Leadership Development: I Add Positive Value to the Lives of Others!

“You see in life, lots of people know what to do, but few people actually do what they know.  Knowing is not enough! You must take action.” Tony Robbins

Here is a five step process I use to add positive value to the lives of others.  This plan can be customized to fit specific needs.

1. Analyze
2. Design
3. Develop
4. Implement
5. Evaluate

List your unique abilities, talents, strengths interests and passions.  Then choose an overall purpose for your life.  For some people, it may take hours to think it through; for others it may take days or longer.  Once you’ve honestly assessed yourself, clarify your purpose by writing it down.  Then choose a vehicle with which you can serve people that is in alignment with your purpose. Begin living your life with meaning today.

Here is an example of how my wife and family decided to implement the Five Step Plan.

So my wife and I started another business in our free time.  It’s called Agape Beverages.  I apologize that when I first started my Training & Development business I did not offer free coaching or to design a personal improvement plan as a free sample.  This would have been too expensive and time consuming.  However, Agape Beverages my new family business is COFFEE, and I will be glad to offer you some free samples just because I can!  My coffee is “100% USDA Certified Organic” and I am offering you the opportunity to receive a free sample of coffee just by commenting on this blog post telling me, “How do you drink coffee (black or with cream and sugar)? Or, do you drink tea (green or black)?  I even have mocha and hot chocolate.  I will send you the free sample based on your comment and I will send it to you by mail at no cost to you.  No strings attached.  I would only ask that you share the coffee with your loved ones too.  Hey, I am in the coffee business and I want to share my great tasting coffee and opportunity with everyone.  Thank you for your support!

W. Clement Stone says, “When you discover your mission, you will feel its demand.  It will fill you with enthusiasm and a burning desire to get to work on it.”

I have found my mission in life.  My burning desire is to help and to serve others.  I add positive value by listening, coaching, assessing, motivating and designing successful implementation plans designed to improve performance in alignment with their personal dreams.

Success means doing the best we can with what we have.  Success is the doing, not the getting; in the trying, not the triumph.  Success is a personal standard, reaching for the highest that is in us, becoming all that we can be.” Zig Ziglar

Decide, Commit, Succeed!

Have you found your burning desire?  Please leave a comment below.

The 1st Step to Improving Performance: Analysis

When called on to improve performance by a friend, family member, or community organization to help solve a problem or improve a situation, before I can do anything I have to ask a number of questions to identify where I may be able to add positive value.  Sometimes it is just a listening ear with an open heart; other times it is a serious need or situation where, “all hands on deck,” and more resources are required.  Over the next five days, I will share with you the steps I go through when I am called on as a consultant to improve performance. These five steps are useful for Individuals, Families, Communities, and Organizations.

The 1^st Step to Improving Performance

Analysis is the first step to achieving improved performance.  We first have to always seek knowledge and come to an understanding, before any steps can be made.  By asking a few questions: Where are you now? How did you get here? How do we get this place of poor performance? And, what is your determined outcome?  This is the beginning of the process of improving performance.

There is a body of systems in place that serves the needs for us to stay alive.  Our body’s business is to keep us alive and thriving in optimum health.  The system of a community or business organization serves the needs of the business to stay alive and be profitable to serve the community, employees and shareholders.  We expect the system of the organizations to run smoothly.  The individual body, like the organization, sometimes gets out of sync requiring us to have our vital signs checked to determine what is wrong.  What is keeping our system from operating and performing at maximum efficiency? When our body of systems are not feeling well there are vital signs that need to be checked through a thorough analysis in order to identify the problem areas.

Like our body, the concerned business organization is similar to a sick patient going to the doctor’s office for help and treatment. As a patient, you are asked a few questions to gain an understanding of why you want help and what is wrong.  In the medical field, the assumption is that you want the problem to go away as quickly as possible.  You are asked, “What are your symptoms or chief complaints and how long have you been having these ill feelings?”  Next, we take vital signs to gain an understanding of the systems of the body and organization, listening to what they are saying.  We assess the blood pressure, temperature, pulse and breathing respiration’s.

Obtaining this information lends to what the possible problem could be and it gives me or the doctor a starting point of discussion toward recovery.

How can we get to where we want to go until we know where we are and where we want to be?

In the work place, serving as a consultant, gaining the vital signs of the organization is obtained through questionnaires, interviews, focus groups and formal discussions. This initial assessment allows me to ask questions about the desired performance and find out what barriers are keeping them from attaining the desired performance from the parts of the organization.  I have to discover, and then implement, based on discovery.  I then have to measure implementation efforts, and afterwards, evaluate and ensure that improving performance activities will produce future value for the desired performance and outcome.  After this research I am able to have a better understanding of where the organization is and how we can move forward to the next step of improving performance.

Stay tuned to tomorrow’s topic of improving performance: Designing.

Decide, Commit, Succeed!