Archive for the 'Leadership' Category

The year 2007 is coming to a close and I would like to share with you my annual list of the top five bloggers who have impacted my life this year. 2007 seemed to be the year of the blog, with many great new blogs popping up in March and April.

I think that the blogging tools finally matured enough this year that you didn’t need to be a web guru (or know one) to create a powerful blog presence. With the addition of Widgets to Wordpress, and a proliferation of wider blog templates, the average blog grew from 800 pixels wide to over a 1000. This made for a much more compelling experience as the number of new interactive elements increased.

Someone who took full advantage of the new technology with a complete blog redesign as well as a whole new blogging genre is our top award winner this year. Congratulations to…

1. Brian Clark of Copyblogger

Brian is an amazing guy. He has taken the science of copywriting and applied it to blogging. His traffic truly soared this year with his subscriber base now over 28,000 people. He also teamed up with Blogger Tony Clark of Success From The Nest and created TeachingSells, an online learning site for creating Interactive Learning web experiences.

What I personally like about Copyblogger is the friendly atmosphere and the great tips. Brian speaks to you like a friend and offers some incredible insight from his many years in the print publishing copywriting business.

Some of his top posts include…

5 Simple Ways to Open Your Blog Post With a Bang

Do You Make These Mistakes When You Write?

Ten Timeless Persuasive Writing Techniques

Be sure to sign up as a subscriber. I’m sure he would like to hit 30,000 subscribers in 2008.

2. Liz Strauss of Successful-Blog

Liz is a repeat winner this year. She teamed up with master relationship blogger, Phil Gerbyshak and other popular bloggers from around the Chicago area and put together SOBCON 2007. This was one of the best blogging meet-ups of the year with attendees from all over the world.

If you blog, Liz is one person you want to meet. She is one of the most helpful people on the net and she will make you right at home on her Tuesday night interactive comment sessions.

Be sure to get on her subscriber/e-mail list and she’ll notify you each week of the upcoming topic. It’s not uncommon for her to have over 300 comments on her blog in one night.

3. Leo Babauta of ZenHabits

In an amazing rise to prominence this year, Leo has taken the personal development community by storm. His blog grew from a few hundred subscribers in February 2007 to over 26,000 as of this writing. This is an amazing feat and his blog currently ranks almost as high as Personal development guru Steve Pavlina on the Alexa charts.

What makes Leo different, is that he is an achiever (ran a marathon, quit smoking, got organized) yet he writes like a coach and good friend. Leo is a regular guy, a father of 6 kids, and he works as a freelance writer. He writes about his successes and his failures which makes his writing come to life.

He just changed over to a new and wider blog template and has organized his content by subject in his interactive footer. Be sure to subscribe to keep up with this amazing writer!

4. Yaro Starak of Entrepreneurs Journey

Like winner Brian Clark above, Yaro has been busy this year creating an interactive online learning community. His Blog Mastermind program really took off this year with hundreds of people signing up for the inaugural launch. Yaro is a true rarity in the blog optimization business as he speaks from a true insiders perspective to the outside world.

Yaro has personally helped me in many different ways from blog optimization tips to search engine strategies. He also added video previews and interactive learning clips to help all blogger’s improve their sites.

He is currently working on a new blog template and has a current post to help you improve your blogs visibility so that your readers will stay longer. Be sure to sign up for his helpful newsletter.

5. Tim Ferriss of The Four Hour Workweek

As a follow up to his insightful book, The Four Hour Workweek, Tim Ferriss always has unbelieveable things on his blog. At 30 years old, this world traveling entrepreneur has amassed quite a portfolio of accomplishments.

They Include….

1. First American in history to hold a Guinness World Record in tango
2. National Chinese kickboxing champion
3. MTV breakdancer in Taiwan
4. Hurling competitor in Ireland
5. Actor on hit TV series in mainland China and Hong Kong

What I like about Tim’s blog is that he gives detailed instructions how he managed these incredible feats of human accomplishment. He includes pictures, timelines, and step by step guidance for anyone wanting to follow in his footsteps.

