Message of the Day - Comfort Zones, time to get out of yours

Good Morning,

 

This past Friday, my stepdaughter graduated from high school and I with other family members attended the graduation. As part of the ceremony there were several speeches made. The Valedictorian's speech covered, among other things, moving out of one's comfort zone. While sharing this wisdom with his fellow classmates, he shared what he did to get out his own comfort zone. In one case, he took a drama class and even sang in a musical, including a solo piece in front of an audience. Some things he had never done before.

 

The rewards for stepping out of our comfort zone are vast and many. As an overarching theme, when we do step out, we ultimately find that we learn and grow in the areas where we stretched ourselves.

 

In each area where we move outside of our comfort zone, we learn something more about ourselves like gaining new insights into our lives and the world around us.

 

It could be as simple as taking an additional step. For example, the valedictorian was very comfortable playing the piano, but not singing. So he played an instrument during these productions. This was comfortable for him. Learning to sing, that was outside of his zone. So he stepped out and started singing with the piano playing. Then singing solo, another step outside of his comfort zone.

 

Each step took him to a higher level of accomplishment, a higher level of confidence in self and a higher ability to engage life which helped him earn the top spot of Valedictorian. And after obtaining that goal, he no doubt is looking for new ways to move out of his comfort zone as he looks toward the future.

 

Stepping outside of our own comfort zones, while appearing scary, it is only scary until you take that next step. Looking back, more often than not, we find what we feared was really nothing to fear at all.

 

Moving out of our comfort zones, another step to learn and grow daily!

 

Enjoy!

 

Sanford Berenberg
Sanford@berenberg.net
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http://sanfordberenberg.blogspot.com/
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Message of the Day - The Cost of Language Barriers

Good Morning,

 

In one of my daily readings from the book "Battlefields and Blessings: Stories of Faith and Courage from the Revolutionary War" by Jane Hampton Cook (http://www.amazon.com/Battlefields-Blessings-V2-Revolutionary-Stories-Courage/dp/0899570429) I came across a story of a language barrier which could have changed the course of world history.

 

The colonials had just taken a sound beating on Long Island, New York in 1776. The British troops with their Hessian mercenaries had delivered a solid blow to the poorly trained, demoralized and frightened troops under General Washington. It was just a matter of time until the British made their final blow and end the revolution once and for all.

 

Washington had decided to evacuate Long Island and waited until nightfall. His troops started boarding any kind of boat they could find and started heading across the East River to the island of Manhatten. What helped Washington and his troops was a nice blanket of fog which helped cover the troop movements.

 

Yet, a loyalist did see the troops departing and sent one of her slaves to warn the British. The man sent arrived at the British camp and was met by two Hessian soldiers. These German mercenaries did not speak any English and when they saw the man frantically trying to warn them, they had him put in a cell.

 

The following morning when the man was finally questioned by a British officer, he told them about Washington's escape by boat at night. The British scrambled to take advantage of the information only to find that the last Revolutionaries had sailed beyond musket range and to safety on Manhatten.

 

This language barrier cost the British what could have been the end of the war.

 

How much are we losing when we encounter a language barrier?

 

What are we doing to prepare ourselves to more clearly understand those we interact with?

 

Getting to know the words people say as well as the inflection with which it is said as well as the all important body language is a vital requirement for better understanding. This can be as easy as asking for clarification when we hear something that we even think we may not understand. Sure there is a bit of fear at looking foolish for asking, but then again, how foolish will we feel if we don't ask for clarification and the worst DOES happen?

 

Better understanding reduces the chances of these language barriers and the potential losses that can come from them.

 

 

 

Enjoy!

 

Sanford Berenberg
Sanford@berenberg.net
http://www.berenberg.net

http://sanfordberenberg.blogspot.com/
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Message of the Day - A Tough Lesson to Learn

Good Morning,

 

One reoccurring theme in career advancement as seen as a warning in many leadership books is: What helps us succeed in our current role may not help us succeed in our new role. In fact, it may even hurt our performance in our new role.

 

Being a great salesperson, phone rep or whatever we do does not equate to being a great leader of sales people, phone reps or whatever we do.

 

Leadership generally has different skill sets than doing most other roles. As a leader we have to think about others first. When we are the front lines people, we often do not think about others, rather we focus on the tasks at hand and meeting our production quotas and quality standards.

 

The disconnect in business is thinking that someone who is excellent at some task would be excellent in leading others in doing the same task. Logically it makes sense. For example, 'so and so' has the highest production in our company's history. If we get them to be a leader, we can get them to help everyone they lead to provide the same level of production.

