time, and energy. Everything we do can then be directed back to this theme. Some questions to help us stay in focus include:

• Does this action support my theme?
• Will this action help me have more of my theme in my life?
• Will this attitude or behavior increase my chances for fulfilling my year-long theme?

I hope you enjoyed this three part series. 2016 is already shaping up to be an interesting year for me but I hope it is a successful one for you. Just take a few minutes to remember last year’s impactful events, resolve to create meaningful goals, then “plus” them!

As always if I can help you and the people you associate with Get Better, Be Ready and LEAD OUT LOUD, I would invite you email me or to visit my website below and see if any of the training or coaching experiences I offer can provide an impact! Also, as a bonus, if you go to my Out Loud Strategies website (www.outloudinc.com) and enter your contact information, I will send you a FREE guide to establishing a mentoring initiative program in your organization! Such an initiative would be critical in order to add value to your organization!

Yours in Leadership,

Bill Faulkner

Co-Founder – Out Loud Strategies

Independent Coach, Speaker, and Trainer with the John Maxwell Team ^TM

Email = bill@outloudinc.com

Visit our website at: www.outloudinc.com

Feel free to “LIKE” our FB Page www.facebook.com/outloudinc

How STICKY are your Resolutions?

Last week I thought it would be a good time to address the topic a New Year Resolutions since by this time, they are starting to fade for many of us! Based upon work from consultants Debbie Phillips and Robert Berkley from GroupMV, I developed a three step process of creating New Year resolutions that stick – Remember, Resolve, then Reach! This week, let’s RESOLVE!

A big part of making and keeping resolutions is how they are constructed. Creating great GOALS is the key to progress! Here are a few pointers:

• Write them down (as reminders)

• State in the affirmative (want to’s versus have to’s!)

• Tell others (as a means of support and accountability)

• Calendar what you can (so that you know your target due dates)

• Create metrics (what will successful goal attainment look, feel, or sound like?)

Once this is completed, it is important to keep them in front of you and review them regularly. Also, try to anticipate what the challenges will be? For instance, if you have a fitness goal, how will upcoming business or vacation travel interfere with that? How about looming deadlines for projects impact your leadership growth goals? An anticipated problem can become a managed problem! Finally, if it is a big goal (and I hope you have plenty of them!), break it down into manageable parts. Think about things you can do every week versus every day. The point is to create movement and we only move by moving!

Next week, I will finish this series with the last element I labeled REACH! I hope you will keep reading and keep making progress.

In the interim, if I can help you and the people you associate with Get Better, Be Ready and LEAD OUT LOUD, I would invite you email me or to visit my website below and see if any of the training or coaching experiences I offer can provide an impact! Also, as a bonus, if you go to my Out Loud Strategies website (www.outloudinc.com) and enter your contact information, I will send you a FREE guide to establishing a mentoring initiative program in your organization! Such an initiative would be critical in order to add value to your organization!

Yours in Leadership,

Bill Faulkner

Co-Founder – Out Loud Strategies

Independent Coach, Speaker, and Trainer with the John Maxwell Team ^TM

Email = bill@outloudinc.com

Visit our website at: www.outloudinc.com

Feel free to “LIKE” our FB Page www.facebook.com/outloudinc

Before You Resolve, REMEMBER!

Now that we are about two weeks into the New Year, are resolutions starting to fade? Researchers tell us it takes about 2 – 3 weeks of consistent action to solidify a new habit but we all have experienced the good intention resolution that never seems to work out. So I started thinking out loud that NOW versus EARLIER would be the better time to talk about stating resolutions that’s will actually stick with you. This topic will be the theme of my next couple of blogs.

I ran across a great article from Steve Davis who publishes a resource called Master Facilitator Journal.com. Steve shares that why so many resolutions fail comes down to the following:

• We are unclear about what we really want.
• We are running away versus toward something in our resolutions.
• We set resolutions that we know we can already achieve!
• On the other hand, we set totally unrealistic goals (like mine to be a rock star drummer this year!!).
• We set goals and resolutions without considering building a support system around them!

So based upon work from consultants Debbie Phillips and Robert Berkley from GroupMV, here is a three step process of creating New Year resolutions that stick – Remember, Resolve, then Reach!

REMEMBER –

First, take a few minutes to REMEMBER or reflect upon this past year. Just pull out your electronic or paper calendar and write down all the SIGNIFICANT personal and professional events that occurred. Make sure to include events that were positive as well as negative, challenges as well as successes.

Next, just look in amazement at all your experienced this past year! I bet it was an incredible collection of life events.

Finally, once you complete the first two steps above, then reflect on the following questions.

• What was truly memorable about last year?
• Who came IN or OUT of your life?
• What were your biggest successes?
• What were your greatest disappointments?
• What were the biggest surprises?
• What was the single most impactful event?
• What patterns emerge for you?
• How do you want next year to be different?

You will need to make sure to answer these before moving on to RESOLVE which I will discuss next time (so yes, you will need to make sure you read next week!)

In the interim, if I can help you and the people you associate with Get Better, Be Ready and LEAD OUT LOUD, I would invite you to visit my website below and see if any of the training or coaching experiences I offer can provide an impact! Also, as a bonus, if you go to my Out Loud Strategies website (www.outloudinc.com) and enter your contact information, I will send you a FREE guide to establishing a mentoring initiative program in your organization! Such an initiative would be critical in order to add value to your organization!

