Message of the Day - Leadership to the Next Level

Good Morning,

 

My current read is “Greater Than Yourself: The Ultimate Lesson of True Leadership” by Steve Farber (www.greaterthanyourself.com). This is a combination parable and real life look into the concept of GTY, or Greater Than Yourself, where we work to help someone become greater than we are at something. In the process, we end up improving ourselves as an added bonus.

 

This is done by investing our time wisely into helping someone who wants to improve themselves to get better by using all of our knowledge, resources, networks, and ability to help them improve. I love the concept of helping others, and it makes sense to invest time into one person and making that person a project. In the end, the person who was your GTY project can turn to and do the same for someone else, or even to us if they are better at something that you want to improve upon.

 

Imagine a world where we all had a vested interest in people becoming better at all different parts of life, be it leadership, reading, swimming, raising kids, Microsoft Word, or whatever. The love that is involved in helping others and in turn helping us would make it a much better place.

 

Steve Farber points out three steps in the Greater Than Yourself process:

 

1. Expand Yourself – Find ways to increase your knowledge, skills, networks and resources. The more that we have, the more than we can give to others in the way of knowledge, training, networks and resources.

 

2. Give Yourself – Here is where you take someone under your wing and put your all into helping them improve. This is not merely coaching or mentoring. It goes beyond that. It is investing the time to improve others (the suggestion is tithing your time to helping others become greater, like using 10% of your workday allocated to helping others). We are all busy, but we all could set aside an hour or so a week or more to helping one person, and after a while, we will find we can give more (using email, telephone, etc. in addition to other meetings).

 

3. Replicate Yourself – Now our GTY project learns and grows and then finds someone that they can help, and takes on their own GTY project. As John C. Maxwell teaches about the end result of leadership being the creation of leaders who themselves develop other leaders, the GTY goal is the same.

 

I am now looking for the person who I will take under my wing as my first GTY project and at the same time, I will be searching for someone who may be able to take me under their wing. We all can learn and grow, and what better way than having someone who truly cares about us and our success, that loves to see us succeed.

 

I really enjoyed this book and in the end, I could not put it down. Now its time to put the material to work.

 

Enjoy!

 

 

Sanford Berenberg

Sanford@berenberg.net

http://www.berenberg.net   

http://learnandgrowdaily.com ß Click here to order: “Learn And Grow Daily!”

http://sanfordberenberg.blogspot.com/

502-533-9336

 

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Message of the Day - Diagnosis for a Pending Collapse

Good Morning,

 

My current read is “How the Mighty Fall and why some companies Never Give In” by Jim Collins (http://www.amazon.com/dp/0977326411/?tag=mh0b-20&hvadid=152062265&ref=pd_sl_47fluezm68_e). This book focuses on how great organizations collapse into irrelevance or nothingness, the warning signs and what can be done to address it before it is too late. I have also found these same principles apply to people like Jim Collin’s other books: “Good to Great” and “Built to Last” which he co-authored with Jerry Porras.

 

Jim Collins talks about five steps in the fall of great organizations. I understand that failure can come in many different forms and patters, but it is interesting to see there is a pattern which contains these many different forms of failure. Also, these steps do not include plain old stupidity or ignorance. Organizations who fall often are working very hard for what they feel is the best for their department or organization. That is, they think they are doing something smart. Knowingly doing something stupid seems to be outside the purview of this research (like cooking the books, or trying to game the system).

 

Stage 1: Hubris Born of Success. Here organizations are celebrating their successes and planning on building on them without necessarily understanding how they got there. They may think that they have the best management team or the best workers, but in reality, they succeeded through hard dedicated work with discipline and sticking to a plan. If they go forward without using what helped them get there, they could head down this path to stage 2.

 

Stage 2: Undisciplined Pursuit of More. Organizations start building. Empire builders get caught up in this one often. ‘Hey if one system works, let’s get three, or five’. ‘This location is doing great, let’s open up 100 more’. Expansion is good, but it must be planned and use the same discipline that helped us to get to where we now. Too much too fast is like mounting credit card debt.

 

Stage 3: Denial of Risk and Peril. In the first two stages, the organization is actually doing extremely well, but it is a false or unsustainable growth. That is where stage 3 comes in. It when the warning signs of going forward too far and too fast are purposefully ignored. ‘Everything is going so well, how could there be anything wrong?’ This is when the research into those signs needs to be taken seriously, or we find ourselves in stage 3.

