Thinking Out Loud!: April 2017

Sunday, April 23, 2017

Nothing is Decided until YOU Decide it is!

You’re finished. Toast. Stick a knife in you because you are done! How many times have we heard that? More importantly, how many times have you said that to yourself?!?! Hopefully, you have never said that to anyone yourself. Recently I have been thinking out loud about this a lot and the power of NOT QUITING. For the past few weeks I have had the incredible experience of leading a Mastermind of John Maxwell’s 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership with a group of Beachbody fitness coaches and I have not met a more determined and empowered group of women! They have taught me an important lesson about resilience. You see, I have come to believe that nothing is decided until you decide it is!

I have had some powerful first hand experiences this week that proves my very point. A close colleague who has been battling lung cancer just received the great news that the treatments have been successful. Even though she was a long-time smoker and small in stature, she faced her treatments with a grit and determination that was truly inspiring to myself and many others. She exemplified this great quote from Winston Churchill that states, “Fear is a REACTION, Courage is a CHOICE.” In short, she made up her mind that nothing was decided until she decided it was!

That is the power of not quitting . . . of not giving up. Not accepting the first answer as the final one. The problem is that too often people give up in the first disappointment or the first failure. Unfortunately, the media and advertising industry have created the false narrative that success is instant and easy. If you at first you don’t succeed . . . then there is obviously something wrong with you! Nothing can be further from the truth. There is nothing instant about success and accomplishing anything worthwhile takes work and time.

So how can we develop a little bit of POSITIVE STUBBORNESS? This is not a complete list but here are a few of my ideas.

Don’t take the fist (or for that matter the second, third, and fourth) “No” for an answer! Sometimes the timing may not be right or the conditions optimal. But if you ask again, then the answer may be “Yes” or at least a positive maybe! I recently read a Facebook quote from a colleague where she emailed the CEO of a company she was wanting to do business with every week for many weeks. Recently, he emailed back stating that since she was not going to stop emailing him, then he might as well take a meeting and see what she had to say!

Work the problem! If something is blocking you or preventing success, look for alternatives. Too often, though, people who are hard workers are not always hard thinkers. You have to work the problem. In fact, the creators of the movie Toy Story shared that the final film that revolutionized animation and entertained millions was “a thousand problems solved!” There is always an answer to a problem. You just have to discover what it is! Try going over, around, or under whatever wall is facing you!

Stick with it! The statistics of individuals not completing graduate degrees is staggering. I believe the primary reason is not that people can’t grasp the intellectual concepts, it is they run out of steam because there as some parts that you just cannot make go any faster. I have often believed that the most successful people are ones that have staying power with their goals as long as their goals are worth it! These individuals decide when the goal is not viable, not circumstances, resources, etc.

Listen to Your BETTER Voices! I recently heard leadership guru John Maxwell share that “when average people try to talk you out of something, you know you are on the right track!” Listen to the better voices of those that encourage you to stick to your progress. Make sure that little committee in your head is also encouraging you. Again, NOTHING is decided until you decide it is!

The point I want to you reflect, no obsess over, is this: What and Where you are NOW is NOT what or where you will always BE. You are NOT done yet. This is NOT your final destination. In fact, you are just getting started! Again, nothing is decided until you decide it is!

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,

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

For more information on the John Maxwell Team, please visit

http://www.johncmaxwellgroup.com/williamfaulkner/

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

Sunday, April 9, 2017

You can waste anything but People!

It seems the popular thing to downsize these days is PEOPLE! I cannot tell you how many times I have seen posts on Facebook about how someone was going to stop being friends with someone else because of the slightest offense. They did not like someone promoting a rival sports team. They shared a pic of eating this thing or that. Or, the fan favorite these days, they aligned with one social or political point of view or another. This got me thinking out loud about why we are so quick to waste an association with another human being?

At the start of every freshmen leadership class I teach, one of the first rules of leadership I teach is to NEVER waste each other! This does not mean they have to be best friends or agree on everything, it just means that after all is said and done at the end of their college years, the really important thing they will ever have in their life is their relationship with other people.

Now don’t get me wrong, I strongly encourage people to take a stand. In fact, the second leadership rule I stress to freshmen leaders is that it is not my job to tell then what their values or beliefs should be. It is my job, however, to encourage them to discover what their own values and beliefs are and consistently act upon them (and trust me, I have a lot of former students courageously living into their passions and I could not be prouder of them!). BUT, the first rule always takes precedence over the second. You see, fashions fade, teams win or lose, and the political pendulum swings back and forth, but PEOPLE remain. At the end of the day, all we really have is each other.

I stress this critical leadership truth to both young and old influencers because if you want to look at this as just as a practical matter, a leader who does not value others and their viewpoints hinders their IMPACT! If your leadership is spent solely on those who agree with you or you agree with, then your leadership is “dead on arrival”! In other words, when a leader cuts off dialogue with others, then they just lost their ability to influence, persuade, and maybe even enroll someone into their point of view!

