I’ve been thinking a lot lately about drive and leadership. It’s such a trick to understand what motivates another human being. If you are the business owner like I am, I suspect your values may be very different then your employees. Have you thought about what drives you? Why do you get up every day and go to work? Why do you stay up at night solving problems or better yet, worrying about paying the bills? Have you spent just 15 minutes assessing why you do what you do?
I encourage you to do that today, right now. Take the next 15 minutes and think about the highest points in your life. What have you counted as success in business? What have been the successful personal achievements in your life? List them in chronological order if possible.
Highs
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Lows
Now, do the same exercise for the lowest moments in your business and your personal life. From here, you might want to spend 15 more minutes assessing WHY you counted these moments as high or low. When you take a look at why you listed these events as the best and the worst times in your life it can be very easy to see what you value.
In understanding your values you can better understand what motivates you and drives you to do what you do each day. This is an awesome exercise and can help you understand what you value! This exercise is also something that you should do with your team. The leaders or potential leaders that influence your daily work life can and will make a difference positively or negatively. You and the people around you are driven or not.
I guess I’m preaching this morning. It’s more fun when I write an article and tell a story, so if you want to, I’ll tell you about my 10-day, 5-city, 13-flights, 10-Seminars travel schedule that I just completed.
HINT: I left my laptop in the back pocket on an airplane on day six…
That’s right…The cleaning crew must have felt like they hit the jackpot because they chose not to turn that laptop back in. The good news is that I always have everything backed up using an online service called Carbonite. The bad news is it took about 5 days to get everything restored. It was a bit of a computing trick to gain access to everything, but I survived! And, of course, I have that nagging feeling that my entire life, business, etc., is in the hands of a complete stranger. Other than that, all is good!
I had the opportunity to work on a grand opening project with some good folks in MI. And we were invited to speak at the MI BCAM. What a great show. I’m always struck by the resiliency of business owners in the great state of MI. No one told them there’s a recession! They keep their heads down and work hard. They are the definition of survival!
Fast forward-I attended and was invited to speak at a Bounce U convention. These guys know their stuff. Their research and study with Birthday Parties is amazing and with permission I want to interview and potentially host a webinar with their leadership. I haven’t ask and don’t know if they will participate but honestly the work they’ve done is simply incredible! Bounce U is a terrific brand and they’ve done some great things to establish and develop their values; and it is apparent that they are communicating that culture on a daily basis.
Finally I finished this whirlwind week (week and ½) with a wonderful 1 day event in Winnipeg Canada. (I love it that we are so international!) Todd Britton and his team are the bomb.com. I don’t know how else to say it! These guys have 5 pin bowling. If you’ve never seen 5 pin you MUST! I can see where it would be totally addictive… AND I have to say that I did strike on my 3rd ball…NOT an easy thing with 5 pin! Todd’s GM for Academy Lanes, Nathan Hogg has been a TrainerTainment fan for a long time. Nathan and his team are doing great things with the center. Check them out on Facebook.
Until next week – Party on and have tons of fun selling!
