The name evolved simply because the last pick in the draft was often irrelevant because the player many times failed to make the selecting team’s roster.

The first Mr. Irrelevant was Kelvin Kirk, pick number 487 of the 1976 draft, and the current Mr. Irrelevant is quarterback Chandler Harnish of the Northern Illinois Huskies, who was selected by the Indianapolis Colts as pick number 253 of the 2012 draft.

I’m sharing this concept with you today because, you are either…

REMARKABLE OR IRRELEVANT

Irrelevant is defined as being; unimportant, without use, besides the point, and something not worth mention or attention.

I think it’s fair to say not one of us would want the title of being Mr. or Ms. Irrelevant.

Sadly though, that is the reality faced by many websites, businesses, and people.

We must all accept the fact that we are either remarkable, or we are irrelevant.

BEING REMARKABLE IS A CHOICE

The great news is that being remarkable, being worthy of notice and attention begins with a simple decision.

If you want to break out of the mold of average, the first thing you need to do is to make a decision to be radically different.

REMARKABLE people are people of action, and for a good reason: if you don’t take decisive action, nothing will ever change.

But this first step is entirely mental. It calls for a clear decision to rise above the culture of mediocrity. And then, of course, it calls for action.

SO, how do you decide to be remarkable?

The following are eight ways to BEING REMARKABLE and standing out from the crowded field of mediocrity:

1. Question Management: When someone asks you a question, make sure they get an answer bigger, richer and far more thought provoking than they ever expected.

2. Problem Management: When someone brings you a problem, bring them a solution that not only solves the problem, but which also delivers and opportunity for them to capitalize on.

3. Project Management: When someone gives you a project, see to it that they get a plan that is bolder, more ambitious and more detailed than they hoped for.

4. Deadline Management: When you take on a task, finish it under budget, before deadline, and with a cheerful attitude.

5. Conflict Management: When a customer has a concern, go the extra mile as a policy, and blow their mind by your professionalism and responsiveness.

6. Quality Management: When you do your work, make your name and results synonymous with excellence, consistency, originality, and speed.

7. Meeting Management: When you participate in a meeting, anticipate questions, come fully prepared, and contribute your ideas with clarity and conviction.

8. Expectation Management: When you engage in any activity, under promise, over deliver and demonstrably exceed all expectations.

If you think about it, individuals are not much different from companies.

Having a trusted personal brand, and a reputation of being remarkable, uncommon and extraordinary, nets you the same advantages as a company.

You’re likely to foster loyalty, be trusted, be forgiven for occasional mistakes, and earn more money, especially if you develop a reputation for delivering insanely good and consistent results.

We all build, manage or destroy our personal brand every day through our character, choices, attitudes and actions.

With that said, choose to BE REMARKABLE!

You have strengths that make you who you are.

You also have weaknesses that could potentially lead to your downfall.

The powerful Greek warrior Achilles was mortally wounded from a heel wound.

Superman was incapacitated by Kryptonite.

Popeye just ain’t Popeye without Spinach.

The strongest leaders have mortal weaknesses too.

In fact, we ALL have them.

So, what is your Achilles’ heel?

An Achilles’ heel is a fatal weakness in spite of overall strength, actually or potentially leading to our downfall.

Think about your fatal weaknesses in light of your overall strength.

What is the one thing that could potentially harm you and make things very difficult in your life and career?

I’m quite certain you know exactly what it is.

Is it…

• Moral Failure? What needs to happen or change immediately to ensure this is not an issue for you and your family?
• Prideful Ego? Would a dose of humility help you and your future?
• Wanting Excess? Is there a hunger for more that could lead you to less?

Take the time to think about the areas that could lead to your downfall. If not for yourself, for your family and team members.

You are your own best teacher. You know where you’re coming from and what you’re all about.

You are well aware by now that BEHAVIOR NEVER LIES.

You know where the bodies are buried, the secrets are kept, as well as the names of the skeletons in your closet.

You also know the answer to your problem. But you don’t yet know what you know, or until now you’ve been unwilling to confront it head on.

WHAT TO DO NOW? Share your two cents worth on the importance of protecting your Achilles Heel.

Today he is remembered as an anti colonialist, an advocate of nonviolence, a pioneer of civil disobedience, and the father of the world’s largest democracy.

Believers in his vision used Gandhi’s tactics during America’s civil rights movement, to end apartheid in South Africa, and, at Tiananmen Square in 1989, to challenge China’s autocratic government.

He achieved a great as a political leader, working against discrimination, poverty, and the caste system He expanded women’s rights, religious tolerance, and economic self-reliance.

For all these things he is rightly honored. But in the long run, Mahatma (literally “Great Soul”) may be best remembered for his contribution to humanity’s inner life.

Gandhi advocated a simple, humble and unassuming lifestyle. He had lived modestly, wore traditional Indian dhoti and shawl, and ate plain vegetarian food. He said it does not require money to be neat, clean, and dignified.

He suffered many hardships and was imprisoned several times and for many years in both South Africa, where he employed nonviolent disobedience, and again in India.

It was during these periods that he took the time to write down his key principles. Here are a few of my favorites:

• “In matters of conscience, the law of the majority has no place.”

• “Whenever you are confronted with an opponent. Conquer him with love.”

• “Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not every man’s greed”

• “You can chain me, you can torture me, you can even destroy this body, but you will never imprison my mind.”

• “Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.”

• “All of your scholarship, all your study of Shakespeare and Wordsworth would be in vain if at the same time you did not build your character and attain mastery over your thoughts and your actions.”

• “Nobody can hurt me without my permission.”

• “Strength does not come from physical capacity. it comes from an indomitable will.”

• “A man of few words will rarely be thoughtless in his speech. he will measure every word.”