 

Stage 4: Grasping for Salvation. This stage is like dynamic death throws or a drowning person grabbing at anything and everything for help. Here an organization is willing to do anything or try anything to help itself out of the rut it is in. The solution is again to plan and take defined and disciplined actions, often replicating what worked in the past.

 

Stage 5: Capitulation to Irrelevance or Death. The final stage is when the organization gives up the ghost and either closes its doors, or sells itself to someone else or continues on as a shell of its former self.

 

As mentioned above, not only do I see these stages working in organizations, I see them working in people’s lives. When we succeed at something or achieve a goal that we have wanted for some time, we can easily lose site of how we achieved the goal. We may thing that we are great and just did it. Like someone who plays at Carnegie Hall, to get there they practiced, practiced, practiced. When they finally got to Carnegie Hall they present themselves as a natural or prodigy. As a prodigy they try doing other things simply because they succeeded rather then by practicing a whole lot.

 

What I like most of about this book is that it shows there is hope for organizations and individuals who find themselves deep into Stage 3 and Stage 4.

 

It is like a diagnosis of a pending collapse.

 

Enjoy!

 

Sanford Berenberg

Sanford@berenberg.net

http://www.berenberg.net   

http://learnandgrowdaily.com ß Click here to order: “Learn And Grow Daily!”

http://sanfordberenberg.blogspot.com/

502-533-9336

 

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Message of the Day - Book, Cover, Judge....Never!

Good Morning,

 

As many of you are aware, there is this lady from a small village in Scotland who has been wowing the world with her angelic voice on YouTube. She appeared on a British TV show called “Britain’s Got Talent” (modeled after American Idol). Her name is Susan Boyle and if you have not seen the videos of her singing, you need to do so immediately after reading this message. I will provide some links below.

 

When Susan walked on stage, an unemployed frumpy, 47 year old woman, the audience jeered at her. The judges, including Simon Cowell, all made faces to each other. It was all as if to say ‘oh Lord, no, this can’t be good’. The audience and the judges had already decided, this woman was a loser and laughingstock and should get on the next bus back to whatever little village she came from.

 

Simon asked her what her dream was. She said it was to be a professional singer. He then asked why hasn’t worked for her yet, she being 47. She said she never had the chance until now. The audience and judges continued to snicker.

 

Then Susan sang.

 

Her voice filled the auditorium and snickers immediately turned to cheers. Susan was awarded top scores, possibly the highest in the three year history of the show.

 

The first glances at Susan Boyle gave the wrong image, the wrong impression.

 

We have a lot of situations in our lives when we find ourselves judging others before we get to know them. They look frumpy, they have wild hair, their eyes are all ‘wiggy’, they wear weird fashions. They walk with a limp, or whatever. It would behoove us to look past this initial scan to find out more about people. When we get passed those first images, the book cover, so to speak, we find the diamond in the rough.

 

It is a profound lesson in life, that all we initially see may not be as it seems at first glance, that we should give people and situations more time when it is safe to do so. A bus that looks like it is barreling down the road toward you may not be worthy of a second or third glance to be sure prior to stepping out of the way, but with people, it normally is safe.

 

And the videos:

 

Watch This Video First: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY

 

At the Semi-Finals: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmWCqIVQpEI

 

Enjoy!

 

Sanford Berenberg

Sanford@berenberg.net

http://www.berenberg.net   

http://learnandgrowdaily.com ß Click here to order: “Learn And Grow Daily!”

http://sanfordberenberg.blogspot.com/

502-533-9336

 

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Message of the Day - When our Foundations Crumble

Good Morning,

 

Happy Memorial Day!

 

Have you ever had a time when something that you knew, with all your heart and mind, to be true turned out to not be true? The finding out the truth can be literally earthshaking in its impact in our lives.

 

My Grandfather, Sam Bass and my Grandmother, Dolly, were planning a trip to Israel. Sam needed to get his passport updated. Being in his late sixties and having not traveled overseas since his tour of duty in World War II, he figured it would be nothing out of the ordinary to get his necessary paperwork and update his passport.

 

That is, until he received the legal copy of his birth certificate. I can only imagine what he thought when he opened the paperwork and read his name, but only the name on the birth certificate was not the name he knew.

 

It said ‘Colwin Bass’.

 

Imagine being in your mid sixties and finding out your real name is not your real name. How would you feel? In addition to the shock, my Grandfather took it in stride and went through the rest of the paperwork to get his passport updates, which had just become a bit more complicated. He and my Grandmother did get to go to Israel.