If you want to escape from the 9 to 5, travel the world, and experience amazing things, this is the blog for you. Be sure to subscribe to his blog so you’ll be onboard for his next amazing adventure.

***************

There are so many other incredible blogs it would be hard to list them. Want to learn something new in 2007? Be sure to check out Joyful, Jubilant Learning, Genuine Curiosity, and Managing with Aloha, for some of the best educational sites on the net.

This has been a great year for blogging. Hundreds of unique new blogs came on the scene in 2007. Here at Success Begins Today, we have a lot of new things in store for 2008 including some exciting new productivity tools. Be sure to subscribe to our feed and sign up for our newsletter so you’ll be among the first to download them.

Thank you to all of you who visited here in 2007. Have a great New Year!

In our final look at the book Becoming a Person of Influence by John Maxwell, I would like to look at the last two chapters. Chapter 9 is entitled empowering people and chapter 10 is reproducing other influencers. John lists four qualifications of an empowerer. They are…

1. Position

2. Relationship

3. Respect

4. Commitment

To empower people you must be in a position of leadership. Others can encourage, but permission comes only from an authority figure such as a parent, boss, or spiritual leader. To empower people you have to be in a position of power over them.

To engage people to  help them reach their potential you need to evaluate them on their knowledge, skill, and desire. When you know where they are, you can model for them a direction to excel in. Using the analogy of a mother bird and her babies, people need to know what it looks like to fly. As a mentor, you have the best opportunity to show them.

Model the flight and work ethic you would like them to embrace. Expect people to succeed! Be sure to verbalize it and reinforce it. Once people understand that you genuinely want them to succeed, they will begin to believe that they can accomplish what you want them to do.

Once they are ready to proceed, transfer authority to them. That includes sharing both your authority and influence with the people you are mentoring and developing. When you begin to empower other people, give them challenges you know they can rise to. This will help them be confident and give them a chance to experience their new authority and learn to use it more effectively.

Once they have taken the reins and they have shown you their ability to complete the task, publicly show your confidence in them. Give them the credit for a job well done. Be sure to give them positive feedback. Don’t dwell on the negative and be sure to include constructive ideas along the way.

Once they have taken flight, release them to continue in their own. Give them as much freedom as possible. In conclusion give authority, responsibility, and offer needed assistance along the way.

John makes the point that the benefits of empowerment are very high. Empowerment helps people become more confident, energetic, and productive. It also has the ability to improve your life, giving you additional freedom to promote the growth of your organization.

One of the most incredible stories of empowerment that I have witnessed is the story of Kathy Gaulton. Kathy worked in the business world for over 30 years in retail management. In 1998 she took a short term missions trip to Tanzania, Africa, where she witnessed poverty and a community of people who desperately needed help.

Kathy had the idea of having the local people make drawstring bags from local fabrics. She took 5 treadle sewing machines which were idle and gave the local people training on them. Soon the machines were whirring away and within two days there were 300 completed bags that could be sold.

The people were really excited and Kathy realized how far a little training and some local materials could go to empower the local people to become self sufficient. Through this simple beginning came Heavenly Treasures, an organization that empowers impoverished people and communities all over the world to break the cycle of poverty through micro enterprises.

From the Kip Karen Krafters in Kenya to the Dorcas Design Team in China, Kathy’s seeds have sprouted in a big way. Amazing products are being turned out by the thousands and people’s lives are being changed.

These livelihood projects help reproduce other influencers. Once people become self sufficient they can teach other people the same skills. Soon the more skilled workers become leaders and the process repeats itself. Some of these onsite leaders have gone on to create new enterprises in other areas of the world.

Organizations like Toastmasters and Rotary International can help you learn the skill of empowerment. In Toastmasters it is not uncommon to see amazing transformations. All it takes is a caring person with a vision along with an unselfish passion to help others succeed.

