Equipping Leaders for Life

When you read the subject header, “Do you have a personal board of advisors,” what came to mind? Chances are, some didn’t even open this email as they associate a “board of advisors” with bigger businesses. Many companies have formal advisory boards made up of trusted advisors and thought leaders in a particular industry. They are focused at allowing the leadership of the company a third party sounding board to aid in casting vision and developing big picture strategy. While the concept may be similar, this isn’t the intent of my question. The question is more centered around “you” and your “personal” board of advisors.

Reflecting back on my years in corporate positions, I would tell you that I definitely had great members on my teams who I bounced things off of and even shared a bit of my personal struggles. That being said, due to our working together and, in some cases, having these people report directly to me, it wasn’t easy to maintain a high level of transparency with these individuals. Additionally, since they were in the fire with me, they didn’t really provide that independent third party prospective that is so important in identifying potential blind spots. (more…)

If we were to honestly do an assessment of the “heart” of your business, which of the following scenarios would best apply?

“It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time:…a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness;…paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on…”

Stated differently, we might list words like: “untruthful, discontent, worry, impetuous, hard driving, immorality, idolatry, fits of anger, emotional outburst, & selfish ambition.”

Wow, tough stuff huh!

Or, is it possible this describes the “heart” of your business?

“But what happens when we live God’s way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard-things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely.”

Stating this a bit differently, we might list words like: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, and others oriented.”   Yes, for those who are familiar with the Bible, these are the “fruits of the spirit” and the passages above are taken from the book of Galatians 5:19-23 MSG. (more…)

In the past few weeks, we have been reflecting on the importance of buy-in and wanted to share a few thoughts. You’ve likely all heard that in relationships and in working with teams of people, it’s important to gain buy-in. However, have you ever truly assessed how good you are personally at promoting and seeking buy-in?

Several years ago a professor at Indiana – Kelley School of Business shared something that has really stuck with me over time. It was the following equation:

Level of Success = Value of the Idea X Level of Buy-in

So, if we have an Idea that is a “10″; however, only have a Buy-in of “1″, then the Level of Success is only a “10″. Vice versa, an Idea of a “1″ with a Buy-in of “10″ is still a “10″.

What I frequently see is businesses, organizations, and individuals having some really great ideas; however, they don’t take the time to stop and seek buy-in. They tend to be so excited about “their idea” that they get out in front of their teams without ever truly seeking input. In multiple studies, we see that what people value most is that they have an opportunity to contribute and are being heard. When we don’t take the time to allow this with our ideas, we are sabotaging them from the get-go. (more…)

In his book, Bringing Out the Best in People, Alan Loy McGinnes discusses “12 Rules for Bringing Out the Best in People”. These rules are:

1. “Expect the best from people you lead.
2. Make a thorough study of the other person’s needs.
3. Establish high standards for excellence.
4. Create an environment where failure is not fatal.
5. If they are going anywhere near where you want to go, climb on the other people’s bandwagons.
6. Employ models to encourage success.
7. Recognize and applaud achievement.
8. Employ a mixture of positive and negative reinforcement.
9. Appeal sparingly to the competitive urge.
10.  Place a premium on collaboration.
11. Build into the group an allowance for storms.
12. Take steps to keep your own motivations high.”

While McGinnis’ book had many excellent points, Rules 5 & 10 are the ones which caught my attention: 5) If they are going anywhere near where you want to go, climb on the other people’s bandwagons. And, 10) Place a premium on collaboration. I’ll let you pick up a copy of the book to better understand McGinnis’ context and purpose behind these rules as it relates more specifically to motivating others. My intent is to share more of how it struck me personally upon reflection, which is a bit of a tangent.

Have you ever been around people who need to be the originator of their own ideas? Some might call them “mavericks”, people having their own brand and never following the herd. Others may refer to them as being Rascals, people that continually go against the grain. Well, I don’t have anything against Rascals and, in fact, I believe that I am a Leading Rascal according to Chris Brady’s book Rascal: Making a Difference by Becoming an Original Character. That being said, I do see a tendency in these types of people and would offer a word of caution. Sometimes, a “maverick” get’s so attached to his own ideas and strategies that he misses the “bandwagon” going in the direction of the desired destination. The reasons for not “jumping on the bandwagon” vary: unconscious thoughts, pride, selfish ambition, lack of belief, and more. However, the results are normally the same in which they are playing Russian roulette attempting to create their own ideas and miss precious time and energy which can be acquired through climbing on other’s bandwagons and creating synergies through collaboration.

