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9 December 2008 |
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Treat
your friends as you do your pictures, and place them in
their best light.
Jennie
Jerome Churchill
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If
we did all the things we are capable of doing, we would
literally astound ourselves.
Thomas
Alva Edison
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If
you are patient in one moment of anger, you will escape a
hundred days of sorrow.
Chinese
saying
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What's
Up with Big Picture Teams?
John Maxwell
How
do people start to become a more unified team? How
do individuals make the shift from independent people to
team players who exemplify the Law of the Big
Picture? It's not something that happens
overnight. It takes time. Here is my best take
on how to get the process started.
1.
Look Up at the Big Picture
Everything starts with a vision. You need to have a
goal. Without one you cannot have a real team.
Hall of Fame catcher Yogi Berra joked, "If you don't
know where you're going, you'll end up somewhere
else." An individual without a goal may end up
anywhere. A group of individuals without a goal can
go nowhere. On the other hand, if everyone in a
group embraces the vision for achieving the big picture,
then the people have the potential to become an effective
team. Leaders
usually have the role of capturing and communicating the
vision. They must see it first and then help
everyone else to see it. That was what Winston
Churchill did when he spoke to the coal miners during
World War II. That's what Dr. Martin Luther King,
Jr. did as he spoke to people about his dream from the
steps of the Lincoln Monument in Washington, D.C.
That was what GE CEO Jack Welch did when he let his people
know that a division of GE that couldn't be first or
second in its market wouldn't be a part of GE. The
people on a team will sacrifice and work together only
if they can see what they're working toward. If
you are the leader of your team, your role is to do what
only you can do: Paint the big picture for your
people. Without the vision they will not find the
desire to achieve the goal.
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2.
Size up the Situation
One value of seeing the big picture is that it helps you
to recognize how far you really are from achieving
it. For someone determined to do everything alone,
seeing the gulf between what is and what could be is often
intimidating. But for people who live to build
teams, seeing the size of the task ahead doesn't worry
them. They don't shrink from the challenge--they
savor the opportunity. They can't wait to put
together a team and a plan to accomplish that vision.
At
a meeting of all three divisions of The INJOY Group, CEO
Dave Sutherland stood before our people and outlined a few
of our goals for the coming year. (Some of these
goals were huge.) During that process, Dave said,
"Some people see the size of the goal, and they get
scared. That doesn't bother me a bit. We've
already got a great team. To make it to the next
level, we just need a few more people like the ones we
already have." That's the mind-set of a team
builder!
3.
Line Up Needed Resources
Hawley R. Everhart believes, "It's all right to aim
high if you have plenty of ammunition." That's
what resources are: ammunition to help you reach a
goal. It doesn't matter what kind of team you're
on. You cannot make progress without the support of
the appropriate equipment, facilities, funds, and so
forth--whether your goal is climbing a mountain, capturing
a market, or creating a ministry. The better
resourced the team is, the fewer distractions the players
will have as they try to achieve their goal.
4.
Call Up the Right Players
When it comes to building a successful team, the players
are everything. You can have a distinct vision, a
precise plan, plenty of resources, and incredible
leadership, but if you don't have the right people, you're
not going to get anywhere. You can lose with good
players, but you cannot win with bad ones.
5.
Give Up Personal Agendas
Teams that win have players who continually ask
themselves, "What's best for the rest?"
They continually set aside their personal agendas for the
good of the team. Their motto can be expressed by
the words of Ray Kroc, founder of McDonald's, who said,
"No one of us is more important than the rest of
us."
A
remarkable sports story from several years ago was the
success of the U.S. Women's Soccer Team. They won
the Olympic gold medal and the World Cup in a few brief
years. A key player on that team was Mia Hamm.
In her book Go for the Goal, she gives her
perspective on her sport and the attitude a player must
bring into the game to achieve the goal of becoming a
champion:
"Soccer
is not an individual sport. I don't score all the
goals, and the ones I do score are usually the product of
a team effort. I don't keep the ball out of the back
of the net on the other end of the field. I don't
plan our game tactics. I don't wash our training
gear (okay, sometimes I do), and I don't make our airline
reservations. I am a member of a team, and I rely on
the team. I defer to it and sacrifice for it,
because the team, not the individual, is the ultimate
champion."
