Today is the final of the NCAA Track and Field Championships in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Bob Low is participating in the Pole Vault final. Bob has consistently been ranked in the top 5 in the country as a vaulter for BYU.

The pole vault is an exceptionally difficult event. It takes incredible self-discipline, focus, and a combination of natural ability and technique developed over the years. Bob started as a hurdler when he was just 9 years old, following in the footsteps of other family members. But it was the pole-vault that intrigued him and he participated in his first national championship in the 8^th grade.

In that first championship clearing the bar at 8 feet was a daunting task and after failing to advance, Bob declared he would never jump again and then the tears of disappointment poured out of his young eyes. That was 12 years ago and today his senior year will culminate in his last college championship. He has broken many records along the way and now jumps 10 feet higher than he did in the 8^th grade. He was not a quitter.

We can learn a lot from athletes. They make a choice to win, to be high performers. They choose to overcome all odds to be the best they can be. Sometimes that really hurts. They suffer setbacks, injuries, and blows to a fragile ego, painful failures and broken dreams. They  never give up; they pick themselves up after a loss and work even harder to achieve the ultimate goal.

The beauty of sports, especially track and field is that it has room for participants on every level. It is why jogging and road racing became so popular. The average guy and gal could achieve personal bests every time they ran a race. In the pole vault they ‘raise the bar” when a height has been cleared…setting the bar for a new height and each ¼ inch is a remarkable accomplishment.

At Leadership Excellence we cheer for Bob Low today as he is a part of our excellence family and all the other participants and wish them the very best. We believe in helping people find a wiser, better way to live their life and lead their organizations. Raise your own bar and clear new heights. Advance your personal training to include new goals and dreams. We offer a Personal Excellence Plan that can serve as a guide for your personal development and help you sustain your training.

Currently one of the services that we provide is a personal edition for organizations to use for marketing or training purposes. Customized editions of Sales and Service Excellence are in great demand right now with the challenges that are facing companies to grow business, they must always be looking for tools and templates that can fill those training and marketing needs at an affordable price.

In challenging economic time, companies need to look outside the normal media marketing channels to find a product that can fill the need of training and marketing at the same time. A customized edition of Personal Excellence or Sales and Service Excellence will fill that niche.

Having your own custom edition can be an invaluable resource by:

• Adding a competitive edge for your organization
• Increasing productivity
• Reducing advertising or training costs
• Increases revenue

The interesting thing is that we can and do guarantee an exponential return on your investment at the end of 12 months when your tools are used properly. We invite you to experience excellence and make a modest investment that will bring measurable results.

We provided Sales Momentum with a customized edition of Sales and Service Excellence for a recent event and they were happy beyond their expectations. They are company that implements highly customized sales training to build world-class sales teams.

I am pleased to post the response to one of our team members

Andrew,

As one of the three Principals at Sales Momentum, I wanted to say, “thank you” for your hard work to make our custom issue more than we expected.  The picture on the cover turned out great! Providing us the flexibility to include our own articles, hand-pick others and include 1 page advertisement for our company was more than we expected.  I just returned from the SPBT conference in Chicago yesterday. We handed out approximately 50 copies. Three people congratulated us for making the cover of the magazine. Another person wanted to know more about how to subscribe to the issue.   By having the option to distribute both hard copy or PDF version, we’ll be able to credential our company to a much broader audience.   Thank you for working with us and bringing such a great marketing idea to our company!  I encourage any business, large or small to take advantage of this unique and special opportunity.

Steve Gielda

Principal

Sales Momentum

Life is messy – business is messy and sometimes change is very uncomfortable when you are not sure of the outcome. Behind every great company or product is a greater sales staff… you are no-where without a good sales team. Sales and Service Excellence can be a invaluable resource to compliment your current programs and we are happy to celebrate  your success. Call us today and find out how you can customize your own personal edition of Sales and Service Excellence or Personal Excellence as part of your success plan.

And if you are looking for help with your sales team, I would invite you to call our friends at Sales Momentum.

Nancy

A few weeks ago, we were host to our Leadership Excellence associate publishers from China, Ken and Winnie Han. Ken had been hitting the conference circuit and the hot tourist sites from Florida to Vegas before he was reunited with his wife, Winnie in Salt Lake City. It was their first trip to the Rocky Mountain West and out our office windows, the mountains seem just a few footsteps away. Even at the end of April, the snow capped peaks made a majestic statement to our visitors from across the world.

