Five Age Old Leadership Lessons: #3. Always Remember Those Who Serve

I wish I could take credit for these, but I cannot. Here is the third of five "Age Old Leadership Lessons"... In the days when an ice cream sundae cost much less, a 10-year-old boy entered a hotel coffee shop and sat at a table. A waitress put a glass of water in front of him. "How much is an ice cream sundae?" he asked. "Fifty cents," replied the waitress. The little boy pulled his hand out of his pocket and studied the coins in it. "Well, how much is a plain dish of ice cream?" he inquired. By now more people were waiting for a table and the waitress was growing impatient. "Thirty-five cents," she brusquely replied. The little boy again counted his coins. "I'll have the plain ice cream," he said. The waitress brought the ice cream, put the bill on the table and walked away. The boy finished the ice cream, paid the cashier and left. When the waitress came back, she began to cry as she wiped down the table. There, placed neatly beside the empty dish, were two nickels and five pennies. You see, the little boy couldn't have the sundae, because he had to have enough left to leave her a tip. Truth@Life can help you, regardless of your location. Call 248-396-6255 or email me at curtis.songer@gmail.com for a free consultation. If you receive value from these blogs, please consider donating to keep this blog site up and running. This ministry cannot continue without the generous donations of its readers. Just click on the "Donate" button in the upper right. For more info on help I can provide check out http://truthatlife.com/ or email me at curtis.songer@gmail.com

Five Age Old Leadership Lessons: #2. Help People in Need

I wish I could take credit for these, but I cannot. Here is the second of five "Age Old Leadership Lessons"... One night, at 11:30 p.m., an older African American woman was standing on the side of an Alabama highway trying to endure a lashing rain storm. Her car had broken down and she desperately needed a ride. Soaking wet, she decided to flag down the next car. A young white man stopped to help her, generally unheard of in those conflict-filled 1960's. The man took her to safety, helped her get assistance and put her into a taxicab. She seemed to be in a big hurry, but wrote down his address and thanked him. Seven days went by and a knock came on the man's door. To his surprise, a giant console color TV was delivered to his home. A special note was attached. It read: "Thank you so much for assisting me on the highway the other night. The rain drenched not only my clothes, but also my spirits. Then you came along. Because of you, I was able to make it to my dying husband's' bedside just before he passed away. God bless you for helping me and unselfishly serving others." Sincerely, Mrs. Nat King Cole. Truth@Life can help you, regardless of your location. Call 248-396-6255 or email me at curtis.songer@gmail.com for a free consultation. If you receive value from these blogs, please consider donating to keep this blog site up and running. This ministry cannot continue without the generous donations of its readers. Just click on the "Donate" button in the upper right. For more info on help I can provide check out http://truthatlife.com/ or email me at curtis.songer@gmail.com

Five Age Old Leadership Lessons: #1. Notice People: They Deserve Your Attention

I wish I could take credit for these, but I cannot. Here is the first of five "Age Old Leadership Lessons"... During my second month of college, our professor gave us a pop quiz. I was a conscientious student and had breezed through the questions until I read the last one: "What is the first name of the woman who cleans the school?" Surely this was some kind of joke. I had seen the cleaning woman several times. She was tall, dark-haired and in her 50's, but how would I know her name? I handed in my paper, leaving the last question blank. Just before class ended, one student asked if the last question would count toward our quiz grade. "Absolutely," said the professor. "In your careers, you will meet many people. All are significant. They deserve your attention and care, even if all you do is smile and say "hello." I've never forgotten that lesson. I also learned her name was Dorothy. Truth@Life can help you, regardless of your location. Call 248-396-6255 or email me at curtis.songer@gmail.com for a free consultation. If you receive value from these blogs, please consider donating to keep this blog site up and running. This ministry cannot continue without the generous donations of its readers. Just click on the "Donate" button in the upper right. For more info on help I can provide check out http://truthatlife.com/ or email me at curtis.songer@gmail.com

Who Makes a Great Leader?