Mia
Hamm understands the Law of the Big Picture. And by
doing whatever it took to help her team--including washing
the gear--she demonstrated that the goal was more
important than the role.
6.
Step Up to a Higher Level
Only when players come together and give up their own
agendas can a team move up to a higher level. That's
the kind of sacrifice required for teamwork.
Unfortunately some people prefer to cling to agendas and
pursue the paths of their own inflated egos instead of
letting go of them to achieve something greater than
themselves.
It's
just as philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche said:
"Many are stubborn in pursuit of the path they have
chosen, few in pursuit of the goal." And that's
a shame because people who think only of themselves are
missing the big picture. As a result their potential
goes untapped, and the people who are depending on them
are bound to be let down.
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The
way to win is to build a great team. John C.
Maxwell has been teaching the benefits of
leadership and team building for years. Now he
tackles the importance of teamwork head on,
writing about teamwork being necessary for every
kind of leader, and showing how team building can
improve every area of your life. Written in
the style of the bestseller The 21 Irrefutable
Laws of Leadership, this new book not only
contains laws that you can count on when it comes
to getting people to work together, but it tells
them in such a way that you can start applying
them to your own life today. And it's illustrated
with great stories of team leaders-and team
breakers-from history, business, the church, and
sports. |
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Living
Life Fully, the e-zine
exists to try to provide for visitors of the world wide web a
place
of growth, peace, inspiration, and encouragement. Our
articles
are presented as thoughts of the authors--by no means do
we
mean to present them as ways that anyone has to live
life. Take
from them what you will, and disagree with
whatever you disagree
with--just know that they'll be here for you
each week. |
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Eyes
Wide Open
tom walsh
Extra
Butter
I
went to grab a snack in a McDonald's recently, a
place where I almost never go. But being out
of town and in a hurry and without a car left me
little choice, so I dropped in for a cup of coffee
and this cinnamon role-type thing that tasted very
good, but was very sweet and I'm sure full of
calories. It was covered with a thick, sweet
icing, and I was amazed to see that the woman at the
counter also put a package of butter onto my
tray. It floored me--this pastry thing had to
have more calories than I needed for the next ten
hours or so, but that didn't seem to be enough--now
I had the chance to add butter to the mix.
Didn't
the people at McDonald's see the movie Supersize
Me?
My
wife and I often go out for breakfast (almost never
for dinner), and we're constantly astonished to see
just how much butter the cooks at the restaurants
put on pancakes, french toast, toast, and other
dishes. There seems to be an implicit
suggestion that we should eat all the butter that we
can, even though it's pretty common knowledge that
butter contains a lot of fat and isn't all that good
for us if we eat excess amounts of it. The
people at the restaurants don't seem to care about
that though--to them more seems to be better, and we
end up scraping the extra butter off our food and
putting it on the side of our plates.
Part
of the reason that this tendency is disturbing is
because eating so much butter definitely is
unhealthy, yet the restaurants seem to be
uninterested in providing healthy amounts of butter
for us. And when they put huge globs of it
directly onto the food, they leave us no choice to
make about the butter that already had melted and
soaked in. It's in there, and we have to eat
it unless we want to send the food back.
Another
part of it that disturbs me is the sheer waste of
food. With millions of people on this planet
being undernourished and even dying of starvation,
why do we continue to waste something that could be
better distributed like butter? Butter
definitely isn't a horrible food, and in moderation
it actually tastes great and adds a lot to many
meals. And it's fairly expensive, so I can't
help but wonder just how much could be donated to
food banks and other similar organizations if so
much weren't wasted every day in restaurants.
This
isn't a crime against humanity, of course--it's
extra butter on my plate. But it does force me
to make a decision that I normally don't have to
make--here's a type of food that I really like, and
there's lots of it, but I have to decide not to eat
it because I know that this amount simply isn't
healthy for me. It's the same decision I have
to make in some restaurants when they give me far
too many french fries--I have to leave some on my
plate, something that I generally hate to do.
But if I want to stay healthy, then I have to take
care about what I eat, don't I?
Just
because someone at a restaurant puts extra butter on
my plate doesn't mean I have to eat it. Just
because someone offers me alcohol right before I'm
driving doesn't mean I have to drink it.
