Bad things happen. People become ill, get laid off from work, go through divorce, suffer accidents, and lose money on investments. Therefore, every one of us needs to develop resilience. Why do some people who endure terrible circumstances bounce back, while others wallow permanently in self-pity and defeat? The answer to this question is important, because we will all experience difficult circumstances. Whether or not we we have resilience determines the outcome of our lives. Here are three characteristics of people who have resilience: 1. Resilient people are realists. Resilient people are not optimists if optimism means believing that bad things cannot happen, or if it happens that it will be short-lived. Resilient people are pragmatists. They have a sober, down-to-earth view of reality. They know bad things can happen, and they prepare themselves to act in ways that will allow them to survive. When things are good, they enjoy them, but they know that the good times may not last. They train themselves for survival before bad things occur. And when bad things occur, they refuse to engage in denial as a coping mechanism. 2. Resilient people find meaning in life, even when bad things happen. When the bottom drops out, rather than seeing themselves as victims or being frozen in lethargy, resilient people do things that add meaning to their lives and the lives of others. They sometimes even find humor in their bad circumstances. Instead of trying to survive on their own, they find comfort in a mutually supportive community. Instead of surrendering to despair, they doggedly hold on to the conviction that the worst things that have happened are never the last things that will happen. As long as they are alive, there is hope. As Viktor E. Frankl wrote in “Man’s Search for Meaning: “We must never forget that we may also find meaning in life even when confronted with a hopeless situation, when facing a fate that we cannot change.” 3. Resilient people have an uncanny ability to improvise. Resilient people use whatever is at hand to survive. Many of us have heard stories about how people in the Great Depression made use of whatever was available to repair things which were broken and create things which were needed. They also developed dreams for the future that functioned as bridges to a better, brighter future. These dreams keep the present from being overwhelming, and built a foundational strategy for the future. Often, indigent children develop athletic abilities or other special skills to escape generational poverty. In the Auschwitz concentration camp, Dr. Frankl survived by imagining himself giving lectures after the war to help outsiders understand what the Holocaust victims had experienced. How can we use these three principles to become a more resilient? How can we build resilience into our children and grandchildren? In the uncertain world in which we live, chances are we will all need to be more resilient persons.

Quotes About Procrastination: “Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone.” Pablo Picasso “You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.” Abraham Lincoln “In a moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing to do; the next best thing is the wrong thing; and the worst thing you can do is nothing.” Theodore Roosevelt “Anything worth putting off is worth abandoning altogether.” Epictetus “It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that they are difficult.” Lucius Annaeus Seneca “Perhaps the most valuable result of an education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not.” Thomas Huxley “Procrastination is the lazy cousin of fear. When we feel anxiety around an activity, we postpone it.” Noelle Hancock “A primary reason people don’t do new things is because they want to do them perfectly—first time. It’s completely irrational, impractical, not workable—and yet, it’s how most people run their lives.” Peter McWilliams “Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable.” Sydney Harris “Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task.” William James “What you resist not only persists, but grows in size.” Carl Jung Procrastination is like a voice in our head giving you several seemingly valid reasons to avoid doing something that needs to be done. When we are faced with difficult, tedious, unpleasant, and time-consuming tasks, dread can make it easy to listen to this voice. As a result, we filibuster. Someone has said the 5 stages of procrastination are: 1. Denial—"I have plenty of time. I'll get it done later.” 2. Anger—"Dammit, I don’t want to do it right now!” 3. Bargaining—"I'll get started as soon as I finish the task at hand.” 4. Depression—"Why should I have to do it anyway?” 5. Acceptance—“Okay, I’ll do it now.” But when you procrastinate, we might feel better in the short-term, but we will suffer in the long-term. The costs of procrastination are high: low self-esteem, anxiety, stress, depression. Procrastination asks us to believe the illusion that somehow, thing will miraculously get done. But this illusion causes us to live in ongoing emotional pain. Additionally, we strain important relationships. Procrastination is essentially irrational. Why would we practice a habit that makes you feel worse about ourselves and creates problems with others? It doesn’t make sense to do something you know is going to have negative consequences. Procrastination is a bad habit, and, like all bad habits, it can be broken. Here are some strategies for overcoming procrastination: 1. Make a list of the things that need to be done. 2. Prioritize the list, from most to least important. 3. Set a personal completion time, which allows us to finish ahead of the actual completion deadline. Sometimes we need “percolation” time to think about the project. If so, schedule this time first. Usually, one or two days is enough time to allow the subconscious to think things through. 4. Decide on an appropriate reward for completing the task. 5. Confront the downside of inaction. Visualize how great it will be to complete the project. Commit to taking immediate action. 6. Approach big, time-consuming projects backward. Walk back from the deadline to today. Think the project through: what we need to do and when we need to do it. Organize the task. 7. Divide the larger task up into smaller, more manageable tasks. 8. Place a series of short appointments on our calendar to work on the task. Utilize thirty minutes to one hours prime time slots for the project. 9. Use the appointment to “punch holes” in the project. We will find that momentum often causes us to work beyond the thirty minutes to one hour time slots. We will discover that as we make progress, our enthusiasm for the project will mount. 10. Celebrate the victory and enjoy the reward.

“Whoever loves the truth is willing to be set right, but whoever hates correction is stupid.” Proverbs 12:1 1. Don’t react, instead respond. Whether you are getting feedback informally or formally, the most critical first step is to listen intently and not to be defensive. Ask for clarification about anything you do not understand. Ask for specific examples. And thank the person for caring enough to speaking up, even if you do not like what they said. 2. Spend time reflecting on the feedback’s value. Even if it is well-intentioned, sometimes feedback can be inaccurate, or tinged with bias. Here are ways to weigh the value of the feedback you received: (A) Remind yourself that the feedback reflects only a small facet of who you are. (B) Reflect on the context of the feedback. (C) Consider the feedback itself: what was said; who said it; your relationship to them; in what spirit was it given; whether it was a single event or an ongoing issue; what you have been asked to change; how you could go about implementing the change. 3. Seek corroboration. Ask trusted colleagues, mentors, or peers in confidence if they recognize this behavior in you. 4. Turn the feedback into a goal and plan. Craft a SMART goal—Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time bound. Then create a step-by-step plan to achieve the goal. 5. Circle back to the person who gave you the feedback. Choose to do it at the right time, the right place, and in the right way. Let them know that you acted on their feedback. Thank them again.