This is the reason, we have recently partnered with a couple of organizations: Truth@Work and LIFE. Truth@Work is a 501c3 that develops, products, programs, and services designed to aid Christian business leaders, entrepreneurs, CEOs and executives in living out their faith in the marketplace. “LIFE is a learning experience unlike any other – primarily housed in the form of easy to use audio CD’s and books – it takes a consistent and effective approach to each area of life. The core program of LIFE focuses on these 8 F’s of life: Faith, Family, Friends, Freedom, Finances, Fitness, Following and Fun.” With Arnold’s vision of Equipping Leaders for Life, both of these organizations have over a decade of proven results and we are experiencing the fruits of jumping on their bandwagons. Truth@Work and LIFE are well on their way to becoming the top leadership and personal development partners worldwide with national recognition by many of the world’s top leadership experts. Best of all, they love having others jump onto their bandwagons and join their convoy of building a community of leaders of influence.

So, while Truth@Work and/or LIFE may or may not be bandwagons you would like to associate, clearly there are synergistic relationships lying right in your path. Will you take advantage of these bandwagons or continue to be a “maverick” needing to have your own brand and never following the herd?

Have a FANTASTIC day!

When working with businesses and individuals we often ask our clients to answer the following questions: “Who am I, What am I, Why am I”. We always want to get to the core of these questions early on in the relationship. Experts will tell you that successful people always have clarity of their “values” and “personal purpose/mission”.

The stories of how this has helped people are numerous and the most relevant story to me is my own personal story. Without getting into all the details, I would tell you that there were some events which transpired in my 30′s that started me down a path of truly seeking to understand what “success” looked like for my life. In 2008, I left what some of the world might view as a “successful” corporate position due to the economic downturn. In the initial 40 days after leaving this position, I had the gift of time to reflect on the questions “Who am I, What am I, Why am I” as well as “What does ‘success’ look like to me?”

You see the world would have told me a Director’s position in a midsize corporation with a six figure income, a nice house in one of the area’s most prominent neighborhoods, a second home on a lake with a boat, being a state championship quarterback who married a high school homecoming queen, having two children (boy and girl), and a golden retriever all looked like we were “successful” and “living the dream”. This isn’t to say there is anything specifically wrong with this lifestyle.  However, at the time, I was out of balance. Furthermore, I couldn’t really articulate what “success” looked like nor my personal “values” and “purpose/mission”.

During my 40 day journey and the months following, I continually worked to clearly answer all of these questions. What I first discovered was that my life had been out of balance as I was not in alignment with my core values. While I would have told you God & family were at the top of my values, my actions previously were not supporting these values. These values and relationships were present in my life, however, would tend to get displaced at times due primarily to a “lack of time”.

When reflecting on my purpose/mission, I can’t say that I ever really spent time prior to my 40 day journey reflecting on the importance of being able to articulate this purpose in a personal mission statement. Yes, I would have told you that raising a family, living a Christ-like life, and giving 100% to my work were what I aspired to do; however, what does this look like! And why weren’t these things truly fulfilling me?

So, when we say our business mission is:   “Arnold Business Advisors LLC prides itself in aiding businesses and individuals in truly defining what ‘success’ looks like and building strategies to achieve this ‘success’.” It is our intent to aid individuals and their teams in answering these questions and realizing the connection they have toward achieving results in whatever area of life they aspire to have.

There are multiple techniques to aid people in their discovery of “values”, “personal mission statement”, and definition of “success” which we utilize. One of our favorite tools comes from The Ken Blanchard Companies which is a process Susan Fowler developed for the Situational Self Leadership. For your benefit, we have linked it here for your reference.

At the end of the day, once you have all of this defined, one of the next steps which is often difficult to achieve is that you must “believe” in what you’ve put down on paper. Unfortunately, life gets in the way often, and we run across obstacles that are not in alignment with our “values” and “mission” and will challenge us to the importance of these values and mission. That’s why my wife has created the poster below which is on the wall in my office. This serves as a daily reminder as to “Who am I, What am I, and Why am I?” Even better, it serves as a reminder of what other are seeing from the outside which is priceless.

Being well grounded in your “values” and “personal mission” now allows you to have a strong foundation for evaluating visions and dreams. For example, my values are God, family, honesty, integrity, and freedom. My personal mission is “to utilize my listening and problem solving skills to lead people in the discovery of their purpose and the intentional fulfillment of that purpose.” Now, let say that I have an opportunity for a contract with a Fortune 500 company which will allow me to earn $1.0M over the next year that requires me to travel 75% of my time. Based off my “values” and “personal mission”, what do you believe my response should be to this opportunity? While I remain open to possibilities, it’s not in alignment and therefore, I should not accept this opportunity.  (I do have a few other thoughts of what to do though!)

If not already, we truly encourage you to take time to go through this process.  Even if you already have, it is helpful to repeat such that you can continually refine.  As indicated above, this normally evolves over an extended time of reflection.  It’s also helpful to have outside resources involved as they generally see things in us we don’t see.  We welcome the opportunity to be one of those resources.

Have a FANTASTIC day!

PS…Enjoying today’s newsletter, however, having difficulty in applying it toward a business context?  See our post The Cause for an example.

At Truth@Work, an organization with which I am involved, we often ask the question: “What’s the value of one good idea?”

