Make Continuous Improvement a Priority

Where does continuous improvement rank on your list of priorities? If it is not at or near the top, then it should be.

Continuous improvement is essential to growth in all of the critical ‘Five F’ areas of life – faith, family, finances, fitness and fun. However, for this article, let’s focus on continuous improvement within the context of the business community.

Start out by asking yourself this question, “What would your business look like if Jack Welch, or Warren Buffett, or Bill Gates were running it?” Continue reading…

How to Define Leadership

How to define leadership. Based upon the number of articles I have read on this topic of late, it appears to be an increasingly complex challenge.

Why all the recent emphasis on leadership?

If you have read my book, Globalization: America’s Leadership Challenge Ahead, you know the answer. The greatest challenge that we face today is not the economy, it’s not the environment or global warming; nor is it poverty, homelessness and world hunger, population growth, scarcity of resources, or world peace and stability – it is leadership.

Leadership Image

Quite frankly, the thing that is sorely lacking in our country and elsewhere is leadership. There is just not enough of it to go around today to solve all the problems we face as a global society. Continue reading…

Shut Up and Push

Shut up and push. Oddly enough, these four words hold a great deal of significance for me and I hope they will help you overcome obstacles to your success as well in the future. Let me explain.

My wife, Laura, and I will be celebrating our 35th wedding anniversary this next month. As our special date approaches each year, a lot of cherished memories always come rushing to the surface. A couple of my fondest memories are the births of our children.

Shut Up and Push Image

Laura was in labor for more than 33 hours with each of our children, Melanie and Daniel. You might say that she liked to “savor the labor”. However, I would never repeat that within earshot of my wife, for fear of being whacked upside the head. Melanie was the more difficult of the two deliveries. Continue reading…

Life is a Matter of Inches

Life is a matter of inches. Here in America, we saw this tragically displayed this past week in the streets of Boston, the small town of West, Texas, and remotely in the Sichuan province of China where a deadly earthquake claimed the lives of 180 people and injured more than 5,700 others.

Al Pacino’s famous line from his half-time speech in the movie Any Given Sunday repeated over and over in my head as I sat glued to the news reports as last week’s events unfolded in real-time. “The inches we need are everywhere around us” was being played out on every news channel around the globe and in the lives of those affected by these tragic events.

Boston Marathon Bombing

Each day we see examples of how the inches around us can impact lives. A 4.82 second time in the 40 yard dash versus a 4.71 time at the NFL Combine can mean the difference between being selected #32 or #17 in the upcoming NFL draft. A few inches (or seconds) in your finish time in the Boston Marathon or travel time around West, Texas could make the difference between being in the blast zone or not – between life or death. Just ask Joe Berti.

Continue reading…

What Inspires You to Be the Best YOU?

What is inspiration and where does it come from? The dictionary holds several definitions for the word “inspiration” or “inspire” that transcend physiological, intellectual, emotional or spiritual boundaries.

When I think of inspiration, I immediately either correctly or incorrectly, associate it with things that motivate or move me to action. Images of great inspirational leaders like John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King and Zig Ziglar, or scenes from classic movies such as Rocky that symbolize triumph over all odds, come to mind. How about you – where does your inspiration come from?

POI Book Cover

For the past six months, I have had the pleasure of working with Bryan Downer, the founder of Light Point Press http://www.lightpointpress.com/, our editor Corinne Shipman, and 14 amazing local authors on the Power of Inspiration Project. This project has culminated with the early release of our best-selling new book titled, POWER OF INSPIRATION: Dare to Be the Best YOU! Continue reading…

Help Others Through His Example

Earlier this week we said farewell to one of the great motivational speakers and inspirational leaders of all time, when Zig Ziglar passed away. Through his books, cassettes, CD’s, public speaking and personal development programs, Mr. Ziglar has been an inspiration to millions of people around the world.

I first had the opportunity to hear him speak at a one-day business conference in Kansas City over 35 years ago. Mr. Zig Ziglar, along with Art Linkletter and Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, were all electrifying that day. The sold out crowd of several thousand people who attended the conference, like me, were spellbound by the presentations of these great inspirational leaders and came away from the event “on fire”.

Zig Ziglar Image

Although I did not meet him in person at the event, Zig Ziglar’s books, cassettes and The Performance Planner have helped shape my personal and professional life through the years. What has also stayed with me through most of my adult life was his most inspirational quote … Continue reading…

Stand FOR Something or Take a Seat

The past several weeks have been a busy time for Americans. We have provided aid and support to those affected by super storm Sandy, re-elected our President and Vice-President and honored our veterans this past Monday on Veterans Day.

Now with the holidays looming on the horizon, our schedules should get even crazier with holiday parties, shopping and family gatherings. It should be a time for celebration, a time for renewal, and a time for thanks giving, joy and hope. However, I just don’t sense the traditional holiday spirit this year.

Maybe it is the hangover from the presidential campaign, or the growing unrest with the direction of the country that may have taken the air out of the holiday balloon. Speaking of the election, there were more than 207 million U.S. citizens eligible to vote in the 2012 presidential election. However, only 150 million were registered to vote, and roughly 118 million people actually voted. Continue reading…

Whose Story Are You Writing?

It saddens me to see how far we have digressed as a nation and as human beings in just the past few years alone.

As a society, we have become far too negative and polarized, fixated on the trials and misfortunes of others. The daily headlines are littered with less than flattering photos of Kate Gosselin 40 lbs. heavier, the latest break-up or trip to rehab by some Hollywood star, and unabashed criticism of our country’s leadership. The seemly endless stream of “Reality TV” shows that glorify bad behavior and amplify the worst in people, are a further reflection of the moral decay within the fabric of our society.

What has happened to the proud America I grew up in where people went out of their way to help their neighbors and to lift others up? We were once the land of opportunity that served as a beacon of hope for the rest of the world. Where is that America today? Continue reading…

Play Your Square Yard

Some of my fondest memories are of my children playing sports. When my youngest son, Daniel, first began to play Select soccer, I remember how much we enjoyed watching the boys compete and grow together as teammates.

Several of the most competitive matches my son’s club faced in both league play and in tournaments were against a club from Mundelein, Illinois. The Mundelein soccer team was coached by a gentleman originally from Scotland. His players were very disciplined, particularly for their age group, and the transitions on the field and their overall teamwork were amazing to watch.

Recalling the memories of how well these U-9 and U-10 soccer players worked together made me think, “Why can’t business, education and government in the U.S function this cohesively?” If these 9- and 10-year-old boys can do it, why can’t we figure out how to come together to unify America? Continue reading…

How Should We Respond to Change?

The only constant in life is change. Heraclitus of Ephesus was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher, known for his doctrine of change. He believed that change was central to the universe, and fundamental to the natural order of the cosmos. Well, if change is central to the natural order of the universe, then why do we still continue to struggle with change in our lives today?

One of mankind’s greatest contradictions is that the majority of us seeks change in our lives daily, both professionally and personally. Yet, we fiercely resist change when it does occur. President Obama won the presidential election largely because the electorate felt he embodied the change most voters needed in our country. Now, the two political parties are tearing themselves and the country apart as a result of the changes made during Obama’s presidency. Is this an appropriate response to change? Hardly. Continue reading…