Sooner or later you will be called on to make an oral presentation; i.e, give a report, teach a lesson, make a sales pitch, etc. Here are the basic steps of an effective oral presentation. 1. Preparation for the Presentation A. Get clear about on the goal of your presentation. What do you want those listening to you to learn, see, feel, or do? What would make the presentation successful? B. Find out all you can about your audience. On the spot discernment will be needed, but find out all you can in advance. Who will be present? Are they deciders? What will they be most interested in hearing or learning? C. Limit the scope of the presentation. Don’t try to tell people everything you know about the subject. Remember that the object is not to entertain, to prove how smart you are, to draw attention to yourself, or to impress people. Instead, make the presentation as short as possible. Focus only on appealing to the audience's enlightened self-interest in responding what you have to say. Your goal is to convince them of your way of thinking. D. Prepare for the presentation well in advance. Mark Twain once said, “It takes more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech.” Become an expert on the subject. Do research. Have something substantive to say. Know what you are talking about. Think of metaphors or analogies to compare the new idea with ideas familiar to your audience. This turns the new abstract idea into something concrete and understandable. E. Decide how you want to begin. Here are some possibilities: (1) Introduce yourself. (2) If humor is natural for you, this is the right place to use it. Self-depreciating humor can lower boundaries. But make sure it is appropriate and not offensive. (3) Begin with a relevant anecdote, or a startling fact. (4) Begin with a riveting question. (5) Recall some shared experience. F. Sequence the presentation so that it flows logically and builds in suspense. The presentation needs a story line. A logical sequence will aid you in remembering the presentation. Don’t forget the importance of redundancy. G. If you are going to ask for money, begin with the bottom line. Yes, there will be resistance, but it is better to get it out of the way early so that there is time to explain the need and to overcome the resistance. Why make people wait to hear the bottom line? Why face resistance at the end of the presentation? Delivering the bottom line early will communicate that you are an honest presenter. H. Use narrative as much as possible. Paint a verbal picture for people. Don’t give a lecture; tell a story. People listen to and remember stories better than they do statistics. I. Anticipate people’s questions and answer them during the presentation. J. Sometimes it is as important to tell people what you are not saying/proposing and to tell them what you are saying/proposing. K. Skip the jargon; i.e., acronyms. It intimidates people who do not understand the “insider speak”. And sometimes it comes across as an attempt to impress people. Speak so that everyone in the room will understand you. L. Consider whether to incorporate media and, if so, decide the best way to do it. Make sure your media—hand outs, white board, easel and pad, PowerPoint, graphics, video clips, etc.—supports the message and does not overpower it or lead people beyond the message you are attempting to driving. If the media allows your audience to learn more in less time, it can be an effective substitute for narrative. M. Develop a way to effectively conclude the presentation. What are you asking the audience to do? If options are part of the presentation, lay them out clearly. If it is an all-or-nothing proposal, explain why. N. Rehearse. Practice your presentation early and often—eight or ten times. Practice out loud, just like it’s the real presentation. Invite a one or two carefully selected people to give constructive feedback. Know the material you are going to present so well that it feels natural to talk about it. Keep going over it until you can deliver it without notes with energy and confidence. If you need notes, refer to them as little as possible. Do not read the presentation. People can read faster than you can talk. It is insulting to read the presentation to your audience. O. If there is going to be a Q&A session, see it as an opportunity to further demonstrate your knowledge and share your perspective. Simply put, Q&A is an extension of your presentation, changing it into a two-way conversation. P. Get a good night's sleep the night before the presentation. It requires energy to give an effective presentation. Make sure you have plenty of it. 2. Delivery of the Preparation A. Dress appropriately. If you have questions about attire, ask someone who will knows for sure the way people will be dressed. B. Arrive early. Greet people with a firm handshake as they arrive. Familiarize yourself with the space where you will be speaking. Stand in the place where you will be speaking. Is there anything about the setting worthy of complimenting? Are the visual aids in place? Is the technology working? If there is a speaker system, try it out. C. When it comes time to speak, stand up if possible. It will help you breathe better as well as making it easier for you to command the room. D. Stand tall and erect, with your shoulders back. Your feet should be about shoulder width apart, with your weight evenly distributed. Do not pace, rock from one foot to the other, or have nervous, unnecessary movement. Imagine your legs as trees with their roots going down into the floor, grounding you. E. Relax your arms at your side. Keep your elbows slightly bent with your hands at about waist height. This position primes you to gesture. Gestures should reinforce your message and help people understand what you are saying. Make your gestures purposeful and varied. F. Look people in the eye as you speak. Use your eyes to engage the audience. Maintain a minimum of 90% direct, continuous and roving eye contact. Look at people for three seconds and then move to another person. People's eyes will tend to follow yours. When your eyes drop, so will theirs. Read the room, taking note of the faces and body language of the audience. Try not to favor one side of the room. If you are free of notes, your eye contact will be more effective. G. Be positive and enthusiastic. People do not respond well to negative presenters. Enthusiasm is contagious. H. Smile. Smiling makes people feel that you are comfortable with yourself and them. I. Make use of the four P’s of vocal expressiveness: (1) Power or volume. Modulate your the volume to your voice, making sure your voice is always loud enough to be heard, but varied enough to be interesting. (2) Pace or speed. Do not speak too fast or too slow. (3) Pitch or vocal inflection. Let your voice rises and falls to convey emotion. (4) Pause or space between sentences, phrases, or words. Think of pauses as verbal punctuation marks. They help your audience micro-breaks and prevent you from using “filler words”—like “ahs”, “like”, “you know”—words used when you are trying to decide what to say. J. Be prepared and relaxed if and when there are distractions, interruptions, and unrequested spontaneous questions; i.e., "Good question. Thanks for asking." In the ancient world, public speaking was called “rhetoric.” In the fourth century BC, Aristotle outlined the art of verbal persuasion in his work entitled, “Rhetoric.” Through the centuries, many great communicators have used Aristotle’s three rhetorical devices to shape their presentations: 1. “Ethos” “Ethos” is about the speaker’s credibility. People need to know we have sufficient authority to say what we are saying. This has to do with credentials, technical expertise, rank within our organization, reputation, and perceived moral character. If the speakers' life does not support their words, they lose their audience. 2. “Logos” Logos is about making an appeal to the audience’s reason. Data, evidence, and facts can be used to form a rational argument if they are presented in a clear, logical, sequential, and compelling way. The object is to lead the audience to the desired conclusion. 3. “Pathos” “Pathos” is about making an appeal to the listener’s emotions. People are moved to action by how a speaker makes them feel. It is therefore critically important for the speaker to establish an emotional connection with the audience and speak in a way that evokes feelings. Aristotle believed the best way to transfer emotion from one person to another was through storytelling. Each of these three elements of rhetoric is important. Ethos, logos, and pathos reinforce and aid one another. When they are used in combination, they give you the best opportunity of being an effective communicator.