 

Sadly, that is hardly the case.

 

Some top performers cannot make the transition to leading others. The first stumbling block is often applying their own values and work methodology to the job and trying to make everyone working for them to be like them. Trying to transform others, especially when they are not willing is usually a disaster in the making.

 

Others find it hard to think about others first. When we lead, we have to think of ourselves last. This is a complete 180 from being a top performer. Tougher yet is the top performer who is a part time leader who must jockey between being thinking about themselves and then about others and back and forth.

 

Leadership is not easy, and just because we are good at what we do, does not mean we will be good a leading others at what we do.

 

A tough lesson to learn.

 

Sanford Berenberg
Sanford@berenberg.net
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http://sanfordberenberg.blogspot.com/
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Message of the Day - A 'One-Two-Three' Recipe of Success

Good Morning,

 

A few weeks ago a new acquaintance asked me for three books which were both short, focused and powerful to help him get moving to a higher level of accomplishment. He wanted short books as he really did not have the time to focus on longer, in depth tomes which fill the libraries and bookstores.

 

After thinking it over, I suggested the three following books for the following reasons:

 

'QBQ: The Question Behind the Question' by John G. Miller focuses on personal accountability. Time after time, the difference between our successes and our failures in life is tied to OUR not taking responsibility for our own actions. Not that we are generally irresponsible, rather we often only do the minimum we feel we need to do to accomplish some task. We sometimes, and for some, often, avoid rolling up our sleeves and taking the additional steps necessary to achieve the hard things in our lives. In effect, we give up on ourselves.

 

"Now is Your Time to Win' by David Dean is a simple step by step guide on how to get work done. It shows us how to motivate ourselves, how to plan for the day, how to debug our challenges and keeps us on track. Its seven steps of common sense and wisdom to increase our productivity and take it to a new level of accomplishment.

 

'Unstoppable' by Cynthia Kersey shares 45 true stories of people who have overcome seemingly impossible odds to succeed in different endeavors within their lives. Each story showers us with inspiration and motivation to carry on and achieve our own goals no matter if it is overcoming physical barriers, emotional blockages, family challenges, or whatever. Unstoppable is the nitrous injection into our souls which helps us become unstoppable.

 

These three books simply are getting our mind in the right frame of reference, 'QBQ', doing the right things, 'Now is Your Time to Win', and pouring it on, 'Unstoppable'.

 

Enjoy!

 

Sanford Berenberg
Sanford@berenberg.net
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http://sanfordberenberg.blogspot.com/
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Message of the Day - Avoid the Experts

Good Morning,

 

This afternoon I was reminded of a story which has continued to give me a chuckle. I was at a science fiction convention in upstate, New York. There among the many stars attending the convention was an actor, a writer and a special effects director who arrived earlier than the other stars. The convention staff had someone chaperone these people to see a movie to pass the time. I was a bit jealous of the person who got to drive around these three, take them to dinner and a movie.

 

While the chaperone has seen many movies, he had never seen one with a professional actor, a best selling author and a special effects guru. Into the movie they went and through the two hours of the movie, the chaperone was enthralled, enjoying the movie from beginning to end. He also anticipated discussing the movie with these experts.

 

As the movie ended and the lights came on, the chaperone raced to get his comments together to discuss the movie. What he liked most about it, what he will remember most about it, etc.

 

Then to his shock, the actor said "The acting was terrible". The writer followed with "The plot had holes big enough to drive a tank through". The special effects guru put the final nail I the coffin with "the special effects were horrible".

 

The chaperone bit his tongue and did not say a word about the movie which he thoroughly enjoyed. He did, though, wonder if he should have enjoyed it at all. Seeing how the acting was terrible, the plot had major holes in it and the special effects were horrible.

 

The experts had their say, but were they right?

 

In matters of opinion, while experts can weigh in, we should never lose our opinion and what we think about life around us.

 

The chaperone like the movie, and that is fine, no matter what the experts thought.

 

We should be the same way, and when necessary, avoid the experts.

 

Enjoy!

 

Sanford Berenberg
Sanford@berenberg.net
http://www.berenberg.net
http://sanfordberenberg.blogspot.com/
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Message of the Day - Love & Trust, the Secrets to Success

Good Morning,

 

My current read is S. Truett Cathy's "Eat Mor Chikin, Inspire More People" (http://www.amazon.com/Eat-Mor-Chikin-Inspire-People/dp/1929619081) which is a book about doing business the 'Chick-Fil-A' Way.

