A Coach's Diary

The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership - John Maxwell Chapter 6 - The Law of Solid Ground Trust Is The Foundation of Leadership Trust is the most important aspect of leadership.  You cannot lose trust and continue to have influence over others - they won't trust you! Be sure that you are honest, trustworthy, and act with integrity in everything that you do.  Even in your mistakes, be as honesty and upfront as possible.  Your people know when you make mistakes, the real question is whether you're going to fess up. When it comes to leadership, you can't just take shortcuts, no matter how long you've been leading your people. A leader builds trust by consistently exemplifying competence, connection, and character. People will forgive you for your occassional mistakes and they will give you time to connect, but they will not trust someone who has slips in character.   Character makes trust possible.  And trust makes leadership possible.  That...

The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership - John Maxwell Chapter 5 - The Law of Serving  Others Leaders Add Value By Serving Others A true leader is always looking for ways to grow the people he influences by serving them and making things better and easier for them.  The best leaders are more focused on adding value to people by serving them than on serving themselves or making themselves richer or more powerful.  When you add value and grow those around you, you will reap the benefits of that growth individually as well.  You going through the process of growing others will help you grow exponentially as well. To consistently add value to those you influence, you must go out of your way to find  and think about ways in which you can add value.   "Seek always to do some good, somewhere.  Every man has to seek in his own to way to realize his true worth.  You must give some time to your fellow man.  For remember, you don't live in ...

The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership - John Maxwell Chapter 4 - The Law of Navigation Anyone Can Steer The Ship, But It Takes A Leader To Chart the Course Every leader has to have a vision for himself and the people he is leading.  In the Bible, it states that 'without a vision, the people will perish.'  A vision and an end goal is important to make sure that you are always on the right path toward success and so that you don't wake up one day and realize that your foundation is crumbling from underneath you and see that your world is falling apart. As a leader, you have to realize that there are people relying on your ability to steer them in the right direction.  Other people are depending on you and your ability to chart a good course.  We all have the opportunity to control our lives and our direction.  When we have a good plan and stick diligently to it, we control our direction.  You having control over your direction is better than you bein...

The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership - John Maxwell Chapter 3 - The Law of Process Leadership Develops Daily, Not in a Day Becoming a leader is a process, much like finding real wealth in the stock market.  You are not going to find wealth or success in one day - this is a life long learning process.  Success comes from what you do day by day over a long period of time. The secret of our success is found in our daily agenda." - Tag Short When you look at someone's daily agenda, you see what they value and prioritize, whether its money, sports, family, TV, etc.  See what a person does every day, and you'll know who that person is and what he is becoming. Leadership is not always born when a person is born, it is born out of the process of learning and improving on a collection of skills.  Many of the skills and factors that effective leadership requires are intangible, and because of that, leaders require a lot of seasoning to be effective. "It's t...

The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership - John Maxwell Chapter 2 - The Law of Influence T he true measure of leadership is influence - nothing more, nothing less Leadership is about influence.    Leadership is having enough influence to where people are willing to follow you.  There are factors that impact your level of influence on others, but at the core of leadership is your level of influence. 'He who thinks he leads, but has no followers, is only taking a walk. ' If you can't influence people, then they won't follow you.  And if people won't follow you, you are not a leader. Leadership and influence is something that must be earned.   You can't gain true influence simply through your position.  Leadership through your title is management; anybody can have influence when they are in a position of power and have leverage.  A true leader can influence others to act without having any leverage to hold over their heads.  The...

The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership - John Maxwell Chapter 1 - The Law of The Lid  Leadership Ability Determines A Person's Level of Effectiveness Leadership ability is the lid that determines a person's level of effectiveness.  You can be individually great at what you do and provide a lot of value to your team, school, business, or organization, but without leadership ability, your level of effectiveness will always be limited to the immediate impact that you can make as opposed to the impact you can make as a result of the domino effect that occurs when you can positively influence and grow others around you.   "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day.  Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." The Law of the Lid is kind of like the old proverb about teaching somebody how to fish.  When you perform for somebody or for your team or organization, you will have a major impact, but that impact will be limited.  When you hav...

"The more our creator trusts us, the more He can trust us with." The more people you help become successful, the more successful you become.  When you share your blessings with someone else, you are fulfilling your purpose in this world as a human being.  We are all here to help one another.  When you receive a measure of success, on whatever level it is, it's your obligation to teach that or share that with someone else.  With almost every successful person, the more money they give, the more God puts them in position to give more.  This is a principle that escapes far too many people.  It is not enough to have a big house on a hill and not show anyone else how to get a big house on a hill.  They you're up there by yourself - and that's no fun. To whom much is given, much will be required.  If you don't adhere to the requirement part, then the giving part stops.   Success is not just your ability to achieve, but also your ability t...

