Overcoming negative criticism can be a challenging experience, but it’s essential for personal growth and success. In this article, we share a story of a coach who learned a valuable lesson about the impact of negative feedback and how he transformed his coaching style to achieve even greater success with his team. Dale Carnegie’s quote reminds us that emotions play a significant role in how we receive criticism, and it’s crucial to handle it in a positive and productive manner. Join us as we explore how to overcome negative criticism and turn it into a powerful tool for growth. Deserved or not, it accomplishes nothing positive. Dale Carnegie wrote: “When dealing with people, let us remember we are not dealing with creatures of logic. We are dealing with creatures of emotion, creatures bristling with prejudices and motivated by pride and vanity.” Carnegie’s statement may not be very encouraging but it

Creating a process for achieving your outcome can greatly increase your chances of success. Once you have a clear outcome in mind, you should begin to create your pathway. You need to obsess over it and break it down into bite-size steps and even smaller habits. Once you have done this, you should stick to it. By focusing on the process and taking action on it consistently, you’ll be much more likely to reach your desired outcome. Don’t quit just because you don’t see immediate results. Although this process sounds tedious and boring to many personalities, it is the way to victory. By remembering where the pathway leads, you can overcome your negative emotions. And where does the pathway lead? To your goal! With that in mind, you can embrace the grind with gratitude. Practice Like a Champion: Preparation is Part of the Game To elaborate further, becoming a champion

God is BIG ENOUGH to be SMALL ENOUGH to CARE about YOU. Dear leader, don’t delete this message thinking it is soft and does not apply to your real-life situation. Keep reading. The Relevance of God Firstly, the subject of God is relevant for business, education, government, and any sector. God provides meaning, insight, skill, and power. Moreover, we cannot even imagine how BIG God must be. I’m not even sure BIG is a proper term of measurement for Him. To elaborate, Scripture tells us God is Spirit. God Consciousness (GC) In fact, God is so big he has the ability to get real small and sit and chat with you. Therefore, you need more faith, we all do. Additionally, religious faith is not authentic faith unless it translates into our daily lives. Furthermore, some of the best business leaders I know around this country have what I call a God

To begin with, in order to create and obsess over the process, you need to have a clear picture of your desired outcome (WHAT). Additionally, you must be confident that your process leads to the outcome. It is important to keep in mind that a clear outcome is the starting point, as Stephen Covey reminded us. With this in mind, you can start with the end, which is the outcome, the goal, and the vision. Strategy serves the vision After establishing the outcome, you can proceed to create the mission, which is a broad statement of WHAT and HOW. Following this, the obsession continues with strategy, goals, and steps or habits. If your outcome is clear, you have the flexibility to make changes to the strategy. The reason for this is that the strategy serves the vision, rather than being the goal or the organization. If your strategy is not

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you look back and think, “How could I have done something so stupid?” It’s a common experience that happens to all of us. Stupid mistakes usually result from a series of small mistakes that snowball into a bigger one. In this post, we’ll explore some common causes of stupid mistakes and provide tips on how to avoid them. Let’s start with a personal anecdote to illustrate the point. As we delve deeper into this topic, you’ll learn how to prevent stupid mistakes and improve decision-making skills. Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves. ― Confucius I’ve done some stupid stuff. Looking back, most of my mistakes were rooted in hurry, insecurity, laziness, or anger. Have you noticed when stupid stuff happens, it’s like falling dominoes? The Hasty Decision Age 30, give or take. Upon arriving at the

Having a positive vision for your future can have a significant impact on your behaviors and overall well-being. As Viktor Frankl observed, without hope and connection to the future, people can lose context and meaning for the present. By cultivating a positive vision and practicing gratitude, you can shape your behaviors and create a more fulfilling life. Your vision shapes your behaviors, and this is especially true if you see your past or future in a negative light. Additionally, if you look back and see the good from your past while having a positive picture of your future, your behaviors will begin to align you in that direction. Therefore, it is essential to have a positive vision and behaviors to live a fulfilling life. Furthermore, having a positive vision can help you develop positive behaviors that lead to a more fulfilling life. Your vision shapes your behaviors, and this is

Courage is one of the seven elements of character, and it is essential to lead a fulfilling life. However, for many people, courage does not come easily. Therefore, it’s important to understand how courage, faith, and justice collaborate to bring this element of character to life. In this post, we’ll explore this collaboration and discover how you can develop more courage in your life. Courage is one of the seven elements of character and is brought to life in collaboration with faith and justice. Courage and Moral Authority To have more courage, it’s crucial to understand that it comes from moral authority. That’s why living an honest and just life is vital. In days gone by, such people were called “God-fearing.” In simple terms, a God-fearer is one who considers what God might think over what society might think. The Importance of God Conscience (GC) People with GC (God Conscience)

-Leaders pray and influence others to do the same- I absolutely dreaded them. As a young boy, my dad would take me to the church for the weekly prayer meeting. I remember kneeling at a pew surrounded by a few men doing the same. We prayed together, multiple groups of men on their knees were spread around the room. They used words I often did not understand. They prayed forever it seemed. I remember thinking to myself on more than one occasion “God please stop them from praying such long prayers! I’m dying here!”  Most of the time, I was just trying to keep from falling asleep! It’s a little funny right? There was a chasm between these men and myself. These church leaders knew too well the ills of the world. I, on the other hand, was just a kid being raised in a good home. I was optimistic.