More than 60 years after his death, Gandhi is still viewed as one of the world’s great spiritual leaders.

Gandhi taught tolerance and love for all people. Albert Einstein offered that “generations to come will scarce believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked the earth.”

Gandhi asked that his writings be cremated with his body. He wanted his life to be his message, not what he had written or said.

In the end, he believed that words are meaningless, and that our actions alone show our true priorities.

Or as he famously said: “You must become the change you wish to see in the world.”

WHAT TO DO NOW? Share your two cents worth on this post and how you can apply Gandhi’s teachings to your life.

Your mission statement should frame and filter the end result of every activity the organization undertakes.

Your Accounting, Shipping, Creative, Administrative, Sales, and Production people should be able to run their daily calendars against the mission statement and know — without a doubt — that their activities are supporting the mission.

Simplicity and clarity should be the rule, not the exception.

Your mission statement should be like the “departing flights” board at an airport.

- The mission of American Airlines Flight 1974 is to deliver passengers from Los Angeles to Nashville. No more. No less.

- On time arrival, safety, comfort, and corporate profits are all important elements connected to the mission, but the mission itself of Flight 1974 is flying people from Los Angeles to Nashville. Simple.

- The airline’s mission is more global than flying a single plane, but it is still is fairly simple. Anything beyond the “what” is too much. All the other stuff belongs in a Values Statement or a Vision Statement so the mission can be a clarifying North Star.

A mission statement should answer the “WHAT” question. Anything added only subtracts.

The mission of the Everything Counts is to “inspire, promote and celebrate excellence.” How I do it, why I do it, and for whom I do it are part of my vision and values, but they are not part of the mission.

I do what I do with integrity, excellence, and creativity. And I do it profitably. But the mission is simple. I inspire, promote and celebrate excellence.

Most important, every decision made is measured by asking one question: Does this new action, plan or activity inspire, promote, and celebrate excellence?

If the answer is no, we drop it immediately.

Does your mission statement try to do too much?

At your next executive or team meeting:

• Write your mission statement on the white board. (If it takes you more than 15 seconds, it is too long.)

• Cross out words or phrases that talk about why or how or for whom you do things.

• Do the words that remain provide a clear and simple description of what you are trying to accomplish?

WHAT TO DO NOW? Share your two cents worth and by all means simplify your mission statement.

The issue is an old one. Almost 2500 years ago, the philosopher Socrates debated the question with his fellow Athenians.

Socrates’ position was clear: Ethics consists of knowing what we ought to do, and such knowledge can be taught.

What I’d like to do is teach you a systematic approach to everyday ethics and it is grounded in five questions.

I recommend that you ask yourself these five questions at the end of each day as they will help you to practice everyday morality.

1. Did I practice any virtues today?

In The Book of Virtues, William Bennett notes that virtues are “habits of the heart” we learn through models–the loving parent or aunt, the demanding teacher, the respectful manager, the honest shopkeeper. They are the best parts of ourselves.

Ask yourself, Did I cross a line today that gave up one of those parts? Or was I, at least some of the time, a person who showed integrity, trustworthiness, honesty, compassion, or any of the other virtues I was taught as a child?

2. Did I do more good than harm today? Or did I try to?

Consider the short term and long-term consequences of your actions.

3. Did I treat people with dignity and respect today?

All human beings should be treated with dignity simply because they are human. People have moral rights, especially the fundamental right to be treated as free and equal human beings, not as things to be manipulated, controlled, or cast away.

How did my actions today respect the moral rights and the dignified treatment to which every person is entitled?

4. Was I fair and just today?

Did I treat each person the same unless there was some relevant moral reason to treat him or her differently?

Justice requires that we be fair in the way we distribute benefits and burdens. Whom did I benefit and whom did I burden? How did I decide?

5. Was my community better because I was in it? Was I better because I was in my community?

Consider your primary community, however you define it–neighborhood, apartment building, family, company, church, etc. Now ask yourself, was I able to get beyond my own interests to make that community stronger?

Was I able to draw on my community’s strengths to help me in my own process of becoming more human?

CONNECTING Everyday Ethics to Moral Leadership

This everyday ethical reflection must occur before we can effectively confront the larger moral questions.

A person who wants to take moral leadership on national or international issues must take special responsibility for what’s going on inside his or her own self, inside his or her own consciousness, lest the act of leadership create more harm than good.

Every day, we decide who we are – truthful or dishonest? Every day, our actions have consequences — and can be defined as helpful or hurtful.

Every day, we either build up or tear down relationships. We tend to think of ethics as coming into view only in congressional investigations or intensive care units.

But, in reality, we practice ethics every day; we work together to be at our best–or our worst-every day and that is precisely why we must individually and collectively live with the highest ethical standards so that we can be and reflect the type of change we want demonstrated in our communities and future generations.

WHAT TO DO NOW? Share your two-cents worth on the connection between everyday ethics and personal leadership.

Ethics Today

You may tempted to laugh at the idea that a person who’s been dead for nearly 2,400 years has anything practical to say about modern organizations. But Aristotle remains relevant because he is particularly interested in defining principles in terms of the ethics of leadership.

In his Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle concludes that the role of the leader is to create the environment in which all members of an organization have the opportunity to realize their own potential.

He says that the ethical role of the leader is not to enhance his or her own power but to create the conditions under which followers can achieve their potential.

Of course Aristotle never heard of a large business or corporation. Nonetheless, he did raise a set of ethical questions that are directly relevant to ANY leader who wish to behave in ethical ways.

Here are some of them. (I’m only slightly paraphrasing them in turning them from a political context into an organizational context.)

