Understanding others' journeys gives us special insight into our own. Leadership is an interesting process and learning about leadership journeys builds recognition of one's own leadership capacity and progress.
Help someone else gain self awareness and knowledge by sharing your story. Tell us how you recognized your own leadership strengths, some of the challenges you have faced in your career, and the biggest leadership lesson you think you have learned.....
Help someone else gain self awareness and knowledge by sharing your story. Tell us how you recognized your own leadership strengths, some of the challenges you have faced in your career, and the biggest leadership lesson you think you have learned.....
5 comments:
'Good times' don't last forever....yet, people want to believe they do.
Like the turkey who believes good times are common place until the third week of November (or the second week in October for a Canadian turkey), most people expect the good times to roll on. And so, they only see what they are looking for. Even their stockbroker won't tell them that "when in doubt, get out."
Yet, if you understand that there are business cycles, you look for the unexpected and thus see the unexpected when it surfaces....long before others do.
During a time of high gasoline prices, distribution disruptions and a declining national economy in the mid-1970s, I was general sales manager for an RV and Marine industries equipment supplier.
These two industries represented the only markets for our company that had less than a 50% marketshare...with two larger and better financed companies holding over 50 percent of the market. Our management team quickly became energized and focused to increase our marketshare because the alternative was unacceptable.
That is when I discovered that tough times are a very good time to build marketshare. Your prospects are more receptive to switching suppliers and suppliers are motivated to increase their sales in order to survive. With that knowledge and motivation, our company won over 90% marketshare within a two year period and the company survived and prospered.
Re-Posted with Permission
Answers: Phil Johnson, Ph.D. Authentic Leadership™
Business Leadership Coach, Teacher, Author & Speaker
My Servant Warrior Leader Journey
I was born in Ontario, Canada December 1, 1953. Our family lived in a 2 bedroom war time home where my mom and dad were raising 3 boys. I am the youngest and was quite a surprise as my mom was in her mid 40s when I was born. Three boys in one small bedroom with no air conditioning. My parents were born in the early 1900’s and went as far as grade 8 in school. My dad played semi pro baseball. He also boxed, played field lacrosse and he made his own beer – and I used to help.
I was born 6 weeks prematurely weighing approximately 4 pounds. I spent my first 6 months in an incubator at the local hospital. I have dyslexia. It’s a neurological disorder that I was born with - I notice it most when I’m trying to spell or read. It can cause me to re-arrange numbers and words in my mind. I didn’t realize I had the condition until about 15 years ago. I failed grade 3 and grade 5. I used to pray that the teacher wouldn’t ask me a question and I never made eye contact. Many times the back of my shirt would be soaked with sweat by the time class was over.
I started working when I was 9 years old pulling copper out of the back of dumpsters and selling it for 5 cents a pound. That was my “allowance.” My mother died when I was in grade 7 - December 3, 1967. Two days after my 14th birthday. She had developed cancer and gone through radiation and chemotherapy. One month later I made a decision that was to change my life.
It was a snowy January night around midnight and I was taking my dog Duke for a walk. He was a Blue Tick hound dog that my parents had given me as a puppy when I was 5 years old. Standing behind the Johnson’s Wax factory I decided to “go for it.” I was going to see what was on the other side of the hill. That year I became an “A” student - my dad died later when I was in grade 13. I graduated near the top of my class from the DeGroote School of Business at McMaster University and went on to study Electrical Engineering while beginning a 25 year career in the global semiconductor industry.
We generated revenue approaching $1 Billion and at one point I was traveling close to 60,000 miles per year. In 1990 I was living in a beautiful house with a fully landscaped 40 foot in ground pool on a ravine lot backing on to the Credit River near Toronto, Canada and my career was on the rise.
And yet I remember talking with one of my older brothers and commenting - "Is this all there is?" I had accomplished more than I or anyone else ever thought I would and yet I was surprised that I felt less than fulfilled and not very happy. I was disappointed at the quality of the ‘leadership’ that I had experienced in my life to that point. It was around this time that I remembered the 2nd half of the promise I had made to myself on that snowy night in January of 1968 – that I was going to come back and help the kids who had already given up on life. This is when I began to create the Master of Business Leadership™ coaching process. I have dedicated the balance of my life to the development of Authentic Leadership™ within individuals and organizations. I met my wife and best friend Brenda on February 6, 1993. My focus has changed from a focus on ‘success’ to a focus on significance. I’ve never been happier in my life.
Links:
http://www.MasterofBusinessLeadership.com
Re-Posted with Permission
Jim Fenton
Business Development "Rainmaking" Consulting IT cme4dp (at) aol dot com open to contacts LION Toplinked.com MY500.com
Yes. It relates to my son. Dan now at Xavier University,Cincinnati Ohio, was a High School football player. It was the first day of football on a brand new field and time for the playing of the national Anthem. Everyone stood at attention.....and stood at attention....and stoooood. But the sound system did not work. Teachers coaches, administrators ran around.
Dan calmly organized the team and cheerleaders, marched them to the center of the field and lead them in the Anthem, Surprising for a quiet "non leader type kid.
Thanks so much to those who shared so far...I really appreciate your insights and feel free to foorward this blog to others....
Reposted with Permission
Correy Freeman
diligentdesign.net
It's not an amazing or in-depth story, but I'll share it nonetheless. I go to work with middle school trumpet players and I also ran the section (trumpets) at my school last year. There was this one kid that told me that I needed to "lead" more, and as the year went on I found that he was right. The more I forgot about hurting feelings or making a hard time out of things and just focused on the needs of the section, the more easily I found it to ask them to do what I wanted them to do. The same goes with the middle schoolers. I just remind myself that I'm a visitor and much older, and that they're going to listen to me just because of the title, so I'd better put it to use by helping them grown and keeping their interests in mind.
"The needs of the many" is a motto I try to keep in mind and I find it really helps out in business practices.
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