“Wanting everyone to be happy and making tough decisions were incompatible tasks.”

 - John Maxwell

I (Cindy) remember reading this quote early in my leadership journey and realizing there’s my problem!  I was attempting to keep people happy while making tough decisions... and it wasn’t working out so well. Family, work, friends...everywhere!  I wanted everyone to be happy yet life offered an unending barrage of tough decisions.  Since I made tough decisions with this mindset, I was in constant turmoil.   That simple quote reminded me everyone is responsible for their own happiness and my job was to continue making tough decisions with everyone's best interest at heart.  That worked for me because it values everyone!  

Consider when a mindset shift may be helpful for you in this area. It may just make the difference for you and your leadership like it did for me! If it wasn't for ongoing growth, I would still be...

I remember learning the Law of Design which says, to maximize growth, develop strategies.  What a relief… I had strategies!  At the time, I had a system that allowed me to get two young children up each morning, safely delivered to school or childcare, as a single Mom and even get some form of exercise before they woke.  Granted, this was on days when no one was sick, had a bad night, or mornings when I faced a child who was attempting to be in charge of the house… and everything else for that matter. 

Life felt more like survival than a sense of thriving but at least I had a system, right?!  I didn’t say it was always pretty but it was always attempted and helped us have structure even on the tough days.  It wasn’t until I delegated responsibility to my children that we were able to create good habits and have a smoother transition each morning, not to mention more fun together!

The truth is…we all have a system. ...

Intentional action in the direction of your dream will change the way you think and change the way you feel. It will change everything and you will never be the same again. Make today a forward movement in the direction you want to go! It doesn't take a lot although what you give is up to you but it does take the discipline to be intentional and consistent.

Here's a powerful quote by James Allen (also found in Proverbs) that helps me check my (Cindy) mindset and what I'm thinking about.

"As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." - James Allen

And prompts me to ask myself specific questions like these:

Is my thinking serving me well?

Is this taking me in a positive direction?

Is this what I want?

Am I allowing the Law of Diminishing Intent to creep in?  In case you are not familiar, the Law of Diminishing Intent says, the longer we delay doing something, the less likely we are to do it.

This is all about the creeps!  What are you allowing yourself to think about? ...

Through the last several posts, we’ve been working through the importance of enjoying each step of the journey rather than resting on the hope that fulfillment will come once we reach that ever so important goal we’re chasing. I even used the last post to share an example of just how badly I’ve failed at doing just that…

In an attempt to be as corny as I can possibly be, I believe the saying may actually be true: All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy!

As I prepared to put this final post together and wrap up this Don’t Wait Until You Get There idea, I found myself thinking about what John Maxwell teaches about the Three R’s in the Law of Priorities: What are we required to do?; What gives us the best return on the time we invest?; and What provides us with the most reward?

Nearly every time I reference these questions, it’s around making the most effective use of our time as leaders. But truth be told, that can often be done with...

I had worked hard, doing all I could to hone the skills I needed to become truly effective in the role I held. I had really studied some of the most effective trainers, both within and outside of the behavior-based safety world, so I could excel in something that was incredibly difficult for me just a few years earlier. As I shared in the last post, it wasn’t long after I had really immersed myself in this process that I found myself traveling to facilities across North America to train other teams on the process itself and the successes we were beginning to have at my home facility. 

High school educated (kinda) and in my mid 20s, regularly meeting with plant managers and their executive teams, corporate leadership, and other high falutin folks, giving them my advice on what their next steps should be to get results with their struggling behavior-based safety initiatives… I don’t remember being tagged in my senior yearbook as being “most likely”...

I remember having lunch with my best friend from high school in 2002 or so. He had recently accepted a position with a new company and was off to an amazing start. I had been leading our facility’s behavior-based safety process for around a year at that point and was finally starting to believe I could be great in the role. I can still picture with complete clarity where we sat in the restaurant that’s no longer open, which just happened to be the same place that Cindy and I first had dinner together, and I can still hear the goals we shared with one another for what we knew we could each achieve over the next few years.

Both of us had started working nearly full time jobs early high school and both of us had only hit college with a stick to that point. While the positions we had earned by then were fairly decent for being in our mid 20s with no degrees, we were extremely excited about the potential we each believed we had to be the best in our respective fields.

Just a...

Through the last few posts and the LinkedIn article that set the tone for them, we’ve looked at some of the most pressing issues that cause so many of us to lock onto a goal and lose nearly all focus on anything but that goal. In many cases, that can suck the joy out of just about everything else around us. While that’s (usually) not our intent, it happens just the same…

As I closed the last post, I promised to dig deeper into how we can each be more intentional about enjoying the unique journey we’re on. Not long after that, as I was driving to a meeting and listening to Psycho-Cybernetics on Audible at 3X speed, I noticed that even Maxwell Maltz saw this as a significant issue when he wrote the book more than 60 years ago! Since I was listening (really fast) rather than reading, I won’t even attempt to quote him directly… His point, though, was along the lines of having a clear goal to work toward then live in the steps we’re taking on a...

The Law of Consistency is working in our lives whether we apply it in a positive way or not. Let’s make sure we are taking intentional action toward positive outcomes!  If you are not familiar with what this law says, here it is… Motivation Gets You Going, Discipline Keeps You Growing.

This means we need motivation to get started and discipline to stay the course.  One of the best ways I’ve (Cindy) found to stay motivated and help others do the same is to align our method of motivation to our personality style.  I learned about this idea in the 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth and set out to apply it in my own life and share it with others.

It’s really simple in concept AND simple to apply!  For example, if your personality likes to have some fun involved in what you’re doing then you simply need to find ways to motivate yourself by creating fun in what you do.  If it is boring...you’re just not motivated!  And...

If you have a good idea of your strength areas and the areas you're not as strong in, you would do good to assess your interest and opportunities. If you'd like to discuss strengths and weaknesses we can do that to!

Knowing yourself isn't necessarily easy for everyone. It can be a process but the more you grow yourself, the more you'll know yourself. This is where many people miss it because they never grow enough to become more aware of themselves.

As we are growing, it's good to start paying attention to our passions.  What are we drawn to and most interested in?  Then we can focus in growth areas that will help us with our passions and areas of interest. As I (Cindy) learned through mentorship with Mark Cole, CEO, The Maxwell Enterprise, most of us will find that growth in the areas of relationships, equipping (us and others), attitude, and leadership are essential to reach our full potential.

Asking quality questions of ourselves is one way to increase awareness and...

Quite a few of the leaders I’ve known over the years also held positions where they were responsible for supervising a group of people, managing a process, or running an entire business. Let me be very candid before I move on though, filling those positions had almost as much to do with them being real leaders as sitting in a garage does with me being a car… Since condemning the misuse of the word leadership isn’t my intent (today), I’ll stick with the regularly scheduled program…

As a supervisor, a manager, or even a business owner, there’s often pressure from various directions to ensure we’re making the numbers. While I’ve been providing this blog and A Daily Dose Of Leadership for going on five years as a complimentary service to hundreds of people across the country, I like sleeping inside and eating food as much as the next person so at times I’ll reference some of the fee-based services Cindy and I provide as well;...