LeaderLine

People Who Light Our Flame

Albert Schweitzer once said, "At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us."

People do make a difference in so many ways. Who were the people who were there at the right time for you? What did they do to light the flame within you? Sometimes fan your gifts--a spark that encourages a career dream. Sometimes it's a heartfelt compliment that lets you know you are valued. Sometimes it's the wind that fuels the spark of creativity into an innovation that makes a difference. But in some way, they believed in you before you believed in yourself. Have you said thank you? If you can reach them, let them know while you can. 

You make a difference, and you could do more. How are you lighting the flames of the people you live and work with? Do your people know you value their gifts? Who needs encouragement? Who can you brag about? As a leader, you are known by your alumni and how far they have soared because of your leadership. Leave your people better for having worked for you.

Death Keeps Choices in Perspective!

Steve Jobs, Co-founder and two-time CEO of Apple Computer, made a striking statement as a speaker at a Stanford University graduation: "Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life…. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart. Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life." 

Few realize that Steve Jobs had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and given six months to live, but his diagnosis turned out to be a rare form that could be surgically cured. I totaled my car on a rain-soaked Pasadena freeway in 1994 and survived without a scratch. There is nothing like a near-death experience to give you an appreciation for life...an appreciation for every day and every choice you make.

Someone has said that one should plan as though you will live forever and act as though you may die tomorrow. Mix dreaming with a sense of urgency in making your daily choices. Don't waste a day or a choice! Every day, every dream, every opportunity is a gift. If it isn't a gift, don't waste your time on the things that matter least.

What are you avoiding on the job and in your life that matters most? What do you keep moving on your to-do-list that really ought to have the highest priority? Investing 30 minutes on something vital is more important than crossing off twenty items on your list. Don't get into completing things; get into doing what is worth doing. John Wooden's father used to tell him, "Make every day a masterpiece!" What wisdom! What could you do today to make a masterpiece? Do it!

(Source: Steve Jobs, Co-founder and two-time CEO of Apple Computer, at Stanford University graduation, Ventura County Star, Dec. 4, 2005, p. D-1,10.)

Leadership Truths One Story at a Time

Mark Sanborn, in his book You Don't Need a Title to Be a Leader, highlighted the importance of stories for today's leaders: "Stories are the coat pegs of the mind. They are where people hang their ideas. Once they have a memorable story to help them remember, they can recall whatever important moral or point you have to make."

Story is what penetrates. People remember stories more easily than they ever remember a numbing list of abstract teaching points. After all, when was the last data slide or graph that you remember as the highlight of a talk?

Take time to find stories from your life and work experience that communicate wisdom your people need to hear. Start giving your team the gift of story. All you have to say is "Let me tell you a story," and your people will be ready to listen and learn!

LEADERSHIP TRUTHS ONE STORY AT A TIME

Get the best of my stories in one book! This powerful collection of stories is often humorous but always insightful. They can help you make a difference as a leader. You'll learn how taking the blame and giving credit inspires loyalty and how to get results not revenge by turning enemies into allies one bridge at a time. You'll discover how asking "What's working for you?" leaves a lasting legacy of confidence and how "having tickets" helps make your calendar your creed. Like pilots, you'll learn how to use error as course-correction data on your way to opportunity and how one shared page of values can help you walk your talk! Learn how applying ingeniously simple lessons can energize those who report to you and effect an astonishing transformation in your workplace.

"This is a remarkable book ... Inspiring, thoughtful, substantive. Read it to learn, to grow, and to enjoy Dr. Paulson's storytelling genius." Nido R. Qubein, President of High Point University and Chairman, Great Harvest Bread Co.

No boring reading here-just compelling stories with practical leadership insights about the great game of business and life from one of America's top change leadership experts. What are you waiting for?Click here ( http://www.terrypaulson.com/leaderthiptruths/ ) to order your autographed copy of my new book, Leadership Truths One Story at a Time, in time for the holidays!

MAKE PERSONALIZED COPIES FOR YOUR ORGANIZATION!

For quantity premium orders, new print-on-demand technology allows us to make personalized copies of Leadership Truths One Story at a Time. Include one of your company's favorite stories or include a foreword by your organization's top executive. Contact our office directly to learn more by calling 800-521-6172.

(Source: Mark Sanborn, You Don't Need a Title to Be a Leader, Waterbrook Press, Colorado Springs, CO, 2006, p. 69)

Stories Drive Strategic Results

Lori Silverman, the editor of Wake Me Up When the Data Is Over: How Organizations Use Stories to Drive Results, captures a truth far too few leaders appreciate: "Stories are a natural stimulant. They are the antidote to boredom and indifference. Like viruses, they are also contagious. Tell a story to someone and you will get one back in return."