• Am I behaving in a virtuous way?
• How would I want to be treated if I were a member of this organization?
• What form of social contract would allow all our members to develop their full potential in order that they may each make their greatest contribution to the good of the whole?
• To what extent are there real opportunities for all employees to develop their talents and their potential?
• To what extent do employees participate in decisions that effect their work?
• To what extent do all employees participate in the financial gain resulting from their own ideas and efforts?

If you translate Aristotle into modern terms, you will see a whole set of questions about the extent to which the organization provides an environment that is conducive to human growth and fulfillment.

He also raises a lot of useful questions about the distribution of rewards in organizations based on the ethical principle of rewarding people proportionate to their contributions.

For example, in 2006, Exxon Mobil’s Board of Directors provided outgoing CEO Lee Raymond with an astounding $400 million retirement package.

Now, I don’t pretend to have all the data about how much Mr Raymond deserves, but thanks to Aristotle, we do have some questions that a virtuous member of the Exxon Mobil Board Compensation Committee might ask in making decisions about his compensation, including:

Is the CEO’s proportionate contribution to the organization 10, 100, 1,000 times greater than that of a refinery worker?

Aristotle doesn’t provide a single, clear principle for the just distribution of enterprise-created wealth, nor do I believe it would be possible for anyone to formulate a monolithic rule.

Nonetheless, here are some Aristotelian questions that virtuous leaders might ask:

• Am I taking more than my share of rewards-more than my contribution is worth?
• Does the distribution of goods preserve the happiness of the community?
• Does it have a negative effect on morale? Would everyone enter into the employment contract under the current terms if they truly had different choices?
• Would we come to a different principle of allocation if all the parties concerned were represented at the table?

Again, the only hard and fast principle of distributive justice is that fairness is likely to arise out of a process of rational and moral deliberation among the participating parties.

All Aristotle says is that virtue and wisdom will definitely elude leaders who fail to engage in ethical analysis of their actions.

He tells us that the bottom line of ethics depends on asking tough questions, and I for one agree wholeheartedly.

WHAT TO DO NOW? Share your thoughts on this post and how you can apply the idea to your life and career.

You just made a choice. It doesn’t measure up against some of history’s legendary choices – like Hamlet’s “to be or not to be” and Patrick Henry’s “give me liberty or give me death” – but you did choose to read this message and I’m thankful for your decision, and assure you it will be well worth your time and attention.

I long ago discovered an important strategy that has allowed me, and my clients to continually improve performance (personal and business) every year.

It’s called an After Action Review (AAR), and it’s all about leveraging knowledge and experience.

To experience consistent growth you need to leverage you past experience for all it’s worth. In this lesson, I’ll show you how to do it.

To make any type of change in your life, you first need to perform an AAR and analyze what took place in the past. You need to identify every nugget of knowledge your past performance offers and leverage it for all it’s worth.

Unfortunately the vast majority of people and companies don’t learn enough from their mistakes or their accomplishments. It’s like everyone is simply plugging along with their heads down and its Ground Hog Day all over again.

But, instead of repeating the same day over and again, both companies and individuals seem to repeat the same outlook, approach, and strategies.

You and I both know that no matter how good or bad your results have been in the past – you can always do better now and in the future.

Yet, the single biggest key to improving both your performance and your results seems to go ignored by almost everybody.

If you want to be at the top of your game you absolutely must review, analyze, and learn from what has already happened.

Astonish – Astonish – Amaze

There are seven steps in the AAR process, and you must begin implementing the ideas that you are about to generate immediately.

Step 1. Identify Your Three Greatest Accomplishments Over the Past Year?

Even if the previous twelve months were challenging for you, odds are if you look close enough there’s something somewhere to be proud of.

Step 2. Analyze What You Learned from Each Accomplishment.

Now that you have identified your three greatest accomplishments, go back to each one. This time though identify exactly what you learned or were reminded of by each of them.

Step 3. Identify Your Biggest Disappointments Over the Past Year.

Practically every company and individual resists analyzing their mistakes. That’s a shame because this is where the best learning comes from.

Step 4. Analyze What You Learned from Each Failure or Disappointment?

No matter how great everything in life is going – we all make mistakes. The trick here is to really analyze them, what preceded them, what could you have done differently, and how can you prevent them in the future.

Step 5. Identify How You Limited Yourself and How Can You Stop?

Were there certain actions you took or didn’t take that came back to haunt you? In order to make sure you don’t limit yourself again – you need to bring these self-defeating actions to the surface, confront them, and most importantly determine what you must do differently to make sure you don’t make the same mistakes all over again.

Step 6. Pragmatically Review the Information You Have Gathered?

The goal of this exercise is not simply to know yourself and your business better but to actually use the information to make certain that the next year of your life far surpasses the previous year.

What are the big takeaways from answering each question? What do you know about yourself or your business that you didn’t realize or weren’t thinking about?

Obviously, having this list isn’t going to do it all, you still need to take this new knowledge and USE IT!

Fortunately, that’s what the last question is centered around. And here it is…

Step 7: Use This Information to Astound, Astonish and Amaze Yourself!

The purpose here is to build in to your schedule, your interactions, your management style or whatever else you’ve surfaced in the previous questions and build yourself a new better approach.

Ok, now that we’ve uncovered a lot of useful information, the final step is to incorporate it into a personal plan for success, growth and prosperity.

If you’ll allow me, I’d like to help you turn everything in your life around for the better. And I’d like to show you how to achieve more, faster and easier than you could ever possibly imagine.

I’ve put together a life changing program called the 100 Day Challenge that is making dreams and goals come true for people all over the world.

Please understand that this program is not for whiners, thumb suckers, posers, devil’s advocates, nitpickers, hand-wringers, crybabies, complainers, chicken-hearts or fools.

But it is definitely the program for you, that is, if you are ready to put in the effort to make your dreams and goals come true.

Come and take part in the most extreme performance acceleration program on earth!