If you don’t have the ability to influence others in a positive way, you will never be able to lead others. People have many misconceptions about leadership. When they hear that someone has an impressive title or an assigned leadership position, they assume that he or she is a leader. Sometimes that’s true. But titles don’t have much value when it comes to truly leading. True leadership cannot be awarded, appointed, or assigned. It comes only from influence, and that cannot be mandated – it must be earned. Great examples are Princess Diana and Mother Theresa – neither had any real authority, but both exercised an incredible amount of influence that outlived their individual lives. The only thing a title can buy is a little time – either to increase your level of influence with others or to erase it. Here are five common misunderstandings about leadership: 1. Smart people are natural Leaders: Sir Francis Bacon once said, “Knowledge is power.” Most people, believing that power is the essence of leadership, naturally assume that those who possess knowledge and intelligence are leaders. But that isn’t automatically true. IQ does not necessarily equate to leadership ability. 2. Great managers are great Leaders: A widespread misunderstanding is that leadership and management are one and the same. Up until a few years ago, books that claimed to be on leadership were often really about management. The main difference between the two is that leadership is about influencing people to follow, while management focuses on maintaining systems and processes. Consequently, a great way to test whether a person can lead rather than manage is to ask him to create positive change. 3. The first to go must be the leader: Another misconception is that anyone who is out in front of the crowd is a leader. But being first isn’t the same as leading. Example: Sir Edmund Hillary was the first man to reach the summit of Mount Everest, but he wasn’t the leader of the climb (John Hunt was). Sir Edmund was also one of the first to reach the South Pole. But again, he wasn’t the leader of the Trans-Antarctic Expedition; Sir Vivian Fuchs was. Leaders often go first and lead by example, but those who go first are not always good leaders – it takes more than that to be a good leader. 4. Entrepreneurs make excellent leaders: Frequently, people assume that all salespeople and entrepreneurs are leaders. But that’s often not the case. Just because someone is buying what they are selling, does not make them leaders – people are not really following them. At best, salespeople and entrepreneurs may be able to persuade someone for the moment, but they hold no long-term real influence. 5. The boss is the real leader: As mentioned earlier, the greatest misconception about leadership is that people think it is based on position, but it’s not. As Stanley Huffy once affirmed, “It is not the position that makes the leader, but the leader who makes the position.” Positional leadership doesn’t work with volunteer organizations. These leaders don’t have leverage – or influence – so they are ineffective. In volunteer organizations, such as churches, the only thing that works is leadership in its purest form – influence-based, servant leadership. One of my favorite leadership proverbs is, “He who thinks he leads, but has no followers, is only taking a walk.” If you can’t influence others, they won’t follow you. And if they won’t follow, you’re not a leader. No matter what anybody else says, always remember that leadership is the ability to influence in a positive manner – nothing more, nothing less. Do you or someone you know need to improve their influence? Truth@Life can help you, regardless of your location. Call 248-396-6255 or email me at curtis.songer@gmail.com for a free consultation. If you receive value from these blogs, please consider donating to keep this blog site up and running. This ministry cannot continue without the generous donations of its readers. Just click on the "Donate" button in the upper right. For more info on help I can provide check out http://truthatlife.com/ or email me at curtis.songer@gmail.com

What Is Leadership & Why Is It Important?

Leadership is influence, nothing more, nothing less. Everyone is a leader – from the stay-at-home mom, to the elected government official, to the big brother/sister, to the CEO. Leadership ability determines a person’s level of effectiveness. The collective leadership ability within an organization determines that organization’s effectiveness. The stronger the leadership, the greater the effectiveness. Leadership ability – for better or worse – always determines your effectiveness and the potential impact you can have on those around you and your organization. A great example of this is the story of the McDonald’s Corporation. The original founders in 1937, were Dick & Maurice McDonald. They had a vision for speedy, economical hamburgers with a drive-up window capability. Unfortunately, their vision, as well as their leadership ability, never enabled their restaurants to expand to more than a few outlets. Eventually (in 1955), they sold their business to Ray Kroc, a business man with a much greater vision and leadership ability. By 1998, McDonald’s had expanded to 21,000 restaurants in more than 100 countries. His strong leadership allowed the corporation to grow exponentially. Personal success without servant leadership brings only limited effectiveness. It is temporal. A person’s impact is only a fraction of what it could be with good leadership. It takes true servant leadership to make lasting impact, to leave an enduring legacy. The more you hope to achieve, the more you are going to need good leadership skills, for yourself and for your organization. The greater the impact you want to make, the greater your influence needs to be. Whatever you will accomplish in life is restricted by your ability to lead and influence others. Leadership ability is always the limit on both personal and organizational effectiveness. Personal and organizational effectiveness is proportionate to the strength of leadership ability present. Look around you. There are plenty of examples where you can find smart, talented, successful people who are able to go only so far because of the limitations of their leadership ability. You can find plenty of churches located in wealthy, growing areas that are dying a slow death. In times of trouble, many organizations look for new leadership. When a country is experiencing hard times, it elects a new president. When a company is losing money, it hires a new CEO. When a sports team keeps losing, it looks for a new coach. And when a church is floundering, it searches for a new senior pastor. The good news is that getting rid of the leader isn’t the only way. If leadership is strong, the limit is high. You can break through the limitations on yourself or your organization by improving the leadership skills present. The principles of leadership are immutable, they never change. They have existed for thousands of years. They can be studied and learned. They can be mastered through application. Do you or of someone you know need to improve their leadership ability? Truth@Life can help you, regardless of your location. Call 248-396-6255 or email me at curtis.songer@gmail.com for a free consultation. If you receive value from these blogs, please consider donating to keep this blog site up and running. This ministry cannot continue without the generous donations of its readers. Just click on the "Donate" button in the upper right. For more info on help I can provide check out http://truthatlife.com/ or email me at curtis.songer@gmail.com