Yours in Leadership,

Bill Faulkner

Co-Founder – Out Loud Strategies

Independent Coach, Speaker, and Trainer with the John Maxwell Team ^TM

Email = bill@outloudinc.com

Visit our website at: www.outloudinc.com

Feel free to “LIKE” our FB Page www.facebook.com/outloudinc

EVERYTHING You Do Matters!

 Our work and faith can be mutual expressions of each other! This is the premise of a great book I am reading called Every Good Endeavor by Timothy Keller. Perhaps one of the most impactful assertions he makes in the Introduction is that if you believe there is more to life than this one, then every good endeavor, no matter how small, matters. Not only does is matter NOW, it matters FOREVER! This got me thinking out loud about our work as leaders and the impact it has far beyond this current place and time.

You see, when you lead others, you influence them, you change them . . . you literally alter the course of their history. The same is true in terms of what we DO. Our work disrupts, improves, and/or alters events, conditions, and situations. This is both a powerful and empowering thought.

Think about the doctor that improves the quality of life of a parent so that they have many more years with their children. The college professor that mentors a young adult and helps them find their potential. Or the business owner that creates employment opportunities in a community. ALL of this matters and its impact last a very long time.

Granted, a lot of what we do in our day in and day out lives appear mundane and ordinary. Seemed from this new perspective, however, maybe that is not the case! Maybe, just maybe, EVERYTHING we do in our leadership lives has significance far beyond what we can even imagine! In his new book on Intentional Living, John Maxwell shares that when you intentionally use your day to day life to produce positive change in the lives of others, you live a life that MATTERS!

So with this powerful concept that everything we do matters in mind, how can such a prospect:

Impact the work that you do?

Impact who we do it with?

Increases the value of our efforts?

Legendary coach John Wooden encouraged his players to “make everyday a masterpiece!” I encourage you to do the same because not only WHAT you do matters but YOU matter!

If you want to hear a recording of John Maxwell’s recent teaching on Intentional Living, feel free to access the link below:

John Maxwell Intentional Living Teaching

If I can help you and the people you associate with Get Better, Be Ready and LEAD OUT LOUD, I would invite you to visit my website below and see if any of the training or coaching experiences I offer can provide an impact! Also, as a bonus, if you go to my Out Loud Strategies website (www.outloudinc.com) and enter your contact information, I will send you a FREE guide to establishing a mentoring initiative program in your organization! Such an initiative would be critical in order to add value to your organization!

Yours in Leadership,

Bill Faulkner

Co-Founder – Out Loud Strategies

Independent Coach, Speaker, and Trainer with the John Maxwell Team ^TM

Email = bill@outloudinc.com

Visit our website at: www.outloudinc.com

Feel free to “LIKE” our FB Page www.facebook.com/outloudinc

It’s a New Year, time for a New WORD!

(Yanet Glacier in Denali National Park) 

 In an earlier blog I shared author and motivational speaker John Gordon introduced a fascinating tool to drive personal and organizational FOCUS. Essentially, the strategy is to pick ONE WORD to act as a theme or direction for one year that will drive efforts, focus energy, and affirm values. This got me thinking out loud about how I did this year.

At the 2015 World Leaders Conference, John gave the example of his word for the current year was “RISE”. To him, it meant rising above challenges to flourish, grow and achieve as well as bring others along the way. My word this year was “EXPLORE”. As a result, I traveled to awe inspiring locations in Alaska and New Mexico (thus the pictures this week!). I also explored new opportunities with my consulting business (more to come on that). Finally, I continued to explore how I could improve as a leader, especially in the area of STAYING IN INTEGRITY at all times.

What could your ONE WORD be? This is not easy to do but try first to create a short description of what you WANT TO DO this year and then boil it down to ONE WORD. That one word must have meaning to you but I have listed some examples below:

Grow

Impact

Thrive

(Kasha-Kutwe Tent Rocks) 

To learn more about the World Leaders Conference (March 2-3, 2016 at the West Palm Beach Convention Center) visit http://www.worldleadersconference.com. Also, as a free bonus to any reader, due to my association with the John Maxwell Team, I can offer a live call with John Maxwell on January 7^th at 5:00 PM EST who will provide a teaching on INTENTIONAL (not a bad word there!) Living. The dial-in numbers are (862) 234-4718, (832) 225-5200, (832) 225-5218 and the passcode is 88998899 #. Or, the call can be listened to through a computer or mobile device, by clicking this audio link at the start time: https://www.webcaster4.com/Webcast/Page/1367/12558

My wish is that 2016 is a GREAT Year for you and if I can help you and the people you associate with Get Better, Be Ready and LEAD OUT LOUD, I would invite you to visit my website below and see if any of the training or coaching experiences I offer can provide an impact! Also, as a bonus, if you go to my Out Loud Strategies website (www.outloudinc.com) and enter your contact information, I will send you a FREE guide to establishing a mentoring initiative program in your organization! Such an initiative would be critical in order to add value to your organization!

Yours in Leadership,

Bill Faulkner

Co-Founder – Out Loud Strategies

Independent Coach, Speaker, and Trainer with the John Maxwell Team ^TM

Email = bill@outloudinc.com

Visit our website at: www.outloudinc.com

Feel free to “LIKE” our FB Page www.facebook.com/outloudinc