“In our every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations.” - From the Great Law of the Iroquois Confederacy.

Your legacy is much too important to be left to chance… and that is why thinking deliberating about your life’s existence and contributions is one of the most importantjobs that any of us has to do.

In the spirit of contribution, I offer you ten compelling reasons as to why you need to focus on your legacy. I trust they will inspire you to think deeply about your life, your purpose, the examples you set and the message your life represents.

1. It Calls for Answers to Crucial Questions

You can dodge the questions for quite some time. Why am I here? What do I want to do with my life? Why do I exist? How can I contribute? What will I leave behind? What example am I setting for my family?

But, eventually, we all reach our own philosophical puberty and realize that these types of questions call for – in fact, they demand answers.

2. It Highlights the Connection Between Means and Ends

Your legacy as you know comprises of two things, ends and means. And by defining your legacy, you know how to act so as to avoid any conflict between what you want and how you go about attaining it.

In other words, Style, courtesy, honesty, integrity and respect make for an ideal legacy, whereas lying, cheating, stealing and bullying make for an embarrassing legacy.

The way you live your life, the means, has an effect on how you are remembered, which of course is the ends. How can the ends of a persons efforts be respected if the means make them want to blush in embarrassment?

3. It Brings Clarity to Daily Activities

Once you decide on your legacy, you have a number of built in by-products, one of the more important one is that it brings clarity to your daily activities.

The reason is actually very simple, as your legacy impresses upon you the necessity for clearly defined goals, fulfillment of your responsibilities, honoring your intentions following through on both promises and commitments.

4. It Sets an Example for Future Generations

Your legacy is a sort of symbolic immortality. Take the long view and consider the impact of your legacy and how it will impact the next seven generations.

Your life and example will continue in some way to participate in the lives of others when we are gone. Just what will that participation be?

Look at your life as a gift to future generations and rather than focusing on leaving an inheritance, let your character, your values, and the example of a life well-lived be your family heirloom to future generations.

Set an inspiring example that future generations will be proud of and more importantly want to protect and emulate.

5. It Demonstrates Your Contribution to Society

The ultimate test of the impact of an individual or group of individuals is twofold:

- whether the world they left is qualitatively different from that which they were born into, and

- what contribution they made to that change.

By focusing on your legacy, you are focusing on doing worthwhile acts, as we should all do something virtuous with the time that we have.

6. It Gives Meaning to Your Life

We must find or create reasons for living and by focusing on making positive, lasting contributions, you are building a legacy of value.

To arrive at the point that you think seriously about your legacy, it demonstrates a level of reality and commitment that represents an eternity to follow.

7. It Strengthens Your Faith

If you are going to leave a strong, nurturing, godly legacy, you must pass on to succeeding generations both faith and love.

Do you have a faith that is worth handing down? If you hand down your faith the way you are living it now, will your children be the better for having received and accepted your lifestyle?

By focusing in on your legacy, you automatically begin to strengthen your faith.

8. It Provides an Intellectual and Emotional Challenge

There’s nothing quite like a good old fashioned challenge and few conversations will surpass the importance of your legacy.

It challenges you to retire into yourself and think deeply about your life. When you focus on your legacy, you begin to go day-by-day seeing the world as your classroom and paying very strict attention to both contribution and associated behavior.

9. It Empowers Decision Making

The wonderful part of considering your legacy is the clarity it brings to daily decisions. Each decision moves you closer to or further from your legacy, therefore, your legacy offers advice on how to live in the present in order to be remembered well when you are gone.

10. It Puts and Exclamation Mark on Your Life

Your legacy is a self-portrait, it’s the signature of your life?s presence, so make this life of yours into a work of art.

We only live once, but once is enough if we do it right. By building your life on a foundation of class, dignity, and style, you automatically place an exclamation, rather than a question mark, after it!

What to Do Now? Comment and share your thoughts and experiences on this subject. I?d love to hear your comments on this post.

When will your finest hour come, and how will it arrive?

Do you really think it will materialize without an act of supreme confidence, audacity, or boldness?

So, what bold initiatives are you planning for?

When you are facing a decision to act, consider it an opportunity to prove your worth. The first thing you must do is to decide whether you want to take action or not. This is where the spirit of boldness comes into play.

The leader who consistently displays bold behavior will far outperform the person who does not. Boldness helps propel a person beyond what he or she might otherwise achieve.

In fact, it has such a profound impact on the effectiveness of one?s performance that I find it curious that this trait is not talked about more frequently as a fundamental ingredient of success.

You don’t have to be a big shot to be bold. Often the most normal people suddenly achieve great heights because they learn the power that lies in acting boldly.

When David faced Goliath, he was more than just the underdog, he was potential road kill. But you know how that turned out.

David acted boldly, even though everyone else thought he had a screw loose?and slew the mighty Goliath.

The story is now legend; an example to the world, which shows that it’s the bold who make history.

The timid. Well, they can read about it in the papers and live their lives in agonizing mediocrity.

What to Do Now? Comment and share your experience on the awesome power of boldness. I’d love to hear your comments on this post.

The answer to that question depends on your character. A strong leader sets a strong example.

No one, under any circumstances, should ever be appointed to or accept a leadership role unless they are willing to have his or her character serve as the model for others to emulate.

Observing what leaders DO is the true litmus test of what’s important as behavior NEVER lies.

People definitely are watching YOUR behavior to judge and determine the type of leader you REALLY are.

With that in mind, what are the specific leadership behaviors that you demonstrate and which shine a bright light on what really matters?

Follow The Leader

1. The Things You Pay Attention To – these are the things you look for, notice and comment on.

2. The Things You Talk About – these are the things you emphasize and discuss in meetings, around the kitchen table and mention in written communication.

