Tag Archive - term goals

2, 4, 6, 8; Time to Recalibrate!

September 23, 2010 in Featured, Leadership with 10 Comments

New Personal Leadership Plan 300x200 2, 4, 6, 8; Time to Recalibrate!The other day I received an e-mail notification that my domain name for this blog is up for renewal. This triggered me to go back and review my blog postings and perform a quick personal inventory. While I was reading over each of my previous posts, it reminded me why I began blogging and what my short and long term goals were. Being completely honest, I had no idea what I was getting myself into and what the future had in store. Here is a short list of phases and their descriptions I encountered along the way:

  • Establish the basics and define the overall navigation around WordPress and find ways to define core values, identity and overall content.
  • Create an identity for the blogsphere to answer the following question: “Who is Geoff Snyder?“
  • Learn about theme layouts, plugins, basic SEO, linking, and VERY basic HTML and PHP coding.
  • Understand proper social media etiquette and sincere engagement, while also learning how to automate.
  • Discover the importance of RSS feeds and their subscribers.
  • Staying true to the core values and beliefs while collaborating with other like-minded individuals.
  • Research, read, discuss, read some more, collaborate, and most importantly…stay proactive!

Now that I think I have the swing of things and have been lurking around the blogsphere, I’ve decided to add some personality…make this something personal, find ways to materialize what I’ve gathered into something meaningful, opposed to writing robotic “content friendly” posts simply to appease the search engines’ crawlers.

With that said, I must express my deep, sincere gratitude for the wonderful people I’ve encountered along the way. The level of friendly engagement has made me realize the power of blogging, the world of social media (twitter, facebook, linkedin, etc…), and how social networking has the ability to bring together so many people they we never knew existed.  The level of synergy that is available to us is extremely powerful. With the tools of a laptop, a internet connection, the motivation to seek like-minded people, as well as the passion to help other achieve their goals, I am convinced that there is absolutely nothing that cannot be achieved.

Now, I know that the last sentence of the previous paragraph may have some overtones of the cliche our parents told us for all those years: “You can do anything that you put your mind to.” Well, it’s true and the efforts and their results far outweigh the consequences of living in fear or sustaining a lack of confidence. I know, I’ve been there a few times throughout my short life and I am so thankful for those who’ve been there to help pick me back up and support me during those dark times.

I’m going to go ahead and warp this post up with a couple words: Dream Big.

Call me “Juno” if you will,  call me a post-modernist, or call me some new age yuppie type…but we’re in the 21st century and the rules have changed. Globally, as Robert Dickie recently tweeted: “We did not just go through a “recession” we went through a “reset.” This is important to understand. Many of the rules have changed.” It’s time to throw away the status-quo and begin leading from within. It will allow for a reflection so bright that it will glow amongst all of those close to you and those you’re about to meet along the way.

I’d like to thank Tom Schulte for the inspiration of the title and thought of this blog post. Thank you Tom.

Bite the Bullet

July 19, 2010 in Leadership with 5 Comments

BiteThe Bullet 300x290 Bite the BulletKnow what you want to achieve. Make a list, if you wish, of the qualities you want to have as a strong business leader. Believing in yourself, knowing who you want to be, is key to success.

Take a moment today and make a list of both short term goals and long term goals.

Now take it a step further. Beyond knowing what you want to be, you have to know which actions will take you there. Your actions have to reflect your confidence in yourself. To become a strong leader, you have to know what kind of leader you want to be and then know how to achieve your ends…produce results…staying true to that idea.

By formally defining your goals and dreams, you are taking the initial steps in turning them into a reality.

After a brief thread of comments on Facebook between an old friend, Jennifer Oakes, she reminded me of a Stoic I studied for a Greek Mythology class once; Epictetus, who uttered his famous line “first say to yourself what you would be, and then do what you have to do” in the first century BC, began his life as a Roman slave. But, that didn’t hinder him. He was determined to stand out from the crowd. He studied the Stoic philosophy and in a few years founded his own philosophical school in Greece, where he achieved fame. Epictetus believed that, despite adversity, you can be a master of your own life by harnessing strength of will and self-knowledge. Epictetus might very well have originated the familiar refrain we hear today: “Bite the bullet.” Regardless of how it’s said, you simply need to get the job done. Just do it.

Ask yourself: “What am I doing today that is creating my tomorrow and how can I make it better?”

The Ego Factor

February 1, 2010 in Business, Leadership with 11 Comments

Ego The Ego FactorAfter studying a leadership model called “The Ego Factor”, I noticed it pointed out that torpid growth, lost market share, and panic response management are more likely to occur if growth objectives are Ego driven vs. Profit driven.  This often leads to personal needs getting ahead of business needs and is a common symptom of the lack of leadership within an organization.

A servant leader makes a conscious choice to lead by being a servant first.  He or she is noticeably different from the person who is leading first, because of the need to alleviate an unusual power drive or to acquire material possessions.

Good managers get employees to respect them, effective leaders get employees to not only respect them but more importantly they get them to respect themselves.

It has been shown that effective leaders go through a never ending development process that includes education, self study, training, experience and coaching and mentoring from one or several individuals that have a very positive influence on their personal development.  Leadership is the ability to influence, inspire and motivate others to accomplish specific objectives.  It includes creating a culture that helps direct the organization in such a way that it makes it consistent and coherent keeping short term goals and objectives in alignment with long term strategic initiatives.  The success of leadership in this process is directly influenced by the individual leaders’ beliefs, values, ethics, character, knowledge and skills.

Position and title may give one power but power in itself does not make one an effective leader.  To become an effective leader there are specific skill sets that one must understand and master.  This does not come naturally. It takes dedication, passion and commitment to the process.  That commitment, dedication and passion includes a tireless effort to improve on specific skills and the development of a personal leadership methodology.  This is referred to as your personal leadership model.

What is your personal leadership model?