 

Right from the outset, S. Truett Cathy shares with his readers the 'secret' of his success starts with caring for and giving to others. Further, his way of doing business is built around taking care of his employees and the community at large. Its more than just doing right by those who work with you and those around you, it is loving them. It is spending more time thinking of what you can do for others than what you get from helping others. The employees then, fueled by this love and support, take care of the customers.

 

The secret is more than being closed on Sundays so that employees can spend time with their Lord and their families. It is more than the scholarships, the foster homes and the many other kind and charitable works of this organization which make it such a success. By showing that you love someone and you are going to do whatever you can to help them, these people are unleashed to give more of themselves in all of their endeavors.

 

Think about it.

 

Would you feel more inclined to take chances and do more work for someone who says 'thank you' and gives you a paycheck (while this may sadly be rare), or for someone who consistently shows they love you, care about you and want you to succeed, in addition to giving you a paycheck?

 

In a world driven to hands-off impersonalization by fear of lawsuits, corrective action or whatever, to see a culture of love and support is more than refreshing, it is exciting. It makes me want to create one too. 

 

Love and giving creates a culture where people think more about others than themselves. When we have teams and entire departments thinking about the welfare of others over themselves, we have engaged, caring and driven people who will do what needs to be done to succeed.

 

For this culture to exist, though, there needs to be love and trust.

 

Where love and trust is absent, we have lawsuits and 'C-Y-A' and 'Every-Man-For-Yourself' mentalities.

 

The success at Chick-Fil-A is not a one-time success model. It can be brought to any place where people work.  

 

The brilliance is that in cultures absent of trust and love, it can be turned around one person at a time (and yes, it may be a very hard task).

 

And that person can be you.

 

Enjoy and Eat Mor Chikin!

 

Sanford Berenberg
Sanford@berenberg.net
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Message of the Day - Knowing Your Flight Plan

Good Morning,

One of my recent reads was T. D. Jakes "Reposition Yourself: Living Life Without Limits" (www.tdjakes.com/repositionyourself). This book is a complete look over how to move from wherever you are in life to a life without limits. I am oversimplifying the process, but this book takes a hard look at people in all different situations and gives some very solid advice.

A chapter which really appealed to me was one talking about having a plan for our lives. T. D. Jakes used the metaphor of a airplane flight for the plan for our lives and achieving our goals. There are three, and sometimes four stages to this plan.

1. Take off. Just like an airplane, we need extra energy and focus to get ourselves up to speed to get off the ground and flying. This is a great metaphor for those who expect to do a little work and get great wonderful rewards. Usually it does not happen that way. We often have to put in a lot of time and effort, sometimes years, into our projects to get them going. When we do, we can do like an airplane and take off.

 

Layovers sometimes happen where our plans are not so much thwarted but slowed up or put on hold for a while. It happens and it sometimes often, but we must remember that if we give up, we will never take off.

 

2. In Flight, Success. Here we are soaring along, but where are we going? Like all flights, a flight plan is a good thing. If we take all of our effort to get ourselves propelled into the air and flying along toward our goals, it probably would do us good to have a plan of where we would like to go. As the Cheshire Cat says: "When you don't know where you are going, than any road will take you there".

 

3. Landing. All planes generally have to land at some time or another. Knowing where and how we are going to land prior to take off is also a key piece of the puzzle. Nothing lasts forever, so it pays to have an exit strategy already planned out ahead of time. I am not trying to be a downer, but very few successes continue indefinitely. As such, if we are going to come down from our soaring heights, then shouldn't be on our terms. Anyway, after a safe landing, we can always make another plan and take off again.

 

In every step of this process there is also the chance of a change of plans, the changes in our lives. I remember living this back in 1995 while in the emergency room after having a roof collapse on me and breaking both of my legs. I laid on the table and through to myself that my life had changed forever. I could not go back to where I was before. This change, like a mid-flight course change. I was going to land, but not where or how I intended. My flight had ended and I came in for a landing. After some time, I was able to take off again on another flight, and start the process over again. That is comforting to know we can do this. Repeatedly if necessary.

 

This was my first T. D. Jakes book and I look forward to reading more.

 

Enjoy!