HOME + HEALTH + FINANCES = SUCCESS Gaining life's riches is about more than just earning a paycheck - success is about truly being in the moment when you are with your family and having the energy and right frame of mind to continue to do the work that you love. You have to have your priorities set and a strong foundation to stand on.  When you don't have all of your chips stacked properly, you might get good at hiding the truth from the public.  You have to have a life system that brings balance to all aspects of your world.

Become the positive energy that will be a light not just for yourself, but for those around you.  Your gift and your vision are relying on it. The Bible says: Life and death are in the power of the tongue. You are going to face opposition in your journey, and that opposition can take form in one of a few ways: 1) Situational  2) Other people  3) Internal The only cure for enemies and opposition is success.  You can never take your foot off a ladder to kick at someone who is kicking at you.  When you do that, you will no longer be climbing.  While they are kicking, you should keep stepping.  They can kick only one time.  If you continue to climb, they would be left behind.  In trying to hurt you, to impede your progress, they would get left behind because they allowed themselves to get sidetracked from their agenda. Real people of power, decision makers, power brokers, shakers and movers don't know that they don't even...

In boxing, boxers know, going into the fight, all of the strengths and weaknesses of their opponents.  In life, you should always know and be fully aware of all of your strengths and weaknesses as well.  You need to know all of your skills and you need to know what all of your potential advantages and disadvantages are.   You want to always be able to perform at your best, and having an inventory of your strengths and weaknesses will allow you to play to your strengths while masking your weaknesses.  Throughout the process, you should also be working to grow and maximize your strengths while improving upon your witnesses. Stepping Up Your Strengths -  Be confident, not cocky -  Stay fight ready -  Develop or Die Working On Your Weaknesses -  Protect your weaknesses -  Choose your weaknesses -  Develop or Die Identify you strength and weaknesses.  Know how to communicate and maximize your strengths and start...

Yea, you can try to 'be your own man' and take on life by yourself, but you will have to work twice as hard to get half as much.  There are people who can and are willing to help you - they are like treasure chests waiting at strategic moments in your journey to provide you with what you need.   Asking for what you want is the only key you need to open the chest and enjoy the treasure. Everything we do in life that's worthy of note requires gifts that are beyond our own.  How we utilize the blessings of our relationships is the key to making it big.  You have to keep your eyes open for like-minded people, because those partnerships give you another person to bounce around ideas with, and they can help you see things from an angle that you didn't even consider. Once you identify other like-minded people and you begin to connect with dreamers, you need to be bold enough to ask for assistance, guidance, or advice.  You have no idea of the number of successf...

Every man [person] has a mountain to climb.  At the top of the mountain is the dream life that the man envisions early on in his journey.  All he has to do is know which mountain he wants to climb and to decide to start climbing. However, that man does not travel alone; he has to carry a big, old wagon up that mountain with him. The wagon itself is heavy and hard to carry - it has the old wooden wheels that aren't the perfect circles that would be ideal for rolling up a steep mountain and the man has to drag this wagon by a big, thick, old rope that rips at his hands and tears at his shoulders as pushes and pulls along. What makes the journey even more difficult is that every man has people who are along for the ride as well.  There are 3 types of people the man as to deal with while trudging up this mountain: 1)  Those who are there to assist him up the mountain 2)  Those who are there to make his journey tougher up the mountain 3)  Those who are...

“Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.” - Albert Einstein Key Concepts -  Identify what you want to accomplish -  Create a fist class vision -  Let your imagination take over for your logic -  Believe you can have it -  Make a vision board to inspire you everyday Your imagination is everything. If your focus is on where you are right now, then your right now becomes your forever. Until you change your focus and elevate your imagination, your present situation will define you. It's important to make sure you have a first class vision for your life.   If you don’t think any higher of yourself, why should anyone else?  Believe in yourself and your worth, and your dreams can and will come true. Make sure that you appreciate the blessings that you have right now.   How can you expect God to bless with you more if you are taking care of and taking advantage of what he has already given y...

"The steps of a good man [or woman] are ordered by the Lord.” I interpreted this Scripture in my life to mean that walking into my destiny is a step-by-step process. I truly believe that God provides all of us with the right steps to get to the right place at the right time. We all have dreams; some are willing to take a leap of faith to go after those dreams while others sit and wait on the sidelines. Goals are the biggest difference between those who go after and reach their dreams and those who never do.    Without goals, your dreams will remain a someday phenomenon instead of today’s reality.  Goals give you something specific to work towards and help you stay focused on your journey. Setup and use your goals as your personal climb to the top of the mountain.   The long term,  overall vision of what you want to become may be overwhelming, but breaking down your goals into smaller, achievable stepping stones, can help you better manage the jo...