 

Earlier in my life, I had one of those moments too. In the sixth grade, I had a genealogy project to work on. I had spoken to Grandmother Dolly already and was now talking to my Grandmother Dottie. She told me stories of our family coming from Poland, being from an important family who served the King. I was so excited be able to share some great stories. Then it all came crumbling down as she said those final words. “But, I’m not your real grandmother”.

 

It was one of those rare moments when I had nothing to say (I think I can count them on my fingers).

 

In the end, I found out about my family and I moved on.

 

This past weekend, we adopted a dog (a rescue) named ‘Petey’, and well, it is shaking the foundations of my world. I think this is God’s answer to my need to exercise. Since I don’t seem to do it for myself, I now have to do it for the dog. Today was a nice power-walk, and later today and tomorrow will be more of them.

 

That is the key, when information which you base your life on, your name, who your family is, what you do in life, etc., turn out to the false or not what you expected, after the initial shock, it is time to move on.

 

People can get fixated on what has changed and cannot let go of it. Sadly, some folks hold onto these earthshaking moments for years. It is like being held prisoner to these events and not being able to move on.

 

You can move on. The first step is to step back and take a deep breath, and understand that this too shall pass. You know those famous words. They truly work. Look at the new reality in your life and decide what YOU want to do with it. If it is a huge change, then take some time, if you are able to think and pray on it.

 

Our foundations crumble under us from time to time; it is a fact of life.

 

How we act in face of them, and what we do in spite of them, defines our character and who we are.

 

Time to play with Petey!

 

Enjoy!

 

Sanford Berenberg

Sanford@berenberg.net

http://www.berenberg.net   

http://learnandgrowdaily.com ß Click here to order: “Learn And Grow Daily!”

http://sanfordberenberg.blogspot.com/

502-533-9336

 

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Message of the Day - Future Leadership of America

Good Morning,

 

This past evening I had the honor and pleasure to attend the second annual awards celebration for a new two-year-old organization ‘The Steward’s Staff’. This organization works to equip and train teenagers to be ethical people and prepare them to be future leaders. They provide training, mentoring and scholarships.

 

At the celebration I was able to hear some of these leaders speak, and after each phenomenal speech, I learned how far each of these young adults had come from their start with ‘The Steward’s Staff’. In some cases the changes were vast, and in others, the organization polished a real gem, allowing them to shine even more. Please note, The Steward’s Staff has only been around for two years.

 

One youth leader presented their speech on the subject of chocolate chip cookies. Bear with this. It is really good! This young man is going places!

 

In his speech, this young gentleman was able to weave an experience in a home economics class about preparing and baking cookies into a life lesson on leadership. He covered how the ingredients of the cookies mirror the parts of our lives and how we interact with others. That there were fears that the cookies did not have the right ingredients or were mixed improperly, that they oozed all over the cookie sheet and would not turn out right, but in the end they were great.

 

Just like young adults who are growing up, we may have fears of how they will turn out based on who they interact with, and what they do, but in the end, if the ingredients are mixed well and cooked for the right amount of time, the young adults and young leaders will turn out fine.

 

I am so very impressed about the drive of this organization to help prepare our future leaders with the skills and knowledge they will need to take the helm of our country, our states, local governments, businesses and social organizations.

 

Think about it. What good is all the work, learning and growing that we do if there are no leaders to take the mantle from us when our time at the helm comes to a close?

 

If we do not start early enough, we may miss the opportunity to give our future leaders the tools they need to help keep the world running.

 

It only makes sense to give our experience and knowledge to the next generation and prepare them to take the reigns from us.

 

What are you doing to help them?

 

If want to help out, find a local organization who strives to equip our youth and support them, or if you don’t know where to look, go to www.stewardstaff.org and help them. I will be.

 

Thank you!

 

Sanford Berenberg

Sanford@berenberg.net

http://www.berenberg.net   

http://learnandgrowdaily.com ß Click here to order: “Learn And Grow Daily!”

http://sanfordberenberg.blogspot.com/

502-533-9336

 

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Message of the Day - Troubles within or are they?

Good Morning,

 

I am still plugging away on the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, reading a few pages every few days and came across this gem:

 

Today I have got out of all trouble, or rather I have cast out all trouble, for it was not outside, but within and in my opinions.

