Thanksgiving weekend 2009 in the United States will be remembered for two news stories. Tiger Woods and his SUV, and the White House State Dinner Crashers, Tareq and Michaele Salahi. I'll leave Tiger for the tabloids, but I found leadership lessons in the "Partycrahser" story.
The Salahi's
Regardless of what you think of the Salahi's stunt, their motives, or the aftermath, I believe there is a lesson for us all in this story: they had a goal and they went for it.
Seriously now, how are you as committed to your goals as they were to meeting the President (or getting into the event, or getting the publicity - again their motives are not my point)?
Are you willing to stick your neck out, take risks and try things that haven't been successful in the past in order to reach your goals?
If you are, congratulations. I believe that for most of us, the answer is no.
And if the answer is no, why isn't your passion that high and your commitment that strong?
That is a question that is worth thinking about.
While I am not suggesting we break the law to reach our goals, I am suggesting that there is likely more you could be doing - I know there is more that I could be doing - to reach our goals faster.
Of course we can translate these questions into a leadership perspective as well, and ask ourselves if we are supporting people's passion and commitment as much as we could.
These are some of the things the Salahi story story got me thinking about.
The Secret Service
These events also got me thinking about the Secret Service, and an important leadership lesson that I find in their actions/inactions. Without going into the details, details that we may never know anyway, clearly the Secret Service had/has a process problem. Perhaps thay have a performance management issue with specific employees, but from what I have read, they also have a process improvement opportunity (the press calls it a breech - we call it a process problem).
Likely the flaws or improvement opportunities in your organization's processes won't be as drastic or become as public as these have, but it reminds us that even our most important and perhaps most used work processes may need improvement.
The securty process for State Dinners will likely be improved in the coming weeks. But would they have been if not for the Salahi's?
I think not.
Consider this a cautionary tale of the dangers of the comfort zone and the need for us as leaders to be proactive. Like the Secret Service, your most critical processes won't be reviewed until you have a problem, or you as a leader take the iniative to have a review, or a process improvement team look for opportunities.
In both parts of the story, the choice is yours - choose to be committed and choose to be proactive.
The choices are yours.
Labels: commitment, goal settting, goals, process improvement
This time of the year, it is the most asked question - "What are your New Year's Resolutions?"
Many people make them.
Few people sustain them.
In fact, according to research by Marti Hope Gonzales, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Minnesota cited in the
New York Times this morning about 80 percent of people who make resolutions on Jan. 1 will stop making progress by Valentine’s Day.
There are a variety of factors that lead to people not being successful, but the biggest two come from the word resolution itself.
First, from the definition itself.
Dictionary.com gives many definitions of the word, the the two most relevant being:
2. a resolve or determination: to make a firm resolution to do something.
3. the act of resolving or determining upon an action or course of action, method, procedure, etc.Notice that both of these are really about a decision. Decisions are important, but not nearly as important as the actions that back them up. The reason so many people set resolutions is that they are easy to set. It is (relatively) easy to decide to do something. But to make your resolution last, you must do more than decide, you must do.
Second, from the spelling of the word. Resolution conveniently begins with the letters "re". Most of us think about the letters "re" when by themselves as something we use in a letter, memo or email to describe the subject - or why we are writing. It is the why that is missing from most resolutions. You will reach more of your resolutions, goals or objectives when the reason why you want to achieve it is clearly placed in your mind and is sufficiently strong and compelling to keep you acting and moving in the direction of that goal or resolution.
We cannot underestimate the power of "why" when setting and moving towards the achievement of our resolutions or goals.
If you are reading this as you are setting your resolutions your action steps should be clear. Don't stop with the decision, get to work. And create a why - a compelling reason that is big enough and powerful enough to keep you on your new habit path.
These are ideas that I explore in great depth and provide a variety of tools and techniques for in our brand new
Start Today - Make Your Next 12 Months Your Best 12 Months package. If you are serious about being in the 20% who are taking action on and succeeding in reaching or maintaining your resolutions beyond Valentine's Day, you owe it to yourself - and your why - to check out this
package.
Labels: goal settting, goals, resolutions
Unleashing Your Remarkable Potential is Kevin Eikenberry’s guide to helping you have amazing success while developing your professional and personal potential.
Welcome! This was the home of my blog from March 2004 – November 2009. For my more recent writing to help you become more effective and successful, join me at our new blog – 