This coaching moment is for the achiever. The go-getter. The person who believes in goals. There are Three (3) Tools You Need for Your Next… Year, season, journey, challenge, goal. Whatever you want to call it, you will need three tools. These tools are a way of thinking. They are tools for collaborating. They are individual questions you need to answer. They will provide focus, alignment, energy, and ownership. Just as important, these three tools will keep you from taking shortcuts, looking for quick fixes, assuming, and simply fooling yourself. As a bonus, these three questions will keep you from chasing after the wrong questions. WHAT The first question is the starting place. It’s the first tool. Here it is. WHAT exactly do you want to accomplish? The correct answer is not a long list of goals. It is probably not the first thing that comes to mind. One of

I’m a huge Peter Drucker fan. I’m a student. Though he has gone to be with the Lord, I still pull down two of his works I hold most dear. They are classics in my mind: The Effective Executive and Managing the Non-Profit Organization. I’ll get back to Drucker in a moment but first allow me to set up this blog post. I’ve made some serious mistakes as a leader. Yes, my history is filled with many wins but the mistakes compete for space in those recurring memories. In some regards, I am a perfectionist so I’m always failing in one way or another. I do not recommend this trait of perfectionism because it’s not good for you or those in your life. I’m working on a better balance in this regard. Details of the past (wins and losses) fade but the principles are captured for life. One such principle

If you’ve been an employer for any length of time, you have been humbled by the task of hiring. I have. When we hire the wrong people, we expose our organization to loss. The wrong person can cost your endeavor thousands of dollars, wound your team morale, negatively impact your customers, and create a culture of distrust. The list of possible grievances only gets darker and more devastating. That’s the bad news. There is good news. When we hire the right people, it changes everything. Typically, profits increase, morale goes up, trust breeds an increase in speed of operations, and the overall level of performance improves paving the way for a more professional organization. We should approach the hiring process with humility and skill. When we lack humility, we recklessly bring just about anyone on the team out of either desperation or because we are deaf to wisdom’s warning. We

If I haven’t confessed it before, I’m sorry. I believe hiring is one of the most difficult responsibilities of leadership. It’s difficult for many reasons. Let me list many of them even though I may not comment on each one: Those hiring are inexperienced and have little respect for the task. Those hiring believe they have good intuition. Our society continues to design job descriptions for superheroes. Applicants have varying levels of self-awareness and lie to themselves (even unintentionally). Those hiring have been burned in the past and now have a heightened awareness; but instead of getting educated, they create new experiential principles they hope will protect them from getting hurt again. One such principle is the commitment to hire and promote from within. Here’s what I like about the idea of hiring from within: Most of the onboarding has already been accomplished. There is an obvious sense of alignment

If there were no problems to solve, no one needing help, and perpetual justice – there would be no need for moral and effective leadership. That’s not our world. We need leadership that solves problems, works for the good of all, and is willing to personally sacrifice because that’s what it takes. Phil Eastman, a friend and leadership consultant defines moral and effective leadership this way: “Leadership is the ability to move a group of people through non-coercive means to an end that is in the long-term best interest of everyone.” I highlighted four key words: ability, non-coercive, end, and long-term. Ability has to do with the on-going skill and work of communicating a compelling vision and keeping everyone focused on how their work contributes to its success. Non-coercive describes the spirit of volunteerism. The leader leads from a sense of calling and the team members engage willingly, not by

A good name is more desirable than great riches. Prov. 22:1 Your name is your most valuable professional asset. It is worth far more than your degrees, position, or title. Yet it’s astonishing how many trade their name, values, and reputation for shortcuts, easy money, and promotions. In other words, too many suffer long term stains for short term gains. It happens most to those who do not prepare. They pay little attention to reading, self-reflection, meditating, and planning. They just do it. A very dangerous proposition. Those who trust in their ability to be agile over preparation fool themselves. Abraham Lincoln said, “You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.” Sooner or later, your preparation or lack thereof will shine through. True agility performs from a trusted stage or

We’re no longer committed to growing The fourth reason we don’t achieve our goals is the myopic tendencies of our decisions and behaviors. We simply do not realize the long term effects of our actions or lack of, especially those related to learning and growing. How do we get better than we are today without more knowledge and application? The pragmatics of life and business can crowd one’s schedule to such an extent, personal and organizational growth is stunted. Even more, mental and spiritual stagnancy is toxic and cancerous to one’s future. Goal achievers are courageous because they are also wise. As the saying goes, they measure twice and cut once. They are not perfectionist as much as they are selective. To be selective, one must be exposed to choices and the knowledge of these derive from a learning posture. They systemically transform toward confidence and humility as learning becomes