It’s possible that you think of leadership completely wrong. It’s possible that you don’t even accurately understand what leadership really is. Because for whatever reason, we often think of the leader as the person who is elevated. We think of the leader as the boss who should be feared and respected. We think of the leader as the person in […]
Ken Blanchard is a prominent, sought-after author, speaker, and business consultant. He is respected for his lifetime of groundbreaking research and thought leadership that has influenced the day-to-day management and leadership of people and companies throughout the world. With a passion to turn every leader into a servant leader, Ken shares his insightful and powerful message with audiences around the […]
Your level of influence as a leader is directly limited by the size of your ego. The larger your ego, the less your chance to reach your leadership potential. The smaller your ego, the greater your chance to reach your leadership potential. Ego is a conundrum that many leaders will eventually have to face. Overcome it, and there is no […]
Dr. Gary Chapman has degrees from some of the most respected colleges and seminaries. He’s written some of the best-selling books of the past decade and appeared on thousands of radio and television programs across the country. But Dr. Gary Chapman knows more than just a lot of scholarly theories and practical advice—he knows people. He knows how to relate to people, how to have […]
A leader’s job is not to create followers. A leader’s job is to create other leaders. And it’s a frustrating place when an organization is stuck, stagnant, and not growing. But often time a core cause of that is because the leader isn’t engaging in practices that develop other leaders. How do you do that? Here’s 5 simple ideas: 1.Teach […]
Dianna Booher is the bestselling author of 47 books, published in 60 foreign-language editions, with nearly 4 million copies sold. Her personal development topics include leadership communication, executive presence, writing, and life balance. Her most popular titles include: Creating Personal Presence: Look, Talk, Think, and Act Like a Leader • What MORE Can I Say? Why Communication Fails and What to […]
Job #1 of a leader is to A.B.R. – always be recruiting. After all, how can you be a leader if there is no one to follow you? And when it comes to recruiting, the best type of recruiting is personal recruiting- recruiting people who you already know and who know you. We know that statistically, in almost every group, […]
If you’re going to become a great leader there is one thing you must never do. There is one behavior you must immediately extinguish. There is one habit that you must permanently eradicate. You cannot talk negatively about other people in their absence to subordinates. Ever. Gossip in general is a very destructive dynamic. But when the leader does it, […]
One of the most important habits of developing consistent high performance in your life is to put your self-esteem into your work habits rather than your production. The reason is because we want our confidence tied to things that we can control rather than things we can’t. Production often fluctuates up and down but our effort, work ethic, and intensity […]
Its unfortunate that we often judge other people by their actions but judge ourselves by our intentions. When other people mess up it’s easy and natural for us to point out their mistakes, highlight them, and use them as evidence for why they aren’t capable or worthy of our praise. Yet when we mess up, it’s easy and natural for […]
“What’s the fastest, cheapest way to recruit amazing people?” That question was recently posed to me verbatim by one of our clients. Before I share with you the answer, think first about this question: “What’s the fastest, cheapest way to sell new clients?” Because the answer is the same for both questions: Referrals from your current customers! And when it […]
The amount of our endurance is directly proportionate to the clarity of our vision. When we have a crystal clear picture of what we want in life, and we spend a lot of time thinking about it, then there is naturally a strong connection to how doing the short term sacrifices we’re asking ourselves to make today forward us toward that […]
How do you recruit good people? It’s one of the biggest challenges that our clients struggle with and why they come to us at Southwestern Consulting. Recruiting is an important topic and it’s one of my favorite. My start at Southwestern in college was catapulted because I loved and figured out recruiting early on and happen to break a 150-year-old […]
What if you could afford to walk around passing out $100 bills all day to your team? Do you think that would help motivate them? Do you think that could be effective in getting them to take action? I think most of us would agree that it would be pretty powerful if when we asked someone to do something, we […]
There is a lot to learn about leadership. Leadership is in some ways very multifaceted, complex, and unique to the situations where it is called for. Recently, I attended the unfortunate and unexpected yet uplifting funeral of a legend of Southwestern culture, Spencer Hays. Spencer was a personal mentor of mine and someone whom I’ve always admired. Spencer made generous […]
You don’t have to beat other people to dominate in business. There doesn’t have to be a loser in order for you to be a winner. And the business world today, seems to be rewarding those who have more of a selfless focus on serving than those who have a relentless focus on competing. Those getting ahead seem to have […]
Everyone wants to be a leader…until that moment where they have to truly step up and lead. Because we often associate leadership with impressive titles, more pay, and additional job perks. Yet leadership isn’t made in corner offices or fancy boardrooms. Real leadership happens on the front lines. And what most leaders don’t understand about leading is that it isn’t […]
A team is a group of people held together by a unifying set of beliefs. But what those beliefs are, unfortunately all too often are unspoken. Typically, people gather with people who they are like or who believe what they believe. Yet there is some nearly mystical power that comes about as the inspiring byproduct of when a team takes […]
At least half of what we worry about is a complete figment of our own imagination. It’s an astounding capacity of the human brain to be able to take one iota of negativity, one hint of upsetting feedback, or one small challenging circumstance and exponentially multiply it through mental mushroom in the wrong direction. I’ve found that this can especially […]
Professionals study until they become expert. Professionals work hard even when they don’t feel like it. Professionals execute the game plan even when things feel hopeless. Professionals work consistent hours and create consistent processes. Professionals have a proper attitude. Professionals are persistent. Professionals treat their clients like gold and continually work to service them and strengthen the relationship. Professionals master […]
Pursuing happiness is not what brings happiness. Pursuing service is what brings happiness. When we pursue happiness we convince ourselves that if we had something else, did something else, or had something more then it would make us feel better. But if stuff or experiences was what made people happy, then we all should be happy already because most of […]