The Han’s have a very successful consulting firm in Shanghai China, called Visionary Consulting http://www.vcsh.com , where they are committed to bringing vision and growing leadership to their home country.

Growing leaders – effective leadership, does not recognize the boundaries of governments and politics. It doesn’t seem to matter where in the world we go, there is a natural desire that burns within people to grow and improve.

We had a wonderful exchange of ideas and cultures that will make the time between now and their next visit seem short. The Han’s are great people and we are proud to be a part of growing leadership, building people, and creating vision in China.

Leadership Excellence China had an informal launch in August of last year during the summer Olympics and is now ready to have a formal launch in August of this year. We are excited by the demand and look forward to new opportunities in China with Visionary Consulting as our partner.

Currently Leadership Excellence has several active foreign publishing partners;

Turkey, Korea, China, India and Nigeria to mention just a few. India now also publishes Sales & Service and Personal Excellence as well as Leadership Excellence.  Best wishes to Visionary Consulting in China - we wish them every success.

Authentic leadership has been a buzzword for several years and has recently come back into fashion with the near collapse of the American economic system plagued by scandal and companies scrambling to reposition, retain talent or find new talent!

Where are the leaders? Is the outcry from the observation deck. The leaders were there – they just weren’t “authentic” if you will. Many leaders were authentically bad perhaps.

David Peck in his book Beyond Effective Practices in Self-aware Leadership; he talks about authenticity. “ The actions of the most compelling leaders have a distinct authenticity of heart and mind that others can appreciate. It’s based on how consistently their decisions, communication, and responses to adversity reflect their most heartfelt principles. In their relationships and tasks, authentic leaders are apt to be unguardedly themselves, and not what they think others want or expect them to be. They keep a wary eye in the mirror for any temptation to massage the message, or to ignore their inner compass just to keep the wheels of progress turning. How authentic do you allow yourself to be with others? What holds you back from being transparent to others? What actions are you willing to take to be true to yourself in the presence of others? “

While these are great questions asked by Peck, you cannot be authentic to integrity and good character if you are self absorbed and lying to yourself about who you are or who you want to be. A leader who desires to be know for authenticity needs to be aware he/ she cannot have their “own” agenda, nor can they continue to blame others (or past events) for missed opportunities, mistakes, or even failures. With authenticity comes the responsibility to be 100% accountable for where you are in the every moment of the day…whether it is in conversation with other members of your team, writing a memo, planning a media campaign, or building an alliance. That is the ownership of leadership.

At Leadership Excellence, our publishing parent, Executive Excellence Publishing launched a book by David Gill last summer titled “ It’s About Excellence” Gill addresses these very issues of authenticity while building ethically healthy organizations. Order from Amazon today

Nancy Low

One of our contributing editors for Personal Excellence is Andy Andrews.  His blog posts are always uplifting and endearing.  Today’s post rang true with me as our family has recently  lost a beloved Boxer named Sophie and has found renewed enchantment with Rudy Finn Anoop,  our new baby Irish Setter. Enjoy this blog from Andy Andrews - you can visit his website at http://www.andyandrews.com

“It has been a quiet house for the past several months
since our beloved Dalmatian, Lucy, passed away.

Even with a six year old boy (Adam), a nine year old boy
(Austin), and three cats (Figaro, Daniel, and Angel)-
you just can’t raise the roof quite as high as you can with
a dog in the mix.  So just to be certain that the decibel
level was redlining, we got a puppy.

Then last night . . . Angel had kittens.

If you are keeping score, that is two boys, one dog,eight
cats, Saint Polly, and shell-shocked me.  I don’t really
get this.  Don’t people usually add one animal at a time
until they have reached a comfortable limit?  After Lucy
died, how did we go (in a span of several weeks) from
one cat to three cats to eight cats and a dog???  I am not
in control here . . .

Anyway . . . the dog.  I am very proud of our dog.  He is
exactly what I wanted.  I wanted a boy dog.  Got it.  Big
dog.  Check.  Hunting dog.  He is.  No shedding.  That,
too.  We got the perfect dog.