Sometimes we're put in situations in which we have
to make decisions that are important, and if we make
the right ones, we can add in a positive way to our
lives. We just have to be careful, don't we?
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A
Journey Of Personal Growth
BraveHeart
Woman
In
the cold silent darkness of a winter night,
snowflakes slowly fell glistening as I turned on the
outside lights. The purity and newness of the
shimmering flakes reminded me of my new journey of
growth and personal development.
The
wonder of a single snowflake, one of nature’s
glorious yet quiet miracles, proves nothing is
impossible to create when I am open to receiving the
abundance of life. Sometimes life’s distractions,
fear, pride and personal desires turn me away from
the journey. Keeping my heart and soul in spiritual
alignment with my journey assists me on the path to
becoming the full potential of my destiny.
My
own personal growth journey consciously began almost
two years ago, even though I was growing every day
of my life experiencing challenges and opportunities
along the way. I attended my first motivational
workshop in New Jersey, and I was forever changed. I
connected with other “travelers” who are now
dear friends and spiritual partners in the quest of
personal growth and self-improvement. During this
time I continued to attend numerous motivational
seminars and inspirational workshops, learning,
growing and gathering insights making amazing
breakthroughs within myself.
I
have learned the power of positive thinking and
attitude, and the importance of a state of gratitude
for all that I have in my life. Most importantly, I
love and respect the people who have been placed
into my life. There are no coincidences. It is with
gratitude that I acknowledge each human being I have
had the privilege to know. Everything that has
happened in my life, positive or negative, good or
bad, joyful or sad has been orchestrated by the
Divine pattern for my life. I am the person I am
today because of all that has gone before me and all
that I have experienced, and I am the empowered
woman I am today because of the people who have
entered my life and touched me in some way on this
journey. I am where I am supposed to be in my
travels through life.
There
are important steps to take along the path of
personal growth, to live life fully and confidently.
These are the tools that have been beneficial to
achieve a positive approach to opening myself for an
abundant life:
--
Be grounded and confident. Breathe and be centered
as one with the Universe.
--
Open my consciousness and heart to receive messages
from my inner voice, and listen to the words.
Diligently work to take down any walls of resistance
that have been a part of my life.
--
Pursue education and spiritual enlightenment by
attending personal development seminars presented by
successful motivational entrepreneurs who inspire
me.
--
Seek the mentor that I connect with, and attend
events where he or she shares their wealth of
knowledge and experience.
--
Be humble knowing I am connected to every living
being in the Universe, an important and necessary
link in the chain of life.
--
Apply all that I have learned to create flow into
every aspect of my life to become the empowered
person I was created to be.
--
Be energetic in my approach to life and create a
positive attitude surrounding myself with peace and
harmony.
I
daily open my heart and mind, strengthening my
conscious being to let God run my life, remembering
I am a miracle in progress and God is not finished
with me yet. How exciting to know that I have so
much more to experience and more people will follow
along the path with me, for a distance, touching my
life in ways not even imaginable at this time. I
know I am not yet where I am destined to be, but I
thank God I am not where I used to be. I am okay
now, and I am on my way.
Believe
in yourself. Trust in God and yourself. Develop a
strong positive attitude and breathe in Life. A
joyful mission statement for Life says:
--
Life is not a journey to the grave with the
intention of arriving safely in a pretty and
well-preserved body…..but rather to skid in
broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and
loudly proclaiming….WOW ------ What a Ride!
Love
and blessings to you on your journey to a better
life.
Copyright
by BraveHeart Woman. Businesswoman,
Friend, Collaborator, and Team player, Linda
fulfills her Entrepreneurial Calling by offering a
great service that enriches the lives of others.
Together with other fellow BraveHeart Community
members, her goal is to empower Women to be
multi-dimensional success stories and inspiration to
others. Be Sure to Visit: http://www.BraveHeartWomen.com/lindaholden
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Many
times we will get more ideas and better ideas
in two hours of creative loafing
than in eight hours at a desk.
Wilferd
A. Peterson
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Most
of my major disappointments have turned out
to be blessings in disguise. So whenever anything bad
happens to me, I kind of sit back and feel, well, if I give
this enough time, it'll turn out that this was good,
so I shan't worry about it too much.
William
Gaines |
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