Daddy & Daughter Date
Recently, I had the privilege of taking my 14-year old daughter, Maggie, out on a date. We had been planning and anticipating this special time together for over a month. We both dressed up and Maggie wore a beautiful dress and fixed her hair special. She called it her “prom date” (too bad I won’t always be able to be her prom date). We had dinner at a nice restaurant and had the sweetest time just talking. We talked about her dreams and her future. I took the opportunity to speak life into Maggie and who God has created her to be as well as talk about what I believe God has for her. Maggie and I took pictures to remind us of this special evening.
Dads, if you have a teenage daughter or younger, plan a special night for the two of you. We have an incredible opportunity to show our daughters how they can expect to be treated on a date. More importantly, the affirmation and attention we provide our daughters will likely have a profound impact on how they see themselves.
Read MoreA Critical Daily Choice
I love the freedom to make daily choices. Granted some of our choices may be impacted by such factors as economics, health, time and location. Even when you consider these and other factors we still have the freedom each day to make a multitude of choices. Some of these choices are rather insignificant and others can have a profound impact.
Likely, most of us will literally make hundreds of seemingly small choices today. Such choices as:
- What time to get up
- What to wear
- Whether to brush our teeth or use deodorant (those around us would say thanks for choosing yes)
- What to have for lunch
Overall, these choices will have a rather minimal impact.
Another choice we each make daily concerns our attitude. I love the freedom to choose our attitude. Certainly, there are factors that can have a temporary influence on our attitude. However, overall it’s my choice.
Our attitudes announce our arrival when we enter a room, accompanies us wherever we go, influences others.
Out attitudes will greatly influence the quality of our relationships and play a huge role in our success or failure.
What an incredible freedom. Each moment we get to choose our attitude.
Let’s choose our attitude wisely.
Read MoreLeadership Development: Deciding In Whom To Invest Your Time
I believe one of the responsibilities of a team or organizational leader is to help other leaders develop their leadership skills. When you consider investing in the development of others on your team it raises some interesting questions:
Q – Do you invest in the leadership development of everybody on your team?
A – Yes, to the extent that leadership development is part of your teams culture & values. There should be opportunities and resources that encourage everyone’s development.
Q – Do you personally invest the same amount of time & effort in the leadership development of everybody on the team?
A – No, in order to maximize your time you will need to prioritize with whom you invest your leadership development time.
Q – How do you decide who will get priority time in leadership development?
A – I generally invest priority leadership development time in:
- Team members who because of their role, if they were a better leader (example: go from a 5 to 7) it would significantly and positively impact our team/organization
- Team members of high potential who although they are not yet in a top leadership role, will likely be in such a role in the future
- High potentials generally young leaders both within and outside of the organization, who are highly teachable and have a thirst for personal development
Unfortunately, because of the time constraints, those who intentionally invest in the leadership development of others will have to prioritize with whom they invest their time.
How do you decide who get your leadership development time?
Read MoreParenting Prinicple
Recently I attended the movie “The Lucky One” with my wife Emily. In the spirit of full disclosure it should be noted that this type of movie (love story) is really not my favorite. In fact, my son Zach said that if I went to this movie I would have to surrender my “man card.” While this type of movie may not my favorite, Emily without question is my favorite and I enjoyed spending a day with her doing what she wanted.
I want to share a couple of parenting principles that jumped out to me based on one scene from the movie. In this particular scene a little boy (8-9 years old) had spent considerable time practicing tying a tie for a formal event. The little boy was proud of his hard work and ran to show his dad. The dad immediately began to fix his tie and remarked something like “you need to learn to tie a tie.” Naturally, the little boy was demoralized.
Parenting Principle: Recognize, appreciate and encourage our kids when they have tried their best even if the outcome is less than desired. They won’t always hit a homerun or make straight A’s. If they did their best, recognize their effort. If necessary, we can then focus on how we can appropriately help them. Our words are powerful and can impact our kids for years or even a lifetime. Is it really a big deal if an 8 year olds tie isn’t perfect?
In the same scene the grandfather of the little boy criticizes his son’s choice of suits. This criticism was so similar to the way his son had just criticized his grandson about his tie.
Parenting Principle: We often parent like we were parented. Let’s keep the positive parenting examples we learned from our parents. However, let’s not repeat the characteristics or habits that don’t benefit our kids.
If you didn’t have the blessing of Godly parents I encourage you to seek out parenting role models. While there are no perfect parents, Biblically based parenting is God’s best for our kids.
Read MoreA Leadership Interview with Colonel John Garrity
Yesterday at the monthly Leadership Seminar I had the privilege of interviewing retired United States Army Colonel John Garrity. I met John when I spoke to Leadership Oak Ridge. Since then I have spent a fair amount of time with John talking leadership. To get an outline of yesterday’s seminar click here. The following is a condensed version of the leadership quotes/principles of my interview with John.
1. “Be a professional”
- What would the most professional person in my role do in this situation?
- Great reminder that professionalism is needed in every leadership situation
2. “All praise goes down and all pain stops with me”
- Give/share praise with team members
- Give credit for success to others
- Take responsibility for team mistakes
3. “It’s easy to sit in the staff office”
- In challenging times lead from the front
- The team gains strength form seeing the leader “in the battle” with them
- Get out in the field
4. “When in doubt – attack”
- If you are uncertain regarding your next leadership step – keep moving the team forward
- It’s easy to get “stuck” while waiting for clarity
5. “Restate priorities at every opportunity”
- Remind the team of the vision often
- Restate what is most important
6. “A bedrock of integrity”
- The foundation of leadership
- A leader with integrity earns trust
7. “It there is a distraction that is work related – fix the problem”
- Eliminate unnecessary distractions that would prevent a team member form achieving the best performance
8. “I signed the letters”
- The weight of leadership
- The leader takes responsibility for their team
Colonel Garrity did a terrific job of making the above leadership quotes come alive with vivid stories from his experience as a military leader. If you are in east Tennessee make plans to attend the next leadership seminar on May 17.
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