For a while, it looked like we might get what I really
wanted . . . a Portuguese Water Dog.  Austin wanted a
Chocolate Lab.  Adam wanted a White Chocolate Lab.
Polly was strangely quiet, though the boys all knew it
was Mama who swung the vote so we all lobbied
fiercely.

Turned out, the dog she settled on is a rare breed so we
actually had to drive three hundred miles to get him.
No, sir.  You can’t get a Normandy Retriever on just any
street corner.  He is big (for a puppy) and solid black
with the softest hair you ever felt on any dog.  And as
God is my witness, he has webbed feet.  Webbed feet!
A big, black, clumsy puppy with feet that have folds of
skin between the toes.  Like a duck.

You will remember Normandy Retrievers from the first
scenes of the movie “Saving Private Ryan” as the dogs
in a couple of the landing craft.  They were never an
American Kennel Club registered breed but had gained
some popularity in Europe during the first half of the
1900’s as a working/hunting dog.   Adopted by British
troops as bomb dogs during the early part of World War
II, it was the Normandy’s webbed feet and buoyant coat
that first brought the breed to the attention of the United
States Marine Corp.

Needing the unique combination of a rescue animal
strong enough to carry a pack and smart enough to learn
silent hand signals, the Normandy Retriever was chosen
over the German Shepard, which was in great use during
that time, and the breed we know today as the Labrador
Retriever.  And while many breeders claim Labrador
genetics in the Normandy dog and while it is true that
both originated in cold, windswept climes, the
web-footed resemblance has never been enough to make
an actual case-by-case historical comparison.

So why did the Lab rise to such prominence while the
Normandy’s popularity plummeted into almost total
obscurity?  That, my friend, is what Paul Harvey
would’ve called the rest of the story!

On that horrible day of June 6, 1944, as the Allied
Invasion was launched onto the shores of Europe, more
than one hundred black Normandy Retrievers were
scattered throughout the thousands of landing craft.
And as luck would have it, almost all the dogs were
killed in the assault.  The very few that did survive were
abandoned by fast moving troops given to the care of
local villagers.

In an odd footnote to that event, an effort was made to
recover the dogs from the villagers after the war.  After
all, these were highly trained animals and still the
property of Uncle Sam.  The effort was half hearted at
best.  By then, the dogs were entrenched with their own
“families” and were finally forgotten.  They were
dismissed by the war office as “bad luck dogs” and in
one communique, those words were actually written.
Bad Luck Dogs.  As if the dogs themselves had
something to do with the frightening welcome they
received on the beaches of . . . Normandy.

It is curious, isn’t it?  No one seems to know whether the
breed was given the name that stuck-the Normandy
Retriever-before or after the landing on the beaches of
Normandy.  What is not in dispute, however, is the fact
that the generations of dogs since that time can all be
traced back to that few litters of pups that began
appearing in that region of France after the Great War.

And now we have one.  We wanted this dog to be calm
and intelligent with a sense of wisdom about him.  And
since he is jet black, we have named him after one of my
favorite characters from history.  Our new puppy,
George Washington Carver, will be called Carver by
us . . . his new family!  ”

Thank you Andy for your contribution to personal excellence   !

This post is from Judith Glaser and her Creating We - The DNA of Leadership newsletter.  Judith is one of our top thought leaders, and is a Champion of Excellence as are all the people she works with.   We appreciate their contribution and invite you to enjoy her article here.

Some of us have worked in organizations where telling others what to do is the norm. Maybe you’ve grown up in a family where parents lectured you about what is right and wrong, and you’ve brought that skill into work.

Lecturing takes many forms. In some organizations, we go to meetings where people give presentations using PowerPoint. We are expected to ‘talk’ our stories so others know what is on our minds or what is important. We give business updates to one another to keep one another informed. Lectures, and all the variations can become the norm. Even email and Blackberry - if out of balance with real talk, can become a form of lecturing at others.

Some telling is normal, but too much telling becomes hyper-lecturing making listeners tune out. Moreover, to compound the situation, we think that because we have ‘told someone what to do’ they get it the way we intended it, so we move on to the next point we want to make rather than checking back for understanding.

Telling has a place in communicating, yet this pattern can turn off and disengage our brains, our relationships and our culture from reality. It doesn’t stop with the two people who are interacting. The message communicates “my way or the highway” or “do as I say,” or even “status quo” which can ripple throughout a team, and organization and become the cultural norm.

