You may be a SUCCESS, but do you MATTER?

“You are already a success, but do you matter?” This is the question marketing guru and author Seth Godin asked at a recent John Maxwell Team certification training I attended in Orlando, FL. This is the same question I have been thinking out loud about (and struggling inside) ever since!!

The question parallels a progression that leadership expert John Maxwell proposes. Essentially, when we start out in our careers, we are focused on SURVIVAL. Let me provide an example. While spending a great weekend with friends who were all college recruiters in early in our careers, we were discussing grown up things like retirement plans, career trajectory, etc. All of a sudden one of us blurted out “Gees, just a few years ago, we were worried about where our next beer was coming from!!” Clearly a great illustration of Survival!

Next, according to John, we achieve SUCCESS. We grow in our careers and move up to larger roles and responsibilities. The problem is, however, that too many of us just stop there. To MATTER in life, we need to move beyond simple accomplishment. We need to step up to SIGNIFICANCE! In other words, we need to work toward something that we will never see completed or a modern-day Pyramid Project as John puts it. Some effort or some enterprise that is NOT for ourselves, that is BIGGER than ourselves, that will OUT LAST ourselves to BENEFIT a new generation.

So how do we do this? How do we insure that we MATTER? Obviously since I just spent last week being poured into by John Maxwell himself, I will pull from one of his latest and greatest books, Intentional Living. In order to achieve significance in our lives we need to do four things that are easy to write about but hard to practice. Intentional Living is organized by these 4 principles:

WANT to Make a Difference – first we just need to have the desire to look beyond ourselves and attempt something that will last long after us. Now this seems simple but too many leaders focus so much on their success that they forget to consider what’s it all for? Do YOU want to make a difference?

DOING Something that Makes a Difference – just wanting to talking about making a difference is not sufficient. We have to bridge the gap between KNOWING and DOING! We need to activate our desire with action. What is it you want to DO? I bet many of you already engage in worthy works. I know friends and former students that organize food pantries, assist with refugee resettlement, work in animal advocacy, etc. and I am so proud and amazed at their efforts. They took thoughts and created a reality that is benefiting so many! What do you want to DO?

With OTHERS that want to Make a Difference – I often say that no one does anything great alone. To achieve and provide significance, you must “enroll” others as Seth encourages. We need to find other like-minded individuals that care about what we care about and want to work alongside you to make something better! The best way to do this is just start sharing your passion. Talk about it, post about it, Instagram about it, etc. whatever it takes to bring attention to what you care about it. Such passion will be contagious. In the words of theologian John Wesley, “Get on fire and the world will come watch you burn!” Who can help you create significance?

At a TIME that Makes a Difference – you have often heard that timing is everything. The same is true for attempting to do anything significant. Has someone else already addressed what you are passionate about? Are others ready to join you? Do you have the resources and/or capacities to start (notice I did not say finish . . . just start!). Timing is always tricky but don’t let that be a barrier to starting.

The point is this, if you want to achieve significance, you must find your platform. Mine is providing lessons for now that produce leaders for life! What is yours? I know you have one, you just need to want to make a difference by doing something that makes a difference with others that want to make a difference at a time that makes a difference!

For more information about Seth Godin and is blog and continuing education opportunities visit: www.sethgodin.com . Also, if this blog was of value to you, please share it with others! It is my passion to help you get better so that you can help others do so too!

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 to email me or to visit my website below and see if any of the training or coaching experiences I offer can provide an impact! In fact, I am launching a new SPEAK FOR IMPACT training program that will help both novice and experienced leaders find their platform and increase their communication skills! 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 to add value to your organization!

Yours in Leadership (and still walking both roads!),

Bill Faulkner

Principal Consultant – 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

Leaders are ALWAYS communicating whether we know it or not!

According to research by the Carnegie Institute, 85% of our success in life depends on our ability to Lead, Communicate and Negotiate. Accordingly, in his great book Building the Bridge As You Walk On It, Robert Quinn shares that as leaders we are “constantly communicating about ourselves. Everything we say, everything we do, everything we wear, etc.is communicating something about us.” Now that is enough to give anyone pause (not to mention a thought that can keep me up at night!) and has me thinking out loud about the impacts of communication in our leadership and personal lives.

Gallup also addresses this in that when describing how communication impacts building customer intimacy or brand affinity. With EVERY interaction with a team member or client, we either INCREASE or DECREASE our level of engagement with them . . . such interactions are NEVER NEUTRAL! This means that with EVERY communication including phone calls, in-person meetings, texts, emails, social media, invoices, etc. our “influence stock” is either going up or going down! Stated another way by my great mentor Rick Miller, everything we do as leaders and organizations either underlines or erases everything we say or consider important. The point is this, we ARE constantly communicating about ourselves as leaders thus; are either highlighting or diminishing our personal/organization brand and its promises with EVERY interaction big or small.

So, if we just think about this for a moment, our communications, verbal or otherwise, takes on greater importance due to its huge implications in our ability to lead others, conduct business, and influence. With that in mind, John Maxwell in his outstanding work, Everyone Communicates – Few Connect, proposes three critically important communication COMMITMENTS we should make to leverage our communication and interactions to their upmost value.