Bad Decision Making Methodologies: 1. Shooting from the hip decision making. These are decisions we make without careful consideration. It’s okay to make unimportant decisions in this way, like whether to eat a cheeseburger or a bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich. But if the decision is consequential, it requires deliberation. 2. Status quo decision making. These are defensive decisions where the object is for nothing to change. It assumes that the current state of affairs is optimal and anything different will result in loss. This often does not turn out to be the case. 3. Bandwagon decision making. These are decisions in which we opt not to risk a conflict with those important to us. Instead, we do what those around us were doing. 4. Confirming our prejudices decision making. Rather than reviewing objective data, we search for and pay heed to information that confirms our viewpoint. 5. Lowest common denominator decision making. Rather than deciding, we poll the people around us and choose a median response. Overcoming Fear in Decision Making Fear throws sand into the equipment of our lives, preventing us from making good decisions. It focuses on the wrong things—obstacles, impediments, and encumbrances. The problems seem insurmountable to us. As a result, we overthink things, causing inertia to set in. Often, procrastination leads to insomnia, anxiety, or depression. Here are a few characteristics of fear-obsessed people: 1. They have an excessive sense of danger. 2. They are meticulous planners, analyzing every detail, but it becomes a form of procrastination. They have difficulty with execution. 3. They ruminate about negative things, like their past failures and how of control life could become if we take a risk. 4. They suffer from catastrophic worries about all the things that could go wrong. “What if...?” and “I won’t be able to handle it if...” dominates their thinking. 5. In spite of appearing confident, we doubt our abilities. How to Make Important Decisions: 1. Is the decision destiny-determining? Not all decisions are consequential. (Should I wear a brown or blue shirt?) 2. Don’t make an impulse decision. Decisions that are made quickly are often impulsive or reactive, and therefore they can be wrong choices. 3. Set time limit. Put a time constraint on the decision if there’s not one already. Plan to beat the time limit. 4. How does the decision overlap with your personal mission statement and goals? Do the options advance or detract from your mission and goals? Does the decision therefore represent a temptation? 5. Gather the needed data. Do your best to avoid biased information. 6. Brainstorm, evaluate, and rate the credible alternatives: doing nothing, making a partial decision, doing some variation, etc. 7. Evaluate the strength (Pro’s) and weakness (Con’s) related to each alternative. 8. What are the obstacles related to the weaknesses? 9. What are the opportunities related to the strengths? 10. Evaluate the human and financial resources needed for each alternative. 11. Do a cost-benefit analysis of each alternative. 12. How do these alternatives affect you emotionally? Which of them make you feel stressed or excited? 13. Evaluate whether self-interest is biasing your thinking. 14. Evaluate whether the decision is undoable. 15. Evaluate how the decision affects others, especially family members. 16. Evaluate the unintended consequences, both positive and negative. 17. Ask two or three experienced, wise, and confidential people for advice. Seek one you expect will be a protagonist and another you expect will be an antagonist. 18. What does intuition (discernment) tell you? 19. Play prediction games. Consider three scenarios—a best-case scenario; a worst-case scenario, and mediocre case scenario. 20. Evaluate whether the scenario forecasts are overly optimistic or overly cautious. 21. Get plenty of rest. It’s hard to think clearly when you are tired. 22. If the Holy Spirit puts a red light (stop), green light (go), and yellow light (caution) on the inside of you, what light is on? 23. Go to a quiet, undisturbed place where you can be alone for three to five days. Disengage from technology. Take only a bible, a notebook, and a pen. The purpose of this time apart is to be quiet, listen to God, and perceive holy nudges. If Jesus needed to do this, why would we not need to do the same? 24. Once it's made, take ownership of the decision. Write a detailed rationale of the decision to stakeholders. 25. Do a pre-mortem. If you’ve made a mistake, admit it and correct it.