How wonderful to find a new book that brings together two things that are essential to making change work—organizational stories and strategic results! Lori Silverman’s interviews captured in her new book take the power of story and focus it through the prism of meaningful results. You will hear leader after leader talk about how story can make a difference in driving results that matter. Everyone is looking for ways to capture return on investment, and this book helps capture fresh windows to that challenge. In analyzing her findings, Lori Silverman found that 36 percent of the examples demonstrate story use positively impact financial performance; many have achieved double digit growth. Eighteen percent said stories helped them achieve organizational goals.

In a good presentation, it is often the stories that are remembered and shared. No one comes back from a program and says, “That graph touched me! I want to put it up on my office wall to inspire me!” No, stories inspire, inform and challenge us to change. Missions are not meaningful without targeted measurements. We love to keep score so we can win, but the story of how we win is captured in the rest of the story about a team’s journey to victory. A continual deluge of bullet points and graphs can put any audience to sleep. As a leader and communicator, keep people grounded in the facts but enlivened by the story of how your team made a difference. What are you doing to make your organization’s stories contagious and effective?

If you want motivation to better use stories in your organization and you want part of that motivation to come from your desire to produce strategic results, read Lori Silverman’s Wake Me Up When the Data Is Over: How Organizations Use Stories to Drive Results. If you buy that book on Amazon for less than $20 before midnight on October 19th, you will be able to receive over $500 worth of f-r-e-e items! Here's all you have to do . . .

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Source: Lori Silverman, (ed.). (2006). Wake Me Up When the Data Is Over: How Organizations Use Stories to Drive Results. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass

Marketing Equals Storytelling

Seth Godin in his recent book, All Marketers Are Liars: The Power of Telling Authentic Stories in a Low-Trust World, makes an interesting assertion: "Now we know that marketing=storytelling, and everything an organization does supports the story. So everyone is in the marketing department and a company either tells a story that people care about, or their story disappears."

Today, marketing is storytelling; they find a way to break through the clutter and information overload to grab our attention with stories that penetrate. Either all your leaders and people are telling a consistent story that will spread or you will soon become irrelevant.

It used to be that you could produce a product and market it. Now, you find out the stories your customers want to hear, and produce products that fit those stories. What words and images connect to a worldview your customers already believe? What story do your workers tell each other that keeps them passionate believers in what you do? What stories do they tell about the company that get the right people to apply to join your workforce?

I want to fly on a safe airline. As a result, I love seeing the American Airlines commercial that shows a dedicated mechanic coming up into the boarding area. He looks at the pregnant woman holding the hand of her child near the boarding gate and then turns to the camera and says, "Sometimes I come up here to remember the reason I work hard every day to keep our planes safe." That ad tells a story I want to believe--American mechanics work hard to keep all of us safe. Now, he may not care as much about us lone business travelers, but I'm sure glad he wants to protect that pregnant woman flying with me.

Stories connect! We like working and buying from companies we can trust! What stories are you sharing to connect to your customers and your workers about what your organization is really about?

(Source: Seth Godin, All Marketers Are Liars: The Power of Telling Authenitc Stories in a Low-Trust World, Portfolio, NY,NY 2005.p. 80)

Leaders Embrace Tradition to Shape the Future

As a UCLA alumni, I have been spoiled by a rich basketball tradition. John Wooden's dynasty of championships in college basketball will never again be matched. Some coaches seemed to chafe under the weight of that legacy. Ben Howland, UCLA's current coach, has embraced that success and tradition as a way to nurture a new seed of success in his young team.

Ben Howland has taken his young team of bruins to UCLA's first Final Four appearance in 11 years and the 16th in UCLA's history. Ben is not threatened by Wooden's shadow, he is inspired by it. He said, "I'm very confident in my ability, but what he accomplished and who he is--he's the greatest coach in the history of the game. You talk about embracing him. How can you not?"

UCLA Athletic Director Dan Guerrero speaks of the wisdom of Ben's approach, "Yes, either embrace it, or it becomes an albatross around your neck. And Ben has just relished the UCLA tradition and done everything possible to bring back former players into the fold."

Celebrating the past can help generate new stories of excellence. By embracing that past success, leaders can adopt new recruits and players into a great family tradition. Excellence was earned once; it can be earned again.

By pointing to how past leaders and professionals have overcome challenges to produce a winning organization, you can build the expectation that this generation can do the same. Every generation must create their own story. You don't rest in the past; you use it to inspire you.

As a leader, mix using stories from the past with new stories of excellence in the present. By acknowledging the thread of excellence through time, you create a wider and richer tapestry all can appreciate. 

Sure, I would love UCLA to win the whole thing. That would make "March Madness" very personal, but win or lose, Ben Howland is a coach and leader I respect. This will not be his last visit to the Final Four.

(Source: David Lassen, "Howland embraces school's tradition," Ventura County Star, March 29, 2006, C-1,7)