Tone Deaf and Blind

The consequence of this pattern is that people stop really listening to one another. They become so focused on telling what is on their minds, that they become tone deaf to the cues and clues that others are sending back about the discussions on the table. The important connection between the two people becomes broken, and they lose their natural syncing, rapport and more so - their empathy for one another.

One-way conversations have associated neurochemistries that actually reinforce the talking-at pattern. It feels great to be self-expressed, and the more we do it the more we want to do it. Talking at others feels good. There is a feedback loop to pleasure centers in the brain, increasing our appetite, and we want more.

Yet we know from our research that every 12-18 seconds listeners stop listening. Their brains need to take a break and digest. When they are being talked at non-stop, their brains need to integrate and make sense of what is being said. Consequently they tune-out and process the information they have heard.

Lecturing has its side effects. If you are a leader and want to develop your colleague’s abilities, capabilities, and performance, you need to know that lecturing rarely develops another’s ability to perform better. Lecturing is a monologue, a one-way conversation.

More often than not, the lecturer does not notice that they have left the listener behind. They are so engrossed in speaking that they do not realize the listener is off on their own mental journey. One-way conversations tire the brain. We tune out and turn off. Two-way conversations allow the brain to breathe and process at the same time.

Lecturing Our Way to Success

Awareness of the lecturing pattern can have a dramatic impact on your life. Ask yourself the following questions and when you find the answers, create your own action plan for change. Do your experiments every day.

Questions to Reflect On:

• What are the communication patterns you are establishing with others?
• Which are habits you are not aware of?
• What is the impact of these patterns on your relationships?
• Who has been open with you and told you that you were not communicating?
• How did you respond to these courageous people?
• Are you open to listening? Are you open to feedback?
• Are you inviting people to share feedback with you?

Communication Habit Patterns are the spine of a culture. We often don’t see them - yet they are the fabric that holds us together. For more insights into Habit Patterns, read Creating WE: Change I-Thinking to WE-Thinking and Build a Healthy Thriving Organization

In our March issue of Leadership Excellence, our editor, Ken Shelton remarks about attending the training conference in Atlanta.

Always a highlight of traveling to conferences,  is the opportunity to meet our raving fans, champions of excellence, people committed to living a better life and being the best they can be no matter what it takes and interact with those in the training field..

. Such was the case at the conference in Atlanta. Ken mentions in his editorial note, one attendee, Althea Barnette and her positive response to his workshop on developing leaders in contrast to those who walked out, uncomfortable with “ in your face, keep it real, no nonsense “ delivery . But in addition to Althea, Gary Strack was also in attendance .

I would like to post Gary’s email response to the conference management.

L.N. ,

I recently read in the latest issue of Leadership Excellence the Editors Notes by Ken Shelton. He comments on several items including feedback on his seminar at Training 2009. As someone who attended this seminar this is my view and evaluation of his seminar. (It is based on my perspective and experience as President/CEO of major healthcare organization who did a mid career doctorate on leadership and taught extensively in higher education as a recognized outstanding teacher). His session was definitely worth the price of admission.  Mr. Shelton understands leadership development probably as well or better than anyone in America.  He knows leadership development, rather than just knowing about it. Leaders are developed over many years based on all kind of experiences and not by a microwave approach or a simple and elegant training methodology. Mr. Shelton reminded me of Harry Truman when Truman said “He doesn’t give people hell he just tells them the truth and they think it is  hell.”  Ken tells the truth about leadership development. One of my favorite poems about the truth and leadership is by Emily Dickinson entitled Tell  all the Truth but tell it Slant.

Tell all the truth but tell it slant-

Success in Circuit lies

Too bright for our infirm Delight

The Truth’s superb surprise

As Lighting to the Children eased

With explanation kind

The Truth must dazzle gradually

Or every man be blind-

There were obviously a few individuals blinded by some of Mr. Shelton’s leadership truths that weren’t slanted. Mr. Shelton was generous enough to give every seminar attendee a free subscription to the three outstanding publications, Leadership Excellence, Personal Excellence, and Sales and Service Excellence. These publications have a subscription price of $375.00. However, the content for a future leader or teacher of leadership is almost invaluable because of the outstanding authors and wisdom contained in each issue. This was a gift that will keep on giving for every attendee.