In our continuing series on John Maxwell’s book, Becoming a Person of Influence, we find chapter six on mentoring and enlarging other people. John explains that we must build others up and help them reach their goals. We should share our time and talents with others and motivate them to do better.

Joel Osteen in his book, Become a Better You, brings up a great point about enlarging people. He says..

Remember your thoughts do not bless anybody but you…

The idea of this statement is that we need to let others know what we are thinking. We need to make the phone calls and write the e-mails to let people know when they are doing a great job. If we keep it to ourselves, the other person is not built up and consequently does not receive the blessing.

If I see you doing a great presentation, I need to stop by afterwards and give you a word of encouragement. If I read your blog post, and it captures my interest, I need to comment that you did a great job.

Simple words of encouragement can really help someone move to the next level in their career. They can help others take a leap of faith and start a new business.

This is an area that I have been focusing on in the past few weeks. Trying to learn how to better communicate with people. I realize that time commitments and my perfectionist streak hinder me from making quick replies to e-mail or leaving a quick comment on a blog.

Joel’s statement got me thinking… isn’t it better to send a short note saying "great job," than not sending a more elaborate note because I don’t have time to write it.

Rather than a two paragraph work of literary art, how about if I just leave a one sentence comment on someone’s blog? I can’t tell you how many of those two paragraph masterpieces I’ve had in my head that never were written.

Hmmm… how about a paraphrase… A few words written are much better than a perfect paragraph in my head…

Welcome to our digging deeper series. In this series of posts we will dig under the surface and really explore a topic. For our first go round I’ve taken one of my favorite books and dissected it and broke it down into ten conversations. Over the next few weeks, we’ll look at some strategies for improving our lives with ten important qualities of life. This study is based on a thought provoking book by John Maxwell and Jim Dornan, entitled Becoming a Person of Influence.

At first this sounds extremely arrogant and forceful. But nothing could be further from the truth. When we look at the ten qualities presented in the book, it quickly becomes apparent that humility and humbleness are required. In fact to truly become a person that others look to for leadership and advice, the following 10 qualities are required…

This book has been very inspiring to me. In some areas I’m doing pretty good… in others I have some struggles. The book presents workable solutions for all of them. Some have hit home with a vengeance. With some minor changes, I’ve seen remarkable differences in my life.

My goal is to take these qualities one by one and share my experiences, struggles, and victories with you. I’ve developed some thought provoking conversation cards that you can print out and use as you follow along. They make great conversation starters and are great for small groups.

The cards have a quotation on the front and an additional building statement on the back. At the bottom of the back side of the card is a thought provoking question. They can be used as study guides, bookmarks, but I really like to use them in discussion groups. Each of the ten points will have five cards that you can print out. The cards will be available as each subject post comes out.

In our next post we’ll get started by looking at the subject of integrity…

Stay tuned…

I’ve been involved with small group studies for almost 25 years. They have included church bible studies, Toastmaster groups, and sales organizations. Small groups are a great way to share information and study together. The key to a successful small group is to have from 6 to 16 people and have a comfortable location to get together. If have many more than 16 people the group becomes too large to share effectively. The collective wisdom of a group this size is amazing.

One of the techniques I’ve found for leading a small group is to be a facilitator instead of a lecturer. This facilitator organizes the meeting and applies a loose structure. A good facilitator will try to get everyone involved in the conversation and control the interaction to keep anyone from dominating the entire discussion.

In church and other study groups a great technique to get things going is to have someone read a scripture or reflect on a quotation. You broaden the verse with a little explanation or practical observation. Then you ask the group a question based on the verse.

This simple three step process can generate lots of conversation with just one question. It makes it real easy to facilitate as you just sit back and listen to others. Your main job is to keep the discussion under control and draw people back in and move on to the next point.

The three points can be distilled as

1. Read the scripture or Verse

3. Ask an open ended question

I’ve put together some easy to use study cards that make this process easy. You add your verses or quotations to the front of the cards and put the expansion and questions on the back. Pass these cards out to different members at the start of the meeting and take them one by one. The great thing about these cards is the font size. You can make the verse easy to read for those people that may have trouble reading the smaller print in a bible or book.

