Motivational Keynotes

Recently, I accomplished several motivational keynote addresses (which is not new to me), that has left me excited! It is really fun for me to touch others with my words but much more fun to have them reach out and touch my heart; God was there and he allowed me to offer His words of encouragement!

Many came to me afterwards and offered thanks and very personal professional goals that they said I had awoken in them that had been dormant; again, it’s not our plan, it’s His!

Thank you God for allowing me to be one of the vehicles you use to spread encouragement, excitement and action, as we move your world forward!

Listening

Good morning!

Yes, it has been a while since last we talked. The offer to have thoughts put forth from you and then discuss them on Fridays has not proven to be successful.

Is there another forum that would be enjoyed by you? Let me know.

Just to keep you up to date with my activity, currently, there are projects underway that you might find exciting and refreshing (those of us involved do!); more on that later.

Have a great week and if you have some suggestions on what you might like to see on this blog, let me know; I am listening…

What Do You Think?

Someone left this in my inbox and it was written too well to chop up and paraphrase, so I chose to cut and paste it on the blog as is, without the persons name. Take a look and let me know what you think!

Thank you to the sender! Here goes:

“As President Obama blames “systemic” Intel Community failures for the near miss on Christmas Day, I wonder how much of the problem is really systemic and how much is cultural. Systemic implies to me that there were insufficient processes and/or authorities to collect, analyze, share etc intelligence that could have prevented the individual from boarding the plane. Cultural implies (at the extremes) a workforce that feels either:
1) their work is either unappreciated or unimpotant and so does the bare minimum
or
2) their work is above reproach and so they disregard any and all feedback that suggests otherwise

To be sure, both systemic and cultural problems could be construed as leadership failures but I feel strongly that leaders impact organizational culture in a profound and foundational way. Even organizations with big systemic problems can succeed if the culture promotes collaboartive, winning behaviors.

So, what do you think? Are there cultural problems within the intel community? Have they always been there? Did the culture change significantly with the change in administration? Am I completely off-base and the problems truely are systemic?

Obviously, those of us on the outside can’t know for sure but opinions are free, so fire away.”

Again, thank you for the comment. I now turn to the readership, what are your thoughts on this well written opinion?

Happy New Year!

Hello and welcome to 2010!

I do hope all of you are ready to Lead On!

Over the past few weeks I have had conversations and thoughts on the blog and have come up with an exciting format for us. During the week I would like to know what is on your mind and in your thoughts about leadership; so let me know what they are via email, blog comments or other means that you have available. On Fridays, I will consolidate your comments in one blog that everyone might see them and comment on them during the week, then again on Friday, we will do it again!

Thank you for the suggestions and I look forward to your comments!

Let’s have fun with this.

Happy Holidays!

I would like to take this time to say thank you very much to all of you.

Since starting this blog in May (time really does fly) many of you have commented publicly and some of you privately (via email and Twitter) and I appreciate the very kind words of enjoyment and support that each of you have offered over the months. To those of you that have courageously offered comments on the blog, thank you. Without your inputs, it would be just another blog, but because you have touched it, it is so much more!

As we approach the Holidays, starting today with Hanukkah and very soon Christmas and soon after that Kwanzaa and then New Years Day, let me offer you this:

I wish you Peace, I wish you Family, I wish you Joy, and I wish you Love.

My Holiday is Christmas. For those of you that celebrate it with me, I wish you a very Merry Christmas and I will have a piece of Birthday Cake in your honor, as it is tradition in our home to have a Birthday Cake for Jesus.

As with most of you, the next few weeks will be filled with activity after activity and so it is with us, therefore I shall end this year’s blog today and start the next year’s blog on the 4th of January 2010.

Lastly, to our men and women standing is harm’s way (you will never be forgotten), I pray you return home safe and sound for without you, this would not be possible; Thank You and God Bless you!

To all, a heartfelt thank you.

Respectfully,

Wayne

A Lesson From A Friend

A couple of weeks ago, a friend sent me an email that had several thoughts on relationships. As I pondered their guidance in the workplace, I realized I had seen some leaders fall to the wrong side of several of the suggestions. In fact, I witnessed one just recently which made me post it here today.

As leaders, you must be firm; however, there is a difference between being firm and cruel.

Thank you Donald for the thought.

Have you been on the receiving end of this type of behavior? Worse yet, have you said something to someone at work that was on the cruel side?

Growth

Some leaders have learned that stepping outside of their comfort zone facilitates learning…

When was the last time you took a risk and were happy with the new knowledge?

Resource Broadening

One of a leader’s many talents has to be one of relationship building, inside and outside of the organization. One never knows when they might need to ‘call in’ a favor.

Has your leadership ever asked you to ask someone outside of the organization for advice or help? Have you?

Has any of your bosses ever come to you and said, “I need a favor…”?

Depending on your professional ‘relationship’ with that person, how did you react?

Ever said, “sure!” and didn’t mean it?

There is more to it than setting the example…

Leaders set the tone, the pace, the path, the bar, the attitude, and yes, they even set the creative and innovative activities to different levels over time.

Ever been in a meeting with the boss and everyone looks in the bosses direction to see if the boss is laughing?

How has a leaders actions impacted you? How have you energized others?

Let’s be clear, this impact has two sides, negative and positive.

Navigation

The leader must be able to navigate through the political, the bureaucratic and the dynamic environments presented to them on a daily basis, with success! At this level, the leader will have to utilize a totally different set of skills to progress, as the skills that brought them this far, are no longer the only one’s needed.

Any idea what those new skills are? Did you find the need to progress required (in conjunction with the skills articulated over the past two weeks) an additional set of skills serendipitously or did you already know?

Like clockwork, it is Friday again. It is also December. I cannot believe it is December already. I feel as though I just started this blog last month!

Thank you for reading and thank you for the continued positive comments on and off of the blog site.

Hope to see you back here on Monday!

Until then, “Lead On!”