In my opinion, not having Mr. Shelton or a representative of his organization present at next years Training2010 would be a loss for the conference. I would be happy to talk to one of the conference leaders to share any other views they might want to discuss….Sincerely,  Gary Strack

Thank you Gary Strack, you are a Champion of Excellence.

I would invite you to get a copy of our March issue of Leadership Excellence with Barack Obama on the cover as he is the subject of Warren Bennis’s article on Optimism and you can read Ken Shelton’s editorial  on 99 –second leadership.

Now is not the time for tender footing about in leadership. It is time to take seriously our personal responsibility to be outstanding in our respective fields… not just “out, standing in the field”

Nancy

Email me for your complimentary copy of March LE        nancy.low@eep.com

Business organizations carry a terrible burden.

In effect, business is expected to make right what’s wrong in society, including the breakdown of marriages, families, schools, and governments. Business is expected to make the economy healthy, to be competitive, to ensure quality, to supply relevant training and education to all employees, and to have effective structures, systems, and processes. Business is expected to be a productive, ethical, disciplined, and profitable island in a sea of moral and social chaos.

No one knows how heavy the burden is better than business owners and executives. It’s heavy enough to break some very good men and women-especially those who are still operating in hierarchical and bureaucratic organizations because they face both internal and external opposition to getting quality work done, being competitive on a world-class level, and making profit.

Six Ways to Steal

What adds tremendous weight and worry to the already major burden on the back of business is internal waste and division. Well documented is the fact that a house divided cannot stand. One of the primary causes of business failure is internal sabotage in the form of employee theft. Since there are a million ways to steal from an employer, I will mention only six broad categories:

1. Time and talent. This includes everything from arriving late, leaving early, long lunches and liberal breaks to various forms of wasted time and effort on the job. Perhaps more serious than wasted time is wasted talent and prolonged strikes. Of course, employees are not the only ones to blame; many good people work in bad systems and in jobs that simply don’t require the full range of talent.

2. Customers and clients. When it’s “everybody for himself or herself,” then the common ethic is “whatever piece of the business I can handle on the side or take with me when I leave is legitimately mine.” You get all you can from the company while you work there; and in an atmosphere of low trust and layoffs, you may even hope to leave the organization with a few of its customers and clients, perhaps becoming a competitor.

3. Resources and supplies. The resources and supplies of the company become yours to be used as you wish. The idea that the company will “never miss it” may be true in an isolated case, but when multiplied by many thousands of employees, “minor theft” results in a major drain on company resources.

4. Reputation and image. It’s always hard to put a number on the value of the company’s reputation or public image, but major investments are made in public relations and advertising to create and maintain a certain image in the marketplace and to be known for something good. And yet any one person can significantly damage a corporation’s reputation by going public with dirty laundry, spreading gossip and rumors, committing some sort of fraud or crime, or by some incident in his or her private life, such as drunk driving, drug use or spouse abuse.

5. Money and profits. While petty theft is certainly a problem, it pales in comparison to the dramatic drain on company profits caused by law suits, many of them aggressively handled by hungry attorneys who are happy to believe one side of the story and push for their client’s alleged violated rights, playing every advantage card off the bottom of the deck. The enormous waste of time and money devoted to defending such law suits robs companies and their stakeholders of a fair return on investment.

6. Disciplined work. One big lie perpetrated today is the idea that you can separate your personal life from your professional life and that bad habits or addictions or lack of discipline or concentration in your personal life won’t affect your work. It simply doesn’t wash. When the personal side of your life is messy, it will show up in your work.

Six Ways to Ease the Burden

Each employee can ease the burden of business in many ways.

1. Repay employers for benefits. Rather than see benefits as entitlements, see them as investments that deserve returns. When, for example, you receive job-related training, look for ways to apply what you learn to benefit the company.

2. Seek ways to make the company more profitable. Every person can make constructive suggestions. And everyone can act to implement the cost-saving or profit-enhancing ideas of others.

3. When you find ways to add value, seek more resources to leverage your work. Show how the company is benefiting-and how much more bottom-line benefit is possible. Seek additional resources to leverage the win for the company.

4. Be market savvy. Whatever your job, learn all you can about your own internal and external markets. Market awareness and savvy will serve you well. Also, be financially literate.