Time Management Quotes: “Those who make the worst use of their time are the first to complain of its brevity.” Jean de La Bruyère “Time is wealth, and unlike money, it can’t be saved and used later.” Lee LeFeve “How we spend our days is how we spend our lives.” Annie Dillard "Never trifle away time." John Wesley “Busy is a decision. We do the things we want to do, period. If we say we are too busy, it is just shorthand for the thing being ‘not important enough’ or ‘not a priority.’” Debbie Millman “The bad news is time flies. The good news is you’re the pilot.” Michael Altshule "Just as you drifted through an entire day without a plan and accomplished nothing, some people drift through their entire lives. They do it one day at a time, one week at a time, and one month at a time. The months run into years and span a life. It happens so gradually that they are unaware of how their lives are slipping by them until it's too late." Mary Kay Ash “Things that matter must never be at the mercy of things that matter least.” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe "Time is life. It is irreversible and irreplaceable. To waste your time is to waste your life, but to master your time is to master your life and make the most of it." Alan Lakein "Time is an equal opportunity employer. Each human being has exactly the same number of hours and minutes every day. Rich people can't buy more hours; scientists can't invent new minutes. And you can't save time to spend it on another day. Even so, time is amazingly fair and forgiving. No matter how much time you've wasted in the past, you still have an entire tomorrow." Denis Waitely “No person hands out their money to passersby, but to how many do each of us hand out our lives! We're tightfisted with property and money, yet think too little of wasting time, the one thing about which we should all be the toughest misers." Lucius Annaeus Seneca “A person who has not done one-half of the day’s work by ten o’clock in the morning, runs a chance of leaving the other half undone.” Emily Bronte 18 Time Management Strategies: 1. Time is the most precious depleting resource you have. Time cannot be acquired, purchased, or saved. It can only be managed. How you use time will define you. 2. Identify your peek performance hours of the day, and plan to tackle the hardest tasks during these hours. Most people’s peak performance time is in the morning. If this is the case, become an early riser. Make good use of your energy when it is at its height. Do mindless tasks when you are not at your best. 3. Rank-order your priorities among the many activities and obligation confronting you. Differentiate between urgency and importance tasks. Urgent tasks require immediate action, whereas as important tasks have a significant long-term consequences. The key is not to see how much you can put on your calendar. Instead prioritize things that are both urgent and important. Stephen Covey wrote, “The key is not to prioritize what on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.” 4. Before adding things to you “to do” list, ask yourself questions like: Does this need to be done? Does it need to be done now? Does it need to be done by you? Is this task in my mission statement or job description? Where does it fall on my personal priority list? Will doing it or not doing it matter in 6 months? 5. Set aside time twice during the day to return phone calls, texts, and e-mails, ideally prior to lunch and late in the afternoon. Do not check messages first thing in the morning. Learn to be brief in you phone and written messages. 6. In order to stretch your time, learn to use the assistance of the people around you. When delegating, give precise communication about directions, expectations, order of importance, guidelines, and deadlines. Delegate the authority to get the job done. Schedule interim reports to make sure the person in charge of the project is doing exactly what you had in mind. 7. Put your person and professional priorities on your calendar. Note appointments, special dates, due dates, interim delegation reports, and things you don’t want to forget on the calendar. 8. Schedule reflection time. Our collective obsession with efficiency can encroaches on the space we need for thought. Set aside protected time blocks for professional and personal rejuvenation. Make time for professional visioning, strategizing, and planning. Take time for personal reflection, rest, and renewal. 9. Remember Parkinson’s Law: Tasks expand so as to fill the time available for its fulfillment. Therefore, you must have an aggressive start and finish times for projects. 10. Since what gets measured gets managed, periodically keep a time log. Budget your time, record how you actually spend it, and then evaluate how you can be more efficient. Learn to spot and eliminate time wasters; i.e., procrastination. 11. Schedule short intervals several times a week, say 15 to 30 minute, to punch holes in major projects that seem overwhelming. This will prevent procrastination. 12. Avoid being 100% booked. Having a packed calendar gives you a false sense of productivity, but it does not allow time for emergencies, interruptions, bad traffic, highway accidents, unplanned mentoring and networking opportunities, etc. 13. Try stacking thing you want to do with things to don’t want to do; i.e., catching up on news and reading periodicals new while riding an exercise bicycle. 14. Learn to say “no.” Since there is not enough time to do everything, have to make hard choices about what you say "yes" to. Saying “no” creates a time credit. Saying “Yes” creates a time debt. 15. Minimize but do not eliminate all interruptions. It will only increase your frustration, make interruptions feel more disruptive, and it causes more things to get defined as interruptions. Sometimes interruptions are great opportunities; i.e., the most important things that happened in Jesus’ ministry were interruptions. 16. Allow 15 to 30 minutes to mentally shift between tasks. 17. Meetings are expensive. If a meeting takes an hour, it cost one hour times the number of participants. Add to this the transition time into and out of meetings. When you total the per hour cost of meetings, they’re expensive. 18. When you are involved in tasks out of the office, plan your driving route to improve travel efficiency.