3. The Example You Set – these are the actions you take, and the behaviors, patterns and habits you demonstrate.

4. The Standards You Enforce – these are guidelines of what you expect and demand from yourself and others, as well as what you hold people accountable for and assign consequences to.

5. The Way You Use Your Time – these are the priorities you establish along with the deadlines on your activities.

6. The Things You Spend Money On – these are the things and activities you budget for and allocate resources to.

7. The Way You Keep Score – these are the true performances and results that you actually monitor, track, and provide feedback on.

8. The Things You Brag About – these are things you are proud of and cite as examples of achievement.

9. The Things You Reward – these are the behaviors, achievements, and results that you recognize, reinforce and celebrate.

Let’s face it, leadership is everybody’s business; it is an issue that affects each and every one of us. Not only do we look to leaders for guidance and direction, but also we are all called upon to exercise leadership in any number of temporary situations.

Whether we are called upon to be involved in leading government or business, coaching a team, educating young minds, running a family, organizing a dinner party/carpool/household, or standing for “what is right” everyone participates in leadership roles at one time or another in their lives.

What to Do Now? Evaluate and benchmark your performance against these nine points, and ask yourself if these are the types of behaviors that others want to follow. If not, what behaviors will you begin to actively change?

I’d love to hear your comments on this post.

The following is a serious message for people who want to prosper in today’s economy.

The revolution in information and communications technologies has fundamentally and permanently altered the domestic and international business landscape.

One of the most far-reaching consequences of these changes is a massive shift in the competitive balance of power.

For the first time in the history of commerce, five-person boutiques can take on multinational giants and WIN!

In one fell swoop, competition has become more ubiquitous, intense, unpredictable, democratic and, in one word, difficult.

And it is going to get tougher to generate competitive advantage by simply doing the same old things a little bit better.

Technological changes have ushered in an era of radical strategic repositioning.

Competitive advantages and profits will belong to innovators who transcend the existing parameters of competition.

Strategic repositioning forces competitors to play by the new rules of the game, rules that you yourself have largely devised.

By establishing these rules, you knock your competition off balance and create a temporary monopoly over the critical success factors for your industry.

Strategic Repositioning – Three Varieties

1. Create an entirely new industry.

Arguably the purest form of strategic repositioning is to construct an entirely new industry from scratch. But if you’re going to defy conventional wisdom-be committed!

Having a brilliant, timely and powerful business concept is a terrific starting point, but it is not enough to guarantee success.

You must look at the value you are offering and the infrastructure required to bring the concept to life. Trying to impose a radically innovative new concept on an existing infrastructure won’t work.

2. Reinvent how an existing industry operates.

The opportunities for creating new competitive battlegrounds are by no means limited to developing entirely new products or attacking new market segments.

Equally rewarding are the opportunities to those innovative enough to reinvent the way business is done within existing markets and industries.

Inevitably, your new formula will attract imitators. However, he who invents the new game and writes the first set of competitive ground rules usually stakes out a solid first place position; everyone else is relegated to playing catch-up.

3. Set the defacto world standard for an emerging industry that others are creating.

The next best thing to inventing a new industry outright is to create the standards everybody in that industry has to meet -or else.

This trick requires a heavy dose of luck, skill, and timing, but owning the DNA of your industry or market makes you “King (or Queen) of the Hill”-immediately!

Precisely because strategic repositioning goes against the grain of conventional business thinking, it will be increasingly important in both the current and future marketplace.

Leadership will be based on improvement that is not merely continuous and incremental but frequently nonlinear and exponential.

Years ago, much of this improvement was driven by technological change. But as old technologies become commonplace ones, a constant supply of ideas and approaches will be needed to gain competitive advantage.

Rather than slug it out for temporary advantage in well-defined markets, tomorrow’s winners will be creating entirely new industries, opportunities, and competitive space for themselves.

The key issue is simply this: Competing for existing markets is rapidly becoming yesterday’s game.

If you aspire to make any kind of impact in the new world of business you must realize that you are really playing an altogether different game -competing for the future.

The future dictates new rules and if you don’t write them, someone else will!

To learn how to “Strategically Reposition” your company in today’s economy, fill out this coaching request form.

What To Do Now: Comment and Share your feedback and thoughts on how you can implement the ideas in this post.

Building Your Bridge

Building your bridge OUT of this recession requires you to redefine “performance measurement.”

Far too many companies and individuals are focused on the accounting, and the truth is that the accounting system doesn’t really provide you with a lot of useful and relevant information.

This may tweak a few of you the wrong way, but read on before you shoot the messenger.

The reality is that most leaders have gotten more and more precise and sophisticated at measuring less and less of an organization’s TRUE value.

At present, the entire focus of financial analysis is on “the numbers,” despite mounting evidence that they’re the WRONG numbers.

An organization’s most valuable assets are intangible.

Consider the following:

• learning ability
• technological know-how
• proprietary software code
• databases
• market knowledge
• communications networks
• distribution channels
• customer loyalty
• staff morale
• strategic alliance partners
• corporate culture

Yet NONE of these assets are reflected in any balance sheet or profit-and-loss statement.

Innovative leaders need performance measures that are dynamic and forward-looking.

Acquiring these measures will require discovering, capturing, and reinforcing the key strategic and competitive drivers of future performance.

One of the very few management maxims that have stood the test of time is “You get what you measure.”

This being the case, it is unwise to expect strategic performance from organizations that depend on OBSOLETE measurement systems.

Organizations that attempt to build the information infrastructure necessary to compete and win in current economic times must devote considerable energy to devising systems that not only capture the new performance, but actually promote it.

A word of caution, performance measurement, whether strategic or otherwise, has little if any value in and of itself.

Performance measurement exists-or should exist-for one reason only:

TO ENHANCE PERFORMANCE.