5. Lead your own life responsibly. Be a model citizen. Take care of your own personal improvement. Come to work each day prepared to perform well.

6. Go beyond what is required. Seek innovation and improvement in company products and services. Network with others to make good things happen. Often the “high end” of your job description is the end most neglected-and that’s where the greatest potential for major contribution lies.

When everyone shares the burden, the heavy burden of business is bearable; in fact, at times it can even feel light.

All great leaders have some aspects of their personalities in common. Outstanding leaders share seven qualities:

1. Great leaders identify, cultivate, and inspire enthusiastic followers. Some people are successful but are not leaders. They work best on their own and enrich themselves. Great leaders enlist the cooperation, support, and loyalty of others. Few businesses can survive and thrive without people to carry out the leaders’ programs. Good leaders not only understand their employees, but motivate them to do their very best work.
2. Great leaders focus their efforts. Good leaders concentrate their efforts to reach goals. Those who do not focus their efforts will never achieve marked success in anything. No one is large enough to be split into many parts; and the sooner we stamp this truth upon our minds, the better our chances for success. Waste comes with trying to do too many things at once.
3. Great leaders face and overcome great difficulties. Adversity can destroy some people, but all good leaders have faced adversity and bounced back to greater glories. Change those stumbling blocks to stepping stones on the path to success. Strive vigorously to use everything that comes to you, whether pleasant or unpleasant, to your advantage. Do not allow an unpleasant letter, a disagreeable criticism, an uncharitable remark, or another trial to cloud your day. If you can make no other use of your misfortune, use it as a point of departure for a new and determined effort.
4. Great leaders expect more from themselves than they do from others. Great leaders set an example for their followers by demanding more of themselves. They work more hours, take on more challenges, initiate more programs, and give the full measure of their energies to their work.
5. Great leaders are not afraid to make tough decisions. Whether leading a nation or a corporation, every day the leader faces problems that require decisions. In some cases there is adequate time to think, assess, and evaluate all of the circumstances surrounding the problem, but quite often an immediate decision is needed. The good leader must make such decisions.
6. Great leaders have a vision and utmost faith in themselves to fulfill that vision. Great leaders have all had their visions. They knew what they wanted to accomplish, visualized its outcome, and devoted all their energies and emotions to accomplish that vision. Most important, they truly believed in their own capability to do this.  It makes a great difference whether you go into a thing to win, with clenched teeth and the vision of winning firmly in your mind. Determination to win is half the battle.
7. Great leaders are ambitious for themselves, their companies, and their people. One of the saddest things in life is to see men and women with a faded ambition, a lost life aim. No quality requires more guarding than ambition. It will not live and keep growing if it is not nourished; and the moment we begin to disregard it, we begin to go downhill. If your ambition is not alive, you should strengthen it in every possible way. Visualize the thing you want to be; keep it in your mind constantly; and work for it with all your might.

http://www.utahpulse.com/featured_article/seven-traits-great-leaders

Children are at the prime of their learning capabilities. They will never again learn so much so fast. Because they are on such a high learning curve, the greatest waste, notwithstanding all the dumping that’s going on throughout the world, is the intelligence and inquisitiveness of children.

This is the greatest waste, the waste of the inquisitive child, the waste of the two, three, four, and five year olds-as innocent children are subjected to counterfeit systems, societies, cultures, institutions, and leaders. There’s always hell to pay when parents or surrogates mistreat children; and children pay most dearly.

Recognizing the realities, children are tremendously adaptable and flexible. They have training wheels and baby teeth; their bones are flexible and malleable. They come into life with adaptability and flexibility. But parents and other institutions exploit that, thinking they “won’t remember this” or “be harmed by this.”

One young father who was accused of beating his one-year-old daughter in a fit of rage excused himself by saying the child “fell out of her crib,” even thought the evidence clearly showed that to sustain such damage, she would have to fall two stories.

The question to ask ourselves, both in regard to our own childhoods and our roles as parents or guardians, is this: “What imprints am I making on children?” and “What can I do now to recover from any counterfeiting done?”

False starts and bad early habits are hard (and expensive) to correct later. All too often, the correction never comes. And so we see the start of counterfeit leadership and the demise of personal and professional enterprise.

Ken Shelton