As leaders, we must discourage such either/or thinking both within ourselves and among those that we lead. When you decide to live in an US versus THEM world, we just end up twice as lonely!

At the end of the day, all we really have is each other.

Another practical matter to consider is that in our professional lives, we do not have the option to choose the belief systems and opinions of those around us. We have to accept our co-workers, our bosses, our teams, our vendors, certainly our clients and customers, etc. as they ARE, not how we wish they would BE! In fact, we often don’t have that ability in our own families. I am confident I have “Crazy Uncle” status with my wonderful niece and nephew!

Leadership expert and author John Maxwell stresses again and again the importance of valuing others. In fact, at a recent John Maxwell Team training event I attended, John stressed two things:

The moment you do not value someone is the second you will take advantage of them.
You KNOW you value people when you value people who cannot add value to you.

So, if you want to waste time, money, and energy, go right ahead! In fact, some of the most interesting days in my life is when I did just that but that’s another story for another day! But NEVER waste people. So, what’s it to be? Will you VALUE people or will you WASTE them? Will you focus on what is temporary and changeable in someone or what is permanent? Just as with my freshmen leaders it is your CHOICE, but always remember we are DEFINED by the choices we make.

Yours in Leadership,

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

For more information on the John Maxwell Team, please visit

http://www.johncmaxwellgroup.com/williamfaulkner/

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

Sunday, April 2, 2017

The POWER of paying it Backward!

About thirty years ago, I met a young student leader named Chris who joined the student government association I was advising when I was working at the University of Tampa. He was scary smart if not a little rough around the edges but I got a clear glimpse that this was going to be a person of influence and impact! Thirty years later my instincts were proven right but I never expected the impact it would have on me!

You see Chris has become a mover and shaker in the worlds of politics, mass media, and philanthropy. We have been Facebook friends for some time but a couple of weeks ago, he asked me if I would be a guest on a radio show he was producing. I was floored! Why me? Clearly, he was much better connected than I was and could have much more well know persons on the show. His response was humbling to me. He told me that because I believed in and supported him so many years ago, that he now wanted to help me because he was now in a position to do so. He wanted to PAY IT BACKWARDS he said. This got me thinking out loud about how meaningful that was for me and how it can be a powerful practice we can all adopt to impact the lives of others.

In his outstanding book, Intentional Living, leadership expert John Maxwell talks about just how powerful it is when we INTENTIONALLY add value to the lives of others. He tells a great story about a helping a young person who was doing a school project which involved passing along a blue ribbon to someone who had made a significant contribution to their lives. The young leader had chosen John because his content really helped them . . . that young leader wanted to PAY IT BACKWARDS! Of course, in typical John Maxwell style, John not only took the ribbon, but he met with the young person, invited them to appear on stage with him at an event where he was speaking and added tremendous value to them!

The point is this, how often are we waiting for others to do something for us? How would your life be different if you were more focused on what you could do for OTHERS as opposed to what they can do for you?

So how do we do this? How can we develop this life-changing practice of PAYING IT BACKWARDS! Start with answering three basic questions:

What have you been GIVEN? What experiences, accomplishments, resources, etc. have you been given that make you UNIQUELY EQUIPPED to ADD VALUE to theirs?
What do you have to GIVE? Everyone has been EQUIPPED with qualities, talents, skills, and attitudes that can have impact on others!
What can you DO? Inventory what you KNOW you can do and then decide WHO or WHAT you can do it for.

In my case, Chris had access to a show called Finding Your Frequency (I really like that concept!!) where he serves as the executive producer on the Voice America internet network. He used his considerable talents and influence to ask the on-air hosts add me as a guest. Finally, he decided that he wanted to help me because he knew it could assist me to expand my message and reach to a whole new audience. The result was he, along with the show’s hosts Jeff Spenard and Ryan Treasure added tremendous value to me!

When we PAY IT BACKWARDS, it costs a price we WANT to pay!

David Roads states “you were born with the ability to change someone's life - don't ever waste it!” So, here’s a little homework. List 10 people in your life that should make your Top 10 Gratitude List and then think about how you can use your SUCCESS to help them! It can as simple as sending a nice card to a former teacher or a special remembrance to an old friend. Now I am sure when you do this, you are in no way expecting a return just like when I finally learned how to invest in students and later working professionals, I never expect them to return the favor. It’s just how I have chosen to operate. But when we PAY IT BACKWARDS, it costs a price we WANT to pay!

For an audio link to the actual Finding Your Frequency episode on the Voice America, network please see the link below. The other guests include nutrition coach Ken Ludwig and fitness expert Shemane Nugent, wife of the iconic rock star, Ted Nugent.

https://www.voiceamerica.com/episode/98232/living-your-frequency

Yours in Leadership,

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

For more information on the John Maxwell Team, please visit

http://www.johncmaxwellgroup.com/williamfaulkner/

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