No matter how elegant they may appear, performance measures will prove useless if they fail to meet four key stress tests.

To be effective, performance measurement must:

1. Help everyone to identify priorities they should pursue to maximize potential. They must be truly aligned with the strategic goals of the organization.CRITICAL POINT HERE — If they are not aligned with the company’s strategic goals then they are USELESS.
2. Focus the majority of your attention on those priorities once they have been identified.
3. Facilitate progress to EVERYONE involved in pursuing the identified priorities.
4. Lead to an observable difference in behavior and performance. This means that they must be consciously reinforced in practice, with both rewards and compensation. Be sure to reward the EXACT behavior you want repeated.

Without these four conditions, performance measurement is a wasteful, counterproductive exercise.

But if these conditions are met, forward looking performance measures can become an indispensable part of your strategic arsenal and in helping you come out of this recession as a winner.

To learn how to “Strategically Reposition” your company in today’s economy, fill out the coaching form on this page and I will personally ring you within 24 hours.

Who is Santa Claus?

As his fortune grew, so did the gifts. In recent years, Secret Santa has been handing out $100 bills, sometimes two or three at a time, to people in thrift stores, diners and parking lots.

During his life he’s anonymously given out more than $1.3 million. It’s been a long-held holiday mystery: Who is Secret Santa?

Larry Stewart passed away on January 12, 2007 from esophageal cancer but not before he revealed his identify and passing on his belief in random acts of benevolence.

Mr. Stewart made his millions in cable television and in long-distance telephone services.

His holiday giving started in December 1979 when he was nursing his wounds at a drive-in restaurant after getting fired.

It was the second year in a row he had been fired the week before Christmas.

Turning Tragedy into Opportunity

Soon after getting fired, Mr. Stewart was at a drive in restaurant and came across a car hop: “It was cold and this car hop (waiter or waitress who brings food to people at drive-ins) didn’t have on a very big jacket, and I thought to myself, `I think I got it bad. She’s out there in this cold making nickels and dimes,’” he said.

He gave her $20 and told her to keep the change.

“And suddenly I saw her lips begin to tremble and tears begin to flow down her cheeks. She said, `Sir, you have no idea what this means to me.’”

Stewart was moved and went to the bank that day and took out $200. He then drove around looking for people who could use a lift.

That was his “Christmas present to himself.” He hit the streets each December since.

While Stewart has also given money to other community causes in Kansas City and his hometown of Bruce, Miss., he offers the simple gifts of cash because it’s something people don’t have to “beg for, get in line for, or apply for.”

That was a feeling he came to know in the early ’70s when he was living out of his yellow Datsun. Hungry and tired, Stewart mustered the nerve to approach a woman at a church and ask for help. The woman told him the person who could help was gone for the day, and Stewart would have to come back the next day.

“As I turned around, I knew I would never do that again,” Stewart said.

Over the years, Stewart’s giving as Secret Santa grew. He started a Web site. He allowed the news media to tag along, mostly because he wanted to hear about the people who received the money. Reporters had to agree to guard his identity and not name his company.

His entourage grew over the years, and he began traveling with special elves and training others to be Secret Santas.

The Spirit of Secret Santa is Alive and Growing

Today, Larry Dean Stewart’s loyal Elves and the Secret Santas he trained are building upon the foundation he laid.

A new group of Secret Santas and Elves are very busy this Christmas. They are going coast to coast in selected cities and towns to spread hope this Christmas, giving one hundred dollar bills to the needy.

This year in his honor each one hundred dollar bill will bear the name Larry Stewart Secret Santa.

They will also be training those who have come forward to be a Secret Santa Leader in their community.

Could you be a Secret Santa? Go the Secret Santa Society to learn how.

Also, while you may not be able to pass out $100 dollar bills, how can you make a difference in the life of just one person in your community?

I’d love to hear about it.

Happy Holidays!

GRB

New Rules

The following is a serious message for people who want to prosper in today’s economy.

The revolution in information and communications technologies has fundamentally and permanently altered the domestic and international business landscape.

One of the most far-reaching consequences of these changes is a massive shift in the competitive balance of power.

For the first time in the history of commerce, five-person boutiques can take on multinational giants and WIN!

In one fell swoop, competition has become more ubiquitous, intense, unpredictable, democratic and, in one word, difficult.

And it is going to get tougher to generate competitive advantage by simply doing the same old things a little bit better.

Technological changes have ushered in an era of radical strategic repositioning.

Competitive advantages and profits will belong to innovators who transcend the existing parameters of competition.

Strategic repositioning forces competitors to play by the new rules of the game, rules that you yourself have largely devised.

By establishing these rules, you knock your competition off balance and create a temporary monopoly over the critical success factors for your industry.

Strategic Repositioning – Three Varieties

1. Create an entirely new industry.

Arguably the purest form of strategic repositioning is to construct an entirely new industry from scratch. But if you’re going to defy conventional wisdom-be committed!

Having a brilliant, timely and powerful business concept is a terrific starting point, but it is not enough to guarantee success.

You must look at the value you are offering and the infrastructure required to bring the concept to life. Trying to impose a radically innovative new concept on an existing infrastructure won’t work.

2. Reinvent how an existing industry operates.

The opportunities for creating new competitive battlegrounds are by no means limited to developing entirely new products or attacking new market segments.

Equally rewarding are the opportunities to those innovative enough to reinvent the way business is done within existing markets and industries.

Inevitably, your new formula will attract imitators. However, he who invents the new game and writes the first set of competitive ground rules usually stakes out a solid first place position; everyone else is relegated to playing catch-up.

3. Set the de facto world standard for an emerging industry that others are creating.

The next best thing to inventing a new industry outright is to create the standards everybody in that industry has to meet-or else.