Be the kind of man you want to be by taking on the right makeup, which will make room for your gift. In order for you to properly fuel your gift, you have to embody the proper makeup, and that sometimes requires change on your part. You have to get the right caliber of traits together that will lead you to your biggest dreams.  Your makeup is the driving force behind the vehicle that you have attached yourself to that will lead you to success. You first need to be the kind of person who attracts rather than repels others.  You have to be easy to work with, or at least be willing to create the atmosphere that makes it easy to work with you. You must also recognize your shortcomings and be willing to improve on them.  You have to be willing to grow and to allow your failures to shape you. Finally, you have to respect time - yours and others - by being punctual.  You have to be a person of integrity.  You have to be honorable and reliable by doing what yo...

Steve Jobs had a gift for seeing technology in ways that actually changed the way we live our lives.  The ability to innovate and transform technology.  This combination of using your gift and infusing it with your personal skills and talents is what I call your gift mark. Similar to a trademark, your gift mark is the stamp that you leave on the world every time you use your God-given talents and skills at your highest capacity.  You know without a doubt what to expect every time you purchase a box with an Apple logo or sit behind the wheel of a car with that BMW insignia.  Your gift make should be what people come to expect every time they hire you or ask you to be part of their team.  Your gift mark is the flavor you add to your gift, showing the world that it has your DNA in it.  When you sit down at the table, people know that they will receive your gift in just the way that only you can deliver it.   Once you uncover your gift, find that di...

Everybody has a gift.   Our creator, in his infinite wisdom, created every single should with a gift.  Your girt is completely unique.  No one can rob you of it.  You are the only one who can choose to use it or to ignore it.  You have the power to permit it to be used to enrich your life. Your girt is the single thing that you do at your absolute best with the least amount of effort. You all have a gift.  Its not what you are passionate about or what you hoped, dreamed, or wished for.  What do you do the absolute best with the least amount of effort? Your job is not your gift.  Your gift is more than a job.  It may be one of the places where you can use your gift but you should be able to use your gift in your relationships, your communities, and throughout every aspect of your life.  Your gift is something that is connected to you where you are working or vacationing. Passion is an emotion, but it will never be your gift. ...

Proverbs 29:18 – “Where there is no vision, the people will perish.” Perishing is the dangerous state of living in a mundane existence without even realizing it.   When you are living out your life doing the same jobs, doing the same thing over and over, again with no dreams or aspirations or hope for the future, you are slowly perishing with no direction. Don’t allow yourself to wander aimlessly in circles, unclear about your purpose, while you are wasting your gift and destroying your promise.   Don’t go another day without a clear direction and focus for your life.   Create a new vision for your life and commit to living that new promise. When we are disconnected from a real vision, we perish through a slow and painful process, and not knowing or being aware will trick you into thinking that this is the way that things are supposed to be.   You can be sure that you are in a state of perish if you have lazy tendencies or habits.   If you hav...

Don't allow anybody, including yourself, to put a limit on your life, your dreams, and your potential. Have you ever looked at what happens to a flea when you put it in a jar?  The flea jumps only high enough so that its head no longer hits the lid.  Over time, the flea conditions itself to only jump as high as the lid.  Even when you remove the lid, the fleas still won't jump any higher than the lid; they don't even realize that they are free.  When the fleas have children, their offspring are also conditioned to jump no higher than the lid. Just as the fleas were created to jump and fly much higher than the lid of a jar, we were clearly created and destined to climb, jump, and soar two hundred times our size and even greater.  We can't let the actions, experiences, and perceptions of those around us to stunt our own growth.  Don't get caught up in the trap of comparing yourself to someone else.   We were designed to jump so high and so hard t...

Fear and failure are both a part of success.  Even the most successful people feel fear.  They fear that even at their best, they may not be successful or they may not be accepted.  Most people allow fear to paralyze them, but you have to make a decision:   “Am I going to face my fears and go see what my life can really be?”   or “Am I going to succumb to my fears and do exactly what I’ve always done?” You have to go for it; at least try and attempt to win.   Don’t allow yourself to avoid getting things done simply because you fear what the outcome might be. You have to teach yourself to go try something if there is even a remote possibility of something great happening for your life or your career.   You have to learn to convince yourself that the possibility of success is greater than the possibility of failure, and that the possibility of failure is always greater than doing nothing.   When you fail, ...