Empowerment (part 2 of 2)

Only secure leaders are able to give themselves away. Mark Twain once remarked that, “Great things can happen when you don’t care who gets the credit.” Some take that a step farther. They believe that great things can happen only when you give the credit to others. They are the empowerers. Leadership must be based on goodwill. It means wholehearted commitment to helping followers. It is men of heart who are so helpful that they, in effect, do away with the need of their jobs. Leaders like that are never out of a job and never out of followers. Strange as it sounds, great leaders gain authority by giving it away. Abraham Lincoln is a great example of this. Although he was often accused of having stretched the power of the Executive Office, he based his power upon the empowerment of others. He could not have commanded so much executive power had he not built up a base of empowered leaders who wholeheartedly supported him. This is clearly demonstrated in his empowerment of his general during the Civil War, despite his own strong opinions on how the war should be conducted. He gave others credit for the victories and took full responsibility for the “opportunities missed”. Leaders, such as Lincoln, take the blame for failure and give others the credit for success. Consequently, a key to empowering others is a high belief in people. Empowerment is powerful, not only for the person being developed, but also for the mentor. Enlarging others makes you larger. It helps others achieve what they could not have done on their own. It makes them a better leader. That is the impact of the Principle of Empowerment. Do you or of someone you know struggle with empowerment? Truth@Life can help you, regardless of your location. Call 248-396-6255 or email me at curtis.songer@gmail.com for a free consultation. If you receive value from these blogs, please consider donating to keep this blog site up and running. This ministry cannot continue without the generous donations of its readers. Just click on the "Donate" button in the upper right. For more info on help I can provide check out http://truthatlife.com/ or email me at curtis.songer@gmail.com

Barriers to Empowerment

People’s capacity to achieve is often determined by their leader’s ability to empower. The empowerment leadership model shifts away from positional power. With the empowerment model, all the people are given leadership roles so they can contribute to their fullest capacity. Only empowered people can reach their potential. When a leader can’t or won’ empower others, he creates barriers within the organization that people cannot overcome. If the barriers remain long enough, then the people give up, or they move to another organization where they can maximize their potential. Leaders frequently violate the Principle of Empowerment for the following reasons: 1. Desire for Job Security: The primary enemy of empowerment is the desire for job security. A weak leader worries that if he helps his subordinates, he will become dispensable. The paradox is that the only way to make yourself indispensable is to make yourself dispensable. In other words, if you are able to continually empower others and help them develop so that they become capable of taking over your job, you will become so valuable to the organization that you become indispensable. 2. Resistance to Change: Nobel Prize winning author John Steinbeck once stated, “It is the nature of man as he grows older to protest against change, particularly change for the better.” By its very nature, empowerment brings constant change because it encourages people to grow and innovate. Stated another way, a leader may occasionally have to “kill his own baby.” Change is the price of progress. 3. Lack of Self-Worth: Many people gain their personal value and esteem from their work or their position. Threaten to change either of them, and you threaten their self-worth. But to those who have confidence in themselves, change is a stimulus because they believe one person can make a difference and influence what goes on around them. These people are the doers and motivators. They are also empowerers. The best leaders have a rock-solid sense of self-worth.