Recently, in listening to a CD coming off my monthly LIFE subscription, I was reminded of a story from Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich which illustrates the “value of one good idea”.

In the early 1900′s, Ivy Lee, called on Charles Schwab of the Bethlehem Steel Company. Lee briefly outlined his firm’s services, ending with the statement: “With our service, you’ll know how to manage better.”

The indignant Schwab said, “I’m not managing as well now as I know how. What we need around here is not more ’knowing’ but more doing; not ’knowledge’, but action; if you can give us something to pep us up to do the things we ALREADY KNOW we ought to do, I’ll gladly listen to you and pay you anything you ask.”

“Fine,” said Lee. “I can give you something in twenty minutes that will step up your action and doing at least fifty percent.”

“Okay,” said Schwab. “I have just about that much time before I must leave to catch a train. What’s your idea?”

Lee pulled a blank 3 x 5 note sheet out of his pocket, handed it to Schwab and said: “Write on this sheet the five most important tasks you have to do tomorrow.” That took about three minutes.

“Now,” said Lee, “Number them in the order of their importance.” Five more minutes passed.

“Now,” said Lee, “Put this sheet in your pocket and the first thing tomorrow morning, look at item one and start working on it. Pull the sheet out of your pocket every fifteen minutes and look at item one until it is finished. Then tackle item two in the same way, then item three. Do this until quitting time. Don’t be concerned if you only finished two or three, or even if you only finish one item. You’ll be working on the important ones. The others can wait. If you can’t finish them all by this method, you couldn’t with another method either, and without some system you’d probably not even decide which are most important.”

He went on, ”Spend the last five minutes of every working day making out a ’must do’ list for the next day’s tasks. After you’ve convinced yourself of the worth of this system, have your people try it. Try it out as long as you wish and then send me a check for what YOU think it’s worth.”

The whole interview lasted about 25 minutes. In two weeks, Schwab sent Lee a check for $25,000-a thousand dollars a minute. He added a note saying the lesson was the most profitable he had ever learned. Did it work? In five years it turned the unknown Bethlehem Steel Company into the biggest independent steel producer in the world, and made Schwab a hundred-million-dollar fortune, and the best known steel man alive at that time.

Source: Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich

While this story may be one you have not heard before, the concept of a “must do” list is likely nothing new to you.  We consistently observe that people are more effective and value daily priority list when they use them. So, why highlight “when they use them”?  We’ll let you ponder that question a bit.

So, what’s the value of one good idea?  Is it worth 25 minutes of your time to explore possibilities?  Contact us to set-up a phone call or schedule an appointment where we’ll test the waters.  Like Schwab and Lee, “After you’ve convinced yourself of the worth…send me a check for what YOU think it’s worth.”   Who knows, this brief conversation may be a pivotal time for you and your business.

Have a FANTASTIC day!

Arnold Business Advisors LLC prides itself in aiding businesses and individuals in truly defining what “success” looks like and building strategies to achieve this “success”.

With this being our mission, it’s not uncommon for us to engage in discussions with those sharing our beliefs on how biblical principles apply to “success” in the business.  These generally are some enlightening conversations.

“John D. Beckett, chairman of the privately held R. W. Beckett Corporation in North Ridgefield, Ohio, wrote one of the leading books on living out Christian faith in the marketplace, Loving Monday (InterVarsity, 1998). Now Beckett, 68, has written a sequel, Mastering Monday: A Guide to Integrating Faith and Work (InterVarsity, 2006). Senior associate editor Stan Guthrie recently sat down with him.” Click here to read Guthrie and Beckett’s article.

Once you review, we’d love to hear your prospective.

“The Cause”, “Our Mission”, “What Matters”, “Making a Difference” — Is it important that your organization have a “mission statement”?

Some tend to dismiss the importance of “mission statements”; however, we have been reminded over the past month of their importance.  We believe that deep rooted in all of us is a desire to “make a difference” and “do something that matters“.  Being able to see how our daily work ties to a greater purpose brings an increased level of energy, excitement, and passion to our lives.

An example we would offer is the story of ELANCO.  It’s at the point when their organization made the connection to “The Cause – Feeding the World” that they started experiencing one of the most impressive cultural transformations we’ve seen in an organization.  We encourage you to read more of their story.

While the mission, or purpose, of each of our businesses may not seem to be as significant as solving world hunger, we challenge you to pause and ask yourself, what is “The Cause” and start to connect with it daily.

Walking into my son’s basketball game this past week, John Wooden Pyramid of Success caught my eye.  Great words of wisdom from a man we all love and honor.

Click here to view in pdf format.

As we don’t sell a particular product or service, it’s often that people have difficulty understanding what we do.

While we have a wide range of capabilities, our core business is in the following areas:

• Strategy
• Leadership Development
• High Performance Team Alignments
• Succession Planning

To watch a brief video overview of our business,
Click Here