We all face challenges, and sometimes we lose sight of our ability to overcome them, and perhaps even thrive because of them. This video serves as a reminder of that fact for me. Watch, be inspired, and dance (even if privately or only in your mind!)
The mass of 29,211 people, to be exact. 29,211 people completed the Indianapolis 500 Festival Mini Marathon last Saturday. For all of them whether than wheelchaired, ran or walked the 13.1 mile course, they reached a goal that they had worked on for some period of time.
This whole crowd of goal achievers inspired me, but one person more than the rest. You see her picture here - my wife Lori reached her goal by completing. It wasn't her goal to finish in a certain time, but to finish. That goal in itself is a noble one (after all, how many people do you know that have completed a half marathon?)
I find at least two important lessons for all of us in this event.
1. Worthy goals take time and preparation. the 35,000 entries for this race were all taken by last November. So you know that people didn't just wake up a week before and decide to run this race. It took preparation, planning, and practice. So it is with any goal worth achieving.
2. Keep site of what you achieve. The goals of the 29,210 other people might have been different than Lori's and I'm sure some didn't reach their time goal, or didn't finish ahead of a friend they hoped to beat, but they all finished and achieved something significant.
As we set goals we should always keep in mind that what we gain or learn during the course of achieving them, even if we don't achieve exactly or everything we set out to achieve, may be as valuable as the goal itself.
I congratulate all of those who completed their goal. I encourage you to think about these lessons of goal setting.
And if you want to run with Lori and me next year, let me know. (you can sign up here).
While reviewing a new program from Charthouse Learning called Leader Fish! (a program for leaders based on the Fish! philosophy, I heard a phrase used by Southwest Airlines people on the DVD. They talked about leaning towards the Customer.
This comment was made talking about encouraging people to try new things and not to be afraid of making mistakes. The comment was that no one will ever get in trouble for a decision if they are leaning towards the Customer.
Which led me to some questions . . .
Did I lean towards my Customers today? Did I encourage my team to lean towards a Customer? How can we lean tomorrow? How can we lean next week?
Leaning towards Customers. It obviously works for Southwest. There is every reason it can work for you too.
To be the most effective as a communicator, it is our responsibility to communicate in ways that work for the other person. We must become adept at seeing the other person's perspective, their skills and their style. One of the best short pieces I've read recently on this truth was written by Guy Harris (who calls himself the Recovering Engineer) this week.
This communication truth applies to us in all areas of our communication - in working with Customers, leading others, being a part of a team and more.
His article really hit home for me, and I believe it will for you too. It is titled Speaking Their Language, and I highly recommend reading it.
I am happy to formally announce our Remarkable Leadership Learning System! This is a virtually delivered ongoing leadership development product unlike anything else in existence! We have been delivering it for several months with a select group of customers and are now opening it up to the world.
Rather than telling you all about it here in the blog(though I'm sure I will be saying more about it in future posts), I encourage you to check out the information and great goodies here.
I wanted to write quick post about Jott.com. I learned about this new tool from Steve Miller's blog and I absolutely love it. In fact, I am "writing" this post using the tool. This tool allows you to send messages, notes, blog post, and ideas through a making a phone call and best of all it's all free.
I had the distinct pleasure of reading a pre publication copy of Chip Bell and John Patterson's new book entitled Customer Loyalty Guaranteed. This book comes out this fall and I encourage you to put it on Amazon wish list today. The book delivers on its promise on helping you to create, maintain and lead for Customer Service and it's a book that you want when it is published by Adams Media in September.
How did I get to read a draft of the book? I was asked to give a testimonial for it, and here is what I wrote:
"Read this book, and put the ideas into action and you will do exactly as the title suggests, you'll guarantee customer loyalty. If you have customers, read this book."
Unleashing Your Remarkable Potential is Kevin Eikenberry’s guide to helping you have amazing success while developing your professional and personal potential.
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To provide you with resources, techniques and ideas (and some other interesting stuff) to help you reach your professional potential.
Unleashing Your Remarkable Potential is Kevin Eikenberry’s guide to helping you have amazing success while developing your professional and personal potential.
To provide you with resources, techniques and ideas (and some other interesting stuff) to help you reach your professional potential.
