Are you coachable?

Can you execute what
your coach recommends?

Not everybody is coachable, you know.
I’ve worked with a lot of non-coachable people.
They’ve done it wrong so long they see no other way.
Their experience narrows their perspective.
They close their minds. That holds them back.

They strangle on their own limiting beliefs.

Then there’s the “smartest guy in the room”.
He’s seen it all. He’s tried it all. He knows it all.
You can’t show him anything new that he will accept.

There’s no point in trying to coach these people.
They will ignore and resist your best efforts.
Even worse, they will gossip behind your back.
They will belittle your sincere efforts to help them.

As a coach, I look for those who are curious.
They read. They listen. They soak up ideas.
More than that, they take action on new ideas.
They don’t just nod in agreement and do nothing.
They take notes, set priorities, tackle new projects.
They are restless to achieve more.

How curious are you? How open are you to new ideas?
Do you take notes? Set priorities? Tackle new projects?
If not, it’s time to re-examine your motivation.

Share with me how you motivate yourself.
I’ll share the best ideas in a future Success Strategies.
Leave your thinking at Post a Comment below.
I’m open to your best ideas.

We need Prosperity Thinking

Bake a bigger pie to give
everyone a bigger slice

The National Speakers Association has an informal motto.
“Bake a bigger pie so everyone can have a slice.”
It is the underlying principle of the organization.
It brings pro speakers together to help each other.
Rather than competing they complement each other.
That’s Prosperity Thinking - not Scarcity Thinking.
We use this profitably in the newspaper business.
We work with other small newspaper owners.
We share information and ideas to help each other.
We place legal advertising in two other newspapers.
We all profit from this cooperative venture.
I work with seven other newspaper consultants.
We help - not compete with - each other.
We refer business to each other and advise each other.
The same goes with our advertising clients.
We preach “investing in” not “spending on” ads.
Advertising should be an investment in future sales.
In whatever you do, talk investment with clients.
They are investing to fill a need or a want.
They’re investing in a solution or an opportunity.
They are investing to fulfill their hopes and dreams.
Never talk about “costs” or “buying”.
Always talk about “investing”.
Prosperity Thinking isn’t a linguistic subterfuge.
It is an attitude and a way of seeing transactions.
Share with me how you use Prosperity Thinking.
You can Post a Comment below.

3 leadership lessons

My year as our Rotary club president ends this week.
It has been a great year for our club.
Many leadership lessons were learned.
We raised a lot of money for community causes.
We increased membership almost 25%.
And most important, we had a lot of fun together.
Here are three leadership lessons from this.
1. Have fun in whatever you do.
When it’s fun, it never seems like work.
We worked hard and accomplished a lot.
But it never seemed like work - more like play.
2. Surround yourself with fun people.
Visitors always tell me what a good time they had.
“Do you have this much fun every Friday?” they ask.
Yes, we do. Every Friday. I wouldn’t miss a meeting.
3. Fun people are dependable people.
You can count on them. They never let you down.
Be dependable yourself. Don’t let them down.
Whatever they need of you, do it with joy.
Serving others is one of our greatest privileges.
It brings us that much closer to our Creator.
“Lead People, Manage Things” tells how to do this.
For more on the book, click here.

Is stupidity contagious?

Did “Catcher in the Rye” influence your outlook?

Here’s a Father’s Day message for you.
J.D. Salinger’s “Holden Caulfield” is an influence. Teenagers identify with him and his angst.
Like him in “Catcher in the Rye”, they are uneasy. They wonder if the world is against them.
They question and wonder about everything.

As a teenager, I had a load of angst.
The book’s influence was powerful.
In time, I realized the world wasn’t against me.
The rest of the world was only indifferent to me.
The world did not care what I did.
Only my parents and other loved ones did.
As Holden’s sister Phoebe did. She tried to help.
Whatever we make of life is up to us.

A recent study confirmed such influence on the young.
College students read a short story before a test.
The story was about a drunk soccer hooligan.
Apparently they identified with his behavior.
They shared his irresponsible self-image.
On tests, they scored poorly. Was self-image the cause?

Others read and underlined behavior they questioned.
They considered how they differed from the drunk.
Drinking, fighting and wasting your life.
This group did far better than the first group.

A third group did not read the story before the tests.
This group scored even higher than the other.
So I ask you, is stupidity contagious?
How does what we put into our minds influence us?
If we associate with losers, what happens to us?
We pick up their attitudes, don’t we?
In tech talk, garbage in, garbage out.

If we associate with winners, what happens?
If we read about successful people, what happens?
Now here’s the most important question of all:
How does our example influence others?
Are we strong role models - or hooligans?
Do we want to make a difference for good or evil?
It really is up to us how we behave.
Our example may powerfully influence others.
Consider your words and your actions.
Others who look up to you are watching.

Are you a role model worth emulating?
Do you serve your life’s purpose or anything less?
Are you showing others how to act and live?

To comment, click on Post a Comment below.
For more on your life’s purpose, click here.

Can you buy success?

What made Dirk Nowitzki
the Most Valuable Player?

You don’t have to care about sports to appreciate this.
An underdog team won this year’s NBA championship.
The gutsy Dallas Mavericks beat a bunch of all stars.
Everyone said they were over-matched from the start.
They were supposed to fold in the first round.

They battled through pro basketball's best teams.
Bookies probably lost a fortune betting against them.
Sunday night they beat the Miami Heat 105-95.
The Heat was not supposed to lose.

It was an emotional moment for Dallas’s Dirk Nowitzki.
He even hid in the locker room and cried.
He had been called a choke artist much of his career
Now he was the tournament's Most Valuable Player.

Miami had bought three top pro basketball stars.
Their aim was to win the NBA championship.
Everyone thought they would.
The Mavericks showed you can’t buy championships.
It takes a team, a dream and guts to do that.

So here’s the takeway from this little story:

1. Be careful that you don’t under-estimate rivals.
It isn’t the size of the dog in the fight.
It’s the size of the fight in the dog.

2. Never ever give in no matter what.
Winston Churchill rallied his countrymen at war.
They were a nation under seige by Nazi Germany.
“Never, never, never give in,” he told his people.
They didn’t and you know the rest of the story.

3. Believe in yourself no matter who opposes you.
Walt Disney’s people thought he had lost his mind.
He wanted to build a costly amusement park.
They begged and pleaded with Walt to forget it.
He didn’t. He rolled the dice and built Disneyland.
You know the rest of that story, too.

Please add your own story at Post a Comment below.
All of us love great underdog stories.