The Oak Tree ~ by Johnny Ray Ryder Jr.

A mighty wind blew night and day.
It stole the Oak Tree’s leaves away.
Then snapped its boughs and pulled its bark
until the Oak was tired and stark.

But still the Oak Tree held its ground
while other trees fell all around.
The weary wind gave up and spoke,
“How can you still be standing Oak?”

The Oak Tree said, I know that you
can break each branch of mine in two,
carry every leaf away,
shake my limbs and make me sway.

But I have roots stretched in the earth,
growing stronger since my birth.
You’ll never touch them, for you see
they are the deepest part of me.

Until today, I wasn’t sure of
just how much I could endure.
But now I’ve found with thanks to you,

I’m stronger than I ever knew.

After you have taken a moment to just enjoy the poem… I’d love to hear your thoughts on these questions.

What are the winds and what are the roots?

What helps the roots go deeper?

Kirk Out

HAPPY MONDAY!  I hope you each had a most wonderful weekend.  Mine started in an urgent care unit feeling like I had been hit by a truck.  A few shots and a couple days in bed reading was just what the doctor ordered.  Lots of card games with the kids and reading made for some good memories. By Saturday I was feeling good enough to attend a special evening event with my wife and on Sunday church with the family.    I think I filled 10 pages of my leadership notebook…. it always feels great to get growing again.

A couple recent entries from my leadership notebook…

 ”It’s good to know what is true, but it’s better to be true to what we know.”  ~ Jensen

“Why we do what we do - is more important than what we do.”  ~ Fisher

My oldest daughter recently introduced me Pinterest.com where I spent far too much time while laying up.  But admittedly I enjoyed it.  And it’s where todays blog images came from.   My current image collection is at  http://pinterest.com/kirkweisler/

Finally there was a wonderful poem about an Oak Tree that the wind couldn’t blow over because of the depth of it’s roots.  I thought it was brilliant and wanted to share it with you….and will tomorrow… with a couple of questions?

In the meantime…make it a great day and when you are dealing with the rudeness of others….remember that it is coming from a place of weakness and insecurity.  Perhaps in remembering this… you can help to strengthen them.

Kirk Out

“Silent expectations are the quickest way to destroy a relationship.” Seleh Stivers

I’ve always said, “One proven method to ensure personal frustration is to expect things from people without telling them.”  (It works great on an organizational level as well.)  It’s easier to be frustrated with your kids, your family or someone at work than it is to communicate with clarity, seek mutual understanding, and obtain commitment.  That is why there is often more frustration than fruit in relationships.

Kirk out

Read a very nice blog post this morning from Michael Hyatt titled, “When you feel Overwhelmed by your work.  If you have or do, then read this piece.   http://michaelhyatt.com/when-you-feel-overwhelmed-by-your-workload.html

An Apple a Day… read another piece on Apple is worth more than the nation of Greece.  It gives some interesting facts… to read it click here.   (Note)  One of the comments following the article read, “My beat up Ford Taurus is worth more than Greece because it’s paid for.”

Have you ever earned one of these cards by “butting in” ?

Let’s pretend that you had 25 of these cards and it was your job to hand one out to everyone you observed doing it.

How long would it take you to hand out all 25?

Kirk Out

This reminded me of something I was taught years ago…

“Treat everyone you meet as if they are going through a major personal crisis and at least half of the time you will be right.”

Sadly … the math seems to work. People are dealing with stuff…lots of people with lots of stuff. You know this is true because you have, you are or you know someone else who is.

Kindness… it’s a wonderful thing.

Happy Monday to you…and 2 Things I love!  First thing… this quote, the 2nd a recent interview I did for a Pink Elephant.

Most people are not really free. They are confined by the niche in the world that they carve out for themselves. They limit themselves to
fewer possibilities by the narrowness of their vision.  –V. S. Naipaul, 2001 Nobel Laureate

Next Pink Elephants…. or at least this one.  Our family was traveling and I saw this and just had to take a picture with it because of my association with a company by the same name.  Pink Elephant is the worlds oldest and largest supplier of ITIL and ITSM training and expertise.  I have been blessed to be a speaker at their annual national conference for the past 8 or 9 years.  Next month I will lead 4 sessions at their conference…and couldn’t be more excited about it.  GO PINK GO.

I tell you all of this because I recently did an interview with Guerrilla Project Management in association with this event.  The link to the interview is below.

http://www.guerrillaprojectmanagement.com/why-team-building-not-event-conversation-kirk-weisler

Let’s not be “most people” let’s increase our vision by increasing our commitment to personal and professional growth…so that we, like the elephant in the picture can see better and be better.

Kirk out

For things to change we must change however change only occurs the day we move from the desire to change to the decision to change backed by a strong internal belief system and the commitment to do what ever it takes to reach our long-term goal.  Thus the power to change tomorrow is held in the decision we make today to head down a different path and make a commitment to ourselves to stay the course.    ~ Bo Tomlyn

Stop wasting time wanting and wishing…. it’s time to decide to start doing and living.  Kirk out

(I pulled the following text from a presentation by Tom Peters…who loves Conrad Hilton and his beliefs on execution.)

EXECUTION - Some Ideas from Conrad Hilton
Execution IS strategy!
Execution is “THE LAST 95%” of success.
Forget competitors: We have met the enemy and he is us … LOUSY Execution!
Execution per se is leader’s EXPLICIT/VISIBLE/ CONSTANT responsibility/obsession.
Execution is a SYSTEMATIC PROCESS.
REALISM is near the heart of execution success.
> half of EVERY presentation should be devoted to Execution/Implementation.
Hire people who obviously “GET OFF ON” the nuts & bolts of execution.
To “do” execution brilliantly means being obsessed with the “people part” of leadership.
Love it or leave it: Execution is about POLITICS!

OK…so let’s GET IT DONE!

Kirk

My current path as someone who focuses on helping leaders build a more focused, powerful and positive workplace culture has its roots in Team Building.  While large conference keynotes rarely allow for the opportunity to do something as cool as the Marshmallow Tower exercise, smaller workshops and corporate onsights do.   I have both participated in and led literally hundreds of tower building experiences with and without marshmallows.   However, when I saw the following video… and the supporting blog site I was excited to share it with you …knowing that many of you would desure to replicate this exerience for your teams.

The supporting blog site link is http://marshmallowchallenge.com/Instructions.html
(note the picture preceeding the video is a variation on the exercise which only allows for 1 large Marshmallow which is to be placed on top).

Remember…the purpose of tower building is team building.  Even if the tower fails or falls…. the team can build and stand higher than before.

Kirk out

Seth Godin is one of the people I love to learn from.  I twittered this from his blog over the weekend. But for those who don’t have time to twitter..it’s too important to miss.  He writes…

The first thing you do when you sit down at the computer

Let me guess: check the incoming. Check email or traffic stats or messages from your boss. Check the tweets you follow or the FB status of friends.

You’ve just surrendered not only a block of time but your freshest, best chance to start something new.

If you’re a tech company or a marketer, your goal is to be the first thing people do when they start their day. If you’re an artist, a leader or someone seeking to make a difference, the first thing you do should be to lay tracks to accomplish your goals, not to hear how others have reacted/responded/insisted to what happened yesterday.

Thank you Seth  ( www.sethgodin.com) …. he’s great.  Speaking of great… how about this guy….

“Change does not roll in on the wheels of  inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must  straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can’t ride you unless your back is bent.”  ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

Kirk Out