1. Some people make the mistake of wanting the prestige, power, and influence that accompanies leadership, but they don’t actually want to lead people. When people become leaders their job description changes. Leaders are not primarily doers. Their scoreboard changes from an individual to a group model. Their team must win for them to be deemed a success. The leader's job is to motivate people to do things they want them to do, because they want to do it. Leaders see their success as being a byproduct of the employees’ success. If leaders are only interested in holding an important position rather than leading, they will be ineffective and find their job unfulfilling. 2. People can be promoted into a position of leadership, but headship does not automatically translate into leadership. People must earn the right to become leadership. Authority comes with headship, but authority diminishes with use. Great leaders use authority sparingly. Instead, they leverage influence. Influence increases with use. 3. People mistakenly assume that early life success automatically translates to lifetime success in all ventures. But early success is not necessarily a predictor of long-term success. Early success can promote overconfidence which leads to later failure—whereas early failure which is learned from can lead to success later in life. And sometimes success in one venture does not carry over to ventures of a different type. 4. Leaders mistakenly hire friends and relatives to help them out. Good leaders hire quality employees who have the strategic gifts necessary to help accomplish the company’s mission. Leaders aim to hire people who are smart, enthusiastic, motivated, positive, hard-working, and innovative. As a general rule, they do not hire relatives. And they only hire friends who have proved to be strong performers in previous work situations. Employees view favoritism and nepotism as both bias and a lack of seriousness about professional excellence. 5. Leaders often mistakenly hire strictly on the basis of cost containment. Instead, strong leaders hire the best people available, pay them appropriately, and expect them to be worth more to the company than they are paid. How else can the company be profitable? Good employees earn whatever they are paid; bad employees don’t. 6. In order to recruit key potential employees, mistaken leaders paint an excessively rosy picture of the job situation. Lack of transparency in the hiring process can lead new employees to feel that they got a “bait and switch.” Strong leaders are candid about the job situation, and use it as a way of challenging key employees to join the team. 7. Leaders mistakenly surround themselves with senior leaders who support their ideas and tell them what they want to hear. This is a sign of leadership insecurity. Instead, strong leaders gather a diverse team with a wide range of strengths and opinions, including those who respectfully disagree with them behind closed doors from time to time. In “The Prince,” written in 1513, Niccolo Machiavelli observed, “The best method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the strength of the men he has around him.” The result of group diversity can be creativity and innovation, provided that when a decision is made, everyone on the team supports the decision. 8. Leaders mistakenly put people at the top of the organizational chart whose motives are suspect. Safe leaders ask one question, “What is the right thing to do?", and they act consistently in response to this question. Dangerous leaders ask two questions: "What is the right thing to do? And, how will this decision affect me?" In a time of crisis, these two-question leaders will make self-serving decisions, which will put the company in jeopardy. 9. Leaders mistakenly often have written mission, vision, and core values statements on the office wall, which mean nothing. Strong leaders have written core documents, developed with broad input, which are vital to the organization. These documents are modeled in the leader and used organizationally to remind employees about the company’s culture. Employees see these principles lived out and make them their own. They are familiar with the words in these statements and many are able to quote them. Leaders know how important it is to have employees buy into the corporate culture. In addition to their performance, employees are evaluated on whether they are advancing the company’s mission, vision, and values. In business, what gets measured, managed, and celebrated gets replicated. 10. Leaders mistakenly err either in being Lone Ranger edict issuers or insecure consensus builders whose decisions take the shape of the lowest common denominator. Strong leaders wear two hats at the same time: they consult with their team as a first among equals, and they make decisions as a decider. 11. Leaders mistakenly don’t change things until it’s apparent that they’re broken. Strong leaders know that resistance to change is a key reason why businesses fail. Businesses that do not experiment, innovate, and try new things eventually close. Bill Belichek, coach of the New England Patriots, was correct: “If you wait until half-time to make changes, it’s too late.” In order to survive in business, companies must reinvent themselves every three to five years. Leaders hesitate to make changes because they fear failure. Is failure a possibility when we innovate boldly? Yes. Great leaders fail a lot. About seventy percent of company innovations fail. Therefore, leadership requires courage. Peter Drucker, the business guru, wrote, “Whenever you see a successful business, some leader once made a courageous decision." 12. Leaders mistakenly neglect spending time and energy expressing gratitude, affirming progress, and celebrating successes. Employees want their leader to know who they are, what they are doing, and how well they are doing it. Good leaders use phone calls, written messages, and short visits to dispense sincere, specific encouragement. Jack Welch, in an interview, once said that when he was the C.E.O. of General Electric that he spent one-third of his time saying encouraging things to employees. Many people leave their job, not because they think they are underpaid, but because they feel unappreciated. The cost of not saying, “Good job” can be high: employee dissatisfaction, absenteeism, low productivity, and turnover. These problems hurt the bottom line. Eighty-one percent of employees say they're motivated to work harder when their boss shows appreciation for what they do. 13. Mistaken leaders fail to focus their energy on the things most important to them. Effective leaders have personal and professional priorities, and they arrange their time in order of importance. It is a good idea for leaders to examine their calendars every six months to confirm that they are properly prioritizing. 14. Leaders mistakenly put customers first. No, for the leader, employees come first. Employees serve customers. Therefore, the leader’s number one customer is the employee. The leader’s twin responsibility is to equip and care for employees, and to manage the expectation that employees will provide excellent care for customers. 15. Leaders mistakenly assume employee conflicts will miraculously disappear on their own. Time, they assume, will heal all wounds. Wrong. Employee conflict usually gets worse with the passage of time. Sometimes conflicts are substantive, but most of the time they are about misunderstandings, personality differences, or rivalry. Rather than being passive, good leaders practice active listening to understand the situation from all angles. Then, they intervene to call for appropriate solutions. In order to resolve conflicts, leaders must face them. 16. Leaders mistakenly assume that because an idea or an innovation worked for another company, it will work for them as well. Good leaders know that “copy and paste” ideas are rarely transferable. Each corporate situation is unique. Good leaders mine ideas and innovations from within their company which fit their culture. 17. Leaders mistakenly focus on a myriad of problems at one time. Good leaders know that it is ineffective to dilute their attention by addressing too many issues at one time. They limit their foci to no more than two issues, which they believe if resolved, will make the most difference, a sort of “triage.” The other problems are saved for a later day. 18. Leaders mistakenly become hooked on risk, similar to the way gamblers become addicted to risk. Yes, all leaders run risks. Michel de Montaigne, the sixteenth century essayist, wrote, “No noble thing can be done without risk.” But good leaders carefully measure their risks. The three rules of risk are: (1) don’t risk a lot for a little; (2) don’t risk more than you can afford to lose; (3) and always consider the odds. 19. Leaders mistakenly fail to communicate their decisions throughout the company. This causes false information to be disseminated and a lack of trust in management to develop. Employees want to be treated as insiders, and, to the extent that they can be told information, they should be. Therefore, good leaders communicate company decisions and the rationale behind them as soon as possible, to the lowest possible level. Transparency promotes trust. Furthermore, important decisions should be communicated as personally as possible. 