This trick requires a heavy dose of luck, skill, and timing, but owning the DNA of your industry or market makes you “King (or Queen) of the Hill”-immediately!

Precisely because strategic repositioning goes against the grain of conventional business thinking, it will be increasingly important in both the current and future marketplace.

Leadership will be based on improvement that is not merely continuous and incremental but frequently nonlinear and exponential.

Years ago, much of this improvement was driven by technological change. But as old technologies become commonplace ones, a constant supply of ideas and approaches will be needed to gain competitive advantage.

Rather than slug it out for temporary advantage in well-defined markets, tomorrow’s winners will be creating entirely new industries, opportunities, and competitive space for themselves.

The key issue is simply this: Competing for existing markets is rapidly becoming yesterday’s game.

If you aspire to make any kind of impact in the new world of business you must realize that you are really playing an altogether different game-competing for the future.

The future dictates new rules. If you don’t write them, someone else will!

To learn how to “Strategically Reposition” your company in today’s economy, fill out the coaching form on this page and I will personally ring you within 24 hours.

What's the score... you should know!

If you’re not keeping score, you’re probably getting beat!

If how you play or perform were all that mattered, then why do all sporting activities have some form of scoreboard?

The scoreboard is your report card and it tells you and the world that you are winning, losing, or holding your ground.

Keeping score and inspecting your progress is important, not only in determining the ultimate winner of a contest, but also as a measuring device by which a person, team or company can gauge itself against the competition.

Ask yourself this question and others of similar nature, “How are we doing relative to our nearest competitor?”

Specific questions on performance measurement are usually met with blank stares, kind of a light’s on but nobody’s home kind of stare. If not that then very vague or non-specific answers soon follow.

Keep this reality at the top of your mind, if you don’t know the score – you have a better than average chance of being the competitive sacrificial lamb!

Define your goals to be specific.

Because establishing goals is so important, you should put a great deal of time and mental effort into the process.

The more specific your vision, the more likely you are to organize yourself around it.

For example if your goal is to “increase business”, you have NOTHING on which to develop an organizational strategy.

The statement is too vague, and the time frame open-ended.

If however you say, “I want to increase my personal contribution to revenues by 30 percent in the next 18 months”, then you have begun to shape your vision. You have defined clear goals and set the time frame.

The goal is still a bit fuzzy, though, you can do better. What elements of revenue are within your control?

Once you answer this question you can hone your vision even further.

The end result should be like; “MY goal is to close three of the ten prospects I am working on in order to increase my contribution to company revenues by 30 percent in the next 18 months.”

Now you have something to sink your teeth into. You have set the goal, clearly defined the vision, and established a reasonable time frame and end result.

From this point on you can break your goal into manageable bites, focusing on each step needed to close the three deals.

The process becomes easy because the goal and vision is specific.

The Thinker by Auguste Rodin

Have you ever wondered why some people are more successful than others? Is it because they think bigger, or could it be that they think BETTER?

The purpose of this post is to help you think better which will result in your ability to be a better leader.

Underlying any strategic plan and successful initiative is a winning mindset that guides leadership thinking. It can be thought of as being composed of principles or guides.

Most of them have been in existence since ancient times. They are illustrated in the lives and writings of Alexander The Great, Sun Tzu, Caesar, Machiavelli, Napoleon, Patton, Churchill and so on.

Being involved in this field of work for many years, and having worked with thousands of individuals, managers and companies throughout the world, I can say with complete confidence that what follows is the strategic mindset for winning big!

These principles, or what some might call guides, have been reverse engineered by careful review and reflections arising from my consulting engagements with leaders in a variety of fields.

Their presentation here is skeletal for convenience sake, and they are in no special sequence as each is just as important as the next. However, taken as a whole, they offer a useful checklist and food for thought as to how leaders think.

Whether you are running a family, little league or large corporation, your ability to implement this mindset will allow you to win big at whatever you do.

How Leaders Think – The Mindset for Winning Big

1. Leaders have a clear sense of desired outcomes before acting. They develop a detailed action plan capable of delivering outcomes that will add significant value to a state of affairs.
2. Leaders scope outwards to capture the larger context. Before acting they see how the pieces fit together and visualize all outcomes.
3. Leaders are adaptive to realities and flexible in choice of tactics. They recognize that once action begins the “game board” is fluid offering both new threats and new opportunities.
4. Where possible, leaders try to achieve multiple objectives through singular actions.
5. Leaders always plan a couple of steps ahead. It is said that Napoleon could conceive of seven steps ahead, each one with its potential counteractions by opponents.
6. Leaders anticipate their opponent’s actions and mentally rehearse their responses should those contingencies arise.
7. Leaders have the discipline to remain composed when the unexpected occurs.
8. Leaders try to capitalize on crisis or change, turning them to their advantage.
9. Leaders stay future-focused and take the long view on important decisions.
10. Leaders invent both sequential and parallel actions to accomplish goals.
11. Leaders pick battles that can be won and avoids those that cannot be won. (At least not at an acceptable cost.)
12. Leaders look to supplement their actions with those of others (allies, partners, joint ventures.)
13. Leaders are patient, and move swiftly with a good sense of timing.
14. Leaders act decisively and with conviction when the time to act has come.
15. Leaders are able to scrap or alter plans when information indicates actions are not attaining their intended results.
16. Leaders accept reality as it is, not as they want it to be.
17. Leaders do not signal any punches, unless in the form of a ploy.
18. Leaders know in advance what can be conceded or lost and what is essential to retain, preserve, and gain.
19. Leaders do not bluff when the stakes are critical.
20. Leaders seek and exploit opponent’s weaknesses, oversights and mistakes.
21. Leaders maintain forward momentum. They focus on moving north toward their goals.
22. Leaders use surprise to their advantage.
23. Leaders use speed as a weapon and create competitive whiplash.
24. Leaders are disciplined and hold resources in reserve should their need arise.
25. Leaders form alliances with opponents of his opponents.
26. Leaders learn their opponent’s strengths and weaknesses.
27. Leaders are aggressive in pursuing goals and ready to move on to the next.
28. Leaders do not rest on old glories, they keep their teeth and competitive instincts razor sharp.
29. Leaders tap diverse points of view in planning. They seek out multiple viewpoints and considers for strength and validity.
30. Leaders assure that everyone knows their roles and are equipped with the resources to contribute.
31. Leaders maintain a state of readiness. They are prepared to strike fast when the opportunity presents itself.
32. Leaders monitor activities and results in the operating environment. They do not let the grass grow under their feet when it comes to measurements.
33. Leaders use “what if” speculation to stretch thinking in the direction of opportunities and possibilities.
34. Leaders have a good sense of what may be possible to achieve in the prevailing state of “politics.” They are masters at the art of what’s possible.
35. Leaders study the logic of the opponent’s tactics with an eye toward determining what their ultimate end purposes may be.
36. Leaders make use of trial balloons. They engage in feint actions in order to test reactions.
37. Leaders prefer taking the offensive. They plan thoroughly and act with boldness and a strong sense of confidence.

