Why deadlines are important

Tasks and projects tend to take about as much time to complete as allotted.

Create urgency with deadlines for accomplishment for you and your team – and you’ll get more done. 

Earning Influence

Leadership is your ability to influence others.  People will allow you to influence them if you have credibility and they can see you are helping them; if they see value in what you are doing.

Have you earned the ability to influence others?

"Forget your time"

When we live by the clock, we create stress.  “I have to do this by then, be here by then, do this in this much time, have so much to do this afternoon or tomorrow.  I have to get to this and get to that and look what time it is already…”

If we are overwhelmed, just forget time any more than you have to for the basics of your daily situation. Select the most important thing to work on.  Clear your desk otherwise. Work on one thing at a time; be present.  You can do anything, and you know it. It’s when you try to do everything at once, or hold many things in your mental waiting line, that you create stress.

Breathe.  Stop manufacturing time and be present to your biggest priority.  Enjoy your work.

The Form Trap

When we identify with form, it is a trap.  “If my business does better, I feel better.  If my business does worse, I feel worse.”  

It is one of the great dualities of an emotionally healthy entrepreneur.  

“I’ve learned to be both ambitious and content” – Jim Rohn

Accept what is, and save yourself all the heartache and stress.  Not resignation.  Not satisfaction.  Acceptance.  

What's better than greatness?

If you have become one of the people that has put it all together and achieved “greatness” in your profession and life, what’s next?  What could be better than greatness?

What’s better and next is to use your greatness to be good – a good person with resources.

Goodness is better than greatness. 

Government "Stewards"

“Nobody spends somebody else’s money as carefully as he spends his own.”

That’s why government is inefficient, wasteful, expansive and expensive. 

There are 456 federal agencies.  There are 22.4 million full and part time federal, state and local government workers.  That’s one in 13.5 citizens.  Take out for retired and children…

It’s ours – should we shrink it?

Contagious You

The character of the leader determines the character of their organization.

You are much more contagious than you know.  What are you spreading?

Info – Useful or not useful

There is a sea of information out there to drown your time and steal your attention.  The right information relevant to you and your current mission is power.  Your job is to find the right information from the right source for you.

Learning is nice, but may not be useful at all unless you are learning the right things.

Your Opinion Matters

What is your opinion of who you are versus your opinion of the challenges you face?

That’s the only opinion that counts.

A message for (most) men

Men speak 3000-4000 words a day.  Women speak over 9000. Okay, this is stereotyping, but it’s mostly true.  Often men who are leaders of businesses don’t communicate enough.  We correct, and guard, and dictate; but it’s not enough.  We think if we say something once, people will remember it forever.

We need to paint the vision we have with words often.  We need to express our ideal organization – more than once a year.  Each day we need to tell people we approve of their positive performance with our words and body language.  When we get poor performance, sarcasm takes few words, but encouragement and training takes much more.  

Stoicism is not a great quality in a leader.  We need to communicate more to our teams guys.