20. Leaders mistakenly manage their direct reports by means of job descriptions and annual goals. There is no way a leader can keep all these data points on an ongoing basis. Therefore, most people are not managed. Strong leaders manage their direct reports by asking employees to prepare three or four measurable goals that they intend to accomplish in the next ninety days. These quarterly reports, if accomplished, should result in the employees fulfilling their job description and annual goals. 21. Mistaken leaders are unaware of the career dreams of their team members. Good leaders, on the other hand, stay abreast of their team member’s goals. And, if they have the necessary aptitude, leaders use coaching, special assignments, and continuing education to help them reach their goals. 22. Leaders mistakenly fail to build an employee incentive system. Good leaders learn the team's reward language. It is important that employee goals be aspirational and achievable. It's better to celebrate a goal fulfilled than to have employees feeling that they were set up to fail. There are numerous ways to reward employees: raises, bonuses, profit sharing, prizes, recognition, respect, ownership, praise, time off, promotion, growth opportunities, autonomy, etc. 23. Leaders mistakenly fail to give their employees actionable feedback. It is a huge mistake for leaders to avoid difficult conversations related to performance. But the constructive criticism should be given in private and it should be focused on encouraging improvement. The ratio of positive to negative reinforcement should tilt towards the former. Seek to say five positive things for every negative comment you make. 24. Leaders mistakenly fail to carefully choose the people who supervise gifted young employees. Sometimes, promising novice employees are managed by people whose career never developed because they had a fatal flaw. These managers are jealous and frustrate the new employees, because they see that they are likely to surpass them professionally. Also, without realizing it, novice employees will adapt the fatal flaw of their supervisor. Good leaders are attentive to how gifted new employees are managed. They also take care to expose them to talented management mentors. 25. Leaders mistakenly fail to insist that the management team assume responsibility for and support controversial corporate decisions. Good leaders, in talking to other company employees, are careful not to ascribe company decisions to “they” (“They decided...”, or “Why don’t they...?”) and “someone” (“I wish someone would not have...” or “Why doesn’t someone...?”). Leaders assume responsibility for corporate decisions. They use the word “we” (“We decided to...”). They represent management decisions as their own. 26. Mistaken leaders are poor delegators. They hold on to responsibilities that they enjoy, which should be delegated to others. Not delegating these tasks brings them unwanted grief. Strong leaders delegate all tasks that someone else can do 75 percent as well as they can. How else can the talent of potential leaders be developed? But delegation is not dumping. When delegating a task, leaders need to entrust the appropriate authority to accomplish the task. They also put progress reports and deadlines on their calendar to ensure that miscommunication has not resulted in misdirection. It is usually a mistake to delegate things to groups. The more people are assigned to a task, the poorer the result is likely to be. 27. Leaders mistakenly say “yes” to too many opportunities. Success is associated with saying "yes" to the right opportunities that come our way. As we become more successful, we attract bigger and better opportunities. The challenge is to prioritize the many opportunities that present themselves. Leaders sometimes try to do this without saying a definite “no.” They want to keep options open. Inevitably though, this results in a lack of clarity and overcommitment, and we wind up disappointing people and exhausting ourselves. Wise leaders learn to say “no” gracefully but firmly, maintaining the relationship while making it clear that this is an opportunity we’re choosing not to pursue. Sometimes this causes us to suffer a twinge of regret, a trace of anxiety, a faint wondering if we did the right thing. We often say “yes” to eliminate the discomfort saying “no” evokes. Then later, when we realize the cost of the commitment we’ve made, we feel regret. So, a critical step in managing these emotions is training ourselves to resist these initial reflexive feelings. A good way to do this when an invitation comes is to ask ourselves, “Would I accept this invitation if it was scheduled for tomorrow?” Not many invitations will pass that immediacy filter. 28. Mistaken leaders are micro-managers. Instead of making clear assignments, providing the necessary tools, and then giving people the freedom to experiment, and even fail, they hover like helicopter parents. By doing this, they communicate a lack of trust. Good leaders know when to get out of their way. 29. Mistaken leaders have too many meetings. When strong leaders think of having a meeting, they consider the hourly wage of the people invited, multiply it by the number of hours in the meeting, and add the time it will take participants to return to productivity. Then, they recalculate who should be invited and how long the meeting should last. Meetings where material is not sent in advance, that lack an agenda, and do not have an item by item time schedule should be canceled. Most meetings should last no more than an hour. If decisions cannot be reached in the time allotted, assignments with a feedback loop should be made. If the result of the meeting is another meeting, the first meeting was a waste of time. 30. Leaders mistakenly deliver the bottom line last when they are making difficult presentations. People listening are waiting for the bottom line, which usually deals with the cost of the proposal. When the bottom line comes last, the presentation ends on a down note and there is no time to win the audience back. Instead, wise leaders start with the challenging item and follow it with explanations and persuasive comments. 31. Leaders mistakenly show insufficient consideration of their employees’ physical and emotional safety. Good leaders have policies in place to ensure that employees are never injured, abused, harassed, discriminated against, or embarrassed. And when issues arise, they must be dealt with quickly and judiciously rather than hidden. The failure to take physical and emotional safety issues seriously will always end poorly. 32. Mistaken leaders lack an internal early warning system that alert them to potential problems. In addition to leading performance indicators, good leaders have a sixth sense, an uncanny intuition about how things are going problems and problems that could arise. In addition to foreseeing potential problems, they develop contingency plans to avert disaster. Leaders think in the future tense and maintain a “Plan A” and “Plan B” at all times. When mid-course corrections are needed, they implement them quickly, boldly, and efficiently. 33. Leaders mistakenly underestimate the damage done by their outbursts of anger. Some see anger as an effective management tool, because it intimidates people into doing what they are told. But good leaders know that people never do their best work when they are intimidated or afraid. And fear of the leader’s anger silences people whose insights are needed. Anger is a bad habit that limits the leader’s ability to guide the organization. An old saying is correct: “The one who gets angry first loses.” 34. Leaders mistakenly fail to recognize the passive-aggressive behavior of team members. When change is introduced, most people appear to be going along, but approximately twenty-five percent of them are consciously or unconsciously undermining the change process. Effective leaders identify these persons and use effective communication to win them over. 35. Leaders mistakenly overestimate the influence of those who are critical of them. They multiply negative comments and subtract affirmative remarks. Balanced leaders take criticism seriously. A favorite proverb says, “Those who care to know the truth are willing to be set right, but those who hate to be admonished are stupid idiots.” (Proverbs 12:1, Jim Jackson Translation) Leaders weigh the words of critics, but they are careful not to assume that the views of a few reflect the majority. 