These are some tested aspects of thinking employed by leaders to gain and hold strategic advantage. They can serve as a checklist when your responsibilities include thinking strategically.

Apply these guidelines to your own personal or business strategic plan and I assure you that you’ll be on your way to a fast start and more important, big wins!

Leadership

The chief strategist of an organization has to be the leader!

A lot of business thinking has stressed the notion of empowerment, of pushing down and getting a lot of people involved. That’s very important, but empowerment and involvement don’t apply to the ultimate act of choice.

To be successful, an organization must have a very strong leader who’s willing to make choices and define the trade-offs.

There’s a striking relationship between really good strategies and really strong leaders.

The critical job for a leader is to provide the discipline and the glue that sustains the key goals and strategy over time.

Another way to look at it is that the leader has to be the guardian of trade-offs. In any organization, ideas pour in every day – from employees with suggestions, from customers asking for things, from suppliers trying to sell things.

There’s all this input, and a good share of it is INCONSISTENT with the organization’s goals and strategy.

Great leaders are able to enforce the trade-offs. At the same time, great leaders understand that there’s nothing rigid or passive about goals and strategy — it’s something that a company is continually getting better at — so they can create a sense of urgency and progress while adhering to a clear and very sustained direction.

A leader also has to be vigilant by making sure that EVERYONE understands the company’s goals and strategy.

The most fundamental purpose of strategy is to inform each team member of the many thousands of things that get done in an organization every day, and to make sure that those things are all aligned in the same basic direction.

If people in the organization don’t understand the company’s focus, how the company is supposed to be different, how it creates value compared to its rivals, then how can they possibly make all of the myriad choices they have to make in order to be achieving goals?

Every salesman has to know the strategy — otherwise, he won’t know whom to call on. Every engineer has to understand it, or she won’t know what to build. Every person is important, therefore everyone and everything counts!

The best leaders are teachers, and at the core of what they teach is goal setting, strategy, and implementation.

They go out to employees, to suppliers, and to customers, and they repeat, “THIS IS WHAT WE STAND FOR!” So everyone understands it. This is what leaders do.

In great companies, strategy becomes a cause. That’s because a strategy is about being different. So if you have a really great strategy, people are fired up: “We’re not just another run of the mill company. We’re bringing something new to the world and this is it!”

People follow the leader and YOU are the leader!

Vince Lombardi - Legendary Coach and Leader

The genesis of this post began a few years ago when I delivered a presentation on Leadership to a group Fortune 500 executives.

As with every talk or presentation, I begin by framing a few questions and then build out from there. In this case, the primary question was, “What role does character play in leadership?” I trust you will enjoy what follows.

Leadership is all about one enduring quality: character. Popularity is temporary; change is often unpredictable; and interest rates always fluctuate. The one true constant is a person?s disposition?their character.

Leaders who possess good character are those who — through repeated good acts — achieve an appropriate balance of the virtues in his life.

Therefore, like a successful athlete, the virtuous person plays a consistently good game.

As Aristotle rightly noted, “we are what we repeatedly do.”

A company or teams underlying spirit is created from the top. If an enterprise conveys a great spirit, its top people display a positive attitude. If it decays, however, it does so because the top rots; just as a fish rots from the head.

Character is shaped by drive, competence, and integrity. While many leaders possess the drive and competence necessary to lead, far too many lack the moral compass. These types of leaders tend to be self-serving, and sabotage the spirit of an enterprise. As these people assume greater power and authority, it works to create an Achilles heel of pride and arrogance. This serves only to erode the trust of followers.

People have an indisputable, divine right to expect and demand good character and exemplary conduct from their leaders.

The true test and strength of an enterprise is not to be found in a company’s products or services, but in the character of its leaders. It serves as the conscience of the community.

Leadership is exercised through character; personality sets the example and is imitated by others in the organization. Character is not something one about which can fool people about. A lack of character will “rat out” your true intentions, no matter how hard you attempt to cover them up.

Good leaders have a strong moral fiber and sound ethics; they do not lie, cheat or steal. Ethical behavior is not easy; but it is essential to effective leadership. Ethical leaders are self-confident; not self-centered.

There is no gray area when it comes to character and integrity, it’s foundational. With it, a committed team can produce outstanding results; without it, there is no respect or moral authority to execute.

So, are you the kind of person that others want to follow?

The answer to that question depends on your character. A strong leader sets a strong example.

NO ONE, under any circumstances, should ever be appointed to or accept a leadership role unless they are willing to have his or her character serve as the model for others to emulate!