This deserves more time than I have given it …but last night on a triple stand by flight situation..  I was thinking about how good leaders need to be great teachers.  Two thoughts kept running through my mind.

the first was…Great leaders are great learners and great learners are better leaders.  The second was about how leaders need to learn how to teach better.  My whole life I have been told that the very best way to learn something is to have to teach it to someone else.  So my note pad has these scribbles…

we must learn to learn better

we must learn to teach better

we must teach to teach better

we must teach to learn better

Some of the greatest leaders in my life were also the greatest teachers in my life.  They taught me not only a better way to do things, but a better way to see things….including myself.  Great leaders/teachers use insight to change eyesight… they can literally change the way we see the world.  As we learn to see better and do better…we are really learning how to be better.  As our minds change for the better we become aware that our lives are also changing for the better and our gratitude for the teachers/leaders in our life grows. 

Great leaders change live forever….  They do this primarily through their ability to inspire and grow or inspire growth in the people around them.  Though this is just one aspect of teaching in leadership it is a vitally important one.

Managers tend to tell… great leaders tend to teach.   Teach to reach, so you can inspires, not require to achieve the results you desire.  ~ Kirk Weisler

To reach your people…. teach your people a better way. 

Teaching, …it’s the better way.

   Just watched the last 10 minutes of the somewhat disappointing “Ghostrider” movie but still managed to pull out a nugget when the Ghostrider said… “My Daddy always said,  If you don’t make a choice then the choice makes you.” 

Your decisions determine your destiny.

Not choosing is choice…  … so choose and choose wisely.

Kirk Out

   Last week after a program in Chicago I needed to travel to San Diego.  To save nearly a thousand dollars my ticket routed me through Atlanta and I soon found mysefl flying in the complete opposite direction of my destination.   Even though I had the time between programs to go this route… there was a moment that my thoughts were on the irony and insanity of the nearly 2000 mile detour.

In the end I made to San Diego without incident, saved the client $1000 dollars, watched a great inflight movie, did some e-mails, and met a a couple really cool people.

In school we are taught that the shortest distance between 2 points is a straight line.  But in life the shortest distance between where we are and we want to go is almost never a strait line.  I’ve learned, and am learning still, that perhaps the most important thing to “keep right” on the journey is your perspective.  Because we will get there … and if we keep the right perspective we’ll arrive in a better state…not just a different one.

Keep RIGHT

Kirk Out

I was having less than great day yesterday…. and today fells a bit like I am eating leftover melancholy.  So dug back into the T4D archives looking for a smile and found the “Idiot Sightings” from 2004.  The sad fact that I can relate to at least 2 of them was enough to make me smile & laugh.  I hope it has the same magical effect on you.

IDIOT SIGHTING #1:
I work with an individual who plugged his power strip back into itself and for the life of him couldn’t understand why his system would not turn on.

IDIOT SIGHTING #2:
I was at the airport, checking in at the gate when an airport employee asked, “Has anyone put anything in your baggage without your knowledge?” To which I replied, “If it was without my knowledge, how would I know?” He smiled knowingly and nodded, “That’s why we ask.”

IDIOT SIGHTING #3
At a good-bye luncheon for an old and dear co-worker who was leaving the company due to “downsizing,” our manager commented cheerfully, “This is fun. We should do this more often.” Not a word was spoken. We all just looked at each other with that deer-in-the- headlights stare.

IDIOT SIGHTING #4:
When my husband and I arrived at an automobile dealership to pick up our car, we were told the keys had been locked in it. We went to the service department and found a mechanic working feverishly to unlock the driver’s side door. As I watched from the passenger side, I instinctively tried the door handle and discovered that it was unlocked. “Hey,” I announced to the technician, “It’s open!” To which he replied, “I know - I already got that side.”

Just keep your money…. and make it a great day. 

Kirk

Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.  ~ Carl Sagan

I have long been intrigued by the power of the curious drive of those who “discover”.  If I ever do a thesis I might focus it on the powerful principle of discovery.   As a kids I watched ”Indiana Jones” and thought “Wow, too bad all the coolest things have already been explored and discovered.”  But my thoughts then were the result of the ignorance and lack of vision common to far too many youth(and adults).   If I continue to tell myself that same thing today…  it would not be ignorance but a lie that I tell myself as an excuse for my lack of curiosity and drive to learn, to grow, to explore…and to discover. 

Most great discoveries seem to be awesome accidents that were found by explorers who were trying to accomplish something else.  Columbus wasn’t looking for America.. he was looking for a better way to get to the spices in east.  So he sailed west to go east and bumped into something that was beyond imagining. 

If Carl Sagan is right… and I believe he is.  Then I want to let the belief that great things are still waiting to be discovered drive me, motivate and inspire me to learn more, explore more, do more and become more.

Great things will forever remain unknown unless I set out to discover them and to make them known.   And if we modify his quote just a bit.. as I have done below it offers us another important dimension to consider.  That being the “incredible” people in our world of work and life who also remain largely as yet, undiscovered.

Somewhere, someone incredible is waiting to be known.  ~ Kirk Weisler Sagan

Let’s get going, growing and knowing …let’s discover and create a more incredible life.

Kirk Out

The important thing is this: to be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we could become.   — Charles Du Bos

For me this would equate to those sacraficing the moments I too often waste in trivial pursuits so that they might be invested in more excellent and becoming ones.

Kirk Out

Now really…anyone who has ever read Ender’s Game knows there is no comparisng this wonderful book to another.  The vast majority of those who have read it have done so multiple times.  I loved it so much that I read it cover to cover twice in 24 hours.   Since then I have easily read it 8 more times.   For more on the book..  http://www.hatrack.com/osc/books/endersgame/endersgame.