36. Leaders mistakenly take credit for group successes and blame others for group failures. Effective leaders do the opposite. They assume responsibility for failures and share credit for successes. President Harry S Truman famously said, "It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit." 37. Leaders mistakenly become content with past good performance instead of continually thinking of ways to make the business better. Doing what you’ve always done, in the way that you’ve always done it, is a death sentence. Instead, effective leaders ask questions like, “What one change could we make that would make a significant difference in our outcomes?” 38. Leaders mistakenly make decisions based on mistaken or inadequate information. Strong leaders gather information from a variety of sources: observation, reports from various people, objective data points. When making decisions, good leaders always ask at least three probing questions, each designed to identify pitfalls and to gain a broader understanding. The three questions help the leader arrive at a wiser, better informed decision. There is no limit to how much the three question rule can improve decisions. 39. Mistaken leaders do not realize that when people say, “I have several things to discuss with you,” that usually only one item is critically important. When strong leaders hear that there are numerous items it be discussed, they ask that the last issue be covered first. Many times, the other concerns are far less important. 40. Leaders mistakenly fail to understand the importance of “binders.” There are three kinds of employees in every company: "bringers" (people who bring business in), "grinders" (people who grind work out), and "binders" (people who hold on to employees and customers). In order to grow professionally in any business, employees must be able to do at least two of these functions. “Binders” are critical to every business, and they are highly regarded by good leaders. Leaders need to make sure people placed in management positions are trained to be “binders.” 41. Out of compassion, mistaken leaders hesitate to terminate employees who are ineffective or violate the company’s code of ethics. This sends a message to employees that the company doesn’t practice the principles for which it claims to stand. Sometimes people are placed in the wrong role and can be reassigned. Sometimes they are a bad cultural fit for the organization. Other times they are ineffective. Leaders train people when they can and fire people if they must. The old adage, “Hire slowly, fire quickly” is generally correct. However, don’t terminate people for making a mistake, no matter how bone-headed it is. Firing people for making mistakes teaches employees not to be daring or to run risks. Instead, they expect them to come up with a plan to fix the problem, and challenge them not repeat the error. Terminated employees, who have not violated the company’s code of ethics, should be provided a dignified exit, as well as severance and job placement services. It is also courteous to check in with terminated employees from time to time. 42. When layoffs are necessary, leaders mistakenly do not reduce the workforce deeply enough. Workforce reductions—for the second and third times—injure company morale and cause the best employees to look elsewhere for employment. 43. Mistaken leaders do not realize there is no such thing as a family business. When people think of their enterprise as a family legacy, they stop practicing sound business principles. It becomes a means of providing for family members. Selling the business is problematic. What will happen to the family members? And we must put family members in key decision-making positions, even if they are not the best candidates. It’s no mystery that the vast majority of family businesses are lost by the third generation. Strong leaders are wary of family businesses. They too often result in entitlement problems and family squabbles. 44. Mistaken leaders come to believe that the rules don’t apply to them. They thereby violate their integrity and forfeit the right to lead. There is no such thing as a minor lapse of integrity. Harvard business professor Clayton Christensen wrote. “It is easier to hold to your principles one hundred percent of the time than it is to hold to them ninety-eight percent of the time.” The reason is that the exception easily becomes the rule. Leaders with integrity live by the highest and best they know, one hundred percent of the time. Socrates, the Greek philosopher, said, "Be the kind of person that you want people to think you are." 45. Leaders mistakenly become vulnerable to cynicism. Cynicism is the great temptation of leaders, because people fail them and situations disappoint them. Cynicism is often expressed in the form of sarcasm. Great leaders know that negativity poisons the organization and prevents it from being effective. They do not succumb to the emotional undertow of disappointment or cynicism. They stubbornly hold to optimism and hope. 46. In an effort to appear confident, leaders mistakenly communicate arrogance. This usually indicates that the leader is suffering from an “imposter syndrome”—the fear that employees will find out they do not know what they are doing. Strong leaders are humble and manifest a servant spirit, putting the interest of others above their own. They manifest the inverted pyramid model of servanthood Jesus described: “Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all.” (Mark 10:43-44) 47. Leaders mistakenly fail to maintain physical, emotional, spiritual, and relational fitness. When leaders do not lead a balanced life, they end up having so many personal problems that sooner or later they are not able to function well at work. Unresolved personal problems affect work performance. 48. Mistaken leaders resist being evaluated. Strong leaders are eager for HR, the executive team, or the Board of Directors to evaluate their strengths and shortcomings. They see constructive feedback as the best way to grow as a leader. They are eager to improve and develop new skills. Why do the greatest athletes have a personal coach? Because they want to be the best they can be, and in order to achieve this they need someone who observes them carefully and tells them true unvarnished truth. Great leaders are not afraid to ask for help. 49. Leaders mistakenly don’t take time for fun at work. Employees spend more time at work than anywhere else. Therefore, if team members don’t have a personal connection or enjoy being together, they won't stick around if other opportunities arise. Leaders shouldn’t be afraid to step out of "boss mode" and have a good time with the employees now and then. 50. Leaders mistakenly have unresolved difficulties with the people they manage. More people get fired because of the employees below them in the organization, than because of those above them. The employees above them finally get tired of the complaints coming from below. Strong leaders clean up their relationships with the people who report to them. 51. Mistaken leaders never become readers. Strong leaders, on the other hand, are voracious readers. They spend a couple of hours a day reading a broad array of books, newsletters, magazine, web articles, analyst reports. They choose to read material broaden their mind and help them see issues from different points of view. Podcasts and book recordings are also stimulating sources of information. 52. Mistaken leaders consider that they have finally “made it,” and they begin to coast. While continuing to draw a salary, they go into an unofficial early retirement. Instead, strong leaders continue to go the extra mile and make the extra effort. They come in early and stay late. They do extra research, make extra phone calls, send extra emails. They provide “above the call of duty” customer service. Leaders do these things believing that the competition will not be willing to work as hard as they do. As James Cardinal Gibbons said, "There are no working hours for leaders." 53. Some leaders mistakenly try to hang on to their job too long. They assume that no one can do the job as well as they can. It is better for the leader to leave the job before everyone is ready for them to go. As Larry Kellner, the former C.E.O. of Continental Airlines says, “If you stay until they are ready for you to go, you have stayed too long.” 54. Leaders mistakenly do not set aside time to review, reflect, and dream. Leaders tend to have overbooked calendars. Instead, leaders should block out work time to think about changes that are needed, innovations that could be attempted, and ways and future opportunities that might become available. Bill Gates, the principal founder of Microsoft, used to spend seven days on retreat twice a year. He called them his “Think Weeks.”