Take one card at a time and have the person read the verse and then turn it over and have them read the example and have them ask the question. The discussion will take off from there. Many times the discussion will really take off and may last 5, 10 or even 15 minutes on a single question.

I’ve put together a front and back page Microsoft Word based template that you print out on blank Avery Business cards. You put the verses on the front, and add the example and question on the back. Just print the front first and then turn the sheet over and print the back side. Within minutes you’ll have a complete study ready to go. Break the 10 cards apart and take them along to your next group meeting.

I’ve included an example bible study in the book of Proverbs as a quick way to show you how effective these can be.

The front card has a scripture verse

The card includes the chapter and verse as reference, and includes the verse in a large serif font to make it easy to read.

The back of the card has thoughtful information and an open ended question.

There are 10 cards in this selection that can be used to generate a rousing discussion that will go at least an hour.

As you can see these questions are not always easy to answer and people will have many different viewpoints to go along with them. These cards make great bookmarks to mark the reference verse for further study. Here are the instructions for downloading…

1. Download the Study Cards zip file to your computer.
2. Unzip the file and open the templates in Microsoft Word.
3. Put a sheet of plain white Avery Business Card stock in your printer.
4. Print out the front of the cards first with template 1.
5. Turn the business card sheet over and print the back side with template 2.
6. Break them apart
7. Take them along to your next study or small group…

Technorati Tags: bible study, small groups, study

I am a big fan of “Customer Evangelism,” the word of mouth framework for developing customers that tell others about your company or service. Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba have developed a great blog, written a book and published a manifesto about the subject.

The idea is…

• When customers are truly thrilled about their experience with your product or service, they can become outspoken “evangelists” for your company. This group of satisfied believers can be converted into a potent marketing force to grow your universe of customers.

Customer evangelism is a great topic and we all can probably think back to the person who told us about Krispy Kreme Doughnuts or Starbucks coffee and realize the influence of friends or family that are truly customer evangelists.

But what about Employee Evangelists? Are there employees that are so thrilled with their job and the experience of working at their company that they become outspoken evangelists, telling everyone they meet how great it is to work at XYZ company?

I think there are…

In fact I’ve met many people like this. They like their boss and agree with the vision and direction the company is going. They feel passionate about what they are doing and they definitely have a purpose in life. They are great team players and look at life through a positive lens.

Rosa Say, over at Talking Story has a post today about reinvented work. I think one of the best ways for business leaders and managers to reinvent their workplaces is to actively decide to create employee evangelists.

Three things come to mind when talking about jobs that are so exciting that everyone needs to know about them…

1. Communication: Clearly a top priority is clear communication between management and employee. This needs to be more than e-mail and the occasional phone call. It needs to be face to face, open and honest, and happen on a regular basis. In her book, Rosa has an article about the “daily five minutes“, where each day, without fail, managers are to give five minutes of no-agenda time to at least one of their employees. This is the type of communication than creates evangelists.
2. Vision: Company leaders and managers need a cohesive vision for the company and it’s employees. Workers need to know where they are going, how soon they will get there, and what is expected along the way. When a clear and compelling vision is communicated well, the ideas and vision will spread like wild fire. People will want to come to work and take the next step to success.
3. Passion: Employee evangelists need to be doing work they are passionate about. No hum drum boring cubicle existence here. Evangelists need jobs that they are good at and need to feel like they are making a difference. This takes creativeness and vision from the company leadership. Job skills and personality profiles should be taken into consideration when creating job descriptions. Teams of success minded employees will create an incredible synergy that will permeate everyone’s daily work experience. Passionate employees will go further, make better decisions, and take into account the vision of the company.

In short, creating employee evangelists should be a top priority of any leading edge company.

Make it fun, make it exciting, and give us a vision where we are going!

If you do, we’ll all be excited about coming along for the ride!