But today’s T4D is not about the book….but the author.   Over the weekend I came across a wonderful article he wrote for a church publication.  It’s a bit lengthy so I will edit it as best I can to provide the principle without the preaching.  I will also provide a link at the end for those who may want the full meal.  I would like to title his piece…

“COMPARISON’S ARE A WASTE OF TIME” –  We take stock of our lives, from time to time. As some milestone approaches — a birthday, a new year — we look back and assess ourselves.

It’s good to ask ourselves, “How am I doing?” But it’s sad when we use such times to compare ourselves to other people.

Some people compare in order to gloat. Both David Merrick and Gore Vidal have been quoted as saying, more or less, “It is not enough to succeed. Others must fail.”

Some people compare in order to excuse themselves. They see other people’s successes and say, “They got all the luck. I just can’t catch a break.” As if there were nothing they could do now to improve their place in life.

Some compare in order to beat themselves up. “Here I am, 30 years old, and look what other 30-year-olds have accomplished! I’m a failure.”

I know very well an accomplished woman, keenly intelligent, who has influenced the lives of many for good — but she has always felt like a failure because she had neither money nor a bachelor’s degree.

Yet I know many women with wealth, with doctorates, who would regard her as the most fortunate of women and wish they had accomplished what she has.

All my life I’ve loved to sing, and over the years, without any formal training, I improved my voice to the point where, in my 40s, I was able to sing all the high parts in the chorus of “My Fair Lady.” I sing in the church choir and take pleasure in singing with family and friends.

Yet as I now age out of that high tenor range, I feel keenly the fact that I didn’t do more with my voice. I compare myself to real singers and feel as if I failed.

Yet it’s what I chose. I spent my effort on writing fiction, plays and screenplays. The singers I compare myself to practiced constantly. They took every opportunity to perform. They honed their skills.

I was once invited to take part as one of the soloists in a performance of “The Messiah.” It was a moment when I really had to face the difference between my dreams and my achievements. I knew what I expected, as an audience member, from a “Messiah” soloist. I also knew that, if I worked hard for months, I could probably do it.

But I did not have the time to put in that work. I had writing deadlines to meet. I had speeches to give, meetings to travel to, friends to visit with, books to read in order to have something to write or say.

And at that moment I realized the difference between ambition and daydreaming. My degree of “success” at singing reflects exactly the amount of effort I put into it.

There is no life without missed opportunities which will never come again. What is the point of regretting that I chose this, when I might have chosen that, unless what I chose was sin? Then I must change.

But the past  cannot be undone. We must change ourselves so that from here on we will do right.

That is all that any of us can do: Choose the path we will follow from now on.

Fortunately, the path of change is always only one step away. We have merely to take that step and begin to move forward on the better or right road.

If this is true of our choices between right and wrong, why should we waste even a moment regretting choices that have no moral component?

Perhaps you didn’t get a college degree on the same schedule as others; perhaps you didn’t marry when you might have, or have children at the age you now wish you had begun, or make less money than you might have in a different career.

Those years are gone, and you learned from them whatever you learned, and gave to others whatever you gave. No one else lived your life — they lived their own. Comparisons are a waste of time.

Let us look at what is still possible for us in the future, find the best use of the time we have left and then eagerly pursue the good causes that are within our reach.

Don’t look at others to compare, but rather to offer help, or ask for it.

Don’t look backward with regret, but rather forward with hope.

For the full and unedited article …click HERE

I asked for a raise and got ignored… when I asked for more responsibility…. I got a it, and a raise.  ~ Unknown

Careful thinking might allow us to ask more often for what we truly need which is often not in agreement with what we think we need or say we want.

Lisa DeMoss a Training Specialist for http://www.fallriverproducts.com/ shared this with me a few days back as she responded to one of my blog posts.  I thought it was absolutely wonderful and wanted to share it with you.  It was difficult to source but is referenced at least once as coming from the pocket of a soldier who fought and died in the civil war.  

 ”I asked God for strength that I might achieve. I was made weak that I might learn humbly to obey. I asked for health that I might do greater things. I was given infirmity that I might do better things. I asked for riches that I might be happy. I was given poverty that I might be wise. I asked for power that I might have the praise of men. I was given weakness that I might feel the need of God. I asked for all things that I might enjoy life. I was given life that I might enjoy all things. I got nothing that I asked for, but everything I hoped for. Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered. I am, among all men, most richly blessed.”

So I invite you to join me in asking yourself this question…to be most richly blessed… ”What do I really need?”

Kirk Out

    A friend advised me saying, “Treat everyone you meet as if they were going through a major personal crisis and about half the time you will be right.”  

Each day people all around us are dealing with all that life has dealt to them.  I admire the courage and dignity of people who quietly live with such things… They seem to graciously and even enthusiastically accept whatever life sends their way.  I look at them… I learn from them… I am inspired by them.  WOW!

Howard Cosell said,   “Courage takes many forms. There is physical courage, there is moral courage. Then there is a still higher type of courage–the courage to brave pain, to live with it, to never let others know of it and to still find joy in life; to wake up in the morning with an enthusiasm for the day ahead.”

Sometimes I let myself get tricked into thinking about the wrong stuff.  Not today… today I will have the courage to think about the right stuff, the hard stuff, …the GOOD & the GREAT STUFF.   And since thoughts proceed actions I will then be able to courageously do more of that stuff.

Kirk Out

A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.   ~Margaret Mead