1. Decide who should attend the meeting. Meetings should include as few people as possible, because meetings can be a gigantic waste of time and money. People tend to think of the cost of meetings to be the average hourly wage of employees by the length of the meeting. But the real cost is the total hourly wage of all participants, times the length of the meeting and the time it takes for participants to disengagement from productive work prior to the meeting and to reengagement after the meeting. To reduce time wastage, it is a good idea to stack meetings whenever possible. 2. Limit meetings to one hour. One hour is enough. If possible, meetings should end early. Katherine Whitehorn wrote, “Any committee that is of the slightest use is composed of people who are too busy to stay a second longer than they have to.” 3. Establish an agenda and send it to participants in advance. The meeting should have specific purposes. The agenda should tell participants why they will be gathering and what they will accomplish. The agenda provides a compass for the conversation, so the meeting can get back on track if the discussion wanders off course. The agenda should contain a list of the items to be covered, from highest to least priority, and a timeline for each agenda item in the agenda. If there is no agenda, the meeting should be canceled. The agenda should be sent to participants with the meeting notice. If written reports or supportive material is available, it should be sent in advance as well. Give invitees an opportunity to add to the agenda, but do not give a guarantee that their item will be included. The Chair should be assertive in keeping the agenda on track. 4. Start and end on the meeting on time. Nothing drain the energy from a room like waiting for people to show up so the meeting can start. If meetings are started on time, participants soon learn to show up on time. Consider charging people a late fee and give the money to charity. Also, end the meeting on time. When we waste people’s time, we waste their most precious un-renewable resource. 5. Begin with team-building exercises, especially if the committee members do not know one another. Introductions, ice breakers, and name tags can be helpful. 6. Agree on talking limits. It is a good idea to limit people making reports to five minutes, and comments to two minutes. Do not allow filibustering, interruptions, or side-bar discussions. 7. Make sure everyone is heard. The Chair should keep his/her eye on the group’s dynamics, especially people’s non-verbal communication. He/she should ensure that everyone’s participation is encouraged and valued. This includes limiting pushy people and asking silent people for their opinion or probing with questions. 8. Stay calm when there are strong disagreements. The Chair should remain calm when there are disagreements. Deal with issues but not personalities. Do not allow conflict to get out of control. 9. Make decisions and assignments. The goal is to arrive at decisions and action plans. When decisions are made, make certain that someone or some group is assigned responsibility to follow up on what has been decided; i.e., “Who will do what by when?” Be clear about deadlines and deliverables. When further development is needed before a decision can be made, rather than trying to reach a decision during the meeting, assign a task force to do research, determine alternatives, and report in writing prior to the next meeting. People outside the meeting can be used in these task forces. 10. Send a written summary. A bullet point summary of non-confidential decisions should be sent to committee members within 48 hours of the meeting’s conclusion.

1. There is no such thing as an uncreative person. Creativity has little to do with I.Q. The issue is whether you tap into the creativity you have. 2. Author Maya Angelou was correct: “You can't use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have." The human mind is like a muscle. The more you exercise it, the stronger it gets. Unfortunately the opposite is also true. The less you use your creativity, the less of it you have. 3. Develop a strong background in their field of interest. Creativity is often looking at what you already know in new ways and in combinations. For this reason, it has been said that there are no origin ideas. Everything new idea is based on new combinations of known information. 4. Don’t be afraid that your ideas will prove to be impractical, unworkable, foolish, or will cause you to suffer reprimand. Writer Sylvia Plath observed, “The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt." Instead of trying to filter out bad ideas, simply crank out ideas. The best ideas come from the overflow of ideas. 5. Question the conventional wisdom. John Kenneth Galbraith said, “The conventional view serves to protect us from the painful job of thinking.” 6. Write down random ideas as they come to you. Keep a pen and paper or a recording device with you at all times. Unrecorded ideas are usually unrecoverable later. 7. Create loose time. A mind that is stressed or weary cannot function well. Get sufficient sleep. Practice meditation. Take vacations. Give your mind time to wander. A relaxed mind is a springboard for innovation. Albert Einstein observed, "Creativity is the residue of wasted time." Leonardo da Vinci wrote, “When I pause the longest, I make the most telling strokes with my brush.” 8. Be on the lookout for people that crank out creative ideas. Read their books, periodicals, and blogs. Interview them if possible. 9. Brainstorm with idea-partners and possibility-thinkers. Synergy is important. The flame of creativity is often lit by collaboration with other inventive people. As Proverbs 27:17 affirms, “Iron sharpens iron.” 10. Help others people with their ideas. For some reason it is easier to come up with great ideas for someone else than for yourself. The more you prime the idea pump, the more great ideas will continue to flow. 11. Read broadly. Read in disciplines with which you are unfamiliar. Read books you think you will disagree with. Look for insights that will offer you a different perspective and point of view. 12. Sleep on ideas. It is amazing how the subconscious mind can solve problems as you sleep. 13. Regularly review your ideas, add additional insights, and make editorial corrections. 14. Test drive your ideas whenever possible.