 

Sanford Berenberg
Sanford@berenberg.net
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Message of the Day - Preparing Our Future Generation for Success

Good Morning,

 

Earlier this week I sat in on an ETHICS (The Enrichment Through Helping Individuals and Communities Succeed) Society meeting run by the Steward's Staff (www.stewardstaff.org). The ETHICS Society is an organization driven, governed and led by youth.  It focuses on leadership development, social awareness and personal responsibility. 

 

I have been on the Advisory Board of the Steward's Staff for nearly and year and have been very impressed with the products of their programs. Their focus is on youth enrichment. By visiting one of their sessions, I got to see HOW they create such powerful results, like 100% graduation rate of all participants.

 

John Mark, the Executive Director of the Steward's Staff, engaged the students in an environment of respect and support. All participants were open to participate and all participants were respectful of each other as they all interacted. What impressed me the most was the straightforward honesty shared in the meeting. And nearly every one of the society of nearly 20 teenagers participated.

 

With this group, there were no punches pulled in communicating with each other, yet at the same time, there was a sense of community and respect as well.  So all communication was respectful even if it did get boisterous from time to time. The students shared their feelings giving the good and the bad, and John Mark did the same. The topics covered ranged from the very program itself over the last year, to historical events, to current events impacting the local community and the nation at large.

 

In a country full of political correctness and contstant attempts to hide from the truth, it was most refreshing to see this ETHICS Society fully embracing truth and respect with each other and everyone else at the meeting. It is the products of these organizations who I DO look foward to as our future generations of leaders. People who can openly and honestly share ideas and thoughts in calm and respectful ways.

 

As I mentioned earlier, I was a guest for this meeting, but I was not the only guest. Five alumni also came to visit after their first year of college ended. Each of the Alum eagerly shared with the current ETHICS Society how this very program has made major impact on their lives and helped them take a step upward in their paths to eternity.

 

The passion and the love for this program and becoming productive citizens of our nation is most refreshing.

 

For many of us reading this message, the future generations who will someday be at the helm of the various stations of society often scare us. We see the 'Instant Gratification' generation and wonder how they will navigate the realities of life.

 

We can assuage those fears, though, by rolling up our sleeves and helping our youth. We can embrace them and help them learn the fundamentals of honesty, integrity, and respect as well as equipping them with skills to help them hit the ground running when they enter the big leagues of what we call life.

 

Organizations like the Steward's Staff are leading the way by being equipping our future to lead us. It is our job, our obligation, to join them and others to help prepare the future today.

 

Enjoy!

 

Sanford Berenberg
Sanford@berenberg.net
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http://sanfordberenberg.blogspot.com/
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Message of the Day - Help others by investing in yourself

Good Morning,

 

A lot of what I write about is investing in your self through reading, training, college and life experiences to make yourself a more capable person.

 

On some levels this may seem selfish to put all of our efforts into making ourselves better. It could be selfish if these efforts were at the expense of others, but that is not what I am talking about.

 

By investing in ourselves, we make ourselves more capable and able to assist others in more areas, to a great capacity and with a greater impact.

 

For example, I have worked with Non-Profits for many years, and while I have accomplished a lot with these groups, I found myself limited by my own limitations. I used to think that the work I do for others was also for me. The more I helped others, the more I felt I was helping myself.

 

As I kept my learning and growing, I learned that doing work for others was truly that, doing it for others. It was a hard pill to swallow, but I was able to do it because I spent time reading, speaking with others and seeing the impact of the work I did, and finding out why I did it.

 

My ability to help others now has grown in a large part because I invested in myself and learned to remove myself from the process. I give of myself, but not for myself. This was a great accomplishment in my life, which I continue to learn and grow on daily. A line I say to myself often is 'It's not about me'.

 

There are many other areas where we can also improve ourselves. There is learning from the past. There is also seeing what others have accomplished and failed at so we can share these points with situations which arise in our daily lives.

 

An example of this is from my MBA program where I had to write about five to six papers for each class where I referenced news and magazine articles as well as books and internet sources. Doing this over and over again built up my skill in writing, but it also built up my knowledge in many key areas in business management. Knowledge which to this day I still bring up from time to time to help give details and perspective to a situation facing me today.

 

I am certain that each of you can relate how you have been able to help others from what you have learned in your own life, be it on the job, from a book or the school of hard knocks. And I am also certain that you can relate to how the more you put into yourself, the more you can give out to others be it in information, experience, or give more of  yourself, without giving to yourself.

 

Enjoy!

 

Sanford Berenberg
Sanford@berenberg.net
http://www.berenberg.net

http://sanfordberenberg.blogspot.com/
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