Commit to Know Yourself – First, this involves being constantly and consciously aware of HOW and WHAT we are communicating to others. We need to be authentic and sincere as to what we truly believe and consider important. We must make sure our words and behaviors match. Trust me, we aren’t fooling anybody when the opposite is true!

Commit to Know Your Audience – I have often shared that leaders are AMPLIFIED PEOPLE in that our words take on greater meaning and impact due to the fact that others are listening to us. It is important to communicate to the needs and preferences of your audience and not the other way around! Communicate what you want them to KNOW and what you are asking them to DO in language they can understand and appreciate.

Commit to Know Your Stuff! – It is important that as leaders, we know what we are talking about using the best information available to us. Nothing will lower our stock with a follower or customer more than just “winging it.” Honesty and accuracy will trump sounding authoritative every time. If something arises you are not sure about, then just admit it but then commit to finding the answers and loop back. I promise your credibility will not suffer but in fact, will increase!

The point is this, we ARE constantly communicating about ourselves as leaders thus; are either highlighting or diminishing our personal and organization brand and its promises with EVERY interaction big or small.

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 to email me or to visit my website below and see if any of the training or coaching experiences I offer can provide an impact! In fact, I am launching a new SPEAKING FOR IMPACT training program that will help both novice and experienced leaders increase their speaking and communication skills! 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 to add value to your organization!

Yours in Leadership (and still walking both roads!),

Bill Faulkner

Principal Consultant – 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

Last Lap, Last Second = Principle of FULL EFFORT!

To be honest, I am not a big fan of professional sports in that I prefer college efforts for a variety of reasons. But this time of year, however, I channel my inner southerner (after all, I was born in Georgia and went to college in North Carolina!) and focus on NASCAR. I do this because it is exciting to watch and appears to be the last professional sports arena where 1) the fans are viewed as an asset and not an obligation and 2) the athlete drivers still understand that they are role models to young people and have NOT ABDICATED THEIR RESPONSIBILITY TO DO SO (seriously, don’t get me started on that)! The opening race of the season is the Daytona 500 where the winning driver led just one lap! This got me thinking out loud about the value of FULL EFFORT!

To set the stage, the Daytona 500 is not only the first race of the NASCAR season is also the biggest! It is full of pageantry, celebrities, patriotism, and incredibly loud cars! Essentially it is like playing the Super Bowl or Game 7 as the first game of the season as opposed to the last. The winner of the race was Kurt Busch and whereas he is a former Cup Series champion and competitive in most races, the ONLY lap he led was the FINAL lap but that was all he needed to win the race! This is similar to the recent Super Bowl win of the New England Patriots in that the only second they led the ENTIRE game was the last second they scored to win the game!

Clearly, there is a lesson here for ALL of us on both the INDIVIDUAL and ORGANIZATIONAL level as to the value of FULL EFFORT and holding to the belief that it is not over until it’s over! FULL EFFORT, however, is not solely a matter of will. It requires some key components that MUST BE PRESENT before the game even begins or the race even starts.

Resource Management – if you are not familiar with the sport, NASCAR cars operate at the highest tolerances possible and are often driven to their mechanical and safety limits. Driver Kurt Busch and his #41 race team had to carefully steward their car, tires, and other equipment resources so that they could be in a position to win when it counted. The same is true for us as leaders. Regardless of our enterprise, we must be STRATEGIC and TACTICAL stewards of the resources we have available so that they are present and available when we most need them.

Talent Management – a race team is more than just its driver. It has a host of key leaders and staff who play critical roles; from the fabricators and engineers that build the cars to the pit crew and crew chief that support the driver on race day. Along with these key personnel are marketing and competition directors that make sure the significant financial needs of a race team are met. Just like a race team, we need to make sure we have assembled the best TALENT we can but we also nave to ALIGN that talent to meet our enterprise goals and aspirations.

Energy Management – as peak performance consultant and author Jim Loehr proposes, success is more of a condition of ENERGY MANAGEMENT versus time management. Just like any top athlete, we must pace our efforts so that we have what we need when it most counts. This requires us to equip ourselves, build our capacities, renew and recharge our personal, spiritual, and physical energy, and balance our lives as best we can so that when that crucial moment comes, we have the energy to push us over the finish line!

Opportunity Management – legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden often stated, “there is no such thing as luck.” “Success”, he would go on to say “is when PREPARATION meets OPPORTUNITY!” Clearly Kurt Busch waited for his opportunity. He used his driving skills to avoid accidents and “save his car” for the end of the race. His his crew chief Tony Gibson used great strategy to make sure they would be in a position to win as the race came to a close. Again, the lessons are obvious to both individuals and organizations in that we need to do all the hard work on the front end so that we are PREPARED when the right OPPORTUNITY presents itself at just the right time!

So, the bottom line is this. Operating on the principle of FULL EFFORT takes a great deal of pre-thought and effort. It requires us to sacrifice short term advantages for long term benefits. As individuals and organizations, we must be willing to do what others do not so that we take the checkered flag at the end of the day! Granted, I may be just a bit too enthused that the NASCAR season has started but you guys are all leadership rock starts so you get the point!!

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 to 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 to add value to your organization!

Yours in Leadership (and still walking both roads!),

Bill Faulkner

Principal Consultant – 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