A Promise to My Children

I came across this recently and loved it. I think it summarizes how a lot of us parents feel: As long as I live, I am your parent first and your friend second. I will stalk you, flip out on you, lecture you, drive you insane, be your worst nightmare, and hunt you down like a bloodhound when needed – because I LOVE YOU! When you understand that, I will know that you have become a responsible adult. You will NEVER find someone who loves, prays, cares, and worries about you MORE than I do! If you don’t think you hate me at least once in your life – I am not doing my job properly. Love, Your Mon & Dad

A New Year’s Resolution (part 2 of 2)

I do not say that I have already won the race or have already reached perfection. But I am pressing on, striving to lay hold of the prize for which also Christ has laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not imagine that I have yet laid hold of it. But this one thing I do - forgetting everything which is past and stretching forward to what lies in front of me, with my eyes fixed on the goal I push on to secure the prize of God’s heavenward call in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:13-14 Continued from yesterday’s blog… But like any New Year’s resolution, this will not be easy. Studies show it usually takes less than 10 days to break a New Year’s resolution! Anything of value is almost always difficult to achieve. We must be persistent. As the passage above states, we must “press on toward the goal” through our victories and our failures. We must discipline ourselves to do the things we need to do when we need to do them, so the day will come when we will be able to do the things we want to do when we want to do them. And what will be the reward for our efforts? The passage promises we will “secure the prize of God’s heavenward call.” What does that mean? I think it means several things. Obviously, it means that we will secure heavenly rewards. But I believe there are earthly rewards we will be blessed with as well. First, by impacting the lives of others we leave a lasting legacy here on earth. One clear example is the impact we can have on our own children – messengers we send into a time we will not visit ourselves. But this impact is not only reserved for our children, but also (as stated earlier) for anyone we come into contact with at work, in our neighborhoods, at home, and at church. Second, and perhaps less palpable, is the impact it has on our own life. The process of forgetting what lies behind and pressing on to what lies ahead is a better way to live and transforms us into better human beings as we practice this way of life. As you begin this New Year, focus on forgetting the past and moving on to fulfill a purpose that will outlive you. Do you have a vision for the purpose God has called you to? Truth@Life can help you, regardless of your location. Call 248-396-6255 or email me at curtis.songer@gmail.com for a free consultation. If you receive value from these blogs, please consider donating to keep this blog site up and running. This ministry cannot continue without the generous donations of its readers. Just click on the "Donate" button in the upper right. For more info on help I can provide check out http://truthatlife.com/ or email me at curtis.songer@gmail.com

A New Year’s Resolution (part 1 of 2)

I do not say that I have already won the race or have already reached perfection. But I am pressing on, striving to lay hold of the prize for which also Christ has laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not imagine that I have yet laid hold of it. But this one thing I do - forgetting everything which is past and stretching forward to what lies in front of me, with my eyes fixed on the goal I push on to secure the prize of God’s heavenward call in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:13-14 Tom Peters, the famous business author, calls it “sticking to the knitting”. Knowing your core mission/vision, and focusing all your efforts on it – without getting distracted. There are two parts to this: not dwelling on the past, and reaching ahead to achieve the mission and vision of the future. The past can bog us down in two distinctively different ways. Some of us feel ashamed by failures in our personal lives or in business, and our minds are haunted by those memories. Every decision we make is colored by our grief or the fear that we’ll make the same mistakes again. Others of us, though, live in past glories. We’ve enjoyed stunning successes, but instead of using our gains as a foundation for future growth, we keep reliving those memories. It has been said, “The day our memories become larger than our dreams is the day our soul begins to shrink.” Living in the past, whether failed of successful, takes our lives out of focus. In the passage above Paul says, “Forget the past (good or bad) and move on.” But in which direction should we move? We should reach forward to fulfill the mission and vision God has for us. Paul encourages us to uncover and embrace a God-sized cause, one that has a positive impact on people and expands his Kingdom (this will leave a lasting legacy). At its most basic, this is loving God by loving others. We can show other our love for God by how well we love others (e.g., sacrificially helping them). This can be done at work, in our neighborhoods, and at home, as well as at church. What are some past failures or successes you need to leave behind? Is there a God-sized cause that has gripped your heart? Truth@Life can help you, regardless of your location. Call 248-396-6255 or email me at curtis.songer@gmail.com for a free consultation. If you receive value from these blogs, please consider donating to keep this blog site up and running. This ministry cannot continue without the generous donations of its readers. Just click on the "Donate" button in the upper right. For more info on help I can provide check out http://truthatlife.com/ or email me at curtis.songer@gmail.com