 

We as people can be awfully opinionated on many things in life. Some of this is personality and another part of it is simply human nature. When we hear a bump in the night, we start to think about what it is. Some folks cannot rest until they find out what it is; others are less stressed over the unknown, and still others will ‘manufacture’ what that sound must have been.

 

We can see someone smile at us and we may think that they are happy with us, or they could frown at us and may think that they are angry with us. These snap perceptions can be very true, or they could be way off base. The person smiling at us could be listening to a MP3 player and hearing a comedy routine, like my favorite, Bill Engvall, and smiling at a joke as they were looking at us. Another person who is very happy with us, may have a bad back or arm and have a sudden pain as they look at us, causing them to frown when we see them.

 

What we see and what is reality is often quite different. If we let what we see fester in our minds, then we have to do what Emperor Marcus Aurelius says, to cast out all trouble or all false perceptions.  Or as Don Miguel Ruiz says in “The Four Agreements” we must not make assumptions by asking questions instead of assuming.

 

Mark Twain said it very well with: “I am an old man and have known a great many troubles but most of them never happened.”

 

I have found that a lot of what I have believed or felt to be true have turned out to not be what has happened. That which goes bump in the night is often not something going bump at all and is usually very mundane common sound and not scary at all.

 

So, don’t let fear fester. Ask a question and defuse the mystery. This works with understanding how other people feel as well. If someone appears to be upset, ask them if there is anything that you did which caused this and if you can fix something or provide help.

 

Often you will find out that which you feared was simply an unfounded fear dwelling in your mind only.

 

Enjoy!

 

Sanford Berenberg

Sanford@berenberg.net

http://www.berenberg.net   

http://learnandgrowdaily.com ß Click here to order: “Learn And Grow Daily!”

http://sanfordberenberg.blogspot.com/

502-533-9336

 

 

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Message of the Day - Communication Breakdown

Good Morning,

 

My current read is Mark Sanborn’s “You Don’t Need a Title to be a Leader” (http://www.youdontneedatitle.com/). This past weekend I spent in Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg, Tennessee with my wife Karen to see some friends. During the trip, we stopped at a discount bookstore Karen and I have come to love. They had a special where you could fill a basket full of stuff from their basement stock for $10. So, an hour later we filled 2 baskets. Then we went about shopping on the first floor and I came across, among others, this book by Mark Sanborn.

 

I ended my reading this morning on a section covering communication problems, where Mark Sanborn uses an example of a man driving a jeep sees a woman driving the other way down a dusty road and she looks at him and says ‘PIG’. He then gets all upset at being called a pig until his jeep slams into a large pig that was standing in the middle of the road. The man did not understand the woman and the woman did not have time to give a clear message to the man.

 

So Monday morning we left the hotel after not getting our wake up call and heading out one hour later than planned and stopped by a McDonalds for breakfast (I had hoped for a pancake house, but we had to make up time). As we pull up to order I was told to wait. A few minutes later I was asked for my order. Halfway through the order I was asked to wait again. Several more minutes pass and they finished up my order (a McGriddle meal and a Bacon Biscuit meal with coffees) having to go through it all again because they lost track or something.

 

As we pulled up to the window to get our order, they handed us an orange juice and a single biscuit. I advised we did not order orange juice and we had two meals. The staff member at the window then said to the rest of the crew the orders were all messed up (which is what seemed to be what caused our waiting when ordering). Then they handed me another bag and I asked: “are their two biscuits in here?”

 

He says no, so I tell him that our order was for two.

 

He tells me we only ordered biscuit, and so I showed him my receipt, which showed one biscuit and one McGriddle and he confirmed that this order was exactly what was on my receipt, which was one biscuit.

 

I am thinking two biscuits, meaning two meals because of the first order being handed to me having one biscuit and nothing else. The employee was seeing the items as what they are themselves.

 

The system ‘glitch’ made me not trust the order even though they were being double-checked after the mistake was found.

 

If either of us had stated the individual items that were in the bag, we would have been fine. The problem stemmed from each of us having a different image of what was in the bag and then communicating with that image only.

 

It could have been lack of sleep, although I had plenty of sleep the night before. It could have been my blood sugar being low, or it could have been me just not paying attention to what I was saying.

 

The communication breakdown was sorted through when we finally realized that we were both saying the same thing, with different words.

 

Enjoy!

 

Sanford Berenberg

Sanford@berenberg.net

http://www.berenberg.net   

http://learnandgrowdaily.com ß Click here to order: “Learn And Grow Daily!”

http://sanfordberenberg.blogspot.com/

502-533-9336

 

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