The End in Mind

  I think it was back in the early 90's, in my last years at IBM, that I attended a class about this new book that was written by Stephen R. Covey titled The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People https://www.stephencovey.com/7habits/7habits.php.  One of the things in the book that I have never forgotten is Habit 2 Begin With the End in Mind.  At the beginning of that chapter Mr. Covey tells a story and asks the reader to imagine being at their own funeral.  He asks us to think about what the people who stand up to talk at our funeral would say.  I would recommend that anyone interested in Leadership read this book, but more importantly think about Habit 2.  What are our friends going to say at our funerals?  Will our church family have the same things to say about us as our co-workers?  Will the way we lead be the same no matter what our job titles are?  I hope that when it is my time to go anyone that gets up to speak ( assuming anyone shows up at my funeral) has pretty much the same story to tell about me.  I truly believe that should be the goal of everyone.

     Last week when I wrote about SMART goals I think I might have jumped the gun a little bit.  I really should have mentioned the story above before writing about goal setting.  How much more effective would our goals be if we thought about our legacy when we were creating them?  Remembering this story is really making me think.  It is a very exciting time in my life right now.

     After graduating from Concordia University sixteen years ago I became very interested in leadership.  At first I read every Leadership book I could get my hands on, but life began to get in the way.  The more I became responsible for "STUFF" the less time I set aside to read and grow.  Now I'm back at Concordia University working on my MBA in Organizational Leadership and Management and my thirst for knowledge is back.  I am excited again about the prospect of learning more about Leadership and putting that learning to use. 

     I am currently in the process of forming my goals for the coming year and one of those goals will be to read and journal every day.  Using a journal benefits us in many ways and next week I will begin a discussion on that very important Leadership skill.

     I want to close this week with one request.  As you look at your goals for your life will you think about the end?  I feel confident that after last week's entry your goals will be SMART and hopefully after this week you will develop those goals by remembering to Begin With the End in Mind.

I hope everyone has a great week.

SMART Goals

I can't remember where I first heard the presentation on goal setting, but I do remember the instructor telling us our goals need to be SMART.  I instantly thought to myself "who would create dumb goals", but I quickly found out that SMART was merely an acronym for Specific, Measureable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-based.  The first use of the term I could find occurred in the November 1981 issue of Management Review by George T. Doran.[1]

Over the years this word has helped me remeber to focus the goals I set for myself in a way that is smart.  Recently I have also seen where E and R have been added to remind us to always Evaluate and Reevaluate our goals even after we feel they have been accomplished.

You might be saying to yourself right now "I would rather have a set of dumb goals and am tired of trying to be smart all of the time."  Well it just happens the experts have developed a mnemonic just for you.  Doable, Understandable, Manageable, and Beneficial goals have been developed by the personal development folks but they are far from dumb.  Any tool that will help us focus our goals is SMART even if the name is DUMB.

Have a great week!

[1] Doran, George T. "There's a S.M.A.R.T. way to write management's goals and objectives." Management Review, Nov 1981, Volume 70 Issue 11

Tomorrow's Leaders

Through the years I've heard many people say things like, "I can't do anything about this because I'm not in charge" or " if I were in charge we would do this a lot  different."  I think you can make a difference no matter where you serve your organization.  Most organizations know the only way to be successful in today's highly competitive markets is to empower their employees.  The old days of a manager dictating every move the employees make are over.

Several year ago I read a really good book titled, MENTAL DYNAMICS, POWER THINKING for PERSONAL SUCCESS.  The author, K. Thomas Finley, offers several suggestions for developing personal power through leadership.  Here are a few of his pointers for you to think about:

1.  Set realistic personal goals.  Remember that motivation is essential to success.
2.  Recognize your own strengths and weaknesses.  Build on your strengths.  Try to correct your    weaknesses.
3.  Know how to be a good follower as well a a good leader.

There are 7 more pointers in Mr. Finley's book for you to review, but what I think is important to take away from all of it is we must have goals.  Goals motivate us to reach a certain level and without them we have no frame of reference.  Over the next few weeks I am going to be discussing goals and their importance to us as leaders.

Time to Begin

For some time I have been subscribing to several blogs and have gotten quite a bit out of it.  I am starting this blog to share information with others who have found themselves at the bottom of the organization and hoping to become better leaders.

I welcome any comments that will be of help to anyone reading this blog.